<p>The most common method for identifying merchandise in the commerce is by barcodes. Symbian OS is an advanced operating system aimed at cell phones and the most commonly used in smart phones. Opportunities to a full range of new services are given through barcode recognition in a Symbian OS based device. Therefore the purpose of this degree project was to create an application which would contribute to a future solution aimed at shopping where the cell phone constitutes a reader of itemsʼ identification numbers. Available barcode decoders have been evaluated and three were chosen for testing. The decoder that fared best was ZXing. It was subsequently incorporated into a Symbian OS-based mobile phone. The decoder was written in the Java language but sufficient Java APIs for controlling the camera's autofocus were missing, something that was necessary to decode the barcode. On the other hand the APIs were offered in C++. Therefore, the solution was split into two applications, one server application written in Java and responsible for the decoding and one client application written in C++ containing the GUI, camera controlling facilities and connections to two price comparison services. A procedure for communication between applications and an interface for various lookup services were defined. Finally, the information security was evaluated and the most relevant threat would be a third party that collects information about user behavior patterns for extortion purposes. It was concluded that the application that was created had the ability to scan barcodes, it is possible to extend and thereby fulfill the purpose.</p>

The most common method for identifying merchandise in the commerce is by barcodes. Symbian OS is an advanced operating system aimed at cell phones and the most commonly used in smart phones. Opportunities to a full range of new services are given through barcode recognition in a Symbian OS based device. Therefore the purpose of this degree project was to create an application which would contribute to a future solution aimed at shopping where the cell phone constitutes a reader of itemsʼ identification numbers. Available barcode decoders have been evaluated and three were chosen for testing. The decoder that fared best was ZXing. It was subsequently incorporated into a Symbian OS-based mobile phone. The decoder was written in the Java language but sufficient Java APIs for controlling the camera's autofocus were missing, something that was necessary to decode the barcode. On the other hand the APIs were offered in C++. Therefore, the solution was split into two applications, one server application written in Java and responsible for the decoding and one client application written in C++ containing the GUI, camera controlling facilities and connections to two price comparison services. A procedure for communication between applications and an interface for various lookup services were defined. Finally, the information security was evaluated and the most relevant threat would be a third party that collects information about user behavior patterns for extortion purposes. It was concluded that the application that was created had the ability to scan barcodes, it is possible to extend and thereby fulfill the purpose.

This dissertation uses quantitative methods and archival research to study three aspects of political violence in Pakistan –1) the effect of political party ideology on political violence, 2) the relationship between the electoral cycle and political violence, and 3) the effectiveness of cellphone shutdowns in reducing political violence. The first essay focuses on whether the political party in power in a region influences the forms of political violence prevalent in that region – i.e. does political violence vary when left-wing, right-wing, religious, ethnic or ethno-nationalist parties come into power? The results show that a) riots increase when ethnic parties come into power in a district, and b) violent demonstrations increase when ethno-nationalist and center-right parties hold seats. Based on newspaper reports from 1988 to 2011, it is argued that ethnic parties in power often create conditions that are conducive for rioting to occur by favoring their own ethnic group with privileged access to public sector jobs, land and other resources and creating resentment amongst other ethnic groups. In addition, it is argued that ethno-nationalist parties engage in a politics of grievance and rely on demonstrations to protest the actions and policies of the national government with regards to their ethnic group. The second essay focuses on the nature and timing of election violence over the course of six elections in Pakistan between 1988 and 2011. It looks at how four different forms of violence – assassinations, riots, demonstrations and terrorist attacks – vary before, during and after elections. The paper shows that riots and terrorist attacks sharply increase on election day, in line with the existing literature. However, assassinations are not affected by the onset of elections and violent political demonstrations see a slight decline in the week after the election which challenges important work on election violence. My final essay examines the effectiveness of disrupting cellphone networks as a counter-terrorism strategy to tackle terrorist violence. The paper shows that when cellphone shutdowns occur unexpectedly they disrupt terrorist attacks, although the effect is short-term as terrorist groups carry out their attacks when cellphone services resume on the next day.

Este trabalho busca construir uma interpretação a respeito da forma pela qual os jovens das classes populares constroem sua experiência escolar em um contexto cotidiano marcado por grande disseminação de aparelhos tecnológicos. O material que dá base às reflexões foi coletado por meio de uma pesquisa etnográfica que envolveu trabalho de campo prolongado em uma escola da periferia da cidade de São Paulo, além de depoimentos de alunos de uma das turmas acompanhadas, obtidos em situação de grupo focal. Para fundamentar a pesquisa e delinear a tensão que caracteriza o processo de escolarização contemporâneo, buscou-se o suporte teórico de Bourdieu, Dubet, Tiramonti e Bauman. Tendo em vista compreender a invenção da cultura escolar contemporânea, foram levadas em conta as práticas juvenis fundadas na utilização do aparelho celular, em virtude da centralidade que esse equipamento adquiriu nas situações presenciadas em campo. No que tange à lei que proíbe o uso dos aparelhos celulares, considerou-se relevante efetuar um questionamento sobre os pressupostos de incorporação desses aparelhos tecnológicos na escola, a fim de garantir maior autonomia aos professores para as possibilidades de utilização desses aparelhos e evitar o equívoco das usuais prescrições para a postura docente. As análises permitiram constatar que no cotidiano das salas de aula e de outros espaços escolares o celular aparece com múltiplos significados, ainda que muitos docentes e a própria instituição adotem como filtro principal a categoria da indisciplina. Observou-se que os jovens das classes populares se socializam, principalmente, de forma paralela à escola, pois, mesmo adotando certas condutas ritualísticas, como a cópia, eles criam e promovem práticas de distração e diversão com os celulares. Com isso, participam ativamente da reprodução sociocultural deixando de construir uma relação produtiva com os diversos saberes escolares. O envio constante de SMS, assim como as práticas de empréstimo que promovem a circulação de celulares entre os alunos, denota a centralidade que as práticas comunicacionais adquirem entre aqueles jovens indicando que tais dinâmicas constituem um reforço de suas redes de sociabilidade, compostas tanto por laços fracos como fortes, presenciais e virtuais. Constatou-se também que as práticas juvenis aparecem sob uma forma contraditória, não só obedecendo aos mandatos de caráter geral - distração, segregação (Schilling) - mas negando os imperativos de governo de nossa sociedade. São ações simbólicas relacionadas ao contexto social mais amplo, integradas à teia de relações que conformam a cultura brasileira marcada pela ausência de uma clara separação entre as esferas pública e privada. Isso tem favorecido uma condescendência cada vez maior com a generalização de práticas sonoras em público por meio do uso de aparelhos diversos, incluindo os celulares. Tais práticas tem chegado à escola levando os alunos a manifestar, também naquele espaço público, comportamentos que seriam específicos da vida privada. Enredados nessa rede intensa de relações, os comportamentos e aparições dos jovens nos espaços públicos e virtuais se mostram como parte integrante de sua sociabilidade, por meio da qual eles narram uma identidade efêmera, essencialmente construída na contemporaneidade em sua relação com os aparelhos tecnológicos. / This work seeks to build an interpretation about the way in which working-class youngsters construct their school experience within a daily context marked by the wide dissemination of technological devices. The material that gives basis to the reflections was collected through an ethnographic research that involved a lengthy fieldwork in a school located on the outskirts of the city of São Paulo, apart from students testimonies from one of the classes followed, which were obtained in the situation of a focal group. To ground the research and to help outline the tension that characterizes the contemporary schooling process, theoretical support was drawn from the works of Bourdieu, Dubet, Tiramonti, and Bauman. In view of the central role that this device played in the situations observed in the field, the youngsters practices based on the use of the cellphone were taken as a focus when seeking to understand the invention of contemporary school culture. With respect to the law that prohibits the use of cellphones, it was considered relevant to question the assumptions of the incorporation of these technological devices in the school, in order to guarantee greater autonomy to teachers as to the possibilities of utilization of these devices, and to avoid the mistake of prescribing teachers attitudes. The analyses revealed that in the classroom daily life, and in other schools spaces, the cellphone appears with multiple meanings, although many teachers and the institution itself adopt as the main filter the category of indiscipline. It could be seen that working class youngsters socialize mainly in parallel to the school since, although adopting certain ritualistic conducts, such as copying, they create and promote practices of distraction and amusement with the cellphones. With that, they participate actively in the sociocultural reproduction, failing to build a productive relationship with the school knowledges. The constant exchange of text messages, as well as the borrowing practices that promote the circulation of cellphones, denotes the centrality that communicational practices acquire among students, indicating that such dynamics constitute a reinforcement of their social networking, which is comprised both of weak and strong links, virtual as well as presencebased. I was also observed that the youngsters practices appear under a contradictory form, following not just the dictates of a general nature distraction, segregation (Schilling) but also denying the governing imperatives of our society. These are symbolic actions related to the wider social context, integrated into the web of relations that give shape to a Brazilian culture marked by the absence of a clear separation between the public and private spheres. This has stimulated an increasing lenience towards the dissemination of listening practices in public through the use of various devices, including cellphones. Such practices have reached the school, leading students to display also in that public space behavior that would be specific to private life. Entangled in this thick network of relationships, the behavior and displays of youngsters in public and virtual spaces appear as an integral part of their sociability, through which they speak of an ephemeral identity, constructed essentially these days in its relation with technological devices.

With sales reaching $4.4 billion dollars in the first half of 2006 in the United States alone, and an estimated 80% of the world receiving coverage for their wireless phones in that year, interest in these devices as more than mere communicators has greatly increased. In the mid-to-late 1990s, digital cameras began to be incorporated into cellphones, followed shortly thereafter by Global Positioning System (GPS) hardware allowing location-based services to be offered to customers. Since then the use of mobile phone hardware for non-communication purposes has continued to expand. Some models, such as the Motorola V3M, have been specifically geared toward the storage and display of music and visual media, as well as receiving Internet broadcasts. It is perhaps surprising, therefore, that relatively little has been done from an academic standpoint to provide a qualitative and comprehensive method of evaluating the performance of mobile phones regarding their ability to function as computing devices. While some manuals do offer comparisons of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that aid in the development of cellphone applications, little documentation exists to provide objective measurements of performance parameters. This dissertation proposes a framework for evaluating the performance of mobile phones from a computational angle, focusing on three criteria: the processing power of the Central Processing Unit (CPU), data transfer capabilities, and the performance of the phone's GPS functionality for the appropriation of geographic location data. Power consumption has always been a major source of interest in the study of computer systems, and the limited hardware resources of mobile devices such as laptop computers, Personal Data Assistants (PDAs) and cellular telephones makes this a key concern. The power consumption factors associated with operation are therefore considered alongside the three core criteria being studied in this framework. In addition to framework design, software tools for the evaluation of cellphones were also developed, and these were applied to a test case of the Sanyo SCP-7050 model. This provides an example of the utility of the framework in evaluating existing phone models and a foundation for the assessment of new models as they are released.

No description available.

Este trabalho busca construir uma interpretação a respeito da forma pela qual os jovens das classes populares constroem sua experiência escolar em um contexto cotidiano marcado por grande disseminação de aparelhos tecnológicos. O material que dá base às reflexões foi coletado por meio de uma pesquisa etnográfica que envolveu trabalho de campo prolongado em uma escola da periferia da cidade de São Paulo, além de depoimentos de alunos de uma das turmas acompanhadas, obtidos em situação de grupo focal. Para fundamentar a pesquisa e delinear a tensão que caracteriza o processo de escolarização contemporâneo, buscou-se o suporte teórico de Bourdieu, Dubet, Tiramonti e Bauman. Tendo em vista compreender a invenção da cultura escolar contemporânea, foram levadas em conta as práticas juvenis fundadas na utilização do aparelho celular, em virtude da centralidade que esse equipamento adquiriu nas situações presenciadas em campo. No que tange à lei que proíbe o uso dos aparelhos celulares, considerou-se relevante efetuar um questionamento sobre os pressupostos de incorporação desses aparelhos tecnológicos na escola, a fim de garantir maior autonomia aos professores para as possibilidades de utilização desses aparelhos e evitar o equívoco das usuais prescrições para a postura docente. As análises permitiram constatar que no cotidiano das salas de aula e de outros espaços escolares o celular aparece com múltiplos significados, ainda que muitos docentes e a própria instituição adotem como filtro principal a categoria da indisciplina. Observou-se que os jovens das classes populares se socializam, principalmente, de forma paralela à escola, pois, mesmo adotando certas condutas ritualísticas, como a cópia, eles criam e promovem práticas de distração e diversão com os celulares. Com isso, participam ativamente da reprodução sociocultural deixando de construir uma relação produtiva com os diversos saberes escolares. O envio constante de SMS, assim como as práticas de empréstimo que promovem a circulação de celulares entre os alunos, denota a centralidade que as práticas comunicacionais adquirem entre aqueles jovens indicando que tais dinâmicas constituem um reforço de suas redes de sociabilidade, compostas tanto por laços fracos como fortes, presenciais e virtuais. Constatou-se também que as práticas juvenis aparecem sob uma forma contraditória, não só obedecendo aos mandatos de caráter geral - distração, segregação (Schilling) - mas negando os imperativos de governo de nossa sociedade. São ações simbólicas relacionadas ao contexto social mais amplo, integradas à teia de relações que conformam a cultura brasileira marcada pela ausência de uma clara separação entre as esferas pública e privada. Isso tem favorecido uma condescendência cada vez maior com a generalização de práticas sonoras em público por meio do uso de aparelhos diversos, incluindo os celulares. Tais práticas tem chegado à escola levando os alunos a manifestar, também naquele espaço público, comportamentos que seriam específicos da vida privada. Enredados nessa rede intensa de relações, os comportamentos e aparições dos jovens nos espaços públicos e virtuais se mostram como parte integrante de sua sociabilidade, por meio da qual eles narram uma identidade efêmera, essencialmente construída na contemporaneidade em sua relação com os aparelhos tecnológicos. / This work seeks to build an interpretation about the way in which working-class youngsters construct their school experience within a daily context marked by the wide dissemination of technological devices. The material that gives basis to the reflections was collected through an ethnographic research that involved a lengthy fieldwork in a school located on the outskirts of the city of São Paulo, apart from students testimonies from one of the classes followed, which were obtained in the situation of a focal group. To ground the research and to help outline the tension that characterizes the contemporary schooling process, theoretical support was drawn from the works of Bourdieu, Dubet, Tiramonti, and Bauman. In view of the central role that this device played in the situations observed in the field, the youngsters practices based on the use of the cellphone were taken as a focus when seeking to understand the invention of contemporary school culture. With respect to the law that prohibits the use of cellphones, it was considered relevant to question the assumptions of the incorporation of these technological devices in the school, in order to guarantee greater autonomy to teachers as to the possibilities of utilization of these devices, and to avoid the mistake of prescribing teachers attitudes. The analyses revealed that in the classroom daily life, and in other schools spaces, the cellphone appears with multiple meanings, although many teachers and the institution itself adopt as the main filter the category of indiscipline. It could be seen that working class youngsters socialize mainly in parallel to the school since, although adopting certain ritualistic conducts, such as copying, they create and promote practices of distraction and amusement with the cellphones. With that, they participate actively in the sociocultural reproduction, failing to build a productive relationship with the school knowledges. The constant exchange of text messages, as well as the borrowing practices that promote the circulation of cellphones, denotes the centrality that communicational practices acquire among students, indicating that such dynamics constitute a reinforcement of their social networking, which is comprised both of weak and strong links, virtual as well as presencebased. I was also observed that the youngsters practices appear under a contradictory form, following not just the dictates of a general nature distraction, segregation (Schilling) but also denying the governing imperatives of our society. These are symbolic actions related to the wider social context, integrated into the web of relations that give shape to a Brazilian culture marked by the absence of a clear separation between the public and private spheres. This has stimulated an increasing lenience towards the dissemination of listening practices in public through the use of various devices, including cellphones. Such practices have reached the school, leading students to display also in that public space behavior that would be specific to private life. Entangled in this thick network of relationships, the behavior and displays of youngsters in public and virtual spaces appear as an integral part of their sociability, through which they speak of an ephemeral identity, constructed essentially these days in its relation with technological devices.

En 2015, avec 7 milliards d'usagers, le téléphone portable devient la technologie de communication la plus utilisée dans le monde. Du rappel de rendez-vous par SMS au glucomètre mobile, les systèmes de santé y recourent de manière croissante. Les programmes qui utilisent le téléphone portable pour améliorer la santé constituent un nouveau secteur de la télésanté appelé mHealth ou mSanté. Peu de recherches ont été réalisées sur leur déploiement en particulier dans les pays du Sud. A travers l'étude d'un programme global de santé maternelle au Ghana et Inde, la thèse apporte un premier regard sur ces dispositifs. S'appuyant sur une enquête multi-située et des méthodes de sociologie de la santé, des usages et d'analyse de discours, elle précise les assemblages sociotechniques propres à ces objets dans le champ biomédical mondialisé et se penche sur l'action effective des technologies mobiles sur la prise en charge et la santé des femmes ciblées. Cette triple approche permet de mettre en lumière les enjeux de pouvoir sous-jacents au développement de cette technologie dans les Suds. La thèse explore d'abord le modèle de « développement numérique » promu par les dispositifs de mSanté : un modèle qui établit une relation particulière aux savoirs et à la science, qui intègre l'expansion des technologies numériques d'une part et de leurs marchés d'autre part comme source de progrès et de croissance pour les Suds. Ce modèle techniciste et mercantile du développement reconduit des logiques impérialistes et déplace des inégalités Nord-Sud. Ensuite, la thèse analyse la place de l'information et des données de santé dans ces projets. Présentées comme le moyen principal de combattre la mortalité prématurée et de maintenir en bonne santé les populations, la responsabilisation du patient dans une logique consumériste et béhavioriste et la mise en données de la santé à des fins de surveillance caractérisent le dispositif étudié. L'enquête montre que le soin ne peut être entièrement capturé par des techniques d'encodage et de transmission et qu'en cherchant à rationaliser les services de santé à travers la sous-traitance du soin à des patients « informés » et à des personnels bon marché et précarisés, le dispositif technique dégrade les relations interpersonnelles indispensables au soin. Enfin, la thèse examine les rapports de pouvoir multiples dans lesquels s'inscrit la mSanté. Les acteurs de la mSanté déploient des programmes ciblant les femmes et entendent compenser des inégalités de genre grâce au téléphone portable, considéré comme un outil d'empowerment. Le dispositif étudié participe de cette tendance mais ne tient pas compte de la structure complexe des rapports de genre et propose de manière superficielle une inversion des rôles sans travailler sur les facteurs et les sphères de détermination. L'enquête multi-située montre comment loin d'annuler des relations inégalitaires, le dispositif technique transforme des inégalités de manière différente selon son contexte d'insertion. L'idée que les technologies numériques permettent une amélioration de la prise en charge, une diminution des disparités de santé et une optimisation des systèmes de santé a pris corps ces dernières années dans un ensemble de dispositifs techniques variés. Ainsi, la mSanté dans les pays en développement participe d'un mouvement plus général de globalisation et de technologisation de la biomédecine. L'analyse dépasse donc le cas de la téléphonie mobile pour montrer comment les technologies numériques participent à l'émergence de nouveaux pouvoirs, à la globalisation et à la mise en données de la santé, à la transformation du soin et des pratiques de santé. / With 7 billion mobile users in 2015, mobile phones became the most widespread communication technology worldwide. From appointment reminders by SMS to mobile glucometers, healthcare systems are increasingly using mobile technologies. However, the use of mobile technologies for health called « mhealth » or « mobile health » has not been well documented so far, especially in the Global South. Through the study of a global mHealth program on maternal health implemented in Ghana and India, this research offers a first glance at those devices. Based on an interdisciplinary approach combining sociology of health, users studies and discourse analysis, and a multisite ethnography conducted in Ghana and India, this dissertation describes those particular socio-technical assemblages deployed in a global biomedical context and details the specific impact of those mobile technologies on care provision and health practices for women targeted by those programs. This triple approach reveals power relations underlying the expansion of those new technical artefacts in the Global South. First of all, this work examines the model of « digital development » promoted by mHealth programs: a model that establishes a special relation to knowledge and science, that defines mobile connectivity and mobile market extension as key sources of progress and economic growth in the developing world. This technological and market-based model of development perpetuates imperialist dynamics and reshapes North-South inequalities. Moreover, the thesis studies the role of information and health data in those projets. Seen as central weapons to fight mortality and to preserve health for everyone, patient empowerment and data-driven health are strong characteristics of the studied device that increase the commodification and datafication of health. The research shows that care practices cannot be entirely captured by encoding and transmission techniques, by delegating care to the « digitally engaged patient » and to poorly trained-insecure-low-paid healthworkers, the project deteriorates interpersonal relationships that are essential for care practices. Finally, the thesis examines the multiple power issues at stake in mHealth projects. Those maternal programs are specifically targeting women and intend to compensate gender inequalities thanks to the alleged empowering effect of mobile phones. The studied program contributes to this trend and offers a shallow inversion of the traditional assignment of gender roles thus hardly taking into account the complexitiy of gender determination. This multisite research shows how the technical device far from erasing inequalities transforms them in different ways depending on its context of insertion. The idea that digital technologies contributes to improving care, reducing health disparities and optimizing health systems has taken shape in recent years in a diverse set of technical devices. mHealth or mobile Health is a particular vector of this global movement, which goes beyond the use of mobile phones, and shows how digital technologies contribute to the emergence of new powers, to the reorganization of care, to the globalization, the datafication and the commodification of health.

The mobile phone has been regarded as one of the most significant inventions in the field of communications and information technology over the past decade. Due to the rapid growth of mobile phone subscribers, hundreds of phone models have been introduced. Therefore, customers may find it difficult to select the most appropriate mobile phone because of information overload. The aim of this study is to investigate web support for customers who are selecting a mobile phone. Firstly, all the models of mobile phones in the New Zealand market were identified by visiting shops and local websites. Secondly, a list of all the features of these mobile phones was collated from local shops, websites and magazines. This list was categorised into mobile phone properties and performance criteria. An experiment then compared three different selection support methods: A (mobile phone catalogue), B (mobile phone property selection) and C (mobile phone property and performance criteria selection). The results of the experiment revealed that selection support methods B and C had higher overall satisfaction ratings than selection support method A; both methods B and C had similar satisfaction ratings. The results also suggested that males and females select their mobile phones differently, though there was no gender preference in selection support methods.

No description available.