The impact of job insecurity on mental health over time across gender and family responsibility

While there is growing evidence that job insecurity leads to increased mental distress, prior studies have not investigated how gender and parental responsibilities may exacerbate this relationship. Since gender and parental responsibilities may interact with job insecurity to produce unique stressors, examining their contribution as potential effect modifiers may provide insights into gender inequalities in mental health and inform gender-sensitive labour policies to ameliorate the negative effects of job insecurity. Our study addresses this gap by examining the longitudinal association between job insecurity and mental health across different configurations of gender and parental responsibilities using a prospective cohort study design. Our sample includes 34,772 employed participants from the UK Household Longitudinal Study over the period of 2010-2018. A gender-stratified fixed-effect regression was used to model the within-person change over time in mental health functioning associated with loss of job security, and effect modification by parent-partner status (e.g. non-parents, lone mother, partnered father, etc). Loss of job security was associated with a moderate decrease in mental functioning for partnered fathers, partnered mothers, and non-parents ranging between a reduction in MCS-12 by 1.00 to 2.27 points (all significant at p<0.05). Lone fathers who lose their job security experienced a much higher decrease in mental functioning at -7.69 MCS-12 (95% CI: -12.69 to -2.70), while lone mothers did not experience any change. The effects of job insecurity on mental functioning varies across different configurations of gender, parental responsibilities, and partner status. Future studies should investigate the effects of policies that may reduce mental distress in the face of the threat of job loss such as reducing wait time for payment of unemployment benefits or increasing childcare cost coverage in the UK universal credit programme

Anemia among school-going children in the perspective of socio-economic disparity in Punjab, India

A survey was conducted to assess socio-economic disparity in the prevalence of anemia among schoolchildren (11-17 years) in few regions of Punjab. Two hundred and ten children from government schools of Punjab were selected and their blood hemoglobin levels were estimated; clinical examination was done for various signs/ symptoms of anemia; and dietary iron intake was analysed and compared with the recommended dietary allowances of ICMR (2010). Analysis of variance followed by Tukey's post-hoc test was applied to assess socio-economic disparity in the prevalence of anemia. Overall, 97% of the children were anemic, out of which 80 vs. 17% were moderately and mildly anemic, respectively. Statistically, no significant difference was found in the mean hemoglobin level of the subjects with respect to family income, parent’s education and religion, whereas, substantial disparity was noted with respect to caste. Scheduled caste subjects had the highest prevalence rate than general category and Backward Class and Other Backward Class subjects. Dietary iron intake of the children was grossly inadequate, ranging from 35 to 41% of the ICMR (2010) recommendations. Therefore, it can be established that anemia prevalence depends more on food habits and dietary behaviour of the children than on socio-economic factors. Dietary diversification should be canvassed at the root level, as anemia is likely the result of predominantly starch-based monotonous poor quality diets with minimal amounts of meat, vegetables and fruits

A Compact Microstrip Fed T Shape Patch Antenna with Swastika Ground

A highly compact triple band patch antenna with dimensions 14×14×1mm3 is presented in this paper. The antenna is fed by a 50? microstrip line. The antenna mainly consists of T shape radiating patch and defected ground plane in swastika shape. The proposed antenna is simulated using HFSS simulator and return losses of the antenna at resonant frequencies of 13.1GHz, 15.8GHz and 18.8GHz are -22dB, -23dB and -37dB respectively. The bandwidth of the proposed triple band antenna is (12.7-13.4) GHz, (15.5-16.1) GHz and (18.4-19.2) GHz. The radiation pattern of antenna is bi directional and suitable for satellite and radar applications. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.150614

Moon Shape Microstrip Patch Antenna with Stair Case Ground

In this paper, Moon shape microstrip patch antenna with stair case ground is presented. This antenna provides triple band that can be used for RADAR/SATELLITE/WLAN applications. The antenna is simulated using Ansys Soft HFSS simulator. The size of the antenna is 40mm*45mm*1.5mm.The antenna is printed on FR4 substrate material which has the dielectric loss tangent of 0.02 and the permittivity of 4.4. CPW feeding technique is used to feed this antenna. Stair case ground is used in this design of the antenna to improve its performance. It covers the operating frequency range of 5-10GHz and provides triple frequency bands of 5.78- 5.9GHz, 6.8-7.1GHz and 8.4-8.66GHz. The return losses of -34.3db, -32.3db and -38.4db are provided at the resonant frequencies of 5.8GHz, 7GHz and 8.5GHz respectively by this antenna. Stable omni directional as well as bidirectional radiation pattern is shown by the proposed antenna. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.150614

Blocking Probability of Dijkstra Shortest and Least Congestion Routing Algorithm in Wavelength-Routed WDM Network

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Rural Principal Perspectives of Leadership Development Needs

Rural school principals often face issues of professional isolation and lack of access to leadership development opportunities. To address these challenges, the Elgin Children’s Foundation launched its Principal Support Program (PSP) in 2017 to support the development of effective school leaders in three states with high rural student populations in the Appalachian region. The PSP posited four components as essential for principal development: professional development, networking, mentoring, and learning plans. The aim of this qualitative study was to determine what PSP participants believed to be the most effective in terms of principal development. Results indicate that because of PSP training, rural principals grew from managers to instructional leaders and changed their mindsets and practices regarding shared leadership. Principals believed that they benefited most from the networking and coaching that the PSP provided. Future professional development for rural principals should consider a focus on opportunities to learn with and through others

The role of stromal cells in Hepatitis C virus infection

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of global morbidity, causing long-term pathologies, including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. While hepatocytes are the major site of viral replication, the liver contains multiple non-parenchymal cells that regulate the hepatic microenvironment and may affect HCV infection $in$ $vivo$. Current understanding of the role of non-parenchymal cells in HCV infection is limited. Therefore, this project aimed to establish co-culture systems that allowed investigations into interactions between hepatocytes and non-parenchymal cells, and how these interactions affected HCV infection. The results showed that in co-culture, activated liver myofibroblasts (aLMFs) negatively regulate HCV entry, replication and spread of infection in a cell contact dependent manner. Soluble factors, including extracellular matrix proteins, and common antiviral pathways did not induce this effect. Instead, we found that aLMFmodulated cell-contact affected hepatocyte membrane receptor dynamics, reducing the mobility of the HCV receptor, CD81, impairing viral entry and replication. In addition, we found that aLMF surface expressed VAP-1 also significantly reduced virus infection independently of receptor modulation. These findings greatly improved our understanding of how the interactions between hepatic cells affect HCV, highlighting the importance of non-parenchymal cells in mediating infection in the liver microenvironment

Stimulated Raman Scattering of Q-Gaussian Laser Beam in an Unmagnetized Plasma

This study describes the relativistic q-Gaussian laser beam's stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in an unmagnetized plasma. Moreover, the influence of the pump laser's relativistic self-focusing on the SRS process has been investigated. Using variational theory, we derived analytical solutions to the coupled nonlinear wave equations describing the pump, EPW, and scattered waves. The resulting equations were numerically solved to see the impacts of laser and plasma characteristics on the dynamics of the pump beam and its influence on the power of scattered waves. The power of the scattered wave was observed to be significantly altered via the self-focusing action of the pump beam, where when the effect of self-focus increases, it leads to an increase in the effect of stimulated Raman scattering. The stimulated Raman scattering yield is investigated based on the laser beam's and plasma's intensity. The main finding is that as q increases, the SRS yield increases, and as the intensity of the laser beam and plasma density increase, the SRS yield also increases. The scattering of the self-focused beam takes place at a greater distance than the beam of the pump, due to the relatively diminished level of scattered power. The value of the integrated reflection increases with the increase of q and the growth rate

Sleep is required to consolidate odor memory and remodel olfactory synapses

Animals with complex nervous systems demand sleep for memory consolidation and synaptic remodeling. Here, we show that, although the Caenorhabditis elegans nervous system has a limited number of neurons, sleep is necessary for both processes. In addition, it is unclear if, in any system, sleep collaborates with experience to alter synapses between specific neurons and whether this ultimately affects behavior. C. elegans neurons have defined connections and well-described contributions to behavior. We show that spaced odor-training and post-training sleep induce long-term memory. Memory consolidation, but not acquisition, requires a pair of interneurons, the AIYs, which play a role in odor-seeking behavior. In worms that consolidate memory, both sleep and odor conditioning are required to diminish inhibitory synaptic connections between the AWC chemosensory neurons and the AIYs. Thus, we demonstrate in a living organism that sleep is required for events immediately after training that drive memory consolidation and alter synaptic structures

OpenCourseware: Learning Beyond Classroom

OpenCourseWare is an innovative and bold idea. It aims to support learning and teaching programme significantly. Learning material contained in an OCW provides learners an opportunity to gain knowledge beyond their routine classroom environments. These are in the digital form which can be accessed online, thus breaking the barriers of time and distance. Indian academics can play a significant role in creating OCW materials for the students to propagate the teaching and learning process diluting the limitations of traditional educational setup and begin a new culture of “Learning Beyond Classroom”. The present study aims to sensitize the teachers and learners about the potentials of the OCWs. It presents a proposal for creating an “Indian OCW Consortium” at different levels. Also discusses the challenges and issues in establishing such an OCW project