The Night the People Reclaimed You

A poem addressed to the Wellington Trades Hall building, the site of the conference party and much else

E-VOTING SYSTEMS: A TOOL FOR E-DEMOCRACY

Using electronic voting systems is divisive as some countries used such systems and others did not. Electronic voting (e-voting) is relatively a new concept based on its application that aims at reducing errors and improving the convenience and integrity of election process. This paper tried to explore the factors that influence the adoption of such systems in a university environment. The study utilized a sample of 302 bachelor degree students in a public Jordanian university and in relation to students’ council election process. Results indicated that students were keen on the concepts of trust and usefulness of e-voting when adopting such systems. The study supported the findings of TAM in the area of technology acceptance. Conclusions are at the end of this paper.E-government, e-democracy, e-voting, students’ elections.

Prevalence of overweight and obesity and their associations with dietary habits among students from a major university in Palestine: A cross-sectional study

Overweight and obesity are major public health problems and the most common nutri-tional disorders. The prevalence of overweight and obesity is rising at an alarming rate in both developing and developed countries. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity and their associations with dietary habits among students from a major university in Palestine. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 304 Students (50% males and 50% females). Students were asked to fill in a standard questionnaire. Weight, height, and waist circumference were measured and hemoglobin level was tested. Statistical analysis was con-ducted using SPSS version 15.0. The prevalence rates of overweight and obesity among stu-dents were 20.1% and 4.6%, respectively, (P\u3c 0.05). Overweight and obesity were more common among males compared to females (27.0% and 5.9% vs. 13.2% and 3.3%, respec-tively), (P\u3c 0.05). The prevalence of abdominal obesity among students was 17.8% and was more common among females (23.0%) compared to males (12.5%), (P\u3c 0.05). The preva-lence of anemia was 13.8%. Anemia was more common among females (18.4%) than males (9.2%), (P\u3c 0.05). 5.3% of males were underweight compared to 4.6% of female, (P\u3c 0.05). 68.4% of students reported that they take meals irregularly and a significant difference was found between males and females in meal patterns, (P\u3c 0.05). Also, there were significant differences between males and females in physical activity (69.1% of males and 55.9% of females practiced sports), and smoking (51.3% of males and 91.4% of females never smoked, while 48.7% of males and 8.6% of females were current smokers), (P\u3c 0.05). Uni-versity students would benefit from nutritional and health promotion programs to reduce the tendency of overweight and obesity. Educational programs are needed to encourage the con-sumption of fruits and vegetables to improve students\u27 eating habits

In vitro activity of certain drugs in combination with plant extracts against Staphylococcus aureus infections

This study has been done to evaluate the interaction between ethanolic extracts of Rhus coriaria (leaf), Psidium guajava (Leaf), Lawsonia inermis (Leaf), and Sacropoterium spinosum (seed) and antimicrobialdrugs including oxytetracyclin HCl, enrofloxacin, gentamicin sulphate, and sulphadimethoxin against 4 clinical isolates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). This evaluation was done by well-diffusion method. Results of this study showed that crude extracts from these plants increase the inhibition zones of oxytetracyclin HCl, gentamicin sulphate, and sulphadimethoxin, while combination between the plant extracts and enrofloxacin decreases inhibition zone

Students' perceptions of flipped classrooms, gender, and country difference

Information technology and the Internet has enabled faculty and educational institutions to implement new teaching methods to enrich the educational environment. The flipped classroom (FC) method changed the teaching practices and encouraged active learning. Using pre-class videos made the class time available for active discussions. This study utilized two samples to compare student perceptions on the challenges and benefits of such a method. The first sample included 200 students from a leading university in one of the Gulf Region countries, and the second sample included 114 students in Jordan. Results indicated a domination of higher means for the Jordanian sample, and the for males sample. Results partially supported the model for the Gulf university students and overall sample, but fully for the Jordanian sample. The strongest predictor of FC was perceived enjoyment and the weakest predictor was relative advantage. More results and discussion are reported at the end

Drivers of Social Media Networking Site Continuance Intention in Jordan and South Africa: Do National Cultural Differences Matter?

The present study integrates perceived service quality and national cultural dimensions into the expectation-confirmation model (ECM) to ascertain the antecedents of user satisfaction and continuance use of SNSs and tested the moderating role of culture on the strengths of relationships in the adapted ECM. Data for empirical testing of the research model, using a partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modelling technique with multi-group analysis, were obtained from 987 SNS users in Jordan and South Africa. The findings suggest that, although there are differences in the path estimates of users in these contexts, these differences are not statistically significant, implying that cultural factors are not salient considerations for promoting SNS user satisfaction and continuance use intention. Implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed

A Descriptive Framework for the Field of Knowledge Management

Despite the extensive evolution of knowledge management (KM), the field lacks an integrated description. This situation leads to difficulties in research, teaching, and learning. To bridge this gap, this study surveys 2842 articles from top-ranked KM journals to provide a descriptive framework that guides future research in the field of knowledge management. This study also seeks to provide a comprehensive depiction of current research in the field and categorizes these research activities into higher-level categories using grounded theory approach and topic modeling technique. The results show that KM studies are classified into four core research categories: technological, business, people, and domains/applications dimensions. An additional concern addressed in this study is the major research methodologies used in this field. The results raise awareness of the development of KM discipline and hold implications for research methodologies and research trends in the selected KM journals. The results obtained from this study also provide practitioners with a useful quality reference source. The framework and the components included provide researchers, practitioners, and educators with an ontology of KM topics, where they can cover deficiencies in research and provide an agenda for future research

Utilizing radio frequency identification in libraries: The case of Qatar

Nowadays, RFID technology is widely being used in libraries across the world. This study is in line with global literature pertaining to the implementation of RFID technology in libraries and intends to explore and examine the perceptions of employees from two libraries in Qatar. Data was collected from both staff and managers using two separate surveys. The perceptions of both sets of employees were analyzed and compared to highlight the differences in benefits, drawbacks, and issues concerning the implementation of RFID in contrast to barcode. 'Shelf management of resources,' 'perceived RFID contributions,' and 'workplace efficiency' were the top 3 rated dimensions pertaining to the use of RFID. Additionally, 'increased customer satisfaction' was rated the highest among the reasons as to why RFID is adopted in libraries and the fact that all negative decision determinants were moderately perceived when compared to the positive ones indicates the overall positive attitude of managers in these libraries towards RFID technology. Further conclusions and future work are proposed at the end of the study

Adapting the UTAUT2 Model for Social Commerce Context

Social commerce (SC) became a major channel for conducting business as a result of the ban adopted by many countries because of COVID-19. The simplicity of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and its extended version (UTAUT2) invites researchers to explore other options that can yield better explanation of the adoption of SC. This study extended the UTAUT2 with perceived value, trust, and a SC-related construct. In addition, the study re-structured the UTAUT2 to fit with SC environment. The study utilized 463 surveys distributed in Qatar and analyzed the data using SEM. Results fully supported the proposed model, where trust, perceived value, facilitating conditions, and hedonic motivation significantly predicted behavioral intentions with an R2 value equal to 72%. The model supported the role of performance expectancy and SC constructs in predicting perceived value and the role of effort expectancy and habit in predicting hedonic motivation