Privacy Implications for Information and Communications Technology (ICT): the Case of the Jordanian E-Government

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is one of the fastest growing sectors in Jordan. The importance of ICT cannot be ignored as it affects all aspects of Jordanian society including telecommunications, education, banking, commerce and employment. However, the issue of individual privacy in this sector is a particular challenge as individuals are disclosing large amounts of personal information than ever at a time when there are no specific privacy laws or regulations. This paper identifies this privacy challenge by providing a case study on the electronic government (e-government initiative) in Jordan. The findings of this study are surprising. Despite that most government agencies have the ability to collect, use and disclose personal information; only three out of forty government agencies have some sort of guidelines with regard to privacy policies. The paper argues that the challenge of privacy could be resolved by granting individuals more control over their personal information. Jordanians could be given the right to access correct information about themselves, and decide when and how this information can be used and shared by others. Consequently, the most suitable approach to maintain this right to control is by suggesting a comprehensive legal framework to privacy protection in Jordan.

Computational study of the dissociation reactions of secondary ozonide

This contribution presents a comprehensive computational study on the reactions of secondary ozonide (SOZ) with ammonia and water molecules. The mechanisms were studied in both a vacuum and the aqueous medium. All the molecular geometries were optimized using the B3LYP functional in conjunction with several basis sets. M06-2X, APFD, and ωB97XD functionals with the full basis set were also used. In addition, single-point energy calculations were performed with the G4MP2 and G3MP2 methods. Five different mechanistic pathways were studied for the reaction of SOZ with ammonia and water molecules. The most plausible mechanism for the reaction of SOZ with ammonia yields HC(O)OH, NH3, and HCHO as products, with ammonia herein acting as a mediator. This pathway is exothermic and exergonic, with an overall barrier height of only 157 kJ mol−1 using the G3MP2 method. All the reaction pathways between SOZ and water molecules are endothermic and endergonic reactions. The most likely reaction pathway for the reaction of SOZ with water involves a water dimer, in which the second water molecule acts as a mediator, with an overall barrier height of only 135 kJ mol−1 using the G3MP2 method. Solvent effects were found to incur a significant reduction in activation energies. When the second H2O molecule acts as a mediator in the reaction of SOZ with water, the barrier height of the rate-determining step state decreases significantly

Influence of firm size on the competencies required to management engineers in the Jordanian telecommunications sector

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in European Journal of Engineering Education on [13 jun 2016], available online:http://www.tandfonline.com/ doi/abs/10.1080/03043797.2016.1197890.[EN] The objective of this study is to identify the competencies required to achieve success in the transition from higher education to the labour market based on the perceptions of employers. This paper analyses the assessments made by a group of engineering company employers. An item-battery of 20 competencies was grouped into 3 dimensions by using factor analysis. Subsequently, respondents scores were also clustered into three groups and characterised through contingency tables. The competencies demanded by employers were grouped into business and finance, problem-solving and strategic planning. Significant differences were found between responses from employers working in medium and small companies, who placed more importance on competencies related to problem-solving and strategic planning, and employers in big companies, who were more concerned about the difficulties of finding well-trained graduates. The findings from this paper have important implications for research in the areas of higher education and organisations that usually employ graduate engineers.The authors would like to thank the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) [Tempus program. Project number 511074] of the European Commission for providing funding for conducting this study. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.Conchado Peiró, A.; Bas Cerdá, MDC.; Gharaibeh, KM.; Kaylani, H. (2016). 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Analytical Evaluation of the Performance of Proportional Fair Scheduling in OFDMA-Based Wireless Systems

This paper provides an analytical evaluation of the performance of proportional fair (PF) scheduling in Orthogonal Frequency- Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) wireless systems. OFDMA represents a promising multiple access scheme for transmission over wireless channels, as it combines the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation and subcarrier allocation. On the other hand, the PF scheduling is an efficient resource allocation scheme with good fairness characteristics. Consequently, OFDMA with PF scheduling represents an attractive solution to deliver high data rate services to multiple users simultaneously with a high degree of fairness. We investigate a two-dimensional (time slot and frequency subcarrier) PF scheduling algorithm for OFDMA systems and evaluate its performance analytically and by simulations. We derive approximate closedform expressions for the average throughput, throughput fairness index, and packet delay. Computer simulations are used for verification. The analytical results agree well with the results from simulations, which show the good accuracy of the analytical expressions

Decomposition of ethylamine through bimolecular reactions

Ethylamine (EA) often serves as a surrogate species to represent aliphatic amines that occur in biofuels. This contribution reports, for the first time, the thermochemical and kinetic parameters for bimolecular reactions of EA with three prominent radicals that form in the initial stages of biomass decomposition; namely, H, CH3 and NH2. Abstraction of a methylene H atom from the EA molecule largely dominates H loss from the two other sites (i.e., methyl and amine hydrogens) for the three considered radicals. We demonstrate that, differences in bond dissociation enthalpies of methylene C–H bonds among EA, ethanol and propane reflect their corresponding HOMO/LUMO energy gaps. At low and intermediate temperatures, the rate of H abstraction from the methylene site in EA exceeds the corresponding values for propane and ethanol. As the temperature rises, matching entropic factors induce comparable rate constants for the three molecules

A Thermochemical Parameters and Theoretical Study of the Chlorinated Compounds of Thiophene

This contribution sets out to compute thermochemical and geometrical parameters of the complete series of chlorinated isomers of thiophene based on the accurate chemistry model of CBS-QB3. Herein, we compute standard entropies, standard enthalpies of formation, standard Gibbs free energies of formation, and heat capacities. Our calculated enthalpy values agree with available limited experimental values. The DFT-based reactivity descriptors were used to elucidate the site selectivity for the chlorination sequence of thiophene. The relative preference for chlorination was found to be in accord with the thermodynamic stability trends inferred based on the H scale. Calculated Fukui indices predict a chlorination sequence to ensue as follows: 2-chloro → 2,5-dichloro → 2,3,5-trichloro → 2,3,4,5-tetrachlorothiophene

The Ozonolysis of Cyclic Monoterpenes: A Computational Review

Monoterpenes are prevalent organic compounds emitted to the atmosphere, via biogenic activities in various types of plants. Monoterpenes undergo atmospheric decomposition reactions derived by the potent atmospheric oxidizing agents, OH, O3, and NOx. This review critically surveys literature pertinent to the atmospheric removal of monoterpenes by ozone. In general, the ozonolysis reactions of monoterpenes occur through the so-called Criegee mechanism. These classes of reactions generate a wide array of chemical organic and inorganic low vapor- pressure (LVP) species. Carbonyl oxides, commonly known as Criegee Intermediates (CI's) are the main intermediates from the gas-phase ozonolysis reaction. Herein, we present mechanistic pathways, reactions rate constants, product profiles, thermodynamic, and kinetic results dictating the ozonolysis reactions of selected monoterpenes (namely; carene, camphene, limonene, ι-pinene, β-pinene, and sabinene). Furthermore, the unimolecular (vinyl hydroperoxide- and ester-channels), and bimolecular reactions (cycloaddition, insertion, and radical recombination) of the resulting CI's are fully discussed. The orientations and conformations of the resulting Primary Ozonides (POZ's) and CI's of monoterpenes are classified to reveal their plausible effects on reported thermo-kinetic parameters.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author