Search results

Reports on the second phase of "ICAR‐INFLIBNET Training Programme for Agriculture Librarians on Networking and E‐Resources Management", a series of nine training programmes organized in two phases and hosted by the Indian Inter‐University Information & Network Centre. The programme, of two weeks duration, was supported by the World Bank through the National Agriculture Technology Project in New Delhi, India. The programme was specially designed for agricultural library professionals of Indian State Agriculture University, Agriculture Colleges and R&D institutes. The second phase was conducted during November 2003.

Reports on INFLIBNET’s annual convention International CALIBER – 2004 that was held at Jamia Millia Islamia, a central university in New Delhi on 11‐13 February. States that the theme of the convention was “Road Map to New Generation of libraries using emerging technologies” and papers were presented which emphasized the importance of the architecture of information for libraries and the need for a globalized information environment. The concluding session of the convention proposed that CALIBER – 2004 was an excellent opportunity for librarians and students to interact with experts in the field and that it would boost the ongoing initiatives for a library information system in agriculture libraries.

In recent times, fuzzy logic is gaining more and more attention, and this is because of the capability of understanding the functioning of the system as per human knowledge-based system. The main contribution of the work is dynamically adapting the important parameters throughout the execution of the flower pollination algorithm (FPA) using concepts of fuzzy logic. By adapting the main parameters of the metaheuristics, the performance and accuracy of the metaheuristic have been improving in a varied range of applications.

The fuzzy logic-based parameter adaptation in the FPA is proposed. In addition, type-2 fuzzy logic is used to design fuzzy inference system for dynamic parameter adaptation in metaheuristics, which can help in eliminating uncertainty and hence offers an attractive improvement in dynamic parameter adaption in metaheuristic method, and, in reality, the effectiveness of the interval type-2 fuzzy inference system (IT2 FIS) has shown to provide improved results as matched to type-1 fuzzy inference system (T1 FIS) in some latest work.

One case study is considered for testing the proposed approach in a fault tolerant control problem without faults and with partial loss of effectiveness of main actuator fault with abrupt and incipient nature. For comparison between the type-1 fuzzy FPA and interval type-2 fuzzy FPA is presented using statistical analysis which validates the advantages of the interval type-2 fuzzy FPA. The statistical Z-test is presented for comparison of efficiency between two fuzzy variants of the FPA optimization method.

The main contribution of the work is a dynamical adaptation of the important parameters throughout the execution of the flower pollination optimization algorithm using concepts of type-2 fuzzy logic. By adapting the main parameters of the metaheuristics, the performance and accuracy of the metaheuristic have been improving in a varied range of applications.

Purpose ‐ Reports on the INFLIBNET sponsored conference on the Promotion of Library Automation and Networking (PLANNER) in North Eastern Region of India. Design/methodology/approach ‐ Provides a brief report of the conference held in November 2004. Findings ‐ Those professionals and participants at this conference were able to update their knowledge and experiences. More than 150 professionals from Manipur and other states in the region and also from neighboring Bangladesh took part. There was also diversity among the authors of the papers with more than half being women. Originality/value ‐ Outlines the main points of a conference of interest to information management professionals.

This study aims to assess the determinants of corporate debt with a particular focus on bank-affiliated and non-bank-affiliated firms during the global financial crisis.

The authors analyse the data of 395 listed manufacturing firms from Pakistan with 2,370 firm-year observations. The sample is divided into subsamples, namely bank-affiliated, non-bank-affiliated and stand-alone firms. Fixed and panel effect regression models are applied to determine the during, pre-crisis and post-crisis effects on corporate capital structure.

The robust results of the study reveal that non-bank-affiliated firms have different leverage determinant behaviours with a greater reliance on size, tangibility and profitability. However, bank-affiliated firms seemed to show greater immunity from a crisis compared to other firms. Simultaneously, the stand-alone firms remained at a disadvantage subject to internal financial ties of group-affiliated firms and form a base of market imperfection.

This study's findings imply that financial managers should contain better ties with financial institutions to enhance financial immunity in worse time of financial crisis or COVID-19 global calamity. On the regulation front, these findings call for critical policy regulations to govern the internal ties with financial institutions to create a level playing field for the corporate sector.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate determinants of corporate debt with a particular focus on bank-affiliated and non-bank-affiliated firms. This work is also novel to explore corporate debt of bank-affiliated and non-bank-affiliated firms during the financial crisis.

Reports on a training programme – KVS ‐ INFLIBNET ‐ an in‐service training programme for school librarians on library automation, networking and e‐resources management. The course was of three weeks duration designed for kendriya vidyalaya school library professionals and held in mid 2004.

Owing to diminishing library budgets, coupled with the information explosion, academic librarians in India are finding it difficult to meet the insatiable demands of their clientele. For a country as geographically vast as India, having many universities located in remote places, this problem is compounded. Efforts were made in the past to provide document delivery services through a few documentation centres, set up by the Government in different disciplines. This paper focuses on the initiatives launched by the University Grants Commission of India in the last few years, through the INFLIBNET Centre, to provide this service through electronic means by computerizing university libraries, establishing a network and setting up document delivery centres.

To share with readers the scope and content of presentations made at the CALIBER 2005 meeting.

Descriptive case studies and innovation were presented in the context of how progress in these areas has been made in both developing and developed parts of the world.

Information technology infrastructure allows for all these themes to be developed. An increased awareness of how workflow leads to new product development and new libraries services evolve is described in this conference report. The digital arena is explored from many vantage points including digital resources, consortia development, eLearning and eScholarship, and the changing role of the internet.

A scientific approach is tested in most of the research projects described with great dependence on a range of information technology tools that promote networking and digital library development.

International development takes place in a period of great collaboration and that spirit is widely pronounced at this conference and in the presentations made there. Practical Implications: Many different projects were shared ranging in scale from modest to highly sophisticated, involving one institution or a consortia. E‐Learning and distance education were environments that had high impact at this conference.