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The purpose of this study is to consider the dynamics of Casson–Walters-B alongside gyrotactic microorganisms through the investigation of antibacterial and antiviral mechanisms using silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The Casson fluid and Walters-B flow from the penetrable plate to the boundary layer (BL) in this analysis. The antiviral and antibacterial mechanisms of AgNPs were separately examined in this study.

The physical phenomenon of this problem was analyzed with partial differential equations (PDEs). These PDEs were changed into ordinary differential equations (ODEs) to further explain the significance of pertinent control parameters. The set of equations is solved numerically by implementing the spectral relaxation method (SRM). SRM is a numerical technique that uses the basic techniques of Gauss-Seidel. The SRM first decouples and linearizes the coupled nonlinear set of ODEs.

In this finding, it is found that the thermal radiation parameter produces higher temperatures within the BL to cause blockage in viral replications. It is found in this study that the magnetic parameter assisted in disinfection by lowering the antiviral and antibacterial mechanisms within the momentum BL. This is evident from the reduction in the velocity and momentum BL as the Casson and Walters-B parameters increase.

This paper is unique because it examined the antiviral and antibacterial mechanisms by using AgNPs. Prior to the authors’ understanding, no study of this type was conducted in the past. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other study in the past has examined the mechanisms of antiviral and antibacterial separately within the BL. Also, the simultaneous flow of Casson (honey) and Walters-B fluids were considered flowing through the vertical porous plate to the BL.

Apitourism is a form of tourism that deals with the culture and traditions of rural communities and can be considered one of the most sustainable methods of development and tourism. Accordingly, this study aims to identify the key factors and plausible scenarios of Iranian apitourism in the future.

This study is applied research. For this purpose, first, by examining the theoretical foundations and interviewing experts, the key factors affecting the future of Iranian apitourism were identified. Then, using a binomial test, these factors were screened. Both critical uncertainty and DEMATEL techniques were used to select the final drivers.

Two drivers of “apitourism information system and promotional activities” and “organizing ecological infrastructure” were selected for scenario planning using critical uncertainty and DEMATEL techniques. According to these two drivers, four golden beehive, expectancy, anonymous bee and black beehive scenarios were developed. Each scenario represents a situation for apitourism in the future. According to the criteria of trend compliance, fact-based plausibility and compliance with current data, the “Black Beehive” scenario was selected as the most likely scenario. The “Golden Beehive” scenario shows the best case in terms of apitourism information system and implementation of promotional activities and organizing and providing ecological infrastructure. The “Black Beehive” scenario, on the other hand, describes an isolated and vulnerable system.

Developing plausible Iranian apitourism scenarios helps key stakeholders and actors develop flexible plans for various situations.

The authors passively apply a researcher profile pitch (RPP) template tool in accounting and across a range of Business School disciplines.

The authors document a diversity of worked examples of the RPP. Using an auto-ethnographic research design, each showcased researcher reflects on the exercise, highlighting nuanced perspectives drawn from their experience. Collectively, these examples and associated independent narratives allow the authors to identify common themes that provide informative insights to potential users.

First, the RPP tool is helpful for accounting scholars to portray their essential research stream. Moreover, the tool proved universally meaningful and applicable irrespective of research discipline or research experience. Second, it offers a distinct advantage over existing popular research profile platforms, because it demands a focused “less”, that delivers a meaningful “more”. Further, the conciseness of the RPP design makes it readily amenable to iteration and dynamism. Third, the authors have identified specific situations of added value, e.g. initiating research collaborations and academic job market preparation.

The RPP tool can provide the basis for developing a scalable interactive researcher exchange platform.

The authors argue that the RPP tool potentially adds meaningful incremental value relative to existing popular platforms for gaining researcher visibility. This additional value derives from the systematic RPP format, combined with the benefit of easy familiarity and strong emphasis on succinctness. Additionally, the authors argue that the RPP adds a depth of nuanced novel information often not contained in other platforms, e.g. around the dimensions of “data” and “tools”. Further, the RPP gives the researcher a “personality”, most notably through the dimensions of “contribution” and “other considerations”.

This paper aims to explain and demonstrate how the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) and Honey’s Content Analysis (HCA) can make new contributions to the field of Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM). The proposition involves integrating these complementary analyses to fortify the rigor of qualitative research and establish robust data analysis protocols to identify the main attributes of interviewees regarding a phenomenon while understanding in their perspective how these attributes impact the desired analysis outcome.

This study uses examples with rich empirical data from 40 interviewees across two organizations. The examples use a protocol that allows the grouping of meanings from different knowledgeable individuals and capturing relevant constructs related to an outcome.

The combination of RGT and HCA permits researchers to effectively identify and analyze the constructs individuals and groups utilize to comprehend the subject matter under investigation. Consequently, these techniques present a structured means to conduct grounded theory investigations and interpretive research, thereby enabling the iterative development of the preliminary conceptual models necessary for OSCM field advancement.

We present two examples in which the protocol is applied to the field of OSCM. These examples illustrate that the techniques provide valuable opportunities for OSCM research, particularly for addressing the limitations related to sample size. Ultimately, RGT and HCA complement quantitative methodologies by uncovering nuanced variations and micro-foundations within firm- and network-level phenomena, offering insights essential for advancing our understanding of OSCM dynamics in specific contexts.

This study aimed to evaluate the compositional changes and bioaccessibility of phenolics and antioxidants in propolis during in vitro digestion as well as the cytotoxic effects of digested propolis on various cancer cell lines.

Six propolis samples were obtained and subjected to in vitro oral, gastric and intestinal digestion. Both digested and undigested samples were analyzed for their total phenolic, flavonoid and antioxidant activities. Additionally, changes in phenolic composition in the in vitro digestion system were revealed by the HPLC-DAD system. The cytotoxic effects of the digested samples were assessed on lung (A549, H1299), skin (A431), liver (Hep-G2) and colon (Caco-2) cancer cells as well as on fibroblast (Bj) cells.

The mean bioaccessibility values of phenolic and flavonoid compounds were found to be less than 35 and 24%, respectively, while the TEAC and CUPRAC antioxidant results ranged between 225.08–649.04 and 398.68–1552.28 µmol TE/g, respectively. The release of p-coumaric, ferulic, 3,4-dimethoxycinnamic acids, naringenin, pinocembrin and chrysin increased progressively from the oral to the intestinal stage. The cytotoxic effects of samples on cell lines were ranked, based on IC50 results, as A431 > Hep-G2 > Caco-2 > A549 > H1299 > Bj.

Propolis has been recognized for centuries as a natural remedy, and numerous studies have explored its bioactive components. However, no studies have previously examined the changes in the phenolic compositions of propolis samples during digestion or their cytotoxic effects on cancer cells. Therefore, this study provides novel insights and an approach to the existing literature on this topic.

Previous literature on sustainable supply chain management has largely adopted an instrumental view of stakeholder management and has focused on understanding the effect of powerful stakeholders who have a more decisive influence on an organization's supply chain decisions. Social enterprises have emerged as organizations that often aim to create impact by integrating marginalized stakeholders into their operations and supply chains. This study examines the trade-offs that social enterprises experience due to their moral stance toward stakeholder engagement, evidenced in their commitment to serving marginalized stakeholders, as well as the responses adopted to these trade-offs.

The study follows a theory elaboration approach through a multiple case study design. The authors draw on insights from stakeholder theory and use the empirical insights to expand current constructs and relationships in a novel empirical context. Based on an in-depth analysis of primary and secondary qualitative data on ten social enterprises, the authors examine how these organizations integrate marginalized stakeholders into various roles in their operations.

When integrating marginalized customers, suppliers and employees, social enterprises face affordability, reliability and efficiency trade-offs. Each trade-off represents conflicts between the organization's needs and the needs of marginalized stakeholders. In response to these trade-offs, social enterprises choose to internalize the costs through slack creation or vertical integration or externalize the costs to stakeholders. The ability to externalize is contingent on the growth orientation of the organization and the presence of like-minded B2B (Business-to-Business) customers. These responses reflect whether organizations accept the trade-offs at the expense of one or more stakeholders or if they avoid the trade-offs and find mutually beneficial solutions.

Building on the empirical insights, the authors elaborate on stakeholder theory with a focus on the integration of marginalized stakeholders by emphasizing a moral justification for stakeholder engagement, identifying the nature of the underlying trade-offs which can arise when various stakeholder needs are in conflict and examining the contingencies affecting organizational responses to these trade-offs.

This paper aims to understand how dual sustainable-labeling strategies influence perceived value dimensions (i.e. quality, emotional, social and price) across vice vs virtue products and level of consumers’ consideration of future consequences.

Two online experiments are conducted with private label brands: one with organic and Fairtrade labels and one with organic and local labels. For each experiment, a conditional process analysis was used with the labeling strategy (i.e. no label vs organic label vs Fairtrade/local label vs organic label + Fairtrade/local label) as the independent variable, the product types (i.e. vice vs virtue) and level of consideration of future consequences as moderators, the dimensions of perceived value (quality, emotional, social and price) as the dependent variables.

Dual sustainable-labeling strategies lead to higher positive perceived value levels on all dimensions compared to no-labeling strategy. They however do not necessarily lead to higher levels compared to mono-labeling strategies such as organic labeling strategy (except for social dimension). Additionally, the positive effect of dual sustainable-labeling is lower for virtue products compared to vice products and is stronger for consumers with high level of consideration of future consequences for vice products for the social-value dimension.

Prior research has focused on the effect of multi-labeling strategies on willingness to pay with mixed results. This study brings insights to literature by testing the impact of dual sustainable-labeling strategies on the dimensions of perceived value as well as the moderating effects of the product types and consideration of future consequences.

In the cloud-computing environment, privacy preservation and enabling security to the cloud data is a crucial and demanding task. In both the commercial and academic world, the privacy of important and sensitive data needs to be safeguarded from unauthorized users to improve its security. Therefore, several key generations, encryption and decryption algorithms are developed for data privacy preservation in the cloud environment. Still, the outsourced data remains with the problems like minimum data security, time consumption and increased computational complexity. The purpose of this research study is to develop an effective cryptosystem algorithm to secure the outsourced data with minimum computational complexity.

A new cryptosystem algorithm is proposed in this paper to address the above-mentioned concerns. The introduced cryptosystem algorithm has combined the ElGamal algorithm and hyperchaotic sequence, which effectively encrypts the outsourced data and diminishes the computational complexity of the system.

In the resulting section, the proposed improved ElGamal cryptosystem (IEC) algorithm performance is validated using the performance metrics like encryption time, execution time, decryption time and key generation comparison time. The IEC algorithm approximately reduced 0.08–1.786 ms of encryption and decryption time compared to the existing model: secure data deletion and verification.

The IEC algorithm significantly enhances the data security in cloud environments by increasing the power of key pairs. In this manuscript, the conventional ElGamal algorithm is integrated with the pseudorandom sequences for a pseudorandom key generation for improving the outsourced cloud data security.

The paper aims to provide an efficient dispatching schedule for ready-mix concrete (RMC) trucks and create a balance between batch plants and construction sites.

The paper focused on developing a new metaheuristic swarm intelligence algorithm using Java code. The paper used statistical criterion: mean, standard deviation, running time to verify the effectiveness of the proposed optimization method and compared its derivatives with other algorithms, such as genetic algorithm (GA), Tabu search (TS), bee colony optimization (BCO), ant lion optimizer (ALO), grey wolf optimizer (GWO), dragonfly algorithm (DA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO).

The paper proved that integrating GWO and DA yields better results than independent algorithms and some selected algorithms in the literature. It also suggests that multi-independent batch plants could effectively cooperate in a system to deliver RMC to various construction sites.

The paper provides a compelling new hybrid swarm intelligence algorithm and a model allowing multi-independent batch plants to work in a system to deliver RMC. It fulfills an identified need to study how batch plant managers can expand their dispatching network, increase their competitiveness and improve their supply chain operations.

This paper discusses the implementation of integrated science, technology, engineering and mathematics (EC-iSTEM) education with children in birth-to-age 5 classrooms. It offers a conceptualization for EC-iSTEM, as well as a developmental trajectory in the form of the iSTEM Rope Model. It further highlights the intersection of EC-iSTEM education and the Reggio Emelia-Inspired Approach (RE-IA) as a lens for both viewing EC-iSTEM implementation with young children and as an area of needed research.

This paper uses a qualitative interpretive methodology, drawing from a wide array of theoretical and research literature on early childhood education and integrated STEM education.

Despite growing research and policy reports that advocate for the inclusion of integrated STEM education in early childhood classrooms, today there is currently imprecision in understanding what exactly “integrated STEM” means when applied to the instruction of very young children. This suggests a need for the creation of a unifying conceptual framework, as well as finding alignment with currently known pedagogical approaches to ground the work of birth-to-age 5 teachers and researchers.

This paper proposes a new conceptualization of integrated STEM education for use in birth to age 5 classrooms, as well as a systhsis of the current literature to assess the pedagogical linkages between EC-iSTEM and RE-IA. As the proposed conceptualization offered in this paper is new and research in this area is nascent, further empirical investigation is warrented.

This paper proposes a new conceptualization of integrated STEM education for use in the early childhood education field. It further synthesizes the current literature to assess the pedagogical linkages between EC-iSTEM and RE-IA, suggesting practice implications for supporting the knowledge and skill development of young children from birth to age 5.