Sultan Qaboos University

About: Sultan Qaboos University is a education organization based out in Muscat, Oman. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Medicine. The organization has 7767 authors who have published 14605 publications receiving 241390 citations. The organization is also known as: SQU.

Internet banking adoption in India: Structural equation modeling approach

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors influencing adoption of internet banking in urban India. Design/methodology/approach – A model has been proposed based on the technology acceptance model (TAM). The proposed model is referred to as extended TAM and is better suited to identify and quantify the important factors that influence adoption of internet banking technology in India. Primary data relating to the variables affecting technology adoption and demographic profile are collected using a questionnaire survey. Data were collected from 344 individuals who are either current/prospective internet banking users. Structural equation modeling was used to identify the important factors affecting internet banking technology adoption. Findings – The factors of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influence, awareness, quality of internet connection and computer self-efficacy are primary determinants of the attitude toward the use of internet banking in urban India. The ...

Zooplankton eat what they need: copepod selective feeding and potential consequences for marine systems

Abstract: Herbivores are generally faced with a plethora of resources which differ in quality. Therefore, they should be able to select foods which most closely match their metabolic needs. Here, we tested the hypothesis that copepods of the species Acartia tonsa select prey cells based on quality differences within prey species. We assessed age-specific variation in feeding behaviour and evaluated the potential consequences of such variation for nutrient cycles. Nauplii (young) stages characterized by a low nitrogen to phosphorus (N:P) ratio in their body tissue selected for phosphorus-rich food, while older copepodite stages with higher body N:P selected for nitrogen-rich food. Further, the analysis of a 35-year data set in the southern North Sea revealed a positive correlation between the abundance of nauplii and the ratio of dissolved inorganic N:P, thus suggesting that P-availability for primary producers declines with the population densities of nauplii. Our findings demonstrate that a combination of stage-specific selective feeding and body stoichiometry has the potential to affect cycling of limiting nutrients when consumer populations change in composition.