Ministerial Countersignature in the Constitutional System of Jordan

This chapter explores legal knowledge and expertise as a driving force in international governance systems. In particular, it analyses the agency of legal experts in international law and politics. The chapter starts out by emphasizing the growing power of international adjudicatory institutions, before theorizing legal expertise and knowledge in international politics and governance as forms of professional capital. The chapter then turns to empirical illustrations of how jurists and networks of legal experts function as transnational power brokers in international politics and governance. We draw on examples from our own empirical work on international adjudicatory institutions that deal with atrocity crimes and human rights violations, two areas marked by inherent tensions between law and politics, to demonstrate how legal expertise is an essential part of international governance. The chapter shows how legal knowledge and expertise, at specific critical junctures, affected the creation of new international adjudicatory institutions, their legal frameworks, and normative goals. Often employed in top positions in these institutions, elite jurists were later able to give direction to the development of new legal concepts and practices that helped shape the space in which international politics unfolds.

The National AIDS Program in Jordan has faced numerous challenges, including insufficient funding, limited resources, and complexities brought on by refugee influxes. The absence of a reliable HIV/AIDS surveillance system further complicates tracking and responding to the epidemic. This study aimed to evaluate the performance and functionality of the National AIDS Program and the HIV/AIDS surveillance system. A qualitative study was conducted to evaluate the National AIDS Program and the HIV/AIDS Surveillance System in Jordan. The study involved 14 key informants specialized in HIV/AIDS Surveillance Systems. Interviews were guided by an interview guide based on the Updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems. Data analysis was performed through directed content analysis. The Voluntary Counseling and Testing Center in Jordan confronts multiple challenges, including poor infrastructure, limited accessibility, and inadequate facilities. Additionally, there is a lack of effective coordination between the Voluntary Counseling and Testing center and the Chest Diseases and Migrant Health Directorate, particularly regarding testing for Tuberculosis. HIV screening in Jordan is hindered by various factors, including disease sensitivity. Voluntary Counseling and Testing lacks HIV/AIDS specialists AND staff adequate training and fails to adhere to updated treatment guidelines. Persistent deficiencies in human resources, equipment, and training continue to plague the HIV/AIDS Surveillance System. Key informants expressed dissatisfaction with the data's usefulness, citing concerns over poor data quality. The data were seldom used for prioritizing resources, identifying at-risk individuals, assessing HIV/AIDS risk factors, or evaluating prevention and control measures. The National AIDS Program and HIV/AIDS Surveillance System activities in Jordan are unstructured, poorly coordinated, and inefficient. Many gaps related to National AIDS Program and HIV/AIDS Surveillance System performance and data were identified. Recommendations include developing an electronic surveillance system for data collection, notification, and reporting, and building the capacities of HIV/AIDS healthcare providers in screening, diagnosis, and management.

The author shows the changes in the Constitution of Ukraine, their essence. Ukraine is a young country that has so far had three constitutional amendments. All these changes have left an indelible mark in the political life of Ukraine, and in the great significance of the impact on the lives of Ukrainian citizens. The author deals in detail recent changes in the Ukrainian constitution, which wants to change politic system of Ukraine, so that would be returned from a semi-presidential system into a parliamentary system. Also, special attention is given to the institution of the referendum, which is in last time very often misused.

<div class="WordSection1"><p>I am honored for being an alumnus of KEMC, and am delighted to write this editorial for the Annals. I have, ever since done my research and taught qualitative methods, felt that clinical methods are quite akin to qualitative research. Then, why only few clinical researchers use qualitative methods? A witness to this assumption is the research published in the Annals. In this treatise, I try to identify some parallels between the two types of methods and argue for the clinicians to invest in learning qualitative research methods to practice clinical methods well.</p><p> Qualitative research is to identify and interpret issues from the perspective of participants, their experience of: illness or disability, using health service, and to appreciate the meanings they give to the behaviour, events or objects in the context of their social and cultural norms. In this type of research, the emphasis is on exploring the associations and understanding the phenomenon in its holism; and not, like in quantitative research, from an outsider’s perspective and for certain specific aspects.<sup>1</sup> It requires participants with specific characteristics, selected purposely that can best inform the research topic. More participants, identified inductively during data collection, are added to develop full and multiple perspectives about the cases.<sup>2</sup></p><p> No preset data collection tool is used, instead qualitative researcher guided by a research question acts as an instrument, since the line of enquiry he changes during data collection as new understanding is gained and/or the situation changes.<sup>3</sup> The data for research is derived from the observation, interviews or verbal interactions, focus group discussions, document reviews, life histories etc. and the researcher asks why, how and under what circumstances things occur; and not just what, where and when. It is recorded in words or pictures and log book is used to record notes arising from interviews, observations, extracts from documents etc.</p><p> In health care settings patients are the subjects for clinical methods. The clinician, even prior to any verbal communication, observes the patient, e.g. for his gait and appearance. If in a bed or examination couch, his posture could give some clue to the illness. Inspection, a clinical method, is like systematic observation, which is qualitative method, should be holistic. In my third year during bedside teaching, Professor (late) Rashid Ahmed Qureshi said, <em>“patient has come to you as a whole and not his stomach in a tray”</em>, when a student straight went to examine abdomen of a patient with acute abdomen. History taking, another clinical method, is like conducting semi structured in depth interview – a qualitative research method. In both disciplines, we are told, <em>“not to ask leading, but follow up and probing questions”; </em>and Professor (late) Alamgir Khan, while teaching clinical methods, would add, <em>“if a good history is taken, you will establish diagnosis in over 65% of cases”. </em>Likewise, as part of history taking, documents related to patient’s illness history and treatment are reviewed similar to document review in qualitative research.</p><p> The two approaches however differ in how the data is analysed. In clinical practice, diagnosis is established based on the pathophysiological knowledge or patient’s clinical condition is discussed in clinicopathological conference.<sup>4</sup> On the other hand, qualitative research employs meaning based data analysis, whereby the qualitative data is transformed into some form of explanation, understanding or interpretation of people and situation that is investigated.<sup>5,6</sup></p><p> In conclusion, the history, the observation and the review of document related to patient are since obtainned using qualitative methods, the clinician trained in these methods could not only conduct these methods well but also interpret the data to identify and detect obstacles to the change in clinical condition and the reasons why improvement does or does not occur.<sup>7</sup> Finally, while it is heartening that research forums are organised in the institutions affiliated with KEMU, in order the research is richer, the researchers’ skills in qualitative research methods should be built.</p></div>

This study mainly discusses and analyzes the “role and function”, “core competency”, and “power exertion” of congressional assistants so as to understand the current situation of congressional assistants and describe the core competency ideal type of congressional assistants in Taiwan; thus, the function of congressional assistants - to enhance the meeting efficiency and quality of legislators - could be developed. This is a qualitative study and three study methods, “literature review”, “in-depth interview”, and “comparative analysis”, are adopted. After experiencing the seventh constitutional amendment and changes in electoral system, the change of the core competency of congressional assistants is further discussed and the core competency that congressional assistants should possess is also examined based on the core competency of congressional assistants in Taiwan. In-depth interviews are carried out with the key personnel who are related to congressional assistants during the study, so as to understand the core competency of current congressional assistants in Taiwan and reinforce the insufficient evidence of secondary data. In order to respond to the overall changing political environment, the ideal type of core competency of congressional assistants has been seriously impacted, which only results in academic discussion. The personnel serving as congressional assistants should be ready to adapt to the changes of environment so as to adjust the core competency at any time. As a result, the congressional assistants should have the amoeba-like ability to adapt and adjust in order to face the incoming challenges, regardless of adapting to the external environment timely, conforming to the style of legislators, or learning professional knowledge enthusiastically.

This study aims to examine the impact of public relations on the organization of political protocols in the international relations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Public relations are an effective strategic tool in improving public image and building diplomatic relations between countries. This study examines how the Kingdom uses public relations to enhance its regional and international position, as well as the impact of these protocols on political and economic relations. The study is based on a sample of 169 individuals specialized in public relations, diplomacy, and political experts, providing an in-depth and comprehensive view of the subject. The quantitative and qualitative study methodology was used to achieve the desired objectives, as data was collected through questionnaires and in-depth interviews. The results showed that public relations play a vital role in promoting political protocols and achieving the Kingdom's foreign policy goals. The importance of building integrated public relations strategies that contribute to enhancing effective communication and achieving political stability was emphasized. The study also showed that improving the Kingdom's public image enhances its international standing and contributes to achieving its political and economic goals.

European integration is as much an opportunity as a threat to national parliaments. The view that national parliaments have been the main losers in the process is not substantiated by empirical evidence. National parliaments have adapted their structures and procedures to keep pace with the increasing scope of integration. This process has included strengthening the constitutional powers of parliaments in some of the member states. The recognition in the Nice and Laeken declarations that national parliaments have an important role in enhancing the democratic legitimacy of the Union and the key provisions of the draft protocols on the role of national parliaments and subsidiarity adopted by the Convention on the Future of Europe will ensure that national parliaments have the opportunity and the means, if they so choose, to be closely involved in Union affairs. Constitutional change at the Union level is likely to trigger normative and procedural change in the member states.

Qualitative studies are gaining their credibility after a period of being misinterpreted as "not being quantitative." Qualitative method is a broad umbrella term for research methodologies that describe and explain individuals' experiences, behaviors, interactions, and social contexts. In-depth interview, focus groups, and participant observation are among the qualitative methods of inquiry commonly used in psychiatry. Researchers measure the frequency of occurring events using quantitative methods; however, qualitative methods provide a broader understanding and a more thorough reasoning behind the event. Hence, it is considered to be of special importance in psychiatry. Besides hypothesis generation in earlier phases of the research, qualitative methods can be employed in questionnaire design, diagnostic criteria establishment, feasibility studies, as well as studies of attitude and beliefs. Animal models are another area that qualitative methods can be employed, especially when naturalistic observation of animal behavior is important. However, since qualitative results can be researcher's own view, they need to be statistically confirmed, quantitative methods. The tendency to combine both qualitative and quantitative methods as complementary methods has emerged over recent years. By applying both methods of research, scientists can take advantage of interpretative characteristics of qualitative methods as well as experimental dimensions of quantitative methods.

ABSTRACTBackground: Electronic health records (EHRs) are increasingly used in healthcare settings and it is believed that they have brought benefits to patients and healthcare services alike. Few previous studies, however, have explored the impact of these records on patient safety.Aim: The overall purpose of this study was to explore the effect of EHRs on patient safety, as perceived by nurses.Methods: This qualitative exploratory study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with staff nurses working in hospitals that employed the same EHR system in Jordan. Seventeen nurses were interviewed working in various units and wards of ten hospitals which had used EHRs between 1 and 5 years. Field notes were taken during interviews and analyzed thematically.Results: Two major themes emerged from the data. One regarded the enhancements that EHRs have made to patient safety; and the other surrounded concerns raised by the use of these systems. Under each main theme there were four subthemes. EHRs directly or indirectly improved patient safety by minimizing medication errors, improving documentation of data, enhancing the completeness of data, and improving the sustainability of data. The interviewees expressed concern that the following may jeopardize patient safety: data entry errors, technical problems, minimal clinical alerts, and poor use of system communication channels.Conclusion: A range of opinions were reported by the interviewees, from being fully supportive of EHRs to being reluctant to agree with the idea that they can improve patient safety. However, the concerns raised by the interviewees might be associated with poor system design or improper human use of the system. Thus, it is necessary to design systems with specifications that support patient safety and, moreover, involving nurses in this process might facilitate this outcome.

Adopting green roof systems in residential building is becoming necessary because of current environmental, social, and economical challenges. Although green rooftop gardens are a longstanding practice in developed countries, in Amman they are still individual trials that are far from adhering to government policies and common design practices. The purpose of this study is to propose some indicators for designing rooftop gardens, taking into consideration the site and the age of the building to illustrate the economic, social and environmental benefits of rooftop gardens in Amman as a step toward a sustainable Amman, also to contribute to a better understanding of the potential role of green roof systems in effective planning. This paper presents a conceptual framework to help interior designers in the Jordan to adopt green roofs in their environmental policies. To present this framework, first, researchers studied literatures that adopted green roof systems and practices in many countries, then proposed a conceptual framework for adopting green roof systems in Jordan. Second, they chose Amman, Jordan to demonstrate the applicability of this framework at city level while considering the national and local context. This demonstration provides a novel perspective for the benefits of green roof systems in energy savings and water management in Jordan. By using descriptive analytical methodology, qualitative surveys, data collection and analysis approaches, the researchers gave a questionnaire to the residential building inhabitants that were involved with the sustainability of rooftop gardens' environmental, economic and social benefits as a step in enhancing awareness of rooftop gardens in relation to the sustainability of Amman city. The researchers collected data that includes previous studies and documented research, then conducted a systematic analysis for the collected previous studies' methodological approaches and found results. After analyzing the entire collected data, the researchers will introduce applicable indicators in Amman rooftop gardens. The research outcomes are expected to develop indicators for the utilization of rooftop gardens in Amman, the capital city of Jordan, which is in response to principles of social, environmental and economic sustainability.

The study aimed to analyze the legal framework for crimes committed using artificial intelligence systems in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and France, and to explore the legislative gaps that may hinder the accountability of perpetrators of these crimes. The study adopted a comparative analytical approach, analyzing national legal texts and legislation, and reviewing legal literature and previous studies related to the topic. The study found that legislation in the three countries still relies primarily on general laws such as the Penal Code and cybercrime laws, and that specialized legislation has not yet been issued to independently regulate crimes arising from artificial intelligence. The results also indicated that France has shown relative flexibility in adapting its existing legislation to address these crimes, while Jordanian and Saudi legislation is still in the development phase and responding to technological changes. The study concluded with a number of recommendations, most notably: the need to enact laws specific to artificial intelligence that consider risk classification according to severity; amending some provisions of the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure to accommodate digital crimes and modern evidence; and establishing national committees combining legal and technical expertise to monitor developments in artificial intelligence and recommend appropriate legislative amendments. The study emphasized that achieving a balance between encouraging technological innovation and protecting society from the risks of AI misuse requires a combination of preventive and penal legislation, while ensuring respect for human rights and constitutional principles.

World Maritime Axis has been launched by President Joko Widodo, and its implementation is being overseen by the Indonesian parliament (DPRRI). Countries from inside and outside of the Southeast Asia region show their own different responses, particularly connected with infrastructure development policy and law enforcement on the field. This essay is part of a comprehensive research report on the Indonesian new government’s policy under Joko Widodo and the responses of other countries toward them, which discloses different reactions, arguments, reasons and responses. The research was conducted in 2015 in provinces of Sumatera, Mollucas, and Papua, whose data gathering is carried out by using library studies, focus group discussions, and in-depth interview with decision makers and experts on maritime sector development. Data analysis applies a qualitative method. Its findings reveal inconsistent responses of foreign countries in giving foreign investments for infrastructure development, and their critical views, and moreover, assertive reactions towards law enforcement in the Indonesian water.

Co-Designing Change

Low back pain (LBP) is a common health problem in pre-professional dancers which could hamper the dancers' professional career. However, pre-professional dancers are not often studied, although they may have their own pain perceptions and coping strategies towards LBP. Considering the biopsychosocial nature of LBP, it is important to increase the understanding of these perceptions and coping strategies. The aim of this qualitative research study was to explore the dancers' perceptions about LBP and their coping strategies when they suffered from LBP. Eighteen pre-professional dancers with and without LBP from different dance schools in Belgium were included in this study. Participants were invited for an in-depth online video interview. These in-depth interviews were based on a topic list. Afterwards, the interview transcripts were analyzed thematically. Two primary themes emerged from the data: 1) perceptions of LBP and 2) coping strategies which dancers applied when they suffered from LBP. The perceptions about LBP were related to two different themes: "it's all about the body" and "it's all about the psychosocial and contextual factors." In addition, the coping strategies were divided into "active coping strategies" and "passive coping strategies," whereas the most popular coping strategies were stretching exercises and passive coping strategies such as massages or heating cream. Although LBP has clearly been shown to be a biopsychosocial phenomenon, this qualitative study showed that dancers mainly considered biomedical factors as contributing factors to LBP. Additionally, instead of relying on coping strategies aimed at directly improving pain or trying to treat LBP on the basis of a single-cause diagnosis, it is important to consider the biopsychosocial origin of LBP in the management plans.

This introductory chapter lays out the foundations of this book's study, by first defining several keywords used throughout the text, then by exploring previous literature regarding intergroup couples and building up a conceptual framework (derived from feminist approaches to difference and interpersonal relationships) for the study. Moreover, this study uses a qualitative research method—in-depth personal interviews—to study intercultural couples. Qualitative methods are most appropriate for the investigation of close relationship processes such as relational maintenance and conflict, hence, the study uses dozens of in-depth interviews with persons living in mixed domestic partnerships representing a broad spectrum of ethnic, racial, religious, socioeconomic, and national backgrounds. In-depth interviews allow access the processes by which couple partners negotiated meaning and from their own perspectives made sense of their lives together.