Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores (Major Telecomunicações). Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2009

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores - Major de Telecomunicações. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2008

Documento confidencial. Não pode ser disponibilizado para consulta / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universiade do Porto. 2010

Numa altura em que as novas tecnologias assumem cada vez mais um papel activo na sociedade, importa saber de que forma é que os meios de comunicação social aproveitam as potencialidades da Internet. Sendo inegáveis as vantagens que a rede pode trazer ao jornalismo e tendo em conta o crescente interesse por tudo o que é local, o jornalismo de proximidade tem hoje instrumentos que podem promover a sua emancipação. Contudo, a questão mantém-se: será que a imprensa regional portuguesa tira partido das potencialidades da Internet? Tendo como base os websites dos 9 jornais regionais com maior audiência do distrito do Porto, esta tese visa demonstrar o estado do jornalismo regional online da região, quer através da aplicação de uma tabela de medição dos níveis de aproveitamento das potencialidades da rede, quer através de entrevistas a especialistas na matéria.

Apresenta-se investigação, teoricamente orientada e empiricamente suportada, explorando e desenvolvendo possíveis relações entre usos da biblioteca pública, nas vertentes do uso de recursos documentais, do espaço e da Internet, por um lado, e, por outro, as suas representações. Recorrendo a uma abordagem qualitativa, aplicou-se o método de caso alargado, de Michael Burawoy, à Biblioteca Almeida Garrett na cidade do Porto. As ferramentas de recolha de informação foram entrevistas semiestruturadas, em profundidade, análise de desenhos de crianças, observação, análise documental de textos oficiais e fotografia. Entrevistaram-se vários leitores e leitoras, incluindo não-utilizadores de Internet, responsáveis, técnicos e pessoal de atendimento da biblioteca, assim como o arquitecto. Como resultados intermédios são apresentados vários perfis de utilizadores e é avançada uma explicação para a génese e funcionamento dum sistema tácito de regulação de condutas, sobretudo no que ao ruído diz respeito. Como resultado final conclui-se que não há nenhum «impacte» claramente disruptivo induzido pela Internet nas representações recolhidas e analisadas, colocadas em relação com as alterações recentemente registadas nas práticas leiturais: algumas imagens representacionais há em que a Internet reforça a imagem tradicional de biblioteca como organização enciclopédica, como conjunto de recursos diversificados; outras há em que, se o seu uso contribuirá, por um lado, para esse reforço, por outro, atualiza e democratiza essa representação pela abertura a práticas não eruditas e pela propiciação de usos recreativos, ou ainda de usos comunicacionais e instrumentais baseados na Internet; em situações mais extremas, quando biblioteca e Internet se usam como termos sinónimos da gramática representacional, (...).

Researchers have indicated that Internet addiction is a wide-spread problem, impacting the lives of an estimated 4-10% of all Internet users. Researchers have also indicated that Internet addiction has a social component, with Internet addicts using the Internet to build and maintain new social relationships at a much higher rate than non-addicts. This study explored Internet addiction in the context of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). Data were drawn from MMORPG players and from mental health counselors to determine incidence rates of Internet addiction among MMORPG players, social needs that were predictive of Internet addiction, rates of treatment seeking behaviors by MMORPG players for Internet addiction, and how Internet addiction is diagnosed and treated by mental health counselors. For this study, the MMORPG Player Survey and the Counselor Survey were used to collect data from MMORPG players and mental health counselors. The MMORPG Player Survey was administered to 513 MMORPG players. The Counselor Survey was administered to 80 mental health counselors. Results from the MMORPG Player Survey indicated that approximately 15% (n=78) of MMORPG players met criteria for Internet addiction, as defined by the Diagnostic Questionnaire (DQ). A stepwise regression analysis of loneliness, confidence, liberation, validation, and support found that loneliness and confidence were both predictive of Internet addiction among participants (F2,473=115.921, p< .001) with an adjusted R square of .326. Of MMORPG players surveyed, .6% (n=3) indicated that they have sought professional help for Internet addiction. Mental health counselors reported that Internet addiction was most likely to be diagnosed as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or impulse control disorder. Furthermore, mental health counselors reported that they were most likely to treat Internet addiction using one of the following theoretical orientations: cognitive, reality, family systems, or solution focused. These findings highlight a subpopulation of the online community who are in need of mental health services and are not receiving them. Recommendations for future research include qualitative studies of the social aspects of MMORPG gaming among Internet addicts, as well as research exploring potential deterrents to mental health services among this population.

Students are constantly immersed in Hollywood glitz, MTV music videos and fastpaced television commercials. For "better or for worse" the movement to make communication a multimedia presentation is upon us. Educational technology -multimedia/Internet - is playing an increasingly important role as a teaching and learning supplement in modern classrooms and has been suggested as an avenue to improve science education. Potential benefits of the Internet, CD-ROMS, Videodiscs, WebCT, course web sites and other computer-based resources include increased communication among students and between instructor and students. Recently, although not a new idea for some, it has been demonstrated that for a significant number of students, learning occurs more readily if the material is presented visually as compared to verbally. Visual presentation is what multimedia is all about. Biology in particular seems to benefit from the application of technology in the classroom since rapid advances in the field make it nearly impossible for textbooks to remain current. Many biology instructors are seeking to take advantage of these benefits by using technology as an increasingly integral part of the teaching experience. This research involves an investigation into how multimedia and the Internet are or are not being used in the teaching of biology courses at the community college level in the State of Florida. A questionnaire was developed to elicit biology faculty perceptions of factors that encourage and those that inhibit their use of the Internet and multimedia in the classroom and in the laboratory. / The Educational Technology Survey was designed for ease of response in order to encourage a high return, and respondents answered the survey via the Internet. The collected data were analyzed by using distributions of frequencies and percentages. Perhaps the most outstanding feature noticeable as a result of this research is that instructor interest was the number one factor responsible for instructors using the Internet or any other form of multimedia. Without the resources, time, faculty development, and technical support, teachers are less likely to use technology in their laboratory and classroom presentations. Educational technology offers exciting possibilities to advance and change teaching, and this research points out some of the factors affecting the implementation of such technology. The study concludes with recommendations for faculty as well as administrators in their efforts to implement technology into the curriculum. Also included are suggestions for further research.

Although the offering of financial products and services over the Internet by banks and financial institutions continues to spread, reports on Internet banking show that the adoption and usage of such services by consumers are low. Further, relatively little empirical research has been carried out to examine factors influencing users' adoption or use of Internet banking services, particularly in New Zealand. Hence, there is a need to identify relevant factors that influence New Zealand's bank customers' intentions to use Internet banking. This research used two commonly applied and empirically supported models of information technology adoption to achieve this objective. In this study, Davis's (1989) technology acceptance model (TAM) is extended by two external variables, namely risk and self-efficacy. The second model used is a reduced version of Moore and Benbasat's (1991) perceived characteristics of innovation (PCI) model, without the image and voluntariness constructs. A questionnaire was used to conducting a postal survey of 1000 individuals in Auckland, New Zealand. Out of 163 responses received 157(15.7%) were usable and with this data both research models were tested.The results reveal that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, self-efficacy, relative advantage, compatibility, and result demonstrability have a significant association with intention to use Internet banking, while risk, visibility and trialability are not significant. Both the modified TAM and PCI models used in the study have a similar explanatory power of slightly over 20% of the variance in intention. In the TAM model, perceived usefulness and self-efficacy are significant variables, while compatibility is the only variable significant for the PCI model. Further, results indicate that users' perceptions of various aspects of Internet banking are more positive than non-users' perceptions, except for risk.The results of this study indicate that both TAM and PCI have low capabilities in explaining the variances in users' intention to adopt or use Internet banking services. Therefore, further studies are recommended to examine the performance of these models in Internet banking studies and also to improve the prediction power of these models by incorporating additional constructs. Although risk is found to be insignificant in this study, considering results of prior studies, further studies are required to examine its influence on intention.For banks point of view, banks should consider launching campaigns to demonstrate the usefulness and benefits. Once users perceive that advantages outweigh disadvantages, they are more likely to adopt or use Internet banking. Additionally, banks must make continuous effort to understand consumers' requirement and design and deliver their products and services in such a way that it is consistent with customers' requirements, beliefs and the way customers are accustomed to work. Banks website should facilitate customers with a 'one stop comprehensive financial' service. Banks can arrange hands-on training for prospective users to enhance their self-efficacy or may pay additional interest on online-deposit accounts (can be access through Internet only). Besides promoting services, banks need to invest in staff education and training and be equipped with advanced computer technology.

Master of Science / The current study aimed to test the efficacy of individual, synchronous Internet Therapy for panic disorder compared to traditional face-to-face therapy. Thirty participants diagnosed with panic disorder were randomly allocated to either Internet Therapy or face-to-face therapy, and received a manualised cognitive-behavioural treatment program. When analysed separately, results indicated that face-to-face treatment significantly reduced panic symptomatology overall, however significant gains were not shown for the Internet Therapy condition. However, a direct comparison of the two active treatments failed to show significant differences, as measured by a Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) on pre- and post-treatment variables. Internet Therapy did, however, significantly reduce certain symptoms of panic disorder, indicating that Internet Therapy may be useful as an adjunctive treatment to face-to-face therapy. Intention-to-treat analyses suggested that face-to-face treatment may be more effective than Internet Therapy for treating panic disorder. Additionally, there were no differences between treatment conditions in levels of working alliance, indicating that among those who stay in treatment, working alliance can be established online at a similar level to that of face-to-face therapy. However a high number of dropouts in the Internet Therapy condition warranted consideration. A thorough explanation of the results is offered in addition to recommendations for the future directions of the research and clinical implementation of Internet Therapy.

With rapid development of internet, it not only brings landmark revolution impact to the global media but also makes people’s lives great changes. Relative to China, development of internet also provides a new communication tool and information channels, but also offers a variety of media into Chinese society. Thus, with the advent of a new era of internet, it can be said that the Chinese social and political system have more challenges. Therefore on the one hand how China authorities strengthen the internet monitoring and management to avoid becoming a way for the international community conducting "peaceful evolution" in China, and also by controlling the internet to carry out its political advocacy work has become the most significant problems. Through collecting relevant literatures and analyzing China’s current internet control, this study will explore internet development in China and its impact for democratization, and the impact for CCP facing internet development. So as to make readers can basically understand China’s internet development and its democratization.