Ahmed Ibrahim Alzahrani

Mobile cloud computing: advantage, disadvantage and open challenge

With modern smart phones and powerful mobile devices, Mobile apps provide many advantages to the community but it has also grown the demand for online availability and accessibility. Cloud computing is provided to be widely adopted for several applications in mobile devices. However, there are many advantages and disadvantages of using mobile applications and cloud computing. This paper focuses in providing an overview of mobile cloud computing advantages, disadvantages. The paper discusses the importance of mobile cloud applications and highlights the mobile cloud computing open challenges

E-Government service delivery by a local government agency

Factors affecting intention to use E-Licensing by employees.Perceived usefulness/relative advantage is positively related to intention to use E-Licensing.Perceived ease of use and result demonstrability have positive effect on intention to use.Visibility/observability is positively related to intention to use.Enables formulation and design of measures to encourage usage of E-licensing. The advancement in technologies has changed the way services are delivered (Dabholkar, 2000). The licensing department of a local authority in Penang, Malaysia is the major department involved in the processing and issuance of various types of licenses. The traditional method of processing of licenses manually has been a subject of criticism by license applicants and the public due to the delay in processing and the inefficient feedback mechanism. Over a period of two years, the licensing department has been working closely with the system designers by providing input on the construction of the E-Licensing system. All the time spent and the investment would go to waste if the employees do not intend to use the system. This study is focused on factors affecting intention to use of technology enabled service delivery (E-Licensing) by employees. The research model by Moore and Benbasat (1991) was adapted and used in this study. Six hypotheses were formulated to test the relationship proposed. The data collected from a sample of 92 respondents was used in the analysis of the hypothesis. The findings from this study show that (i) perceived usefulness/relative advantage is positively related to intention to use E-Licensing. (ii) Perceived ease of use and result demonstrability is positively related to intention to use E-Licensing. (iii) Visibility/observability is positively related to intention to use E-Licensing. This study will enable the licensing department to formulate, design and introduce measures to encourage usage of E-Licensing.

An empirical study on cloud computing requirements for better mobile learning services

Information technology and its applications change not only the way students learn but also how they are taught. M-learning provides many advantages to our education system. Cloud computing is the new technology that has started to be widely adopted for use with several applications by many education providers. A number of issues that have delayed the complete adoption of M-learning applications through cloud computing services still need to be solved. This paper defines an appropriate set of requirements, i.e. availability, quick response, flexibility and ease of use, long-term storage, elasticity and scalability, integrity, privacy and confidentiality and the control of information flow. The dimensions of these requirements are tailored to criteria developed from the literature study, standards for software quality and their guidelines. The paper then highlights the level of importance of each defined requirement for higher educational institutions, training centres, research laboratories, infant and junior schools.

Extending the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain online game playing among Malaysian undergraduate students

As the world moves into the web 2.0 era, everyone can connect virtually, and online game playing has become a trend. Online games are played over computer networks, usually over the Internet. Online games entail a number of advantages, such as the ability to connect to multiplayer games, although single-player online games are also rather popular. This exploratory study focused on modeling the determinants of actual use of online game playing. Many researchers have shown perceived enjoyment and flow experience as important drivers of actual use of online game playing. The theory of planned behavior has been used in this study. Data were collected from 1584 Universiti Sains Malaysia students with different backgrounds using a structured questionnaire. The findings show that perceived enjoyment has the strongest influence on actual use. Other variables found to influence actual usage include the level of perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, attitude, perceived enjoyment, and flow experience. Implications of this research for future researchers will also be discussed. We hope this research will increase researchers’ interest in further development in this sector and that the model will assist the games industry to identify factors that increase actual use by players.

Peripheral Dentinogenic Ghost Cell Tumor Report of a Case and Literature Review

Peripheral dentinogenic ghost cell tumor is a rare tumor with only 24 cases previously described in the English literature. The majority of cases have been reported to occur in the anterior part of the jaws. A case occurring in posterior (molar region) of the mandible in a 75-year-old edentulous woman is reported. The patient presented with a nodular swelling in the left mandible that showed erosion (saucerization) of the underlying bone radiographically. On microscopy, the tumor showed mainly solid epithelial islands resembling ameloblastoma in fibrous connective tissue. The islands were associated with ghost cells and dysplastic dentin. This report includes the clinical, radiographic, and microscopic features of the patient, in addition to the review of the English literature on the tumor.

E-learning continuance satisfaction in higher education: a unified perspective from instructors and students

ABSTRACT This study aims to determine the key factors affecting students’ and instructors’ continuance satisfaction with e-learning in the higher education context. In order to identify the factors that impact e-learning continuation in higher education institutions, a systematic review of the literature was conducted, revealing that the majority of studies have reported the essential role of satisfaction in mediating the relationship between 11 factors and users’ decisions to continue using e-learning systems. This study then proposed that users, both students and instructors, must continually be satisfied with the e-learning systems offered by higher education institutions if they are to continue using them. We term this ‘e-learning continuance satisfaction.’ The formation of a unified perspective of instructors and students on the core factors that impact e-learning continuance was then investigated, in addition to the causal relationships between these factors and e-learning continuance satisfaction. The Fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method was used to analyze data collected from 9 instructors and 38 students via an interview survey and the results yielded five core factors – information quality, task–technology fit, system quality, utility value, and usefulness – that influence users’ e-learning continuance satisfaction. Several different causal relationships between the factors identified from both students’ and instructors’ perspectives were also identified and used to form a single viewpoint. Our findings provide new insights into how higher education institutions can promote continuance satisfaction in order to ensure continuation of e-learning.

Photodynamic therapy in the treatment of symptomatic oral lichen planus: A systematic review.

The aim of this systematic review was to assess the efficacy of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in the treatment of symptomatic oral lichen planus (OLP).

Modelling digital library success using the DeLone and McLean information system success model

This is an exploratory study to model the determinants of actual use of a digital library system. To do so, a research model was developed using Delone and McLean’s information system success model and explained as an empirical study. Data were collected from 978 respondents using a structured questionnaire from four different universities of Malaysia. The findings showed that the quality factors of digital library systems have a strong influence on satisfaction, behavioral intention, and variance in actual use. Information quality is the strongest predictor to measure user satisfaction, and satisfaction has a strong effect on students’ behavioral intention to use the system. In addition, user satisfaction and behavioral intention to use the system also have a strong positive relationship with the actual use of a digital library system. In brief, behavioral intentions are greatly influenced by system quality, information quality and service quality.

The role of personality characteristics in informing our preference for visual presentation: An eye movement study

Individuals’ preferences are an important consideration in society, and different personality traits may contribute to those preferences. Personality traits can be used to understand what people would prefer or like about certain events or activities. Despite this, it appears that there is little understanding about the role of personality characteristics in visual design display. This study investigated the role of personality traits in users’ preferences. We examined the eye-movement behavior of 50 participants to identify their preferences in visual design presentations. A Bagging classifier with a genetic search method was used to assess the predictions of eye parameters based on personality dimensions. The results showed that high conscientiousness and agreeableness tended to influence eye-movement behavior toward visual design. Our findings may offer new insights for humancomputer interaction, personalization, and rational choice theories. This study also addresses new trends related to the regulation of eye movements toward preferred visual design elements based on personality traits.

A DEMATEL method in identifying design requirements for mobile environments: students’ perspectives

The understanding of the design of mobile phones is somewhat different from other devices and products. This is properly due to the limited design capacity of mobile phones which need to be maintained within a small screen. One aspect for consideration is the relationship between certain design elements and users’ usage behavior and perception of the device. This study examined the feasibility of multiple-criteria decision making, known as the decision-making trial evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), for identifying the key design patterns necessary for promoting users use of mobile devices. Precisely, we studied users’ direct, indirect, and interdependent behaviors in relation to seven mobile design patterns, including dealing with data, providing input, navigation, notification, personalization, screen interaction, and social activity. A DEMATEL model was generated for 75 students using these dimensions. The results showed that patterns corresponding to users’ interactions with the screen, dealing with data, and navigation were the core factors that can potentially aid the design of mobile environments. Our findings can be used by educational designers of mobile applications to form better design scenarios that are closely connected to a specific task and setting.