Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software: An Illustration of Limitations and Advantages

Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) is a well-known acronym in qualitative research. Nowadays, qualitative researchers are inclined to apply such software for various purposes. Critiques of the use of CAQDAS in qualitative research focus on the term “analysis”, claiming that that the tool does little to analyze data. According to these critiques, some users of CAQDAS advocate a positivist or quantitative approach using CAQDAS as a so-called “devil-tool” for science. In contrast, although the use of CAQDAS can be seen to do the mechanical part of the analysis (i.e. coding), it can never fulfill the conceptual part of the analysis which requires a human-touch. Thus the better use of CAQDAS is for coding, not for analysis. This research paper attempts to illustrate the challenges of manual versus computer assisted coding by identifying events that create gaps during an ISD change process using a grounded theory methodology (GTM)

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA

While in the past the Companies Act has been documented and there have been limited references to the proposed Companies Act, to the author's knowledge there has not been a comprehensive comparison of the existing Companies Act and the first and second proposed revisions thereto. The author has examined these proposed revisions and highlighted the differences between the current Companies Act's provisions and the proposed ones. The author provides commentary on relevant, current and proposed, Companies Act's provisions which describe the function, effect, scope and what they fall short of by themselves and/or within other rules forming the system of corporate governance in Saudi Arabia. In addition, there has been little to no treatment of the issuance of shares or the Corporate Governance regulations applicable to publicly-traded companies. In this work, the author attempts to fill the void left by previous legal authors and to discuss and comment on those topics in an insightful way. With regard to the discussion of the various articles of the Corporate Governance Regulations, this discussion marks the start of elaborate consideration of publicly held corporations in the context of dual regulation under both the Companies Act and the Corporate Governance Regulations. In short, Saudi Arabia's recent reforms advanced its corporate governance structure. Through the adoption of the proposed Companies Act, further development will be achieved

The Extent of Applying the Criteria of Child Stories to the Translated Stories Introduced to the Students of the Sixth Grade in Jordan

This   research paper  is a descriptive analytical study of the extent  of applying  the  criteria  of child stories  to the translated  stories  introduced to the students of the sixth grade in Jordan.  To achieve the goals of the study, the searcher prepared a thirty-item list  of the child story  criteria; the  list was judged by panel of specialists and experts in child literature .  The stories were analyzed. The study showed that only (19) criteria were available with a percentage of ( 63.3)  and the non- available items were ( 11) with a percentage of ( 36.7) . The results were discussed and the study came up with a number of recommendations, the most important of which is:  the non-available criteria should be taken into consideration because they have substantial role in realizing   the quality, and benefit for our children. Keywords:stories. Analysis, sixth grade students

Non-farm enterprises and poverty reduction amongst households in rural Nigeria: a propensity score matching approach

The data of nationally representative household survey from rural Nigeria was used to examine the effect of non-farm enterprise activities on improvement in the welfare of households in rural Nigeria, using total annual household consumption expenditure as a measure of their welfare. Propensity score matching approach was used for the analysis, and the result shows that rural households that engage in non-farm enterprise activities are having higher consumption expenditure than those that did not diversify into such activities. This suggests that, non-farm enterprises could be a pathway for improving the wellbeing of rural households in Nigeria and in the remaining sub-Saharan African countries

The effect of shocks on household consumption in rural Nigeria

This paper examines the impact of both exogenous idiosyncratic and covariate shock events on the consumption of farm households in rural Nigeria by using an ordinary least square method. The result of the overall sample shows that whilst idiosyncratic and climatic shock have no significant effect on household consumption, price shocks are having a significant negative impact on household consumer. By disaggregating the sample into poor and non-poor households the result suggests that that the non-poor households are able to adequately insure against the effect of idiosyncratic shocks as well as the climatic shock on their consumption while the poorer ones had not been able to insure against the effect of shocks related to death, livestock loss, climate change and price changes on their consumption. This suggests that the farm households should be provided with an adequate and effective social protection measures that would mitigate the effect of shocks on their welfare

THE EVOLUTION OF PROCESS MODELS IN IS RESEARCH: FROM A PUNCTUATED SOCIAL PROCESS MODEL TO A SOCIO-TECHNICAL PROCESS MODEL

The implementation of information technology and its association with organizational change has been an important theme in the Information Systems (IS) literature over the past 30 years. The progression of variance and process theories provide an in-depth overview of the emergence of richer accounts of IS change. In this paper we chronicle the evolution of process models and related theory. We also show how the application of process thinking in IS research has improved our understanding of complex IS change. These models depict more faithfully actors’ lived experiences and preserve the details and essential effects of critical events. An emerging benefit the process models is the capability to identify common patterns in a project’s evolutionary trajectory

Diagnostic value of angiopoietin-1 and -2 as markers for disease severity in hemolytic uremic syndrome in children

Introduction: Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is defined as a triad of microangiopathic hemolytic anemia (MHA), thrombocytopenia, and acute renal failure. It is the most common cause of acute renal failure in children, and the incidence of this syndrome is increasing worldwide. Angiopoietin-1 and -2 each competitively bind to the endothelial Tie-2 receptor and play an important role in regulating endothelial cell function. The aim of this study was investigating the clinical significance of serum levels of angiopoietin (Ang) 1 and 2 in enterohemorrhagic Escherichia Coli (EHEC)-induced HUS and determining their correlation with disease severity.Patients and Methods: Forty eight children aged between 1-16 years were included in the study and were divided into two groups, 24 patients with diagnosis of hemolytic uremic syndrome induced by EHEC infection and 24 healthy children as a control group. Serum samples were obtained from healthy control group and patients with EHEC-induced HUS at time of diagnosis. Serum samples from the patients were obtained for analysis for angiopoietin-1 and -2 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Results: Our findings indicated that, serum Ang-1 levels might be useful for the prediction of the development of HUS. In HUS phase, in addition to more significant decrease of serum Ang-1 levels, serum Ang-2 level increased. These changes might be useful for the diagnosis of HUS and also be useful as a marker of disease activity of HUS.Conclusion: Serum angiopoietin-1 and angiopoietin-2 levels and the Ang-2/Ang-1 ratio may be promising indicators of disease activity in HUS

Room-temperature synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles in different media and their application in cyanide photodegradation

Cyanide is an extreme hazard and extensively found in the wastes of refinery, coke plant, and metal plating industries. A simple, fast, cost-effective, room-temperature wet chemical route, based on cyclohexylamine, for synthesizing zinc oxide nanoparticles in aqueous and enthanolic media was established and tested for the photodegradation of cyanide ions. Particles of polyhedra morphology were obtained for zinc oxide, prepared in ethanol (ZnO(E)), while spherical and some chunky particles were observed for zinc oxide, prepared in water (ZnO(W)). The morphology was crucial in enhancing the cyanide ion photocatalytic degradation efficiency of ZnO(E) by a factor of 1.5 in comparison to the efficiency of ZnO(W) at an equivalent concentration of 0.02 wt.% ZnO. Increasing the concentration wt.% of ZnO(E) from 0.01 to 0.09 led to an increase in the photocatalytic degradation efficiency from 85% to almost 100% after 180 min and a doubling of the first-order rate constant (k)