Trust in electronic banking

Trust among stakeholders is vital for the successful implementation of IS projects such as electronic banking, because such IS initiative do not typically require face-to-face interactions. The Business-to-Business (B2B) model is an example of a relationship that facilitates the implementation of electronic banking. For example, ICT suppliers in alliance with banks to provide and support the IT infrastructure required for electronic banking implementation. These different stakeholders may have different perceptions of trust, which may affect electronic banking implementation. This short paper’s aim is to examine how trust from the stakeholder theory perspective impacts the implementation of electronic banking. This paper proposes, from the stakeholder perspective, an integrated framework that conceptualizes trust between B2B relationships as antecedent to the successful implementation of electronic banking. The research will be based on the multi-case study method. Our proposed study provides a foundation for researchers and practitioners alike in understanding the concept of trust and its impact on IS projects

Quantitative Economic Evaluations of HIV-Related Prevention and Treatment Services: A Review

Dr. Holtgrave and colleagues at the CDC set forth an extensive taxonomy of HIV prevention and treatment services and review reports of efforts to subject some of those services to formal economic evaluation. They find few services thus far to have been so evaluated, no evaluation to have focused solely upon behavioral outcomes and most economic evaluations to lack formal quantitative analyses

Access and Use of Electronic Information Resources Among Medical Students in University of Port Harcourt Library

This paper investigated access and use of electronic information resources among medical students in University of Port Harcourt Library. The study adopted a correlational survey research design. Questionnaire was used as instruments for data collection. The population of the study was made up of all the medical students in University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, totaling five hundred and forty two (542), and one hundred  and eight(108) were selected as sample and used for the study, three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the data collected. The null hypotheses formulated was rejected suggesting that there is significant relationship between Access and  Use of Electronic Information Resources among medical students in University of Port Harcourt. The study revealed that most of the medical students lack the ability to access and use these electronic information resources. The study recommends trainings and orientation for students on the use and access of relevant electronic information resources which will boost their retrieval skills. Keywords: access, information, resources, electronic, utilization DOI: 10.7176/IKM/9-4-08 Publication date: April 30th 201

A Review of Structural Health Monitoring Techniques as Applied to Composite Structures.

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is the process of collecting, interpreting, and analysing data from structures in order to determine its health status and the remaining life span. Composite materials have been extensively use in recent years in several industries with the aim at reducing the total weight of structures while improving their mechanical properties. However, composite materials are prone to develop damage when subjected to low to medium impacts (ie 1 – 10 m/s and 11 – 30 m/s respectively). Hence, the need to use SHM techniques to detect damage at the incipient initiation in composite materials is of high importance. Despite the availability of several SHM methods for the damage identification in composite structures, no single technique has proven suitable for all circumstances. Therefore, this paper offers some updated guidelines for the users of composites on some of the recent advances in SHM applied to composite structures; also, most of the studies reported in the literature seem to have concentrated on the flat composite plates and reinforced with synthetic fibre. There are relatively fewer stories on other structural configurations such as single or double curve structures and hybridised composites reinforced with natural and synthetic fibres as regards SHM

Damage detection in CFRP Composite Plates based on evolving Modal Parameters

Despite the good mechanical properties of composite structures, it is still prone to low impact damages resulting in defects such as delamination and the effect is usually not detected by visual inspection. Although the use of modal parameters for identification of damage in Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composite laminates is not new, it is still a subject of discussion within the research community. In this study composite of different stacking configuration manufactured by hand lay-up and autoclave curing were used to conduct the free-free experimental modal analysis within the frequency range of 0 -- 400 Hz. The experiments were performed for both healthy and damage induced samples of same configuration. The effect of the modal parameters such as damping factors, natural frequencies, etc were assessed and the results presented here-in

The local symmetries of M-theory and their formulation in generalised geometry

In the doubled field theory approach to string theory, the T-duality group is promoted to a manifest symmetry at the expense of replacing ordinary Riemannian geometry with generalised geometry on a doubled space. The local symmetries are then given by a generalised Lie derivative and its associated algebra. This paper constructs an analogous structure for M-theory. A crucial by-product of this is the derivation of the physical section condition for M-theory formulated in an extended space.Comment: 20 pages, v2: Author Name corrected, v3: typos correcte

On reducing uncertainty on the Elliptical Plane modal identification method

The Elliptical Plane has been recently introduced as a modal identification method that uses an alternative plot of the receptance. The method uses the dissipated energy per cycle of vibration as a starting point. For lightly damped systems with conveniently spaced modes, it produces quite accurate results, especially when compared to the well-known method of the inverse. When represented in the Elliptical Plane, the shape of the receptance is elliptical near resonant frequencies. The modal damping factor can be determined from the angle of the ellipse’s major axis with the horizontal axis, whereas the real and imaginary parts of the modal constants can be determined from numerical curve-fitting (as in the method of the circle - Nyquist plot). However, the lack of points that can be used near the resonance (due to limitations in the frequency resolution, and effects from other modes near each resonance) and the fact that measurements are polluted by noise, bring uncertainty to the numerical curve-fitting. This paper aims at providing the first steps on the improvement of the quality of the modal identification of the receptance in the Elliptical Plane. The method and results are discussed with a multiple degree-of-freedom numerical example

Effect of Feed-Stream Configuration on Gas-Phase Chlorination Reactor Performance

Chlorination of hydrocarbons is an industrially important process used for the production of commercially viable environmentally friendly chemicals. The highly exothermic nature of these reactions necessitates a thorough study of reactor stability and product feasibility. Here, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to analyze the performance of a coaxial rightcylindrical insulated reactor for different inlet flow configurations. Chlorination reactions involve a large number of radicals and other intermediates, and hence, direct simulations using traditional CFD techniques are difficult because of the stiff nature of the reaction scheme involved. A novel algorithm for reaction computation, in situ adaptive tabulation (ISAT), is used to obtain considerable computational gains. The joint probability density function (JPDF) transport equation for the scalars with closed terms for reaction is solved using a Monte Carlo particle algorithm in tandem with a finite-volume (FV) Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) method. The particle method handles transport of 15 scalars along with enthalpy and feeds back mean field values of temperature and molecular weight that are used by the FV code to correct the flow for reaction. The scalar scatter plots conditioned on the mixture fraction are used to study the details of the kinetics in different reactor zones. Comparison of premixed and segregated inlets is done to determine reactor stability and product yield. Conclusions are then drawn about fundamental properties of the reactor and broad considerations for reactor design

Enhancer control of MicroRNA miR-155 expression in EpsteinBarr virus-infected B cells

The oncogenic microRNA miR-155 is the most frequently upregulated miRNA in Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive B cell malignancies and is upregulated in other non-viral lymphomas. Both the EBV nuclear antigen 2 (EBNA2), and B cell transcription factor, interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4) are known to activate transcription of the host cell gene from which miR-155 is processed (miR-155HG, BIC). EBNA2 also activates IRF4 transcription indicating that EBV may upregulate miR-155 through direct and indirect mechanisms. The mechanism of transcriptional regulation of IRF4 and miR-155HG by EBNA2 however has not been defined. We demonstrate that EBNA2 can activate IRF4 and miR-155HG expression through specific upstream enhancers that are dependent on the Notch signaling transcription factor RBPJ, a known binding partner of EBNA2. We demonstrate that in addition to activation of the miR-155HG promoter, IRF4 can also activate miR-155HG via the upstream enhancer also targeted by EBNA2. Gene editing to remove the EBNA2- and IRF4-responsive miR-155HG enhancer located 60 kb upstream of miR-155HG led to reduced miR155HG expression in EBV-infected cells. Our data therefore demonstrate that specific RBPJ-dependent enhancers regulate the IRF4-miR-155 expression network and play a key role in the maintenance of miR-155 expression in EBV-infected B cells. These findings provide important insights that will improve our understanding of miR-155 control in B cell malignancies