Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mobile Banking Service Quality, Customer Perceived Value and Customer Retention in the Kenyan Banking Industry

Customer retention is increasingly becoming an important managerial issue, especially in this era which is characterized by high levels of competition and assertive customers who make stay or switch decisions guided by their rational and emotional influences. Moreover, customers are increasingly becoming quality conscious and value driven. To date, there is limited evidence of studies that investigated the effects of mobile banking service quality, customer perceived value and customer retention constructs in a single framework, hence, the study seeks to fill the gap. This study examines the effect of mobile banking service quality, customer perceived value on customer retention. Additionally, the study examines the mediating effect of customer perceived value on the relationship between mobile banking service quality and customer retention. The study was guided by the ‘leaky bucket theory’ of marketing and the MS-QUAL model. An explanatory research design was adopted, employing multistage, simple random and systematic sampling techniques in collecting data from a sample size of 400 university staff drawn from two public and two private universities based in Nairobi City County who are consumers of mobile banking services. A self-administered questionnaire was used. Hierarchical and multiple regression models using Hayes Process macro were used to analyze data obtained and to test the hypotheses. The study found that: mobile banking service quality (β= 0.565, p = 0. 000), perceived customer value (β= 0.363, p = 0.000), significantly affect customer retention. Additionally, the results show that customer perceived value mediates the relationship between mobile banking service quality and customer retention (β =. 193, CI = .127, .266). This study concludes that, customers will remain committed to patronize a bank whose services are deemed of high quality and with a high value. The study contributes to knowledge by revealing customer perceived value mediates the relationship between mobile banking service quality and customer retention. value-centered customer retention rates.
Impact of Urbanization on Energy Consumption Intensity in Bangladesh: An Empirical Analysis

Emerging countries undergo economic transformation through urbanization in which to continue modern economic activities, there exists high demand for different energy sources such as electricity, oil, coal, natural gas etc. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have been conducted to investigate the impact of urbanization on energy consumption intensity in Bangladesh and thus, the aim of this paper is to empirically analyze the effect of urbanization on energy consumption intensity with the help to time series data ranging from 1980-2015. Johansen’s cointegration test reveals that our variables are co integrated and through Granger Causality test we have found that there is a unidirectional causality running from urbanization to energy consumption intensity in the long run but in short run, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) confirms no causality among the variables of interest. We employed CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests to check the stability of the model and have found that the model is stable. Long run estimation results indicate that coefficient value of urbanization is positive and elastic as well. To carry on different economic activities in urban areas, proper policies should be taken to improve the energy sector in Bangladesh.
MOTIVATED REASONING, NUMERACY, AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC The Role of Motivated Science Reception and Numeracy in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The successful management of the COVID-19 pandemic depends on individuals accepting the current state of research and adhering to the preventive behaviors that follow from it. However, the processing of scientific results is not always rational, but influenced by prior attitudes as well as the ability to understand statistical data. Against this background, the present study investigated the role of motivated reasoning and numeracy in the context of the current pandemic. To this end, participants ( N = 417; U.S. sample) evaluated two fictitious studies, one indicating that mask mandates in schools are an effective intervention to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2, and one indicating that mask mandates in schools are counterproductive. Participants evaluated the studies in line with their prior attitude towards mask mandates. In addition, higher numeracy was associated with decreased bias, demonstrating that the ability to reason with numbers can lead to more accurate processing of statistical information.
EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS (EFA) AND CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS (CFA) TO MEASURE THE VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY CONSTRUCTS OF HISTORICAL THINKING SKILLS, TPACK AND APPLICATION OF HISTORICAL THINKING SKILLS

In teaching and learning sessions, the effectiveness of applying Historical Thinking Skill (TKPS) elements to students depends on the level of teacher mastery in Historical Thinking Skill (KPS) and the skills of adapting Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) components in teaching and learning sessions and approach study uses quantitative studies based on the Structural Equation Model (SEM). This study aims to develop and verify the validity and reliability of the instrument using the Exploration Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to measure the construction of KPS, TPACK and TKPS. This study has adapted the instruments developed by some earlier researchers, and also modified some statements in accordance with current studies. Therefore, it is necessary to re-run the Analysis of Factor Analysis of the Exploration (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), as the current study area may differ from previous studies, or the current study population is far different from previous studies in terms of socio-economic status, ethnicity and culture (Awang, 2010). The samples of this research were 100 upper secondary school Islamic Education teachers from various districts in Kelantan, Malaysia. After implementing the EFA, the constructs of historical thinking skills (KPS) and application of historical thinking skills (TKPS) were scaled down from five sub-constructs each to only one main construct for each set of skills with 18 and 13 items respectively. As for the TPACK construct, after the implementation of EFA, some items were moved to other constructs. Then, in the second stage of this study, CFA was implemented and after its implementation, 12 items and one construct (Technological construct) were deleted. Finally, only three main constructs (KPS, TKPS and TPACK) and 2 sub-constructs (Pedagogical and Content Knowledge) were proved to be statistically significant with the 35 remaining items and proceeded to be used for further study.
Security and Privacy in the Metaverse: The Threat of the Digital Human

Each year, researchers and technologists are bringing the vision of the Metaverse, which is predicted to be the future of the internet, closer to becoming a reality. People will spend most of their time in this space interacting face-to-face, so to speak, with highly customizable digital avatars that seamlessly convey precise non-verbal cues from the physical movements of the users themselves. This is an exciting prospect; however, there are many privacy and security concerns that arise from this new form of interaction. Precision motion tracking is required to drive high-fidelity animation, and this affords a mass of data that has never been available before. This data provides a wealth of physical and psychological information that can reveal medical conditions, mental disorders, personality, emotion, personal identity, and more. In this paper, we discuss some implications of the availability of this data, with a focus on the psychological manipulation and coercion capabilities made available by it.
Error-Driven-Based Performance Analysis of Nonlinear Equivalent-Input-Disturbance Approaches*

Disturbances are inevitable in control practice. Many methods have been reported for disturbance rejection. Among them, equivalent-input-disturbance (EID) approach is effective for both matched and mismatched disturbances. However, since the disturbances are usually unknown, conventional methods cannot be used to analyze the control performance of disturbance rejection, especially the dynamic performance. In this paper, by treating the Luenberger observer as the role of an ideal system, an auxiliary variable, i.e., the output error betwween the disturbed system and the ideal system, is introduced to aid the disturbance-rejection performance analysis of EID approaches. The relation between the control performance and the output error are revealed. Then, a nonlinear EID estimator is constructed to speed up the disturbance-rejection control. The finite-time dynamic performance and uniformly ultimately bounded steady-state performance are guaranteed. Further, a design algorithm is developed for the NEID-based closed-loop control system. Finally, by comparing with a conventional linear EID-based method, simulation results illustrate the validity and superiority of the developed method.
Occlusion Detection by Temporal Integration of Optical Flow

Occlusions become apparent as failing regions in optical-ﬂow models when integrated over time because violations of the brightness-constancy constraint accumulate and grow in occluded areas. Based on this observation, we propose a new variational model for joint occlusion and ﬂow estimation that emphasizes violations of the brightness constraint in order to detect occlusions by temporal integration of both ﬂow and occlusions. To this purpose, we estimate the ﬂow with respect to a single reference frame that accumulates the errors in the ﬂow model over a short-time interval; this formulation allows us to distinguish occlusions from noise and non-Lambertian phenomena by means of spatio-temporal regularizers over the occlusion set. In terms of minimization, we approximate the resulting variational problem by a sequence of convex optimizations and develop an efﬁcient primal-dual algorithm to solve them. Our experiments show the beneﬁts of the proposed formulation, both the single-frame formulation and the occlusion regularizers, in comparison to the state of the art.
-107-Research On The Impact Of Producer Services Import On China's Manufacturing Industry's Climbing Global Value Chain

: Intermediate investment in producer services is an effective way to promote the manufacturing industry to climb the global value chain. This paper uses the export added value data of OECD-TiVA database to calculate the export technical complexity of 17 types of manufacturing industries in China, so as to measure the position of various industries in the value chain, and empirically test the impact of producer services import on the promotion of the position of China's manufacturing value chain. The results show that producer services import has a significant positive impact on the promotion of China's manufacturing value chain, and the promotion effect has industry heterogeneity. In the labor-intensive manufacturing industry, the import of producer services plays the strongest role in promoting the rise of its value chain, followed by the capital intensive manufacturing industry.
Security SoC Architecture with Hardware-Based Pre-Authentication

– Edge Devices with limited power and processing performance need the help of hardware-based security solutions in order to provide sufficient security services. The hardware-based security solutions have been proposed to separate hardware resources into the secure area and the normal area and determine whether accessible according to the secure mode of the processor. The solutions determine secure mode based on the importance of the application or to let the user decide. However, this makes it possible for unauthorized users to access the secure area when the device is stolen or replicated. To solve this problem, we propose a hardware-based pre-authentication protocol which determines if the edge device is a safe situation. The proposed pre-authentication protocol includes all the processes the chip producing, issuing, and using. SoC with the Core-A processor and pre-authentication module was implemented as a hardware chip, and it was confirmed that Core-A enters secure mode after succeeding in the pre-authentication protocol.
Material Governance and Circular policies: how Waste Policies affect Household Appliances’ accumulation

Circular economy requires a great effort in monitoring material flows, market dynamics and policy makers perspective altogether. Here an attempt is made to understand the macro-economic drivers of accumulation and recycling. The application is made on Electrical and Electronic Equipment of household appliances. This category is relevant due to a specific effort of EU commission to tackle circular economy and material accumulation of critical raw materials. To understand the optimal dynamic of accumulation, innovation, and recycling, we developed a two-stage work. The former is a theoretical model of growth. This framework is used to delineate possible biases of a panel data model. To counter such problem, we applied a feasible generalized least square. Economies are interlinked and cross-sectional dependence in material accumulation persists. Variables used comprehend structural, socio-economic, and intrinsic characteristics of EEE stock of EU27+UK panel. As intrinsic, the panel uses average timespan, weight per capita and Shannon index of concentration. To control for breaks, the dummies for EU waste packages of 2008 and 2015 is used. The results show high significance among the general application and within each income class. Waste policies are strongly correlated to an increase of material accumulation, rather than a reduction. Socio-economic variables are generally significant, with evidence of decoupling. Lastly, timespan is positively correlated to material accumulation. The results highlight strong significance of policy effectiveness to the material dimension of economies, even at concluded economic cycles.
Analysis of the factors affecting the adoption of farmer led irrigation iniatives in the model a1 schemes of Zimbabwe: A case of Mazowe district

- Farmer led irrigation is a new phenomenon that is fast gradually take shape in the redistributed lands of Zimbabwe under the Fast Track Land Reform. This type of irrigation is taking place without much knowledge of the policy makers and irrigation planners. This study focusses on those factors that influence A1 model farmers in the adoption of this type of irrigation and Mazowe District was used as a case study. The current study utilized a mixed method research design with a target population of 3441 Smallholder A1 irrigating farmers in Mazowe District. The sample size for the study for quantitative data was 310 while 5 public officers were for qualitative data. For purposes of quantitative data stratified random sampling and convenience sampling were used while purposive sampling was employed for the 5 key informants (qualitative data). Data collection instruments used were a questionnaire for quantitative data, an interview guide for key informant interviews and focus group discussions while participatory observation was applied on transect walks. Processing of data was done using iNvivo version 12, SPSS version 20 and Amos version 22.5 before being analyzed by the researcher in line with the research objectives. The study found out that there were thirteen factors that affected the adoption of farmer led irrigation. The highest factor influencing the adoption of FLI was access
Digital Dance Ethnography

Folk dances often reflect the socio-cultural influences prevailing in different periods and nations; each dance produces a meaning, a story with the help of music, costumes and dance moves. However, dances have no borders; they have been transmitted from generation to generation, along different countries, mainly due to movements of people carrying and disseminating their civilization. Studying the contextual correlation of dances along neighboring countries, unveils the evolution of this unique intangible heritage in time, and helps in understanding potential cultural similarities. In this work we present a method for contextually motion analysis that organizes dance data semantically, to form the first digital dance ethnography. Firstly, we break dance motion sequences into some narrow temporal overlapping feature descriptors, named motion and style words, and then cluster them in a high-dimensional features space to define motifs. The distribution of those motion and style motifs creates motion and style signatures, in the content of a bag-of-motifs representation, that implies for a succinct but descriptive portrayal of motions sequences. Signatures are time-scale and temporal-order invariant, capable of exploiting the contextual correlation between dances, and distinguishing fine-grained difference between semantically similar motions. We then use quartet-based analysis to organize dance data into a categorization tree, while inferred information from dance metadata descriptions are then used to set parent-child relationships. We illustrate a number of different organization trees, and portray the evolution of dances over time. The efficiency of our method is also demonstrated in retrieving contextually similar dances from a database.
Optimal infusion rate of hypertonic saline to encephalic vessel vasodilatation using magnetic resonance imaging in normovolemic dogs

This study aimed to investigate, using magnetic resonance imaging, whether continuous hypertonic saline ( HSS ) infusion induces a superior vasodilating effect on the encephalic vessels compared to bolus infusion in dogs. The relative cross-sectional area of superior sagittal sinus increased to 1.96±0.09 and 1.69±0.31 times of the pre-value in the continuous and bolus groups, respectively, at t=30 min ( p <0.001). However, the relative cross-sectional area of superior sagittal sinus was larger in the continuous group than that in the bolus group ( p <0.001). The results suggest that continuous infusion of HSS might be superior to bolus infusion in inducing vasodilatation of the encephalic circulation.
Analysis of stranded sea turtles in the Gargano coast: has the Gargano promontory an importance for the ecology of the turtle Caretta caretta (Linnaeus, 758) in the Adriatic Sea?

Importance of Gargano promontory for the turtle Caretta caretta During the period 2001-2004, 89 stranded individuals of Caretta caretta (Linnaeus, 1758) have been recorded along the Gargano coast, 58 of which were alive, and 31 dead; in particular, 57% of these former animals have been rescued along two thin strips of land at the Lesina and Varano Lakes. The greatest number of strandings (n=48), has been recorded during the 2002, in particular in January (n=31), a fact which seems to correspond to an abrupt drop of water temperature. The great number of stranded turtles reported in this area depends on its geographical position: the northern shore of Gargano entraps objects carried by the sea currents from the northern and the middle Adriatic Sea to the southern one.
Micro Fabrication of CNT based fibers

The discovery of carbon nano tubes (CNTs) was a major breakthrough on a technological front. But, these CNTs have largely failed to relate to the real world problems because of the difficult material synthesis and laborious processing. These multifunctional carbon nanotubes (CNT) fibers combine the specific strength, stiffness, and thermal conductivity of carbon fibers with the specific electrical conductivity of metals. But realizing these excellences in practical applications needs to assemble individual CNTs into larger scale products. In this paper, we review some key spinning techniques like spinning from a vertical aligned CNT arrays, Electrophoretic spinning, spinning from CNT aerogel and solution spinning techniques include surfactant based spinning, liquid crystal based solution spinning. The methods and limitations and recent progress of each technique have been addressed.
Growth and reproduction of captive Pacific Walrus ( Odobenus rosmarus divergens )

A pair of pacific walruses was subjected for a long term study for 20 years on their growth and reproduction since 6 months of age, and succeed breeding four times. The body lengths both male and female walruses continued to grow after they have reach the sexual maturity, until the age of 14 years, then growth have reached their plateau. The ages of the male and the female at sexual maturation were 10 and 9 years-old. The body weight markedly increased in the breeding season in the sexu-ally matured male, showing the “fatted male phenomenon”. The copulatory behavior showed a clear seasonal pattern, which was observed for one or two days, during February 26 through March 22. Parturition occurred during May 3 through June 6, and the mean gestation period was 441 ± 2.3 days (n = 4). The urinary estrone conjugate (EC) and pregnanediol-3-glucuro-nide (PDG) in the pregnant female showed sharp increase in the late September, an approximately 200-day after copulation, as the body weight of pregnant female started to increase. These results may be suggesting that delayed implantation had been completed and fetal development had started. The calf started to wean at approximately 6 months, although the nursing continued throughout the following 3 years until the next parturition. The birth interval was three years.
SUSCEPTIBILITY OF DIFFERENT CUCUMBER CULTIVARS TO SOME PESTS INFESTATION IN GIZA GOVERNORATE, EGYPT

ield and laboratory studies were carried out during two successive seasons (2012 and 2013) to study the susceptibility of seven cucumber cultivars (Fahd, PX 03648585, Bahi, CBA 911264 F1, Dora, CBA 910747 F1 and Nemsse) to infestation with Thrips tabaci (Lind.), Bemisia tabaci (Genn.), Aphis gossypii (Glover) and Tetranychus urticae (Koch). The results showed significant differences in the susceptibilities of the seven cultivars in both seasons. PX 03648585 cultivar was the most tolerant one to the infestation with the previous mentioned pests in both seasons while Bahi was the most susceptible one. Also, the determination of the content of some chemical components in the uninfested dry leaves of these cultivars was studied only for the summer season, 2013 to explain the differences in the susceptibilities of the tests cultivars. Studies showed significant positive correlation between the content of some chemical components and the different levels of infestations of the studied pests. The most susceptible cultivars, were positively correlated with high content of protein, carbohydrate, lipid and reducing sugar while the most tolerant one were contained mid or low amounts of these components.