The Mediation Effect of Trusting Beliefs on the Relationship Between Expectation-Confirmation and Satisfaction with the Usage of Online Product Recommendation

Online Product Recommendations (OPRs) are increasingly available to onlinecustomers as a value-added self-service in evaluating and choosing a product.Research has highlighted several advantages that customers can gain from usingOPRs. However, the realization of these advantages depends on whether and towhat extent customers embrace and fully utilise them. The relatively low OPR USAgerate indicates that customers have not yet developed trust in OPRs’ performance.Past studies also have established that satisfaction is a valid measure of systemperformance and a consistent significant determinant of users’ continuous systemusage. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the mediation effect of trustingbeliefs on the relationship between expectation-confirmation and satisfaction. Theproposed research model is tested using data collected via an online survey from626 existing users of OPRs. The empirical results revealed that social-psychologicalbeliefs (perceived confirmation and trust) are significant contributors to customersatisfaction with OPRs. Additionally, trusting beliefs partially mediate the impactof perceived confirmation on customer satisfaction. Moreover, this study validatesthe extensions of the interpersonal trust construct to trust in OPRs and examinesthe nomological validity of trust in terms of competence, benevolence, andintegrity. The findings provide a number of theoretical and practical implications.&nbsp

Regionalization and harmonization in TVET

A transversal skill is one of the skills needed in every type of workplace setting. There is limited information about the perceptions of which transferable skills are needed in the workplace. The objective of this study is to explore the transferable skills among students and lecturers in TVET higher learning institutions in Indonesia and Malaysia. In the present study, transferable skills consist of communication skills, collaboration skills, problem-solving skills, entrepreneurship, and learning to learn skills. A qualitative research was conducted using survey. The five Likert scale questionnaire was distributed to lecturers and students from selected Malaysian and Indonesian universities who have bachelor program in engineering. Based on the analysis outcomes, it is clearly shown that Malaysian university engineering students yielded significantly higher scores on the perceptions of transferable skill acquisition in all measured components compared to their counterparts in Indonesia. Similar patterns of data distribution have been observed in Malaysian and Indonesian engineering students. Based on the lecturers’ perception, Malaysian and Indonesian Engineering Lecturers have comparable perceptions in the aspects of problem solving skills and entrepreneurship skills. In contrast, Malaysian university engineering lecturers gained significantly higher scores on the perception of communication skill, collaboration skill, and learning to learn skill compared to the Indonesian lecturers. The results indicate the need to increase transferable skills of both lecturers and students

Non-destructive Method for Maturity Assessment of Indonesian's Mangoes by NIRS Spectroscopy

Rapid and non-destructive method to determine maturity quality of mangoes accurately has played an increasing role in the fruits supply chain involving automation. Diffuse reflectance spectra (R) and absorbance spectra (Log 1/R) in the spectral range from 900 to 1400 nm were measured using NIRS spectroscopy at three different points of 257 Indonesians mangoes cultivar arumanis, manalagi, gadong, gincu and golek of different ripeness indices. Through principle component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) of the absorbance and reflectance spectra, cultivars can be differed with an accuracy of 99.8%. Multiple linear regression was applied to develop calibration models from mangoes with soluble solid content ranged between 5.5 and 13.5 % Brix and firmness ranged between 0.25 and 4.50 kgf. Log 1 /R calibration model could assess the soluble solid content and firmness of the mangoes with higher accuracy than R model with the coefficient of determination of 0.96 and 0.93, respectively. Results showed that NIRS spectroscopy has the feasibility to be employed in the maturity measures of Indonesian's mangoes

A Modified Technique for Measuring Shrinkage of Clay Soils

The American Society for Testing and Materials D427 and D4943 methods for volumetric shrinkage were modified using sand, a non-toxic natural material, instead of mercury and wax respectively. The modified method (sand) was compared with the D427 (mercury) and D4943 (wax) methods for measuring volumetric and linear shrinkage. The sand method gave similar results as the mercury and wax methods for shrinkage of samples of three clay soils taken from three different depths. There was no significant difference between the three methods used to measure the shrinkage. Therefore the sand method is a useful alternative because it is environmentally friendly, safe and cheaper to use compared to the mercury and wax methods

Model Development of Children Under Mortality Rate with Group Method of Data Handling

In this research we examine aspects of the interdependence between economic development and the use of environmental and natural resources assets from global data published by united nations. for that purpose, we use data mining techniques.data mining techniques applied in this paper were: 1) group method of data handling (gmdh), originally from engineering, introducing principles of evolution - inheritance, mutation and selection - for generating a network structure systematically to develop the automatic model, synthesis, and its validation; 2) step wise regression were also applied for some cases.data sets for this research consist of one sets integration data of air quality data and macroeconomic data of the cross-country data of world development indicator 2003 (wdi 2003). the result shows that the mortality rate of children under five years old is dependent on sanitation and water facilities obtained from gmdh results. however, the results from step-wise regression shows that mortality rate was dependent on annual deforestation, particulate matter, nationally protected area, with the big contribution was from annual deforestation

A Modified Differential Transform Method for Solving Nonlinear Systems

Many natural phenomena are now being modelled by fractional calculus, however, there is still need for improvements of the present numerical approaches due to the non-local property of the fractional derivative and difficulty in solving problems related to physical units. In this paper, we present an improved numerical method based on Newton-Raphson fractional method (NFM) for solution of some nonlinear systems in complex space. Unlike in the Newton-Raphson fractional method, the commands of fractional derivatives are replaced with functions which is valid for one and several variables. The conformable fractional derivative of fractional order was employed to replace the first order derivative in the Newton method. Numerical results have been presented which show that the proposed numerical approach is efficient and promising

Model Development of Children Under Mortality Rate With Group Method of Data Handling

in this research we examine aspects of the interdependence between economic development and the use of environmental and natural resources assets from global data published by united nations. for that purpose, we use data mining techniques.data mining techniques applied in this paper were: 1) group method of data handling (gmdh), originally from engineering, introducing principles of evolution - inheritance, mutation and selection - for generating a network structure systematically to develop the automatic model, synthesis, and its validation; 2) step wise regression were also applied for some cases.data sets for this research consist of one sets integration data of air quality data and macroeconomic data of the cross-country data of world development indicator 2003 (wdi 2003). the result shows that the mortality rate of children under five years old is dependent on sanitation and water facilities obtained from gmdh results. however, the results from step-wise regression shows that mortality rate was dependent on annual deforestation, particulate matter, nationally protected area, with the big contribution was from annual deforestation.

Pharmacodynamics Drug Interactions of Metformin with Aspirin and Nifedipine

Metformin is now being recognized as the standard therapy in T2D patients who are overweight. Metformin has many drug-disease interactions that can increase the risk of metformin-associated lactic acidosis. Therefore this study was conducted to evaluate any possible pharmacodynamic interactions between metformin and drugs used to treat chronic diseases e.g. Hypertension. The rats were fasted overnight before inducing diabetes with streptozotocin. The rats were given an intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (50 mg kg−1) freshly prepared in 0.1M sodium citrate buffer. The diabetic state was confirmed 72 h after streptozotocin injection. Diabetic rats were grouped into seven groups each group of five rats and distributed among the normal control group diabetic control group and the treatment groups. The treatment continued for 10 days. Blood samples were taken before treatment and after 10 days and analyzed for serum glucose, cholesterol, HDL, LDL, and triglycerides. In the diabetic control group which was given STZ alone the blood glucose level decreased significantly (p < 0.05) after 10 days but still above the hyperglycemic level (200mg/dl). The same was observed in the group treated with metformin. The group treated with nifedipine and aspirin showed significant reduction (p < 0.01) in the glucose level below the hyperglycemic level (200mg/dl). While the groups treated with (Metformin + Nifedipine) and (Metformin +Aspirin) showed highly significant reduction (P<0.001) in blood glucose level. These results conclude that the combination of (metformin +Nifedipine) and the combination of (Metformin + Aspirin) have highly significant hypoglycemic effect. It also showed that Nifedipine has promising role in reducing blood glucose level, lipid profile especially LDL-cholesterol, and body weight

A Comparative Study of Enhanced Nonlinear PI to Multivariable Nonlinear Plant

The static gains of PI controller have limitation to handle the process nonlinearities of the system. This suggests the development of enhanced nonlinear PI controller where a nonlinear gain function is cascaded to PI parameters. Two nonlinear gain functions are developed and the effectiveness of the control performance is investigated for two different control structures for a multivariable nonlinear wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). It was proved that superior output with the lower mean error was obtained by developed nonlinear PI specifically in the multivariable control structure. The developed nonlinear PI offers simpler control structure and easy implementation hence offering alternative control strategy for the multivariable system

Kaposi sarcoma coexisting with new onset diabetes mellitus in a 42-year old KIDNEY TRANSPLANT RECIPIENT: A CASE REPORT

Renal allograft recipients develop several complications such as infections and neoplasms. New onset diabetes mellitus is a common transplant complication but rarely coexist with Kaposi sarcoma. Case report: We report the case of a 42-year-old banker who presented with polyuria, polydipsia, polyphagia, weight loss and dark spots in the lower limbs 8 months after he had received a live-related kidney transplant in India. He is not a known diabetic and had no family history of diabetes mellitus. His post-transplant immunosuppressive drugs included Myfortic® (mycophenolate), tacrolimus and prednisolone. At presentation he was wasted, dehydrated and afebrile, with multiple hyperpigmented nodules and plaques in both his lower limbs. Random blood glucose was 38mmol/l, had 2+ glucosuria and no ketones. Biopsy of skin lesions showed features of Kaposi sarcoma. A diagnosis of post-transplant diabetes mellitus and Kaposi sarcoma was made. His treatment included soluble insulin and antibiotics. Tacrolimus was changed to sirolimus and mycophenolate was reduced to 360mg twice daily. Conclusion: Coexistence of diabetes mellitus and karposi sarcoma occurs rarely among kidney transplant recipients. Evaluation of transplant recipient who developed diabetes for malignancies such as karposi sarcoma will improve patient and graft survival