Key Challenges facing Online Dispute Resolution in Saudi Arabia

Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) has emerged as a particularly effective means to resolve various forms of commercial disputes.  This dispute resolution mechanism now employs an array of technologies to resolve both domestic and international commercial disputes.  Courts in some jurisdictions have piloted successful ODR programs, although others are still struggling to find balance between traditional litigation tools and ODR.The advancement in technology has most significantly changed traditional arbitral procedures and practices.  With the panoply of ODR options, cyberspace is a new venue for arbitration in the international arena.  Successful examples of ODR demonstrate arbitration that is conducted fully through electronic means from the onset to the conclusion.  This paper examines the case of Saudi Arabia, where there have been attempts to provide a regulatory framework for online dispute resolution.  These strides are still minimal, given the challenges of ODR as applied in the present Saudi Arabian legal structure.Saudi Arabia presents unique challenges.  The country’s legal system is premised on Shari’a law, which significantly defines the culture and the rules for Saudi Arabian people.  Integrating an online dispute resolution system into the Shari’a legal construct could create a business environment for both Saudis and foreigners to facilitate smooth commercial transactions and to address related disputes when they arise.  Finding a way to align ODR with Shari’a law, however, is the task.  Obstacles include: the lack of legal certainty and government regulations that could provide guidance in the area of ODR; the lack of  legitimacy; and the lack of awareness concerning the use of online systems.  This paper will examine these Challenges and, in particular, focus on the existing Saudi Arabian legal framework for dispute resolution in relation to Shari’a law and theorize how ODR might be incorporated in future commercial arbitrations. Keywords: Sharia Law, Arbitration, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Online Dispute Resolution, Public Policy. DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/88-11 Publication date: August 31st 201

Interactive Visual Analysis of Translations

This thesis is the result of a collaboration with the College of Arts and Humanities at Swansea University. The goal of this collaboration is to design novel visualization techniques to enable digital humanities scholars to explore and analyze parallel translations. To this end, chapter 2 introduces the first survey of surveys on text visualization which reviews all of the surveys and state-of-the-art reports on text visualization techniques, classifies them, provides recommendations, and discusses reported challenges.Following this, we present three visual interactive designs that support the typical digital humanities scholars workflow. In Chapter 4, we present VNLP, a visual, interactive design that enables users to explicitly observe the NLP pipeline processes and update the parameters at each processing stage. Chapter 5 presents AlignVis, a visual tool that provides a semi-automatic alignment framework to build a correspondence between multiple translations. It presents the results of using text similarity measurements and enables the user to create, verify, and edit alignments using a novel visual interface. Chapter 6 introduce TransVis, a novel visual design that supports comparison of multiple parallel translations. It incorporates customized mechanisms for rapid and interactive filtering and selection of a large number of German translations of Shakespeare’s Othello. All of the visual designs are evaluated using examples, detailed observations, case studies, and/or domain expert feedback from a specialist in modern and contemporary German literature and culture.Chapter 7 reports our collaborative experience and proposes a methodological workflow to guide such interdisciplinary research projects. This chapter also includes a summary of outcomes and lessons learned from our collaboration with the domain expert. Finally, Chapter 8 presents a summary of the thesis and future work directions

Risk communication discourse: A content analysis of some Australian media coverage of cyclones in Queensland, Australia in 2011

As a cross-disciplinary field, the risk communication (RC) discourse is complex. Thereof, media coverage of disasters as a fundamental resource of RC should be examined to guarantee successful delivery of risk information. Thus, this study investigated the content of risk information of cyclone-related news of the Brisbane Times and The Australian newspapers. It scrutinized the different types of risk-related messages by means of a quantitative content analysis based on the Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM) proposed by Witte (1980). The media coverage of the 2011 Queensland cyclones was examined with respect to the main question: what type of risk information the public was provided with? It was shown that the coverage of the Brisbane Times and The Australian might be enhanced by covering main components equally, focusing more on the component of efficacy, specifically ‘the outcomes of preventive actions’

The Moderating Effect of Organizational Culture on the Relationship Between Leadership Styles and Quality Management Practices in Public Hospitals in Saudi Arabia

The effectiveness of quality management initiatives resulting in sustainable competitive advantage and enhanced business performance has been a major subject of interest for business and academia alike. The quality management literature frequently cites the importance of leadership, but little research has been done to evaluate the linkages between leadership styles and quality management practices. This study examined the relationships between leadership styles (transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire), and quality management practices in Saudi public hospitals. The study also examined the moderating effect of organizational culture on these relationships. This study adapted and integrated a Deming-based quality management model with a multi-dimensional leadership model. It tied the foregoing to the organizational culture to reveal how organizational culture is related to leadership styles and quality management practices. A quantitative research design was adopted to collect data, test hypotheses, and answer the research questions. A cross-sectional survey method was used to conduct this study. A survey package was sent to 182 public hospitals in Saudi Arabia, and 140 were returned, giving a response rate of 77 percent. Results of the study revealed that the transformational leadership style has a significant, positive relationship with quality management practices. However, the transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles were found to significantly and negatively relate to quality management practices. Furthermore, the results showed that organizational culture has a moderating effect on the relationship between leadership styles and quality management practices. Based on the results, it is recommended that hospitals recruit leaders with transformational style, and also hospital directors may opt for a quality management approach that is suitable to the existing organizational culture or they may attempt to modify the existing culture

The Impact of Temperature on the Early Stages of the Development of the Body Axis in the Model Species Astyanax mexicanus (Teleostei: Characidae)

Environmental fluctuations can change the phenotypic traits of ectotherms. Ectotherms such as fishes are very susceptible to changes in temperature. Recent studies on adults of the Mexican tetra, Astyanax mexicanus, indicate that variation in temperature during development significantly impacts vertebral number and body shape. Since vertebral number and somite number are related, I examined whether temperature significantly impacts somitogenesis and the early development of the body axis in this species. Fertilized eggs of the surface form of lab-reared Astyanax mexicanus were subjected to temperature treatments of 20°C, 24°C, and 28°C, and fixed hourly as they developed until they hatched. Embryos were stained with DAPI and imaged using a confocal microsope. Body length, somite number, unsegmented tail length, and somite length were measured. Temperature significantly influenced the general rate of somitogenesis and all phenotypic traits measured. Surprisingly, temperature significantly influenced the unsegmented tail length even when variation in general developmental rate was accounted for, such that embryos reared at 24°C had a significantly longer unsegmented tail length than embryos reared at 20°C and 28°C. Although somite length was variable between developmental stages and along the body axis, temperature also seemed to influence somite length. For example, embryos reared at 28°C had consistently shorter posterior somites at the 40 somite stage of development than embryos reared at 20°C or 24°C. Understanding whether these temperature effects on somitogenesis also influence the phenotypic properties of adults is a major avenue of future research.This study provides a better understanding of how temperature influences the early stages of the development of the body axis in this emerging model species. It will also provide a baseline for future studies examining the influence of phenotypic plasticity on body form variation in characids colonizing new habitats

Dynamic Carpooling System For UUM

With the increasing of energy resource's prices these days, the demands of energy resources already decreased in most countries of the world in general especially benzene resource, beside that rural areas in various countries suffers from lack of transportation services. Therefore Dynamic Carpooling by using mobile phone is proposed to overcome such problems, by allowing a many passengers and drivers to be matched with each other automatically and instantly. By using mobile phone will create automatic process in which drivers and passengers are matched to a shared ride wherever and whenever they need it, In fact during this work the dynamic system is going to be available in UUM, where the students and staff are going to eliminate from transportation problems inside the campus by using their mobile phone, also it is will be as a social-networking service

An Investigation into Patient Satisfaction from the Healthcare System in Saudi Arabia: Survey and Analysis of the Major Determinants in the Qassim Region

The main aim of this empirical study is to investigate and assess the degree of patient satisfaction in hospitals in the Al-Qassim region of Saudi Arabia and the primary causes that may contribute to satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the healthcare system. Primary data were acquired from a sample consisting of 292 patients in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Al-Qassim region. The level of patient satisfaction with the healthcare system in Al-Qassim region was investigated using a self-administered questionnaire. The main determinants of patient satisfaction in the healthcare system included patient demographics, expectations, perceptions, and experiences. In Al-Qassim region patient experiences and expectations were the most important elements in influencing their satisfaction level. Further, demographics factors have favorable and substantial effects on people's perceptions and behavior regarding their satisfaction level with healthcare services in the Al-Qassim region. This research will aid healthcare administrators, policymakers, paramedical staff, and physicians in identifying the reasons for patient dissatisfaction and considering viable options to improve patient satisfaction levels in the health care system

Impacts on Healthcare Professionals Performance in Qassim Region in Saudi Arabia

This study investigated the impact of job demands on the operational effectiveness of healthcare establishments in Saudi Arabia. The objective of this study was to assess the job demands and performance of staff working in public hospitals in the Qassim Region of Saudi Arabia. This study employed cross-sectional quantitative research design. Population of the study consisted of the healthcare professionals in Qassim region of Saudi Arabia. The sample size was 375 healthcare professionals in the Qassim Region of Saudi Arabia. A structured questionnaire was administered using convenient sampling technique. The response rate was about 90%. Only properly filled 375 questionaries were used in the final analysis. The research used both descriptive and inferential analysis. The study finds that the level of job performance shown by the workers was around average. In addition, the study pointed out that there is a strong positive relationship between the work demands and performance on the job. Several different policies are implemented to ascertain better performance depending on the standards associated with the job. The study was confined into the Qassim region only, this is why the findings could be generalized in the other regions, however, there is a dire need to replicate this study in the other regions of Saudi Arabia with the same variables to find its comprehensive generalizability. Likewise, the sample was comparatively small, in future, researchers may use larger sample size

VNLP: Visible natural language processing

In general, Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms exhibit black- box behavior.Users input text and output is provided with no explanation of how the results are obtained.In order to increase understanding and trust, users value transparent processing which may explain derived results and enable understanding of the underlying routines.Many approaches take an opaque approach by default when designing NLP tools and do not incorporate a means to steer and manipulate the intermediate NLP steps.We present an interactive, customizable, visual framework that enables users to observe and participate in the NLP pipeline processes, explicitly manipulate the parameters of each step, and explore the result visually based on user preferences. The visible NLP (VNLP) design is applied to a text similarity application to demonstrate the utility and advantages of a visible and transparent NLP pipeline in supporting users to understand and justify both the process and results. We also report feedback on our framework from a modern languages expert

Relationship between Dyslexia and the Academic Performance: Mediating Role of Teacher’s Awareness

The academic performance of dyslexic students’ needs a lot of attention both from teachers as well as parents. Teachers must be well trained and have the expertise to carefully manage the class of dyslexic students. For this purpose, identifying dyslexic students, classroom management teacher-parent participation and awareness could play an important role in enhancing the academic performance of dyslexic students. The current study aims to investigate the indirect effects of awareness on the relationship between identifying dyslexic students, classroom management teacher-parent participation, and academic performance of students. Nonprobability convenience sampling was used. 372 participants participated in the survey. AMOS-SEM was used for data analysis. Measurement and structural models were developed. It was found that all the scales were found reliable and valid. Moreover, all the direct and indirect relationships were also found positive and significant. Awareness and teacher-parent participation were found most dominant factors on basis of beta values