Information security management is now a major concern for any organization regardless of its type, size, or activity field. Having an information security system that ensures theavailability, the confidentiality, and the integrity of information is not an option anymorebut a necessity. Information security management identifies difficulties with user behaviourand compliance that is centralized around policies, perceptions, and practices. In order to address how they affect information security management, these three issues are holistically explored using a sociomaterial framework to engage the understanding of human andnonhuman components. A case study of a university in Sweden was conducted and it was found that despite the sophistication of the IT system, human behaviours are a pertinent component of information security management, and not one that can be ignored.

Lead users are proposed as a valuable resource for marketers in terms of the (1) development, (2) adoption, and (3) diffusion of new products. We present the first consumer study to provide evidence that the latter two suggestions are justified. First, we find that lead users demonstrate stronger domain-specific innovativeness than more "ordinary" users. Second, lead users perceive new technologies as less "complex" and might therefore be better prepared to adopt them. Third, we find that lead users demonstrate stronger opinion leadership and weaker opinion seeking tendencies. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for the marketing of new products. (authors' abstract)

This case study examines the new media presentation system in Alby public library. The aim is to explore if the contemporary Zeitgeist, wich according to the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, could be described as liquid modernity, has affected how the system was formed. The purpose is to find out how that would affect users and staff of public libaries of the contemporary. Interviews were conducted with the library staff, and plans and documents concerning the media presentation system was examined. The empirical part of this thesis starts with a study of the process that resulted in the new presentation system while the second part examines the system as such. I discovered that both the media presentation system, and the process which preceded it, contained aspects that could be traced to liquid modernity. However, I also found lingering signs of solid modernity, wich is the term Bauman uses to denote the modern era. The media presentation system could thus be described as a combination of solid and liquid modernity. I argued that the new media arrangment is a compromise with several disadvantages for both users and the library staff. The interplay between solid and liquid modernity in the contemporary public library results in a divergent situation for users and staff. On the one hand, it gives more freedom to use the library according to their own ideas. However, old structures, such as classification systems, sets limits for this development.

Background: To curb the transmission of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases several studies indicate the need for improved access to medical care for injection drug users (IDUs) including those already linked to syringe exchange programs (SEPs). However, availability and access to services remains a problem for many IDUs. This study seeks to examine perceptions of medical care access among a pharmacy-based sample of IDUs, utilization of medical services among IDUs and, identify barriers to accessing health care services to help ensure that IDUs receive appropriate care when needed and reduce the transmission of diseases. Methods: Data was obtained from the Pharmacists As Resources Making Links to Community Services (PHARM-Link) study. Dependent variables: health care access to the same provider and receiving care a usual source, health care utilization of services including the emergency room, clinic, medical office, medical mobile unit and hospital; and health care barriers categorized as personal or structural. Independent variables were insurance status, homelessness in the prior six months, case management, drug treatment and socio-demographic characteristics such as age, sex, income, education and employment status. Descriptive statistics analysis and logistic regression were performed using SAS version 9.4 (2013) with significance set at p<0.05. Results: Our sample included 615 IDUs participating in the PHARM-Link study. Overall, IDUs accessed health services and having the same provider remained statistically higher among those with legal income above $5,000 OR: 1.60 (95% CI: 1.03- 2.48), the insured OR: 4.11 (95% CI: 2.48-6.79), and those with positive HIV status OR: 7.64 (95% CI: 3.18 – 18.36), while those who were homeless reported lower access to the same provider OR: 0.63 (95% CI: 0.43 – 0.92). Only the older age group OR: 2.85 (95% CI: 1.42-5.73) and the insured OR: 3.42 (95% CI: 1.81-6.46) remained significantly associated with more access to receiving health needs at the same location. Those with some college education had less frequent visits to the clinic OR: 0.59 (95% CI: 0.38-0.92) and medical office OR: 0.64 (95% CI: 0.41-0.99), while the homeless were more likely to visit the emergency room OR: 1.49 (95% CI: 1.06-2.11). Females were less likely to go to a mobile unit OR; 0.52 (95% CI: 0.33-0.83) and married people were more likely OR: 1.95 (95% CI: 0.28-0.91). Visit to the hospital were less likely among females OR: 0.54 (95% CI: 0.36-0.81) and among those with some college education OR: 0.63 (95% CI: 0.41-0.96). Those with legal income above $5,000 were less likely to have any personal barriers OR: 0.64 (95% CI: 0.45 – 0.92). Structural barriers remained more likely among those who were homeless OR: 1.62 (95% CI: 1.13-2.39), but less likely among those 44 years and older OR: 0.58 (95% CI: 0.40-0.85), the insured OR: 0.60 (95% CI: 0.38-0.94), those with positive HIV status OR: 0.53 (95% CI: 0.28-0.99), as well as Non-Hispanic Blacks OR: 0.47 (95% CI: 0.14-0.83) and Latinos OR: 0.47 (95% CI: 0.25-0.86). Conclusion: Our results suggest that most IDUs linked to care through pharmacy-based SEP programs established to expand health services and improve health, did access available health services. However, some continue to experience difficulties such as structural barriers among the homeless as well as few reported visits to the clinic, medical office and the hospital among the employed believed to have resources to pay for such services. These services may have been underutilized because the participants were unsatisfied with the services provided. Therefore, interventions should target structural barriers such as homelessness among IDUs as well as health insurance coverage to help increase access to and utilization of health services.

This dissertation examines revisitation behaviour in the context of non-transactional websites. A holistic framework based on theories from repeat purchase behaviour and satisfaction was developed and tested. This study is among the first to consider revisitation as analogous to repeat purchase behaviour. The premise of the model is that revisitation is determined through an evaluation of prior visits and that the elements influencing revisitation included satisfaction, involvement (site, product category and medium) and social influences. Five non-transactional websites were examined with the selection based on the website typology developed in this thesis - a typology that will benefit website research as it provides a consistent and generic framework. Data were collected using a crosssectional web-based online survey via the homepage of the websites. Since satisfaction is considered to be a central factor in traditional repeat purchase behaviour and in website use, the antecedents of satisfaction were also examined. Overall the findings support the importance of content quality as a factor in satisfaction and even though website users are increasingly more proficient, ease of use is still an influential factor as is the attitude to the brand that the site supports. It was found that the users??? motives for using the site affected the relationship between the quality of the perceived benefits and satisfaction. If the motivation to use the site was for information, then the impact of information quality on satisfaction was weaker than the impact of entertainment quality on satisfaction. Alternatively, if the motivation was for entertainment, then once again the impact of information quality on satisfaction was weaker than that of entertainment quality. Initial model testing showed that the only factor to influence revisitation behaviour was enduring site involvement. Cognizant of the dangers of ???data driven theory???, the relationship of the elements was reassessed. The resultant model shows that product category involvement directly influences enduring site involvement and that enduring site involvement is a central construct operating as a direct and a mediating influence between each of satisfaction, social influence, medium involvement and website revisitation.

Abstract Service user involvement in service and policy development is vital in order to provide services that meet their needs. In the sensitive and challenging area of statutory child protection, where service users are often marginalized and disempowered, such involvement is likely to be contested and complex. It is, nonetheless, of great importance in order to provide effective responses to the protective needs of children and to the needs of their families, in order to ensure child safety. This qualitative study explores the participation of parents in statutory child protection policy processes in the state of Queensland, Australia. The aims of the study were to understand the Queensland statutory child protection policy context, and to explore the issue of parent participation in policy processes from a number of different perspectives. An analysis of a range of Department of Child Safety (DChS) policy related documents, from the period 1999 – 2007, was undertaken. Focus group interviews were undertaken with statutory child protection practitioners and policy officers, and with non government child and family welfare practitioners. Individual semi structured interviews were undertaken with a number of parents who are statutory child protection service users. What has emerged is a picture of a service system where parents are likely to be excluded at all levels of decision making. The study found that following inquiries into the failure of the service system, in particular the Crime and Misconduct Commission Inquiry (CMC), DChS has emerged as an individualistic child focused service system with a focus on forensic investigation, risk assessment and management, and with a corresponding loss of focus on family support. The findings indicate that how DChS has redefined its approach to child protection impacts significantly on how parents are engaged by the service system. They highlight inequities in the way service user participation rights have been incorporated into policy and enacted in practice, and the lack of recognition afforded parents as service users and stakeholders in the service system. The findings also suggest that DChS policy processes are focused more on progressing reform agendas and efficient service delivery than they are on service user involvement. Negative portrayals and perceptions of parents, and a perceived lack of understanding of the nexus between disadvantage and child welfare, were also found to contribute to their exclusion. The parent interviews provided valuable insights into their experiences of the service system, indicating the sorts of issues they are likely to bring to the policy table. However, the findings illustrate that they lack the necessary information, support and encouragement to participate, and their experiences of the service system have left them mistrustful of engaging in policy processes, should the opportunity arise. Overall, the findings show that while there is likely to be a number of benefits to parent participation in policy processes, and parents themselves have an interest in participating, there are many barriers to this. While a few potential strategies to engage parents in policy processes were identified, these were often also perceived to have limitations. It is considered that a comprehensive socio-structural approach would be needed in order to reposition parents as participators in policy and service development.

The usage of Web sites has been of interest to Web administrators and researchers ever since the Web started. Analysis of Web site usage data helps to understand the behaviour of its users, which is very important, as many important decisions can be made based on it. The user behaviour may be deduced by knowing all the activities each user does from the time s/he starts a session on the Web site until s/he leaves it, which is collectively called a user session. As Web server logs explicitly record the browsing behaviour of site users and are readily and economically available, this thesis explores the use of Web server logs in capturing user sessions on Web. In order to protect users’ privacy, the standard Web server logs in general do not record the user identities or similar measures to uniquely identify the users. This thesis concentrates on heuristic strategies to infer user sessions. The heuristics exploit the background knowledge of user navigational behaviour recorded in the standard Web server logs without requiring additional information through cookies, logins and session ids. They identify relationships that may exist among the log data and make use of them to assess whether requests registered by the Web server can belong to the same individual and whether these requests were performed during the same visit. Researchers have proposed several heuristics, which were adversely affected by proxy servers, caching and undefined referrers. The thesis proposes new heuristics, which effectively address all the limitations, thus extending the work in this field. It also introduces a set of measures to quantify the performance of the heuristics and uses them to investigate their efficiency based on logs from three Web sites and makes recommendations for the Web sites to devise their own heuristics. The investigation has shown satisfactory results and the new heuristics are applicable to wider range of Web sites. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

To date, very few studies have been conducted focusing on ratings of music and music listening experience of hearing aid (HA) users. This study aimed to collect more detailed and descriptive information via a questionnaire, on the music listening experience and ratings of musical sounds from postlingually deafened adults. The following hypotheses were posed: (i) ratings for music from HA users who have been assessed for a cochlear implant (HA-CI group) will be worse than those who have not been assessed for a CI (HA-NCI group); and (ii) HA users with a moderate or worse hearing loss (Moderate+ subgroup) will provide lower ratings for music than those with a mild hearing loss (Mild subgroup). A questionnaire by She (2008), was modified for this study, and subsequently called the University of Canterbury Music Listening Questionnaire – HA version (UCMLQ_HA). The questionnaire was divided into the following seven sections: music listening and music background, sound quality ratings, music styles, music preferences, music recognition, factors affecting music listening enjoyment, and a music training programme. Thirteen HA-CI recipients and 98 HA-NCI recipients returned the questionnaire. The HA-NCI group was divided into two subgroups: mild hearing loss (n = 51), and moderate or worse hearing loss (Moderate+; n = 47). Essentially findings were consistent with hypothesis one, but only partially consistent with hypothesis two. The HA-CI group provided lower ratings for ‘pleasantness’ and ‘naturalness’ of instruments (p = 0.007), and found music styles to be less ‘pleasant’ (p < 0.001) than the HA-NCI group. For musical styles, the HA-CI group preferred solo performers whereas the HA-NCI group preferred groups of performers. In addition to ratings of music, the HA-CI group provided significantly lower ratings for music listening (p = 0.001), and overall music enjoyment (p = 0.021) than the HA-NCI group. For the comparisons between the Mild and Moderate+ subgroups, the Mild subgroup found Instruments to sound significantly ‘less noisy’ (p < 0.001) and ‘less sharp’ (p < 0.001) than the Moderate+ subgroup. The Moderate+ subgroup provided higher ratings for overall enjoyment of listening to music with HAs than the Mild subgroup (p = 0.044). Both subgroups rated the drum kit (the lowest rated Instrument) to be significantly less pleasant and less natural than all other Instruments. It was also found that all musical styles were significantly more pleasant than Pop/Rock. There were similarities between the groups for music preferences; the male singer was significantly preferred over female singers (p = 0.021), and low-pitched instruments were significantly preferred over high-pitched instruments (p = 0.04). Classical music was also selected as the style that sounded the best with their HAs and listened to the most often. Almost all of the respondents indicated that they would like music in general to sound it would to those with normal hearing (97.1%). Close to 30% indicated that they would be interested in an MTP and would like it to focus on a wide range of music and feature commonly known tunes. In addition, training sessions should consist of two 30 minute sessions per week. Overall this study indicates that ratings of music differ with level of hearing loss to some degree. The general consensus was that music did not sound as they would expect it to sound to a person with normal hearing, and that respondents would like to enjoy listening to music more.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 1992. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-170). Also available on the World Wide Web.