Extended education at college in India. Advancing equity through the extension of public academic support programmes for students from the socially and economically disadvantaged groups

The paper seeks to expand our knowledge on the importance of public academic support programmes (ASPs) in higher education (HE) in India, which extend supplementary instruction with the aim to improve academic performance and support academic efforts of students from the socially and economically disadvantaged groups (SEDGs). This paper shows that students from the most disadvantaged amongst the SEDGs, that is, those residing in rural areas and women who experience multiple barriers that compound the effects of their disadvantages, have taken advantage of supplementary instruction classes. These classes have allowed HEIs to account for students\u27 academic needs and challenges related to their socioeconomic disadvantages, that remain unmet in regular classrooms. By targeting educational resources to students who are most disadvantaged, these programmes compensate for the absence of parental support and recognises the underlying socio-economic obstacles of students from achieving academic success at college. Given the acknowledged role of higher education in providing economic and social benefits to individuals, the paper argues that oncampus state enabled ASPs targeting students from the SEDGs make HE in India more equitable and contribute in reducing social inequalities in the wider society. (DIPF/Orig.

Effect of thermal annealing on optical properties of CR-39 polymeric track detector

The samples of CR-39 polymer (TASTRAK, Bristol, England) were annealled thermally at various temperatures ranging from 100oC to 180oC for 1 hour, in air. FTIR spectroscopy reveals the structural degradation of CR-39 polymer due to thermal annealing above its glass transition temperature. Optical band gap of pristine and thermally annealed samples has been determined using UV-Visible absorption spectra. It has been observed that the optical band gap decreases continuously as a result of annealing.Department of Physics, Kurukshetra University,Kurukshetra-136 119, Haryana, Indi

An observational study of 100 cases of 25μg oral misoprostol for induction of labour in term pregnancy

Background: Labour induction is a clinical intervention that has the potential to confer major benefits to the mother and new born when continuation of pregnancy poses a risk/danger to the outcome of pregnancy. Misoprostol is an ideal agent for induction of labour, particularly in settings where the use of prostaglandin E2 is not possible owing to lack of availability, facilities for storage, or financial constraints. It is stable at room temperature, relatively inexpensive and can be given via several routes (oral, vaginal, sublingual, and buccal).Methods: It is an observational study of 100 cases conducted in the labour room of a Tertiary Care Government Hospital, Rajkot over a span from January 2016 to March 2017. After patient selection as per inclusion criteria and written informed consent after evaluating patients were enrolled in the study. Tablet misoprostol 25 microgram given orally every 4 hourly with maximum of 5 doses till the patient was in active stage of labour.Results: Maximum patients delivered by a single dose of Tab. Misoprostol (35%), the mean induction delivery interval was 11.44 hours. Most of the women delivered by vaginal route (88%) without any maternal complications like PPH, cervical/vaginal tear and uterine rupture. Only 4 cases out of 100 of failed induction for which LSCS was taken. Eight babies were admitted in NICU for MSL and had good prognosis. The most common side effect of the drug was nausea (15%) followed by fever and vomiting. 69% patients did not have any adverse drug reaction.Conclusions: Thus, induction of labour with oral misoprostol reduces the LSCS rates, lesser induction delivery interval and has good fetal outcome. The drug is well tolerated by the patients orally and has very few side effects

Improving Ieee 802.11 Wlan Handoff Latency by Access Point-Based Modification

IEEE 802.11 WLAN provides multimedia services like live telecast, video streaming, video conferencing, Voice over IP (VoIP) to its users. For deployment of these fast real time services, it needs stringent Quality of service (QoS) requirement such as delay time less than 150ms for VoIP, and packet loss rate of 1%. The mobility service for users come with cost of handoff process required when mobile stations get connected from 1 Access point (AP) to another for continuous service. In existing 802.11 IEEE handoff procedure, the scanning phase can exceed duration of 200ms and packet loss can exceed 10%. Thus, proposed methodology focuses on achieving reduced overall handoff latency by implementing handoff delay duration less than 150ms which is the need for seamless service in IEEE 802.11 WLAN

Software Cost Estimation using Single Layer Artificial Neural Network

The most challenging task of software project management is the cost estimation. Cost estimation is to accurately assess required assets and schedules for software improvement ventures and it includes a number of things under its wide umbrella, for example, estimation of the size of the software product to be produced, estimation of the effort required, and last but not the least estimating the cost of the project. The overall project life cycle is impacted by the accurate prediction of the software development cost. The COCOMO model makes employments of single layer feed forward neural system while being actualized and prepared to utilize the perceptron learning algorithm. To test and prepare the system the COCOMO dataset is actualized. This paper has the goal of creating the quantitative measure in not only the current model but also in our proposed model

A retrospective study on analyzing the role of oocyte maturation arrest as a causative factor for infertility in unexplained infertility

Background: Birth is often referred to as “the miracle of life” and very rightly so since successful pregnancy represents a complex, a highly coordinated succession of biological processes. In this regard, it is remarkable that pregnancy ever occurs at all. Infertility is a reproductive system disorder affecting 10.7% to 15.5% of couples. Highly heterogeneous in etiology. Investigating the cause is necessary for guiding treatment options. Aim of the study was to determine the percentage of immature oocytes retrieved at the metaphase 1 stage and germinal vesicle stage and its outcome.Methods: Total 30 cases were included for this retrospective analysis of data done at ARC fertility center, Saveetha Medical College. This study analyzed the data of patients with unexplained infertility who underwent ICSI centers (affiliated to Saveetha University) meeting inclusion criteria and willing to participate in the study.Results: The mean number of fertilized oocytes among those with more than 25% immature oocyte proportion was 1.18 while among those with less than 25% immature oocyte proportion was 4.13. The chance of fertilization of the oocyte increases when the percentage of immature oocyte was less than or equal to 25%. The association was found to be statistically significant with p-value <0.05.Conclusions: Thus, some intrinsic oocyte factor could be involved in causing maturation arrest in such couples and resulting in multiple failed IVF cycles.so this oocyte factor could be a major cause in many cases of unexplained infertility

Judging causes of soil degradation and remedial measures for reclamation in Kaithal district of Haryana state

Soil degradation is a point of evolution which leads to a reduction of resource potential. About 7.40 m ha arable lands globally turn to degraded lands as a result of climate change and deforestation. The problem of soil degradation has been ever since cultivation of soils started because of increasing population of India at the rate of about 1.8% requiring marginal areas to be brought under the plough to meet the growing food demand. The present study was conducted in Kaithal district in the year 2018-19. The study revealed that ‘Excessive use of chemical fertilizers’ (88.33%) followed by ‘non- judicious use of insecticides/pesticides’ (85.83%), ‘less application of organic manure’ (85.00%), ‘deforestation (78.33%), and ‘over uplifting of ground water’ (75.83%) were found as most important causes of soil degradation. The&nbsp; most important remedial action for problematic soil were found as ‘land for equal distribution of resources/irrigation’ (90.83%) followed by ‘application of Gypsum for sodic and saline soil’ (85.83%), ‘introduction of legumes in cropping system’ (80.00%), ‘recharge of ground water during rainy season’ (78.33%), ‘crop residue incorporation by happy seeder’ (77.50%), ‘application of green manuring/ organic manure’ (75.00%) and ‘leaching of salts in saline soil’ (72.50%). Soil conservation is important for the future use and future generation. The study would be helpful in soils conservation which may otherwise cause damage to plant growth which in turn may adversely affect yield and there by food security also

Ideal isotropic auxetic networks from random networks

Auxetic materials are characterized by a negative Poisson's ratio, $\mathrm{\nu}$. As the Poisson's ratio becomes negative and approaches the lower isotropic mechanical limit of $\mathrm{\nu = -1}$, materials show enhanced resistance to impact and shear, making them suitable for applications ranging from robotics to impact mitigation. Past experimental efforts aimed at reaching the $\mathrm{\nu = -1}$ limit have resulted in highly anisotropic materials, which show a negative Poisson's ratio only when subjected to deformations along specific directions. Isotropic designs have only attained moderately auxetic behavior, or have led to structures that cannot be manufactured in 3D. Here, we present a design strategy to create isotropic structures from disordered networks that leads to Poisson's ratios as low as $\mathrm{\nu = -0.98}$. The materials conceived through this approach are successfully fabricated in the laboratory and behave as predicted. The Poisson's ratio $\mathrm{\nu}$ is found to depend on network structure and bond strengths; this sheds light on the structural motifs that lead to auxetic behavior. The ideas introduced here can be generalized to 3D, a wide range of materials, and a spectrum of length scales, thereby providing a general platform that could impact technology.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure