Attention Till Date Research Articles

Happy knowledge creators sustain nations: scale development and validation of happiness at work

PurposeThe significant role of universities in generating and diffusing new knowledge in the interest of society has positioned faculty as knowledge creators. The present study contributes to the domain of positive psychology by heeding the happiness call in academia. The research intends to develop and validate a scale for measuring happiness at work (HAW) for knowledge creators.Design/methodology/approachThe study is systematically designed across a series of four independent studies: (1) Dimensionality and item analysis, (2) scale purification, (3) scale refinement and nomological validation and (4) generalizability. Additionally, common method bias (CMB) was checked utilizing the marker variable technique.FindingsHAW has been established as a second-order reflective-reflective construct with six factors, namely work satisfaction, self-directedness, self-love, positive thinking, positive social relationships and work-family balance. The nomological validity and generalizability of the scale have also been established.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is an attempt to address an important topic of HAW among knowledge creators. By conceptualizing HAW as a combination of intraindividual and organizational factors, this study offers a comprehensive measure of HAW that was previously absent in the literature. The results of the study will assist management in making strategic decisions to ensure the HAW of knowledge creators.Originality/valueKnowledge creators’ happiness is a major concern in academia and has received little attention till date. The primary contribution of this study is the conceptualization and development of a validated scale for measuring knowledge creators’ HAW. A valid and reliable scale for measuring HAW would enable researchers to gain fresh perspectives on the essence, attributes and quantification of this particularly noteworthy construct.

Seed storability behaviour of Lathyrus (Lathyrus sativus L.) genotypes

The present investigation was conducted to understand the storability behaviour of the lathyrus which has received very little research attention till date. Therefore, 360 accessions of lathyrus were stored at medium term storage and the viability was monitored after 10 years of storage. The result indicated that out of 360 accessions 320 accessions recorded 0% viability, 30 accessions recorded < 5% viability; 1 accession (EC 329738) recorded 50 60% viability; 5 accessions (RLK 552, RLK 1208, IC 120449, RLK 1159, KH 1) recorded 80-90% viability and 4 accessions (RLK 1054, RLK 287, RLK 1191, RLK 84) recorded > 90% viability after 10 years of storage. Therefore, the best performing accessions (RLK 1054, RLK 287, RLK 1191, RLK 84) which recorded viability of > 90% even after 10 years of storage were identified as the good storer genotypes which can be utilised in improving storability in lathyrus.

Design, synthesis and evaluation of 2-aryl quinoline derivatives against 12R-lipoxygenase (12R-LOX): Discovery of first inhibitor of 12R-LOX

The 12R-lipoxygenase (12R-LOX), a (non-heme) iron-containing metalloenzyme belonging to the lipoxygenase (LOX) family catalyzes the conversion of arachidonic acid (AA) to its key metabolites. Studies suggested that 12R-LOX plays a critical role in immune modulation for the maintenance of skin homeostasis and therefore can be considered as a potential drug target for psoriasis and other skin related inflammatory diseases. However, unlike 12-LOX (or 12S-LOX) the enzyme 12R-LOX did not receive much attention till date. In our effort, the 2-aryl quinoline derivatives were designed, synthesized and evaluated for the identification of potential inhibitors of 12R-hLOX. The merit of selection of 2-aryl quinolines was assessed by in silico docking studies of a representative compound (4a) using the homology model of 12R-LOX. Indeed, in addition to participating in H-bonding with THR628 and LEU635 the molecule formed a hydrophobic interaction with VAL631. The desired 2-aryl quinolines were synthesized either via the Claisen-Schmidt condensation followed by one-pot reduction-cyclization or via the AlCl3 induced heteroarylation or via the O-alkylation approach in good to high (82–95%) yield. When screened against human 12R-LOX (12R-hLOX) in vitro four compounds (e.g. 4a, 4d, 4e and 7b) showed encouraging (>45%) inhibition at 100 μM among which 7b and 4a emerged as the initial hits. Both the compounds showed selectivity towards 12R-hLOX over 12S-hLOX, 15-hLOX and 15-hLOXB and concentration dependent inhibition of 12R-hLOX with IC50 = 12.48 ± 2.06 and 28.25 ± 1.63 μM, respectively. The selectivity of 4a and 7b towards 12R-LOX over 12S-LOX was rationalized with the help of molecular dynamics simulations. The SAR (Structure-Activity Relationship) within the present series of compounds suggested the need of a o-hydroxyl group on the C-2 phenyl ring for the activity. The compound 4a and 7b (at 10 and 20 µM) reduced the hyper-proliferative state and colony forming potential of IMQ-induced psoriatic keratinocytes in a concentration dependent manner. Further, both compounds decreased the protein levels of Ki67 and the mRNA expression of IL-17A in the IMQ-induced psoriatic-like keratinocytes. Notably, 4a but not 7b inhibited the production of IL-6 and TNF-α in the keratinocyte cells. In the preliminary toxicity studies (i.e. teratogenicity, hepatotoxicity and heart rate assays) in zebrafish both the compounds showed low safety (<30 µM) margin. Overall, being the first identified inhibitors of 12R-LOX both 4a and 7b deserve further investigations.

Effect of vibration and pressure on the air-bioCNG mixture inside the manifolds of dual-fuel diesel engines

Abstract The vibration generated by diesel engines may influence air and gaseous fuel mixing in dual-fuel mode. This study is performed on the manifolds of single and twin-cylinder engines in diesel-bioCNG dual-fuel mode. It examines the effect of the engine vibration and variable manifold pressure on the flow behaviour of the air-bioCNG mixture. The objective is to observe the flow inside the manifolds and mixture quality at the outlet. The mentioned work has found little attention till date. The computational comparison of the flow characteristics inside the intake manifold of the single-cylinder engine is done for an F-shape manifold of the twin-cylinder engine during suction stroke. The experiments are conducted to record both the engines' vibration signature and cycle data. For this, the same operating parameters are maintained: compression ratio of 16.5, engine speed of 1500 rpm, engine load range (0 Nm to 34 Nm) and 80% bioCNG substitution. It employs the boundary conditions, such as the vibration amplitude along three axes, variable manifold pressure, and the mass flow rates of air and bioCNG. The parameters to analyse the mixture flow are pressure, velocity, turbulence, helicity and mass fraction of CH4. The mixture at the manifold outlet of the single-cylinder engine improved to average uniformity index of 0.9924, indicating better homogeneity. Further, the manifold of twin-cylinder engine attained the indexes of 0.1484 and 0.2401 for its two cylinders, showing non-homogeneity.

Secrecy Optimization for Diffusion-Based Molecular Timing Channels

Security in the context of molecular communication systems is an important design aspect that has not attracted much attention till date. This letter analyzes the information-theoretic secrecy of diffusive molecular timing channels when the distance of the eavesdropper is assumed to be random and uniformly distributed. Using an existing upper bound on the timing channel capacity, we calculate the optimal secrecy rate and optimal transmission rate for Bob which would help in achieving an improved secrecy throughput performance. Based on this optimal rate, we calculate the maximum achievable throughput. We then use this formulation to minimize the generalized secrecy outage probability (GSOP) by simultaneously maximizing the average fractional equivocation and minimizing the average information leakage rate. The numerical results show that while choosing the system parameters, there is always a trade-off between different performance metrics like GSOP, average fractional equivocation, and average information leakage rate. The proposed secrecy optimization provides a robust understanding of the physical layer secrecy at the molecular level, enabling the design of secure molecular communication systems.

Modeling the impact of employee engagement and happiness on burnout and turnover intention among blue-collar workers at a manufacturing company

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of engagement on job burnout and turnover intention (plan to leave the organization) among blue-collar workers in manufacturing facilities. In addition, this study also explores the role of happiness as a moderator in explaining the effect of engagement on burnout and turnover intention.Design/methodology/approachThe data required to examine the hypothesis were collected using well-established research instruments from 1,197 blue-collar employees working at three manufacturing facilities that are owned and operated by the same company in India. The hypotheses were examined and the conceptual model was validated using structural equation modeling. The statistical analyses were conducted using two statistical packages, namely, SPSS and SPSS–AMOS.FindingsThe results indicate that a disengaged employee is at higher risk of burnout and is likely to leave the organization in the near future. Furthermore, employee burnout was positively associated with turnover intentions. Happiness was established as a significant moderating factor in the relationship between employee engagement and burnout and turnover intention. Besides, the prevalence of happiness and turnover intention was higher in males.Practical implicationsThe results showed the importance of engagement and happiness on reducing burnout and turnover intention. Organizations could capitalize on these findings by implementing new and improving their existing quality management initiatives, which, in turn, could improve the employee’s organizational commitment.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the industry and academia by exploring the perceptions of working-class, blue-collar employees, which has received limited attention till date, despite specific negative job characteristics.

Does Investment in R&amp;D Affect Firm Reputation: Indian Experience

Reputation has been widely accepted as a surreptitious resource which is imperative for organisations to imbibe. Despite its recognition as a clandestine to success, its formation is arduous. It takes lot of effort on the part of corporate managers to identify and indulge into reputation-building activities. Several researchers have found that good corporate governance, socially responsible acts and financial performance lead to good reputation, but the role of research and development (R&amp;D) activities in enhancing firm reputation has garnered less attention till date. The current study is novel as it examines the relevance of expenditure made on R&amp;D activities in an emerging economy like India, where hardly any study has directly deciphered the relation between R&amp;D activities and corporate reputation. The study analyses the impact of R&amp;D activities undertaken by top 500 Indian companies on their reputation which is measured by market capitalisation. The results of multivariate regression analysis of cross-sectional data reveal that the amount spent on R&amp;D activities can be viewed as an investment as it generates a significant positive impact on firm reputation. The findings suggest that stakeholders view R&amp;D-intensive firms favourably.

N-GRAMS SOLUTION FOR ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION IN HINDI LANGUAGE

Hindi is the National language of India, which is still in its early stage of research and development regarding natural language processing applications in comparison to other languages like English, Chinese. Natural language processing is a field of Artificial Intelligence, which includes major tasks such as information retrieval, word segmentation, speech recognition, parsing, part of speech tagging, text classification, automatic text summarization etc. Spelling detection and correction in Hindi language is an important task of NLP which has not gotten sufficient attention till date. Spelling detection and correction for Indian languages such as Hindi is considered as a difficult task. Hindi Language is very different from English language in its phonetic properties and grammatical rules. Thus the existing techniques and methods that are being used to check the errors in English language can’t be used for Hindi Language. There are mainly two types of error: Non word error and real word error. Error detection for non-word error in Hindi language has been done but for real word error no work has been done till date. This paper focused on Real word spelling error detection and correction in Hindi text by using N Grams Model and Levensthein edit distance algorithm.

The agile method engineering: applying fuzzy logic for evaluating and configuring agile methods in practice

From last decade, a number of agile methods were introduced for software project development and software product management. The evaluation and configuration of agile methods have not received much attention till date. In this paper, the problem is addressed by introducing a process for the selection and configuration of the agile methods. The method adapted is the case study exploration approach. The project comprises the exploration of the agile methods membership metrics for the current organisational requirements and tailors them for the project-in-hand. This has resulted in the fact that like other methods agile methods are subject to be tailored and adapted for the specific situations. The experiences during the research are provided us a number of lessons that helps others to configure the method (having higher membership degree for the case company) for the current project requirement.

Concomitant Effects of Transition Metal Chelation and Solvent Polarity on the First Molecular Hyperpolarizability of 4-Methoxyacetophenone Thiosemicarbazone: A DFT Study

Nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of organic and metal-organic materials are of considerable interest to emerging optoelectronic and photonic technologies. Much work has been carried out on the former materials but the latter ones have received less attention till date. Herein, a density functional theory (DFT) study on the combined effects of transition metal chelation and solvent polarity on the first hyperpolarizability (βtot) of 4-methoxyacetophenone thiosemicarbazone (MAPTSC) is reported. MAPTSC exhibits a tautomeric form with higher optical nonlinearity rendering its NLO response in polar solvents potentially switchable. Our results have revealed significant modifications of the first hyperpolarizability of MAPTSC upon complexation with different transition metal chlorides in the presence of solvents with varying dielectric constants. Therefore, its second-order NLO response is highly tunable by the synergy of transition metal chelation and solvent polarity. MAPTSC and its Zn(II) and Pt(II) chloride complexes are promising NLO materials because their gas-phase βtot values are larger than those of the prototype push-pull molecules, para-nitroaniline (PNA) and urea, by factors of about 1.40–1.76 and 19.57–37.24, respectively; these factors greatly increase in polar solvent medium. Moreover, they possess high optical transparencies in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum which mitigate transparency/nonlinearity trade-offs, thereby increasing the likelihood of broad band NLO response.

Strategic assessment of groundwater resource exploitation using DPSIR framework in Guwahati city, India

Millions of people on the urban settlements in Asia rely on groundwater for fulfilling daily water needs. And while groundwater storage is vast, its replenishment is limited, and many aquifers are exhibiting signs of inadequately controlled pumping. However, efforts to understand the impacts of a society on the availability, equity, and sustainability of groundwater and its repercussions has received little attention till date. Therefore, using Guwahati city, India, as a case, the aim of this paper is to understand the socio-political factors and their intra and inter-relationships with groundwater which in turn influences the urban households' accessibility to water. Overall methodology used the DPSIR framework for which inputs were generated from questionnaire survey of 150 households and other official, literature records. It is revealed that high population density of 4445 persons/km2, rapid urbanization with haphazard construction, pertaining groundwater rights with land rights, and coverage of only 27% of the population by water supply services have acted as thrusts to exceed groundwater extraction over safe yield. This situation however has a feedback in the form of increasing number of households with reduced accessibility to water as many have stated about declined water levels, increasing issue of water affordability and subsequent emergence of water poor. The paper recommends use of water use fee rate and indirect groundwater pricing through energy tariffs for enhanced conservation of groundwater as opposed to present day method of its regulation.

Computational investigation of the dynamic response of a supercritical natural circulation loop to aperiodic and periodic excitations

Dynamic response of a supercritical natural circulation loop under transient variation in heater power has hardly received any attention till date. Therefore a computational model of an open rectangular loop working on supercritical water is developed. 1D conservation equations are solved numerically, along with property relations. Steady-state results are validated with literature and grid- and time-sensitivity tests are performed to ensure accuracy of transient solution. Stability threshold is estimated following nonlinear analysis. Step, ramp, exponential and sinusoidal excitations are imposed on the system. Step rise in heater power is found to introduce instability into the system and has the most destabilizing influence. System takes long time to regain steady-state, if the final power is within stability boundary. Ramp and exponential profiles are found to provide favourable response during both power upsurge and down-surge, with the exponential transition being slightly more preferable from stability point of view. Longer period of transition allows the system to suppress unstable fluctuations a better way. Application of sinusoidal transition results in distorted periodic response, attempting to follow the imposed signal only after sufficient time since application of periodic signal. Fast Fourier transform of resultant discrete data series exhibits two distinct peaks, with the larger one corresponding to the imposed sinusoid and the other one signifying the natural frequency of the system.