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Capturing non-financial information in integrated reporting
In the contemporary business scenario, integrated reporting is a transformational form of corporate reporting. Integrated reporting provides material and substantial information about an entitys prospects, governance, strategy and actions that serve as a reflection of social and commercial viability within the holistic environment in which it operates (IIRC, 2013). Thus, in integrated reports, along with financial information the critical non-financial aspects that affect the reputation, performance and sustainability of the firm are also required to be reported by companies. While regulations are instituted for compulsory divulgence of non-financial information as part of annual reports, there is a lot of ambiguity regarding the non- financial items to be included and the manner of reporting. This paper delineates the non-financial capital components for disclosure in integrated reports. It also discusses the current practices of integrated reporting world over, which will help organisations gain clarity in presenting the non-financial items under different heads of non-financial capitals. Copyright 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. -
Carbon Dioxide Neutralization across the Global Supply Chain
The increased impacts of climatic changes and global warming has led many organizations to adopt green initiatives in several areas of their business processes. Many multinational companies are moving towards reduction of carbon emission across its various operations. Carbon neutrality is the process where steps are taken to achieve net zero carbon dioxide emissions. This article proposes measures to achieve carbon neutrality across the supply chain globally. As part of its sustainability initiative, organizations have decided to reduce carbon consumption across their plants. This calls for estimation of carbon dioxide emissions and reducing the carbon footprint in the entire supply chain process. It also involves gauging Green House CO2 emissions during the transportation process for all TMC regions and Transportation models used by various companies. The main calculations include total CO2 emissions, CO2 Emissions per Ton. Of Goods Transported, CO2 Emissions per Transport Km. These calculations are done based on factors such as Full Truck Load, Less Truck Load, Sea mode of transportation and Air mode of transportation. An analysis is performed on the resulting calculation figures for different modes of transportation such as road, air and sea. The analysis shows that there is an increase in overall CO2e for Air mode of transportation. The least increase in overall Co2 is Sea mode of transportation. Through this analysis, it helps the company to take better decisions regarding the mode of transportation that they need to adopt to achieve carbon neutrality. The Electrochemical Society -
Carbon Disclosure and Organization Performance: A Literature Review
As a response to the threat of climate change, a growing number of businesses are voluntarily reporting carbon statistics. This article provides a comprehensive understanding of carbon disclosure, organization performance (OP), and cost of capital. This study aims to map the landscape of existing carbon disclosure and firm performance research completed over the past 10 years (2013-2022) utilizing bibliometric analysis. Sparked by the growing political, social, academic, and practical significance of controlling and reporting on climate-related concerns worldwide, this study analyzes the production and acquisition of information about significant regions and territories, institutions, publications, and channels for carbon disclosure and firm performance research using data from 878 publications retrieved from the Scopus database. To identify themes and subthemes in the research on carbon disclosure and firm performance, network analysis was utilized to reveal connections between the topics represented by keywords. Further, critical gaps have been highlighted in the literature, such as: the lack of carbon disclosure research across cross-sector settings, the lack of sectorial comparisons on the carbon disclosure practices, and the dearth of analyses of both pre-carbon disclosure and after-carbon disclosure practices and their impact on various financial and nonfinancial issues (for example, cost of capital and firm performance, sustainability, and climate change). Finally, this study makes specific recommendations for future carbon disclosure and firm performance research. 2023 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. -
Carbon Dot-Based Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) Systems for Biomedical, Sensing, and Imaging Applications
Carbon dots (CDs) emerge as a potential group of photo-luminescent nano-materials due to their excellent optical, electrical, and chemical properties, as well as their competence in a wide range of environmental applications. CDs have unique and appealing properties such as excellent stability, low toxicity, water solubility, and derivability. When coupled with CDs, fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) results in the development of highly sensitive ratiometric fluorescence sensor probes with potential applications in bio-imaging, metal sensing, membrane dynamics, and environmental sensing. In this review, the progress and recent developments in CDs based FRET systems utilized for various environmental applications are conferred. An in-depth description is provided regarding the numerous donor/acceptor systems which when integrated with CDs generate efficient FRET systems. The review enables researchers to identify and develop specific systems which can be utilized to generate a FRET pair with potential physicochemical properties that aid the development of the same for various applications. 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH. -
Carbon dots as an effective material in enzyme immobilization for sensing applications
In carbon dots (CDs), both graphene quantum dots and carbon quantum dots were the latest entrants to the carbon family, all of which are spherical carbon nanoparticles of size <10nm. CDs have found their way in the various applications in the field of chemical sensing, biosensing, bioimaging, photocatalysis, nanomedicine, and electrocatalysis ever since their discovery. CDs provide interesting attributes to electrochemical and optical biosensing using enzyme biosensor due to they have desired advantages of biocompatibility, excellent physicochemical properties, high resistance to photo bleaching, intrinsic non/low-toxicity, high solubility, large specific surface area for the binding of enzymes, and low quantum yields, as well as their ability for modification with the attractive surface area. Surface active functional groups such as epoxide, hydroxyl(OH), and carboxylic acid (COOH) groups can be used for the immobilizing biomolecules on CDs. The enzyme immobilization is a process which is generally carried out by ionic/covalent interaction, encapsulation, and adsorption. The process of adsorption is considered to be a simple, effective, and economical method for enzyme immobilization. Thus enzymes immobilized on CDs have shown significant improvement in both activity and stability. This chapter aims to throw light on the progress and development of enzyme immobilization (e.g., laccase, bovine serum albumin, and horseradish peroxidase) in the CDs, which acts as a probe for sensing application, with laying emphasis on their synthesis along with the challenges faced in this exciting and promising field. 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. -
Carbon dots derived from frankincense soot for ratiometric and colorimetric detection of lead (II)
We report a simple one-pot hydrothermal synthesis of carbon dots from frankincense soot. Carbon dots prepared from frankincense (FI-CDs) have narrow size distribution with an average size of 1.80 nm. FI-CDs emit intense blue fluorescence without additional surface functionalization or modification. A negative surface charge was observed for FI-CDs, indicating the abundance of epoxy, carboxylic acid, and hydroxyl functionalities that accounts for their stability. A theoretical investigation of the FI-CDs attached to oxygen-rich functional groups is incorporated in this study. The characteristics of FI-CDs signify arm-chair orientation, which is confirmed by comparing the indirect bandgap of FI-CDs with the bandgap obtained from Tauc plots. Also, we demonstrate that the FI-CDs are promising fluoroprobes for the ratiometric detection of Pb2+ ions (detection limit of 0.12 ?M). The addition of Pb2+ to FI-CD solution quenched the fluorescence intensity, which is observable under illumination by UV light LED chips. We demonstrate a smartphone-assisted quantification of the fluorescence intensity change providing an efficient strategy for the colorimetric sensing of Pb2+ in real-life samples. 2022 IOP Publishing Ltd. -
Carbon Dots from Natural Sources for Biomedical Applications
Carbon dots (CD), a class of 0D nanomaterials, have gained much research attention over the years due to their uniqueness in properties such as tunable photoluminescence, biocompatibility, low toxicity, water-solubility, and chemical stability. Converting inexpensive biomass to valuable materials highlights the synthesis and applications of biomass-derived CDs. This review summarizes the research and development related to the synthesis, properties, and applications of biomass-derived CDs, furnishing a comprehensive list of biomass-derived CDs with their properties and potential applications. This review's discussions and references span the properties that equip CDs for their diverse biomedical applications, such as bioimaging, sensing, drug delivery, phototherapy, and nanomedicine. 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH. -
Carbon dots-Zno/TiO2 ternary nanocomposite as a proficient material to enhance the performance of natural DSSC
A novel sustainable approach for enhancing the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) involves the utilization of a combination of ZnO and carbon dots (CDs) derived from Citrus medica fruit extract, along with microwave-synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles for the preparation of the photoanode. Natural dyes such as Hibiscus rosa-sinensis and Allium Cepa peel are employed as sensitizers to reduce production costs. This co-activation method has demonstrated a significant improvement in the output parameters of the devices. Notably, the photoanode co-activated with ZnO-CD composite (ZnO-CD/TiO2) exhibits the most favorable output parameters when combined with Hibiscus rosa-sinensis dye (open circuit voltage (Voc) = 0.80 V, short circuit current density (Jsc) = 6.62 mA/cm2, fill factor (FF) = 64.20 %, photo conversion efficiency (PCE) = 3.40 %) and Allium Cepa peel dye (Voc = 0.81 V, Jsc = 6.79 mA/cm2, FF = 65.70 %, PCE = 3.61 %). When paired with Allium Cepa dye, the CD modified photoanode (CD/TiO2) offers Voc = 0.73 V, Jsc = 6.64 mA/cm2, FF = 61.27 % and PCE = 2.97 %. Similarly, when combined with Hibiscus rosa-sinensis dye, the output parameters of the CD/TiO2 photoanode are Voc = 0.72 V, Jsc = 6.54 mA/cm2, FF = 64.4 % and PCE = 3.03 %. In comparison to all tested devices, the unmodified photoanode (TiO2) displayed the lowest performance, with parameters such as Voc = 0.59 V, Jsc = 6.45 mA/cm2, FF = 52.5 %, PCE = 2.10 % using Allium Cepa peel dye, and Voc = 0.66 V, Jsc = 6 mA/cm2, FF = 51.60 %, PCE = 2.04 % using Hibiscus rosa-sinensis dye. Furthermore, the co-activation process has been shown to enhance the stability of the devices. While the unmodified photoanodes ceased to operate after eight days, the ZnO-CD composite co-activated photoanodes retained their initial efficiencies up to 61.50 % and 68.53 % with the Allium Cepa peel dye and Hibiscus rosa-sinensis dye, respectively. Therefore, this study underscores the potential of the synthesized composite material in enhancing the performance of natural DSSCs. 2024 Elsevier Ltd -
Carbon Nanotube-Polymer Nanocomposites for Energy Storage and Conversion
A large global commitment is necessary to scale up the deployment of renewable energy, engage in research and development, and implement energy-efficient practices. The development of large-scale energy storage technologies is crucial to fully harness renewable resources, ensure grid stability, and facilitate a more sustainable and reliable energy future. This becomes increasingly important as the demand for clean and renewable energy grows. Polymer nanocomposites have demonstrated considerable promise in energy storage and conversion. These nanocomposites can have better mechanical strength, electrical conductivity, thermal stability, and electrochemical performance due to adding nanoparticles or nanofillers to polymer matrices. Although carbon nanotubes (CNTs) cansignificantly enhance the characteristics of polymers at extremely low filler loadings, they are the perfect filler for both structural and functional applications. An extensive review of current studies on the synthesis and modification of polymer nanocomposites reinforced with CNTs is given in this chapter. To promote this new subject, it also severely evaluates a number of applications pertaining to energy conversion and storage. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024. -
Carbon Nanotubes for Supercapacitors
Supercapacitors are energy storage devices that boast significant capacitance, enhanced energy density, rapid charge/discharge cycles, minimal heat generation, safety, sustainability with no expendable components, and extended durability. Supercapacitors, due to their unique characteristics, are increasingly favoured in consumer electronics and as alternate energy solutions. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have emerged as a promising material for supercapacitor electrodes, thanks to their remarkable features like exceptional conductivity, large surface area, robust mechanical strength, and chemical stability. The objective is to offer a comprehensive understanding of the pros and cons of supercapacitor materials involving CNTs and to pinpoint ways to boost their efficiency. This also entails examining how the inherent physical and chemical traits of pure CNTs, such as their size, quality, imperfections, shape, modifications, and treatment processes, influence their capacitance. Moreover, a deeper dive into composites, like CNTs combined with oxides, polymers, and other hybrid materials, aims to customize their composition and characteristics to optimize capacitance while ensuring the devices longevity. This section also compiles the latest studies on various CNT composites as potential supercapacitor electrode materials. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024. -
Carbon-Based and TMDs-Based Materials as Catalyst Support for Fuel Cells
Global energy consumption and environmental pollution caused by the extensive use of fossil fuels have increased the need to look forward to more renewable energy sources. Fuel cell, one of the promising energy conversion devices, has the potential to outsmart the existing devices but has several setbacks to be employed on a larger scale. One of the hindrances is the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction kinetics at the cathode and hence requires electrocatalysts to improve its overall performance. This chapter provides a brief overview of graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs)- based composites that have the potential to be used as a catalyst support. 2024 World Scientific Publishing Company. -
Carbon-Based Nanomaterials for Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis: A Review
Early detection and treatment is a successful method to fight against cancer. The use of conventional methods often limits the early-stage detection of the same. Nanotechnology, especially nanomedicine, has become an evolving field in research today. Nanoparticles, with their diverse application in medicine, have grown tremendously. Despite their physicochemical properties, the toxicity of nanoparticles in living organisms has helped the scientific community develop these nanoparticles for cancer treatment. In this review, we highlight the two different types of synthesis of nanoparticles: Top-down and Bottom-up approaches, many instances of various techniques and other inorganic nanoparticles that are good platforms for bioimaging and biosensing applications, drug delivery nanocarriers for specific tumor targeting, thereby reducing the toxicity to healthy tissues and Photodynamic therapy (PDT) and Photo Thermal Therapy (PTT), their mechanism and nanoparticles and examples of their surface functionalization used in cancer treatment. 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH. -
Carboplatin-loaded zeolitic imidazolate framework-8: Induction of antiproliferative activity and apoptosis in breast cancer cell
The challenge with breast cancer is its ongoing high prevalence and difficulties in early detection and access to effective care. A solution lies in creating tailored metalorganic frameworks to encapsulate anticancer drugs, enabling precise and targeted treatment with less adverse effects and improved effectiveness. Zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) and carboplatin (CP)-loaded ZIF-8 were synthesized and characterized using various analytical techniques. High Resolution-transmission electron microscopy of ZIF-8 and CP@ZIF-8 indicates that the particles had a spherical shape and were nanosized. The drug release rate of CP is 98% under an acidic medium (pH 5.5) because of the dissolution of ZIF-8 into its coordinating ions, whereas 35% in a physiological medium (pH 7.4) with the addition of CP, the high porosity, and pore diameter of ZIF-8 decrease from 1243 to 1041m2/g. Breast cancer MCF-7 cells were shown greater IC50 in CP@ZIF-8 (15.013.03g/mL) than free CP (34.984.25g/mL) in an in vitro cytotoxicity assessment. The cytotoxicity of the CP@ZIF-8 against MCF-7 cells was studied using the methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium bromide method. The morphological changes were examined using fluorescent staining (acridine orangeethidium bromide and Hoechst 33258) methods. The comet assay assessed the DNA fragmentation (single-cell gel electrophoresis). The results from the study revealed that CP@ZIF-8 can be used in the treatment of breast cancer. 2024 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc. -
Carcinogens in Food: Evaluating the Presence of Cadmium, Lead, in Poultry Meat in South India
Objective: Local chickens were spontaneously sampled and slaughtered in the central markets of Coimbatore, Erode, and Namakkal districts, South India. Materials and Methods: Wet digestion was used to extract lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and zinc (Zn) in their blood and selected different organs (intestine, breast, liver, and gizzard), and their concentrations were measured using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Results: Apart from the blood of chickens from Coimbatore and Namakkal, where Pb was not found, the concentrations of Pb in the blood and organs of chickens from the three towns ranged from 1.8 to 8.33 mg/kg, exceeding the maximum tolerance thresholds (0.1 mg/kg) in internal organs of poultry birds. Except for the intestine of chickens from the three areas, Cd was only found in the heart, blood, and gizzard of Erode chickens, as well as the liver and gizzard of Namakkal chickens, in concentrations ranging from 0.13 to 0.58. According to threshold level, the upper limit met the maximum limits (0.5 mg/kg). Zn was found in all sections of chickens from the three selected districts, with concentrations ranging from 4.96 to 174.17 mg/kg. Conclusion: Its concentrations were within the permissible limits (10-50 mg/kg) in some areas of certain chickens, but it surpassed the permissible limit in the liver of chicken from Coimbatore. Any organs and blood from local chickens sold in Coimbatore, Erode, and Namakkal areas can be hazardous to ones health. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License -
Cardiovascular Disease Prediction through Ensembled Transfer Learning on Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) cause more deaths worldwide than most of the other diseases. The diagnosis of cardiovascular disease from Magnetic Resonance Imaging plays a major role in the medical field. The technological revolution contributed a lot to increase the effectiveness of CVD diagnosis. Many Artificial Intelligence methods using Deep Learning models are available to assist the cardiologist in the diagnosis of CVD from Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). In this study, we leverage on the merits of deep learning, transfer learning, and ensemble voting to improve the accuracy of Artificial Intelligence-based CVD detection. VGG16, MobileNetV2, and InceptionV3, trained on ImageNet, are the models used and the dataset is the Automatic Cardiac Diagnosis Challenge dataset. We customized the classification layers of all three models to suit the CVD detection problem. The results from these models are ensembled using the soft-voting and hard-voting approaches. Test accuracies obtained are 97.94% and 98.08% from hard-voting and soft-voting respectively. The experimental results demonstrated that the ensemble of outputs from transfer learning-based Deep Learning models produces much improved results for CVD diagnosis from MRI images. 2022 Sibu Cyriac, Sivakumar R. and Nidhin Raju. This open-access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. -
Cardiovascular Disease Prediction Using Machine Learning-Random Forest Technique
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) pose a significant global health challenge. Early and accurate diagnosis is crucial for effective treatment. This research focuses on developing a robust classification system for CVDs using machine learning techniques. This study proposes an enhanced Random Forest (RF) model optimized for big data environments and explore the potential of CNN-based classification. By leveraging medical imaging data and employing these advanced algorithms, we aim to improve the accuracy and efficiency of CVD diagnosis. 2024 IEEE. -
Cardless Society: Assessing the Role of Cardless ATMs in Shaping the Future of Financial Transactions
The ubiquitous ATM faces a critical crossroads in a world where the digital pulse is becoming more and more ingrained. The sound of plastic clicking, which used to be a comforting symbol of financial independence, is becoming less audible in the background noise of near-field communication and the Erie silence of digital scans. This study goes beyond the physical card and explores the unexplored world of cardless ATM technology, where security, convenience meet and innovation completely reimagines the process of getting cash. The meticulous analysis and potential use of technology can completely twist the dynamic rhythm of this world. 2024 IEEE. -
Carmelight Trends in Social Sector Expenditure
The Multidisciplinary National Journal, Vol-10 (1), pp. 77-96. ISSN-0975-9484 -
Carrying capacity assessment for religious crowd management - An application to sabarimala mass gathering pilgrimage, India
Crowd Management is always a challenging task when people gather in large numbers. Crowd disasters in India, including recurring incidents at religious venues, demands a crowd management system developed on the characteristics of the place, event, and participants. Assessment of carrying capacity is the prime process to design crowd management protocols and regulations. Carrying capacity assessment of religious gathering venues in India is often an overlooked process. The present study assessed the crowd carrying capacity of Sabarimala pilgrimage, Kerala, India. Physical carrying capacity assessment methods used for tourism venues have been applied and contextualised for crowd carrying capacity assessment. Characteristics of the venue, pilgrimage and pilgrims were studied to map the active crowd area and space utilisation zones. The physical carrying capacity was estimated based on the comfortable crowd density and threshold crowd density assessments. The study identified two factors influencing pilgrim movement within the venue viz. service level at the holy step and capacity of the darshan facility. Service level at the holy step is the prime factor that regulates the flow of the pilgrim within the venue including the pilgrim movement for deity darshan and hence the comfortable capacity of the holy step was distinguished as the effective carrying capacity of the venue. Physical carrying capacity at the comfortable crowd density has to be maintained throughout the event to avoid the triggering of crowd crushes. The crowd carrying capacity assessment (CCCA) method applied in this study is a simple process. Considering the crowd density and crowd regulation factors, the CCCA method can be applied to design crowd management protocols of other religious pilgrimage destinations in India. International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage -
Case study: Impact of Industry 4.0 and its impact on fighting COVID-19
The emerging development in industrial technology for automation and data sharing is known as Industry 4.0. It incorporates the Internet of Things, Cyber-physical systems, and Cloud computing, all of which contribute to the development of a "smart factory". Customers, distributors, vendors, and stakeholders in the supply chain would be capable of connecting and can exchange data easily through Industry 4.0. The COVID-19 pandemic is quickly spreading and posing a threat to people all over the world. Employment and activities in all markets have been disrupted, putting economies all over the world in serious jeopardy. To combat the pandemic, retailers will benefit from Industry 4.0 because it will help to mitigate the impact of identified risks. I4.0 executives were focused on gaining a competitive edge, rising efficiency, lowering prices, and, ensuring profitability as their primary aim was to enhance the productivity of business during the time before the COVID-19 crisis. Our Government has imposed new behavioral trends including social distancing, isolation and, lockdown. The Government needs additional financial resources to combat pandemics as a result of these actions, there has been a global economic slowdown. This chapter enlightens the significance and technologies of Industry 4.0, showing how those technologies and applications help in attaining a better society. It also explains how Industry 4.0 helps in accomplishing sustainable manufacturing and the management tactics it used to boost the company's efficiency, as well as the effects of COVID-19. 2023 Bentham Science Publishers. All rights reserved.