Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determinants of bank selection in the United Arab Emirates

Purpose – This study aims to identify the determinants of bank selection for Islamic and conventional banks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 246 respondents in the Emirates of Dubai and Sharjah and focused on aspects such as bank products, service quality, profit, reputation, cultural and religious factors, in addition to demographic attributes of the sample. Multiple discriminant analysis is used to identify the most important determinants of bank selection.Findings – The study concluded that the determinants for bank selection are more distinguishable amongst Islamic bank customers. Bank reputation and expectation of profit on deposits are not determinants of bank selection; however, religious preferences are the most important considerations in selection between Islamic and conventional banks.Research limitations/implications – Use of convenience sampling due to lack of resources may result in insufficient representation of population. Additionall.
Students' choice of universities in Germany: structure, factors and information sources used

Student recruitment is an increasingly important topic for universities worldwide. But in order to develop sophisticated recruitment strategies, recruitment officers need to have a clear understanding of how and why students choose colleges. This review compares the German and US research concerning university choice models, choice criteria and information sources prospective students use when exploring their options after school. The paper emphasizes the complexity of the decision-making processes of freshmen and reveals three gaps in the German student recruitment research literature. The development of a German university choice model, an increased application of explorative research methodologies, and the consideration of additional aspects possibly impacting the college choice could help to refine German research approaches.
Immigrants and Firms' Productivity: Evidence from France

Immigrants may complement native workers, allow reallocation by skill in the firm and lower costs. These effects could be beneficial for the firm and increase its productivity and profits. However not all firmes use immigrants. Allowing firms to have differential fixed cost in hiring immigrants, because of different information and access to their network, we analyze the impact of an increase in local supply of immigrants on firms' immigrant employment and productivity. Using micro-level data on French firms during the period 1995-2005, we show that a supply-driven increase in foreign born workers in a department (location) increases the productivity of firms in that department. We also find that this effect is significantly stronger for firms with initially low (or zero) level of foreign employment. Those are also the firms whose share of immigrants increases the most. We also find that the positive productivity effect of immigrants is associated with faster growth of capital and improved export performances (for extensive and intensive margin) of the firms. While these outcomes depend on the firm share of immigrants in employment we find a positive effect of immigration on wages of natives and on specialization of natives in complex occupations that is common to all firms in the district. Supply-driven increase in foreign born workers in a department (location) implies a re-allocation of native workers towards communication and cognitive intensive tasks.
The impact of Management Information System on the Overall Performance and Efficiency of the Workforce of the Accountant General (Peshawar): A Research Base Study

The purpose of this research paper is to demonstrate the impact of MIS training on the performance of the AG office Peshawar (kpk) employees, specially this paper accentuates on the core know-how of SAP( system application product), and the employees performance are measured with the help of SAP. The data have collected through primary and secondary data, conclusion has been drawn from questionnaire which have been tabulated and presented through diagrams. The recommendations and conclusions form the last part of this paper.
Country of origin as a source of sustainable competitive advantage: the case for international higher education institutions in New Zealand

The lucrative higher education market has intensified the competition among higher education providers as they aggressively promote their institutions to international students. In this study, we explore the factors which are important to Chinese international students when deciding on a study destination and higher tertiary education (ITE) institution. The results of this study provided the impetus to understand the factors which can be a source of sustainable competitive advantage for New Zealand and its ITE providers in the highly competitive Chinese market. Strategically, the results revealed New Zealand must maintain its position as a provider of quality higher education and build upon two unique distinctive capabilities: its comparatively low cost and reputation of being a safe country. Additionally, it would be strategically advantageous to build close collaborations between the Government and the institution to attract overseas students.
Structural Epochs in Software

A way to measure the complexity of object-oriented software involves topological features of the code's hierarchical organization at the method, class, package, and component levels. Sangwan et al (2008) suggested that as certain software products evolve, this complexity shifts from lower to higher structural levels, or vice-versa. They studied three widely used open source software programs and showed that these structural shifts called â€œepochsâ€ were present and suspected that this phenomenon was pervasive. To support or refute this assertion, 30 open source programs were studied and structural shifts in complexity were found significantly in 27 of them. In those projects where no complexity shift was evident, no refactoring had occurred. These findings further suggest that in large, open source software projects, when refactoring occurs a shifting in complexity from one level to another will occur.
Site-specific Phosphorylation Protects Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3β from Calpain-mediated Truncation of Its N and C Termini*

Background: GSK-3β is a key pro-apoptotic kinase, and its activity is strictly regulated. Results: GSK-3β is cleaved at both N and C termini by calpain. Conclusion: N- or C-terminal truncation activates GSK-3β, and Ser-9/Ser-389 phosphorylation protects GSK-3β from calpain cleavage. Significance: The GSK-3β C terminus functions as an autoinhibitory domain, and Ser-9/Ser-389 phosphorylation and calpain-mediated cleavage operate together in regulating GSK-3β activity. Glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β), a key regulator of neuronal apoptosis, is inhibited by the phosphorylation of Ser-9/Ser-389 and was recently shown to be cleaved by calpain at the N terminus, leading to its subsequent activation. In this study calpain was found to cleave GSK-3β not only at the N terminus but also at the C terminus, and cleavage sites were identified at residues Thr-38–Thr-39 and Ile-384–Gln-385. Furthermore, the cleavage of GSK-3β occurred in tandem with Ser-9 dephosphorylation during cerebellar granule neuron apoptosis. Increasing Ser-9 phosphorylation of GSK-3β by inhibiting phosphatase 1/2A or pretreating with purified active Akt inhibited calpain-mediated cleavage of GSK-3β at both N and C termini, whereas non-phosphorylatable mutant GSK-3β S9A facilitated its cleavage. In contrast, Ser-389 phosphorylation selectively inhibited the cleavage of GSK-3β at the C terminus but not the N terminus. Calpain-mediated cleavage resulted in three truncated products, all of which contained an intact kinase domain: ΔN-GSK-3β (amino acids 39–420), ΔC-GSK-3β (amino acids 1–384), and ΔN/ΔC-GSK-3β (amino acids 39–384). All three truncated products showed increased kinase and pro-apoptotic activity, with ΔN/ΔC-GSK-3β being the most active form. This observation suggests that the GSK-3β C terminus acts as an autoinhibitory domain similar to the N terminus. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that calpain-mediated cleavage activates GSK-3β by removing its N- and C-terminal autoinhibitory domains and that Ser-9 phosphorylation inhibits the cleavage of GSK-3β at both termini. In contrast, Ser-389 phosphorylation inhibits only C-terminal cleavage but not N-terminal cleavage. These findings also identify a mechanism by which site-specific phosphorylation and calpain-mediated cleavage operate in concert to regulate GSK-3β activity.
The role of religious affiliation in Christian and unaffiliated bereaved emerging adults’ use of religious coping

ABSTRACT Though research on bereavement has grown, few studies have focused on emerging adults. To add to the literature, the authors administered the RCOPE to a sample of bereaved college students (analyzed sample N = 748) and explored the relationship between self-reported religious affiliation and religious coping strategies used and endorsed as “most helpful. ” Results highlight the rich topography of bereavement previously unexamined in understudied populations (i.e., emerging adults, religiously unaffiliated). Specifically, the Christians/affiliated used “negative” religious coping strategies most often, yet identified “positive” strategies as “most helpful,” whereas the unaffiliated instead used “positive” strategies most often and identified “negative” strategies as “most helpful. ”
Efficacy and safety of sitagliptin added to ongoing metformin and rosiglitazone combination therapy in a randomized placebo‐controlled 54‐week trial in patients with type 2 diabetes (一项为期54周的对持续使用二甲双胍与罗格列酮联合治疗的2型糖尿病患者加用西格列汀治疗的有效性与安全性的随机安慰剂对照研究) *

Background: New therapeutic approaches are needed to improve glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D), a progressive disorder that often requires combination therapy. The present study assessed the efficacy and safety of sitagliptin as add‐on therapy to metformin and rosiglitazone in patients with T2D.
Thoraco-omphalopagus twins: different perinatal circumstances, different outcome

Two pairs of omphalopagus twins were encountered at the Polish Mother's Health Institution in Lodz, Poland during the past 15 years. In the first set the prenatal diagnosis was not established and the delivery of the twins in a regional hospital was a complete surprise. Both babies died. In the second case the conjoined twins were diagnosed prenatally, surgical separation was successful, and both twins survived. The prenatal identification of conjoined twins is of cardinal importance for the planning of delivery and possible separation.
A Two-Factor Explanation of Assimilation and Contrast Effects

Associations to a contextual cue were contrasted with those of an advertised object when the cognitive resources devoted to message processing were substantial and when the categories to which the contextual cue and the advertised object belonged displayed low overlap. The absence of either of these factors prompted assimilation. A two-factor theory is offered to explain these outcomes.
A review, synthesis and interpretation of the literature on competitive advantage

This paper presents an original, holistic model of competitive advantage following a review, critique and interpretation of a diverse literature with a view to aiding understanding among marketing practitioners and concentrating thought among marketing academics. In the first instance, the conceptual nature of competitive advantage is outlined. This is then used to discuss selected drivers of cost and differential advantage as well as the assets and skills on which competitive advantage is based. In the sections which follow, the literature on sustainability is reviewed prior to being brought together to develop an original model of competitive advantage. Some potential drivers of competitive advantage in the future are also identified. The paper concludes by providing directions for future research.
Does Playing Apart Really Bring Us Together? Investigating the Link Between Perceived Loneliness and the Use of Video Games During a Period of Social Distancing

During the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries implemented social distancing measures to contain virus transmission. However, these vital safety measures have the potential to impair mental health or wellbeing, for instance, from increased perceived loneliness. Playing social video games may offer a way to continue to socialize while adhering to social distancing measures. To examine this issue further, the present online survey investigated social gaming during the pandemic and its association to perceived loneliness within a German-speaking sample. Results indicated a small positive correlation between general gaming frequency and perceived loneliness. Detailed analysis revealed a negative association between perceived loneliness and increased social forms of video gaming. Specifically, gamers with a higher social motive for gaming perceived less loneliness, but gamers with a dominant escape motive demonstrated a positive link to perceived loneliness. The use of social gaming in times of social distancing seems to play a small but significant factor in perceived loneliness compared to other demographical data. The findings are discussed with respect to methodological limitations, effect sizes, and sample characteristics. The results enrich the current knowledge on video gaming and its link to social wellbeing and provide a more nuanced picture than simplistic investigations of screen time.
The effect of consumer‐based brand equity on firms’ financial performance

Examines the underlying dimensions of brand equity and how they affect financial performance of hotel firms. The results of this empirical study, using data collected from 12 luxury hotels, indicate that brand loyalty, perceived quality, and brand image are important components of consumer‐based brand equity. The result implies that hotel firms should seriously consider brand loyalty, perceived quality, and brand image when attempting to establish definite brand equity from the customers’ viewpoint. A review of detailed measures constituting these three variables, brand loyalty, brand awareness, and brand image, shows that most measures affect financial performances of hotels. Nonparametric correlation analysis provides fairly convincing evidence of the effect that consumer‐based brand equity has on a firm’s financial performance in the hotel industry
Evaluating the temporal structure normalisation technique on the Aurora-4 task

We evaluate the temporal structure normalisation (TSN), a feature normalisation technique for robust speech recognition, on the large vocabulary Aurora-4 task. The TSN technique operates by normalising the trend of the feature’s power spectral density (PSD) function to a reference function using ﬁnite impulse response (FIR) ﬁlters. The features are the cepstral coef-ﬁcients and the normalisation procedure is performed on every cepstral channel of each utterance. Experimental results show that the TSN reduces the average word error rate (WER) by 7.20% and 8.16% relatively over the mean-variance normalisation (MVN) and the histogram equalisation (HEQ) baselines respectively. We further evaluate two other state-of-the-art temporal ﬁlters. Experimental results show that among the three evaluated temporal ﬁlters, the TSN ﬁlter performs the best. Lastly, our results also demonstrates that ﬁxed smoothing ﬁlters are less effective on Aurora-4 task than on Aurora-2 task.
Pneumonia readmissions: risk factors and implications.

BACKGROUND Pneumonia continues to be a severe health problem in the United States, responsible for close to 1 million hospital admissions and nearly 140,000 hospital readmissions per year. The literature on this topic suggests that approximately 1 in 5 patients with pneumonia is readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge and that most readmissions are not because of pneumonia-related causes. METHODS Although many pneumonia readmissions may not be preventable, reducing readmissions is feasible, as shown by recent trends in Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data. RESULTS Modifiable patient-, physician-, and system-related factors can be targeted for intervention. CONCLUSION Many interventions aimed at reducing hospital readmissions targeting transitional care, care coordination, and postdischarge care have shown potential for reducing readmission rates.
Customer Induced Uncertainty and Its Impact on Organizational Design

How firms facing environmental uncertainty should organize their activities remains an important and challenging question for today's managers and organizational researchers. Proponents of contingency theory have argued that organizations must adjust their activities to fit the level of environmental uncertainty to ensure long-term survival. Although much work has been done on contingency theory, it is clear that our understanding of uncertainty is far from complete. One important aspect of today's organizations is their focus on service, mass customization, and continuous innovation. This focus often results in the customer being brought either into the organization or at least into closer contact with it. Even though the literature provides numerous evidences of the increasing customer focus, it is yet to empirically explain how the complications of customer-organizational interactions might create uncertainty for contemporary organizations. The traditional measure of uncertainty still considers customers as an environmental factor causing demand uncertainty while ignoring the complex nature of customer and organizational encounters. Seeking to further refine the concept of uncertainty and focusing on the contemporary business phenomena, this study develops measures aspects of customer induced uncertainty and examines their relationships with three organizational design variables. Specifically, this study explains the complicated nature of customer - organizational encounters that creates organizational uncertainty. Also, this study develops three operational measurement instruments for the three aspects of customer induced uncertainty. Finally, this study shows specific relationships between aspects of customer induced uncertainty and specific organizational design variables. This study conducted a mail survey of middle level managers. With a sample size of 118 the measurement instruments were shown to have validity and reliability using factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha. Regression analyses indicate the presence of specific rather than general relationship between customer induced uncertainty variables and organizational design variables. Regression results suggested that the relationships between customer induced uncertainty variable and design variables were depended on the specific combination. For example, Customer acquisitiveness was negatively related to formalization where as Customer importance was positively related to professionalism. Results also suggested a possible positive relationship between decentralization and customer induced ambiguity. Although not without limitations, this study improves our understanding of contemporary environmental uncertainty. Moreover, it provides preliminary measurement instruments of customer induced uncertainty variables for numerous future studies. Overall, this study is a preliminary step toward further understanding of the uncertainty-design contingencies of contemporary and future organizations.
Tools for Regulatory Quality and Financial Sector Regulation: A Cross-Country Perspective

This report provides a comparative perspective on the application of quality regulation principles to financial sector regulators, in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and France. The report compares key provisions of the codes of the Basle Committee and IOSCO, with the OECD's 2005 Guiding Principles for Regulatory Quality and Performance, and the 2009 Policy Framework for Effective and Efficient Financial Regulation (PFEEFR). The report analyses the independence and accountability of the regulators, as well as their powers. The analysis focuses on requirements for ex ante and ex post regulatory impact analyses, including burden reduction; for transparency and communication of decision making, as well as co-ordination and regulatory review; for improving the regulatory system over time and for regulating conflicts of interest. The report finds variation in the formal arrangements, and respective practices. It also finds that the requirements related to better regulation principles are often implemented too late in the decision-making process when regulations are set at the international level.
Choice Set Size in High Technology Business Markets

Utilizing a contingency approach, the author explores the impact that outside technical consultants have on the buying center's choice set size in the purchasing of high technology products. It is hypothesized that choice set size is directly affected by the involvement of a consultant and two characteristics of buying centers: technical orientation and heterogeneity (the degree to which members have disparate backgrounds). It is also argued that the impact of the consultant is moderated by these two buying center characteristics. Results from an empirical study relating to the purchase of a big-ticket, information technology product generally support the hypotheses. The findings have implications for market segmentation and target marketing in high technology business markets.
Analysis of Privacy-Enhancing Identity Management Systems

— Privacy has become a major issue for policy makers. This has been impelled by the rapid development of technologies that facilitate collection, distribution, storage, and manipulation of personal information. Business organizations are finding new ways of leveraging the value derived from consumer information. On the other hand, consumers have expressed concerns that their rights and ability to control their personal information are violated. Paradoxically, it appears that users provide personal data freely and willingly, as it has been observed on Facebook and other social networks. This study is an attempt to understand the relationship between individuals’ intentions to disclose personal information, their actual personal information disclosure behaviours, and how these can be leveraged to develop privacy-enhancing identity management systems (IDMS) that users can trust. Legal, regulatory and technological aspects of privacy and technology adoption are also discussed.