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PurposeTremendous growth and worldwide expansion of Islamic banking industry has gained widespread attention of economist, bankers, investors and financial experts regardless of economic and political volatility in global banking industry. To compete with conventional banking, Islamic banks are setting up themselves with innovative technologies to gain competitive edge and market share. The establishment of mobile banking has been proven a technological wonder by eliminating time and space boundaries, and one can access financial services anywhere and at any time. For effective market segmentation, recognizing gender differences in factors affecting the adoption patterns of m-banking may provide competitive edge. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate how gender differences impact the intention to adopt Islamic mobile banking in Pakistan.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses extended technology acceptance model (TAM) on final 243 participants from Pakistan. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) methodology has been applied for data analysis using SPSS 21 and AMOS 21.FindingsResults have identified two interesting and different models for males and females in intention to adopt Islamic mobile banking. It is inferred that males are more task driven and desire for personality, value and status, so their intention is significantly impacted by perceived usefulness and perceived self-expressiveness. Whereas, females have found lack of IT knowledge and trust; therefore, their intention is significantly impacted by perceived credibility. However, the perceived financial cost was found of no concern for both males and females and social norms influenced the adoption, but there existed no significant gender differences.Originality/valueThe contribution of this study to existing literature is twofold. First, the existing research on mobile banking has mainly applied TAM on conventional banking overlooking the important ethnic group, the Muslims, who prefer Islamic banking. Second, the impact of gender differences is investigated in factors affecting intention to adopt Islamic mobile banking that has not been studied previously. The study fills the gap.

This study is aimed to explore the gender effects in the intention to adopt Islamic mobile banking. Data was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) methodology on 243 participants from Pakistan. In the findings, researchers identified two different models for intention to adopt Islamic mobile banking. It is inferred that males are more task driven and desire for personality, value and status, so their intention is significantly impacted by perceived usefulness and perceived self-expressiveness. Whereas, females have found lack of IT knowledge and trust, therefore, their intention is significantly impacted by perceived credibility. Further, the perceived financial cost was found of no concern for both males and females and social norms influenced the adoption but there existed no significant gender differences. Managerial and practical implications along with limitations and future research suggestions of the study are also discussed. Keywords: Gender differences, Gender effects, Islamic banking, Islamic mobile banking, m-Banking adoption, Pakistan

Salusin-�� is a bioactive peptide that protects against atherosclerosis and hepatosteatosis. Serum salusin-�� level is declined in patients suffering with renal insufficiency. However, it is still undefined whether salusin-�� plays a role in diabetic nephropathy. The present study was designed to investigate the potential roles of salusin-�� in diabetic renal disease. Herein, we demonstrated that the salusin-�� levels in both plasma and kidney tissues from diabetic rats were obviously downregulated. Exogenous administration of salusin-�� eliminated the typical characteristics of diabetic nephropathy. Salusin-�� treatment decreased renal fibrosis, which was related with reduced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of renal tubular epithelial cells. Injection of salusin-�� suppressed the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) via attenuation of NADPH oxidase subunits protein expressions and recovery of the antioxidant system. Mechanistically, the activated Akt/mTORC1/p70S6K signaling pathway in diabetic nephropathy was counteracted by salusin-�� treatment. Our results demonstrated that salusin-�� exerted protective effect against diabetic nephropathy via reduced oxidative stress and fibrosis, dependent on inactivation of the Akt/mTORC1/p70S6K signaling cascade. Salusin-�� may be considered as a promising target for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the proposed model in which effect of trust, attitude and task technology fit are taken as independent variables and intention to m-banking adoption as dependent variable. The study also analyzes the mediating role of trialability between the independent and dependent variables. To find out how much variance each of the independent variables contribute in dependent variable, Structural equation modeling (SEM) approach is applied on the data sample of 271 respondents from Pakistan. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) suggested a good model fit. The results from SEM analysis revealed a model R-square of 0.55. It suggested the significant effect of attitude and task technology fit on intention to adopt m-banking. The analysis further explained the presence of mediating role of trialability between the relationship of intention to adopt m-banking and trust, attitude and task technology fit. The study also provides implications, limitations and future research suggestions.

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