Browse Items (16481 total)
Sort by:
-
Cadmium as an Endocrine Disruptor That Hinders the Reproductive and Developmental Pathways in Freshwater Fish: A Review
Cadmium (Cd) is a non-essential element with sub-lethal effects even at low concentrations. The persistent nature of Cd and its tendency to bioaccumulate eventually create harmful effects on water biota, including fish. Cd affects various aspects of hormonal action in fish since it bioaccumulates in the endocrine system and hinders the synthesis, secretion, and metabolic activity of hormones, causing severe damage along the hypothalamuspituitarygonadal axis. Linking reproductive and developmental impairments in fish with ecologically relevant concentrations of individual metals can be challenging due to the complexity of aquatic ecosystems. This review deliberated the significant and novel trends of toxicological difficulties and approaches, including elucidating environmental sources bioavailability and Cd-induced toxic effects in freshwater fish. Both acute and chronic exposure to Cd can cause a range of adverse effects, such as growth inhibition, impaired reproductive capacity, endocrine disruption, and developmental abnormalities in freshwater fish, as evidenced by the present review. These investigations support the concept of Cd as a naturally available pollutant that causes irreversible damage in fish. These findings will help to understand the etiology of environmental circumstances that pose substantial dangers to fish health and are also crucial for preventing and treating exposure-related reproductive disturbances in freshwater fish due to environmental pollution. 2023 by the authors. -
Technology, Informality, and the Future of Work: Enhancing Socio-Economic Status of Domestic Workers in Karnataka
This study examines the impact of technology-based skill development on the socio-economic status of domestic workers in Karnataka, India. Using structural equation modelling with data from 433 female domestic workers across five districts, the research investigates how digital skill interventions influence employability, job security, and access to government welfare schemes. The findings reveal that technology-based skill development significantly enhances socio-economic outcomes through improved employability (? = 0.53, p < 0.001), with job security serving as a crucial mediating factor. However, government welfare schemes showed limited effectiveness in mediating the relationship between skill development and socio-economic advancement. The study highlights that 78% of respondents work part-time, with 88% receiving cash payments, indicating persistent informality. While digital skill programs create pathways for economic mobility, their success depends on facilitating stable employment rather than mere knowledge transfer. The research underscores the need for better integration between skill development initiatives and social protection systems to maximize benefits for marginalized domestic workers. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026. -
Adherence to the WHO Guidelines on Suicide Reporting: A Content Analysis from Bengaluru, India
Background: Media, with its power to influence the masses, is found to have an impact on how the readers perceive suicide, and evidence suggest that suicidal behavior is contagious. However, studies have shown that it is possible to intervene by implementing media guidelines for suicide reporting. Unfortunately, the guidelines are mostly not being adhered to by the media. The current study attempts to assess if there has been any change in reporting after the Press Council of India issued guidelines on suicide reporting in 2019. Methodology: Content analysis of the newspaper articles reporting on suicide was done for 3 months (October 1, 2019, to December 31, 2019). Nineteen newspapers published in Bengaluru, Karnataka, were selected for the study based on the language and readership. These included six English, five Kannada, two Malayalam, two Hindi, two Tamil, and two Telugu newspapers. A total of 1198 reports were found and analyzed. Results: The study found that the majority of the reports did not adhere to the guidelines. It was observed that the news reports on suicide mostly resorted to sensationalization. Majority of the reports portrayed suicide in a harmful manner by mentioning the suicide method and the site in detail and focused on monocausal explanations. The significant connection between suicide and mental illness was also overlooked. Conclusion: Irresponsible reporting of suicide creates risks for the public and collaborative efforts should be designed to decrease the negative impact media can have on suicide prevention initiatives. 2025 Indian Journal of Social Psychiatry. -
An asymmetric analysis of overall globalization on financial inclusion
Purpose: Financial inclusion is acknowledged as a critical facilitator of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals agenda for 2030. Therefore, this study aims to examine the asymmetric role of overall globalization on financial inclusion by controlling economic growth, urbanization and population for the selected South Asian countries. Design/methodology/approach: Applying the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag approach to cointegration explores the impact of overall globalization on financial inclusion in the presence of additional variables like economic growth, urbanization and population in the designed financial inclusion function. Findings: The estimated econometric outcomes show that increasing overall globalization fosters financial inclusion while decreasing overall globalization reduces financial inclusion. Furthermore, a positive (negative) change in economic growth leads to an increase (decrease) in financial inclusion while varying short-run findings. Moreover, both positive and negative changes increase financial inclusion in the long run in connection with urbanization. Although the short-run results are not significant, the study finds that an increase (decrease) in population leads to a decrease (increase) in financial inclusion. Finally, to support the promotion of financial inclusivity throughout South Asia, several policies pertaining to financial inclusion are suggested. Originality/value: To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first study to examine the asymmetries related to overall globalization on financial inclusion by controlling economic growth, urbanization and population. 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited. -
Income Inequality in Globalization Context: Evidence from Global Data
This paper empirically investigates the relative effectiveness of economic globalization, trade openness, and financial openness on income inequality in low-, middle-, and high-income countries for the panel data over the period from 1991 to 2020 by endogenizing economic growth, urbanization, agriculture, industry, and service sectors value-added as % of GDP as control variables in income inequality function. The results emanating from the panel pooled mean group-autoregressive distributed lag (PMG-ARDL) test provide evidence of a significant long-run relationship among the variables. Interestingly, economic globalization reduces income inequality for high- and middle-income countries and increases it in low-income countries. On the other hand, trade openness reduces income inequality in high- and middle-income countries but increases it for low-income countries. In contrast, financial openness lessens income inequality in low-income countries but increases it for middle- and high-income countries. We find that urbanization increases income inequality in low-, middle- and high-income countries. We also find that economic growth decreases (increases) income inequality in high (middle and low)-income countries. Moreover, it is found that industrial and service sectors output decrease (increases) income inequality in high (middle and low)-income countries, whereas agricultural output improves (deteriorates) income distribution in middle- and low- (high) income countries. In light of these findings, we suggest that the governments of low-income countries need to focus more on improving the level of globalization and trade openness to improve their economic conditions in long run. Both high- and middle-income countries should also improve their financial openness so that effective utilization of overseas finance will flourish their overall economy. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023. -
An asymmetric analysis of overall globalization on financial inclusion
Purpose: Financial inclusion is acknowledged as a critical facilitator of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals agenda for 2030. Therefore, this study aims to examine the asymmetric role of overall globalization on financial inclusion by controlling economic growth, urbanization and population for the selected South Asian countries. Design/methodology/approach: Applying the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag approach to cointegration explores the impact of overall globalization on financial inclusion in the presence of additional variables like economic growth, urbanization and population in the designed financial inclusion function. Findings: The estimated econometric outcomes show that increasing overall globalization fosters financial inclusion while decreasing overall globalization reduces financial inclusion. Furthermore, a positive (negative) change in economic growth leads to an increase (decrease) in financial inclusion while varying short-run findings. Moreover, both positive and negative changes increase financial inclusion in the long run in connection with urbanization. Although the short-run results are not significant, the study finds that an increase (decrease) in population leads to a decrease (increase) in financial inclusion. Finally, to support the promotion of financial inclusivity throughout South Asia, several policies pertaining to financial inclusion are suggested. Originality/value: To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first study to examine the asymmetries related to overall globalization on financial inclusion by controlling economic growth, urbanization and population. 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited. -
Towards sustainable resource management: A short and long-run dynamics of mineral production on ecological footprint
The effect of mineral production on ecological footprint is examined in this study while controlling for economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and trade openness as additional determinants for Pakistan. On the empirical front, the study uses the Dynamic Autoregressive Distributed Lag (DYNARDL) simulations for the data collected between 1990 and 2021. The result portrays movement to the long-run equilibrium relationship when considering the ecological footprint as the outcome variable amidst mineral production, economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and trade openness as the covariates. Further, the finding shows temporal dynamics of mineral production on environmental quality with a short-term degradation versus long-term amelioration, which suggests that mineral production can be conducted more sustainably over time with an implication towards taking measures such as technological advancements, improved efficiency, and better waste management practices. Additionally, it failed to find evidence for the conventional Environmental Kuznets Curve, implying a need for policy reevaluation, reassessment of economic development models and accounting for environmental externalities in economic decision-making. Besides, as expected, the outcome demonstrates that using renewable energy lowers the ecological footprint both in long and short terms, which indicates that utilization of renewable energy sources reduces reliance on fossil fuels, resulting in decreased environmental degradation, thereby fostering the need for emphasis on the importance of continued technological innovation in renewable energy technologies to reduce the ecological footprint further. Moreover, it shows that trade openness improves the environmental quality in the short run (worsens it in the long run), thereby highlighting that trade openness may lead to short-term environmental benefits by promoting cleaner technologies and increasing resource efficiency. However, in the long term, trade openness can exacerbate environmental degradation due to economic priorities often taking precedence over environmental concerns. 2024 Elsevier Ltd -
Environmental degradation in geopolitical risk and uncertainty contexts for India: A comparison of ecological footprint, CO2 emissions, and load capacity factor
This study assesses the role of geopolitical risk and uncertainty in the degradation of the environment by forming the functions for ecological footprint, CO2 emissions, and load capacity factor for the period 19902019 in India. Besides, the specified function endogenizes economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and natural resource rent as the additional covariates. The use of the autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) confirms the long-run relationship between study variables. Further, the dynamic simulations of the autoregressive distributed lag model (DYNARDL) outcomes show that geopolitical risk improves the quality of the environment by reducing the ecological footprint and CO2 emissions. However, it degrades the environment by reducing the load capacity factor. Furthermore, the uncertainty improves the environmental quality by reducing the CO2 emissions and ecological footprint, but the reduced load capacity factor due to uncertainty implies the degradation of environmental quality in India. Given these findings, the study proposes different environmental conservation policies. 2023 Elsevier Ltd -
Bridging Sustainable Innovation: Developing a Regulatory Sandbox Model for FinTech Products
The evolution of the regulatory sandboxes in the world and its impact on the rapidly growing FinTech sector in the world is explored in this study, while comparing the successful sandboxes from around the world, relatively modified sandboxes for India is proposed. With the FinTech sector witnessing significant growth in recent years, the paper highlights the risks of scams and frauds, emphasizing the need for regulatory sandboxes to mitigate these challenges before introducing the product into the market. By comparing successful models of the United Kingdom and Singapore, the research identifies gaps in the existing Indian framework and proposes a tailored regulatory sandbox model. The modified model adds feasibility and sustainability assessments, which ensures a balanced approach to innovation, consumer protection, and financial stability. It explains the different eligibility criteria required to be met at each stage of the pilot testing as per Indian policies and explained the benefits of such tailored sandbox to the regulators, firms as well as the users of FinTech products. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2025. -
Variable initial energy and unequal clustering (VEUC) based multicasting in WSN
Multicast Communication plays an important role in most of the resource constrained networking environments such as Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), Internet of Things (IOT). Communication in WSN is restricted by energy, computation and memory capabilities of sensor nodes. Designing an efficient routing algorithm to achieve communication between Stationary Base station (BS) and a cluster of sensor nodes in a specific region requires the base station to send individual messages to all sensor nodes. This approach consumes a large amount of energy and bandwidth. A variety of algorithms exist to address this issue by dividing the sensor nodes into clusters. Each cluster is monitored by a Cluster Head (CH), responsible for gathering and aggregating data to send the same to the BS. In this paper, we reviewed existing clustering techniques and propose an unequal clustering based scheme. This allows the BS to communicate a multicast message to cluster members as well as a cluster head to communicate with other cluster members. The results show that our approach improves network lifetime. 2017 IEEE. -
Ecc-based secure group communication in energy-efficient unequal clustered wsn (Eeuc-ecc)
With an advent of the Internet of things (IoT), wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are gaining popularity in application areas like smart cities, body area sensor networks, industrial process control, and habitat and environment monitoring. Since these networks are exposed to various attacks like node compromise attack, DoS attacks, etc., the need for secured communication is evident. We present an updated survey on various secure group communication (SGC) schemes and evaluate their performance in terms of space and computational complexity. We also propose a novel technique for secure and scalable group communication that performs better compared with existing approaches. Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020. -
A Study on Decision Paralysis in Customers with Special Reference to Placing Order in Restaurant
Owing to the vast number of choices open to customers, they can often feel paralysed in their decision-making. Offering a wide range of options can activate the effect of Decision Paralysis, which delays the client's final decision. The impact of Decision Paralysis can prevail in restaurants. This study reveals the existence of decision paralysis among customers in restaurants when placing an order. The aim is to investigate the prevalence of Decision Paralysis among customers, with particular reference to placing an order in a restaurant and the influence on consumers purchase decisions. A survey questionnaire was rolled out using Google forms to customers who have experienced dining in a restaurant. A total of 416 survey responses were collected for data analysis through the convenience sampling method. It was found that, customer purchase decision has been affected by the decision paralysis effect. It was also found that customers experience a dilemma due to tremendous options or choices in the food sector by the service providers. This study was limited to restaurants and in terms of cuisine, with hotels not being considered. Hence, the main limitation is not being able to generalise the findings of this study to the whole of the food catering sector. The study will benefit both scholars and marketing practitioners in understanding the difficulty a customer faces during purchase decision-making. 2021 Transnational Press London -
Genetically Optimized GAT Recommender
In the digital era of business growth in areas such as e-commerce, online food tech, Health tech, Edutech, etc., A significant issue encountered by businesses to customers (B2C) companies is the recommendation of products, particularly for cold start users. The research proposes a recommendation system using Graph Attention(GAT)-based architecture with a genetically optimized clustering algorithm, which solves the general and cold start users problem in a recommendation. In order to solve the general recommendation problems, the proposed architecture is applied to a benchmark dataset from Amazon, with a recommendation accuracy of 99% and for cold start users, the Proposed model will add an extra layer of personalization as a survey will be included during the registration process of the user. The dataset for the survey was collected using Google Forms, and the dataset comprises five primary attributes: name, gender, user type, interested domains, interested products of new users, and recommended products of old users. A clustering analysis was performed on the dataset, and DBscan was used with genetic optimization as it outmatched other clustering algorithms. Then, transfer learning was applied to the survey collected with the same architecture, and it achieved an accuracy of 79.52% with an MSE loss of 0.0664. 2025 IEEE. -
Identifying the Determinants of Maladaptive Pain Perception and Response Patterns: Predictive Analysis With XGBoost and Random Forests
A complex interplay of psychological, biological, and social factors influences pain perception and response patterns. This study aims to identify the determinants of maladaptive pain perception and response patterns through predictive analysis using psychological variables such as resilience, neuroticism, extraversion, grit, and optimism. A quantitative approach was used, incorporating predictive modeling techniques (decision trees, XGBoost, and Random Forests) to assess pain cata strophizing and sensitivity among 305 Indians. The XGBoost classifier predicting clinically significant pain catastrophizing achieved an accuracy of 74%. Findings indicate that neuroticism is a key predictor of pain-related outcomes, with resil ience & optimism serving as protective factors. The study highlights the potential for personalized interventions by utilizing machine learning models to optimize predictor levels for improved pain management. The results underscore the need for further research incorporating biological and environmental factors to develop holistic pain management strategies. 2025 by IGI Global Scientific Publishing. All rights reserved. -
Decoupling Identification Method of Continuous Working Conditions of Diesel Engines Based on a Graph Self-Attention Network
For diesel engine malfunction detection, machine learning-based intelligent detection approaches have made great strides, but some performance deterioration is also observed due to the significant ambient noise and the change in operating circumstances in the actual application situations. Diesel engine fault diagnostic models can be negatively impacted by complex and erratic working circumstances. Identifying the working condition can provide as a baseline for the current unit operating state, which is crucial information when trying to pinpoint the source of an issue. Many existing techniques for identifying operational states use power as an identifier, segmenting it into discrete intervals from which the current state's power may be derived using a classification model. However, the working condition characteristics should be constant, and defining it exclusively in terms of power would lead to the connection of speed and load elements. In this study, we offer a regular working situation model that is independent of speed and load characteristics, and we use a graph self-attention network to construct a model for identifying the working condition. On a diesel engine research bench, a vast amount of experimental data is acquired for training and testing models, including 32 different operating situations under normal and typical fault scenarios. The R2 adj values of 99.70% and 99.27% for normal and typical defect experimental data, correspondingly, demonstrate the efficacy of the suggested technique under the circumstance of uninformed nnerating situations. 2023 IEEE. -
Preparation and characterisation of amorphous mesoporous aluminophosphate and metal aluminophosphate as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for transesterification reaction
Preparation, characterisation of pure aluminophosphate and aluminophosphate modified with different transition metals (V, Fe, Co Ni & Cu) and their catalytic activity in mono/dibenzyl substituted malonates synthesis are explained. The materials were prepared by the coprecipitation method in the absence of any structure-directing species and characterized for their composition, crystalline nature, total surface acidity, specific surface area pore diameter and pore volume by different techniques. Catalytic activity of the materials was investigated in transesterification of diethylmalonate with benzyl alcohol in liquid phase. Pure aluminophosphate resulted only in benzyl ethylmalonate whereas the incorporation of transition metals favored the formation of both benzyl ethylmalonate and dibenzylmalonate. Catalytic activity parallels the surface acidity and mesoporosity of the catalysts. The effect of the molar ratio of reactants, amount of catalyst, and reaction time on the conversion of diethyl malonate and transester yield has been studied. The highest activity of iron aluminophosphate is attributed to its mesoporous nature with uniform pore size distribution, higher surface acidity and surface area. Further, the scope and generality of iron aluminophosphate as a catalyst in the transesterification was studied using various aliphatic, alicyclic and aromatic alcohols. The catalysts could be recycled by retaining most of its initial activity. 2011 Acadie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. -
Mesoporous iron aluminophosphate: An efficient catalyst for one pot synthesis of amides by ester-amide exchange reaction
A series of metal aluminophosphates (MAlP: M = V, Fe, Co, Ni & Cu) were prepared by co-precipitation method. All the materials were characterized by various physico-chemical techniques. The materials were found to be mesoporous and moderately acidic. The catalytic activity of the materials was investigated in the synthesis of benzamides in a single pot reaction under solvent free refluxing conditions from methyl benzoate and different amines. Iron aluminophosphate was found to be the most effective catalyst for the synthesis of benzamides with 100% selectivity. The isolated yield of benzamide varied from 46% to 100% depending on the nature of amine. A possible reaction mechanism has been proposed which correlates the surface acidity and catalytic activity of the catalyst. The catalyst could be recycled for about three times without any appreciable loss in activity, thus making the method ecofriendly and economical. -
Role of incorporated transition metal on surface properties and catalytic activity of mesoporous vanadium aluminophosphates in the synthesis of tetrahydroquinolin-5-(1H)-ones
Aluminophosphate incorporated with transition metals (Co, Cu, Fe, V) were synthesized by co-precipitation method. The synthesized materials were characterized by different techniques (pXRD, FT-IR, N2 adsorption-desorption, NH3-TPD) to understand the structural and textural properties. The incorporation of transition metal into aluminophosphate plays an important role in designing the surface properties like pore size, surface area, and surface acidity. The materials were studied as a catalyst for the synthesis of tetrahydroquinolin-5-(1H)-ones by a one-pot cyclocondensation reaction of dimedone, substituted benzaldehydes, 4-fluoro/4-nitro phenyl acetonitrile, and ammonium acetate in ethanol at 25 C. The structures of the compounds were identified and confirmed by FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and ESI-MS spectral data. The mesoporous nature of vanadium aluminophosphate (VAlP) along with a uniform pore size distribution, high surface acidity, surface area attributes to its high catalytic activity when compared to pure aluminophosphates. 2020 -
Catalytic Activity and Reusability of Mesoporous Iron Aluminophosphate Catalyst in Pharmacologically Important Organic Transformations
Journal Atoms and Molecules an International Online Journal, Vol-4 (1), pp. 675-681. ISSN-2277-1247