The overall aim of this thesis was to cast light on the new phenomenon of Internet-based medical consultation. This was approached by studies of the use of an Ask the doctor service, by a web survey to the users who sent enquiries to the service, and by a questionnaire to the answering physicians of their respective expericence of the service. Written communication is becoming increasingly important, not only for communication between individuals outwith health care (e.g. by email, SMS and instant messaging), but also between doctors and patients. There is an ongoing shift in the way individuals look for medical information with an increasing number going first to the Internet berfore talking with their physicians. Also, there is an increasing interest from patients in accessing Internet-based services, including text-based consultations with doctors. These consultations can be part of the regular communication between a patient and his/her doctor or be carried out without any previous relationship. Our studies of the latter consultation type emanate from the free of charge Ask the doctor service at a Swedish public health web portal, Infomedica, financed by health authorities. At the Ask the doctor service, the communication has been merely text-based and the individual using the consultation service (here called the enquirer) might have been anonymous. We followed the development of the first four years use of the service (38 217 enquiries), finding that the typical enquirer was a woman aged 21-60 years. Three quarters of the enquirers were women, thus exceeding the gender difference seen in regular health care. The service was used all times of the day and night, seven days a week, and it was most used in densely populated areas as defined from postal codes. The enquiries submitted to the service included a broad variety of medical issues. Most enquirers asked on their own behalf. Almost half of the enquiries concerned a matter not previously evaluated by a medical professional. Only a few were frequent enquirers. The service was used e.g. for a primary evaluation of a medical problem, for getting more information on a medical issue under treatment, and for a second opinion. The most common reasons for turning to a doctor on the Internet were convenience, wish for anonymity and that doctors were experinced too busy. In free text a considerable number of participants expressed discontent and communication problems with a previous doctor as a reason to turn to the Ask the doctor service. Many participants expressed a view of the service as a complement to regular health care, and the majority were satisfied with the answer. Nearly half of the participants in the web survey stated that they received sufficient information in their answer and that they would not pursue their question further. The family physicians answering the enquiries at the Ask the doctor service were stimulated and challenged by the new task, in spite of the limitations caused by the lack of personal meetings and physical examinations. The opportunity to reflect on the answer before replying was appreciated, and the task was regarded as having a high educational value for themselves. The Internet not only allows easy access to medical information but also to medical consultation – to date mostly text-based. It is probable that in the near future an increasing number of doctors will adopt text-based communication via the Internet to be a natural part of their communication with patients. Therefore, training in text-based communication and carrying out Internet consultations should be integrated into the curricula of medical schools and of continuous professional development. Ethical guidelines should be established.

This thesis explores the significant contribution Walter Rudnicki (1925-2010) made to the pursuit of social justice for Indigenous people in Canada through his use of archival records. Rudnicki took on the role of archivist by acquiring, organizing, disseminating, and keeping records that document government-Indigenous relations. Totaling 90.25 metres in extent, the Walter Rudnicki fonds at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections is an impressive private collection amassed in order to make injustice visible. As a federal public servant working to develop innovative government policies with Indigenous people between the 1950s and 1970s, Rudnicki had bitter personal experience with document creation and access to records practices in the Government of Canada that thwarted Indigenous aims. Thereafter, he stressed that accessing and archiving records play an indispensable role in protecting Indigenous peoples’ interests. He spent the rest of his life creating and employing an archive that would be used in advocacy for Indigenous rights. / October 2016

This diploma thesis deals with access to environmental information and access to justice in environmental matters introduced by Aarhus Convention in the specific conditions of Czech Republic and Ireland. These rights are considered to be very important tools for environmental protection. At a time when people threaten their own existence by negative interference with the environment it is necessary that effective means for its protection exist. These means are access to environmental information and access to justice in environmental matters, which together can be called as environmental procedural rights. The first chapter of this thesis presents the sources of environmental procedural law and observes the development of law at international, European and national level. The most important international document in this field is the Aarhus Convention that was adopted in 1998 by most of the European countries and that provides for access to environmental information, access to justice and public participation in environmental decision-making. This convention has largely affected the law of the European Union, where several directives has been adopted, including most importantly the Directive 2003/4/EC on access to environmental information and the Directive 2003/35/EC on public participation in...

<p>The aim of this master thesis was to examine the European Commission's information resources from a user perspective in order to clarify the needs and circumstances of the search of EU-information among students at Örebro University. 41 students participated in a survey, and four of them was interviewed. On the basis of Pendelton- and Chatmans theories of information behaviour in small worlds, it were assumed that the students' education and citizenship in the European Union affected their needs and the search of EU information.</p><p>The study showed that the students needs for EU-related information has increased, with the current education, but also been linked to earlier educations. The students Citizens need were mainly associated with elections such as the EMU-election, but also in some cases to a need of the general knowledge.</p><p>A review of the European Commission's information resources were made with an emphasis on European Documentation Centre, EDC. The survey showed that most students used the EDC and the EU-databases that was made available by the European Commission through the EDC and the university library but were not aware that they used EDC.</p><p>The survey also showed that students made use of familiar sources and resources when they searched the EU-information, such as the library's regular database list, the library catalogue and search engine on the internet are not requested of other resources. In line with Pendelton and Chatmans's theory the students did not seek information if it was not consider necessary.</p>

The aim of this master thesis was to examine the European Commission's information resources from a user perspective in order to clarify the needs and circumstances of the search of EU-information among students at Örebro University. 41 students participated in a survey, and four of them was interviewed. On the basis of Pendelton- and Chatmans theories of information behaviour in small worlds, it were assumed that the students' education and citizenship in the European Union affected their needs and the search of EU information. The study showed that the students needs for EU-related information has increased, with the current education, but also been linked to earlier educations. The students Citizens need were mainly associated with elections such as the EMU-election, but also in some cases to a need of the general knowledge. A review of the European Commission's information resources were made with an emphasis on European Documentation Centre, EDC. The survey showed that most students used the EDC and the EU-databases that was made available by the European Commission through the EDC and the university library but were not aware that they used EDC. The survey also showed that students made use of familiar sources and resources when they searched the EU-information, such as the library's regular database list, the library catalogue and search engine on the internet are not requested of other resources. In line with Pendelton and Chatmans's theory the students did not seek information if it was not consider necessary.

Submitted by Haroudo Xavier Filho (haroudo.xavierfo@ufpe.br) on 2016-05-19T19:10:41Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO PPGCI (2015) KATIA SANTIAGO VENTURA.pdf: 4684809 bytes, checksum: fa9b9438796f370858defca8d8e6692d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-19T19:10:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO PPGCI (2015) KATIA SANTIAGO VENTURA.pdf: 4684809 bytes, checksum: fa9b9438796f370858defca8d8e6692d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-28 / A partir da Lei nº 12.527/2011, a Lei de Acesso à Informação, o Governo passou a ter a obrigação de oferecer condições adequadas e acessíveis para receber requerimentos de acesso a informações diversas, sob sua custódia. Além disso, passou a ser obrigatória a disponibilização de informações na internet, fazendo uso de medidas necessárias para garantir a acessibilidade do conteúdo para pessoas com deficiência, que representam 23,9% da população brasileira, segundo dados do Censo Demográfico feito em 2010. Neste contexto, esta pesquisa objetiva contribuir para a ampliação do acesso à informação pelos cidadãos brasileiros, independentemente de limitações, por meio da análise e discussão da relação entre a promoção do acesso à informação e a acessibilidade nos espaços físicos dos Serviços de Informação ao Cidadão, assim como nos portais de transparência ativa de universidades federais. Em termos metodológicos, trata-se de uma pesquisa quantiqualitativa, do tipo descritiva e aplicada, utilizando-se de questionário como instrumento de coleta dos dados. Como amostra, selecionou-se 27 universidades, tendo como critério de seleção ter o melhor Índice Geral de Cursos - IGC, referente à avaliação feita pelo Ministério da Educação no ano de 2013. Foi tomada uma universidade por estado brasileiro, a fim de obter um panorama geral da realidade brasileira. Os resultados da pesquisa possibilitaram constatar que, mesmo com os esforços legais e sociais para favorecer o acesso à informação pública, as pessoas com deficiência irão encontrar barreiras para acessar essas informações nas universidades estudadas, estejam tais informações disponibilizadas nos espaços físicos ou digitais. Pois não lhes são oferecidas condições para usufruir dos serviços e das informações que possam vir a necessitar. Por fim, conclui-se que existe, ainda, um caminho a ser percorrido para que o acesso às informações públicas seja um direito garantido e efetivado para todos os brasileiros, independentemente de limitações, a fim de superar a lacuna existente entre a legislação e a realidade encontrada. A presente pesquisa pode vir a servir de referencial para os que se interessarem pelo tema, assim como contribuir para o debate, no contexto da academia ou da sociedade em geral, sobre o acesso à informação e a utilização dos padrões de acessibilidade, em virtude da função social das informações públicas e do seu potencial para transformação. / Beginning with Law nº 12.527/2011, the Law of Access to Information, the government began to have the obligation to offer adequate and accessible conditions to receive requests to access to several information, under its custody. Beyond that, it began to be mandatory the provision of information on the internet, making use of the necessary measures to guarantee the accessibility of the contents to people with disabilities, which represent 23,9% of the Brazilian population, according to data from the Demographic Census made in 2010. In this context, this research aims to contribute to the expansion of the access to information by Brazilian citizens, regardless of limitations, through the analysis and discussion of the relation between the promotion of access to information and its accessibility in the physical spaces of the Services of Information to Citizens, as well as on the active transparency portals of Brazilian Federal Universities - UFES. In methodological terms, it is a quantitative and qualitative research, of descriptive and applied type, using a survey as instrument to collect data. As sample, 27 Federal Universities were selected, having as selection criteria the best Course General Index - IGC, as referred to an evaluation made by the Department of Education in 2013. One Federal University was taken from each Brazilian State, so we could obtain a general scenario of the Brazilian reality. The research results made it possible to identify that, even with both legal and social efforts to favor the access to public information, people with disabilities will find barriers to access this information in the studied Universities, being this information provisioned in physical or digital means. This happens due to not being offered them means to make use of neither services nor information that they might need. In the end, the conclusion made is that there is still a path to be walked so that access to public information may become a guaranteed and effective right to every Brazilian, regardless of limitations, so that the identified existing abyss between legislation and reality may be overcome. This research may come to serve as a reference to those interested on the subject, as well as contribute to the debate, in the academy context or even in the society’s context as a whole, about the access to information and the usage of standards of accessibility, due to the social function of public information and its transformation potential.

Fraud targeting the elderly has in recent years received more and more attention, although fraudulent behavior against the elderly only constitute a small part of all reported fraud offences the fact that perpetrators intentionally and systematically utilizing their vulnerability should be taken seriously. It is therefore considered important to expand the knowledge regarding elderly exposure to fraud, but not because of the volume of crime rather because of the particular vulnerability the elderly possesses. The present study intends to examine how perpetrators of fraud find the elderly victims and whether or not the principle of public access to information affects elderly exposure to this type of crime. The study has been conducted through semi-structured interviews with individuals from the Swedish police authorities, all with connections to fraud and crime against elderly in different ways. Trough the thematic analysis, it emerged that perpetrators find their intended victims with the help of websites that mass-publish personal information and that this mainly takes place within the framework of organized crime. The principle of public access to information therefore tends to be an important phenomenon to consider in the work of making elderly less suitable targets of fraud.

Objetivo: Evaluar si existe asociación entre el tipo de fuente de información y el nivel de conocimiento sobre la diabetes mellitus en pacientes diabéticos. Metodología: Estudio transversal analítico, realizado en el Centro de Atención Integral de Diabetes e Hipertensión (CEDHI) durante la segunda mitad del año 2014. Se midió el nivel de conocimientos con el diabetes knowledge questionnaire (DKQ-24) y el uso 12 fuentes de información. Se consideró con buen conocimiento a aquellos con un 75% de respuestas correctas. Se calculó razones de prevalencia ajustadas (RPa). Resultados: Se incluyó 464 pacientes diabéticos, 52,2% fueron mujeres, y 20,3% usaron Internet como fuente de información. La media de conocimientos fue de 12,9 ±4,8, solo 17,0% obtuvo un conocimiento bueno, y estuvo asociado con obtener información de diabetes de Internet (RP= 2,03, IC95% 1,32-3,14), y también de otros pacientes (RP=1,99, IC95% 1,20-3,31). Asimismo, haber desarrollado posgrados frente a educación primaria (RP= 3,66, IC95% 1,21-11,09), un tiempo de enfermedad mayor de 12 años frente a <5 años (RP= 1,91, IC95% 1,22-3,01) y una edad mayor de 70 años frente a <60años (RP=0,39, IC95% 0,21-0,72). Conclusión: La búsqueda de información Internet está asociada positivamente a un buen nivel de conocimientos. Se propone enseñar a los diabéticos a buscar información en internet y por otro lado desarrollar espacios virtuales para la interacción con los pacientes diabéticos. / Tesis

"Although most African states seek to tackle the problem of corruption through institutoinal responses such as anti-corruption commissions, offices of ombudspersons and anti-corruption laws, it is important that citizens have a legally enforceable right of access to information (ATI) through ATI legislation. The constitutional guarantee of access to information in constitutions of African states cannot effectively be realized without ATI legislations. However, as the existence of these laws in itself will not bring about the desired changes, there is a need to agree and design minimum international standards and guiding principles that will influence the content and operations of the laws. ... The study is divided into five chapters. Chapter one is an introduction, which sets out the background of the study, the focus and objectives of the study, the significance of the study, especially to Uganda, the hypothesis, the methodology of the research and the literature review. Chapter two deals with the conceptualisation of ATI at the international, regional and national levels. It should be noted that this paper conceptualises ATI only in relation to corruption so as to limit the discussion to the subject matter of the research. It also examines the UN, AU, and Commonwealth responses to ATI as tool for openness in government, transparency and accountability and how ATI helps in developing a culture of anti-corruption. Chapter three examines the nature, causes and level of corruption in Uganda and the aspects of ATI that creates a culture of anti-corruption such as open government. Key concepts such as whistle blowing, open governance and the use of technology in information disclosure are discussed. Chapter four is an overview and an evaluation of the contents of [the] ATI Bill in Uganda and a critique of the Bill in relation to the basic principles developed under international law. Chapter five summarizes the study and makes some recommendations that may enhance the value of the proposed ATI in Uganda." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2001. / Prepared under the supervision of Dr. H. Onoria at the Faculty of Law, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Este estudo visa a contribuir para a reflexão sobre transparência e participação social da gestão pública brasileira, realizando uma análise crítica sobre as propostas elaboradas pelos participantes da 1 Conferência Nacional sobre Transparência e Controle Social no seu eixo 1. Por meio da análise, buscou-se identificar se as propostas elaboradas pela sociedade durante a 1 Consocial contribuíram para o exercício do controle social com base na transparência e no acesso a informação. A metodologia utilizada foi a pesquisa exploratória e a pesquisa participante. O pesquisador fez parte como membro integrante do grupo analisado, utilizando a participação em conferências nos fóruns de discussão para a formulação de propostas. A participação se deu na etapa municipal - nos municípios de Macaé e Rio de Janeiro -, na conferência regional Niterói-Mangaratiba; na estadual do Rio de Janeiro, na conferência livre do CRC RJ e na conferência virtual, com a descrição das etapas preparatórias. Por meio da análise das propostas priorizadas na última etapa da 1 Consocial, observou-se a necessidade de uma maior divulgação das informações referente à administração pública, à exteriorização das competências dos instrumentos de participação social e à capacitação do cidadão para o exercício da participação social. Algumas falhas foram detectadas na formulação das propostas, como o desconhecimento dos participantes a respeito das leis existentes sobre transparência e das atribuições das ferramentas de participação social. Constatou-se a necessidade de capacitar o cidadão para esse tipo de conferência, realizando seminários, reuniões, palestras explicativas e eventos culturais sobre o tema Transparência e Controle Social. Outro ponto a ser trabalhado para alcançar uma participação maior da sociedade nas questões governamentais consiste no ensino das crianças e jovens sobre a importância de se exigir transparência dos dados públicos e a busca por espaço nos instrumentos de participação. A Lei da transparência atenderá seus objetivos, na medida em que o cidadão tiver a consciência do seu papel primordial na busca e no acompanhamento da informação. / This study aims to contribute to the debate on transparency and social participation of Brazilian public management, performing a critical analysis on the proposals made by participants of the 1st National Conference on Transparency and Social Control on its axis 1. The methodology used was exploratory and participatory research. The researcher took part as a member of the group analyzed, using participation in conferences, in the discussion forums, to formulate proposals. The participation occurred in the municipal stage, in the municipalities of Macae, Rio de Janeiro, regional conference Niterói- Mangaratiba, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, the conference free of CRC RJ and virtual conferencing. It presents information regarding the 1st Consocial the methodology applied to the conference describing preliminary stages. Through the analysis of the proposals prioritized in the last step of the 1st Consocial, this researcher observed the need for greater disclosure of information concerning public administration, the externalization of the powers of the instruments of social participation and empowerment of citizens to exercise participation. Some faults were detected in the formulation of proposals consocial, factors such as the lack of participants about the existing laws and the powers of the tools of social participation. There is a need to empower the citizen for this type of conference, conducting seminars, meetings, lectures and cultural events explanatory on the subject Transparency and Social Control. Another point to be worked to achieve greater participation in government affairs of society consists in teaching children and youth about the importance of requiring transparency of public data and search for coverage in the participation. The Law of Transparency meet their goals, to the extent that the citizen be aware of their role in searching and monitoring information.