This paper investigates about the relationship between financial innovation and financial performance for banking systems. The financial innovations covered in this paper are the branchless banking models which represent an innovation in banking systems comparing with the traditional branch-based banking. How financial innovations can enhance the profitability of banking system and its customers and what is the risk impact of such innovations, are the main sections of this paper. Important features of financial innovations for firms and a dynamic distributed lag model are explained to find the relationship between financial innovations and banks? financial performance. Moreover, related theories and models which are helpful in finding the relationship between financial innovations and bank?s financial performance are explained in this paper.
With the technological advancements in robotics, machine learning, and other aspects of artificial intelligence, the focus to develop Human Capital and the utilization of lifelong learning (LLL) is a necessity. The UAE Government has already identified Human Capital Development as one of the most important priorities through its different visions for the future. In order for the UAE to achieve its 2021 vision towards becoming one of the world?s top governments by its Golden Jubilee of its inception, development of policies, strategies, and allocation of budget needs to take place to ensure that lifelong learning is instilled within the fabric of the UAE?s Human Capital.
The research examines co-creation of value and analyses the interactions between customers and organizations? online platforms. It underlines the role of social media marketing activities as a critical factor for improving value creation processes. The study is grounded in the joint sphere of value creation process; therefore, it measures three dimensions of customers? engagement and the impact of social media activities to create customer value. This study used quantitative research methodology for data collection and hierarchal regression for data analysis. Moreover, It aims to understand the effect of company online communication on cognitive, emotional and behavioral customer engagement for value creation. Results explain that the integration of organizations? online activities improves the prediction of variance in customer value. The adjusted R-square increases from 45.2% to 59.2% significantly. Social media activities totally mediate the relationship between customer cognitive engagement and customer value. However, it partially mediates the relationship between emotional engagement, behavioral engagement, and customer value. The study contributes to the body of knowledge by highlighting the influence of firms? online platforms on customer engagement and value creation process.
The higher education sector plays a leading role in economic, social and cultural change through its impact on individuals and society. The services offered by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) vary for their students as a part of institutional goals to provide the community with high quality service and knowledge. However, the number of students withdrawing from programs is still increasing. This paper aims to investigate the influence of five factors (perceived service quality teaching, perceived service quality support, extra-curricular activities, social identification, and organization identification) on student?s intention to stay in HEIs. Also, it discovers the powerful influence of reputation on student satisfaction and cognitive dissonance. A quantitative approach will be adopted, and a questionnaire will be applied to undergraduate students in three federal institutions in the UAE. The anticipated results will support HEIs by carefully examining the literature, identifying a guideline process and recommendations to reduce the dropout rate.
Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a dominant fruit crop in most of the Arabian countries. Date pits, as a major byproduct, which remained after consumption of date flesh. In the present study, the impact of degraded date pits (DDP) on pancreatic digestive enzymes, intestinal development and morphology of intestine were investigated. Brazilian broiler chicks ?Cobb 500? were divided into six treatments, which consisted of corn soy diet, corn soy + 20% oxytetracycline, corn soy + 10% (DDP), corn soy + 0.2% mannan oligosaccharides (MOS), corn soy + 0.1% mannose and corn soy + 0.2% mannose. Results showed that supplementation of 10?P increased the enzymes activities, the villus length and villus/crypt ratio and decreased the crypt depth of intestine. It can be concluded that that 10 ?P can be used as an alternative to antibiotic growth promoter and it can improve the development of intestine and gut health.
Activated Carbon is well accepted in the field of nanotechnology and nanotoxicology. Artificial and Bioartificial liver devices are those which use activated carbon as a common adsorbent. Apart from hemodialysis AC can be used in different aspects of medical filed in different structures. The present study conducted with the biomaterial engineered from date seed and its growth in 2D and 3D cell cultures. Date pit activated carbon were engineered in a tube furnace by the process of physical activation. Characterization and visualization of the cells when exposed to activated carbon were conducted. 2D and 3D cultures revealed that the cultured cells were unaffected by the prepared activated carbon.
A study of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) population is important due to high consanguineous marriage which may affect the power of discrimination of some loci. The genetic polymorphisms of 23 autosomal short tandem repeat loci including D3S1358, vWA, D16S539, CSF1PO, TPOX, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D2S441, D19S433, TH01, FGA, D22S1045, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, D10S1248, D1S1656, D12S391, D2S1338, D6S1043, Penta D and Penta E were evaluated in 571 random unrelated UAE Arabs population. Blood samples were collected on FTA cards. Targeted loci were amplified using Verifiler? Express PCR Amplification Kit and run on the ABI 3500 Genetic analyzer. Arlequin and Forstat softwares were used to determine the forensic parameters and population structure analysis for 23 autosomal STRs. A total of 305 alleles were observed with the corresponding allelic frequencies ranging between 0.000876 and 0.49387. Data of forensic parameters such as locus diversity ranged from 0.67406 (TPOX) to 0.9149 (Penta E). Results suggest that the 23 STR loci had a relatively high genetic variation, which was suitable for forensic personal identification and paternity testing in the UAE population. The significance of this work is to build an allelic frequency database aiding statistical evaluation of generated STR profiles in the corresponding populations.
Effective capture of cancer cells from whole peripheral blood samples, i.e. circulating tumor cells (CTCs), is still an existing limitation for liquid biopsy-based diagnostics. Microfluidic systems are widely adopted methods for isolating CTCs based on antigen-antibody interaction. However, they are known to be associated with several drawbacks, such as high shear stresses resulting from high flow resistance within the microscale channels, limited capture areas, restricted access to isolated cells, and limited post-processing possibilities. To tackle these issues, we developed a 3D-printed microfluidic probe (MFP) integrated with herringbone micro-mixing structures (HMFP) with the capacity to scan over antibody-functionalized glass slides. The tip surface was designed with 2-slitted apertures, one for injecting the cell suspension and the other for performing high flow rate aspiration to confine the flow. We performed a 3D finite element analysis and parametric study to optimize the HMFP?s design, compared experiments with simulations, and performed proof-of-concept cell capture experiments using breast cancer cell line MCF-7.
The Arabian Peninsula is one of the hottest and driest regions in the world, and with climate change, not only is it getting hotter, it is also getting drier. It may be that the desert species here are well-adapted to dry conditions, in which case they may be able to withstand the changes, but it may be that desert species already find conditions too dry, in which case they may be especially vulnerable. Here, we used data from 160 published studies to look at whether desert species and species from other biomes were living above or below their optimum rainfall. In all cases, the performance of desert species had a positive relationship with rainfall indicating that they were living below their optima. Across all the other biomes studied, we also found that conditions were more commonly too dry than too wet, even in tropical rainforests and wetlands. Deserts are the driest biomes of all, and as conditions on the Arabian Peninsula become even drier, our desert biodiversity could be especially vulnerable.
Many recent in vivo and in vitro studies have reported the potential hypoglycemic properties of camel milk. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms behind these effects remain not completely understood. In this study, we investigated the effect of camel milk whey proteins (CMWPs) and one of its major proteins, lactoferrin (Lf), on the activation of the human insulin receptor (hIR) and its major downstream signaling pathways. As For this, we studied the activation of two major signaling proteins, Akt and ERK1/2 (for extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2), using SDS-PAGE and western blot. Our data indicate that CMWPs activate Akt and ERK1/2 in a similar way as the natural hormone insulin in both human embryonic kidney (HEK293) and hepatic carcinoma (HepG2) cells. Lf was shown to activate these pathways, but to a lower extent. Both of them also increased glucose uptake in HEK293 cells. However, this seems to occur in IR-independent manner. Our data will help to better understand the anti-diabetic properties of camel milk by identifying the putative hypoglycemic agent(s) and its/their plausible application in the treatment of diabetes.
