Lawrence Lessig在Free Culture一書中探討了法律、新興科技以及媒體產業如何形成許可文化的制度，來控制我們的創作自由和取用公共財的權利，他指向一個核心問題：私益(private interest)與公益(public interest)之爭——在網路科技與智慧財產權交互作用之下的自由文化中，私益與公益如何達到平衡狀態？ 「音樂」具有可被數位化的特性，是傳播自由文化的理想範例，而筆者意欲探求的是：以臺灣的音樂產業為例，是否有可能在自由文化中形成一個讓「獲利」與「分享」並行不悖，甚至相輔相成的運作模式？最重要的是，這個模式要能發揚自由文化帶給大眾的公益，也要保障音樂工作者的私益。而在音樂產業中，「獨立音樂」次領域向來重視創作自主性，而自由文化鼓勵發想創意，兩者或許有媒合的空間，故本研究聚焦於獨立音樂。 本研究視臺灣的獨立音樂產業為資訊內容的生產與消費過程，運用Bourdieu的場域理論、資本理論、再製理論等學說，找出有哪些因素影響自由文化和獨立音樂的發展，並且探討贊成∕質疑自由文化這二種立場之間的辯證過程，以及各種利益如何折衝、妥協，從何達成平衡點。故本研究的目的包括：擬將探討結果回饋至對自由文化的省思，此為研究目的之一；嘗試建立一個自由文化中的音樂商業模式，此為研究目的之二。 本研究以深度訪談法訪談四種不同類型的獨立音樂創唱人（包括完全獨立的個體戶、社運歌曲創作者、大型唱片工業體系以外的獨立廠牌、大型唱片公司釋放出來的音樂人才，共訪談五組個人與團體），以及五家數位授權音樂網站（KKBOX、ezPeer、Omusic、StreetVoice、iNDIEVOX），並輔以參與觀察法和分析次級資料，來說明主要研究發現。 在「場域內行動者對於自由文化的認知」方面，本研究發現，「自由文化」這個名詞還不夠普及，這種現象反映出兩個事實：（一）受訪者對於自由文化的認知是分歧的：Lessig所言之自由文化是「在相當程度上開放他人據以再創造的文化」（Lessig, 2004／劉靜怡譯，2008，頁57）；然而，獨立音樂創唱人的認知則是創作行為上的自由、自由文化要能保障授用雙方的自由、自由文化等同CC授權制度、自由文化是一種行銷廣宣工具、自由文化等同網路賦予大眾使用的自由；授權音樂網站經營者們則認為「自由文化的核心概念是『服務』」。（二）Lessig的自由文化理念與實務有差距：研究結果發現，受訪之獨立音樂創唱人的開放心態和行為，要比Lessig「保守」許多，大多是停留在提供免費聆聽，少數開放下載，而其目的多半是為了廣告與宣傳效益。 在「獨立音樂創唱人的線上／線下活動與資本應用策略」方面，可以看出獨立音樂創唱人經營創唱事業的幾個重點：（一）線上∕線下資本會互相流動和兌換；（二）獨立音樂創唱人專注創作，唱片公司致力發行，二者保持地位對等的平衡關係；（三）獨立音樂創唱人有成為專職的趨勢。 在「想像一個自由文化中的音樂經營模式」方面，本研究根據各家授權音樂網站的經營特色，以及配合獨立音樂創唱人的需求、大眾的公益考量，擘畫了一個自由文化中的獨立音樂商業模式，其規劃重點在於：（一）免費與付費並存；（二）虛擬與實體並行；（三）著作權安定運作秩序；（四）經紀事務拓展人脈。整體而言，此模式試圖建構一個整合網路發表平台、付費授權網站、經紀公司的場域，各行動者之間要維繫的是一種夥伴關係，而非從屬關係。 / In his book Free Culture, Lawrence Lessig investigates how the legal system, modern technology, and media industry shape a permission culture to define our rights of consuming public goods and our freedom of creation. He orientates his core research question towards the dispute over the relative importance of private interests and public interests. In other words, how do we balance private interests against public interests under the dual impacts of the Internet technology and intellectual property rights in a free culture? “Music” can be digitalized, and it is a prime example of free culture propagation. This thesis examines the music industry in Taiwan and thereby explores the possibility of shaping an operational model that makes “profiting” and “sharing” compatible with or even complementary to each other in a free culture. More importantly, such a model should be able to promote the public interests generated from a free culture and, at the same time, secure the private interests of musicians. “Independent music,” as a subfield in the music industry, always emphasizes autonomy in creation, and a free culture encourages creation and innovation. Accordingly, we may couple independent music with free culture, and this thesis primarily deals with their relationship. This thesis treats Taiwanese independent music as a process of information production and consumption. It adopts Bourdieu’s theories about field, capital, and reproduction to identify the effective factors in the development of free culture and independent music. In addition, this thesis investigates the dialectical process between defending and challenging free culture, and how a variety of interests negotiate, compromise, and finally strike a balance among themselves. Therefore, this thesis aims to, on the one hand, use the research findings to reflect on free culture and, on the other hand, establish a music business model in a free culture. This thesis employs in-depth interviews, participant observation, and secondary data analysis to answer my research question. I interviewed four types of independent music composers/singers (a total of five cases of individuals and bands who are wholly-independent individuals, composers of social movement songs, independent brands outside the system of the large-scale record industry, or musical talents released from major record companies) and five licensed digital music websites (KKBOX, ezPeer, Omusic, StreetVoice, and iNDIEVOX). Regarding “the inside-field actors’ understanding about a free culture,” this thesis finds that the term “free culture” is not as popular as it is expected to be. This phenomenon implies two critical points. Firstly, the interviewees perceive the term free culture in different ways. According to Lessig (2004: 30),”Free Cultures are cultures that leave a great deal open for others to build upon.” However, for composers/singers of independent music, a free culture implies the freedom of creation. A free culture should be able to guarantee the freedom and rights of both original creators and users. It is equivalent to the Creative Commons licensing scheme. It is a tool of marketing and advertising. The freedom embedded in a free culture is similar to that offered by the Internet. In contrast, for managers of licensed music websites, “service” is the core concept of a free culture.” Secondly, there exists a gap between Lessig’s idea of free culture and practice. The research findings indicate that the composers/singers of independent music interviewed by the author are more “conservative” than Lessig. With the primary goals of advertising and propagating independent music, most of their works remain free for listening, while some of them are free for downloading. Concerning “the independent music composers/singers’ on-line/off-line activities and their strategies of using capital,” this thesis points out three critical points in their career management. Firstly, the on-line capital and the off-line capital flow to and exchange with each other. Secondly, these composers/singers devote themselves to creation, and record companies concentrate on issuing their works. Composers/singers and record companies maintain a peer status and a balanced relationship. Thirdly, the “composer/singer of independent music” seems to become a potential profession. With regard to “envisioning a music business model in a free culture,” this thesis designs a business model based on the managerial features of licensed music websites, the needs of composers/singers of independent music, and public interests. The model contains the following characteristics. Firstly, non-payment coexists with payment. Secondly, virtuality runs parallel with reality. Thirdly, copyrights stabilize the order of operation. Fourthly, agency transactions help establish connections among independent music composers/singers and people who are able to provide better performance opportunities. In general, this model seeks to open up a field that integrates platforms of Internet publication, paid licensing websites, and agencies. The relationship among the actors is equal rather than hierarchical.

The study aimed to examine high school student usage of licensed databases available through public libraries in Atlanta-USA. A descriptive quantitative survey was conducted via a web-based questionnaire among 135 East Cobb high school students. The findings revealed that most students are aware of these licensed databases, but their usage is low (1:10) compared to Google. However, as students advance in grade levels, their database usage increases and GALILEO is the most-used licensed resource. Factors that influence student database usage include: specific academic needs; teacher instruction to use specific databases and frequent Digital Information Literacy (DIL) instruction. Most students receive DIL instruction at school, but their DIL skills are still inadequate. To increase usage of licensed databases as reliable information resources, the study recommends collaboration between public libraries and high schools, including incorporation of Generation Y's digital information preferences such as Google-type simplified interfaces, cutting-edge technology and time-saving search features. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)

There has been a steady growth in the traffic generated by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), and by 2020 it is expected to overload the existing licensed spectrum capacity and lead to the problem of scarce resources. One method to deal with this traffic overload is to access unlicensed and shared spectrum bands using an opportunistic approach. The use of Licensed Shared Access (LSA) is a novel approach for spectrum sharing between the incumbent user (i.e., the current owner of the shared spectrum) and the LSA licensee (i.e., the temporary user of frequencies, such as an MNO). The LSA system allows the incumbent users to temporarily provide the LSA licensee with access to its spectrum resources. However, licensees must adopt vertical handover and traffic steering procedures to vacate their customers from the LSA band without causing interference, whenever this is required by the incumbent. These procedures should be carried out, de facto, before the base station is turned off as a part of a rapid release of unscheduled LSA band facing evacuation scenarios. Thus, in this dissertation, a cognitive mechanism is proposed to make decisions in advance to find the best target network(s) for evacuated customers in connected mode and with active traffic per class of service. On the basis of these decisions, the vertical handover and traffic steering procedures are carried out for the best target network(s), which are selected in advance and undertaken immediately to avoid interference between the licensee and incumbent services. Furthermore, this guarantees the seamless connectivity and QoS of evacuated customers and their traffic respectively, during and after the unscheduled evacuation scenarios. A performance evaluation conducted in a simulating scenario consisting of one LTE-LSA and three Wi-Fi networks, demonstrated that the proposed solution could be completed within the time required for the unscheduled evacuation, as well as, being able to ensure the QoS and seamless connectivity of the evacuees. The total execution time obtained during the performance evaluation of the proposed solution was around 46% faster than of two related works and could thus avoid interference between the licensee and incumbent services.

There has been a steady growth in the traffic generated by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), and by 2020 it is expected to overload the existing licensed spectrum capacity and lead to the problem of scarce resources. One method to deal with this traffic overload is to access unlicensed and shared spectrum bands using an opportunistic approach. The use of Licensed Shared Access (LSA) is a novel approach for spectrum sharing between the incumbent user (i.e., the current owner of the shared spectrum) and the LSA licensee (i.e., the temporary user of frequencies, such as an MNO). The LSA system allows the incumbent users to temporarily provide the LSA licensee with access to its spectrum resources. However, licensees must adopt vertical handover and traffic steering procedures to vacate their customers from the LSA band without causing interference, whenever this is required by the incumbent. These procedures should be carried out, de facto, before the base station is turned off as a part of a rapid release of unscheduled LSA band facing evacuation scenarios. Thus, in this dissertation, a cognitive mechanism is proposed to make decisions in advance to find the best target network(s) for evacuated customers in connected mode and with active traffic per class of service. On the basis of these decisions, the vertical handover and traffic steering procedures are carried out for the best target network(s), which are selected in advance and undertaken immediately to avoid interference between the licensee and incumbent services. Furthermore, this guarantees the seamless connectivity and QoS of evacuated customers and their traffic respectively, during and after the unscheduled evacuation scenarios. A performance evaluation conducted in a simulating scenario consisting of one LTE-LSA and three Wi-Fi networks, demonstrated that the proposed solution could be completed within the time required for the unscheduled evacuation, as well as, being able to ensure the QoS and seamless connectivity of the evacuees. The total execution time obtained during the performance evaluation of the proposed solution was around 46% faster than of two related works and could thus avoid interference between the licensee and incumbent services.

Abstract During the last couple of decades a lot of research efforts have been spent on developing different spectrum sharing concepts. As the traditional regulatory methods for spectrum allocation are proving inadequate in responding to a growing need for mobile spectrum in a timely manner and finding spectrum for exclusive use is getting increasingly difficult, the political atmosphere is also becoming more and more receptive to new innovative spectrum sharing concepts that increase the efficiency of spectrum use. These concepts also provide regulatory authorities an opportunity to fundamentally change the current major operator driven mobile market and thereby to allow new players and innovative services to surface. However, there is still a gap between the work done by the research community and the work of the regulatory authorities. In this thesis, the aim is to clarify the reasons behind this gap by analysing three prevailing regulatory spectrum sharing concepts: Licensed Shared Access, the three-tier model and TV white space concept. As different stakeholders involved in spectrum sharing – the incumbent user, the entrant user and the regulatory authority – have very diverse roles in spectrum sharing, their incentives and key criteria may vary significantly. In order for a spectrum sharing concept to have a chance in a real life deployment, all these perspectives need to be carefully considered. In fact, a feasible spectrum sharing concept is a delicate balance between the viewpoints of different stakeholders, not necessarily the one offering the most efficient spectrum utilization. This thesis analyses spectrum sharing concepts from all these perspectives and as a consequence unveils the common process model for implementing a spectrum sharing concept in real life, highlighting the distinct roles of different stakeholders in its phases. / Tiivistelmä Parin viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana tutkimusyhteisö on kehittänyt valtavasti eri käsitteitä ja tuloksia taajuuksien yhteiskäyttöön. Matkapuhelinoperaattoreiden nopeasti kasvavan tiedonsiirto- ja taajuustarpeen myötä myös poliittinen ilmapiiri on muuttunut vastaanottavaisemmiksi uusille jaetuille taajuuksienkäyttömalleille, joilla voidaan sekä lisätä taajuuksien käytön tehokkuutta että mahdollistaa uusien toimijoiden ja innovatiivisten palvelujen kehitys. Taajuuksien yhteiskäyttömalleihin liittyvä tutkimustyö ei kuitenkaan usein palvele suoraan taajuusviranomaisten tarpeita. Tämän työn tavoitteena on selvittää syitä tähän kolmen vallitsevan joustavan taajuuksienkäyttökonseptin avulla: lisensoidun taajuuksien yhteiskäyttömallin, kolmitasoisen taajuuksien yhteiskäyttömallin ja TV kaistojen yhteiskäyttömallin. Eri toimijoilla on hyvin erilaiset roolit taajuuksien yhteiskäytössä ja siksi sekä heidän kannustimensa että keskeiset kriteerit voivat olla hyvin erilaiset. Käytäntöön sopiva jaetun taajuudenkäytön malli onkin usein kompromissi eri näkemysten omaavien toimijoiden kesken, ei välttämättä taajuuksien käytöltään tehokkain vaihtoehto. Tässä työssä analysoidaan eri taajuuksien yhteiskäyttömalleja sekä eri toimijoiden näkökulmia. Analyysin tuloksena luodaan yleinen prosessimalli taajuuksien yhteiskäyttömallien toteutukselle sekä identifioidaan eri toimijoiden roolit sen eri vaiheissa.

The United States is in the middle of a gripping nursing shortage; a shortage that is putting patients' lives in danger. This study determined the impact community and tribal colleges in severely economically distressed counties of the United States have on the nursing shortage faced by health care facilities serving these areas. The initial sample of 24 institutions selected in the Ford Foundation's Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI) (1995-2000). Data were collected from the Fall 1998 National Study of Post Secondary Faculty to obtain characteristics of faculty and from the 2003 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) to obtain characteristics of students, both at all publicly-controlled community colleges, all tribal colleges, and the 24 RCCI colleges that included 18 community and six tribal colleges. A survey was sent to the directors/deans/chairs of the nursing programs to ascertain issues related to the nursing program, nursing faculty, and nursing students. Respondents were asked to identify the healthcare facilities used for students' clinical experiences. A survey was then sent to each of these facilities asking about rural health, and source of nursing staff. Findings: 1) 87% of these these rural healthcare facilities are experiencing a significant shortage of nurses, and they are challenged to recruit and retain nursing staff; 2) Nursing programs, including both Licensed Practical Nursing and Associate's Degree Nursing are important to these rural community and tribal colleges, have seen growth over the past 5 years and expect to continue growth (86%); 3) Financial aid for nursing students is critically important; 4) Students are predominantly white and female; minorities are significantly under-represented; 5) Lack of subsidized public transportation and child care for nursing students even at tribal colleges are barriers that impact program completion; and 6) A shortage of nursing faculty exists at rural community and tribal colleges that negatively impacts student enrollment in these programs, thus reducing the rural nursing workforce pipeline. It is the rural community and tribal college nursing programs help provide severely economically distressed counties of the United States with the nursing workforce needed to decrease the nurse to patient ratio.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Parents have increasingly participated in their children’s bedside care. Parental participation has led to more provider-parent interactions and communication during such stressful events. Helping parents through such stressful events requires nurses to be skilled communicators. Brief methods of training emotion-focused communication with newly licensed nurses are needed, but as yet are rare. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a validated brief communication (Four Habits Model) training program for newly licensed pediatric nurses. The intervention focused on ways to improve nurses’ emotion-focused conversations with parents. Information processing and Benner’s novice to expert informed this study. The intervention is based on the four habits model, with “habits” providing a structure for nurses to organize their thinking and behavior during emotion-focused conversations with parents. Thirty-five pediatric nurses with 0–24 months of nursing experience at a large mid-western children’s hospital participated in the study. Mixed methods provided data for this experimental study, using a group-by-trials repeated measures ANOVA design. Participants randomized to the intervention group participated in a one-hour three-part training: adapted four habits model content, simulated nurse-parent communication activity, and debrief. Participants randomized to the control group observed a one-hour travel video. Key outcome variables were Preparation, Communication Skills, Relationships, Confidence, Anxiety, and Total Preparation. Compared with the controls, the intervention group improved significantly in the following areas: Preparation, F(1,33) = 28.833, p < .001; Communication Skills, F(1,33) = 9.726, p = .004; Relationships, F(1,33) = 8.337, p = .007; Confidence, F(1,33) = 36.097, p < .001; and Total Preparation, F(1,33) = 47.610, p < .001. Nurses’ experience level had no effect, with the exception of Anxiety. Nurses with more experience (≥ 12 m) showed a greater reduction in Anxiety, when compared to nurses with less experience (< 12 m), F(1,31) = 5.733, p = .023. Fifty-two percent of the nurses involved in the intervention later reported specific examples of implementing the four habits when working with parents in clinical settings. A one-hour four habits communication-training program is effective in improving newly licensed nurses’ preparation for emotion-focused conversations with parents.

Every year, millions of medical errors are committed, costing not only patient health and satisfaction, but thousands of lives and billions of dollars. Errors occur in many areas of the healthcare environment, including the profession of nursing. Nurses provide and delegate patient care and consequently, standard nursing responsibilities such as medication administration, charting, patient education, and basic life support protocol may be incorrect, inadequate, or omitted. Although there is much literature about errors among the general nurse population and there is indication that new nurses commit more errors than experienced nurses, not much literature asks the following question: What are the factors contributing to the commission of errors, including the omission of standard nursing care, among new nurses? Ten studies (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-mode) were examined to identify these factors. From the 10 studies, the researcher identified the three themes of lack of experience, stressful working conditions, and interpersonal and intrapersonal factors. New nurses may not have had enough clinical time, may develop poor habits, may not turn to more experienced nurses and other professionals, may be fatigued from working too many hours with not enough staffing, may not be able to concentrate at work, and may not give or receive adequate communication. Based on these findings and discussion, suggested implications for nursing practice include extended clinical experience, skills practice, adherence to the nursing process, adherence to medications standards such as the five rights and independent double verification, shorter working hours, adequate staffing, no-interruption and no-phone zones, creating a culture of support, electronically entered orders, translation phones, read-backs, and standardized handoff reports.

Across the United States, an overwhelming majority of the population claim that religion and spirituality beliefs shape their worldview and assist in coping with life stressors. Yet, the literature has shown that mental health practitioners reported discomfort integrating religion and spiritually in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to explore whether license-holding mental health professionals in Southern California develop reluctance toward addressing religion/spirituality with their clients. Through snowball sampling, 52 clinicians composed of social workers, counselors, marriage and family therapists, nurses, psychologists, and psychiatrists were recruited across Southern California (N =52). The participants were measured descriptively based on (a) confidence in their ability to integrate client beliefs into treatment and (b) their comfort discussing topics related to RS with their clients. Results revealed an overall level of reluctance ranging from 15 percent (for comfortability) to 25 percent (for ability) among the study participants. Licensed clinical social workers reported slightly lower reluctance level than other licensed professionals. Implications of the findings were discussed.

Most organisations use several data management and business intelligence solutions which are on-premise and, or cloud-based to manage and analyse their constantly growing business data. Challenges faced by organisations nowadays include, but are not limited to growth limitations, big data, inadequate analytics, computing, and data storage capabilities. Although these organisations are able to generate reports and dashboards for decision-making in most cases, effective use of their business data and an appropriate business intelligence solution could achieve and retain informed decision-making and allow competitive reaction to the dynamic external environment. A data management and analytic model has been proposed on which organisations could rely for decisive guidance when planning to procure and implement a unified business intelligence solution. To achieve a sound model, literature was reviewed by extensively studying business intelligence in general, and exploring and developing various deployment models and architectures consisting of naïve, on-premise, and cloud-based which revealed their benefits and challenges. The outcome of the literature review was the development of a hybrid business intelligence model and the accompanying architecture as the main contribution to the study.In order to assess the state of business intelligence utilisation, and to validate and improve the proposed architecture, two case studies targeting users and experts were conducted using quantitative and qualitative approaches. The case studies found and established that a decision to procure and implement a successful business intelligence solution is based on a number of crucial elements, such as, applications, devices, tools, business intelligence services, data management and infrastructure. The findings further recognised that the proposed hybrid architecture is the solution for managing complex organisations with serious data challenges. / Computing / M. Sc. (Computing)