A Study of Technophobia in The Use of ICT Among Secondary School Teachers in Vizianagaram District of Andhra Pradesh

This study explores the widespread problem of technophobia among Andhra Pradesh's Vizianagaram district's secondary school teachers with reference to the employment of information and communication technology (ICT) in the classroom. It investigates the impact of a number of demographic factors on teachers' technophobia, including gender, marital status, age, title, teaching experience, institution location, kind of school administration, and instruction medium. The "Teachers’ Technophobia Scale," a standardized questionnaire, and a descriptive survey approach are used in this study to gather data from 500 instructors in 60 secondary schools. Results show various insights. Technophobia was shown to be unaffected significantly by factors such as gender, marital status, age, designation, and style of school administration. Teachers with more than ten years of experience, however, showed greater degrees of technophobia. Technophobia was shown to be more prevalent among rural instructors than in their urban counterparts, and it was not significantly influenced by the medium of teaching. The study also found three aspects of technophobia, with anxiety being the main factor leading to technophobia. These dimensions include teachers' apprehension about ICT, their access to ICT resources, and their views about using ICT tools. The consequences for education include the need for professional development in integrating technology into classroom instruction, the requirement for teacher orientation programs on ICT, and the promotion of confidence in technology use. The report outlines tactics for reducing technophobia and makes recommendations for actions academic associations may take to help secondary schools successfully integrate ICT. In the end, this study highlights how crucial it is to deal with technophobia in order to maximize the advantages of technology integration in the classroom

Short term complex hydro thermal scheduling using integrated PSO-IBF algorithm

In this article, an integrated evolutionary technique such as particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and improved bacterial foraging algorithm (IBFA) have been developed to provide an optimum solution to the scheduling problem with complex thermal and hydro generating stations. PSO algorithm is framed based on the intelligent behavior of the fish school and a flock of birds and the optimal solution in the multidimensional search region is achieved by assigning a random velocity to each potential solution (called the particle). BFA is designed by following the prey-seeking (chemotactic) nature of E. coli bacteria. This technique is followed in an improved manner to get the convergence rate in dynamic for a hyperspace problem by implementing a chemotactic step in a linearly decreased way instead of the static one. The effectiveness of this integrated algorithm is evaluated by using it in a complex thermal and hydro generating system. In this testing system, multiple numbers of cascaded reservoirs in hydro plants have a time coupling effect and thermal power units have a valve point loading effect. The simulation results indicate its merits by comparing it with other meta-heuristic techniques related to the fuel cost required to generate the thermal power.

Effect of medium, explants, cytokinins and node position on in vitro shoot multiplication of Caralluma lasiantha (Wight) N.E.Br., an endemic and medicinally important plant

An efficient shoot multiplication protocol was developed for Caralluma lasiantha, an endemic medicinal plant belonging to the family Asclepiadaceae. Mature explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS), (1962) medium, Gamborg's B5 (B5) and woody plant medium (WPM) supplemented with 6-benzyladenine (BA), 8.87 µM, for shoot induction. The nodal explants exhibited maximum shoot sprouting frequency when cultured on MS medium supplemented with BA (8.87 µM). Nodal explants cultured on MS medium supplemented with different concentrations of cytokinins with 3% sucrose exhibited 100% sprouting frequency. Maximum number of three to four shoots was induced from mature second nodal explants on MS medium containing BA (8.87 µM). The isolated microshoots were rooted on half strength MS medium supplemented with naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), 0.54 µM. The plantlets thus developed were hardened and successfully established in soil.Key words: 6-Benzyl adenine, nodal explant, naphthalene acetic acid, Caralluma lasiantha, micro  propagation

Ranking for Database in view of User Opinions

Numerous clients seeking web databases in areas, for example, vehicles, property and so forth has turned into an everyday errand. One of the issues with this assignment is ranking the after effects of a client inquiry. Prior systems for tending to this issue have used to just sort the database values. A consistent idea in the vast majority of these techniques is that ranking is done in a client and inquiry autonomous way. We proposed an inquiry and client subordinate methodology for ranking question results in web databases and it diminishes the quantity of question exchanges. This paper demonstrates to rank the information in database for a specific space in view of the client feelings. The model depends on the likeness client's showcase comparable question or distinctive inquiry ranking over the consequences of comparative inquiries

Vitamin D deficiency and its correlation with pregnancy outcome

Background: There is a growing concern about the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and its relationship with variety of diseases worldwide. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and its association with pregnancy outcome.Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted among 150 antenatal women from October 2014 to April 2015. Data containing socio-demographic details, vitamin D level, serum calcium, pregnancy complications and growth situation of newborns were collected and analyzed.Results: A total 150 pregnant women participated in the study, 75.3% were vitamin D deficient, 22.1% vitamin D insufficient and 2.6% normal. There was no significant adverse maternal outcome. NICU admission was required in 28.3 and 15.2% in the vitamin D deficient and insufficient groups respectively.Conclusions: Women from different socioeconomic status, irrespective of parity and educational levels had vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency. This study fails to show a relation of vitamin D deficiency with other high-risk factors of pregnancy and does not show any adverse fetal outcome

Physicochemical, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of citrus peel essential oils

Essential oils are produced as secondary metabolites of aromatic plants and can be extracted from leaves, seeds or fruit peel of the plants. Citrus peel is a rich source of limonene which is antimicrobial in nature. The present study aimed to deal with the physicochemical, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of citrus peel essential oil from Citrus reticulate (mandarin orange), Citrus limetta (mosambi) and Citrus limon (lemon).  The lemon peel oil had lower peroxide value (1.6 meq/kg of sample), saponification value (112.2 mg KOH/g of oil) and higher iodine value (116 gI2/100g oil) when compared with orange and mosambi peel essential oil. DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) free radical scavenging activity of citrus peel essential oil was measured  and the result indicated that the total antioxidant activity of lemon peel oil was 89.2 % Radical Scavenging activity (RSA). The antifungal activity was assessed by agar dilution method, whereas the antibacterial property was assessed by the agar diffusion method. Lemon peel oil recorded better antimicrobial properties with minimum inhibitory concentration of 0.3% against Aspergillus flavus MTCC 277, 0.2% for Penicillium  MTCC 1995 and Fusarium oxysporum MTCC 284. Likewise, the minimum inhibitory concentration of lemon peel oil against Staphylococcus aureus MTCC 96 was 0.3%; Salmonella enterica MTCC 733 and Erwinia sp MTCC 2760 was 0.5%; Pseudomonas aeruginosa MTCC 1688 and Escherichia coli MTCC 443 was 0.7%. This comparative study showed that lemon peel oil had better physicochemical and antioxidant property. Lemon peel oil can be used as a preservative in the food system as it exhibited antibacterial and antifungal activity

A Randomized, Prospective Comparative Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Lurasidone and Risperidone in Treatment of Schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is a most disabling psychiatric disorder with prevalence of around 1% in general population. Atypical antipsychotics are the cornerstone treatment option which are equal in efficacy and different in adverse effect profile. This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of lurasidone and risperidone in schizophrenia patients. METHOD: A total of 50 schizophrenia patients were randomly assigned to two groups.25 patients received lurasidone starting dose of 40mg /day titrated up to 80mg/day and 25 patients received risperidone starting dose of 4mg/day titrated up to 6mg/day for 6 weeks. Efficacy was evaluated using relevant statistical analysis by comparing the change from baseline to week 4 and 6 in Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and in adverse effects profile. RESULTS: Treatment with both lurasidone and risperidone was associated with significantly greater improvement at week 4 and 6 on PANSS total score, PANSS positive and negative subscale scores. But the difference between both groups in all scores were statistically insignificant. The increase in weight gain and BMI from baseline to 6 weeks was significant in both groups. There was statistically significant increase in total cholesterol, triglyceridesand significant decrease in HDL level only in risperidone group. Weight gain and tremor were the most frequent adverse drug reactions in both groups. The incidence of extrapyramidal side effects was higher in risperidone group. CONCLUSION: Lurasidone 80 mg and risperidone 6mg doses administered once-daily, were safe and equally efficacious for patients with schizophrenia

Crystal structure of isobutyl 4-(2-chloro-phenyl)-5-cyano-6-{(E)-[(dimethylamino)-methylidene]amino}-2-methyl-4H-pyran-3-carboxylate

The authors thank Dr Babu Varghese, Senior Scientific Officer SAIF, IIT Madras, India, for carrying out the data collection.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Toxic Effect of Synthetic Pyrithroid Pesticide (Cypermethrin) and an Organo Phospate Pesticide (Chlorpyrifos) on Certain Parameters of fresh water Carp Fish Labeo rohita

Aquatic ecosystems are vulnerable to the detrimental effects of variousagrochemicals, including synthetic pyrethroids and organophosphates. In thisstudy, we investigated the toxicity of cypermethrin and chlorpyrifos on acommonly found freshwater fish species Labeo rohita,. The fish Labeo rohita weretreated for acute toxicity with cypermethrin and chlorpyrifos, separately and incombination for 7 days with 1/10th of the LC50 dosage for individual treatment(0.015ppm and 0.042ppm respectively) and 1/20th of the LC50 of cypermethrin andchlorpyrifos for combined treatment (i.e., 0.0075ppm and 0.021ppm respectively).Individual and combined treatment resulted in a significant (p<0.05) change inglucogen, proteins and lipid contents in muscle, liver and kidney tissues wererecorded. Muscle shows the greatest loss of protein followed by liver and kidney.Liver shows significant reduction of lipid and glycogen in comparison with otherselected tissues of the experimental fish species. The changes were greater incombination than individual treatment, possibly because of a synergistic effect ofcypermethrin and chlorpyrifo

Structures of alternatively spliced isoforms of human ketohexokinase

The structures of the two alternatively spliced isoforms of human ketohexokinase, hepatic KHK-C and peripheral KHK-A, and of the ternary complex of KHK-A with the substrate fructose and AMP-PNP have been solved. The differences between KHK-A and KHK-C resulting from the spliced region are subtle and affect thermostability and probably flexibility; the mutations causing fructosuria were modelled