Culture and risk : perception and acceptability of risk of Riba in banking among teachers in Bahrain

The purpose of this thesis was to provide insights into the consumer's perception of the risk of Riba (the Islamic prohibition of baking interest) and its influence on consumer's bank patronage. In Bahrain, the Conventional and the Interest-free banks operate side by side representing different philosophies of business and operation. Selecting a conventional bank requires Muslim customers to negotiate the risk of jeopardizing religious convictions, and selecting an Interest-free bank requires customers to adjust to possibilities of losing some of their convenience, time, services quality, and perhaps their money. Specifically, this study explored the interaction of risk perception (ethical and performance) with the banking patronage and a host of attitudinal and behavioural correlates in banking among the Bahraini customers. The study surveyed a random sample of customers from the population of Muslim teachers by means of Questionnaires. Risks of ethical, ideological and religious nature were identified These were new risks that extended the perceived risk research. Findings were reported about the public reaction to Riba as a threat and customers' concerns about it. The analysis also used attitudes, beliefs and world views, worrying, sin perception, religious orientation, Riba charactenstics, banking knowledge, social relations and contexts, as well as the risk handling activities to explore their influences on the perceived risks and banking patronage

A New Paradigm in Split Manufacturing: Lock the FEOL, Unlock at the BEOL

Split manufacturing was introduced as an effective countermeasure against hardware-level threats such as IP piracy, overbuilding, and insertion of hardware Trojans. Nevertheless, the security promise of split manufacturing has been challenged by various attacks, which exploit the well-known working principles of physical design tools to infer the missing BEOL interconnects. In this work, we advocate a new paradigm to enhance the security for split manufacturing. Based on Kerckhoff's principle, we protect the FEOL layout in a formal and secure manner, by embedding keys. These keys are purposefully implemented and routed through the BEOL in such a way that they become indecipherable to the state-of-the-art FEOL-centric attacks. We provide our secure physical design flow to the community. We also define the security of split manufacturing formally and provide the associated proofs. At the same time, our technique is competitive with current schemes in terms of layout overhead, especially for practical, large-scale designs (ITC'99 benchmarks).Comment: DATE 2019 (https://www.date-conference.com/conference/session/4.5

F3rn.org DeFi

Leadership is searching for strategies to assist geo-based communities, cities, large and small towns, and neighborhoods in achieving independent and more decentralized, sustainable environmental practices. By employing a paradigm that encourages peer-to-peer fund raising and rewards participants by actively encouraging more civic engagement, the F3rn platform responds to this demand and helps to build a stronger local circular economy. The F3rn Defi Platform has made it possible to create a global ecosystem for recycling plastic waste. This ecosystem uses Algorand blockchain technology to provide unbanked people with access to financial services, job opportunities for the extremely poor through financial incentives, a sovereign digital ID, and transparency for tracking every link in the value chain of plastic recycling

CosSIF: Cosine similarity-based image filtering to overcome low inter-class variation in synthetic medical image datasets

Crafting effective deep learning models for medical image analysis is a complex task, particularly in cases where the medical image dataset lacks significant inter-class variation. This challenge is further aggravated when employing such datasets to generate synthetic images using generative adversarial networks (GANs), as the output of GANs heavily relies on the input data. In this research, we propose a novel filtering algorithm called Cosine Similarity-based Image Filtering (CosSIF). We leverage CosSIF to develop two distinct filtering methods: Filtering Before GAN Training (FBGT) and Filtering After GAN Training (FAGT). FBGT involves the removal of real images that exhibit similarities to images of other classes before utilizing them as the training dataset for a GAN. On the other hand, FAGT focuses on eliminating synthetic images with less discriminative features compared to real images used for training the GAN. Experimental results reveal that employing either the FAGT or FBGT method with modern transformer and convolutional-based networks leads to substantial performance gains in various evaluation metrics. FAGT implementation on the ISIC-2016 dataset surpasses the baseline method in terms of sensitivity by 1.59% and AUC by 1.88%. Furthermore, for the HAM10000 dataset, applying FABT outperforms the baseline approach in terms of recall by 13.75%, and with the sole implementation of FAGT, achieves a maximum accuracy of 94.44%.Comment: 18 pages, 20 figure

On the Uniqueness of Solution of Magnetostatic Vector‐potential Problems by Three‐dimensional Finite‐element Methods

In this paper, particular attention is paid to the impact of finite‐element approximation on uniqueness and to approximations implicit in finite element formulations from the uniqueness requirements standpoint. It is also shown that the flux density is unique without qualifications. The theoretical and numerical uniqueness of the magnetic vector potential in three‐dimensional problems is also given. This analysis is restricted to linear, isotropic media with Dirichlet Boundary conditions. As an interesting consequence of this analysis it is shown that, under usual conditions adopted in obtaining three‐dimensional finite‐element solutions, it is not necessary to specify div Ā in order that Ā be uniquely defined

Using novels in the language classroom at Hebron University / Rasha Nabeel Siaj and Mohammed A A Farrah

This quantitative and qualitative paper investigated the use of novels in the EFL classroom. It examined students’ attitudes towards using novels in the EFL classroom; evaluated the advantages of using novels and whether they motivate students, develop their linguistic level, and enrich their cultural knowledge. Moreover, it identified certain problems that students may face in the process of learning novels in the EFL classroom. A total of 56 students participated in this study and responded to the questionnaire in the fall semester of 2015/2016 at Hebron University, Palestine. In addition, the researchers interviewed three instructors teaching at the English department. The findings of the questionnaire showed that students held positive attitudes towards using novels in the EFL classes. Mainly, they agree that novels have a number of advantages. For example, novels can motivate them, enrich their cultural knowledge, and improve their language ability. The interview with instructors revealed advantages of using novels and some challenge. Finally, researchers recommend that teachers keep using literature in the language classrooms and students keep reading novels due to their benefit

Understanding the Erosion – Corrosion Behaviour of Generic Types of Stainless Steels in a CO2 – Saturated Oilfield Environment

Using of Corrosion Resistant Alloys (CRAs) specifically stainless steels is considered as one of the most effective corrosion control strategies in the oil and gas industry when aggressive environments such as carbon dioxide and chloride ions may be present. This is due to presence of a compact and protective passive film on their surfaces which acts as a barrier between the substrate and the surrounding corrosive environment. However, presence of sand particles in the flowing fluid can reduce the superior corrosion resistance of these alloys because of passive film removal by sand particles impact leaving the substrate exposed directly to corrosive environments. This phenomenon is commonly known as “erosion-corrosion”. Sand particles impact may also lead to significant surface and subsurface changes and the latter has a great influence on the erosion and erosion-corrosion resistance of stainless steels knowing that the latter vary in their chemical composition and their mechanical properties. For this reason, it is important to understand how these materials will behave under erosion and erosion-corrosion conditions. The effect of the static corrosion behaviour on the erosion-corrosion resistance of stainless steels as a function of temperature was investigated. Also, how stainless steels degrade under erosion and erosion-corrosion conditions and specifying the factors contribute to their failure have been addressed. Moreover, the study has investigated how the percentage of contribution of total weight loss components of stainless steels changes with impact angles. Gravimetric and electrochemical measurements in addition to post-test surface analysis including micro indentation hardness test, surface optical profilometry (Bruker- NPFLEX), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Focused Ion Beam (FIB), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) were used to explain the degradation behaviour of the studied materials under erosion-corrosion conditions. It has been found that there is a good correlation between the static corrosion behaviour and the erosion-corrosion resistance of stainless steels. For example, a good link between the repassivation ability under static conditions (i.e. (Eb-Er) and imax) and erosion-enhanced corrosion was existed. Also, the same parameters linked well with the repassivation time under erosion-corrosion conditions. Moreover, results revealed that the change in hardness can be used as a prediction parameter to erosion resistance of stainless steels in severe conditions. Furthermore, impact angle has a significant effect on the percentage of total weight loss component contribution. It was found that the percentage of the corrosion-enhanced erosion contribution to be responsible for a distinct erosion-corrosion resistance of stainless streels

Internet Access in South African Homes: Factors Influencing Consumer Choice

South African consumers have moved from a situation where narrowband dial-up was very often the only option for home Internet access to where there is now a plethora of broadband and narrowband options to choose from. Very little research in information systems has investigated the phenomenon of consumer choice of technology. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing consumer choice of Internet access option in South African homes. By drawing from theories of technology adoption, 13 factors were identified, grouped into three categories, namely attitudinal beliefs, normative beliefs and control beliefs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 consumers who had Internet access in their homes. Their views on the 13 factors were gathered to ascertain if and how they influenced their choice of Internet access option. The findings show that the attitudinal beliefs of relative advantage, compatibility, ease of use, and prior experience have a bearing on consumer choice. Normative beliefs associated with friends and family, as well as secondary sources also had an influence. Finally, it was shown that control beliefs relating to costs of access, and support and service were key influences on consumer choice. These and other findings are discussed, and implications drawn