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Article
Publication date: 26 September 2008

Khaled A. Mohamed and Ahmed Hassan

This paper aims to examine the behaviour of the Egyptian scholars while accessing electronic resources through two federated search tools. The main purpose of this article is to…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the behaviour of the Egyptian scholars while accessing electronic resources through two federated search tools. The main purpose of this article is to provide guidance for federated search tool technicians and support teams about user issues, including the need for training.

Design/methodology/approach

Log files were exploited to examine the behaviour of users of information retrieval systems. This study examined two log files extracted from federated search tools available to the Egyptian scholars' community for accessing electronic resources. A data mining approach was implemented to investigate user behaviour through deep analysis of these logs.

Findings

Results show that: none of the available tools provide error messages for dummy queries; most of the Egyptian scholars had short queries; Boolean operators are not used in about 50 per cent of the queries; federated search tools do not provide techniques for query reformation; the optimal days for system maintenance are the non‐weekend vacations; and early morning is the best time for maintenance.

Practical implications

To maximise the value of the federated search tools by understanding user trends when utilising federated search tools. The study shows that more attention should be given to the search capabilities through ongoing training and awareness in order to maximise the benefit from the available resources and tools.

Originality/value

The hypothetical value of the federated search tools has not been previously examined and analysed to understand user trends.

Details

Program, vol. 42 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0033-0337

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Article
Publication date: 2 November 2015

Khaled A. Mohamed and Ahmed Hassan

This study aims to explore a framework for evaluating and comparing two federated search tools (FSTs) using two different retrieval protocols: XML gateways and Z39.50. FSTs are…

1196

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore a framework for evaluating and comparing two federated search tools (FSTs) using two different retrieval protocols: XML gateways and Z39.50. FSTs are meta-information retrieval systems developed to facilitate the searching of multiple resources through a single search box. FSTs allow searching of heterogeneous platforms, such as bibliographic and full-text databases, online public access catalogues, web search engines and open-access resources.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed framework consists of three phases: the usability testing, retrievability performance assessment and overall comparison. The think-aloud protocol was implemented for usability testing and FSTs retrieval consistency, and precision tests were carried out to assess the retrievability performance for 20 real user queries.

Findings

Participants were directed to assign weights for the interface usability and system retrievability importance as indicators for FST evaluation. Results indicated that FSTs retrievability performance was of more importance than the interface usability. Participants assigned an average weight of 62 per cent for the system retrievability and 38 per cent for interface usability. In terms of the usability test, there was no significant difference between the two FSTs, while minor differences were found regarding retrieval consistency and precision at 11-point cut-off recall. The overall evaluation showed that the FST based on the XML gateway rated slightly higher than the FST based on the Z39.50 protocol.

Research limitations/implications

This empirical study faced several limitations. First, the lack of participants’ familiarity with usability testing created the need for a deep awareness and rigorous supervision. Second, the difficulties of empirically assessing participants’ perspectives and future attitudes called for mixing between a formal task and the think-aloud protocol for participants in a real environment. This has been a challenge that faced the collection of the usability data including user behaviour, expectations and other empirical data. Third, the differences between the two FSTs in terms of number of connectors and advanced search techniques required setting rigorous procedures for testing FSTs retrieval consistency and precision.

Practical implications

This paper has practical implications in two dimensions. First, its results could be utilized by FST developers to enhance their product’s performance. Second, the framework could be used by librarians to evaluate FSTs performance and capabilities. The framework enables them to compare between library systems in general and FSTs in particular. In addition to these practical implications, the authors encourage researchers to use and enhance the proposed framework.

Social implications

Librarians can use the proposed framework to empirically select an FST, involving users in the selection procedures of these information retrieval systems, so that it accords with users’ perspectives and attitudes and serves the community better.

Originality/value

The proposed framework could be considered a benchmark for FST evaluation.

Details

The Electronic Library, vol. 33 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-0473

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2006

Khaled A.F. Mohamed

To explore the impact of using metadata in finding and ranking web pages through search engines.

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Abstract

Purpose

To explore the impact of using metadata in finding and ranking web pages through search engines.

Design/methodology/approach

The study has been divided into two phases. In phase one, the use of metadata schemes and the impact of overlapped documents have been examined by employing the usability technique. Phase two examined the impact of adding metadata elements to web pages in their original rank order, using the experimental method. This study focuses on indexing web pages using metadata and its impact on search engine's rankings.

Findings

Meta tags are more widely used than Dublin Core. The overlapped pages tend to include metadata. The second phase shows that by adding metadata elements to web pages, it raises its rank order. However, this depends on the quality of the description and the metadata schemes. The study shows no great difference in page ranking between adding meta tags and Dublin Core.

Practical implications

To maximize the impact of metadata, more attention should be given to keyword and descriptive fields.

Originality/value

The hypothetical relationship between overlapped pages and the inclusion of metadata and indexing by search engines had not been previously examined.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 30 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

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Article
Publication date: 14 June 2022

Aziz Kaba, Ece Yurdusevimli Metin and Onder Turan

The purpose of this study is to build a high accuracy thrust model under various small turbojet engine shaft speeds by using robust, ordinary, linear and nonlinear least squares…

149

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to build a high accuracy thrust model under various small turbojet engine shaft speeds by using robust, ordinary, linear and nonlinear least squares estimation methods for target drone applications.

Design/methodology/approach

The dynamic shaft speeds from the test experiment of a target drone engine is conducted. Then, thrust values are calculated. Based on these, the engine thrust is modeled by robust linear and nonlinear equations. The models are benefited from quadratic, power and various series expansion functions with several coefficients to optimize the model parameters.

Findings

The error terms and accuracy of the model are given using sum of squared errors, root mean square error (RMSE) and R-squared (R2) error definitions. Based on the multiple analyses, it is seen that the RMSE values are no more than 17.7539 and the best obtained result for robust least squares estimation is 15.0086 for linear at all cases. Furthermore, the R2 value is found to be 0.9996 as the highest with the nonlinear Fourier series expansion model.

Originality/value

The motivation behind this paper is to propose robust nonlinear thrust models based on power, Fourier and various series expansion functions for dynamic shaft speeds from the test experiments.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 95 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1748-8842

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Book part
Publication date: 1 March 2013

Thomas Olesen

This chapter offers a symbolic perspective on the Egyptian Revolution. It does so by analyzing the transformation of Khaled Said, a 28-year-old Egyptian man beaten to death by…

Abstract

This chapter offers a symbolic perspective on the Egyptian Revolution. It does so by analyzing the transformation of Khaled Said, a 28-year-old Egyptian man beaten to death by police on June 6, 2010, into a key visual injustice symbol. Activists were motivated by a horrifying cell phone photograph of Said taken by his family at the morgue and uploaded on the web. Although the postmortem photograph had a powerful emotional impact in itself, the transformation of Said from local/particular incident to injustice symbol with society-wide repercussions cannot be explained by its mere availability in the public sphere. The transformation required intervention and appropriation by activists who creatively and strategically universalized the case, linking it with existing injustice frames in Egypt. This chapter analyzes this interplay between photographs, activism, and society in two steps. The first provides an analysis of the genesis of the Said symbol and identifies three levels of agency in its formation. The second step analyzes the process through which Said was infused with injustice meanings by activists. Providing the first systematic analysis of Said from a social movement perspective, the chapter draws on several data sources that are subjected to interpretive analysis: visual material available on the internet, Facebook pages, and interviews with and accounts by key activists. And it calls for more attention to photographs and symbols in the analysis of activism and points to several historical and present cases with relevance for such an approach.

Details

Advances in the Visual Analysis of Social Movements
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-636-1

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Article
Publication date: 1 December 2007

Khaled Aljifri and Mohamed Moustafa

The main aim of this study is to investigate empirically the effect of some internal and external corporate governance mechanisms on the UAE firm performance (i.e., Tobin’s q)…

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Abstract

The main aim of this study is to investigate empirically the effect of some internal and external corporate governance mechanisms on the UAE firm performance (i.e., Tobin’s q). Like many of the developing countries all over the world, the UAE has recently initiated the application of the international standards of corporate governance as a part of its merge with the global economy. This study utilizes a sample of 51 firms using the accounting and market data available for 2004. The sample firms are all listed in either the Dubai Financial Market or the Abu Dubai Securities Market. The cross‐sectional regression analysis is employed to test the hypotheses of the study. The results of this study show that the governmental ownership, the debt ratio (total debt/total assets), and the payout dividends ratio have a significant impact on the firm performance; whereas the institutional investors, the board size, the firm size (sales), and the audit type show a non‐significant impact. This study concludes that three of the corporate governance mechanisms in the UAE used in this study appear to be strong enough to affect the firm performance. However, the other four mechanisms are found to have a weak effect on the firm performance which could be a result of the significant absence of some aspects of corporate governance practices and lack of enforcement of rules.

Details

Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, vol. 23 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2054-6238

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Article
Publication date: 21 May 2020

Mohamed A.K. Basuony, Ehab K.A. Mohamed, Ahmed Elragal and Khaled Hussainey

This study aims to investigate the extent and characteristics of corporate internet disclosure via companies’ websites as well via social media and networks sites in the four…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the extent and characteristics of corporate internet disclosure via companies’ websites as well via social media and networks sites in the four leading English-speaking stock markets, namely, Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA.

Design/methodology/approach

A disclosure index comprising a set of items that encompasses two facets of online disclosure, namely, company websites and social media sites, is used. This paper adopts a data science approach to investigate corporate internet disclosure practices among top listed firms in Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA.

Findings

The results reveal the underlying relations between the determining factors of corporate disclosure, i.e. profitability, leverage, liquidity and firm size. Profitability in its own has no great effect on the degree of corporate internet disclosure whether via company websites or social media sites. Liquidity has an impact on the degree of disclosure. Firm size and leverage appear to be the most important factors driving better disclosure via social media. American companies tend to be on the cutting edge of technology when it comes to corporate disclosure.

Practical implications

This paper provides new insights into corporate internet disclosure that will benefit all stakeholders with an interest in corporate reporting. Social media is an influential means of communication that can enable corporate office to get instant feedback enhancing their decision-making process.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is amongst few studies of corporate disclosure via social media platforms. This study has adopted disclosure index incorporating social media as well as applying data science approach in disclosure in an attempt to unfold how accounting could benefit from data science techniques.

Details

Accounting Research Journal, vol. 35 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1030-9616

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Article
Publication date: 15 August 2018

Mohamed A.K. Basuony, Ehab K.A. Mohamed and Khaled Samaha

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of board structure on voluntary corporate disclosure via social media among the top 150 companies listed on the London Stock…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of board structure on voluntary corporate disclosure via social media among the top 150 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Design/methodology/approach

A disclosure index comprising of a set of items that encompass two facets of disclosure, namely corporate disclosure via social networks and social media sites, is developed and used. Binary logistic regression is used to test the research hypotheses.

Findings

The results of this study reveal the underlying relations between board composition and control variables as the determining factors of corporate disclosure, i.e. board size, board activism, board independence and board diversity (gender and ethnicity). The gender of the board can affect the corporate disclosure via a social network. The results of this study indicate that an increase in the number of female in the board members leads to higher corporate disclosure using social network. Moreover, firm size has a positive effect on corporate disclosure indicating that large firms tend to disclose more information on their websites and social networks.

Practical implications

The paper provides new insights into the role played by the non-executive female directors in monitoring and controlling managerial processes related to corporate disclosure using social media.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that examines the role of board structure in monitoring and controlling management decisions and managerial processes in the area of corporate disclosure via social media.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 42 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

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Book part
Publication date: 11 August 2014

Lara Lengel and Victoria Ann Newsom

To examine how social media restrict and recreate messages within current interactionist scripts in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), this study applies a framework of…

Abstract

To examine how social media restrict and recreate messages within current interactionist scripts in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), this study applies a framework of digital reflexivity highlighting stages of information flow. It applies the symbolic interaction concept of emotional events to analyze the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi and the role of social media in disseminating Bouazizi’s act as one catalyst of the MENA citizen uprisings. The role of social media in the “Arab Spring” merits investigation because social media provide opportunities to examine shifting identities, interactions, and actions of citizen activists in the MENA uprisings. This study is important and timely because little symbolic interactionist scholarship exists on MENA identities and social movements, or on crowd interaction and activism outside the West. The nuanced nature of MENA political activism and complex processes of the development of activists’ “mutable” selves (Zurcher, 1977) are fluid and resistant to symbolically defined social roles, interactionist scripts and reflexivity, and public communication practices in a MENA under political and social transition.

Details

Symbolic Interaction and New Social Media
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-933-1

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Article
Publication date: 23 August 2023

Khaled Nasri, Mohamed Anis Ben Abdallah and Fethi Amri

This study aims to investigate the impact of job loss on the mental health of individuals in Tunisia during the COVID-19 crisis.

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the impact of job loss on the mental health of individuals in Tunisia during the COVID-19 crisis.

Design/methodology/approach

In this research, the authors use the counterfactual decomposition technique and the potential outcome approach. In the first part, the authors calculated mental health indicators for all individuals included in the sample based on the World Health Organization-5 items. The individuals were then grouped into two subpopulations: the first group included those who had lost their jobs and the second group included individuals whose status in the labor market had remained unchanged. In the second part, the authors used the Blinder and Oaxaca decomposition to explain the mean difference in the mental health scores between the two groups and determine the factors contributing to this difference.

Findings

The empirical results identified symptoms of depressed mood, decreased energy and loss of interest in several individuals. Based on these three symptoms, the authors were able to classify individuals into three types of depression: mild, moderate and severe. In addition, it appeared that job loss had significantly contributed to the worsening mental health of the individuals.

Originality/value

Although the psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak among health-care professionals has been the subject of other studies in health literature on Tunisia, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no research has addressed the impact of job loss on the mental health of Tunisian workers. Thus, this study fills this gap in the literature.

Details

Mental Health and Social Inclusion, vol. 28 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-8308

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