Foreign Aid, Economic Growth, and Policies

The aid-growth relationship has been reviewed under various macroeconomic policy environments. This paper analyzes similarities and differences in the sources of data, types of data, and various types of methodologies used in some of the most recent and widely debated literature regarding the relationship between foreign aid and economic growth under various fiscal, monetary, and trade policies. Different studies have ended up with different outcomes. Some studies find positive aid-growth relationship under good policy environment; some find non-existent aid-growth relationship whereas some others find positive aid-growth relationship without being conditional on any kind of policy

A comparative perspective of fact in Thirukkural and Thiruvarutpayan

In Tamil Nadu, literature is one of the prime sources of information on religion, culture, history, philosophy, social customs, beliefs, etc. Literature that originated in the history of Tamil Nadu from time to time identifies the unique features of those times. In the development of Tamil literature, the period in which moral literature originated is called the Moral Era distinctively, which is the same time where many philosophical works of literature refer to the period of origin as the period of philosophical ethics. This study reveals the uniqueness and the generalities of God as claimed in Thirukkural and the God as portrayed in the literature of Thiruvarutpayan that originated in the philosophical period. In particular, this article gives a comparative basis for the ideas that come to mind in the 36th chapter on the power of realization in Thirukkural, and on the three elements that can be found in Thiruvarutpayana, viz., God, Life, and affection

Sister R.S. Subbalakshmi's Role in the Renaissance of Hindu Community : A special study based on the Educational standard of Tamil Nadu women in 19th and 20th Centuries

The rise and fall of Hindu Community in India is a historical phenomenon. There are various personalities who dedicated themselves to the renaissance of them, regardless of victory or defeat in their efforts. Though the Hindu community seemed to advance in a number of fields in Tamil Nadu especially during the 19th and 20th centuries despite various forms of oppression and destruction. Under- age marriage was among many other factors that resulted in the backwardness of the society. In such a backdrop, the role played by a number of female personalities was immensely commendable for the reawakening activities. R.S. Subbalakshmi, Dr. Muthulatchumi Rettiyar, Sarojini Naidu, etc are a few to be added to the list of the reformers who tirelessly put all their efforts for the reawakening of Tamil women. Most notably, R.S. Subbalakshmi successfully carried out her mission towards the educational renaissance of widows. Her service has to be specially noted for her careful forward without getting caught into the clutches of the British rulers, instead obtaining their cooperation and support. She carried out her educational activities adopting the modern educational reforms of the British, while preserving the national heritage of India. The Institutions such as Saratha Ashram, Sri Saratha United Women Society, Sri Saratha Vidyalayam, which played a major role in the educational renaissance of the South Indian women, were established by her. She had to encounter untold hardships to operate those Institutions which brought a turning point in a number of educated women. Since she undertook her activities irrespective of societal differences, the rulers, philanthropists and well wishers offered their fullest support and assistance. Her activities were pioneer for the creation of other social organizations and Institutions. She is to be regarded as a forward thinker who always thought of the well being of not only the women of Tamil Nadu but of the whole South India

Reflective Teaching as a Practical Approach

Since the beginning of the 20th-century specialists have strived for ways that could comprise language teaching methods, which can ensure the best results in language training and teaching classes. And there are various methods, especially in the first half of this century. Some language teaching experts progressed further than methods with the hope of earning more results. Only some of teachers’ encouraged towards what is known as reflective teaching (RT).The process of bridging the gap between experience and learning is called Reflection. RT teacher requires a good self-observations of self-assessment, the need to go on patrol in a way to ensure that teachers understand their classes so that they make their own classroom process improvements where needed. RT is the process by which teachers reflect on their classroom procedures for collecting and analysing the descriptive facts that will be modified to show where the change can be made. RT gives teachers material and professional flexibility for teachers. This paper elaborates on the process of reflection practice and deliberates the effects for foreign/second language educators. Keywords: Reflective teaching, reflection in action, reflection on action, the reflective proces

Is the war on terror induced-post traumatic stress disorder; the cause of suicide attack? An approach from psycho-cognitive and neurobiological perspective

Understanding suicide attack is one of the highly complicated problems in the field of psychological disorders. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), may occur in individuals subjected to traumatic assaults like terrorism, warfare, sexual abuse or natural disaster. Individual's living within war affected area often develops PTSD, which may consequently leads to cognitive and memory impairment. The war induced PTSD patient, is under the influence of severe stress; terror and helplessness as it manipulate and retrieve the past trauma as a current threat. Substantial evidences support that PTSD patients are more prone to varying degree of neurological and psychological complications. In this correspondence, we wish to highlight the biological consequence of suicide attack from the perspective of war induced PTSD. Earlier research also supports that PTSD and suicide have some common basis like alterations in hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal axis, nitric oxide and catecholamine like norepinephrine and serotonin level. Thus it is important to uncover the risk of PTSD due to war on terror with precision towards suicide attack and minimize the detriment followed by it. PTSD through the development of depression, irritability and anger, is one amongst the major causes of suicide attack.In order to clarify the underlying psychological mechanism, there is a pressing need to address it from different aspects like disease causing synaptic plasticity and abnormal brain development. PTSD is a reaction to past traumatic events. For instance, the danger of perceived threat due to witness of deaths in a war, may develop a constellation of properties that may leads to PTSD. Usually, it initiates a sequence of behavioral and cognitive changes that can be anticipated to reduce the perceived threat. However, the consequences of perceived threat lead to cognitive changes and thus maintain a devastating disorder. Appraisals of such memory not only generate situational fear but also the avoidance, which leads to enhanced trepidation and over-activity. For example, a person exposed to a road side traumatic accident may avoid driving; for having an impractical faith that it may happen again, thereby affecting its social life.Patients suffering from PTSD due to war may interpret that the trauma will persist for long time and thus he is no longer safe. He or she may suffer from depression, irritability, anger outbursts, emotional numbing, flashbacks, and nightmares [1]. It has been reported that numbing is an ordinary reaction to traumatic events. Individuals should realize that it is a normal aspect of the recovery process, otherwise it can lead to permanent changes which may worsen their physical or psychological well-being [2-4]. Children experiencing the PTSD, usually underwent alterations in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, catecholamine and norepinephrine, which results in pathological and detrimental brain development [5]. Interestingly, the inhibition of nitric oxide in hippocampus by antidepressant has promising outcome to alleviate the PTSD symptoms [6]. While, the augmented level of plasma nitrates in depressive patients are found to be associated with suicide attempts [7].Figure 1The intention of a suicide attack is to kill a large crowd or bringing mass destruction, even with the notion that he will die in this act. Suicide bombings termed as "suicide bombing" constitute an overall 4% of terrorist attacks, which dates back to the beginning of the 19th century. In most of the modern suicide terrorist is used against non-combatants for the accomplishment of impact on political situation. Although a suicide attack aims to annihilate a primary target, however it can be used as a weapon of psychological warfare to affect the large public population. The main target of this action is not those who are killed but those witnessed it [8]. Intriguingly, it is reported that the level of brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) is directly associated with suicide while indirectly it can affect PTSD. Also, defining body of research proved that altered level of serotonin in dorsal raphe nucleus, amygdala, median raphe, frontal cortex, hypothalamus and hippocampus is associated with aggressive behavior and suicide [9]. PTSD-induce symptoms like impulsivity, violence, suicide attempts, depression, panic, and anxiety can also be associated with altered serotonin levels [10].ConclusionThe mechanism of suicide attack is still highly debated; and need much more to address. Since, PTSD through the development of depression, irritability and anger, accomplish various physiological and cognitive changes in the brain, so it might be one of the causes which increases the susceptibility of acceptance for being a volunteer to suicide attack? This discussion was put forward; as some war induced PTSD patients among temporary displaced people in different regions of the world showed strong willingness for suicide attack as a counter revenge of war. Therefore, we also need to address suicide attack from the perspective of psychological disorders like war induced PTSD

Undergraduates’ Use Behavior of Learning Management Systems: A Sri Lankan Perspective

This research aims to explore the perceptions of students in using Learning Management System (LMS) in order to enhance the learning process of students, especially those undergraduates in government universities in Sri Lanka. Almost all government universities in Sri Lanka have implemented LMS for students to make their learning process interactive and engaging. These higher educational institutions have made considerable amount of investments in terms of finance and other resources, but the benefits enjoyed by these institutions and student are far below expectations unless the usage of such systems are made compulsory. Therefore, although many studies have been conducted overseas, it is of high recognition that a study is very much needed to understand the reason(s) for low usage by students in Sri Lankan free education context. Quantitative study based on self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted. Out of the 15 government universities in Sri Lanka, 03 were selected. Results from 344 valid responses reveals that Attitude, Experience and Anxiety significantly influence the students’ use behaviour of LMS in Sri Lankan universities, while Efficacy and Collaboration do not have any impact. The research identifies what factors would influence these students’ use behaviour of LMS in state universities. Variables Students’ Attitude towards LMS, Efficacy, Experience, Anxiety and Collaboration with Lecturers and Students are considered to be the predictor variables and their influence and impact on Use Behaviour of LMS (predicted variable) is studied. Keywords:Undergraduates’ Perspectives, Learning Management Systems, Use Behaviour, Sri Lankan Universities

Automated breast profile segmentation for ROI detection using digital mammograms

Abstract—Mammography is currently the most effective imaging modality used by radiologists for the screening of breast cancer. Finding an accurate, robust and efficient breast profile segmentation technique still remains a challenging problem in digital mammography. Extraction of the breast profile region and the pectoral muscle is an essential pre-processing step in the process of computer-aided detection. Primarily it allows the search for abnormalities to be limited to the region of the breast tissue without undue influence from the background of the mammogram. The presence of pectoral muscle in mammograms biases detection procedures, which recommends removing the pectoral muscle during mammogram pre-processing. In this paper we explore an automated technique for mammogram segmentation. The proposed algorithm uses morphological preprocessing and seeded region growing (SRG) algorithm in order to: (1) remove digitization noises, (2) suppress radiopaque artifacts, (3) separate background region from the breast profile region, and (4) remove the pectoral muscle, for accentuating the breast profile region. To demonstrate the capability of our proposed approach, digital mammograms from two separate sources are tested using Ground Truth (GT) images for evaluation of performance characteristics. Experimental results obtained indicate that the breast regions extracted accurately correspond to the respective GT images