Archives-March 2012

This study looks at the students’ perceptions on the effectiveness of the invention project showcased at USIM Young Inventors Fair in promoting critical and creative thinking among the First Year Bachelor students of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM). 350 students were involved in this quantitative study which aimed to assess the students’ perceptions on the effectiveness of using an invention project in promoting their thinking skills. An invention project was assigned whereby students were to reflect on the critical and creative thinking skills they have acquired while completing the project. Results revealed that the students perceived that the invention project has indeed contributed in promoting their critical and creative thinking skills. Most of them reported that they had benefited through their involvement in the invention project. All 18 assessed statements have mean scores below 2 and the standard deviations are less than 1. Thus, using the invention project is indeed an effective way to promote critical and creative thinking skills of the students.

Software risk management is the practice of assessing risks that affects the software development projects, process or products. Most software development confronts great risks and risks might occur in the whole development process. This paper explores the different risks involved in various phases of the software development process and defines mitigation steps after analyzing risks. The objective of this research is to construct a visualization tool for software risk assessment for all phases in software development process.

In the present communication novel tris(hetroaryl)bisazo dyes were synthesized by the coupling of various heterocyclic diazonium salt with 1-ethyl-6-hydroxy-4-methyl-2-oxo-5-((4-phenylthiazol-2-yl)diazenyl)-1,2-dihydropyridine-3-carbonitrile. The later compound was synthesized by a new procedure for the synthesis of well known azo pyridone dyes from 2-cyano-N-ethylacetamide, ethyl-3-oxobutanoate and 4-aryl-2-aminothaizole. Structural confirmation of all the synthesized compounds have been accomplished by UV-Visible, FT-IR, 1H-NMR,13C-NMR and mass spectroscopic techniques. Solvent effects on the visible absorption spectra of the dyes were evaluated. The color of the dyes is discussed with respect to the nature of the heterocyclic ring and substituent present therein. All these dyes were applied as disperse dyes on to polyester fabrics and their fastness properties were evaluated.

Background and objectives Length of the ring finger is more as compared to the index finger in males and they are almost equal in females. The ratio between 2D:4D is less in males (<1) but in females it is more (>1). This is directly related to exposure of more testosterone during intrauterine life of the fetus. The persons who are having 2D:4D ratio less than one are more aggressive and masculine characters. The present study is to find out the aggressive behavior of the persons and its relation to ratio of index finger length and ring finger length. (2D:4D). Methodology Fifty male and fifty female medical students in the age group ranging from 19 to 25 years studying in first year M.B.B.S. were selected. The students were selected randomly. The 2D and 4D length were taken and the ratio between them is calculated. The aggressive questionnaire was administered according to Aggression Questionnaire. Results Of the four types of aggression physical, anger and verbal was more seen in males (Scale T-score >55) as compared to hostility that was more in females (>55) but statistically not significant (p=0.422). Conclusion The co-relation between 2D:4D length ratio and aggressive behavior of the subjects was not significant statistically (P = 0.217).

This paper presents a new approach to differential protection for power transformer by using ANFIS approach. The proposed method was trained and tested with data obtained from PSCAD simulation of a power system under different operating conditions. The simulation results show that this algorithm is very good to recognize the various fault types in power transformers. Using the ANFIS approach, the accuracy and speed of operation of flux-current differential relaying scheme is significantly improved while compared with conventional current differential relaying scheme. The proposed method has an outstanding advantage that it can eliminate the load tap changer error meanwhile in operation and there by sensitivity of the relay is improved.

An unique poisoning case leading to death by imipramine. Quantitative analysis of imipramine and was performed by liquid chromatography. The concentration of imipramine was 16.60 µg /ml in the collected blood sample during post mortem examination.

In this paper we discuss the concept of total edge domination in graphs. We prove that for any connected (p,q) – graph G with ? < q - 1, t q - ? where ? denotes the maximum degree of an edge in G and characterize trees and unicyclic graphs which attain this bound. We also prove that t (S(G)) for any connected graph G. We also determine the value of total edge domatic number for some families of graphs.

Tuning proportional integral and derivative (PID) controllers for Isothermal CSTR system is proposed. The PID controller is designed based on internal model control and stability analysis principles. The proposed controllers are applied to stable transfer function models of isothermal CSTR carrying out Van de Vusse reaction. Simulation results on non-linear model equations of isothermal CSTR carrying out Van de Vusse reaction is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed PID controllers. The performance under model uncertainty is also studied considering perturbation in one parameter at a time. The performance of proposed controllers is compared with the direct synthesis method (Chien et al., 2003).

Menstrual Hygiene and Management is an issue that is insufficiently acknowledged and has not received adequate attention in Reproductive Health and water sanitation and Hygiene in most of the developing countries including India. Its relationship with and impact on achieving many Millennium Development Goals is rarely acknowledged. It is clear that measure to adequately address menstrual hygiene and management will directly contribute to MDG-7 on Environment Sustainability and indirectly to MDG-2 on universal education and MDG-3 on gender equality and women empowerment(Water Aid Publication,2009).However the attention on this issue is far from sufficient. Adolescence in girls has been recognized as a special period in their life cycle that requires specific and special attention. In Tamilnadu the adolescents constitute nearly 19.5 percent of the total population of the state. Among the female population the adolescent girls constitute more than 19.3 percent. The rural adolescent girls constitute nearly 56.8 percent to the total adolescent girls to Tamilnadu. With the above background this study was undertaken with the objectives of assessing the knowledge of girls about menstruation and menstrual hygiene practices and health issues and challenges faced by adolescent school girls during menstruation. The present study was undertaken among the adolescent school girls in the rural settings of Cuddalore district in Tamilnadu. Five Government Higher Secondary Schools situated in villages of C.Mutlur, Keerapalayam, Kodipallam, Kavarapattu, and Thandavarayan Cholagan Pettai situated at Chidambaram Taluk, were selected for this study. The findings obtained through different methods and tools used in the study have been organized and presented under the four themes of Knowledge and beliefs, Experience during Menstruation, Restrictions and Absenteeism and Hygienic Practices.

In this paper, the parameters governing the arm model of a robot has been studied through a numerical technique “fourth order non-linear extended RK method based on Centroidal Mean (RKCeM)”. The exact solutions of the system of second order equations representing the arm model of a Robot have been compared with the corresponding discrete solutions (approximate solutions) at different time and also the absolute error between the exact and discrete solutions has been determined.