1,772 research outputs found
Islamist movements at crossroads: the choice between ideology and context-driven approach to politics. Case study on the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
No full textThe aim of the paper is to analyse the ongoing transformation process within the Islamist movements using the example of the moderate Islamic Action Front party in Jordan. The dilemma of participation in the 2010 general elections raised tensions between the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan and its political wing, the Islamic Action Front, and between doves and hawks of the same organizations. Internal debate on the future has started recently among different groups within the Islamist movement in Jordan. The research is based on the author‘s recent field experience in Jordan (April–July 2010, Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the American Centre of Oriental Research, Amman, Jordan). The author also conducted research in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt, where several interviews were carried out with leading and lower level Islamist politicians. The dynamic changes within Islamic Action Front Party in Jordan and its relation with the regime has been used as reference point. The main question of the research was aa how the changing political and regional context shapes decisions of the Islamist with special attention to the acceptance of democratic values and human rights, political participation, and the meanings of Islamic values in the 21st century, possible cooperation with secular parties/movements/the regime
Narratives of ethnicity and nationalism : a case study of Circassians in Jordan
No full textThis research is an exploration of ethnic narratives of the Circassian
community in Jordan, in addition to the nationalist narratives promoted by the state
of Jordan, and their reconstruction by the research participants. This research aims to
understand how the research participants, as non-Arabs, understand and makes
sense of the Pan-Arab ethnonational narratives promoted by the state through the
‘Jordan First’ nationalist campaign and textbooks of national and civic education. It
also seeks to understand the ethnic narratives of the Circassian community. It
highlights the fact that ethnic narratives are often contextualised, and come to light
always in comparison to the other. It also shows how ethnic narratives are gendered,
can include or exclude women, and gender relations are ethnicised, or in other
words used as markers for group boundaries.
The main aim of this research is to unpack the research participants’
conceptualisations of Jordan and the Pan-Arabism, and to understand the strategies
they use to include themselves within these narratives. It intends to evaluate
whether research participants see themselves as integrated into the Jordanian society
or not. Whereas the community itself is often portrayed as integrated into the
society, because many of them are in high governmental positions, and the
ceremonial guards of the Royal Family are the Circassians, it is also important to
examine whether they believe that they are, and how. This thesis contributes to the
literature on ethnicity and nationalism based on a minority with unique profile, and
also contributes to the overall body of literature on state nationalism in the Middle
East. The research has been approached through the use of both qualitative and
quantitative data collection methods. It is based on the analysis of textbooks of
national and civic education, and the ‘Jordan First’ campaign, in addition to 13
interviews and 62 questionnaires
The Compliance with Intellectual Property Laws and their Enforcement in Jordan- A post-WTO Review & Analysis
No full textThis thesis examines the implementation, enforcement and evolution of IP laws and regulations in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The period of interest includes the last decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty first century, with emphasis on the role played by Free Trade Agreements struck between Jordan and the United States, the European Union, and Jordan’s accession to the World Trade Organization.
This thesis also examines the enforcement of the current set of IP laws in Jordan, and looks at their social and economic compatibility with the Jordanian societal norms and economic realities.
This thesis argues that Jordanian IP laws lack a meaningful social and economic texture, and have failed to be evenly enforced in Jordan, essentially because they do not fit the Jordanian culture and are not compatible with Jordan’s economic stage of development. Additionally, the thesis argues that IP laws have had insignificant economic impact on the Jordanian economy as the majority of technologies used in Jordan, and the majority of foreign direct investments attracted to Jordan, are not IP related. Finally, the thesis argues that the current Jordanian enforcement model, which is built on coercion by donor countries, is serving the interests of foreign companies to the exclusion of the local citizens, and will not, in the long run, produce an enforcement model based on self-regulation by Jordanians, themselves. The laws, therefore, are unable to produce tangible results for the Jordanian people, or help meet their economic interests.
The last part of the thesis deals with recommendations and suggestions aimed at creating an integrated approach to the adoption of IP policies
SIAM Data Mining Brings It to Annual Meeting
No full textThe Data Mining Activity Group is one of SIAM\u27s most vibrant and dynamic activity groups. To better share our enthusiasm for data mining with the broader SIAM community, our activity group organized six minisymposia at the 2016 Annual Meeting. These minisymposia included 48 talks organized by 11 SIAM members on - GraphBLAS (Aydın Buluç) - Algorithms and statistical methods for noisy network analysis (Sanjukta Bhowmick & Ben Miller) - Inferring networks from non-network data (Rajmonda Caceres, Ivan Brugere & Tanya Y. Berger-Wolf) - Visual analytics (Jordan Crouser) - Mining in graph data (Jennifer Webster, Mahantesh Halappanavar & Emilie Hogan) - Scientific computing and big data (Vijay Gadepally) These minisymposia were well received by the broader SIAM community, and below are some of the key highlights
Jordan’s Accession to the WTO: Retrospective and Prospective
No full textJordan acceded to the WTO in 1999. In its accession Jordan agreed, for example, to reduce tariffs on imported products and open its services market; it also modified its intellectual property regime. Jordan enjoyed special and differential treatment in few areas and was not able to designate olive oil as a good eligible for special safeguards. The WTO agreements required fundamental changes in the domestic laws and regulations of Jordan. The article concludes by arguing that Jordan's accession to the WTO was a lengthy and costly process. Jordan agreed to an arduous package of legal and economic reforms. Given that Jordan agreed to greater commitments compared to the obligations of the original WTO members, the multilateral trading system witnessed an accession saga.accession, free trade, intellectual property, Jordan, market access, WTO, Financial Economics, International Relations/Trade, Political Economy,
The use of strategic planning tools and techniques by hotels in Jordan
No full textPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the use of strategic planning tools and techniques by hotels in Jordan and the nature of its relationship with managers' views of the strategic planning process.
Design/methodology/approach – A review of the literature relating to both strategic planning and strategic planning tools and techniques in both developed and emerging markets is provided. The empirical research was conducted via a questionnaire survey of Jordanian hotels in two cities; namely, Petra and Aqaba.
Findings – The main findings of this research are that the Jordanian hotels engage in the strategic planning process by using a number of techniques. The use of strategic planning tools and techniques relates more to the size of hotel and less to age and ownership type. There is a positive relationship between the use of strategic planning techniques and size of hotel. The managers of these hotels have generally positive attitudes towards the strategic planning process. The managers who believe in the benefits of strategic planning engage more in the practice of it.
Research limitations/implications – The nature of this research is descriptive and the method used is a cross-sectional survey. Therefore, future research could be conducted on a small number of these hotels by using a more in-depth approach. Second, the sample was restricted to hotels in two cities in Jordan. Further research should include other regions in Jordan and should analyse the ownership types of hotels (such as independent versus chain) and its star rating.
Originality/value – This paper provides empirical evidence about the use of the strategic planning tools and techniques by hotels in an emerging market context
Pre-vocational education in Jordan : implications for teacher preparation and in-service training
No full textThis study proposes a rational basis for pre-vocational. education (PVE) teacher
preparation and training in Jordan based on a thorough assessment of the teacher's
role and responsibilities. Qualitative and quantitative data collection methods were
employed. These included semi-structured interviews with members of the Jordanian
National Teams for PVE Curriculum Development and for Supervision on PVE
Curriculum Development, as well as with PVE supervisors in Jordan. Selfcompletion
questionnaires were also administered to a sample of PVE teachers and
educational supervisors. Asserting that design and implementation of a successful
training programme should be founded on the job activities and competencies
required, this study presents a job description for the PVE teacher, analyses the
activities involved, and identifies the associated competencies. The study proceeds to
scrutinise the components of WE teacher preparation, analyses the current delivery
of PVE in Jordan, identifies some deficiencies, and considers potential corrective
action. The study also discusses the necessity of vocational field experience for the
PVE teacher. Current programmes of PVE teacher preparation are critically
examined, shortcomings are identified, and proposals for improvement are discussed
Weighted Jordan homomorphisms
No full textLet A and B be unital rings. An additive map T : A → B is called a weighted Jordan homomorphism if c = T(1) is an invertible central element and cT(x2) = T(x)2 for all x ∈ A. We provide assumptions, which are in particular fulfilled when A = B = Mn(R) with n ≥ 2 and R any unital ring with 1|2, under which every surjective additive map T : A → B with the property that T(x)T(y) + T(y)T(x) = 0 whenever xy = yx = 0 is a weighted Jordan homomorphism. Further, we show that if A is a prime ring with char(A) = 2, 3, 5, then a bijective additive map T : A → A is a weighted Jordan homomorphism provided that there exists an additive map S : A → A such that S(x2) = T(x)2 for all x ∈ A.The first author was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) Grant P1-0288. The second author was supported by MCIU Grant PGC2018-093794-B-I00, Junta de Andalucía Grant FQM-185, MIU Grant FPU18/00419 and MIU Grant EST19/00466
Weighted Jordan homomorphisms
No full textThe first author was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) Grant P1-
0288. The second author was suported by MCIU/AEI/FEDER Grant PGC2018-093794-
B-I00, Junta de Andalucía Grant FQM-185, MIU Grant FPU18/00419 and MIU Grant
EST19/00466.Let A and B be unital rings. An additive map T : A → B
is called a weighted Jordan homomorphism if c = T (1) is an invertible
central element and cT (x2) = T (x)2 for all x ∈ A. We provide assumptions,
which are in particular fulfilled when A = B = Mn(R) with n ≥ 2
and R any unital ring with 1
2 , under which every surjective additive map
T : A → B with the property that T (x)T (y) + T (y)T (x) = 0 whenever
xy = yx = 0 is a weighted Jordan homomorphism. Further, we show
that if A is a prime ring with char(A) 6= 2, 3, 5, then a bijective additive
map T : A → A is a weighted Jordan homomorphism provided that
there exists an additive map S : A → A such that S(x2) = T (x)2 for all
x ∈ A.Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) Grant P1-
0288MCIU/AEI/FEDER Grant PGC2018-093794-
B-I00Junta de Andalucía Grant FQM-185MIU Grant FPU18/00419 MIU Grant
EST19/0046
Metric Ensembles Aid in Explainability: A Case Study with Wikipedia Data
No full textIn recent years, as machine learning models have become larger and more complex, it has become both more difficult and more important to be able to explain and interpret the results of those models, both to prevent model errors and to inspire confidence for end users of the model. As such, there has been a significant and growing interest in explainability in recent years as a highly desirable trait for a model to have. Similarly, there has been much recent attention on ensemble methods, which aim to aggregate results from multiple (often simple) models or metrics in order to outperform models that optimize for only a single metric. We argue that this latter issue can actually assist with the former: a model that optimizes for several metrics has some base level of explainability baked into the model, and this explainability can be leveraged not only for user confidence but to fine-tune the weights between the metrics themselves in an intuitive way. We demonstrate a case study of such a benefit, in which we obtain clear, explainable results based on an aggregate of five simple metrics of relevance, using Wikipedia data as a proxy for some large text-based recommendation problem. We demonstrate that not only can these metrics’ simplicity and multiplicity be leveraged for explainability, but in fact, that very explainability can lead to an intuitive fine-tuning process that improves the model itself
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