Association of Big Data with Sustainable Competitive Advantage in Online Retail Segment: A Serial Mediation Model for Relating Big Data with Strategic Management Tools

Purpose: Big-Data is one of the most studied and researched topics of recent times. The tool has been studied vastly in the western world. However, the domains were either related to science and technology, although there is a need to relate Big Data to strategic management and competitive advantage to remove the lack of research in that vein. Methodology: This study is systematically conducted to explore the effect of big data on the attainment of business improvement in the online retail segment. The model has been developed through an in-depth literature review to relate the resource-based view with the attainment of sustainable competitive advantage through serial mediation of big-data analytics knowledge and innovative capabilities. Data was collected through non-probability sampling from IT managers and specialists associated with the online retail segment and analysis was conducted through SMART-PLS. Findings: Results indicated that big data is for the improvement of business for the online retail segment. However, data availability is a must for applying big-data analytics toward sustainable competitive advantage. Conclusion: This study concludes that all the relations and indicates that Bug-Data is fruitful for booting advanced knowledge and innovative capabilities. However, the onlin IT sector needs to have some other elements like advanced IT skills to legitimize the relationshi

Co-Designing a Medication Notification Application with Multi-Channel Reminders

Evidence suggests that medication adherence applications (apps) are one of the most effective methods to remind patients to take medication on time. Reminders via apps are overwhelming today, consumers discard using them after a brief period of initial usage, eventually becoming unfavourable towards them and not using them at all. This study aims to qualitatively determine the key features and design of medication reminder apps that facilitate or disrupt usage from the users’ perceptive. Three focus groups were conducted with participants aged between 15 and 65+ (N= 12). The participants evaluated a smart medication reminder prototype, then sketched and discussed their thoughts and perceptions within the group. Participants identified, 1) Multi-channel reminders, 2) Medication intake acknowledgement for reporting and 3) Seamless addition of medications and associated reminders as important elements. Understanding consumers’ needs and concerns will inform the future development of medication reminder apps that are acceptable and valuable to consumers

Role of Head Nurses and Services of Nurses as Front Line against Covid-19 Epidemic

The role of nurses in the health system is like a backbone. The COVID-19 appeared in China in the end of December, 2019 and the epidemic spread around the world. Nurses are risking their lives to work on the front line against the COVID-19. Nurses have always taken risking in performing their duties, but the new epidemic has made their work even more difficult. Nurses are playing a leading role in the fight against Covid-19. The World Health Organization announced the incidence of the coronavirus as an epidemic in March, 2020. The Purpose of the research role of nurses during the Covid-19 pandemic and is to get the front line nurses to known these thought and health issues while talking care of these ablutions

Biofortification of Diverse Basmati Rice Cultivars with Iodine, Selenium, and Zinc by Individual and Cocktail Spray of Micronutrients

Given that an effective combined foliar application of iodine (I), selenium (Se), and zinc (Zn) would be farmer friendly, compared to a separate spray of each micronutrient, for the simultaneous biofortification of grain crops, we compared effectiveness of foliar-applied potassium iodate (KIO3, 0.05%), sodium selenate (Na2SeO4, 0.0024%), and zinc sulfate (ZnSO4∙7H2O, 0.5%), separately and in their combination (as cocktail) for the micronutrient biofortification of four Basmati cultivars of rice (Oryza sativa L.). Foliar-applied, each micronutrient or their cocktail did not affect rice grain yield, but grain yield varied significantly among rice cultivars. Irrespective of foliar treatments, the brown rice of cv. Super Basmati and cv. Kisan Basmati had substantially higher concentration of micronutrients than cv. Basmati-515 and cv. Chenab Basmati. With foliar-applied KIO3, alone or in cocktail, the I concentration in brown rice increased from 12 to 186 µg kg−1. The average I concentration in brown rice with foliar-applied KIO3 or cocktail was 126 μg kg−1 in cv. Basmati-515, 160 μg kg−1 in cv. Chenab Basmati, 153 μg kg−1 in cv. Kisan Basmati, and 306 μg kg−1 in cv. Super Basmati. Selenium concentration in brown rice increased from 54 to 760 µg kg−1, with foliar-applied Na2SeO4 individually and in cocktail, respectively. The inherent Zn concentration in rice cultivars ranged between 14 and 19 mg kg−1 and increased by 5–6 mg Zn per kg grains by foliar application of ZnSO4∙7H2O and cocktail. The results also showed the existence of genotypic variation in response to foliar spray of micronutrients and demonstrated that a foliar-applied cocktail of I, Se, and Zn could be an effective strategy for the simultaneous biofortification of rice grains with these micronutrients to address the hidden hunger problem in human population

Follow-back Recommendations for Sports Bettors: A Twitter-based Approach

Social network based recommender systems are powered by a complex web of social discussions and user connections. Short text microblogs e.g. Twitter present powerful frameworks for information consumption, due to their real-time nature in content throughput as well as user connections. Therefore, users on such platforms consume the disseminated content to a greater or lesser extent based on their interests. Quantifying this degree of interest is a difficult task based on the amount of information that such platforms generate at any given time. Thus, the generation of personalized profiles based on the Degree of Interest (DoI) that users have towards certain topics in such short texts presents a research problem. We address this challenge by following a two-step process in generation of personalized sports betting related user profiles in tweets as a case study. We (i) compute the Degree of Interest in Sports Betting (DoiSB) of tweeters and (ii) affirm this DoiSB by correlating it with their friendship network. This is an integral process in the design of a short text based recommender systems for users to follow i.e follow-back recommendations as well as content-based recommendations relying on the interests of users on such platforms. In this paper, we described the DoiSB computation and follow-back recommendation process by building a vector representation model for tweets. We then use this model to profile users interested in sports betting. Experiments using real Twitter dataset geolocated to Kenya shows the effectiveness of our approach in the identification of tweeter\u27s DoiSBs as well as their correlation with their friendship network

Combined zinc and nitrogen applications at panicle initiation for zinc biofortification in rice

Background and purpose: Increasing zinc (Zn) concentration in rice grains can help improve Zn nutrition of people. The combinations of Zn and nitrogen (N) applications at panicle initiation were investigated for Zn biofortification in rice. Materials and methods: Rice (cv. Super Basmati) seedling were grown in pots having a calcareous soil. All possible combinations of four Zn (control, Soil 6 mg Zn kg–1, foliar 2 × 0.2% Zn and soil + foliar Zn) and three N (control, soil 20 mg N kg–1 and foliar 0.5% N) levels were imposed at panicle initiation. At maturity, grains were analysed for Zn and proteins. Results: Grain protein concentration was significantly increased with foliar Zn treatments, and with soil and foliar N. Maximum grain Zn concertation (30 mg kg–1) was achieved with application of soil Zn + foliar Zn + foliar N. At each N level, Zn application by either method significantly increased grain Zn concentration over control. This increase in grain Zn concertation at N levels was 36 to 54% with soil Zn + foliar Zn, 27 to 45% with foliar Zn and 9 to 15% with soil Zn over its control level. Conclusions: Grain Zn concentration was significantly increased with soil N when combined with soil Zn, and with foliar N when combined with foliar Zn treatments. Conclusively, foliar N combined with soil + foliar Zn is the best combination of late Zn and N application for agronomic Zn biofortification in rice.</p

Combined zinc and nitrogen applications at panicle initiation for zinc biofortification in rice

Background and purpose: Increasing zinc (Zn) concentration in rice grains can help improve Zn nutrition of people. The combinations of Zn and nitrogen (N) applications at panicle initiation were investigated for Zn biofortification in rice. Materials and methods: Rice (cv. Super Basmati) seedling were grown in pots having a calcareous soil. All possible combinations of four Zn (control, Soil 6 mg Zn kg–1, foliar 2 × 0.2% Zn and soil + foliar Zn) and three N (control, soil 20 mg N kg–1 and foliar 0.5% N) levels were imposed at panicle initiation. At maturity, grains were analysed for Zn and proteins. Results: Grain protein concentration was significantly increased with foliar Zn treatments, and with soil and foliar N. Maximum grain Zn concertation (30 mg kg–1) was achieved with application of soil Zn + foliar Zn + foliar N. At each N level, Zn application by either method significantly increased grain Zn concentration over control. This increase in grain Zn concertation at N levels was 36 to 54% with soil Zn + foliar Zn, 27 to 45% with foliar Zn and 9 to 15% with soil Zn over its control level. Conclusions: Grain Zn concentration was significantly increased with soil N when combined with soil Zn, and with foliar N when combined with foliar Zn treatments. Conclusively, foliar N combined with soil + foliar Zn is the best combination of late Zn and N application for agronomic Zn biofortification in rice

Association of Big Data with Sustainable Competitive Advantage in Online Retail Segment: A Serial Mediation Model for Relating Big Data with Strategic Management Tools

Purpose: Big-Data is one of the most studied and researched topics of recent times. The tool has been studied vastly in the western world. However, the domains were either related to science and technology, although there is a need to relate Big Data to strategic management and competitive advantage to remove the lack of research in that vein. Methodology: This study is systematically conducted to explore the effect of big data on the attainment of business improvement in the online retail segment. The model has been developed through an in-depth literature review to relate the resource-based view with the attainment of sustainable competitive advantage through serial mediation of big-data analytics knowledge and innovative capabilities. Data was collected through non-probability sampling from IT managers and specialists associated with the online retail segment and analysis was conducted through SMART-PLS. Findings: Results indicated that big data is for the improvement of business for the online retail segment. However, data availability is a must for applying big-data analytics toward sustainable competitive advantage. Conclusion: This study concludes that all the relations and indicates that Bug-Data is fruitful for booting advanced knowledge and innovative capabilities. However, the onlin IT sector needs to have some other elements like advanced IT skills to legitimize the relationshi

Study of Debris Flow Impact on Bridge Pier

The destructive nature of debris has ability to transport large boulders and wooden material along with the flow whose impact can pose serious safety risks to a bridge. In this study an effort has been made to study the impact of varying debris densities on a bridge pier.&nbsp; The experimentation was carried out in Hydraulics Laboratory, Civil Engineering Department, University of Engineering and Technology Taxila. Hexagonal wooden pier model was used. Wooden sticks of uniform size and mass were used to act as debris in flow. Respective discharges were determined against different flow velocities. Dial gauge was installed carefully beside the bridge pier in a way that deflections were easily measurable. This debris of masses 189, 253, 316, 379 and 442 grams was floated on water for five trials at discharges of 10.3, 12.8, 16, 23.8 and 28.9 liters per second. Debris hit the pier and caused a deflection in it. These deflections were measured by a dial gauge. The results show that with increasing debris mass and intensity of flow velocity, the impact on the pier bridge in term of deflection increased. A hydraulic structure's health can be monitored using the findings of the current study