Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify factors influencing the adoption of mobile banking in India and develop and empirically validate a model explaining the behavioural intention to use ...mobile banking in the Indian banking sector.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, a model is developed and proposed to explain customers’ intention to use mobile banking. The model comprises six constructs, namely, perceived ease of use, computer self-efficacy, social influence, perceived financial cost, security, and trust. The model also describes the relationship between perceived ease of use and computer self-efficacy, as well as that between security and trust. The proposed model was tested by using a survey method, with a sample of 855 bank customers from public, private, foreign, and cooperative banks in India. Structural equation modelling analysis was performed with AMOS 16.0.
Findings
The proposed theoretical model was found to predict, with statistical significance, the intention to use mobile banking, explaining 76.9 per cent of the variance in the dependent variable. The results found that security, computer self-efficacy, perceived ease of use, and perceived financial cost, in that order of influence, affect customers’ intention to adopt mobile banking.
Practical implications
The results obtained will help both academic researchers and practitioners explain, understand, and elucidate the status of mobile banking in India, as well as helping them formulate strategies to expedite the use of mobile banking.
Originality/value
The adoption of mobile banking in India is in a nascent stage compared with developed countries such as the USA, the UK, and Finland, but it is expected to increase or surpass the rate of adoption of internet banking in those countries. Further, only limited research to date has examined the adoption of mobile banking in India, especially the drivers and inhibitors of mobile banking adoption.
A total of 162 samples of different varieties of mango: Deshehari, Langra, Safeda in three growing stages (Pre-mature, Unripe and Ripe) were collected from Lucknow, India, and analyzed for the ...presence of seventeen organophosphate pesticide residues. The QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) method of extraction coupled with gas chromatography was validated for pesticides and qualitatively confirmed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The method was validated with different concentrations of mixture of seventeen organophosphate pesticides (0.05, 0.10, 0.50 mg kg(-1)) in mango. The average recovery varied from 70.20% to 95.25% with less than 10% relative standard deviation. The limit of quantification of different pesticides ranged from 0.007 to 0.033 mg kg(-1). Out of seventeen organophosphate pesticides only malathion and chlorpyriphos were detected. Approximately 20% of the mango samples have shown the presence of these two pesticides. The malathion residues ranged from ND-1.407 mg kg(-1) and chlorpyriphos ND-0.313 mg kg(-1) which is well below the maximum residues limit (PFA-1954). In three varieties of mango at different stages from unpeeled to peeled sample reduction of malathion and chlorpyriphos ranged from 35.48%-100% and 46.66%-100% respectively. The estimated daily intake of malathion ranged from 0.032 to 0.121 µg kg(-1) and chlorpyriphos ranged from zero to 0.022 µg kg(-1) body weight from three different stages of mango. The hazard indices ranged from 0.0015 to 0.0060 for malathion and zero to 0.0022 for chlorpyriphos. It is therefore indicated that seasonal consumption of these three varieties of mango may not pose any health hazards for the population of Lucknow, city, India because the hazard indices for malathion and chlorpyriphos residues were below to one.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Nitrogen (N) plays an important role in agriculture crop production but the increasing application of nitrogen increases the possibilities of groundwater contamination through nitrate leaching. ...Nitrate leaching is the inevitable part of agriculture production which occurs during nitrogen fertilization. Hence, the quantification of nitrogen fertilizer is required to reduce nitrate leaching. In this study, nitrogen transformation and transport such as ammonium (NH4+) and nitrate (NO3−) at different soil depths and maize crop growth stages were measured during field experiments for two sowing dates (timely and delay) and four N fertilization levels under irrigated (year 2013 and 2014) and rainfed (year 2012 and 2014) conditions for maize crop. NH4+, NO3− and total nitrogen concentrations were measured using spectrophotometer at 410 nm and Kjeldahl method at varying soil depths and maize crop growth stages. Thereafter, nitrogen balance approach was used to estimate the NO3− leaching. Results indicated that NO3− leaching in irrigated condition was higher 109% in N75, 179% in N100, and 292% in N125 level respectively in comparison to the N0 level in timely sowing date, while in delayed sowing date, leaching was higher 54% in N75, 123% in N100, and 184% in N125 level respectively in comparison to N0 level. In rainfed, the NO3− leaching was higher 30% in N60, 59% in N80, and 99% in N100 level respectively in comparison to N0 level for the timely sowing date, while in delayed sowing, leaching was higher 23% in N60, 44% in N80, and 78% in N100 level respectively in comparison to N0 level. The results indicate that leaching losses were less in timely sowing dates for both rainfed and irrigated maize. The study further reveals that sowing dates combination with N levels could be an effective management strategy to reduce NO3− leaching by minimizing the N fertilization.
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•Ammonium and nitrate at different depths and crop growth stages were measured for irrigated and rainfed condition.•The concentration of NO3− was higher at the depth of 0–20 cm after application of fertilizer.•Delayed sowing reduced the nitrate loss during rainfed while vice versa in irrigated condition.•Optimum sowing time and nitrogen level can reduce the nitrate loss without affecting the grain yield.
N transformation & transport of NH4+ and NO3− at different soil depths in crop were measured for two sowing dates & four N fertilization levels under irrigated and rainfed conditions.
Yeast is very well known eukaryotic organism for its remarkable biodiversity and extensive industrial applications. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the most widely used microorganisms in ...biotechnology with successful applications in the biochemical production. Biological conversion with the focus on the different utilization of renewable feedstocks into fuels and chemicals has been intensively investigated due to increasing concerns on sustainability issues worldwide. Compared with its counterparts, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the baker’s yeast, is more industrially relevant due to known genetic and physiological background, the availability of a large collection of genetic tools, the compatibility of high-density and large-scale fermentation, and optimize the pathway for variety of products. Therefore, S. cerevisiae is one of the most popular cell factories and has been successfully used in the modern biotech industry to produce a wide variety of products such as ethanol, organic acids, amino acids, enzymes, and therapeutic proteins. This study explores how different sustainable solutions used to overcome various environmental effects on yeast. This work targets a broad matrix of current advances and future prospect in yeast biotechnology and discusses their application and potential in general.
Food security will be increasingly challenged by climate change, natural resource degradation, and population growth. Wheat yields, in particular, have already stagnated in many regions and will be ...further affected by warming temperatures. Despite these challenges, wheat yields can be increased by improving management practices in regions with existing yield gaps. To identify the magnitude and causes of current yield gaps in India, one of the largest wheat producers globally, we produced 30 meter resolution yield maps from 2001 to 2015 across the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), the nation's main wheat belt. Yield maps were derived using a new method that translates satellite vegetation indices to yield estimates using crop model simulations, bypassing the need for ground calibration data. This is one of the first attempts to apply this method to a smallholder agriculture system, where ground calibration data are rarely available. We find that yields can be increased by 11% on average and up to 32% in the eastern IGP by improving management to current best practices within a given district. Additionally, if current best practices from the highest-yielding state of Punjab are implemented in the eastern IGP, yields could increase by almost 110%. Considering the factors that most influence yields, later sow dates and warmer temperatures are most associated with low yields across the IGP. This suggests that strategies to reduce the negative effects of heat stress, like earlier sowing and planting heat-tolerant wheat varieties, are critical to increasing wheat yields in this globally-important agricultural region.
The Indian banking sector can take advantage of the proliferation of smartphones as well as the government’s encouragement of cashless transactions to accelerate the use of mobile and online banking. ...The purpose of this study is to understand the initial acceptance of mobile banking by existing online banking users. Few studies have focused on online banking users’ behavioural intention to use similar services (such as mobile banking) in India. To this end, a theoretical model was developed using the technology acceptance model, which was extended to cover the adoption factors that influence users of online banking to use mobile banking. These adoption factors comprise perceived ease of use, perceived security, mobile self-efficacy, social influence and customer support. The dependent variable is customers’ behavioural intention to use mobile banking. A partial least squares structural equation modelling analysis was used to test the theoretical model with sample data from 420 online banking customers of various public, private, foreign and co-operative banks in India. The study found that the adoption factors had a significant impact on customers’ behavioural intention to use mobile banking. The findings of this study provide insight into digital banking channels, contribute to existing research on digital banking adoption and will educate banks and financial institutions on the adoption of mobile banking in India.
Ce3+- and Eu3+-doped YPO4 nanorods have been prepared at relatively low temperature (120 °C). A detailed investigation of the role of Ce3+ concentration up to 10 atom % on the luminescence intensity ...of Eu3+ in Ce3+- and Eu3+-doped YPO4 has been carried out. Phase transformation from a tetragonal to a hexagonal structure occurs with increasing Ce3+ concentrations, and water molecules are also associated during phase transformation. Thermal study shows that water can be retained up to 800 °C in the hexagonal structure. Interestingly, the hexagonal structure returns to the tetragonal structure on annealing above 900 °C. As-prepared and 500 °C heated samples show uniform sized nanorods, whereas a 900 °C heated sample shows distorted nanorods in which pores are present. Initially, the luminescence intensity decreases sharply with increasing Ce3+ concentrations, even for 2 atom %. This is related to the enhanced nonradiative rate as compared to the radiative rate, since multiphonon relaxation to surrounding water molecules increases. This is not due to the possible oxidation−reduction process between Eu3+ and Ce3+ to give Eu2+ and Ce4+, as confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and luminescence studies. Then, a significant enhancement of luminescence intensity occurs on annealing above 900 °C. This can be ascribed to the loss of water molecules during a phase transformation from the hydrated hexagonal to the dehydrated tetragonal phase. To the authors’ knowledge, we for the first time performed a luminescent study with a change of solvent from H2O to D2O, and significant enhancement in luminescence is found.
Hard disk drives (HDDs) are used as secondary storage in digital electronic devices owing to low cost and large data storage capacity. Due to the exponentially increasing amount of data, there is a ...need to increase areal storage densities beyond ~1 Tb/in
. This requires the thickness of carbon overcoats (COCs) to be <2 nm. However, friction, wear, corrosion, and thermal stability are critical concerns below 2 nm, limiting current technology, and restricting COC integration with heat assisted magnetic recording technology (HAMR). Here we show that graphene-based overcoats can overcome all these limitations, and achieve two-fold reduction in friction and provide better corrosion and wear resistance than state-of-the-art COCs, while withstanding HAMR conditions. Thus, we expect that graphene overcoats may enable the development of 4-10 Tb/in
areal density HDDs when employing suitable recording technologies, such as HAMR and HAMR+bit patterned media.
•The major goal of the study was to investigate the integrated effect of variable date of sowing and rate of fertilization.•Grain yield significantly increased with an increase in nitrogen rate for ...rainfed and irrigated maize.•Delayed sowing significantly affected the grain yield, dry biomass and N use efficiency.•Optimum sowing time and fertilization rate can improve N use efficiencies; thereby reducing loss of N from the field.
The prime objective of the study was to investigate the effect of sowing date and nitrogen application rates on maize dry matter, grain yield and nitrogen use efficiency under rainfed and irrigated condition. The field experiment was a randomized split plot design with three replicates. Sowing date was taken as the main plot and nitrogen rate was considered as the subplot under both irrigated and rainfed conditions. Two planting dates were considered, namely; timely and late sowing scenarios. The nitrogen rates considered were 0 (N0), 75 (N75), 100 (N100) and 125 (N125) kgha−1 and 0 (N0), 60 (N60), 80 (N80) and 100 (N100) kgha−1 of urea for irrigated and rainfed maize, respectively. Grain yield and other yield parameters (kernel number, and cob number), plant dry matter weight, agronomic efficiency (AEN), partial factor productivity of nitrogen (PFPN), and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) were measured. The results revealed that sowing on recommended date with higher nitrogen rate significantly increase grain yield and yield components. The sowing dates clearly exhibited 16.14%, and 15.99% loss of average grain yield of rainfed maize for the years 2012 and 2014, respectively. 9.79%, and 11.98% average grain yield loss from the irrigated maize during the years 2013 and 2014, was observed under late sowing condition compared to timely sowing time, respectively. On an average, grain yield for N100, N80, and N60 were 292%, 249%, and 149% higher than that of N0, under the rainfed maize, respectively. Grain yield for N125, N100, and N75 were 340%, 271% and 204% were higher than that of N0 under irrigated maize. The increase in nitrogen rate from N0 to N100 under rainfed and N0–N125 under irrigated maize suggested a decrease in NUE, AEN and PFPN values, respectively. Additionally, the lower AEN and NUE values showed that a further reduction in N application rate was possible. The study also revealed that a combination of sowing dates with appropriate nitrogen rates could increase grain yield and NUE.
Water is a key driver of agricultural production, the scarcity of which the production is adversely affected; hence, it is critical for the agriculture system and global food security. Water use ...efficiency (WUE) can be an effective measure to reduce water demand against crop yield as it depends upon water consumption. Thus, the purpose of this research was aimed to estimate the effect of variation in sowing time (timely and late) and nitrogen (N) level on the evapotranspiration (ET) and WUE for maize crop under irrigated (2013 and 2014) and rainfed (2012 and 2014) conditions. Two evapotranspiration (ET) approaches, i.e., Penman–Monteith (PM) and soil water balance (SWB), were used to estimate the evapotranspiration; thereafter, evapotranspiration was partitioned into soil evaporation (E) and transpiration (T). The results clearly indicated that cumulative evapotranspiration was higher for both rainfed (5.44–10.25%; N
60
–N
100
) and irrigated maize (5.87–13.77%; N
75
–N
125
) in comparison with N
0
nitrogen level. The delayed sowing dates gave on average a lower value (9.56%) and a higher value (15.68%) of ET for the rainfed and irrigated seasons, respectively, in comparison with timely sowing dates. Additionally, the WUE for maize grain yield was higher for both rainfed (251.12–346.06%; N
60
–N
100
) and irrigated maize (113.75–162.62%; N
75
–N
125
) in comparison with N
0
nitrogen level. The study further disclosed that a sowing date combination with nitrogen levels could be an effective management strategy to increase the crop yield by minimizing the water losses.
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