Yes / With the advancement of disruptive new technologies, there has been a considerable focus on personalisation as an important component in nurturing users' engagement. In the context of smart cities, Internet of Things (IoT) offer a unique opportunity to help empower citizens and improve societies' engagement with their governments at both micro and macro levels. This study aims to examine the role of perceived value of IoT in improving citizens' engagement with public services. A survey of 313 citizens in the UK, engaging in various public services, enabled through IoT, found that the perceived value of IoT is strongly influenced by empowerment, perceived usefulness and privacy related issues resulting in significantly affecting their continuous use intentions. The study offers valuable insights into the importance of perceived value of IoT-enabled services, while at the same time, providing an intersectional perspective of UK citizens towards the use of disruptive new technologies in the public sector.

With the rapid innovation of information technology and online service, the Internet as a new media has drastically changed the online behavior of human interaction. Microblogging that limits the number of characters allowed in a post to 140 words has emerged as a new and frequent communication via web postings. Microblogging has been used not only for social interaction but also for marketing and product promotion by companies and organizations. As the development of social community services become more mature, the new concept called ¡§social commerce,¡¨ that combines social networking and online shopping appears to be a promising new business model. The purpose of this study is to examine the usage behavior of microblogging by investigating the effect of social support and other factors on the intention to continue use a microblog and the intention to accept social commerce. An online survey was conducted on Plurk users. The results indicate that: (1) the motivations for writing blogs, social support and website quality have significant influences on the relationship quality between users and Plurk. Higher perceived social support and higher website quality result in a higher level of relationship quality; (2) The motivations for writing blogs and the perceived social support increase the self-disclosre behavior; (3) The perceived social support and website quality have positive impact on social commerce intention; and (4) The motivations for writing blogs, website quality, relationsip quality and self-disclosure have positive impacts on the intention to continue use the microblog.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-20T13:58:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_VERA_MARIA_VIEIRA_PANIZ.pdf: 2984259 bytes, checksum: c293cf5e9a156288b33ccda021d8391f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-03-06 / This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of access to continuous-use medicines for treatment of systemic arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and/or mental health problems, and the associated factors. A cross-sectional study was developed under the Project for the Expansion and Consolidation of the Family Health Program in 41 cities in South and Northeast Brazil. The sample included 4,060 adults and 4,003 elderly living in the coverage areas for primary health care clinics. Prevalence of access to continuous-use medicines was 81% in non-elderly adults and 87% in the elderly. Greater access was associated with the following factors: adults in South Brazil older age, higher socioeconomic status, type of chronic disease, and participation in support groups in the primary health clinic area; adults in the Northeast systemic arterial hypertension with or without diabetes mellitus; elderly in the South more schooling; and elderly in the Northeast older age, more schooling, non-smoking, enrolment in the primary health care clinic coverage area, and the family health care model. The results show important inequity in health, reinforcing the need for policies to expand access, mainly for lower-income population groups. / O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a prevalência de acesso a medicamentos de uso contínuo para tratar hipertensão arterial sistêmica, diabetes mellitus e/ou problemas de saúde mental e fatores associados. Foi desenvolvido estudo transversal no âmbito do Projeto de Expansão e Consolidação Saúde da Família (PROESF) em 41 municípios do Sul e Nordeste do Brasil. A amostra incluiu 4.060 adultos e 4.003 idosos residentes na área das unidades básicas de saúde (UBS). A prevalência de acesso a medicamentos de uso contínuo em adultos foi de 81% e em idosos, 87%. O maior acesso entre os adultos da Região Sul esteve associado com maior idade, melhor nível econômico, tipo de morbidade crônica e participação em grupos na UBS; entre os adultos do Nordeste, com hipertensão arterial sistêmica exclusiva ou combinada com diabetes mellitus; entre os idosos do Sul, com maior escolaridade; entre os idosos do Nordeste, com maior idade, maior escolaridade, não fumantes, vínculo com a UBS e modelo de atenção Programa Saúde da Família (PSF). Os resultados revelam importante iniqüidade em saúde, reforçando a necessidade de políticas para ampliar o acesso principalmente para populações de menor poder aquisitivo.