Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhancing the security of electronic commerce transactions

This thesis looks at the security of electronic commerce transaction processing. It begins with an introduction to security terminology used in the thesis. Security requirements for card payments via the Internet are then described, as are possible protocols for electronic transaction processing. It appears that currently the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol together with its standardised version Transport Layer Security (TLS) are the most widely used means to secure electronic transactions made over the Internet. Therefore, the analysis and discussions presented in the remainder of the thesis are based on the assumption that this protocol provides a ‘baseline’ level of security, against which any novel means of security should be measured. The SSL and TLS protocols are analysed with respect to how well they satisfy the outlined security requirements. As SSL and TLS provide transport layer security, and some of the security requirements are at the application level, it is not surprising that they do not address all the identified security requirements. As a result, in this thesis, we propose four protocols that can be used to build upon the security features provided by SSL/TLS. The main goal is to design schemes that enhance the security of electronic transaction processing whilst imposing minimal overheads on the involved parties. In each case, a description of the new scheme is given, together with its advantages and limitations. In the first protocol, we propose a way to use an EMV card to improve the security of online transactions. The second protocol involves the use of the GSM subscriber authentication service to provide user authentication over the Internet. Thirdly, we propose the use of GSM data confidentiality service to protect sensitive information as well as to ensure user authentication. Regardless of the protection scheme employed for the transactions, there exist threats to all PCs used to conduct electronic commerce transactions. These residual threats are examined, and motivate the design of the fourth protocol, proposed specifically to address cookie threats.
International Expansion Strategy of Japanese Firms: Capability Building through Sequential Entry

This study empirically investigates the sequential entry process of Japanese electronic manufacturing firms into the United States during l976-89. We find that firms sequentially enter businesses where they have a stronger competitive advantage over locals and core businesses first in order to reduce the hazard of failure. The learning from early entry enables firms to launch a further entry into an area of less strong competitive advantage. The overall evidence in this paper suggests that firms are building capabilities to operate overseas through sequential entry.
Functional Topography and Integration of the Contralateral and Ipsilateral Retinocollicular Projections of Ephrin-A−/− Mice

Topographically ordered projections are established by molecular guidance cues and refined by neuronal activity. Retinal input to a primary visual center, the superior colliculus (SC), is bilateral with a dense contralateral projection and a sparse ipsilateral one. Both projections are topographically organized, but in opposing anterior–posterior orientations. This arrangement provides functionally coherent input to each colliculus from the binocular visual field, supporting visual function. When guidance cues involved in contralateral topography (ephrin-As) are absent, crossed retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons form inappropriate terminations within the SC. However, the organization of the ipsilateral projection relative to the abnormal contralateral input remains unknown, as does the functional capacity of both projections. We show here that in ephrin-A−/− mice, the SC contains an expanded, diffuse ipsilateral projection. Electrophysiological recording demonstrated that topography of visually evoked responses recorded from the contralateral superior colliculus of ephrin-A−/− mice displayed similar functional disorder in all genotypes, contrasting with their different degrees of anatomical disorder. In contrast, ipsilateral responses were retinotopic in ephrin-A2−/− but disorganized in ephrin-A2/A5−/− mice. The lack of integration of binocular input resulted in specific visual deficits, which could be reversed by occlusion of one eye. The discrepancy between anatomical and functional topography in both the ipsilateral and contralateral projections implies suppression of inappropriately located terminals. Moreover, the misalignment of ipsilateral and contralateral visual information in ephrin-A2/A5−/− mice suggests a role for ephrin-As in integrating convergent visual inputs.
Mining Calendar-based Periodic Patterns from Nonbinary Transactions

Abstract A large class of problems deals with temporal data. Identifying temporal patterns in these datasets is a natural as well as an important task. In recent times, researchers have reported an algorithm for finding calendar-based periodic pattern in time-stamped data without considering the purchased quantities of the items. However, most of the real-life databases are nonbinary, and therefore, exploring various calendar-based patterns (yearly, monthly, weekly, daily) with their purchased quantities may discover information useful to improve the quality of business decisions. In this article, a technique is proposed to extract calendar-based periodic patterns from nonbinary transactions. In this connection, the concept of certainty factor has been introduced by incorporating transaction frequency for overlapped intervals. Algorithms have been designed to mine frequent itemsets along with intervals and quantity. In addition to that, we have designed an algorithm to find the periodicity of the pattern. The algorithm is tested with real-life data, and the results are given.
Exploring the Impact of CSR on Talent Management with Generation Y

Developing a corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy can help companies remain competitive, grow market share, and enhance customer loyalty. As CSR has recently become part of corporate strategy, many corporations are confronted with an employee talent shortfall. This shortfall is attributed to factors from the simple fact that there are not enough people, like Generation X not being able to replace the retiring Baby Boomers to the more complex concept of a talent mismatch. This research investigates this intersection of CSR and talent and examines the impact of CSR on employee attraction and retention, with a special focus on Generation Y. Interviews included 36 qualitative, semi-structured interviews. Results suggest that potential employees are not as much attracted by the CSR programme, but by the values of the company. Results suggest that employees do not necessarily stay at companies because of the CSR programme. From the findings, a practitioners’ guide was created. This guide outlines the drivers of attraction and retention that focus on iValue, iDevelop and iRetain.
Stochastic optimal control in the perspective of the Wiener chaos

We propose a novel and generic methodology for solving continuous finite-horizon stochastic optimal control problems. We develop innovative ideas for approximating controlled stochastic differential equations within the Wiener chaos framework and expand them to reformulate stochastic optimal control problems directly into deterministic ones. Within our approach we present how to preserve the feedback character of the optimal Markov decision rules.
Glucose regulation and face recognition deficits in older adults: the role of attention

ABSTRACT The present study investigated the perceptual, attentional, and memory processes underlying face recognition deficits observed in older adults with impaired glucoregulation. Participants were categorized as good glucoregulators or poor glucoregulators on the basis of an oral glucose tolerance test. Using event-related potential (ERP) methodology, 23 participants (62–88 years) performed a 2-stimulus oddball task. Participants were asked to rate and memorize 10 “target” faces, which were then presented amongst 120 unfamiliar foils. Behavioral results indicated that good glucoregulators were significantly more accurate at recognizing target faces. ERP markers of early visual perception (P1 and N170 components) and memory formation (P3 component) were unaffected by glucoregulatory efficiency. The P2 component, an index of attentional processing, was larger and delayed in the poor glucoregulators. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to suggest that face recognition deficits in poor glucoregulators may be due to impairments in attentional processing.
A Bayesian MCMC approach to study transmission of influenza: application to household longitudinal data

We propose a transmission model to estimate the main characteristics of influenza transmission in households. The model details the risks of infection in the household and in the community at the individual scale. Heterogeneity among subjects is investigated considering both individual susceptibility and infectiousness. The model was applied to a data set consisting of the follow‐up of influenza symptoms in 334 households during 15 days after an index case visited a general practitioner with virologically confirmed influenza.
Synaptotagmin IX, a possible linker between the perinuclear endocytic recycling compartment and the microtubules

The pericentriolar endocytic recycling compartment (ERC) is involved in receptor and lipid recycling as well as in the delivery of internalized cargo from early endosomes to the trans Golgi network (TGN). We show that synaptotagmin (Syt) IX, a member of the Syt family of proteins, localizes to the ERC and is required for export from the ERC to the cell surface. We demonstrate that rat basophilic leukemia (RBL-2H3) mast cells endogenously express Syt IX mRNA and protein. Localization studies employing fractionation on linear sucrose gradients combined with confocal microscopy by indirect immunofluorescence or stable expression of a Syt IX-green fluorescent fusion protein demonstrate that Syt IX colocalizes with internalized transferrin (Tfn) and with Rab 11 at the perinuclear ERC. Syt IX also colocalizes with tubulin at the microtubules organizing center (MTOC) and remains associated with tubulin clusters formed in taxol-treated cells. Moreover, Syt IX coimmunoprecipitates with tubulin from intact RBL cells, and chimeric fusion proteins comprising either the C2A or the C2B domain of Syt IX are able to pull down tubulin from RBL cell lysates. To study the functional role of Syt IX, we have stably transfected RBL cells with Syt IX sense or antisense cDNA and monitored the routes of Tfn internalization and recycling in cells that overexpress (RBL-Syt IX+) or display substantially reduced (<90%) levels of Syt IX (RBL-Syt IX–). In these cells, Tfn binding and internalization into early endosomes and the ERC are unaltered. However, recycling from the ERC to the cell surface is significantly slowed down in the RBL-Syt IX– cells. These results therefore indicate that Syt IX is involved in regulating transport from the ERC to the cell surface, and suggest that it may play a role in linking vesicles that exit the ERC with the microtubules network.
Multiplex Modeling of the Society

The society has a multi-layered structure, where the layers represent the different contexts. To model this structure we begin with a single-layer weighted social network (WSN) model showing the Granovetterian structure. We find that when merging such WSN models, a sufficient amount of inter-layer correlation is needed to maintain the relationship between topology and link weights, while these correlations destroy the enhancement in the community overlap due to multiple layers. To resolve this, we devise a geographic multi-layer WSN model, where the indirect inter-layer correlations due to the geographic constraints of individuals enhance the overlaps between the communities and, at the same time, the Granovetterian structure is preserved. Furthermore, the network of social interactions can be considered as a multiplex from another point of view too: each layer corresponds to one communication channel and the aggregate of all them constitutes the entire social network. However, usually one has information only about one of the channels, which should be considered as a sample of the whole. Here we show by simulations and analytical methods that this sampling may lead to bias. For example, while it is expected that the degree distribution of the whole social network has a maximum at a value larger than one, we get with reasonable assumptions about the sampling process a monotonously decreasing distribution as observed in empirical studies of single channel data. We analyse the far-reaching consequences of our findings.
Optimal Capital Structure for Insurance Companies

This paper analyzes the capital structure decision that insurance companies face. A structural microeconomic model is constructed and solved by means of dynamic optimization. The model allows for a careful analysis of various aspects pertaining to the basic economic trade-off between increasing the level of surplus capital on the one hand, incurring high costs in imperfect capital markets, and decreasing the surplus level on the other, eroding the quality and value of insurance protection offered.
Factors Affecting Customer Satisfaction in 3G Service

3G is the source of high-speed transfer of both voice and data. Thus with the customer satisfaction label it is important to understand the interplay of factors involved in the affect on customer satisfaction in Bangladeshi mobile phone service companies. Therefore this study examined the relationship between perceived value, perceived quality, customer expectation and corporate image with customer satisfaction. The results obtained from 360 students of university selected by convenient sampling method were analyzed with SPSS software program. The study found that perceived value, perceived quality, customer expectation and corporate image have a significant positive influence on customer satisfaction.
Managing Risk Attitude using Emotional Literacy

Risk management is recognised as an essential contributor to business and project success, since it focuses on addressing uncertainties in a proactive manner in order to minimise threats, maximise opportunities, and optimise achievement of objectives. There is wide convergence and international consensus on the necessary elements for a risk management process, and this is supported by a growing range of capable tools and techniques, an accepted body of knowledge, an academic and research base, and wide experience of practical implementation across many industries.
Correlated High-Frequency Trading

This paper studies correlations between the strategies of high-frequency trading (HFT) firms, which is a manifestation of the extent of competition in which these firms engage when pursuing similar strategies. We use a principal component analysis to show that there are several underlying common strategies and that the competing HFT firms pursuing these strategies generate most HFT activity. We investigate whether competition between HFT firms creates a systematic return factor, but find no supporting evidence for such an influence. However, the short-interval return volatility of most stocks loads negatively on a market-wide measure of correlated HFT strategies. The mitigating impact of HFT competition on stock volatility appears to be driven at least in part by a market-making strategy. We further document a negative relationship between two forms of competition—that between HFT firms and that between trading venues. We investigate a potential driver behind this negative relationship, and show that greater HFT competition within a trading venue helps smaller trading venues become more competitive or viable in terms of posting better prices and narrower spreads.
Isolation and functional analysis of sporulation-induced transcribed sequences from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Strains of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae that are heterozygous for the mating-type locus (MATa/MAT alpha) undergo meiosis and spore formation when they are starved for nitrogen and are provided with a nonfermentable carbon source such as potassium acetate. Haploids and diploids homozygous for the mating-type locus (MAT alpha/MAT alpha or MATa/MATa) are asporogenous and undergo neither meiosis nor spore formation when incubated under the same conditions. A small number of genes produce transcripts that appear to be induced specifically in sporulating cells. These transcripts either are not found or are present at much lower levels both in vegetatively growing cells and in cells from asporogenous strains that have been incubated in sporulation medium. Several genes complementary to these MATa/MAT alpha-dependent sporulation-induced transcripts were isolated from a gene-size insert yeast-lambda recombinant DNA library, by differential-plaque filter hybridization. An attempt was made to determine the function of three of these genes by mutating them in the yeast genome with in vitro mutagenesis and one-step gene replacement techniques. One gene was extensively disrupted by both a 0.3-kilobase deletion and the insertion of two large DNA sequences at different sites within the gene. Surprisingly, this compound mutation did not appear to affect meiosis or the production of viable ascospores, indicating that this gene was dispensable for differentiation. The other two genes were disrupted by simple insertion mutations at a site where it was possible that they might still possess some gene activity. These mutations also did not appear to affect sporulation. These results suggest that not all sporulation-induced genes are essential for meiosis and the production of viable ascospores under the conditions examined.
RS9, a novel Nrf2 activator, attenuates light‐induced death of cells of photoreceptor cells and Müller glia cells

The retina is highly sensitive to oxidative stress because of its high consumption of oxygen associated with the phototransductional processes. Recent findings have suggested that oxidative stress is involved in the pathology of age‐related macular degeneration, a progressive degeneration of the central retina. A well‐known environmental risk factor is light exposure, as excessive and continuous light exposure can damage photoreceptors. Nuclear factor‐erythroid 2‐related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a transcriptional factor that controls antioxidative responses and phase 2 enzymes. Thus, we hypothesized that RS9, a specific activator of Nrf2, decreases light‐induced retinal cell death in vivo and in vitro. Nrf2 was detected in the nucleus of the 661W cells exposed to RS9 and also after light exposure, and the Nrf2‐antioxidant response element binding was increased in 661W cells after exposure to RS9. Consequentially, the expression of the phase 2 enzyme's mRNAs of Ho‐1, Nqo‐1, and Gclm genes was increased in 661W cells after exposure to RS9. Furthermore, RS9 decreased the light‐induced death of 661W cells (2500 lux, 24 h), and also reduced the functional damages and the histological degeneration of the nuclei in the outer nuclear layer or the retina in the in vivo studies (8000 lux, 3 h). Heme oxygenase‐1 was increased after light exposure, and Nrf2 was translocated into the nucleus after light exposure in vivo. Silencing of Ho‐1 reduced the protective effects of RS9 against light‐induced death of 661W cells. These findings indicate that RS9 has therapeutic potential for retinal diseases that are aggravated by light exposure.
From reactive to proactive appraisal

Nicole Convery has been a recordkeeping professional in the UK since 2005. After graduating with an MScEcon in Records Management from Aberystwyth University, she worked as a Records Manager at Guardian News & Media, followed by a role as part-time teaching fellow at Aberystwyth University teaching records and project management as well as business analysis. She is now Records Manager at the Medical Research Council, where she is responsible for establishing and maintaining a records management program including managing an electronic document and records management system and archival appraisal processes. Her research interests include records management theory, cloud computing, information security and governance and, recently, digital preservation.
Proposition d'une Méthode pour l'Ingénierie de l'Alignement Métier/SI: Diagnostic, Évolution, Alternatives technologiques et Décision. (A Method for Business/IT Alignment Engineering: Diagnosis, Evolution, Technological alternatives, Decision)

The alignment is a subject of continuous interest in research and industrial communities. However, alignment cannot be considered as an end per se since the business is in perpetual evolution. The challenge is then to preserve the alignment relationship after the change occurrence. We talk about alignment evolution or co-evolution. The co-evolution challenge is even greater when we consider the large number of legacy systems whose evolution cycle is different from the business requirements evolution cycle. The challenge is to preserve the alignment relationship while finding the evolution scenario that best fits the situation of the organization and its information system. The proposed method DEEVA fits this context and explores two disciplines namely “requirements engineering” and “software engineering” and benefits from their interaction to tackle a complex problem such as alignment engineering. The DEEVA method is situated in a change context which leads the organization from an existing situation towards a future situation. This context is enriched by the co-evolution process which consists of three steps: (i) the alignment diagnostic based on an explicit design of alignment links mapping the strategic and the operational perspectives of the organization. This diagnostic allows to capture the misalignment, (ii) the change capture and specification and the anticipation of the required evolutions and the simulation of their upstream impacts and (iii) the decision among a range of IT choices for implementing change so as to preserve the alignment relationship. DEEVA method provides a solution to a complex problem such as alignment engineering by proposing and using a set of classifications. These classifications allow to break down the problem of misalignment capture and requirements evolution specification as well as their implementation by choosing the “best” technical scenario. This has lead to progress in reasoning and move towards solving a complex problem involving several axes. DEEVA process is based on a set of guidelines to guide engineering in the co-evolution performance. These guidelines are about 30% interactive and 70% algorithmic. They are based on a set of rules and techniques that strengthen the guidance and make the approach more systematic. These rules are based on the proposed classifications. This research has been validated by applying the proposed method to a complex project concerning the transformation and the IS reform of the textile brand of the “Mousquetaires” Group which has sponsored this thesis.