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Laccase-immobilized biochar as a unique host matrix for electrochemical detection of gallic acid: a sustainable engineering approach
An electrochemical platform for the detection of organic persistent polyphenolic pollutant, gallic acid (GA), was fabricated using an enzyme-immobilization approach over acid-functionalized biochar (f-BC) modified carbon fiber electrode (CFP) electrode. The f-BC was synthesized from dried pineapple leaves and was characterised using X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for analysing the physicochemical characteristics. The SEM image of Lac/f-BC/CFP confirmed the presence of a porous and granulated surface upon laccase immobilization, while the FTIR spectrum confirmed the presence of C 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 11111111 00000000 11111111 00000000 00000000 00000000 O stretch and N-H bend, indicating amide bond formation. The acid treatment of biochar introduced -OH and -COOH groups that further aided in the successful immobilization of laccase via covalent bonding. The fabricated electrode could demonstrate a linear response within the concentration range of 0.012-40 ?M and a low detection limit (LOD) of 9 nM with high selectivity. The fabricated electrode also showcased high practical utility as it could attain high recovery percentage during real sample analysis in tap, pond, sewage and industrial effluent samples. 2025 The Royal Society of Chemistry. -
The Impact of Economically Weaker Section Reservation in India: A Study on the Syro Malabar Community in Kerala, India
India is renowned for its multifaceted unity amid diversity, which proves the harmonious fusion of different communities. This harmony is rooted in the Indian Constitution by ensuring social justice to all citizens regardless of their individual differences and unique characteristics. It is crafted with empathy and foresight to benefit the most disadvantaged sections of society. It includes provisions for reservation programs under Articles 15 and 16 to combat discrimination and promote inclusiveness in the present Indian societal scenario. The 103rd amendment to the Indian constitution expanded the concept of backwardness to include more marginalized and disadvantaged sections of society. It reflects the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDG 10) in India to reduce inequalities. The amendment introduced a 10% reservation in government employment and education for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) ensuring equitable development of all the sections of society. The study examines the impacts of the economically weaker sections (EWS) reservation in India by analyzing data collected from the Syro Malabar Community in Kerala, India. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025. -
The Impact of Economically Weaker Section Reservation in India: A Study on the Syro Malabar Community in Kerala, India
India is renowned for its multifaceted unity amid diversity, which proves the harmonious fusion of different communities. This harmony is rooted in the Indian Constitution by ensuring social justice to all citizens regardless of their individual differences and unique characteristics. It is crafted with empathy and foresight to benefit the most disadvantaged sections of society. It includes provisions for reservation programs under Articles 15 and 16 to combat discrimination and promote inclusiveness in the present Indian societal scenario. The 103rd amendment to the Indian constitution expanded the concept of backwardness to include more marginalized and disadvantaged sections of society. It reflects the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDG 10) in India to reduce inequalities. The amendment introduced a 10% reservation in government employment and education for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) ensuring equitable development of all the sections of society. The study examines the impacts of the economically weaker sections (EWS) reservation in India by analyzing data collected from the Syro Malabar Community in Kerala, India. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025. -
Unraveling the Intangibles: Influence of AI and Employee Valuation on Corporate Sustainability
This study investigates the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and human capital on a firm's sustainability based on the selected thirty companies in the Indian Information Technology (IT) Sector. It also involves an insight into the usage of AI tools for the same. This study takes three independent variables, namelySalaries and wages (SW), Provident Fund (PF), and Gratuity and superannuation (GS), which are dependent on the Return On Capital Employed (ROCE). Furthermore, the study evaluates these variables through multiple regression analysis to establish the link between them and determine how human capital affects a firm's profitability. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025. -
Unraveling the Intangibles: Influence of AI and Employee Valuation on Corporate Sustainability
This study investigates the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and human capital on a firm's sustainability based on the selected thirty companies in the Indian Information Technology (IT) Sector. It also involves an insight into the usage of AI tools for the same. This study takes three independent variables, namelySalaries and wages (SW), Provident Fund (PF), and Gratuity and superannuation (GS), which are dependent on the Return On Capital Employed (ROCE). Furthermore, the study evaluates these variables through multiple regression analysis to establish the link between them and determine how human capital affects a firm's profitability. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025. -
Hydroponic cultivation of lettuce: evaluating yield and quality across different systems
The increasing demand for lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) in India, driven by changing dietary habits, health consciousness, and declining arable land, necessitates protected cultivation systems for a sustainable production of high-value vegetables. Limited research has been conducted on optimizing lettuce cultivation systems under protected conditions in India. This study evaluated the performance of three growing systems, soil-based, aggregate hydroponics, and a vertical A-frame nutrient film technique, under controlled greenhouse conditions. Three lettuce cultivars were assessed for growth, yield, and nutritional parameters. The nutrient film technique system achieved the highest leaf fresh weight (96.73 g) and marketable yield. Lettuce grown in the nutrient film technique also exhibited superior nutritional quality, with increased ascorbic acid (7.03 mg 100 g?1) and carotenoid (4.48 g g?1) content. Additionally, the vertical nutrient film technique system optimized space utilization, supporting 26 plants per square meter and significantly increasing the number of marketable leaves compared to soil-based and aggregate hydroponics. These results highlight the potential of vertical nutrient film technique cultivation to enhance lettuce productivity, nutritional quality, and resource efficiency, presenting a promising solution for sustainable urban agriculture and protected cultivation in India. 2025 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. -
Enhancing Early Seedling Stage Salinity Tolerance in Rice Through Brassinosteroid Priming
Rice (Oryza sativa), astaple food for the major global population, faces substantial productivity challenges due to salinity stress, an increasingly prevalent issue exacerbated by climate change. Salinity impacts rice at critical growth stages especially at seedling stage, root development, shoot elongation and ultimately seedling establishment. This study evaluated the effect of brassinosteroid (BR) priming as astrategy to improve seedling stage salinity tolerance in rice seedlings across 15genotypes subjected to moderate (140?mM NaCl), and severe (200?mM NaCl) salinity stress in comparison with control. BR-primed seeds demonstrated enhanced germination rates, seedling vigor index, shoot length and root length under salinity conditions compared to non-treated seeds. BR priming led to a35% improvement in SVI under control conditions and up to 30% under severe salinity, suggesting that BRs may facilitate osmotic regulation and ion homeostasis, key for maintaining growth under stress. Furthermore, BR priming significantly increased root development, essential for water uptake and nutrient acquisition in saline environments. Our results showed the prospect of BR priming as an effective approach to enhance rice resilience to salinity stress, providing afoundation for further field-based research on BR-mediated stress tolerance mechanisms. This study underscores the relevance of BR priming in improving rice productivity in saline-prone areas, contributing to food security in the face of increasing soil salinization. The author(s), exclusively licensed to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, a part of Springer Nature 2025. -
IMPACT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ON E-BANKING AND FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
Artificial intelligence has a significant impact on financial technologies. Machine learning is an important field of artificial intelligence. Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence. According to client knowledge gathered by machine learning, data structures may be more easily comprehended and changed. Machine learning, although still being employed in the IT business, has its own set of benefits. They are used by computer program to explain or solve a typical issue because they are a set of well-written instructions. Data inputs for factual research may be prepared by computers using master learning algorithms that can deliver results within a certain range. Computers are used to model test data, and frameworks are used to make automated decisions based on input data. Banks and financial institutions may benefit from the use of machine learning. This article discusses applications of machine learning in banking and finance sector. The Electrochemical Society -
A Cost-Effective NFC-Based Tap-and-Pay Payment System
Rapidly emerging contactless payment methods have totally transformed the economic landscape by ensuring a convenient and efficient means to standardize price structures. Presented in this work is a Tap-and-Pay Payment System which is based on Near Field Communication (NFC) that would substitute the traditional Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals. This device utilizes NFC technology to allow merchants to take payments with only a smartphone, eliminating costly hardware. We provide a comprehensive discussion on the system's architecture, its security properties, the implementation issues faced, and performance evaluations thereof, as well as an investigation into serving SMEs by enhancing the access of digital payments and propagating inclusive finance. Future enhancements include enriching functionalities such as multi-currency support and offline transaction capabilities. 2025 IEEE. -
Impact of Improved Corporate Governance and Regulations on Earnings Management PracticesAnalysis of 7 Industries from the Indian National Stock Exchange
This study investigates discretionary earnings management practices, tracing the changes over the years in selected top performing and highly liquid listed Indian firms. It empirically measures the impact of corporate governance, financial legislation and global reporting standards on the firms earnings management practices. The study analyses a sample of 712 firm-year data comprising 89 listed Indian companies across 7 different sectoral indices of the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) over 8 years (20112018). The Modified Jones model was used to compute Discretionary Accruals to measure Earnings Management based on data obtained using Bloomberg terminals. Statistical results and plots generated in Stata offer evidence that instances of earnings management have significantly reduced after the enactment of the Companies Act 2013 and the adoption of Indian Accounting standards which are converged with the IFRS. Findings suggest that services firms are engaging in relatively higher levels of earnings management compared to manufacturing firms. This study reveals the positive impact of improved corporate governance, regulation, and enforcement by significantly reducing the levels of earnings management among listed firms in India. 2021 by the authors. -
High surface area Nanoflakes of P-gC3N4 photocatalyst loaded with Ag nanoparticle with intraplanar and interplanar charge separation for environmental remediation
The photocatalytic performance of gC3N4 is majorly restricted by insufficient collection of photogenerated charges on the surface during reaction due to highly dense stacking of lamellar structures with lateral size ranging in microns. This deficiency can be overcome by forming thin nanoflakes by systematically breaking the weak bonds that hold the gC3N4 framework without destroying the basic heptazine unit. With this aim, herein, a combination of three different strategies was implemented to design and develop, Ag-loaded and P-doped gC3N4 nanoflakes (Ag3-P1-NF-gC3N4). Using a systematic synthesis method, bulk gC3N4 was first converted into thin nanosheets, followed by fragmentation into nanoflakes, with a planar size up to 100 nm. P doping to replace the corner C atoms in the gC3N4 matrix (forming P[sbnd]N bonds) and intercalation of plasmonic Ag nanoparticles within the interlayers also assists in the bifurcation of the stacked layers and formation of nanoflake morphology. These strategies result in a significant increase in BET surface area to ?196 m2/g from 12 m2/g of bulk gC3N4. Improved inter-planar and intra-planar charge mobility was recorded as a result of the reduced sizes. Doping with P also causes higher absorption of the visible spectrum in gC3N4 while the formation of heterojunction with Ag nanoparticles induces efficient separation of photo-generated charges. All these promoting photo-physical properties lead to an outstanding photocatalytic activity towards degradation of aqueous pollutants with reaction rates ?20 times higher than bulk gC3N4. Complete mineralization of the pollutant and formation of non-toxic byproducts was also confirmed with suitable chromatography techniques. 2020 Elsevier B.V. -
Ag Ions Versus Ag Nanoparticle-Embedded Glass for Antimicrobial Activity Under Light
Incorporating silver nanoparticles (NPs) into a host material has been recognized to limit the release of Ag+ ions, yet their efficacy in neutralizing nearby microorganisms remains uncertain. This study aims to compare the toxicity of Ag+ ions versus the plasmonic effect of Ag NPs within a glass matrix, assessing their respective killing efficiency and mechanisms against microorganisms. To achieve this objective, a simple ion exchange technique was employed to embed glass with silver ions, nanoclusters (NCs), or NPs, which was confirmed by UVVis-NIR spectrometer, photoluminescence (PL), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The biocidal action of these Ag species on model Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria was investigated in the absence and presence of visible light. The findings revealed that in the absence of light, plasmonic Ag NPs were less toxic to E. coli compared to Ag+ ions due to the predominant release of Ag+ ions dictating the antibacterial effect. However, exposure to visible light triggered the plasmonic effect in Ag NPs to disintegrate 100% E. coli in 1h compared to Ag+ ions (68%) owing to the localized heating around the Ag NPs, facilitated by surface plasmon resonance relaxation. The cell morphology investigated by Bio-AFM assisted in unraveling the mechanism leading to bacterial cell damage. Overall, this study demonstrates the sustained disinfection capability of Ag NPs embedded in glass without significant leaching, emphasizing their potential in prolonged antimicrobial applications. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2024. -
Ag Ions Versus Ag Nanoparticle-Embedded Glass for Antimicrobial Activity Under Light
Incorporating silver nanoparticles (NPs) into a host material has been recognized to limit the release of Ag+ ions, yet their efficacy in neutralizing nearby microorganisms remains uncertain. This study aims to compare the toxicity of Ag+ ions versus the plasmonic effect of Ag NPs within a glass matrix, assessing their respective killing efficiency and mechanisms against microorganisms. To achieve this objective, a simple ion exchange technique was employed to embed glass with silver ions, nanoclusters (NCs), or NPs, which was confirmed by UVVis-NIR spectrometer, photoluminescence (PL), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The biocidal action of these Ag species on model Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria was investigated in the absence and presence of visible light. The findings revealed that in the absence of light, plasmonic Ag NPs were less toxic to E. coli compared to Ag+ ions due to the predominant release of Ag+ ions dictating the antibacterial effect. However, exposure to visible light triggered the plasmonic effect in Ag NPs to disintegrate 100% E. coli in 1h compared to Ag+ ions (68%) owing to the localized heating around the Ag NPs, facilitated by surface plasmon resonance relaxation. The cell morphology investigated by Bio-AFM assisted in unraveling the mechanism leading to bacterial cell damage. Overall, this study demonstrates the sustained disinfection capability of Ag NPs embedded in glass without significant leaching, emphasizing their potential in prolonged antimicrobial applications. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2024. -
Formaldehyde electrolysis in a membrane-free electrolyzer: low-energy hydrogen and formate co-production with Cu-based boride electrocatalysts
The formaldehyde oxidation reaction (FOR) offers a low-energy alternative to the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) for electrochemical hydrogen production, enabling simultaneous generation of value-added formate. Here, we report a boron-doped copper catalyst on copper foam (B/CuxO/CF) that efficiently catalyzes FOR with an ultralow onset potential of 0.06 V at 100 mA cm?2. Compared to its phosphorus- and sulfur-doped counterparts (P/CuxO/CF and S/CuxO/CF), B/CuxO/CF exhibits markedly superior activity with ?97% formate yield. Surface analysis confirms the critical role of coexisting Cu+/Cu2+ species in B/CuxO in facilitating the key FOR steps of adsorption and CH cleavage, while the presence of boron improves charge transfer and active site availability. The limited HER activity of B/CuxO/CF was effectively addressed by coupling it with a Ni-based phospho-boride catalyst on Ni foam (NiPB/NF) that delivers selective and high hydrogen evolution performance, even in formaldehyde-containing media. The asymmetric NiPB/NF?B/CuxO/CF configuration achieved 100 mA cm?2 at only 0.25 V and sustained long-term stability with continuous HCHO replenishment, maintaining 300 mA cm?2 for over 8 hours. Operated in a membrane-free flow cell, the system maintained ?90% formate yield with a H2 production faradaic efficiency of ?190%, nearly doubling the hydrogen output. This hybrid strategy not only lowers energy input by 1.64 V compared to water electrolysis but also demonstrates viability for decentralized hydrogen and chemical co-production with economic benefits. This journal is The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2026 -
Assessing performance of alkali-activated bricks incorporated with processed surgical masks
Since last few years the world is facing tremendous surge in the use of surgical masks due to the COVID19 pandemic. The uncontrolled disposal of surgical masks in the environment will pose serious threat to the living organisms due to plastic pollution. On the other hand, the construction industry is hugely dependent on natural resources, leading to increase in carbon footprint. Therefore, it necessary to investigate novel construction materials with sustainability perspective. In present study, alkali-activated bricks were synthesized with rice husk ash (RHA), ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), sand, and sodium silicate (SS). To this, processed surgical masks (PSM) were added in varying doses of 0%, 1%, 2%, 3%, and 4% by volume of the mix. The results revealed that addition of PSM significantly improved the strength properties of the bricks with a maximum compressive strength of 6.85 MPa at inclusion of 4% PSM. At the same time, it has reduced the density of bricks with a minimum value of 1.54 g/cm3 at inclusion of 4% PSM. The incorporation of PSM has slightly increased the water absorption and porosity of the bricks, with a maximum increase of 4.76% and 7.75% for bricks with 4% PSM, when compared to bricks with 0% PSM, respectively. The accelerated ageing test showed that after three cycles of wetting and drying the bricks exhibited loss in compressive strength in the range of 55.2%58.6%. The microstructure results revealed the bridging effect of fibrous mask particles in improving the load transfer in polymer matrix, and thereby reducing the brittle tensile failure in bricks. The pushover analysis showed the benefit of PSM in improving the performance of the infill walls due to improvement in brick strength and reduction in its self-weight, and therefore, it can be considered as a potential material for use in construction of buildings in seismically vulnerable areas. 2023 The Author(s) -
Recycled Surgical Mask Waste as a Resource Material in Sustainable Geopolymer Bricks
With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global consumption of single-use surgical masks has risen immensely, and it is expected to grow in the coming years. Simultaneously, the disposal of surgical masks in the environment has caused plastic pollution, and therefore, it is exigent to find innovative ways to handle this problem. In this study, surgical masks were processed in a laboratory using the mechanical grinding method to obtain recycled surgical masks (RSM). The RSM was added in doses of 0%, 1%, 2%, 3%, and 4% by volume of geopolymer bricks, which were synthesized with ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), rice husk ash (RHA), sand, and sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) at ambient conditions for a duration of 28 days. The developed bricks were tested for compressive strength, flexural strength, density, water absorption, efflorescence, and drying shrinkage. The results of the study reveal that compressive strength and flexural strength improved with the inclusion of RSM in the bricks. The highest values of compressive strength and flexural strength were 5.97 MPa and 1.62 MPa for bricks with 4% RSM, respectively. Further, a reduction in the self-weight of the bricks was noticed with an increase in RSM. There was no pronounced effect of RSM on the water absorption and efflorescence properties. However, the RSM played a role in reducing the drying shrinkage of the bricks. The sustainability analysis divulges the catalytic role of RSM in improving material performance, thereby proving to be a potential candidate for low-carbon material in the construction industry. 2023 by the authors. -
An efficient cloud based architecture for integrating content management systems
The use of digital content is increasing day after day and now it is an essential element of our day today life. The amount of stored information is so huge that it is highly difficult to manage the content especially in a distributed cloud environment. There are many open source software solutions available in cloud to handle huge amount of digital data. However none of these solutions addresses all the requirements needed to manage the content spread out in multiple systems effectively. The user has to relay on multiple content management systems to do the work. This turns into ever more unwieldy, time consuming and leads to loss of data. Using robust and integrated content management systems, these issues could be solved effectively. In this paper we have identified various challenges of using the content management system in the cloud after surveying many Content Management System related article and proposed an integrated solution named Cloud based Architecture integrating Content Management System which is capable of interfacing with various unique features available at different content management system installations in the cloud. This maximizes the functionality and performance of any Content management systems. The Representational State Transfer (REST) protocol is used to integrate the best features of various open source content management systems. REST provides higher level of security compared to existing systems as it does not store the user sessions. The users can interact with the system with the help of an interface which abstracts the complexities of multiple content management systems running in the cloud. 2017 IEEE. -
Advancement and Challenges of Biosensing Using Field Effect Transistors
Field-effect transistors (FETs) have become eminent electronic devices for biosensing applications owing to their high sensitivity, faster response and availability of advanced fabrication techniques for their production. The device physics of this sensor is now well understood due to the emergence of several numerical modelling and simulation papers over the years. The pace of advancement along with the knowhow of theoretical concepts proved to be highly effective in detecting deadly pathogens, especially the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein of the coronavirus with the onset of the (coronavirus disease of 2019) COVID-19 pandemic. However, the advancement in the sensing system is also accompanied by various hurdles that degrade the performance. In this review, we have explored all these challenges and how these are tackled with innovative approaches, techniques and device modifications that have also raised the detection sensitivity and specificity. The functional materials of the device are also structurally modified towards improving the surface area and minimizing power dissipation for developing miniaturized microarrays applicable in ultra large scale integration (ULSI) technology. Several theoretical models and simulations have also been carried out in this domain which have given a deeper insight on the electron transport mechanism in these devices and provided the direction for optimizing performance. 2022 by the authors. -
Antifouling Nanoparticle Coatings for Post-Harvest Food Preservation
The reports of the World Food Preservation Center exhibit that the entire number of inhabitants in the globe will reach 9.6 billion by the year 2050. With the increasing population, there is a growing pressure on agricultural produce which is further amplified by the losses between harvest and retail (~17%) and other wastages (~17%). Globally, this is a major concern, and thus, there is no surprise to look into current research developments in food preservation. This chapter provides comprehensive reports on the recent trends in various nanoparticle coatings for the aforementioned application. Silicon dioxide (SiO2), titanium dioxide (TiO2), and zinc oxide (ZnO) nano regime coatings on silicon substrate and polymer substrates have been discussed for antifouling applications. This chapter is categorized as follows: Section I delivers the introduction about the significance of food preservation in reference to the reported statistics. In section II, the discussion starts with the materials and methods for post-harvest food saving. Major recent advances in terms of materials or methods to increase the shelf life of cuisine are portrayed in the same section II. Section III entails the appropriate computational methods to envision the interaction of food residuals with coated nanolayers through sensing. The final section (IV) delivers a guideline on feasible research implications to address the shortcomings in food preservation from a broader perspective. 2024 Scrivener Publishing LLC. -
Sensitivity computation of nonlinear convective heat transfer in hybrid nanomaterial between two concentric cylinders with irregular heat sources
Heat exchangers, hot rolling, heat storage systems, and nuclear power plants utilize hybrid nanoliquid flow through an annulus for heat transport. The linear Boussinesq approximation is no longer suitable as these devices work at both moderate and extremely high temperatures. Hence, the salient features of quadratic convection on the hybrid nanoliquid flow in an inclined porous annulus are analyzed. The heat transport phenomenon is examined with an exponential space-related heat source (ESHS), the convective boundary conditions, and temperature-related heat source (THS). The significance of various shapes of nanoparticles (blades, spherical, platelets, bricks, and cylinders) on the heat and fluid flow characteristics has been explored. The complicated governing equations are solved numerically. Additionally, a statistical study (response surface methodology (RSM) and sensitivity analysis) is performed. The consequence of key parameters on the non-dimensional velocity, skin friction coefficient, temperature, and Nusselt number fields are presented through two-dimensional and surface plots. The irregular heat sources increase the magnitude of velocity and temperature fields. The quadratic and mixed convection mechanism favors the flow structure. The temperature and velocity fields are greater for platelet-shaped nanoparticles followed by cylinder, brick, and spherical-shaped nanoparticles. Further, the Nusselt number is more influenced by THS and less by the total nanoparticle volume fraction 2021 Elsevier Ltd