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Higher education in India was caught completely unawares by the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessitated closure of educational institutions. Despite almost a decade of experience with online and distance learning at some top-tier and private institutions, the vast majority were unprepared and looked for quick solutions for different components of teaching-learning depending on the need of the hour. The immediate tool sought was a videoconferencing platform to substitute in-class lectures. With no access to a learning management system, faculty chose one platform for videoconferencing, one for interaction with students, and another for uploading class notes. Disparity in students' access to devices and the internet presented challenges. Assessment of learning, which hitherto was largely pen and paper based, was delayed for lack of a viable solution. Experiences documented in this study demonstrate faculty resilience, but lack of institutional leadership and preparedness is starkly evident.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate faculty and students' reactions to the COVID-19 emergency move to online classes. The goal was to better inform instructional strategies to be used in similar circumstances and to inform best practices in online pedagogy. Method: Online surveys were administered to students and faculty near the end of the semester to evaluate different aspects of the transition. Classes included in the study were scheduled as full-semester, on-campus classes but made an emergency switch to online post-spring break, after eight weeks. Results: Students' and faculty's comfort levels at the time of the switch depended on the amount of prior experience they had in online teaching and learning. Individual students and faculty experienced varying degrees of ease of adjustment to the switch in format from in-class to online. Faculty had to adapt quickly to determine the best way to replicate the in-class experience. Many faculty would depend on familiarity with technology and creativity with its usage. To varying degrees, comfort level improved as the semester progressed for both faculty and students. Still, a majority of students expressed less interest than before in taking online classes. Conclusions: The level of preparedness of faculty and students determined the outcome of this natural experiment. The adjustment was easier for those with prior experience with the online format and/or for those who felt comfortable with the format. Implication for Practice: As faculty and students prepare to return to the classroom, consideration can be given to best practices in online pedagogy to support students and faculty. Our findings point to the need for institutional preparedness for unforeseen circumstances.

Technological innovation for re-identifying maritime vessels plays a crucial role in both smart shipping technologies and the pictorial observation tasks necessary for marine recon- naissance. Vessels are vulnerable to varying gradations of engaging in the marine environment, which is complicated and dynamic compared to the conditions on land. Fewer picture samples along with considerable similarity are characteristics of warships as a class of ship, making it more challenging to recover the identities of warships at sea. Consequently, a convolutional dynamic alignment network (CoDA-Net) re-identification framework is proposed in this research. To help the network understand the warships within the desired domain and increase its ability to identify warships, a variety of ships are employed as origin information. Simulating and testing the winning of war vessels at sea helps to increase the network’s ability to recognize complexity so that users can better handle the effects of challenging maritime environments. The impact of various types of ships as transfer items is also highlighted. The research results demonstrate that the enhanced algorithm increases the overall first hit rate (Rank1) by approximately 5.9%; it also increases the mean average accuracy (mAP) by approximately 10.7% and the correlation coefficient by 0.997%.

This paper is a 'follow-on' from a paper previously published in this journal dealing with the laboratory to pilot scaling up approach using Industry 4.0 manufacturing methods. In particular, the paper reports a strategy for developing a model for the electroforming of nickel from a sulphamate electrolyte at laboratory scale which could subsequently provide an educated approach for transferring the process to a larger scale. At the laboratory scale, a rotating disc electrode assembly was used, which is a standard instrument to determine electrochemical parameters. Thereafter, small scale nickel discs were electroplated using this equipment, and a model of this process was developed and validated against those experimental results. These parameters were then used to actually produce electroforms in a prototype, 18 L tank system. Cross-validation between practical experiments and simulations followed which allowed for fine-tuning the model until it was consistently predicting the real process results within an acceptable error. Overall, it was found that a secondary current distribution model could be used for reasonably accurate description for the electroforming process, and could provide a quick virtual tool at a production facility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The natural experiment proposed in this article extracts three stories from boxes of "100 paper clips". The activity requires students to apply three lessons from inferential statistics, starting with a hypothesis test and including confidence intervals as well as tolerance intervals.

LaSrCoO4, LaSrNiO4 and LaSrCuO4 were synthesised by the reverse micellar route by using three different microemulsion compositions. The as prepared nanostructures were characterised by powder X‐ray diffraction (PXRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The PXRD of all samples indicate pure phases which crystallize into a tetragonal system. The particle size and shape of nanoparticles varies with microemulsion system. Magnetisation studies suggested that two of the LaSrCoO4 samples display canted antiferromagnetism while the others showed no sign of long‐range ordering. The LaSrNiO4 and LaSrCuO4 samples seemed to show spin glass behaviour. Some of these materials were successfully used as catalysts for organic transformations. The esterification of aldehydes in the presence of alkyl halides and alcohols has been made mild and practicable with a copper catalysed TBHP/DTBP promoting reaction. This approach is suitable to a wide variety of aldehydes, including those that are notoriously difficult to convert through the C(sp2)−H bond scission to produce the required esters in good to outstanding yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steganography refers to the practice of hiding sensitive information inside seemingly unrelated data sets. Steganography in the video is one of the best methods available for hiding data without compromising the film's appearance. For improved security and compatibility, the traditional system uses different video steganography techniques with linear or precise positions. Traditional linear video steganography practices face vulnerability, a lack of security, limited embedding options, and inadequate compatibility. Here nonlinear frame(s) and pixel positions based information hiding techniques have been developed to overwhelm the following. Both the nonlinear frame positions and nonlinear pixel positions are selected for the video‐based steganography. In the beginning, the nonlinear frame positions are selected through the key and the key may be with any prescribed range and alphanumeric characters. A single or more frames may be selected through the key and that entirely depends upon the corresponding run‐through. Then the nonlinear pixel and bit positions are also selected through a similar key. The proposed method is also compared with some former techniques and gives a magnificent result. Furthermore, a security analysis of the suggested algorithm has also been conducted using the differential attack method. To validate the suggested method and ensure that it is accurate, the author of this article made use of a very specific and innovative methodology known as the linguistic response surface methodology (LRSM). This model is framed based on achieving a few steganography assessment measures like PSNR, SSIM, and MSE metric values after incorporating hidden text in various nonlinear frames' nonlinear pixel locations of the video. The analysis of the variance using LRSM for PSNR, SSIM, and MSE response reveals very substantial results with confirmation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An alternative approach to synthesize bis‐indolylmethanes (BIMs) via a unique p‐toluenesulfonic acid (PTSA) catalyzed dual Csp3−Csp2 bond‐breaking reaction has been reported here. In the reported protocol, 1,3,5‐trimethoxybenzene (TMB), an electron‐rich and sterically bulky arene, acts as a carbon‐based leaving group which can be recovered after the completion of the reaction. In this process, several BIMs of various indole derivatives can be synthesized from symmetrical triarylmethanes (TRAMs) containing bis‐TMB motifs. By modifying the reaction conditions, we could control the sequential bond cleavage of two Csp3−Csp2 bonds in starting TRAM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goal setting and grade loss aversion have individually been found to be effective motivators for student performance. We combine these two strategies to investigate, in a university setting, the effectiveness of grade endowment within a goal-setting framework. Our participants set grade goals which some must earn the traditional way, thus framed as 'gains', while others are awarded their target grade upfront, thus framed as 'losses'. We find a positive impact of goal setting on student performance. We also find that the effect of grade goals framed as 'losses' is numerically, but not statistically, greater than those framed as 'gains'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]