Thrust Areas Research Articles

Strategic planning to investigate the decision index of organization for effective total quality management implementation – in context of Indian small and medium enterprises

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to present an empirical assessment and strategic planning for measuring the impact of total quality management (TQM) practices on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and its effectiveness for business excellence. The authors investigate the present status of quality system in SMEs and find the thrust areas for TQM implementation in SMEs of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis. Also, it examines the effect of external environment on internal factors of SMEs by situation analysis. This study helps to develop a model for assessing the components of TQM in SMEs after identifying their weightage.Design/methodology/approachThe qualitative and quantitative techniques have been used together for robust conclusions. The survey data has been collected through the properly designed questionnaire. After studying the present status of TQM in SMEs, situation analysis has been carried out for examining the effect of the external environment on internal factors of SMEs. The weightage of TQM critical success factors was calculated by pair-wise comparison method of analytical hierarchical process (AHP) analysis for framework development.FindingsThe study offers useful insights and guidelines for identification of the contribution of TQM critical factors in SMEs performance. It has been observed that the attribute understanding of customer need and its fulfillment ability has the highest priority, whereas supplier partnership and the ability to reduce waste having the least priority in SMEs. Validation study facilitates to channelize TQM initiatives, to improve environmental and operational performance.Originality/valueThe authors provide a comprehensive typology of TQM practices, and its performances on SMEs. This paper can increase the awareness of the significance of TQM strategy which could help managers of SMEs to have a better understanding of the benefits of implementing TQM and therefore unable patient satisfaction with their organizations.

Surface phosphorization of nickel oxalate nanosheets to stabilize ultrathin nickel cyclotetraphosphate nanosheets for efficient hydrogen generation

The generation of renewable energy through electrochemical water splitting (oxygen evolution reaction and hydrogen evolution reaction) is currently thrust research area due to the low cost and environmental friendly process. To meet our energy requirements a lot of efforts are going into designing of non-noble earth-abundant material for the production of H2. In the present study, ultrathin nickel cyclotetraphosphate (Ni2P4O12) nanosheets (thickness ∼ 1.5 nm) have been stabilized at low temperature using nickel oxalate nanosheets and di-phosphorus pentaoxide as a starting material. The synthesis of nickel oxalate nanosheets (thickness ∼5−6 nm) has been done at room temperature using a simple micellar route wherein CTAB has been used as a surfactant. Nickel cyclotetraphosphate (sample S4) shows an overpotential of 105 mV measured at 10 mV/cm2 current density, Tafel slope of ∼ 48 mV/dec and stability up to 17 h.

Processes and problems of pulp and paper industry: an overview

Abstract The pulp and paper industry is a highly energy-intensive and water-consuming industry. This industry is known for the utilization of a wide range of raw materials, containing cellulose fibers (generally wood, recycled paper, and agricultural residues), for the production of various grades of paper. There are several processes involved in the conversion of raw materials to the paper product such as raw material preparation, pulping, pulp washing and screening, bleaching, stock preparation, papermaking and chemical recovery. All the processes are facing issues regarding process efficiency, product quality, energy & water consumption, and cost and environment. There is a need for further improvement and upgrading the technologies but the scale of operations, technological obsolesce and cost of implementing new technologies are some of the major issues. The main thrust areas of pulp and paper processing require major interventions in the adoption of green and clean technologies.

Evaluation of logistics providers for sustainable service quality: Analytics based decision making framework

In the present era of the circular economy, sustainable service quality has become an order winning criteria for all logistics provider across the world. The selection of appropriate logistics service providers (LSPs) greatly influences the performance of supply chains in terms of sustainability indicators. Most of the previous studies have not considered sustainability measures in the evaluation of logistics service providers. Therefore, the uniqueness of this study is that we are proposing a framework for selecting the best logistics provider based on sustainable service quality. Total seventeen attributes related to sustainable service quality are finalized based on literature review and subsequent focused group discussions. Through a questionnaire-based survey, data from 150 customers of LSPs are collected. Data is analysed through factor analysis and seventeen attributes of sustainable service quality are categorized into five factors namely Commitment, Competence, Communication, Creativity & Customization, and Coordination and Collaboration. It is named as a 5C framework. This framework is further used to illustrate the selection of best LSP based on sustainable service quality. Listed attributes are evaluated through hybrid Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) techniques. This decision-making framework is illustrated with the help of a real-life case study. Sensitivity analysis is also done to validate the robustness of the proposed framework. From this study, it has been observed that the development of competencies for the adoption of sustainable practices should be the thrust area for logistics service providers. Findings imply that the logistics providers should give more focus on sustainable network optimization, response time reduction, reliable green services, flexibility in green processes, and development of mutual trust with all stakeholders to become the first choice of their customers. Insights from the study will help LSPs to develop their strategies for ensuring sustainable service quality to customers.

Deep Learning for Deep Waters: An Expert-in-the-Loop Machine Learning Framework for Marine Sciences

Driven by the unprecedented availability of data, machine learning has become a pervasive and transformative technology across industry and science. Its importance to marine science has been codified as one goal of the UN Ocean Decade. While increasing amounts of, for example, acoustic marine data are collected for research and monitoring purposes, and machine learning methods can achieve automatic processing and analysis of acoustic data, they require large training datasets annotated or labelled by experts. Consequently, addressing the relative scarcity of labelled data is, besides increasing data analysis and processing capacities, one of the main thrust areas. One approach to address label scarcity is the expert-in-the-loop approach which allows analysis of limited and unbalanced data efficiently. Its advantages are demonstrated with our novel deep learning-based expert-in-the-loop framework for automatic detection of turbulent wake signatures in echo sounder data. Using machine learning algorithms, such as the one presented in this study, greatly increases the capacity to analyse large amounts of acoustic data. It would be a first step in realising the full potential of the increasing amount of acoustic data in marine sciences.

A renewed path for skilling in IT/ITeS sector for transition to the new normal

Every drawdown is an indication to a new beginning - an exploration of a renewed trajectory to meet our goal, the sooner it is demarcated, the better the adaptability and success rate. A compulsive disruption from usual ways of working to a forced new normal is what the IT/ITeS skills ecosystem in India is called to embrace as the challenge of the era. An examination of the evolving IT/ITeS skills ecosystem in India, identifying of the skill skewed areas where incremental demand for talent needs to generate through the existing skilling, reskilling and upskilling programs and investing more in those areas would serve the purpose of the Skill India movement launched way back in 2015. The research paper expounds on the need for a revival of the system of IT Skilling adhered to under the Skill India movement of India, in order to prove more beneficial to help employability of the incumbents. Based on a survey of 367 graduates of IT Skill courses, the study concludes by enumerating those specific IT skills or key thrust areas in skilling that need focus and adaptability of Training institutions to incorporate these key skills and a renewed skilling path to the PMKVY skill training so as to emerge successful in the era of the New Normal.

VERIFYING THE ENVIRONMENTAL KUZNETS CURVE HYPOTHESIS IN THE CASE OF INDIA

Growth with sustainability has nowadays become an important thrust area of world economy. The present paper has tried to examine the pollution-income relationship to verify the phenomenon of EKC hypothesis in the case of India for the period of 1978-2014. The application of Johansen cointegration method reveals that there is long run cointegration relationship between the two in the case of India. The study also validates the EKC hypothesis thus giving signal that India should pursue the strategy of “grow now and clean later”, a policy usually adopted by most of the rich countries of the world.Keywords: Environmental Kuznets Curve; Johansen cointegration; India.JEL Classifications: Q56, O53DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.10392

Coulomb stress and gravity changes associated with the 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake, New Zealand: Application for aftershock triggering and fault interaction process analysis

The Kaikoura earthquake on November 14, 2016 is one of the largest and most complex earthquakes in New Zealand since 1947. Despite the fact that it has ruptured about 12 separate faults, triggered 2132 aftershocks within one week of the mainshock and induced considerable stress changes, few studies have been conducted to comprensively investigate the characteristics. The current study examines the horizontal and vertical displacements as well as the stress and gravity changes, aftershock distributions and also find out whether these changes affect the surrounding regions along the complex fault systems. The study covers the entire area affected by the Kaikoura event, which includes the northern part of the South Island and the southern part of the North Island. The dislocation theory was employed to evaluate the coseismic slip model on the multiple faults. The displacement results revealed that the maximum horizontal displacement is about 6 m and the vertical about 2 m, which are reasonably consistent with earlier study findings. Besides, the stress and gravity changes are quite complicated and inhomogeneous as evidenced by our coseismic model, demonstrating the complexity of the Kaikoura earthquake as well. Almost all the aftershocks are distributed in places where the stress and gravity change are found to be significant. In order to investigate the stability of our stress change models, we applied different friction coefficients and receiver fault parameters. The results justify the friction coefficient (μ=0.4) and the receiver fault parameters (230°, 70°, 150°) are suitable to define good stress change estimates. According to the stress change results at 15 km depth, the northern parts of the mainshock region, Hundalee fault, Humps fault and Jordan thrust areas together with the Wellington area are closer to failure and situated in a seismic risk zone. The multidimensional analysis adopted in this paper is helpful for making decisions and applications of stress and gravity change models in assessing seismic hazards.

Impact of oncology pharmacist services on humanistic outcome in patients with breast cancer.

This study aims to investigate the change in quality adjusted life-years (QALYs) after providing oncology pharmacist services to assess its impact on humanistic outcome. It was a prospective, single-centered study conducted for a period of two years at Bharat cancer Hospital and Nirali memorial radiation center, Surat. Patients were recruited into the control group (CG) and the intervention group (IG). The oncology pharmacist services (OPS) were provided only to the IG. The humanistic outcome was measured by incorporating the EQ-5D-5L instrument to calculate quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) in both the groups. Patients have been provided with the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire at the pre-determined intervals i.e. before the commencement of chemotherapy and then after every chemotherapy cycle till the completion of treatment. The analysis was carried out using descriptive analysis (frequency distribution for categorical variables and measures of central tendency (median and average) and dispersion (std. deviation) for quantitative variables). A total of 230 patients were screened and from them 105 patients were recruited, out of which 54 patients were in CG and 51 patients in IG. AC regimen followed by weekly paclitaxel was prescribed in majority of the patients (CG: 59.3%; IG: 60.8%) followed by AC-TRA and AC regimen alone. The majority of patients in the CG were facing improper administration of pre-medication (83.3%), lack of knowledge regarding chemo-mixing, counselling in nursing staff (66.7%) and a sub-therapeutic dose of anti-emetics (37%). The baseline QALY at the inception of chemotherapy was 0.040 and 0.014 in CG and IG, respectively. After the completion of the 6 chemotherapy cycle, the QALY was found to be 0.042 and 0.043 in CG and IG, respectively. The study has demonstrated that the improvisation in QALY after provision of oncology pharmacist services reflect the positive impact of oncology pharmacist on humanistic outcomes. The study also provided the opportunity to identify the thrust area where more clinical pharmacy exposure is needed in order to improve patient care.

Exceptional bureaucratic rivalry in mangrove forest policy: Explanations from the Sundarbans, Bangladesh

Bearing diversified natural resources, the Sundarbans mangrove forests (SMF) are, to a large extent, considered a thrust area of ecological and economic importance to which a number of public bureaucracies in Bangladesh give due attention to managing its resources. This paper analyses the extensive policy conflicts of different bureaucracies that prevail for the Sundarbans management practices on emerging issues. All the mangrove forest policies—both directives and projects pursued by multiple administrations in the Sundarbans—are scrutinized taking off in bureaucratic theory. The empirical relevance of this policy development concept is demonstrated based on data from the Government of Bangladesh. As empirical methods, first, the content analyses of various acts, rules, policy documents, missions, mandates, and development initiatives of relevant ministries and public agencies were conducted to distinguish the activities linked with actors’ interests in present practices. Subsequently, the presumed bureaucratic competition was critically analyzed deploying exchange on participating observation. The study observes that being the officially responsible bureaucracy for the Sundarbans, the Bangladesh Forest Department has the leading approach to managing the SMF while receiving guidance from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The position of the Forest Department is empowered by the existing laws and rules, although the observed approach has been integrated because of multiple bureaucracies being involved in different sectors of Sundarbans for their due interests. Other bureaucracies use their institutional expertise in respective sectors, resulting in an exceptionally high degree of bureaucratic rivalry. Mangrove forest bureaucracy is currently facing challenges in technical capacities, financial resources, and institutional arrangements addressing the effective management of the Sundarbans. Administrative structures for complex landscapes, such as mangrove forests, pose substantial challenges to common bureaucratic structures, which recommends establishing integrated approach, for sharing equitable responsibilities and benefits. Still, the underlying conflicts of interests would prevail, but they can be proactively addressed through rules and procedures within the integration.

Study on Step-Annealing Heat Treatment on Properties of Grade 6A Duplex Stainless Steels of ASTM A890

Improvement in properties of duplex steel grade 6A is always a thrust area of interest from application point of view and in that heat treatment plays an important role. The precipitations and phase ratio are key factor in determining the properties of super duplex stainless steels. The furnace cooling or step-annealing at lower temperature than normal annealing temperature and for a short time was not included in ASTM A890-18 version has now been added in 18a version for grade 6A like other duplex grades. For studying effect of step annealing on the phase ratio and properties of SDSS, the specimens were soaked at temperatures in the range of 1130–1190 °C and next furnace cooled to 1100 °C and holding for 15 min followed by water quenching. The micrograph of specimen directly quenched from 1100 °C revealed high ferrite content whereas the micrograph of the specimens subjected to step-annealing process revealed higher austenite content with more equiaxed structure. The step-annealing increased the austenite percentage and improved the impact toughness by 24%. However, the hardness of the specimen reduced as the step-annealing temperature increased. The polarization curves revealed a cathodic shift in the curve of the specimen directly quenched from 1100 °C compared to the step-annealed specimens. The reason for this reduction was investigated by special etching techniques, electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectroscopy. Undissolved Cr2N precipitations were observed in the specimen directly quenched from 1100 °C, leading to the reduction in corrosion resistance.

Computerized Manufacturing Automation: Special Issue of Design and Applications in Robotics

Robotics & Automation have made great strides in the last two decades and are being successfully deployed in Indian manufacturing Industries especially in Automobile Sector. This paper tries to high light the major issues, critical to successful implementation of Automation and a few thrust areas of activities that need to be looked upon in the immediate future. The paper further lists out the various levels of automation for the efficient CAD/CAM implementation and analyses the thrust areas of Robotics and its application that utilize the manpower efficiently: Of late, manufacturing Industry in India has demonstrated their capabilities to deliver quality but there are areas with scope for improvement. This paper is an attempt to highlight various issues during design, development and application of Robotics. The challenge before the Indian Industry is to rise to expectations of their customers by adopting the business practices that can deliver quality.

Macroscopic, Histomorphological and Histochemical Studies on the Kidneys of Guinea Fowl (Numida meleagris)

Background: Kidneys, the paired organ which essentially plays for excreting nitrogenous wastes, excessive water, inorganic salts and toxic substances produced during the process of body metabolism. Maintenance of osmotic regulation and homeostatic fluid balance of the body has also be performed by kidneys. Each of the kidneys filtrate carried to cloaca by respective ureter from where the urine leaves the body. The present macroscopic, histomorphological and histochemical studies undertaken on the Kidneys of Guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) is nothing but the attempt to widen our thrust area for that bird which is nonexistent as on documentation.Methods: The present studies were carried upon 12 pairs of in-vitro kidney samples in Guinea fowl. Gross morphology and morphometrical observations were carried on fresh specimens. Histological studies were carried on fixed samples those were processed for dehydration, clearing, embedding into paraffin and sections of 5-6 μ thickness were obtained. Different staining procedure as to Haematoxylin and Eosin, Silver orcein, Aniline blue and Weigert’s staining methods were employed for different histological components. The histochemical and histoenzymic studies were also accomplished with Periodic acid Schiff‘s (PAS), Alcian blue methods (pH-2.5) and Gomori’s cobalt method for Alkaline phosphatase and Acid phosphatase. The Succinic dehydrogenase enzyme was also estimated on cryostat sections.Result: The observations on kidneys of Guinea fowl were accomplished after macroscopic, histomorphological and histochemical means. This reddish-brown colored paired organ of kidneys was retroperitoneally placed in synsacral fossa and had incomplete division of three parts. The wrapping material of capsule was the dense connective tissue. The outer cortex and inner medulla had different parts of nephrons. Two types of nephrons viz. mammalian type (with Henle loop) and reptilian type (without Henle loop) were observed. Collagen, elastic and reticular fibers were there in different components of the kidney. Histochemically it has determined the secretion of neutral as well as acidic mucopolysaccharide substances. PAS activity was observed at mesangial cells and basement membrane of DCT. The Alkaline phosphatase showed the positive activity in capsule, brush border of proximal and distal convoluted tubules. The Acid phosphatases were showing intense activity in parietal and visceral layer of renal corpuscles, lumen and basement membrane of PCT. The intense activity of Succinic dehydrogenase showed at PCT, DCT, collecting tubule whereas renal corpuscles showed feeble activity.

In silico Predictive Phytotoxicity Modeling of lactuca sativa of Personal Care Product Ingredients

Detection and evaluation of environmental toxicity of emerging contaminants like personal care product (PCP) additives are the thrust area in the recent day risk assessment of chemical hazards. The phytotoxicity assay is usually performed to identify and quantify the environmental impact of pollutants. In this background, the authors have developed in silico predictive phytotoxicity models for 36 PCP ingredients using 2D molecular descriptors using multiple linear regression as a chemometric tool. The statistical validation parameters assured the robustness of the developed models according to OECD guidelines. The mechanistic output of the models indicated the importance of the partition coefficient (CrippenLogP) and molecular hydrophilicity. The applicability domain explicitly defines the reliability of the application of the developed models for the unknown PCP ingredients in a consensus manner. The first reported predictive phytotoxicity models for PCP ingredients can help depict the environmental impacts of these classes of emerging pollutants.

Deep learning approaches to scene text detection: a comprehensive review

In recent times, text detection in the wild has significantly raised its ability due to tremendous success of deep learning models. Applications of computer vision have emerged and got reshaped in a new way in this booming era of deep learning. In the last decade, research community has witnessed drastic changes in the area of text detection from natural scene images in terms of approach, coverage and performance due to huge advancement of deep neural network based models. In this paper, we present (1) a comprehensive review of deep learning approaches towards scene text detection, (2) suitable deep frameworks for this task followed by critical analysis, (3) a categorical study of publicly available scene image datasets and applicable standard evaluation protocols with their pros and cons, and (4) comparative results and analysis of reported methods. Moreover, based on this review and analysis, we precisely mention possible future scopes and thrust areas of deep learning approaches towards text detection from natural scene images on which upcoming researchers may focus.

Switching Gears of DNA Extraction: From Destructive to Non- Destructive

In many cases where samples such as historical remains, museum samples, missing person and criminal sample needs to be preserved for years; DNA extraction by destructive methods is not feasible due to loss of precious samples. Hard tissue and mineralised body parts like bones and teeth are only accessible sources of DNA in mass disasters like earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, aircraft crashes, train wreck, derailments, and building fires with disfigured and decomposed bodies. The protective composition of teeth and bones provides an extra protection over soft tissue and thus its high resistance to the action of physical and chemical agents makes them the only choice for DNA extraction. This review summarises the previous and current methods of DNA extraction from tooth and bone, emphasizing its effect on DNA yield, efficiency to yield amplifiable amount of mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA, PCR amplification, PCR inhibition and its morphology. The likelihood to recover DNA from ancient teeth and bones in short time, with little contamination is the need of the hour and future thrust area of forensic biology. It will not only benefit forensic field but will be equally insightful in solving, archaeological and medical questions.

Drivers of corporate domestic investment: regional analysis for India

Investment analysis at regional level has remained a major thrust area among policymakers for balanced regional development of an economy. This paper assesses the drivers of corporate investment in India using a panel data of 16 states for the period 1999-2017. The study employs generalised method of moments (GMM) estimators and gives more focus on financial condition-based dimension which has been overlooked by the existing literature. The way in which financial conditions affect the firms' investment decision is important for an effective design of monetary policy. Empirical results confirm the roles of various factors with varying magnitude and direction. These factors include, fiscal policy, access of financial resources - be it the bank credit or the internal source of finance, the efficiency components covered through productivity and costs, infrastructural facilities, government effectiveness and financial pressure variables.

Introspection Into Reliability Aspects in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs With Gate Geometry Modification

Reliability enhancement of AlGaN / GaN HEMT is a significant thrust area due to rapidly improving material and processing technology. In this paper, a detailed analysis of gate-shaped AlGaN / GaN HEMT with field plate is presented. Although AlGaN / GaN HEMT with field-plate is well known, its blending with gate-shaping leading to a more robust and reliable behaviour is described in this paper. It is observed that the threshold voltage and transconductance invariably remain constant for various combinations of gate-shaped and field plate placements. The threshold voltage for all the devices are found to be - 5.8 V. The peak transconductance for the devices without field plate and with field plate is ~ 0.16 S/mm and ~ 0.15 S/mm, respectively. Apart from leakage current, the electric field also gets mitigated for both gate-shaped and field-plated devices by ~ 45% and ~ 68%, respectively. The moderation in electric field further assists in the reduction of electron temperature for gate-shaped and field-plated structures by ~ 12% and ~ 85%, respectively. Additionally, breakdown voltage increases for the gate-shaped devices to 133 V as compared to 120 V of conventional devices without field plate. Significant reduction in leakage current, electric field, and electron temperature is accompanied by a minor increment in capacitance for the field-plated structure, hence, the proposed structure is expected to enhance reliability of the device. Thus, it is anticipated that the proposed devices with enhanced reliability would be a step ahead of conventional devices and would find major applications in high power domain.

Performance, energy, emission and cost analysis of Jatropha (Jatropha Curcas) oil as a biofuel for compression ignition engine

Increasing energy demands and various environmental stringent laws are the factors which give thrust area to the scientist to develop clean and green energy for future and sustainable developments. Biofuel (Biodiesel) seems like an alternative that can meet several energy requirements. Biodiesel from Non-edible vegetable oil is getting more attention day by day compared to edible vegetable oil. Jatropha Biodiesel is promoted as a sustainable and renewable source of energy that can be used as a replacement to diesel fuel in the compression ignition engine. The present research is carried out to find the suitability and sustainability of Jatropha biodiesel in the diesel engine. The trans-esterification process is used for the production of Jatropha oil biodiesel and different samples of biodiesel are prepared. Physio-chemical properties of fuels, its sustainability, performance, and emissions characteristics of the CI engine are experimentally investigated, followed by energy and cost analysis to explore the operational and economic feasibility. Fuel properties determined in this study conform to the ASTM D6751 standard. The outcomes of the study indicate that the viscosity of different blends of biofuel is close to pure diesel. With the increase in the percentage of prepared biodiesel in fuel, specific fuel consumption increased whereas, the thermal efficiency of the engine falls. The maximum thermal efficiency of the engine is found to be 29.8% and 19.2% for pure diesel and biodiesel respectively. There is an improvement seen in the hydrocarbon emissions but with the rise in percentage of biodiesel in different composition of blends, NOx emission increases. Results conclude that the blend of a 10–20% of Jatropha biodiesel with mineral diesel (B10 and B20) is suitable to use as fuel in CI engines.

Machine learning: Best way to sustain the supply chain in the era of industry 4.0

With the rapidly growing importance in the industries on the adaptation of advanced technologies, the involvement of IT-enabled systems has increased in developing the pathway for the future industry. The learning’s from these technologies becomes paramount for the present industries which gives a sense of belongingness and significance of the industry towards the market. The digital revolution world-wide affected the physical happenings of the events in the manufacturing industries such as the procurement, manufacturing/assembling & distribution of goods. This digital reformation is known as Industry 4.0 which generally means the advancement in the existing business models where all the business operations are interconnected with each other by digital mode (virtual representation based on operations). In this kind of environment, it is being necessary to map all the operations digitally in such a manner so that the physical flows of resources/goods will not suffer at any stage. Machine learning in the present scenario is one of the thrust areas for the researchers and the practitioners. The output in the machine learning process is having many dependencies on the input data such as the functions and characteristics imparted to the machine at the earlier stage. The present paper aptly reflects the thoughts and reflections of present-day industries and the opportunities to express feelings, thoughts, and contribute towards the future industries.