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1 – 10 of 43Madhavan Maya, V.M. Anjana and G.K. Mini
The study explores the perspectives of college students on the pedagogical shift as well as frequent transitions between online and offline learning modes during the COVID-19…
Abstract
Purpose
The study explores the perspectives of college students on the pedagogical shift as well as frequent transitions between online and offline learning modes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kerala, the most literate state in India.
Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,366 college students in Kerala during December 2021. A pre-tested questionnaire was sent using Google Forms to students of arts and science colleges. The authors analyzed quantitative data using descriptive statistics and qualitative data using thematic content analysis.
Findings
The reported advantages of online learning were increased technical skill, flexibility in study time, effectiveness in bridging the gap of the missed academic period and provision of attending more educational webinars. Students expressed concerns of increased workload, difficulty in concentration due to family circumstances, academic incompetency, uncleared doubts and addiction to mobile phones and social media during the online classes. The main advantages reported for switching to an offline learning mode were enhanced social interaction, effective learning, better concentration and reduced stress. The reported challenges of offline classes were fear of getting the disease, concern of maintaining social distancing and difficulty in wearing masks during the classes. The shift in offline to online learning and vice versa was perceived as a difficult process for the students as it took a considerable time for them to adjust to the switching process of learning.
Originality/value
Students' concerns regarding transition between different learning modes provide important information to educators to better understand and support the needs of students during the pandemic situations.
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Mark Cleveland and Anjana Balakrishnan
Cosmopolitanism and xenocentrism denote distinct individual orientations toward cultural outgroups. The former considers an individual’s openness to cultural diversity and ability…
Abstract
Purpose
Cosmopolitanism and xenocentrism denote distinct individual orientations toward cultural outgroups. The former considers an individual’s openness to cultural diversity and ability to navigate through intercultural environments, whereas the latter describes an individual’s feelings of admiration or preference for specific cultural outgroup(s), over his/her ingroup. Few studies have simultaneously examined these constructs and fewer still have considered these within a nomological framework of key predictors (i.e. basic psychological needs) and practical outcomes (e.g. influentialness and friendships across different groups). The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors hypothesized a series of relationships of various antecedents and outcomes of cosmopolitanism and xenocentrism, and tested these conjectures using survey data from Canadians (n=238) and Americans (n=239).
Findings
The findings support the psychometric robustness of our tripartite operationalization of xenocentrism, and clearly distinguish this construct from cosmopolitanism. Beyond confirming earlier findings, the authors illuminate several novel relationships (e.g. between basic psychological needs, cosmopolitanism and xenocentrism), and elucidate the role played by a key personality dimension, neuroticism, in mediating the relationships between basic psychological needs and the two outgroup orientations.
Research limitations/implications
Samples of this study are drawn from North America and a cross-sectional research design is used.
Originality/value
Whereas for xenocentric consumers admiration of one or more foreign culture(s) displaces customary preferences for one’s own cultural group, cosmopolitan consumers are able to embrace outside cultures without disaffection from their sociocultural ingroup. Given the obvious repercussions of these differences for targeting international consumer segments and for positioning brands across borders, our research has numerous practical applications as well as theoretical implications.
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Rupeshkumar V. Ramani, Bharat M. Ramani, Anjana D. Saparia, Nikesh A. Shah, Pinank Kacha and J.H. Markna
In the twenty-first century, the use of fossil fuels has increased drastically because the necessity of energy is increasing day by day which affects the world’s economy. The…
Abstract
Purpose
In the twenty-first century, the use of fossil fuels has increased drastically because the necessity of energy is increasing day by day which affects the world’s economy. The solar energy (photo-thermal energy conversion) system is the most economical and eco-friendly alternative source. To increase the use of domestic as well as commercialization purpose, the authors have reviewed this paper on the solar water heater along with its structural mechanism for energy enhancement and to create easier stair steps for climbing on the green world dream.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, nanotechnology has remarkably built its own use for extending thermal efficiency by using some gradual experiments. It is a phenomenon, like nanofluid (as a working fluid for a direct solar collector), nanocoating (on the surface of a solar-evacuated tube by using the chemical vapor deposition/physical vacuum deposition/sol–gel technique) and nanorod-based solar collector tube.
Findings
This invention gives greater efficiency rather than the conventional systems, but also this advancement is not too much supported in a low- temperature environment also, we can consider the poor light absorption characteristics of the pure water (Bencic, et al., 2000).
Originality/value
The basic idea and understanding of this phenomenon to improve solar collecting performance for obtaining a high working-fluid temperature are discussed in this paper.
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B. Mythiri, S. Anjana Krishna and V.K. Karthika
This paper investigated the possibilities of implementing inclusive education in the tertiary-level language classrooms and suggests new teaching methodologies adhering to the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper investigated the possibilities of implementing inclusive education in the tertiary-level language classrooms and suggests new teaching methodologies adhering to the guidelines of multicultural education (MCE) framework. It explored how Indian teachers fostered social inclusivity in ESP (English for Specific Purposes) classrooms and documented the methods used by the language teachers to sustain a socially inclusive environment in the classroom.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study undertaken with 17 faculty members using online interviews and surveys as tools revealed the challenges faced by the teachers.
Findings
The results have implications towards teacher training as there is a clear dearth of teacher strategies to foster an equitable and inclusive learning environment inside the classroom.
Social implications
Classrooms are the sources of values and perspectives, and teachers are responsible for providing equal opportunities to students who are otherwise marginalised in society.
Originality/value
Inclusive education aims at providing equal opportunities to people despite the differences in terms of race, class, caste, region, religion, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and disabilities. India being a multilingual and multicultural country, inculcating values in students to enable them to reflect beyond these differences becomes important.
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Amitabh Anand, Ritu Tripathi, Anjana Karumathil and Tanvika Kalra
Advanced bibliometric methods have emerged as key tools in mapping the history and trends of a discipline. This paper aims to demonstrate on applying various bibliometric methods…
Abstract
Purpose
Advanced bibliometric methods have emerged as key tools in mapping the history and trends of a discipline. This paper aims to demonstrate on applying various bibliometric methods to track a journal’s impact and review its knowledge contribution. In doing so, the authors take the case of IIMB Management Review (IMR) journal focused on management discipline, in consideration of its 10 years of publication presence.
Design/methodology/approach
Using bibliometric and Scopus metric methods, the authors map and analyze the productivity of IMR Journal and map its knowledge contributions.
Findings
The authors identify the IMR journal’s impact, its growth, the most prolific authors/affiliations, key research hotspots, cross-country collaboration and emerging trends over the past decade.
Originality/value
A 10-year longitudinal review helps the target group identify the main themes. It also provides key empirical insights to the journal editorial board and library managers for future planning and growth of the journal.
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Anjana Nath, Sumita Rai, Jyotsna Bhatnagar and Cary L. Cooper
This study aims to explore how coping strategies (CS) mediate the relationship between job insecurity (JI) and subjective well-being (SWB) leading to presenteeism among…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore how coping strategies (CS) mediate the relationship between job insecurity (JI) and subjective well-being (SWB) leading to presenteeism among millennials. This study has been tested based on the conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 2001) and the transactional theory of stress and coping (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). In India, employees in the information technology (IT) and business process management sectors have been facing increased job insecurity over the last couple of years. The advent of technology has increased job insecurity among millennials, specifically in the IT sector. The Indian IT and information technology–enabled service (ITES) sector witnessed mass retrenchments by companies in 2016–2017. Instead of reskilling, the companies decided to lay off their employees. During the pandemic, the IT and ITES industries witnessed a massive culture shift in terms of technology and work engagement. Postpandemic, the recession is looming large on these industries. In 2022, tech layoffs have witnessed 135,000 employees impacted globally and many may lose their job in the coming year. This study chose Indian millennials because they form a large part of the Indian workforce, especially in the IT and ITES sector.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, cross-sectional design is used where different individuals are part of the study at the same point in time. A sequential mixed method of research is adopted for this study, owing to the kind of research questions and the requirement to include critical realism. A qualitative study was carried out post the quantitative study, to corroborate the results from the quantitative study. Quantitative methodologies address questions about causality, generalizability or magnitude of outcome, whereas qualitative research methodologies explore why or how a phenomenon occurs, describe the nature of an individual’s experience during the study relevant to the context and/or develop a theory (Fetters et al., 2013). Because the study is about the millennial workforce in IT and the ITES sectors, the sample population comprised employees in Delhi and the national capital region (NCR) of Delhi in northern India. Out of a total of 374 ITES companies listed in the national association of software and service companies (2018), 103 are based out of Delhi/NCR; hence, companies from Delhi/NCR were chosen for the study. The other reason for opting for companies based in Delhi/NCR was that many millennials from second- and third-tier cities also are employed in these companies bringing in varied cultural perspectives. This study included 588 employees working in ITES organizations based in the National Capital Region of India. Mediation analysis for statistical verification was carried out with regression-based analysis in SPSS macro process (version 4).
Findings
The impact of job insecurity on the positive and negative affects of the subjective well-being of millennials was found to be substantial. Coping strategies moderated the relationship and it was seen that both engaged and disengaged strategies of coping had an impact on the positive affect of subjective well-being but did not have any impact on the negative affect of subjective well-being. The positive affect of subjective well-being was negatively related to presenteeism, and the negative affect of subjective well-being was positively related to presenteeism.
Research limitations/implications
This study is carried out only in the ITES industry and on millennials. With the advent of technology, other industries are going through challenges concerning layoffs even though the severity of the same might be less. In times to come, for strategizing employee engagement, it is necessary to understand how the workforce copes with various work-related stress factors. The positive affects and negative affects of well-being and responses have been studied from an employee perspective only. Further research should be conducted to explore responses from both employers and employees to establish presenteeism and the antecedents of presenteeism in conjunction with positive and negative affects of well-being. There is further scope to study the impact of job insecurity on adaptive presenteeism in older generations and various industries given the current job scenario and talent-reskilling issues.
Practical implications
This study brings forth original insights into the impact of constant job threats on millennials employed in the IT and/or IT service sectors. The key findings contribute to literature knowledge and help managers recognize the unfavorable consequences of continuous job threats on the well-being of employees. There is an immediate need for managers to recognize the problem and devise various policies and communication strategies to enable millennial employees to cope with the constant changes in the organization, owing to various technological, political and environmental factors. Organizations should be mindful of this impact, which can subsequently have serious consequences on the productivity of the employees, resulting in decreased overall performance and health of the organization.
Originality/value
This study of job insecurity as a job stressor, triggering coping strategies in Indian millennials working in the ITES and IT industry, presents original insights. This study explores and presents how the impact of job insecurity may increase presenteeism as a result of coping. This study brings value to practitioners and this study may help organizations improve the overall well-being of their employees, thus improving productivity. On the contrary, it also opens opportunities for exploring the impact of job insecurity as a challenge stressor.
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Youssef Taibi, Mohamed Chadli and Mahfoud Ziane
This study aims to determine the maximum extent of damage in the threat zones, the result of a catastrophic failure in one liquefied petroleum gas storage sphere, located in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to determine the maximum extent of damage in the threat zones, the result of a catastrophic failure in one liquefied petroleum gas storage sphere, located in storage and transfer center in Hassi R’Mel city, Algeria.
Design/methodology/approach
To reach the desired results, we relied on ALOHA® v. 5.4.7 software (Areal Locations of Hazardous Atmospheres) for accidents simulation, and on Google Earth as an output tool to show results on the city map.
Findings
The results prove that the city of Hassi R’Mel is almost completely threatened by thermal effects resulting from a boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion phenomenon, which can reach a distance of 3.9 km.
Originality/value
Determining the extent to which the damages resulting from an industrial accident may reach is of great importance in preventing industrial hazards, as well as in decision-making in the field of urbanization.
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Rema Lakshmi, Palanisamy Ganesan, Ranjit Mohan Anjana, Muthuswamy Balasubramanyam and Viswanathan Mohan
The purpose of this paper is to explore illness beliefs among adults with type 2 diabetes (T2DM), studied in a clinical setting in the Indian context. Diabetes management lies…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore illness beliefs among adults with type 2 diabetes (T2DM), studied in a clinical setting in the Indian context. Diabetes management lies primarily in the hands of the patient, which signifies the need for understanding the various dimensions of individuals’ illness beliefs. While past research from abroad has stressed the need for understanding the patient’s perspective in effective illness management, the lack of studies in the Indian context calls for further research in this area.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the Self-Regulation Model (Leventhal et al., 1980), semi-structured interviews were carried out to understand the beliefs about diabetes among individuals diagnosed to have T2DM. In total, 70 individuals with T2DM were included, taking into account the disease duration, urban-rural, age and gender distinctions. The data were analyzed using content analysis method.
Findings
The results of the analysis revealed numerous sub-themes related to the perceived consequences of diabetes, control or cure issues, timeline and emotional issues as experienced by the subjects.
Research limitations/implications
Carrying out a triangulated research with the various stakeholders, namely, diabetologists, general practitioners and other support staff like dieticians could add more value to this exploratory study.
Originality/value
There is a dearth of research work that explores the illness beliefs that patients’ hold about diabetes, as discussed in the Indian context. It is expected that the insight provided by the study can help the government bodies, healthcare organizations and practitioners design and develop interventions from a patient-centric view. Additionally, such a patient-centric approach will enable individuals to achieve their treatment goals.
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The purpose of this study is to develop a molecular imprinting electrochemical sensor for the specific detection of the anticancer drug amsacrine. The sensor used a composite of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop a molecular imprinting electrochemical sensor for the specific detection of the anticancer drug amsacrine. The sensor used a composite of bacterial cellulose (BC) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) as a platform for the immobilization of a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) film. The main objective was to enhance the electrochemical properties of the sensor and achieve a high level of selectivity and sensitivity toward amsacrine molecules in complex biological samples.
Design/methodology/approach
The composite of BC-AgNPs was synthesized and characterized using FTIR, XRD and SEM techniques. The MIP film was molecularly imprinted to selectively bind amsacrine molecules. Electrochemical characterization, including cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, was performed to evaluate the modified electrode’s conductivity and electron transfer compared to the bare glassy carbon electrode (GCE). Differential pulse voltammetry was used for quantitative detection of amsacrine in the concentration range of 30–110 µM.
Findings
The developed molecular imprinting electrochemical sensor demonstrated significant improvements in conductivity and electron transfer compared to the bare GCE. The sensor exhibited a linear response to amsacrine concentrations between 30 and 110 µM, with a low limit of detection of 1.51 µM. The electrochemical response of the sensor showed remarkable changes before and after amsacrine binding, indicating the successful imprinting of amsacrine in the MIP film. The sensor displayed excellent selectivity for amsacrine in the presence of interfering substances, and it exhibited good stability and reproducibility.
Originality/value
This study presents a novel molecular imprinting electrochemical sensor design using a composite of BC and AgNPs as a platform for MIP film immobilization. The incorporation of BC-AgNPs improved the sensor’s electrochemical properties, leading to enhanced sensitivity and selectivity for amsacrine detection. The successful imprinting of amsacrine in the MIP film contributes to the sensor's specificity. The sensor's ability to detect amsacrine in a concentration range relevant to anticancer therapy and its excellent performance in complex sample matrices add significant value to the field of electrochemical sensing for pharmaceutical analysis.
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Mahimna Vyas, Mehatab Shaikh, Shubh Rana and Anjana Gauri Pendyala
Maladaptive daydreaming (MD) has yet to be recognized as a formal condition. This paper aims to shed light on the phenomenon of daydreaming, its potential maladaptive nature and…
Abstract
Purpose
Maladaptive daydreaming (MD) has yet to be recognized as a formal condition. This paper aims to shed light on the phenomenon of daydreaming, its potential maladaptive nature and the characteristics of MD, as well as potential interventions that may be implemented to address it.
Design/methodology/approach
The present paper is a general conceptual review of the condition of MD. It provides a historical overview of the phenomenon and attempts to draw meaningful inferences from the scientific work pertaining to the development of diagnostic criteria, the assessment and interventions developed to treat MD.
Findings
Studies have shown that MD can cause distress and impair an individual's typical functioning, and specific diagnostic criteria and symptoms have been identified. Scheduled clinical interviews, self-report measures and derivative treatment modules are currently utilized to understand, assess and treat the symptoms related to MD.
Practical implications
Formal recognition of the condition ensures that the individuals receiving treatment for the condition are provided with insurance coverage and reimbursement for treatment.
Social implications
Authors also hope for MD recognition, awareness, reduced stigma and acceptance.
Originality/value
This review offers a fair overview of the recent scientific findings pertaining to MD and attempts to open a channel of discourse to enhance the inclusivity of relevant psychopathological conditions in the existing classifications.
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