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Filamentous fungi for pharmaceutical compounds degradation in the environment: A sustainable approach
Pharmaceutical compounds play an important role in enhancing the quality of human life. They substantially increase the life expectancy of humans and the well-being of livestock. The expansion in the global human population has increased the usage of pharmaceuticals in an enormous way. This has led to the emergence of pharmaceutical compounds as environmental pollutants because these components are continuously released to various water sources and terrestrial ecosystems. The pharmaceutical components are released during their synthesis, as waste from human and veterinary healthcare sectors, and dumping of drugs that are not used. Pharmaceutical components are known to persist in their potential even at lower concentrations and can create serious issues for ecosystems, especially aquatic systems. Various efforts are being made to remove or reduce the toxicity of pharmaceutical components in aquatic systems. Bioremediation using fungi is one of the most secure and sustainable ways of decontaminating polluted environments. With their strong morphology and diverse metabolic abilities, Fungi employ different methods including fungal enzymes to clear pollutants. Studies have proven that fungi and fungal enzymes can transform these pharmaceutical compounds into less toxic components. This review highlights the role of fungi in the bioremediation of pharmaceutical compounds. 2023 The Author(s) -
SWITCHING INTENTION AND SWITCHING BEHAVIOR OF ADULTS IN THE NON-LIFE INSURANCE SECTOR: MEDIATING ROLE OF BRAND LOVE
In this digital era, customers in the insurance sector always look for better insurance products and services at an affordable price. When customers are unsure about service, they switch over to a better service provider. This behavior is more relevant to non-life insurance. However, the switching behavior of customers is hampered by certain switchover barriers such as brand consciousness, brand pride, brand loyalty, etc. This study focuses on exploring switching intentions and switching behaviors of adults in India keeping brand love as a mediator. A structured questionnaire was employed to collect the primary data from adults having non-life insurance products to analyze switching intentions and switching behaviors. The collected data were analyzed employing SPSS software and Hayes Process Model and appropriate statistical tools. The study results show that the switching intentions of adults vary based on their age, annual income, and education. Mean scores reveal that the lesser the age, the higher the intention to switch over. Further, based on annual income, adults who earn up to Rs 2 lakhs annually have more switching-over intentions (Mean score: 3.9719) followed by adults who earn Rs more than 2 lakhs to 5 lakhs annually (Mean score: 3.7590). Mean scores of education levels regarding switching intentions are higher among more educated adults and less among those who are qualified up to the school level. Arun Kumar N., Girish S., Suresha B., Mahesh E., 2023. -
Gender of the Firm Owner and Export Determinants of the Firms in India: an Empirical Analysis
This study aims to analyse the factors that influence the export decision of firms in India. These factors are unorthodox to the macroeconomic variables, for example, specific firm characteristics and resource stock variables that an enterprise in India may or may not have command over. The most significant of the firm characteristic variables is the gender of the firm owner. Given the binary identity of the explained variable (Export Status of a Firm), the paper uses Binary Logistic Regression. It reports the odds ratio for the individual variable interpretation. The study has also examined descriptive findings and model fit using the Hosmer. The study ceases a statistically significant relationship between the gender of the firm owner and the export decision of a firm. The odds of the firm being an exporter increases when the firm owner is a female. Further, the study also interprets several firm characteristics and resource stock variables that had an impact on the export decision of a firm in India. 2024 AESSRA. All rights reserved. -
Clustering of low-mass stars around Herbig Be star IL Cep - Evidence of 'Rocket Effect' using Gaia EDR3 ?
We study the formation and the kinematic evolution of the early-type Herbig Be star IL Cep and its environment. The young star is a member of the Cep OB3 association, at a distance of 798 9 pc, and has a 'cavity' associated with it. We found that the B0V star HD 216658, which is astrometrically associated with IL Cep, is at the centre of the cavity. From the evaluation of various pressure components created by HD 216658, it is established that the star is capable of creating the cavity. We identified 79 co-moving stars of IL Cep at 2-pc radius from the analysis of Gaia EDR3 astrometry. The transverse velocity analysis of the co-moving stars shows that they belong to two different populations associated with IL Cep and HD 216658, respectively. Further analysis confirms that all the stars in the IL Cep population are mostly coeval (?0.1 Myr). Infrared photometry revealed that there are 26 Class II objects among the co-moving stars. The stars without circumstellar disc (Class III) are 65 per cent of all the co-moving stars. There are nine intense H ? emission candidates identified among the co-moving stars using IPHAS H ? narrow-band photometry. The dendrogram analysis on the Hydrogen column density map identified 11 molecular clump structures on the expanding cavity around IL Cep, making it an active star-forming region. The formation of the IL Cep stellar group due to the 'rocket effect' by HD 216658 is discussed. 2021 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. -
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. -
On the Mass Accretion Rate and Infrared Excess in Herbig Ae/Be Stars
The present study makes use of the unprecedented capability of the Gaia mission to obtain the stellar parameters such as distance, age, and mass of HAeBe stars. The accuracy of Gaia DR2 astrometry is demonstrated from the comparison of the Gaia DR2 distances of 131 HAeBe stars with the previously estimated values from the literature. This is one of the initial studies to estimate the age and mass of a confirmed sample of HAeBe stars using both the photometry and distance from the Gaia mission. Mass accretion rates are calculated from H? line flux measurements of 106 HAeBe stars. Since we used distances and the stellar masses derived from the Gaia DR2 data in the calculation of the mass accretion rate, our estimates are more accurate than previous studies. The mass accretion rate is found to decay exponentially with age, from which we estimated a disk dissipation timescale of 1.9 0.1 Myr. The mass accretion rate and stellar mass exhibit a power-law relation of the form . From the distinct distribution in the values of the infrared spectral index, n2-4.6, we suggest the possibility of difference in the disk structure between Herbig Be and Herbig Ae stars. 2019. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.. -
Discovery of an M-type companion to the Herbig Ae Star V1787 Ori
The intermediate-mass Herbig Ae star V1787 Ori is a member of the L1641 star-forming region in the Orion A molecular cloud. We report the detection of an M-type companion to V1787 Ori at a projected separation of 6.66 arcsec (corresponding to 2577 au), from the analysis of VLT/NACO adaptive optics Ks-band image. Using astrometric data from Gaia DR2, we show that V1787 Ori A and B share similar distance (d ?387 pc) and proper motion, indicating that they are physically associated. We estimate the spectral type of V1787 Ori B to be M5 2 from colour-spectral type calibration tables and template matching using SpeX spectral library. By fitting PARSEC models in the Pan-STARRS colour-magnitude diagram, we find that V1787 Ori B has an age of 8.1$^{+1.7}_{-1.5}$ Myr and a mass of 0.39$^{+0.02}_{-0.05}$ M. We show that V1787 Ori is a pre-main-sequence wide binary system with a mass ratio of 0.23. Such a low-mass ratio system is rarely identified in Herbig Ae/Be binary systems. We conclude this work with a discussion on possible mechanisms for the formation of V1787 Ori wide binary system. 2020 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. -
Is the effect of oil price shock asymmetric on the Indian stock market? Firm-level evidence from energy-intensive companies
Purpose: This paper aims to examine the asymmetric impact of the oil price increase and decrease on stock returns at the firm level. Design/methodology/approach: To ascertain the impact oil price can exert on the stock price at the firm level, this study uses panel structural vector auto regression with various linear and nonlinear measures of oil price shock on a data set, containing 1,168 firms listed in Indian stock markets. This study also considers stock index returns, Fama-French factors and inflation as control variables. Findings: This paper finds evidence that at firm level, net oil price increase and decrease have an asymmetric impact on stock returns. Other oil price shock measures, namely, shock because of oil price increase and decrease, do not show any sign of asymmetric impact on stock returns. Originality/value: The comparison of firm-level return on its response towards oil price fluctuation can give valuable insights into a firms features. 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited. -
Factors affecting the competitive capability of small and medium women entrepreneurs
Small and medium women entrepreneurs have a major contribution in the countrys economic development. After the implication of liberalization, privatization and globalization, all the countries are paying attention to support small and medium women entrepreneurs in order to mobilize maximum resources, generate employment opportunities and to improve competitiveness among them. However, today women entrepreneurs are still facing many problems in terms of finance, human resources, marketing, technology capability etc. These capabilities will result in the development of competitive capability of small and medium women entrepreneurs. Competitive capability is very important in order to sustain not only in the local market but also in the national and international market. Therefore, this study is an attempt to explore the factors affecting the competitive capability of small and medium women entrepreneurs. This study is surveyed 400 women entrepreneurs and obtained complete response from 384women entrepreneurs with 23 questions. The data is collected from November 2019 to January 2020. Simple random sampling technique, Cronbach's alpha and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique are used in the study to obtain the research result. Finally, the study concludes that there are five factors that affect the competitive capability of small and medium women entrepreneurs with significance level 0.05 and the influence of technology capability is more compare to other capabilities on competitiveness of the women entrepreneurs. 2020 SERSC. -
A unique adventure - unity based 3D game
The number of gamers are increasing day by day and as a result the gaming industry has seen a huge growth. There was a curiosity to get the in-depth detail so as to how a game is developed. The final year project was a great opportunity to explore this field and to make something that would be fun as well as useful. The proposed work gives the detailed description about the entire process of game development. A game is created with three different levels. Each level comes with a particular set of objectives. The objectives of each level need to be attained in order to proceed to the next level. The environment in the game resembles the Christ Kengeri campus. For that, 3D model of Christ Kengeri campus is designed. 3D modeling is done in Unity and Blender software platform. A* is the search algorithm that has been used for pathfinding. The languages that Unity uses to operate with are objectoriented scripting languages. Scripting languages have its own syntax and the primary parts are called functions, variables and classes. Also each level has its own coding and is not linked with any other. In each level a new character is introduced. 2019, Institute of Advanced Scientific Research, Inc. All rights reserved. -
Computerized grading of brain tumors supplemented by artificial intelligence
For effective diagnosis of health conditions, there is a need to process medical images to obtain meaningful information. The diagnosis of brain tumors begins with magnetic resonance imaging (or MRI) scan. This is followed by segmentation of the medical images so obtained which can prove cumbersome if it were to be performed manually. Determining the best approach to do segmentation remains challenge among multiple computerized approaches. This paper combines both the identification and classification of tumors from the MRI results and is backed by a cloud-based framework to provision the same. The phase of extraction of features includes the utilization of a Hadoop framework and Gabor filter along with variations in terms of orientation and scale. Artificial bee colony algorithm and support vector machine classifier have been used to designate the degree of optimal features and categorize the same. The grading of brain tumors from MRI images can be fulfilled by the aforementioned approach. The said approach is believed to deliver promising results in terms of accuracy, which has also been verified experimentally. 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature. -
An advanced variable temperature refrigerator for preservation and management of food items
All food items will have shelf life period. The main aim of food preservation is to maximize the shelf life period and preservation of nutrients for a long period. One of the preservation methods is refrigeration. Each food item will have its own optimum storage temperature to maximize the shelf life period. Normal refrigerators have fixed temperature. The work proposes a refrigerator with six compartments which is equipped with temperature sensors to maintain the fixed temperature for that compartment and with weighing sensors to monitor the depleting food items with the help of a controller. 2019, Institute of Advanced Scientific Research, Inc. All rights reserved. -
Gender-based spatial segregation: ladies compartments in the Mumbai local trains
The local trains of Mumbai are one of the most crowded means of public transport, but often preferred by many women due to the provision of exclusive ladies compartments reserved for women. While these compartments provide women a space safe from sexual assault, conflicts due to class and religious differences arise among the women who occupy this in-between space. Moreover, the continuous use of ladies compartments leads to the labelling of general compartment as gents, affects the interactions between men and women in different railway spaces, and also configures the public as already segregated according to a binary understanding of gender. Based on the findings from an ethnographic study of womens experiences of using the ladies compartments, I argue that the provision of segregation gives rise to specific mobility practices in the ladies compartments. The logic of segregation spills over to other railway spaces, and these can complicate our understanding of mobility as empowering for women travellers. 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. -
Travel time activities Mobility and femininities in the ladies compartments of the Mumbai local trains
Activities undertaken during everyday commutes have often been studied to prove the inherent value of travel time to the commuters. Women commuters using the ladies compartments of the Mumbai local trains use this time to eat and share food, shop, chitchat, and watch sitcoms on their phones. Undertaken in a gender-segregated space, these activities make womens mobility an avenue for the performance of their femininities. Thus, while the association between masculinity and mobility stands questioned, what merits enquiry is whether mobility for women is premised on their effective performance of hegemonic femininities. 2022 The Society for Ethnographic Theory. All rights reserved. -
ESG efficiency analysis in the IT industry: a DEA-based approach
Unlocking the power of sustainable growth, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles are redefining the future of responsible investment and corporate excellence. ESG regulations ensure that organizations maintain sustainable development and improve non-monetary metrics, such as stakeholders engagement, customer satisfaction, market acceptability, societal ethics, and values. Higher ESG scores demonstrate commitment towards responsible business practices and indicate higher market value for companies, which are valid for all sectors, including IT. However, existing literature reveals that IT sector companies pay less attention to planning their operations to make them more sustainable. Therefore, IT firms must identify methods and practices to maintain high ESG scores to achieve sustainable growth. The current study leads the readers into a new area of ESG through the help of an advanced method, DEA. DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) methodology has been used to identify the decision units relative efficiency scores and helps identify peers and followers based on ESG scores. The study reveals that among the selected IT firms using the output-oriented strategy, 56.25% experience increasing returns to scale, 18.75 per cent experience decreasing returns to scale, and the remaining 25.00 per cent report constant returns to scale. This indicates that most IT industry firms can generate greater output change in proportion to the input change. 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. -
Consumption of antibiotics as self-medication from over-the-counter purchase: An empirical study
Objective: The primary objective of this study is to find the reasons behind the practice of self-medication (SM) by the people with over-the-counter (OTC) drugs which are usually available in all medical stores. Methods: This article presents an empirical view of SM practice with OTC drugs. The research design of the study is descriptive, and the population of the study is customers who buy OTC drugs. The target population of this research is the common public who are all having the possibility to consume OTC drugs ever. The sampling technique used for this study is a systematic random sampling, and the sample size is 144. An instrument used for collecting data is a self-administered questionnaire and personal interview with the pharmacists. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: The study results that most of the OTC customers consider SM is not a good practice, even though they practice SM of antibiotics in certain circumstances, due to reasons such as time-saving, convenience, cost saving, avoid waiting time to consult a doctor, easy and quick availability of antibiotics in neighbourhood drug stores, etc. Conclusion: The study concludes the reasons behind the SM practice and some remedies to overcome OTC drug-related problems from SM. 2017 The Authors. Published by Innovare Academic Sciences Pvt Ltd. -
Impact of Social Networking Sites on Academic Performance and Career through Collaborative Learning (with Reference to Students of Self-financing Engineering Colleges in Tiruchirappalli)
Use of Social Networking Sites (SNSs) is having a growing importance among students in their everyday life. It acts as an essential tool for them in higher level education. Among the social networking sites Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, LinkedIn is gaining more support from the student community. It helps the students to communicate each other directly like face to face interaction. SNSs are having an ability to induce students decision making capability. Based on this, the study tries to emphasize the ability of the SNSs to induce the students academic performance using collaborative learning among various groups in which they belong. The result reveals that collaborative learning will have a major impact on academic performance, i.e. 49.6% of the respondents stated that they are using SNSs for academic purpose. They use SNSs for sharing of information and study materials with their peers. SNSs help them to be interacting with their peers and teachers. Serials Publications Pvt. Ltd. -
Occupants perspective on building maintenance and workers maintenance performance in residential buildings - An empirical study
The entire life cycle of a building involves planning, design, construction, occupancy, operation, maintenance, demolition and removal of wastes. Maintenance is a never ending process in the life cycle of buildings which plays an essential role in building operation. To meet the changing needs of building construction, environment and technology, building maintenance is essential for improving the performance of buildings and for retaining the value and service life of buildings. The main purpose of this study is to establish a sound maintenance strategy for improving the building maintenance services in the areas of Tanjore district, Tamil Nadu which helps to improve occupants satisfaction to a desired level. The present study focuses on the factors influencing building maintenance and assessment of performance of building maintenance service providers. This study attempts to identify the parameters that strengthens and weakens the performance of building maintenance from the occupants perspective. An extensive survey has been conducted with 104 occupants who are residing in pertinent areas of Tanjore in order to determine the predominant factors that have causation effect on building maintenance and workers performance from the perspective of occupants. The research findings indicated that there exists a positive significant correlation exists statistically between performance of maintenance workers and effective functioning of residential buildings for comfort living of occupants. Serials Publications Pvt. Ltd. -
Novel super stack passivation in AlGaN/GaN HEMT for power electronic applications
A super-stack passivation technique is proposed for an AlGaN/GaN HEMT in order to improve the breakdown voltage and cutoff frequency. The performance of the proposed technique is benchmarked against a conventional GaN HEMT. The analysis and investigation are carried out using Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD). The simulation results are validated with experimental data. It is observed that the breakdown voltage of the conventional and proposed devices is 356V and 449V, respectively. In contrast to the conventional device, the breakdown voltage of the proposed device is improved by 21%. This is the manifestation of the suppression of the electric field by the super-stack passivation technique in the proposed device. Furthermore, it is also observed that the Johnsons figure of merit in the proposed GaN-HEMT is also improved. 2024 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd. -
Cross Correlation Between Plasmaspheric Hiss Waves and Enhanced Radiation Levels at Aviation Altitudes
Enhanced radiation in the Earth's atmosphere can pose serious hazards to pilots, aircraft passengers, and commercial space travelers. Recent results have shown, statistically, that there is a strong correlation between dose rates observed by Automated Radiation Measurements for Aerospace Safety (ARMAS) instruments at aviation altitudes (>9km) and plasmaspheric hiss wave power measured by NASA's Van Allen Probes within the inner magnetosphere. Plasmaspheric hiss waves play a very important role in removing energetic electrons from the Earth's radiation belts by precipitating them into the upper atmosphere. These relativistic electrons generally drift eastwards along closed magnetic drift shells. In this study, we use magnetic conjunction events between ARMAS and the Van Allen Probes to analyze the causality between plasmaspheric hiss waves and enhanced radiation observed at aviation altitude. We specifically study how the size of the conjunction window and a shift in L and MLT of the conjunction window affect the correlation between dose rates and plasmaspheric hiss wave power. This is to determine if the observed enhanced radiation at aviation altitude is indeed caused by the plasmaspheric hiss waves in the inner magnetosphere. The results show that the enhanced radiation levels are only correlated with plasmaspheric hiss waves within conjunction windows of ?1 (Formula presented.) L (Formula presented.) 1 and 0 (Formula presented.) MLT (Formula presented.) 2. The correlation between dose rate and hiss wave power increases slightly if ARMAS is shifted approximately 1hr in MLT to the east of the Van Allen Probes, consistent with the drift trajectory of the electrons precipitating into the atmosphere. 2025. The Author(s).