1,108 research outputs found
Credit Card Selection Criteria: Singapore Perspective
This study used factor analysis to examine credit card selection criteria among Singaporeans. The results showed that convenience of use and protection, economics, and flexibility were the main drivers, while the reputation of card was the least important in determining credit card selection in Singapore. Demographic results showed that high-income earners, the better educated, the elderly, married and the professional preferred the convenience-protection factor to the economic-promotional factor. Females were shown to value the promotional factor more, while males preferred the economic factor. The ethnic Malays placed a greater emphasis on the economic factor than did the ethnic Chinese. The results also showed that the number of credit card owned in Singapore is positively related to education, income, age group, and marital status. Those holding a single credit card stressed the economic factor more than those holding many cards. In Singapore, the higher income earners, the better educated, older adults, females, married, and both Chinese and Indians are more receptive to paying their monthly credit card balances in full. The results demonstrated that Singaporeans do not view the credit card selection criteria much differently from respondents from other developing and advanced nations.credit card selection, credit card usage, banking regulation, factor analysis
Asymptotic Spectrum of Kerr Black Holes in the Small Angular Momentum Limit
We study analytically the highly damped quasinormal modes of Kerr black holes
in the small angular momentum limit. To check the previous analytic
calculations in the literature, which use a combination of radial and tortoise
coordinates, we reproduce all the results using the radial coordinate only.
According to the earlier calculations, the real part of the highly damped
quasinormal mode frequency of Kerr black holes approaches zero in the limit
where the angular momentum goes to zero. This result is not consistent with the
Schwarzschild limit where the real part of the highly damped quasinormal mode
frequency is equal to c^3 ln(3)/(8 pi G M). In this paper, our calculations
suggest that the highly damped quasinormal modes of Kerr black holes in the
zero angular momentum limit make a continuous transition from the Kerr value to
the Schwarzschild value. We explore the nature of this transition using a
combination of analytical and numerical techniques. Finally, we calculate the
highly damped quasinormal modes of the extremal case in which the topology of
Stokes/anti-Stokes lines takes a different form.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure
Profiles, Use, and Perceptions of Singapore Multiple Credit Cardholders
This study analyzes Singaporeâs diverse cardholders in search of variations among demographic groups, credit card profiles, and their perceptions with regards to credit card ownership and use, it then discusses possible reasons governing Singaporeansâ credit card ownership and use. A survey was conducted (n = 636), decision trees were then constructed using Chi-square automatic interaction detection algorithm (CHAID) and SPSS software AnswerTree to examine the association between the number of credit cards (target variable) and the demographic characteristics, perceptions and other credit card related variables. The number of credit cards was found to be significantly influenced by income and gender as well as perceptions that include âcredit card leads to overspendingâ, âsavings as payment sourceâ, âunreasonable interest ratesâ, âcredit card as status symbolâ. The number of credit cards was also affected by credit card related variables such as missing payments sometimes, frequency of use, entertainment expenditures, and petrol purchase. This research provides an in-depth understanding of Singaporean multiple cardholders, thus it is useful in designing marketing strategies for card-issuers as well as anti-debt strategies for policy-makers in Singapore. Despite the importance of consumer credit, virtually no literature or research exists on the ownership and use of credit cards in Singapore, so this paper intends to close this gap. Further, by combining the demographics, cardholdersâ profiles and usage patterns with the respondentsâ perceptions concerning credit card ownership and use, our study offers a richer analysis to explain consumer behavior than previous literatures.Credit card ownership, credit card use, credit revolving, credit debts, decision tree, Singapore
Asymptotic Loss in Privacy due to Dependency in Gaussian Traces
The rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) necessitates employing
privacy-preserving techniques to protect users' sensitive information. Even
when user traces are anonymized, statistical matching can be employed to infer
sensitive information. In our previous work, we have established the privacy
requirements for the case that the user traces are instantiations of discrete
random variables and the adversary knows only the structure of the dependency
graph, i.e., whether each pair of users is connected. In this paper, we
consider the case where data traces are instantiations of Gaussian random
variables and the adversary knows not only the structure of the graph but also
the pairwise correlation coefficients. We establish the requirements on
anonymization to thwart such statistical matching, which demonstrate the
significant degree to which knowledge of the pairwise correlation coefficients
further significantly aids the adversary in breaking user anonymity.Comment: IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conferenc
Effective dynamics of microorganisms that interact with their own trail
Like ants, some microorganisms are known to leave trails on surfaces to
communicate. We explore how trail-mediated self-interaction could affect the
behavior of individual microorganisms when diffusive spreading of the trail is
negligible on the timescale of the microorganism using a simple
phenomenological model for an actively moving particle and a finite-width
trail. The effective dynamics of each microorganism takes on the form of a
stochastic integral equation with the trail interaction appearing in the form
of short-term memory. For moderate coupling strength below an emergent critical
value, the dynamics exhibits effective diffusion in both orientation and
position after a phase of superdiffusive reorientation. We report experimental
verification of a seemingly counterintuitive perpendicular alignment mechanism
that emerges from the model.Comment: new figure with experimental results; expanded appendi
Piezomagnetic Quantum Dots
We study the influence of deformations on magnetic ordering in quantum dots
doped with magnetic impurities. The reduction of symmetry and the associated
deformation from circular to elliptical quantum confinement lead to the
formation of piezomagnetic quantum dots. The strength of elliptical deformation
can be controlled by the gate voltage to change the magnitude of magnetization,
at a fixed number of carriers and in the absence of applied magnetic field. We
reveal a reentrant magnetic ordering with the increase of elliptical
deformation and suggest that the piezomagnetic quantum dots can be used as
nanoscale magnetic switches.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Effect of the Heterogeneity of Metamaterials on Casimir-Lifshitz Interaction
The Casimir-Lifshitz interaction between metamaterials is studied using a
model that takes into account the structural heterogeneity of the dielectric
and magnetic properties of the bodies. A recently developed perturbation theory
for the Casimir-Lifshitz interaction between arbitrary material bodies is
generalized to include non-uniform magnetic permeability profiles, and used to
study the interaction between the magneto-dielectric heterostructures within
the leading order. The metamaterials are modeled as two dimensional arrays of
domains with varying permittivity and permeability. In the case of two
semi-infinite bodies with flat boundaries, the patterned structure of the
material properties is found to cause the normal Casimir-Lifshitz force to
develop an oscillatory behavior when the distance between the two bodies is
comparable to the wavelength of the patterned features in the metamaterials.
The non-uniformity also leads to the emergence of lateral Casimir-Lifshitz
forces, which tend to strengthen as the gap size becomes smaller. Our results
suggest that the recent studies on Casimir-Lifshitz forces between
metamaterials, which have been performed with the aim of examining the
possibility of observing the repulsive force, should be revisited to include
the effect of the patterned structure at the wavelength of several hundred
nanometers that coincides with the relevant gap size in the experiments.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures. Rewriting equations (10) and (12) and increasing
the size of the lettering/numeral in figure
Highly Damped Quasinormal Modes and the Small Scale Structure of Quantum Corrected Black Hole Exteriors
Quasinormal modes provide valuable information about the structure of
spacetime outside a black hole. There is also a conjectured relationship
between the highly damped quasinormal modes and the semi-classical spectrum of
the horizon area/entropy. In this paper, we show that for spacetimes
characterized by more than one scale, the "infinitely damped" modes in
principle probe the structure of spacetime outside the horizon at the shortest
length scales. We demonstrate this with the calculation of the highly damped
quasinormal modes of the non-singular, single horizon, quantum corrected black
hole derived in [14].Comment: 32 pages, 7 figure
Effect of Bending Anisotropy on the 3D Conformation of Short DNA Loops
The equilibrium three dimensional shape of relatively short loops of DNA is
studied using an elastic model that takes into account anisotropy in bending
rigidities. Using a reasonable estimate for the anisotropy, it is found that
cyclized DNA with lengths that are not integer multiples of the pitch take on
nontrivial shapes that involve bending out of planes and formation of kinks.
The effect of sequence inhomogeneity on the shape of DNA is addressed, and
shown to enhance the geometrical features. These findings could shed some light
on the role of DNA conformation in protein--DNA interactions
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