Healthcare as One of Jordanian Tax Legislation purposes A Comparative Study

Tax legislation purposes, in the modern financial literature, are not limited to collecting revenues that cover expenditures neutrally without taking into consideration society’s political, economical and social circumstances. Tax, as a financial duty, aims to achieve a country’s variant purposes, including the healthcare purpose which may appear clearly and separately or within the social purpose contents. This is supported by the constitutional confirmation on the importance of complying with the social justice and persons\u27 ability to pay. As a result, a close relationship is emerging between tax legislation purposes on one hand, and using tax as a tool in achieving healthcare purposes on the other hand, either directly through imposing taxes to achieve healthcare purposes or indirectly through granting tax deductions or preferential tax treatment concerning certain income or categories. The main question of this study is to underline the healthcare purpose as an independent purpose compared to the traditional tax system purposes, to illustrate the close relation between tax legislation and healthcare purposes and to clarify the instability of healthcare purpose in Jordanian legislation specially after the issuing of income tax law no.28 of 2009 and the general sales tax modifying law no.29 of 2009. Both tax laws have included new tax treatment trends according to which many healthcare related deductions and exemptions that were related to incomes or expenses have been nullified. Both income tax laws also emphasize that tax legislation is not just a financial tool used to collect revenues but also to achieve social and healthcare related purposes. The analytic and descriptive methodology has been applied in carrying out this study. Also, the researcher has mentioned several comparative implementations which showed that the tax legislations in both UK and France have considered healthcare as one of the core purposes either in their budget law or tax laws. The main results of this study include the fact that Jordanian legislation contradicts several constitutional warranties relating to tax system purposes and pivots. The results also show the uncertainty of healthcare related tax policy, the inconsistence of the last tax reform with its main pivots such as the inconsistency with the current Formal National Agenda and the role of taxation in achieving healthcare related purposes. Key words : taxation and healthcare, tax system purposes, tax reform, constitutional warranties

Robots, Cyborgs, and Humans. A Model of Consumer Behavior in Services: A Study in the Healthcare Services Sector

La present tesi es basa en una investigació que proposa un ús futurista de l'robot i el cyborg com cirurgians oculars. El model desenvolupat investiga la intenció de l'consumidor per elegir cada cirurgià (és a dir: cirurgià robot, cirurgià cyborg o cirurgià humà). Les dades es van analitzar utilitzant la tècnica PLS-SEM. Els resultats de la investigació mostren que l'expectativa d'esforç, l'expectativa de rendiment, el risc percebut i la influència social van mostrar un impacte significatiu en la intenció d'utilitzar els serveis de l'robot cirurgià. Els resultats de el model per al cyborg cirurgià van confirmar l'impacte significatiu de l'expectativa d'esforç, l'excitació, l'expectativa de rendiment i la influència social en la intenció d'utilitzar els seus serveis. L'expectativa d'esforç i la influència social van confirmar un impacte significatiu en la intenció d'utilitzar els serveis de l'cirurgià humà. Els resultats mostren que en els tres models les variables influència social i expectativa d'esforç afecten significativament a la intenció d'utilitzar aquests serveis de cirurgia i que amb diferent intensitat entre els models per expectativa de esforç-. L'impacte de la influència social dóna una idea general sobre la naturalesa de el sector de la salut a Jordània, on una part de la societat presta més atenció a les recomanacions dels altres a l'elegir els seus cirurgians. A més, l'impacte de l'expectativa d'esforç contribueix a les expectatives per la simplicitat de l'servei dels pacients, en termes d'ús i interacció amb els cirurgians proposats. L'anàlisi multigrup va confirmar que les variables dels models estan afectant de la mateixa manera a l'comparar la intenció d'usar cyborgs i humans, i a l'comparar cyborgs i robots. No obstant això, sí que hi ha diferències significatives a l'comparar l'elecció entre robots i humans en l'impacte de l'expectativa d'esforç per utilitzar els serveis de cirurgia. D'altra banda, els participants van mostrar la seva preferència pel cirurgià humà sobre els cirurgians cyborg i robot, respectivament. Com a resultat, l'acceptació de les tecnologies de robot i cyborg per part de la societat podria donar una idea sobre la lluita esperada en el futur entre el desenvolupament de robots i la millora de les capacitats humanes.La presente tesis se basa en una investigación que propone un uso futurista del robot y el cyborg como cirujanos oculares. El modelo desarrollado investiga la intención del consumidor para elegir a cada cirujano (es decir: cirujano robot, cirujano cyborg o cirujano humano). Los datos se analizaron utilizando la técnica PLS-SEM. Los resultados de la investigación muestran que la expectativa de esfuerzo, la expectativa de rendimiento, el riesgo percibido y la influencia social mostraron un impacto significativo en la intención de utilizar los servicios del robot cirujano. Los resultados del modelo para el cyborg cirujano confirmaron el impacto significativo de la expectativa de esfuerzo, la excitación, la expectativa de rendimiento y la influencia social en la intención de usar sus servicios. La expectativa de esfuerzo y la influencia social confirmaron un impacto significativo en la intención de utilizar los servicios del cirujano humano. Los resultados muestran que en los tres modelos las variables influencia social y expectativa de esfuerzo afectan significativamente a la intención de usar esos servicios de cirugía –aunque con distinta intensidad entre los modelos para expectativa de esfuerzo-. El impacto de la influencia social da una idea general sobre la naturaleza del sector de la salud en Jordania, donde una parte de la sociedad presta más atención a las recomendaciones de los demás al elegir a sus cirujanos. Además, el impacto de la expectativa de esfuerzo contribuye a las expectativas por la simplicidad del servicio de los pacientes, en términos de uso e interacción con los cirujanos propuestos. El análisis multigrupo confirmó que las variables de los modelos están afectando de la misma manera al comparar la intención de usar cyborgs y humanos, y al comparar cyborgs y robots. Sin embargo, sí que existen diferencias significativas al comparar la elección entre robots y humanos en el impacto de la expectativa de esfuerzo para utilizar los servicios de cirugía. Por otro lado, los participantes mostraron su preferencia por el cirujano humano sobre los cirujanos cyborg y robot, respectivamente. Como resultado, la aceptación de las tecnologías de robot y cyborg por parte de la sociedad podría dar una idea sobre la lucha esperada en el futuro entre el desarrollo de robots y la mejora de las capacidades humanThe research proposes a futuristic use of robot and cyborg as surgeons in an eye surgery. Thereafter, the developed model has been applied to investigate the intention to use each surgeon (i.e. robot surgeon, cyborg surgeon, and human surgeon). The data was analyzed using the PLS-SEM technique. According to the research results, effort expectancy, performance expectancy, perceived risk, and social influence showed a significant impact on intention to use robot services. However, the results of the cyborg service model confirmed the significant impact of effort expectancy, arousal, performance expectancy, and social influence on the intention to use cyborg services. Furthermore, effort expectancy and social influence confirmed their significant impact on the intention to use human services. The results of the three models showed that the variables social influence and effort expectancy significantly affected the intention to use these surgical services, with a different intensity between the models for effort expectancy. The social influence impact gives a general idea about the nature of the healthcare sector in Jordan, where a part of society gives more attention to the recommendation from others while choosing their surgeons. Also, the effort expectancy impact contributes to patients' expectations of simplicity, in terms of use and interaction with the proposed surgeons. The multigroup analysis confirmed that the models' variables are affecting the intention to use cyborg and human service, and cyborg and robots in the same way. However, the differences were confirmed between robot and human cyborgs in terms of the impact of effort expectancy on the intention to use these services. On the other side, the participants showed their preference of the human surgeon over the cyborg and robot surgeons, respectively. As a result, the acceptance of the robot and cyborg technologies by a part of the society could give an idea about the expected struggle in the future among developing robots and enhancing human capabilities

Low Voltage-Guided Ablation of Posterior Wall Improves 5-Year Arrhythmia-Free Survival in Persistent Atrial Fibrillation

Introduction: The posterior wall (PW) has been proposed as a standard target for ablation beyond pulmonary vein antral isolation (PVI) in patients with persistent atrial fibrillation (AF). However, studies have shown inconsistent outcomes with the addition of PW ablation. The presence or absence of low voltage on the PW may explain these inconsistencies. We evaluated whether PW ablation based on the presence or absence of low voltage improves long-term arrhythmia-free outcomes. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 5-year follow-up in 152 consecutive patients who received either standard ablation (SA) with PVI alone or PVI + PW ablation (PWA) based on physician discretion (n = 77) or voltage-guided ablation (VGA) with PVI and addition of PWA only if low voltage was present on the PW (n = 75). Results: The two groups were well matched for baseline characteristics. At 5-year follow-up, 64% of patients receiving VGA were atrial tachyarrhythmia (AT)/AF free compared to 34% receiving SA (HR 0.358 p \u3c .005). PWA had similar AF recurrence in SA and VGA groups (0.30 vs. 0.27 p = .96) but higher AT recurrence when comparing SA and VGA groups (0.39 vs. 0.15 p = .03). In multivariate analysis, both VGA and PWA predicted AF arrhythmia-free survival (HR 0.33, p = .001 and HR 0.20, p = .008, respectively). For AT, VGA predicted arrhythmia-free survival (HR 0.22, p = .028), while PWA predicted AT recurrence (HR 4.704, p = .0219). Conclusion: VGA of the posterior wall ablation beyond PVI in persistent AF significantly improves long-term arrhythmia-free survival when compared with non-voltage-guided ablation. PW ablation without voltage-guidance reduced AF recurrence but at the cost of a higher incidence of AT

Data Gathering with Tour Length-Constrained

In this paper, given a single mobile element and a time deadline, we investigate the problem of designing the mobile element tour to visit subset of nodes, such that the length of this tour is bounded by the time deadline and the communication cost between nodes outside and inside the tour is minimized. The nodes that the mobile element tour visits, works as cache points that store the data of the other nodes. Several algorithms in the literature have tackled this problem by separating two phases; the construction of the mobile element tour from the computation of the forwarding trees to the cache points. In this paper, we propose algorithmic solutions that alternate between these phases and iteratively improves the outcome of each phase based on the result of the other. We compare the resulting performance of our solutions with that of previous work

Effect Of System Quality and Information Quality on Crisis Management - An Empirical Study on Jordanian Mobile Telecommunications Companies.

This study attempts to identify the impact of system quality and information quality on crisis management in Jordanian mobile telecommunication companies. A survey method was applied through a questionnaire. Zain, Orange and Umniah are Jordanian mobile telecommunications companies that are working in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. A sample of 80 managers participated in this study. The data was analyzed by a descriptive statistics method using the statistical package of social sciences (SPSS). The results showed a strong statistical significant effect of system quality and information quality on crisis management in the targeted telecommunication companies. The study concluded that 85.3 % of the variation in crisis management are explained by both (system quality & information quality) This is an high percentage which illustrates the importance of (system quality & information quality) and their impact on crisis management. The study recommends paying more attention and focus on studying the different factors of quality measurement in information systems and their impact on crisis management. Keyword: System Quality, Information Quality, Crisis management DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-1-07 Publication date: January 31st 202

Data Gathering with Tour Length-Constrained

In this paper, given a single mobile element and a time deadline, we investigate the problem of designing the mobile element tour to visit subset of nodes, such that the length of this tour is bounded by the time deadline and the communication cost between nodes outside and inside the tour is minimized. The nodes that the mobile element tour visits, works as cache points that store the data of the other nodes. Several algorithms in the literature have tackled this problem by separating two phases; the construction of the mobile element tour from the computation of the forwarding trees to the cache points. In this paper, we propose algorithmic solutions that alternate between these phases and iteratively improves the outcome of each phase based on the result of the other. We compare the resulting performance of our solutions with that of previous work

Correlational and Configurational Analysis of Factors Influencing Potential Patients’ Attitudes toward Surgical Robots: A Study in the Jordan University Community

Depto. de MarketingFac. de Ciencias Económicas y EmpresarialesTRUEpu

Approximate Solutions of Multi-Pantograph Type Delay Differential Equations Using Multistage Optimal Homotopy Asymptotic Method

In this paper, a numerical procedure called multistage optimal homotopy asymptotic method (MOHAM) is introduced to solve multi-pantograph equations with time delay. It was shown that the MOHAM algorithm rapidly provides accurate convergent approximate solutions of the exact solution using only one term. A comparative study between the proposed method, the homotopy perturbation method (HPM) and the Taylor matrix method are presented. The obtained results revealed that the method is of higher accuracy, effective and easy to use

CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICINE C reactive protein concentration and recurrence of atrial fibrillation after electrical cardioversion

Background: To test the hypothesis that a high C reactive protein (CRP) concentration would predict recurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) after cardioversion in patients taking antiarrhythmic drugs. Methods: 111 patients who underwent direct current cardioversion for symptomatic AF were enrolled. Blood was drawn for CRP determination before cardioversion on the same day. All patients were taking antiarrhythmic drugs before and after electrical cardioversion. Results: After a mean follow up of 76 days, 75 patients had recurrence of AF. In univariate analysis, the median CRP concentration was significantly higher in patients with AF recurrence (3.95 mg/l v 1.81 mg/l, p = 0.002). Among the 55 patients with CRP in the upper 50th centile, 44 (80%) experienced recurrence of AF over a total follow up of 8.98 patient years, whereas among the 56 patients with CRP in the lower 50th centile, 31 (55%) experienced recurrence of AF over a total follow up of 14.3 patient years (p , 0.001). The adjusted hazard ratio comparing the upper 50th centile of CRP with the lower 50th centile of CRP was 2.0 (95% confidence interval 1.2 to 3.2, p = 0.007). Conclusions: CRP is independently associated with recurrence of AF after electrical cardioversion among patients taking antiarrhythmic drugs. These results suggest that inflammation may have a role in the pathogenesis of AF resistant to antiarrhythmic drugs