Crisis response message strategies were examined using a post test-only randomized experiment (N=252) to determine their influence on perceptual, cognitive, and motivational antecedents to communication behavior in a political context. Results indicate that: (1) strategy type influences perceived strategy effectiveness; (2) situational beliefs influence situational motivation, subjective norm, and attitudes; (3) subjective norm and attitudes influence behavioral intention; and (4) referent criterion, situational motivation, and behavioral intention influence communicative action in publics during a political crisis.

Abstract Title: See each other on the Internet or on a café? A survey about social consequences of Internet usage. (Umgås på Internet eller på ett café? – en studie om Internetanvändningens sociala konsekvenser.) Number of pages: 34 (including enclosures). Author: Carolin Johansson. Tutor: Else Nygren. Course: Media and Communication Studies C. Period: Fall 2007. University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University. Purpose/Aim: The purpose is to get increased knowledge about the social consequences that may come up when young people at the age of 16-20 are using the Internet. Material/Method: The material consists of a questionnaire that I made with questions about Internet usage that 84 young people from five classes (from three different upper secondary schools) answered. Main results: To have access to a computer and Internet and the fact that broadband is more inexpensive now than before leads to an increased usage of the Internet. I found out that chatting, music/movies, searching for information and using the Internet for entertainment is what most of the participants spent the most time on while using the Internet. I also found out that an increased usage of the Internet could lead to decreased time together with friends/family. Keywords: Internet usage, social consequences, Instant Messaging, Community, online communication.

Satisfying communication is sometimes hard to come by. Due to differences in social expression and reception, individuals tend to express and receive communication in dissimilar ways, especially within different social contexts. In the present study, the effects of personality and channel of communication on individual and mutual satisfaction after a conversation will be tested. Participants will take a personality test to determine introversion or extraversion. They will then be randomly assigned to conversation pairs which will communicate either through an instant messaging (IM) program or face-to-face (FtF). Satisfaction will be determined using a modified version of the Interpersonal Communication Satisfaction Inventory (ICSI). It is hypothesized that individual satisfaction will be significantly higher for introverts in the IM condition and extraverts in the FtF condition. With regards to mutual satisfaction, it is hypothesized that pairs with dissimilar personalities in the FtF condition will be significantly lower than all other pairings. Finally, it is expected that individuals with high ratings of satisfaction will also report feeling as though they were able to express themselves more authentically. The results of this study will contribute to our view of interpersonal relationships in the modern digital age, as well as present possibilities for creating more mutually beneficial communication between differing personality types.

Self–regulation in writing is viewed as critically important in order to be a good writer. With the advent of cellular telephony, what passes as ‘good’ writing is being challenged with the introduction of the abbreviated form of SMS (Short Messaging Service) language. The purpose of this study was to determine the nature of the changes in SMS spelling and whether or not these changes affected the participants’ spelling age and their ability to write formally within the context of a formal SMS and the English language class. This study also aimed to determine whether a relationship exists between self–regulatory skills and writing in SMS. A sequential explanatory mixed–method research design was selected in order to address the research questions which had been posed. The study examined the nature of Short Messaging Service (SMS) language and the relationship between self–regulation and SMS, using a dominant quantitative survey design which was followed by a qualitative phase which explored and explained the phenomena which had been exposed in the quantitative phase of this study. The results of this study indicated that SMS language is an abbreviated form of digital writing, which is colloquial and informal in nature. SMS language is used in SMS text messages and within the forum of the chatroom MXit. The results also indicated that the participants in this study use the self–regulatory strategies of goal setting, strategic planning, self–recording, self–evaluation and self–reaction when writing SMS text messages that are more formal in nature. Furthermore, no evidence of SMS language could be found in an analysis of writing portfolios, indicating that SMS language does not affect the academic writing skills of the participants in this study. The main conclusion was that although this study was completed on a very small scale and that it would be inappropriate to generalise, the implementation of and research regarding the nature of SMS and self–regulation in SMS writing, require attention in order to ensure that the self–regulatory skills possessed by learners in our schools are used optimally in order to promote literacy and good writing practices. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Learning and Teaching))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Lymphoedema is a chronic health condition characterized by the accumulation of lymphatic fluid in the subcutaneous tissues resulting in arm swelling and can significantly affect physical and psychological health and QOL. Although significant research on lymphoedema has developed over the past decade, the literature reveals that there are gaps in knowledge on framing the illness, communication, and effective practices to improve the QOL for individuals living with lymphoedema. This research contributes to this growing field of research through a qualitative investigation of twelve women's reported understandings, experiences, and perceptions of lymphoedema using Brown’s (1995) theory of framing disease and illness. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with women living with lymphoedema to determine the impact of health messaging, to explore the ways in which these women made sense of conflicting messages on exercise, and to better understand how barriers to the effective adoption and integration of good management practices can be overcome.

Self–regulation in writing is viewed as critically important in order to be a good writer. With the advent of cellular telephony, what passes as ‘good’ writing is being challenged with the introduction of the abbreviated form of SMS (Short Messaging Service) language. The purpose of this study was to determine the nature of the changes in SMS spelling and whether or not these changes affected the participants’ spelling age and their ability to write formally within the context of a formal SMS and the English language class. This study also aimed to determine whether a relationship exists between self–regulatory skills and writing in SMS. A sequential explanatory mixed–method research design was selected in order to address the research questions which had been posed. The study examined the nature of Short Messaging Service (SMS) language and the relationship between self–regulation and SMS, using a dominant quantitative survey design which was followed by a qualitative phase which explored and explained the phenomena which had been exposed in the quantitative phase of this study. The results of this study indicated that SMS language is an abbreviated form of digital writing, which is colloquial and informal in nature. SMS language is used in SMS text messages and within the forum of the chatroom MXit. The results also indicated that the participants in this study use the self–regulatory strategies of goal setting, strategic planning, self–recording, self–evaluation and self–reaction when writing SMS text messages that are more formal in nature. Furthermore, no evidence of SMS language could be found in an analysis of writing portfolios, indicating that SMS language does not affect the academic writing skills of the participants in this study. The main conclusion was that although this study was completed on a very small scale and that it would be inappropriate to generalise, the implementation of and research regarding the nature of SMS and self–regulation in SMS writing, require attention in order to ensure that the self–regulatory skills possessed by learners in our schools are used optimally in order to promote literacy and good writing practices. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Learning and Teaching))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Location-based service (LBS) is a geographical location-related service that provides highly personalized services for users. It is a platform for network operators to provide new and innovative ways of increasing profits from new services. With the rapidly growing trend toward LBS, there is a need for standard LBS protocols. This thesis started with introducing the Internet Engineering Task Force GEOPRIV working group, which endeavors to provide standard LBS protocols capable of transferring geographic location information for diverse location-aware applications. Through careful observation, it was found that Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is well suited to the GEOPRIV requirements. The aim of this research was therefore to explore the possibility of the integration of LBS and the SIP protocol and, to some extent fulfill the GEOPRIV requirements.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 31-34).

Η παρούσα εργασία διαπραγματεύεται το Σύστημα Παρουσίας και Στιγμιαίου Μηνύματος (Presence and Instant Messaging System) πάνω σε αρχιτεκτονικά πλαίσια που στηρίζονται στο πρωτόκολλο SIP, π.χ. το IMS. Σκοπός μας είναι μέσω της εφαρμογής που υλοποιούμε, να μπορεί ένας χρήστης να απολαμβάνει την υπηρεσία παρουσίας με τη βοήθεια γραπτού κειμένου (text). Στο Κεφάλαιο 1, δίνεται μια εισαγωγή σχετικά με τις έννοιες αλλά και τις οντότητες που πλαισιώνουν το μηχανισμό αυτό. Εν συνεχεία, παραθέτουμε την αρχιτεκτονική του συστήματος, δηλαδή τη γραφική διεπαφή, με την οποία ο χρήστης αλληλεπιδρά. Στο Κεφάλαιο 3, ακολουθεί λεπτομερής περιγραφή της υλοποίησης και δίνονται επεξηγήσεις για συγκεκριμένα σημεία του κώδικα. Στο κεφάλαιο 4, δύο χρήστες τρέχουν παράλληλα την εφαρμογή και παρουσιάζεται το σύστημα μας τόσο από τη μεριά των χρηστών όσο και από τη μεριά του εξυπηρετητή. Στο Κεφάλαιο 5, γίνεται αναφορά σε πολύπλοκα σενάρια και δίνονται περιγραφικές λύσεις που μπορούν να αποτελέσουν βάση για τον αναγνώστη εκείνο που επιθυμεί να διευρύνει περισσότερο τους ορίζοντές του στο συγκεκριμένο αντικείμενο. Τέλος, στο παράρτημα βρίσκεται ο πηγαίος κώδικας καθώς επίσης και τα αρχεία που χρειάστηκε να τροποποιήσουμε προκειμένου ο εξυπηρετητής να μας προσφέρει την αντίστοιχη υπηρεσία. / This thesis discusses the "Presence and Instant Messaging System" on an architectural framework based on the protocol SIP, eg IMS. Our goal is to implement an application that a typical user can interract with. This application provides this service using written text (text). Chapter 1 is an introduction to the concepts and entities in the specific area. Subsequently, we present the architecture of the system, ie the graphical interface of our application. In Chapter 3, we give a detailed description of the implementation plus explanations on specific parts of the code. In Chapter 4, two users run simultaneously our implementation.In Chapter 5, we refer to complex scenarios and we give solutions for them.Finally, in the Annex we attach the source code as well as the files that we had to modify for the server in order to offer us this service.

Σκοπός μας είναι να μελετήσουμε, αναπτύξουμε και να υλοποιήσουμε μία υπηρεσία PubSub με την βοήθεια του εργαλείου ανοικτού κώδικα Agsxmpp SDK. Η υπηρεσία αυτή θα είναι διαθέσιμη σε όλους τους χρήστες ενός συστήματος και θα υπάρχει η δυνατότητα στον καθένα να δημιουργεί αναρίθμητα θεματικά «κανάλια» μηνυμάτων κάθε τύπου. Κάθε χρήστης θα έχει δικαίωμα εγγραφής σε ένα τέτοιο «κανάλι» και έτσι θα έχει την δυνατότητα να λαμβάνει τα μηνύματα και τις ανανεώσεις που δημοσιεύονται σε αυτό. Σαν «κανάλια» ορίζουμε τα Nodes, η εγγραφή ορίζεται ως subscribe, η δημοσίευση ως publish και τέλος την ειδοποίηση / παραλαβή ως notification. / Our aim is to study, develop and implement a service with PubSub the help of open source tools Agsxmpp SDK. The service will be available to all users of a system and possible for anyone to create numerous thematic "Channels" each message type. Each user will have the right recording in such a "channel" and thus is able to receive messages and updates posted on this. like "Channels" are defined as Nodes, the record is defined as subscribe, the publication to publish and finally notification / receipt as notification.