Behavior of e-HRM adoption: empirical evidence form organizations in developing context

Based on Theory of planned behavior (TPB) and diffusion of innovation theory (DIT), present study developed and empirically tested the integrated model of organizational e-HRM adoption. The model consists of four contextual variables such as innovation, individual, organizational and environmental. Data were collected from 212 firms in Sri Lanka by means self-administered questionnaire. Structural model was tested using Partial Least Square. Results indicate that innovation characteristics (relative advantage and compatibility), environmental characteristics (competition), organizational characteristics (top management support) significantly explain the organizational e-HRM adoption intention. Further, financial resource and top management support significantly determine the extent of operational e-HRM adoption. Moreover, IT expertise is significantly explained the extent of relational and transformational e-HRM adoption

CURRENT STATUS OF THE ADVANCED LEVEL CHEMISTRY PRACTICAL COMPONENT IN SCHOOLS OF SRI LANKA AND RELEVANT REMEDIAL CHANGES

Chemistry-practical in Advanced Level syllabus is not popular among students though it is a very practical subject which helps to understand the changes of the environment. Enforced demand arises year by year for chemistry as it is a main subject in science stream to enter medical and engineering faculties. In our evaluation system no attention has been given to conduct practical tests. Therefore much value has been given to theory-part than practical in teaching-learning process. As a result, students develop their memorizing power than improving their skills. In the new A/L syllabus there are 45 chemistry practical and every student has to complete at least 80% of the total list to be eligible to the final examination according to the circular. Teachers have much room to give individual attention to the students and can explain the lesson with good understanding of the weaknesses of them in practical classes. Thereby abstract concepts can be converted to concrete concepts very easily. Main objectives of this research are to investigate the participation of A/L students in chemistry practical sessions and to investigate the opinions of A/L students and teachers regarding practical sessions. To achieve this goal, a questionnaire was prepared and distributed among 30 chemistry-teachers in randomly selected five leading schools in Colombo who teach chemistry in both English and Sinhala media. Questionnaire prepared for students were distributed among 200 students who follow the science and mathematics streams of the most leading school in Sri Lanka. It was observed that the basic knowledge of the practical is not given properly before carrying out the practical. Laboratory-facilities also are not up to the standard level. Though teachers’ involvement for practical in every way is very satisfactory, utilizing modern technology and new methodology to teach practical is very poor. Unfortunately more than three fourth of the students do not complete chemistry practical before the examination due to various reasons. In most cases, students don’t get a chance to do the practical themselves and about 98.5% of practical are done by teacher or laboratory assistant. The survey also revealed how the language barrier affects “local-medium” students compared to English-medium students while using modern technology such as internet/ e-mail in searching for additional knowledge. The results of the initial survey clearly explain that there is a major drawback within the whole process of teaching of chemistry practical. The laboratory-facilities even in some of leading schools in Colombo also are not up to the required level. This gives us a hint of the possible situation in rural areas. Therefore these recommendations can be extended to all the schools throughout the country to conduct chemistry practical in A/L syllabus. The request from 70% of students to “Redesign the current teaching method” emphasizes the requirement of immediate solution for this issue.  Article visualizations

Building Food Security in India: a Case Study of Bihar

The scope of this study is to review and understand the food situation in the State of Bihar in India by examining the agricultural and food systems including the crop, livestock and fisheries sub-sectors. Then identify key constraints to the agricultural production and challenges to food security in terms of food availability, food accessibility, and food adequacy. Finally, this study examines the current strategies and interventions to address food security situation in the State of Bihar and in India. Mixed methodology and techniques were used to gather quantitative and qualitative data and information for this study using literature review, review of unpublished reports and documents, and site visits to New Delhi and Bihar. The study was carried out at both macro and micro levels. At the macro level the study investigated the general trends in food availability in India and in the State of Bihar. Accessibility and adequacy were evaluated at the micro level in terms of food prices, household income, and nutritional intake. The State Government of Bihar has taken positive steps to address food security issues through an ambitious Road Map. The New Road Map is devised to improve the agricultural sector by identifying weak parameters and addressing these constraints through various State wide interventions. Although all targets set by the Road Map may be hard to achieve in the set time frame of four years, some progress is already underway in terms of access to agricultural inputs and marketing. If the current interventions and support for food production and food security programs are sustained, Bihar's food security situation is expected to improve and millions of rural and urban poor can be lifted out of poverty and hunger. The review and analysis of the Road Map indicates that the programs and schemes are heavily focused on enhancing and ensuring food production and availability and to some extent on food accessibility. However, the Road Map does not adequately address the issue of food utilization/adequacy especially in terms of food intake, food safety and nutritional quality aspects. In order to develop a comprehensive food security program in Bihar, all the components should be addressed and supported. The implementation of the Road Map is still in the early stages. For this Road Map to achieve its goals it needs to be implemented effectively and monitored closely. It will take several years to see the real impacts of this Road Map and new interventions. Further, research will be required to measure the real impacts of this Road Map for enhancing food security in Bihar.Department of Agricultural Economic

STUDY OF THE EXISTING STATUS OF SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT SYSTEM IN UPPER SCHOOL CHEMISTRY OF SRI LANKA

School Based Assessment (SBA) system at Advanced Level classes of Sri Lanka was implemented since 2009. At the beginning there were fifteen assessments to be completed with five practical assessments to get the eligibility for the final examination. There are five assessments that must be completed to get the eligibility for General Certificate of Education in Advanced Level G.C.E (A/L) examination which is implementing from 2019 onwards. This study is mainly focused on the identification of the current status of SBA regarding Chemistry subject as well investigate the drawbacks and remedial actions that can be taken. Marks of the School based assessment in (G.C.E (A/L)) Chemistry should always be used as the measure of teaching-learning process. It should provide the student as well as teacher to evaluate themselves on the lesson that they taught. Unfortunately, this is not happening in our current system and hence is not a landmark of students’ achievement or success of teaching learning process. Therefore most of the teachers use the same teaching and assessing methodology without any change throughout the assigned time period giving minute attention to the achievement of their students and pay much attention to cover whole syllabus rather than checking the conceptual establishment in them. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 356 students of seven provinces and 170 teachers from nine provinces. Teachers were selected from 1AB and 1C schools from the province. Students’ data were collected from two schools of the province from both male and female students of grade12 and 13 according to the number of students in that class. Further the qualitative data collection was done through focused group discussions and interviews. These discussions were conducted in three districts with the participation of eight teachers and twenty eight students. Forty final codes were identified and they were categorized under ten segments. Then sub themes were identified and according to them, seven themes were identified. 75% of the teachers who were participated in the survey had identified the importance of SBA. About 67% of them suggested the more teacher and student friendly assessment system. They requested more guidance from higher authorities, proper training and well-organized assessment models. According to the student point of view, about 60% of them requested more help from teachers to understand the subject matter, reliable marking system which aims to the final examination. Article visualizations

Understanding Capacitance Variation in Sub-nanometer Pores by in Situ Tuning of Interlayer Constrictions.

The contribution of subnanometer pores in carbon electrodes to the charge-storage mechanism in supercapacitors has been the subject of intense debate for over a decade. Here, we provide a model system based on graphene oxide, which employs interlayer constrictions as a model for pore sizes that can be both controllably tuned and studied in situ during supercapacitor device use. Correlating electrochemical performance and in situ tuning of interlayer constrictions, we observe a peak in specific capacitance when interlayer constriction size reaches the diameters of unsolvated ions, supporting the hypothesized link between loss of ion solvation shell and anomalous capacitance increase for subnanometer pores.DTLG acknowledges technical support by J. N. R. Grundy (University of Cambridge) and financial support from Newnham College, Cambridge and the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust. GAJA acknowledges partial support for this work from Dyson Ltd. BCB acknowledges a College Research Fellowship at Hughes Hall, Cambridge. DTLG and GAJA thank Ananda Hettiarachchy and K. M. N. de Silva for discussions on activated carbon.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the American Chemical Society via http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5b0581

How Are Egyptian Agricultural Students Preparing for a Career?

Egypt has made substantial progress in access to education. However a high unemployment rate among university graduates and employers being unable to find a skilled workforce are of great concern. A pragmatic approach for education that enables student to participate in career preparation activities in and outside the classrooms and prepare them for a job following their graduation is of paramount importance. Soliciting opinions from undergraduate students and professors in five agricultural universities and employers from major agricultural industries in Egypt this study aimed to identify student participation in career preparation activities, ascertain major sources for career advice and information about their prospective careers and preparation for those careers. The findings revealed that students had limited opportunities to practice in their career skill-building through their coursework activities. For a majority of the students, professors and university graduates were the primary sources for career advice. Students seldom visited career services offices and did not quite utilize their services, but frequently browsed websites of potential employers. Career advising services appeared to be below the students’ expectations across the universities. Strategies and policies are needed to strengthen career advisory services at universities to improve graduates’ chances of obtaining meaningful employment in their fields of study

Determinants of Turnover Intention of Sewing Machine Operators: Case from leading Apparel Company

This paper mainly explores the determinants of turnover intention of the sewing machine operators (SMOs) in apparel industry. The paper aims to identify the impact of SMOs’ turnover intention on job satisfaction &amp; organizational commitment and coping strategies for retention of SMOs. The study used survey method where data were collected through self-administered structured questionnaire from sample of 200 SMOs employed in a leading garment factory in Sri Lanka. Factors analysis extracted two components of determinants of the turnover intention: controllable and uncontrollable factors. Results revealed that the residency, civil status, recognition, work load, social image, job alternatives and work life balance is the significant predictors of the SMOs’ turnover intention. Turnover intention is significantly and negatively correlated with job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Sample t-test found a significant difference between the civil status and residency with the turnover intention. Increasing the salary levels, introduce skilled based incentive schemes, providing more facilities and treating employees in a friendly manner are the most effective retention strategies.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/kjm.v1i2.6535 Kelaniya Journal of Management Vol.1(2) 2012:107-123 </p

Microwave gas sensor based on graphene aerogels

— In this article, the experimental demonstration of a novel microwave gas sensor based on graphene aerogel is presented. This device makes use of a highly porous structure of the aerogel in combination with the modulation of graphene AC conductivity upon exposure to vacuum and ambient air. As a proof of concept, we integrate the graphene aerogel into rectangular waveguides and measure its scattering parameters by a Vector network Analyzer (VNA). The aerogel is characterized by a combination of scanning electron microscopy and four-probe DC measurements. The aerogel is integrated into WR-90 waveguides by custom-designed support and wave propagation is tested over the 8-12 GHz frequency range (Xband). By exposing the aerogel to either air or a moderate vacuum, clear shifts in the waveguide scattering parameters are observed. In particular, changes of ≈ 3 dB and ≈ 1 dB in the transmission and reflection parameters of the waveguide are obtained, respectively. Moreover, the sensor exhibits excellent reproducibility when exposed to alternating cycles of air and vacuum, proving that the shifts in microwave transmission and reflection are caused by changes in the conductivity of the graphene aerogel due to the absorption and desorption of gas molecules. These proof-of-concept results pave the way for the development of a new class of gas sensors for applications such as breath analysis

Discord between Egyptian Agriculture Students’ and Employers’ Perceptions of the Importance of Various Skills in new Employees

Unemployment remains high among Egyptian university graduates. This study aimed to identify demographic attributes that influence student perceptions of the importance of employability skills, as well as to measure concordance between employers versus student perceptions of the importance of employability skills. Egyptian university agriculture students and private sector employers completed a survey where they assessed their perceived importance of 35 skills. A multivariate linear regression model was used to measure the influence of student demographics in decision-making and concordance between employers and students were compared using Cohen\u27s weighted Kappa. Student location was the most influential demographic that determined perceptions of the importance of employability skills. As a group, students possessed more intra-group concordance than employers, but concordance levels of all students were low when compared to employers. Our findings indicate that regardless of demographics, Egyptian agriculture university students are unaware of what is important to potential employers, meaning that students do not know which skills to focus on developing when searching for a job. Teaching students the skills that are most desired by employers contributes to Human Capital Theory because it improves the employability value of university graduates. Few studies have analyzed student demographics combined with student/employer concordance. This approach could assist future studies that aim to compare individual student and employer perceptions to each other