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This study aims to examine the effects of using mobile translation applications for translating collocations.

The study followed an experimental design where 47 students of English as foreign language in a Saudi university were randomly categorized into two groups. Both the groups were given a translation task consisting of 30 sentences with fixed, medium-strength and weak collocations. The participants in the experimental group (n 23) were asked to use a mobile App (Reverso) to translate the sentences, while the control group (n 24) was allowed to use only paper-based dictionaries. The translations were scored and analyzed to measure if there was any significant difference between the two groups.

The results indicated that the mobile translation application was more effective in translating fixed and medium-strength collocations than weak collocations, and in translating collocations in both translation directions (i.e. from Arabic into English or vice-versa).

The findings suggest that integrating translation technologies in general and mobile translation applications in particular in translation can enhance the translation process. Students can utilize mobile translation applications to enhance their translation skills, especially for translating collocations.

The motivation for the current exploration follows from the fact that one-third of the population in Saudi Arabia (SA) is expatriates. According to the Saudi General Authority for Statistic (https://www.stats.gov.sa/en), the total population in SA in 2021 is estimated at 33,413,660 people, 20,768,627 of whom are Saudi citizens whereas 12,645,033 are expatriates coming from different countries across the world, such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Philippines, Sudan, Sri Lanka, among many others. In this study, the author targeted limited English and Arabic proficiency patients (LEAPPs) from only three countries in the Near East: (1) Bangladesh, (2) India and (3) Pakistan. The author selected these three countries because they represent the high number of expatriates in SA. According to www.globalmediainsight.com, the population of the abovementioned nationalities in SA in 2021 is as follows: India (2,550,000 million), Pakistan (2,450,000 million) and Bangladesh (1,300,000 million) (see https://bit.ly/3NR6SfT). The main official languages for Pakistan, India and Bangladesh are Urdu, Hindu and Bengali respectively. Although the English language is the second official language in both Pakistan and India, it comes as a second language, not as a mother tongue. In other words, these LEAPPs are unlikely to have a full command of the English language.

The current study makes use of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative component follows from the use of questionnaires whereas the qualitative part comes from the execution of face-to-face interviews. This mixed approach has been influential in earlier explorations (see, e.g. Terrel, 2012; Dawadi et al., 2021) and was used in this study to achieve two objectives: (1) to explore whether LEAPPs suffer linguistically when they visit a Saudi hospital, and this data can be elicited via questionnaires, and (2) to gain insights from LEAPPs' experience and attend to their suggestions towards the improvement of the linguistic landscape of the Saudi health system, and this can be gleaned from the interviews.

Based on questionnaires and interviews, the study shows that 64.5% of LEAPPs cannot express their health issues to Arabic-speaking physicians, while 54.8% cannot understand the details of their diagnoses and the guidelines of the prescriptions. Although there is a strong consensus among LEAPPs that interpretation services should be introduced to the Saudi health sector to achieve a better experience, 67.7% are generally satisfied with the current healthcare. Contra previous claims that patients are concerned about their privacy with the introduction of interpreters (see, e.g. Hadziabdic, 2011; Floyd and Sakellariou, 2017; MacFarlane et al. 2020), the present study shows that 70.9% of LEAPPs express no concerns regarding their privacy, whereas 19.3% adopt a neutral position.

Unlike Al-Khathami et al. (2010) who explored the perspective of Saudi patients towards nonArabic speaking nurses and contra Alhammami (2020) who examined the attitudes of the nonArabic speaking doctors towards Saudi patients, the current study shed more light on a neglected sample, namely the laborers, janitors and other craftsmen who have limited knowledge of both Arabic and English and who visited a Saudi clinic/hospital and were met by Arabic-speaking physicians.

Mobile devices have received much research interest in recent years. Mobility raises new issues such as more dynamic context, limited computing resources, and frequent disconnections. A middleware infrastructure for mobile computing must handle all these issues properly. In this project we propose a middleware, called 3DMA, to support mobile computing. We introduce three requirements, distribution, decoupling and decomposition as central issues for mobile middleware. 3DMA uses a space based middleware, which facilitates the implementation of decoupled behavior and support for disconnected operation and context awareness. This is done by defining a set of “workers” which are able to act on the users behalf either: to reduce load on the mobile device, and/or to support disconnected behavior. In order to demonstrate aspects of the middleware architecture we then consider the development of a commonly used mobile application.

Actor-network theory (ANT) is considered to be both a theoretical position and a methodology. ANT has been the centre of vigorous debates regarding its ontological viewpoint but has also been found to have some drawbacks as a methodology. The purpose of this paper is to use a graphical syntax for ANT to describe the development and implementation of a health information system (IS) in order to assess whether the graphical syntax improves the use of ANT as a methodology.

An extensive example derived from a case study, describing the development and implementation of an electronic patients’ records system, is illustrated using this graphical syntax. This serves to makes the actors, translations and black boxes in the case visible.

The syntax is found to help the researcher to conceptualise the research, to highlight assumptions as black boxes and to follow the actor but above all it encourages the researcher to understand the translations being made between actors and to make them explicit. Hence the syntax is found to assist at the analytical phases of a research project. The graphic syntax found to address the criticisms identified for ANT as an IS research methodology.

The proposed graphical syntax assists researchers who use ANT as a methodology. Use of the syntax in education is also foreseen to be practical. The evaluation of ANT-gs in the paper provides an argument for its use but a more reliable argument would be made by collating and analysing feedback from independent modellers who actually use the graphical syntax. This is an important part of future research.

The visualisation of the actor-network provided by ANT-gs provides a relatively simple representation while at the same time it makes key ANT concepts explicit. This is expected to address the issue of superficial understanding of ANT and selective use of its constructs; it makes the actor-network boundaries immediately visible. Thus the paper proposes that ANT-gs will be useful both by IS researchers and as an educational tool but future research is required to verify both these practical implications. The development of a computer-based modelling tool based on this syntax is proposed to facilitate effective and efficient modelling.

This paper proposes a unique tool to support ANT as a methodology. Its use encourages the researcher to focus on constructs that are essential elements of ANT and, by making each of the translation instances explicit, it strengthens the analysis in a way that is true to the view of ANT as a sociology of translation.

The concept and practice of e-services has become essential in business transactions. Yet there are still many organizations that have not developed e-services optimally. This is especially relevant in the context of Indonesian Airline companies. Therefore, many airline customers in Indonesia are still in doubt about it, or even do not use it. To fill this gap, this study attempts to develop a model for e-services adoption and empirically examines the factors influencing the airlines customers in Indonesia in using e-services offered by the Indonesian airline companies. Taking six Indonesian airline companies as a case example, the study investigated the antecedents of e-services usage of Indonesian airlines. This study further examined the impacts of motivation on customers in using e-services in the Indonesian context. Another important aim of this study was to investigate how ages, experiences and geographical areas moderate effects of e-services usage.

The study adopts a positivist research paradigm with a two-phase sequential mixed method design involving qualitative and quantitative approaches. An initial research model was first developed based on an extensive literature review, by combining acceptance and use of information technology theories, expectancy theory and the inter-organizational system motivation models. A qualitative field study via semi-structured interviews was then conducted to explore the present state among 15 respondents. The results of the interviews were analysed using content analysis yielding the final model of e-services usage. Eighteen antecedent factors hypotheses and three moderating factors hypotheses and 52-item questionnaire were developed. A focus group discussion of five respondents and a pilot study of 59 respondents resulted in final version of the questionnaire.

In the second phase, the main survey was conducted nationally to collect the research data among Indonesian airline customers who had already used Indonesian airline e-services. A total of 819 valid questionnaires were obtained. The data was then analysed using a partial least square (PLS) based structural equation modelling (SEM) technique to produce the contributions of links in the e-services model (22% of all the variances in e-services usage, 37.8% in intention to use, 46.6% in motivation, 39.2% in outcome expectancy, and 37.7% in effort expectancy). Meanwhile, path coefficients and t-values demonstrated various different influences of antecedent factors towards e-services usage. Additionally, a multi-group analysis based on PLS is employed with mixed results. In the final findings, 14 hypotheses were supported and 7 hypotheses were not supported.

The major findings of this study have confirmed that motivation has the strongest contribution in e-services usage. In addition, motivation affects e-services usage both directly and indirectly through intention-to-use. This study provides contributions to the existing knowledge of e-services models, and practical applications of IT usage. Most importantly, an understanding of antecedents of e-services adoption will provide guidelines for stakeholders in developing better e-services and strategies in order to promote and encourage more customers to use e-services. Finally, the accomplishment of this study can be expanded through possible adaptations in other industries and other geographical contexts.

Mobile widgets represent applications exploiting web technologies and providing specific functionalities in an efficient and user‐friendly way. Owing to the low or medium complexity of the mobile widgets, their development may be simplified and optimized through automatic mechanisms. This paper aims to address this issue.

This paper presents an approach to the automatic generation of widgets, which is based on the separation of concerns between the specification of their structural and functional characteristics, and their appearance. The structural and functional features are expressed at a high abstraction level through the authors' Widget Markup Language, while their appearance through pre‐defined or personalized templates. The authors' automatic generator of mobile widgets translates the XML‐based documents containing the widgets description based on the Widget Markup Language into functional widgets for various available technologies.

The main non‐functional properties of the authors' widget generator are related to its extensibility towards new technologies, and the structural and functional aspects of the widgets. The validation of their solution has been done through various case studies, among which they mention the DISCo widget, a mobile widget which provides academic information for the students of the Computer Science Department at the University of Milano‐Bicocca in Italy.

The main advantages of the authors' approach for the development of mobile widgets can be summarized as following: adherence to the Write‐Once‐Run Everywhere paradigm, which allows developers to save time and to not have to be aware of all the differences among the different technologies; the high‐level specification of a widget is simpler than its creation from scratch, and is, therefore, accessible to a greater number of potential developers; separation between the specification and the graphical layout of the widgets; generating widgets can consider, in addition to the platform, the characteristics of devices such as screen resolution or pointing mechanism, saving the developer the management of these aspects and industrial production of widgets, such as scalable management of creating and updating a large number of applications.

As the technology evolves, the ways in which supply chain is coordinated improve. During a careful study on the intelligent wireless web (IWW) and its services for future applications, its great potentials for the implementation of a mobile real‐time system for supply chain coordination were realized. This paper seeks to introduce a development process for the IWW. In addition, it aims to explain the concept of mobile real‐time supply chain coordination, and propose and describe a practical model for this subject matter based on the most recent technologies including the IWW and agents.

Objectives were achieved through a thorough study on the IWW, agent technology, and the ways of applying them for mobile real‐time coordination in supply processes. As a method to conduct the research, first, the paper made out what the IWW services are and how one may develop them. Since mobile real‐time coordination is an absolutely innovative concept, the study prepared a comprehensive understanding of it and then, a practical framework was sketched and explained to implement the suggested system. The approach to this topic was a realistic one and an attempt was made to include all the prerequisites and details for the intended system.

In the course of the work, it was found that the IWW and other corresponding technologies have the greatest potentials ever available for the realization of a mobile real‐time supply chain coordination system and most of the chapters illustrate the claim.

Mobile real‐time coordination and its use in supply chains is something new. The development process for IWW proposed here is totally practicable and no other implementation scenario for the application of the IWW in mobile real‐time coordination has been suggested yet.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the “Mobile 23 Things” survey results from the program offered by Guldborgsund-bibliotekerne (a public library in Denmark) and present the findings as support for professional development (PD) models to increase library staff familiarity with emerging technologies.

Using an integrated, exploratory approach, a web-based survey tool, developed for a previous Learning 2.0 study, was adapted for this study, with survey questions translated English – Danish, and responses Danish – English. The data gathered from both pre- and post-program surveys are presented and analyzed.

The research results identify that 23 Mobile Things increases familiarity with movable technologies, promotes inclusive learning, and can be an effective model for delivering PD.

This paper reports on the first research study to evaluate the 23 Mobile Things model and provides evidence that this model of library staff PD can be an overall beneficial experience that increases staff knowledge and expertise related to mobile devices and applications.

Using Internet‐enabled mobile handheld devices to access the World Wide Web is a promising addition to the Web and traditional e‐commerce. Mobile handheld devices provide convenience and portable access to the huge information on the Internet for mobile users from anywhere and at anytime. However, mobile commerce has not enjoyed the same level of success as the e‐commerce has so far because mobile Web contents are scarce and mostly awkward for browsing. The major reason of the problems is most software engineers are not familiar with handheld devices, let alone programming for them. To help software engineers better understand this subject, this article gives a comprehensive study of handheld computing and programming for mobile commerce. It includes five major topics: (i) mobile commerce systems, (ii) mobile handheld devices, (iii) handheld computing, (iv) server‐side handheld computing and programming, and (v) client‐side handheld computing and programming. The most popular server‐side handheld applications are mostly functioning through mobile Web contents, which are constructed by using only few technologies and languages. On the other hand, various environments/languages are available for client‐side handheld computing and programming. Five of the most popular are (i) BREW, (ii) J2ME, (iii) Palm OS, (iv) Symbian OS, and (v) Windows Mobile. They are using either C/C++ or Java programming languages. This article will explain J2ME, a micro version of Java, and Palm OS programming, using C, by giving step‐by‐step procedures of J2ME and Palm application development.

This study investigates the use of gamification in promoting the silver generation's adoption of mobile payment technology through the gamified cultural practice of gifting red packets. It considers the effectiveness of using gamification in a cultural context to promote technology acceptance among older adults. This crossover between digital technology and cultural traditions brings unique gaming elements to the adoption of technology.

Drawing upon technology acceptance Model (TAM) and prospect theory, a research model is evaluated using structural equation modeling. Data were collected via survey from elderly consumers who are current users of WeChat but are yet to use its mobile payment functions.

The results reveal the perceived effectiveness of gamification is determined by the perceived enjoyment of the game and contributes to users' attitude development, directly and through its perceived usefulness. Perceived risks were identified as a barrier to converting positive attitude into adoption intention.

The findings contribute to the conceptualization and understanding of the effectiveness of gamification in technology adoption, specifically among the silver generation.

In contrast with previous gamification studies on gamified experience, this study introduces a new conceptualization of the perceived effectiveness of gamification and its measurement. This study validates game engagement as being effective in encouraging seniors to adopt a technology. In an era of an aging population where digitization is a norm, improving the digital literacy and digital inclusion of elders by encouraging them to adopt technology is essential to developing a more accessible and inclusive social environment.