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The purpose of this paper is to provide theoretical guidance and an experimental basis for a smart anti-corrosion coating of halloysite nanocontainers loaded with benzotriazole (BTA) inhibitors on copper in a marine corrosion environment.

In the present study, the smart anti-corrosion coatings of halloysite nanocontainers loaded inhibitors on copper were synthesized by adding BTA inside the halloysite nanocontainers. Then, the halloysite carrier’s surface topography and composition in the halloysite were observed using scanning electron microscopy. After the successful synthesis of the coating, the inhibitor’s physical and chemical properties, as well as the mass change in halloysite, were evaluated in terms of temperature fluctuation and time using thermal gravity analysis (TGA). Finally, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was used to check the pH selectivity for the self-releasing of BTA out of the nanocontainers.

The results indicate that the efficiency of the nanotubes was enhanced by calcination at high temperatures. The thermal gravity analysis by TGA shows that halloysite nanoparticles store inhibitors BTA and there are approximately 37.39 Wt.% BTA loaded in each nanocontainer. The release of the preloaded BTA from the halloysite nanocontainers is pH 7 in a 3.5% NaCl solution.

The development of a new environmentally safe coating for corrosion protection of metallic surfaces has attracted great interest in material science over the past few years. At present, halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) have become a research hotspot internationally and are widely used in nanocomposites, catalysis, nanofiltration, drug sustained-release and other fields. However, the application of HNT is limited by its modification methods. As the carrier of metal nanocorrosion inhibitor in the Marine corrosive environment, the modification research of HNT still needs to be further studied and improved so as to expand the practical application of HNT in the Marine corrosive environment. In this paper, the modification of HNTs was investigated and observed. Four different modification schemes were used to observe and compare the structural properties of the nanotubes under different conditions so as to provide a theoretical basis for the further loading of HNTs as corrosion inhibitors.

This piece is a performative keynote address delivered at the 2016 International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. ¹ The keynote showed clips from films on education that triggered critical memories of the author’s own educational experience as teacher/scholar/administrator. The keynote was thus a performative film autocritography. The title “Black Man/White Tower” serves as a trope of tensiveness and transgression at the nexus of thick intersectionalities in higher education.

New varieties of paddy are constantly being developed in India in order to sustain yield gains in the face of biotic and abiotic stresses. In this study, the authors attempt to identify the drivers for adoption of new varieties of paddy in India; the authors also estimate the impact on yield of the adoption of new paddy varieties.

Survey data consisted of the reported information from approximately 20,000 paddy farmers in India. The study employs Cragg's double-hurdle model to study the probability and intensity of adoption of new varieties; we use regression discontinuity design to estimate the change in yield due to adoption of new varieties.

The authors’ findings indicate that the adoption of new varieties of paddy in India varies significantly within and between regions; further, the adoption of new varieties is affected by a number of socioeconomic and demographic factors; the authors also find that the adoption of new varieties increases yield significantly.

These are observational data and not based on the experiments. The authors relied on farmers' memory to recall the information.

The authors suggest the formulation of strategic policies that can cater to the needs of regions and states that are lagging behind in the adoption of new paddy varieties.

Shopping motivation has been extensively explored in traditional marketing context but less in online shopping. Utilitarian attribute of online shopping is one of the success factors of e-retailing. The purpose of this paper is to explore the utilitarian shopping motivation in online shopping and validate these factors through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in the Indian context.

The data were collected from the 183 regular online shoppers. The collected data were analysed through exploratory factor analysis and CFA using Amos 22 version.

This paper explored the utilitarian shopping motivation of online shopping into five factors, i.e. information availability, accessibility, searchability, product availability and convenience.

The research is conducted on online shoppers to measure their utilitarian motives of shopping online. Further research may be conducted to investigate other motives of online shopping. The sample is taken from Central India which is not enough to generalise the findings. Research may be conducted in other regions and on different segment of respondents to know the impact of geographical variance on utilitarian perspectives of online shoppers.

This paper addresses a significant input in online retailing platform, and it will contribute to the theory of shopping motivations in online shopping context and provide valuable inputs for developing online marketing strategies. The findings of the study also aid to retail practitioners in analysing retailing’s current transformation due to digitalization.

Supply chain management.

The case is suitable for post graduates in management, and for those managing small sector supply and manufacturing systems.

ACPL is an organisation which moved from trading to manufacturing a technology product instrument transformers (ITs) for power utility companies for 11 years, competing with the best in industry, reducing internal costs, and modernising the supply chain. ACPL was started as a trading organisation in electrical items in Delhi by Munish Kumar, an engineer by profession in 2001. In 2004 he ventured into manufacturing, which expanded in two locations in Ghaziabad, NCR Delhi. Later his two sons, engineer and management graduate, respectively, joined the organisation. In less than a decade, by 2007, ACPL had grown to be a private limited organisation. ACPL manufactures ITs required by power boards and companies for conversion and usage of high voltage (11 kV/33 kV) transmitted power into 220 V single phase/440 V three phase power. From tender/enquiry through manufacturing to inspection and despatch takes a long supply chain cycle time holding space as well as inventory. An interview with the chairman of ACPL in the case highlights issues affecting its margins and growth. The long process to delivery time may be in vogue in this type of industry but this holds up a huge inventory. The company management has been working to resolve this crisis along with an urgent need to grow in a competitive environment. The problem is being addressed.

This case study should help students to understand the concept of the supply chain and supply cycle, in a manufacturing company in particular. It has been found that students understand the supply chain as part of the marketing function dealing with finished stocks, warehousing and delivery to end customers as per agreements, and arranging payments from customers. The supply chain also deals with in bound materials management. Raw materials planning, purchasing, inventory management are crucial for effective business operations management in any organisation.

Teaching notes are available; please contact your librarian for access.

The purpose of this paper is to present a general framework for the comprehension and advancement of sociocultural homeostasis (not to be confused with a steady state, but a dynamic constantly evolving process) to increase worker engagement, productivity and innovation within the enterprises.

The latest research findings in neuroscience, social neuroscience and social network analyses are used to determine what types of organizational dynamics best support voluntary worker engagement.

The paper offers convincing evidence why certain organizations prosper while others falter depending on their knowledge and advancement of sociocultural homeostasis principles.

It is a unique work suggesting how to apply the latest research findings in the rapidly advancing fields of neuroscience and social neuroscience to business management to increase productivity and innovation.

In additive manufacturing (AM) process, the physical properties of the products made by fractal toolpaths are better as compared to those made by conventional toolpaths. Also, it is desirable to minimize the number of tool retractions. The purpose of this study is to describe three different methods to generate fractal-based computer numerical control (CNC) toolpath for area filling of a closed curve with minimum or zero tool retractions.

This work describes three different methods to generate fractal-based CNC toolpath for area filling of a closed curve with minimum or zero tool retractions. In the first method, a large fractal square is placed over the outer boundary and then rest of the unwanted curve is trimmed out. To reduce the number of retractions, ends of the trimmed toolpath are connected in such a way that overlapping within the existing toolpath is avoided. In the second method, the trimming of the fractal is similar to the first method but the ends of trimmed toolpath are connected such that the overlapping is found at the boundaries only. The toolpath in the third method is a combination of fractal and zigzag curves. This toolpath is capable of filling a given connected area in a single pass without any tool retraction and toolpath overlap within a tolerance value equal to stepover of the toolpath.

The generated toolpath has several applications in AM and constant Z-height surface finishing. Experiments have been performed to verify the toolpath by depositing material by hybrid layered manufacturing process.

Third toolpath method is suitable for the hybrid layered manufacturing process only because the toolpath overlapping tolerance may not be enough for other AM processes.

Development of a CNC toolpath for AM specifically hybrid layered manufacturing which can completely fill any arbitrary connected area in single pass while maintaining a constant stepover.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the estimation methodology with a highly generalized cost-effective single hidden layer neural network.

The aerodynamic parameter estimation is a challenging research area of aircraft system identification, which finds various applications such as flight control law design and flight simulators. With the availability of the large database, the data-driven methods have gained attention, which is primarily based on the nonlinear function approximation using artificial neural networks. A novel single hidden layer feed-forward neural network (FFNN) known as extreme learning machine (ELM), which overcomes the issues such as learning rate, number of epochs, local minima, generalization performance and computational cost, as encountered in the conventional gradient learning-based FFNN has been used for the nonlinear modeling of the aerodynamic forces and moments. A mathematical formulation based on the partial differentiation is proposed to estimate the aerodynamic parameters.

The real flight data of longitudinal and lateral-directional motion have been considered to estimate their respective aerodynamic parameters using the proposed methodology. The efficacy of the estimates is verified with the results obtained through the conventional parameter estimation methods such as the equation-error method and filter-error method.

The present study is an outcome of the research conducted on ELM for the estimation of aerodynamic parameters from the real flight data. The proposed method is capable to estimate the parameters in the presence of noise.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the assessment of water resources in the Seybouse middle sub-basin. Analyses of water and various current uses are used to draw attention to the necessity of implementing water resources integrated management into a plan aiming at a rational exploitation.

Any sustainable management of water resources is closely dependent on the ability to accurately assess the quantity and quality of available water resources that are used as water supply for the population, agricultural production, industrial or energy. The analyzed and processed available data serve as database for integrated water resources management.

Analysis shows that the annual water supply is represented by 71 percent of the surface water resources and 29 percent of groundwater. The total volume of water used in the middle Seybouse basin is estimated at 36.22 hm3/yr. The predicted water needs are estimated to 79.19 hm3/yr in 2030. The groundwater of the Guelma alluvial aquifer exhibits a calcium chloride-facies general trend. The evolution of the chemical elements is related mainly to the geological nature of the reservoir lithologies. The heavy metals do not exhibit clear anomalies, but the surface water of the majority of streams is heavily infected with bacterial germs.

The obtained results show that the Seybouse middle sub-basin needs twice as much water by 2030 for the different uses. This requires a better management of water resources for a sustainable development in this specific region of Eastern Algeria.

This paper is devoted to the management of water resources in a specific region (the middle Seybouse basin) which constitutes an interesting example of considerations to be taken for a sustainable development.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between customer loyalty and customer dependence in the context of modern format and traditional format stores. In the process, the role of switching cost and trust in this relationship has been explored.

Building on the literature, the authors have postulated a conceptual model and formulated relevant hypotheses. Quantitative methodology is applied with previously established. The data were collected through convenient sampling. Methods like Factor analysis, cross-tab and regression analysis have been used.

The findings indicate a significant relationship between customer loyalty and customer dependence. Switching cost and trust have been found to have a moderating effect over the relationship in both modern and traditional environments.

The limitation is the restriction to the Jammu context. The studies have brought about the difference in attitudinal and behavioural loyalty. Future research can be carried out on the role of dependence in explaining and strengthening this relationship.

The present study provides an insight into for the customer loyalty and customer dependence in the context of modern and traditional retail formats.