An Intelligent Mechanism to Automatically Discover Emerging Technology Trends: Exploring Regulatory Technology

Technology trend analysis uses data relevant to historical performance and extrapolates it to estimate and assess the future potential of technology. Such analysis is used to analyze emerging technologies or predict the growing markets that influence the resulting social or economic development to assist in effective decision-making. Traditional trend analysis methods are time-consuming and require considerable labor. Moreover, the implemented processes may largely rely on the specific knowledge of the domain experts. With the advancement in the areas of science and technology, emerging cross-domain trends have received growing attention for its considerable influence on society and the economy. Consequently, emerging cross-domain predictions that combine or complement various technologies or integrate with diverse disciplines may be more critical than other tools and applications in the same domain. This study uses a design science research methodology, a text mining technique, and social network analysis (SNA) to analyze the development trends concerning the presentation of the product or service information on a company's website. This study applies regulatory technology (RegTech) as a case to analyze and justify the emerging cross-disciplinary trend. Furthermore, an experimental study is conducted using the Google search engine to verify and validate the proposed research mechanism at the end of this study. The study results reveal that, compared with Google Trends and Google Correlate, the research mechanism proposed in this study is more illustrative, feasible, and promising because it reduces noise and avoids the additional time and effort required to perform a further in-depth exploration to obtain the information.

STEMUR: An Automated Word Conflation Algorithm for the Urdu Language

Stemming is a common word conflation method that perceives stems embedded in the words and decreases them to their stem (root) by conflating all the morphologically related terms into a single term, without doing a complete morphological analysis. This article presents STEMUR, an enhanced stemming algorithm for automatic word conflation for Urdu language. In addition to handling words with prefixes and suffixes, STEMUR also handles words with infixes. Rather than using a totally unsupervised approach, we utilized the linguistic knowledge to develop a collection of patterns for Urdu infixes to enhance the accuracy of the stems and affixes acquired during the training process. Additionally, STEMUR also handles English loan words and can handle words with more than one affix. STEMUR is compared with four existing Urdu stemmers including Assas-Band and the template-based stemmer that are also implemented in this study. Results are processed on two corpora containing 89,437 and 30,907 words separately. Results show clear improvements regarding strength and accuracy of STEMUR. The use of maximum possible infix rules boosted our stemmer's accuracy up to 93.1% and helped us achieve a precision of 98.9%.

Efficiency and Effectiveness of Web Application Vulnerability Detection Approaches: A Review

Most existing surveys and reviews on web application vulnerability detection (WAVD) approaches focus on comparing and summarizing the approaches’ technical details. Although some studies have analyzed the efficiency and effectiveness of specific methods, there is a lack of a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the efficiency and effectiveness of various WAVD approaches. We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) of WAVD approaches and analyzed their efficiency and effectiveness. We identified 105 primary studies out of 775 WAVD articles published between January 2008 and June 2019. Our study identified 10 categories of artifacts analyzed by the WAVD approaches and 8 categories of WAVD meta-approaches for analyzing the artifacts. Our study’s results also summarized and compared the effectiveness and efficiency of different WAVD approaches on detecting specific categories of web application vulnerabilities and which web applications and test suites are used to evaluate the WAVD approaches. To our knowledge, this is the first SLR that focuses on summarizing the effectiveness and efficiencies of WAVD approaches. Our study results can help security engineers choose and compare WAVD tools and help researchers identify research gaps.

Measuring driver cognitive distraction through lips and eyebrows

<span>Cognitive distraction is one of the several contributory factors in road accidents. A number of cognitive distraction detection methods have been developed. One of the most popular methods is based on physiological measurement. Head orientation, gaze rotation, blinking and pupil diameter are among popular physiological parameters that are measured for driver cognitive distraction. In this paper, lips and eyebrows are studied. These new features on human facial expression are obvious and can be easily measured when a person is in cognitive distraction. There are several types of movement on lips and eyebrows that can be captured to indicate cognitive distraction. Correlation and classification techniques are used in this paper for performance measurement and comparison. Real time driving experiment was setup and faceAPI was installed in the car to capture driver’s facial expression. Linear regression, support vector machine (SVM), static Bayesian network (SBN) and logistic regression (LR) are used in this study. Results showed that lips and eyebrows are strongly correlated and have a significant role in improving cognitive distraction detection. Dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) with different confidence of levels was also used in this study to classify whether a driver is distracted or not.</span>

Relationship between age and gender with cholesterol levels of Taro villagers

Introduction: COVID-19 is a disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Coronavirus 2), an outbreak in the world in 2019 until now. High cholesterol levels correlate with increasing disease severity in SARS-CoV-2 infection because there is a surge of cases in Gianyar Regency, a district of Taro Village. This study aimed to examine the relationship between age and gender to cholesterol levels which are expected to become information for the people of Taro Village as a basis for health screening to prevent comorbid diseases that increase mortality in SARS-CoV-2 infection and increase awareness of the people of Taro Village to maintain health and implement a healthy lifestyle. Method: Capillary blood was taken and then checked for cholesterol levels using a standardized tool on 44 respondents. The cholesterol check was conducted in Gianyar Regency, precisely in Taro Village, Tegalalang District, and Bali. The data obtained will be analyzed using univariate analysis followed by bivariate analysis using the Spearman correlation test for variables of age and cholesterol levels. In contrast, for variables gender and cholesterol levels, the Mann-Whitney test is performed. Results: A total of 44 individual respondents in this study, the distribution of data, namely the age of the repondent is more in the 41-50 year age group, the number of female respondents is 33 or 75.0% of the total respondent, and 70.5% of the respondent or 31 have normal cholesterol levels. The results of the Spearman test on the variables of age and cholesterol levels obtained a P value>0, 05, and the results of the Mann Withney test on the variables gender and cholesterol levels obtained a P value>0, 05. Conclusion: Most taro villagers have normal cholesterol levels obtained as many as 31 people, or 70.5% of the total respondent. It may be influenced by the work factor of taro villagers who work a lot in the agriculture and plantation sectors. Based on the study results, there is also no significant relationship between age and gender with the cholesterol levels of Taro Villagers. However, high cholesterol levels were only found in females as many as five people.

Interests and attitudes of G.C.E. (A/L) physical science stream students on university education in STEM: A case study in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has a free education system that gives access to higher education opportunities through the G.C.E. (Advanced Level) examination to a limited number of students. Students can choose their preferred university course if they have fulfilled the required minimum results for university admission. This paper discusses the general interests and attitudes of a sample of physical science stream students towards university education in STEM as a case study in Sri Lanka. The study has investigated several perspectives of the selected sample of G. C. E. (A/L) students through an online survey that includes questions regarding students' attitudes and perceptions on university education and different STEM-related undergraduate courses. The study has covered several schools of three provinces in Sri Lanka, and some of the investigated results are discussed with respect to the provinces. The results revealed career prospects, the academic quality of the undergraduate courses and the reputation of the university as the most influencing factors for undergraduate course selection in STEM disciplines, while engineering-related undergraduate courses were the most preferred ones among the students. The study results can be an asset to further studies since this topic has been rarely explored in the Sri Lankan higher education context.

Implementing strategic responses in the COVID-19 market crisis: a study of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic presents unprecedented challenges for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies. This paper aims to examine how India's SMEs implement their strategic responses in this crisis. Design/methodology/approach The study uses dynamic capability theory to explore the strategic responses of SMEs. Strategy implementation theory helps to explain how they implement innovative practices for outcomes. A research model defines the COVID-19 challenges, strategic responses and performance outcomes. The study reports the findings of an initial pilot study of 75 firms and follow-up case study results in the context of COVID-19. Findings Firms choose their approaches according to their perceived market risks. Case studies illustrate that firms display diverse attitudes depending on their strategic direction, leadership vision and organizational culture. They achieve different outcomes by implementing specific styles of risk management practices (e.g. risk-averting, risk-taking and risk-thriving). Research limitations/implications Although the study context is Indian SMEs, the findings suggest meaningful lessons for other emerging economies in similar crisis events. The propositions may be extended to future research in broad contexts. Practical implications Even in the extraordinary COVID-19 market crisis, SMEs with limited resources display their strategic potential by recognizing their unique capabilities, translating them into effective actions and achieving desirable outcomes. Social implications In the COVID-19 pandemic, top leaders' mental attitude, strategic perspective and routine practices are contagious. Positive leadership motivates both internal and external stakeholders with an enormous level of collaboration. Originality/value This rare study of Indian SMEs provides a theoretical framework for designing a pilot survey and conducting a case study of multiple firms. Based on these findings, testable propositions are articulated for future research in diverse organizational and national contexts.

Technology readiness and e-service quality – impact on purchase intention and loyalty

PurposeThis paper aims to explore impact of technology readiness (TR) on e-service quality (ESQ) and effect of ESQ and TR on purchase intention (PI) and behavioral loyalty (BL) in the context of online shopping.Design/methodology/approachWith the help of the existing literature, the authors propose a conceptual model. Questionnaire was designed to collect data, and analysis has been done using a final sample of 341 respondents.FindingsThe results show how TR has a significant impact on ESQ, PI and BL. Outcomes also highlight that only three dimensions of ESQ have a positive impact on both PI and BL. System availability dimension of ESQ impacts neither PI nor BL. Therefore, TR and ESQ together play a vital role as enablers in influencing BL and PI in online shopping context.Practical implicationsThe study results will serve as a guide to business-to-consumer e-commerce players and help them to determine how TR and ESQ dimensions will help them to build BL and PI for online shopping.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies that takes into consideration both TR and ESQ and check how they impact PI and BL. Also, in the Indian context, it is an under-researched area and tries to fulfill this gap.

Are extracurricular activities stress busters to enhance students’ well-being and academic performance? Evidence from a natural experiment

PurposeThe stress-coping model is extensively studied in the academic context. Past studies have primarily focused on different coping strategies adopted by students to overcome academic stress. However, an important question, how to equip students to cope with stress, was ignored. Drawing on stress-coping theory and the extracurricular activity (ECA) literature, the current study investigates the intervention of ECA participation on students’ coping, academic performance, and well-being in a natural setting.Design/methodology/approachThe study follows a “cross-sectional post-test only quasi-experimental design” using a natural experimental setting.FindingsThe findings indicate that participation in ECA has a significant influence on academic outcomes. Different types of ECA participation influence well-being, whereas time spent on ECA positively affects academic performance. Further, the findings also indicate that involvement in ECA moderates the relationship between academic stress and coping.Practical implicationsThe study results have practical implications for designing interventional ECA to enhance students’ academic outcomes and well-being.Originality/valueThe study indicates the effectiveness of ECA participation in dealing with academic stress and the development of constructive coping strategies. Hence, the authors advise the academic administrators to integrate ECA in the academic setting.

The role of finance in the sales and operations planning process: a multiple case study

PurposeThis paper aims to offer evidence-based findings on the under-researched role of finance in the sales and operations planning (S&OP) process, aiming to guide academics and practitioners towards successful S&OP implementations.Design/methodology/approachThe research builds upon a multiple case study, embracing five Latin American subsidiaries of four global manufacturing corporations from the consumer goods, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Following an exploratory approach, the case study results are analysed in within- and cross-case analyses.FindingsThe research findings are synthesised into a framework, demonstrating relevant benefits from the engagement of finance along the S&OP process and the implications of its interactions with traditional S&OP functions as sales, marketing and operations. The paper shows how finance adds value in supporting the process, enabling decisions on costs, margins, capital expenditures and return on investments. Finance strengthens S&OP when assessing demand- and supply-related risks and facilitates comparing the functional business areas' plans to budget. While finance participation is highlighted as necessary for supporting successful S&OP implementations, it also receives valuable inputs in return, characterising a two-way communication role that benefits the entire organisation.Originality/valueThis is the first research paper focusing on empirically exploring the role of finance within S&OP, going beyond initial insights from practice and academia. It provides practitioners and scholars with an in-depth, evidence-based view of finance's integration along the S&OP process.