Search results for: influencing factors

Authors: Samaneh serraj

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Listening anxiety has a detrimental effect on language learners. Through a qualitative study on Iranian EFL learners several factors were identified as having influence on their listening anxiety. These factors were divided into three categories, i.e. individual factors (nerves and emotionality, using inappropriate strategies and lack of practice), input factors (lack of time to process, lack of visual support, nature of speech and level of difficulty) and environmental factors (instructors, peers and class environment).

Keywords: listening Comprehension, Listening Anxiety, Foreign language learners

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Authors: Samia Jamshed Nauman Majeed

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Purpose: Globally, the pandemic of COVID -19 has created a massive distraction for educational reforms influencing learning options, education access, and outcomes of students in more than 190 countries which has carved marks in history. To explore the challenges and complications confronted by students and faculty members while ensuring access to online education, qualitative research was conducted. Methodology: For this purpose, a series of focus group discussions were conducted in different regions of Pakistan, which revealed interesting findings shared by Panelists, which include Vice-Chancellors, Rectors, and Deans of different private and public sector universities of Pakistan. The qualitative research aims to explore the challenges and success factors of online educations by students with diverse backgrounds of higher education institutions to maximize student educational outcomes. Findings: The findings revealed several challenges and opportunities when it comes to online education for students of higher education institutions. Simultaneously, the researchers discovered the key success factors necessary for online education. Lastly, the paper presents the research limitations and future research recommendations to streamline online education in a better way ensuring the students' success. Originality: The pandemic has forced the closure of social, business, and educational activities, which has drastically influence the quality of education with its subsequent impact on the economy. In response, numerous universities across the globe are forced to suspend their educational activities by closing the universities. Though online education has been adopted worldwide by the universities, which brought numerous issues for academia, particularly for underdeveloped countries, and Pakistani higher education reforms are no exception to this.

Keywords: online education, higher education institutions, COVID-19, challenges, key success factors

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Authors: Vijay Kumar, Ron Bird

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The study investigates the effect of bank-specific, industry-specific and macroeconomic variables on the profitability of conventional and Islamic banks. Our sample comprises 1,781 bank-year observations of 205 banks from four countries in the Asian region for the period 2004-2014. Our results suggest that credit quality, cost management and bank size are the keys factors that contribute positively to bank profitability in Asia. The banks with high non-performing loans and high cost-to-income ratio are more likely to be exposed to losses. The impacts of the bank-specific variables are stronger than are the industry-specific and macroeconomic variables. We find that Malaysian banks are the least profitable compared to the banks in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan. There is strong evidence to suggest that conventional banks are more profitable than Islamic banks. Our results suggest that the impact of capital adequacy ratio and bank size and loan to deposit ratio vary across Islamic and conventional banks and across different subsamples.

Keywords: capital adequacy ratio, Islamic banks, non-performing loan ratio, ownership

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Authors: Yun-Ching Tu, Yu-Chun Chih

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People with aphasia (PWA) may have communicative difficulties in their daily lives, but research on functional communication in aphasia is still limited in Taiwan. The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of aphasia-related factors on functional communication assessment. This study adopted a convenience sampling method. Thirty aphasic participants participated in the study. During the test, the examiner would ask questions that are encountered in daily life and record the participant‘s responses. Some questions would provide pictures to simulate situations in daily life. The results showed that the non-fluent aphasia group performed significantly worse than the fluent aphasia group. In addition, patients with severe aphasia performed significantly lower scores than patients with moderate aphasia and mild aphasia. However, group differences in the chronic stage and acute stage were not significant. In sum, since communication in daily life is diverse and language is still needed in the communication process, patients with aphasia who have better language ability may have relatively better functional communication. In contrast, the more severely impaired the language ability of a patient with aphasia is, the more functional communication will be affected, resulting in poor communication performance in daily life.

Keywords: adult, aphasia, assessment, functional communication

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Authors: Jose Cristiano Pereira, Gilson Brito Alves Lima

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Ergonomics is a key factor affecting the operational safety and quality in the aircraft engine manufacturing industry and evidence shows that the lack of attention to it can increase the risk of accidents. In order to emphasize the importance of ergonomics, this paper systematically reviews the critical processes used in the aircraft engine production industry with focus on the ergonomic factors. about the subject to identify key ergonomic factors. Experts validated the factors and used AHP to rank the factors in order of significance. From the six key risk factors identified, the ones with the highest weight are psychological demand followed by understanding of operational side. These factors suggest that measures must be taken to improve ergonomic factors, quality and safety in the manufacturing of aircraft engines.

Keywords: ergonomics, safety, aviation, aircraft engine production

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Authors: Abir S. AL-Harrasi, Eyad B. AL-Zadjali, Zahran S. AL-Salti

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Entrepreneurship has captured the attention of policy-makers, educators and researchers in the last few decades. It has been regarded as a main driver for economic growth, development and employment generation in many countries worldwide. However, scholars have not agreed on the key factors that impact entrepreneurial intention. This study attempts, through an extensive literature review, to provide a holistic view and a more comprehensive understanding of the key factors that lead university undergraduate students to become entrepreneurs. A systematic literature review is conducted and several scientific articles and reports have been examined. The results of this study indicate that there are four main sets of factors: the personality-traits factors, contextual factors, motivational factors, and personal background factors. This research will serve as a base for future studies and will have valuable implications for policy makers and educators.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial intention, literature review, economic growth

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Authors: Yadchol Tawetanawanich

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Depression of elderly is a mental health problem that impacts tremendously on the elderly themselves, their family, and society. the purposes of this descriptive research were to examine prevalence rate of elderly depression and to study factors related to depression in elderly including 1) individual factors: sex, education, marital status, 2) economic factors: occupation, adequate income 3) health factors: chronic illnesses , disability, 4) social factors: family relationship, community relationship, 5) knowledge of depression, and 6) self-care behavior. The subject in this study included 273 elderly in Ladboakao sub-district, Banpong district, Ratchaburi province, Thailand. Data were collected through questionnaires and were analyzed using percentage, mean, standard deviation, chi-square, and one-way ANOVA. The results of the study revealed that: The prevalence rate of elderly depression were 21.61%, factors included economic factors, health factors, knowledge about depression, and self-care behavior were statistically significant positively related to depression of elderly (p<0.05), but individual factors and social factors were not significantly related to depression. It is also important for nurses to assess factors related to depression of the elderly in order to develop the model of care and use self-care strategies to contribute the positive outcomes.

Keywords: associated factors, depression, elderly, self-care

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Authors: Ngoc-Hieu Vu

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Dairy production in Vietnam is a relatively new agricultural activity and milk production increased remarkably in recent years. Smallholders are still the main drivers for this development, especially in the southern part of the country. However, information on the farming practices is very limited. Therefore, this study aimed to determine factors influencing milk yield and quality (milk fat, total solids, solids-not-fat, total number of bacteria, and somatic cell count) and revenue of dairy farms in Southern Vietnam. The collection of data was at the farm level; individual animal records were unavailable. The 539 studied farms were located in the provinces Lam Dong (N=111 farms), Binh Duong (N=69 farms), Long An (N=174 farms), and Ho Chi Minh city (N=185 farms). The dataset included 9221 monthly test-day records of the farms from January 2013 to May 2015. Seasons were defined as rainy and dry. Farms sizes were classified as small (< 10 milking cows), medium (10 to 19 milking cows) and large (≥ 20 milking cows). The model for each trait contained year-season and farm region-farm size as subclass fixed effects, and individual farm and residual as random effects. Results showed that year-season, region, and farm size were determining sources of variation affecting all studied traits. Milk yield was higher in dry than in rainy seasons (P < 0.05), while it tended to increase from years 2013 to 2015. Large farms had higher yields (445.6 kg/cow) than small (396.7 kg/cow) and medium (428.0 kg/cow) farms (P < 0.05). Small farms, in contrast, were superior to large farms in terms of milk fat, total solids, solids-not-fat, total number of bacteria, and somatic cell count than large farms (P < 0.05). Revenue per cow was higher in large compared with medium and small farms. In conclusion, large farms achieved higher milk yields and revenues per cow, while small farms were superior in milk quality. Overall, milk yields were low and better training, financial support and marketing opportunities for farmers are needed to improve dairy production and increase farm revenues in Southern Vietnam.

Keywords: farm size, milk yield and quality, season, Southern Vietnam

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Authors: Sun-Young Jang, Sung-Ah Kim, Dongyoun Shin

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Current real-estate value estimation, difficult for laymen, usually is performed by specialists. This paper presents an automated estimation process based on big data and machine-learning technology that calculates influences of building conditions on real-estate price measurement. The present study analyzed actual building sales sample data for Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea, measuring the major influencing factors among the various building conditions. Further to that analysis, a prediction model was established and applied using RapidMiner Studio, a graphical user interface (GUI)-based tool for derivation of machine-learning prototypes. The prediction model is formulated by reference to previous examples. When new examples are applied, it analyses and predicts accordingly. The analysis process discerns the crucial factors effecting price increases by calculation of weighted values. The model was verified, and its accuracy determined, by comparing its predicted values with actual price increases.

Keywords: apartment complex, big data, life-cycle building value analysis, machine learning

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Authors: Yichao Lv, Minmin Cai, Yanqiang Tao, Xinyuan Zou, Chao Zhang, Xiangping Liu

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Objective: This study aims to explore the network structure of personality traits and mental health and identify key factors for effective intervention strategies. Methods: All participants (N = 6,067; 3,368 females) underwent the Eysenck Personality Scale (EPQ) to measure personality traits and the Symptom Self-rating Scale (SCL-90) to measure psychiatric symptoms. Using the mean value of the SCL-90 total score plus one standard deviation as the cutoff, 854 participants (14.08%; 528 females) were categorized as individuals exhibiting potential psychological symptoms and were included in the follow-up network analysis. The structure and bridge centrality of the network for dimensions of EPQ and SCL-90 were estimated. Results: Between the EPQ and SCL-90, psychoticism (P), extraversion (E), and neuroticism (N) showed the strongest positive correlations with somatization (Som), interpersonal sensitivity (IS), and hostility (Hos), respectively. Extraversion (E), somatization (Som), and anxiety (Anx) were identified as the most important bridge factors influencing the overall network. Conclusions: This study explored the network structure and complex connections between mental health and personality traits from a network perspective, providing potential targets for intervening in adolescent personality traits and mental health.

Keywords: EPQ, SCL-90, Chinese adolescents, network analysis

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Authors: Sven Gehrke, Johannes Ruhland

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Data is the oil of our time, without them progress would come to a hold [1]. On the other hand, the mistrust of data mining is increasing [2]. The paper at hand shows different aspects of the concept of trust and describes the information asymmetry of the typical stakeholders of a data mining project using the CRISP-DM phase model. Based on the identified influencing factors in relation to trust, problematic aspects of the current approach are verified using various interviews with the stakeholders. The results of the interviews confirm the theoretically identified weak points of the phase model with regard to trust and show potential research areas.

Keywords: trust, data mining, CRISP DM, stakeholder management

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Authors: Azman Ramlie, Vivian Foo Jing Wen

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As the advancement of technology has tremendously changed the way people communicate with each other, it has opened up opportunities for interracial relationships. Interracial relationship is also known as intercultural or interethnic relationships. This research topic aims to study on students’ perceptions toward interracial relationship in terms of their level of acceptance and approval. In addition, the study also focuses on determining and ranking the factors that affects students’ perceptions towards interracial relationship. This study also targets to determine the differences in students’ perceptions from business and communication major. This study uses a sample of university students from Sunway University, particularly on students in business and communication major. The study was conducted through online survey questionnaires. Results revealed that students’ level of acceptance towards interracial relationship was high. In addition, results also further indicated that family members’ support was one of the most important factors in influencing students’ perception towards interracial relationship. No diverse differences of perceptions among students in business and communication major towards interracial relationship were shown in the findings. Most of the result showed that both majors turned out to have similar perceptions towards interracial relationship. It can be said that the students’ perception towards interracial relationship did not differ from which major the students was in but their family background that would shape their perceptions.

Keywords: interracial relationship, racial, relationship, perceptions

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Authors: Yuan Zhang, Xin Fu, Yixin Tan

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Gender role conflict is a key factor influencing the mental health condition of adolescents. It has a strong connection with the noticeably growing mental health crisis of high school students. This study elucidates the relationship between gender role conflict and reports of subjective well-being of teenagers through mixed-methods empirical research based on surveys conducted in two Chinese cities, namely Shenzhen and Yuxi. These two cities are from two provinces of very distinct economic and cultural backgrounds. We believe a comparison between the two cities reveals the unequally distributed social conditions in China. We found that teenagers who possess a higher degree of gender role conflict tend to exhibit more negative emotions and that this relationship is conditioned upon other important factors such as gender, only child status, and socio-economic factors. Furthermore, we discovered that the social environment that is more progressive and open to various gender roles is correlated with higher levels of subjective well-being of teenagers in Shenzhen and Yunnan.

Keywords: gender role conflict, mental health conditions, subjective well-being, social environment

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Authors: Hassan Manouchehri

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The present study aimed to identify and evaluate the factors affecting violence against women. The statistical population included all couples referring to family counseling centers in Tehran due to domestic violence during the past year. A number of 305 people were selected as a statistical sample using simple random sampling and Cochran's formula in unlimited conditions. A researcher-made questionnaire including 110 items was used for data collection. The face validity and content validity of the questionnaire were confirmed by 30 experts and its reliability was obtained above 0.7 for all studied variables in a preliminary test with 30 subjects and it was acceptable. In order to analyze the data, descriptive statistical methods were used with SPSS software version 22 and inferential statistics were used for modeling structural equations in Smart PLS software version 2. Evaluating the theoretical framework and domestic and foreign studies indicated that, in general, four main factors, including cultural and social factors, economic factors, legal factors, as well as medical factors, underlie violence against women. In addition, structural equation modeling findings indicated that cultural and social factors, economic factors, legal factors, and medical factors affect violence against women.

Keywords: violence against women, cultural and social factors, economic factors, legal factors, medical factors

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Authors: Yoga Maulana Putra, Herry Hudrasyah

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The Internet has now become an important part of human life; it can be accessed through a computer or even a smartphone almost anywhere and anytime. The Internet has created many social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Instagram has been acquired by Facebook in 2012. Since then, Instagram is growing fast. And now, Instagram is transforming from photo-sharing social media into business tools. As the result, some new behavior has been discovered. Some of Instagram user is becoming popular. These people also being called minor celebrity and they are also being used as marketing tools by many companies to influencing or promoting their product or service. This minor celebrity is existing because of their behavior in using Instagram. The company is using the personal influence of the minor celebrity to promoting and influencing their product or service, and the minor celebrity gets paid as much as their rate card. And their rate card based on their followers and insight. This research is using a qualitative method. An interview is being done to 6 minor celebrities from many different categories such as photographer, travel blogger, lifestyle, food blogger, fashion, and healthcare. Theory of reasoned behavior is being used as the grounded theory to discover the reason for their behavior and personal influence to describe their way to influencing people. The result of the interview is most of the minor celebrities is influenced by their friend’s circle in the process of using Instagram. They also had a different way to use their personal influence to affect their followers when the company employs them.

Keywords: humanities and social sciences, Instagram, minor celebrity, social media

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Authors: Wen-Hsiang Lai, Mei-Wen Chen

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In the face of developing new technologies, identifying potential new technological product and the suitable market is important. Since laser technology is widely applied in many industries, this study explores the technology commercialization of laser technology. According to the literature review and industry analysis, this study discusses the factors influencing the consumer’s purchase intention and tries to find a new market direction to develop the laser technology. This study adopts a new product adoption model as the research framework and uses three variables of ‘Consumer characteristics’, ‘Perception of product attributes’ and ‘External environment’ to discuss the purchase intention of consumers, who are physicians and owners of the medical cosmetics. This study finds that in the major variable of ‘Consumer characteristics’, the sub-variables of ‘Personality’, ‘Knowledge of product’, ‘Perceived risk’ and ‘Motivation’ are significantly related to consumer’s purchase intention. In the major variable of ‘Perception of product attributes’, the sub-variables of ‘Brand’ and ‘Measure of manufacture country’ are the key factors that affect the willingness of consumer’s purchase intention. Finally, in the major variable of ‘External environment’ variable, the sub-variables of ‘Time’ and ‘Price’ have significant impact on consumer’s purchase intention.

Keywords: technology commercialization, new product adoption, consumer’s purchase intention, laser technology

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Authors: Xiaofeng Fu

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This paper begins with the deconstruction of the localization of China's bicycle renaissance. Then think about how to scientifically plan bicycle traffic in a sustainable way in typed cities, especially in mountainous cities, because they need to respond to more serious geographical issues. Therefore, by sorting out the international research on bicycle traffic in mountainous cities, bike-ability is summarized as a prevalent qualitative analysis medium. Then this paper lists the influencing factors of likeability, the general research framework, and responds to the common problem of mountain cities, that is, the treatment of road longitudinal slopes, to assist urban managers in assessing whether the city's complex terrain is suitable for cycling and identifying possible improvements.

Keywords: traffic planning, bikeability, cycling suitability, mountainous cities

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Authors: Fatma Khadra

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The objective of this research is to identify the acceptance of new technology in a sample of 150 Participants from Qatar University. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), we used the Davis’s scale (1989) which contains two item scales for Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use. The TAM represents an important theoretical contribution toward understanding how users come to accept and use technology. This model suggests that when people are presented with a new technology, a number of variables influence their decision about how and when they will use it. The results showed that participants accept more technology because flexibility, clarity, enhancing the experience, enjoying, facility, and useful. Also, results showed that younger participants accept more technology than others.

Keywords: new technology, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, technology acceptance model

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Authors: Sylvie Studente, Filia J. Garivaldis

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The emotions and cognitions that underpin creative performance have been of interest for decades if not centuries, however, research evidence has still not conclusively offered reliable predictors of creativity. It is unclear whether stressors are detrimental to creative thinking, or whether some stress imposes necessary constraints to facilitate the creative process. The present research aims to examine the role of individual differences in self-regulation in influencing the links between emotions, cognitions, and creativity. Self-regulation is the capacity to disengage from moods that inhibit goal progress, and cope with failure, focus on impending intentions, and enhance the intrinsic appeal of tasks. Therefore, it is anticipated that individuals with an intuitive ability in self-regulation are able to harness their emotions and cognitions, to perform well on a creative task. In contrast, individuals with a deficiency in self-regulation will experience difficulty in such a task. Furthermore, stress in the form of positive and negative assessment feedback in the context of education will be manipulated to explore the interactive effects of environmental and individual difference factors on creative performance. The results will provide insight into the underlying factors associated with emotions and creativity, and inform future research in individual differences in cognition and emotion, and environmental triggers of creativity.

Keywords: creativity, feedback, self-regulation, stress

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Authors: Sujui Yang, Peeraya Somsak, Markus Blut

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This research examines the international tourists in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It aims to study non-Thai tourists’ of this region to better understand their behavior and motives influencing the choice of cultural heritage tourists in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The data includes questionnaires of 250 tourists in the study area. The most important motives influencing decisions choices are several concerning customers’ perspectives on tourist destinations in cultural heritage in Chiang Mai province. Thai tourists in Chiang Mai are single, 72.5 percent are in the age of 21-40 years old and 50% of sample group are from central and northern of Thailand. Tourists’ motives capture the factor loading as well as the corresponding show 5 components: relaxation motives, place/ physical motives, learning motives, image motives, and achievement motives.

Keywords: tourists motives, cultural heritage, Chiang Mai, customers’ perspectives

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Authors: Sandra Ghavam Shirazi, Komeil Valipourian, Mohammad Reza Golhashem

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This paper represents the basic idea and mechanisms associated with the durability of geomembranes and discusses the factors influencing the service life and temperature of geomembrane liners. Geomembrane durability is stated as field performance and laboratory test outcomes under various conditions. Due to the high demand of geomembranes as landfill barriers and their crucial role in sensitive projects, sufficient service life of geomembranes is very important, therefore in this paper, the durability, the effect of temperature on geomembrane and the role of this type of reinforcement in different types of soil will be discussed. Also, the role of geomembrane in the earthquake will be considered in the last part of the paper.

Keywords: geomembrane, durability temperature soil mechanic, soil

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Authors: Khatesiree Sripoothon, Usanee Sengpanich, Rattana Sittioum

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The objective of this study is to examine the factors influencing consumer purchasing decisions about healthy food. This model consists of two latent variables: Consumer Perception relating to NCDs and Consumer Perceived Product Value. The study was conducted in the northern provinces of Thailand, which are popular with tourists and have received support from the government for health tourism. A survey was used as the data collection method, and the questionnaire was applied to 385 tourists. An accidental sampling method was used to identify the sample. The statistics of frequency, percentage, mean, and structural equation model were used to analyze the data obtained. Additionally, all factors had a significant positive influence on healthy food purchasing decisions (p<0.01) and were predictive of healthy food purchasing decisions at 46.20 (R2=0.462). Also, these findings seem to underline a supposition that consumer perceptions of NCDs and perceived product value are key variables that strengthens the competitive effects of a healthy-friendly business entrepreneur. Moreover, reduce the country's public health costs for treating patients with the disease of NCDs in Thailand.

Keywords: healthy food, perceived product value, perception of non-communicable diseases, purchasing decisions

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Authors: Andreas Ahrens, Ojaras Purvinis, Jelena Zascerinska

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A successful shopping experience without overcrowded shops and long waiting times undoubtedly leads to the release of happiness hormones and is generally considered the goal of any optimization. Factors influencing the shopping experience can be divided into internal and external ones. External factors are related, e. g. to the arrival of the customers to the shop, whereas internal are linked with the service process itself when checking out (waiting in the queue to the cash register and the scanning of the goods as well as the payment process itself) or any other non-expected delay when changing the status from a visitor to a buyer by choosing goods or items. This paper divides the customer-server interaction into five phases starting with the customer's arrival at the shop, the selection of goods, the buyer waiting in the queue to the cash register, the payment process, and ending with the customer or buyer's departure. Our simulation results show how five phases are intertwined and influence the overall shopping experience. Parameters for measuring the shopping experience are estimated based on the burstiness level in each of the five phases of the customer-server interaction.

Keywords: customers’ burstiness, cash register, customers’ wait-ing time, gap distribution function

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Authors: Abdulrahman Fahim M. Alsulami

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This paper is dedicated to a detailed investigation of the interaction between the agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) and bilateral investment treaties (BITs) in the regulation of health-related intellectual property rights in Australia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The chosen research object is complex and requires a thorough examination of a set of factors influencing the problem under investigation. At the moment, to the author’s best knowledge’ there is no academic research that would conceptualize and critically compare the regulation of health-related intellectual property rights in these two countries. While there is a substantial amount of information in the literature on certain aspects of the problem, the existing knowledge about certain aspects of the health-related regulatory frameworks in Australia and Saudi Arabia barely explains in detail the specifics of the ways in which the TRIPS agreement interacts with (BITs) in the regulation of health-related intellectual property rights. Therefore, this paper will address an evident research gap by studying an intriguing yet under-researched problem. The paper comprises five subsections. The first subsection provides an overview of the investment climate in Saudi Arabia and Australia with an emphasis on the health care industry. It will cover political, economic, and social factors influencing the investment climate in these countries, the systems of intellectual property rights protection, recent patterns relevant to the investment climate’s development, and key characteristics of the investment climate in the health care industry. The second subsection analyses BITs in Saudi Arabia and Australia in light of the countries’ responsibilities under the TRIPS Agreement. The third subsection provides a critical examination of the interaction between the TRIPS Agreement and BITs in Saudi Arabia on the basis of data collected and analyzed in previous subsections. It will investigate key discrepancies concerning the regulation of health-related intellectual property rights in Saudi Arabia and Australia from the position of BITs’ interaction with the TRIPS Agreement and explore the existing procedures for clarifying priorities between them in regulating health-related intellectual property rights. The fourth subsection of the paper provides recommendations concerning the transformation of BITS into a TRIPS+ dimension in regulating health-related intellectual property rights in Saudi Arabia and Australia. The final subsection provides a summary of differences between the Australian and Saudi BITs from the perspective of the regulation of health-related intellectual property rights under the TRIPS agreement and bilateral investment treaties.

Keywords: Australia, bilateral investment treaties, IP law, public health sector, Saudi Arabia

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Authors: Wilma Coetzee

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Statistics lecturers experience that many students who are taking a service course in statistics do not like statistics. Students in these courses tend to struggle and do not perform well. This research takes a look at the student’s perspective, with the aim to determine how to change the teaching of statistics so that students will enjoy it more and perform better. Questionnaires were used to determine the perspectives of first year service statistics students at a South African university. Factors addressed included motivation to study, attitude toward statistics, statistical anxiety, mathematical abilities and tendency to procrastinate. Logistic regression was used to determine what contributes to students performing badly in statistics. The results show that the factors that contribute the most to students performing badly are: statistical anxiety, not being motivated and having had mathematical literacy instead of mathematics in secondary school. Two open ended questions were included in the questionnaire: 'I will enjoy statistics more if…' and 'I will perform better in statistics if…'. The answers to these questions were analyzed using qualitative methods. Frequent themes were identified for each of the questions. A simulation study incorporating bootstrapping was done to determine the saturation of the themes. The majority of the students indicated that they would perform better in statistics if they studied more, managed their time better, had a flare for mathematics and if the lecturer was able to explain difficult concepts better. They also want more active learning. To ensure that students enjoy statistics more, they want an active learning experience. They want fun activities, more interaction with the lecturer and with one another, more computer based problems, and more challenges. They want a better understanding of the subject, want to understand the relevance of statistics to their future career and want excellent lecturers. These findings can be used to direct the improvement of the tuition of statistics.

Keywords: active learning, performance in statistics, statistical anxiety, statistics education

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Authors: Sevelina Ndlovu

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Financial Technology (fintech) advancement is recognised as one of the most transformational innovations in the financial industry. Fintech has given rise to internet-only digital banking, a novel financial technology advancement, and innovation that allows banking services through internet applications with no need for physical branches. This technology is becoming a new banking normal among consumers for its ubiquitous and real-time access advantages. There is evident switching and migration from traditional banking towards these fintech facilities, which could possibly pose a systemic risk if not properly understood and monitored. Fintech advancement has also brought about the emergence and escalation of financial technology consumption themes such as trust, security, perceived risk, and sustainability within the banking industry, themes scarcely covered in existing theoretic literature. To that end, the objective of this research is to investigate factors that determine fintech adoption and propose an integrated adoption model. This study aims to establish what the significant drivers of adoption are and develop a conceptual model that integrates technological, behavioral, and environmental constructs by extending the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2). It proposes integrating constructs that influence financial consumption themes such as trust, perceived risk, security, financial incentives, micro-investing opportunities, and environmental consciousness to determine the impact of these factors on the adoption and intention to use digital banking apps. The main advantage of this conceptual model is the consolidation of a greater number of predictor variables that can provide a fuller explanation of the consumer's adoption of digital banking Apps. Moderating variables of age, gender, and income are incorporated. To the best of author’s knowledge, this study is the first that extends the UTAUT2 model with this combination of constructs to investigate user’s intention to adopt internet-only digital banking apps in the UK context. By investigating factors that are not included in the existing theories but are highly pertinent to the adoption of internet-only banking services, this research adds to existing knowledge and extends the generalisability of the UTAUT2 in a financial services adoption context. This is something that fills a gap in knowledge, as highlighted to needing further research on UTAUT2 after reviewing the theory in 2016 from its original version of 2003. To achieve the objectives of this study, this research assumes a quantitative research approach to empirically test the hypotheses derived from existing literature and pilot studies to give statistical support to generalise the research findings for further possible applications in theory and practice. This research is explanatory or casual in nature and uses cross-section primary data collected through a survey method. Convenient and purposive sampling using structured self-administered online questionnaires is used for data collection. The proposed model is tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), and the analysis of primary data collected through an online survey is processed using Smart PLS software with a sample size of 386 digital bank users. The results are expected to establish if there are significant relationships between the dependent and independent variables and establish what the most influencing factors are.

Keywords: banking applications, digital banking, financial technology, technology adoption, UTAUT2

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Authors: Siti Indati Mustapa, Hussain Ali Bekhet

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Global CO2 emission and increasing fuel consumption to meet energy demand requirement has become a threat in recent decades. Effort to reduce the CO2 emission is now a matter of priority in most countries of the world including Malaysia. Transportation has been identified as the most intensive sector of carbon-based fuels and achievement of the voluntary target to meet 40% carbon intensity reduction set at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) means that the emission from the transport sector must be reduced accordingly. This posed a great challenge to Malaysia and effort has to be made to embrace suitable and appropriate energy policy for sustainable energy and emission reduction of this sector. The focus of this paper is to analyse the trends of Malaysia’s energy consumption and emission of four different transport sub-sectors (road, rail, aviation and maritime). Underlying factors influencing the growth of energy consumption and emission trends are discussed. Besides, technology status towards energy efficiency in transportation sub-sectors is presented. By reviewing the existing policies and trends of energy used, the paper highlights prospective policy options towards achieving emission reduction in the transportation sector.

Keywords: CO2 emissions, transportation sector, fuel consumption, energy policy, Malaysia

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Authors: Yin Zhang, Kai Qiao, Xiyang Zhi, Jinnan Gong, Jianming Hu

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In order to effectively detect aerial targets over long distances, an optimal matching design method of space-based optical payload is proposed. Firstly, main factors affecting optical detectability of small targets under complex environment are analyzed based on the full link of a detection system, including band center, band width and spatial resolution. Then a performance characterization model representing the relationship between image signal-to-noise ratio (SCR) and the above influencing factors is established to describe a detection system. Finally, an optimal matching design example is demonstrated for a typical aerial target by simulating and analyzing its SCR under different scene clutter coupling with multi-scale characteristics, and the optimized detection band and spatial resolution are presented. The method can provide theoretical basis and scientific guidance for space-based detection system design, payload specification demonstration and information processing algorithm optimization.

Keywords: space-based detection, aerial targets, optical system design, detectability characterization

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Authors: Skirmante Mozuriunaite

Abstract:

Contemporary metropolitan areas and large cities are dynamic, rapidly growing and continuously changing. Thus, urban transformations and mutations are not a new phenomenon, but rather a continuous process. Basic factors of urban transformation are related to development of technologies, globalisation, lifestyle, etc., which, in combination with local factors, have generated an extremely great variety of urban development conditions. This article discusses the main urbanisation processes in Lithuania during last 50 year period and social factors affecting urban functional mutations.

Keywords: dispersion, functional mutations, urbanization, urban mutations, social factors

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Authors: Maciej Kozlowski, Agnieszka Piotrowska-Piatek

Abstract:

Purpose: This article analyses the most important financial participation programmes (FPP) in Poland to show the relationship between the programmes applied and the socio-economic results of enterprises and assesses the impact of participation on these results and the impact of selected factors on the introduction of FPP. Methodology: The research has been based on a questionnaire answered by senior management of listed Polish companies that had at least one out of three major FPPs in operation, namely share ownership, profit-sharing, or a stock option scheme. Findings: The results of the empirical study conducted indicate the existence of some peculiar relationships. The vast majority of schemes in Polish public companies are aimed at the participation of the management personnel; these programmes are narrow-based (only for management) and rather hermetic, with a high concentration of stocks or shares in the hands of the management. Conclusion: FPPs generally have a positive influence on enterprise functioning. However, the effects are more social than economic (no significant economic improvement after programme implementation). The paper contributes to the debate about financial participation and suggests actions to popularize these programmes on a wider scale.

Keywords: financial participation, profit sharing, stock options, worker attitude, worker ownership

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