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Considering the expanding globalization and urbanization of freshwater depletion, it is vital to recover and reuse wastewater for agricultural use. Although this approach is becoming more and more frequent in developed countries, it is still unusual in India due to insufficient municipal or/and industrial wastewater management facilities and treatment systems. The water quality used in crop cultivation has a major impact on agricultural productivity. In this review article, we evaluated the effects of the most significant variables on crop productivity like alkalinity, pH, soluble salts, etc. We have emphasized the geography, topology, and climatic conditions in India and how these factors synergistically affect water quality. The use of sewage water substantially enriches soils with macro- and micronutrients and soil salinity. However, the long-term usage of phosphate fertilizers, application of sewage sludge, and poor irrigation practices in agricultural fields lead to the accumulation of heavy metals. The paper concentrated on how a crop’s slow development and poor aesthetic qualities are affected by the water of poor quality. Before being used for irrigation, reclaimed water needs treatment since it may contain disease-causing microorganisms, solubilized salts, or residues of organic contaminants. The sewage treatment is more beneficial to soil fertility, and safety as treated sewage-irrigated soil has higher respiration intensity. We also focused on risk factors associated with wastewater utilization causing aggregation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and high-risk heavy metal uptake in soil. Some of the micropollutants entering the sewage water and emerging contaminants require attention. New technologies for their removal have been discussed.

Extant literature has established direct link between entrepreneurship and economic development whereas entrepreneurship is determine by various macro and micro variables. The purpose of the paper is to explore factors shaping entrepreneurship in a region, which is remotely located and suffers with lack of infrastructure in spite of being rich in term of education and natural resources. Therefore, it may be useful to explore the entrepreneurial environment of Mizoram State in India as a precursor to its economic development. Towards this objective, a survey is conducted among 250 entrepreneurs operating in the state to assess the macro and micro determinants of entrepreneurship using GEM indicators. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used for data analysis and as an outcome, four factors - entrepreneurial motivation, social values, opportunities and capabilities and network emerge as significant determinants of entrepreneurship. Finally, the paper concludes with a model of entrepreneurship based on research findings.

Structural stability of various collagen-containing biomaterials such as bones and cartilage is still a mystery. Despite the spectroscopic development of several decades, the detailed mechanism of collagen interaction with citrate in bones and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) in the cartilage extracellular matrix (ECM) in its native state is unobservable. We present a significant advancement to probe the collagen interactions with citrate and GAGs in the ECM of native bones and cartilage along with specific/non-specific interactions inside the collagen assembly at the nanoscopic level through natural-abundance dynamic nuclear polarization-based solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The detected molecular-level interactions between citrate–collagen and GAG–collagen inside the native bone and cartilage matrices and other backbone and side-chain interactions in the collagen assembly are responsible for the structural stability and other biomechanical properties of these important classes of biomaterials.

Dissociative chemisorption is one of the most significant steps in heterogeneous catalysis. The rate-limiting step for industrially important processes such as water gas-shift reaction and steam reforming of methane involves the dissociative chemisorption of water and methane, respectively. These reactions exhibit interesting mode-specificity and show a strong dependence on the surface temperature of the catalyst. The metals commonly used in industry as catalysts for these two processes have their own limitations. Certain bimetallic surfaces and subsurface alloys are suggested, which could be regarded as potential catalysts for these two industrial processes. How transition states are modified by the motion of the lattice atom during the reactions are shown using electronic structure calculations. In the present review, we have focused on the lattice atom distortion in the transition state, semi-classical tunnelling probability, and the influence of surface temperature on reactivity. Quantum dynamics study for HO dissociation on metal surface is explored using three-dimensional London-Eyring-Polanyi-Sato potential energy surface. A full quantum mechanical approach following reaction path Hamiltonian is also studied by including the effects of lattice motion and site averaging. The effects of initial vibrational mode on reactivity are reported. Vibrational efficacy is examined in terms of vibrational non-adiabatic couplings.

Success is measured in several ways, especially the success of a business enterprise. Present paper has taken up perceptual measure of success. Nine success factors are identified on basis of past researches and women entrepreneurs' perception on these factors is measured with the help of primary survey conducted on all the registered women owned enterprises in the northern state of India. Entrepreneurs' background characteristics and enterprise characteristics are considered to assess whether they have an impact on the success perception of the entrepreneurs. The study shows that family size, education, firm's size and age have impact on success perception of women entrepreneurs. The major contribution of the paper is that the background of entrepreneur as well as enterprise are studied together to assess their impact on success perception.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the consumers' perception of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has an impact on their purchase behaviour. A survey of consumers has been made to meet the objective of the research. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is conducted to identify different dimensions of CSR perception of consumers and subsequently the impact of these dimensions of CSR on purchase behaviour is tested using multiple regression analysis. CSR perception of consumer has been factorised into four dimensions: instrumental CSR (ICSR), normative CSR (NCSR), non-voluntary (NVCSR) and legal CSR (LCSR). ICSR and NCSR are found to positively impact purchase intention and willingness to pay; whereas LCSR negatively impacts purchase behaviour and NVCSR has no influence on consumers.

Inspired by neural computing, the pursuit of ultralow power neuromorphic architectures with highly distributed memory and parallel processing capability has recently gained more traction. However, emulation of biological signal processing via artificial neuromorphic architectures does not exploit the immense interplay between local activities and global neuromodulations observed in biological neural networks and hence are unable to mimic complex biologically plausible adaptive functions like heterosynaptic plasticity and homeostasis. Here, we demonstrate emulation of complex neuronal behaviors like heterosynaptic plasticity, homeostasis, association, correlation, and coincidence in a single neuristor via a dual-gated architecture. This multiple gating approach allows one gate to capture the effect of local activity correlations and the second gate to represent global neuromodulations, allowing additional modulations which augment their plasticity, enabling higher order temporal correlations at a unitary level. Moreover, the dual-gate operation extends the available dynamic range of synaptic conductance while maintaining symmetry in the weight-update operation, expanding the number of accessible memory states. Finally, operating neuristors in the subthreshold regime enable synaptic weight changes with high gain while maintaining ultralow power consumption of the order of femto-Joules.

Thin-film transistors (TFTs) with high electrical performances (mobility > 10 cm2/V s, Vth< 1 V, SS < 1 V/decade, on/off ratio ≈ 106) obtained from the silicon- and oxide-based single-crystalline semiconductor materials require high processing temperature and hence are not suitable for flexible electronics. Amorphous oxide-based transparent electronic devices are attractive to meet emerging technological demands where crystalline oxide-/silicon-based architectures cannot provide a solution. Here, we tackle this problem by using a novel amorphous oxide semiconducting material—namely, indium tungsten oxide (IWO)—as the active channel in flexible TFTs (FTFTs). Post-annealing temperature as low as 270 °C for amorphous IWO thin films deposited by radio frequency sputtering at room temperature could result in smooth morphology (Rrms≈ 0.42 nm), good adhesion, and high carrier density (n≈ 7.19 × 1018cm–3). Excellent TFT characteristics of flexible devices could be achieved with linear field effect mobility μFE≈ 25.86 cm2/V s, subthreshold swing SS ≈ 0.30 V/decade, threshold voltage Vth≈ −1.5 V, and on/off ratio Ion/Ioff≈ 5.6 × 105at 3 V and stable operation during bending of the FTFT. Additionally, IWO TFTs were implemented as synapses, the building block for neuromorphic computing. Paired-pulse facilitation up to 138% was observed and showed an exponential decay resembling chemical synapses. Utilizing this characteristic, a high-pass dynamic temporal filter was devised providing increased gain from 1.55 to 21 when frequency was raised from 22 to 62 Hz. The high performance and stability of flexible TFTs obtained with IWO films demonstrate their promise for low-voltage electronic applications.

Portable biomedical devices are born to reach a maximum number of people at an effective cost, and because of their small size and battery operation, the impact of portable medical devices is huge. For biomedical image processing devices, it is very important to store pixel information in embedded memory, because pixel values contain critical information about the image. For this critical information storage, most embedded memories consist of static random access memory (SRAM). SRAM, which stores critical information must have a high level of stability and reliability with low power dissipation. This paper proposes a single loop single-feed 7T (SLSF7T) SRAM cell that operates in the sub-threshold region (reducing the supply voltage to reduce power dissipation) and attains a high read static margin. To evaluate the read-and-write stability of the SRAM cell, the N-curve method is adopted in this work.

The role of women in economic growth is underestimated, primarily due to myopic view of looking at their endeavours. The current paper envisages exploring the factors that contribute to the success of women entrepreneurs especially in the context of micro and small enterprises. The paper is empirical in nature using survey method with the help of structured questionnaire. The data has been analysed using multiple regression analysis. As an outcome of data analysis five factors emerge as predictors of success of women entrepreneurs, viz. social environment, technology support, family support, gender segregation and education. Most astonishing finding was that the role of government in their success was not accepted by these women. The government has to relook its policies, especially in terms of their accessibility and reach. The social environment has emerged as the most significant predictor of women entrepreneur's success, hence NGOs and social bodies have to enhance the process.

In the present era, governments across the world are focusing on new innovative methods for financing projects, developing infrastructure and delivering quality services. Public-private partnerships (PPPs or 3Ps) are an instrument to collaborate the strengths of both public and private sectors. One of the most important areas of PPP study in the present time is its critical success factors (CSFs). This work aims to systematically evaluate the research work on the CSFs for implementing PPPs. The concept of CSFs shows an innovative way to categorise certain factors whose presence in a project is expected to make the project successful. The current paper highlights 14 main CSFs which are considered as significant for any PPP project. Each factor includes a number of success sub-factors. Finally, a framework for determinants of PPP is developed based on literature review.

In the last few decades, the development of biocompatible polymeric materials for biomedical applications has advanced significantly, which is of utmost necessity for skin regeneration and wound management. Nowadays, natural and synthetic based polymers are more favorable in the management of wound care and possess encouraging properties compared to conventional treatment which include grafting (autografts, allografts and xenografts), but due to its limitations such as lack of skin donor sites, immune rejection and immunological response, thus not act as an appropriate skin substitute in dermal regeneration. The current review highlights the recent advancement in the field of biopolymeric materials (single or in combination) and the various types of dressings used in dermal regeneration and wound management. Moreover, we also summarise the various biopolymer materials accompanying its commercially available wound dressings, their uniqueness, advantages, and disadvantages, and suggest how to overcome the problems associated with individual biopolymers and produce a perfect wound dressing with superior mechanical and cellular characteristics. This review will provide current knowledge in the research of biomaterials used for dermal regeneration and in wound management, including their limitations. We also believed that understanding the correctness of biomaterials for skin regeneration would enable us to provide the best wound dressings based on their specific applications.

Recently, there has been wide interest in compounds containing the oxadiazole scaffold because of their unique chemical structure and their broad spectrum of biological properties. This review provides readers with an overview of the main synthetic methodologies for oxadiazoles and of their broad spectrum of pharmacological activities such as, anti-microbial, anti-fungal activity, antiviral, anti-tubercular, anti-inflammatory, anti-convulsant, anti-angiogenic, anti-proliferative, analgesic, anti-oedema and in alzheimer activity, which were reported over the past years.

This study aims at demonstrating the comparative effect of variation in synthesis route on supercapacitive behavior of nanostructured ZnCo2O4spinel metal oxide. ZnCo2O4microspheres and nanosheets were deposited on a stainless steel substrate using two different chemical synthesis routes, hydrothermal synthesis and electrodeposition. When used as an electrode for a supercapacitor, the electrochemical performance of ZnCo2O4electrodes were studied and compared through cyclic voltametry, charge-discharge studies, and impedance spectroscopy experiments. The specific capacitance of hydrothermally grown ZnCo2O4electrode was 430.75 F g?1at a scan rate of 5 mV sec?1while that of electrodeposited ZnCo2O4electrode was 171.03 F g?1at the same scan rate. These results suggest that ZnCo2O4microspheres deposited via hydrothermal route exhibit enhanced electrochemical performance compared to ZnCo2O4electrode deposited through electrodeposition. This improved electrochemical performance of hydrothermally deposited ZnCo2O4microspheres makes them a better choice for supercapacitor applications compared to electrodeposited nanosheets.

Roylea elegansWall.ex Benth. is a lemon-scented hoary shrub belonging to the mint family (Lamiaceae). Traditionally, a local tribe of the Himalayan region uses leaves for scabs and skin infections. The aerial parts and leaves are widely used to cure various skin ailments. The plant is well known for two furanoid diterpenes, royeleganin and royelegafuran. The aqueous extract of Roylea elegans(AERE) leaves was investigated for wound-healing effects in rats using a physically induced burn model by assessing different parameters. Animals were divided into four groups (six rats in each group). Group I animals were considered as disease control and topically given base cream. Group II was considered as standard control and treated topically with Framycetin sulphate cream (1% w/w). Group III and IV animals were treated topically with creams containing 5 or 10% of AERE, respectively. Several parameters such as wound contraction rate, epithelialization period, and enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant markers along with pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines were studied followed by histopathological studies. The animals treated with AERE cream exhibited significant declination in the wound area and increased collagen content as compared to the disease control group. The results showed that the lower dose (5%) of AERE produced a significant decrease in the epithelialization period, wound contraction rate, and collagen content. Increased levels of cytokine production may be one of the mechanisms in accelerating the wound-healing process. The study established the traditional claim as an antioxidant and wound-healing potential of Roylea elegansby promoting the accelerated wound-healing activity against the physically induced burn model.