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The purpose of this paper is to improve the productivity and quality of the wire arc additive manufacturing process by benchmarking the strategies from the selected six strategies, namely, heat treatment process, inter pass cooling process, inter pass cold rolling process, peening process, friction stir processing and oscillation process.

To overcome the lack of certainty associated with correlations and relationships in quality functional deployment, fuzzy numbers have been integrated with the quality functional deployment framework. Twenty performance measures have been identified from the literature under five groups, namely, mechanical properties, physical properties, geometrical properties, cost and material properties. Using house of quality weights are allocated to performance measures and groups, relationships are established between performance measures and strategies, and correlations are assigned between strategies. Finally, for each strategy, relative importance, score and crisp values are calculated.

Inter pass cold rolling process strategy is computed with the highest crisp value of 15.80 which is followed by peening process, heat treatment process, friction stir processing, inter pass cooling process,] and oscillation process strategy.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there has been no research in the literature that analyzes the strategies to improve the quality and productivity of the wire arc additive manufacturing process.

The purpose of this paper is to develop chicken cutlets enrobed with bread crumbs vis-à-vis dried carrot pomace and to assess its effect on physico-chemical properties, sensory attributes and texture profile analysis.

Three experimental groups were made: control group chicken cutlets (C), chicken cutlets enrobed with bread crumbs group (T_b) and chicken cutlets enrobed with dried carrot pomace group (T_c). All the procedures used in the study for estimation of various physico-chemical properties, sensory evaluation and texture profile analysis were standard protocols.

There was a significant (p < 0.05) increase in water holding capacity, crude fibre content and ash content of enrobed chicken cutlets, whereas moisture, fat content and shrinkage of product were significantly (p < 0.05) decreased. The results for sensory evaluation and texture profile analysis of enrobed chicken cutlets were better than control group. Overall acceptability score of chicken cutlets enrobed with dried carrot pomace was revealed to be highest (7.5 ± 0.29) and that of control group was found to be lowest (6.4 ± 0.22). Hardness (N/cm²) value found for control group chicken cutlets, chicken cutlets enrobed with bread crumbs group and chicken cutlets enrobed with dried carrot pomace group were 2.2 ± 0.17, 3.1 ± 0.29 and 4.3 ± 0.27, respectively.

Future research may benefit to assess the effect of enrobing with bread crumbs and dried carrot pomace on mineral and vitamin content and lipid profile of meat products.

Enrobing of chicken cutlets with bread crumbs and dried carrot pomace improved the sensory attributes along with texture profile analysis. Hence, enrobing with bread crumbs and dried carrot pomace could be used as processing technology to improve sensory appeal, especially crispiness of meat products.

Laser land leveling (LLL) is a climate-smart technology that improves water use efficiency and reduces risk in crop cultivation due to weather variability. Hence, this technology is useful for cultivating water-intensive crops in a sustainable way. Given this background, the state government of Karnataka initiated to promote LLL in drought-prone districts and selected Raichur district for implementation. Moreover, farmers in this district had observed drought situation during monsoon paddy growing season in 2018. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the importance of LLL technology for paddy cultivation under drought conditions.

A primary survey with 604 farmer households had been conducted in Raichur in 2018. Among them, 50% are adopters of LLL who have been selected purposively and rest 50% are non-adopters who have grown paddy in the adjacent or nearest plot of the laser-leveled plot. The adoption and causal impact of LLL has been estimated using propensity score matching, coarsened exact matching and endogenous switching regression methods.

The result reveals a positive and significant impact of LLL on paddy yield and net returns to the farmers. The results indicate an increment of 12 and 16% in rice yield and net income, respectively, for LLL adopters in comparison to the non-adopters of LLL.

The major limitation of the study is that it does not adopt the method of experimental study due to certain limitations; hence, the authors employed a quasi-experimental method to look at the possible impact of adoption of LL.

There have been various agronomic studies focusing on the ex-ante assessment of the LLL. This study is an ex-post assessment of the technology on the crop yield and farmers' income in a dry semi-arid region of India, which, according to the authors, is the first in this approach.

The food organisations are pushing to adopt circular economy initiatives to enhance economic–ecological–social sustainability of supply chains. The adoption of circular economy and sustainability aspects is complex from the point of view of developing nations compared to the developed nations. In this sense, the purpose of this paper is to develop a model of the challenges for implementing the successful circular economy-led sustainability concepts in food supply chains in emerging economies, especially in the Indian context.

The authors recognised 11 circular economy-led sustainability-related challenges and analysed appropriate interactions among the identified challenges. The Delphi method was used for the confirmation of identified challenges. The challenges were identified initially with the help of literature. Interpretive structural modelling method was used for modelling the challenges. In addition, MICMAC analysis was used for classifying the challenges based on their dependence and driving power. A case study of diary food processing company in India was conducted.

According to the findings, poor government policies, lack of technology and techniques and lack of farmers’ knowledge and awareness come under the driving challenges.

Understanding of circular economy-led sustainability-related challenges would help managers and policy makers in the sustainable management of natural resources in food value chains.

This is one of the initial works conducted on identifying and evaluating the challenges to circular economy-based sustainability aspects in food value chains.

This paper aims to cover all the aspects of development, investigation and analysis phases to evaluate the slurry erosion performance of test coatings. The powders having composition of Ni-20Al₂O₃ and Ni-15Al2O₃-5TiO₂ were deposited on CA6NM grade turbine steel by using high velocity flame spray (HVFS) technique. The characterization of the coatings was done with the help of SEM/EDS and XRD techniques. Various properties such as micro-hardness and bonding strength of the coatings were also evaluated. Thereafter, these coatings were subjected to an indigenously developed high speed slurry erosion tester at different levels of rotational speed, erodent particle size and slurry concentration. The effect of these parameters on the erosion behavior of coatings was also evaluated. The slurry erosion tests and SEM of the eroded surfaces revealed remarkable improvement in slurry erosion resistance of Ni-15Al₂O₃-5TiO₂ coating in comparison with Ni-20Al₂O₃ coating.

Two different compositions of HVFS coating were developed onto CA6NM steel. Subsequently, these coatings were evaluated by means of mechanical and microstructural characterization. Further, slurry erosion testing was done to analyze the erosive wear behavior of developed coatings.

The coatings were successfully developed by HVFS process. Cross-sectional microscopic analysis of sprayed coatings revealed a continuous and defect-free contact between substrate and coating. Ni-15Al₂O₃-5TiO₂ coating showed higher value of bond strength in comparison with Ni-20Al₂O₃ coating. Under all the testing conditions, Ni-15Al₂O₃-5TiO₂ coatings showed higher resistance to slurry erosion in comparison with Ni-20Al₂O₃ coatings. Rotational speed, average particle size of erodent and slurry concentration were found to have proportional effect on specific mass loss of coatings. The mixed behavior (brittle as well as ductile) of the material removal mechanism was observed for the coatings.

From the literature review, it was found that researchers have documented the various studies on Ni-Al₂O₃, Ni-TiO₂ and Al₂O₃-TiO₂ coatings. No one has ascertained the synergetic effect of Alumina and Titania on the slurry erosion performance of Nickel-based coating. In view of this, the authors have developed Ni-Al₂O₃ and Ni-Al₂O₃-TiO₂ coatings, and an attempt has been made to compare their mechanical, microstructural and slurry erosion characteristics.

Given the acute competition between music-streaming platforms (MSPs), the purpose of this study is to identify the relational motivators of brand loyalty towards the MSP in terms of user-brand involvement, brand trust, brand engagement, brand recommendation and brand loyalty.

Cross-sectional quantitative data, gathered from a total of 340 eligible respondents via an online questionnaire survey, were empirically analysed and validated using a hybrid predictive-analytics structural equation modelling (SEM) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) method.

The results of this study demonstrate that user-brand involvement promotes brand loyalty toward a MSP by fostering brand engagement, brand trust and positive word-of-mouth. SEM and ANN data comparison reveals good consistency.

The generalizability of the research outcomes may be constrained, as this study only considers the data from a single country (i.e. Malaysia) and one music streaming platform (i.e. Spotify). This study highlighted the relevance of user-brand involvement and non-core supporting services in the cultivation of brand loyalty, particularly their salient roles in promoting favourable attitudes and behaviours towards platform brands.

The insights produced can aid MSPs in devising better user retention strategies that can be used to maintain their competitive edge over time. The findings of this study made it abundantly evident that practitioners should facilitate more user-brand cooperative activities to encourage user-brand involvement and, ultimately, foster brand loyalty.

This study has addressed a major research gap by examining the relational roots of brand loyalty, which transcend the typical focus on transactional factors and technical lock-in. This study pioneered the investigation of brand involvement with user involvement.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the optimized setting of wire-cut electrical discharge machining (WEDM) parameters at which material removal rate (MRR) and mean roughness depth (Rz) set a compromise. The problem in the processing of Ti-6Al-4V by conventional processes is a high strength, high hardness, high tool wear. Due to which WEDM is adopted to machine Ti-6Al-4V biomedical alloy. Ti-6Al-4V alloy has a number of applications in the engineering and medical industries due to its high strength biocompatibility.

The effect of control factors (i.e. pulse on-time: Pon; pulse off-time: Poff; servo voltage: SV) on the MRR and Rz is investigated in the present research. The planning of experiments is done using a Taguchi-based L9 orthogonal array. The percentage influence of each factor on responses is also evaluated. The multi-objective optimization is done using the grey approach initially. After that, the results were also calculated using harmony search (HS). Therefore, a hybrid approach of grey and HS is used to find the optimized values of MRR and Rz.

The maximum value of grade calculated by grey-HS is 0.7879, while in the case of the experimental run the maximum value of grey grade is 0.7239. The optimized setting after improvisation at this grade value is Pon: 130 µs; Poff: 45 µs and SV: 70 V for MRR and Rz collectively. The validation of the suggested setting is completed by experimentation. The values of MRR and Rz are coming out to be 6.4 mm³/min and 13.84 µm, which represents improvised results after the implementation of the HS algorithm.

The integration of the grey approach with the HS principle in the manufacturing domain is yet to be explored. Therefore, in the present research hybrid approach of grey-HS is implemented in the manufacturing domain having applications in medical industries.

This paper aims to develop a good quality pork sandwich spread incorporated with different levels of antioxidant mixture [butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) + butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT); 1:1] and to assess sensory, physico-chemical and microbiological properties of frozen product during storage.

Three levels of antioxidant mixture (BHA + BHT; 1:1) i.e. 100, 200 and 400 ppm were tried, and the product was compared for physico-chemical, microbiological and sensory properties along with the control during frozen storage (−18 ± 1°C).

pH and water activity decreased significantly (p < 0.05), whereas water holding capacity, 2-thiobarbituric acid reacting substances value, total plate count and psychrotrophic count increased significantly (p < 0.05) during storage period. No coliform, yeast and molds were detected throughout the study period. There was non-significant (p < 0.05) effect of antioxidant treatment on the scores of colour, texture, juiciness, adhesion ability and spreadability, but scores for flavour and overall acceptability significantly (p < 0.05) increased.

Pork sandwich spread is envisaged to help in providing nutrition to a large section of needy population and will add a new dimension to the convenience foods.

Antioxidant mixture (BHA + BHT, 1:1) treatment improved the sensory and microbiological properties of pork sandwich spread at frozen storage (−18 ± 1°C). At the end of storage period (60 days), the pork sandwich spread was found safe for human consumption. Hence, BHA and BHT antioxidant mixture could be used to improve quality attributes of meat products during storage.

The hospitality industry experienced an unanticipated challenge from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, research in this area is scarce. Accordingly, this study aims to unfold a three-angled research agenda to intensify the knowledge advancement in the hospitality sector. It proposes a theoretical framework by extending the protection motivation theory (PMT) to explain the guest’s intent to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics as a protective measure in reaction to COVID-19.

The research is centered on outlining the pertinent literature on hospitality management practices and the guest’s transformed behavior during the current crisis. This study intends to identify a research agenda based on investigating hospitality service trends in today’s changing times.

The study sets out a research agenda that includes three dimensions as follows: AI and robotics, cleanliness and sanitation and health care and wellness. This study’s findings suggest that AI and robotics may bring out definite research directions at the connection of health crisis and hospitality management, taking into account the COVID-19 crisis.

The suggested research areas are anticipated to propel the knowledge base and help the hospitality industry retrieve the COVID-19 crisis through digital transformation. AI and robotics are at the cusp of invaluable advancement that can revive the hotels while re-establish guests’ confidence in safe hotel practices. The proposed research areas are likely to impart pragmatic lessons to the hospitality industry to fight against disruptive situations.

This study stands out to be pioneer research that incorporated AI and robotics to expand the PMT and highlights how behavioral choices during emergencies can bring technological revolution.

Technological advancements have catalyzed disruption in the banking sector. The impact of the metaverse on the banking sector is no exception. In view of this, the current paper aims to provide valuable insights into four key areas (i.e. corporate banking, retail banking, banking employees and public policy) that the metaverse could significantly disrupt.

Insights into four key areas of the banking sector that the metaverse could significantly impact were gathered from various invited contributors.

The invited contributors first introduce the association between their respective key areas with the metaverse. Subsequently, the opportunities and challenges relevant to the key areas were identified. Finally, future research agendas were proposed for the attention of all relevant stakeholders.

The metaverse's impact on key areas of the banking sector is discussed in this paper. Following the metaverse's potentially wide application in the banking sector, insights from the invited contributions offer great value to the relevant stakeholders.