The general public is being exposed to robots more often every day. This thesis focused on the advancement of research by analyzing whether or not the type of information provided by a robot determined the level of trust humans have for a robot. A study was conducted where the participants were asked to answer two different types of questions: mathematical/logical and ethical/social. The participants were divided into two different conditions: controlled and misinformed. A humanoid robot provided its own spoken answer after the participants said their answers. The participants then had the chance to select whose answers they would like to keep. During the misinformed condition, there were times when the robot purposely gave incorrect answers. The results of the study support the hypothesis that the participants were more likely to select the robot’s answers when the question type was mathematical/logical, whether the robot provided a correct or incorrect response.

The purpose of this study was to explore the preferred information sources and delivery channels for farm-related information among selected northeast Texas farmers and describe these results in a manner which might enable the Texas AgriLife Extension Service and other agriculture-focused entities better position themselves to address the needs of their clientele. An instrument was developed and mailed to (N = 290) randomly selected farmers from existing Extension mailing lists in four northeast Texas counties: Bowie, Rains, Rusk and Shelby. Participants had the option of responding online or via return mail. The highest ranking interpersonal information sources were other farmers, AgriLife Extension personnel, and seminars/workshops. The lowest ranking interpersonal information sources were agricultural lenders/bankers and private consultants. The highest ranking print-based information sources were agricultural newspapers and farm magazines. The lowest ranking print-based information sources were publications from non-governmental farm organizations and daily or weekly newspapers. Respondents were neutral on the usefulness of television and radio as information sources. The Internet was the only electronic information source agreed to as useful by responding farmers. The lowest ranking electronic media source was social media. The most common type of contact between farmers and the Texas AgriLife Extension Service was reading an Extension publication monthly, followed by a yearly visit to the Extension office. Farmers were satisfied with the quality of the agriculture related materials and programs provided by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service and were likely to recommend the agency to others. The majority (91.6%) of respondents had not heard of the national Extension website eXtension and only 4 respondents (2.5%) had reported using the website before. Respondents felt that eXtension would increase the accessibility of Extension programming, should be publicized more by local Extension offices, and would make Cooperative Extension more popular. Internet use among farmers was found to be influenced by age, highest level of education attained, Internet connection type, and other electronic devices used. Perceptions about AgriLife Extension were found to be influenced by Innovativeness Category, primary occupation, gender, and other electronic devices used. Findings in this study support the Uses and Gratifications Theory of media use.

Even though information scientists generally recognize that relevance judgments are multidimensional and dynamic, there is still discussion and debate regarding the degree to which certain internal (cognition, personality) and external (situation, social relationships) factors affect the use of criteria in reaching those judgments. Much of the debate centers on the relationship of those factors to the criteria and reliable methods for measuring those relationships. This study researched the use of relevance criteria to select an information source by undergraduate students whose task it is to create a course schedule for a semester. During registration periods, when creating their semester schedules, students filled out a two-part questionnaire. After completion of the questionnaire the students completed a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator instrument in order to determine their personality type. Data was analyzed using one-way ANOVAS and Chi-Square. A positive correlation exists between personality type as expressed by the MBTI and the information source selected as most important by the subject. A correlation also exists between personality type and relevance criteria use. The correlation is stronger for some criteria than for others. Therefore, one can expect personality type to have an effect on the use of relevance criteria while selecting information sources.

abstract: The purpose of information source detection problem (or called rumor source detection) is to identify the source of information diffusion in networks based on available observations like the states of the nodes and the timestamps at which nodes adopted the information (or called infected). The solution of the problem can be used to answer a wide range of important questions in epidemiology, computer network security, etc. This dissertation studies the fundamental theory and the design of efficient and robust algorithms for the information source detection problem. For tree networks, the maximum a posterior (MAP) estimator of the information source is derived under the independent cascades (IC) model with a complete snapshot and a Short-Fat Tree (SFT) algorithm is proposed for general networks based on the MAP estimator. Furthermore, the following possibility and impossibility results are established on the Erdos-Renyi (ER) random graph: $(i)$ when the infection duration $<\frac{2}{3}t_u,$ SFT identifies the source with probability one asymptotically, where $t_u=\left\lceil\frac{\log n}{\log \mu}\right\rceil+2$ and $\mu$ is the average node degree, $(ii)$ when the infection duration $>t_u,$ the probability of identifying the source approaches zero asymptotically under any algorithm; and $(iii)$ when infection duration $<t_u,$ the breadth-first search (BFS) tree starting from the source is a fat tree. Numerical experiments on tree networks, the ER random graphs and real world networks show that the SFT algorithm outperforms existing algorithms. In practice, other than the nodes' states, side information like partial timestamps may also be available. Such information provides important insights of the diffusion process. To utilize the partial timestamps, the information source detection problem is formulated as a ranking problem on graphs and two ranking algorithms, cost-based ranking (CR) and tree-based ranking (TR), are proposed. Extensive experimental evaluations of synthetic data of different diffusion models and real world data demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of CR and TR compared with existing algorithms. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2015

The thesis focuses on the analysis of the effect of selected elements of public licenses on increasing the quality of information published in the informational environment of the internet. The objective of the thesis is to ascertain whether there is a real effect on the quality of information in the internet environment through improvements in the quality of the sources of such information, as well as the reflection of the results of the conducted analysis within the obligatory informational education in the Czech Republic. In the first section, the work deals with the copyright aspects relating to the analyzed issue and defines, from a legal standpoint, the individual components of the information environment being analyzed - the internet, the participants of the informational process, the information and the options of dealing with them. In the subsequent section, the matter of licenses is presented, with a focus on the issue of public licenses in general, as well as specific selected license types constituting a potential platform for qualified informational behavior. The last section of the thesis summarizes the results of qualitative research of the effect of licensing policy on the informational environment of the internet through the application of public licenses. The results of such...

The images of tourist destinations significantly influence travel choices. Accordingly, destination marketers make great efforts to inform their potential consumers about their destinations using deliberately designed projected images. This research focuses on a Chinese tourism destination, Qingdao, exploring the relationships between the images projected by Qingdao government agencies and those perceived by current visitors and by residents. It also examines the factors that influence the image formation of visitors and residents. Three sources of information are used in this research: promotional materials issued by the Qingdao municipal government and the Qingdao Tourism Administration, key informant interview transcripts and a questionnaires survey. The promotional materials were collected from the aforementioned agencies in May 2009. Key informant interviews were conducted in April and May 2009. Self-administered surveys of 578 visitors and 337 residents of Qingdao were administered throughout May and June 2009. The image construct was conceptualized as having three dimensions: cognitive, affective and overall images. The cognitive image attributes included seafood, scenery, beaches, local people, green space, special events, ethnic attractions, weather, squares, architecture, relaxing atmosphere, resorts, hygiene and cleanliness, cultural attractions, golf course, highway system, accommodation, public transport, shopping, fashion shows, value for money, transportation cost, nightlife, football games, airline schedules, and traffic congestion. The affective image attributes included arousing-sleepy, exciting-gloomy, pleasant-unpleasant, and relaxing-distressful. Qualitative evaluation suggested greater congruence between the images projected by Qingdao government agencies and those perceived by visitors than quantitative correlation analysis. The projected images of Qingdao and images perceived by visitors were consistent in their emphases on certain image themes. However, the correlations between these two types of images suggested that the extent to which these image themes were emphasized differed. Similar results were found in the comparison between the images projected by Qingdao and those perceived by residents. Furthermore, most visitors and residents held positive images of Qingdao. Both similarities and differences were discovered in the cognitive, affective and overall images perceived by visitors and residents. Residents were generally more positive than visitors in their cognitive and affective images. It was found that sex, education, place of residence, and previous travel experience only significantly affected visitors’ images of one or two attributes, while age, occupation, primary motivation, most important information source used and number of sources used significantly influenced visitors’ images of between 5 and 8 attributes. Additionally, place attachment and importance of the 2008 Olympic Games were significantly positively correlated with most of the image attributes examined in this study, while importance of German Heritage and Qingdao International Beer Festival were significantly positively correlated with fewer attributes (8 and 6 attributes, respectively). With regard to the factors influencing resident images, it was discovered that sex, education, age, occupation, length of residence, most important source used and number of sources used significantly affected residents’ images to different degrees, ranging from 7 to 18 attributes. Furthermore, place attachment and the importance of German heritage, the 2008 Olympic Games and Qingdao International Beer Festival were significantly positively correlated with the majority of the image attributes examined in this research. This study is one of very few that compares projected and perceived images although methodological challenges for undertaking such research remain. It is also innovative in that it encompasses both tourists’ and residents’ images. Very few such studies have been undertaken in China which has a massive domestic tourism industry and is a major player in international tourism.

OBJECTIVES: (1) To assess prescribers' ability to recognize clinically significant DDIs, (2) to examine demographic and practice factors that may be associated with prescribers' DDI knowledge, and (3) to evaluate prescribers' perceived usefulness of various DDI information sources.METHODS: This study used a mailed questionnaire sent to a national sample of prescribers based on their past history of DDI prescribing which was determined using data from a pharmacy benefit manager covering over 50 million lives. The survey questionnaire included 14 drug-drug pairs that tested prescribers' ability to recognize clinically important DDIs and five 5-point Likert scale-type questions that assessed prescribers' perceived usefulness of DDI information provided by various sources. Demographic and practice characteristics were collected as well. Rasch analysis was used to evaluate the knowledge and usefulness questions.RESULTS: Completed questionnaires were obtained from 950 prescribers (overall response rate: 7.9%). The number of drug pairs correctly classified by the prescribers ranged from zero to thirteen, with a mean of 6 pairs (42.7%). The percentage of prescribers who correctly classified specific drug pairs ranged from 18.2% for warfarin-cimetidine to 81.2% for acetaminophen with codeine-amoxicillin. Half of the drug pair questions were answered "not sure" by over one-third of the respondents; among which, two were contraindicated. Rasch analysis of knowledge and usefulness questions revealed satisfactory model-data fit and person reliability of 0.72 and 0.61, respectively. A multiple regression analysis revealed that specialists were less likely to correctly identify interactions as compared to prescribers who were generalists. Other important predictors of DDI knowledge included the experience of seeing a harm caused by DDIs and the extent to which the risk of DDIs affected the prescribers' drug selection. ANOVA with the post-hoc Scheffe test indicated that prescribers considered DDI information provided by "other" sources to be more useful than that provided by computerized alert system. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that prescribers' DDI knowledge may be inadequate. The study found that for the drug interactions evaluated, generalists performed better than specialists. In addition, this study presents an application of IRT analysis to knowledge and attitude measurement in health science research.

Den beteendebaserade finansiella teorin framför vikten av att undersöka människan i desshelhet. Detta är något som de klassiska finansiella teorierna ignorerar då de anser attmänniskor handlar fullständigt rationellt. Då investerare på aktiemarknaden influeras av dess tidigare erfarenheter samt information är det av vikt att undersöka och förstå hur individen agerar på aktiemarknaden inför investeringsbeslut. För att kunna besvara denna fråga har en webbaserad enkätundersökning använts där urvalet består av medlemmar från Sveriges Aktiesparares riksförbund. De resultat som framkommit ur undersökningen tyder på att majoriteten av respondenterna på den svenska aktiemarknaden aktivt undviker att försätta sig i risksituationer där de står inför en förlust eller möjligheten att ångra ett beslut de fattat. De lägger ner mycket tid på informationssökning vilket tyder på att de vill fatta välinformerade beslut. Dessa beslut grundas främst på information från nyheter, företags årsredovisningar samt trender i aktiepriset. Undersökningen visar även att dessa tre används i största grad tillsammans vilket tyder på att respondenterna inte baserar sina val på endast en informationskälla. Att aktiesparare på den svenska aktiemarknaden även investerar mindre då det uppstår oro på marknaden tyder på att investerare undviker risk. Detta visas även då respondenterna väljer att avvakta och hålla sig till de investeringsbeslut de redan fattat än att följa flocken då de enbart har en informationskälla att gå efter. / Behavioral finance enhances the importance to see the human as an entity. This is something that the classical financial theories ignore because they view the human as a rational being. But because the investors on the equity market get influence from their previous experience and information it is of importance to understand how the individuals act on the stock market before investment decisions. To answer that question a web-based questionnaire has been made where the sample consists of members from the Sveriges Aktiesparares riksförbund. The results from this study indicate that the majority of the sample on the Swedish equity market actively avoids risky situations where they can lose or regret a decision they have made. They spend much time on gathering information which implies that investors want to make informed decisions. These decisions are mostly based on media, financial statements and share price trends. The study also shows that these three are mostly used together which infer that the respondents do not use only one information source before making an investment decision. The study also displays that stock investors on the Swedish equity market invest much less when there are fluctuations in the market to avoid risk. This also shows when respondents choose to bide and keep the investment decisions he already made instead of following the flock.

The images of tourist destinations significantly influence travel choices. Accordingly, destination marketers make great efforts to inform their potential consumers about their destinations using deliberately designed projected images. This research focuses on a Chinese tourism destination, Qingdao, exploring the relationships between the images projected by Qingdao government agencies and those perceived by current visitors and by residents. It also examines the factors that influence the image formation of visitors and residents. Three sources of information are used in this research: promotional materials issued by the Qingdao municipal government and the Qingdao Tourism Administration, key informant interview transcripts and a questionnaires survey. The promotional materials were collected from the aforementioned agencies in May 2009. Key informant interviews were conducted in April and May 2009. Self-administered surveys of 578 visitors and 337 residents of Qingdao were administered throughout May and June 2009. The image construct was conceptualized as having three dimensions: cognitive, affective and overall images. The cognitive image attributes included seafood, scenery, beaches, local people, green space, special events, ethnic attractions, weather, squares, architecture, relaxing atmosphere, resorts, hygiene and cleanliness, cultural attractions, golf course, highway system, accommodation, public transport, shopping, fashion shows, value for money, transportation cost, nightlife, football games, airline schedules, and traffic congestion. The affective image attributes included arousing-sleepy, exciting-gloomy, pleasant-unpleasant, and relaxing-distressful. Qualitative evaluation suggested greater congruence between the images projected by Qingdao government agencies and those perceived by visitors than quantitative correlation analysis. The projected images of Qingdao and images perceived by visitors were consistent in their emphases on certain image themes. However, the correlations between these two types of images suggested that the extent to which these image themes were emphasized differed. Similar results were found in the comparison between the images projected by Qingdao and those perceived by residents. Furthermore, most visitors and residents held positive images of Qingdao. Both similarities and differences were discovered in the cognitive, affective and overall images perceived by visitors and residents. Residents were generally more positive than visitors in their cognitive and affective images. It was found that sex, education, place of residence, and previous travel experience only significantly affected visitors’ images of one or two attributes, while age, occupation, primary motivation, most important information source used and number of sources used significantly influenced visitors’ images of between 5 and 8 attributes. Additionally, place attachment and importance of the 2008 Olympic Games were significantly positively correlated with most of the image attributes examined in this study, while importance of German Heritage and Qingdao International Beer Festival were significantly positively correlated with fewer attributes (8 and 6 attributes, respectively). With regard to the factors influencing resident images, it was discovered that sex, education, age, occupation, length of residence, most important source used and number of sources used significantly affected residents’ images to different degrees, ranging from 7 to 18 attributes. Furthermore, place attachment and the importance of German heritage, the 2008 Olympic Games and Qingdao International Beer Festival were significantly positively correlated with the majority of the image attributes examined in this research. This study is one of very few that compares projected and perceived images although methodological challenges for undertaking such research remain. It is also innovative in that it encompasses both tourists’ and residents’ images. Very few such studies have been undertaken in China which has a massive domestic tourism industry and is a major player in international tourism.

Submitted by Nayara Bernardo de Mattos null (naybmattos@gmail.com) on 2017-06-09T10:16:10Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Comportamento informacional de profissionais de reabilitação.pdf: 1587722 bytes, checksum: c5a4fe47fd05638d6eeae4fabcf27d11 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luiz Galeffi (luizgaleffi@gmail.com) on 2017-06-13T14:07:46Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 mattos_nb_me_mar.pdf: 1587722 bytes, checksum: c5a4fe47fd05638d6eeae4fabcf27d11 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-13T14:07:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 mattos_nb_me_mar.pdf: 1587722 bytes, checksum: c5a4fe47fd05638d6eeae4fabcf27d11 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-09 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A busca por informações voltadas para a saúde, quer seja a respeito de tratamentos de saúde mais sofisticados, ou em relação a novos medicamentos ou até mesmo sobre novos problemas de saúde despertam o interesse de profissionais, pacientes e seus familiares e gestores. Além de informações necessárias para a condução das terapias, os profissionais podem ser questionados por pais e responsáveis pelos pacientes que podem trazer dúvidas ou convicções errôneas sobre a situação do paciente e, portanto, o profissional deve estar preparado para responder essas questões. A presente pesquisa consiste em um estudo de caso no Centro de Estudados da Educação e da Saúde da UNESP. Buscou-se identificar as o comportamento de busca de informação dos membros da equipe multiprofissional e dos estagiários do Centro de Estudos da Educação e da Saúde (CEES) da UNESP, em suas ações de cuidados do paciente e nas orientações de seus familiares e/ou acompanhantes. A coleta de dados foi realizada através de aplicação de questionário aos estagiários e profissionais que atuam nesta instituição, para a caracterização do comportamento de busca dos sujeitos e entrevista com secretária da instituição para verificação do fluxo do encaminhamento dos pacientes e organização dos atendimentos. Participaram da pesquisa 32 sujeitos, sendo 26 estagiários e seis profissionais. Observou-se que ambos os grupos apresentam um comportamento informacional semelhante. Em relação às necessidades informacionais dos membros da equipe multiprofissional identificou-se a necessidade de orientar pais sobre condutas referentes à doenças e tratamentos. Foram identificadas as seguintes as fontes de informação utilizadas pelos participantes da pesquisa: supervisores de estágio (fonte informal), periódicos e revistas especializadas na área, artigos científicos e bases de dados, por parte dos estagiários e, para os profissionais: periódicos/sites especializados, bases de dados e a internet, de modo geral. Em relação à dificuldade em realizar buscas por informação, observou-se que os estagiários e profissionais não têm dificuldades a ponto de não encontrarem as informações necessárias para responder suas questões. Quanto ao comportamento informacional dos estagiários e dos profissionais, observa-se que as necessidades são as mesmas de modo geral, ambos buscam por informações relacionadas ao cuidado com os pacientes, sobre questões relacionadas a patologias e terapias, as questões clínicas e sobre orientações que devem ser passadas aos pacientes ou a seus responsáveis. Verificou-se, também, que há diferenças em relação ao grau de familiaridade, confiabilidade, facilidade e satisfação dos estagiários e profissionais ao lidar com determinadas fontes. / The present research tried to identify which are the features related to the information search behavior of health multi professional staff and of the trainees from Education and Health Study Center of UNESP, in their care actions of the patient and in their families/ caregivers’ instructions. The search for information related to health, either about more sophisticated health treatments or even about new medications or even so about new health problems interest professionals, patients and their families and managers. Besides the necessary information to the therapies conduction, several times the professionals can be questioned by the parents and responsible for patients who can bring doubts or mistakes about the patients’ situation and therefore the professional might be prepared to answer those questions. The present research consists in a study of a case at the Education and Health Study Center of UNESP. The data collection was carried out though a questionnaire for the trainees and professionals who act out at this institution, interview with secretary to verify the flow of the patients and organization in serving them. 32 subjects participated of the research, being 26 trainees and six professionals. It was observed that both groups present a similar informational behavior. In relation to the informational necessities of the members of the multi professional staff, it was identified the necessity of guiding parents about some kind of conduct referring to some type of sickness or treatment. The following sources of information used by the multi professional staff and the trainees were identified: intership supervisors ( informal source ), papers and specialized magazines in the area, scientific articles and data base , from trainees side. On the other hand, the professionals of the studied staff report to use with more frequency the papers/ specialized websites, data base and the internet, in a general way. In relation to the difficulty in searching for information, it was not observed that the trainees and professionals have difficulties so that they cannot find the necessary information to answer the questions. About the trainees and professionals’ informational behavior, it is noticed that the necessities are the same in a general way, both search for information related to the patients’ care, about questions related to pathologies and therapies, the clinical questions and about recommendations which must be passed for the patients or for their responsible. It was noticed also that there are differences about the degree of relationship, reliability, facility and satisfaction of the trainees and professionals when dealing with some kinds of sources.