Sasmita Mishra

Objectives: The main aim of this paper is to analyze the effect of microfinance institutions on women’s empowerment in Wolaita Zone, southern Ethiopia.   Theoretical frame work: The effect of microfinance institutions through women empowerment by measuring economically, socially, and psychological.   Methods: The data was collected from 399 household respondents, mostly women, about five branches or districts of microfinance institutions. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used to analyze women’s empowerment after participating in microfinance institutions.   Results and conclusion: The output of the study shows a significantly positive effect of microfinance institutions on the selected indicators such as income, saving, consumption, living standards, medical facilities, decision-making power, political activity, and reducing domestic violence, but not significantly on education or women’s free movement for women’s empowerment. In addition to using descriptive statistics, after joining microfinance institutions, income, saving, and consumption increased by more than 548% compared with before joining the institutions. The findings of this paper can assist policymakers, such as stockholders, non-governmental organizations, and governments, in linking development programs with women. Implication of the research: In this paper the researcher suggested that the stockholders, donors and government should take action to solve women awareness, support their financial problems, and should design appropriate policy. Originality/Value: Our work and methodology are novel in the study.

The growing evidence of gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers has renewed the interest in study of primordial black holes (PBH). Here we study a mechanism for the formation of PBH from collapse of pseudo-topological domain walls which form out of equilibrium during inflation and then collapse post inflation. We apply the study to domain wall formation due to D-parity embedded in a supersymmetric grand unified theory (GUT) based on SO(10) and compare the abundance of resulting PBH with the existing constraints. Thus the macroscopic relics can then be used to constrain or rule out a GUT, or demand a refinement of the theory of PBH formation in this class of GUTs.

Purpose : The pandemic affected disadvantaged service providers, such as street vendors. Different media urged consumers to “no bargain” and “vocal for local” to alleviate pandemic challenges. The self-interest and value-seeking customer behavior were contextually unsuitable with the fear of infection, reduced time for buying, scarcity, and price fluctuations. Did compassion influence a person’s buying behavior? This research investigated the validity of a compassion buying scale and found its demographic differences. Methodology : An online, anonymous survey with convenient sampling collected 551 responses during the second wave of the pandemic in Eastern India. The questionnaire sought responses to demographic and compassion buying measures. The compassion buying behavior scale was developed from relevant literature. The reliability and validity measures calculated from the obtained responses were in the acceptable range. Findings : The results indicated that during the COVID-19 pandemic, people did less compassion buying. Compassion buying indicated a U-shape curve by age and economic status. To enhance the scale, future research can include bargain intent, product characteristics, and psychographic characteristics. Practical Implications : Given the large informal market, vendor, and workforce in a developing nation like India, compassion buying is probably the key to the recovery and growth of various products and services typically offered by disadvantaged vendors. The role of compassion in consumption requires additional investigation during normal times. Originality : This study reported preliminary findings on “compassion buying” as a distinct aspect of consumer psychology, different from altruism. It complements responsible consumption, ethical consumerism, and sustainable development.

Cannabis has been used by humans both for recreational and therapeutic purposes since ancient times. Among 113 different cannabinoids from Cannabis, D9-trans-tetrahydrocannabinol (D9THCs) is primarily hallucinogenic and cannabidiol (CBD) is therapeutic. The growing interest in therapeutic uses of Cannabis has created interest in several other plants which are non-cannabinoid and have secondary metabolites similar to CBD known as cannabimimetic plants. The cannabimimetic plants are currently gaining attention and can be the potential alternative to Cannabis because of certain secondary metabolites with a similar mechanism of action binding with cannabinoid receptors. For example, phytoextracts from liverworts Radula marginata, amorfrutin in Amorpha fruticose and several Rhododendron species have been reported to have cannabinoid-like properties. This chapter is providing a complete review of cannabimimetic plants focusing on botanical, biochemical, and potential therapeutic aspects. Request access from your librarian to read this chapter's full text.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to find out the adoption level of multivendor ATM technology among customers and second, to develop and validate a model to explain the multivendor ATM usage in India. Design/methodology/approach: First, a conceptual model on adoption of multivendor ATM technology was developed by referring relevant literature. Scale items for each construct of the model were culled from relevant literature sources. A pilot survey was conducted to validate the constructs. The survey was conducted online using Surveymonkey that garnered response from 136 respondents. The pilot survey data were analyzed to find the reliability and validity of the scales, based on which few items were dropped to improve the construct’s validity. The revised instrument was used to conduct the final survey, which was closed after collection of 543 responses. On screening for completeness, and normality test, 372 responses were retained for data analysis. Findings: The major findings from analysis of the screened 372 responses were: awareness emerged as a significant factor influencing usage behavior and other perceptual factors; perception of personalized features influenced the attitude as well as usage behavior of the customers; personal control dimensions such as outcome desirability and controllability influenced both perceptual variables and usage behavior; and no relationship was found among attitude, intention and usage behavior, which contradicted findings of some studies in this area, thus creating the ground to understand multivendor ATM usage behavior. The findings have been discussed further. Practical implications: The findings of the study can be useful for banks and suppliers in understanding the adoption of their ATM technology by their customers that would help them initiate activities to enhance the adoption of the technology and increase their customer base. The findings will also encourage suppliers and banks to add more personalized features in this technology. Originality/value: Multivendor technology is at its nascent stage in India and this study is the first of its kind. The model developed here is an extension of technology acceptance model (TAM) with the introduction of some new variables such as perception of personalized features and personal control. This study also reveals that some of the hypotheses of original TAM model may not fit in the context of the technology where usage behavior is habitual and lifestyle oriented.

Employee engagement is now the buzzword for any organization. Although it was initially believed that a satisfied employee is the most engaged employee, contradictory findings have compelled researchers to identify alternate models of engagement. In the same line of thought, this study aims at identifying the triggers of employee engagement. Employees in the payroll of a reputed ferro alloys company of India were surveyed to obtain relevant information on employee engagement. Data analysis on 250 responses reveals that factors such as age, senior leadership, manager, colleagues, customers, work, resources, processes, career opportunities, learning and development, work–life balance, physical work environment, policies, people practices, performance assessment, diversity, company reputation, pay, benefits and recognition significantly correlated with employee engagement. However, on account of multicollinearity, when stepwise regression was conducted, following factors were found to be significantly predicting employee engagement: senior leadership, work, company reputation, manager, process, colleague and physical work environment. Results were discussed in relations to recent findings in other industries.

Natural and human-caused disasters disturb the social-ecological system and result in much pain, death, harm, and property and environmental destruction. How do humans prepare for and cope with disasters? Psychological adaptation to disasters has been an interesting area of research for psychologists. This non-empirical study examines the psychological literature relevant to disaster preparedness with the objective of answering the above question and describing what has been studied. Delineated here are individual characteristics; psychological qualities; reaction to risk and hazard; effects of knowledge, experience, and action; environmental considerations and effects; and social and cultural factors. Theories of threat response and disaster preparedness are also depicted. The concluding discussion briefly summarizes the contributions, notes areas and questions that could gain from inquiry, notes how these could be useful both for psychologists and persons affected by disasters, calls for cross-boundary research, and calls for recognition of disasters, their effects, and disaster preparation as important areas of ecopsychology. Key Words: Disasters—Disaster preparedness—Psychological factors—Environment—Hazard—Place attachment—Human-environment interaction—Psychology of environmental destruction.

In our previous study on geranium, we showed that increases in growth irradiance from sub-optimal to near-optimal could delay boron deficiency effects on photosynthesis. In this study, we further investigated the effects of growth irradiance on tolerance to B stress by growing geranium (Pelargonium × hortorum cv. Maverick White) under sub- to supra-optimal B concentrations (4.5, 45, and 450 μM) and under three irradiances of 100, 300, or 500 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ PAR for 30 d. In general, at low and medium irradiances, sub- and supra-optimal B availability decreased root and shoot dry masses, but at high irradiance, the B stress was prevented. Net photosynthetic rate decreased by the supra-optimal B concentration at the high irradiance only suggesting B-related photoinhibition. Tissue B content and root specific B uptake only modestly decreased by the low B treatment, but increased greatly by the high B availability, and the higher irradiance decreased the tissue B content and the root B uptake only at the low and medium B supplies. Interestingly, the increases in irradiance decreased the content and uptake of all other nutrients, except Fe uptake. Effects of the B stress on the content of other nutrients were variable, but the B stress often exacerbated decreases in nutrient content with the increasing irradiance which would be especially important under nutrient-limiting conditions. Hence, in this study, the B stress effects on growth were mitigated by the increases in growth irradiance, which offset negative effects on physiology, and the protective effects of irradiance were likely caused by its positive effects on plant carbon/energy status rather than on tissue B content or B uptake.