Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal

A Study of Factors Influencing Customers’ Adoption of Mobile Banking in Oman

Muhammad Tahir, Mallesh Tummala — Sat, 07 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The commercial banking sector in Oman is a dynamic sector with a large number of banking service users. However, the customers’ adoption of technology in terms of online banking and mobile banking remains less due to the various socio-demographic factors. Given the cost and operational benefits of mobile banking, there is a need to understand how commercial banks can motivate non-mobile banking users to adopt mobile banking in this context. Thus, the current study is conducted with a view to understand customers’ adoption of mobile banking using the Perceived Characteristics of Innovation model. The data is collected from the commercial bank account holders who are non-users of mobile banking (n=80). The key findings are that perceived ease of use (β=.487, P<.05); and observability (β=.530, P<.05) positively and significantly influence customers intention to use mobile banking; whereas, relative advantage (β=-.068, P>.05); compatibility (β=-.413, P>.05); and trialabiltiy (β=.371, P>.05) exert insignificant influence on customers intention to use mobile banking. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that perceived ease of use and observability are key factors which commercial banks need to focus to encourage customers to adopt mobile banking.

On Keep and Keep on: A Corpora-based Analysis

Namkil Kang — Sat, 07 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The main goal of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis of keep and keep on in the TV Corpus and the British National Corpus. With respect to the TV Corpus, it is interesting to note that keep was favored over keep on from the 1950s to the 2010s. A further point to note is that keep and keep on reached a peak (28,586 tokens vs. 1,303 tokens) in the 2010s. In addition, it is worth pointing out that keep was always preferable to keep on from the 1950s to the 2010s. With respect to the BNC, it is probably worthwhile pointing out that keep is 71.42% the same as keep on in the seven genres of the BNC. When it comes to the Euclidean distance between keep and keep on, the former is the nearest from the latter in the fiction genre, whereas the former is the furthest from the latter in the spoken genre. Quite interestingly, the BNC clearly shows that keep going and keep on going are the most preferred (430 tokens vs. 24 tokens) by the British. Finally, it is significant to note that 43.58% of thirty nine gerunds are the collocations of both keep and keep on.

The Couple Satisfaction Questionnaire: Development and Validation with Two Italian Samples

Elena Antonelli, Lucia Ronconi — Thu, 12 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This paper reports on the development and validation of a questionnaire to measure couple satisfaction in the Italian population, the Couple Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ). The CSQ is focused to assess global couple satisfaction, that is the subjective evaluation of one’s couple relationship as a whole. Results: The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) in the pilot study indicated the existence of two dimensions, one positive and one negative with respect to couple satisfaction. This separation has been interpreted as a methodological artifact due to item phrasing. In fact, the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in the validation study supported our hypothesis of one latent factor. The CSQ showed to have good psychometric properties, including high internal consistency, and excellent convergent validity. Discriminant validity referring to social desirability was acceptable. Conclusion: The pilot and validation studies’ results suggest that the CSQ is a reliable instrument to assess couple satisfaction in couple or family counselling, and encourage further studies of its psychometric properties.

Wrap & Plant Technology: An Innovative and Cost-Effective Method for Seed Yam Treatment for Nematode Control in Fields

Houinsou Dedehouanou — Thu, 12 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

ABSTRACT

In West Africa, seed yam represents an important source of nematode inoculums in yam fields and a major cause of the disease perpetuation. To enhance nematode control on yam (Dioscorea spp.), a pilot participatory field evaluation was conducted in Benin on nematode control potential of abamectin-treated banana paper (treatment A) using seed wrap method. An additional seed yam wrapped with untreated paper (treatment B) is also considered. Both treatments A & B are then compared to unwrapped seed yam representing the farmers’ practice (FP). In each field, plots are arranged in a randomized complete block design with five replicates. The effects of seed yam treatment on nematode control in fields, gustatory qualities of yam tubers, and both social and profitability studies of the technology were assessed. In the present paper, only the study related to the profitability based on the Net Margin (NM) and the ratio Cost/Profit is presented. Results reveal advantages of treatments A and B over (FP). In fact, production statistics from treatments A and B are significantly higher than those from (FP). Based on the "willingness to pay" approach, the profitability study shows that treatment A has a Net Margin of approximately 153.7% that of (FP). Concerning the ratio Cost/Profit, 100 FCFA (West African CFA franc) spent in yam production using this new technology generates around 79.3 FCFA against 59.9 FCFA for (FP). Despite the success of this pilot study, input prices must be monitored before scaling up this innovation to the other agro-ecological regions of Benin.

Key-words: Nematode control, Dioscorea spp., cost effectiveness, input prices, Wrap & plant technology, Benin

Narration of Pre-Islamic Poetry and its Sources

Salahuddin Mohd. Shamsuddin — Thu, 12 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

There is no doubt that the Arabs were illiterate, and they did not depend on the writing, but rather on the oral narrations since the pre-Islamic era. Oral narration in the pre-Islamic era was a technical school in which the young or novice poets learn the principles of poetry, just as the artisans today learn the principles of the craft and the rules of the profession. The junior remains attached to his teacher, carrying out his directions and corrections, and sticking to him as a beneficiary to be able to say and stand out in it, and whoever wanted to learn poetry or be a poet had to commit one of the great poets who was known and recognized for his status, in order to memorize, narrate and excel so that he can get the benefit and proficiency both. The series of narration of pre-Islamic poetry was not interrupted until the era of codification. However, the Orientalist Lyle confirms that who refer to (Muʻallaqāt): Pendants, for example, find that each has its own distinct personality, which proves that it belongs to its owner. Aim of this article is to shed light on that the Pre-Islamic poetry has reached us through the oral narrations, and to respond to those orientalists who doubt the authenticity of those narrations and the narrators who transmitted them until they were codified in the era of codification. In this study, we used the descriptive and historical approach, which is always useful in studying such heretical texts.

A Note on Determining Which of J Parameters Has the Largest or Smallest Value

Rand Wilcox — Thu, 12 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This note suggests two simple approaches to determining whether it is reasonable to make a decision about which random variable has the smallest or largest measure of location. Both are related to Tukey’s three-decision rule, they are easily adapted to a wide range of situations, and they have certain advantages over extant techniques. The focus is on trimmed means, but the method is easily adapted to a wide range of situations. One version of the proposed approach is based on a variation of the percentile bootstrap that has not been previously studied.

Communal Education vs. The True Self Among Graduates of the Kibbutz Educational System

Noga Keini, Amit Helper — Thu, 12 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This article examines the dialectic between the principles and application of communal education of the kibbutz movement and that of Winnicott’s insights of the true self. The true self is characterized by its attention towards inner mental life and its demands to fulfill its needs. The communal kibbutz education prioritized the collective needs as supreme. Many communal values were pursued in the approach and education of young members of the kibbutz in order that they prioritize the needs of the group over that of the individual. This educational approach taught young members, to attend much less to their inner emotional needs and adapt them to the needs of the community. In this article, we attempt to address, elaborate on, understand these issues and their underlying motivations needs.

The Biophysical Modeling of Psychological Aspects

Janos Vincze, Gabriella Vincze-Tiszay — Thu, 12 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The notion of stress has became as the same time very popular but is sometimes used improperly or with many exaggerations especially concerning the recommendations of practical solutions suggested for stress management. The stress producing stimuli, many physiological processes go into action, probably through different paths in close connection; the response is, therefore, an interaction between the organism and his environment. The emotional component takes part in the response reactions through the somatic effect of which it influences the behaviour. The man having lost his last connection with the world grieves duple and his environment must pay great attention not to lose also him. Every medico-surgical intervention belongs to the stress factors. Both contain psychopathological elements and a long psychotherapy accomplished by a specialist is needed, considerate-protective environment for the accommodation in the normal life, for the resocialization. The biological stress is a long succession of active, interactive mutual effect. This relation which always consists of the difference of value-power-intensity is, like an example of today, a chain of action of two fighter during which they get the offensive and defensive conduct in exchanged role. From the point of view of the human individual life the psyche (psychism) is a subsystem. If still we take it out of this relationship with investigational aim then we have to consider it a system.

Appraising the Origins of British Language and the Challenges of Business Communication

Bertin Y. Dansou — Tue, 17 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The English language has shown the same history and development as Anglo-Saxon and British peoples. English ancestors were great warriors and business people. They showed great achievements in Germanic, Scandinavian, Greek, Roman ,French ,English and American wars ,and other activities. This makes English a relevant and suitable language for Wars, social and economic activities; hence the sociolinguistic origins and dimensions of English and business. Nevertheless, this well-known and important language is challenged by business demands that shape and reshape English for communication in the direction of modernity and globalization. The purpose of this analysis is to use structuralism criticism to revisit the diachronic and synchronic aspects of the language to demonstrate connections and interconnections between the origins of the language ,its development and the use of business communication for the promotion of social, political and economic activities. Languages promotion and business development or success are then interdependent for sustainable development

The Untouchable Muslim: A Preliminary Discussion of the Bede Community in Bangladesh

Muhammad Muenuddin, Arshad Islam — Tue, 17 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines the present socio-economic and educational status of the Bede (“untouchable”) minority community in Bangladesh. Despite belonging to the Islamic faith, Bedes are not generally welcomed in mainstream Muslim society. They are primarily nomadic, and live by selling folk remedies and snake charming, deprived of health and educational resources, and living in great poverty. The level of literacy and health facilities for Bedes are negligible. This analysis addresses the dearth of academic studies of the Bede community, and the more serious lack of governmental and non-governmental initiatives to listen to the voice of the Bede community and meet their needs. This study recommends that the government and human rights organizations must come forward to support this community.

Realizing Gramsci’s Dream: A Case Study of Vernacular Sundanese Linguistic Contra-Hegemony

Sari Wattimena — Fri, 20 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The need to promote egalitarianism and reduce the colonial influence in language drives civil society actors and organizations operating within the community to revive their vernacular language, replacing hierarchical standard language exist in their community for a long time. Gramsci’s and Lu Xun’s efforts to promote vernacular language in Italy and China at their times faced failure. Today, in the democratic and digital-dominated society of Indonesia, the same effort has been taken by Aing Tangerang Foundation. This civil organization tries to revive egalitarian Sundanese language against hierarchical Sundanese brought by colonialism. One of their efforts is to popularize the word “Aing”, which means “I” in Sundanese conversation. The word is considered harsh by the majority of Sundanese using hierarchical standards. However, in Tangerang Regency, it is part of their mother tongue. This paper reports on a case study of the vernacular Sundanese linguistic revival campaign taken by the Aing Tangerang Foundation and strategies, drivers, and barriers they faced while promoting their cause. The data is collected through in-depth interviews with three informants: one expert in Sundanese literature, one expert in Sundanese history, and one is the leader of said organization. The research method is qualitative-phenomenological hermeneutics. We use Gramsci's hegemonic theory to analyze and discuss the findings. The results are presented and discussed related to horizontal and vertical strategies; political, organizational, and technological drivers; and historical, psychological, sociological, and sociofacts barriers.

Impact of Pandemic Financial Crisis to the Going Concern Audit Opinion Factors

Ahmad Hafid Hidayat — Fri, 20 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This study aims to further analyze the relationship between the characteristics, client relationship characteristics and environmental factors of auditors in issuing going concern audit opinions during pandemic financial crisis. By analyzing the effect of audit client tenure, litigation risk, and audit firm size on going-concern audit opinion and financial crisis due to COVID-19 as moderation. This study uses secondary data, financial statements and independent auditor reports of mining companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in period 2017-2020. The analytical method used is logistic regression. The results showed that the audit client tenure of public accountants and audit firm size had a significant negative effect on the issuance of going-concern audit opinions, while litigation risk had a significant positive effect on the issuance of going-concern audit opinions. Then the financial crisis due to Covid-19 had a significant positive effect on going-concern audit opinion but did not moderate the effect of audit client tenure, litigation risk, and audit firm size on going-concern audit opinion.