Marking Behaviour of Secondary School Teachers in Relation to Gender, Marital Status, and Religion

The present research paper aimed to study the marking behaviour of secondary school teachers with respect to certain personal variables like to gender, marital status, and religion. Sample consisted of 104 teachers from Government Schools and 100 teachers from Private Schools at secondary level. Mean, SD and ‘t’ test were used to analyze the data. Findings revealed no significant difference between the marking behaviour of non-Muslim Teachers teaching in Government and Private Secondary Schools. Whereas, a significant difference was found between the marking behaviour of Unmarried Teachers teaching in Government and Private Secondary Schools. Keywords: Mark, Examination, Reliability, Validity and Marking Behaviour etc.

Academic Anxiety as a Correlate of Academic Achievement

This study was conducted to study the relationship and effects of academic anxiety on the academic achievements of students. A sample of 352 students of senior secondary school was taken through random sampling technique. A reliable and valid, Academic Anxiety Scale standardized by Dr. A.K. Singh and Dr. A Sen Gupta was used to collect the data. Mean SD, Correlation and t-test were used for the analysis of the data. Research findings revealed an inverse relationship (negative correlation) between the academic achievement and the academic anxiety of students. Significant differences were found between the academic achievement of high and low academic anxiety groups of students, between high and low academic anxiety groups of males, between high and low academic anxiety groups of females, between high academic anxiety groups of male and female students, and  also between low academic anxiety groups of male and female students. Keywords: Anxiety, academic anxiety, academic achievement, and  refined personality

Using Henry Fayol’s Principles for Better Classroom Management

Classroom is a place surrounded by four walls and a roof which is used by the teacher to impart knowledge to the students. It is a shelter for educational activities; an environment for acquiring knowledge in a formal manner. It provides a context for learning and includes not only the physical space and furnishings, but also the inherent atmosphere, learners’ emotions and the social dynamics attached to learning. Management of the classroom environment hence, becomes an important aspect in this backdrop. The objective of effective teaching is often achieved through proper classroom management, i.e., by incorporating predetermined and predefined goals and engaging students through group-activities to achieve them. Classroom management being an important element of teaching thus, necessitates the absence of disruptions and disturbances, providing room for better learnable outcomes. It is an understandable fact, however, that the classroom conflicts cannot be eliminated completely; but minimized. Author in this paper has implemented Fayol’s principles in an attempt to manage the classroom more efficiently by minimizing conflict situations and thereby creating more comfortable educational environments. It is argued that these principles can be of a great help to the students in coping with the classroom difficulties arising chiefly out of peer-competition and other extraneous pressures. Keywords: classroom, management, disruptive behaviour and classroom management

A comparative study on the protective effects of ascorbic acid and tualang honey on the skin flap of reverse sural fasciocutaneous flap in a smoking rabbit model

Lower limb traumas impose a great challenge for reconstructive surgeons. Complexity in the tissue constituent of lower limb and the concern regarding vascularity has been the barrier in the process of reconstruction. Introduction of pedicled fasciocutaneous flap based on reverse flow has provided an alternative to free flap reconstruction. Reverse sural fasciocutaneous flap is gaining popularity and widely being used in the reconstruction of distal third of lower limb due to its ease of elevation compared to free flap. Performing flap surgery in smokers has been proven to yield poor outcome. Components in cigarette smoke have an established negative impact on the vascular endothelium of blood vessels. Nicotine and carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke produce oxidative damage and release reactive oxygen species resulting in ischaemic injury. Ascorbic acid and “Tualang honey” are two agents which have been extensively studied for their anti oxidative and wound healing properties. Previous studies were aimed at studying the impact of cigarette smoke and ascorbic acid on the endothelium of large calibre vessel like carotid and aorta. The present study was undertaken to compare the anti oxidative properties of both these agents in improving the outcome in flap survival using a smoking rabbit model. This study is aimed at assessing the beneficial anti oxidative property to improve microvascular circulation in a reverse sural fasciocutaneous flap in a smoking rabbit model. All samples were exposed to cigarette smoke using a smoke chamber for a total of 5 weeks. Study sample was divided into three groups. Control group only received cigarette smoke while the other two groups each received ascorbic acid in the form of intramuscular injection and oral “Tualang honey” on top of exposure to cigarette smoke. Reverse sural fasciocutaneous flap was raised in all the rabbits at day 30 of exposure to cigarette smoke. Samples were evaluated on immediate post operative period, post operative day 1, 3 and 7. Parameters documented throughout the study were temperature, capillary refill time, colour of flap, presence hematoma or infection, and on post operative day 7 the flap survival was calculated. Intervention with smoking, ascorbic acid and “Tualang honey” were continued throughout the period of experiment. We found that, both group intervened with ascorbic acid and “Tualang honey” showed marked improvement in the flap survival. Statistically significant improvement were documented with regard to temperature, improvement in colour of flap and reduction in hematoma. Flap survival improved from 62% in the smoking arm to 88.9% and 81.0% in the ascorbic acid and “Tualang honey” arm. However oneway ANOVA test showed p value of 0.075 which was near to significant value. In conclusion both ascorbic acid and “Tualang honey” improved the survival of reverse sural fasciocutaneous flap in smoking rabbit model. However ascorbic acid is superior compared to “Tualang honey” in improving the oxidative damages produced by cigarette smoke and microvascular circulation of the reverse sural fasciocutaneous flap

Additional Of Metal Filler On Graphite/Carbon Black/Polypropylene Composite As Bipolar Plate Material For PEMFC Application

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is expected to be one of the major power sources for future passenger vehicles since it features a high power density at a relatively low operating temperature of about 80◦C. There are several key components in PEMFC and one of them is bipolar plate. This bipolar plate is a multi-functional component. It provides the electrical connection from cell-to-cell and it separates the reactive gases. The known problem related to bipolar plate is the corrosion, weight and high cost. Hence, composite bipolar plate based on thermoplastic material is introduced and solved the general disadvantages of traditional bipolar plate. But, it still has a main limitation which is electrical conductivity and mechanical properties such as brittleness.. Through this research, the effect of secondary filler on electrical and mechanical properties is studied in order to overcome the main limitation of composite bipolar plate. The combination of metal and carbon filler also been studied for the purpose of improvement electrical and mechanical properties of G/PP composite bipolar plate. This study also would propose the fabrication process in producing composite material bipolar plate. The materials used in producing bipolar plate are greatly affecting its final properties. As for binder material, Polypropylene (PP) is used and for main filler material Graphite (Gr) is used. While, second filler used are Iron (Fe), Nickel (Ni) and Carbon Black (CB). The based ratio for this bipolar plate is 80%wt of filler and 20% wt of binder. The addition second filler is varying from 5%wt to 30%wt from the total of 80%wt. The fabrication of sample is done through compression molding method. The measurement that has been done is electrical conductivity, flexural strength, bulk density, shore hardness and microstructures. From result, the addition of CB has shown the most improvement in term of electrical conductivity (218.43 S/cm) and has good mechanical properties (38.03 MPa, flexural strength). While, the addition of Fe and Ni it not quite good but still Fe is better candidate than Ni. From this finding, another sample is introduced which is the combination of Fe and CB as part of second filler and it show the greater result which is 367.59 S/cm in electrical and 44.57 MPa in flexural strength. This result has shown a great improvement in electrical conductivity and acceptable mechanical properties. This framework of study can be used as reference in furthering the research

Temporary Job and Permanent Stress

In daily life we all are stressed-knowingly or unknowingly. As rightly said by a great  philosopher  Epictetus, that “People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.” So it can be understood that stress by nature has become a part and parcel of everyday life and in today’s cut throat competition, nobody is truly stress free. Seeing the condition of society it feels like nobody on this planet is stress free so the teachers are. Only those who are either not born or are dead are stress free. Stress is a very serious problem as it impairs one’s capabilities and have direct adverse impact on performance. If stress is not tackled properly on time it may lead to many emotional and physical problems. Teachers especially those who are appointed on temporary bases or on contractual bases are always work under stress, because of their status of being temporary. Although their job is temporary but stress becomes permanent. This paper is an attempt to suggest some ways to manage stress among temporary or contractual teachers also this paper explains significant impacts of stress on the body and how to take these stress levels down to a manageable point. Keywords: Stress, Pedagogical, Intrapsychic sector, Temporary job and Permanent Job.

ROBUST STATE FEEDBACK CONTROL OF UNCERTAIN POLYNOMIAL DISCRETE-TIME SYSTEMS: AN INTEGRAL ACTION APPROACH

his paper examines the problem of designing a nonlinear state feedback controller for polynomial discrete-time systems with parametric uncertainty. In general, this is a challenging controller design problem due to the fact that the relation between Lyapunov function and the control input is not jointly convex; hence, this problem cannot be solved by a semidenite programming (SDP). In this paper, a novel approach is proposed, where an integral action is incorporated into the controller design to convexify the controller design problem of polynomial discrete-time systems. Based on the sum of squares (SOS) approach, sufficient conditions for the existence of a nonlinear state feedback controller for polynomial discrete-time systems are given in terms of solvability of polynomial matrix inequalities, which can be solved by the recently developed SOS solver. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the validity of this integral action approach

Academic Achievement of Adolescents in Relation to Academic Anxiety, Gender, and Choice of Academic Stream

The present research work was carried out to study the relationship and effect of academic anxiety on the academic achievement of adolescents. A sample of 361 adolescents was taken through purposive sampling technique. A reliable and valid academic anxiety scale standardized by Singh & Gupta (2009) was used for  data collection. Mean SD, Correlation and t-test were used for the analysis of the data. Research findings revealed an inverse relationship (negative correlation) between the academic achievement and the academic anxiety of adolescents. Significant differences were found between the academic achievement of high and low academic anxiety groups of adolescents, between high and low academic anxiety groups of males, between high and low academic anxiety groups of females, between high academic anxiety groups of male and female adolescents, between low academic anxiety groups of male and female adolescents, between the academic achievement of high and low academic anxiety groups of social science adolescents. Whereas, no significant difference was found in the academic achievement of high and low academic anxiety groups of science adolescents, between the academic achievement of  high academic anxiety groups of science and social science adolescents and between the academic achievement of low academic anxiety groups of science and social science adolescents. Keywords: Anxiety, academic anxiety, academic achievement, and choice of academic stream

Robust H∞ static output feedback controller design for parameter dependent polynomial systems: An iterative sums of squares approach

This paper considers the problem of designing a robust H∞ static output feedback controller for polynomial systems with parametric uncertainties. Sufficient conditions for the existence of a nonlinear H∞ static output feedback controller are given in terms of solvability conditions of polynomial matrix inequalities. An iterative sum of squares decomposition is proposed to solve these polynomial matrix inequalities. The proposed controller guarantees that the closed-loop system is stable and the L2-gain of the mapping from exogenous input noise to the controlled output is less than or equal to a prescribed value. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the validity of applied methods

A Nonlinear Static Output Controller Design for Polynomial Systems: An Iterative Sums of Squares Approach

This paper presents an iterative sum of squares approach for designing a nonlinear static output feedback control for polynomial systems. In this work, the problem of designing a nonlinear static output feedback controller is converted into solvability conditions of polynomial matrix inequalities. An iterative algorithm based on the sum of squares decomposition technique is proposed to resolve the non-convex terms issue and convert it to the convex problem, hence a feasible solution for polynomial matrix inequalities can be obtained efficiently. Numerical examples are provided at the end of the paper as to demonstrate the validity of applied metho