Intimate Partner Violence among South Asian Women in the United States: Prevalence and Help-Seeking Behaviors

Data suggests that over 35% of women in the United States have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime and have reported significant short and long-term impacts, such as post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and injury (Breiding et al., 2011). Ethnic/minority women are especially vulnerable to IPV with rates ranging from 44% for African American women to 46% for American Indian/Alaska Native women (Breiding et al., 2011). Although South Asians are some of the most recent immigrants, they are one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States, with a current population of 3.4 million (US Census, 2010). The World Health Organization (2013) estimates that South Asia has the highest regional prevalence of IPV worldwide at approximately 40 percent. Community-based studies conducted in the United States have similarly indicated that South Asian women experience IPV at rates ranging from 40 percent (Mahapatra, 2012; Raj & Silverman, 2002) to 60 percent (Adams, 2000). In contrast, national studies conducted in the United States have found that Asian women have the lowest IPV prevalence rates compared to their White and non-White counterparts (Breiding et al., 2011). In order for social work practitioners, policy makers, and researchers to effectively attend to the needs of this rapidly growing population in the United States, it is imperative to understand their experiences with violence and service utilization. Due to the fact that most South Asians in the United States are Indian immigrants (US Census, 2010), this dissertation study utilized secondary data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) from India to understand the landscape of violence and help-seeking among women in India and to provide a contextual basis to understand the experiences of South Asian (immigrant) women in the United States. The knowledge and insight gained from the secondary data analyses were utilized to inform the design, collection, and analyses of primary mixed methods data examining IPV among South Asian women in the United States. Qualitative data comprising of interviews with service providers identified cultural values that perpetuate and sustain IPV among South Asians and barriers and facilitators to service utilization among survivors. Implications for practice, research, and policy are discussed

The Effect of Service Quality on Customer Loyalty

Competition in the banking industry is higher than ever before which has created a need for the development of new strategies to retain the existing customers rather than attracting new customers. Making loyal customers to the banks has become essential for the long term survival of any bank where the service quality of the banks has also played an important role in customer loyalty. This study attempted to find the relationship between service quality dimensions and customer loyalty in the Commercial Banks of Sri Lanka. The data collected from 300 customers of four leading commercial banks through questionnaires. Further, five hypotheses were formulated for the study. The findings revealed that three dimensions of service quality namely tangibles, reliability and empathy have significant positive effect on customer loyalty. Further service quality dimensions alone explain 43.9% of the variance in customer loyalty. Keywords: Service quality, Customer loyalty, SERVQUAL, Banking industr

Impact of Perceived Service Quality on Students’ Satisfaction

The contribution of services to the world economy is rapidly growing ever before which forces the marketers to focus on delighting the customers with the extended high quality service offers. Globalization paved a way to increase competition and the quality concerns all over the word.  Service quality and customer satisfaction are the two different constructs which are researched persistently since the past and still remains with their prominence. Nowadays, most of the universities in Sri Lanka started to realize the importance of perceived service quality and the satisfaction of students in the higher education with the emergence of new private universities and other higher education institutions. This research aimed to investigate the impact of students’ perceived service quality and their satisfaction. The data collected from the students through the issuance of questionnaires which used the five point Likert scale as the measurement scale. The result revealed that there is a significant positive correlation between students’ perceived service quality and their satisfaction. Moreover, all the service quality dimensions expose a significant positive correlation with students’ satisfaction where the empathy and responsiveness are the most influencing dimensions on satisfaction. Keywords: Perceived Service Quality, Service Quality Dimensions, Students’ Satisfaction, SERVQUA

Study on Ozone Treatment for Vegetables

Ozone or trioxygen, is a triatomic molecule, consisting of three oxygen atoms. It is much less stable than the diatomic oxygen (O2). Ozone is one of the more powerful oxidants that quickly decompose to diatomic oxygen (O2), while reacting with targeted organic matter or microorganisms having a strong capacity of disinfection and sterilization. It is a powerful germicide which destroys all class of bacteria and fungi, not allowing their development. Unlike other biocides agents such as chlorine, the time necessary to make the disinfection is lower. For this reason, it is very effective in destruction of chlorine resistant microorganisms due to a power of reaction of three thousand times superior to the chlorine, which turns it is a possible biocide agent, as much for the water treatment, like for the treatment of air and closed atmospheres. Ozone is a powerful antimicrobial agent that has numerous potential applications in the food industry because of its significant advantages over traditional antimicrobial agents such as chlorine, potassium sorbates, etc. The present study is focused on the ozonation of the  surface disinfection of the fruit and the vegetable samples at various time intervals. It is aimed at the comparison of the effect of ozonation on the treated samples at various time intervals and thereby determining the suitable treatment time for each of the samples. ozone, triatomic molecule ,antimicrobial agents. Keywords: ozone, triatomic molecule ,antimicrobial agents

Audit Expectation Gap and Its Implication on Investment Decision-Making of Public Listed Companies

Audit is a fundamental accounting concept in contemporary corporate environments. This research examines into the prevalent expectation gap that exists between the auditing profession and the broader public. In the context of a developing nation like Sri Lanka, characterized by an evolving financial market, audited financial reports assume paramount significance for stakeholders seeking to make informed investment decisions. Hence, this study primarily seeks to investigate the correlation between the audit expectation gap and the decision-making processes of investors in publicly listed companies operating in Sri Lanka. Within this study, independent variables were identified as the auditor's responsibilities, the reliability factor, the nature and significance of audit report communications, and audit independence. The central thrust of this investigation revolves around examining the audit expectation gap within publicly listed firms and discerning distinctions between shareholder expectations concerning audited financial reports and the auditors' perceptions of their roles. Thus, responsibility factors, reliability factors, nature and meaning of audit report messages and independence factors contributed towards the audit expectation gap in the public listed companies. The correlation analysis shows that there is a positive correlation between audit expectation and investment decision making. This basically explains the hypothesis of how shareholders will have a look on the audited financial statement to allocate their investment resources. Keywords: Audit, Audit expectation Gap, Investment Decision Making DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/14-17-03 Publication date:September 30th 2023

Influence of depression and anxiety on psychological well-being of people affected by war

The Present study made an attempt to indentify the Influence of Depression and Anxiety on Psychological Well-being among people affected by War. The Objectives of the study will be 1) To find out the relationship between Depression, Anxiety and Psychological Well-being of people affected by war. 2)To find out the gender difference in Depression, Anxiety and Psychological Well-being of people affected by war. 3) To find out the influence of Age on Depression, Anxiety and Psychological Well-being of people affected by war. 4) To find out the effect of Psychological intervention on Depression, Anxiety and Psychological Well-being of people affected by war. In order to fulfill these objectives of the study, a sample of 150 people affected in war will be selected. The age range of the sample varied from 12 to 60. The tools use for the study will be Beck's Depression Inventory (Beck, 1996), State and Trait Anxiety Inventory ( Spielberg, 1970) and Psychological Well-being Questionnaire (Goldberg, 1982). The collected data will be analyzed using Pearson correlation,'!'- test and ANOVA. The results obtained will BE discussed

Examining Language Usage and Patterns in Online Conversation: Communication Gap among Generation Y and Baby Boomers

AbstractCurrently, with the rise of online communities, communication has shifted away from traditional modes that have long been based on face-to- face models of interaction, to a more digital approach such as social networks. Thus the acquisition of online literacy in social networks such as Facebook might create a gap or linguistic difference that distinguishes generation Y aged from 20 to 30 years old who are the active users of Facebook from the baby boomers aged from 40 years and above who are adopters of social network. Hence, the aim of this study is to examine topics they post, use of non standard language and the use of multimedia application in social network to highlight the issues that could allow misunderstandings to occur in social network conversation. The data is derived from the ‘status’ of selected Facebook users and analyzed qualitatively. The pilot findings show that there are differences in term of spelling innovations and capitalization, acronym and abbreviation, emoticons and punctuations. In the matter of content, baby boomers posts are more informative, direct and in order compared to generation Y. Baby boomers are also more likely to respond to the comments that are relevant to their post compared to generation Y. This study proposes that in order to minimize the differences and bridge the communication gaps generation Y need to formalize their writing and avoid unnecessary spelling innovations, capitalization, abbreviation, emoticons and punctuations that can course uncertainty to baby boomers. At the same time baby boomers should also be aware of the online literacy to mingle with the future generations

Radiographic findings of Intestinal Capillariasis: Case report and review literatures

Intestinal capillariasis was infection with Capillaria philippinensis in small intestine. This parasitic infestration is not common and was discovered by N.P. Salazar in a male patient at Philippine General Hospital in 1963. Infestation of the small bowel by this parasite results in severe derangement of intestinal function which included malabsorption of fat and sugar as well as severe protein and electrolyte loss. Clinical symptoms are characterized by chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain, borborygmi, marked weight loss, protein and electrolyte loss and cachexia. All roentgenograms are inspected for the classical signs of the malabsorption syndrome. During 1994 - 2003, there were 62 reported cases in Thailand. The first case was reported in 1973 by Pratutsoontornsarn A. It was 18-month-old girl, who presented with chronic diarrhea. The diagnosis was made more than 6 months after admission, that took much time for diagnosis. In our case was being presented to radiographic findings, which may be important clue for early diagnosis intestinal capillariasis

STABILITY OF TREDECIC FUNCTIONAL EQUATION IN MATRIX NORMED SPACES

In this current work, we dene and nd the general solution of the tredecic functional equation. We also investigate and establish the generalized Ulam-Hyers stability of this functional equation in matrix normed spaces by using the xed point method