This diploma thesis focuses on information awareness among mothers of children hospitalized at surgical intensive care units. Four research questions were formulated on the basis of literature review. The theoretical part of this thesis gives an overview of basic facts concerning information awareness and care of children at surgical ICUs. Furthermore, it describes the way information is passed on in praktice. A part of the theoretical section also comprises of the list enumerating the most common diagnoses with which children found themselves to be placed at surgical ICUs and it contains, as well, the description of admittance of children for a surgical intervention, pre-surgical care, post-surgical care and discharge of children from hospital to homecare. Collection of data for the practical part of the diploma thesis was conducted at two intensive care units in the University Hospital in Motol, Prague, and UH Brno in the CR. Five respondents were intentionally selected from each ICU with whom semi-structured interviews were conducted, which are summarized in sub-chapter 4.2. The results of interviews with individual respondents were further subjected to analysis and summarized in summary tables. The Diploma thesis had two objectives. The first objective was to ascertain subjective information awareness of mothers about their children´s illnesses and possible complications or consequences related to these illnesses. We wanted to find out whether mothers were subjectively satisfied with information provided about thein children´s illnesses and possible complications or consequences related to these illnesses. We also wanted to discover whether they experienced any information deficit in this area and what were their most frequent questions to the medical personnel. It was ascertained through interviews that the majority of respondents was not satisfied with information provided. The second objective was to discover subjective information awareness pertaining to the period of hospitalization at surgical ICU and child´s subsequent homecare. We wanted to know whether mothers felt that they were kept informed enough about pre-surgical and post-surgical care of their child and whether or not they were satisfied with information pertaining to child´s subsequent homecare. We were also interested in whether or not they experienced any deficit of information received and what were their most frequent questions to the medical personnel. It was discovered through an analysis that the majority of respondents was not satisfied with information pertaining to pre-surgical care and complications which might have arised during the surgical intervention. As for information centred on the date of operation and possible duration of hospitalization most respondents were satisfied with it. Furthermore, the majority of respondents were satisfied with information provided about child´s subsequent homecare. We discovered that respondents were not informed satisfactorily by medical personnel about other contacts such as for clubs for parents, stoma clubs and centres of early intervention. It was possible to ascertain from the results that each respondent saw deficits in different areas of information provision as well. In the list of such information deficit areas are information about the character of surgical intervention, the ward rules, and the fact that doctors and nurses do not have enough time. Moreover, the respondents also perceived the deficit in sharing of information among medical personnel. On the basis of final results which point to experience of unsatisfactory information awareness among mothers about pre-surgical care for the child we developed in a written form the Information for parents about pre-surgical and post-surgical care brochure. We also prepared due to the fact that mothers sensed the lack of written information about the ward the Information for parents about the ward brochure.

In Kooperation mit dem Deutschen Bibliotheksverband e.V. und gefördert durch das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung präsentierten sich Bibliotheken in ganz Deutschland vom 24.10. bis 31.10.2010 mit zahlreichen Aktivitäten als Lernorte und Orte der Kommunikation auf vielfältigste Weise. Die Palette der Veranstaltungen reichte von Poetry-Slams, Lesenächten, Autorenlesungen über Ausstellungen und Präsentationen bis hin zu verschiedenen Serviceangeboten wie z.B. Büchertausch. In Sachsen fanden insgesamt 160 Veranstaltungen in den Bibliotheken statt.

Increasingly abundant access to data and cheaper display technology costs are creating an exciting opportunity to create new information awareness tools that can present information calmly through peripheral and ambient interfaces. These tools offer the potential to help people better manage their attention and to avoid information overload. Different people, however, have distinct information needs, and customizing these systems is often difficult. Existing interfaces typically provide too coarse or too fine a granularity of customization, resulting in tools that are too rigid or too difficult to configure. We present an extensively customizable information awareness system, The Buzz, that supports end users, tinkerers, and developers at using, modifying, creating, and sharing powerful and flexible customizations. These customizations are powerful in the sense that the user can control abstract behaviors of the system, and flexible in the sense that the complexity of the customization can vary with the power needed to express it. We further chart the broader information awareness customization space through the lens of existing customizable information tools. Through this analysis, we show that this system provides more extensive customization capabilities than other customizable awareness applications, without requiring significant programming.

Imagine a world where someone’s personal information is constantly compromised, where federal government entities AKA Big Brother always knows what anyone is Googling, who an individual is texting, and their emoticons on Twitter. Government entities have been doing this for years; they never cared if they were breaking the law or their moral compass of human dignity. Every day the Federal government blatantly siphons data with programs from the original ECHELON to the new series like PRISM and Xkeyscore so they can keep their tabs on issues that are none of their business; namely, the personal lives of millions. Our allies are taking note; some are learning our bad habits, from Government Communications Headquarters’ (GCHQ) mass shadowing sharing plan to America’s Russian inspiration, SORM. Some countries are following the United States’ poster child pose of a Brave New World like order of global events. Others like Germany are showing their resolve in their disdain for the rise of tyranny. Soon, these new found surveillance troubles will test the resolve of the American Constitution and its nation’s strong love and tradition of liberty. Courts are currently at work to resolve how current concepts of liberty and privacy apply to the current conditions facing the privacy of society. It remains to be determined how liberty will be affected as well; liberty for the United States of America, for the European Union, the Russian Federation and for the people of the World in regards to the extent of privacy in today’s blurred privacy expectations.