Abstract

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier policy on article withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/article-withdrawal). This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor. Concerns, primarily regarding irrelevant citations, were raised on PubPeer (https://pubpeer.com/publications/41B03E4A994F677E7EA0A25FCE5858) and the authors were asked for an explanation. Their response was assessed by the editor who regarded it as unsatisfactory and, in addition to therefore upholding the majority of the observations about irrelevant citations made on PubPeer, identified in excess of 20 problematic citations that are either cited incorrectly or do not support the corresponding statements. The editor has therefore lost confidence in the findings presented in the article. Additionally, an unauthorised authorship change was made when the revised version of this paper was submitted, following suggestions for relatively minor revisions from the reviewers and Guest Editor, with author R. Suresh being added to the paper. No satisfactory explanation was given for this change, nor was it approved by the editor. This authorship change breaches the policies of the journal and as a result of this and the above citation irregularities, the editor no longer has confidence in this paper and is retracting it. The journal apologises for not having identified the problematic authorship change during the review process and for any resulting inconvenience. © 2025 Elsevier Inc.