Information Acquisition and Investment Decisions on the Internet: An Empirical Investigation

With intensifying competition, the significance of understanding customer characteristics related to information acquisition and decision making on the Internet has increased. An understanding of customer characteristics can become a crucial element in the development and implementation of marketing strategy. This paper examines the influence of some key demographic and psychological variables on information acquisition and investment decisions on the Internet, related to mutual funds. Findings indicate that product familiarity, age, and information breadth significantly influenced information acquisition. For investment decisions on the Internet, in addition to the above-mentioned variables, sex and overconfidence was also significant

The prevalence and under-reporting of needle-stick injuries among dental healthcare workers in Pakistan: a systematic review

Needlestick injuries (NSIs) are a major occupational health problem among dental healthcare workers (HCWs) in Pakistan, which places them at a significant risk of acquiring blood-borne infections. However, not all NSIs are reported, leading to an underestimation of the actual prevalence. The harmful impacts of NSIs on the healthcare delivery necessitate an urgent need to measure its actual prevalence. Objectives. The aim of this study was to review literature to estimate the prevalence and reporting rates of NSIs among dental-HCWs in Pakistan. Methods. 713 potentially relevant citations were identified by electronic databases and hand searching of articles. Nine primary studies were subsequently identified to be included in the review. Results. The results of the included studies indicate that the prevalence of NSIs among Pakistani dental-HCWs was between 30% and 73%. The rate of reporting of NSIs was between 15% and 76%, and the most common reason was found to be the lack of awareness regarding the reporting system, or of the need to report NSIs. Conclusion. It is evident from the review of the included studies that there is a significantly high prevalence and a low rate of reporting of NSIs among dental-HCWs in Pakistan, suggesting the need to setup an occupational health department in dental settings, for preventing, managing, recording, and monitoring NSIs

Mapping Mutual Fund Investor Characteristics and Modeling Switching Behavior

Securing a mutual fund that meets investment goals is an important reason why some investors exclusively stay with a particular mutual fund and others switch funds within their fund family. This paper empirically investigates investor attitudes toward mutual funds. Our model, based on investor responses, develops an investor\u27s risk profile variable. Results indicate that regardless of whether the investors invest in nonemployer plans or in both employer and nonemployer plans, they consider their investment risk, fund performance, investment mix, and the capital base of the fund before switching funds. The model developed in this study can also assist in predicting investors\u27 switching behavior

Absolute Protein Amounts and Relative Abundance of Volume-regulated Anion Channel (VRAC) LRRC8 Subunits in Cells and Tissues Revealed by Quantitative Immunoblotting

The volume-regulated anion channel (VRAC) plays an important role in osmotic cell volume regulation. In addition, it is involved in various physiological processes such as insulin secretion, glia-neuron communication and purinergic signaling. VRAC is formed by hetero-hexamers of members of the LRRC8 protein family, which consists of five members, LRRC8A-E. LRRC8A is an essential subunit for physiological functionality of VRAC. Its obligate heteromerization with at least one of its paralogues, LRRC8B-E, determines the biophysical properties of VRAC. Moreover, the subunit composition is of physiological relevance as it largely influences the activation mechanism and especially the substrate selectivity. However, the endogenous tissue-specific subunit composition of VRAC is unknown. We have now developed and applied a quantitative immunoblot study of the five VRAC LRRC8 subunits in various mouse cell lines and tissues, using recombinant protein for signal calibration. We found tissue-specific expression patterns of the subunits, and generally relative low expression of the essential LRRC8A subunit. Immunoprecipitation of LRRC8A also co-precipitates an excess of the other subunits, suggesting that non-LRRC8A subunits present the majority in hetero-hexamers. With this, we can estimate that in the tested cell lines, the number of VRAC channels per cell is in the order of 10,000, which is in agreement with earlier calculations from the comparison of single-channel and whole-cell currents

Multisectoral Initiatives, Sectoral Inertia: A Dilemma of Governance for Development Policy-makers

The opinion of development professionals at home and abroad has converged on the point that bad governance lies at the root of the loss of the momentum of economic growth, increasing poverty and failed investment in social sectors. Early concern of development economists with market failure brought in the arguments for the role of government. Government failure was the dominant issue of the eighties. The last decade of the twentieth century is witnessing a focus on governance failure, a broader concept in that the government is not viewed as the only governing entity. This paper addresses an issue which has been there during the reigns of all these “failure” paradigms. It arises from the inability of governments, organised traditionally into the vertically operating line departments, to deal effectively with multisectoral or cross-sectoral problems and cross-cutting issues. The paper traces the evolution of multisectoral issues and looks at the standard approach of treating multisectoral initiatives as a horizontally fathomed coordination problem to show that it has been an unmitigated disaster. It argues that the multisectoral issues can be better addressed by internalising the elements of coordination, particularly in social sectors, though there have been situations which raise questions about this approach as wel

Investigation of the LRRC8 subunit composition and the activating signal transduction of the volume-regulated anion channel (VRAC)

The volume-regulated anion channel (VRAC) plays a key role in the regulation of osmotic cell volume as well as in various physiological processes such as apoptosis, insulin secretion, cell differentiation, and purinergic signaling. It is formed by hetero-hexamers of members of the leucine-rich repeat-containing protein family 8 (LRRC8), which consists of five members, LRRC8A-E. LRRC8A is the obligatory subunit, and its heteromerization with at least one other LRRC8 paralogue, LRRC8B-E, determines VRAC's biophysical properties. Subunit stoichiometry of VRAC is of physiological importance and largely influences its activation mechanism, as well as its response to regulatory inputs. However, the endogenous tissue-specific subunit composition of VRAC remains unknown. Furthermore, despite extensive research on VRAC's possible physiological functions, there is little consensus on its activation mechanism. In this thesis, I developed and applied a quantitative immunoblot method to quantify the five VRAC LRRC8 subunits in various mouse cell lines and tissues, using glutathione-S-transferase (GST)-tagged recombinant fusion proteins for signal calibration. The subunits showed tissue-specific expression patterns, with relatively low expression of the obligatory LRRC8A subunit. Based on the co-immunoprecipitation of LRRC8B-E in excess with LRRC8A, I concluded that non-LRRC8A subunits predominate in native hetero-hexamers. In light of this information, I estimated ~10,000 VRACs per cell in the tested cell lines, which is consistent with an earlier calculation from the comparison of single-channel and whole-cell currents. Furthermore, I assessed VRAC activity by a Förster-resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based approach upon induction of apoptosis, sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P)-induced signaling, and glucose feeding in pancreatic β-cells. I found that the pharmacological inhibition of protein kinase D (PKD) impaired the apoptotic-induced VRAC activation. Interestingly, signaling via S1P appeared to be mediated by an alliance between S1P receptors, specifically the Gq-coupled S1P receptors. I proposed that the Gq family of heterotrimeric G-proteins served as central mediators of the diacylglycerol (DAG)-PKD mediated VRAC activation induced by S1P in HeLa cells. PKD may phosphorylate VRAC, thereby activating it. This notion is supported by the observation that hypotonic activation of phospho-ablative LRRC8A mutant 8A-T169A is diminished due to the loss of the putative phosphorylation site. Lastly, I showed that an orphan G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), GPCR5B, adversely modulated the VRAC activity in rat pancreatic β-cells, which may affect β-cell survival and insulin secretion. All in all, these results indicate a possible signaling pathway of VRAC activation, highlighting the importance of membrane-localized GPCRs and G-proteins in signal transduction.Die volumenregulierten Anionenkanäle (VRAC) spielen eine Schlüsselrolle bei der osmotischen Regulation des Zellvolumens sowie bei verschiedenen physiologischen Prozessen wie Apoptose, Insulinsekretion, Zelldifferenzierung und purinerger Signalübertragung. Es wird von Hetero-Hexameren der Leucine-Rich Repeat-Containing Protein Family 8 (LRRC8) gebildet, die aus fünf Mitgliedern, LRRC8A-E, besteht. LRRC8A ist die obligatorische Untereinheit, und ihre Heteromerisierung mit mindestens einem anderen LRRC8-Paralog, LRRC8B-E, bestimmt biophysikalische Eigenschaften von VRAC. Die Untereinheiten-Stöchiometrie von VRAC ist von physiologischer Bedeutung und beeinflusst weitgehend seinen Aktivierungsmechanismus sowie seine Reaktion auf regulatorische Signale. Die endogene gewebespezifische Untereinheitenzusammensetzung von VRAC ist jedoch weitestgehend unbekannt. Darüber hinaus gibt es trotz umfangreicher Forschung über die möglichen physiologischen Funktionen von VRAC wenig Konsens darüber, wie er aktiviert wird. In dieser Arbeit habe ich eine quantitative Immunoblot-Methode entwickelt und angewandt, um die fünf VRAC LRRC8-Untereinheiten in verschiedenen Maus-Zelllinien und -Geweben zu quantifizieren, wobei rekombinante Fusionsproteine mit Glutathion-S-Transferase (GST)-Markierung zur Signalkalibrierung verwendet wurden. Die Untereinheiten zeigten gewebespezifische Expressionsmuster, mit relativ geringer Expression der obligatorischen Untereinheit LRRC8A. Basierend auf der Co-Immunpräzipitation von LRRC8B-E im Überschuss mit LRRC8A schloss ich, dass Nicht-LRRC8A-Untereinheiten in nativen Hetero-Hexameren überwiegen. In Anbetracht dieser Informationen berechnete ich das Vorkommen auf ~10.000 VRACs pro Zelle in den getesteten Zelllinien, was mit einer früheren Berechnung aus dem Vergleich von Einzelkanal- und Ganzzellströmen übereinstimmt. Darüber hinaus habe ich die VRAC-Aktivität mittels Förster-Resonanz-Energie-Transfer (FRET)-basiertem Ansatz bei der Induktion von Apoptose, Sphingosin-1-Phosphat (S1P)-induzierter Signalgebung und Glukose-Stimulation in pankreatischen β-Zellen untersucht. Ich fand heraus, dass die pharmakologische Hemmung der Proteinkinase D (PKD) die apoptose-induzierte VRAC-Aktivierung beeinträchtigte. Interessanterweise wird die Signalisierung durch S1P über eine Allianz zwischen S1P-Rezeptoren, speziell den Gq-gekoppelten S1P-Rezeptoren, vermittelt. Dies deutet darauf hin, dass die Gq-Familie der heterotrimeren G Proteine als zentrale Vermittler der durch S1P induzierten Diacylglycerol (DAG)-PKD-vermittelten VRAC-Aktivierung in HeLa-Zellen dienen. PKD kann VRAC phosphorylieren und ihn dadurch aktivieren. Diese Vorstellung wird durch die Beobachtung unterstützt, dass die hypotone Aktivierung der phospho-ablativen XV LRRC8A-Mutante 8A-T169A aufgrund des Verlustes der möglichen Phosphorylierungsstelle vermindert ist. Schließlich habe ich gezeigt, dass einn orphan G Protein-gekoppelten Rezeptor (GPCR), GPCR5B, die VRAC-Aktivität in pankreatischen β-Zellen der Ratte negativ moduliert und damit das Überleben der β-Zellen und die Insulinsekretion beeinflusst. Alles in allem weisen diese Ergebnisse auf einen möglichen Signalweg der VRAC-Aktivierung hin und unterstreichen die Bedeutung von membranständigen GPCRs und G Proteinen in der Signaltransduktion

Firm Size: As a Moderator Between Working Capital Management and Firm Profitability

The study investigates weather firm size moderates the relation between working capital management (measured by cash conversion cycle) and firm profitability using the time period of 5 years (2013- 2018) for 60 non-financial firms. The findings of OLS regression reveals that firm size moderates the negative relationship between working capital management and firm profitability. The study suggests reducing cash conversion cycle to increase firm profitability and the managers should consider the firm size while making decisions regarding working capital management. Keywords: Cash Conversion Cycle, Working Capital Management, Profitability, Net Profit Margin, Firm Size DOI: 10.7176/JESD/10-13-03 Publication date:July 31st 2019

Enhancing cooperation in wireless networks using different concepts of game theory

PhDOptimizing radio resource within a network and across cooperating heterogeneous networks is the focus of this thesis. Cooperation in a multi-network environment is tackled by investigating network selection mechanisms. These play an important role in ensuring quality of service for users in a multi-network environment. Churning of mobile users from one service provider to another is already common when people change contracts and in a heterogeneous communication environment, where mobile users have freedom to choose the best wireless service-real time selection is expected to become common feature. This real time selection impacts both the technical and the economic aspects of wireless network operations. Next generation wireless networks will enable a dynamic environment whereby the nodes of the same or even different network operator can interact and cooperate to improve their performance. Cooperation has emerged as a novel communication paradigm that can yield tremendous performance gains from the physical layer all the way up to the application layer. Game theory and in particular coalitional game theory is a highly suited mathematical tool for modelling cooperation between wireless networks and is investigated in this thesis. In this thesis, the churning behaviour of wireless service users is modelled by using evolutionary game theory in the context of WLAN access points and WiMAX networks. This approach illustrates how to improve the user perceived QoS in heterogeneous networks using a two-layered optimization. The top layer views the problem of prediction of the network that would be chosen by a user where the criteria are offered bit rate, price, mobility support and reputation. At the second level, conditional on the strategies chosen by the users, the network provider hypothetically, reconfigures the network, subject to the network constraints of bandwidth and acceptable SNR and optimizes the network coverage to support users who would otherwise not be serviced adequately. This forms an iterative cycle until a solution that optimizes the user satisfaction subject to the adjustments that the network provider can make to mitigate the binding constraints, is found and applied to the real network. The evolutionary equilibrium, which is used to 3 compute the average number of users choosing each wireless service, is taken as the solution. This thesis also proposes a fair and practical cooperation framework in which the base stations belonging to the same network provider cooperate, to serve each other‘s customers. How this cooperation can potentially increase their aggregate payoffs through efficient utilization of resources is shown for the case of dynamic frequency allocation. This cooperation framework needs to intelligently determine the cooperating partner and provide a rational basis for sharing aggregate payoff between the cooperative partners for the stability of the coalition. The optimum cooperation strategy, which involves the allocations of the channels to mobile customers, can be obtained as solutions of linear programming optimizations

Hazy Team Composition Processes: Shared Team Leadership, a Strategy to Team Excellence in Higher Education

Teamwork is an emergent property of efficacious organizations. Team-based and result-oriented organizational structures are gaining momentum, increasing 6% each year. Over 80% of organizations globally deploy teams by putting ordinary people to work together for extraordinary performance. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center is a unique institute that teaches foreign languages in an immersive and team-based environment. This mixed-methods research study investigated (a) the teaching team composition processes, (b) the applicability of trust and diversity in team composition, and (c) the impact of shared team leadership in the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. Data were collected from 82 faculty across eight undergraduate education schools of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (n = 66 quantitative; n = 16 qualitative). The analyzed quantitative data of Pearson correlations between the core themes of team composition processes showed that all items were positively related and significant at p = .01. Also, the amount of variance and diversity accounted for in the model (adj. R2 = -.031) was not significant F(8, 54) = .769, p = .631. The t-test analysis revealed no significance across demographic information of the respondents and diversity in the teams. The qualitative results found no standardized policy on team composition processes; teams were formed by the department chair(s), and the shared team leadership model only existed partially at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. As per the inputs, processes, and outputs model, prioritization of team composition processes will benefit the organization

E-book adoption in academic and research libraries

Electronic books (e-books) have grown in importance in Academic and Research Libraries (ARLs). Some ARLs are now spending more on e-book acquisitions than hardcopy books. Whether this investment in e-book provision is justified by adoption outcomes is often the subject of simplistic, rather than rigorous research. This research has attempted to rigorously explore the phenomenon of e-book adoption in a case study ARL, namely, Edith Cowan University (ECU) Library. The study population consisted of ECU academics, students and non-academic staff. The research had three aims. First, by employing a theoretical framework based on technology adoption and information behaviour theory, the study sought explanations of adoption behaviours in the population. In a triangular research design, that included a survey, ECU users were invited to self-describe their own patterns of e-book behaviour. Survey data was used to determine if behaviour observed in transactions could be explained in terms of constructs derived from technology acceptance, information behaviour and other domain theories that seek to understand user interaction with information sources. Next, applying log analysis techniques to system-generated datasets of e-book usage, the researcher documented and analysed patterns of ECU e-book user behaviour in terms of the transaction record. Lastly, the study investigated whether transaction logs could be used with high reliability to profile users’ information behaviour providing the basis of a method for e-book individualisation. The study attempted to profile power users and to derive a predictive method for identifying them in log data. The study found many factors in technology acceptance theory that were significant in terms of adoption behaviour. E-book adoption in the case study ARL was found to be related to culture of use across the dimensions of habit/automaticity, preference for online resources and platforms, and information literacy. E-book collection sufficiency, purpose or task fit, convenience, functionality, and access/copy/print/download provisions were found to be significant in terms of performance expectancy. Dimensions of effort expectancy in finding/searching/reading e-books also significantly affected user behaviour. Other significant relations comprised perceived e-book hedonic attributes (pleasantness of experience, attractiveness of formats), familiarity (awareness, prior experience, differentiability), intimacy (personal likeness, emotional attachment, preferences), facilitating conditions (such as discovery, findability, connectivity/access, courseware embedded links), moderating factors (including respondent category, student programme, age, gender, and experience/years). These factors were found to be significant as sources of gratification and continuance intention. An original contribution to knowledge was also made by deriving a predictive equation for classifying users based on transaction log data. Further, the research developed a new model of higher level information behaviours displayed by sophisticated or so-called ‘power users,’ and generated a model of e-book information behaviour maturity that distinguishes nascent from mature behaviours. The model is grounded in self-reported information behaviour. As an expansive exploration of e-book usage patterns in a case study ARL using multiple methods, the work is also innovative both in terms of scope and as an exploration of e-book adoption in an Australian context. This research is significant in laying the foundations for machine-based user profiling and enhanced individualisation of e-books to make for more satisfying user experience and acceptance of e-books