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The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that isothermal intermetallic growth data for gold ball bonds can be non-parabolic with explanations of why deviation from parabolic kinetics may occur.

Intermetallic thickness measurements were made at the centre of cross-sectioned ball bonds that were isothermally annealed at 175°C. Intermetallic growth kinetics were modelled with a power law expression(x(t) − x₀)² = α₁t^α₂. The parameters of the power law model were obtained by transformation of the response and explanatory variables followed by data fitting using simple linear regression (SLR).

Ball bonds made with 4 N (99.99%Au) and 3 N (99.9%Au) gold wires exhibited two consecutive time regimes of intermetallic growth denoted Regime I and Regime II. Regime I was characterised by reactive diffusion between the gold wire and the aluminium alloy bond pad, during which Al was completely consumed in the formation of Au–Al intermetallics with non-parabolic kinetics. In Regime II, the absence of a free supply of Al to sustain intermetallic growth led to the conclusion that thickening of intermetallics was caused by phase transformation of Au₈Al₃ to Au₄Al. Ball bonds made with 2 N (99%Au) wire also exhibited non-parabolic kinetics in Regime I and negligible intermetallic thickening in Regime II.

The analysis of intermetallic growth is limited to total intermetallic growth at a single temperature (175°C).

The value of this study lies in showing that the assumption that only parabolic intermetallic growth is observed in isothermally aged gold ball bonds is incorrect. Furthermore there is no need to assume parabolic growth kinetics because with an appropriate data transformation, followed by fitting the data to a power law model using SLR and with the use of statistical diagnostics, both the suitability of the kinetic model and the nature of the growth kinetics (parabolic or non-parabolic) can be determined.

The purpose of this study is to propose an objective and efficient method for assessing credit risk by introducing and investigating to a greater extent the applicability of credit scoring models in the Jordanian banks and to what range they can be used to achieve their strategic and business objectives.

The research methodology comprises two phases. The first phase is the model development. Three modeling techniques are used to build the scoring models, namely, logistic regression (LR), artificial neural network (NN) and support vector machine (SVM), and the best performing model is selected for next stage. The second phase is two-fold: linking the credit expert knowledge in a way that can enhance the outcomes of the scoring model and a profitability test to explore if the selected model is efficient in meeting banks’ strategic and business objectives.

The findings showed that LR model outperformed both ANN and SVM across various performance indicators. The LR model also fits best with achieving the bank’s strategic and business objectives.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first that applied several modeling and classification techniques for Jordanian banks and calibrated the best model in terms of its strategic and business objectives. Furthermore, credit experts’ knowledge was engaged with the scoring model to determine its efficiency and reliability against the sole use of an automated scoring model in the hope to encourage the application of credit scoring models as an advisory tool for credit decisions.

The aim of this study is to understand the effect of class configurations in an active learning classroom (ALC) on students' self-perception of experiences and learning outcomes, namely participation, performance, motivation and creativity.

A self-administered survey (N = 131) was conducted in seven classes from the varied disciplines of communication, interior design and architecture. During the first half of the semester, all selected courses were conducted in traditional classrooms, whereas those in the second half were conducted in an ALC. ALC was designed to be used with several furniture configurations which could be easily set up by members of the learning community themselves. The survey was conducted at the end of semester before final exams, when students have a clear idea of the experiences in both the traditional and the new (ALC) classrooms, having spent equal time in each of these learning environments.

The main finding of the study is that students were eager to have future classes in the ALC rather than in traditional settings since the students experienced better learning outcomes in the ALC. During the second half of the semester, students who were in classes conducted following active learning (AL) pedagogies, with its supportive spatial configurations, were more aware of the learning outcomes facilitated by the physical environment. Further, the authors found that the increase in the number of furniture configurations has a statistically significant positive impact on learning outcomes.

AL pedagogy is often studied as a way of teaching and rarely with its associated classroom environments. In most of the existing studies, the configuration of furniture has often been overlooked within an AL environment by a learning community. This study fills the gap in emphasising the spatial aspects of the ALC by focusing on the specific pedagogy being followed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the likelihood that the presence of the deposit insurance policy encourages risk appetite behavior of banks in Sub-Saharan African (SSA). It argues that financial system stability is not a function of the choice of a deposit insurance scheme, but countries' peculiarities such as quality of institutions and the macroeconomic environment.

The study used the stereotype logit regression model and covers 47 SSA countries. Countries are categorized into two: explicit and implicit DIP scheme.

The study found that corrupt countries are more likely to adopt the implicit policy, while the explicit policy exposes them to credit risk, insolvency, and negative macroeconomic shocks, a reflection of weak institutions and unhealthy competition.

Paucity of substantial local literature on institutional perspective of deposit insurance (DI) constitutes the major limitation of this study.

The sub-region, therefore, faces a conundrum - desiring a deposit insurance scheme, but lacking the required institutions to maintain either a publicly owned regulatory system or the ability to transplant the private club model.

This study contributes to the institutional perspective of DI from SSA institutional perspective.

The differences in the distribution of factors associated with under-five mortality (UFM) can help explain the rural-urban inequities in UFM. The determinants contributing to UFM in rural and urban areas have not been previously explored in Bhutan. This study examined the factors associated with UFM in rural and urban Bhutan and the role of the factors in explaining UFM disparity.

The dataset of 6,398 single births (4,999 in rural and 1,399 in urban areas) from the 2012 Bhutan National Health Survey was analyzed. Logistic regression analysis accounting for the complex survey design was performed to investigate the determinants.

The UFM rate was 2.75 times higher in rural than in urban Bhutan. In rural communities, children of younger mothers, born in households without safe sanitation and electricity, and central and eastern regions had increased UFM odds. Whereas, children born to working mothers and educated fathers, and born in households with non-working household heads had lower UFM odds in urban areas. A higher number of births and smaller household size was associated with an increased UFM odds irrespective of rural-urban residence. Environmental factors were attributable for the largest portion of rural UFM disadvantage.

This study helps to understand the rural-urban differences in the factors influencing UFM in Bhutan. The findings suggest that policies aimed to improve environmental and socioeconomic conditions, women empowerment, and those aimed to enhance health utilization can help reduce the rural-urban child survival disparity and accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal target.

This is the third in a series of papers aimed at providing models effective in predicting the degree of pain and discomfort in canines. The first two papers provided benchmarking and examination of dogs suffering from osteoarthritis (OA). In this chapter, we extend the study to include dogs suffering from OA, sarcoma, and oral mucositis (a side effect of chemotherapy and radiation treatments). The R programming language and SAS JMP are used to clean data, generate ANOVA, LSR regression, decision tree, and nominal logistic regression models to predict changes in activity levels associated with the progression of arthritis. The predictive models provide a diagnostic basis for determining the degree of disease in a dog (based on demographics and activity levels) and provide forecasts that assist in establishing appropriate medication dosages for suffering dogs.

This study aimed to explain how a framework could be developed for (1) the preliminary estimation of project safety level (PSL) in current projects, (2) the estimation of the maximum possible PSL using limited financial resources and (3) the estimation of the minimum financial resources required for reaching a specific PSL.

The data of 95 steel structural building projects were collected via a questionnaire to evaluate the proposed framework for the Iranian construction industry. Based on unofficial local construction statistics and literature reviews, six safety influential factors (SIFs) were selected to which a cost could be assigned. The costs associated with various levels were also determined for each SIF through literature reviews and expert interviews. A multiple linear regression (MLR) model was developed as a predictive model to determine PSL for future projects based on the data of previous projects. Moreover, linear programming (LP) was applied to take modeling constraints and project conditions into account.

The results demonstrated the impacts of all the factors on PSL and the model's potential for the preliminary estimation of PSL using SIFs. The results also indicated that a higher PSL could be achieved by optimizing the allocation of financial resources to each SIF.

This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by developing a step-by-step framework to identify an optimal safety cost allocation (OSCA) to achieve the maximum possible PSL using a limited safety budget and considering the data of similar projects. The main objective was to promote project safety, decrease construction site injuries and fatalities and help local construction industries exploit potential financial advantages.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors impacting the intermediating variable of employee engagement toward employee performance in a hybrid working organization in Bangkok, Thailand.

This study uses secondary data analysis and an archival study; the primary data were gathered from 370 employees who are working in a hybrid model environment in a private agricultural machinery company. To construct a new conceptual framework, this study adopted four frameworks from the previous research.

Perceived organizational support and trust and respect in the organization are found to have a significant positive impact on employee engagement. Moreover, there is a significant positive impact of the employee engagement on employee performance in a hybrid working model.

For hybrid work environments, the research focused mainly on the emotional themes of perceived support, trust and respect in the organization. Therefore, there would be many factors that could possibly affect those dependence variables in any environment, which will have to be investigated more in future research. Either in the organization or in the company, many departments and business units operates for the company, but the researcher specifies only the business units or departments that now use the hybrid working model.

This study focuses on a case study of an agricultural machinery company, which likely produces different results than other industries, other industries may produce different results.

Hybrid working models can blur the boundaries between work and personal life, potentially leading to increased stress and burnout. Organizations should prioritize work-life balance and employee well-being by promoting flexible schedules, encouraging breaks and time off, and providing resources for mental health support.

The organization which is operating among a hybrid working model, the increasing of perceived organizational support and trust and respect level, has positively increase the employee engagement toward enhancing the employee performance.

The main goal of this study is to determine the role of employee commitment in the relations between the compensation system and turnover intentions of employees in the Republic of Serbia, as well as to investigate whether there is a mediating effect of employee commitment in this relation.

The primary methodology implemented in the research was data gathering, obtaining theoretical research works on the proposed relations and empirical studies based on the PLS-SEM, analysed by IBM SPSS Statistics and SmartPLS data processing software. The data for the analysis was obtained from a total sample of 764 employees, collected in the Republic of Serbia via an online questionnaire.

The results indicated a positive statistically significant relationship between the formative construct (compensation system) and reflective construct (commitment), as well as a negative statistically significant relationship between the compensation system and reflective construct (turnover intentions). Employee commitment partially mediates the relationship between the compensation system and turnover intentions of employees.

The study was conducted in Serbia and is thus rooted in the specific national context which is characterized by high power distance and high uncertainty avoidance and more collectivistic society with feminine values more expressed. Most of the previous investigations related to the mentioned constructs were performed in companies from more developed countries, including Western Europe and the United States of America, whereas there has been no such research conducted in Serbia to date. The results portrayed a mismatch between the expected relations regarding the attitudes of employees to the rewards and the proposed national context. Modern companies in Serbia need to follow a modern reward mechanism to build stronger commitment and decrease turnover intentions. Moreover, in most earlier research works, compensation was examined in terms of satisfaction with rewards, while this study was based on questions related to perceptions of employees toward HR compensation practices (“The organization offers me”-type questions), not related to their satisfaction. Further, in the majority of previous research works, the compensation system was examined as a variable in combination with other HR processes (staffing, training and development, career development, employee relations, HR planning, communication, etc.), as a HPWP, while in this case the authors used only the practice of compensation (reward elements and employee performance evaluation) to investigate relations with commitment and turnover intentions.

The paper aims to identify and assess quantitatively the influences of a few dimensions of climate awareness on people's preference for adaptation against sea level rise (SLR).

From the literature survey “familiarity with”, “perception about” and “intuitive knowledge about” climate change‐sea level rise (CC‐SLR) have been identified as dimensions of “climate awareness”. Empirical research was done through administering questionnaires among 285 respondents selected randomly from three coastal villages in Bangladesh. After principal component analysis, data sufficiency and colinearity test, a total of 18 variables were entered into a multinomial logistic regression model. The reference category “evacuation” was compared with other two choices, i.e. in situ adaptation with “same occupation” and “changed occupation”.

For the SLR scenario of 2050‐2075 occupational engagement, use of radio for climate information, exposure to rainfall, salinity and perception about CC‐SLR appeared as the most significant predictors of people's preference for evacuation or in situ adaptation (LR χ²=183.38, pseudo R²=0.54, p<.001). Similarly, for the SLR scenario of 2080‐2100, in addition to the factors cited above, some other factors such as educational attainment, exposure to flood, climate perception and familiarity appeared as the most significant predictor of respondent's preference (LR χ²=202.08, pseudo R²=0.60, p<0.001).

Two dimensions of climate awareness, i.e. familiarity with and perception about CC‐SLR may significantly influence the people's preference for adaptation choice. Launching a programme to enhance climate awareness without further delay may help people planning for anticipatory in situ adaptation against CC‐SLR.