Search results for: credit card frauds

Authors: Haitham Sarhan

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The experience of Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry represents one of the leading Arabic creative experiences because of its cultural specificity which is linked to the question of Palestine and its people. The poet Mahmoud Darwish does not stop there, but also reaches out to the whole of the cosmic and openness of the universal human experience. His poetry is rooted in a creative period, and was able to surpass its time. Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry contains diverse metaphors and worlds of genres, which overextends from direct romance to the lattice resistance and further stretches to the imaginary world and to the grand narratives. The poem "Identity Card" was published in his collections "Olive Leaves" and was issued in 1963. This collection highlighted the poems which included a revolutionary position, and formed a 'manifesto' and the statement of the Palestinian resistance, which represented the league of poets of Palestine. This poem has contributed along with other poems in creating a flame of resistance and increased it in the hearts of the Palestinian people. It also exercised considerable influence in the Arab world through what has been wrought from emotional responses and revolutionary impact which still remains. Moreover, this poem has succeeded with other resistance poems and postmodern poets like Nizar Qabbani in bringing modern poetry and culturally transmitted it among the Arab peoples and the masses. In spite of the fact that the poet Mahmoud Darwish exceeded this poem creatively through his other great works, "Identity Card" still has a great effect on peoples past memory’s and present. This need to hear this poem in Mahmoud Darwish’s poetic readings reflects peoples frustration and anger. It is safe to say that it is enticing people to this present day. This revolutionary poem had and still has a magical effect on Arab world.

Keywords: Arab contemporary poetry, identity, memory, argumentation

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Authors: Nkwachukwu Chukwuchekwa, Joy Ulumma Chukwuchekwa

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Magnetic characteristics of grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES) are usually measured at high flux densities suitable for its typical applications in power transformers. There are limited magnetic data at low flux densities which are relevant for the characterization of GOES for applications in metering instrument transformers and low frequency magnetic shielding in magnetic resonance imaging medical scanners. Magnetic properties such as coercivity, B-H loop, AC relative permeability and specific power loss of conventional grain oriented (CGO) and high permeability grain oriented (HGO) electrical steels were measured and compared at high and low flux densities at power magnetising frequency. 40 strips comprising 20 CGO and 20 HGO, 305 mm x 30 mm x 0.27 mm from a supplier were tested. The HGO and CGO strips had average grain sizes of 9 mm and 4 mm respectively. Each strip was singly magnetised under sinusoidal peak flux density from 8.0 mT to 1.5 T at a magnetising frequency of 50 Hz. The novel single sheet tester comprises a personal computer in which LabVIEW version 8.5 from National Instruments (NI) was installed, a NI 4461 data acquisition (DAQ) card, an impedance matching transformer, to match the 600  minimum load impedance of the DAQ card with the 5 to 20  low impedance of the magnetising circuit, and a 4.7 Ω shunt resistor. A double vertical yoke made of GOES which is 290 mm long and 32 mm wide is used. A 500-turn secondary winding, about 80 mm in length, was wound around a plastic former, 270 mm x 40 mm, housing the sample, while a 100-turn primary winding, covering the entire length of the plastic former was wound over the secondary winding. A standard Epstein strip to be tested is placed between the yokes. The magnetising voltage was generated by the LabVIEW program through a voltage output from the DAQ card. The voltage drop across the shunt resistor and the secondary voltage were acquired by the card for calculation of magnetic field strength and flux density respectively. A feedback control system implemented in LabVIEW was used to control the flux density and to make the induced secondary voltage waveforms sinusoidal to have repeatable and comparable measurements. The low noise NI4461 card with 24 bit resolution and a sampling rate of 204.8 KHz and 92 KHz bandwidth were chosen to take the measurements to minimize the influence of thermal noise. In order to reduce environmental noise, the yokes, sample and search coil carrier were placed in a noise shielding chamber. HGO was found to have better magnetic properties at both high and low magnetisation regimes. This is because of the higher grain size of HGO and higher grain-grain misorientation of CGO. HGO is better CGO in both low and high magnetic field applications.

Keywords: flux density, electrical steel, LabVIEW, magnetization

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Authors: Ellis Kofi Akwaa-Sekyi, Jordi Moreno Gené

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Managerial actions which negatively profile banks and impair corporate reputation are addressed through effective internal control systems. Disregard for acceptable standards and procedures for granting credit have affected bank loan portfolios and could be cited for the crises in some European countries. The study intends to determine the effectiveness of internal control systems, investigate whether perceived agency problems exist on the part of board members and to establish the relationship between internal controls and credit risk among listed banks in the European Union. Drawing theoretical support from the behavioural compliance and agency theories, about seventeen internal control variables (drawn from the revised COSO framework), bank-specific, country, stock market and macro-economic variables will be involved in the study. A purely quantitative approach will be employed to model internal control variables covering the control environment, risk management, control activities, information and communication and monitoring. Panel data from 2005-2014 on listed banks from 28 European Union countries will be used for the study. Hypotheses will be tested and the Generalized Least Squares (GLS) regression will be run to establish the relationship between dependent and independent variables. The Hausman test will be used to select whether random or fixed effect model will be used. It is expected that listed banks will have sound internal control systems but their effectiveness cannot be confirmed. A perceived agency problem on the part of the board of directors is expected to be confirmed. The study expects significant effect of internal controls on credit risk. The study will uncover another perspective of internal controls as not only an operational risk issue but credit risk too. Banks will be cautious that observing effective internal control systems is an ethical and socially responsible act since the collapse (crisis) of financial institutions as a result of excessive default is a major contagion. This study deviates from the usual primary data approach to measuring internal control variables and rather models internal control variables in a quantitative approach for the panel data. Thus a grey area in approaching the revised COSO framework for internal controls is opened for further research. Most bank failures and crises could be averted if effective internal control systems are religiously adhered to.

Keywords: agency theory, credit risk, internal controls, revised COSO framework

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Authors: Tomokazu Nagata, Jawid Ahmad Baktash

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The goal of this paper is to explore the use of formal methods for Electronic Identity Card System. Nowadays, one of the core research directions in a constantly growing distributed environment is the improvement of the communication process. The responsibility for proper verification becomes crucial. Formal methods can play an essential role in the development and testing of systems. The thesis presents two different methodologies for assessing correctness. Our first approach employs abstract interpretation techniques for creating a trace based model for Electronic Identity Card System. The model was used for building a semi decidable procedure for verifying the system model. We also developed the code for the eID System and can cover three parts login to system sending of Acknowledgment from user side, receiving of all information from server side and log out from system. The new concepts of impasse and spawned sessions that we introduced led our research to original statements about the intruder’s knowledge and eID system coding with respect to secrecy. Furthermore, we demonstrated that there is a bound on the number of sessions needed for the analysis of System.Electronic identity (eID) cards promise to supply a universal, nation-wide mechanism for user authentication. Most European countries have started to deploy eID for government and private sector applications. Are government-issued electronic ID cards the proper way to authenticate users of online services? We use the eID project as a showcase to discuss eID from an application perspective. The new eID card has interesting design features, it is contact-less, it aims to protect people’s privacy to the extent possible, and it supports cryptographically strong mutual authentication between users and services. Privacy features include support for pseudonymous authentication and per service controlled access to individual data items. The article discusses key concepts, the eID infrastructure, observed and expected problems, and open questions. The core technology seems ready for prime time and government projects deploy it to the masses. But application issues may hamper eID adoption for online applications.

Keywords: eID, event-B, Pro-B, formal method, message passing

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Authors: Mohamamd Shahjahan

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Background: Cybercrime is common phenomenon at present both developed and developing countries. Young generation, especially adolescents now engaged internet frequently and they commit cybercrime frequently in Bangladesh. Objective: In this regard, the present study on the pattern of cybercrime among youngers of Bangladesh has been conducted. Methods and tools: This study was a cross-sectional study, descriptive in nature. Non-probability accidental sampling technique has been applied to select the sample because of the nonfinite population and the sample size was 167. A printed semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Results: The study shows that adolescents mainly do hacking (94.6%), pornography (88.6%), software piracy (85 %), cyber theft (82.6%), credit card fraud (81.4%), cyber defamation (75.6%), sweet heart swindling (social network) (65.9%) etc. as cybercrime. According to findings the major causes of cybercrime among the respondents in Bangladesh were- weak laws (88.0%), defective socialization (81.4%), peer group influence (80.2%), easy accessibility to internet (74.3%), corruption (62.9%), unemployment (58.7%), and poverty (24.6%) etc. It is evident from the study that 91.0% respondents used password cracker as the techniques of cyber criminality. About 76.6%, 72.5%, 71.9%, 68.3% and 60.5% respondents’ technique was key loggers, network sniffer, exploiting, vulnerability scanner and port scanner consecutively. Conclusion: The study concluded that pattern of cybercrimes is frequently changing and increasing dramatically. Finally, it is recommending that the private public partnership and execution of existing laws can be controlling this crime.

Keywords: cybercrime, adolescents, pattern, internet

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Authors: Alexandru-Ion Marinescu

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There exist a plethora of methods in the scientific literature which tackle the well-established task of credit score evaluation. In its most abstract form, a credit scoring algorithm takes as input several credit applicant properties, such as age, marital status, employment status, loan duration, etc. and must output a binary response variable (i.e. “GOOD” or “BAD”) stating whether the client is susceptible to payment return delays. Data imbalance is a common occurrence among financial institution databases, with the majority being classified as “GOOD” clients (clients that respect the loan return calendar) alongside a small percentage of “BAD” clients. But it is the “BAD” clients we are interested in since accurately predicting their behavior is crucial in preventing unwanted loss for loan providers. We add to this whole context the constraint that the algorithm must yield an actual, tractable mathematical formula, which is friendlier towards financial analysts. To this end, we have turned to genetic algorithms and genetic programming, aiming to evolve actual mathematical expressions using specially tailored mutation and crossover operators. As far as data representation is concerned, we employ a very flexible mechanism – LINQ expression trees, readily available in the C# programming language, enabling us to construct executable pieces of code at runtime. As the title implies, they model trees, with intermediate nodes being operators (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) or mathematical functions (sin, cos, abs, round, etc.) and leaf nodes storing either constants or variables. There is a one-to-one correspondence between the client properties and the formula variables. The mutation and crossover operators work on a flattened version of the tree, obtained via a pre-order traversal. A consequence of our chosen technique is that we can identify and discard client properties which do not take part in the final score evaluation, effectively acting as a dimensionality reduction scheme. We compare ourselves with state of the art approaches, such as support vector machines, Bayesian networks, and extreme learning machines, to name a few. The data sets we benchmark against amount to a total of 8, of which we mention the well-known Australian credit and German credit data sets, and the performance indicators are the following: percentage correctly classified, area under curve, partial Gini index, H-measure, Brier score and Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic, respectively. Finally, we obtain encouraging results, which, although placing us in the lower half of the hierarchy, drive us to further refine the algorithm.

Keywords: expression trees, financial credit scoring, genetic algorithm, genetic programming, symbolic evolution

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Authors: Laurent Maurin, Mervi Toivanen

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This paper estimates euro area banks’ internal target capital ratios and investigates whether banks’ adjustment to the targets have an impact on credit supply and holding of securities during the financial crisis in 2005-2011. Using data on listed banks and country-specific macro-variables a partial adjustment model is estimated in a panel context. The results indicate, firstly, that an increase in the riskiness of banks’ balance sheets influences positively on the target capital ratios. Secondly, the adjustment towards higher equilibrium capital ratios has a significant impact on banks’ assets. The impact is found to be more size-able on security holdings than on loans, thereby suggesting a pecking order.

Keywords: Euro area, capital ratios, credit supply, partial adjustment model

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Authors: Xiaoyu Shen, Fang Fang, Chujun Qiu

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Herewith we present a Fourier method for credit risk quantification and allocation in the factor-copula model framework. The key insight is that, compared to directly computing the cumulative distribution function of the portfolio loss via Monte Carlo simulation, it is, in fact, more efficient to calculate the transformation of the distribution function in the Fourier domain instead and inverting back to the real domain can be done in just one step and semi-analytically, thanks to the popular COS method (with some adjustments). We also show that the Euler risk allocation problem can be solved in the same way since it can be transformed into the problem of evaluating a conditional cumulative distribution function. Once the conditional or unconditional cumulative distribution function is known, one can easily calculate various risk metrics. The proposed method not only fills the niche in literature, to the best of our knowledge, of accurate numerical methods for risk allocation but may also serve as a much faster alternative to the Monte Carlo simulation method for risk quantification in general. It can cope with various factor-copula model choices, which we demonstrate via examples of a two-factor Gaussian copula and a two-factor Gaussian-t hybrid copula. The fast error convergence is proved mathematically and then verified by numerical experiments, in which Value-at-Risk, Expected Shortfall, and conditional Expected Shortfall are taken as examples of commonly used risk metrics. The calculation speed and accuracy are tested to be significantly superior to the MC simulation for real-sized portfolios. The computational complexity is, by design, primarily driven by the number of factors instead of the number of obligors, as in the case of Monte Carlo simulation. The limitation of this method lies in the "curse of dimension" that is intrinsic to multi-dimensional numerical integration, which, however, can be relaxed with the help of dimension reduction techniques and/or parallel computing, as we will demonstrate in a separate paper. The potential application of this method has a wide range: from credit derivatives pricing to economic capital calculation of the banking book, default risk charge and incremental risk charge computation of the trading book, and even to other risk types than credit risk.

Keywords: credit portfolio, risk allocation, factor copula model, the COS method, Fourier method

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Authors: Bi-Huei Tsai

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Previous studies on financial distress prediction choose the conventional failing and non-failing dichotomy; however, the distressed extent differs substantially among different financial distress events. To solve the problem, “non-distressed”, “slightly-distressed” and “reorganization and bankruptcy” are used in our article to approximate the continuum of corporate financial health. This paper explains different financial distress events using the two-stage method. First, this investigation adopts firm-specific financial ratios, corporate governance and market factors to measure the probability of various financial distress events based on multinomial logit models. Specifically, the bootstrapping simulation is performed to examine the difference of estimated misclassifying cost (EMC). Second, this work further applies macroeconomic factors to establish the credit cycle index and determines the distressed cut-off indicator of the two-stage models using such index. Two different models, one-stage and two-stage prediction models, are developed to forecast financial distress, and the results acquired from different models are compared with each other, and with the collected data. The findings show that the two-stage model incorporating financial ratios, corporate governance and market factors has the lowest misclassification error rate. The two-stage model is more accurate than the one-stage model as its distressed cut-off indicators are adjusted according to the macroeconomic-based credit cycle index.

Keywords: Multinomial logit model, corporate governance, company failure, reorganization, bankruptcy

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Authors: Amelia Morris, Lizzie Coles-Kemp, Will Jones

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This paper examines how community welfare initiatives transform how individuals use and experience an ostensibly universal welfare system. This paper argues that the digitalisation of welfare overlooks the complex reality of being unemployed or in low-wage work, and erects digital barriers to accessing welfare. Utilising analysis of ethnographic research in food banks and community groups, the paper explores the ways that Universal Credit has not abolished face-to-face support, but relocated it to unofficial sites of welfare. The apparent efficiency and simplicity of the state’s digital welfare apparatus, therefore, is produced not by reducing the ‘messiness’ of welfare, but by rendering it invisible within the digital framework. Using the analysis of the study’s data, this paper recommends three principles of service design that would render the messiness visible to the state.

Keywords: welfare, digitalisation, food bank, Universal Credit

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Authors: Olanike A. Ojo, Akindele M. Ojo, Jacob H. Tsado, Ramatu U. Kutigi

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The study was carried out on analysis of the effect of farmers’ socio-economic factors on the net farm income of catfish farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected from selected catfish farmers with the aid of well-structured questionnaire and a multistage sampling technique was used to select 102 catfish farmers in the area. The analytical techniques involved the use of descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. The findings of the analysis of socio-economic characteristics of catfish farmers reveal that 60% of the catfish farmers in the study area were male gender which implied the existence of gender inequality in the area. The mean age of 47 years was an indication that they were at their economically productive age and could contribute positively to increased production of catfish in the area. Also, the mean household size was five while the mean year of experience was five. The latter implied that the farmers were experienced in fishing techniques, breeding and fish culture which would assist in generating more revenue, reduce cost of production and eventual increase in profit levels of the farmers. The result also revealed that stock capacity (X3), accessibility to credit (X7) and labour (X4) were the main determinants of catfish production in the area. In addition, farmer’s sex, household size, no of ponds, distance of the farm from market, access to credit were the main socio-economic factors influencing the net farm income of the catfish farmers in the area. The most serious constraints militating against catfish production in the study area were high mortality rate, insufficient market, inadequate credit facilities/ finance and inadequate skilled labour needed for daily production routine. Based on the findings, it is therefore recommended that, to reduce the mortality rate of catfish extension agents should organize training workshops on improved methods and techniques of raising catfish right from juvenile to market size.

Keywords: credit, income, stock, mortality

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Authors: Shari S. C. Shang, Lynn S. L. Chiu

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In the digital payment market, some consumers use only one payment wallet while many others play multi-homing with a variety of payment services. With the diffusion of new payment systems, we examined the determinants of the adoption of multi-homing behavior. This study aims to understand how a digital payment provider dynamically expands business touch points with cross-business strategies to enrich the digital ecosystem and avoid the trap of multi-homing in customers. By synthesizing platform ecosystem literature, we constructed a two-dimensional research framework with one determinant of user digital behavior from offline to online intentions and the other determinant of digital payment touch points from convenient accessibility to cross-business platforms. To explore on a broader scale, we selected 12 digital payments from 5 countries of UK, US, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. With the interplays of user digital behaviors and payment touch points, we group the study cases into four types: (1) Channel Initiated: users originated from retailers with high access to in-store shopping with face-to-face guidance for payment adoption. Providers offer rewards for customer loyalty and secure the retailer’s efficient cash flow management. (2) Social Media Dependent: users usually are digital natives with high access to social media or the internet who shop and pay digitally. Providers might not own physical or online shops but are licensed to aggregate money flows through virtual ecosystems. (3) Early Life Engagement: digital banks race to capture the next generation from popularity to profitability. This type of payment aimed to give children a taste of financial freedom while letting parents track their spending. Providers are to capitalize on the digital payment and e-commerce boom and hold on to new customers into adulthood. (4) Traditional Banking: plastic credit cards are purposely designed as a control group to track the evolvement of business strategies in digital payments. Traditional credit card users may follow the bank’s digital strategy to land on different types of digital wallets or mostly keep using plastic credit cards. This research analyzed business growth models and inter-firms’ coopetition strategies of the selected cases. Results of the multiple case analysis reveal that channel initiated payments bundled rewards with retailer’s business discount for recurring purchases. They also extended other financial services, such as insurance, to fulfill customers’ new demands. Contrastively, social media dependent payments developed new usages and new value creation, such as P2P money transfer through network effects among the virtual social ties, while early life engagements offer virtual banking products to children who are digital natives but overlooked by incumbents. It has disrupted the banking business domains in preparation for the metaverse economy. Lastly, the control group of traditional plastic credit cards has gradually converted to a BaaS (banking as a service) model depending on customers’ preferences. The multi-homing behavior is not avoidable in digital payment competitions. Payment providers may encounter multiple waves of a multi-homing threat after a short period of success. A dynamic cross-business collaboration strategy should be explored to continuously evolve the digital ecosystems and allow users for a broader shopping experience and continual usage.

Keywords: digital payment, digital ecosystems, multihoming users, cross business strategy, user digital behavior intentions

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Authors: Mehdi Assefi, Keihan Hataminezhad

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One of the efficient architectures for exploring the resources in wireless ad-hoc networks is contact-based architecture. In this architecture, each node assigns a unique zone for itself and each node keeps all information from inside the zone, as well as some from outside the zone, which is called contact. Reducing the overlap between different zones of a node and its contacts increases its performance, therefore Edge Method (EM) is designed for this purpose. Contacts selected by EM do not have any overlap with their sources, but for choosing the contact a vast amount of information must be transmitted. In this article, we will offer a new protocol for contact selection, which is called PEM. The objective would be reducing the volume of transmitted information, using Non-Uniform Dissemination Probabilistic Protocols. Consumed energy for contact selection is a function of the size of transmitted information between nodes. Therefore, by reducing the content of contact selection message using the PEM will decrease the consumed energy. For evaluation of the PEM we applied the simulation method. Results indicated that PEM consumes less energy compared to EM, and by increasing the number of nodes (level of nodes), performance of PEM will improve in comparison with EM.

Keywords: wireless ad-hoc networks, contact selection, method for CARD, energy-efficient

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Authors: Jason Ceavers, Travis Thompson, Juan Torres, Ramanakumar Anam, Alan Wong, Andrei Carvalho, Shane Quo, Shawn Alonso, Moises Cintron, Ricardo C. Carrero, German Lopez, Vamsi Garimella, German Giese

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Introduction: Advance directives (AD) are essential for patients to communicate their wishes when they are not able to. Ideally, these discussions should not occur for the first time when a patient is hospitalized with an acute life-threatening illness. There is a large number of patients who do not have clearly documented ADs, resulting in the misutilization of resources and additional patient harm. This is a nationwide issue, and the Joint Commission has it as one of its national quality metrics. Presented here is a proposed protocol to increase the number of documented AD discussions in a community-based, internal medicine residency primary care clinic in South Florida. Methods: The SMART Aim for this quality improvement project is to increase documentation of AD discussions in the outpatient setting by 25% within three months in medicare patients. A survey was sent to stakeholders (clinic attendings, residents, medical assistants, front desk staff, and clinic managers), asking them for three factors they believed contributed most to the low documentation rate of AD discussions. The two most important factors were time constraints and systems issues (such as lack of a standard method to document ADs and ADs not being uploaded to the chart) which were brought up by 25% and 21.2% of the 32 survey responders, respectively. Pre-intervention data from clinic patients in 2020-2021 revealed 17.05% of patients had clear, actionable ADs documented. To address these issues, an AD pocket card was created to give to patients. One side of the card has a brief explanation of what ADs are. The other side has a column of interventions (cardiopulmonary resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, dialysis, tracheostomy, feeding tube) with boxes patients check off if they want the intervention done, do not want the intervention, do not want to discuss the topic, or need more information. These cards are to be filled out and scanned into their electronic chart to be reviewed by the resident before their appointment. The interventions that patients want more information on will be discussed by the provider. If any changes are made, the card will be re-scanned into their chart. After three months, we will chart review the patients seen in the clinic to determine how many medicare patients have a pocket card uploaded and how many have advance directives discussions documented in a progress note or annual wellness note. If there is not enough time for an AD discussion, a follow-up appointment can be scheduled for that discussion. Discussion: ADs are a crucial part of patient care, and failure to understand a patient’s wishes leads to improper utilization of resources, avoidable litigation, and patient harm. Time constraints and systems issues were identified as two major factors contributing to the lack of advance directive discussion in our community-based resident primary care clinic. Our project aims at increasing the documentation rate for ADs through a simple pocket card intervention. These are self-explanatory, easy to read and allow the patients to clearly express what interventions they desire or what they want to discuss further with their physician.

Keywords: advance directives, community-based, pocket card, primary care clinic

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Authors: Kaan Koyuncu, Umut Celen Arican, Sevilay Can

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In the maritime industry, there have been regulations to prevent pollution, and the first attempt to offer a legal basis was Marpol Convention which was held in 1973 in order to provide a framework for the disposal of ship wastes. Based on this convention, ports are obliged to build waste receiving facilities. European Union regulations make several member countries to follow these directions, In Turkey, under Blue Card System, the quantity and types of wastes, the delivery time, the capacity of the receiving facilities, and other required information can be monitored online. Therefore, yachts and other boats with the bilge, sewage, and waste which illegally discharge into the sea, can be blocked. This system is an outcome of the law adopted from European Union regulations. In this study, the present systems in Turkey which occurred in 2010 after the integration of the system, which has been put in the force in 2000 in Europe will be analyzed and interpreted to provide a useful comparison, a practical guide, and a roadmap for potential improvements.

Keywords: Europe-Turkey, blue card, marine environment, ship waste tracking system

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Authors: Hui-Ling Huang, Tamara Vasylenko, Phasit Charoenkwan, Shih-Hsiang Chiu, Shinn-Ying Ho

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The knowledge of the human transporters is still limited due to technically demanding procedure of crystallization for the structural characterization of transporters by spectroscopic methods. It is desirable to develop bioinformatics tools for effective analysis of available sequences in order to identify human transmembrane transporter proteins (HMTPs). This study proposes a scoring card method (SCM) based method for predicting HMTPs. We estimated a set of propensity scores of dipeptides to be HMTPs using SCM from the training dataset (HTS732) consisting of 366 HMTPs and 366 non-HMTPs. SCM using the estimated propensity scores of 20 amino acids and 400 dipeptides -as HMTPs, has a training accuracy of 87.63% and a test accuracy of 66.46%. The five top-ranked dipeptides include LD, NV, LI, KY, and MN with scores 996, 992, 989, 987, and 985, respectively. Five amino acids with the highest propensity scores are Ile, Phe, Met, Gly, and Leu, that hydrophobic residues are mostly highly-scored. Furthermore, obtained propensity scores were used to analyze physicochemical properties of human transporters.

Keywords: dipeptide composition, physicochemical property, human transmembrane transporter proteins, human transmembrane transporters binding propensity, scoring card method

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Authors: Yuan-Lin Liu, Ye Li, Tian Xia

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Taxi-calling APPs have been used widely, while brought both benefits and a variety of issues for the taxi market. Many countries do not know whether the benefits are remarkable than the issues or not. This paper established a comparison between the basic scenario (2009-2012) and a taxi-calling software usage scenario (2012-2015) to explain the impact of taxi-calling APPs. The impacts of taxi-calling APPs illustrated by the comparison results are: 1) The supply and demand distribution is more balanced, extending from the city center to the suburb. The availability of taxi service has been improved in low density areas, thin market attribute has also been improved; 2)The ratio of short distance taxi trip decreased, long distance service increased, the utilization of mileage increased, and the rate of empty decreased; 3) The popularity of taxi-calling APPs was able to reduce the average empty distance, cruise time, empty mileage rate and average times of loading passengers, can also enhance the average operating speed, improve the taxi operating level, and reduce social cost although there are some disadvantages. This paper argues that the taxi industry and government can establish an integrated third-party credit information platform based on credit evaluated by the data of the drivers’ driving behaviors to supervise the drivers. Taxi-calling APPs under fully covered supervision in the mobile Internet environment will become a new trend.

Keywords: taxi, taxi-calling APPs, credit, scenario comparison

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Authors: Ons Triki, Fathi Abid

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Along with the increase in the use of leasing contracts in corporate finance, multiple studies aim to model the credit risk of the lease in order to cover the losses of the lessor of the asset if the lessee goes bankrupt. In the current research paper, a convertible lease contract is elaborated in a continuous time stochastic universe aiming to ensure the financial stability of the firm and quickly recover the losses of the counterparties to the lease in case of default. This work examines the term structure of the lease rates taking into account the credit default risk and the capital structure of the firm. The interaction between the lessee's capital structure and the equilibrium lease rate has been assessed by applying the competitive lease market argument developed by Grenadier (1996) and the endogenous structural default model set forward by Leland and Toft (1996). The cumulative probability of default was calculated by referring to Leland and Toft (1996) and Yildirim and Huan (2006). Additionally, the link between lessee credit risk and lease rate was addressed so as to explore the impact of convertible lease financing on the term structure of the lease rate, the optimal leverage ratio, the cumulative default probability, and the optimal firm value by applying an endogenous conversion threshold. The numerical analysis is suggestive that the duration structure of lease rates increases with the increase in the degree of the market price of risk. The maximal value of the firm decreases with the effect of the optimal leverage ratio. The results are indicative that the cumulative probability of default increases with the maturity of the lease contract if the volatility of the asset service flows is significant. Introducing the convertible lease contract will increase the optimal value of the firm as a function of asset volatility for a high initial service flow level and a conversion ratio close to 1.

Keywords: convertible lease contract, lease rate, credit-risk, capital structure, default probability

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Authors: Gona Ayuba, Isiaka Mohammed, Kotom Mohammed Baba, Mohammed Aabubakar Maikasuwa

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The study examined the technical efficiency and its determinants of cattle fattening enterprises in Kebbi state, Nigeria. Data were collected from a sample of 160 fatteners between June 2010 and June 2011 using the multistage random sampling technique. Translog stochastic frontier production function was employed for the analysis. Results of the analysis show that technical efficiency indices varied from 0.74 to 0.98%, with a mean of 0.90%, indicating that there was no wide gap between the efficiency of best technical efficient fatteners and that of the average fattener. The result also showed that fattening experience and herd size influenced the level of technical efficiency at 1% levels. It is recommended that credit agencies should ensure that credit made available to the fatteners is monitored to ensure appropriate utilization.

Keywords: technical efficiency, determinants, cattle, fattening enterprises

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Authors: Mehaiguene Madjid, Touhari Fadhila, Meddi Mohamed

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The Cheliff basin offers a good hydrological example for the possibility of studying the problem which elucidated in the future, because of the unclearity in several aspects and hydraulic installation. Thus, our study of the Cheliff basin is divided into two principal parts: The spatial evaluation of the precipitation: also, the understanding of the modes of the reconstitution of the resource in water supposes a good knowledge of the structuring of the precipitation fields in the studied space. In the goal of a good knowledge of revitalizes them in water and their management integrated one judged necessary to establish a precipitation card of the Cheliff basin for a good understanding of the evolution of the resource in water in the basin and that goes will serve as basis for all study of hydraulic planning in the Cheliff basin. Then, the establishment of the precipitation card of the Cheliff basin answered a direct need of setting to the disposition of the researchers for the region and a document of reference that will be completed therefore and actualized. The hydrological study, based on the statistical hydrometric data processing will lead us to specify the hydrological terms of the assessment hydrological and to clarify the fundamental aspects of the annual flow, seasonal, extreme and thus of their variability and resources surface water.

Keywords: hydrological assessment, surface water resources, Cheliff, Algeria

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Authors: S. Khalifa, R. Chkoundali

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The specific role of banks in economic development varies, depending on scope. Firstly, the participation of banks in economic development focus around providing credit and services to generate revenues, which are then invested back into a local, national or international community. The specific roles banks play in the economic development of a small community differ from the role banks play in national or international economic development. Although the role can vary, factors such as access to credit and bank investment policies or practices remain constant, no matter the scope of economic development. This paper provides an overview of the economic situation of Africa and its short-term outlook. He referred to the progress made in the implementation of the Medium-Term Strategy (2008-2012) and some major achievements of the Bank, as the speed and flexibility with which she responded to the oil crisis, food and financial.

Keywords: economic growth, bank, Africa, economic development

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Authors: Amir Ikram, Faisal Ijaz, Qin Su

Abstract:

The empirical study was undertaken to explore the determinants of non-performing loans (NPLs) of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector held by the commercial banks. Primary data was collected through well-structured survey questionnaire from credit analysts/bankers of 42 branches of 9 commercial banks, operating in the district of Lahore (Pakistan), for 2014-2015. Selective descriptive analysis and Pearson chi-square technique were used to illustrate and evaluate the significance of different variables affecting NPLs. Branch age, duration of the loan, and credit policy were found to be significant determinants of NPLs. The study proposes that bank-specific and SME-specific microeconomic variables directly influence NPLs, while macroeconomic factors act as intermediary variables. Framework exhibiting causal nexus of NPLs was also drawn on the basis of empirical findings. The results elaborate various origins of NPLs and suggest that they are primarily instigated by the loan sanctioning procedure of the financial institution. The paper also underlines the risk management practices adopted by the bank at branch level to averse the risk of loan default. Empirical investigation of bank-specific microeconomic factors of NPLs with respect to Pakistan’s economy is the novelty of the study. Broader strategic policy implications are provided for credit analysts and entrepreneurs.

Keywords: commercial banks, microeconomic factors, non-performing loans, small and medium enterprises

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Authors: Pál Mészáros

Abstract:

The aim of this research topic is to examine civil law consequences caused by crimes committed in the digital space. During the commission of certain crimes, not only the rights of one person are violated, but also the rights of an entire institution, for example, if the information system of a university is attacked. The consequences of these crimes committed in the digital space may also be that the victim himself is liable to other third parties, for example, in the event that health data comes into the possession of unauthorized persons, and it can be proved that the service provider's IT system was inadequate. An interesting question may also be the civil liability of credit institutions if someone becomes a victim of fraud but is not expected from him/her to notice the fraud. In such a case, the liability of the credit institution may arise if they do not respond in time in the case of unauthorized bank transactions. Based on the above, the main topic of the research is the civil liability of the victim, or another person or company related to the victim in the case of damages caused by crimes.

Keywords: civil liability, digital crimes, transfer of responsibility, civil law

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Authors: Ang Chia Hong, Julian Khoo Xubin, Burra Venkata Durga Kumar

Abstract:

Distributed systems offer many benefits to the healthcare industry. From big data analysis to business intelligence, the increased computational power and efficiency from distributed systems serve as an invaluable resource in the healthcare sector to utilize. However, as the usage of these distributed systems increases, many issues arise. The main focus of this paper will be on security issues. Many security issues stem from distributed systems in the healthcare industry, particularly information security. The data of people is especially sensitive in the healthcare industry. If important information gets leaked (Eg. IC, credit card number, address, etc.), a person’s identity, financial status, and safety might get compromised. This results in the responsible organization losing a lot of money in compensating these people and even more resources expended trying to fix the fault. Therefore, a framework for a blockchain-based healthcare data management system for healthcare was proposed. In this framework, the usage of a blockchain network is explored to store the encryption key of the patient’s data. As for the actual data, it is encrypted and its encrypted data, called ciphertext, is stored in a cloud storage platform. Furthermore, there are some issues that have to be emphasized and tackled for future improvements, such as a multi-user scheme that could be proposed, authentication issues that have to be tackled or migrating the backend processes into the blockchain network. Due to the nature of blockchain technology, the data will be tamper-proof, and its read-only function can only be accessed by authorized users such as doctors and nurses. This guarantees the confidentiality and immutability of the patient’s data.

Keywords: distributed, healthcare, efficiency, security, blockchain, confidentiality and immutability

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Authors: Dilang Thouk Tharjiath

Abstract:

This study seeks to examine determinants of access to finance: the case of micro and small enterprises in bonga town. It identifies the sector as the key to unlocking the economic potentials of the country. For the achievement of the objective of the study simple random and stratified sampling has been used to select 179 respondents, primary and secondary data were used, primary data were collected through face to face interview and preparing questionnaire and secondary data were collected through reviewing firms record and reports, quantitative research approach were used and the data obtained were analyzed using descriptive research design. Access to finance is one of the key obstacles of MSE’s not only when starting the business project but also when operating. Identifying the major determinants of access to finance is therefore quite crucial. Based on descriptive result the financiers specially formal financiers tend to grant credit easily for enterprises which are located near to town, having operators with higher educational level, experienced and with a positive attitudes towards or fulfill their lending procedures, and a firm having collateralized asset, prepare business plan, maintain accounting practice ,large and old enough. Finally the study recommended that As Educational level of entrepreneurs has significant effect on access to credit from bank and the managers or owners education level is low in Bonga town the concerned bodies of both the government and non-governmental institutions in collaboration with Bonga town MSE development office are recommended to create awareness and facilitate the provision of additional training for those with lower educational level.

Keywords: credit, entrepreneur, enterprise, manager

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Authors: Muhammed Muvaffak Alhasan, Ali Alriyami, Ali Almanei

Abstract:

Despite the extreme importance of etymological studies in documenting the linguistic heritage, and showing its roots and connections in the classical language; However, etymological dictionaries are still rare in the Arab library in general. Etymology is the science of etymology that investigates how vocabulary is reproduced and reproduced, by exploring the origin of words and the phonetic and semantic changes that occurred in them over time, trying to reconfigure an identity card for the word showing its origin and the path it took through time until it reached its current state. This research seeks to make an etymological study on the terminology used in the traditional dagger making in the Sultanate of Oman through the following steps: 1. Collecting the terms relating to traditional dagger making and recording them in order to document and preserve them. 2. Arranging them alphabetically in order to facilitate searching and dealing with them. 3. Setting up a historical identification card for each word by applying an etymological study that shows its source from which they descended its links with standard and the phonological and semantic changes it underwent until it reached its current form.

Keywords: cultural heritage, etymology, Omani dagger, Oman

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Authors: Anitha Narasimhan, Aarthy Anandan, Madhan Karky, C. N. Subalalitha

Abstract:

Games can be the excellent tools for teaching a language. There are few e-learning games in Indian languages like word scrabble, cross word, quiz games etc., which were developed mainly for educational purposes. This paper proposes a Tamil word game called, “Porul”, which focuses on education as well as on players’ thinking and decision-making skills. Porul is a multiple choice based quiz game, in which the players attempt to answer questions correctly from the given multiple options that are generated using a unique algorithm called the Option Selection algorithm which explores the semantics of the question in various dimensions namely, synonym, rhyme and Universal Networking Language semantic category. This kind of semantic exploration of the question not only increases the complexity of the game but also makes it more interesting. The paper also proposes a Scoring Algorithm which allots a score based on the popularity score of the question word. The proposed game has been tested using 20,000 Tamil words.

Keywords: Porul game, Tamil word game, option selection, flash card, scoring, algorithm

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Authors: Abdul Kader

Abstract:

This paper attempts to investigate several contributory factors to recent volatility in the Islamic Banking sector of Bangladesh. In particular, the study explores corporate governance, credit management, credit regulations, inept board of directors, using religious sentiment as a means to deceive general people, and the degree of political interference as potential contributory factors. To find the correlation among different variables, semi-structured questionnaires were distributed among the clients, bank managers, some Banking scholars and ex-members of the board of directors of three Islamic Banks in Bangladesh. Later, ten interviews were collected from key informants to gain in-depth information about the present mismanagement of Islamic Banks in Bangladesh. After then, data were analyzed using statistical software and substantiated by secondary sources like newspapers, reports and investigative reports aired in screen media. The paper found a correlation between almost all contributory factors and recent unstable conditions in the Islamic banking sector. After performing regression analysis, this paper found a more significant relationship between some of the contributory factors with Banking volatility than others. For instance, credit management, inept board of directors, depriving customers of proving no profit in the name of business—no interest-- and political interference have a strong significant positive correlation with the present poor condition of Islamic Banking. This paper concludes that while internal management is important in recovering the losses, the government needs to ensure framing better policy for the Islamic Banking system, Central Bank needs to supervise and monitor all Islamic banks meticulously and loan receivers must go through the impartial evaluation and approved by the representatives of the Central Shariah Board. This paper also recommends that there is a need to strengthen the auditing system and improve regulatory oversight of the Islamic Banks in Bangladesh. Policy recommendations that this paper put forward could provide an outline for dealing with the existing challenging condition of Islamic Banks and these could be applied to similar problems in other countries where the Islamic Banking model exists.

Keywords: Islamic bank, volatility in banking sector, shariah law, credit management, political interference

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Authors: Yiğit Gürler, Berkay Türkcan İmrağ, Taylan Güçkıran, İbrahim Şimşek, Alper Taşdemirci

Abstract:

Paper honeycombs, which is a sandwich structure, consists of two liner faces and one paper honeycomb core. These materials are widely used in the packaging industry due to their low cost, low weight, good energy absorption capabilities and easy recycling properties. However, to provide maximum protection to the products in cases such as the drop of the packaged products, the mechanical behavior of these materials should be well known at the packaging design stage. In this study, the necessary input parameters for the modeling study were obtained by performing compression tests in the through-thickness and in-plane directions of paper-based honeycomb sandwich structures. With the obtained parameters, homogeneous and micro-mechanical numerical models were developed in the Ls-Dyna environment. The material card used for the homogeneous model is MAT_MODIFIED_HONEYCOMB, and the material card used for the micromechanical model is MAT_PIECEWISE_LINEAR_PLASTICITY. As a result, the effectiveness of homogeneous and micromechanical modeling approaches for paper-based honeycomb sandwich structure was investigated using force-displacement curves. Densification points and peak points on these curves will be compared.

Keywords: environmental packaging, mechanical characterization, Ls-Dyna, sandwich structure

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Authors: Temesgen Yaekob Ergano, Sure Pulla Rao

Abstract:

The study on financial development and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa utilizes System GMM analysis to investigate the relationship between financial development indicators and economic performance in the region. The research findings reveal significant impacts of various financial indicators on economic growth, such as the positive influence of bank liquid reserves to bank assets ratio (R/A), trade openness, and the broad money to total reserves ratio (M/R) on the economic growth of Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, the study highlights the negative impact of domestic credit provided to the private sector by banks (D_bank) on economic growth, emphasizing the importance of prudent credit allocation to avoid over-indebtedness and financial crises. These results provide valuable insights for policymakers aiming to foster sustainable economic growth in the region by leveraging financial development effectively.

Keywords: financial development, economic growth, Sub-Saharan Africa, system GMM analysis, financial indicators.

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