Search

Classroom assessment is the process of documenting the knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs of learners. It provides essential feedback to both instructors and students to improve their teaching methods for guiding and motivating students to be actively involved in their learning. Assessment drives learning. Formative assessments enable the instructor to guide the students to learn well. Summative assessments enable the measurement of levels of attainment of course outcomes and act as feedback to course design and curriculum improvement. This article presents the underlying principles of assessment through a discussion of assessment approaches and their purposes, types of assessment items, quality of assessment and summative assessment plans. Quality assessment instruments can be developed through an understanding of the quality attributes of assessment items, the process of designing assessment instruments, designing a variety of assessment items, and devising plans to evaluate them through rubrics. An approach is presented for creating a summative assessment plan that can also lead to the attainment of outcomes as per the requirements of programme accreditation.

Rare-earth (RE) oxide embedded ordered mesoporous silica have been successfully prepared via a solution impregnation method. The structure and physical property of the nanocomposites (NCs) were studied by low-angle X-ray diffraction, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Photoluminescence (PL) and magnetic measurement. The NCs exhibited the room temperature 5D0 → 7Fj transition emission due to the presence of Eu3+ ions. Also the NC system showed a room temperature weak ferromagnetism due to the large oxygen vacancy present in the system. Photoluminescence, magnetic property and large surface area, make these NCs ideal multi-functional materials, which will have potential applications in the field of bio-medicine and drug-delivery. These kinds of nanocomposites are promising candidates for fabrication of various environment friendly smart devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanodimentional Eu2O3 was developed inside the channels of silica with mesoporus structure, which have5 nm pore diameter. At room temperature, such nanocomposite showed a large magnetodielectric coefficient of around 70% upon application of magnetic field of 1 Tesla at a frequency 1 kHz. The dielectric loss was quite low in spite of the fact that Eu2O3 is conducting in nature. This was achieved because of a scarcely dispensed Eu2O3species inside silica, which is highly resistive in nature. This method of nanocomposite formation gives rise to the fabrication of devices with high magnetodielectric coefficients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examine the phenomenon of the existence of internal capital market among business group firms. Researchers in this field use the existence of the internal capital as a base to explain the difference between group and stand-alone firms with respect to various financing decisions. Using a panel of Indian listed firms, we analyze the equity and debt components of the internal capital market. We find that for group firms, the debt component of internal capital exists mainly in the form of intercorporate loans. And among equity components, it exists in the form of promoter and intercorporate shareholdings. However, for stand-alone firms, debt from promoters' loans, fixed deposits from promoters and deferred credit are higher and so are equity from persons acting as promoters and institutions and Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesoporous LiNbO3 nanoparticles with BET surface area 185 m2 g-1 were synthesized by using Pluronic P123 as soft template. The samples showed three functionalities, viz., photoluminescence, ferroelectricity, and ferromagnetism. Room temperature photoluminescence was observed at 390 nm wavelength due to oxygen vacancy. The mesoporous LiNbO3 showed ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature. Ferroelectric behavior of the samples was confirmed from the P-E hysteresis loop measurement. The samples showed a magneto-dielectric effect with the dielectric constant increasing by ∼4.5% for an applied magnetic field of 10 kOe due to magnetostriction of the material which changed the lattice parameter to bring about an increase in the dipole moment of the unit cell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanoporous BaTiO3 particles with an average diameter of 27 nm have been synthesized using a soft template based on poloxamer. The pore width has been found to be ∼10 nm. The nanoporous particles have a surface area of 107 m2gm-1. This introduces a large surface area leading to the creation of a large number of oxygen vacancies. The latter contributes to the ferromagnetic behavior of the nanoparticles. A multiferroic property was exhibited by these particles. The oxygen vacancy concentration decreased as the BaTiO3 particle size increased. The magnetization decreased with an increase in the particle size. A magnetodielectric parameter of 11% has been observed in this system corresponding to an applied magnetic field of 10 kOe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanoporous NiZnFeO particles of diameter, ~ 9·5 nm, were synthesized by citric acid assisted thermal decomposition in an autoclave. The BET surface area measured was 80 m g and the average pore diameter was 2·5 nm. By soaking the particles in a suitable precursor solution and then subjecting them to a heat treatment at 923 K for 3 h, Pb(ZrTi)O was grown within the nanopores. X-ray and electron diffraction studies confirmed the presence of both these phases. The nanocomposites showed ferromagnetic behaviour over the temperature range 2-300 K. No ferroelectric hysteresis loop could be found which was consistent with the earlier theoretical prediction of loss of ferroelectricity below a critical thickness of 2·4 nm. Good magneto-dielectric response of the order of 7% at a magnetic field of 9 kOe was recorded for the present system. This is believed to arise due to a negative magnetostriction coefficient of NiZnFeO which exerted a compressive strain on Pb(ZrTi)O thereby lowering the tetragonality in its crystal structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article "Development of a Quick Speech–in– Test for Measuring Signal–to–Noise Ratio Loss in Normal–Hearing and Hearing–Impaired Listeners," published in the previous issue of "Journal of the Acoustical Society of America."