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The purpose of this study is to use the framework of stakeholder analysis in a participatory democracy, used in forest management planning, for arriving at the best management option for selected sacred groves of Kachchh. This is achieved by accounting for economic, cultural and ecological values and the resulting outcomes in the complex institutional mechanism. Additionally, this study provides a framework for complex decision-making that characterizes the management of sacred groves involving multiple criteria and options accounting for multiple stakeholders that involve conflicting interests.

The analytical hierarchy process was used to calculate the global priorities of management options using the relative importance of stakeholders, weights of different decision criteria to arrive at the best management practice for selected groves of Kachchh. The global priorities of management options rank management practices based on stakeholders' values and their effects on the choice of management strategy as well as on the potential to attain a compromise between competing interests. For this purpose, survey responses of 141 individuals belonging to seven different stakeholder categories were analyzed. Along with focus group discussions, and personal interviews, a stratified random sampling technique was used to survey respondents.

Based on the global priority weights of the alternatives, it is determined that the restoration management option (guggal is restored by planting new guggal sapplings, cattle grazing is prohibited and high levels of ecosystem goods and services are provided) had the highest score, followed by the preservation management option (grazing is allowed on the periphery, juvenile guggal is preserved and moderate ecosystem goods and services are provided). Therefore, restoration of sacred groves is the best management practice of sacred groves in West Kachchh, offering a compromise between maximizing provision of ecosystem services and economic benefits in terms of allowing cattle grazing.

Though there are several studies on best management practices for community-owned forests, irrigation systems, and pasture lands, and the role of local institutions in sustaining these common-pool resources; such studies for sacred groves are absent, despite sacred groves being one of the longest surviving common-pool resources that has sustained it over several decades. This is the first study that uses the framework of stakeholder analysis to arrive at the best management practice for sacred groves. The uniqueness of the study lies in a comprehensive evaluation of ecological–economic–cultural interests of multiple stakeholders toward management of sacred groves.

This paper aims to propose a new sleep signal controlled footless domino circuit for reducing the subthreshold and gate oxide leakage currents.

In the proposed circuit, a P channel MOSFET (PMOS) sleep switch transistor is inserted between the power supply and the output node. The sleep transistor, the source of the pull-down network, and the source of the N channel MOSFET (NMOS) transistor of the output inverter are controlled by this additional sleep signal to place the footless domino circuit in a low leakage state.

The authors simulate the proposed circuit by using HSPICE in 45-nm CMOS technology for OR and AND logic gates such as OR2, OR4, OR8, AND2 and AND4 at 25°C and 110°C. The proposed circuit reduces leakage power consumption as compared to the existing circuits.

The proposed circuit significantly reduces the total leakage power consumption up to 99.41 and 99.51 per cent as compared to the standard dual-threshold voltage footless domino circuits at 25°C and 110°C, respectively, and up to 93.79 and 97.98 per cent as compared to the sleep control techniques at 25°C and 110°C, respectively. Similarly, the proposed circuit reduces the active power consumption up to 26.76 and 86.25 per cent as compared to the standard dual-threshold voltage and sleep control techniques footless domino circuits at 25°C and 110°C, respectively.

This study examined Indian institutional investors' holding data to understand their investment strategy (Portfolio Concentration/Diversification) and explored whether their skills were associated with their portfolio strategy and performance. The study introduced a new proxy to identify skilled investors by forecasting abnormal returns. Moreover, the study also highlighted where skilled Indian investors put their money for long-term investment.

This study measures portfolio concentration based on the number of holdings, the Hirschman–Herfindahl index (HHI) and benchmarks adjusted industry concentration. The study introduced a new proxy to identify skilled investors. We measured Investors' performance with the help of Carhart's four factors model and examined the relationship between variables through various regression models.

The study concluded a negative relationship between portfolio concentration and performance. However, skilled Indian investors get rewards from portfolio concentration decisions. It was found that skilled investors with few stocks and an industry concentration in their portfolio show a positive association between concentration and fund performance. Additionally, this study found Indian investors showing their faith in the financial sector for long-term investment.

This study examined Indian institutional investors' portfolio concentration strategy and introduced a new proxy to measure investors' skills.

Emotions in business-to-business (B2B) interactions are relatively unexplored when compared with business-to customer (B2C) industry wherein sufficient evidence implicating the role of emotions in decision-making is available. This study aims to explore the role of emotions in B2B decision-making, and a customer experience model is suggested for the B2B industry.

The qualitative research methodology using structured and semi-structured interviews along with a repertory grid technique was followed during the study. Purposive sampling was done to identify respondents who were involved in the vendor choice process either as a buyer or a seller in their respective organizations.

Exploratory research conducted during this study supports the presence of five dimensions of customer experience – sensory, emotional, relational, behavioural and intellectual – in a B2B context. The study further indicates that the experiential value for B2B decision-making is derived from functional, symbolic, emotional and cost values which are assessed by the buyer during their interaction with the product or the service ecosystem and has an impact on the purchase intentions of an industrial buyer.

This paper identifies the role of specific customer experience dimensions in a B2B environment and proposes the role and mechanism of emotional factors affecting the decision-making process in B2B exchange.

Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT), this study analyzes the impact of gamified and personalized coupons on the intention to redeem digital coupons in the presence of consumer engagement and technology anxiety.

A between-subjects factorial experimental design was used to examine the influence of three personalizations (no personalization, personalization and hyper-personalization) and two gamification levels (game and no game) on digital coupon redemption intention and consumer engagement.

The results found a significant interaction between the types of personalization and gamification, with personalized coupons having a greater impact on the intention to redeem digital coupons than hyper-personalized and non-personalized coupons. Consumer engagement was found to mediate the relationship between types of coupons and intention to redeem digital coupons. However, technology anxiety was not found to be significant as a moderator.

This study makes an important contribution in its application of SDT to examine the interaction impact of types of coupons and gamification conditions in the context of digital coupon redemption. This unique approach underscores the novelty of the research and its potential to provide valuable insights for the coupon industry.

This study describes a series of experiments investigating the upper hot layer temperature profile in a confined space under different ventilation conditions for porosity-controlled wood crib fires for pre-flashover conditions.

Full-scale compartment (4 m × 4 m × 4 m) experiments were carried out for four-door openings, i.e. 100%, 75%, 50% and 25% of the total vent area (2 m × 1 m) with the wood crib as a fuel load. The temperature of the upper hot smoke layers of the compartment was recorded with the help of four layers of thermocouples for varying vent areas.

The effect of ventilation on the properties, i.e. mass loss rate, enclosure temperature, heat release rate and carbon monoxide (CO) gas concentration, has been measured and analyzed. The effect of ventilation on heat flux and flame temperature has also been studied. Compartment gas temperature has been examined by five wood crib burning stages: Ignition, growth, steady burning, recess and collapse.

Findings demonstrate that the influence of vent openings varies for the burning parameters and upper layer temperature of the compartment. The current results are beneficial in analyzing thermal risks concerning compartment fire and fire safety engineering projects.

Data science industry is a multidisciplinary field that deals with a large amount of data and derives useful information for taking routine and strategic business decisions. The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between pricing models, engagement models, and firm performance (FP). This study also aims at uncovering the most effective pricing model and engagement model for improving FP.

Indian data scientists were the respondents of the study. A total of 213 responses were carefully chosen. The data were analyzed using structural equations on Statistical Package for Social Sciences-Analysis of Moment Structures (SPSS-AMOS) version 25 software.

The findings of the study suggested the positive and significant impact of pricing models and engagement models on FP. Value-based pricing strategies have the maximum impact on FP. On the other hand, managed services have a higher influence on FP.

By developing a multi-faceted framework, this study is a novel contribution to the field of business strategy, especially for the data science industry.

The current trend of modern industry is to use machineries which rotate at high speed along with the capability of carrying heavy rotor loads. This paper aims at static thermal analysis of two different profiles of non-circular journal bearings – a true elliptical bearing and orthogonal bearing.

The Reynolds equation has been solved through finite difference method to compute the oil film pressure. Parabolic temperature profile approximation technique has been used to solve the energy equation and thus used for computation of various bearing performance characteristics such as thermo-hydrodynamic oil film pressure, temperature, load capacity, Sommerfeld number and power loss characteristics across the bearing. The effect of ellipticity ratio on the bearing performance characteristics has also been obtained for both the elliptical and vertical offset bearing using three different commercially available grades of oil (Hydrol 32, 68 and 100).

It has been observed that the thermo-hydrodynamic pressure and temperature rise of the oil film is less in orthogonal bearing as compared to the true elliptical bearing for same operating conditions. The effect of ellipticity ratio of non-circularity on bearing performance parameters have been observed to be less in case of elliptical bearing as compared to orthogonal bearing. It has been concluded that though the rise in oil film temperature is high for true elliptical bearing, but still it should be preferred over orthogonal profile under study, as it has comparably good load-carrying capacity.

The performance parametric analysis will help the designers to select such kind of non-circular journal bearing for various applications.