Browse Items (11855 total)
Sort by:
-
Performance Evaluation Frameworks in the Context of Indian Microfinance Institutions
The paper conducts a detailed examination of the existing evaluative frameworks for microfinance institutions to gauge the differences and similarities. Efficiency evaluates how MFIs are meeting the performance standards considering time and budget constraints. Outreach evaluates the effectiveness of MFIs in reaching the beneficiaries. Relative efficiency scores were calculated using data envelopment analysis and outreach was measured in five different dimensions (pentagon model). Further, cluster analysis assisted in categorizing the MFIs into five value clusters. The study compares both outreach performance and relative efficiency scores employing ANOVA and correlation analysis. The study was conducted among the Indian context when the sector was hit by crisis during 2010. Paper brought out important insights about the sample. Indian MFIs were found to be more socially efficient, since the social dimension taken into consideration was number of female clients and majority of Indian MFIs has exclusive female focus. The correlation tests found that relative efficiency scores are positively related to depth (poor focus) and length (sustainability) outreach. The results showed that cluster analysis model basing outreach scores was more comprehensive and captured more information compared to the data envelopment model relative efficiency scores. The study is original in its approach in using cluster analysis for outreach performance and in the objective of comparing the two different models. 2019 Aruna Balammal et al., published by Sciendo 2019. -
Analyzing students academic performance using multilayer perceptron model
Identification of the students behavior in the class room environment is very important. It helps the lecturer to identify the needs of the students. It also aids in identifying the strength and weakness of the individual and guide them to improve on their performance. Observing and supervising the students regularly can improve their performance. The data has been collected from 120 students who took the common the course taught by two different lectures. The students were observed based on the internal assignments and quizzes and the model exam given by the respective lecturers. In this paper the students are categorized into different groups based on their performance using Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and also different factors which are influencing the performance of the students are identified. BEIESP. -
Nutrition food labels on consumers purchase behaviour: A triangulation approach
The research paper is about the efforts taken by the marketers in the new century to market the products with the most attractive term "Nutrition food labels". Nutritional labeling is the practice of providing nutritional information on the labels of food packages. Since nutrition label introduces the product to the distributor or target consumer by providing them with all the information regarding the product. The main aim of a marketer is to achieve maximum customer satisfaction, because once if a customer is satisfied it automatically increases customer loyalty and has a positive impact on the firm's profitability position. Our research would help the other researchers to understand the factors that will lead to final purchase identifying the factors that will influence the consumer in making their final purchase decision. The variable matrix proposed with regard to nutritional label would help the researchers in figuring out the measures that would intensely gain the awareness of making use of food labels. Further it would help other researcher to conduct similar studies in different geographical locations across the globe. Other variables can be included along with the variables identified in our study; researchers can also come up with a new study considering this study as a base paper. It is important to assign weights to most discussed variable and then to finalize the variable matrix and hence the researchers have used Dedoose software to analyze the literature review and to find the most promising variable which can be used for the present study. Moreover, lifestyle has a major impact on the consumers brand preference by giving importance to nutritious content. The researchers have concluded that the nutritious labeling descriptions should be considered by the consumers which will help them to maintain a balanced diet but are the consumers aware of the consequences of consuming the wrong product with false information. This mixed approach method has provided insights on quantitative and qualitative approach. 2015-2017 Academic Research Publishing Group. -
Predictive analytics in cryptocurrency using neural networks: A comparative study
This paper is concerned with assessing different neural network based predictive models. Each of these predictive models has one goal and that is to predict the price of a cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is the cryptocurrency taken into consideration. The models will be focusing on predicting the USD equivalent value of bitcoin using historical data and live data. The neural network models being assessed are a Convolutional Neural Network, and two variations of the Recurrent Neural Network that are Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU). The goal is to observe the validation loss of each model and also the time it takes to train or epoch for each training set which basically just determine its efficiency and performance. The results that are achieved are almost what was expected as LSTM outperforms CNN but the when we take a look at GRU, it is at par with LSTM. However, CNN is quicker at training or creating epochs and the validation loss is acceptable and not too high but it looks so when it is compared with the Recurrent Neural Networks such as Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU). BEIESP. -
Comparative analysis between 36 nm and 47 nm aluminawater nanofluid flows in the presence of Hall effect
White crystalline powder (aluminum oxide- Al 2 O 3 ) and water are the products often formed after the heating of aluminum hydroxide. In this report, boundary layer flow of two different nanofluids (i.e., 36nm Al 2 O 3 -water and 47nm Al 2 O 3 -water) over an upper horizontal surface of a paraboloid of revolution under the influence of magnetic field is presented. The combined influence of magnetic field strength, electric current density, electric charge, electron collision time, and the mass of an electron in the flows are considered in the governing equations. Three-dimensional transport phenomenon was considered due to the influence of the Lorentz force (F?) along the z-direction as in the case of Hall currents. In this study, the dynamic viscosity and density of the nanofluids are assumed to vary with the volume fraction ?. The dimensional governing equations were non-dimensionalization and parametrization using similarity variables. The corresponding boundary value problem was transformed into initial value problem using the method of superposition and solved numerically using fourth-order RungeKutta method with shooting technique (RK4SM). Magnetic field parameter is seen to have dual effects on the cross-flow velocity profiles of both nanofluids. The maximum cross-flow velocity is attained within the fluid domain when 36nm nanoparticles alumina is used. The cross-flow velocity gradient at the wall increases with magnetic field parameter (M) and also increases significantly with Hall parameter at larger values of M. 2018, Akadiai Kiad Budapest, Hungary. -
Experiment investigations of effect of laminate thickness on flexural properties of GLARE and GFRP laminates
The study focuses on the fabrication of Glass Fiber Reinforced Aluminum (GLARE) laminates and evaluation of their flexural properties. Aluminum 2024 (T3) sheets were used for the fabrication of GLARE laminates along with E-glass fiber in the form of chopped strand mat and epoxy resin. Different thickness of aluminum sheets ranging from 0.2 mm to 3.5 mm was used to fabricate the GLARE laminates. Hand layup technique is used to bond together aluminum sheets and epoxy/E-glass fiber laminates under different configurations. The test specimens were prepared as per ASTM standards, and standard three-point bending test was carried out to evaluate different bending characteristics. An increase of 60% in load-bearing capacity was observed when aluminum sheet thickness was an increase from 0.2 mm to 0.35 mm. Similar The results were compared with similar glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) laminates to analyze improvements, whereas, the maximum deflection of the laminate decreased. There were not many improvements in case of bending strength and bending modulus when aluminum sheet thickness was varied. Fracture surface analysis indicated three modes of failure namely, interfacial delamination, delamination bonding, and fiber breakage. When compared with glass fiber reinforced plastics of similar configuration, a substantial increase in bending strength was observed. 2018 IOP Publishing Ltd. -
Specific learning disability and psychological impact among school going adolescents
Specific Learning disability (SLD) is a mental health concern among school going children in India. Considering the need for early identification and intervention, this study has been contextualized to explore the impact. Methodology: Samples have been selectedfrom five schools which are situated in South Bengaluru, India, 100 children have been identified with SLD and further they have been screened for mental health Problems. Results: High prevalence ofmild to moderate anxiety, depression and stress is major finding of the study. High rate of anxiety (37%), depression (47%) and stress (33%) among adolescents with SLD indicate the gravity of the problem. Conclusion: Findings underline the need of the structured interventions by school psychologists in school settings. 2019 Institute for Leadership and Organization Effectiveness. All rights reserved. -
Exploration of activation energy and binary chemical reaction effects on nano Casson fluid flow with thermal and exponential space-based heat source
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of binary chemical reaction and activation energy on nano Casson liquid flow past a stretched plate with non-linear radiative heat, and also, the effect of a novel exponential space-dependent heat source (ESHS) aspect along with thermal-dependent heat source (THS) effect in the analysis of heat transfer in nanofluid. Comparative analysis is carried out between the flows with linear radiative heat process and non-linear radiative heat process. Design/methodology/approach: A similarity transformation technique is utilised to access the ODEs from the governed PDEs. The manipulation of subsequent non-linear equations is carried out by a well-known numerical approach called RungeKuttaFehlberg scheme. Obtained solutions are briefly discussed with the help of graphical and tabular illustrations. Findings: The effects of various physical parameters on temperature, nanoparticles volume fraction and velocity fields within the boundary layer are discussed for two different flow situations, namely, flow with linear radiative heat and flow with non-linear radiative heat. It is found that an irregular heat source/sink (ESHS and THS) and non-linear solar radiation play a vital role in the enhancement of the temperature distributions. Originality/value: The problem is relatively original to study the effects of activation energy and binary chemical reaction along with a novel exponential space-based heat source on laminar boundary flow past a stretched plate in the presence of non-linear Rosseland radiative heat. 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited. -
Some new results on equitable coloring parameters of graphs
An equitable coloring of a graph G is a proper vertex coloring C of G such that the cardinalities of any two color classes in G with respect to C differ by at most one. Coloring the vertices of a graph G subject to given conditions can be considered as a random experiment. In this context, a discrete random variable X can be defined as the color of a vertex chosen at random, with respect to the given type of coloring of G and a probability mass function for this random variable can be defined accordingly. In this paper, we discuss two statistical parameters of the powers of certain graph classes with respect to their equitable colorings. 2019, Univerzita Komenskeho. All rights reserved. -
A novel automated method for the detection of strangers at home using parrot sound
The sound produced by parrots is used to gather information about their behavior. The study of sound variation is important to obtain indirect information about the characteristics of birds. This paper is the first of a series in analyzing bird sounds, and establishing the adequate relation of bird's sound. The paper proposes a probabilistic method for audio feature classification in a short interval of time. It proposes an application of digital sound processing to check whether the parrots behave strangely when a stranger comes. The sound is classified into different classes and the emotions of the birds are analyzed. The time frequency of the signal is checked using spectrogram. It helps to analyze the parrot vocalization. The mechanical origin of the sound and the modulation are deduced from spectrogram. The spectrogram is also used to check the amplitude and frequency modulation of sound and the frequency of the sound are detected and analyzed. This research and its findings will help the bird lovers to know the bird behavior and plan according to that. The greater understanding of birds will help the bird lovers to feed and care for birds. BEIESP. -
A Novel Assessment of Healthcare Waste Disposal Methods: Intuitionistic Hesitant Fuzzy MULTIMOORA Decision Making Approach
Waste produced from medical facilities systems incorporates a blend of dangerous waste which can posture dangers to humans and ecological receptors. Lacking administration of healthcare waste can prompt hazard to medicinal service specialists, patients, public health, communities and the wider environment. Hence, proper management of healthcare waste is imperative to reduce the associated health and environment risk. In this paper, we extend the MULTIMOORA decision making method with intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy set to evaluate the healthcare waste treatment methods. Intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy set is a generalized form of a hesitant fuzzy set. Intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy set considers the uncertainty of data in a single framework and take more information into account. The MULTIMOORA method consists of three parts namely the ratio system, reference point approach and the full multiplicative form. In the optimal ranking methods, the IHF-MULTIMOORA method is uncomplicated it is able to be used practically with high dimension intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy sets. For pathological, pharmaceutical, sharp, solid and chemical wastes, the preferred waste disposal methods are deep burial, incineration, autoclave, deep burial, and chemical disinfection, respectively. 2013 IEEE. -
Magnetohydrodynamic squeezing two-phase flow of particulate suspension in a rotating channel with transpiration cooling
This article addresses the time-dependent two-phase magnetohydrodynamic squeezing flow of dusty liquid. The fluid flow is considered in a rotating channel. The flow is constructed by squeezing of an upper plate and stretching of the lower plate and relevant equations are obtained. Numerical results are computed by utilizing shooting method along with the RKFehlberg scheme. The obtained solutions are validated by comparison with the existing analytical solutions. The effects of pertinent parameters on velocities of both phases are comprehensively discussed through graphical results. The numerical values of shear stress of both phases at lower and upper walls are also tabulated. Furthermore, the slope of the linear regression line through data points is determined in order to quantify the increase/decrease. Numerical simulations disclosed that the normal and transverse velocities are decreased due to stronger Coriolis force. It is also established that the velocities of the fluid phase are higher than that of the dust phase IMechE 2018. -
Comparative study of soil properties and vegetation at various open dump and non-dumpsites in the Bengaluru city of Karnataka, India
A comparative field studies on seven municipal dumpsites namely Agara 1 (12.917N, 77.639E), Agara 2 (12.922N, 77.639E), HSR depot (12.919N, 77.644E), Koraman-gala Church (12.934N, 77.626E), Koramanagla BDA (12.931N, 77.625E), Garvebhayipalya (12.897N, 77.638E) and Sanjay Gandhi hospital (12.891N, 77.601 E), and its adjoining non-dump sites were conducted to understand their soil characteristic features and the vegetation pattern. Soil characteristics were presented in terms of the physicochemical parameters and the vegetation patterns were presented in terms of the dominance using the ecological parameter Important Value Index (IVI). Soils at the dump sites showed higher mean electrical conductivity and pH values as compared to the non-dump sites. Though the mineral content showed higher mean value in the dump sites (except chloride), there is no significant variation in the higher total soluble solutes between dump and non-dump sites(P>0.05) As per ANNOVA there was highly significant variation in the heavy metal content between dump and non dumpsites (P<0.01).. With respect to vegetation analysis though 50 different species found across locations only 10 species viz Alternatheria sessile, Amaranthus spinose, Caesalpinia pulcherima, Ipomea acumilanata, Ipomea evolvulus, Parthenium hysterophorous Pisum sativum, Ricinis communis, Sida rombifolia and Solanum lycopersicum were found consistent across all locations irrespective of the seasons. Among these, A. sessile, R. communis and A. spinosa were found dominant based on the IVI values across seven locations which further can be studied for their potential for phyto remediating the land pollutants such as heavy metals. 2019, Applied and Natural Science Foundation. All rights reserved. -
Accumulation of lead (Pb II) metal ions by Bacillus toyonensis SCE1 species, innate to industrial-area ground water and nanoparticle synthesis
Groundwater samples were collected from Peenya Industrial area of Bengaluru, India to check its inherent bacterial population. After the isolates were grown in lead-induced media, the bacteria that could resist lead were further isolated, identified, and grown. The isolated bacterium was identified as Bacillus toyonensis SCE1 species, and the maximum amount of lead taken up by it to sustain itself as a live biomass was 8ppm. Lead accumulation was studied based on different factors such as pH, concentration, and time. Bacterial characterization through scanning electron microscopy showed there was lead sorption on the bacterial cells. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that accumulated lead ions inside the bacteria were in the range of 180190nm, this was found to correlate with the data obtained by the particle size analyzer. The optimum pH for highest lead accumulation was 7.2, for a time period of 160min. It was observed that the stable production of homogenous nanoparticles using biomass could be achieved by optimizing factors such as incubation period, agitation, pH, temperature, and contact time. 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature. -
Modeling the impact of political risk components on major macroeconomic variables
The risks of the political conditions prevailing in an economy are found to have a significant impact on its stock market. Such political risks can distort the entire economy. This study investigated the impact of political risk on major macroeconomic variables which are the indicators of growth in any economy by considering the various components of political risk as given by World Bank's worldwide governance indicators. Using a panel data approach, it modeled the major macroeconomic variables of eleven emerging and frontier Asian economies with various components of political risk. The study found that irrespective of the inter-linkages among different macroeconomic variables, they were not affected by the same political risk components. Most importantly, it revealed that GDP did not respond to any of the political risk components, whereas the exchange rate was found to be affected by all the political risk components. The study also found that FDI, inflation, and real interest rate were affected by one or more political risk components. 2019 AESS Publications. All Rights Reserved. -
Perceptual gap among corporate world, academics and students: Personal qualities and employability competencies of students
Personal qualities and employability competencies influence how an individual interacts with others. Employers value employability skills because they are linked to how employees get along with co-workers and customers, job performance, and career success of the employee. Hence personal qualities and employability competencies are considered as one of the essential components for an individuals career development. This study aims to understand the perceptual gap among the corporate world, business school academics and business school students. This study is quantitative in nature and primary data was collected through survey method. The primary data was collected from 377 Master of Business Administration (MBA) students, 276 Business School faculties and 98 managers representing 100 different companies in Bangalore, India. Three different questionnaires were prepared for three groups. All three sets of respondents were asked to rate their perception towards the requirement of personal qualities and skill/competencies required at the workplace in an entry-level job. The study highlights that there is a significant difference in the perception of students, business school faculty and managers towards listed personal qualities and competencies. These perceptual differences result in different types of costs to the company in terms of time, money and energy. The results will help the business schools to develop an innovative business curriculum that can fill the current industry needs. 2019, University of Malaya. All rights reserved. -
Taxonomic revision and molecular phylogeny of flemingia subgenus rhynchosioides (Leguminosae)
A taxonomic revision of Flemingia subg. Rhynchosioides based on morphology and molecular information (matK and ITS) is presented. The subgenus comprises six herbaceous taxa (F. gracilis, F. mukerjeeana, F. nilgheriensis, F. rollae, F. tuberosa and F. vestita). All species except F. vestita are endemic to India. Morphological evidence and molecular phylogeny revealed that the subgenus is monophyletic. Nevertheless, the systematic position of F. tuberosa remains unclear on account of its unique ecology and inflorescence. A new species, F. mukerjeeana, is described and four binomials, namely F. gracilis, F. nilgheriensis, F. tuberosa and F. vestita have been lectotypified. Furthermore, all species have been described, illustrated and their ecology discussed. A taxonomic key including the recently described species from Thailand, F. sirindhorniae, is also provided for easy identification. 2019 Naturalis Biodiversity Center. -
Progressive crude oil distillation: An energy-efficient alternative to conventional distillation process
Distillation, the major process in crude oil refineries as of now. In this work we focused the attention to energy saving with respect to an industrial crude oil distillation unit. An alternative to the conventional crude oil distillation model present in the Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Kochi Refinery is proposed and simulated. The theoretical predictions as well as the simulated results indicate that the Progressive crude oil distillation reduces the utility burden as well as increase the extraction of more valuable light components. The simulation was carried out using Aspen HYSYS V8.8.2. Different crudes are taken into account and their properties and amount of distillate are analyzed. The optimization is done in an easy manner rather than the conventional mathematical method, together with the advanced process control tools; make it profitable in the operation in real time. 2018 Elsevier Ltd -
Classification and correlational analysis on lower spine parameters using data mining techniques
The application of data mining in the field of medical science is slowly gaining popularity. This is due to the fact that enormous statistical inferences from data related to the human body and medicine was a possible with high accuracy rates which was a tedious task in the past. This had led to discoveries and breakthroughs which has saved thousands of lives. Lower back pain is one of the most common issues faced by majority of the population throughout the world. The early detection and treatment of LBP can avoid life threatening issues in the body. Objective: This study aims to create a classification model which can be used to detect an unhealthy spine using the lumbar and sacral parameters. Correlational analysis was performed between different attributes to find distinguishing factors between healthy and unhealthy spine. Method: Classification methods were used such as decision tree and SVM. Correlational analysis was performed using pearson method between each attribute. Results: After creating the model using the different classification methods it was found that Ctree produced the highest accuracy with 92.80% on average. It was also found that there were 6 attribute pairs that had high correlation coefficient to distinguish unhealthy and healthy spine observations. BEIESP. -
Ethical living and work self efficacy beliefs of academicians of higher education in ASIA: A key determinant of one's belief in one's ability to achieve the desired result in a precise state of affairs
Ethical academicians are perfectly virtuous. They always strive for greater virtue and follow strictly the moral stands of their profession. The ethical living and self-efficacy are important to them because of being fair and honest in their academics. Determinants of ethics include knowledge, values, attitude and intention. The domain-specific framework developed by Verbeke et al. (2004) has been considered as fundamental for identifying the dimensionality of work Self-efficacy and ethical challenges of academicians. A comprehensive literature review is undertaken regarding the concept of work Self-efficacy to assess workers' confidence and their ethical living in the workplace. This article examines theoretically and analytically the antecedent processes and information cues involved in the formation of work self-efficacy. Theoretical and numerical analysis of the key determinants of work self-efficacy increases the understanding of moral values, truthful fair and honest. Factors which decisively affect ethical living were identified from literature collected from the academicians who are working in the Five Regions of Asia-Central Asia (Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan) East Asia (China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau) South Asia (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, the Maldives) through Google classroom. Methods of Statistical Analysis of self-efficacy data are descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Kolmogorov-Smirvnos normality test and KruskalWallis one-way analysis of variance and Principal Component Analysis. Positive, mastery experiences give academicians a sense of accomplishment when they have faced a challenge ethically. Positive Zeal during Academic interaction, vicarious experiences that occur when academician see others succeed and feel an increased sense of their own ability to succeed. Sincere & deeper self, mingling with students, Social persuasion increase a teachers sense of confidence and ability to succeed. A proper plan of action has drawn special attention, and inferences pertaining to future research are discussed at the end of the critique. 2019, Sciedu Press. All rights reserved.