Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring the e-CRM – e-customer- e-loyalty nexus: a Kenyan commercial bank case study

Abstract This article scaffolds on customer relationship management (CRM) theory and explores the association between electronic CRM (e-CRM) and electronic customer’s (e-customer) electronic loyalty (e-loyalty) in the banking sector. By using a survey design, data was collected from a convenience sample of customers of a major Kenyan commercial bank, and analysed using structural equation and multiple regression modelling. The findings reveal that there is a positive relationship between e-CRM and e-customers’ loyalty. The e-CRM features at all three stages of an electronic transaction cycle namely, pre-service, during-service and after-service, significantly influence the e-customers’ loyalty in the banking sector. Thus, to capitalize on the range of benefits that emanate from the use of e-CRM, continued review and enhancement of marketing strategies is needed, so as to achieve e-customers’ loyalty particularly, at the post-service stage. Kenyan commercial bank managers should focus on customer satisfaction specifically at post-service stage, to increase their ecustomers’ loyalty.
A robust optimization model for BTO manufacturing revenue management

Based on revenue management, the pricing and capacity allocation problem for build-to-order (BTO) manufacturing industry is studied quantitatively under the influence of the Internet and e-commerce. Firstly, a joint pricing and capacity allocation model is proposed based on the analysis of the characteristics for BTO manufacturing revenue management. Then, due to the demand uncertainty, a robust optimization model is proposed to solve the model. Finally, a case study is formulated via simulations. The results illustrate the effectiveness of the model and provide several managerial insights into the performance of revenue management in BTO manufacturing.
A New and Effective Method of Bearing Fault Diagnosis Using Wavelet Packet Transform Combined with Support Vector Machine

After briefly analyzing past research, by wavelet packet transform with support vector machine (SVM), a new method of bearing fault diagnosis is presented. Wavelet packets have greater decor relation properties than standard wavelets in that they induce a finer partitioning of the frequency domain of the process generating the data. we analyze the vibration features of testing signals of a bearing system in different running conditions by wavelet de-noising with thresholds; we decompose the feature signals into different frequency bands with the wavelet packet transform (WPT) and then calculate the energy percentage of every frequency band component to obtain its fault detection index used for fault diagnosis by the support vector machine (SVM). We analyze the vibration features of testing signals of a bearing system in different running conditions by wavelet de-noising with thresholds; and to decompose the feature signals into different frequency bands with the wavelet packet transform (WPT), through wavelet packet transform to obtain wavelet coefficients and then Energy eigenvector of frequency domain are extracted by using Shannon entropy principle. Subsequently, the extracted Energy eigenvector of frequency domain are applied as inputs to support vector machine（SVM）for bearing from internal fault. Fault state of bearing is identified by using radial basis function genetic-support vector machine. What is worth mentioning in particular is that our method can also effectively diagnose compound faults.
Effect of glycerin on the surface hardness of composites after curing

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of glycerin topical application on the sur- face hardness of composite after curing. Materials and Methods: A composite (Z-250, 3M ESPE) was packed into a disc-shaped brass mold and light cured according to one of the following protocols. Group 1 (control) was exposed to air and light cured for 40 sec, group 2 was covered with a Mylar strip and light cured for 40 sec, group 3 was surface coated with glycerin and light cured for 40 sec, and group 4 was exposed to air and light cured for 20 sec and then sur- face coated with glycerin and cured for additional 20 sec. Twenty specimens were prepared for each group. The surface hardnesses of specimens were measured with or without polishing. Five days later, the surface hardness of each specimen was measured again. Data were analyzed by three-way ANOVA and Tukey' s post hoc tests. Results: The surface hardnesses of the unpolished specimens immediately after curing decreased in the follow- ing order: group 2 > 3 > 4 > 1. For the polished specimens, there was no significant difference among the groups. Within the same group, the hardness measured after five days was increased compared to that imme- diately after curing, and the polished specimens showed greater hardness than did the unpolished specimens. Conclusions: The most effective way to increase the surface hardness of composite is polishing after curing. The uses of a Mylar strip or glycerin topical application before curing is recommended.
Identifying Management Strategies for the Improvement of Urban Bus Services: A Case Study in Kolkata

This paper aims to identify management strategies for the improvement of urban bus services based on travelers’ perceptions. A paper-and-pencil-based questionnaire was designed to collect responses from travelers. Priority areas for the improvement of bus services were identified by comparing factor structures and management schemes, which are derived using Revised Importance–Performance Analysis (Revised IPA). The study also aims to identify areas for improvement using conventional IPA and to compare the results obtained from IPA and Revised IPA. It was shown that there is a substantial difference between travelers’ stated and derived importance for the travel attributes. The qualitative factors, which are often neglected in improvement planning of transportation services in emerging countries, were identified as major areas of intervention. Although the findings are case specific, the work is likely to encourage policy makers to apply a similar approach for formulating policy measures for improvement of services in other contexts.
Simultaneous multielement analysis of microliter quantities of serum for copper, iron, and zinc by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry.

A method is described for the simultaneous determination of Cu, Fe, and Zn in 25 . mu.L of serum, using simultaneous, multielement atomic absorption spectrometry (SIMAAC) and graphite furnace atomization. Peak height measurements are more adversely affected than peak area measurements by both the organic and inorganic constituents in serum. Peak area measurements are significantly more precise and accurate than peak height measurements. Determinations are carried out at a 1:21 dilution of serum, in the concentration range with the optimum precision and minimum carryover contamination and memory effects for these elements, using SIMAAC. The serum specimens are diluted with Triton X-100 (10 mL/L), 10 mM nitric acid, and 30 mM ammonium nitrate. The use of peak area measurements and atomization from a L'vov platform permits calibration with acidified aqueous standards. A commercially available, protein-based reference material, Cation-Cal (American Dade) and a bovine serum pool are used as controls. The method is shown to have good correlation to comparative methods (single-element flame AAS after deproteinization) for the analysis of 37 serum samples.
Development of a test platform for controlling parallel converters

As renewable energy contributes more and more in the power generation, bigger and more efficient power converters are used to integrate these energy sources into the power grid. Paralleling the power converters, is an accepted method to reduce the size of the passive elements and losses. By making a proper interleaving angle between the converters the current ripple can be reduced considerably. In order to be able to investigate the performance of these converters a safe and cheap platform is essential. The development of a test platform for such an application is challenging, since a proper synchronization has to be established between the converters. In this paper a universal platform is presented, which allows to parallel n converters with arbitrary interleaving angle between each other.
Off-Street Vehicular Fog for Catering Applications in 5G/B5G: A Trust-Based Task Mapping Solution and Open Research Issues

One of the key enablers in serving the applications requiring stringent latency in 5G networks is fog computing as it is situated closer to the end users. With the technological advancement of vehicles’ on-board units, their computing capabilities are becoming robust, and considering the underutilization of the off-street vehicles, we envision that the off-street vehicles can be an enormously useful computational source for the fog computing. Additionally, clustering the vehicles would be advantageous in order to improve the service availability. As the vehicles become highly connected, trust is needed especially in distributed environments. However, vehicles are made from different manufacturers, and have different platforms, security mechanisms, and varying parking duration. These lead to the unpredictable behavior of the vehicles where quantifying trust value of vehicles would be difficult. A trust-based solution is necessary for task mapping as a task has a set of properties including expected time to complete, and trust requirements that need to be met. However, the existing metrics used for trust evaluation in the vehicular fog computing such as velocity and direction are not applicable in the off-street vehicle fog environments. In this paper, we propose a framework for quantifying the trust value of off-street vehicle fog computing facilities in 5G networks and forming logical clusters of vehicles based on the trust values. This allows tasks to be shared with multiple vehicles in the same cluster that meets the tasks’ trust requirements. Further, we propose a novel task mapping algorithm to increase the vehicle resource utilization and meet the desired trust requirements while maintaining imposed latency requirements of 5G applications. Results obtained using iFogSim simulator demonstrate that the proposed solution increases vehicle resource utilization and reduces task drop noticeably. This paper presents open research issues pertaining to the study to lead the way for future research directions.
Sequential MAVS- and MyD88/TRIF-signaling triggers anti-viral responses of tick-borne encephalitis virus-infected murine astrocytes

Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), a member of the Flaviviridae family, is typically transmitted upon tick bite and can cause meningitis and encephalitis in humans. In TBEV infected mice, mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein (MAVS), the downstream adaptor of retinoic acid inducible gene I-like receptor (RLR)-signaling, is needed to induce early type I interferon (IFN) responses and to confer protection. To identify the brain resident cell subset that produces protective IFN-β in TBEV infected mice, we isolated neurons, astrocytes and microglia and exposed these cells to TBEV in vitro. Under such conditions, neurons showed the highest percentage of infected cells, whereas astrocytes and microglia were infected to a lesser extent. In the supernatant (SN) of infected neurons, IFN-β was not detectable, while infected astrocytes showed very high and microglia low IFN-β production. Transcriptome analyses of astrocytes implied that MAVS-signaling was needed early after TBEV infection. Accordingly, MAVS-deficient astrocytes showed enhanced TBEV infection and significantly reduced early IFN-β responses. At later time points, moderate amounts of IFN-β were detected in the SN of infected MAVS-deficient astrocytes. Transcriptome analyses indicated that MAVS-deficiency negatively affected the induction of early anti-viral responses, which resulted in significantly increased TBEV replication. Treatment with MyD88 and TRIF inhibiting peptides reduced late IFN-β responses of TBEV infected WT astrocytes and entirely blocked IFN-β responses of infected MAVS-deficient astrocytes. Thus, upon TBEV exposure of brain-resident cells, astrocytes are important IFN-β producers that show biphasic IFN-β induction that initially depends on MAVS- and later on MyD88/TRIF-signaling.
Business models for MaaS

Changes in the society, for instance tightening environmental and financial targets, require new ways of organizing transport and mobility. Cities have challenges with emissions and congestion while rural areas have problems organizing transport services efficiently due to long distances, sparse population and narrow flows of people and goods. Thus, a collaboration of different stakeholders and combining different transport services are a prerequisite for viable and attractive MaaS services. MaaS business models presented in this study are based on the findings of two MaaS projects: European MAASiFiE project studying the MaaS concept widely at European level, and a Finnish MaaS project concentrating on identifying and developing preconditions for accessible and lasting rural mobility. The business models can facilitate the development of MaaS services in different contexts, and especially in rural areas by offering extensive business models for service development. The focus is especially on MaaS durable business models for rural areas including the organizing of statutory social and health service transportation, which inefficiency has been a big debate in Finland. A total of five business models were identified including two commercial ones, one publicly operated and two different kinds of public-private models. The paper also discusses service agreements and revenue models of MaaS.
Long-Lived Smart Utility Network Management Using Modified IEEE 802.15.4 MAC

In this paper, we propose a low-power multi-hop data-frame transmission scheme to realize a long-lived SUN (smart utility network) as promoted by the IEEE 802.15 TG4g group, and MAC modifications in the existing IEEE 802.15.4 MAC in order to support the TG4g PHY amendment. In the proposed scheme, turned-off beacons are employed in the superframe structure to reduce power wastage due to periodic transmission, and the existing concepts of active and inactive periods in 15.4 MAC are adopted; thus, effective sleep periods for each meter device are assigned. Moreover, by constructing a tree-shaped topology with incoming and outgoing superframes as defined in 15.4 MAC, multi-hop frame transmission is easily realized according to the topology. Furthermore, we propose a dynamic re-association procedure for optimizing the allocated active period and achieving low&#12288;power consumption over the entire system. The results of computer simulation confirm that the proposed system allocates suitable active periods according to frame traffic while maintaining low power consumption.
Can Analyst Coverage Reduce Stock Price Crash Risk?—Evidence from China

Utilizing the date from 2010 to 2016 in China stock market, this paper studies the relation between analyst coverage and stock price crash risk. The result shows that security analyst coverage increases the risk of stock crash. When further dividing the analysts into star analysts and non-star analysts, the research found that the star analyst coverage can decrease stock price crash risk, and non-star analyst coverage can increase the stock price crash risk. And with the rise of star analyst ratio, the stock price crash risk will be lower.
Digitally Calibrated 768-kS/s 10-b Minimum-Size SAR ADC Array With Dithering

Array sensors require a high-performance analog-to-digital converter (ADC) array with small area and low power. Successive-approximation register (SAR) ADC has good potential for ADC array due to its simple analog circuits. However, SAR ADCs with 10-b resolution and higher normally need a large capacitor array due to the stringent matching requirement. The large capacitor array also limits the ADC dynamic performance. The capacitor mismatch has been compensated by analog calibration techniques. In this work, a novel digital calibration method is developed for SAR ADC based on dithering. With dithering, weights of most significant bit (MSB) capacitors can be measured accurately so that very small capacitors can be used in the SAR ADC due to the relaxed matching requirement. A modified bit-cycling procedure is developed to avoid the code gaps caused by capacitor dithering. This calibration technique requires no analog calibration overhead and simple digital decoders. The technique is implemented in an ADC array design including 256 SAR ADCs for a high-speed CMOS imaging sensor in a 0.18-μm CMOS process. The 10-b SAR ADC is designed with the minimum capacitor array size in the process. A single SAR ADC only occupies 15 μm × 710 μm. Sampling at 768 kS/s, peak DNL and peak INL of the original ADCs averaged across the array are 0.82 least significant bit (LSB) and 3.85 LSB, respectively. For a signal close to the Nyquist frequency, original ADCs have 7.96-b average ENOB. After calibration with dithering, ADCs have 0.55-LSB peak DNL and 0.77-LSB peak INL averaged across the array. The average ENOB improves to 9.83 b. Compared with the benchmark 10-b SAR ADCs, this design is the most area-efficient design. In this work, the calibration decoders are implemented off-chip. With a sample-and-hold amplifier, the calibration method can run in the background.
Reduction of noise similar to solar interference in computer networks based on power line communication

The present work is devoted to research the influence of impulse noise on data transmission in computer networks employing Power Line Communication (PLC) technology. Electrical interference in such networks is regarded as a kind of solar interference. In this interpretation, the source of interference (an analogue of the Sun) is on the same axis with the Sender-Receiver communication line. This approach is described by a model in which the source of impulse noise is expedient to locate close to the PLC equipment. In this case, noisy sub-carriers of the Sender (an analogue of Satellite) will be excluded from the transmitted signal. The correctness of the proposed approach is tested and confirmed by the network modeling in MatLab / Simulink package.
Pathways from Cell Groups of the Paramedian Tracts to the Floccular Region a

A group of cells lying along the midline of the mid-medulla, nucleus pararaphales, is shown to play a role in vertical eye movements. Its efferents project along the midline, then pass laterally to follow the ventral external arcuate fibers around the surface of the medulla into the restiform body. The fibers terminate in the flocculus and ventral paraflocculus. This nucleus is one of the "cell groups of the paramedian tracts," which, based on their connectivity, could provide a motor-feedback signal for eye-head position to the cerebellum. Lesions of these pathways could lead to gaze-evoked nystagmus.
Alternatives to Syntactic Paradigms in CAAD: Using Random Numbers in Layout Generation and Spatial Modeling.

The paper provides instances of graphic techniques using random numbers in layout generation and spatia1 modelling. Leaving aside more elaborate methods based on shape grammars and syntactically oriented schemes, direct graphic procedures useful in computer aided architectural design are discussed. Drawings presented show aleatory input can influence the appearance of computer generated forms. 1. The many uses of randomness. It is said that Mozart gave instructions for the composition of waltzes based on 'diced' notes, and also that Vivaldi was inspired to create an entire composition from the sequence of notes resulting when his cat leaped unexpectedly upon a keyboard. These could be historical anecdotes, but somehow represent the introduction of randomness in music; a concept that has been fully explored in the XXth century by, composers like Cage, Stockhausen, and Boulez. All of them made use of aleatory notes in their works in various ways. Xenakis, another musician who has played with randomly generated sounds, believes that dealing, with randomness in an requires a deep philosophical understanding of history. Equivalent to both the notion of work in progress and random improvisation in music was the so called "automatic writing" practiced by James Joyce and a number of surrealist writers in the first decades of this century. Also the kinetic works of Calder are sculptural objects which can adopt different spatial configurations at random -depending on meteorological forces that act upon them. In the Middle Ages, Virgil had come to be regarded as a sage and magician. Virgil's poems were used in the type of divination called "sortes", in which the book was opened at random and a verse selected in the same manner as an answer to a problem or question. Randomness, however, today seems reserved to scientists studying subjects like chaos, complexity, and turbulence. With the pervasiveness of computers, random numbers have turned into common places in physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, etc. They are currently, applied to matters as sophisticated as the study of long-term behavior of weather or the simulation of sociological phenomena [1]. The Webster dictionary, though, defines randomness plainly as <<lacking a definite plan, purpose, or pattern>>, and also <<being or relating to a set or to an element of a set each of
An Effective Financial Statements Fraud Detection Model

The purpose of this study is to establish an effective and rigorous financial statements fraud (FSF) detection model. The samples of this study are the listed companies in Taiwan, totaling 220 companies and including 55 companies with financial statements fraud and 165 normal companies. The data are from the Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ) during the period from 2006 to 2015. In Stage I, decision tree CART and artificial neural network (ANN) are applied to select the important variables. In Stage II, decision tree CHAID, ANN, and support vector machine (SVM) are used for modeling. The results show that the ANN-CHAID model has the highest FSF detection accuracy of 87.41%.
MathSBML: a package for manipulating SBML-based biological models

UNLABELLED MathSBML is a Mathematica package designed for manipulating Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) models. It converts SBML models into Mathematica data structures and provides a platform for manipulating and evaluating these models. Once a model is read by MathSBML, it is fully compatible with standard Mathematica functions such as NDSolve (a differential-algebraic equations solver). MathSBML also provides an application programming interface for viewing, manipulating, running numerical simulations; exporting SBML models; and converting SBML models in to other formats, such as XPP, HTML and FORTRAN. By accessing the full breadth of Mathematica functionality, MathSBML is fully extensible to SBML models of any size or complexity. AVAILABILITY Open Source (LGPL) at http://www.sbml. org and http://www.sf. net/projects/sbml