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The study explores the perspectives of college students on the pedagogical shift as well as frequent transitions between online and offline learning modes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kerala, the most literate state in India.

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,366 college students in Kerala during December 2021. A pre-tested questionnaire was sent using Google Forms to students of arts and science colleges. The authors analyzed quantitative data using descriptive statistics and qualitative data using thematic content analysis.

The reported advantages of online learning were increased technical skill, flexibility in study time, effectiveness in bridging the gap of the missed academic period and provision of attending more educational webinars. Students expressed concerns of increased workload, difficulty in concentration due to family circumstances, academic incompetency, uncleared doubts and addiction to mobile phones and social media during the online classes. The main advantages reported for switching to an offline learning mode were enhanced social interaction, effective learning, better concentration and reduced stress. The reported challenges of offline classes were fear of getting the disease, concern of maintaining social distancing and difficulty in wearing masks during the classes. The shift in offline to online learning and vice versa was perceived as a difficult process for the students as it took a considerable time for them to adjust to the switching process of learning.

Students' concerns regarding transition between different learning modes provide important information to educators to better understand and support the needs of students during the pandemic situations.

A plethora of studies have documented evidence on morbidity patterns and treatment-seeking behaviour among older persons in India. However, so far no attempt has been made to understand differences in the morbidity prevalence rates and utilization of health care services among older adults between religion groups in India. The purpose of this paper is to make an effort in this direction.

Multivariate logistic regression models were fitted to examine the association between socio-demographic conditions and morbidity prevalence and health care-seeking behaviours among the two religion groups: Hindu and Muslim. Data from the 60th round of the National Sample Survey in 2004 were used.

This study provided interesting evidence that, overall, the morbidity prevalence rate was higher among Muslim older persons than their Hindu counterparts by seven percentage points and Hindu scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) counterpart population (compared to SCs eight percentage points, and STs 20 percentage points); income had no association with the burden of disease among Muslim older population – an older person belonging to the first income quintile was equally likely to report ill-health as an older person of the fifth income quintile. However, despite the low socio-economic status, Muslim older persons were more likely to seek treatment for ill-health compared to Hindu older persons but spent less money for treatment. Also, loss of household income due to sickness was greater among Muslim compared to Hindu older adults.

The findings of this study are important to support the policy makers and health care providers in identifying individuals “at risk” and could be integrated into the current programs of social, economic and health security for the older persons.

This paper explored the reliability of self-reported health and the impact of the social position in determining the inconsistent health response (IHR), in late life. Reliability of self-reported health is important to evaluate, as it is the primary step for asking health-care facility. As self-reported health is a subjective measure, elderly people might have a tendency of under-reporting the health problem because of lower socioeconomic status. This incidence can cause inaccurate estimate of the health problem of the aged at the time of formulating health policy or providing health-care infrastructure. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the sources of inconsistent responses of self-reported health by comparing it with the existence of chronicle ailment and to identify the vulnerable group that health care supports.

The study uses nationally representative unit-level data from the National Sample Survey of India. Using the bi-variate probit model, joint estimation of reported health and IHRs is determined. The study compares perceived and actual health status and explores how individual characteristics and socioeconomic position contributes to IHRs among the elderly population.

Major findings of this study are as follows: firstly, self-reported health has little reliability, as it is compared with the existence of chronicle ailment. Older people in the rural areas have greater tendency to under-estimate the health problem, whereas urban elders tend to over-estimate it; and secondly, the inconsistency in health response is significantly associated with social caste, economic status and attainment of education.

The results of this study from bivariate probit model offer deeper understandings about the reliability of self-reported health and provide further insights to improve policy design formulated to mitigate the health inequality among the elders. This study might be helpful to design an inexpensive and easily available health measure, which is very important for a highly populated aging country with limited health-care resources.

To the best of author’s knowledge, it is the first study that has identified the sources of inconsistent health and direction of inconsistency that is where self-reported health over- or under-estimates the actual health response among the elderly in a developing country like India, where the growth rate of population aging is faster than the world.

Literature on packaged food consumption and associated factors in Kerala is limited. This study aims to find out consumption pattern of packaged food and the factors associated with it among young adults in Kerala.

The authors conducted a cross-sectional survey among 384 young adults aged 18–30 years selected using multistage cluster sampling. Information on packaged food consumption and sociodemographic factors was collected using a structured, pre-tested interview schedule. Binary logistic regression analysis was done to find out the factors associated with packaged food consumption.

Among the participants, 85.7% (95% CI = 81.9%–88.9%) reported consuming packaged food at least once a week, and 45% (95% CI = 40.4%–50.3%) reported consuming packaged food more than two times a week. Individuals who were employed [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.71, 95% CI = 1.06–2.76], who consume packaged food without a fixed routine (AOR = 2.24, 95% CI = 1.18–4.28), those without previous attempts to reduce packaged food consumption (AOR = 3.45, 95% CI = 1.72–6.91) and those who preferred packaged food for their taste and flavor (AOR = 1.73, 95% CI = 1.09–2.74) had greater odds of consuming packaged food more than two times a week compared to their counterparts.

Packaged food is frequently consumed by more than 40% of young adults in Kerala. Efforts focused on individuals (such as building awareness and taxing packaged foods) are warranted to control packaged food consumption among young adults.

Physicians who are primary care providers in rural communities form an essential stakeholder group in rural mobile health (mHealth) delivery. This study was exploratory in nature and was conducted in Udupi district of Karnataka, India. The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of rural medical officers (MOs) (rural physicians) regarding the benefits and challenges of mobile phone use by community health workers (CHWs).

In-depth interviews were conducted among 15 MOs belonging to different primary health centers of the district. Only MOs with a minimum five years of experience were recruited in the study using purposive and snowball sampling. This was followed by thematic analysis of the data collected.

The perceptions of MOs regarding the CHWs' use of mobile phones were largely positive. However, they reported the existence of some challenges that limits the potential of its full use. The findings were categorized under four themes namely, benefits of mobile phone use to CHWs, benefits of mobile phone-equipped CHWs, current mobile phone use by CHWs and barriers to CHWs' mobile phone use. The significant barriers reported in the CHWs' mobile phone use were poor mobile network coverage, technical illiteracy, lack of consistent technical training and call and data expense of the CHWs. The participants recommend an increased number of mobile towers, frequent training in mobile phone use and basic English language for the CHWs as possible solutions to the barriers.

Studies examining the perceptions of doctors who are a primary stakeholder group in mHealth as well as in the public health system scenario are limited. To the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to examine the perception of rural doctors regarding CHWs' mobile phone use for work in India.

The purpose of this research paper is to recover the autonomous flight performance of a mini unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) via stochastically optimizing the wing over certain parameters (i.e. wing taper ratio and wing aspect ratio) while there are lower and upper constraints on these redesign parameters.

A mini UAV is produced in the Iskenderun Technical University (ISTE) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Laboratory. Its complete wing can vary passively before the flight with respect to the result of the stochastic redesign of the wing while maximizing autonomous flight performance. Flight control system (FCS) parameters (i.e. gains of longitudinal and lateral proportional-integral-derivative controllers) and wing redesign parameters mentioned before are simultaneously designed to maximize autonomous flight performance index using a certain stochastic optimization strategy named as simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA). Found results are used while composing UAV flight simulations.

Using stochastic redesign of mini UAV and simultaneously designing mini ISTE UAV over previously mentioned wing parameters and FCS, it obtained a maximum UAV autonomous flight performance.

Permission of the directorate general of civil aviation in the Republic of Türkiye is essential for real-time UAV autonomous flights.

Stochastic redesign of mini UAV and simultaneously designing mini ISTE UAV wing parameters and FCS approach is very useful for improving any mini UAV autonomous flight performance cost index.

Stochastic redesign of mini UAV and simultaneously designing mini ISTE UAV wing parameters and FCS approach succeeds confidence, highly improved autonomous flight performance cost index and easy service demands of mini UAV operators.

Creating a new approach to recover autonomous flight performance cost index (e.g. satisfying less settling time and less rise time, less overshoot during flight trajectory tracking) of a mini UAV and composing a novel procedure performing simultaneous mini UAV having passively morphing wing over certain parameters while there are upper and lower constraints and FCS design idea.

Rising trends in alcohol consumption and early drinking initiation pose serious health risks especially for adolescents. Learner’s prior knowledge about alcohol gained from the social surroundings and the media are important sources that can impact the learning outcomes in health education. The purpose of this paper is to map adolescents’ perceptions of alcohol in Punjab, India and how these perceptions are related to their attitudes towards their social surroundings and the media.

The questionnaire was created after informal discussions with local people who consume alcohol and discussions with alcohol-related experts. Students from five schools (n=379, average age=13.6 years) in the urban region of Punjab, India, filled in a questionnaire. Quantitative tests were performed on the questionnaire data. Summative content analysis was performed for the textbook content about alcohol from classes 1 to 10.

Data suggest that students gain knowledge about alcohol from multiple sources, including society, the media and education. While society and the media can give misinformation, education did not provide them with factual scientific information about alcohol. Students from financially marginalized social surroundings experience the presence and use of alcohol more frequently; they trust the media and celebrities somewhat unquestioningly and, hence, are more at-risk.

All participants in informal discussions as well as all participating schools in the study were from urban regions. Data about individual’s socio-economic conditions was not collected.

This research investigates perceptions of alcohol that are derived from adolescents’ social surroundings, perceptions of the media and perceptions gained through educational guidance in a developing country. Such multi-dimensional investigations have not been conducted earlier.

Maintaining the turbine blade’s temperature within the safety limit is challenging in high-pressure turbines. This paper aims to numerically present the conjugate heat transfer analysis of a novel approach to mini-channel embedded film-cooled flat plate.

Numerical simulations were performed at a steady state using SST k – ω turbulence model. Impingement and film cooling are classical approaches generally adopted for turbine blade analysis. The existing film cooling techniques were compared with the proposed design, where a mini-channel was constructed inside the solid plate. The impact of the blowing ratio (M), Biot number (Bi) and temperature ratio (TR) on overall cooling performance was also studied.

Overall cooling effectiveness was always shown to be higher for mini-channel embedded film-cooled plates. The effectiveness increases with increasing the blowing ratio from M = 0.3 to 0.7, then decreases with increasing blowing ratio (M = 1 and 1.4) due to lift-off conditions. The mini-channel embedded plate resulted in an approximately 21% increase in area-weighted average overall effectiveness at a blowing ratio of 0.7 and Bi = 1.605. The lower uniform temperature was also found for all blowing ratios at a low Biot number, where conduction heat transfer significantly impacts total cooling effectiveness.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study presents a novel approach to improve the cooling performances of a film-cooled flat plate with better cooling uniformity by using embedded mini-channels. Despite the widespread application of microchannels and mini-channels in thermal and fluid flow analysis, the application of mini-channels for blade cooling is not explored in detail.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

The process of decision‐making in a situation of uncertainty is examined; it is assumed that it is possible to obtain additional information with the help of some additional experiments. The cost of performing the experiments and the losses connected with making wrong decisions when there is a lack of information can be measured in the same units (for example, usefulness). The problem of optimum planning of experiment and the problem of decision‐making using the results are considered in order to minimize the above costs. The algorithm of constructing the optimum mini‐max plan is obtained. The special case of the problem is examined and a regular solution for it is obtained.