The relationship between the adoption of Internet banking and electronic connectivity: - An international comparison

This paper is concerned with the relationship between the adoption rate of Internet banking and electronic connectivity. Electronic connectivity is measured using three components: personal computer connectivity, Internet connectivity and mobile phone connectivity. Regression is used to analyse these relationships for a sample of developed and developing economies. The results indicate that changes in electronic connectivity, however defined, have a significant impact on the adoption rate of Internet banking. The most significant influence on the adoption rate of Internet banking would appear to be the increase in the percentage of the population owning personal computers.Internet banking; Electronic connectivity; Information technology

The extent of homoplasy in the trunk and forelimb of the hominoidea

For the last century, palaeoprimatologists have questioned whether extant hominoids acquired their hunk and forelimb adaptations (previously interpreted as correlated with forelimb suspension) from a common ancestor, or developed them independently. Various workers have proposed that (1) the adaptations are hominoid synapomorphies; (2) hylobatids acquired these traits independently of hominids; (3) pongines and hylobatids evolved these features independently of each other and the African apes/humans; (4) the adaptations are independently derived in all homuioid genera. To test between these alternatives, nine characters from the trunk and forelimb are used to determine the evolution of character states in extant and Miocene hominoids. Metric traits from ten extant anthropoid and nine fossil catarrhine genera are used in computer based analyses to reconstruct the ancesfral conditions of these traits for a given cladogram. Ancestral morphotypes are compared with conditions exhibited in terminal taxa to identify synapomorphy/homoplasy. Results suggest that five of the nine characters examined are hominoid synapomorphies. Of the remaining traits, one is shared derived for hominids, one is a synapomorphy of the African ape/human clade, one is not diagnostic for apes at all, and one reflects absolute differences in body size between taxa. Four traits exhibit homoplasy, in the form of convergence or reversal. None of these traits, however, show homoplasy between two or more hominoid taxa. Therefore, it is unlikely that hylobatids, pongines or African apes/humans evolved these traits independently of each other. Three main conclusions can be drawn from this study: (1) some of the characteristics previously interpreted as synapomorphies for extant and stem hominoids are not in fact shared derived for this clade; (2) there is no homoplasybetween extant hominoid genera in the features examined; and, (3) the association of these traits with forelimb suspensory locomotion is unlikely

Built Environment and Self-Rated Health: Comparing Young, Middle-Aged, and Older People in Chengdu, China

Objectives: This article explores how the building-scale built environment is associated with selfrated health, examining differences in this association among younger, middle-aged, and older age groups. Features examined included building type, building condition, and sidewalk presence in front of dwellings. Background: Understanding how the relationships between built environments and health vary across age groups helps to build a healthy environment for all. However, most studies have concentrated on the neighborhood or indoor environment, rather than whole buildings, and few have compared age groups. Methods: This study analyzed survey data from 1,019 adults living in 40 neighborhoods in Chengdu, China, recruited through a clustered random sampling approach. It used a Bayesian logistic mixed-effects model with interaction terms between age-group indicators and other variables. Results: Significant differences exist in the relationships of self-rated health with some environmental and other indicators among age groups. For older people, living in multi-floor buildings, having a household smoker, and undertaking fewer hours of weekly exercise were associated with lower odds of reporting good, very good, or excellent health. These relationships were not identified among middle-aged and younger people. More education was associated with higher odds of reporting better health among older and middle-aged groups. Conclusions: Older people experience more health-related challenges compared to middle-aged and younger people. However, among the examined built environment factors, building type was the only significant factor related to self-rated health among older people. To promote health among older people, this study recommends adding elevators in the multi-floor buildings

I Want This! I Want That!: A Speculation on the Future Context of Architecture

We are hypothesizing a potential future reality where architecture is in the hands of the common person, projecting the idea of mass customization and the expanding scope of DIY into the larger scale of ‘building.’ Hyper-individualism, experimentation, and expressionism characterize this ‘world’ because increases in technology have led to there being little commitment and consequence attached to actions and ‘building’. Technology works harder for us; and as we work less, we play more. Our values and lifestyles are echoed in our architecture; what, then, is the condition an urban landscape focusing on individualism and mass customization? In this story, architecture is eclectic, temporary, experiential, and ever-changing. It is characterized by spaces of leisure and spectacle

Debt in the 1990s

Debt

Synthesis and biological activity of α-glucosyl C24:0 and C20:2 ceramides

a-Glucosyl ceramides 4 and 5 have been synthesised and evaluated for their ability to stimulate the activation and expansion of human iNKT cells. The key challenge in the synthesis of both target molecules was the stereoselective synthesis of the a-glycosidic linkage. Of the methods examined, glycosylation using per-TMS-protected glucosyl iodide 16 was completely a-selective and provided gram quantities of amine 11, from which a-glucosyl ceramides 4 and 5 were obtained by N-acylation. a-GlcCer 4, containing a C24 saturated acyl chain, stimulated a marked proliferation and expansion of human circulating iNKT cells in short-term cultures. a-GlcCer 5, which contains a C20 11,14-cis-diene acyl chain (C20:2),induced extremely similar levels of iNKT cell activation and expansion

STEM/Non-STEM Divide Structures Undergraduate Beliefs About Gender and Talent in Academia

Research and popular debate on female underrepresentation in academia has focused on STEM fields. But recent work has offered a unifying explanation for gender representation across the STEM/non-STEM divide. This proposed explanation, called the field-specific ability beliefs (FAB) hypothesis, postulates that, in combination with pervasive stereotypes that link men but not women with intellectual talent, academics perpetuate female underrepresentation by transmitting to students in earlier stages of education their beliefs about how much intellectual talent is required for success in each academic field. This theory was supported by a nationwide survey of U.S. academics that showed both STEM and non-STEM fields with fewer women are also the fields that academics believe require more brilliance. We test this top-down schema with a nationwide survey of U.S. undergraduates, assessing the extent to which undergraduate beliefs about talent in academia mirror those of academics. We find no evidence that academics transmit their beliefs to undergraduates. We also use a second survey “identical to the first but with each field's gender ratio provided as added information” to explicitly test the relationship between undergraduate beliefs about gender and talent in academia. The results for this second survey suggest that the extent to which undergraduates rate brilliance as essential to success in an academic field is highly sensitive to this added information for non-STEM fields, but not STEM fields. Overall, our study offers evidence that, contrary to FAB hypothesis, the STEM/non-STEM divide principally shapes undergraduate beliefs about both gender and talent in academia

On the Energy Overhead of Mobile Storage Systems

Abstract Secure digital cards and embedded multimedia cards are pervasively used as secondary storage devices in portable electronics, such as smartphones and tablets. These devices cost under 70 cents per gigabyte. They deliver more than 4000 random IOPS and 70 MBps of sequential access bandwidth. Additionally, they operate at a peak power lower than 250 milliwatts. However, software storage stack above the device level on most existing mobile platforms is not optimized to exploit the low-energy characteristics of such devices. This paper examines the energy consumption of the storage stack on mobile platforms. We conduct several experiments on mobile platforms to analyze the energy requirements of their respective storage stacks. Software storage stack consumes up to 200 times more energy when compared to storage hardware, and the security and privacy requirements of mobile apps are a major cause. A storage energy model for mobile platforms is proposed to help developers optimize the energy requirements of storage intensive applications. Finally, a few optimizations are proposed to reduce the energy consumption of storage systems on these platforms