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Depression and anxiety are the most common comorbidities in TB patients, adversely impacting TB treatment outcomes. The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of lay counselling in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety and TB treatment completion.

The study used a pre-post interventional research design. Patients were screened for depression and anxiety. All symptomatic TB patients were followed up and offered four to six or more lay counselling sessions whenever necessary. The authors assessed changes in depression and anxiety symptoms before lay counselling intervention and after fourth lay counselling session or the completion of TB treatment, whichever occurred the last.

Approximately 6,974 TB patients were screened for symptoms of depression and anxiety. The mean age was 36.7 ± 14.7 years. Total 25.9% patients were symptomatic. About 99.8% were provided lay counselling and received at least one to two follow-up sessions, while two patients who screened with severe depression were referred to a mental health specialist. Nearly 96.9% TB patients did not report symptoms of depression or anxiety after four lay counselling sessions, and TB treatment completion rate was higher among symptomatic TB patients who completed at least four counselling sessions (92.5%).

Lay counselling services delivered by field coordinators offer a promising approach to address mental health comorbidities among TB patients in resource-limited settings.

It explores a novel approach – lay counselling delivered by field coordinators – in tackling depression and anxiety among TB patients, which is a potentially scalable solution in resource-limited settings.

The present research paper is an attempt to study how COVID-19 can affect the global sourcing practices of various supply chain intermediaries across the demand chain. This study aims to explore and is an attempt to understand the overall impact of COVID-19 on the sustainable operations of the firm such as sourcing, procurement, economic performance, social responsibility, consumption and distributions.

This study uses a quantitative technique using data collected from 708 respondents. Structural equation modeling (SEM) has been applied to test the proposed model and hypothesis.

The findings of the study suggest that sourcing practices, distribution and sustainability considerations of manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and retailers are affected by COVID-19 to a great extent but the pandemic has also led to making supply chain intermediaries understand the changing dynamics of the business scenario which can help them in their own strategic and business evolution.

The current disruptions throughout global delivery chains caused by COVID-19 affect badly, the already poor-performing supply chains. Hence, the present study provides fresh insight on how organizations can limit the ill effects of COVID-19 by safeguarding some of their key sustainable operations in a post-pandemic business scenario.

The present study takes into consideration how core supply functions such as sourcing, distribution and manufacturing and various sustainable operations are disrupted by pandemic and its after-effects. This knowledge base can help business organizations to mitigate such problems/disruptions in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the adoption of internet of things (IoT) element with the view of increasing usage so that benefits of convenience, increased performance and timely completion of work can be improved. This research was conducted so that there can be increase in the usage of IoT elements for construction performance and sustainability.

The study adopted survey design and various construction professionals were used to assessing the level of adoption of IoT elements. Convenience sample was used by distributing the structured questionnaire to registered professionals. Mean score, bar chart, Kruskal–Wallis H test, one-sample t-test and Shapiro–Wilk were used for analyzing the data gathered.

The findings revealed that wireless fidelity, visualization, wireless sensor networks, Bluetooth, electronic product code and internet protocol are the most adopted element of IoT in the industry. The study also shows that there are areas where there is no significance attached by construction professionals in the usage of IoT elements. These are data storage and analytics, barcode, Zigbee, gateway, near field communication and actuators. It is recommended that less significant areas can be improved through training and educating professionals about the whole concept of IoT and other design professionals. When the importance of IoT elements are understood it will help in the level of adoption.

This paper highlights the possible ways of increasing the adoption of IoT elements with a view to achieving better usage for convenience, high productivity of workers and easy access to information.

This study investigates the aerodynamics of the airflow over low-rise houses subjected to turbulent cyclonic winds along the South-eastern peninsular India, routinely afflicted by tropical cyclones. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the power of modern computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and its engineering application accentuate decision-making at the planning stage of house designing in vulnerable areas.

The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model was used for first simulating the landfall of cyclone Hudhud, a real storm, and its effect in extant and new house designs. Results from the WRF model were utilized to configure further CFD simulations of airflow around house designs. The analyses yielded deep insights, often non-intuitive, into airflow patterns around these houses with disparate roof forms indicating new possibilities in redesigning houses along Indian coastal areas.

This study shows that storm-induced high TKE values warranted a fuller CFD-based study. The second major finding showed that for a 90° angle of attack, arguably the most destructive attack angle, a pitched roof (with a pitch angle of 10°) worked best – this is about half the recommended angle sourced from earlier empirical estimates dating back to the British Raj period. There is a thin layer of padded air cushion shielding the roof's vulnerable surface from the storm's most energetic parts.

The originality of this research lies in its discourse to systematically resolve the TKE distribution of a cyclone impacting a standalone house. In particular, the study presents a lucid demonstration of all the probable scenarios connecting cyclonic stresses with a roof response, inferred from a careful combination of results garnered from cyclonic storm modelling coupled with CFD analysis. Additionally, the paper also shows a graphic visual representation of the forces induced on different roof designs, presented as a checklist for the first time. This should serve as a ready reckoner for civic authorities involved in disaster management over cyclone-ravaged areas.

This purpose of this study aims to critically evaluate the feasibility of establishing a single currency area within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) by examining the economic integration of its member states. The analysis focuses on the extent to which the region meets the criteria of the optimum currency area (OCA) theory, particularly in terms of business cycle synchronization, labor mobility and capital flows.

Using a vector autoregression (VAR) model within the aggregate demand-aggregate supply framework, this research investigates the symmetry of supply and demand shocks across SAARC economies. The study analyzes the synchronization of business cycles and the mobility of labor and capital to determine the readiness of SAARC for a unified currency.

The results indicate significant asymmetries in business cycles among SAARC countries, with substantial disparities in economic responses to shocks. These findings suggest that the region lacks the necessary economic synchronization required for a successful single currency area. Limited labor and capital mobility further complicate the potential for economic integration within SAARC.

The study is constrained by data inconsistencies and the limited range of economic indicators available for SAARC countries. Future research should expand the analysis to include a broader set of socioeconomic factors and more comprehensive data sets to better assess the region’s potential for monetary integration.

The study highlights the challenges of forming a currency union in South Asia due to economic disparities and limited mobility. However, gradual steps toward deeper regional integration, improved financial infrastructure and enhanced cross-border collaboration could foster long-term economic stability, growth and social cohesion in the SAARC region.

The research highlights the potential social benefits of enhanced economic integration, such as increased community resilience and social cohesion, while also warning of the risks associated with premature monetary union in a region with significant economic disparities.

This study provides a detailed analysis linking the theoretical framework of the OCA to the practical realities of economic integration in South Asia. By focusing on the specific economic conditions of SAARC member states, the research offers valuable insights for policymakers considering regional monetary integration.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate risk propagation and resilience in the agribusiness supply chain (ASC).

The paper undertakes a systematic literature review (SLR). Overall, 94 articles from six databases published between 2000 and 2022 underwent descriptive and thematic analysis.

There is a lack of research on risk propagation and resilience in the ASC for more than two decades. Accordingly, this research fills the gap in the extant literature by advancing the construct of risk propagation and resilience in the ASC and developing a framework proposing directions in risk propagation and resilience in ASC research.

Firstly, only the Web of Science and Scopus databases were mostly used as primary sources while other databases were used as secondary sources to validate search results. Secondly, SLR is based on the peer-reviewed articles, books and conference papers; other non-academic sources relevant to the topic were not included in this paper.

The paper offers a set of constructs for understanding risk propagation and resilience in the ASC, develops a framework proposing directions in risk propagation and resilience in the ASC research and recommends three key themes for future research directions, namely, keep updated with recent constructs of risk propagation and resilience in the ASC, conduct case studies based on empirical studies to determine the current risk dependency and propagation in the ASC and conduct case studies based on empirical studies to determine resilience and sustainability in the ASC.

The COVID-19 has had a diversified and dynamic impact on the food and agricultural sector, particularly in the agri-food value chain. Although a good number of articles were published in various countries and continents covering various aspects of the impact of COVID-19 on the agri-food value chain, no significant studies were found related to the mapping of published literature to know about the scenario and current trend research. The study aims to perform a systematic review and bibliographic mapping in the agri-food value chain to provide insights into the same.

Articles included in the Scopus database from January 1, 2020 to July 10, 2021 are considered. After initial screening and inclusion criteria, 41 articles have been selected to perform a systematic review which is published in the agri-food value chain. In addition to this, by considering the growth of the online food market, systematic mapping with the application of bibliometric analysis is performed to know the trend of the publications. Co-occurrence analysis with VOS viewer software version 1.6.16 is used for making network maps and supports the visualization of these maps.

The synthesis of the findings reveals that four broad themes recur in the articles: namely, food security and crisis during the pandemic, food price fluctuations, the impact of COVID-19 and disruption in the agri-food value chain and resilience strategies to strengthen the value chain. Alongside, the synthesis of the findings, this study describes the geographical coverage, methodologies used, sector/industry-specific context of the articles and scope of future research. In co-occurrence analysis with keywords, four clusters are identified related to the online food market and are categorized as “COVID-19 and Online food delivery services,” “Consumer satisfaction to online food delivery services,” “Food delivery system” and “Demographic impact on online food market.”

The study considers only the article from the Scopus database and article published between January 1, 2020 and July 10, 2021. Future studies are encouraged related to impact analysis studies of resilient strategies suggested by various authors by considering multiple databases.

This study will be beneficial for scholars and policymakers to know what is trending in the agri-food value chain and policymakers can implement various resilience strategies as discussed to mitigate the impact. The future research scope highlighted in this paper will encourage scholars and academicians to explore this area and will provide in-depth understanding.

Forced labour is one of the most exploitative practices in supply chains, generating serious human right abuses. The authors seek to understand how relationships for reducing forced labour are influenced by institutional logics. The emerging supply chain efforts of social enterprises offer particularly intriguing approaches, as their social mission can spur creative new approaches and reshape widely adopted management practices.

The authors study supplier relationships in the smartphone industry and compare the evolving practices of two cases: the first, a growing novel social enterprise; and the second, a high-profile commercial firm that has adopted a progressive role in combating forced labour.

The underlying institutional logic influenced each firm's willingness to act beyond its direct suppliers and to collaborate in flexible ways that create systematic change. Moreover, while both focal firms had clear, well-documented procedures related to forced labour, the integration, rather than decoupling, of forced labour and general supply chain policies provided a more effective way to reduce the risks of forced labour in social enterprises.

As authors’ comparative case study approach may lack generalizability, future research is needed to broadly test their propositions.

The paper identifies preconditions in terms of institutional logics to successfully reduce the risk of forced labour in supply chains.

This paper discusses how social enterprises can provide a learning laboratory that enables commercial firms to identify options for supplier relationship improvement.