Mgr. Věra Pilecká The interaction of information science and cognitive sciences with emphasis on information retrieval (dissertation thesis) (Vzájemné ovlivňování informační vědy a kognitivních věd s důrazem na vyhledávání informací) Abstract Focus of this thesis is on the description of the interaction of information science and cognitive sciences with emphasis on information retrieval which is influenced by some of the cognitive aspects. The introductory chapter deals with the definition of information science and paradigms inspired by a cognitive approach (cognitive and socio-cognitive paradigm). Then a cognitive science is defined including its basis, methods and application. In the third chapter, a comparison between information and cognitive science is included, and their interaction and common interests are described. Fourth chapter focuses on information retrieval and influencing factors, including search methods, user information behaviour, and user cognitive characteristics and mental models. The final chapter presents two surveys focused on the use of intuitive and analytical information retrieval styles during searching on Google, and the perception of the differences between traditional and online teaching of the effective reading techniques. Both surveys illustrate the influence of users'...

This diploma work focuses on freely available and professional electronic information resources for environmental issues. These resources are only accessible from computer networks (such as the Internet or other digital data distribution networks). The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part defines typical users of such resources in connection with their user needs. In the other two parts freely available and professional electronic information resources for environmental issues are classified and reviewed while several resources are completed with both qualitative and quantitative analyses. This work also contains analyses of resources availability and it is provided with charts and graphs for better understanding of the topic.

Background:  Over the years, traditional entrepreneurs started businesses due to either pull or push factors within their environments. Research has been carried out in profiling different types of entrepreneurs and their characteristics. The social media influencers are new forms of entrepreneurs who recently appeared due to changes in the technological environments. The existence of social media platforms has enhanced the possibility of entrepreneurial activities online. The platforms are available for everyone, but some have more entrepreneurial orientation or characteristics than others.  Purpose: The aim of this research is to measure the entrepreneurial orientation and the characteristics of social media users, compare social media influencers with other social media users, to determine if differences exist. Methods:       This research uses the Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation scale (Bolton & Lane, 2012) and the Individual Personality Traits measuring scale (Al Mamun, Bin Yusoff, & Ibrahim, 2018). This is a deductive study, testing the above-mentioned theories on social media users, and a quantitative study aided using data collected from online survey. Conclusion:   The results of this study show that Social Media Influencer have higher entrepreneurial traits than non-Social Media Influencers.  The result also supports the three-factor structure and satisfactory reliability of the IEO scales and subscales. Subsequently, I found out that non-SMIs do create online contents and carry out entrepreneurial activities online too.

This study explores how smart home users act to keep their smart products safe. The sample was identified in the literature as early adopters. These were studied through a qualitative case study with semi-structured interviews. Data were then analysed with a thematic analysis, which resulted in four themes: Lack of concern, In the hands of the manufacturer, Safety outside the product and Safety measures. The informants had different reasons and motivations for their common lack of concern, their experience of being able to influence product security the measures they could evoke and the measures they actually took. The informants' lack of concern is linked to the theory of the impact of worryon actionand risk perception. The informants' problems in influencing security are supported by other literature. Their hypothetical measures are mainly outside the product. The actions they actually perform on the product are limited to basic security measures such as passwords, etc. Users find it difficult to influence the security of their products, unsafe products can easily fall victim to malicious individuals and influence others in their environment. / Denna studie undersöker hur användare av smarta hem kan agera för att hålla sina smarta produkter säkra.Urvalet identifierades i litteratur som early adopters. Dessa studerades genom en kvalitativ fallstudie med semistrukturerade intervjuer. Data analyserades sedan med en tematisk analys, vilket resulterade i fyra teman: Avsaknad av oro, I händerna på tillverkaren, Säkerhet utanför produkten och Säkerhetsåtgärder. Informanterna hade olika anledningar och motivationer till sin gemensamma avsaknad av oro, deras upplevelse av att kunna påverka produkters säkerhet, de åtgärder som de kunde frammana och de åtgärder som de faktiskt gjorde. Informanternas avsaknad av oro länkas till teori om oros påverkan på agerande och upplevd risk. Informanternas problematik att påverka säkerheten stöds av annan litteratur. Deras hypotetiska åtgärder ligger i huvudsak utanför produkten. Det agerande de faktiskt utför på sina produkter är begränsat till grundläggande säkerhetsåtgärder som lösenord etc. Användarna har svårt att påverka säkerheten hos sina produkter, osäkra produkter kan enkelt falla offer för illvilliga individer och påverka andra i sin omgivning.

E-hälsa är och har varit på framväxt de senaste åren och idag finns mer och mer av vården tillgänglig digitalt. Denna utveckling sker också inom djurvården, men det finns inga vetenskapliga studier som beskriver djurägare som användare av digitala tjänster. För att utveckla riktade och användbara tjänster krävs god kännedom om målgruppen. Syftet med denna studie är att påbörja ämnet inom vetenskapen och kartlägga djurägares behov och inställning till digitala e-hälsotjänster för djur, och därmed skapa insikt kring målgruppens beteende och förväntningar. Denna information kan sedan användas i utvecklingen av tjänster där djurägare är den primära målgruppen. Genom en semistrukturerad explorativ enkätstudie samlades kvalitativa och kvantitativa data om svenska djurägare in. Studien grundades delvis på information från studier inom e-hälsa för människor och digitala vårdmöten. Utifrån den insamlade datan konstruerades fiktiva representativa användarprofiler, i.e. personas. Inom användarcentrerad design och utveckling är personas en välkänd metod för att på ett konkret sätt visualisera en tänkt användares behov och förutsättningar. Totalt 139 personer deltog i enkätstudien varav 39 personer hade använt en digital veterinärvårdstjänst. Majoriteten av deltagarna utgjordes av kvinnor och den största åldersgruppen var 26–45 år. Resultaten visar att djurägare är medvetna konsumenter som väljer djurvård med omsorg, då 62% någon gång aktivt bytt klinik. En överväldigande majoritet har försäkrat sina djur men ändå spelar ekonomiska faktorer stor roll för gruppen och påverkar deras val av djurvård. Resultatet indikerar att djurägare gör en aktiv bedömning innan de kontaktar veterinär, och att digitala veterinärvårdsapplikationer kan fungera som ett stöd i beslutsprocessen gällande om det är nödvändigt att besöka en fysisk klinik eller ej. Gruppen som använt veterinärvårdsapp är generellt mycket nöjda med tjänsten, även om flera påtalar det svåra i att visa upp skadan/djuret i ett videosamtal. / The e-health sector is growing rapidly, with more and more services becoming available to patients that allow them to digitally connect with their healthcare providers. E-health for pets has started to arise as well, but there is no research that covers the perspective of pet-owners as digital users. Good knowledge of the target user is critical for development of digital services that meet the wants and needs of end users. The aim of this study is to begin to remedy this research gap by mapping the mindset of pet owners, so as to provide greater insights into the behaviour and expectation of potential end users. This information can be utilized to further optimize and enhance user experience within development of applications where pet-owners are the target user. A semi-structured survey was created to collect quantitative and qualitative data and the survey sampled a wide range of Swedish pet owners. The survey was to some extent based upon information from studies within e-health for humans, with modifications made to apply to veterinary care. The gathered data was analyzed and used to create fictional user profiles, i.e. personas. Personas is a well-used method to visualize the needs and objectives of target users within user centered design and development. A total of 139 pet owners completed the survey. Only 39 had prior experience with digital veterinary applications. The majority of participants were female, and the largest age group were between 26 and 45 years. The results show that pet owners are aware consumers and carefully elect their pet care providers, as 62% actively have changed veterinary clinic. Even though an overwhelming majority of pet owners had pet insurance, economic factors were a key driver in determining pet care. The results indicate that pet owners evaluates the situation prior to contact with a veterinary, and that a digital veterinary app can be useful for pet owners by providing support in determining whether a visit to a veterinary clinic is necessary or not. Those that had prior experience with digital veterinary apps expressed that they were overall satisfied with the service, although several mentioned that it was difficult to accurately show the animal and the issue through video.

To measure physical activity in a wheelchair user is important. Disabled people have been found to be less active and it has negative health implications. By relating to ones own physical activity in concrete form it is easier to reinforce a positive attitude towards being physically active. The aim of this thesis is to show how a system can be built, that is able to collect measurements from sensors, with usability in mind. The system consists of software that integrates an iPhone, Apple Watch and a Tacx rotation sensor mounted on a wheelchair. With the help of a physics model these measurements can estimate energy expenditure of a wheelchair user. The system was tested with four participants performing subjectively decided low, moderate and vigorous physical activity while the system collected data. In terms of absolute energy expenditure the system was inaccurate. On the other hand, correlations were found between the calculated energy expenditures and physical activity. Using measurements from the rotations sensor a correlation of 0.7315 was found between the calculated energy expenditure and physical activity, a correlation of 0.5385 using measurements from the GPS and a correlation of 0.6452 using measurements from Apples own proprietary algorithm. The created system is a promising prototype towards objective measurement of physical activity in wheelchair users.

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Les bandes des fréquences, telles qu'elles sont aménagées aujourd'hui, sont statiquement allouées. Afin d'améliorer la productivité et l'efficacité de l'utilisation du spectre, une nouvelle approche a été proposée : le "partage dynamique du spectre". Les régulateurs, les industriels et les scientifiques ont examiné le partage des bandes fédérales entre les détenteurs de licences (utilisateurs primaires) et les nouveaux entrants (utilisateurs secondaires). La nature d'un tel partage peut faciliter les attaques d'inférence et mettre en péril les paramètres opérationnels des utilisateurs primaires. Par conséquent, le but de cette thèse est d'améliorer la confidentialité des utilisateurs primaires tout en permettant un accès secondaire au spectre. Premièrement, nous présentons une brève description des règles de partage et des exigences en termes de confidentialité dans les bandes fédérales. Nous étudions également les techniques de conservation de confidentialité (obscurcissement) proposées dans les domaines d'exploration et d'édition de données pour contrecarrer les attaques d'inférence. Ensuite, nous proposons et mettons en œuvre notre approche pour protéger la fréquence et la localisation opérationnelles contre les attaques d'inférence. La première partie étudie la protection de la fréquence opérationnelle en utilisant un obscurcissement inhérent et explicite pour préserver la confidentialité. La deuxième partie traite la protection de la localisation opérationnelle en utilisant la confiance comme principale contre-mesure pour identifier et atténuer un risque d'inférence. Enfin, nous présentons un cadre axé sur les risques qui résume notre travail et s'adapte à d'autres approches de protection de la confidentialité. Ce travail est soutenu par des modèles, des simulations et des résultats qui focalisent sur l'importance de quantifier les techniques de préservation de la confidentialité et d'analyser le compromis entre la protection de la confidentialité et l'efficacité du partage du spectre / Radio frequencies, as currently allocated, are statically managed. Spectrum sharing between commercial users and incumbent users in the Federal bands has been considered by regulators, industry, and academia as a great way to enhance productivity and effectiveness in spectrum use. However, allowing secondary users to share frequency bands with sensitive government incumbent users creates new privacy threats in the form of inference attacks. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to enhance the privacy of the incumbent while allowing secondary access to the spectrum. First, we present a brief description of different sharing regulations and privacy requirements in Federal bands. We also survey the privacy-preserving techniques (i.e., obfuscation) proposed in data mining and publishing to thwart inference attacks. Next, we propose and implement our approach to protect the operational frequency and location of the incumbent operations from inferences. We follow with research on frequency protection using inherent and explicit obfuscation to preserve the incumbent's privacy. Then, we address location protection using trust as the main countermeasure to identify and mitigate an inference risk. Finally, we present a risk-based framework that integrates our work and accommodates other privacy-preserving approaches. This work is supported with models, simulations and results that showcase our work and quantify the importance of evaluating privacy-preserving techniques and analyzing the trade-off between privacy protection and spectrum efficiency

Ce mémoire porte sur la réception de l’influence sociale des influenceuses et influenceurs sur Instagram. Au Québec, il y aurait plus de 1600 influenceuses et influenceurs qui œuvrent sur les réseaux sociaux numériques, et ce, dans plusieurs domaines tels que la mode, le sport, l’art, etc. Plusieurs travaux en communication étudient ce phénomène du Web en regard de leur apport marketing ou encore en se basant sur le point de vue des influenceuses et influenceurs, c’est-à-dire des émettrices et émetteurs. Mobilisant les théories de la réception en communication, je propose plutôt ici de m’interroger sur la réception des contenus de ces personnes influentes auprès des gens ordinaires sur Instagram, que je qualifie d’usagères et d’usagers ordinaires. Pour ce faire, j’ai réalisé 11 entrevues semi-dirigées auprès de jeunes adultes âgés entre 18 et 25 ans où je leur ai posé diverses questions sur leur usage de la plateforme, leur relation avec les influenceuses et influenceurs, ainsi que la façon dont illes pensent être influencées par contenu qu’ils et elles produisent. C’est à la lumière de ces entretiens que j’ai identifié différents types d’influence sociale sur la plateforme Instagram. L’influence sociale sur Instagram est donc composée de deux autres types d’influence soit l’influence contrôlée et l’influence non perçue, qui elles-mêmes se déclinent en influence marketing et non marketing. C’est cependant ce que j’appelle « l’influence contrôlée » qui est davantage ressortie du discours des personnes interviewées, c’est-à-dire l’influence qu’elles savent « recevoir » et qui leur permet de choisir si elle les atteint ou non. L’influence contrôlée illustre donc ce à quoi réfère Breton et Proulx (2006) comme une « dialectique de pouvoirs » et qui est bien présent, sur Instagram entre les influenceuses et influenceurs et leurs abonnées et abonnés. / This master's thesis explores how social influence of influencers on Instagram is received. There are more than 1600 influencers working on social media, in many fields such as fashion, sports or art in Quebec. Several works in communication observe this Web phenomenon with regard to their marketing strategies or from the point of view of the communicator. In contrast, I analyse the reception of content from these influential people by ordinary people on Instagram, whom I refer to as ordinary users. To do this, I conducted 11 semi-structured interviews with young adults between 18 and 25 years old in which I asked them questions about their use of the platform, their relationship with influencers, and how they think they react to the influence. In light of these interviews, I identified different types of social influence on Instagram. Social influence on Instagram is therefore made up of two other types of influence: controlled influence and unperceived influence, which are themselves broken down into marketing and non-marketing influence. However, controlled influence stood out in most interviewees' speech, i.e. they know they are being influenced but can choose to submit to it or not.. Controlled influence shows a tension ‘‘dialectic of powers’’ on Instagram between influencers and their followers (Breton & Proulx, 2006).

This bachelor’s thesis deals with how the spatiality of libraries can correlate with instances of disorderly user behaviors. The fact that public libraries are among the types that are most prone to disorder, while Kriminalvården’s (the Swedish correctional service’s) librarians rarely experience similar problematic behaviors, could be said to illustrate a balancing act between anarchy and a manic need for control; where the most ideal compromise is, is based both upon personal values and the situation at hand.   To compare different reasonings about the room and the users, public librarians’ perspectives on factors of architecture and design have been contrasted with how librarians within Kriminalvården view the matter. The study has mainly been carried out using qualitative semi-structured interviews as well as a supplementary questionnaire. Operationalized factors of spatial influence in the form of categorized opposites (accessible/inaccessible, comfortable/repellent, visible/obscured, enabling/forbidding), which were identified early on and have guided the investigation, are used both implicitly in the interview guides and the questionnaire as well as explicitly in reading for the thematic analysis.   The terms “ideal type”, “heterotopia”, and “panopticon/panopticism” are used theoretically to deepen the understanding of the essay’s collected data: their suitability emerges in the nuances of what libraries can/should be; what happens when you bring together multiple functions in one space; as well as how control through surveillance can be understood and applied in library spaces.   The results show several differences at the operational level, but also similarities in terms of the librarian’s approach and view on problematic factors. Public libraries often have many functions (that do not always interact harmoniously) and offer more freedom, which risks their orderliness, while Kriminalvårdens library operations (which consists almost exclusively of literature distribution) have more order – but at the expense of user´s freedom.    The study’s outcome can be used as a basis of knowledge for practical planning of library design, but also as a springboard for further research. The effect of spatiality on users can prove important for the orderliness, atmosphere, and security of a library: cultivating an awareness regarding these possibilities of influence can thus be considered of great interest. / Denna kandidatuppsats hanterar hur biblioteks spatiala utformning kan korrelera med förekomster av ”biblioteksstök”. Att folkbibliotek är bland de mest stök-utsatta typerna, medan Kriminalvårdens bibliotekarier sällan upplever liknande problembeteenden, skulle kunna sägas illustrera en balansakt mellan anarki och kontrollmani; var den mest idealiska kompromissen ligger bygger på personliga värderingar och vad situationen kräver.    För att jämföra olika resonemang kring rummet och användarna har folkbibliotekariers perspektiv på arkitektoniska och designmässiga faktorer satts i kontrast mot hur bibliotekarier inom Kriminalvården ser på saken. Studien har genomförts främst med hjälp av kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer samt en kompletterande enkät. Operationaliseringar av spatiala påverkansfaktorer i form av kategoriserade motpoler (tillgängligt/svårtillgängligt, komfortabelt/avvisande, överblickbart/skymt, tillåtande/hindrande), som i förtid identifierats och styrt undersökningen, har använts både implicit i intervjuguiderna samt enkäten och explicit i utläsningen för den tematiska analysen.  Begreppen ”idealtyp”, ”heterotopi”, och ”panoptikon/panopticism” används teoretiskt för att fördjupa förståelsen av uppsatsens empiri: deras lämplighet framkommer i nyanserandet av vad bibliotek kan/bör vara; effekten av att sammanföra flera användningsområden i samma utrymme; samt hur kontroll genom övervakning kan förstås och appliceras i biblioteksutrymmen.    Resultatet visar på flera skillnader på verksamhetsnivå men även likheter i fråga om bibliotekariernas förhållningssätt och syn på problematiska faktorer. Folkbibliotek har ofta många funktioner (som inte alltid samspelar harmoniskt) och erbjuder mer frihet vilket riskerar kosta ordning, medan Kriminalvårdens biblioteksverksamhet (som utgörs närmast uteslutande av litteraturförmedling) har mer ordning – men på bekostnad av användarnas frihet.   Studiens utfall kan användas som kunskapsgrund för praktisk planering av biblioteksutformning, men även som en språngbräda för vidare forskning. Det spatialas influens över användare kan ha betydelse för biblioteks ordning, atmosfär, och trygghet: att kultivera en medvetenhet kring dessa påverkansmöjligheter kan därmed anses vara av stort intresse.