Exploring the Factors Affecting Online Trust in B2C E-Commerce Transactions in India: an Empirical Study

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a surge in e-commerce as millions of people were forced to stay at home and adopt digital channels for their purchases to avoid crowded supermarkets. It made the whole world look towards e-commerce as a one-stop solution for keeping markets alive. However, it came as an opportunity for digital fraudsters as a huge number of digital frauds were reported during this pandemic. Such incidents raised questions about online trust-related issues. Fake websites, insecure payment mechanisms, data theft, privacy breach, product reliability, etc., are a few of the reasons why many people are still not confident about using e-commerce platforms. When customers cannot physically touch, feel, and see the products, it becomes even more suspicious and raises serious uncertainty about the quality of the promised product and transaction setup in the e-commerce framework.   Design/Methodology/Approch: In this study, primary data was collected through structured questionnaires from e-commerce website users belonging to Generation Z and analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling and Path Analysis in IBM SPSS AMOS version 24.   Findings: Online Security, Online Privacy, and Website appearance were studied and found to have a significant positive impact on online trust. Online trust was also found to be a predictor of purchase intention. Online trust was also found to act as a full mediator between online security and purchase intention, online privacy, and purchase intention, and as a partial mediator between website appearance and purchase intention.   Research, Practical & Social Implications: The cross-sectional nature of this study makes it difficult for making inferences about causal relationships so new studies can adopt and check the utility of a longitudinal approach in this area. Furthermore, the data collected using convenience sampling had all young generation respondents, mostly college/university students. This current study takes only three antecedents of online trust with reference to a young generation; an exploratory study is needed here to find out new possible antecedents of developing online trust. Moreover, the appearance of the website is altogether a vast area to investigate for further development; very limited dimensions of the appearance of e-commerce websites are covered in this study

An exploration of IQ, EQ, spiritual quotient (SQ) elements in the human reengineering program (HRP) practices: A study on the drug rehabilitation Centre in Malaysia

This study is entitled An Exploration of IQ, EQ and Spiritual Quotient (SQ) Elements in the Human Re-Engineering Program (HRP) Practices: A Study on the Drug Rehabilitation Centre in Malaysia. This study involved four drug rehabilitation centres in Northern Malaysia which are Perak, Penang, Kedah and Perlis. However, the rehabilitation centres involved in this study came from three different states only which are Cure and Care rehabilitation centre (CCRC) Kampung Selamat, Penang, Klinik Cure & Care 1 Malaysia, Bukit Mertajam, Penang, Cure & Care rehabilitation centre (CCRC) Batu Kurau, Perak and Cure & Care Rehabilitation Centre (CCRC) Bukit Chabang, Perlis. This study using Qualitative Method and Exploratory Research. Therefore, to explore the phenomenon an in-depth interview has been conducted with one officer of the CCRC and at least 3 patients of the CCRC. In total, 17 respondents had been interviewed for this research. All the respondents are male. Results of the study showed that approximately only 30% of the patients recover. However, this figure is still doubtful due to no exact statistic revealed. The reasons why they are failed to sustain themselves after being freed from the CCRC due to peer’s factor (40%), low of self-confidence (30%) and weak of religious practice (30%). Family support is one of the main factors contributed to their recovering process as 90% of the respondents admitted that. Majority of the patients admitted that peers’ factor is the main reason they involved with the drug abuse (50%) besides self-exploration (30%) and other factors (20%). In order to rebuild the self-confidence, rehabilitation centre used multi programs such as religious activity, peer’s guidance or group maker (Pembimbing Rakan Sebaya (PRS), and therapy community. This study also revealed that 3 out of 4 rehabilitation centres used more than 50% of SQ program in their healing process, 20-25% on EQ activities and IQ activities. Amongst favourite SQ activities are Iqra’ class, which is learning how to read the Quran, and Halaqah is where they will discuss about religion and do some self-reflection. Family support and religious commitment and practices are the main contributor to patient’s recovery survival after they are freed. As a conclusion, healing process in the rehabilitation centre highly influenced with Spiritual Quotient programs besides others. This shows that internal strength gained via religious commitment and attachment besides continuous practices will be a significant factor of the recovering.The authors acknowledge the support of Bridging grant with account no: 304 PMGT 6316039 RCMO University Sains Malaysia as well as The Sumitomo Foundation, Japan in conducting this research

Green Products Buying Behaviour of Saudi Arabian and Indian Consumers: a Comparative Study

Purpose: The study's primary objective is to learn how environmental concerns affect customers' decisions to purchase green commodities in Saudi Arabia and India. This research will also shed light on the impact environmentally conscious purchasing has had on both economies. Furthermore, explored are the demographic variables (age, gender, and level of education) and factors (perception behavioural, control subjective standards, environmental concern, and environmental awareness) that influence customer usage and purchasing of green products.   Design/Methodology/Approach: Primary data was collected through purposive sampling as sample must be educated enough to understand the concept of eco- marketing. The size of the sample was three hundred forty. 140 consumers from Saudi Arabia and remaining 140 from India. Different statistical tool was applied to analyse the data.   Findings: Based on data and information to be collected must be brought into analytical study and must let us direct towards certain findings that might help us to arrive at final conclusion. In this way it will help the Policy makers and Managers to formulate the policies & strategies to encourage the green purchase. The findings provide valuable information about the driving forces behind green product purchases, both positive and negative. Considerations like Consumers' perceived behavioural have no effect on green product purchasing whereas environmental concern, and environmental awareness, and subjective norms are seen as motivators.   Practical & Social implication: The goal is to have all types of consumers buy eco-friendly goods. On the other hand, it was discovered that gender, age, and educational qualification were the demographic variables that had a relationship with people's propensity to buy environmentally friendly products

Nanoformulations and Clinical Trial Candidates as Probably Effective and Safe Therapy for Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is the main infectious disease causing 1.8 million deaths worldwide every year and represents a principal cause of mortality resulting from a bacterial infection. The emergence of multidrug-resistant strains and lack of effective anti-TB drugs are threatening the future control of TB. The present multidrug regimen against TB needs daily administration for at least 6 months, and patients often fail to follow this complex regimen for such a long interval, thus leading to patient non-compliance and treatment related side effects. To avoid daily dosing, application of nanotechnology is a promising solution by virtue of sustained drug release. Nanotechnology-based rational targeting may improve therapeutic success by limiting adverse drug effects and requiring less frequent administration regimens, ultimately resulting in higher patient compliance, and thus attain higher adherence levels. Today, the pipeline of potential new treatments consists of several compounds in clinical trials or preclinical development with promising activities against sensitive and resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains. Encapsulation of existing anti-TB drugs into nano-delivery systems and introduction of new drugs in combination treatment for all forms of tuberculosis have resulted in novel treatments with more effectiveness and reduced side effects.Keywords: Tuberculosis, Nanotechnology, Anti-tuberculosis drugs, Nano carriers, Rifampici

Effect of Exposure to Cement Dust among the Workers: An Evaluation of Health Related Complications

BACKGROUND: Cement contains various types of chemicals in addition to lime and silica, and such chemicals cause different health complications and pathogenesis in addition to respiratory disorders. The most important occupational hazards for cement workers are allergy and complication related to respiratory system.AIM: The current study was performed by analysing the questionnaire distributed among the workers and also by the sputum collected from them to study the general health conditions and other life activities.METHODS: Sputum samples were assayed for cytological analysis by Hematoxylin and Eosin staining.RESULTS: In this study, it was observed that majority of these workers suffered from different types of respiratory complications, such as a cough, asthma and lung infections. In addition to this, few subjects showed allergy and other complication like hypertension, diabetes and backache. Moreover, cytological analysis of the sputum was made, and it was observed that majority of the subjects showed severe inflammation.CONCLUSION: Based on these finding, we concluded that long-term cement dust exposure and inhalation causes respiratory complications due to epithelial tissue damage and that can lead to secondary complications as well