Factors influencing students' acceptance of m-learning: An investigation in higher education

M-learning will play an increasingly significant role in the development of teaching and learning methods for higher education. However, the successful implementation of m-learning in higher education will be based on users' acceptance of this technology. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to study the factors that affect university students' intentions to accept m-learning. Based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al., 2003), this study proposes a model to identify the factors that influence the acceptance of m-learning in higher education and to investigate if prior experience of mobile devices affects the acceptance of m-learning. A structural equation model was used to analyse the data collected from 174 participants. The results indicate that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, influence of lecturers, quality of service, and personal innovativeness were all significant factors that affect behavioural intention to use m-learning. Prior experience of mobile devices was also found to moderate the effect of these constructs on behavioural intention. The results of this research extend the UTAUT in the context of m-learning acceptance by adding quality of service and personal innovativeness to the structure of UTAUT and provide practitioners and educators with useful guidelines for designing a successful m-learning system

Using Agency Theory in Understanding Switching Behavior in B2B Service Industries “I”

Understanding switching behavior is a cornerstone in sustaining customer led marketing efforts especially in services which depend on long-term relationships with the customers and where the switching process is compound and costly for both the customer and the service provider. The issue of understanding the motives and barriers behind agency-brand switching behavior still needs further conceptual support and empirical investigation in service industries context, where the emphasis placed on investigating the actual switching motives without trying to conceptualize the issue, which if done will result in better understanding for the whole switching process. In this paper, the authors attempt to bridge this gap in the literature by examining the criterion validity of the switching behavior model using the agency theory, as the relation between the business company (principle) and an Advertising agency (the agent) could be described as agency relationship. Furthermore, this approach helps in supporting the efforts for retaining the business-to-business customers, strengthening the relationship with them, developing and adopting globally integrated customer led strategies in different countries, a trend which is expected to dominate the marketing field in the future due to the increasing role of the agency brand selection and switching in today’s world markets.Brand switching, agency theory, business to business marketing, service marketing, international advertising research

Characterising Place by Scene Depth

Turner and Penn introduced the notion of integration of isovist fields as a means to understand such fields syntactically - as a set of components with a structural relationship to a global whole (1999). This research was further refined to put forward the concept of visibility graph analysis (VGA) as a tool for architectural analysis (Turner, Doxa, O’sullivan, & Penn, 2001), which has become widely used. We suggest a complementary method of characterising place that does not make use of integration or a graph yet which allows - as visibility graph analysis does - discrete view points to be dimensioned in relation to a set of such viewpoints. In our method, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), a statistical technique, is employed to infer salient characteristics of a set of views and then to situate these component views within a low dimensional space in order to compare the extent to which each view corresponds to these characteristics. We demonstrate the method by reference to two distinct urban areas with differing spatial characteristics. Because PCA operates on vectors, order of the data has important implications. We consider some of these implications including view orientation and chirality (handedness) and assess the variance of results with regard to these factors

Potential of Phosphorus Pollution in the Soil of the Northern Gaza Strip, Palestine

The damage and negative consequences of the Israeli Cast Lead on Gaza in the period between December 2008 - January 2009 is not only limited to the number of martyrs and wounded people, the destruction of houses and the infrastructure, but it also reached the environment. This paper investigates the occurrence of phosphorus (P) in the soil of the northern gover-norate of the Gaza Strip which has been shaped as a result of the heavily bombing of white phosphorus on Gaza during the war. We have measured soil Phosphorus concentrations in three different areas; agricultural, non-agricultural and urban areas. The obtained Olsen P values in most of the soil samples were ranked very high. The maximum value of phosphorous determined in agricultural areas was about 110.9 mg/ kg, in the non-agricultural areas adjacent to boarders 63.3 mg/ kg, and in urban areas 85.2 mg/ kg. The results show that the potential of phosphorus in the northern of the Gaza Strip is becoming higher than the allowed Olsen P values

The relationship between digital marketing, customer relationship management and service quality on brand equity

Building a strong brand with significant equity provides a host of benefits for business organizations. Understanding the sources and outcomes of brand equity provides managers with information how and where brands add value. While the brand equity associated with tangible goods has received a great deal of attention in the literature, a basic understanding of the nature of brand equity for services has yet to emerge. Most of what is known about brand equity for services is based on theoretical or anecdotal evidence. In addition, the presumed differences in brand equity associated with search-dominant, experience‐dominant, and credence‐dominant services has yet to be empirically examined. This study adopted the Theory of Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) as an underpinning theory for its assumptions and to develop its model. The objectives of this study is to empirically test whether brand equity is influenced by digital marketing, customer relationship management (CRM) and service quality. A quantitative methodology was adopted. The data were based on online survey conducted among Jawwar Telecommunication company subcribers in the Gaza city, Palestine resulting in 150 respondents. Data were analyzed using correlation and multiple regression analysis in SPSS version 22. The results revealed that all the hypotheses were supported, indicating that digital marketing, CRM and service quality significantly influence brand equity. The results suggest that focusing on the constructs that create brand equity is more relevant to managers than trying to measure it as an aggregated financial performance outcome. This study offers theoretical and practical contributions for academics and professionals. The limitations of the study have been addressed and some valuable suggestions for future research work are offered

WLAN performance evaluation in different wireless access techniques (DCF, PCF, HCF)

IEEE 802.11x Wireless Local-Area-Network (WLAN) considered a powerful solution for the last mile wireless broadband(BB) access. WLAN becomes important element in 4G and 5G mobile networks because it can provide services to mobile users in areas not covered by eNBs. However, the 802.11 legacy protocol doesn’t support delay-sensitive services like VoIP because it adopts the best-effort method. In 2001 IEEE 802.11e standard was proposed to deploy QoS with new access techniques introduction. There are many parameters related to MAC layer which affect the WLAN network performance from the prospective of delay, and throughput. This study presents performance evaluation of voice traffic and FTP traffic in IEEE802.11 legacy protocol WLAN and IEEE802.11e WLAN via OPNET computer simulation. Network performance will be tested against different MAC access protocols and different MAC parameters

Molecular identification and genetic diversity study of the Iraqi truffles

The aim of this study is to investigate the molecular identification of the Iraqi truffles species and a better understanding of genetic diversity in the center of the truffles habitat. Thirty-two samples were collected from the Iraqi desert and local markets. Samples were chosen depending on the morphological diversity of the fruit body and sample collection area. Results of ITS region sequencing for the 32 samples showed two genuses Tirmania and Terfezia are the main dominant, 4 species of Tirmania pinoyi and 28 species of Terfezia claveryi. All species sequences were deposited in NCBI GenBank and all had accessions number. The neighbor-Joining method was used to generate a phylogenic tree to study the genetic diversity of the ITS sequences for the 32 Iraqi truffle samples. Results showed a high genetic diversity for the Iraqi truffles samples. The phylogenic study showed Iraqi truffles clustered with different groups as a clade with the reference sequences from other countries represent three continents Asia, Africa, and Europe. Also, we found in this study a unique cluster group for the Iraqi sequences for T. pinoyi and T. claveryi truffles cluster in one group and do not match with any reference sequences used in this study. This is a piece of strong evidence proofed the Iraqi habitat could be the origin of center diversity for the T. pinoyi and T. claveryi truffles

Interplay of catalytic subsite residues in the positioning of α-d-glucose 1-phosphate in sucrose phosphorylase

AbstractKinetic and molecular docking studies were performed to characterize the binding of α-d-glucose 1-phosphate (αGlc 1-P) at the catalytic subsite of a family GH-13 sucrose phosphorylase (from L. mesenteroides) in wild-type and mutated form. The best-fit binding mode of αGlc 1-P dianion had the phosphate group placed anti relative to the glucosyl moiety (adopting a relaxed 4C1 chair conformation) and was stabilized mainly by hydrogen bonds from residues of the enzyme׳s catalytic triad (Asp196, Glu237 and Asp295) and from Arg137. Additional feature of the αGlc 1-P docking pose was an intramolecular hydrogen bond (2.7Å) between the glucosyl C2-hydroxyl and the phosphate oxygen. An inactive phosphonate analog of αGlc 1-P did not show binding to sucrose phosphorylase in different experimental assays (saturation transfer difference NMR, steady-state reversible inhibition), consistent with evidence from molecular docking study that also suggested a completely different and strongly disfavored binding mode of the analog as compared to αGlc 1-P. Molecular docking results also support kinetic data in showing that mutation of Phe52, a key residue at the catalytic subsite involved in transition state stabilization, had little effect on the ground-state binding of αGlc 1-P by the phosphorylase. However, when combined with a second mutation involving one of the catalytic triad residues, the mutation of Phe52 by Ala caused complete (F52A_D196A; F52A_E237A) or very large (F52A_D295A) disruption of the proposed productive binding mode of αGlc 1-P with consequent effects on the enzyme activity. Effects of positioning of αGlc 1-P for efficient glucosyl transfer from phosphate to the catalytic nucleophile of the enzyme (Asp196) are suggested. High similarity between the αGlc 1-P conformers bound to sucrose phosphorylase (modeled) and the structurally and mechanistically unrelated maltodextrin phosphorylase (experimental) is revealed