Organizational e-readiness web: a model for evaluating e-readiness of Iranian commercial banks in order to develop e-banking

E-banking through mutual benefits for customers and banks has become a necessity in the banking industry nowadays. In spite of this, e-banking has not spread in Iran as it is appropriate.In a general categorization it can be said that E-readiness of banks and environmental e-readiness are two effective factors on development of e-banking which have been referred in different studies some models have been proposed in this regard in macro industries and others. However, no specific model has been proposed for the banks. This paper focuses on the first factor of "organizational e-readiness". Therefore, the main question of this study is that according to which model and toolthe state banks' readiness are evaluated in the field of development of e-banking in the state banks and how much is the current state of e-readiness of banks in this area? Accordingly, a model is presented as an organizational e-readiness web in this research, reviewing the organizational e-readiness evaluation models, and carried out research to identify organizational barriers and motivators of business/ e-banking development. According to the introduced dimensions, the banks enjoy relative readiness for the development of e-banking

Flex Cracking and Temperature-Humidity-Bias Effects on Reliability of Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors

Multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) are known to be susceptible to cracking when subjected to excessive printed circuit board (PCB) flexure, which is called "flex cracking". The bending of the printed circuit board causes stresses to be transmitted through the solder fillets to the surface mount capacitors. These stresses are the highest at the bottom of the capacitor, where the termination bands end. In order to reduce the amount of stress that is transmitted to the brittle ceramic body of MLCCs through end terminations, a flexible termination system which incorporates a silver-loaded epoxy in end-terminations was developed by some MLCC manufacturers. With the transition to lead-free materials in the electronics industry there is a concern that MLCCs assembled on PCBs with lead-free solder have different susceptibility to flex cracking than those assembled with eutectic tin-lead solder. In this study, the flex cracking of MLCCs assembled with lead-free solder (Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu) was compared with those assembled with eutectic tin-lead (Sn37Pb) solder and differences in the results were explained in terms of solder mechanical properties and solder solidification temperature. Tin-silver-copper lead-free solders and eutectic tin-lead solder have different mechanical properties, which affect the stresses that are transmitted to the ceramic body of the capacitor through the solder fillet. The higher solidification temperature for lead-free solder leads to increased residual compressive stresses after the reflow cool-down process for MLCCs assembled with lead-free solder compared with those assembled with tin-lead solder. In this work, the effects of dielectric material, capacitor size, solder assembly process, solder material, and end-termination type on flex cracking of MLCCs were determined for MLCCs from different manufacturers. Since some flexible- and standard-termination MLCCs are made with precious metal electrodes (silver-palladium), there is a possibility of electrochemical silver migration under bias and humidity. In this study, the effects of temperature-humidity-bias on electrical parameters of flexible-termination MLCCs were characterized and compared with standard-termination MLCCs. In addition, the effect of temperature-humidity-bias on electrical parameters of MLCCs with base metal electrodes was compared to that for precious metal electrode capacitors

Designing a Comprehensive Internet Banking Website Usability Model

Nowadays Due to the increasing advances in technology in the banking industry and changes in the expectations of bank customers, especially the desire to eliminate unnecessary face-to-face Services and the need to receive 24-hour banking services, virtual portals, especially Internet banking websites have been welcomed. According to many experts success of websites is closely related to their degree of usability, so ease of use can act as a powerful leverage to attract customers to a bank that has a more usable website. In this study, after a comprehensive review of the literature, interviews with 41 experts in this field and then by a qualitative method of theme analysis, a comprehensive model of internet banking website was presented. In this model, usability is affected by two groups of external dimensions and internal dimensions, which in case of compatibility with users' expectations, the website is evaluated as usable and as a result, user satisfaction is achieved. Due to the wide range of customers of commercial banks, in addition to traditional segmentation, it is recommended that intelligent segmentation of target users done to improve the usability of Internet banking websites

The synergic effects of presynaptic calcium channel antagonists purified from spiders on memory elimination of glutamate-induced excitotoxicity in the rat hippocampus trisynaptic circuit

The hippocampus is a complex area of the mammalian brain and is responsible for learning and memory. The trisynaptic circuit engages with explicit memory. Hippocampal neurons express two types of presynaptic voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs) comprising N and P/Q-types. These VGCCs play a vital role in the release of neurotransmitters from presynaptic neurons. The chief excitatory neurotransmitter at these synapses is glutamate. Glutamate has an essential function in learning and memory under normal conditions. The release of neurotransmitters depends on the activity of presynaptic VGCCs. Excessive glutamate activity, due to either excessive release or insufficient uptake from the synapse, leads to a condition called excitotoxicity. This pathological state is common among all neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Under these conditions, glutamate adversely affects the trisynaptic circuitry, leading to synaptic destruction and loss of memory and learning performance. This study attempts to clarify the role of presynaptic VGCCs in memory performance and reveals that modulating the activity of presynaptic calcium channels in the trisynaptic pathway can regulate the excitotoxic state and consequently prevent the elimination of neurons and synaptic degradation. All of these can lead to an improvement in learning and memory function. In the current study, two calcium channel blockers—omega-agatoxin-Aa2a and omega-Lsp-IA—were extracted, purified, and identified from spiders (Agelena orientalis and Hogna radiata) and used to modulate N and P/Q VGCCs. The effect of omega-agatoxin-Aa2a and omega-Lsp-IA on glutamate-induced excitotoxicity in rats was evaluated using the Morris water maze task as a behavioral test. The local expression of synaptophysin (SYN) was visualized for synaptic quantification using an immunofluorescence assay. The electrophysiological amplitudes of the field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) in the input-output and LTP curves of the mossy fiber and Schaffer collateral circuits were recorded. The results of our study demonstrated that N and P/Q VGCC modulation in the hippocampus trisynaptic circuit of rats with glutamate-induced excitotoxicity dysfunction could prevent the destructive consequences of excitotoxicity in synapses and improve memory function and performance

Ameliorative effects of omega-lycotoxin-Gsp2671e purified from the spider venom of Lycosa praegrandis on memory deficits of glutamate-induced excitotoxicity rat model

Memory impairment is one of the main complications of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This condition can be induced by hyper-stimulation of N-Methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) of glutamate in the hippocampus, which ends up to pyramidal neurons determination. The release of neurotransmitters relies on voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs) such as P/Q-types. Omega-lycotoxin-Gsp2671e (OLG1e) is a P/Q-type VGCC modulator with high affinity and selectivity. This bio-active small protein was purified and identified from the Lycosa praegrandis venom. The effect of this state-dependent low molecular weight P/Q-type calcium modulator on rats was investigated via glutamate-induced excitotoxicity by N-Methyl-D-aspartate. Also, Electrophysiological amplitude of field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) in the input–output and Long-term potentiation (LTP) curves were recorded in mossy fiber and the amount of synaptophysin (SYN), synaptosomal-associated protein, 25 kDa (SNAP-25), and synaptotagmin 1(SYT1) genes expression were measured using Real-time PCR technique for synaptic quantification. The outcomes of the current study suggest that OLG1e as a P/Q-type VGCC modulator has an ameliorative effect on excitotoxicity-induced memory defects and prevents the impairment of pyramidal neurons in the rat hippocampus

Sensor Systems for Prognostics and Health Management

Prognostics and health management (PHM) is an enabling discipline consisting of technologies and methods to assess the reliability of a product in its actual life cycle conditions to determine the advent of failure and mitigate system risk. Sensor systems are needed for PHM to monitor environmental, operational, and performance-related characteristics. The gathered data can be analyzed to assess product health and predict remaining life. In this paper, the considerations for sensor system selection for PHM applications, including the parameters to be measured, the performance needs, the electrical and physical attributes, reliability, and cost of the sensor system, are discussed. The state-of-the-art sensor systems for PHM and the emerging trends in technologies of sensor systems for PHM are presented

Organizational E-Readiness Web: A Model for Evaluating E-Readiness of Iranian Commercial Banks in Order to Develop E-Banking

E-banking through mutual benefits for customers and banks has become a necessity in the banking industry nowadays. In spite of this, e-banking has not spread in Iran as it is appropriate.In a general categorization it can be said that E-readiness of banks and environmental e-readiness are two effective factors on development of e-banking which have been referred in different studies some models have been proposed in this regard in macro industries and others. However, no specific model has been proposed for the banks. This paper focuses on the first factor of "organizational e-readiness". Therefore, the main question of this study is that according to which model and toolthe state banks' readiness are evaluated in the field of development of e-banking in the state banks and how much is the current state of e-readiness of banks in this area? Accordingly, a model is presented as an organizational e-readiness web in this research, reviewing the organizational e-readiness evaluation models, and carried out research to identify organizational barriers and motivators of business/ e-banking development. According to the introduced dimensions, the banks enjoy relative readiness for the development of e-banking

Proposing a strategic model for the development of E-banking in Iranian commercial banks

This study aims to propose a strategic model for the development of E-banking in Iranian commercial banks. Hence it tries to study environmental and organizational factors of Iranian commercial banks (Mellat, Melli, Saderat, Tejarat, Parsian, Saman, Eghtesad Novin and Karafarin Bank) in form of a model along with analyzing their impact on the development of E-banking in Iranian commercial banks. This model was then examined in a survey using interview and questionnaire tool on a sample of 287 managers and E-banking experts in Iranian commercial banks. SPSS and LISREL software and Structural equation modeling method was used for data analysis and studying the relation between variables. The result suggests that top management and human resources in organizational factors, social and cultural environment in macro-factors and customers and competitive pressures in micro-environmental factors have the most impact on the development of E-banking

Organizational Intelligence: Comparative Survey between Private and Governmental banks

As a fascinating concept and intriguing research area, “intelligence” finds strong appeal in many disciplines outside of individual and cognitive psychology. One of the disciplines that provoked increased interest in the importance of intelligence is the management and organization development literature. Even if we disregard the entire literature in which organizational intelligence was supposedly aggregated the term is still ambiguous in the context of organizational development scholarship. This is true because there is a lack of a unified theory of intelligence in organizational settings as noted by the numerous and fragmented perspectives and ideas of researchers in the field. So in this article we attempt to describe this concept and compare private and governmental banks based on organizational intelligence. This research is a practical survey that we had gather 429 employees' response of two privates and two governmental banks with questionnaire that introduced by Albercht. This questionnaire has 49 questions. Findings of research are indicating organizational intelligence of private banks is more than governmental banks

Segmenting Costumers Based on Their Reactions to Social Networks Marketing on Instagram

Since customers react differently to business and marketing on social networks, the researcher is looking for segmenting customers into different categories according to their reaction to marketing in social networks. The present study is a descriptive-exploratory research and the data were collected through a questionnaire. The population of 14,000 follower of the researcher’s personal page on Instagram were analyzed and a sample 224 members were randomly selected. To analyze the data, a two-step clustering method was applied. As a result, five distinct clusters (the active, the talker, the hesitant, the passive and the averse) were identified. Two segments were reported to be highly influenced by social networks marketing in terms of brand engagement, purchase intention and word of mouth advertisement (WOM). The "Active" are the most influenced group including 18.3% of the population most of whom are single girls or women. The next group that are influenced the most by social networks marketing is the "Talker". This group represents 24.1% of the population, the most populated group. The "Talker" are different from the "Active" in term of their intention to purchase. Totally, 42.2% of the population are reported to be influenced by social networks marketing