Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Behavioural Intention of Commercial Banks’ Customers towards Financial Technology Services

Objective – The objective of this study is to determine the process that takes place in the employment of financial technology in the financial services industry. It is of utmost important that FinTech firms and commercial banks understand the predictors that can influence their consumers’ decision to adopt FinTech services and to increase loyalty toward their services. Methodology/Technique – An online survey was used in the present research to explore factors that can influence commercial bank users’ intention to use FinTech services in Malaysia. The data for the current study was gathered from bank users who aged at least 18 years old and resided in Malacca, Malaysia who accessed FinTech services via smartphone. This research also employed the convenient sampling in distributing online questionnaires to 400 respondents who had successfully completed and returned the questionnaires. Findings – The empirical findings illustrate that trust, social influence, cyber-security risks and privacy risks are the most influential determinants that affect bank customers’ behavioural intention to use FinTech services in Malaysia. Novelty – This research contributes to the theory of TAM, UTAUT and TPB by proposing a direct effect of trust, social influence, cyber-security risks and privacy risks on the adoption of FinTech services. The findings of the current study will be beneficial to policymakers, specifically financial institutions and FinTech firms as they will be informed on workable means to increase the quality of FinTech applications/websites. This can yield greater intentions to adopt FinTech. Stakeholders should play their important role in noticing and considering the influential factors that can impact the consumers’ behavioural intention for using technologies in their policies to fulfil the users’ needs. Type of Paper: Empirical JEL Classification: G02, G21 Keywords: Trust; Social Influence; Cyber-Security Risks; Privacy Risks; Behavioural Intention to Use Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Peong, K.K; Peong, K.P; Tan K.Y. (2021). Behavioural Intention of Commercial Banks’ Customers towards Financial Technology Services, Journal of Finance and Banking Review, 5(4): 10 – 27. https://doi.org/10.35609/jfbr.2021. 5.4(2)
Mindset in the secondary school classroom: interaction with social value of effort and contingencies of self-worth

ABSTRACT This quantitative study examined year group, ability level and gender differences in mindset, social value of effort and contingencies of self-worth of 174 participants aged 13–18 years in a Scottish secondary school. The measures were Dweck's (2000) Theories of Intelligence Scale, Juvonen and Murdoch's (1995) Social Value of Effort Scale and Crocker's (2003) Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale. Analysis of Variance indicated no significant differences for mindset or age. However, significant gender differences were found for social value of effort and contingencies of self-worth. The research and practitioner implications of these findings are discussed. The limitations are that this study focussed on specific age and ability groups which could limit its generalisability. Future research should investigate these variables in wider contexts. Implications for educational psychologists’ practice include taking account of psychological and social factors in the adoption and implementation of interventions designed to improve pupils’ academic progress.
Electric power generation from treatment of food waste leachate using microbial fuel cell

Simultaneous treatment of food waste leachate and power generation was investigated in an air-cathode microbial fuel cell. A TCOD removal efficiency of 95.4 ± 0.3% was achieved for an initial COD concentration of 2,860 mg/L. Maximum power density ranged was maximized at 1.86 W/m, when COD concentration varied between 60 mg/L and 2,860 mg/L. Meanwhile, columbic efficiency was determined between 1.76% and 11.07% for different COD concentrations. Cyclic voltammetric data revealed that the oxidation peak voltage occurred at -0.20 V, shifted to about -0.25 V. Moreover, a reduction peak voltage at -0.45 V appeared when organic matters were exhausted, indicating that reducible matters were produced during the decomposition of organic matters. The results showed that it was feasible to use food waste leachate as a fuel for power generation in a microbial fuel cell, and the treatment efficiency of the wastewater was satisfied.
Thermochromic multilayer films of WO3/VO2/WO3 sandwich structure with enhanced luminous transmittance and durability

A novel thermochromic WO3/VO2/WO3 sandwich structure was deliberately designed and deposited by a reactive magnetron sputtering technique. The double layer of WO3 not only functions as an antireflection (AR) layer to enhance the luminous transmittance (Tlum) of VO2, but also performs as a good protective layer for thermochromic VO2. Basically, the bottom WO3 layer functions as a buffer beneficial for the formation of the intermediate VO2 layer and serves as an AR layer while the intermediate VO2 layer with primary monoclinic phase acts as an automatic solar/heat control for energy saving. The top WO3 layer acts as another AR layer, and provides protection in a complex environment. An obvious increase in Tlum by 49% (from 37.2% to 55.4%) is found for VO2 films after introducing double-layer WO3 AR coating. The VO2 deposited on glass exhibits good thermochromism with an optical transition at 54.5 °C, which decreases to 52 °C in WO3/VO2/WO3 sandwich structure, and the hysteresis loop is sharper around the transition temperature, which may be ascribed to the strain and interfacial diffusion. In comparison with single-layer VO2, the durability in automatic solar/heat control of sandwich-structure VO2 films is improved nearly 4 times in high temperature and humidity conditions. This multilayer will open a new avenue for the design and integration of advanced thermochromic heterostructures with controllable functionalities for intelligent window and sensing system applications.
Can a Home Care Package deliver a meaningful life? Challenges for rural home care delivery

Objective: To explore the capacity and responsiveness of the Home Care Package (HCP) Program to deliver the promise of a meaningful life for rural residents. Methods: In-depth interviews utilising appreciative enquiry in two local government areas in rural/outer regional Tasmania (MM2-6). Participants: Rural staff and residents who were either receiving, seeking or delivering support through the HCP Program. Results: Interviews revealed that positive impacts of being assisted to stay at home resulted when staff were able to provide support that was appropriate to need, and enabled the continuation of rural community engagement, individual autonomy and control. When the HCP did not provide these, or even hindered them, there were negative consequences, and feelings of confusion, mistrust, and disappointment for staff and residents. The rural context creates specific challenges for the HCP Program in its current form, related to service availability and choice, staff recruitment, training and availability, and client/provider needs mismatch. Conclusions: Older rural people are variously impacted upon by the HCP Program. Factors of rurality, including workforce issues, hamper the Program’s potential to positively contribute to a meaningful life. As demand grows, changes are needed. There is a need to examine the Program design for urban-centrisms, and gain a greater awareness of older rural people’s needs and rural
Object tracking using temporally matching filters

One of the primary challenges of visual tracking is the variable appearance of the target object. As tracking proceeds, the target object can change its appearance due to illumination changes, rotations, deformations etc. Modern trackers incorporate online updating to learn how the target changes over time. However, they do not use the history of target appearance. To address this shortcoming, we uniquely use domain adaptation with the target appearance history to efficiently learn a temporally matching filter (TMF) during online updating. This TMF emphasizes the persistent features found in different appearances of the target object. It also improves the classification accuracy of the convolutional neural network by assisting the training of the classification layers without incurring the runtime overhead of updating the convolutional layers. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed TMF ‐ based tracker, which incorporates domain adaptation with the target appearance history, improves tracking performance on three benchmark video databases (OTB ‐ 50, OTB ‐ 100 and VOT2016) over other online learning trackers. Specifically, it improves the overlap success of VITAL and MDNet by 0.44 % and 1.03 % on the OTB ‐ 100 dataset and improves the accuracy of VITAL and MDNet by 0.55 % and 0.06 % on the VOT2016 dataset, respectively.
Antioxidant activity, total flavonoids and volatile constituents of Magonia Pubescens A.St.-Hil

Magonia pubescens A.St.-Hil (Sapindaceae) (‘tingui’) is a typical medicinal plant of the Cerrado biome. This plant is used as a larvicide and employed in poison fishing. However, little is known of its secondary metabolites. In this study, it is described for the first time as the volatile constituents of M. pubescens, collected via headspace. Qualitative phytochemical analyses were performed. In addition, the antioxidant activity of the ethanol extracts of flowers and leaves were evaluated, and the total flavonoids were quantified. The ethanol extracts of flowers (12.67 ± 0.05 rutin equivalent (EQ) g -1 ) and leaves (11.81 ± 0.05 rutin EQ g -1 ). The leaf extracts exhibited higher IC50 values (18.14 ± 0.02 rutin EQ g -1 ) than did the flower extracts (31.19 ± 0.05 rutin EQ g -1 ). Twenty volatile compounds were identified in M. pubescens flowers through gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS), being identified as benzilic acid (17.9%) and styrene (13.9%) as the major compounds. The antioxidant activity of M. pubescens could be related to the presence of flavonoids and tannins, but further studies need to be conducted to fully understand that correlation. The identified volatiles have the potential to be used in the cosmetics industry due to their socio-economic relevance, and the may also contribute to the understanding of the reproductive success of this species.
Numerical Simulation of Ammonothermal Crystal Growth of GaN—Current State, Challenges, and Prospects

Numerical simulations are a valuable tool for the design and optimization of crystal growth processes because experimental investigations are expensive and access to internal parameters is limited. These technical limitations are particularly large for ammonothermal growth of bulk GaN, an important semiconductor material. This review presents an overview of the literature on simulations targeting ammonothermal growth of GaN. Approaches for validation are also reviewed, and an overview of available methods and data is given. Fluid flow is likely in the transitional range between laminar and turbulent; however, the time-averaged flow patterns likely tend to be stable. Thermal boundary conditions both in experimental and numerical research deserve more detailed evaluation, especially when designing numerical or physical models of the ammonothermal growth system. A key source of uncertainty for calculations is fluid properties under the specific conditions. This originates from their importance not only in numerical simulations but also in designing similar physical model systems and in guiding the selection of the flow model. Due to the various sources of uncertainty, a closer integration of numerical modeling, physical modeling, and the use of measurements under ammonothermal process conditions appear to be necessary for developing numerical models of defined accuracy.
Pore Structure Characteristics After 2 Years of Biochar Application to a Sandy Loam Field

Abstract Soil pore structure comprises the size and shape of soil pores and has a major impact on water retention and gas movement. The porous nature of biochar suggests that its application to soil can potentially alter soil pore structure characteristics, and the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of birch wood biochar (20, 40, and 100 Mg ha−1) applied to a sandy loam on soil total porosity and pore structure indices. Bulk and intact soil samples were collected for physicochemical analyses and water retention and gas diffusivity measurements between pF 1.0 and pF 3.0. Biochar application reduced bulk density and increased total porosity especially for soil with 100 Mg ha−1 biochar (16% and 14% reduction in bulk density and total porosity, respectively). Biochar application of more than 20 Mg ha−1 enhanced water retention, and the trend increased with increasing biochar application rate, where the maximum increment was 12% at 100 Mg ha−1 biochar treatment. A pore size distribution index, B, derived from water retention, indicated a wider soil pore size distribution in biochar-amended soil than in the reference soil, especially for the 100–Mg ha−1 application. At given matric potentials, biochar increased soil air-filled porosity by up to 25%. However, there was no difference in gas diffusivities between biochar-amended soil and the reference soil. At pF 3.0, the soil pore system became more tortuous after biochar application, with a trend that pore tortuosity increased with increasing biochar rate. Overall, addition of a wood-based biochar to a sandy loam soil resulted in a soil structure with broader pore size distribution and higher tortuosity of the interaggregate pore network. Similar studies with other types of biochars and soils are recommended toward better understanding of biochar effects on soil functions and services.
TiO2 Nanotube Arrays Modified Titanium: A Stable, Scalable, and Cost-Effective Bioanode for Microbial Fuel Cells

Titanium has been widely used as a dimensionally stable anode in the electrolysis industry because of its excellent corrosion resistance, conductivity, and scalability. However, because of its poor biocompatibility and poor performance as a bioanode, it has drawn little attention in the field of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). This study reports an efficient way to convert a titanium electrode into a high-performance anode for MFCs, in situ growth of titanium dioxide nanotubes (TNs) on its surface. After TN modification, the titanium surface became rougher, more hydrophilic, and more conducive for anodic biofilm formation. The maximal current density achieved on this TN-modified titanium electrode was 12.7 A m–2, which was 190-fold higher than that of the bare titanium electrode and even higher than that of the most commonly used carbon felt electrode. Therefore, the high conductivity, corrosion resistance, and current density make the TN-modified titanium electrode a promising and scalable anode for MFCs.
A first-principles study on the defective properties of MAX phase Cr2AlC: the magnetic ordering and strong correlation effect

Our first-principles calculations indicate the defective properties of Cr2AlC are very different from the commonly studied Ti-based MAX phases. Al vacancies are predicted to have high formation energies while Cr vacancies have low formation energies in Cr2AlC. Compared with previously reported results of MAX phases, the formation energy of the anion antisite defect pair in Cr2AlC is the lowest (∼1.9 eV), predicting a good irradiation-resistance property. The reduction in the formation energy of the Cr–Al antisite defect is attributed to the magnetic ordering and strong correlation effect of Cr atoms. Analysis suggests that the majority spin state of the dz2 orbital of Cr is lowered in energy while the minority spin states become empty, which makes the Cr more ionic in character.
Clinical characteristics of covid-19 patients at King Saud Medical City: a retrospective study

Background. COVID-19, a new viral disease caused by Corona Virus (SARS-CoV-2) was reported first by Chinese. WHO declared it a pandemic in March 2020. We saw a huge number of this illness that caused a stress on health care systems and a high proportion of mortality. World Health Organization declared it as a pandemic in March 2020. We planned this study with the objective of knowing clinical presentation, hospital management and final outcome of COVID-19 in our population and compare it with other institution who studied the disease elsewhere. Materials and methods. A retrospective study on COVID-19 patients with severe to critical illness was conducted in King Saud Medical City Riyadh. Proper permission was issued by ethical committee of King Saud Medical City. Data was collected manually as well from electronic records. Data was analyzed using standard statistical methods. A total of 689 patients that were admitted to KSMC from 1st March 2020 to 30th of June 2020. Results. More than 50 % of our patients were from Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh). Our mean age was 50 years. Females comprised 17.3 % of our patients. Common presentation was breathlessness (79 %), cough (70 %) and fever (67 %). Mean oxygen saturation on presentation was 92 %. Around sixty one percent of our patients were critical and were treated in intensive care unit. Mortality was 35 % and multi-organ failure 25 %. Although diabetes mellitus (37.3 %) and hypertension (29.5 %) were common comorbidities but it did not increase the mortality in our patients. Our mortality seems to be related to late reporting to hospital and severe disease itself. Conclusions. A retrospective study conducted at King Saud Medical city on 689 patients of severe and critical COVID-19. A high proportion were admitted to intensive care unit (60.8 %), 41 % needed invasive ventilation and 29 % required vasopressors and 14 % needed hemodialysis. Mortality of 35 % was recorded in our study. People of Indian subcontinent (Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indians) formed more than 50 % of patients.
The Elusive Peace Dividend of Development Policy: From War Traps to Macro-Complementarities

This article reviews the literature on civil conflict and development with a focus on the socioeconomic consequences of violence and on promising policies for fostering peace. We make four main points. First, one of the reasons conflict is still often overlooked as key factor for development is that conflict costs are typically underestimated, in particular the shadow costs of deterrence. Second, there are several types of war traps that hold countries back, both economically and politically. Third, to break these traps, policies must be calibrated to address jointly both poverty and social tensions, as there is a strong macro complementarity between peace and development objectives. We document how single-minded policies that ignore this dual challenge can spectacularly fail, and we discuss in depth a series of particularly promising policies. Fourth, we highlight the increasing potential of novel data collection methodologies and the need for policy evaluation tools in violent contexts.
When Brands (Don’t) Take My Stance: The Ambiguous Effectiveness of Political Brand Communication

Brands increasingly take a stance on political issues, whereas consumers increasingly choose to either support a brand by buying their products (“buycotting”), or turn away from a brand (“boycotting”) for political reasons. While buycotts can be understood as a rewarding and cooperative form of mostly individual behavior, boycotts are a conflict-oriented form of collective punishment. Even though research has acknowledged these conceptual differences, studies have failed to analyze the difference in the absolute effect of consumers’ disapproval and approval. Moreover, research to date has not identified boundary conditions that might explain variation in the difference between consumers’ willingness to boycott or buycott. This research investigates this different effectiveness by conducting two experiments with different sets of brands, issues, and countries. Our results suggest that boycotting outweighs buycotting, implying that political brand communication is a risky strategy. Furthermore, we identify consumers’ political interest and category involvement as moderators of this imbalance.
EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ONLINE COURSES BASED ON THE COMMUNITY OF INQUIRY MODEL

The purpose of the study, in order to improve the courses presented in online environments based on Community of Inquiry, is to investigate relations among the Community of Inquiry’ presences (teaching, social and cognitive), learners’ characteristics (e.g. gender, age, occupational status, and the type of registered program), ”e-readiness and expectations”, and satisfaction by using the structural equation model. The study group consisted of 714 students enrolled in distance education programs. Three data collection tools were used to collect data. The findings revealed that “the presence of the students was at a moderate level, teaching and social presence had a significant positive effect of on cognitive presence, the level of presence did not vary based on the variables of demographic and discipline, the e-presence and expectation levels had a low impact on presence levels, and the level of presence had a significantly high impact on satisfaction. ” The findings also indicated that the online courses examined in this study were found to be sufficient by students in forming a community of inquiry. However, it also revealed that certain aspects of the courses should be improved. Therefore, it could be concluded that there is a need for more social, more active and engaging learning activities that enable students to think critically in an online environment.
STAKEHOLDER AND VISITOR REFLECTIONS OF SPORT BRAND POSITIONING IN SOUTH AFRICA

The purpose of this paper was to identify stakeholder and visitor perceptions of brand images of the South African destination brand in order to examine how sport is utilised as a catalytic agent for achieving brand positioning. Following a mixed method approach, in-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with 24 sport, tourism, and government stakeholders. Survey questionnaires were administered with 403 sport event visitors at major events across South Africa. The results show congruence between stakeholder and sport event visitor perceptions on the multi-layered brand images of South Africa. Uniquely defined city brand images raise challenges and opportunities for establishing a coherent national brand positioning. The utilisation of sport for brand positioning is greatly dependent on brand distinctive ness and dedicated stakeholder vision and policy. The study provides a framework of recommendations that practically guide key industry stakeholders on value propositions that underpin brand positioning strategies. This study also makes a contribution to existing brand positioning t heories and practice by exploring the value proposition construct to a unique sport environment while employing real-life destination brand scenarios.
Shaping the directionality of sustainability transitions: the diverging development patterns of solar photovoltaics in two Chinese provinces

ABSTRACT This paper investigates how actors across spatial levels shape the directions of transition. We examine two Chinese provinces, Inner Mongolia and Jiangsu, with contrasting directionalities of solar photovoltaic (PV) development. The former developed PV as part of the large-scale centralized power system, and the latter focused on PV development as a core element of an alternative distributed form of power generation. We argue that three aspects have been key for understanding the divergent patterns: the specific portfolio of enacted institutional work; the type of interactions between niche and regime actors; and the selective leveraging of national institutional conditions by provincial actors.