Decision Sheet and Learning Diary: New Tools for Improved Learning Through the Case Method

Of the three phases of learning through the case method, instructors have focused on the in-class phase in training of both teachers and participants. The other two phases, pre-class preparation and post class-reflection, have not received much attention leading to lack of exploitation of the full learning potential from the method. This paper shares continued efforts to conceptualize and develop two tools, decision sheet and learning diary, to strengthen the two phases. These were designed and tested in three executive development programmes. The results and our reflections suggest that the tools enhance the process of learning and the learning itself.

Road Rage Menace: A Cross-sectional Study to Assess Driver Anger Level in Public Motor Vehicle Drivers in a City in Central India

Introduction: Road rage and aggressive driving is a prevalent condition in today’s society due to motorists’ frustrations during heavy traffic volumes. Objective: This study was done to assess the level of anger amongst the drivers of public transport vehicles in Indore, using Driving Anger Scale (DAS by Deffenbacher et. al.) and various factors affecting it. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 135 drivers of Public transport vehicle drivers (Star bus, City-van and star cab drivers) in Indore to assess their anger level using Driving Anger Scale. The participants were required to record the amount of anger they would experience in response to each item in the scale (1=not at all angry, 2=a little angry, 3=some anger, 4=much anger, 5=very much angry). Results: The mean DAS score in Indore was found to be 3.013 and in the three organizations namely Star bus drivers, City van drivers and Star cab drivers was 2.92, 3.08 and 3.04 respectively. The DAS score of drivers with respect to the 6 sub-scales were: hostile gestures (Star bus -3.42,City van -3.67,Star cab -3.38), slow driving (Star bus -2.73,City van driv-2.78,Star cab-3.17), traffic obstructions (Star bus-2.85,City van -3.25,Star cab-3.18), discourtesy (Star bus -3.23,City van-3.33,Star cab -3.25)and police presence (Star bus -2.15,City van -1.99,Star cab -2.78), illegal driving (Star bus -3.04,City van -3.14,Star cab -2.89). The DAS scores of the drivers did not vary significantly with age group, experience, and educational qualification. Conclusion: Though DAS scores did not vary between the three groups of drivers, however average level anger for various given circumstances commonly found in the Indian traffic scenario was on the higher side

Dynamics of Team Teaching and Research in a Management School: Learning and Imperatives

This paper discusses the experience of team teaching to address the issues of integration of academic inputs by bringing multi-disciplinary perspective together and thereby enhance learning experience of participants. The paper delves on the process, events and outcome of team teaching by four faculty members at IIM Ahmedabad who collaborated in teaching, writing cases, and doing research for a period of more than three years. The experience has been summarized using the following dimensions: need for team-teaching, existing mechanisms and barriers, opportunities and potential, imperatives, fall-outs and challenges experienced in the process. The cohesion, trust and mutual respect are key imperatives. The other factors contributing to the success of team-teaching are strong felt need by the members for integration in programmes, complementary skills and experiences of team members, frequent programmes with integrated components that provided continuous opportunities for learning, co-location of the instructors, and off-site programmes that provided opportunities for close get-togethers. The autonomy granted by the institution to instructors and co-coordinators to design and execute learning opportunities was also instrumental in the success. In an environment where the rule of the game is individualism, forming teams creates fears of loss of importance and recognition. The experience shows that the competency of the members and the overall effectiveness of the tasks are strengthened if the team believes in “reciprocating interdependence”. This can be possible only if members allow themselves opportunities to experiment, improvise and review

Emission and Performance Analysis of Green Gas in a VCR Engine

634-638The current advancement in producing the organic-based fuels, the gaseous fuel such as Green gas promises to be used in the vehicular engine. The gasification technique is used to gasify biomass such as rice husk, bagasse, wood chips resulting in production of organic green gas. It is prepared by gliding air and steam through the thick coal at different temperature range. Due to inertness, knocking tendency is higher in green gas, use of green gas tends to higher emission of CO, especially at lean condition through gasification technique. In our results of emission analysis, there is significant reduction in SOx and NOx from the engine running on green gas dual fuel operation. The use of green gas as an alternative fuel is founded as the sustainable and eco-friendly energy source

Millimeter Wave Technology for Armament Applications .

Use of millimeter wave (MMW) technology in armament systems imposes many restrictions on the size, volume and compactness of these systems in addition to ruggedness and reliable functioning in battlefield environment. This paper discusses the related design and technological issues, particularly in, the context of the sensors developed for smart ammunition and active armour protection systems

ESTIMATION OF ANTIOXIDANT AND ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF CRUDE EXTRACTS OF THEVETIA PERUVIANA (PERS.) K. SCHUM.

Objective: The aim of this investigation was to estimate antioxidant and antibacterial activity of different crude extracts of Thevetia peruviana (Pers.) K. Schum.Methods: Aqueous and alcoholic crude extracts of different plant parts were obtained and assessed for their antioxidant as well as antibacterial activity. These activities were determined by using standard protocols with some modifications. Aluminium chloride colorimetric method was used to estimate total flavonoid content and total phenolic content was measured by Folin-ciocalteu method.Results: Free radical scavenging activity was recorded highest in fruits and lowest in root's extracts. The maximum phenolic and flavonoids content was found in fruits (TPC33.59±0.385mg GAE/ g DW, TFC6.98±0.22 mg QE/g DW). Minimum phenol content was found in root's extracts (21.47±0.160mg GAE/ g DW) while leaves possess lowest flavonoid content (4.69±0.17 mg QE/g DW). In case of antibacterial activity, aqueous and ethanol extracts of Thevetia peruviana flowers showed maximum antibacterial activity against Proteus vulgaris with maximum zone of inhibition with a value of 18.5±0.5 mm and 15.5±1.322 mm respectively. Ethanol extract of Thevetia peruviana fruits exhibited maximum antibacterial activity against Proteus vulgaris with a value of 13.5±0.5 mm for the zone of inhibition.Conclusion: This investigation finds that methanol extracts of Thevetia peruviana has significant antioxidant activity. These crude extracts can further purify and can be used for development of anti-oxidative pharmaceutical compounds. Aqueous and ethanol extracts of Thevetia peruviana fruits and flowers have good antibacterial potential. But care should be taken as the plant has toxic properties also.Â

Influence of coolant temperature on the performance of a four stroke spark ignition engine employing a dual circuit cooling system

Diesel engines have attracted attention because of their higher thermal efficiency and lower carbon dioxide emissions than gasoline engines.  On the other hand, oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) in the exhaust from diesel engines are difficult to be reduced simultaneously because a decrease in one is likely to result in an increase in the other.  In this paper, an attempt has been made to compare the effect of the heat lost to the coolant in the cylinder block, and in the cylinder head with a conventional cooling circuit with corresponding effects in an engine with a dual cooling circuit.  A dual cooling circuit employs separate cooling circuits for the cylinder block, and for the cylinder head.  A single cylinder, four-stroke, water cooled, naturally aspirated spark ignition engine test rig was developed for the purpose.  The influences of the cylinder block and cylinder head temperatures on brake specific fuel consumption (bsfc) and on exhaust emissions were measured.  The results show that raising the temperature of the coolant in the engine block can produce significant improvements in bsfc with a corresponding reduction in the hydrocarbon (HC) emissions.  Similarly, lowering the coolant temperature in the cylinder head can increase the knock limit of the engine with a corresponding reduction in the levels of NOx in the exhaust emissions.   The objective of this investigation was to access the magnitude of the likely benefits of the dual circuit cooling system.Keywords: dual circuit cooling system, spark ignition engine, heat transfer, engine cooling Citation: Rehman A., R. M. Sarviya, S. Dixit, and R. K. Pandey.  Influence of coolant temperature on the performance of a four stroke spark ignition engine employing a dual circuit cooling system.  Agric Eng Int: CIGR Journal, 2010, 12(1): 84-90.&nbsp

Relativistic calculations of the lifetimes and hyperfine structure constants in 67^{67}Zn+^{+}

This work presents accurate {\it ab initio} determination of the magnetic dipole (M1) and electric quadrupole (E2) hyperfine structure constants for the ground and a few low-lying excited states in $^{67}$Zn$^{+}$, which is one of the interesting systems in fundamental physics. The coupled-cluster (CC) theory within the relativistic framework has been used here in this calculations. Long standing demands for a relativistic and highly correlated calculations like CC can be able to resolve the disagreements among the lifetime estimations reported previously for a few low-lying states of Zn$^{+}$. The role of different electron correlation effects in the determination of these quantities are discussed and their contributions are presented.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure. submitted to J. Phys. B Fast Trac