The Inflow of Foreign Direct Investments into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

This study generally concentrates on the foreign direct investment by the multinational companies in Saudi Arabia. Also, this study contributes to understand more about the foreign direct investment in the developing countries particularly in Saudi Arabia and the role of the government to attract the foreign direct investment to the country. It also analyze motives and drivers of the FDI inflow into Saudi Arabia

Protein Ubiquitination In Primary Human Skeletal Muscle Cells Under Hyperinsulinemic Hyperglycemic Conditions

Ubiquitin proteasome system is a relatively newly discovered pathway for protein degradation. Many studies have successfully pointed out the critical functions that UPS plays in regulating many physiological processes. On the other hand, recent studies suggested that abnormal UPS activities might be involved in the pathophysiology of several disorders including type 2 diabetes. However, the specific changes in UPS during the development of insulin resistance and consequently T2D are still unclear. UPS is composed of two major steps, a reversible ubiquitin conjugation to the targeted substrate followed by proteasomal degradation of the ubiquitinated proteins. In this study, we examined the changes in the total ubiquitination as well as the site-specific ubiquitin conjugation under hyperinsulinemic-hyperglycemic conditions in primary skeletal muscle cells derived from lean, healthy people. We observed a significant decrease in the total ubiquitination in case of glucotoxicity, which is a simulation for insulin resistance in cell culture. In addition, we identified 21 ubiquitination sites that showed significant changes upon treatment with different glucose and insulin concentrations. This study provides a list of ubiquitination as a reference for future research in ubiquitination and diabetes in human skeletal muscle cells

The Effect of Using the Peer Learning Strategy in Learning English on the Achievement of Intermediate School Students from their Teachers’ Point of View

The current study aims to identify the effect of using the peer education strategyin learning English on the achievement of intermediate school students from their teachers’ point of view .To achieve the aim of the study, the researcher used the descriptive approach, which is concerned with describing the phenomenon under study, using a questionnaire as a tool for data collection by distributing it to a sample of (60) English language teachers in Qassim region in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.The study revealed a high-level effect of using the peer learning strategy on the achievement of intermediate school students, and a high level of English language teachers' support for the effectiveness of using the peer education strategy in teaching English, and there are statistically significant differences in the opinion of teachers about the effectiveness of using peer learning strategy in learning English due to the gender variable in favor of females, which indicates that female teachers are more aware and understanding the effectiveness of using the peer learning strategy in teaching English. Also, the study found out that there are no statistically significant differences in the effect of using peer education in the education of intermediate school students due to the variables of gender, academic position, educational qualification, and number of years of work. The researcher recommended the need to use modern methods in the field of education in order to increase students' levels and improve their abilities and skills, and paying attention to providing programs and training courses that contribute to improving teachers' performance levels and raising their ability to use modern teaching method

Leadership style and employee resistance to change : the mediating role of job satisfaction and organisational commitment

Although many scholars have recently indicated that an enormous number of organisational change initiatives fail due to several reasons, it has been argued that resistance to organisational change is one of the foremost reasons, if not the main reason, for failure of these initiatives. Surprisingly, this phenomenon has not been received adequate attention from researchers. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of two leadership styles, leader-member exchange (LMX) and transformational leadership (TL), on resistance to organisational change both directly and indirectly through the mediation effects of two work-related attitudes, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Furthermore, it sought to examine the relationship between some demographic characteristics (age, tenure, qualifications, and job level) of participants and their resistance to organisational change.Instruments used in the current study were adopted from previously validated scale measures published in top academic journals. Data were collected from employees and their immediate managers at three Saudi organisations under process of organisational change. Of 753 questionnaires distributed, 449 questionnaires were returned, representing a response rate of 59.6%, and of these, 414 responses were usable. SmartPLS software was used to empirically test and estimate both the measurement and the structure of the proposed theoretical model.As expected, the findings found evidence that the two leadership styles, leader-member exchange and transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and organisational commitment were correlated negatively to resistance to organisational change. Moreover, as hypothesised, the results of statistical data analysis showed that job satisfaction and organisational commitment mediated the relations of these two leadership’s styles with resistance. What is more, the study revealed that organisational commitment mediated the relationship between job satisfaction and resistance, and also LMX mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and resistance. Furthermore, unexpectedly, it was found that participants’ age, education, and their level of job negatively correlated with resistance to organisational change, whereas their tenure did not influence resistance.Further analysis conducted showed interesting results such as that job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and LMX are correlated directly and negatively with the three sub-dimensions of resistance (affective, cognitive, and behavioural). However, they have the strongest relationship with participants’ behavioural resistance and the weakest relationship with cognitive resistance. On the other hand, TL was found related negatively with only the behavioural component of resistance. Moreover, it was found that job satisfaction and organisational commitment were mediators between the two leadership styles mentioned and the three components of resistance, and LMX was a mediator between TL and behavioural resistance. In addition, it was found that there were no differences between groups regarding the effects of job satisfaction, organisational commitment, leader-member exchange, and transformational leadership on resistance to organisational change. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of the findings are presented and future research directions are discussed

An investigation of the impact factors to increase citizens' engagement in e-participation on e-government in Saudi Arabia

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.The growing use of web technologies has significantly influenced how governments work and provide services to citizens. Electronic government (e-government) has been one of the major developments in recent years in both developing and developed countries. The main objective of e-government is not limited to access information but also to create new ways to improve processes, integrate government services and increase interaction with citizens. One of these ways is electronic participation (e-participation), which offers citizens a two-way communication between them and the government. E-participation, a subset of e-government, has become a common phenomenon in the governments, which are serious about using the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for strengthening the government-citizen relationship, such as the use of social networking services, online polls, discussion forum and blogs etc. Unlike traditional methods of communication between citizens and governments, e-participation activities on e-government websites enhance communication and enable citizens to become actively involved in the policy-making process. While there are many researches conducted in the field of e-government, most of these researches investigate the adoption/usage of e-government. However, previous studies failed to investigate citizens’ intention to engage in e-participation activities. The purpose of this research is to investigate the key factors that influence on citizens’ intention to engage in e-participation activities on e-government websites in Saudi Arabia. Based on literature review a conceptual model for e-participation on e-government websites proposed. Data was collected from Saudi citizens to find out their perceptions towards e-participation. Following this aim, this research answers the following main question: What are the key factors that influence on citizens’ intention to engage in E-participation on E-government websites in Saudi Arabia? In order to answer the research question, a mixed-method research approach is employed in this study, which incorporated both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. First, a quantitative approach was applied to empirically test the relationship among the constructs of the proposed model. An online survey instrument is used as the method of data collection from Saudi Arabia citizens. A sample of 770 responses was used for data analysis. The data was analyzed using a structural equation modelling(SEM) statistical techniques using AMOS 22.0 to estimate the relationships between the different factors in the research model. Secondly, a qualitative study (a focus group discussion) was used to validate the survey results and provide more insights into the relationships identified. The participants in the focus groups were also the Saudi citizens. One focus group discussion, which consisted of eight participants, was conducted in this study. The participants’ responses throughout the discussion were recorded and transcribed for analysis. The quantitative results show that the proposed model is strongly supported by the data. The results of the focus group revealed the various factors influencing in citizens’ intentions to engage in e-participation, thus supporting the hypotheses and consistent with the quantitative results. The analysis of both the survey and focus group discussion results confirmed that trust, attitude, web design and subjective norms strongly influence citizens’ intention to engage in e-participation activities on e-government websites. This study contributes to the knowledge by providing an important insight and a better understanding of citizens’ intention to engage in e-participation activities on e-government websites in Saudi Arabia. The findings of this study will assist Saudi local government leaders and managers to better understand the major issues facing e-participation and enable analysis of the extent to which citizens’ online inputs reflect community-wide interests

First principles study of 2D polar heterostructures.

Recently, two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures have attracted extensive attention in nanomaterials science. They have been successfully fabricated and applied to nanotechnology in many fields, such as nanoelectronics, solar cells, sensors, energy stores, quantum information, etc. The most common heterostructures are 2D-lateral heterostructure (LH) and 2D-vertical heterostructure (VH) where each of them exhibits unique features depending on the direction of assembly, i.e., along in-plane or out-of-plane direction. Beyond the van der Waals-VH which possess of van der Waals (vdW) interaction, there are other types of heterostructures made of 2D polar materials that possess different types of chemical bonding nature, e.g., chemical bonds with less (e.g., SiC monolayer) or more (e.g., GeC and SiGe monolayers) charge transfer between atoms, forming covalent bonds with a certain ionicity. The goal of this work focused on shedding light on the physical aspects of 2D LH and VH, constructed by such polar materials (e.g., , GeC, and SiGe monolayers). This work is a theoretical study by employing Density Functional Theory to unravel the unique physical properties of such heterostructures. Because an artificial strain will be induced by the lattice mismatch in building heterostructures, the effect of strain on the electronic properties of, and monolayers was first investigated. It was found that these monolayers can tolerate strain up to 8%, and such strain can induce modifications on the physical properties. Interestingly, it was found that and monolayers undergo a direct-indirect band gap transition; while, monolayer undergoes a metal-semimetal transition, which made them attractive candidates for building heterostructures. Second, a systematic study on the aspect of 2D polar-LH of and has been conducted. It was found that the synergistic effect of the lattice mismatch induced strain, the chemical bonding nature at the interface, and quantum confinement can lead to several interesting phenomena. For instance, their electronic properties can be modulated by tuning the domain size, the chemical bonding nature, and the designing of interface. Accordingly, a lateral spontaneous p-n junction triggered by the in-plane charge transfer was detected which implies the promising applications such as visible light photocatalyst. Third, the roles of the stacking species arrangement and the interlayer interactions (including vdW and electrostatic forces) on stabilizing the structure and modulating electronic properties of 2D polar-VH of were deeply studied. It was found that, in addition to the redistribution of the in-plane net-charge transfer, a net charge redistribution also occurs between layers and leads to a polarization in the interfacial region that induces a built-in electric field and helps to reduce the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs

The ability of Islamic Religious Education to deliver Citizenship Education in elementary schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

This empirical study endeavours to shed light on the ability of Islamic Religious Education to deliver Citizenship Education in elementary schools (pupils aged 13 to 15) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The aims of the study are to explore teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that Saudi citizens need in the 21st century. As part of this, it investigates the views of Social Studies and Islamic Religious Education teachers and students with a view to understanding where in the curriculum they think Citizenship Education should best occur. The study identifies and explores the challenges and opportunities of including Citizenship Education within both Islamic Religious Education and Social Studies. The merits of each approach are discussed. There then follows a series of recommendations regarding the sort of changes to the curriculum that may be required. The research underpinning this study followed a mixed-method approach. It employed an closed-ended questionnaire with two parts of open questions completed by over 266 students (ages 13 to 15), and 20 Islamic Religious Education and 20 Social Studies teachers. Semi-structured interviews were also undertaken with nine students, and nine Islamic Religious Education and nine Social Studies teachers. The findings from this study indicate that participants linked many of the knowledge components, skills, values and attitudes associated with Saudi citizenship to the Islamic religion. Responses from the participants indicate that students’ voices are absent in school, as they are anxious about expressing their opinions and believe their sole purpose for coming to school is to acquire knowledge. In addition, this study provides evidence of different views amongst the participants that reflect current tensions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia regarding tolerance, outside influences, faith and extremism. Many students, for example, appeared to be intolerant towards other faiths or ideas, which is arguably not in accordance with the Islamic religion. The study argues that, as it is currently taught, Citizenship Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can be perceived as limited in comparison to Western conceptions of Citizenship Education, and that it is not meeting the needs of future Saudi citizens. The study proposes that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia needs to change its education system to keep pace with change in the wider world and within Saudi society, and concludes by making recommendations for such change and for future research in Islamic Religious Education and Citizenship Education

THz Electronics for Data Centre Wireless Links - the TERAPOD Project

This paper presents an overview of the terahertz (THz) resonant tunneling diode (RTD) technology that will be used as one of the approaches towards wireless data centres as envisioned on the eU H2020 TERAPOD project. We show an example 480 gm × 680 gm THz source chip at 300 GHz employing a 4 gm × 4 gm RTD device with 0.15 mW output power. We also show a basic laboratory wireless setup with this device in which up to 2.5 Gbps (limited by equipment) was demonstrated

Impact of E-Marketing on Consumer Buying Behavior

In this modern and mechanized world the businesses area doping a number of tools and techniques for marketing. However all the tools are deriving results but the most updated method of marketing is the electronic marketing. It is the method of marketing that derives more target customers as compared to the other techniques. Researchers have sown that since the technology has updated and today the customers are aware of the technology. The customers are more interested in the social media websites and the applications. Hence these applications have becomea good spot of advertisements and promotion. Similarly the search engines are offering adds policy that derives the customers in thebusiness and ultimately maximizes the revenues for the business