Young Women's Christian Association

In today’s rapidly evolving economy, the traditional path of securing a stable 9-to-5 job is increasingly being compared with the flexibility and independence offered by freelancing. For young individuals who are still pursuing their studies, financial independence is a growing concern, as it is often associated with personal growth, self-reliance, and preparation for future responsibilities. This study aims to explore students’ opinions on financial independence by comparing the perceived advantages and disadvantages of 9-to-5 jobs and freelancing. Unlike previous research focused on professionals or working individuals, this study highlights the views of students, thereby providing insights into how the upcoming workforce perceives these career choices. Through the use of questionnaires distributed among students, the research investigates factors such as income stability, work-life balance, career growth opportunities, flexibility, and financial security. The study also examines whether students believe freelancing can be a sustainable path to independence or if traditional employment remains a safer and more reliable choice. The findings are expected to reveal diverse perspectives, as students often balance academic responsibilities with part-time work, internships, or early freelancing opportunities. The outcomes of this research will contribute to understanding how today’s youth perceive financial independence and the role of different career paths in achieving it. By analyzing students’ opinions, the study seeks to provide valuable insights for policymakers, educators, and career counselors to guide young individuals in making informed career decisions that align with their aspirations for financial independence.

This study aims to identify and analyze the less prominent types of figurative language in three selected songs from Motionless in White’s Reincarnate (2014) album. Using a qualitative research design, the study explores how personification, hyperbole, simile, and onomatopoeia function to express emotion, intensity, and atmosphere in the lyrics. The data were collected from the songs Reincarnate, Puppets 3 (The Grand Finale), and Break the Cycle. The analysis applies theories from Abrams and Harpham (2015), Perrine (1982), and Leech (1981) to classify and interpret figurative expressions. The results show that while metaphor remains the dominant device in the album, other figures play crucial roles in enriching the lyrical meaning and enhancing emotional depth. Personification humanizes abstract concepts, hyperbole amplifies emotional power, simile clarifies abstract imagery, and onomatopoeia strengthens the auditory texture of the songs. The study concludes that these less prominent types serve as complementary linguistic tools that reinforce the album’s dark yet poetic tone.

In the modern business landscape, digital platforms have become essential tools for entrepreneurial growth. This study aims to identify the most used digital platform by women entrepreneurs for their business growth and to examine the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs when utilizing digital platforms. Primary data was collected using the convenience sampling method, and SPSS tools were used to analyze the data, which was collected from 90 women entrepreneurs from Nagercoil City. The finding reveals that there is a highly significant difference between the uses of digital platforms among women entrepreneurs with different educational qualifications. This research suggests that digital platforms should incorporate regional language interfaces and user-friendly navigation systems to enhance operational ease. Additionally, localized customer support services are essential to improve accessibility and strengthen engagement among women entrepreneurs. This study concludes that by improving accessibility, introducing regional inclusivity, and promoting user-friendly business interfaces, digital platforms can significantly enhance business performance, market expansion, and long-term sustainability among women-led enterprises.

An Africentric Early Childhood Education diploma program offered in Nova Scotia (Canada) at the Nova Scotia Community College has been highlighted as a community asset, bringing strength to the early childhood sector. Underpinned by the philosophy of Ubuntu, this pre-service training fosters a supportive learning environment for Black early childhood educators. This research used a Photovoice methodology to explore the application of Africentric principles and pedagogy from participants (n=12) who were graduates of this program and working in early childhood settings during the time of the study. Through a series of workshops, participants identified five key themes: 1) I am the foundation; 2) Connection; 3) Our cultural identity; 4) Self-expression; and 5) Support. Participants referred to themselves as foundational for driving change in early childhood education and curated environments that offered authentic learning experiences of cultural advocacy. At the same time, participants shared feelings of not being supported in their practice as educators, primarily by program administrators, which hindered trust. Participants collectively developed recommendations for the early childhood sector to improve cultural safety and responsiveness. The results from the study are transferable to other educational settings in efforts to challenge systemic racism and ensure safe working environments for educators.

In the application of Large Language Models (LLMs), the Prompt plays a crucial role as a key component influencing model performance. A well-crafted Prompt can significantly enhance an LLM's ability to perform specific tasks effectively. LLMs process Prompts by converting them into preceding tokens, which are then used to predict subsequent tokens. This process implicitly and uniquely translates human language into the model's semantic space-where even semantically similar Prompts can lead to vastly different outputs due to subtle variations in phrasing or structure. To mitigate the uncertainty introduced by diverse human language expressions and improve the adaptability of LLMs to various Prompts, we propose a novel method called GradPromptOpt (Gradient-Driven Prompt Optimization). This approach leverages the gradient-based optimization mechanisms inherent in LLMs and employs a carefully fine-tuned Meta Prompt to automate and refine the Prompt optimization process. GradPromptOpt aims to surpass the effectiveness of traditional, manually designed Prompts while reducing the reliance on subjective human input. Experimental results show that GradPromptOpt achieves a 31.75% performance improvement over high-quality, human-engineered Prompts, demonstrating its potential to enhance the efficiency and adaptability of LLMs in practical applications.

Occupational stress has become a major concern of modern times as it can cause harm to employee's health and performance. Stress occurs when the pressure is greater than the resources, as it is the body's way of responding to any kind of demand. It can be caused by bad experiences in women employees. The objective of this study is to analyze the demographic profile of women employees in public sector banks, to identify the sources of stress experienced by women employees in public sector banks, and to analyze the problems faced by women employees. A sample size of 90 was selected using a convenient sampling method. Primary data were collected from the women employees who are working in the Indian Bank in Kanyakumari district. The major finding of the study overcrowding is the main cause of stress faced by the female employees working in the Indian Bank. The paper reveals that the banking sectors encourage digital banking options for women employees.

In this work, theoretical and experimental aspects of 2-chloroethyl benzene (2-CEB) were investigated and implemented for future investigations. Molecular geometry of target compound (2-CEB) optimized by using method B3LYP and 6-311G + + (d,p) basis set. Predicted vibrational frequencies were assigned using the VEDA 4 program based on the potential energy distribution (PED). FT-IR spectra, UV–Vis & NMR spectra were all experimentally acquired in the solid phase. The anticipated vibrational frequencies and the optimized geometrical parameters exhibited satisfactory agreement. according to the literature results and the corresponding experimental data. The Natural Bond Order (NBO) study established interaction between donor and acceptor. Molecular Electrostatic Potential (MEP), Electron Localization Function (ELF), Reduced Density Gradient (RDG) and Fukui functions, the reactive sites, and charge distribution of the molecule were highlighted. It also included the energies and diagrams for the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO). Ease of charge transfer in the compound has been assessed by using the HOMO–LUMO band gap. In the molecular docking study, 2-CEB was docked with 6 different protein receptors.Graphical

In the modern world, 'work-life balance' is seen as one of the key concerns essential to the success of an enterprise. However, varied societies have varied perspectives on work-life balance. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that contribute to work-life imbalance. This study focuses on women working in various industries in Thiruvananthapuram district, where female employees face more challenges balancing work and life than their male counterparts. Based on primary research, a sample of forty female employees from various firms were chosen for this study. Questionnaires were used to determine the factors contributing to work-life imbalance. According to the study, the main causes of female employees' difficulties in maintaining work-life balance include long working hours, job rigidity, work overload, childcare responsibilities, bias and discrimination at work, lack of supervisor support, a dominant managerial style, and insufficient family support. The study concludes by proposing organized guidelines for businesses to follow, aimed at enabling female employees to harmoniously and successfully integrate their home and professional lives, while mitigating the aforementioned causes.

The year 2020 will always remain in the minds of people because of the impact and challenges created by COVID-19. There has been significant growth in online shopping after COVID-19, which has been adopted by many users who did not use online shopping before. Meanwhile, people also struggled a lot with purchasing online during COVID-19. The objective of the study is to examine the challenges faced by customers in online shopping during the pandemic. The primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire distributed to 200 respondents, resulting in the collection of 170 responses that were complete on all parameters for data analysis and interpretation using the Percentage method and Factor analysis. The findings of the study state that 'Fear of Risk' is the major challenge faced by customers in online shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic.