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Dubai’s Electronic Transactions Law (“ETL”) is designed to stimulate E‐commerce in the emirate by improving the authenticity and integrity of electronic transactions. The ETL recognizes the legal validity of electronic documents and electronic signatures as acceptable substitutes for paper documents and ink signatures, respectively. Accordingly, electronic records may be used to comply with a statutory writing requirement, original document requirement and retention requirement, and an electronic signature attached to an electronic document may be used to comply with a statutory requirement for a paper‐and‐ink signature. If all parties are in agreement, a contract may be in electronic form and is just as legally enforceable as a written one. The ETL does not mandate Dubai’s governmental agencies to utilize electronic documents, but they may elect to do so. The ETL has created a compulsory system of licensing of Certification Authorities (“CA”). Their role is to ascertain the identity of a subscriber and to attest in an issued Certificate that the electronic signature used by that subscriber belongs to him. The ETL contains a list of computer crimes. The statute establishes a sound framework for E‐commerce, but it could be improved by adding consumer protections, more computer crimes, mandatory Egovernment, I.T. courts and long‐arm jurisdiction. The ETL’s exclusion of wills should be eliminated.

The study purpose was to assess the evidence on the effects of hospital restructuring that included layoffs, on nurses who remained employed, using a systematic review of the research literature to contribute to policy formation. Papers addressing research, hospital restructuring resulting in layoffs, effects on nurses, and a stated relationship between the independent and dependent variables were included. Data were extracted and the quality of each study was assessed. The final group of included studies had 22 empirical papers. The main effects were significant decreases in job satisfaction, professional efficacy, ability to provide quality care, physical and emotional health, and increases in turnover, and disruption to healthcare team relationships. Nurses with fewer years of experience or who experienced multiple episodes of restructuring experienced greater effects. Other findings remain inconclusive. Further research is required to determine if these effects are temporal or can be mitigated by individual or organizational strategies.

In this chapter, we discuss health-related physical fitness and motor development assessments for students with physical disabilities or other health impairments in special education using traditional and innovative techniques. Traditional assessment techniques are those that are more standardized and formalized, while innovative assessment techniques refer to new variations or ways (alternative/authentic) to assess the abilities of students with physical disabilities and other health impairments. According to the United States Department of Education (2009), students with disabilities must be included in State and local assessments. Even though there has been significant growth in numbers, diversity and academic orientation of persons with physical disabilities, assessments practices have largely remained the same over the years. Adopting innovative pedagogies and emerging innovative assessment techniques may address some unmet needs of current students with disabilities faced with assessment biases.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

Social networks are not just patterns of interaction and sentiment in the real world; they are also cognitive (re)constructions of social relations, some real, some imagined. Focusing on networks as mental entities, our essay describes a new method that relies on stylized network images to gather quantitative data on how people “see” specific aspects of their social worlds. We discuss the logic of our approach, present several examples of “visual network scales,” discuss some preliminary findings, and identify some of the problems and prospects in this nascent line of work on the phenomenology of social networks.

In exercise of the powers conferred upon him by the Ministry of Food (Continuance) Act, 1920, and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, the Food Controller hereby orders as follows :—