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From the local to the global: the journey of Suguna Foods
Learning outcomes: On completion of this case study, students will be able to understand collaboration and synergy between farmers and organisations through value creation, like fundraising, based on the comprehension of the resource-based theory; understand the overview and concept of the value chain and supply chain management in the agribusiness to reduce costs of inventories; understand the concept of segmentation and positioning to increase revenue for organisations by leveraging existing resources human and financial; and understand the branding strategy to create a sustainable competitive advantage for Suguna Foods. Case overview/synopsis: Suguna was started by two brothers, B. Soundararajan and G.B. Sundararajan, to help other farmers. Suguna, with just 200 broilers in 1984, grew to be the number 1 poultry company across India. Soundararajan was a pioneer and innovator who started contract farming in India in 1991. This model helped both the farmers and the company to became successful. The farmers always struggled to pay the cost of feed and other materials, as credit was not readily and easily available from financial institutions. Suguna helped farmers by providing feed, medicines, etc., free of cost in return for the good rearing of chickens. Because of the success of this venture, they decided to continue with it. Today, Suguna is a successful company that sells chicken, eggs and processed meat. They modernised the retail chain to supply consumers with fresh, healthy and hygienic meat. Sugunas vision was to Energize rural India by helping farmers succeed. They helped over 40,000 farmers from 15,000+ villages in 18+ Indian states. Although the growth helped both farmers and Suguna, the increased cost of raw materials for Suguna and increased input costs/power costs for farmers had to be tackled on a war footing so that both could have good income despite the increased inflation. Moreover, the retail price of live chicken was more or less stagnant in the past five years, especially after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Complexity academic level: This case can be used as the basis for a 90-min class discussion. This case study is suitable for use in an master of business administration course module or in an executive education program on developing an understanding of value creation in the business model in a rural market and also how the supply chain works. This case study can also be used to teach pricing, segmentation in marketing and supply chain perspectives and decision-making skills. Supplementary materials: Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code: CSS8: Marketing. 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited. -
Frustration Tolerance among Indian Youth: Exploring its relationship with Gratitude and Self Awareness
Introduction: For any person, adulthood is a difficult era of life filled with uncontrollable frustrations. The move from adolescence to young adulthood has reverberation as it marks a shift from adolescent's dependency to the chores and independence of young adulthood (Boll, 2017). Upon review, it was found that many researchers have established the effects of frustration, however, there is little research and evidence-based practice utilizing positive psychology interventions to target low frustration tolerance in youth. A vast body of research have established the positive consequences of gratitude and self awareness in one's life. The present study aims to explore the relationship between gratitude, self awareness and frustration tolerance among young adults. Methodology: Participants were selected through purposive sampling method. Data were collected from 167 young Indian adults (Females-94, Males-73) aged 19-35 years. Participants completed the three inventories measuring the variables of interest using the online survey forms. Data were analyzed by the SPSS software using descriptive analysis, correlation coefficients, and linear regression. Results: Findings show no significant relationship between gratitude and frustration tolerance (r=-0.071). However, there is a significant positive correlation of self awareness with frustration tolerance (r=0.271). The regression model showed that 7.3% of variance in frustration tolerance can be predicted by self awareness. Conclusion: Thus, self-awareness can be viewed as one of the important factors that impact frustration tolerance. The findings are consistent with previous research that has shown that self-awareness has important effects on performance, and emotions. Future implications are discussed. 2022 RESTORATIVE JUSTICE FOR ALL. -
FSDA: Framework for Secure Data Aggregation in wireless sensor network for enhancing key management
An effective key management plays a crucial role in imposing a resilient security technique in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). After reviewing the existing approaches of key management, it is confirmed that existing approachs does not offer good coverage on all potential security breaches in WSN. With WSN being essential part of Internet-of-Things (IoT), the existing approaches of key management can definitely not address such security breaches. Therefore, this paper introduces a Framework for Secure Data Aggregation (FSDA) that hybridizes the public key encryption mechanism in order to obtain a novel key management system. The proposed system does not target any specific attacks but is widely applicable for both internal and external attacks in WSN owing to its design principle. The study outcome exhibits that proposed FSDA offers highly reduced computational burden, minimal delay, less energy consumption, and higher data transmission perforance in contrast to frequency used encryption schemes in WSN. Copyright 2018 Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science. All rights reserved. -
Fuel coke derived nitrogen and phosphorus co-doped porous graphene structures for high-performance supercapacitors: The trail towards a brown-to-green transition
As the looming crisis of global energy market exponentially intensifies, the scientific community prompts the use of supercapacitors as a sustainable energy production/storage model and emission reduction strategy. Therefore, in this work, we present a cutting-edge approach for the high-value utilization of fossil fuel-derived materials in supercapacitor applications, promoting an integrated brown-to-green transition for energy, ecology, and the environment. Herein, nitrogen and phosphorus co-doped porous graphene sheets (a-NPGO) have been prepared from fuel coke, which exhibits outstanding electrochemical performance as a supercapacitor electrode material. The a-NPGO shows a high specific capacitance (322 F/g at 1 A/g) almost 11 times greater than the undoped coke-based graphene derivative. Furthermore, the symmetric supercapacitor assembled with a-NPGO-modified electrodes delivered an exceptional power density of 812 W/kg at energy density of 14 Wh/kg and an excellent capacitance retention of 90 % after 5000 charge-discharge cycles. This impression of coke-derived material in high-performance supercapacitors may broaden the horizon of the current electrochemical energy storage paradigm and afford the eco-conscious implementation of fossil fuel resources. 2023 Elsevier Ltd -
Fueling a greener tomorrow: The impact of energy diversification on green growth
Motivated by the necessity of attaining carbon neutrality and striking a balance between clean and conventional energy sources, the emphasis is on how urgent it is to combat climate change and make the switch to sustainable energy systems. In this context, the currentstudy aims to examine the effects of energy diversification on green growth, considering such complementary factors as green technology, human capital, remittance inflows, foreign direct investment inflows, trade openness, and gross fixed capital formation. An empirical analysis is conducted by framing a green growth function in the panel data framework which is analyzed using the dynamic standard correlated model for the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) for the period between 1995 and 2020. The results show that (i) energy diversification exerts a dampening effect on the trajectory of green growth, (ii) the process of green growth was affected due to green technology and foreign direct investment inflows, (iii) underscores the pivotal role of human capital and gross fixed capital formation in bolstering the green growth trajectory, (iv) despite their potential relevance, remittance inflows and trade openness exhibit negligible impact within the framework of the green growth function, thus underscoring their limited contribution to the overarching sustainable development. The practical policy recommendations and invaluable insights provided by these empirical findings are instrumental in fostering green growth among the BRICS countries. Moreover, it contributes to the discourse on sustainable development by providing a solid foothold for informing the development of relevant policies in similar situations around the world. 2024 United Nations. -
Fullerenes in the circumstellar medium of Herbig Ae/Be stars: insights from the Spitzer mid-infrared spectral catalog
This study presents the largest mid-infrared spectral catalogue of Herbig Ae/Be stars to date, containing the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph spectra of 126 stars. Based on the catalogue analysis, two prominent infrared vibrational modes of C60 bands at 17.4 and 18.9 ?m are detected in the spectra of nine sources, while 7.0 ?m feature is identified in the spectra of HD 319896. The spectral index analysis and the comparison of the known sources with C60 features indicated that there exist two different types of emission classes among the sample of stars. The infrared spectra of six Herbig Ae/Be stars in this study resemble that of reflection nebulae, and their association with previously known reflection nebulae is confirmed. In the case of three Herbig Ae/Be stars, we report the tentative evidence of C60 emission features originating from the circumstellar disc or nearby diffused emission region. The detection fraction of C60 in the total HAeBe star sample is ?7 per cent, whereas the detection fraction is 30 per cent for HAeBe stars associated with nebulosity. In the catalog, C60 is exclusively present in the circumstellar regions of B type Herbig Ae/Be stars, with no evidence of its presence detected in stars with later spectral types. The present study has increased the number of young stellar objects and reflection nebulae detected with C60 multifold, which can help in understanding the excitation and formation pathway of the species. 2023 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. -
Fully homomorphic encryption with matrix based digital signature standard
In this work, a novel mechanism is considered for Asymmetric mode encrypting data. A generator matrix is used to generate a field with a large prime number. The generator matrix, prime number and ternary vector are used as global variables. Those global variables are used to calculate public key and sub keys. Using the Global Variables and Private key, a Digital signature algorithm is proposed which supports the feature like Authenticity of users. The mechanism can also be used in Homomorphic Encryption where computations to be carried out on cipher text and generate an encrypted result which, when decrypted, matches the result of operations performed on the plaintext. 2017 Taru Publications. -
Functional carbon nanoparticles modified poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) nanocomposites with enhanced dielectric and antibacterial properties
The importance of nanocomposites with tailored properties is growing due to their applications in various fields. In the present study, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and functionalized carbon nanoparticles (f-CNPs) are synthesized by in-situ chemical oxidative polymerization and pyrolysis methods, respectively. The f-CNPs-PEDOT nanocomposites are prepared by varying the concentration of PEDOT (i.e., 1, 2.5, 5, 10, and 20 wt%), and the thermal stability, dielectric properties and antibacterial activities of f-CNPs-PEDOT nanocomposites were evaluated. The dielectric studies indicated that the addition of PEDOT has enhanced the dielectric properties due to interfacial polarization effect, whereas decreased the thermal stability due to degradation of PEDOT in the nanocomposite, however, it is higher than the pure PEDOT. The antimicrobial potential of synthesized f-CNPs-PEDOT nanocomposites was studied against two different bacterial strains, namely Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative Escherichia coli. The findings of this research have potential to open new opportunities for employing f-CNPs-PEDOT nanocomposites in physical sciences and antimicrobial applications. 2024 The Authors -
Functional characterization of Malabar grouper (Epinephelus malabaricus) interferon regulatory factor 9 involved in antiviral response
IRF9 is a crucial component in the JAK-STAT pathway. IRF9 interacts with STAT1 and STAT2 to form IFN-I-stimulated gene factor 3 (ISGF3) in response to type I IFN stimulation, which promotes ISG transcription. However, the mechanism by which IFN signaling regulates Malabar grouper (Epinephelus malabaricus) IRF9 is still elusive. Here, we explored the nd tissue-specific mRNA distribution of the MgIRF9 gene, as well as its antiviral function in E. malabaricus. MgIRF9 encodes a protein of 438 amino acids with an open reading frame of 1317 base pairs. MgIRF9 mRNA was detected in all tissues of a healthy M. grouper, with the highest concentrations in the muscle, gills, and brain. It was significantly up-regulated by nervous necrosis virus infection and poly (I:C) stimulation. The gel mobility shift test demonstrated a high-affinity association between MgIRF9 and the promoter of zfIFN in vitro. In GK cells, grouper recombinant IFN-treated samples showed a significant response in ISGs and exhibited antiviral function. Subsequently, overexpression of MgIRF9 resulted in a considerable increase in IFN and ISGs mRNA expression (ADAR1, ADAR1-Like, and ADAR2). Co-immunoprecipitation studies demonstrated that MgIRF9 and STAT2 can interact in vivo. According to the findings, M. grouper IRF9 may play a role in how IFN signaling induces ISG gene expression in grouper species. 2024 Elsevier B.V. -
Functional response, host stage preference and development of Rhynocoris fuscipes (Fab.) (Heteroptera: Reduviidae) for two cotton pests
Considering the indispensable role of reduviid predators in ecofriendly pest management programme, the relationship between a predatory reduviid, Rhynocoris fuscipes, and three prey species viz., red cotton bug Dysdercus koenigii Fab. (Heteroptera: Pyrrhocoridae), cotton mealybug Phenacoccus solenopsis (Tinsley) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) and rice flour moth Corcyra cephalonica Stainton (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), were scrutinized and studied to determine the influence of host species on biology, host stage preference and biological control efficiency under laboratory conditions. Rhynocoris fuscipes completed nymphal stage in 41 days when feeding on C. cephalonica, 45 on D. koenigii, and 50 days on P. solenopsis. Adult longevity, fecundity and egg viability were higher in C. cephalonica fed category and the lowest on P. solenopsis. Life table parameters were in favor of C. cephalonica. Third instars of D. koenigii were favored by third and fourth instars of the predator. Fifth instars and adults of the predator had chosen fourth and fifth instars of D. koenigii, respectively. All instars of predator preyed on adults of P. solenopsis. It is observed that the reduviid responded to increased D. koenigii and P. solenopsis density with type II functional response. Positive interactions distinctly imply that there is a salutary effect on the pest as well. 2021, Crop Protection Research Centre. All rights reserved. -
Fungal endophytic species Fusarium annulatum and Fusarium solani : Identification, molecular characterization, and study of plant growth promotion properties
Research on endophytic fungi has gained significant interest due to their potential to enhance plant growth directly by producing phytohormones, solubilizing macronutrients, fixing nitrogen, or indirectly inhibiting phytopathogens growth by producing ammonia, siderophore, hydrogen cyanide, or extracellular enzymes, thereby acting as biocontrol agents. The present study aimed to isolate fungal endophytes from Alternanthera philoxeroides and evaluate their plant growth promotion and antimicrobial activity. In total, nine fungal endophytic strains were isolated from different parts of A. philoxeroides such as leaves, roots, and stems. The results demonstrate that the strains MEFAphS1 and MEFAphR3 exhibited positive plant growth promotion properties, including phosphate solubilization, and IAA (Indoleacetic acid) production, and ammonia production. The IAA production was highest for MEFAphS1, with a concentration of 46.6351.04 g/mL, while MEFAphR3 displayed the highest ammonia production (0.9030.01 g/ mL). The phosphate solubilization index (PSI) is the maximum for MEFAphS1 (1.50.10). MEFAphS1 also exhibited antibacterial activity against Vibrio vulnificus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and V. parahaemolyticus, with the most substantial inhibition zone observed against V. vulnificus (281 mm). In contrast, MEFAphR3 showed an inhibition zone of 81.53 mm against V. parahaemolyticus. Molecular identification revealed the identity of the isolates MEFAphS1 and MEFAphR3 as Fusarium solani and F. annulatum. These results thus confirm the possible applications of the fungal endophytes as plant biofertilizers and bio-enhancers to increase crop productivity. Copyright: The Author(s). -
Fungi-Templated Silver Nanoparticle Composite: Synthesis, Characterization, and Its Applications
The self-assembly of nanoparticles on living bio-templates is a promising synthetic methodology adopted for synthesizing nano/microstructures with high efficiency. Therefore, the method of bio-templating offers various advantages in controlling the geometries of nano/microstructures, thereby increasing the efficiency of the synthesized material towards various functional applications. Herein, we utilized a filamentous fungus (Sclerotium rolfsii) as a soft bio-template to generate silver nanoparticle (AgNP) microtubules adhering to the fungal hyphae. The resulting composite combines the unique properties of silver nanoparticles with the biological activity of the fungi. The 3D fungal hyphaesilver nanoparticle (FH-AgNP) composite was characterized using SEM, elemental analysis, and the X-ray diffraction technique. Additionally, to highlight the functional application of the synthesized composite, dye degradation studies of methylene blue under visible light was effectuated, and a percentage degradation of 67.86% was obtained within 60 min, which highlights the potent catalytic activity of FH-AgNPs in dye degradation. Further, the antibacterial study of the composite was carried out against the bacterium Escherichia coli, and it was found that 200 ?g of the composite exhibited maximum antibacterial properties against Gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram negative (Escherichia coli) bacteria. Overall, fungi-templated silver nanoparticle composites are a promising area of research due to their combination of biological activity and unique physical and chemical properties. 2023 by the authors. -
Furaldehyde-based magnetic supported palladium nanoparticles as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for Mizoroki-Heck cross-coupling reaction
A novel palladium functionalised magnetic nanocatalyst (Fe3O4@SiO2-FA-Pd) was prepared using silica-coated iron oxide and furaldehyde Schiff base as a supported material. FT-IR, VSM, TEM, FESEM, XPS, EDAX and TGA were used to analyse the morphological structure and chemical composition of Fe3O4@SiO2-FA-Pd NPs. Thus, the prepared Fe3O4@SiO2-FA-Pd NPs as a magnetic nanocatalyst were used in the Mizoroki-Heck reaction of arylbromide and terminal alkenes, exhibiting effective catalysis with good yields. The magnetic nanocatalyst can be reused up to 6 times without significantly losing catalytic activity and is easily separable from the reaction mixture. This new catalytic system has significant and potentially useful applications in the pharmaceutical industry. 2024 The Royal Society of Chemistry. -
Further Discussion on the Significance of Quartic Autocatalysis on the Dynamics of Water Conveying 47nm Alumina and 29nm Cupric Nanoparticles
Improvement of product performance, efficiency, and reliability is a major concern of experts, scientists, and technologists dealing with the dynamics of water conveying nanoparticles on objects with nonuniform thickness either coated or sprayed with the catalyst. However, little is known on the significance of quartic autocatalysis as it affects the dynamics of water conveying alumina and cupric nanoparticles. In this study, comparative analysis between the dynamics of water conveying 29nm CuO and 47nm Al 2O 3 on an upper horizontal surface of a paraboloid of revolution is modeled and presented. In the transport phenomena, migration of nanoparticles due to temperature gradient, the haphazard motion of nanoparticles, and diffusion of motile microorganisms were incorporated into the mathematical models. Due to the inherent nature of the thermophysical properties of the two nanofluids, viscosity, density, thermal radiation, and heat capacity of the two nanofluids were incorporated in the mathematical model. The nonlinear partial differential equations that model the transport phenomenon were transformed, non-dimensionalized and parameterized. The corresponding boundary value problems were converted to an initial value problem using the method of superposition and solved numerically. The concentration of the catalyst increases significantly with buoyancy at a larger magnitude of space-dependent internal heat source in the flow of 29nm CuOwater nanofluid. Negligible migration of nanoparticles due to temperature gradient decreases the concentration of the fluid throughout the domain. 2020, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals. -
Further results on equitable near proper coloring of derived graph families
A proper coloring assigns distinct colors to the adjacent vertices of a graph. An equitable near proper coloring of a graph G is an improper coloring in which neighbouring vertices are allowed to receive the same color such that the cardinalities of two distinct color classes differ by not more than one and the number of monochromatic edges is minimised by giving certain restrictions on the number of color classes that can have an edge between them. This paper discusses the equitable near proper coloring of line, middle, and total graphs of certain graph classes, such as paths, cycles, sunlet graphs, star graphs, and gear graphs. 2024 The Author(s). Published by Combinatorial Press. -
Further results on induced graphoidal decomposition
Discrete Mathematics, Algorithms and applications Vol.5, No.1, ISSN No.1793-8317 -
Further results on induced graphoidal decomposition
Let G be a nontrivial, simple, finite, connected and undirected graph. A graphoidal decomposition (GD) of G is a collection ? of paths and cycles in G that are internally disjoint such that every edge of G lies in exactly one member of ?. As a variation of GD the notion of induced graphoidal decomposition (IGD) was introduced in [S. Arumugam, Path covers in graphs (2006)] which is a GD all of whose members are either induced paths or induced cycles. The minimum number of elements in such a decomposition of a graph G is called the IGD number, denoted by ?i(G). In this paper, we extend the study of the parameter ?i by establishing bounds for ?i(G) in terms of the diameter, girth and the maximum degree along with characterization of graphs achieving the bounds. 2013 World Scientific Publishing Company. -
Further Results on the 3-Consecutive Vertex Coloring Number of Certain Graphs
A 3-consecutive vertex coloring is an assignment of colors on vertices of a graph G such that for any 3-consecutive vertices a, b and c, the color of b is the same as the color of a or c. ? 3c(G) denotes the maximum number of colors that can be used to 3-consecutive vertex color a graph G. The main aim of this article is to give the value of ? 3c(G) for some particular types of graphs, which includes: necklace graphs; the Cartesian product of two paths, a cycle and a path, and two cycles; the corona product of a path and a clique; Mobius Ladder graphs; the 3rd edge line graph; triangular snake graphs, double triangular snake graphs, triple triangular snake graphs, quadrilateral snake graphs and the alternative versions of them; Hanoi graphs; Sun graphs; Barbel graphs; the n-pan graph. The objective of this article is to explore some important results on ? 3c(G). 2024 The Authors. -
Further studies on circulant completion of graphs
A circulant graph C(n, S) is a graph having its adjacency matrix as a circulant matrix. It can also be interpreted as a graph with vertices v0, v1,,vn?1 that are in one-to-one correspondence with the members of Zn and with edge set {vivj: i ? j ? S}, where S known as the connection set or symbol, is a subset of non-identity members of Zn that is closed under inverses. This work extends the study of circulant completion and general formulae for calculating circulant completion numbers in two different perspectives, one in terms of circulant span and the other in terms of the adjacency matrix. (2024), (SciELO-Scientific Electronic Library Online). All Rights Reserved. -
Fusion model of wavelet transform and adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system for stock market prediction
Stock market prediction is one of the most important financial subjects that have drawn researchers attention for many years. Several factors affecting the stock market make stock market forecasting highly complicated and a difficult task. The successful prediction of a stock market may promise attractive benefits. Various data mining methods such as artificial neural network (ANN), fuzzy system (FS), and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) etc are being widely used for predicting stock prices. The goal of this paper is to find out an efficient soft computing technique for stock prediction. In this paper, time series prediction model of closing price via fusion of wavelet-adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (WANFIS) is formulated, which is capable of predicting stock market. The data used in this study were collected from the internet sources. The fusion forecasting model uses the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) to decompose the financial time series data. The obtained approximation and detailed coefficients after decomposition of the original time series data are used as input variables of ANFIS to forecast the closing stock prices. The proposed model is applied on four different companies previous data such as opening price, lowest price, highest price and total volume share traded. The day end closing price of stock is the outcome of WANFIS model. Numerical illustration is provided to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed model and is compared with the existing techniques namely ANN and hybrid of ANN and wavelet to prove its effectiveness. The experimental results reveal that the proposed fusion model achieves better forecasting accuracy than either of the models used separately. From the results, it is suggested that the fusion model WANFIS provides a promising alternative for stock market prediction and can be a useful tool for practitioners and economists dealing with the prediction of stock market. 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.