Current state on internet growth and usage in Saudi Arabia and its ability to support e-commerce development

It is widely recognized that the Internet has been rapidly growing and massively used in recent years. Previous studies have revealed that this is true for Internet users across the world. Likewise it is reported, lack of ICT infrastructures is one of the main reasons behind lack of spread of E-Commerce. The study attempted to understand the state of Internet growth and activities usage and its ability to support E-Commerce development. Little attention has been paid to testing particular questions in this study which proper investigation can help in understanding the prospects of the development and adoption of E-Commerce. The current study will attempt to confirm whether similar growth and usage of the Internet is also happening in Saudi Arabia and whether this will help in establishing a platform of E-Commerce development. Quantitative data was gathered from 606 Saudis living in various parts of Saudi Arabia. Four questions related to the use of the Internet in Saudi Arabia are tested. The outcome shows that the findings are similar to those of other countries. In addition, individuals’ readiness to use the Internet as their main shopping medium is approved by more than half of the sample used

The impact of trusted and secured transactions in an e-commerce environment on consumers’ behaviour : the case of Saudis in the UK

The work reported in this paper is part of a larger study that attempts to compare the online activities of Saudis living in Saudi Arabia and those living in the United Kingdom (UK). The study aims to answer the question on whether the environment plays a key role and impact on the activities of Saudis online customers. This paper deals only with the research conducted in the UK and attempts to understand the activities and perception of Business to Customer (B2C) E-Commerce (EC) among Saudis living in the UK. This study tries to assess the impact of the environmental change on the online shopping behaviour. Quantitative data was collected from 169 Saudis living in the UK. Trust in both security and payment (SP) were tested as well as nine hypotheses. The results confirm that there is a high number of Saudi residents living in the UK trusting the security and payment systems when engaging in online transactions in the UK. Furthermore, the outcomes of hypotheses testing show that the new secured and trusted environment affects Saudis consumers in the UK. Hence, these primary results suggest that the environment plays an important role in changing the shopping behaviors of online customers

The impact of social influence and third party endorsement on online shopping in Saudi Arabia

It is well documented that social influence and third party endorsements play a significant role in developing trust in E-Commerce. Previous studies have shown that it is relatively true in many countries and across cultures. However, very few studies were conducted in the Middle East and to our knowledge this was the first time to consider family members and friends Recommendation with the context of social influence conducted within Saudi Arabia. The research reported in this paper attempts to investigate whether the findings from previous studies will be similar in Saudi Arabia. Specifically, this study will evaluate the impact of social influence and endorsements on online shopping and whether this plays an important role in increasing online shopping in Saudi Arabia. The results of this study are based on quantitative data collected from a sample of 606 Saudis citizens living in Saudi Arabia. Four factors connected to the impact of social influence and third party endorsements in online shopping are examined. The initial findings of this research confirm that there are similarities with the results of previous studies conducted in other countries. Similarly, the impact of social influence and third party endorsements seems to encourage and support the development of online shopping in Saudi Arabia

Self-report sleep quality combined with sleep time variability distinguishes differences in fatigue, anxiety, and depression in individuals with multiple sclerosis: A secondary analysis

A grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author's publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.Background: Nearly 70% of individuals with multiple sclerosis report sleep disturbances or poor sleep quality. Sleep disturbances may exacerbate or complicate the management of multiple sclerosis-related symptoms. While sleep variability has been associated with several health outcomes, it is unclear how sleep variability is associated with multiple sclerosis-related symptoms. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine how total sleep time variability combined with self-reported sleep quality is associated with fatigue, depression, and anxiety in individuals with multiple sclerosis. Methods: This study involved a secondary analysis of actigraphy data and questionnaires to assess sleep quality, fatigue, anxiety, and depression. Results: There were significant differences between the Good Sleepers (good sleep quality/low sleep time variability; n¼14) and Bad Sleepers (poor sleep quality/high sleep time variability; n¼23) in overall fatigue (p¼0.003), cognitive (p¼0.002) and psychosocial fatigue (p¼0.01) subscales, and in trait anxiety (p¼0.007). There were significant differences in state (p¼0.004) and trait (p¼0.001) anxiety and depression (p¼0.002) between the Good Sleepers and Poor Reported Sleepers (poor sleep quality/low sleep time variability; n¼24). Conclusion: These results indicate different factors are associated with poor sleep quality in individuals with low versus high total sleep time variability. Considering the factors that are associated with sleep quality and variability may allow for better tailoring of interventions aimed at improving sleep issues or comorbid conditions.National Multiple Sclerosis Society Pilot Grant (PP2068)National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award Grant (UL1TR000001 formerly UL1RR033179)

National spatial data infrastructure collaboration for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Spatial data is a vital national resource necessary for a country’s efficient and sustainable economic, social and environmental development, and so must be properly developed and managed. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), there is lack of knowledge and no clear framework describing the optimal way for stakeholders, users, providers or administrators, to collaborate effectively in establishing a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). Moreover, the complex, multi-layer and multi-jurisdiction system of government leads to competing interests and mandates in coordinating spatial activity. Previous studies on NSDI in KSA focused on technical infrastructure strategy. However, there is a need to study institutional/organisational issues affecting collaboration in NSDI for KSA. This research presented in this thesis leads to recommendations for a best practice, collaboration initiative for Saudi NSDI, and contributes to advancing the goals and implementation of NSDI in KSA. A mixed (triangulated) quantitative and qualitative case study research design was adopted to assist in achieving the research aims, utilising a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The data was analysed and elicited concepts to recommend the Saudi NSDI collaboration initiative. A literature review was conducted in areas relevant to Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) and collaboration. The diverse definitions for SDI, its main components, and hierarchical nature were explored. Definitions for collaboration, motivational factors, and potential risks and costs were also reviewed. While a conventional NSDI is characterised by a top down approach, new technologies connected to social developments have led to a rapid, parallel development of commercial-, and consumer-led SDI, or dynamic ‘GeoWeb’, representing the potential next generation, Web 2.0 form, of NSDI. Institutional and technical factors are key elements in the success of NSDI collaboration initiatives, which include organisational commitment, policies, and technological resources. The national initiatives for the UK, USA, Australia, and Canada are reviewed and compared, along five key themes: objectives and vision, coordination, datasets, standards, and access. This highlighted the evolving nature of NSDI, given the rapid pace of developments in technology-driven applications and tools, and that coordination and agreement among all stakeholders requires accurate and reliable datasets, widely accepted metadata and standards, and interoperable technology, and must include all government levels and jurisdictions, with greater private sector integration. The current situation in KSA regarding the main SDI stakeholders, and their historical development, including legislation and policies and the barriers to sharing spatial data existing, facilitates background to understanding the issues involved in developing a Saudi NSDI. This is reinforced by primary data collected through a quantitative questionnaire survey of all 26 spatial data bodies in KSA, and qualitative semi-structured interviews of 72 key persons. The data includes themes, like types of spatial organisation and sphere of operations, data types and themes, standards and technical issues, and inter-organisational relationships and collaboration. The results revealed a lack of collaboration due to negative organisational cultures, and technical obstacles relating to a need for unified spatial data and metadata standards and specifications. In particular, there was an absence of appropriate legislation to deal with the two previous points, as well as providing protection for intellectual property; such legislation would outline a system within which collaboration would take place. The historical development and current status of key, independent SDI initiatives in KSA, i.e. MOMRA, Riyadh, and Saudi National SDI, are presented using data from secondary and primary sources. Each initiative represents city, ministry, and national level SDI initiative for collaboration. Finally, this research concludes by providing recommendations for best practice in collaboration among the various stakeholders forming a potential Saudi NSDI. It also outlines suggestions for future work

The effect of a different environment on providing personal information when engaging in E-commerce : the case of Saudis in the UK

The results reported in this paper are part of a study comparing the online behaviour of Saudis living in Saudi Arabia (SA) and those living in the United Kingdom (UK). It is acknowledged that culture and the environment play an important role to develop trust in E-Commerce and particularly when providing personal information. Previous studies have shown that this is particularly true for Saudis leaving in Saudi Arabia and this has affected the development of E-Commerce. The current study looks at the behaviour of Saudis living in a different environment and investigates on whether the new environment affects their behaviour. Quantitative data was gathered from 169 Saudi who live in the UK. The factor tested are related to “culture” and composed of 5 personal information and an aggregation of this information for male and females. The early results of this study show that there are some changes that have been noticed in the behaviour of Saudi living in the UK. However, some cultural aspects still remain within the community

Cloud-Based Retrieval Information System Using Concept for Multi-Format Data

The need of effective and efficient method to retrieving non-Web-enabled and Web-enabled information entities is essential, due to the fact of inaccuracy of the existing search engines that still use traditional term-based indexing for text documents and annotation text for images, audio and video files. Previous works showed that incorporating the knowledge in the form of concepts into an information retrieval system may increase the effectiveness of the retrieving method. Unfortunately, most of the works that implemented the concept-based information retrieval system still focused on one information format. This paper proposes a multi-format (text, image, video and, audio) concept-based information retrieval method for Cloud environment. The proposed method is implemented in a laboratory-scale heterogeneous cloud environment using Eucalyptus middleware.  755 multi-format information is experimented and the performance of the proposed method is measured

National spatial data infrastructure collaboration for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Spatial data is a vital national resource necessary for a country’s efficient and sustainable economic, social and environmental development, and so must be properly developed and managed. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), there is lack of knowledge and no clear framework describing the optimal way for stakeholders, users, providers or administrators, to collaborate effectively in establishing a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). Moreover, the complex, multi-layer and multi-jurisdiction system of government leads to competing interests and mandates in coordinating spatial activity. Previous studies on NSDI in KSA focused on technical infrastructure strategy. However, there is a need to study institutional/organisational issues affecting collaboration in NSDI for KSA. This research presented in this thesis leads to recommendations for a best practice, collaboration initiative for Saudi NSDI, and contributes to advancing the goals and implementation of NSDI in KSA. A mixed (triangulated) quantitative and qualitative case study research design was adopted to assist in achieving the research aims, utilising a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The data was analysed and elicited concepts to recommend the Saudi NSDI collaboration initiative. A literature review was conducted in areas relevant to Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) and collaboration. The diverse definitions for SDI, its main components, and hierarchical nature were explored. Definitions for collaboration, motivational factors, and potential risks and costs were also reviewed. While a conventional NSDI is characterised by a top down approach, new technologies connected to social developments have led to a rapid, parallel development of commercial-, and consumer-led SDI, or dynamic ‘GeoWeb’, representing the potential next generation, Web 2.0 form, of NSDI. Institutional and technical factors are key elements in the success of NSDI collaboration initiatives, which include organisational commitment, policies, and technological resources. The national initiatives for the UK, USA, Australia, and Canada are reviewed and compared, along five key themes: objectives and vision, coordination, datasets, standards, and access. This highlighted the evolving nature of NSDI, given the rapid pace of developments in technology-driven applications and tools, and that coordination and agreement among all stakeholders requires accurate and reliable datasets, widely accepted metadata and standards, and interoperable technology, and must include all government levels and jurisdictions, with greater private sector integration. The current situation in KSA regarding the main SDI stakeholders, and their historical development, including legislation and policies and the barriers to sharing spatial data existing, facilitates background to understanding the issues involved in developing a Saudi NSDI. This is reinforced by primary data collected through a quantitative questionnaire survey of all 26 spatial data bodies in KSA, and qualitative semi-structured interviews of 72 key persons. The data includes themes, like types of spatial organisation and sphere of operations, data types and themes, standards and technical issues, and inter-organisational relationships and collaboration. The results revealed a lack of collaboration due to negative organisational cultures, and technical obstacles relating to a need for unified spatial data and metadata standards and specifications. In particular, there was an absence of appropriate legislation to deal with the two previous points, as well as providing protection for intellectual property; such legislation would outline a system within which collaboration would take place. The historical development and current status of key, independent SDI initiatives in KSA, i.e. MOMRA, Riyadh, and Saudi National SDI, are presented using data from secondary and primary sources. Each initiative represents city, ministry, and national level SDI initiative for collaboration. Finally, this research concludes by providing recommendations for best practice in collaboration among the various stakeholders forming a potential Saudi NSDI. It also outlines suggestions for future work