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This paper aims to estimate the relationship between defect structure with gas concentration for use as a gas sensor. The change in defect concentration caused a shift in the Fermi level, which in turn changed the surface potential, which is manifested as the potentiometric response of the sensing element.

A new theoretical concept based on defect chemistry and band structure was used to explain the experimental gas response of a sensor. The theoretically simulated response was compared with experimental results.

Understanding the origin of potentiometric response, through the generation of defects and a corresponding shift in Fermi level of sensing surface, by the adsorption of gas. Through this understanding, the design of a sensor with improved selectivity and stability to a gas can be achieved by the study of defect structure and subsequent band analysis.

This paper provides information about various types of surface defects and numerical simulation of material with defect structure. The Fermi energy of the simulated value is correlated with the potentiometric sensor response.

Gas sensors are an integral part of vehicular and industrial pollution control. The theory developed shows the origin of response which can help in identifying the best sensing material and its optimum temperature of operation.

Low-cost, reliable and highly sensitive gas sensors are highly demanded which is fulfilled by potentiometric sensors.

The operating principle of potentiometric sensors is analyzed through electron band structure analysis. With the change in measured gas concentration, the oxygen partial pressure changes. This results in a change in defect concentration in the sensing surface. Band structure analysis shows that change in defect concentration is associated with a shift in Fermi level. This is the origin of the potentiometric response.

The purpose of this study is to obtain the optimal frequency for low-frequency transmission lines while minimizing losses and maintaining the voltage stability of low-frequency systems. This study also emphasizes a reduction in calculations based on mathematical approaches.

Telegrapher’s method has been used to reduce large calculations in low-frequency high-voltage alternating current (LF-HVac) lines. The static compensator (STATCOM) has been used to maintain voltage stability. For optimal frequency selection, a modified Jaya algorithm (MJAYA) for optimal load flow analysis was implemented.

The MJAYA algorithm performed better than other conventional algorithms and determined the optimum frequency selection while minimizing losses. Voltage stability was also achieved with the proposed optimal load flow (OLF), and statistical analysis showed that the proposed OLF reduces the frequency deviation and standard error of the LF-HVac lines.

The optimal frequency for LF-HVac lines has been achieved, Telegrapher’s method has been used in OLF, and STATCOM has been used in LF-HVac transmission lines.

Usage of updated technology is continuously empowering customer relationship management (CRM) to be convenient and user friendly, where customers are kept engaged with knowledge and information. This enables them on decision-making and managing their portfolio, especially in mutual fund investments. To improve toward a positive decision, certain quality related variables needed to be considered. Thus, this study aims to estimate the mediation effect of relationship quality and outcome (RQO) between CRM and investment decision-making in mutual funds (MFD).

The descriptive study adopted the constructs from existing empirical literatures to conceptualize the model with three higher order constructs with 12 dimensions. Survey method is used, and with a structured questionnaire, a total of 323 mutual fund investors were approached using nonprobability criterion sampling technique, of which 262 relevant responses were considered for estimating the structural model. Smart PLS was used to establish the relationship of the constructs.

The result emphasizes a significant direct and indirect relationship indicating that investors are more inclined to MFD through technology-enabled CRM and RQO plays a vital role in explaining the direct relationship between CRM and MFD. The results of the study are in-line with the existing literature.

The study highlights that financial institutions must focus not only on technological diffusion but also needs to ensure quality service by providing knowledge and information during every access of transactions by customers, making them independent and confident during investments.

This study indicates how capacity efficiency, which is a part of service productivity, can be managed without affecting the outcome efficiency by incorporating technology in the place of human interaction during relationship acquiring and retaining process.

Mental health service provision varies enormously across the world and faces major challenges, largely determined by the contexts in which it functions. A variety of services exist side by side in low‐income countries. They include services provided in the statutory and private (fee‐paying) sectors, therapies provided by physicians working within indigenous systems of medicine, healing provided at religious locations and services provided by non‐governmental organisations. This paper provides a brief survey of some recent literature on mental health in low‐income countries and goes on to describe a few examples of innovative projects in these countries. The paper concludes by outlining some of the challenges faced by these countries in providing services in the modern world.

Web services composition engineering (WSCE) is a big challenge because of the increasing complexity, openness and extensibility of services based on the information system (IS). In the absence of an adequate framework for IS engineering, the authors assume that the overall problem is consequently no longer easy to resolve. This paper aims to explore some of the issues underlying WSCE through a framework, which is built based on the state of the art. The proposed framework is structured around five views that mainly highlight aspects of personalization and security concerns. The main objectives of this framework are: to help understand and clarify the basics of the WSCE domain; to evaluate web services composition (WSC) methods; to analyze and compare existing personalization, secure methods and identify new research axes; and to identify the main criteria of the ongoing approach for the design of a secure IS based on personalized WSC.

This work develops a framework that is used as an analytical study to compare the existing WSCE methods and come up with research issues. Then, the proposed framework is considered as an abstract model for the new WSCE approach.

A set of criteria that the proposed framework should consider when developing a new approach to a secure IS based on personalized WSs composition.

The paper has theoretical implications as the personalization and security issues provide a research roadmap toward the realization of an approach for the design of a secure IS based on personalized WSs composition.

As proof, the authors are interested in a web services repository of a real mall. To do this, the authors deployed the application in a cloud environment and observed the results of personalization and security concepts in WSCE.

None of the existing comparison frameworks has raised both personalization and security issues in WSs composition, while personalization and security must be present in the whole composition process.

The purpose of this paper is to carry out a systematic energy analysis for predicting the first and second law efficiencies and the entropy generation during a laser surface alloying (LSA) process.

A three‐dimensional transient macroscopic numerical model is developed to describe the turbulent transport phenomena during a typical LSA process and subsequently, the energy analysis is carried out to predict the entropy generation as well as the first and second law efficiencies. A modified k–ε model is used to address turbulent molten metal‐pool convection. The phase change aspects are addressed using a modified enthalpy‐porosity technique. A kinetic theory approach is adopted for modelling evaporation from the top surface of the molten pool.

It is found that the heat transfer due to the strong temperature gradient is mainly responsible for the irreversible degradation of energy in the form of entropy production and the flow and mass transfer effects are less important for this type of phase change problem. The first and second law efficiencies are found to increase with effective heat input and remain independent of the powder feed rate. With the scanning speed, the first law efficiency increases whereas the second law efficiency decreases.

The top surface undulations are not taken care of in this model which is a reasonable approximation.

The results obtained will eventually lead to an optimized estimation of laser parameters (such as laser power, scanning speed, etc.), which in turn improves the process control and reduces the cost substantially.

This paper provides essential information for modelling solid–liquid phase transition as well as a systematic analysis for entropy generation prediction.

Scalability is a fundamental problem in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), where network topology includes large number of nodes and demands a large number of packets in network that characterized by dynamic topologies, existence of bandwidth constrained, variable capacity links, energy constraint and nodes are highly prone to security threats. The key purpose of this paper is to overview the efficiency of the proposed clustering scheme for large-scale MANETs and its performance evaluation and especially in the case of a large number of nodes in the network.

Designing clustering schemes for MANETs, which are efficient and scalable in the case of large number of mobile nodes, has received a great attention in the last few years. It is widely used to improve resources management, hierarchical routing protocol design, quality of service, network performance parameters such as routing delay, bandwidth consumption, throughput and security. MANETs are characterized by limited wireless bandwidth, nodes mobility that results in a high frequency of failure regarding wireless links, energy constraint and nodes are highly prone to security threats. Due to all these features, the design of a scalable and efficient clustering scheme is quite complex. Many clustering schemes have been proposed to divide nodes into clusters, focusing on different metrics and purposes.

To the best of the author's knowledge, the different proposed clustering schemes are not scalable when the network size increases to a very large number. The paper presents the clustering scheme in detail and its performance evaluation by simulating MANETs composed of a large number of mobile nodes. The authors compare the performance of the scheme with a number of existing clustering schemes such as lowest-ID, highest degree, and weighted clustering algorithm, based on a number of performance metrics. Simulation results show that the scheme performs better than other clustering schemes, based on the performance metrics considered, for large-scale MANETs.

This paper addresses the problem of scalability in MANETs when there are high numbers of node in the network. The paper analyses the performance of the proposed clustering scheme for large-scale MANETs. The obtained results show that the different proposed clustering schemes do not allow the scalability when the network size is very large. The scheme supports scalability efficiently when the number of nodes increases in the network (more than 2,000 nodes).

Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) every year produces peace setting scores of many countries over the globe. The peace index score (PIS) and its ranking are fabricated by involvement of numerous recognised variables. The internal and external violence factors and their intensity regulate the strength of such scores. The present study deliberates such peace scores and rank of the countries in terms of regional variation and income class specifications. The study uses alteration of rank over three consecutive years and the growth of the PIS to elucidate the disparities over the region and income classification. The study recognised that income classification of countries smoothly elucidates the rank differences in terms of peace scores, but regional variation wise enlightenment remains misnomer. Further, this study contemplates four violence indicators and their growth over three years to describe the non-conformities of peace score between the countries. Studies acknowledged that inter-correlation between the peace growth scores and also between the growth of violence indicators is the significant factor to comprehend the peace score behaviour. Over the years, studies confirm that high-income countries are able to improve their PIS though there has large levels of inconsistency among countries. Among the regional specification, studies perceive that countries around the globe improved their peace score during 2018–2019, rather than 2019–2020.

This chapter deals with an important but neglected aspect of female labor force participation (FLFP) in urban India. Contemporary literature typically focuses on the entire urban sector and ignores one important aspect of urban living – the slums and its dwellers. This study fills that critical gap by examining two different household surveys side-by-side: a primary survey of households living in slums and slum-rehabilitated colonies, and the nationally representative Indian Human Development survey-II. This study brings outs a comparative picture of nature/type of FLFP and its various correlates from both slum and non-slum areas of three metro cities of India, viz. Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. It further explores the similarities and the differences of the correlates for FLFP among the slum clusters of these cities. It is found that despite being poorer and marginalized, the slum dwelling women’s LFP rate is not extra-ordinarily high vis-á-vis their non-slum urban counterparts. In slums, a higher proportion of women are engaged in self-employment (including family business) and casual employments (includes domestic helps), whereas in non-slum areas relatively more women are engaged in regular salaried jobs. Regression analysis identifies correlates that have similar effects, but with different intensity, across-the-board – relationship between education and FLFP reflects a flat-bottom J-shaped pattern; being married, higher child dependency ratio and household heads with higher education significantly constrain women’s work choice; strong income effect of other household members earning on FLFP, but asset holding has no bearing. However, there are other factors that affect FLFP differently in slums and non-slum areas. Policy prescriptions are drawn.