Organisational critical success factors in adoption of e-banking at the Woolwich bank

The provision of banking services on the Internet (e-banking) is growing but there is a lack of research related to the organisational issues involved in its adoption. This paper brings theory and practice together by synthesising the existing literature with real-life experience of a UK bank. Two questions motivated this research. First, what is the experience of organisations in adopting e-banking? Second, what are the organisational factors which are critical to the success in e-banking adoption? A case study research approach was used to investigate organisational critical success factors in e-banking adoption at The Woolwich bank. The factors found to be most critical for success in e-banking included: understanding customers, organisational flexibility, availability of resources, systems security, established brand name, having multiple integrated channels, e-channel specific marketing, systems integration, systematic change management, support from top management, and good customer services. We concluded that banks need to implement considerable organisational changes in order to web-enable themselves. The main focus of their e-commerce strategy should be to integrate the e-banking channel with other service delivery channels to maximise benefits.     

The classroom learning environment as perceived by students in Arab elementary schools

In this study, students’ perceptions of the classroom learning environment in Arab elementary schools were investigated. The sample included 261 students from Grades 5 and 6. The questionnaire was developed at an Arab college of teacher education by 16 fourth-year student teachers who were completing their studies toward a BEd degree. Articles on classroom learning environment were distributed to the students, who then wrote items to assess learning environment. The items were evaluated for content validity in relation to the Arab school culture, language, teachers’ teaching, students’ learning styles, teacher–student relations, order and organisation, discipline and behaviours. The Classroom Learning Environment of Elementary Students (CLEES) questionnaire consists of 32 items in four scales: Teacher’s Image, Group Work, Students’ Participation, and Order and Organisation. The CLEES was used in a pilot study in two Grade 5 and 6 classes in order to validate it. The student teachers administered the questionnaire to students in elementary schools. Data were analysed using SPSS (e.g. factor analysis and one-way ANOVA) to validate the CLEES. No significant differences were found between boys and girls in classroom learning environment. However, significant differences in CLEES perceptions were found between students from different grades (Grade 5 vs. Grade 6), age groups and schools. The results are explained in the discussion section in relation to the characteristics of their schools.     

Administration of Education Enterprise and Gaps in the Provision of Needed Information: The Case of Pakistan

This study is qualitative in nature and aims at assessing the information needs and seeking behavior of educational administrators and finding related problems. Interviews of a purposive sample and review of related literature are among the major research methods. The study is based on interviews of 13 educational administrators and 32 information professionals from Punjab province and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) of Pakistan. The results correspond with the previous studies conducted in other countries. The educational administrators' information needs and seeking behavior reflect a kinship with their work settings and information environment that highlights a need to understand problem situations as an ancestor to understanding how they seek and use information. The study has identified a gap in the provision of needed information which hinders the realistic planning and decision making process. It has also highlighted the need of a National Information System for educational administrators in Pakistan. As this is the first study on this topic in Pakistan, the results can be useful to design information services and facilities for educational administrators in Pakistan and other developing regions of the globe with similar conditions.     

Assessing potential dietary toxicity of heavy metals in selected vegetables and food crops

Heavy metals, such as cadmium, copper, lead, chromium and mercury, are important environmental pollutants, particularly in areas with high anthropogenic pressure. Their presence in the atmosphere, soil and water, even in traces can cause serious problems to all organisms, and heavy metal bioaccumulation in the food chain especially can be highly dangerous to human health. Heavy metals enter the human body mainly through two routes namely： inhalation and ingestion, ingestion being the main route of exposure to these elements in human population. Heavy metals intake by human populations through food chain has been reported in many countries. Soil threshold for heavy metal toxicity is an important factor affecting soil environmental capacity of heavy metal and determines heavy metal cumulative loading limits. For soil-plant system, heavy metal toxicity threshold is the highest permissible content in the soil （total or bioavailable concentration） that does not pose any phytotoxic effects or heavy metals in the edible parts of the crops does not exceed food hygiene standards. Factors affecting the thresholds of dietary toxicity of heavy metal in soil-crop system include： soil type which includes soil pH, organic matter content, clay mineral and other soil chemical and biochemical properties; and crop species or cultivars regulated by genetic basis for heavy metal transport and accumulation in plants. In addition, the interactions of soil-plant root-microbes play important roles in regulating heavy metal movement from soil to the edible parts of crops. Agronomic practices such as fertilizer and water managements as well as crop rotation system can affect bioavailability and crop accumulation of heavy metals, thus influencing the thresholds for assessing dietary toxicity of heavy metals in the food chain. This paper reviews the phytotoxic effects and bioaccumulation of heavy metals in vegetables and food crops and assesses soil heavy metal thresholds for potential dietary toxicity.     

Perceptions of Faculty about Information Literacy Skills of Postgraduate Engineering Students

Purpose: This study identifies perceptions of faculty about the current level of information literacy (IL) skills of engineering students in higher education in Pakistan. It may help to design better IL programs for the tertiary level students. Methodology: The study used ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology as the basis to assess these perceptions. Teachers of the National University of Science & Technology (NUST), who were teaching engineering students of postgraduate level, were selected as population. A structured questionnaire was sent to 113 faculty members and the response remained 80 percent. Paired samples t-test was used for data analysis through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Findings: Research indicates that faculty perceived IL skills of their PhD level students higher than those of MS level students. Originality: The term “Information literacy” is yet new on the Pakistani library scene. Regarding perceptions of faculty about information literacy skills of their students so far no study has been carried out in Pakistan. This study will help to identify existing IL skills of Pakistani students of university level, their requirements and how these requirements can be best fulfilled.     

Status of Library Software in Higher Education Institutions of Pakistan

This study explored the status of library software being used in the libraries of higher education institutions (HEIs) of Pakistan. A quantitative survey method was used. The population of this study was central/main libraries of all HEIs of Pakistan recognized by the Higher Education Commission (HEC). A questionnaire was designed after review of literature to collect data. The questionnaire was sent to all head librarians. The findings reveal that majority of the libraries had started automation. The libraries of public and private sector institutions were not significantly different in automating their routines. The libraries were using a variety of software and Library Information Management System (LIMS), a free software was at the top in terms of number of users. Other popular software were WINISIS, Inmagic, Koha and VIRTUA. There were also examples of adoption of open source software. Majority of the libraries were doing automation in the absence of proper budget for software and allied activities. Similarly, libraries did not have up-gradation and training agreement with the software providers. The participant libraries reported the presence of cataloging, circulation, reports and OPAC modules in their software but most of the libraries did not mention the availability of modules like acquisition, serial and webopac. Software used by the libraries did not have national language support in most of the cases and ability to support regional languages was also negligible.     

Participation in technology standards development: A decision model for the information and communications technology (ICT) industry

This study presents a framework to guide managers in the ICT industry in assessing the factors that inform the decision to participate in the development of technology standards. Using multi-criteria decision analysis and judgment data from panels of experts, a robust model is developed that comprehends the essential criteria and outcomes within the context of computer interconnect technologies. The resultant, generalizable model is validated against the case of the extant Universal Serial Bus (USB) interconnect standard and found to be congruent with the assessment of the experts.     

Technological dynamism in Asia

We analyze innovation in emerging and newly industrialized economies over the past 30 years, with the emphasis being on Asian economies. We use US patent data to study how the innovative capabilities of Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore have expanded in relation to emerging economies in Asia and Latin America. We then carry out a sector-level analysis of innovation for South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, India and China. We also study the relative importance of foreign multinationals, business groups, individuals, domestic firms and research institutes in innovation. Finally, we study the overall concentration of innovative activity in Asian economies.     

Performance of beacon safety message dissemination in Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks （VANETs）

Currently, there is a growing belief that putting an IEEE 802.11-like radio into road vehicles can help the drivers to travel more safely. Message dissemination protocols are primordial for safety vehicular applications. There are two types of safety messages which may be exchanged between vehicles: alarm and beacon. In this paper we investigate the feasibility of deploying safety applications based on beacon message dissemination through extensive simulation study and pay special attention to the safety requirements. Vehicles are supposed to issue these messages periodically to announce to other vehicles their current situation and use received messages for preventing possible unsafe situations. We evaluate the performance of a single-hop dissemination protocol while taking into account the quality of service (QoS) metrics like delivery rate and delay. We realize that reliability is the main concern in beacon message dissemination. Thus, a new metric named effective range is defined which gives us more accurate facility for evaluating QoS in safety applications specifically. Then, in order to improve the performance, the effects of three parameters including vehicle's transmission range, message transmission's interval time and message payload size are studied. Due to special characteristics of the safety applications, we model the relationship between communication-level QoS and application-level QoS and evaluate them for different classes of safety applications. As a conclusion, the current technology of IEEE 802.11 MAC layer has still some challenges for automatic safety applications but it can provide acceptable QoS to driver assistance safety applications.