A Scale to Measure the Attitude of farmers towards Kisan Call Centre

Kisan call centre is one of the active services provided by the Government of India exploiting the area of ICT to support the farmers in their day to day farming activities. Since the service is free of cost and can be accessed from any part of the state from 6 AM to 10 PM, it is assumed to be utilized by majority of the farmers in India. Hence the present study was undertaken to develop a scale that would help to measure the attitude of farmers towards Kisan call centre.  Thirty statements expressing the attitude of farmers towards KCC to be included in the scale reflecting both favourable and unfavourable attitude towards KCC was collected through review of literature and discussion with experts in the field of extension and was carefully edited using the criteria suggested by Edwards (1957). S-value and Q- value for the statements were found and that statement whose S-value was spread throughout the continuum and had small Q- value was selected. Finally twenty three statements were selected to form Thurston and Chaves (1928) equal appearing scale to measure the attitude of farmers on KCC. The reliability and validity of the scale was also found in order to ensure the scales usability.

Measuring Environmental Efficiency of Industry: A Case Study of Thermal Power Generation in India

Technical and environmental efficiency of some coal-fired thermal power plants in India is estimated using a methodology that accounts for firm’s efforts to increase the production of good output and reduce pollution with the given resources and technology. The methodology used is directional output distance function. Estimates of firm-specific shadow prices of pollutants (bad outputs), and elasticity of substitution between good and bad outputs are also obtained. The technical and environmental inefficiency of a representative firm is estimated as 0.10 implying that the thermal power generating industry in Andhra Pradesh state of India could increase production of electricity by 10 per cent while decreasing generation of pollution by 10 percent. This result shows that there are incentives or win-win opportunities for the firms to voluntarily comply with the environmental regulation. It is found that there is a significant variation in marginal cost of pollution abatement or shadow prices of bad outputs across the firms and an increasing marginal cost of pollution abatement with respect to pollution reduction by the firms. The variation in marginal cost of pollution abatement and compliance to regulation across firms could be reduced by having economic instruments like emission tax.environmental and technical efficiency; shadow prices of bad outputs; air pollution

A detailed analysis of structure growth in f(R)f(R) theories of gravity

We investigate the connection between dark energy and fourth order gravity by analyzing the behavior of scalar perturbations around a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker background. The evolution equations for scalar perturbation are derived using the covariant and gauge invariant approach and applied to two widely studied $f(R)$ gravity models. The structure of the general fourth order perturbation equations and the analysis of scalar perturbations lead to the discovery of a characteristic signature of fourth order gravity in the matter power spectrum, the details of which have not seen before in other works in this area. This could provide a crucial test for fourth order gravity on cosmological scales.Comment: 27 pages and 35 figure

Evaluating student evaluations: Evidence of gender bias against women in higher education based on perceived learning and instructor personality.

Given student evaluations are an integral part of academic employment and progression in higher education, it is crucial to explore various biases amongst students that may influence their ratings. Several studies report a clear gender bias in student evaluation where male instructors receive significantly higher ratings as compared to female instructors. However, there is very limited research about gender biases in underrepresented samples such as South Asia and the Middle East. We examined whether perception of male and female instructors differed in terms of how they facilitate learning and level of engagement, using an experimental design. Six hundred and seventy-one university students were asked to watch a video of an online lecture on psychology, delivered by either a male or female lecturer, after which they were asked to evaluate their experience and instructor personality characteristics. To ensure consistency across content, tone, delivery, environment, and overall appearance, photorealistic 3D avatars were used to deliver the lectures. Only gender as a factor was manipulated. Given the racial representation in the region, a total of four videos were developed representing males (n = 317) and females (n = 354) of White and South Asian race. Overall, male instructors scored significantly higher in variables representing personality characteristics such as enthusiasm and expressiveness compared to female instructors. Participants did not however view male and female instructors to be different in terms of presentation and subject knowledge. Findings related to facilitating learning suggest that male instructors were perceived to have made instructions more interesting, kept participants' attention for longer, and were more interesting compared to female instructors. In terms of engagement, male instructors were perceived to be more expressive, enthusiastic, and entertaining, compared to female instructors. Given the experimental design, these findings can clearly be attributed to gender bias, which is also in line with previous research. With an underrepresented sample, an online platform delivery, and inclusion of multiple races, these findings significantly add value to the current literature regarding gender stereotypes in higher education. The results are even more concerning as they provide strong evidence of gender bias which may contribute to subconscious discrimination against women academics in the region