Students' perception on the adoption of an e-textbook (digital) as an alternative to the printed textbook

The debate between using printed textbooks (traditional) or e-textbooks (digital textbooks) is ongoing in the educational sector. Students are often required to buy textbooks in order to complete a course in the university, and this textbook can either be printed or e-textbook. Students who are usually reluctant to read a printed text or electronic texts are not familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of each text, respectively. Thus, the absence of information prompts the students to employ only one kind of text either digital or printed. The purpose of this research was to investigate whether university students prefer printed textbooks or digital textbooks (e-textbooks). The importance of the research is to understand why students are making the decision to use either traditional textbooks or e-textbooks and what makes them develop these preferences. The benefits that will be derived from this research will help illustrate what the students feel about traditional (printed) and e-textbooks (digital) and the choices that go into making that decision. This article is based on a study that was conducted at a university based in Midrand, South Africa. The study applied the mixed methods to analyse the relationship between perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), attitude (ATT), complexity (CMX) and compatibility (CMP) on Behavioural intention to use. Questionnaire was the main data collection tool from as sample of 80 third year students from the Information Technology department of the university in question. The overall result led to the conclusion that students prefer e-textbook to the printed textbook

Range Free Localization Techniques in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Review

AbstractRecent developments in micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) technology and wireless communication have propelled the growing applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Wireless sensor network is comprised of large number of small and cheap devices known as sensors. One of the important functions of sensor network is collection and forwarding of data. In most of the applications, it is of much interest to find out the location of the data. This type of information can be obtained by use of localization techniques. So node localization is very crucial to find out the position of node with the help of localization algorithms. Hence, node localization becomes one of the fundamental challenges in WSNs. We make the rigorous reviews on different schemes of localization in sensor networks. On the basis of range measurements, the localization schemes can be broadly classified in two categories such as: range based and range free schemes. The cost and hardware limitation on sensing node preclude the use of range based localization schemes. In most of the sensor network application coarse accuracy is sufficient so range free localization schemes are considered as a substitute to range based schemes. In this paper, the detailed study has been carried out to understand and select the best range free localization algorithm for WSNs. At the end some issues are discussed for future research in the area of localization techniques for WSNs

Ionoluminescence studies of combustion synthesized Dy3+ doped nano crystalline forsterite

Ionoluminescence (IL) of nano crystalline Mg2SiO4:Dy3+ pellet samples bombarded with 100 MeV Si+8 ions with fluences in the range (1.124–22.480) × 1012 ions cm−2 have been studied. Two prominent IL bands with peaks at ∼480 nm and ∼580 nm and a weak band with peak at ∼670 nm are recorded. The characteristic peaks are attributed to luminescence center activated by Dy3+ ions due to the transitions 4F9/2→6H15/2,6H13/2 and 6H11/2. It is found that IL intensity initially decreases rapidly and then continuous to decrease slowly with further increase in ion fluence. The reduction in the Ionoluminescence intensity with increase of ion fluence might be attributed to degradation of Si–O ( 2ν3) bonds present on the surface of the sample and/or due to lattice disorder produced by dense electronic excitation under heavy ion irradiation

DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A RP- HPLC METHOD FOR ESTIMATION OF ROSIGLITAZONE IN BULK AND TABLET DOSAGE FORM

A simple reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method has been developed and validated of rosiglitazone in bulk and tablet dosage form. Chromatographic analysis was performed on a C18 column (250x 4.6 mm,

100MeV Si8+ Ion Induced Luminescence and Thermoluminescence of Nanocrystalline Mg2SiO4:Eu3+

Nanoparticles of Mg2SiO4:Eu3+ have been prepared by the solution combustion technique and the grain size estimated by PXRD is found to be in the range 40-50 nm. Ionoluminescence (IL) studies of Mg2SiO4:Eu3+ pellets bombarded with 100 MeV Si8+ ions with fluences in the range 1.124-22.48×1012 ions cm−2 are carried out at IUAC, New Delhi, India. Five prominent IL bands with peaks at 580 nm, 590 nm, 612 nm, 655 nm and 705 nm are recorded. These characteristic emissions are attributed to the luminescence centers activated by Eu3+ cations. It is found that IL intensity decreases rapidly in the beginning. Later on, the intensity decreases slowly with further increase of ion fluence. The reduction in the ionoluminescence intensity with increase of ion fluence might be attributed to degradation of Si-O (ν3) and Si-O (2ν3) bonds present on the surface of the sample. The red emission with peak at 612 nm is due to characteristic emission of 5D0→7F2 of the Eu3+ cations. Thermoluminescence (TL) studies of Mg2SiO4:Eu3+ pellets bombarded with 100 MeV Si8+ cations with fluences in the range 5×1011 ions cm−2 to 5×1013 ions cm−2 are made at RT. Two prominent and well resolved TL glows with peaks at ∼220 °C and ∼370 °C are observed. It is observed that TL intensity increases with increase of ion fluence. This might be due to creation of new traps during swift heavy ion irradiation.

A Comparative Study on the Physicochemical Parameters of Camel and Buffalo Milk

This research work was carried out to compare the various physicochemical parameters of two species, camel and buffalo. Camel milk samples were collected at National Research Centre on Camel, Bikaner and buffaloes milk samples were collected from the surroundings villages of Bikaner. After collection milk samples were brought to the laboratory of NRCC Bikaner and they were analyzed for fat, SNF (Solid Not Fat), protein, lactose, total ash and pH using milk analyzer (Lactoscan). Camel milk had 2.71±0.11 fat, 6.91±0.03 SNF, 2.23±0.02 protein, 3.86±0.02 lactose, 0.79±0.004 total ash and 6.95±0.01 pH while buffalo milk had 8.71±0.82 fat, 8.44±0.19 SNF, 4.11±0.02 protein, 4.46±0.15 lactose, 0.98±0.05 total ash and 7.59±0.02 pH. Fat, SNF, protein and pH of buffalo milk was significantly (P<0.001) higher than camel milk. Lactose and total ash in buffalo milk was also higher than camel milk but at P<0.05 level. So it can be concluded that all the studied parameters were high in buffalo milk than camel milk

Ionoluminescence and photoluminescence studies of Ag8+ ion irradiated kyanite

Ionoluminescence (IL) of kyanite single crystals bombarded with 100 MeV swift Ag8+ ions with fluences in the range 1.87–7.5×1011 ions/cm2 has been studied. A pair of sharp IL peaks at ∼689 and 706 nm along with broad emission in the region 710–800 nm are recorded in both crystalline and pelletized samples. Similar results are recorded in Photoluminescence (PL) of pelletized kyanite bombarded with same ions and energy with fluences in the range 1×1011–5×1013 ions/cm2 with an excitation of 442 nm laser beam. The characteristic pair of sharp emission peaks at 689 and 706 nm in both IL and PL is attributed to luminescence centers activated by Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions. The reduction in IL and PL bands intensity with increase of ion fluence might be attributed to degradation of Si–O (2ν3) bonds, present on the surface of the sample