Development of Super Hydrophobic Surfaces using Silica Nanoparticles

The development of surfaces that have high water contact angles and hysteresis has always been of great importance in industrial applications. Various methods and techniques have been introduced to fabricate surfaces at nano-scale to support super hydrophobicity. Some of these techniques are expensive, some are very complex, most can be used for selective materials and substrate and some form surfaces with very poor wear resistance. This document represents a systematic study on fabrication of super hydrophobic surfaces on glass substrate (SiO2) using the functionalized silica (SiO2) nano particles. SU8, Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and Methyphenyl Resin SR355 polymer are being used as binder for Silica nanoparticles to stick on glass substrate. Measurements of contac

Measuring customer based beverage brand equity : investigating the relationship between perceived quality, brand awareness, brand image, and brand loyalty

This study examined the antecedents of brand equity such as, brand awareness, perceived quality and the mediating role of a brand Image on brand loyalty. Total number of (n = 150) questionnaires were distributed among the consumers living in four cities (Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, and Sargodha) of Pakistan. Out of the total questionnaires only (n = 130, 86.6%) completed questionnaires were received. Pearson correlation, linear regression and multiple regression tests were used to test the data and infer the results. Results show a positive relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Additionally, mediation has been found between brand awareness, perceived quality and brand loyalty due to brand image. It means that brand awareness and perceived quality develop the brand image which ultimately yields brand loyalty. Thus loyalty programs of beverage companies should focus on brand awareness and consumers’ perception of quality. Overall, these results show that the influence on brand loyalty varies across various variables of the study. The results contribute significantly to the brand equity topic.Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Consumers' Adoption of Apparel Fashion: The Role of Innovativeness, Involvement, and Social Values

Fashion adoption is concerned with how consumers accept a prevailing style during a particular time. Fashion is accepted by the consumers and influences their behavior in many ways. It is one of the strongest drivers to influence and motivate their intention to buy and adopt new products. Either through advertisement and promotion of brands or through endorsement of celebrities, companies motivate consumers of different socioeconomic backgrounds to follow the new fashion trends and buy their products. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that compel consumers to adopt apparel fashion in Pakistan. It has been investigated that, how and why different factors i.e., Fashion innovativeness, Consumer innovativeness, Fashion involvement, Opinion leadership, and Status, influence consumers’ intention to adopt new apparel fashion and how that intention influence their actual fashion adoption. Total 500 questionnaires were distributed among the respondents in different places (i.e., shopping plazas or malls, public places such as bus stops, playgrounds, and inside the educational institutions, in the cities of Islamabad and Lahore, Pakistan. Out of the total, only 332 (66.4%) questionnaires were retrieved. The regression test and the model fit results using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis revealed that, except fashion innovativeness, and consumer innovativeness, the fashion involvement, opinion leadership and status of consumers positively influence their intention to adopt new fashion. However, Intention to adopt has no significant effect on the consumers’ actual adoption of fashionable clothes. The positive and negative effects are discussed accordingly. In the light of the results and findings, the implications and future research recommendations are also debated at the end.© 2014 The Authors. Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

WHY DO ENTREPRENEURS LEAVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP? EXPLORATORY STUDY FROM LAHORE, PAKISTAN

The purpose of this study was to find out the factors that are responsible for entrepreneurs to quit entrepreneurship and join the job industry. This qualitative study was designed to fulfill the objectives via interviewing ex-entrepreneurs and getting first-hand information from business owners themselves who had faced the problem in their business tenure. Interviewing the respondents brought out a number of factors that had ultimately forced them to wind up their businesses. These factors were then carved out broadly categorized as internal or external factors which led to either managerial or financial reasons. Conducting this research was a tedious task as people are not willing to share their previous or unpleasant memories furthermore.  They were hesitant to share a part of their personal life experience. Due to limited resources and time the research was conducted in the city of Lahore which and therefore limited in its scope. Nevertheless, this study has produced credible information which can be useful for future entrepreneurs. Keywords: Business failure; Small business; Failure factors https://doi.org/10.56249/ijbr.03.01.26&nbsp

Role of Absorptive Capacity Dominant Logic on the Performance of the Public Organization

In this study the performance of the public organizations is focused. The study is based on the intangible resources those have been used in the private sector organizations such as absorptive capacity and dominant logic. The performance of the organization is based on the information, knowledge, and prior experience. Through absorptive capacity and dominant logic, the organizations are able to enhance their performance. The study is conducted in the Hefei, Anhui, China which is one of the fastest growing city in the China. In the data collection process, the target group was the managerial level individual of the organizations. The data was collected through structured questionnaire adapted from the past literature. The questionnaire was translated into the Chinese language with the help of Chinese native and then translated into the English language to check the actual meaning of the questionnaire. Furthermore, to perform the data analysis process SPSS has been used. From the results its shows that absorptive capacity and dominant logic has significance impact on the organizations in the public sector and facilitates the organizations to get the superior performance. Moreover, the results also show that public organizations should adapt the techniques of the private organizations in order to improve their efficiency. Keywords: Absorptive capacity, dominant logic, performance, public organization

An Examination of Challenges and Prospects of Microfinance Sector of Pakistan

Abstract The aim of this study refers to highlighting the key challenges and prospects for the microfinance sector of Pakistan. This study has been carried out using the following four steps: present scenario of microfinance in Pakistan, identification of internal and external challenges, prospects in microfinance, and policy recommendations to boost microfinance sector in Pakistan. In this research, microfinance framework has been used to better understand the process of building a sustainable microfinance institution. The findings have been obtained through Primary data, which has been collected through questionnaires. The participants are banks and other financial institutions. This research contributes in three ways: First, microfinance institutions will be facilitated in highlighting the challenges and prospects that are being neglected in the process of analyzing the problems and 147 European Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Sciences -Issue 31 (2011) opportunities faced by this sector. Second, other financial institutions and banks, realizing the significance of this business, will get encouragement to enter this sector with more innovative products and better standard practices. Thirdly, it will help the country in coming up with new strategies for micro financing. Moreover, microfinance sector may start conducting more training sessions to enhance the skills of the clients, which will affect positively this sector

Relationship between the use of drugs and changes in body weight among patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose: To investigate the impact of drugs on the body weight of patients.Methods: All the randomized controlled trials that evaluated the impact of medications on the body weight of patients were searched in various databases. Studies quantifying the impact of drugs on body weight when compared to placebo or any other treatment were considered for this review. Moreover, the quantitative synthesis of evidence was also performed by generating the forest plot.Results: A total of 20 studies involving 18,547 participants were included in the current review. Weight gains ranging from 0.5 to 2.6 kg were associated with the use of pioglitazone, espindolol, brexpiprazole, glimepiride and ezogabine while weight loss ranging from 1.1 to 12 kg was linked with the use of betahistine, naltrexone, bupropion, liraglutide, phentermine, topiramate, orlistat, zonisamide, duloxetine, semaglutide, metformin and linagliptin. The quantitative synthesis suggested that drugs can significantly reduce body weight by -0.53 kg (CI 95 % -1.01, -0.04, p < 0.04) when compared to standard treatment.Conclusion: The findings of this review suggest substantial association of drugs and weight change during pharmacotherapy. Pioglitzone, brexpiprazole, espindolol, ezogabine and glimepiride cause weight gain while naltrexone, bupropion, betahistine, topiramate, phentermine, zonisamide, semaglutide, linagliptin, liraglutide, orlistat, duloxetine and metformin were associated with weight loss. Drug-induced changes in body weight might cause serious consequences and should be addressed before initiating treatment

Blockchain and PUF-based secure key establishment protocol for cross-domain digital twins in industrial Internet of Things architecture

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is a technology that connects devices to collect data and conduct in-depth analysis to provide value-added services to industries. The integration of the physical and digital domains is crucial for unlocking the full potential of the IIoT, and digital twins can facilitate this integration by providing a virtual representation of real-world entities. By combining digital twins with the IIoT, industries can simulate, predict, and control physical behaviors, enabling them to achieve broader value and support industry 4.0 and 5.0. Constituents of cooperative IIoT domains tend to interact and collaborate during their complicated operations. To secure such interaction and collaborations, we introduce a blockchain-based cross-domain authentication protocol for IIoT. The blockchain maintains only each domain's dynamic accumulator, which accumulates crucial materials derived from devices, decreasing the overhead. In addition, we use the on-chain accumulator to effectively validate the unlinkable identities of cross-domain IIoT devices. The implementation of the concept reveals the fact that our protocol is efficient and reliable. This efficiency and reliability of our protocol is also substantiated through comparison with state-of-the-art literature. In contrast to related protocols, our protocol exhibits a minimum 22.67% increase in computation cost efficiency and a 16.35% rise in communication cost efficiency. The developed protocol guarantees data transfer security across the domain and thwarts IoT devices from potential physical attacks. Additionally, in order to protect privacy, anonymity and unlinkability are also guaranteed. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2023. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.

Multisource Data Fusion Framework for Land Use/Land Cover Classification Using Machine Vision

Data fusion is a powerful tool for the merging of multiple sources of information to produce a better output as compared to individual source. This study describes the data fusion of five land use/cover types, that is, bare land, fertile cultivated land, desert rangeland, green pasture, and Sutlej basin river land derived from remote sensing. A novel framework for multispectral and texture feature based data fusion is designed to identify the land use/land cover data types correctly. Multispectral data is obtained using a multispectral radiometer, while digital camera is used for image dataset. It has been observed that each image contained 229 texture features, while 30 optimized texture features data for each image has been obtained by joining together three features selection techniques, that is, Fisher, Probability of Error plus Average Correlation, and Mutual Information. This 30-optimized-texture-feature dataset is merged with five-spectral-feature dataset to build the fused dataset. A comparison is performed among texture, multispectral, and fused dataset using machine vision classifiers. It has been observed that fused dataset outperformed individually both datasets. The overall accuracy acquired using multilayer perceptron for texture data, multispectral data, and fused data was 96.67%, 97.60%, and 99.60%, respectively

Hydrogen production from methane cracking in dielectric barrier discharge catalytic plasma reactor using a nanocatalyst

The study experimentally investigated a novel approach for producing hydrogen from methane cracking in dielectric barrier discharge catalytic plasma reactor using a nanocatalyst. Plasma-catalytic methane (CH4) cracking was undertaken in a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) catalytic plasma reactor using Ni/MgAl2O4. The Ni/MgAl2O4 was synthesised through co-precipitation followed customised hydrothermal method. The physicochemical properties of the catalyst were examined using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy—energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDX) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The Ni/MgAl2O4 shows a porous structure spinel MgAl2O4 and thermal stability. In the catalytic-plasma methane cracking, the Ni/MgAl2O4 shows 80% of the maximum conversion of CH4 with H2 selectivity 75%. Furthermore, the stability of the catalyst was encouraging 16 h with CH4 conversion above 75%, and the selectivity of H2 was above 70%. This is attributed to the synergistic effect of the catalyst and plasma. The plasma-catalytic CH4 cracking is a promising technology for the simultaneous H2 and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) production for energy storage applications