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This study aims to identify various teachers’ professional activities (TPAs) and classify these TPAs according to their relative importance for the professional development of teachers.

The systematic review of the literature had been conducted to identify various TPAs in the institutions. Later, an empirical research had been conducted through confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS 20.0 to classify these TPAs according to their relative importance using the natural gap in standardized beta (β) values. In total, 96 administrators of 35 technical institutions of Punjab (India) offering engineering and management programs and 93 veteran educational experts had responded in a field survey.

The results of the study identified eight TPAs and further revealed that “regular self-assessment,” “adopting a creative problem-solving approach” and “developing deep commitment to make the difference” qualify among the “most important” activities for the professional enhancement of the faculty.

The study highlights different TPAs that they must establish, raise, promote, encourage and organize for their development. The study further classifies different activities according to their relative importance. The institute can evaluate their resources, budgets and efforts according to the relative importance of such activities. The classification of TPAs would help faculty to increase their efficacy.

Presents a need to look at commitment of teachers to their profession in terms of effect, goals and values of the profession. Measuring commitment on this basis, explores the contributing factors and variables to commitment. Empirical evidence on 454 senior secondary school teachers of Delhi, with the help of discriminant analysis, revealed that perceived characteristics of profession, workrelated personality and desire to improve one′s own skills were contributing in that order. The constituent variables that discriminated more and less committed teachers were perceived status, expectations of significant persons, interest in profession, intrinsic motivation, social support, positive group attitudes, perceived advancement and desire to improve skills for professional purpose.

This paper aims to explore recent trends of how Web 2.0 applications were used in 75 academic libraries in Asia through their library websites.

The Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2016 was considered for this study and out of 200 top universities ranked, 75 universities were selected for data collection. Using a multi-method approach, this study evaluated key design elements, library service platforms and website content of each academic library website, examining their site features, Web 2.0 types and applications. The criteria for selecting the websites were first the website was in English and second had Web 2.0 applications integrated into the main website. For the ranking of websites, a library web service index was developed, benchmarking from these groups – resource discovery tools, Web 2.0 applications, e-resources, mobile applications, library guides, digital reference services and digital inclusion – as indicators.

The authors found that over two-thirds of Asian university libraries have deployed one or more Web 2.0 applications, though their popularity and implementation vary greatly. Most widely used Web 2.0 applications are Facebook (61.3 per cent), RSS (53.3 per cent), Twitter (46.7 per cent) and YouTube (37.3 per cent). Instant messaging (5.3 per cent) and podcasting (4 per cent) were least applied. With an average of 44 per cent, the diffusion rate of Web information is moderately high among the majority of the Asian university libraries.

Many studies explored Web 2.0 applications from developed countries. However, this study attempts evaluating the use of Web 2.0 applications through content, sites and features of academic libraries in Asia, from developing countries perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated literature review exploring the nature of responsive, semantic and interactive Web 3.0 technologies applicable for academic libraries.

The authors conducted an integrated review of the literature combining a strategy of automated and keywords search. The main source for identifying the studies are Emerald Library Studies and Information & Knowledge Management eJournals, Web of Kn.edge and Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (EBSCO) databases. To this end, a sample of (n = 140) studies was analyzed to characterize the Web 3.0 trends and its applications based on theme, years and document types.

A review of literature reveals that Web 3.0 needs evaluation as to what extent they are integrated, deployed and mainstreamed into library services and in information management practices. It is important to develop a conceptual framework that explores the linkages of Web 3.0 technologies and their applications in academic libraries.

This review shows how Web 3.0 technologies enhance library services in its holistic conceptualization and how academic libraries are moving into a more robust, inclusive and adaptable phase in their service values and innovation.

This paper aims to explore optimal pricing policies and characteristics of a two-level dual-channel supply chain under price- and delivery time-sensitive demand. Besides price of the product, the delivery lead time is also a crucial factor in customers’ purchase decisions. A longer delivery lead time would diminish customers’ acceptance and faithfulness on the online channel, while a shorter delivery lead time would lead to incorporation of a substantial amount of logistics costs. In formulation of mathematical model, the effects of delivery lead time on the manufacturer and the retailer’s pricing strategies and profits in cooperative and non-cooperative dual-channel supply chain are explained analytically.

The analytical models are formed for both non-cooperative and cooperative scenarios under inconsistent and consistent pricing. The authors examine whether revenue sharing (RS) contract or delivery cost sharing contract can solely coordinate the dual-channel supply chain. If a single contract fails, then the combination of RS contract with delivery cost sharing to achieve channel coordination is discussed.

It is found that the RS or delivery cost sharing contract cannot coordinate the channel individually but revenue and delivery cost sharing contract jointly coordinate the channel. All analytical results are illustrated numerically, along with sensitivity analysis.

There are many correlated issues that need to be further investigated. First, one good extension to this research may include the consideration of the channel structure with competitive retailers. It will be interesting to analyze the performance of coordination mechanisms by considering the retailer as a Stackelberg leader in retailing.

The findings and subsequent methodological discussions aim to provide practical guidance to retailers who are allowing customers to choose how, when and where they interact and purchase by offering a combination of websites (fully functional and mobile-enabled), catalogs and stores with increasing convergence of channels.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the performance of the stabilised moving least squares (MLS) scheme in the meshless local Petrov–Galerkin (MLPG) method for heat conduction method.

In the current work, the authors extend the stabilised MLS approach to the MLPG method for heat conduction problem. Its performance has been compared with the MLPG method based on the standard MLS and local coordinate MLS. The patch tests of MLS and modified MLS schemes have been presented along with the one- and two-dimensional examples for MLPG method of the heat conduction problem.

In the stabilised MLS, the condition number of moment matrix is independent of the nodal spacing and it is nearly constant in the global domain for all grid sizes. The shifted polynomials based MLS and stabilised MLS approaches are more robust than the standard MLS scheme in the MLPG method analysis of heat conduction problems.

The MLPG method based on the stabilised MLS scheme.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive model of impulse-buying that considers the impact of mobile device use on shopping behaviour as a tool for shopping preparation or as a tool for self-regulation.

Data were obtained through a single-stage mall intercept survey method using a structured questionnaire involving 406 respondents interviewed after checkout. Data analysis was conducted using a structural equation modelling approach with LISREL 8.8.

The results support most elements of the hypothesis of the proposed conceptual framework. Specifically, findings show the impact of mobile usage on shopping behaviour, which results in fewer impulse purchases.

The research demonstrates how shoppers using mobile devices in-store felt less of an urge to purchase during shopping, resulting in fewer unplanned purchases. The effects of mobile device use on in-store purchasing decisions are designed to create a new scenario for the practice of shopper marketing, and retailers and manufacturers will have to seek new ways to capture consumers’ attention in-store and to influence shoppers’ perceptions early in the shopping cycle without diminishing the role of in-store marketing levers.

Prior research found the antecedents of impulse-buying in individual characteristics, situational variables and endogenous variables. However, it did not consider mobile pre-shopping factors or mobile usage. Filling the gap in the existing literature, this work sets out to develop a comprehensive model of impulse-buying that considers the impact of mobile usage on shopping behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to clarify what specific behaviors are involved in consumers' partial switching in mobile application (app) usage, and, second, to explore the common and differential motivations of these behaviors.

This paper specified two behaviors in consumers' partial switching in mobile app usage, trialing and combining behaviors, and conceptualized them as different types of variety seeking behaviors. A theoretical model contrasting intrinsic motivations and extrinsic motivations on the two behaviors was developed and tested with a sample of 561 mobile app users in China.

The findings showed that both trialing and combining behaviors could be motivated by intrinsic individual-related and extrinsic technology-related factors. Besides, intrinsic individual-related factors were more effective in motivating trialing behavior, whereas extrinsic technology-related factors were more effective in motivating combining behavior. All these findings are applicable and consistent in both hedonic and utilitarian apps.

This study extends and advances the literature on information technology switching by investigating consumer use behaviors from a new perspective of partial switching and multiple competing apps usage. This study also contributes to variety seeking literature by extending the understanding of variety seeking to the context of mobile app usage. Finally, by investigating the associations and distinctions of trialing and combining behavior, this study not only helps to fully understand the partial switching but also enriches the understanding of different types of variety seeking behaviors.

Finite impulse response (FIR) digital filters are a general element in several digital signal processing (DSP) systems. In VLSI platform, FIR is a developing filter because the complexity of design grows with the length of the FIR filter and also it has less latency. Generally, the FIR filter is designed dominated by the multiplier and adder. The conventional FIR filters occupy more area because of several numbers of adders and multipliers for filter designs.

To overcome this issue, the Vedic Multiplier (VM) and Moore-based LoopBack Adder (MLBA) approach-based optimal FIR filter were designed in this research. Normally, the coefficient has been generated manually, which performs the FIR filter operation. So, the coefficient was generated from the MATLAB filter design and analysis tool. All pass coefficient was introduced in this research, which performs the processing element (PE). The VM approach was utilized in the PE to multiply the filter inputs and coefficients. This research employs the Moore-based LBA (MLBA) in the accumulator for the adding output of the PE. An MLBA approach is a significantly reduced area and increases speed by applying a looping transform function. Here, the proposed method is called a VM-MLBA-FIR filter. In this research, the FIR filter was done in Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) Xilinx by using Verilog code on various Virtex devices.

The experiment results showed that VM-MLBA-FIR filter reduced 26.88% of device utilization and 0.32 W of minimum power consumption compared to the existing PSA-FIR filter.

The experiment results showed that VM-MLBA-FIR filter reduced 26.88% of device utilization and 0.32 W of minimum power consumption compared to the existing PSA-FIR filter.

The purpose of this paper is to identify what job‐related, individual, and profession‐related variables cause the intention to quit teaching among the early career teachers, especially teachers of Ethiopia.

Quit intentions were measured adapting the scale developed by Mueller and Lawler, and 11 profession‐related and person‐related job variables were measured by author‐developed and literature‐derived scale items on a five‐point Likert scale, along with five status variables. Data were analyzed from a sample of 308 early career teachers belonging to secondary and preparatory schools of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

An alarming 53 per cent sample expressed high quit intention whereas only 13 per cent teachers showed low quit intentions. Choice satisfaction (accounting 44 per cent variance), availability of other job opportunities (23 per cent variance), perceived status (15 per cent variance), and self‐accountability (13 per cent variance) emerged as predictor variables. None of the five status variables emerged as significant predictors. Commitment to teaching profession was not a significant predictor, suggesting the two concepts independent of each other.

Providing freedom of choice at entry level to teaching profession coupled with enhancing rigour in pre‐service education was suggested as major steps required for decreasing high‐level quit intentions.

Education policy needs to be such that for preparation of teachers of secondary and preparatory level, pre‐service teacher education students should have attained maturity of adulthood with a minimum academic attainment of a post‐undergraduate level or a post‐graduate level. This is to enable early career teachers to handle adolescence‐level school students by being equipped with better skills learned during pre‐service teacher education.

The results are pertinent not only to Ethiopia but also to any less developed or a developing country, where “catch them early” policy is followed for pre‐service education and where less rigorous pre‐service education exists.