ROLE OF MICRO ENTERPRISE IN LIVELIHOOD PROMOTION: A PERSPECTIVE STUDY IN INDIA

Entrepreneurial development and management has come to be recognized as the key to rapid and sustainable economic development as well as the welfare and progress of the mankind. Traditionally, the informal sector units including micro and small enterprises(MSEs) attract a very small portion of the banks’ portfolio. Banks along with other institutions, by and large, responsible for providing finance are more accustomed to dealing with more confident, literate borrowers of urban areas. Given this scenario, micro finance(MF) as a means of alleviating poverty has gained momentum in the last couple of decades across India vis-à-vis Odisha, a province fraught with the twin problems of poverty and unemployment. At the same time, MSEs contribute significantly to economic growth, social stability and equity. Assuming lot of significance for a Mao-infested Province like Odisha, these informal sector units operate under the conditions of extreme resource crunch. Besides, their qualitative and quantitative limitations due to outdated technologies result in a low level of productivity and extremely high costMicro and Small Enterprise (MSE), Self Help Group (SHG), Sustainable Livelihood (SL), Joint Liability Group (JLG)

Self-monitoring in third year medical students’ haematology clerkships

Background: Self-monitoring by medical students is important for continued learning and development. It results in self-awareness and improved performance. It requires self-motivation, attentiveness and curiosity. However, students don’t have skills for self-monitoring when they enter university. These need development. The objective of the study was to evaluate the use of an online formative assessment, on subsequent summative examination performance in haematology clerkships among third-year medical students.Methods: Results of a formative, multiple choice question (MCQ) quiz were correlated with results of end of clerkship (EOC) summative examinations (free-response short-answer progressive disclosure questions-PDQ, and spotter-MCQ). t-ratio was calculated between students who took the quiz (responders) and non-responders. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations (r), and Chi square (χ2) were performed.Results: Of 241 students 75 (31.1%) took the quiz. t-ratio was 1.864 (P>0.05). Mean scores for EOC were higher for responders. Failure rate was higher for non-responders. Between the EOC-PDQ and EOC-spotter, for the whole group (N=241), r=0.414, for non-responders, (N=166), r=0.376, and responders r=0.473. For the responders, correlations between the quiz and PDQ, r=0.376, and between quiz and spotter, r=0.222. χ2 was significant at P<0.05.Conclusions: Quiz exercises are useful self-monitoring strategies. However online exercises require self-motivation. Students may not wish to do exercises that don’t count for summative scores. They should be encouraged to engage in these learning exercises. Timing is important. For the majority of students, the quiz was done the same week as PDQ for another course. Students chose to prioritize and concentrate on the summative PDQ. These exercises in themselves, would be useful time management lessons

Experimental investigation on flank wear and tool life, cost analysis and mathematical model in turning hardened steel using coated carbide inserts

Turning hardened component with PCBN and ceramic inserts have been extensively used recently and replaces traditional grinding operation. The use of inexpensive multilayer coated carbide insert in hard turning is lacking and hence there is a need to investigate the potential and applicability of such tools in turning hardened steels. An attempt has been made in this paper to have a study on turning hardened AISI 4340 steel (47 ± 1 HRC) using coated carbide inserts (TiN/TiCN/Al2O3/ZrCN) under dry environment. The aim is to assess the tool life of inserts and evolution of flank wear with successive machining time. From experimental investigations, the gradual growth of flank wear for multilayer coated insert indicates steady machining without any premature tool failure by chipping or fracturing. Abrasion is found to be the dominant wear mechanisms in hard turning. Tool life of multilayer coated carbide inserts has been found to be 31 minute and machining cost per part is Rs.3.64 only under parametric conditions chosen i.e. v = 90 m/min, f = 0.05 mm/rev and d = 0.5 mm. The mathematical model shows high determination coefficient, R2 (99%) and fits the actual data well. The predicted flank wear has been found to lie very close to the experimental value at 95% confidence level. This shows the potential and effectiveness of multilayer coated carbide insert used in hard turning applications

Self-assessment: how do third year medical students rate their performance during problem-based learning?

Background: Problem-based learning (PBL) emphasizes students’ self-directed learning. This requires students to monitor their own learning.  When students enter medical school however, they do not seem to have self-monitoring skills and these need to be developed. Self-assessment exercises are useful in developing these skills. This paper emphasizes the importance of training in self-assessment during PBL. Objective was to describe third-year medical students’ self-assessment of their performance during PBL and correlate their scores with tutors’ scores, and their scores in a written progressive disclosure questions (PDQ) examinationMethods: Using the same rubric used for students’ evaluation by tutors, students scored their activities during PBL sessions. Their scores were compared with the tutor’s scores. Their scores for cognitive skills were further compared with their scores in a PDQ examination.Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the tutor and students’ scores. Low-achieving students (in the PDQ) scored themselves higher than high-achieving students. Self-assessment scores did not predict performance in the PDQ.Conclusions: Perhaps the high-achievers are more critical of themselves which drives them to work harder. Low-achieving students could be awarding themselves scores they wish to obtain and not what they deserve. They may also not understand the assessment criteria. This paper emphasizes the importance of self-assessment exercises, and the need to guide students in learning to assess themselves accurately so they may be better able to monitor their learning

A descriptive analysis of extended matching questions among third year medical students

Background: With changes in teaching methods in medicine, assessment tools have also evolved in order to be valid, reliable, practical, analyzable and not time-consuming. After questions of reliability and practicality when using free response short answer questions, we replaced them with extended matching questions (EMQs). Previous analysis of the same group of students, in the same time period, showed high reliability and discrimination with standard multiple choice questions (MCQ). Objective was to describe the efficiency of Extended matching questions (EMQ) in third-year medicine coursesMethods: Castler-Rock Integrity programme, item analyzed reports of EMQ results over a three-year period were analyzed. There were 25EMQ items in each course, each year, with 9 option answers.Results: The Kuder Richardson-20 reliability mean ranged from 0.447 to 0.674. Spearman-Brown split half-reliability coefficient mean ranged from 0.443 to 0.685. Spearman-Brown prophecy reliability formula mean from 0.614 to 0 837. The Guttman split-half reliability coefficient mean ranged from 0.441 to 0.718. The difficulty mean ranged from 0.491 to 0.719. The Corrected point bi-serial coefficient ratio mean was 0.118 to 0.255. The number of items with all-functioning distractors ranged from 16% to 40%, and the total number of non-functioning distractors ranged from 14.5% to 28%.Conclusions: EMQs showed reliability, though lower than with the MCQs previously analyzed. This may be due to the much smaller numbers hence increasing numbers of EMQs should be considered. There was a high number of functioning distractors. Poor distractors should be revised

A comparative study of the yield and physical properties of agar-agar from different blends of seaweeds

The agar agar obtained from Gracilaria verrucosa growing in commercial quantities in Chilka Lake, Orissa was found to be having an yield of 23% and gel strength of 41 gm/cm . In order to exploit this agarophyte for the same with other agarophytes like Gelidlella acerosa and Gracilaria edulis in three different proportions was studied

Improvement of power factor of a grid connected load system using a static compensator

The power factor deteriorates due to non-linear loads, interconnected grid system, amplitude disturbances and wave shape disturbances. A low power factor system draws high internal current causing excessive heat. It requires heavier equipments to absorb internal energy requirements. Also large penalty is imposed on low power factor consumers. So power factor should be improved in order to get rid of the above problems. In this paper, a shunt connected Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) device such as Static Compensator (STATCOM) is used to improve the power factor by compensating the reactive power required by the load. 

An Overview of Fully Integrated Switching Power Converters Based on Switched-Capacitor versus Inductive Approach and Their Advanced Control Aspects

This paper reviews and discusses the state of the art of integrated switched-capacitor and integrated inductive power converters and provides a perspective on progress towards the realization of efficient and fully integrated DC–DC power conversion. A comparative assessment has been presented to review the salient features in the utilization of transistor technology between the switched-capacitor and switched inductor converter-based approaches. First, applications that drive the need for integrated switching power converters are introduced, and further implementation issues to be addressed also are discussed. Second, different control and modulation strategies applied to integrated switched-capacitor (voltage conversion ratio control, duty cycle control, switching frequency modulation, Ron modulation, and series low drop out) and inductive converters (pulse width modulation and pulse frequency modulation) are then discussed. Finally, a complete set of integrated power converters are related in terms of their conditions and operation metrics, thereby allowing a categorization to provide the suitability of converter technologies

MFO Ptimized Fractional Order Based Controller on Power System Stability

This paper presents a novel idea of designing the Fractional-Order PID (FOPID) type static synchronous series compensator (SSSC). A power system stabilizer(PSS) is installed to enhance the system transient stability by damping the oscillations. Also, the superiority of the proposed method is verified by comparing with conventional PI, PI-PD and PID controllers. The determination of the controller parameters has been considered as an optimization problem using Moth Fly Optimization (MFO). It is shown that MFO is more effective as well as giving robust response than Differential Evolution (DE) optimization. The superiority of the controller is tested on Single-Machine Infinite-Bus (SMIB) power system at various operating conditions and fault locations

Cohesive Motion Control Algorithm for Formation of Multiple Autonomous Agents

This paper presents a motion control strategy for a rigid and constraint consistent formation that can be modeled by a directed graph whose each vertex represents individual agent kinematics and each of directed edges represents distance constraints maintained by an agent, called follower, to its neighbouring agent. A rigid and constraint consistent graph is called persistent graph. A persistent graph is minimally persistent if it is persistent, and no edge can be removed without losing its persistence. An acyclic (free of cycles in its sensing pattern) minimally persistent graph of Leader-Follower structure has been considered here which can be constructed from an initial Leader-Follower seed (initial graph with two vertices, one is Leader and another one is First Follower and one edge in between them is directed towards Leader) by Henneberg sequence (a procedure of growing a graph) containing only vertex additions. A set of nonlinear optimization-based decentralized control laws for mobile autonomous point agents in two dimensional plane have been proposed. An infinitesimal deviation in formation shape created continuous motion of Leader is compensated by corresponding continuous motion of other agents fulfilling the shortest path criteria