Irbid National University

The Covid-19 pandemic affects the banking industry in both positive and negative ways. It creates threats and opportunities for the alliances between banks and financial technology (FinTech). Financial technology means the marriage or combination between finance and technology. Adopting financial technology in the banking industry has led to the expansion of automation and artificial intelligence. As a result, the customers' engagement level has improved, lowering transaction costs. Using a panel regression model with fixed effects, this paper addresses how the adoption of information and communication technology, more precisely, financial technology products, could affect the financial performance of the banking industry in Jordan. The financial technology products include the internet, broadband, mobile, automated transfer machines, and branches. The results show that financial technology products in the banking sector improve financial performance. In addition, a positive relationship has been found between financial technology products and banking system stability.

Abstract Background Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a primary global public health concern since it is commonly recognized as the primary risk factor for cirrhosis and liver cancer globally. This study aims to evaluate the level of knowledge and the prevailing attitudes of Jordanian nursing students toward hepatitis B, with a particular focus on identifying knowledge gaps and factors influencing their understanding and perceptions. Materials and methods A descriptive design was employed to collect data from December 1, 2023, to April 1, 2024. A self-administered questionnaire was used to conduct convenience sampling among senior Jordanian nurses. Result A total of 455 participants were analyzed, revealing a young cohort with a mean age of 22.5 years. The participants demonstrated moderate knowledge of hepatitis B, with specific misconceptions identified. Besides, participants demonstrated a moderately positive attitude toward hepatitis B. However, demographic characteristics showed significant differences in knowledge by sex, whereas certain factors did not. Still, attitudes significantly differed based on those infected with hepatitis B and family members infected with hepatitis B. Conclusion This study focused on training and awareness programs to enhance knowledge and foster a positive attitude towards hepatitis B amongst nursing students. Moreover, combining these training and awareness activities would help improve hospital safety protocols in Jordan and ensure that a hepatitis B virus outbreak is averted.

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a scale measuring critical thinking competencies in transformational leadership, with explicit attention to ethical and spiritual dimensions, among secondary school principals in five Arab countries (United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia). The study proceeded in three phases. In Phase 1, semi-structured interviews with school principals were conducted to elicit key concepts. In Phase 2, qualitative findings were integrated with an extensive literature review to develop and refine the initial item pool. In Phase 3, the quantitative sample was randomly split into two independent subsamples (n = 372 each), with EFA and exploratory graph analysis (EGA) conducted in the first subsample and CFA conducted in the second. Additional assessments included convergent validity, measurement invariance across gender, and reliability (Cronbach's alpha, McDonald's omega, and test-retest ICC). The analyses revealed a five-factor structure underpinning the scale, encompassing Meta-Analytical Reflection, Transformational Reasoning, Transcendent Spiritual Insight, Future-Oriented Vision, and Ethical Dialectics. The final CTCS-TL comprises 34 items across these five dimensions. CFA fit indices supported good model fit, and reliability estimates indicated strong internal consistency and temporal stability. The CTCS-TL provides a culturally grounded instrument for evaluating and developing transformational leadership-related critical thinking informed by ethical and spiritual considerations among secondary school principals in the Arab world.

This article analyzes the process of digitalization in the global energy industry, and describes the use of digital IT solutions, new achievements in technology, as well as modern marketing tools. The objective of this article is to assess the impact of new digital technologies on operational activities efficiency, investment appeal and competitiveness of energy sector companies. The analysis uses econometric techniques to industry-level data and the financial performance of leading natural resource firms. The findings reveal that the applications of IT are closely related to enhancements in operational productivity and business process transparency. The digital elements help establish more developed management practices which are centered on accountability and data driven decision-making. Digital marketing instruments and analytical tools also enhance customer engagement and loyalty, as well as enable more precise energy demand predictions. In the end, digital energy transformation acts as a stimulator of investment scaling and sustainable development in the sector, but also provides impetus for technological and managerial innovation. Practically, implications emphasize that energy firms need to concentrate when implementing IT and marketing strategies, indicating interrelated use of them could directly improve firm performance while indirectly enable innovative practices, and sustained development in the long run for energy companies.

Abstract This study addresses a critical gap in the literature by examining the tripartite relationship between Business Intelligence (BI), Digital Culture, and Smart Organization development within Jordanian pharmaceutical firms. While prior research has often explored these constructs in isolation or pairwise, this study introduces theoretical novelty by uniquely conceptualizing Digital Culture as a catalytic moderator that amplifies the impact of BI capabilities on organizational smartness. Through a survey of 102 senior and middle managers and employing hierarchical regression analysis with interaction terms, we find that BI dimensions collectively explain 59.9% of the variance in Smart Organization development. Crucially, the interaction between BI and Digital Culture is significant, contributing an additional 44.1% explanatory power and underscoring its role as a strategic multiplier. This study offers a validated, integrative framework for knowledge-intensive industries, demonstrating that the synergistic alignment of technological infrastructure and cultural readiness is essential for achieving sustainable competitive advantage in dynamic, regulated markets.

This study aims to verify the role of artificial intelligence in developing engineering project management. It seeks to determine the feasibility of implementing artificial intelligence to increase productivity, improve safety, reduce costs, and save time within engineering projects. The focus of the study is on two approaches to project management: traditional, which does not involve extensive integration of the latest intelligent systems, and innovative, where artificial intelligence is used for automated decision-making and risk forecasting. The methodological tools include pairwise comparison methods based on the Saati scale, as well as formulas for integral assessment, which compare the total benefits and opportunities with costs and risks. The results indicate that the innovative approach with deep integration of artificial intelligence has a higher overall indicator due to better productivity, more efficient resource allocation, and a more flexible security system, despite the additional initial costs and risks of implementation. In the long term, this approach allows for significant time savings and improved economic performance, which is critically important in the context of global competition and rapid technological change. This study confirms the feasibility of using artificial intelligence and provides an analytical tool for rational decision-making between traditional and innovative approaches to engineering project management.

Early involvement in palliative care in coordination with the cancer care regimen seems to be possible and acceptable in patients with advanced cancer. The need arises to explore the experiences of cancer patients and their caregivers regarding their mental well-being at the point of diagnosis in order to provide them with the necessary support to help improve the quality of end-of-life care. This paper attempted to uncover the experience of the mental well-being of patients with cancer and their caregivers nearing the end-of-life in Jordan. A qualitative, descriptive phenomenological research approach was utilized. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were carried out among a sample population consisting of 15 participants, who were taken from a comprehensive palliative care setting. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed in detail, and translated in both the forward and reverse methods rigorously, and data analysis was conducted with the use of Colaizzi's phenomenological technique in relation to the derivation of the themes that describe and reflect the experiences of the participants. Findings from this study have enhanced the understanding of psychological well-being through the presentation that illustrates the process by which the meanings of the participants' experiences, coping with suffering, and relationship activities in the Jordanian cultural context construct the process by which patients and caregivers in end-of-life cancer services, in Jordan, can be provided with holistic approaches that include the integration of psychological, spiritual, and family support services to improve the quality of end-of-life cancer services.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly integrated into Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems for applications such as surveillance, disaster response, environmental monitoring, and logistics. These missions demand reliable and secure communication between UAVs and cloud platforms for command, control, and data storage. However, UAV communication channels are highly vulnerable to eavesdropping, spoofing, and man-in-the-middle attacks due to their wireless and often long-range nature. Traditional cryptographic schemes either impose excessive computational overhead on resource-constrained UAVs or lack sufficient robustness for cloud-level security. To address this challenge, we propose a dual-layer encryption architecture that balances lightweight efficiency with strong cryptographic guarantees. Unlike prior dual-layer approaches, the proposed framework introduces a context-aware adaptive lightweight layer for UAV-to-gateway communication and a hybrid post-quantum layer for gateway-to-cloud security, enabling dynamic cipher selection, energy-aware key scheduling, and quantum-resilient key establishment. In the first layer, UAV-to-gateway communication employs a lightweight symmetric encryption scheme optimized for low latency and minimal energy consumption. In the second layer, gateway-to-cloud communication uses post-quantum asymmetric encryption to ensure resilience against emerging quantum threats. The architecture is further reinforced with optional multi-path hardening and blockchain-assisted key lifecycle management to enhance scalability and tamper-proof auditability. Experimental evaluation using a UAV testbed and cloud integration shows that the proposed framework achieves 99.85% confidentiality preservation, reduces computational overhead on UAVs by 42%, and improves end-to-end latency by 35% compared to conventional single-layer encryption schemes. These results confirm that the proposed adaptive and hybridized dual-layer design provides a scalable, secure, and resource-aware solution for UAV-to-cloud communication, offering both present-day practicality and future-proof cryptographic resilience.

IntroductionNurses are central to healthcare delivery, and their retention is a key factor associated with the quality of nursing care (QONC). Leadership style is considered one of the organizational factors related to nurses’ work outcomes.ObjectivesThis study aimed to examine the associations between perceived nurse leaders’ transformational leadership style, nurses’ retention, and perceived QONC, as well as their relationships with selected demographic and professional characteristics among registered nurses working in selected hospitals in Jordan.MethodsA cross-sectional design was used in accordance with the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (2014) guidelines. Data were collected using the Global Transformational Leadership Scale, the Revised Casey–Fink Nurse Retention Survey, and the QONC questionnaire.ResultsNurses reported moderate perceived levels of transformational leadership (Mean = 3.26 ± 0.054). The perceived level of nurse retention was satisfactory (Mean = 2.90 ± 0.026), while the perceived QONV ranged from moderate (Mean = 2.10 ± 0.044) to high (Mean = 1.48 ± 0.035). A strong, positive, and statistically significant association was found between perceived transformational leadership and nurses’ retention (r = 0.527, p < 0.01). Nurses with 16 years or more of experience in their current department reported significantly higher perceptions of transformational leadership than those with fewer years of experience (F = 2.46, df = 4, p = 0.045).ConclusionThe findings demonstrate significant associations between perceived transformational leadership, nurse retention, and perceived QONC. These results suggest that transformational leadership is an important organizational factor related to nurses’ work perceptions and outcomes. Healthcare administrators and policymakers may consider emphasizing transformational leadership principles within leadership development and professional training programs and fostering supportive work environments aligned with these principles.