We employ dynamic heterogeneous panel estimation techniques which include Dynamic Fixed Effects, Mean Group, and Pooled Mean Group estimators to explore the underground economy (UE) and financial inclusion (FI) relation for ten West African nations during the 2004–2021 period. Applying Pedroni cointegration test, the results present evidence of a long-term relation between UE and FI (alongside corruption, inflation rate, money supply, agricultural output, and trade). The results of panel estimation portray a long-term significant positive influence of FI on UE, but a short-term significant negative relation between FI and UE. In addition, corruption, money supply, and international trade have a long-term significant negative influence on UE, while inflation supports long-term expansion of UE. Also, a short-term significant negative relation exists between inflation (and trade) and UE, while a short-term significant positive relation is found between money supply and UE. The results o.....

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Insurance fraud claims have become a major problem in the insurance industry. Several investigations have been carried out to eliminate negative impacts on the insurance industry as this immoral act has caused the loss of billions of dollars. In this paper, a comparative study was carried out to assess the performance of various classification models, namely logistic regression, neural network (NN), support vector machine (SVM), tree augmented naïve Bayes (NB), decision tree (DT), random forest (RF) and AdaBoost with different model settings for predicting automobile insurance fraud claims. Results reveal that the tree augmented NB outperformed other models based on several performance metrics with accuracy (79.35%), sensitivity (44.70%), misclassification rate (20.65%), area under curve (0.81) and Gini (0.62). In addition, the result shows that the AdaBoost algorithm can improve the classification performance of the decision tree. These findings are useful for insurance professionals.....

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Earlier studies demonstrated the ability of some fluorinated surfactants to form rod-like reverse micelles with the ability to thicken water/supercritical CO2 (scCO2) mixtures at temperatures below 45 ºC [Langmuir 26 (2010) 83–88. Soft Matter 8 (2012) 7044–7055. Colloids and Surfaces B, 168 (2018), 201–210.]. Such viscosity enhancement of scCO2 is known to increase sweep efficiency for oil recovery with CO2 flooding. However, temperatures of up to ∼100 ºC in conventional reservoirs are much higher than those employed in laboratory studies, and tend to weaken inter- and intra-molecular interactions between surfactant molecules, discouraging rod-like reverse micelle formation. With the aim of designing surfactants which form rod-like reverse micelles and thicken CO2 at high temperatures, this study examined phase behavior, nanostructures of reverse micelles and thickening ability of double ω-hydroperfluorocarbon-tail anionic surfactants in W/scCO2 mixtures at temperatures of 3.....

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[No abstract available]..

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Cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells have attracted a lot of interest in recent years, attributed to their low cost and eco-friendly fabrication technique. However, the back contact is still the key issue for further improvement in device performance due to the work function difference between p-CdTe and metal contacts. In this study, the interatomic characteristics of zinc telluride (ZnTe) and Cu-doped ZnTe (ZnTe:Cu) as a back surface field (BSF) in CdTe structure is investigated using first-principles density functional theory (DFT) to overcome the Schottky barrier in CdTe solar cells. The incorporation of different doping levels of copper (Cu) in ZnTe on an atomic scale, where Zn1−xTe:Cux (x = 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10) as the potential back surface field layers is investigated. The effect of doping concentration on electrical characteristics such as bandgap structure and density of states (DOS) were examined via ab initio with the Hubbard U (DFT + U) correction. The results showed an.....

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Evidence is steadily mounting on the prominence of online and technology-enabled learning in higher education. The present study intended to investigate whether virtual, interactive, real-time, instructor-led (VIRI) online learning has the potential to yield comparable student performance and engagement results to that of a traditional face-to-face (F2F) course. This is of great significance since the study delves into the possibilities of synchronous online learning in environments where resources are scarce and provide valuable insights into how technology can contribute to improving medical education and accessibility to educational resources in Iran and other comparable educational contexts. The participants were 18–30-year-old male (n = 16) and female (n = 24) students of nursing (n = 20) and operating room (n = 20) who enrolled in synchronous online and face-to-face courses as the requisite for the fulfilment of a bachelor’s degree. T-tests and descriptive statistics were the.....

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Metal-free N–S- and N–P-doped nanocarbon (SCNP and PCNP) electrocatalysts prepared through sustainable microwave-assisted synthesis using hemigraphis alternata plant leaves. The prepared heteroatom-doped nanocarbon materials are active catalysts for the two-electron oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) to produce 65–70% of hydrogen peroxide. As evidenced from the XPS, most proportion of the doped heteroatoms contain the oxygen functional groups in the nanocarbons. These attributes are the critical factors to see the selective two-electron transfer ORR for the PCNP and SCNP. This approach shed light on the critical role of dual heteroatoms doping and the oxygen functionalities in nanocarbon towards the selectivity of ORR. We believe that this method would allow the preparation of heteroatom that contains oxygen functionalities. Our work paves a sustainable way of preparation of nanocarbon based ORR catalysts that are only selective for two-electron transfer process. Graphical abstract:.....

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This research was conducted on the basis of the low level of basic movement skills of children aged 9-10 years. It is thought that many factors influence other game approaches, conventional and physical fitness. This research aims to determine the effect of play, conventional and physical fitness approaches on the basic movements of children aged 9-10 years. This type of research is a quasi-experiment with a sample size of 40 people divided into two groups using ordinally meat pairing, 20 experimental people and 20 control people. Basic movement skills are obtained with the TGMD-2 test which consists of locomotor movements and object control. Data were analyzed using the t-test technique. The results of research and data analysis show that children who use a play approach are better than conventional children, as seen from their basic movement skills and physical fitness, sig 0.000..

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Tellurium, zinc, and erbium oxides glasses are made using the melt-quenching technique. The XRD results show that the glass samples are naturally amorphous. The TeO4 units' extended vibration are performed using FTIR. On the other hand, the TeO3 as well as Er2O3 are detected using deconvolution. When the concentration of erbium ions increases, the density and molar volume will also increase. The high value of thermal diffusivity at 0.02 and 0.03 M fractions, a large value of glass stability (greater than 100 °C), and strong thermal stability are excellent for fibre drawing. As a result, the highest linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) values are found for the sample with 5 mol% Er2O3 content, where the values drop suddenly from 0.95744 to 0.21065 cm−1 over the tested energy which ranges between 0.284 and 2.51 MeV. Among the TZEr samples, TZEr5 has the lowest half-value layer (HVL) values ranging from 0.00243 to 0.08252 cm. Thus, both LAC and HVL are considered as suitable options fo.....

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Given the limited empirical evidence on conceptualizing authenticity in food, this study explored the dimensionality of perceived authenticity in food within a state fair setting. By using a rigorous scale development procedure through a mixed method, this study developed and validated a set of scales to measure authenticity in food and confirmed four underlying factors of food authenticity: unique, original, local, and traditional. The findings provide a foundation for scale development along with theoretical insights on authentic food with the four dimensions identified. Practically, this study provides managerial guidelines for state fair organizers to better evaluate food authenticity concerning the four dimensions, plan strategic marketing tools that could attract more consumers, and improve their offerings to visitors’ authentic experiences. © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC...

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