Challenges of virtual classroom during COVID-19 pandemic: An empirical analysis of Indian higher education

Higher education institutions (HEIs) usually work open throughout the academic session. In the COVID-19 pandemic time, all the HEIs were also closed temporarily. The study examined the major challenges faced by the teachers and students from the virtual classroom during the nationwide lockdown. Due to the nationwide lockdown and lack of funding, convenience sampling and snowball sampling techniques were used for data collection. A total of 893 responses were analyzed for this study. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire on a Likert scale from 305 teachers and 588 students of higher education institutes from the entire India. Network connectivity was the major challenge faced by the faculty members (mean value of 3.68) followed by 3.17 mean value for lack of professional environment at home, 3.03 for lack of teaching material at home, 2.92 for lack of personal computer/laptop. Lack of professional environment at home (mean value of 3.59) was the major challenge faced by the students followed by 3.57 for lack of teaching material at home, 3.35 for network connectivity, 3.31 for lack of personal computer/laptop. Virtual classrooms have challenges such as poor internet connectivity, non-availability of appropriate electronic devices, lack of a teaching environment at home, less information and communication technology (ICT) knowledge among students and teachers. It implied less engagement of students and teachers in the teaching and learning process

Patterns, Determinants and Challenges of Horticulture Diversification in India

This study attempts to analyze the trends and patterns of horticulture diversification in India, the differences between states in diversification toward highvalue crops, and identify the factors influencing horticulture diversification. Total horticulture crops have shown moderate diversification. Among horticulture crops, Fruits, plantation crops and spices have exhibited high diversification, whereas high and moderate diversification have been recorded for vegetables during the period under study.The states Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh,Bihar,Gujrat, Kerala, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya,Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Maharashtra, Manipur, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Odisha, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana, Tamil Nadu,Uttar Pradesh have shown high diversification whereas Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttarakhand have displayed moderate diversification in the year 2020-21. Per capita income, annual rainfall, and lagged SID for total horticulture crops all have positive effects on horticulture diversification, whereas fertilizer consumption has a negative effect

Low-cost Adsorbents for the Removal of Mercury (11) from Aqueous Solution-A Comparative Study

The establishments of the Ministry of Defence, specifically ordnance factories and public sector undertakings (like Bharat Electronics Ltd), carry out operations like electroplating, metal1surface finishing, solid-state wafer processing, and initiatory manufacturing (lead azide, mercury fulminate), which generate waste water contaminated with hazardous heavy metals. Mercuryand its compounds are known to be highly toxic, both for the living organisms and theenvironment. To protect public health, a regulatory discharge standard of mercury, as low as 0.01 mgll, has been imposed and is expected to be even stricter in the future. A promising method for effective mercury discharge control is to employ suitable adsorbents for the removal of mercury from the contaminated aqueous stream.This paper describes the effectiveness of low cost and locally available, untreated and chemically-treated adsorbents for the removal of mercury from the aqueous solution. Their effectiveness has been compared with that of chemically-treated granular activated carbon. Treated sawdust and untreated weathered coal were found to be the most suitable low-cost adsorbents in addition to treated granular activated carbon for the removal of mercury from aqueous solution. Under the optimised conditions, ie, adsorbent dose 10 gll, pH 6, contact time 48 h, and initial concentration of mercury 3 mgll, the removal of mercury was found to be 99.8 per cent, 99.8 per cent, and 99.7per cent, using treated granular activated carbon, treated sawhust, and untreated weathered coal, respectively.The adsorption parameters were determined using both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Surface complexation and ion exchange were the major removal mechanisms involved.The adsorption isotherm studies clearly indicated that the Langmuir model is in good agreement, with the experimental data on the adsorptive behaviour of mercury on treated granular activated carbon, whereas, the experimental data on adsorptive behaviour of mercury on weathered coal and treated sawdust follow both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The paper presents the results of the experimental studies as well as the model parameters

KINETIC AND EQUILIBRIUM STUDY OF TRINITROPHENOL ADSORPTION ONTO POLYANILINE TEA WASTE NANOCOMPOSITE FROM AQUEOUS MEDIUM

The current study is focused on the synthesis of polyaniline-tea waste nanocomposite (PANI-TWC) material as a competent adsorbent for the effective removal of trinitrophenol (TNP) from aqueous medium. Batch experiments were performed to examine the influence of the various adsorption parameters such as pH, dose of adsorbents, contact time and initial concentration of TNP on the adsorption process. The kinetic data were fitted with pseudo-first and pseudo-second-order models, and the kinetic studies were well explained by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Moreover, the adsorption isotherm study for TNP adsorption from aqueous solutions on the PANI-TWC was performed by Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The adsorption equilibrium data were best fitted to the Langmuir isotherm, which indicated that the adsorption surfaces are homogeneous and the adsorption occurred in monolayers

Performance of Indian crossbred wool on khadi spinning system

127-132HP Crossbred, JK Crossbred and JK Merino yarns have been spun on the New Model Charkha (NMC) spinning system to find out the suitability of Indian crossbred wool in Khadi sector. These crossbred wools produced in the north temperature region of India have been spun into medium quality yarn linear density of 42 tex. The pure crossbred wool yarns have higher U%, imperfections and hairiness index; and lower tenacity, elongation-at-break and coefficient of friction. The mixing of Australian merino wool with JK crossbred wool significantly improves yarn performance in terms of fineness (31 tex), evenness (U%), imperfections and hairiness index. The tenacity, elongation-at-break and coefficient of friction of mixed yarns increase significantly by mixing of Australian merino wool with JK crossbred wool. These findings will help in increasing the utilization of crossbred wool and reducing the costing of end products

Performance of Indian crossbred wool on khadi spinning system

HP Crossbred, JK Crossbred and JK Merino yarns have been spun on the New Model Charkha (NMC) spinning system to find out the suitability of Indian crossbred wool in Khadi sector. These crossbred wools produced in the north temperature region of India have been spun into medium quality yarn linear density of 42 tex. The pure crossbred wool yarns have higher U%, imperfections and hairiness index; and lower tenacity, elongation-at-break and coefficient of friction. The mixing of Australian merino wool with JK crossbred wool significantly improves yarn performance in terms of fineness (31 tex), evenness (U%), imperfections and hairiness index. The tenacity, elongation-at-break and coefficient of friction of mixed yarns increase significantly by mixing of Australian merino wool with JK crossbred wool. These findings will help in increasing the utilization of crossbred wool and reducing the costing of end products

Do Human Resources have more Value than the Cost incurred on them by the Organisation? An Empirical Analysis of Infosys Ltd. using Contribution-Based Model

Employees always play an important role in the service sector. For this study, we have selected Infosys Ltd. as a leading company in the IT sector. The study’s objective is to analyze the expenditure incurred by Infosys Ltd. on their employees and the value of employees’ contribution to Infosys Ltd. using the Human Resources Information System (HRIS), a contribution-based model that consists of 13 variables. Out of the 13 variables, 09 variables are monetary. We have collected data from the latest financial reports of Infosys Ltd. and the Reserve Bank of India’s database for eight monetary variables. Four out of 13 variables are non-monetary for which data have been collected with the help of a standardized questionnaire using 5 points Likert scale. Based on the responses received from 119 employees of Infosys Ltd. and by analyzing data we conclude at both the individual and organization levels that there is a difference between the expenditure incurred by Infosys Ltd. on their employees in total and the Value of all employees’ contribution as an individual and as a group towards Infosys Ltd. This means that the employees’ contributions both individually and collectively are much more than the cost incurred by the organization

FinRED: A Dataset for Relation Extraction in Financial Domain

Relation extraction models trained on a source domain cannot be applied on a different target domain due to the mismatch between relation sets. In the current literature, there is no extensive open-source relation extraction dataset specific to the finance domain. In this paper, we release FinRED, a relation extraction dataset curated from financial news and earning call transcripts containing relations from the finance domain. FinRED has been created by mapping Wikidata triplets using distance supervision method. We manually annotate the test data to ensure proper evaluation. We also experiment with various state-of-the-art relation extraction models on this dataset to create the benchmark. We see a significant drop in their performance on FinRED compared to the general relation extraction datasets which tells that we need better models for financial relation extraction.Comment: Accepted at FinWeb at WWW'2

Socio-ecological Vulnerability of Smallholders due to Climate Change in Mountains: Agroforestry as an Adaptation Measure

AbstractThe present study aims to assess the socioecological vulnerability of smallholders through an index of Tehri Garhwal Himalaya. The index provides a realistic approach to recognize the contributions of social and ecological factors for household welfare vulnerability to climate change. The approach puts forward various indices for each component of vulnerability to climate change - exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity including two more indices: one for overall impact under the exposure of climate change and another for overall vulnerability. The five indices were proposed to assess the vulnerability status of with and without agroforestry practicing households in Himalayan region. These indices are based on 35 indicators (8 for exposure; 12 for sensitivity, 15 for adaptive capacity), selected through inductive approaches. A questionnaire for households was designed for the above aim and was administered to 121 heads of households through face-toface interviews with 77 households practicing agroforestry and 44 without agroforestry. The questionnaire dealt the general household information, and indicators of the vulnerability including the issues related to agroforestry. The results highlight slightly higher adaptive capacity of agroforestry practicing households due to specific contribution of agroforestry. The low contribution of agroforestry among smallholders was due to small land holding. The study also results that remoteness, specific issues of smallholders' such as poverty, education and employment are responsible for the present condition. In particular this study clearly shows that poverty is the key driver for vulnerability. All of these issues can be addressed if future programs and policies, include and implement regulations to remedy attributive factors. This paper may be applicable to other mountainous regions providing insights for effective adaptation strategies to climate change

Smoking and Drinking Activates NF-κB /IL-6 Axis to Promote Inflammation During Cervical Carcinogenesis

Background: High-risk strains of HPV are known to cause cervical cancer. Multiple clinical studies have emphasized that smoking and drinking are critical risk factors for cervical cancer and its high-grade precursors. In this study, we investigated the molecular mechanisms involved in the interplay of smoking and/or drinking with HPV infectivity and defined a systematic therapeutic approach for their attenuation in cervical cancer. Methods: The impact of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) and/or ethanol (EtOH) exposure on cervical cancer cells was assessed by measuring changes in cell proliferation, clonogenicity, biophysical properties, cell migration, and invasion. Expression of HPV16 E6/E7, NF-κB, cytokines, cell cycle, and inflammation mediators was determined using qRT-PCR, immunoblotting, ELISA, luciferase reporter assay and confocal microscopy. Results: The exposure of cervical cancer cells to B[a]P and/or EtOH altered the expression of HPV16 E6/E7 oncogenes and EMT markers; it also enhanced cellular clonogenicity, migration, and invasion. In addition, B[a]P and/or EtOH exposure promoted inflammation pathways through TNF-α and NF-κB signaling, leading to IL-6 upregulation and activation of VEGFA. These molecular effects caused by B[a]P and/or EtOH exposure were effectively attenuated by Cur/PLGA-Cur. Conclusion: These data suggest a molecular link between smoking, drinking, and HPV infectivity in cervical carcinogenesis. However, these events were determined to be attenuated by treatment with Cur/PLGA-Cur treatment, implying its role in cervical cancer prevention/treatment