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The purpose of the paper was to assess the functional properties vegetable gourds & the validated health claims so as to help the future researchers to locate the gaps. However, emphasizing on the scientifically available reports was required to make information available in a nutshell to the health-conscious consumers, as well as the researcher from the area of functional foods and nutrition.

The paper is a mini-review of scientific findings in different studies on gourd vegetables. The approach to information collection was finding the research gaps and potential areas for future work with a nutritional perspective.

Ash gourd, bitter gourd and bottle gourd have been extensively studied, and several health benefits and functional components have been reported, while ridge gourd, snake gourd and pointed gourd have been sparsely studied for their therapeutic benefits and the validation thereof; hence, there lies a scope for researchers.

The scarcity of scientific reports compared to the traditional usage and folkloric beliefs was a limitation.

Understanding the nutritional potential of gourd vegetables from scientific reports may influence both the work areas and consumers in the appropriate direction.

Predicting student performance is crucial in educational settings to identify and support students who may need additional help or resources. Understanding and predicting student performance is essential for educators to provide targeted support and guidance to students. By analyzing various factors like attendance, study habits, grades, and participation, teachers can gain insights into each student’s academic progress. This information helps them tailor their teaching methods to meet the individual needs of students, ensuring a more personalized and effective learning experience. By identifying patterns and trends in student performance, educators can intervene early to address any challenges and help students acrhieve their full potential. However, the complexity of human behavior and learning patterns makes it difficult to accurately forecast how a student will perform. Additionally, the availability and quality of data can vary, impacting the accuracy of predictions. Despite these obstacles, continuous improvement in data collection methods and the development of more robust predictive models can help address these challenges and enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of student performance predictions. However, the scalability of the existing models to different educational settings and student populations can be a hurdle. Ensuring that the models are adaptable and effective across diverse environments is crucial for their widespread use and impact. To implement a student’s performance-based learning recommendation scheme for predicting the student’s capabilities and suggesting better materials like papers, books, videos, and hyperlinks according to their needs. It enhances the performance of higher education.

Thus, a predictive approach for student achievement is presented using deep learning. At the beginning, the data is accumulated from the standard database. Next, the collected data undergoes a stage where features are carefully selected using the Modified Red Deer Algorithm (MRDA). After that, the selected features are given to the Deep Ensemble Networks (DEnsNet), in which techniques such as Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), Deep Conditional Random Field (DCRF), and Residual Long Short-Term Memory (Res-LSTM) are utilized for predicting the student performance. In this case, the parameters within the DEnsNet network are finely tuned by the MRDA algorithm. Finally, the results from the DEnsNet network are obtained using a superior method that delivers the final prediction outcome. Following that, the Adaptive Generative Adversarial Network (AGAN) is introduced for recommender systems, with these parameters optimally selected using the MRDA algorithm. Lastly, the method for predicting student performance is evaluated numerically and compared to traditional methods to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

The accuracy of the developed model is 7.66%, 9.91%, 5.3%, and 3.53% more than HHO-DEnsNet, ROA-DEnsNet, GTO-DEnsNet, and AOA-DEnsNet for dataset-1, and 7.18%, 7.54%, 5.43% and 3% enhanced than HHO-DEnsNet, ROA-DEnsNet, GTO-DEnsNet, and AOA-DEnsNet for dataset-2.

The developed model recommends the appropriate learning materials within a short period to improve student’s learning ability.

Eri is a short-stapled fibre that possesses an excellent soft feel and warmness to the wearer. Investigation of thermal comfort and moisture properties of Eri silk fabric provides the enhanced commercial scope for Eri silk-based clothing.

To examine the impact of process factors on thermal and moisture properties, three different single knit Eri silk structures were made, each with a different loop length and yarn count. Three different linear densities of Eri silk spun yarn (15, 20 and 25 tex) were selected. Three distinct knitted constructions, including plain jersey, popcorn and cellular blister, were created, along with two different loop lengths.

The novel cellular blister structure has shown appreciable thermal comfort properties than the other two structures. Yarn fineness and loop length were significant with most of the thermal comfort properties.

In recent times the Eri silk production is completely domesticated, so the new demand can easily be met by the producers. This research will create a new scope for Eri silk fibres in sportswear and leisure wear.

This study was conducted to explore the influence of knit structure, loop length and yarn count on the thermal comfort properties of the clothing.

This study builds on the practice-based view of strategy to examine whether the three most commonly prescribed strategic planning best practices – scanning, communication openness and participative decision-making – actually strengthen the planning-performance relationship.

The study uses objective performance data and data from a survey of 159 managers from 43 publicly listed US firms to test the hypothesized moderation effects of best practices. The analysis uses hierarchical regression.

At high levels of planning, firms high in participative decision-making and low in openness and scanning outperform firms low in participation and high in openness and scanning. The results reverse at low levels of planning.

This is a cross-sectional study with a small sample. The response rate was modest; hence, the results should be treated as exploratory. Since the sample is not random, the results may not be generalizable.

While managers may find a best practice label helpful, the best practices implemented within a firm need to fit existing planning processes in order to increase planning effectiveness.

While academic scholarship sometimes struggles with generating actionable prescriptions for improving strategic planning, recommendations by practitioners lack empirical backing. This study builds on the practice-based view of strategy to bridge this gap. These results are consistent with both academic and practitioner literature on strategic planning in finding that the best practices of scanning, openness and participative decision-making strengthen the planning-performance relationship at different planning levels, possibly by underpinning the firm’s dynamic capabilities.

Since 2018, the two floods and droughts that struck Kerala's economy have threatened the state's sustainable earthen vessel production. Current studies allocate focus to the pottery industry's techno-social impacts and ethnography of the potter community; hence, there is a gap in understanding consumers, who are responsible for environmentally conscious behaviors, and their switch from earthen vessels to other materials adaptable to modern kitchens. This study aims to bridge gaps in understanding the reasons behind their demand shift and the challenges of earthenware consumption and production after the disasters.

This quantitative research explored the perceptions of pottery producers and consumers in Kerala. The sample for the primary survey comprised 590 randomly selected consumers and one master artisan from each of Kerala's total of 44 registered pottery communities. Unpublished records provided the secondary data on production and sales.

An upward shift in the demand for earthen vessels after natural calamities is observed. Quality, availability and adaptability are consumer concerns. The Markov chain analysis predicts that future consumption of earthen vessels depends on improved marketing mix strategies. After natural disasters, persistent demand exists for earthen vessels, but sustainable production is challenged due to the deteriorating quality and shortage of clay along with the consequent increase in procurement costs of raw materials.

As the earthen vessel industry was affected by disasters very recently, this study contributes an immediate exploration of its sustainable production and consumption challenges.

This paper aims to evaluate the current level of knowledge about lean construction (LC) practices in construction companies, universities and class organizations in Brazil and identify the barriers to implementing LC in the Brazilian construction industry and prioritize them through comparison with global challenges.

This multiple case study was carried out through a questionnaire answered by 56 construction companies, 15 universities and 10 professional associations. The questionnaire evaluation allowed the authors to determine the level of knowledge about the LC, its adoption and barriers to its adoption in the Brazilian industry. The results were statistically analyzed using the weighted average (MIS) of results using the Kruskal–Wallis test, which compares sample distribution among groups, and Cronbach’s alpha test to measure the questionnaire reliability.

This study points to universities as the main ones responsible for the low adoption of LC in Brazil and points to the need for an integrated action among construction companies, universities and class organizations to overcome the traditional project management culture and raise the level of knowledge about LC.

This study evaluated the current LC situation in an emerging country, Brazil, and compared it with the principal international challenges observed in studies of other developing countries – China, India, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Singapore – least developed countries – Bangladesh and Nigeria – and developed country – UK. These studies evaluated construction companies located in the listed countries. Based on that, 22 international challenges were established for the LC adoption. Additionally, this research also evaluated universities and working-class organizations in addition to construction companies. This addition can contribute to a better result understanding that can be explored by Brazil and other countries.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the barriers to implementing lean construction in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) construction industry and to prioritise the principal factors that constitute these barriers.

A literature review was initially used to reveal the global barriers to implementing lean construction. Subsequently, these barriers were incorporated into a structured questionnaire, and a convenience sample of 282 construction professionals in the KSA construction industry was surveyed. The results were analysed using mean item score (MIS), Mann–Whitney U test and principal component analysis (PCA).

The findings revealed 22 barriers to lean construction implementation in the KSA construction industry. Principal factors that constitute these barriers were found to be traditional practices, client related, technological, performance and knowledge and cost-related barriers in descending order of pervasiveness. The study also proposes solutions to overcome these principal barriers.

This study provides a global overview of the barriers to implementing lean construction. It contributes to the body of knowledge, as it uncovers for the first time the barriers to implementing lean construction in the KSA construction industry with reference to the socio-cultural, economic and operational context of the KSA. Thus, it is relevant to other countries in the Middle East because of their shared similarities to the KSA. Furthermore, the solutions proposed to overcome these barriers in the KSA construction industry can be applied in other countries where similar barriers are identified.

Many researchers have addressed students as consumers and considered their online searches to choose a university as typical buying behaviour. The myriad features of digital information enable universities to conveniently and quickly reach educational markets at a relatively low cost. Consumers’ market choices can usefully be interpreted in terms of their cultural perceptions. To encourage Web viewers to make repeat visits to, and remain longer on, their websites, it is critical for international universities to understand local and regional viewers’ perceptions and preferences regarding non-text Web messages through the lens of culture. The purpose of the current study is to address the need for, and the challenge presented by, glocalising the text and non-text aspects of university websites by investigating Arab consumers’ perceptions of these websites.

The sampling frame comprised 200 residents from the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, including 100 high school students and 100 stakeholders, with equal proportions of Arabs and non-Arabs. Illustrations and images were used in the questionnaire to collect respondents’ perceptions about university websites from a cultural perspective.

This study identifies a need to glocalise the non-text and website messages of international universities that are aiming to penetrate educational markets in the Emirates.

This study clearly identifies the segment that is most receptive to a “glocalised” website communication strategy of international universities: Arab students, aged 16 or above, and educated stakeholders, expect to view academic information on websites, as do viewers everywhere, but prefer this information to reflect the values and traditions of Arab culture.

The increasing inflow of students from the Gulf region to the United Arab Emirates, instead of their usual choice of European or Western educational destinations, has motivated international universities to envisage the Emirates as a location for their campus expansions. An understanding of the approaches of Arab viewers to the websites of international universities through the lens of culture is essential for bridging the literature gaps that currently persist in the area of digital promotion and social marketing.

Planning is a perennially popular management tool with an ambiguous relationship to learning and performance. The purpose of this study attempts to resolve this ambiguity. The authors suggest that the critical question is not whether firms need learning for planning to influence performance, but when different firms experience different performance outcomes. The authors propose firms will benefit from strategic planning only when they learn from planning and have the resources to act on their learning.

The authors collected data from a survey of 293 individuals from 191 publicly listed US firms.

Organizational learning mediates the relations between strategic planning and organizational performance. This mediated relationship is positively moderated by high levels of human resource slack and moderate to high levels of financial slack.

The study provides evidence for previous theoretical arguments on the planning–learning relationship while extending this research by finding a complicated moderating effect of slack. The study also adds to the existing debate on optimal slack levels by suggesting that having bundles of slack resources may matter more than having uniformly high or low levels of slack. A cross-sectional study means the authors cannot infer causation.

While strategic planning is a common practice, companies may vary in their planning methodologies, influencing the outcomes of planning. Firms seeking to benefit from planning need to have both the mechanisms to learn from planning and slack to deploy these mechanisms.

These findings clarify the planning–learning–performance relationship while challenging the assumption of an average effect of planning on performance across firms.