Anomaly detection in online social media
Online Social Media (OSM) is a platform where users post opinions, discussions, product reviews, random thoughts, advertisements, comment exchanges and status updates.These platforms help in text mining applications such as prediction of election results, newlinestudying global mood trends, public perception of a national concern or an issue, mining of public health knowledge, detecting epidemics and business analytics. These newlineapplications also present some research challenges like personal data stealing, community phishing, hate speeches, spreading misconceptions, cyber bullying and terror attack planning. Some of these challenges are anomalies or outliers which don t conform with the majority ones. The anomalies focused in this research work are behavioral and content anomalies. Data preprocessing for textual data from OSM plays an important role for creation of the Vector Space Model (VSM) which is used as an input for behavioral and content anomaly models. The contents posted by the public in OSM is written using natural language and sometimes may not follow the formal communication mode. It has lexical, newlinesemantic and syntactic ambiguities and becomes a challenging task to extract accurate information and discover logical patterns during the text mining process. Some of the commonly used methods for text mining are, Bag of Words (BoW), N-grams and Term newlineFrequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF). Few limitations of these techniques newlineare, high dimensional sparse feature vectors, missing contextual meaning, presence of newlineweak features and Part of Speech ambiguity. In this research study, an improvised Feature Engineering model is proposed which is a combination of Forward Scan Trigrams and weighted TF-IDF to address the creation of an efficient Vector Space Model (VSM). This proposed model is used with an improvised Feature Hashing technique to address the removal of weak features.
Graphene and graphene enhanced nanomaterials from biological precursors synthesis characterization and proliferant applications
Graphene family materials with non-photocatalytic biocidal properties are highly sought after in the field of biomedicine and nanobiotechnology. But the applications of graphene-based materials were often hampered by their high production cost, low yield, non-renewable precursors, harmful processing newlinetechniques, etc. In this context, this study presented the successful usage of biomass materials as sustainable feedstock for the production of graphene derivatives. Five raw materials of biological origin namely, coconut shell, wood, sugarcane bagasse, Colocasia esculenta leaves and Nelumbo nucifera leaves, were investigated. The graphitized forms of the above materials were newlineused as precursors for the graphene nanomaterial synthesis. They were chemically oxidized and functionalized with tin oxide nanoparticles to form the composite. Nano-systems obtained using an identical chemical route from a universal source of carbon nanomaterials, namely carbon black, were also newlinestudied for the purpose of validation and comparison. The synthesis protocols adopted for the preparation of graphene-based materials were devoid of hazardous reducing agents or byproducts. The products obtained after each stage of treatment were characterized with the help of various spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. newlineEven though structural properties of all the precursors appeared to be broadly the same, a variation in their morphology and defect density was discerned. Various analyses revealed the formation of graphene oxide domains with distinct dimensions after the oxidative treatment. An increase in defect newlinedensity was also observed due to the intercalation of oxygen groups to the carbon layers. Post composite formation, a distribution of ultrafine tin oxide newlinenanoparticles on the graphene surface was observed. The distribution of oxygen newlinefunctionalities on the carbon backbone were found to play a major role in governing the dispersal of tin oxide particles during the nanocomposite formation.
Spatio temporal crime analysis and forecasting using social media data
Now a days, people communicate, share ideas, and interact through social media platforms. It has given us an ability to talk about career interests, post videos, and pictures for sharing with others. The data present in social media enables the analysis of various human aspects. The social media data and domain is used for crime analysis, customer behaviour analysis, and healthcare analysis provides much information useful to predict human behaviours. Crime is the most common social problem faced in a developing country. In developing countries like India, crime plays a detrimental role in economic growth and prosperity. With the increase in delinquencies, law enforcement needs to deploy limited resources optimally to protect citizens. Crime affects the reputation of a nation and the quality of life of its citizens. Crime also affects the economy of the country, increasing the financial burden of the government due to the need for expenditure in the police force and judicial system. Various initiatives are taken by law enforcement to reduce the crime rate. An example of these initiatives includes an accurate and real-time prediction of crime occurrences. Crime analytics and prediction have lengthily studied among research analytics communities. In recent years, crime knowledge from one of a kind heterogeneous source (Twitter, News Feeds, Facebook, Instagram and so forth.) have given enormous opportunities to the research group to comfortably study crime pattern and prediction duties in specific real knowledge. Data mining and predictive analytics provide the best options for the same. Law enforcement organizations are increasingly looking to use data from social media such as Facebook, Newsfeeds, Twitter, etc. investing in research in this area. Using the intelligence gained through these data, the agencies can identify future incidents and plan for active patrolling.
Health diagnosis of mango trees using image processing techniques
A Mango disease detection artificial intelligent model needs robust and effective newlinefeature extraction methods. The machine vision system has been designed for the newlineidentification of disease in plants from color leaf images. The research done proposes newlinenovel algorithms to extract color features Pseudo Color Regions and Texture Features newlineusing Pseudo Color Co-Occurrence Matrix. A new Mango dataset has been created and newlinealgorithms tested on it. An artificial intelligence model has also been created and tested on an existing disease dataset of Apple and Tomato plants. Results were compared with existing methods in the literature. The effectiveness of each statistical function was studied in classifying the pattern using a Support Vector Machine. For textures that are newlinedifferent like smooth new leaves, dry leaves, growth a Gray Level Co-occurrence based newlinestatistics was effective but values failed to discriminate in certain diseases. The proposed and implemented novel method which uses second-order statistics on a pseudo-color-based co-occurrence matrix has resulted in better classification. Pseudo Color Region feature is created using a novel intermediate data structure and found to be more effective than hue-based color features. It identifies dots, spots, patches and regions of different colors on the leaf and uses that as a feature vector to classify plant diseases. This generic method can be applied for early disease detection for plants and help farmers take corrective measures to avoid loss of yield.
A mixed methods study on factors associated with relapse of alcohol use disorder
Background: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is one of the most concerning mental health issues in India. According to the recent survey, Magnitude of Substance Use in India, 2019, 160 million of the countrys population consumes alcohol. About 35.6% are problem drinkers among those who drink, of which 18% are alcohol dependent. Despite the greater understanding of alcohol use disorder (AUD) and the scientific advancements in treatment, relapse remains to be the main challenge in managing AUD. This study aimed at investigating various factors associated with relapse of AUD and presenting an in-depth understanding of it. Methods: A Sequential Explanatory Mixed Methods design was used. In the quantitative phase, 72 relapsed individuals with AUD currently undergoing treatment were compared with 72 individuals previously treated for AUD who maintain total abstinence for a minimum period of one year. Relapsed participants were selected from three private de-addiction centers in Bangalore and abstaining participants were recruited from various Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in Bangalore. The relapsed and sober groups were matched on gender, AUD diagnosis, and previous inpatient alcohol de-addiction treatment. Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised was used to assess the personality profiles of the participants. A sociodemographic and clinical information form was also used to collect data. Six participants were selected purposively from the same sample for in-depth interviews. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS and NVivo for quantitative and qualitative data, respectively. The study protocol was approved by the institutional ethics committee. Results: Bivariate analyses showed a significant difference in Novelty Seeking, Persistence, Self-Directedness, and Self-Transcendence traits between the relapsed and sober participants. Results also suggested that reported use of other substances, post- discharge follow-ups, and living with drinking or drug-using individuals are significantly associated with relapse. Logistic regression displayed incomplete treatment, use of other substances, and no post-discharge follow-up as predictors of relapse. The qualitative thematic analysis revealed preparedness, motivation, personal exceptionalism, meaning and purpose, and social and interpersonal as the main relapse-related themes. Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of treatment engagement, discharge planning, aftercare, and special attention to those presenting with multiple substance use. It also displays a few culture-specific aspects to be considered during treatment, such as preparing the individuals entering treatment to effectively engage, assessing and working with their motivation, and addressing the relationship dynamics.
Role of healthcare quality in improving patients satisfaction at private hospitals in karnataka India
Healthcare is known as the treatment, diagnosis, and prevention from disease, newlineinjury, illness and other types of mental and physical losses in human beings (Pallipedia, 2009). Governments, insurers, consumers and healthcare delivery systems are involved in a continuous tug of war situation across the world and trying to meet increased demand for healthcare services, reducing the cost of service and healthcare quality improvements. Quality was already an area of attention for some time in healthcare, but recently the focus has been shifted towards quality majorly to reform entire healthcare. Therefore, in the present study healthcare quality has been focused. The main objective of this study is to investigate the role of healthcare quality in improving patient s satisfaction at private hospitals in Karnataka, India. The research has been designed as analytical research and used survey method for conducting the research. Primary data collection was done using structured questionnaire from respondents. For this study target population was private corporate multispecialty hospitals situated in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Multistage proportionate sampling was used for data collection. Data analysis was done using SPSS and AMOS. The results and findings of the study confirmed that the main influencers of newlinepatient s satisfaction and perceived service quality were six latent constructs: safety, newlinetimeliness, effectiveness, efficiency, patient centeredness and equitability. The model of patient s satisfaction with integrated framework revealed the relationships between independent and dependent variables and gave insights into interplay between the construct relationships. Study suggested practical significance of each construct and also raised a need for more holistic view of the model. Hence results of the study provided valuable insights for the management of private healthcare institutions.
Design of new access control structure for provenance based on secret sharing
Access control is one of the important elements in providing confidentiality to the secured data. Access specifiers helps us understand degree of rights given to the users in utilizing data records in a right manner. Tampering the records by unauthorized parties is a high concern in secure communication. Tamper detection plays an important role in trouble shooting an issue associated with network/ host intrusion scenario. The advances in information technology have driven the modern world to focus on the Web for digital information. People across the globe rely on the internet for all the data from generic information to distribution of personal data over heterogeneous networks. Technology has grown so wide to an extent, where almost all of the financial transactions are taking place through online portals. On the other hand, there has been high rise in the security threats towards users confidential data. This information is however shared by the online users while performing financial transaction in e-commerce portals. In order to maintain security mechanism over the untrusted networks various authentication techniques available in this regard. All these security procedures are said to be stubborn and adequate on contextual basis, on the other hand over a period of time the intruders would find out ways to break into systems. Data theft and intrusion into the information systems would increase on a daily basis if defensive measures are not in place. In this concern a new mechanism for securing the data using majority voting concept is proposed. Majority voting for securing the provenance data is applied. Provenance data is data of origin, genesis data and often observed as sensitive data. Provenance is a record of events, timestamps, versions, transformations occurred for the data of interest. Elicitation of an entity's genesis is termed provenance. This understanding is called as data provenance for data objects and their relationships. In most of the cases provenance data is tend to be sensitive, and a small variation or regulation paves way to changes to entire lineage of the connected data. This origin needs to be protected and only approved parties should have right to use the data. Specific description or classification of an instance's historical record or data object is called data provenance. It has many implications in different disciplines in terms of its significance for the acquisition of data flow mechanisms. Personal control of data privacy is a common scenario and various solutions towards security exists. In this regard a unique model is proposed where control of data and its related allies is available with several bodies but however not one; and if access control is to be permitted for a cause based on context, all the entities holding their right keys will have to agree and share on a common platform for accessing the data. Combining these shares in a peculiar pattern allows the grant for accessing data. The method of allocating controls to multiple bodies and allowing grants based on the combination of stakes is called a mechanism for secret sharing. Share separation may be derived from the concept of visual encryption methodology We integrate concepts of secret sharing and provenance to provide an indigenous solution for parameters of information security namely confidentiality, integrity and availability. It is with the availability of exceptional wireless internet access in mobile motivated situations, users and usage data has become massive with respect to media. For example, financial related operations carried out over online platforms by users in many ways were found insecure and unauthenticated. Procedure with appropriate algorithms are available for safe data communication in various modes, however lacks to attain high accuracy and performance with regards to the basic goals of security; confidentiality, integrity, availability at a significant level. Security is the main aspect of any communications among untrusted networks in the current world. Sincere gratitude to many researchers for their tremendous contributions to effective security algorithms despite various threats that compromise the computer systems vulnerabilities. The origin of the data, i.e., by which the transaction thread was created, is the pertinent question to be answered while the financial operation is finalized. This definition of 'data antiquity ' has received good interest from researchers in different fields for many decades and is often termed as data provenance. However, security in provenance has made some progress with recent research, particularly in the field of cyber security. This study emphases on the safety characteristics of data provenance with a distinctive cryptographic approach. The combination of these principles produces unique results for safeguarding the genesis data.
Sentencing Framework in the Administration of Criminal Justice in India :
This Thesis aims at having uniformity while sentencing the accused in respect of similar newlineoffences by various criminal courts. It is submitted that, in India, there is no separate sentencing Act which provides for the sentencing of the accused. It is submitted that the present thesis also recommends for the post sentencing/research process and administration of Criminal Justice through courts and supervisory power of the court over the executive after newlinethe conviction of the accused and during the pre-trial detention. Emphasis is also laid on newlineBails Act which is required to be legislated in the administration of Criminal Justice in India. The said Bails Act and Sentencing Act are very much in force in different common law countries such as New Zealand, UK, and USA. Similar legislations are the need of hour in the present day for administration of Criminal justice in India. The thesis also aims at highlighting the disparity of Sentencing by the different Criminal Courts in India. There are instances where length of detention itself is held to be sufficient, mitigating grounds are taken into consideration, and the accused is being given set-off for the period that he has already newlineundergone. The administration of post-sentencing process, more particularly probation is also being highlighted. The need for probation is also being highlighted, so also the requirement of plea bargaining being more popularised. The grant of parole by the executive in ignorance of conviction order is also critically analysed. Reforms are suggested for the better administration of criminal justice with special reference to sentencing.
Antimagic labeling and its variations in graphs
Graph theory is a branch of discrete Mathematics with its results having significant applications in many areas of computing, social, and natural sciences. Graph labeling is one of the fascinating areas of graph theory with wide-ranging applications. The concept was first introduced in the 1960s where the vertices and edges are assigned real values or newlinesubsets of a set subject to certain conditions. The labeling dealt in the thesis is edge labeling basically, that is, assigning a label to the edges of the graph. Depending on the conditions applied in labeling give way to magic, super-magic, antimagic labelings. Hartsfield and Ringel introduced the notion of antimagic labeling in the year 1990. In this thesis, three variations in graph labeling are dealt namely, equitable antimagic labeling, equitable difference labeling and extension of equitable irregular labeling with an introduction of k-equitable irregular labeling. For a given graph G = (V,E), an equitable antimagic labeling (EAL) of G is a bijective edge-labeling f: E(G) and#8594; {1,2,3,...,m = |E(G)|} such that |W_f (u)-W_f (v)| and#8804; 1 for any pair of adjacent vertices u and v of G, where W_f (v) is the sum of the labels of the edges incident with the vertex v. A graph admitting an EAL is called an equitable antimagic graph (EAG). In Chapter 2, we initiate a study of this new edge labeling of graphs. A diand#64256;erence labeling of a graph G is realized by assigning distinct integer values to each vertex and then associating with each edge, the absolute diand#64256;erence of those values assigned to its end vertices. That is, it is an injective function f: V(G) and#8594; N together with function f^*: E(G) and#8594; N deand#64257;ned by f^* (uv)=|f(u)-f(v)|for any edge uv in G. The function f^* is called the weight function induced by f. An irregular labeling f: E(G) and#8594; N with the property that S_f (u) and#8800; S_f (v) for any two vertices u and v of G, where S_f (u) denotes the sum of the labels of the edges incident with the vertex u. The sum S_f (u) is called the vertex sum of u under f.
Study of triple diffusive convection in non newtonian liquids
This thesis presents the study of triple diffusive convection in two nonNewtonian liquids couple stress liquid and viscoelastic liquid of type Oldroyd-B in the presence of external constraints like rotation, gravity modulation and temperature modulation. Linear stability analysis provides the stability condition of stationary and oscillatory convection and the resultant eigen function describes the newlineconvective flow. However, linear analysis can neither help to examine the rate newlineof heat and mass transfer nor provides information on the convection newlineamplitudes. Therefore, it is also important to do nonlinear analysis. In view of newlinethis, all the problems considered in this thesis are studied for both linear and newlinenonlinear cases. The eigen value arising in the linear case for the problems newlinewithout modulation is solved by normal mode technique whereas for the problems with modulation is solved by perturbation method by adopting Venezian approach. The nonlinear study is done by using Ginzburg Landau newlinemodel for the problems with couple stress liquid whereas the nonlinear study is done by truncated representation of Fourier series by Lorenz model for the problems with viscoelastic Oldroyd-B liquid. The present study has wide range of applications in material processing, solidification of alloys, underground spreading of chemical pollutants, petroleum reservoirs, cooling of electronic devices, thermal insulation newlinematerial, crystal growth, transport of chemical substances, solar receivers, newlineinjection moulding, chemical industries, nuclear industries, bioengineering, newlineoceanography, meteorology, astrophysics, geophysics and so on. The extensive description of wide-ranging applications of triple diffusive convection in non-Newtonian liquids is accountable for the motivation of this thesis. The following four problems are carried out in this thesis: (i) EFFECT OF ROTATION ON TRIPLE DIFFUSIVE CONVECTION IN COUPLE STRESS LIQUID The effect of rotation on triple diffusive convection in couple newlinestress liquid is considered.
Broken Romantic Relationships: Self-Forgiveness and Attitude Towards Marriage among Emerging Adults
he main aim of the study is to understand the relation between self- forgiveness and attitudes towards marriage, among emerging adults (18-25year olds) who have had a broken romantic relationship using the mixed method explanatory sequential research design. In Phase 1 of the study, 385 College students, (males and females) who had a romantic relationship breakup, were administered the tools for the quantitative part, using google survey, after receiving their consent. The data was subjected to statistical analysis. In Phase 2, an in-depth interview of five males and five females who volunteered, were interviewed in depth using a semi structured interview schedule, for a deeper understanding of the information obtained in Phase 1. The session that was of 60- 90 minutes duration was audio recorded and the data was subjected to Thematic Network Analysis. Findings of Phase 1 study indicates that there is a significant positive correlation between self- forgiveness and attitude towards marriage, except the financial aspect of marriage. Attitude towards marriage and forgiveness varied, based on certain aspects of the romantic relationship. Gender differences are present in certain aspects of attitude towards marriage. There is a positive and significant moderating role of gender in the relationship between dimensions of forgiveness with attitudes towards marriage. The relationship between self-forgiveness and intent to marry is positive and significant, especially for females. In Phase 2 of the study, finding suggests that the romantic breakup which follows a systematic pattern, can be traumatic. Individuals are languishing post breakup as they are unable to forget or forgive the unresolved issues related to the breakup which affects attitude towards marriage. Difficulty forgiving oneself, one s ex-partner and the experience is indicated.
Insurance coverage framework for assisted reproductive treatments for women
Giving birth to a child is considered as one of the purest and highest forms of giving by any human being. The harsh reality is that not all men and women can reproduce. Some remain childless their entire life. Infertility hurts both men and women, but women more. Women continue to face social stigma of not bearing a child and go through stress, anxiety, and depression (Donkar, 2007; Widge, 2002; Reissman, 2000). One of the most significant contributions of Medical Science is the invention of Assisted Reproductive Technology Treatments that help infertile couples to conceive. India has been a pioneer in adapting to this technology and since 1978 many couples have been able to give birth to a child. Unfortunately, these treatments are expensive. Infact, the high treatment cost is the predominant source of anxiety in patients going through these treatments across the world (Iaconelli, 2013). There are instances where, couples leave the treatment, mid way as they are not able to arrange more money (Brennan et al., 2006). However, countries like Denmark, Canada, New Zealand, Belgium, and Japan, to name a few have included these treatments under their Government health insurance policy, whereas countries such as UK, USA, and Singapore have their Private Health insurance companies covering them. In comparison with its western counterparts, India is far behind in using Insurance as a method to finance Assisted Reproductive treatments. A preliminary study indicated two things- The resistance from the Insurance company's side in venturing into a product of this sort and secondly, unavailability of an insurance framework to guide them to venture into such a product. Thus, study began with the sole intention of creating an Insurance framework for assisted Reproductive Treatments particularly for women. A Qualitative Methodology has been adapted for the study. As a first step, infertility treatment polices from developed and developing countries were gathered and analyzed to extract the components of the drafting an Assisted re productive Treatment policy framework. Using these components, interview schedules were made to solicit information from the three different stakeholders. In-depth face to face interviews with 13 Doctors, 12 Patients, and 10 Insurers were conducted and data was further analyzed using Qualitative Content Analysis Method as prescribed by Olle Rudolf Holsti in 1968 and refined by Downe-Wamboltdt in 1992. The concepts of reduction, distillation, and condensation as prescribed by Olle Findahl in 1981, Stephen Cavanagh in 1997, and Paul Atkinknson in 1996 have been used. The results pave the way for the proposed framework. This framework can be used as a guide by Insurance companies in defining the disease, designing the value proposition, entry and exit age, coverage as per stage of treatment, designing the proposal form to solicit information from the insured, arriving at the sum Insured, drafting conditions and exclusions of the policy, pricing, and promotional aspects, mitigation of moral hazards and claims management. The framework suggests a model that can benefit patients to avail insurance at a nominal price.
A Study on emotional labour and job embeddedness amongst the frontline employees in hotel industry in bangalore
In various studies, researchers have pointed out that there exists a high turnover in the hotel industry. It is also found that employees in the hotel industry practice high emotional labor. However, the researcher, wanted to understand if people leave the industry or the organisation and how emotional labor plays positively in this phenomena. It was also curious to understand if Pride in work and Social Intelligence plays a role between Emotional Labor and Job newlineEmbeddedness. The present study investigated the emotional labor along with pride in work and social intelligence, experienced by employees of different hotels as a factor affecting their Job Embeddedness. A descriptive study was conducted using self-administered questionnaires among 341 frontline employees of different five-star and five-star deluxe hotels of Bangalore. newlineThe results exhibited a significant impact of Emotional Labor, Pride-in-Work, Social Intelligence on Job Embeddedness as well as significant differences in perceptions of variables based on demographic factors of the employees. The implications and suggestions for the hotel industry were discussed in the study.
Improvised process model for prediction of software development effort by integration of risk
Software development involves usage of a finite quantum of resources in accordance with the estimated effort and schedule. The newlineSoftware Development Lifecycle comprises activities pertaining to software engineering. The software engineering activities could be carried out using any of the various models available in practice. The newlineprocess of estimating size and effort accurately is vital in a software project since it could influence the success of the project. However, the realistic estimation of time and resources required for a project newlinecontinues to be a challenge. Risks exist in any software project, and hence Risk management is required to be considered across various processes throughout the project. The risks could be quantified by newlinearriving at the risk score based on the probability of occurrence of the risk and its impact. This research focused on the aspect that risk factors need to be considered in software effort estimation. A total of 503 newlinesoftware projects were considered, and from this dataset, projects which had risk score information were extracted and utilized for further analysis. This research work proposed an improvised effort estimation process by including risk scores in the standard estimation process. It also analysed the relationship existing between risk score in the project and other parameters considered in the effort estimation process. Regression analysis that was done on the dataset revealed an improvement in the model fitment by inclusion of risk score. An ensemble machine learning approach was utilized through deployment of Extreme Gradient Boosting algorithm. This algorithm was chosen newlineafter a model selection process by comparing various algorithmic models. The results indicated a better model fit by including risk as one of the parameters in the effort estimation process. A validation for the newlineproposed risk-integrated effort estimation model was done through responses from industry practitioners to a research instrument.
The vision of kuriakose elias chavara on family wellbeing and its actualization in the family apostolate of congregation of the mother of carmel
Family is the abode where the society takes birth and it is the pillar where the nation finds its strength. Kuriakose Elias Chavara a man of immense astuteness and novel thoughts had lofty apparition and great concern for the families. He was born on 10th February 1805, in the village of Kainakary in Kerala, India. At the age of 24 he was ordained as a religious priest. His being was highly committed for people and for the welfare of the society. He believed that strengthening of the individual can lead to formation of stable families which in turn can empower the society. He was a social reformer who stood for the marginalized, an innovative educationist who opened the school for low caste, an eminent spiritual leader who renewed the face of the church, popularized the press, media and founded two religious congregations for men and women. At the age of 66, 1871 January 3rd he left for his heavenly abode. On 23rd November 2014 he was canonized as saint by the Catholic Church. The present study The vision of Kuriakose Elias Chavara on family wellbeing and its actualization in the family apostolate of Congregation of the Mother of Carmel is an attempt to explore the vision of Chavara on family wellbeing and its relevance in the present era. Qualitative approach is employed and the data is collected through key informant interview and interview methods. The different aspect of Chavara s family wellbeing is explored mainly by reviewing the literature. Hermeneutic approach is used to interpret the literature. By analyzing the official documents of the congregation the actualization of his vision in the family apostolate is explored. The relevance of his views is explored through an interview with nine families from three different parts of Kerala. The influence of Chavara vision on family apostolate of Chavara and its implementation are investigated through the document analysis and key informant interview with members of the congregation.
Influence of behavioural traits on investment decisions
Behavioural traits exhibited by individual investors play a vital role in the investment decisions made by the investor. In this research, the researcher has identified the different behavioural traits shown by different individual investors by their unique characteristics. The study was conducted on a sample size of 811 individual investors from different parts of Bengaluru. The study classified the investment decisions into four aspects and also identified whether investment decisions vary significantlly due to demographic factors. The study further developed a model which explains the linkages between behavioural traits to investment attitude and investment attitude to investment decisions. Review of literature revealed that there exists a gap in the studies in behavioural finance showing the linkages between an investor's behavioural traits and investment attitude and investment decisions. Even though many research happened to identify the personality traits of individual investors, no significant attempt was made to study the linkage between behavioural traits on investment decisions. In this study, an attempt was made to show how individual investors behavioural traits can affect the investment attitude and how investment attitude can affect the investment decision of an individual investor. Result of the study indicated that behavioural traits influences the investment decisions of individual investors. The model developed in the study also proved a linkage between behavioural traits , investment attitude and investment decisions of individual investors with the moderating effect of demograpic factors.
Passive control of four storied reinforced concrete structure subjected to blast loads
In the recent past in major cities all over the world, public structures are vulnerable to blast loads caused by explosions either accidentally or intentionally. The intentional causes are not on hardened military targets but on important civilian structures, like commercial, financial and civic centers. The study of reinforced concrete Ground + 3 Storied structure subjected to blast loads have gained importance, as conventionally the reinforced newlineconcrete structures are not designed for blast loads as many of the loading codes do not mandate for the same and also due to the fact that quantifying the magnitude of the blast load is difficult to estimate. However, the structures are susceptible to damage from the explosion. To protect the life of people and to minimize the damage to the structure, it has become imperative to consider the effect of blast loads too, in addition to newlinethe conventional loads, considered as per the prevailing codes, during the analysis and design of all public buildings. The charge weights of the explosive used on the structure are 8kg, 16 kg and 24kg. The equivalent blast pressure subjected on the structure is determined, to study its corresponding effects for stand-off distances of 3000 mm and 6000mm using surface blast load. The behavior of the structure is newlinestudied by varying the parameters and verified which of these parameters can newlinebe critical to the performance of the structure. The response of the ground floor + 3 upper storied reinforced concrete skeletal structure is studied for understanding the variation of the displacements, strains and stresses for the parameters considered. Using PTC CREO 3.0 the 3D modeling of structure and structural elements were generated. HYPERMESH was used for the discretization (meshing) of structure and its elements. Static analysis and blast load analysis was carried out using ANSYS.
Forecasting volatility evidence from the futures market in India
This thesis focuses on modelling and forecasting of select products in the Indian futures market using econometric time series models and artificial neural network based models. These models have been compared for their forecasting accuracy to determine the best forecasting model for a particular futures series. This study applies GARCH, EGARCH, PARCH, TARCH, and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) to assess the best predicting model for exchange rate futures, commodity index futures and stock index futures. After testing for stationarity of data series, GARCH, EGARCH, PARCH and TARCH models are developed. In addition to in-sample forecasts, 1-day, 5-day, 10-day, 15-day and 30-day out-of-sample forecasts have been carried out. For ANN, data is scaled using the minmax scaling methodology to ensure that newlinethe data series is normalised and in the range of 0 to 1. ANN is developed using the feedforward methodology. While the basic neural network architecture has one input layer, one hidden layer and one output layer, the number of neurons in the input and hidden layers vary from 1 to 20. The optimum number of input and hidden neurons in their respective layers are then selected based on the combination which gives the least error. These network combinations are used for out-of-sample forecasting and errors are compared with the forecast output of the GARCH models. RMSE, MAE, MAPE, Theil s-U statistic and Correlation coefficient is computed for error newlinecomparison. Results indicate that for currency futures and commodity index futures, ANN provides better forecast accuracy. For stock index futures, GARCH family models work better in some cases.
A critical analysis of the zimbabwean political leadership in the practice of justice
Political leadership is a fundamental philosophical issue influencing governance newlineof states and the success of every state is directly or indirectly linked to the newlineleadership ideology of its political leaders. This study investigated the nature and newlinecharacter of political leaders in Zimbabwe by assessing their political philosophy in the context of the major historical events since 1890 masked by three eras namely the pre-colonial era, (characterised by little political activities) followed by the colonial era (dominated by socio-political system that weakened the African culture and governance) and lastly, the post-independence era (characterised by failure to uphold the constitution by the ruling party leadership). newlineThe scope of this study is based on benchmarking the concepts of the Zimbabwean political philosophy with political ideas from renown philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle and Gandhi. More specifically, the Gandhian philosophy was selected and conceptually applied to the Zimbabwean political situation in an attempt to develop an ideal political philosophy because of its illustrious wisdom with regards to good governance principles. A hermeneutics and newlinephilosophical analytic models were used to interpret relevant literature and leadership responsibilities as provided for in the Zimbabwe Constitution. Study findings revealed challenges in the current political leadership that calls for developing a new Zimbabwean political leadership philosophy. These include but not limited to partisan politics, political violence, unbridled favouritism and nepotism, ethnicity in leadership, state capture of key institutions, negative use of power by the state, political violence, poor electoral systems flouted with impunity and rampant corruption. These political challenges militate against democratic principles of common good that fight human oppression, repression and suppression.
Kachappilly, Kurian and Kurasha, Jameson
Developing a democratic constitutional framework through a people driven constitution making process for zimbabwe
Zimbabweans are currently grappling with the question of how to produce a national peopledriven democratic constitution as a permanent solution to the country s myriad problems of poor governance, violent bloody electoral political conflicts, sham elections, governmental illegitimacy, corruption, economic collapse, unemployment, social disintegration, and international isolation. The purpose of the study was to explore a people-driven democratic newlineconstitution-making process that the people of Zimbabwe want. The study was largely newlinebased on phenomenology research philosophy supported by mixed methods of data collection, analysis, and interpretation. The researcher s mental model conceptual newlineframework consisting of operational definitions of terms in chapter 1 was used to guide the exploratory study and to measure data in qualitative analysis. Descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages were used to measure data in quantitative analysis. The research population comprising the people of Zimbabwe was segmented into two classes of research units: individuals segment; and institutions segment. The institutions segment was further subdivided into six subsidiary segments. Using a non probability purposive sampling method, 1120 individuals and 67 institutions were selected to inform the study. Institutions were interviewed and observed while individuals completed a questionnaire. The phenomenological inductive study discovered major findings of contextual meanings of newlinephenomena associated with a people-driven democratic constitution-making process for newlineZimbabwe such as the people, the constitution, constitution-making, and people-driven. One of the major notable findings revealed by the study is that institutions or organizations are not people, and as such, they cannot make, author or write a constitution. The people think and originate ideas as individuals not as groups, institutions or organizations. Another newlinenotable major finding is that a constitution is made up of ideas not papers.