Deux nouvelles espèces de Brucella isolées de mammifères marins ont été récemment validées, respectant une préférence d’hôte : B. pinnipedialis pour les isolats de pinnipèdes et B. ceti pour les isolats de cétacés. L’étude de ces souches peut permettre de mieux comprendre l’histoire évolutive des espèces de Brucella, ainsi que de confirmer la classification établie. Nous nous sommes intéressés à l’étude génétique de ces souches, en utilisant plusieurs techniques moléculaires indépendantes. La classification des 2 nouvelles espèces B. pinnipedialis et B. ceti par rapport aux autres Brucella isolées de mammifères terrestres est confortée par nos études et nous suggérons que les 3 sous-groupes identifiés au sein de chaque espèce correspondraient à des génovars. Par ailleurs, l’existence d’une troisième espèce, composée d’isolats de cétacés du Pacifique et des 3 cas humains de Nouvelle-Zélande et du Pérou est proposée. Les différents profils génotypiques combinés aux divers profils d’infection dans le macrophage humain décrits dans ce travail, indépendamment de l’espèce étudiée, nous permettent d’évoquer une classification en pathovars au sein des 2 espèces B. pinnipedialis et B. ceti dont les isolats de phoques à capuchon constitueraient un pathovar non virulent. / Two new Brucella species isolated from marine mammals were recently identified and validated, respecting the host preference, i.e. B. pinnipedialis isolated from pinnipeds and B. ceti isolated from cetacean isolates. The study of Brucella strains isolated from marine mammals could let us better understand the evolutionary history of Brucella species and confirm their classification. We used several independent molecular methods to assess their genetic diversity and we thus confirmed the existence of the 2 Brucella species i.e. B. pinnipedialis and B. ceti. Within each species, we identified 3 subgroups corresponding to genovars. Furthermore, a third species of Brucella isolated from marine mammals was suggested, composed of cetacean isolates from the Pacific and of the 3 human cases from New Zealand and Peru. Virulence of each genovar was then assessed in THP-1 human macrophage like cells. Infection patterns, independently from the species, suggested that each genovar corresponded to a pathovar. One of them, exclusively composed of the hooded seal isolates, formed an avirulent pathovar in this model of infection.

Abstract With a rapid market opening and structural reforms, Chinese economy has made great progress since 1978. A shortage of the necessities in product markets has been changed into overproduction and insufficient demand. An issuing of national debts in capital markets and then an opening of stock and foreign exchange tradings initiate the operations of stock, mutual fund, and futures markets. Thus applicability of IS-LM model in the analysis of Chinese economy is more plausible at the present time for the rapid development of Chinese capital market and the rising financial innovation activity than in the past. The objective of this thesis is to investigate the effectiveness of monetary policy by Chinese central bank with its economic reforms for 25 years. The important results of this study are as follows. First, unit roots of money supply, real gross domestic product and interest rates are present using the ADF test and the PP test. From Johansen-Juselius MLE test, we find a long-run equilibrium co-integration relationship among these three variables examined. Second, for 1978~2001, 1991~1992 and 1996~2000 periods, what actually causes different slopes of the LM curve is the income factor, and for the other periods, that is the interest rate factor, which means that the income factor first moves vertically and the interest rate factor moves then horizontally as increases in money supply shifts the LM curve outward. Finally, in the estimation of money demand elasticities with respect to income and interest rate, the long-run estimates of income elasticity are far greater than one, which implies money is an extreme luxury good in China. The interest rate elasticity estimates, however, exhibit a huge volatility and with positive sign unexpected, which can possibly be explained by deflation and tremendous savings in China since 1993.

Abstract This dissertation is composed of three contributions. First, it recognizes a set of key security issues for information systems (IS), and examines the extent to which these issues have been studied and resolved by existing research efforts. Second, it analyses and discusses the existing approaches for designing secure information systems (SIS), shedding light on their underlying foundations. Third, based on the findings, a framework is put forth, addressing the fundamental shortcomings of the existing SIS design approaches. A meta-notation for adding security into IS development methods is presented as a framework-based example. An action research intervention is accomplished to test the relevance, suitability and feasibility of the meta-notation in practice. Overall, this dissertation sets forth a novel approach for extending security in IS/software development methods.

Information Systems (IS) are being developed and used in organizations to achieve their business goals and to enhance organizational effectiveness. The rate of systems success is questionable. One of the causes of IS failures might be user dissatisfaction with the systems. The success of an Information System is difficult to measure directly, so user satisfaction and system usage are frequently used as surrogate measures of system success. User participation in IS development has been advocated to achieve user satisfaction with the system and consequently system success. Past research findings about the effect of user participation on user satisfaction leading to system success are mixed and inconclusive. Past research has not been successful in showing whether user participation in IS development is necessary or not. So further research in this respect is justifiable. This thesis investigated the effect of user participation/involvement on user satisfaction. The effect of user expectations, and user-developer effective communications on user satisfaction has also been explored. A research model was proposed to proceed with this research. Meta-Analysis was carried out to investigate the relationship between user participation, user expectations and user-developer effective communication each with user satisfaction respectively. This thesis found some relationship of these factors with user satisfaction. The strength of the relationship (i. e. correlation 'r') was found to be 'medium' but not large'. The results also show that user involvement has a larger correlation with user satisfaction as opposed to user participation. The findings not only lead to the conclusions that user participation/involvement, user expectations, and user-developer effective communication have positive relationship with user satisfaction, but also contribute to the existing alternative views among IS researchers. The relationship between system usage and user satisfaction was found to be positive and of 'medium' strength and contrasts with the prevailing view that no correlation exists between them. So research findings are not only useful to resolve controversies that exists in past research but also lead to conclusions that user participation may contribute towards successful IS development and consequently user satisfaction with IS. Further, the causes of the emergence of unrealistic user expectations are explored and suggestions for future research are made.

In recent years there have been repeated calls for universities to better equip students with skills which are relevant to business and industry. The field of Information Systems (IS), along with the wider discipline of computing, has often been described as outdated, slow to adopt new technologies and unable to keep up with the fast pace of change of the real world . Exacerbating the issue of academic relevance in relation to industry needs, universities around the world have experienced a growing disinterest in the study of IS and computing, resulting in worryingly low levels of new graduates who do not meet industry demands. To understand the contentious relationship between academia and business in relation to IS, the research presented in this thesis investigates the current IS undergraduate provision in the UK and its alignment with the skill requirements of the IS industry. This is achieved through a two-stage approach of examining the position and expectations of each stakeholder, followed by the development of a method to facilitate the alignment of their inter-related needs. As part of the first stage, the investigation into the academic stakeholder undertakes a holistic analysis of IS curriculum to quantify its content. This leads to the identification of original Career Tracks which specify the IS careers promoted by the curriculum. The second stage involves the investigation of the business stakeholder measuring the careers in demand and the skills that support them. The resulting findings from these investigations show that it is possible to determine the skills required by IS graduates in the UK to meet the demands of industry. This is achieved through the use of a newly developed IS Course Survey Framework that enables the configuration of IS courses to align to specific career tracks, thus mapping directly to the needs of industry as expressed through their job requirements and associated skills demand.

Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka hur IS-rekryteringen går till i Sverige samt att ta reda på möjliga anledningar till varför vissa personer från Sverige ansluter sig till IS. Jag ämnade även undersöka den nya lagstiftningens eventuella påverkan på IS-rekryteringen. För att uppnå mitt syfte genomförde jag sju semistrukturerade intervjuer med personer som i sina yrkesroller kommer i kontakt med frågor som rör våldsbejakande islamistisk extremism. IS-rekryteringen i Sverige sker både på sociala medier och i fysiska miljöer. Sociala medier och Internet utgör dock främst en inspirationskälla medan den största delen av rekryteringen sker på fysiska platser. Ofta sker rekryteringen inom informella grupper men det finns även specifika rekryterare. Det är främst unga personer som rekryteras. Ofta handlar det om en kombination av olika orsaker till varför dessa personer ansluter sig. Vissa gemensamma riskfaktorer har identifierats, exempelvis utanförskap, identitetssökande och sociala orättvisor men anledningarna är ofta väldigt individuella. / The aim of this study was to examine the recruitment to the Islamic state as well as viewing possible reasons and motives for joining the Islamic state. Furthermore I also intended to examine the impact of the new amendment of the law concerning terrorist crimes. The study is based on seven semi-structured interviews with persons who work with this kind of questions. Social media is an important part of the radicalization and recruitment to the Islamic state. General motives for joining the Islamic state are for example alienation, social injustice or a search for identity. Nevertheless the process of radicalization and recruitment are individual and vary between different persons.

Bakgrund. Fysiska tester används för att kunna förutsäga idrottsprestation, finna talanger, upptäcka fysiska brister och minska risken att idrottaren drabbas av skador. Många konståkare genomför fysiska tester vid flera tillfällen under en karriär men dessa tester utförs sällan på is. Syfte. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om det fanns linjära samband mellan konståkares sprintprestation på is och på mark samt mellan dessa resultat och konståkares personbästa (PB). Metod. Tio kvinnliga konståkare (n = 10) testades i 10- och 20 meter sprint på is och Flygande 30 meter sprint på is (10I, 20I och 30I) samt 10- och 20 meter sprint på mark och Flygande 30 meter sprint på mark (10M, 20M och 30M). Dessa resulta tanalyserades i datorprogrammet SPSS Statistics 20 för att finna linjära samband mellan sprintarna på is och på mark samt för att finna linjära samband mellan dessa sprintar och PB. Resultat. Resultaten visade på ett starkt signifikant samband (p < 0,01) mellan 20I och 20M (r = -0,733, p = 0,009), 30I och 30M (r = -0,769, p = 0,009) samt mellan 20I och 30M (r = -0,796, p = 0,006). Signifikanta samband (p = < 0,05) kunde ses mellan 10I och 20M (r = -0,632, p = 0,050), 10I och 30M (r = -0,643, p = 0,045), 20I och 10M (r = -0,635, p = 0,049) samt mellan 30I och 20M (r = -0,764, p = 0,010). Signifikant samband kunde även ses mellan PB och 10I (r = -0,693, p = 0,026). Slutsats. Det går att förutsäga sprintprestation på is genom sprintprestation på mark men det är svårt att förutsäga idrottsprestation genom att testa sprintar på mark eller på is hos kvinnliga konståkare.

Information systems development (ISD) project management involves planning, organizing resources, measuring and controlling progress against plans with an overall goal of achieving a set of project objectives, including schedule, cost, and quality. The purpose of project control is to provide an understanding of project¡¦s progress so that appropriate corrective actions can be taken when the project¡¦s performance deviates significantly from the plan. Because the management of ISD is nonroutine and difficult, it provides a classic example of the issues associated with structuring control mechanisms for complex tasks. For the rapid development of information technology and the quick change of environment, companies are increasingly outsourcing all or part of their IS activities, including IS development. Become a partnership of strategic alliance between the client and the vendor is the trend of IS outsourcing activities. The truly critical success factors associated with successful outsourcing are those associated with vendor governance. An important aspect of this governance is how the client exercise control over the vendor. Outsourced ISD projects pose unique problems that make the task of controlling them particularly challenging. This research views control broadly, in a behavioral sense. The behavioral view of control implies that the controller uses certain devices, or control mechanisms, to promote desired behavior by the controllee. These control mechanisms help implement control modes, which may broadly be divided into formal controls and informal controls. Two types of formal controls have been commonly considered in prior literature, including outcome control and behavior control. Informal controls are also of two types: clan control and self-control. This study employs control theory to establish the research model, and examines the factors influencing the choice of control modes, the dynamics of control, and evolution of portfolio of controls over the duration of outsourced ISD projects. The differences between the internal ISD and the outsourced IS projects are also examined. Drawing from the case study, it concludes that some findings from research on control of internal ISD projects apply to the outsourced context as well, but with some interesting differences¡G (1)At the choice of formal controls, there is no distinction between the internal ISD and the outsourced ISD projects. (2)At the choice of informal controls, there is obvious distinction between the internal ISD and the outsourced ISD projects. (3)In a strategic alliance context, it is expected that informal controls could be exercised in the outsourced ISD projects, as well as in the internal ISD projects. The degree of informal controls could be exercised is determined by the role expectations and the long-term cooperation between the client firms and the vendors.

IS quality is an important concept. Basing their model on information communication theory, DeLone and McLean formulated Information Quality and System Quality as two quintessential elements in their 1992 IS Success Model. In recent years, DeLone and McLean (2003) added Service Quality to form a triumvirate of antecedents to success. Unfortunately, the addition of this construct has unintentionally uncovered an overall lack of coherence in the theoretical modeling of IS Success. Research to date on IS Service Quality has largely ignored the impacts of Information Quality and System Quality when service is delivered through an information system (IS). We believe deeper theoretical insights are needed to reconceptualize Service Quality and rationalize IS quality. After reviewing related literature, we apply marketing exchange theory as a reference framework to redefine service related terms and identify possible scenarios of delivering service through systems. Thereafter, we model IS quality in a new way, based on analysis of alternative scenarios. In validating our proposed model, we discuss our research methods and data analysis that will serve as empirical evidence. In particular, we focus on content validity, construct validity, nomological validity, and unidimensionality of the three IS quality dimensions: System Quality, Information Quality, and Service Quality. By furthering our understanding of IS quality, we hope to initiate coherent theory development; this exercise should then lead to a theory that integrates IS quality elements and helps organizations implement effective strategies for using IS to deliver service. Through the empirical validation of IS quality model, we contribute an empirical assessment of content, construct, and nomological validity of the IS quality constructs, as proposed by DeLone and McLean in their 2003 updated IS success model.

This thesis deals with project management and methodologies for information systems implementation, particularly for IS of SAP AG. The first part of the work describes basic problems of project management and introduces certain project management methodologies. ASAP and ASAP Focus methodologies are described in more detail. The second part of this work uses these fundamentals to analyze frequent problems on projects of real company that implements pre-customized IS of SAP AG. Solutions for these problems are proposed and a brief methodology is created as a result of the work.