353 research outputs found
A Vision Towards the Future of Cryptocurrencies Rooting, its Financial Significance, and Legal Challenges in its Use
Encrypted currencies have become an undeniable reality among investors and speculators in various countries around the world, which necessitates standing on the most prominent issues raised by these currencies, so the researchers decided to discuss in detail the theoretical side of encrypted currencies from various perspectives such as the concept, history, reality, future, and the Islamic perspective on it. In this article, we discuss the notion of financial technology, how it began, and where it has reached, coinciding with the business world seeing a new revolution symbolized by the birth of cryptocurrencies and how the world is rapidly approaching it. Furthermore, we discuss the types of currencies and the most famous cryptocurrencies with their advantages and disadvantages in dealing with their applications, their legal regulation, and the extent of legal liability arising from their misuse, followed by a detailed presentation about the blockchain, we also talk about the relationship between cryptocurrencies, their requirements, risks, and struggles, and finally we will talk about cryptocurrencies from the point of view of investors
Soliton response to transient trap variations
The response of bright and dark solitons to rapid variations in an expulsive
longitudinal trap is investigated. We concentrate on the effect of transient
changes in the trap frequency in the form of temporal delta kicks and the
hyperbolic cotangent functions. Exact expressions are obtained for the soliton
profiles. This is accomplished using the fact that a suitable linear
Schrodinger stationary state solution in time can be effectively combined with
the solutions of non-linear Schrodinger equation, for obtaining solutions of
the Gross-Pitaevskii equation with time dependent scattering length in a
harmonic trap. Interestingly, there is rapid pulse amplification in certain
scenarios
Low admission triglyceride and mortality in acute coronary syndrome patients
Background: The relationship between admission triglyceride (TG) levels and long-term
outcomes has not been established in patients with acute coronary syndrome. We tested the
hypothesis that patients who develop non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction
(NSTEMI) despite low TG have a worse cardiovascular outcome in the long term.
Methods: Patients admitted with NSTEMI between 1 January 1997 and 31 December 2000
and with fasting lipid profiles measured within 24 hours of admission were included for
analysis. Baseline characteristics and three-year all-cause mortality were compared between
the patients with TG above and below the median. Multivariate analysis was used to determine
the predictors of all-cause mortality and adjusted survival was analyzed using the Cox
proportional hazard model.
Results: Of 517 patients, 395 had TG £ 200 mg/dL and 124 had TG > 200 mg/dL. Patients
with low TG were more often Caucasian, with no significant differences in gender or severity
of coronary artery disease between the two groups. There was a trend for increased all-cause
mortality at six months (9% vs 3%, p = 0.045) and three years (13.4% vs 5.6%, p = 0.016) in
patients with low TG. In multivariate analysis, low TG level at admission was an independent
predictor of increased mortality at three years (adjusted OR 2.5, 95% CI = 1.04–5.9, p = 0.04).
Conclusions: In our cohort, lower TG at admission is associated with increased three-year
mortality in patients with NSTEMI. Whether this is a result of current therapy, or a marker
for worse baseline characteristics, needs to be studied further. (Cardiol J 2011; 18, 3: 297–303
Customer Satisfaction with Islamic Banks: A Case Study of Al Rajhi Bank
Abstract. This study aims to identify the factors that lead to the level of customer satisfaction about online services provided by Al Rajhi Bank, which is the largest Islamic Bank in the world. This study is conducted on a sample of customers who deal with Al Rajhi Bank in Qassim region, Saudi Arabia by measuring different constructs such as; reliability, efficiency, response, and empathy which have been taken as determinants of customer satisfaction. The sample size of the respondents is 184 clients. The study reveals that reliability, efficiency, response and empathy all have a positive and significant impact on customer satisfaction. In addition, the results also show that the dimension “efficiency” plays a leading role in the customer satisfaction. This means that indicators of efficiency like ease of service, diversity of online services, organized information and transactions in reasonable times frame are the most important factors in achieving customer satisfaction.</p
Predictors of breast-feeding in a developing country: results of a prospective cohort study.
OBJECTIVE: Data on the prevalence and predictors of breast-feeding remain scarce in Lebanon. Moreover, no study has previously addressed the effect of the paediatrician's sex on breast-feeding. The present study aimed to assess the prevalence and predictors of breast-feeding at 1 and 4 months of infant age while exploring the potential role of the sex of the paediatrician. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. Predictors of breast-feeding significant at the bivariate level were tested at 1 and 4 months through two stepwise regression models. SETTING: Infants were enrolled through the clinics and dispensaries of 117 paediatricians located in Beirut, Lebanon, and its suburbs. SUBJECTS: A total of 1,320 healthy newborn infants born between August 2001 and February 2002 were prospectively followed during the first year. FINDINGS: Breast-feeding rates at 1 and 4 months were 56.3 % and 24.7 %, respectively. Early discharge, high parity and religion were significantly associated with higher breast-feeding rates at 1 and 4 months of age. Maternal age proved significant only at 1 month, while maternal working status and sex of the paediatrician were significant at 4 months. A novel finding of our study was the positive effect of female paediatricians on breast-feeding continuation until 4 months of age (OR = 1.49; 95 % CI 1.03, 2.15). CONCLUSIONS: Breast-feeding rates are low at 1 and 4 months of infant age in Beirut. Further research to investigate the interactions between female physicians and lactating mothers in maintaining breast-feeding in other populations is warranted. The results constitute the basis for designing interventions targeting policy makers, health professionals and mothers
Experimental Investigation of Innovative Thermal Mechanical Refrigeration System
The current electrical refrigeration and air condition systems are considered as one of the major sources for ozone depletion and global warming problems. Furthermore, they consume a large percentage of the worldwide gross production of electricity (around 17%). Therefore, developing new refrigeration systems that might be able to work using renewable sources (solar, geothermal, etc.) and waste heat sources is necessary to address these problems. In this paper, the experimental investigation of an innovative thermal-mechanical refrigeration (TMR) system is presented. The TMR system replaces the electric compressor of the conventional refrigeration systems with an innovative expander-compressor unit (two connected double-acting cylinders). The proposed ECU can be driven by ultra-low heat temperature sources, has simple configuration, and high flexibility for the operating conditions. A hybrid electric-compressor and ECU refrigeration setup was developed to investigate the performance of the ECU and compare it to that of an electric compressor. The experiment was conducted using R134a as a working fluid at different masses. The results show that a maximum COP of 0.57 is obtained at a refrigerant mass of 30g (in electric mode) and a maximum COP of 0.41 is obtained at a refrigerant mass of 60g (in ECU mode)
Bose-Einstein condensates with attractive interactions on a ring
Considering an effectively attractive quasi-one-dimensional Bose-Einstein
condensate of atoms confined in a toroidal trap, we find that the system
undergoes a phase transition from a uniform to a localized state, as the
magnitude of the coupling constant increases. Both the mean-field
approximation, as well as a diagonalization scheme are used to attack the
problem.Comment: 4 pages, 4 ps figures, RevTex, typographic errors correcte
Dimensional and Temperature Crossover in Trapped Bose Gases
We investigate the long-range phase coherence of homogeneous and trapped Bose
gases as a function of the geometry of the trap, the temperature, and the
mean-field interactions in the weakly interacting limit. We explicitly take
into account the (quasi)condensate depletion due to quantum and thermal
fluctuations, i.e., we include the effects of both phase and density
fluctuations. In particular, we determine the phase diagram of the gas by
calculating the off-diagonal one-particle density matrix and discuss the
various crossovers that occur in this phase diagram and the feasibility of
their experimental observation in trapped Bose gases.Comment: One figure added, typos corrected, refernces adde
Mermin-Ho vortex in ferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensates
The Mermin-Ho and Anderson-Toulouse coreless non-singular vortices are
demonstrated to be thermodynamically stable in ferromagnetic spinor
Bose-Einstein condensates with the hyperfine state F=1. The phase diagram is
established in a plane of the rotation drive vs the total magnetization by
comparing the energies for other competing non-axis-symmetric or singular
vortices. Their stability is also checked by evaluating collective modes.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
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