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ON 3-DIMENSIONAL QUASI-PARA-SASAKIAN MANIFOLDS AND RICCI SOLITONS
The purpose of this paper is to study 3-dimensional quasi-para-Sasakian manifolds and Ricci solitons. First, we prove that a 3-dimensional non-paracosymplectic quasi-para-Sasakian manifold is an ?-Einstein manifold if and only if the structure function ? is constant. Further, it is shown that a Ricci soliton on a 3-dimensional quasi-para-Sasakian manifold with ?=constant is expanding. Moreover, we show that if a 3-dimensional quasi-para-Sasakian manifold admits a Ricci soliton, then the flow vector field V is Killing, and the quasi-para-Sasakian structure can be obtained by a homothetic deformation of a para-Sasakian structure. Besides, we study gradient Ricci solitons and prove that if a 3-dimensional non-paracosymplectic quasi-para-Sasakian manifold with ?=constant admits a gradient Ricci soliton, then the manifold is an Einstein one. Also, a suitable example of a 3-dimensional quasi-para-Sasakian manifold is constructed to verify our results. 2022 A. Razmadze Mathematical Institute of Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. All rights reserved. -
Transitivity of trees
For a graph G = (V,E), a partition ? = (V1,V2,..,Vk) of the vertex set V is a transitive partition if Vi dominates Vj whenever i < j. The transitivity Tr(G) of a graph G is the maximum order of a transitive partition of V. For any positive integer k, we characterize the smallest tree with transitivity k and obtain an algorithm to determine the transitivity of any tree of finite order. 2022 World Scientific Publishing Company. -
Evolutionary multiple instance boosting framework for weakly supervised learning
Multiple instance boosting (MILBoost) is a framework which uses multiple instance learning (MIL) with boosting technique to solve the problems regarding weakly labeled inexact data. This paper proposes an enhanced multiple boosting frameworkevolutionary MILBoost (EMILBoost) which utilizes differential evolution (DE) to optimize the combination of weak classifier or weak estimator weights in the framework. A standard MIL dataset MUSK and a binary classification dataset Hastie_10_2 are used to evaluate the results. Results are presented in terms of bag and instance classification error and also confusion matrix of test data. 2021, The Author(s). -
Influence of Economic Benefits and Social Interaction on Buyer Participation in a Rural Retail Institution: Study of an Indian Periodic Market
Retail institutions offer economic and social benefits to the participants in a market. It is expected that in a less developed economy the social factors influence economic behaviour much more than in developed economies. The rural markets offer increased opportunities for the influence of social factors on economic transactions. This study examined the case of a rural periodic market. To ensure reliability the case study protocol questions reflected propositions developed on the research questions. It was expected that the participants would exhibit the influence of social relations in their market transactions. The results indicated that the economic benefits than social considerations influenced participant behaviour in the rural periodic market. Contrary to expectations not all consumers in a less developed economy exhibit social embeddedness in economic behaviour. Implications are for policymakers involved in planning and regulating rural markets. They need to take into consideration the differing behaviour of consumer groups in designing or regulating retail markets. This study examining the social embeddedness of buyer behaviour in the rural retail context of a less developed economy is presumably the first. 2021 Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Gujarat, India. -
The Astropy Project: Sustaining and Growing a Community-oriented Open-source Project and the Latest Major Release (v5.0) of the Core Package*
The Astropy Project supports and fosters the development of open-source and openly developed Python packages that provide commonly needed functionality to the astronomical community. A key element of the Astropy Project is the core package astropy, which serves as the foundation for more specialized projects and packages. In this article, we summarize key features in the core package as of the recent major release, version 5.0, and provide major updates on the Project. We then discuss supporting a broader ecosystem of interoperable packages, including connections with several astronomical observatories and missions. We also revisit the future outlook of the Astropy Project and the current status of Learn Astropy. We conclude by raising and discussing the current and future challenges facing the Project. 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. -
Understanding inhibitors to XBRL adoption: an empirical investigation
Purpose: This study aims to investigate the awareness of extensible business reporting language (XBRL) and the perception of chartered accountants of India concerning the inhibitors of XBRL adoption, namely, environmental, organizational and innovation factors developed by Troshani and Rao (2007) from Rogers innovation diffusion theory. In addition, the analysis also investigated the relationship between the perception of issues regarding XBRL adoption and individual characteristics (training, age, gender and professional experience). Design/methodology/approach: A Web-based questionnaire was circulated through e-mail to chartered accountants registered with the Institute of Chartered Accountants India (ICAI) and 233 chartered accountants responded to the questionnaire. The data was analyzed using reliability statistics and multivariate regression analyses. Findings: The results indicate that accountants perceived that environmental, organizational and innovational factors were challenging in adopting XBRL. Interestingly, training and experience were significant factors in explaining respondents perceptions. Practical implications: From a practical panorama, the significance of issues implies that associations such as XBRL International, XBRL India, ICAI and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs should collectively take the appropriate steps to sustain and ameliorate the reliability and adoption of XBRL. Social implications: The results can motivate ICAI/Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) courses to teach academic content about XBRL. Originality/value: The present study differs from previous research because it examines the inhibitors in adopting XBRL, namely, environmental, organizational and innovation factors, in an empirical setting. Moreover, to the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first study to analyze the influence of individual factors on accountants perceptions about inhibitors of XBRL adoption. 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited. -
Photocatalytic nanomaterials: Applications for remediation of toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and green management
Nanomaterials (NMs) have piqued the attention of scientists and researchers across many biomedical sciences due to their superior physical, chemical, and magnetic properties. The efficacy and efficiency of NMs depend on adapting to specific site conditions and soil composition. NMs have lately received much attention in the context of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) polluted soil remediation and water mitigation because of their unique properties resulting from their nanoscale sizes. The remediation of hazardous PAHs in water and soil is a hot research subject. Because the exposure of PAHs in water and soil results in pollution, which raises major human health concerns. The current review reports novel advancements in NMs that subsidize enhancement for degradation of PAHs. Challenges to the fabrication of high activity-based photocatalytic materials are also discussed. Furthermore, this review delivers exclusive and wide-ranging perspectives on the fabrication of nanomaterial-based photocatalytic systems. The knowledge of both soil remediation and water mitigation is also updated. 2022 -
Ruralurban financial inclusion: Implications on the cost sustainability of microfinance lenders
Despite the higher demand for credit among the rural poor, many commercial banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) are averse towards microfinancing activities in rural areas due to their high-cost implication compared to urban areas. Therefore, this study empirically investigates the effect of rural and urban financial inclusion on the cost sustainability of MFIs. To this end, a globally representative sample of 1729 MFIs' data covering the period 20082018 were analyzed. Contrary to the orthodox perception, our overall result revealed that lending in rural areas is more cost-efficient than in urban areas, even after considering various proxies and endogeneity issues. 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. -
Examination of sustainability goals: A comparative study of U.S. and Indian firms
Considerable attention has focused on tactics firms use when building their sustainability platforms. Less is known, however, about how sustainability goal setting varies globally, especially in developing economies. Accordingly, we examined sustainability goals of 21 of the 50 largest Indian firms and compared them with similar data from a published study that examined 22 of the 50 largest U.S. firms. In total, 679 sustainability goals were analyzed using a triple bottom line framework. We found U.S. firms set more sustainability goals than Indian firms. Firms from both samples set similar numbers of people goals but U.S. firms set more diversity goals. Indian firms were more inclined to set economic and community development goals. We also detected differences across the samples in planet goals associated with emissions and water. Especially significant, Indian firms were much more likely than U.S. firms to specify profit goals. Implications for research and practice are discussed. 2019 Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management. -
Features of Vitamin Model Affecting Psychological Empowerment: Serial Mediation Role of Job Crafting and Work Engagement
The current research aimed to investigate the association between the variables under the study, that is, the vitamin model features of a job: job crafting, work engagement, and psychological empowerment. It also attempted to analyze the serial mediational role of the two causally linked mediators, that is, job crafting and work engagement with the job features of the vitamin model and psychological empowerment. By investigating these variables, we tried to explore how the employees redesigned the well-defined jobs to match their capabilities, which enhanced commitment to work and led to positive behavioral outcomes, such as empowerment, work meaningfulness, and improved performance. Primary data were collected from 453 knowledge workers in the information technology (IT) and information technology-enabled services (ITES) industry. Using SPSS software, the correlation method revealed significant positive correlations between the variables under study. PROCESS macro (Haynes, 2012) was applied in SPSS AMOS regression-based path coefficients and bootstrap confidence intervals at a 95% confidence level. As the bootstrap confidence intervals did not include zero, a significant mediational role of the serial mediators was observed between the relationship of features in the vitamin model and psychological empowerment [Estimate =.0761, 95% CI (.0257,.1902)]. So, it could be concluded that job crafting made the employees the mechanic of their vehicle (work), leading to work engagement, increased performance, and psychological well-being at the workplace. 2022, Associated Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd.. All rights reserved. -
A reconfigurable integrated level shifted carrier based PWM method for modular multilevel converters
This article presents a reconfigurable integrated level shifted carrier-based pulse width modulation (ILSC-PWM) method for modular multilevel converters (MMCs). The principles of basic level shifted carrier-based PWM (LSC-PWM) methods such as phase disposition PWM (PD-PWM), phase opposition disposition PWM (POD-PWM) and alternate phase opposition disposition PWM (APOD-PWM) methods are combined to develop the concept of reconfigurable ILSC-PWM method. The main objectives of the proposed reconfigurable ILSC-PWM method is to develop the pulse width modulated output voltage with both half-wave and quarter-wave symmetries and to reduce the total harmonic distortion (THD). A simplified mathematical approach is developed to formulate reconfigurable single ILSC wave for MMC with N number of submodules (SMs) per arm. The functionality and performance of the reconfigurable ILSC-PWM method are carried out on three-phase five-level MMC in MATLAB/Simulink. A hardware prototype of single-phase five-level MMC is designed for experimental validation. The proposed ILSC-PWM method is implemented on an Altera/Cyclone I series (EP1C12Q240C8N) field programmable gate array (FPGA). Computer Simulations and laboratory experimental results are presented. 2022 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. 2022 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. -
Perceived Discrimination and Happiness Among Tribal Unmarried Mothers
The present study aimed to understand the relationship between perceived discrimination and happiness among tribal unmarried mothers. The sample included 30 tribal unmarried mothers from the Wayanad district in Kerala, India. Data were collected using a socio-demographic response sheet, Oxford happiness questionnaire (Short form), and everyday discrimination scale. MannWhitney U test showed that tribal unmarried mothers did not differ in happiness concerning their income, education, putative father from the same tribe or not, and living status. Compared to those with higher income, mothers with lower income were higher in perceived discrimination. Correlation analysis revealed a negative relationship between perceived discrimination and happiness. Regression analysis confirmed that perceived discrimination is a negative predictor of happiness. 2022, The Author(s) under exclusive licence to National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) India. -
Diversifying investor's portfolio using bitcoin: An econometric analysis
Rational investors look into maximizing returns with minimal risk. Since this is highly unlikely, optimizing risk and return is a practical solution. Bitcoin is a new financial product that can be included in an investment portfolio. This paper looks at Bitcoins as a separate asset class and attempts to capture the volatility using the Exponential GARCH (E-GARCH) as well as to check if Bitcoins can be used as an optimal tool to hedge using the Dynamic Conditional Correlation GARCH against four traditional asset classes in the U.S. economy which includes the stock market (S&P 500 index), Bonds (U.S. Aggregate Bond Index), Gold and Crude Oil. The period of study is a little over 7 years. The results suggest that Bitcoin stands as a highly speculative class of asset with extremely high volatility and with respect to hedging, Bitcoin stands as a possible tool of hedge with the U.S. Aggregate Bond index and to a certain extent against Gold but fails to be an optimal hedge against the S&P 500 and Crude Oil in the U.S. economy between April 29, 2013 and October 31, 2019 due to its highly volatile nature. 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. -
Antibacterial activity and spectroscopic characteristics of silver nanoparticles synthesized via plant and invitro leaf-derived callus extracts of Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC
In this paper, we describe the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using plant extracts, as well as their structural, optical, and antibacterial activities against Escherichia coli and Bacillus velezensis bacteria. For the study, several sections (root, leaves, and seed) of Mucuna pruriens, an immense medicinal herbal used to treat Parkinson's disease, were evaluated. Also, the seeds were grown in-vitro in the modified Murashige and Skoog's medium and the leaf derived callus supplemented by different phytohormones like picloram (pic), thidiazuron (TDZ), 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 2-isopentenyl adenine (2-iP) were selected for this study. This is the first report of distinct callus obtained from M. pruriens and used for green nanoparticle synthesis. The prepared materials were thoroughly evaluated for structural and optical properties using XRD, FTIR, and UV-Visible spectroscopy. During synthesis, the colour changes from colourless to reddish brown, and the existence of an SPR peak in the absorption spectra confirms the formation of AgNPs. The FTIR spectra reveals the presence of phenolic group and alkyl ether groups, which were responsible for the reduction of silver ions during the green synthesis. The aqueous extracts of plant parts and callus obtained from different hormones showed very poor antibacterial activity. However, the green synthesized nanoparticles fabricated by different plant extracts showed good antimicrobial activity towards E. coli and B. velezensis bacteria. amongst the investigated results, highest antimicrobial activity against E. coli (84.8%) and B. velezensis (78.1%) was shown by AgNPs mediated by leaf extracts respectively followed by 0.5 mg/L pic and 2.0 mg/L BAP callus mediated silver nanoparticle solution. According to the findings, green produced AgNPs are promising candidates for antibacterial applications against E. coli and B. velezensis. 2022 SAAB -
An Enhanced Transfer Learning Based Classification for Diagnosis of Skin Cancer
Skin cancer is the most commonly diagnosed and reported malignancy worldwide. To reduce the death rate from cancer, it is essential to diagnose skin cancer at a benign stage as soon as possible. To save lives, an automated system that can detect skin cancer in its earliest stages is necessary. For the diagnosis of skin cancer, various researchers have performed tasks using deep learning and transfer learning models. However, the existing literature is limited in terms of its accuracy and its troublesome and time-consuming process. As a result, it is critical to design an automatic system that can deliver a fast judgment and considerably reduce mistakes in diagnosis. In this work, a deep learning-based model has been designed for the identification of skin cancer at benign and malignant stages using the concept of transfer learning approach. For this, a pre-trained VGG16 model is improved by adding one flatten layer, two dense layers with activation function (LeakyReLU) and another dense layer with activation function (sigmoid) to enhance the accuracy of this model. This proposed model is evaluated on a dataset obtained from Kaggle. The techniques of data augmentation are applied in order to enhance the random-ness among the input dataset for model stability. The proposed model has been validated by considering several useful hyper parameters such as different batch sizes of 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128; different epochs and optimizers. The proposed model is working best with an overall accuracy of 89.09% on 128 batch size with the Adam optimizer and 10 epochs and outperforms state-of-the-art techniques. This model will help dermatologists in the early diagnosis of skin cancers. 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. -
Fintech Innovations in the Financial Service Industry
Digital transformation underscored by the fourth industrial revolution has led to the emergence of sophisticated technology-enabled financial services known as fintech, that has swiftly altered traditional financial services space. Global adoption of fintech is rapidly increasing due to its disruptive nature and is largely embraced by participants who are underserved by traditional financial service providers. Global investments in fintech are growing rapidly year by year owing to increased interconnectivity with the digital revolution. Fintech is expansive, engulfing a plethora of innovative applications in various services including payments, financing, asset management, insurance, etc. There exists a gap in the literature and visualization research on impact and future pathway of fintech innovations in payments and financial services and role of financial regulations. This study aims to enrich the understanding of fintech innovations in payments and financing and investigate the correlation and significance of regulatory framework in maintaining a fair ecosystem. With this objective, an extant systematic review was performed using research articles published in peer-reviewed journals for the period 20142022 when there has been a burgeoning of interest in fintech globally. The findings of this study contribute to the theoretical constructs of fintech innovations in the financial services industry and show that such innovations play a crucial role in shaping the nature of future of business. The results of this study have implications for researchers who could deploy this research as a reference point to get a holistic insight and a detailed mapping of innovations in fintech. 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. -
Computational investigation into structural, topological, electronic properties, and biological evaluation of spiro[1H-indole-3,2?-3H-1,3-benzothiazole]-2-one
The current work comprises theoretical studies on spiro[1H-indole-3,2?-3H-1,3-benzothiazole]-2-one employing density functional theory (DFT). The optimized structure and molecular geometry of the title compound were calculated. Topological studies were performed using Multiwfn 3.8, these include ELF, LOL and RDG studies to identify the main bonding regions and weak interactions in the molecule. Solvation effects were studied by taking different green solvents, using IEFPCM model. Solvation effects were investigated for electronic properties (HOMO-LUMO and UV), MEP, and NLO properties and some variation is observed in the behaviour of the title compound in gas and solvent phases. Natural bond orbital (NBO) calculations are performed to study the inter- and intra-molecular charge transfer and stability. Pharmacological evaluation comprising of drug-likeness, ADME, environmental toxicity properties using online tools such as SwissADME, Pre-ADMET, and GUSAR, to determine whether the molecule can be a potential drug candidate is performed. Finally, molecular docking against anti-melanoma targets whose Ramachandran plots have been depicted to determine the stability of the target proteins, with PyMOL, AutoDock Suite and Discovery Studio Visualizer, is carried out. 2022 Elsevier B.V. -
Simulation and fabrication of tungsten oxide thin films for electrochromic applications
Electrochromics is the emerging technology that is used in sunlight control window glazing for buildings, automobiles and it can also control indoor climate through smart windows. Electrochromism is the mutable change in optical properties of an electrochromic material caused by redox reactions due to the application of voltage. Easy intercalating the H + ions on a dense electrochromic material (WO3) is the most important parameter as far as the reaction kinetics is concerned. The goal of our work is to improve the electrochemical response of electrochromic material by constructing nano-pillars rather than using dense electrochromic materials. Electrochemical performance of both the dense (planar) and porus (nano pillars) structures were simulated and experimentally proved with a systematic discussion in the present work. It is proven and shown here the increase in the electrochemical kinetics through easy diffusion of ions into the nanostructured electrochromic material. 2022 Elsevier B.V. -
Authentic leadership in a pandemic world: an exploratory study in the Indian context
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the strategies that helps leaders be authentic in order to be able to respond proactively and become effective in helping their organisations they lead in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: Using a qualitative approach, 25 business leaders from diverse sectors were interviewed to understand what sustained them in an adverse context. Findings: Results reveal various dimensions of authentic leadership in a disruptive environment. Authentic leaders have to exhibit distinct behaviours that stems from re-examining oneself to reaffirming organisational purpose. Reimagining the work is emerged as the newer dimension to the authentic leadership considering the context of COVID-19. Practical implications: The results of the study provides insights for anyone leading organisations in today's disruptive business environment. The findings of this study can be used further to undertake quantitative studies to test professional relationships and understand the leadership strategies at different time frames. Originality/value: This paper addresses the strategies that leaders successfully follow to withstand the COVID crisis and highlights the different roles and behaviours that helped leaders to address the crisis confidently. 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited. -
Critical concepts of restrained domination in signed graphs
A signed graph ? is a simple undirected graph in which each edge is either positive or negative. Restrained dominating set D in ? is a restrained dominating set of the underlying graph |?| where the subgraph induced by the edges across ?[D: V D] and within V D is balanced. The minimum cardinality of a restrained dominating set of ? is called the restrained domination number, denoted by ?r(?). In this paper, we initiate the study on various critical concepts to investigate the effect of edge removal or edge addition on restrained domination number in signed graphs. 2022 World Scientific Publishing Company.