Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University

The climate is a very important factor which determines the type of agriculture to be practiced in a given area. A small change in any of the factors of climate can result in huge fluctuations in production of agriculture. In arid and semi-arid regions, the agriculture is mainly dependent on rain, and therefore, the vulnerability of agriculture in such regions increases with changing climate patterns. The climate of Rajasthan in general varies from arid in the western part to Sub-humid in eastern and southern part. Rajasthan being the 10th largest agriculture producer among the states of India is heavily dependent on agriculture. In recent times, due to adoption of new technologies the productivity of agriculture has increased manifolds in some parts of the state, but due to climate being not much favorable the agriculture remains at risk due to climatic fluctuations. Therefore, in order to stabilize the growth of agriculture in the state and identify the most agriculturally vulnerable regions, it is necessary to have knowledge about the prevailing climatic variability in Rajasthan. In this context the present study tries to measure the fluctuations of temperature and variability of in different agro-climatic zones of Rajasthan during 1990–2019. The study found that the temperature of the state as a unit is increasing and at the same time variability of rainfall is also increasing. There is gradual expansion of arid climate over semi arid zones of the state. The productivity, crop efficiency, crop combination and crop diversification are also changing as the climate is being changed.

An incomplete R-function mathematical model is used in the study to evaluate the impact of environmental contamination on biological populations. The findings reported here are typical of mathematical sciences, demonstrating several scenarios of interest under relevant parameter settings.

The aim of this research is to analyze the influence of technological advancements on the competitive advantage and sustainability strategies of Certified B-Corporations operating in India. Through the use of both quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews, information was gathered from a diverse sample of Certified B-Corps spanning multiple industries using a mixed-methods strategy. The objective of this study is to assess the influence of technological advancements on sustainability practices, with a particular focus on the reduction of resource consumption and the mitigation of emissions. Furthermore, the research aims to examine the potential relationship between advancements in technology and the level of competitiveness. The results indicate a noteworthy and positive correlation between the implementation of sustainable practices and the adoption of technological advancements within Certified B-Corporations in India. This correlation is most pronounced in the domains of recycling and the utilization of renewable energy. Furthermore, it was discovered that technological progress has a beneficial effect on competitiveness, as evidenced by the analysis of market positioning and brand value. The research highlights the significant impact that technology has on promoting sustainable practices and sustaining market competitiveness. The significance of incorporating technological advancements into sustainability endeavors to bolster the competitive advantage and environmental and social responsibility of Certified B-Corps is underscored by these findings. Additional investigation may explore the efficacy of particular technological interventions in fostering sustainable business practices, thereby contributing to the collective comprehension of sustainability within the Indian business environment.

Food safety is an important issue nowadays. Now, people become more aware of food safety and health concerns as their lifestyles have changed they follow more precautions for food consumption. The conventional technique of food safety is not capable of ensuring food safety very precisely and has many limitations so the food business operators are facing economic losses. To resolve these limitations, the researchers and scientists developed AI-based integrated machine learning technology. Machine learning is a computational science that enables learning, reasoning, and decision-making by interpreting and analyzing statistical patterns and subject data. ML tools like sensors, electric nose, and tongue, smart indicators, line-scan hyperspectral imaging systems, RT-PCR, ELISA, etc. are capable of overcoming these limitations of food safety practices by using the ML algorithms. The ML technique has great potential to overcome food safety issues and future applications in the food sector.

The quality of e-content had been identified as one of the major constructs impacting the quality of e-learning and students’ satisfaction. During the time of Covid 19 pandemic, a surge in the development of e-contents had been noted. Moreover, the new scenario also pushed the debate on the quality of e-learning that directly or indirectly included the issue of the quality of e-content. The present study aimed to assess the quality of e-contents prepared during the pandemic period for higher education students in India against the standards laid down by different studies and models of e-content development. A manifest analysis approach as a part of the quantitative content analysis method was employed. The sample size consisted of 60 e-contents from the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes of education discipline. Half (50%) of the e-contents selected from e-content repository and remaining 50% were collected from faculty of HEIs directly. A three-stage selection criterion was formulated to select the e-contents from both sources. In agreement with the three categories of quality assessment (standard, substandard and not-suitable), only 23.3% of e-contents were found of standard quality. Two factors could be attributed mainly to this poor quality of e-contents, one was the lack of training to developers of e-content and the second was the lack of quality control mechanisms for developing e-contents at the institutes of higher education in India.

Every citizen, including those with disabilities, has the right to an education as a basic human right. A hearing-impaired pupil is merely unable to hear and speak. They've been educated, but they've also been isolated from the rest of society because of their segregated schooling. Many challenges remain for students who are deaf or hard of hearing, despite the implementation of integrated education and the availability of rehabilitation professionals. Students with and without disabilities learn together under the auspices of an inclusive educational model, in which the teaching and learning process is customised to fit the specific requirements of all students. Using various amplification equipment and habilitation services, this paper examines the difficulties that students who are deaf or hard of hearing face in class. An investigation into the impediments to the inclusion of hearing-impaired students in Jaipur, Rajasthan, was conducted in this study. The study examined the barriers that hearing-impaired students face in an inclusive learning environment, including school-related and social ones. For this study, a total of 30 hearing-impaired students, 20 parents, ten special educators working with hearing impaired students in different special schools in Jaipur, and ten general education teachers working in inclusive schools in Jaipur were selected as the study's sample. For the purpose of gathering data, a focus group discussion and an open-ended questionnaire were both utilised. Several barriers to inclusion were found for students with hearing loss, a study found. It was difficult for them to understand the teacher's instructions, communicate effectively with their teachers, classmates and other staff, participate in classroom activities, and improve their social behaviour. Students with hearing impairment who use BTE face more obstacles than students who use CI, according to the findings

While entire academic world was busy on the debate of predatory or low-quality journals and publications, a severe academic form of cybercrime has emerged as ‘Hijacked Journals/Cloned Journals, which is more severe than the predatory one. Many such cloned journals are identified but yet many might have remained. Cloned journals posed a challenge not only towards a scientific publication but also towards publication industry and diluted the science. This case study is carried out to investigate the fraudulent behavior and features of cloned and hijacked journals. A journal ‘Adalya’ was selected from the list of cloned journals available on the website of UGC. An observational study has been carried out of home page of the original ‘Adalya’ and its cloned variant ‘Adalya Journal’. It was observed that cloned journals could be identified easily if a researcher is aware. Such cloned websites seem catchier but with unclear information, publishes content beyond their scope or multidisciplinary in nature, provides no clear physical address and location of publication, attracts the author with a promise to publish their article in couple of hours, issues publication certificate, provides fake digital object Identifiers (DOIs), websites not rich and have no clear information. The easiest way to get rid from such fraudulent cloned journals is that to verify the records of journal on ISSN Portal, SCOPUS and Clarivate Master Journal List As on country has full control over Internet of Things, its better for authors to save themselves from such cloned journals by keeping them updated about it.

Thermodynamic studies of hybrid colloidal fluids are now of interest. Biomedical science, drug delivery system, electronic chips, paint industries and mechanical engineering are some key applications fields. Hence the current investigation is carried out for Graphene Oxide ( GO ) nanofluids flow with Marangoni convection over a stretching surface. This investigation is studied under effect of thermal radiation and MHD. The hybrid base fluid is considered with 50-50 percent composition of Water–Ethylene Glycol (H 2 O– EG ). For the numerical simulation of the flow with fourth ordered Runge-Kutta method suitable similarity solutions used. Numerical solutions with graphical representation are presented. From the reported analysis, it is examined that Graphene Oxide/H 2 O– EG has better heat transport characteristics and is therefore reliable for industrial and technological purposes. With increased radiation and temperature ratio parameters, a decrement in temperature curve is noticed for both nanofluids. For enhancing values of volume friction parameter a decreased velocity curve is noted and increment is noted for temperature profiles for both nanofluids.

Predatory publications in the era of internet and technology: Open access publications are at risk" was published in the Athens Journal of Mass Media and Communications and Prof. Papanikos has given his insightful inputs on it in the article entitled "Predatory Publications in the Era of Internet and Technology: A Comment". As a response to his article, the authors identified that the "Predatory Practices" go beyond the "Predatory publications" and are prevalent in many formats other than scientific publications. Although naming such practices as "Academic pornography" is too harsh, no other word could be used for such biased conspiracy in the name of so called quality and predatory publications. No one is authorized to judge that this particular publication model is good and others are bad. We wanted to communicate that predatory vs. non-predatory debate is pulling back the novel idea of open access. We are at the same track with Prof. Papanikos, the ways are different.

This article is intended to highlight the issue of predatory journals and how they have been used to degrade the open-access journals to be perceived as predatory ones. Since many of the predatory journals are available for readers free of cost over the internet (which is among one of the many features of open-access journals/publications), the international wave of the scientific community against predatory journals stigmatized and victimized the entire open-access model of scientific publication to be perceived as substandard quality. This article critically analyzes the definitions of predatory journals and identified key characteristics of predatory journals. It is observed that lack of peer-review and charging high Article Processing Charges (APC) from authors are the two most common features of predatory journals, whereas open-access journals strictly adhere to peer-review criteria and have a clear guideline and information about the article processing fee. Knowingly or unknowingly, several authors mentioned that predatory journals are mostly open access, an overgeneralization of the author pay model upon which open access lies. Peer-review is an essential component of open access journals but not predatory journals; thus, considering predatory journals under the broad notion of open-access model of publication is unfair, stigmatizing and victimizing the open-access journals and keeping them at risk of degradation. Associating open-access journals with predatory ones is a nuisance as both have different aims, modus-operandi, and quality concerns. Therefore, there is a dire need to make policies to discourage predatory practices without victimizing the noble idea of open-access journals/publications. Keywords: open access, predatory journals, article processing charges, peer-review

The aim of this study is to investigate the flow of two distinct nanofluids over a stretching surface in a porous medium with Marangoni convection. This investigation is studied under the effect of thermal radiation. Here, we have considered Fe3O4 and ZrO2 nanosized particles suspended in engine oil (EO) base fluid. For the numerical simulation of the flow, the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method and suitable similarity solutions were used. Numerical solutions with graphical representation are presented. Fe3O4/EO nanofluid is more significant in the cooling process in comparison to ZrO2/EO nanofluid. With increased radiation and temperature ratio parameters, a decrement in the temperature field has been noticed for both nanofluids. For increased values of volume friction parameter, a decrement is noticed for velocity profile and increment is noted for temperature profiles for both nanofluids. Also, a reduced velocity profile can be obtained with increased porosity parameter.

Accessibility of websites are very important for making it web-based information for persons with disabilities which further reinforced by COVID-19 pandemic. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) has been developed by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and accordingly Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW) has also been developed. In this case study we studied the home page of websites of 15 top ranked Higher Education Institutions of India ranked by National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), started in 2016 for availability of basic accessibility features. The ranking used is of latest one i.e. of 2020. Qualitative observation has been made of the home page of each 15 universities and the NIRF website. Eleven fundamental accessibility features were taken in to account. Results revealed that most of these top15 ranked universities lack even basic accessibility feature making their websites inaccessible for persons with disabilities. Options like font size, screen reader, high contrast text also were not found on may website of top-15 universities. The website of NIRF had no basic features out of 11 considered in the study indicating a very poor condition of digital accessibility features of website of top ranked universities which needs urgent attention to achieve equity and inclusion as promised in NEP 2020.

The radical development of internet and other Information and Communication Technologies have changed the scenario of education system in general and open and distance learning in particular which was further accelerated by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools now a days are pivotal to any Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system. With the growth of ICT based education the issue of accessibility of digital information has also gained the attention of intelligentsia. With the interference of ICT tools, discussions have been taking place about the digital accessibility of web-based information available over websites. Websites of Open Universities are central source of educational and administrative information and learning for a learner enrolled in open and distance learning system. Further the basic promise of an open and distance learning system is providing education for marginalized group too and thus it must be as per the needs of persons with disabilities which has been recommended by United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). An enquiry has been made in present research to study primary accessibility features Screen Reader Access, High Contrast Text, Word Spacing, Text Resize feature and the feature of language change available over websites of Indian Open Universities. It was observed that about 45% of Indian Open University websites lacks any such accessibility features. Remaining 55% open universities of India, mostly were found providing two to four out of these five accessibility mechanisms required for persons with disabilities on any website. As Government of India has developed Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW) which has advised government institutions to confirm their websites in compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) guidelines of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at ‘AA’ level. The preliminary study revealed that Indian Open Universities has long way to go to make their websites GIGW & WCAG 2.0 complaint in order to ensure digital accessibility in higher education through open and distance learning for persons with disabilities to ensure inclusion in higher education in India.

Cloud computing is one of the emerging technologies in computer science in which services are provided through the internet on‐demand. Workflow scheduling is considered to be an NP‐hard problem and has a significant issue in the cloud environment. Finding the polynomial‐time solutions for workflow scheduling problem is difficult with most of the existing algorithms designed for traditional computing platforms. Some existing meta‐heuristics algorithms proposed for workflow scheduling problem are stuck in the local optimal solution and fails to give the global optimal solution. In this article, a hybrid of particle swarm optimization and gray wolf optimization, named the PSO‐GWO algorithm, is proposed for workflow scheduling. The proposed algorithm was tested to reduce the total executing cost (TEC) and total execution time (TET) of the dependent tasks in the cloud computing environment. The proposed algorithm takes advantage of both the standard PSO and GWO algorithms and does not stick in the local optimal solution. The experiment results show that the PSO‐GWO outperformed compared with the standard PSO and GWO algorithm in TEC and TET.

The world is challenged by the new coronavirus (COVID-19). The world is now struggling with the COVID-19 epidemic, and also, the epidemic would no wonder influence the future. The COVID-19 epidemic has seriously affected the tourism industry, with drastic impacts on jobs and businesses as without any flu vaccination as well as a limited medical capability to cure the symptoms, the primary disease outbreak strategy is non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI). However, tourism has also been regarded as just a resistant sector, one of the largest yet fast-growing industries. The tourism sector is much more impacted by every internal or external disruption or depression compared to other professions. In this sense, COVID-19’s recent epidemic triggered nationwide anxiety. The world’s largest disturbance in the world economy since the Second World War is due to unexpected worldwide travel bans and homestay orders. With global travel restrictions affecting more than 90% of the population and broad prohibitions on public gatherings and group mobility, the tourist industry largely stopped in March 2020 (Gössling et al., J Sustain Tour 29: 1–20, 2020). The COVID-19 disease outbreak downturn may provide an unusual and extremely valuable opportunity for a good long-term reconsideration and re-establishment of the tourist industry. However, “leading” approaches to tourism alone will not provide adequate capacity to allow such a reset. Instead: such a perception provides a framework of the tourist industry, predicated on the needs and privileges of regional individuals and communities, to reshape and realign the tourist industry (Higgins-Desbiolles, Tour Geogr 22: 1–14, 2020). COVID-19 is universally acknowledged as a challenge or maybe even a travel & leisure colossal gamble. It has acted as a basis for serious discussion in the “tourism academy”, comparing the effect of COVID-19 on the tourist industry as regards issues, risks, and responsibilities. It describes that sector supporters for fast recovery are opposed to much more socially responsible, sustainable, and responsible attempts to transform the tourist industry. The fight involves the significant role of tourist industry intellectuals and tourist industry academics. The results of such a discussion possess implications for disciplinary development, the tourist industry in the future of tourism.

The energy bands, density of states, charge density, Mulliken population, equation of state and elastic properties of α -CdP 2 have been studied. Exchange correlation functional PBEsol is utilized in this study. The optimized equilibrium lattice parameters of the conventional cell have been obtained. The present investigation indicates the existence of an indirect band gap of 1.76 eV in α -CdP 2 crystal. Elastic calculations show the mechanical stability of the alpha phase of CdP 2 crystal. This work provides an analysis of directional Young’s modulus and linear compressibility for α -CdP 2 . The study of the elastic anisotropy parameters shows that the alpha phase has a definite elastic anisotropy. The calculated Debye temperature of α -CdP 2 is 288.1 K.

In the Client-Server architecture, any of web and desktop application that can be deployed with the help of 3-tier application architecture. It is consist of a presentation layer, an application layer and a data layer. All there layers does play vital role in the 3-tier architecture for performing variety of operations including business logic, storage of data and handling request. In this paper, we presented deployment process of any web application in the local area network where database and application is located on the remote or web server. Other clients only access the application via specific IP address and valid credentials. The entire request transmitted through the client application and send to the web server. Web server does provide resulted data to the requested client via the web application. We identified several loopholes from the 3-tier architecture adoption perspective and we highlighted the web application deployment interoperability issue that deserves substantial further research and development. In this paper, we investigate several tools and techniques including web server, database server and front-end tools for the successful deployment of the web application in the LAN based 3-tier architecture.

The subject of Computer Network Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is a very interesting research topic actively pursued by many investigators. The goal of intrusion detection is to monitor network assets and to detect anomalous behaviour and misuse. This concept has been around for the past several years but only recently, it has seen a dramatic rise in interest of researchers and system developers for incorporation into the overall information security infrastructure. In today's world, the concept of information has been moved to the digital size from conventional size. Protection of the data stored in the digital archive and is easily accessibility at any time have become a quite important phenomenon. In this concept, intrusion detection and prevention systems as security tools are widely used today [1]. In this paper, a signature based intrusion detection system approach has been proposed for computer network security. This paper is based on the efficient working of the Signature based intrusion detection method and protects the computer network against the intrusion or the unspecified packets.

Introduction of ODL System is discussing open and distance education system and its expanding dimensions.