The present study attempts to find out the practical barriers to technology integration in an Arab EFL scenario, particularly in the context of Preparatory Year English courses. The practical barriers to CALL practices are multifaceted and vary according to contexts. In this mixed method study, 50 ESL teachers were surveyed using a 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire. The questionnaire focused o...

In this article, we present the results of a series of focus groups with people with disabilities, in which we took a cross-disability, lifespan perspective of disability. Consumers were asked about a broad set of barriers, such as problems with communication, transportation, and insurance, as well as about barriers related to physical accessibility. We used the Institute of Medicine’s framewor...

Although many electric cars are readily available on the market and the charging infrastructure is expanded, the majority of people is still reluctant to buy and use an electric car. It is assumed that underlying motives and mental models play decisive roles for the acceptance. To gain insights into laypeople’s concepts concerning electromobility, three focus group studies on perceived benefits...

‘Survival of the fittest’ is the reality in modern global competition. Organizations around the globe are adopting or willing to embrace just-in-time (JIT) production to reinforce the competitiveness. Even though JIT is the most powerful inventory management methodologies it is not free from barriers. Barriers derail the implementation of JIT production system. One of the most significant tasks...

Electronic commerce is reaching a maturity level but still has barriers to overcome. The paper proposes a new model for e-commerce transactions with the aim to resolve problems related to the infrastructure and resources required from customers and enterprises to enter the e-commerce arena as well as trust. The proposed model provides the framework for standardizing issues concerning interactio...

t-shape profile barriers are one of the most successful barriers among many different profiles. it has been shown that using welled diffusers on the top of t-shaped barriers makes a reactive barrier that shows better performance than that of any other used profile barriers compared with their equivalent absorbent barrier. the contribution of the top surface of reactive t-profile barriers to the...

This paper presents the design of the machine learning architecture that underlies the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) a Spoken Language Understanding (SLU) Software Development Kit (SDK) that enables developers to extend the capabilities of a Amazon’s virtual personal assistant, Alexa. At Amazon, the infrastructure powers over 25,000 skills deployed through the ASK, as well as AWS’s Amazon Lex SLU Serv...