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How to win back the disgruntled consumer? The omni-channel way
In a conventional wisdom, it was believed that in traditional consumer journey, consumer will engage in an extended consideration and evaluation before entering into the loyalty loop. But with the emergence of online and offline advocacy the modern consumers may skip various traditional phases and may directly enter into loyalty loop. Being well informed and empowered modern-day consumer would wait hardly few seconds before he shifts loyalty to the rival brands. Hence, the retailers and marketers need to deal with well informed and empowered consumers who are disloyal to the core. Therefore, this paper proposes the adoption of Omni-channel marketing as a strategy to deal with disloyal customers. This study is both analytical and theoretical in nature and is based on the secondary data as well as extensive review of literature on the subject. The findings of the study recommend that the adoption of Omni-channel marketing will reduce the loyalty depressing factors and increases the loyalty supporting factors amongst the consumers by creating seamless experience throughout their consumer journey. Therefore, this paper proposes the adoption of Omni channel marketing to retailers, brands and marketers to deal with well informed, empowered and disloyal consumers and to convert them into loyal consumers. 2018, Academy of Business and Retail Management Research. -
Assessment of mutagenicity caused by popular baby foods and baby plastic-ware products: An imperative study using microbial bioassays and migration analysis
Specialized products for infants have become every parent's first choice. Although these products claim to be safe and mild for infant use, yet there is a need to monitor them using different tools for mutagenicity detection to ensure further safety. In this study, a range of popular ready to eat and powdered baby foods, formula milk powders and attractive plasticware for infants were picked from the Indian market and tested for their mutagenicity using two microbial bioassays based on Salmonella typhimurium, viz., Ames bacterial reversion assay and fluctuation assay. Furthermore, chemical migration analysis was done on the most toxic baby food and baby plasticware samples as shown by the bioassays to detect possible leaching of Bisphenol a (BPA), lead and Di-2 ethyl hexyl phthalate (DEHP). It was surprising to find that the products made for the most risk-prone group in the society, i.e., infants have a significant potential to cause mutagenicity. 2018 Elsevier Inc. -
A new assessment of quantum key distribution, attenuation and data loss over foggy, misty and humid environment
Quantum encryption is a method of key transfer in cryptography by using quantum entanglement of photons. The real power of quantum entanglement is instantaneous communication that is non intercept able. The advantage of quantum encryption method is, it can be incorporated with conventional encryption methods safely. The quantum cryptography can replace conventional key exchange mechanism with the polarized photons using channels like optic fiber cables. Quantum cryptographic can also provide far and secure data communication. The present day experiments clearly proved that the quantum cryptography can be implemented through medium like optic fiber cable or air. But the distance of transmission through the air is limited by rule of line of sight propagation. The quantum key distribution will have uses in different types of communication between distant parts of earth. So this paper discussing various aspects of Quantum key distribution and successfully calculated polarized photon loss during transmission of Quantum cryptography link, while using in various type of atmospheric conditions like Mist Fog Haze. Also successfully calculated probability of single polarized photon missing by successfully utilizing the Light transmission characteristics and power measurements in various Atmospheric conditions. 2018, UK Simulation Society. All rights reserved. -
Dissecting star formation in the "atoms-for-Peace" galaxy: UVIT observations of the post-merger galaxy NGC7252
Context. The tidal tails of post-merger galaxies exhibit ongoing star formation far from their disks. The study of such systems can be useful for our understanding of gas condensation in diverse environments. Aims. The ongoing star formation in the tidal tails of post-merger galaxies can be directly studied from ultraviolet (UV) imaging observations. Methods. The post merger galaxy NGC7252 ("Atoms-for-Peace" galaxy) is observed with the Astrosat UV imaging telescope (UVIT) in broadband NUV and FUV filters to isolate the star-forming regions in the tidal tails and study the spatial variation in star formation rates. Results. Based on ultraviolet imaging observations, we discuss star-forming regions of ages <200 Myr in the tidal tails. We measure star formation rates in these regions and in the main body of the galaxy. The integrated star formation rate (SFR) of NGC7252 (i.e., that in the galaxy and tidal tails combined) without correcting for extinction is found to be 0.81 0.01 M yr-1. We show that the integrated SFR can change by an order of magnitude if the extinction correction used in SFR derived from other proxies are taken into consideration. The star formation rates in the associated tidal dwarf galaxies (NGC7252E, SFR = 0.02 M yr-1 and NGC7252NW, SFR = 0.03 M yr-1) are typical of dwarf galaxies in the local Universe. The spatial resolution of the UV images reveals a gradient in star formation within the tidal dwarf galaxy. The star formation rates show a dependence on the distance from the centre of the galaxy. This can be due to the different initial conditions responsible for the triggering of star formation in the gas reservoir that was expelled during the recent merger in NGC7252. 2018 ESO. -
Non-destructive classification of diversely stained capsicum annuum seed specimens of different cultivars using near-infrared imaging based optical intensity detection
The non-destructive classification of plant materials using optical inspection techniques has been gaining much recent attention in the field of agriculture research. Among them, a near-infrared (NIR) imaging method called optical coherence tomography (OCT) has become a well-known agricultural inspection tool since the last decade. Here we investigated the non-destructive identification capability of OCT to classify diversely stained (with various staining agents) Capsicum annuum seed specimens of different cultivars. A swept source (SS-OCT) system with a spectral band of 1310 nm was used to image unstained control C. annuum seeds along with diversely stained Capsicum seeds, belonging to different cultivar varieties, such as C. annuum cv. PR Ppareum, C. annuum cv. PR Yeol, and C. annuum cv. Asia Jeombo. The obtained cross-sectional images were further analyzed for the changes in the intensity of back-scattered light (resulting due to dye pigment material and internal morphological variations) using a depth scan profiling technique to identify the difference among each seed category. The graphically acquired depth scan profiling results revealed that the control specimens exhibit less back-scattered light intensity in depth scan profiles when compared to the stained seed specimens. Furthermore, a significant back-scattered light intensity difference among each different cultivar group can be identified as well. Thus, the potential capability of OCT based depth scan profiling technique for non-destructive classification of diversely stained C. annum seed specimens of different cultivars can be sufficiently confirmed through the proposed scheme. Hence, when compared to conventional seed sorting techniques, OCT can offer multipurpose advantages by performing sorting of seeds in respective to the dye staining and provides internal structural images non-destructively. 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. -
Influence of Solvent Environment on the Photophysical Properties of Maleamic Acid and Maleimide Derivatives
Absorption and fluorescence spectra of novel maleamic acid (E)-4-oxo-4-(4-((2-oxooxazolidin-4-yl)methyl)phenylamino)but-2-enoic acid (OMPBA) and its maleimide derivative 1-(4-((2-oxooxazolidin-4-yl)methyl)phenyl)-1H-pyrrole-2,5-dione (OMPPD) were recorded in a series of eighteen solvents of increasing polarity at room temperature (25C). A large Stokes shift indicates a bathochromic fluorescence band shift for both molecules. The photoluminescence properties and intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) behavior of OMPBA and OMPPD were analyzed. In the case of OMPPD, ICT contributes to a larger extent towards positive solvatochromism compared to OMPBA. Ground-state and singlet excited-state dipole moments of OMPBA and OMPPD were calculated using solvatochromic methods proposed by Bilot and Kawski, Lippert and Mataga, Bakhshiev, Kawskii and Chamma and Viallet, and also Reichardt. The ground state dipole moment was found to be larger than for the singlet excited state for both molecules. Optimized geometry and HOMOLUMO energies of OMPBA and OMPPD have been determined by DFT and TDDFT/B3LYP/6-311G (d, p). The HOMOLUMO energy gap was calculated from cyclic voltammetry and compared with theoretical values with good agreement. GCRD parameters such as ionization potential (IP), electron affinity (EA), electronegativity ?, chemical potential (?), chemical hardness (?), chemical softness (s) and electrophilicity (?) were calculated for OMPBA and OMPPD. 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. -
Personal fableness and perception of risk behaviors among adolescents
Adolescence is a crucial period where one tends to identify who they are as an individual. However, as a teenager is struggling to find his/her place in this world, it is also a time where they are prone to engaging in risk behaviors, which tend to have an extreme psychological impact. The objective was to explore the experiences of an adolescent who engages in risk behaviors and to understand their level of personal fables. The study was a qualitative design with content analysis with semi-structured interviews of ten male adolescents aged 16-18 years. The major findings of the study indicated that adolescents pattern of thinking revolves around the fact that they are invincible and invulnerable. Furthermore, adolescents are aware of the risks they are putting themselves through and how in the process they are hurting others. The implications of the study are to conduct more life skill programs in schools; greater awareness has to be created on the impact and harmful effects of such behaviors. 2018, Indian Journal of Public Health Research and Development. All rights reserved. -
Synthesis of porous graphene sheets from agricultural waste by chemical methods
A facile technique to synthesise wrinkled graphene like nano carbon (GNC) agricultural waste like wood and coconut charcoal is reported in the current study. The charcoal is produced by thermal decomposition of wood and coconut shell and is intercalated by Hummer's method. It is separated by centrifugation and sonication to get few layer graphene sheets. The structural and chemical changes of the nanostructure are elucidated by Raman spectroscopy, TEM, SEMEDS and XPS. Raman spectra revealed the existence of highly graphitized amorphous carbon, which is confirmed by the appearance of five peaks in the deconvoluted first order Raman spectra. The SEM analysis reveals the formation of large area graphene sheets with nanoporous structure in it. The TEM/SAED analysis exhibits the presence of short range few layers graphene. 2018 World Research Association. All rights reserved. -
Nonlinear convection in nano Maxwell fluid with nonlinear thermal radiation: A three-dimensional study
The combined effects of nonlinear thermal convection and radiation in 3D boundary layer flow of non-Newtonian nanofluid are scrutinized numerically. The flow is induced by the stretching of a flat plate in two lateral directions. The mechanism of heat and mass transport under thermophoretic and Brownian motion is elaborated via implementation of the thermal convective condition. The prevailing two-point nonlinear boundary value problem is reduced to a two-point ordinary differential problem by employing suitable similarity transformations. The solutions are computed by the implementation of homotopic scheme. At the end, a comprehensive parametric study has been conducted to analyze the typical trend of the solutions. It is found that the nanoparticle volume fraction and temperature profiles are stronger for the case of solar radiation in comparison with problem without radiation. 2017 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University -
A pair of kinematically related space curves
We investigate the relation between two types of space curves, the Mannheim curves and constant-pitch curves and primarily explicate a method of deriving Mannheim curves and constant-pitch curves from each other by means of a suitable deformation of a space curve. We define a "radius" function and a "pitch" function for any arbitrary regular space curve and use these to characterize the two classes of curves. A few non-trivial examples of both Mannheim and constant pitch curves are discussed. The geometric nature of Mannheim curves is established by using the notion of osculating helices. The Frenet-Serret motion of a rigid body in theoretical kinematics is studied for the special case of a Mannheim curve and the axodes in this case are deduced. In particular, we show that the fixed axode is developable if and only if the motion trajectory is a Mannheim curve. 2018 World Scientific Publishing Company. -
A New Facile Iodine-Promoted One-Pot Synthesis of Dihydroquinazolinone Compounds
A one-pot iodine catalyzed reaction has been developed for the preparation of dihydroquinazolinones from isatoic anhydride, enaminones, and amines in modest to good yields. The reaction has been screened in various catalysts and solvents and a gram scale experiment has been performed based on the optimum conditions. A possible mechanism has been proposed based on the control experiments. The reaction has been checked with broad range of substrates. 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim -
The Diffuse Radiation Field at High Galactic Latitudes
We have used GALEX observations of the north and south Galactic poles to study the diffuse ultraviolet background at locations where the Galactic light is expected to be at a minimum. We find offsets of 230-290 photon units in the far-UV (1531 and 480-580 photon units in the near-UV (2361 . Of this, approximately 120 photon units can be ascribed to dust-scattered light and another 110 photon units (190 in the near-UV) to extragalactic radiation. The remaining radiation is, as yet, unidentified and amounts to 120-180 photon units in the far-UV and 300-400 photon units in the near-UV. We find that molecular hydrogen fluorescence contributes to the far-UV when the 100 ?m surface brightness is greater than 1.08 MJy sr-1. 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. -
Heat transfer in the flow of blood-gold Carreau nanofluid induced by partial slip and buoyancy
Dynamics of blood containing gold nanoparticles on a syringe and other objects with a nonuniform thickness is of importance to experts in the industry. This study presents the significance of partial slip (i.e. combination of linear stretching and velocity gradient) and buoyancy on the boundary layer flow of blood-gold Carreau nanofluid over an upper horizontal surface of a paraboloid of revolution (uhspr). In this report, the viscosity of the Carreau fluid corresponding to an infinite shear-rate is assumed as zero, meanwhile, the viscosity corresponding to zero shear-rate, density, thermal conductivity, and heat capacity were assumed to vary with the volume fraction of nanoparticles. The governing equation that models the transport phenomenon were non-dimensionalized and parameterized using suitable similarity variables and solved numerically using classical RungeKutta method with shooting techniques and MATLAB bvp4c package for validation. The results show that temperature distribution across the flow decreases more significantly with buoyancy-related parameter when the influence of partial slip was maximized. Maximum velocity of the flow is ascertained at larger values of partial slip and buoyancy parameters. At smaller values of Deborah number and large values of volume fraction, maximum local skin friction coefficient, and local heat transfer rate are ascertained. 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. -
Medical Image Security Using Dual Encryption with Oppositional Based Optimization Algorithm
Security is the most critical issue amid transmission of medical images because it contains sensitive information of patients. Medical image security is an essential method for secure the sensitive data when computerized images and their relevant patient data are transmitted across public networks. In this paper, the dual encryption procedure is utilized to encrypt the medical images. Initially Blowfish Encryption is considered and then signcryption algorithm is utilized to confirm the encryption model. After that, the Opposition based Flower Pollination (OFP) is utilized to upgrade the private and public keys. The performance of the proposed strategy is evaluated using performance measures such as Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), entropy, Mean Square Error (MSE), and Correlation Coefficient (CC). 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. -
Quadratic convective flow of radiated nano-Jeffrey liquid subject to multiple convective conditions and Cattaneo-Christov double diffusion
A nonlinear flow of Jeffrey liquid with Cattaneo-Christov heat flux is investigated in the presence of nanoparticles. The features of thermophoretic and Brownian movement are retained. The effects of nonlinear radiation, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD), and convective conditions are accounted. The conversion of governing equations into ordinary differential equations is prepared via stretching transformations. The consequent equations are solved using the Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg (RKF) method. Impacts of physical constraints on the liquid velocity, the temperature, and the nanoparticle volume fraction are analyzed through graphical illustrations. It is established that the velocity of the liquid and its associated boundary layer width increase with the mixed convection parameter and the Deborah number. 2018, Shanghai University and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature. -
A complete person re-identification model using Kernel-PCA-based Gabor-filtered hybrid descriptors
Person re-identification is a challenging problem in computer vision. Lots of research interest is observed in this area over the past few years. A model for complete person re-identification can prove useful in this direction. Use of convolutional neural networks for pedestrian detection can improve the accuracy of detection to a larger extent. Deriving a descriptor which is invariant to the changes in the illumination, background and the pose can make the difference in the re-identification process. The predominant part of our work focuses on building a robust descriptor which can tackle such challenges. We have concentrated on building a descriptor by employing appearance-based features extracted both at local and global levels. Further, the dimensionality of the descriptor is reduced using kernel PCA. Distance metric learning algorithms are used to evaluate the descriptor on three major benchmark datasets. We propose a complete person re-identification system which involves both pedestrian detection and person re-identification. Major contributions of this work are to detect pedestrians from surveillance videos using CNN-based learning and to generate a kernel-PCA-based spatial descriptor and evaluate the descriptor using known distance metric learning methods on benchmark datasets. 2018, Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature. -
Assessment of microsatellite instability for screening bladder cancer in high-risk population
Aims: This study aims to determine the diagnostic efficacy of microsatellite markers for screening bladder cancer in population at high risk. Materials and Methods: A population of 200 people was screened for bladder cancer using a set of microsatellite markers. Urine samples were obtained from four different types of population groups - Group 1 (healthy population group), Group 2 (current smokers with a smoking history of more than 10 years), Group 3 (bladder cancer group), and Group 4 (bladder cancer group who were former smokers with a history of more than 10 years). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed to amplify microsatellite sequences at D9S63, D9S156, and D9S283. PCR products were separated on 1.8% agarose gel and were scanned using ultraviolet transilluminator. Results: In Group 2 (high-risk population group, mainly current smokers with a history of more than 10 years), microsatellite alterations were found in 36 out of 50 people. We observed microsatellite alterations in 38 out of 50 people in Group 3 (bladder cancer group) and in 39 out of 50 people in Group 4 (bladder cancer group, mainly former smokers with a history of more than 10 years). The sensitivity of this test in Group 2, Group 3, and Group 4 was found to be 72%, 76% and 78%, respectively. The specificity of this test in each group was found to be 90%. Conclusion: Using these set of microsatellite markers, medium sensitivity and high specificity were reported for this test. The current findings suggest that a set of microsatellite markers (D9S63, D9S156, and D9S283) can be used to detect bladder cancer in high-risk population. 2018 Medknow Publications. All Rights Reserved. -
Opto-electric property relationship in phosphorus embedded nanocarbon
Graphene, due to its zero band gap, has an excellent combination of the important features such as ballistic transport, tensile strength and chemical tuning, which are practically hindered in opto-electric applications. The precursors used in the production of nanocarbon are relatively costlier; however, that their production processes include difficulties is a harder problem. It is possible to control the size, structure and properties of the produced nanocarbon matrix by tuning sp2 domains in the matrix. In this respect, the coal, being a potential candidate for the synthesis of nanocarbon which holds promising applications, has attracted remarkable interest. The nanocarbon structure reported in this paper was synthesized from bituminous coal and then phosphorus atoms were added into the produced structure in order to obtain resultant composite structure, whose structural properties were illustrated here in detail by using the X-ray, IR and UVVisible spectroscopy techniques. A systematical analysis of the optical and electrical properties of the produced composite has revealed that a composite structure to be produced in the ratio 1:2 of nanocarbon + phosphorus has better optical and electrical properties. We report here that the composite produced in this study from nanocarbon by adding phosphorous atoms shows unique photoluminescent property in particular due to the dominance of quantum confinement and oxygen functionalities. The observed increase in the dielectric strength, which results from interfacial polarization and its frequency independent nature, is desirable for the fields such as supercapacitor, sensor, stealth applications etc. 2018 The Authors -
FSDA: Framework for Secure Data Aggregation in wireless sensor network for enhancing key management
An effective key management plays a crucial role in imposing a resilient security technique in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). After reviewing the existing approaches of key management, it is confirmed that existing approachs does not offer good coverage on all potential security breaches in WSN. With WSN being essential part of Internet-of-Things (IoT), the existing approaches of key management can definitely not address such security breaches. Therefore, this paper introduces a Framework for Secure Data Aggregation (FSDA) that hybridizes the public key encryption mechanism in order to obtain a novel key management system. The proposed system does not target any specific attacks but is widely applicable for both internal and external attacks in WSN owing to its design principle. The study outcome exhibits that proposed FSDA offers highly reduced computational burden, minimal delay, less energy consumption, and higher data transmission perforance in contrast to frequency used encryption schemes in WSN. Copyright 2018 Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science. All rights reserved. -
Nonlinear radiative flow of casson nanoliquid past a cone and wedge with magnetic dipole: Mathematical model of renewable energy
Solar energy is an important source of energy for all the living things. Other sources of energy such as electricity and heat can be converted from solar radiation. The recent advanced technologies are utilized to convert solar energy into electricity. In this direction, nanoliquids are quite useful because they directly absorb or scatter solar radiation. Nanofluids are selected to be best aspirant for the development of renewable energy. They are successfully utilized in the processes of renewable energy. Due to such importance of nanofluids, we investigate the effects of nanoparticles on nonlinear convective and radiative flow of Casson liquid. Two cases are considered namely flow due to a cone and flow due to a wedge. In addition to traditional temperature dependent heat source aspect an exponential space dependent heat source effect is examined. Explicitly heat/mass transfer mechanism is analysed due to prescribed linear surface temperature/particles volume fraction. Problem formulation is presented using conservation laws of mass, momentum, energy and nanoparticles volume fraction under boundary layer approximations. The solutions to the dimensionless problem are computed via Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg based shooting method. Results are plotted and examined. The exponential space dependent and thermal dependent heat source aspects are dominates on thermal field. Further, heat and mass transfer rates are higher in case of flow created by cone than flow created by wedge. The liquid velocity is higher in the case of flow due to wedge than flow due to cone case. 2018 by American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved.