A Study of Academic Anxiety and School Adjustment among Adolescents

Background: Adolescence is a stage with tremendous pressure and stress. Adolescents are expected to perform at every front, the main one being academics. Academic anxiety is a feeling of being fearful or stressed due to school pressures. School adjustment is a procedure that brings a person's behaviour in compliance with the norms of the school; it comprises academic, social and emotional adjustment. Aims: The present study aims to examine the level of academic anxiety and school adjustment among the school going adolescent girls and boys residing in orphanages and ones with their families. The gender differences were also examined. Methodology: A total of 60 school going adolescent girls and boys aged 14-18 years residing in orphanages and a controlled group of adolescents living with families matched on the basis of age, gender and school were selected as sample for the study. A self-constructed interview schedule was used to examine the socio-demographic profile of the respondents, Academic Anxiety Scale for Children by Singh and Sengupta and Adjustment Inventory for school students by Sinha & Singh were used. Results & Conclusion: The results showed that the adolescents residing in orphanages had lower academic anxiety than the ones living with their families and scores of adolescent girls were higher than the boys. The scores on school adjustment showed that the adolescents living with families had significantly better school adjustment than the ones living in the orphanages and overall the girls had lower adjustment level than the boys. Keywords: Adolescents, orphanages, academic anxiety, school adjustmen

Hybrid filtering technique to remove noise of high density from digital images

Noise removal is one of the greatest challenges among the researchers, noise removal algorithms vary with the application areas and the type of images and noises. The work proposes a novel hybrid filter which is capable of predicting the best filter for every pixel using neural network and choose the best technique to remove noise with 3x3 mask operation. Proposed algorithm first train the neural network for various filters like mean, median, mode, geometrical mean, arithmetic mean and will use to remove noise later on. Later, the proposed method is compared with the existing techniques using the parameters MAE, PSNR, MSE and IEF. The experimental result shows that proposed method gives better performance in comparison with MF, AMF and other existing noise removal algorithms and improves the values of various parameter

A Review on Adjustable Gain Clamping in Semiconductor Optical Amplifier

Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) are a research curiosity in wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) based all-optical networks as they exhibit huge potential in high speed optical switching and gating applications andcan provide, in addition, broadband amplification of signals. However, their use in WDM systems has been severely hampered due to the effect of gain saturation occurring in conventional SOAs which ultimately results in inter channel crosstalk. Moreover, ultra-fast gain dynamics of SOA along with gain saturationtogether lead to signal distortions even in single-channel transmission. Therefore, for proper operation, the amplifier must provide constant gain with respect to input power variations. Also, to improve the applicability of SOAs in switched environment, there must be a provision for varying the clamped gain. Thus, in this paper, various gain clamping and adjustable gain clamping techniques which have been proposed and perceived till date have been reviewed. Also, the findings of the various papers are tabulated therein

Tools Used in Big Data Analytics

Big data is the current state of the art topic creating its unique place in the research and industry minds to look into depth of topic to get valuable results needed to meet the future data mining and analysis needs. Big data refers to enormous amounts of unstructured data created as a result of high performance applications ranging from scientific to social networks, from e-government to medical information system and so on. So, there also prevails the need of to analyze the data to get valuable data results from it. This paper deals with analytic emphasis on big data and what are the different tools used for big data analysis In this paper, different sections through an overlook on different aspects on big data such as big data analysis, big data storage techniques and tools used for big data analysis

Performance Evaluation of Manhattan Mobility Model in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks

Mobility model is the foundation of the simulation study of various routing protocols in Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET). A Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is a continuously self-configuring network without infrastructure, where every node functions as a transmitter, router, and data sink. A high mobility of MANET nodes reduces the reliability of network communication. In dynamic networks, high mobility of the nodes makes it very difficult to predict the dynamic network topology and hence route/link failures. NS2 network simulator is used to implement MANET by using Destination-Sequenced Distance Vector (DSDV), Ad Hoc Demand Vector (AODV), and Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) by using mobility generator tool, Bonnmotion-3.0.1 in this paper. This paper compares mobility model on AODV, DSDV, and DSR routing protocols with QoS performance metrics throughput, packet delivery ratio, end to end delay, packet overhead and packet dropping rate

COVID pandemic and virtual classes: a study of students from Punjab

Purpose – The current corona virus pandemic had a major impact upon the health, economy and education worldwide. In India, the government as a part of the nationwide lockdown closed all educational institutions, as a consequence of which, the teaching-learning, examination and placement scenario of students were affected. UNESCO estimated that about 32 crore students have been affected in India. The adoption of an online e-learning approach tried to minimize the academic loss and stress on students. However, the online teaching transition moved on an untested and unprecedented scale in a very short span of period. The present study analyses the perception and level of acceptance of transition from offline to online learning amongst the students of higher education in Punjab. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis was carried out by surveying 200 students of higher education from Punjab belonging to different regions. An appropriate pre-tested questionnaire was framed on Google Forms. A five-point Likert scale was employed to determine the perception of students regarding quality of audio and video lectures, instructor's content, preparation, interactiveness, discussion regarding doubts and assessing likes and dislikes of students. The data were coded-decoded in SPSS by using descriptive statistics and factor analysis. Findings – The study revealed the level of acceptance of online study among the students of higher education in Punjab. It is found that both online and offline modes of learning process have their own pros and cons. The sudden transition from regular mode to virtual mode was not an easy task for students either. The study revealed that both online and offline study modes have been accepted by students depending upon the availability of IT infrastructure as almost half of the respondents perceived online mode and the other half offline. Originality/value – Punjab is a recognized state of northern India. In Punjab, the quality of higher education is good and students' satisfaction is always the priority of the educational institutions. At the time of the pandemic, this sudden transition from regular to virtual mode impacted education with students coming from diverse backgrounds like urban areas, rural areas, remote areas, rural-urban areas etc. So, in the light of this sudden transition, it is important to study the viewpoint of the students of Punjab. So, the present study was conducted to understand the perception of the students toward online learning during this ongoing pandemic. For this purpose, the study employed factor analysis. Application of factor analysis in this area is unique

Determinants of Rural to Urban Migration in Large Agglomerations in India: An Empirical Analysis

The present paper tries to investigate the relevant determinants of rural to urban migration in large agglomerations/cities in India. OLS regression analysis is used in this paper to analyse data pertaining to 51 large cities in India by using data from Census of India and unit level data of National Sample Survey (NSS) on employment and unemployment and consumption expenditure data. The OLS regression results show that city-wise employment and unemployment situation (measured by male self employed, not in labour force male, male casual labourer) have a negative impact on city level rural to urban migration. The level of poverty (measured by poverty head count ratio) and inequality conditions (measured by Gini coefficients) of a city also has a negative impact. However, infrastructure condition (availability of total number of electricity connection) of a city has a positive impact on city-wise rural to urban migration. Economic conditions also matters higher level of rural to urban migration. Finally, it suggests that cities need to equip themselves with better infrastructural facilities along with higher job opportunities to encourage urbanization through rural-urban migration for higher and sustainable economic growth in India

Determinants of Rural to Urban Migration in Large Agglomerations in India: An Empirical Analysis

The present paper tries to investigate the relevant determinants of rural to urban migration in large agglomerations/cities in India. OLS regression analysis is used in this paper to analyse data pertaining to 51 large cities in India by using data from Census of India and unit level data of National Sample Survey (NSS) on employment and unemployment and consumption expenditure data. The OLS regression results show that city-wise employment and unemployment situation (measured by male self employed, not in labour force male, male casual labourer) have a negative impact on city level rural to urban migration. The level of poverty (measured by poverty head count ratio) and inequality conditions (measured by Gini coefficients) of a city also has a negative impact. However, infrastructure condition (availability of total number of electricity connection) of a city has a positive impact on city-wise rural to urban migration. Economic conditions also matters higher level of rural to urban migration. Finally, it suggests that cities need to equip themselves with better infrastructural facilities along with higher job opportunities to encourage urbanization through rural-urban migration for higher and sustainable economic growth in India

Antioxidant phytoconstituents from Onosma bracteata Wall. (Boraginaceae) ameliorate the CCl4 induced hepatic damage: in vivo study in male wistar rats

Onosma bracteata Wall. (Boraginaceae) is a highly valuable medicinal herb that is used for the treatment of fever, bronchitis, asthma, rheumatism, stomach irritation, and other inflammatory disorders. The present study aims to explore the hepatoprotective potential of ethanolic extract (Obeth) from O. bracteata aerial parts against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) which causes hepatic damage in the male Wistar rats. Obeth showed effective radical quenching activity with an EC50 of 115.14 and 199.33 µg/mL in superoxide radical scavenging and lipid peroxidation analyses respectively along with plasmid DNA protective potential in plasmid nicking assay. The Obeth modulated mutagenicity of 2 Aminofluorine (2AF) in the pre-incubation mode of investigation (EC50 10.48 µg/0.1 mL/plate) in TA100 strain of Salmonella typhimurium. In in vivo studies, pretreatment of Obeth (50, 100, and 200 mg/kg) had the potential to normalize the biochemical markers aggravated by CCl4 (1mL/kg b.wt.) including liver antioxidative enzymes. Histopathological analysis also revealed the restoration of CCl4-induced liver histopathological alterations. Immunohistochemical studies showed that the treatment of Obeth downregulated the expression levels of p53 and cyclin D in hepatocytes. and downregulation in the Western blotting analysis revealed the downregulation of p-NF-kB, COX-2, and p53. HPLC data analysis showed the supremacy of major compounds namely, catechin, kaempferol, epicatechin, and Onosmin A in Obeth. The present investigation establishes the hepatoprotective and chemopreventive potential of O. bracteata against CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity via antioxidant defense system and modulation of the expression of proteins associated with the process of carcinogenesis in hepatic cells