Parents’ perceptions of their adolescent children’s Internet use significantly influences the parental mediation strategies they choose to use with their children. The motivation for this explorative research study was to understand the impact of psychological and social influences on users of the Internet in South Africa. Both locally and internationally, there is a focus on the use of digital Internet devices to facilitate education. Access of South Africans to the Internet, whether for social or educational use does not exist in a vacuum, exempt from the bidirectional forces of the individual and the environment they use the Internet in, whether it is family or academic. This study firstly focusses on how parents perceive their adolescent children’s Internet use, and secondly, how they parent their children’s use of the Internet. The common topics and themes that emerged from this study allow for the development and provision of professional services that individuals, couples, families, and groups require for the use of, or exposure to the Internet. This study uses an explorative-descriptive qualitative research design with an interpretive paradigm and snowball sampling. The qualitative research design focussed on the concepts of self-reflexivity, context, and thick description while utilizing multivocality of 1) international and South African research on cyber citizenship, including cyberbullying, cyber harassment, and legal consequences, with 2) psychological aspects of the psychosocial developmental challenges of adolescents from the iGeneration including the benefits, risks, and dangers of using the Internet, and 3) qualitative data collected from semi-structured interviews with parents from Generation X who are raising and educating a generation of children on the other side of the Digital Divide. Tracy’s 8 ‘Big-Tent’ criteria for guiding excellence in qualitative research and Tesch’s model of content analysis was used during the content analysis process. Themes and sub-themes that emerged from the analysis of the participants’ narratives included 1) experiences: positive and negative, 2) observations: behavioural changes and gender differences, 3) parenting methods: parental interaction, rules, and limits, 4) concerns: risks, and 5) opinions: personal views. This research study provides a thick description of South African and international literature and combines the literature with the voices of the participants and the researcher to produce discussions based on the findings of this qualitative study. Conclusions, recommendations, and limitations of this study informed future research on cyber citizenship by providing a detailed understanding of the context of South African parents and children, the psychosocial developmental challenges of adolescents and, how educational programmes can be best created to effectively impact on the generations of parents, teachers and children in South Africa.

Web Usage Mining (WUM) can be used to determine whether the information architecture of a web site is structured correctly. Existing WUM tools however, do not indicate which web usage mining algorithms are used or provide effective graphical visualisations of the results obtained. WUM techniques can be used to determine typical navigation patterns of the users of organisational web sites. An organisational web site can be described as a site which has a high level of content. The Computer Science & Information Systems (CS&IS) web site at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) is an example of such a web site. The process of combining WUM and information visualisation techniques in order to discover useful information about web usage patterns is called visual web mining. The goal of this research is to discuss the development of a WUM model and a prototype, called WebPatterns, which allows the user to effectively visualise web usage patterns of an organisational web site. This will facilitate determining whether the information architecture of the CS&IS web site is structured correctly. The WUM algorithms used in WebPatterns are association rule mining and sequence analysis. The purpose of association rule mining is to discover relationships between different web pages within a web site. Sequence analysis is used to determine the longest time ordered paths that satisfy a user specified minimum frequency. A radial tree layout is used in WebPatterns to visualise the static structure of the organisational web site. The structure of the web site is laid out radially, with the home page in the middle and other pages positioned in circles at various levels around it. Colour and other visual cues are used to show the results of the WUM algorithms. User testing was used to determine the effectiveness and usefulness of WebPatterns for visualising web usage patterns. The results of the user testing clearly show that the participants were highly satisfied with the visual design and information provided by WebPatterns. All the participants also indicated that they would like to use WebPatterns in the future. Analysis of the web usage patterns presented by WebPatterns was used to determine that the information architecture of the CS&IS web site can be restructured to better facilitate information retrieval. Changes to the CS&IS web site web were suggested, included placing embedded hyperlinks on the home page to the frequently accessed sections of the web site.

The purpose of this thesis was to explore socially constructed discursive barriers to physical activity for people with physical disabilities. This research was informed by a critical disability studies framework. Eight interviews were conducted, split between end-users and stakeholders. The end-user article discusses their perspectives with regard to their own PA participation, their use of PA resources, and their views of how disability is constructed. The stakeholder article deals with their views with regard to Canada’s progress in creating inclusive PA guidelines, the research process as it effects people with physical disabilities, and how disability is constructed. The results showed awareness among both groups of the social model of disability, but that the medical model is still firmly rooted. Work is needed to create inclusive promotional materials and disseminate them effectively. An effective advocacy and lobbying effort was suggested as one avenue towards a possible solution to this issue.

Road with transit traffic in urban areas entails meeting between relatively high-speed vehicle traffic and unprotected road users in a residential environment. In Sweden there are many, small and large urban areas that are crossed by roads in their central parts. These roads can cause traffic at relatively high speed to affect and create problems for the residential environment in the urban area. Roads in urban areas become problematic in relation to safety because traffic is to interact with unprotected road users. With the citizens' movement pattern as a starting point, this study illustrates how the design of the road can be adapted to the citizens to reduce the risk of accidents. The aim of this study was to investigate the unprotected road users' experience and movement patterns in the road environment at Storgatan in the urban area Robertsfors. The focus is on safety for the unprotected road users and to provide suggestions to improve safety. This study had a qualitative design and based on observation of movement's patterns among people using Storgatan as well as eight semi-structured interviews. The result showed that unprotected road users, expressed the need to reduce the speed of vehicles early in the urban area, to clearly visualize and protect unprotected road users and the importance of the road being part of the urban area and not a transit road. It also emerged that vehicle traffic has a prominent role in urban environment and should be questioned, as the urban area should be perceived as a safe and attractive environment for the residents. The interaction between vehicle traffic and unprotected road users is clearly unequal based on the results of this study.

This thesis focuses on the issue of personalization of concrete project. The main goal of the thesis is to broaden this real project, which is dealing with offering study materials to students, with elements of personalization in order to become more useful for its visitors - thanks to displaying of relevant information to each visitor separately. Thesis gives detailed description of the whole implementation process, which was necessary for achievement of this particular state.

This qualitative study uses narrative analysis to explore the outcomes of information seeking and use among public library users. Twelve women between the ages of 51 and 72, all residents of Fayetteville, Arkansas who self-identified as regular library users, were interviewed to gather their life stories and their experiences using the public library. The participants in this study used information to enable learning and, often, a change in their affective state. The participants used the new information they encountered constructively, to engage with the knowledge and experience they possessed; this use of information always involved reflection, dialogue, or both. The outcomes from these actions are the creation of new knowledge, a change in the participants' meaning schemes, and/or an affective change. In addition, the narratives strongly suggest that information seeking and use by adults in public libraries can sometimes facilitate or, on its own, precipitate a perspective transformation and the adoption of new meanings. Overall, the findings support Mezirow's theory of transformative learning as a model for understanding information use and outcomes among users of the public library. The major implications of this study are two-fold. One, it introduces to information science Mezirow's theory of transformative learning which could provide greater understanding of how adults use information, and the outcomes that arise from this use. Two, it provides library professionals with information about the library in the lives of their users and concrete information about how libraries can enable transformative learning.

A tese propõe-se a analisar e a interpretar a representação social do usuário sobre a assistência social. Para tanto, foi utilizada a metodologia dos círculos epistemológicos, inspirados na teoria pedagógica dos círculos de cultura de Paulo Freire, que procura superar a dicotomia entre pesquisador-pesquisando. Como nos círculos de cultura, os pesquisandos participam ativamente do processo de pesquisa. Foram realizados nove círculos epistemológicos com os usuários, em três Centros de Referência de Assistência Social – CRAS de Porto Alegre RS, três em cada CRAS. Após a realização dos nove círculos epistemológicos, todas as informações foram transcritas, lidas, categorizadas a partir de sua dimensão semântica e analisadas à luz da Teoria das Representações Sociais. Da análise dos dados, foram construídos mapas representacionais com as categorias e subcategorias que revelaram os elementos centrais que constituem tal representação. Os resultados foram interpretados a partir de aportes teóricos de autores que trabalharam temáticas ligadas à assistência social. As contribuições dos usuários pesquisandos foram levadas em consideração na produção final da tese. A tese compõe-se de quatro capítulos organizados em forma de artigo. O primeiro apresenta o referencial teórico das representações sociais e discute a metodologia dos círculos epistemológicos mostrando as conexões entre eles. O segundo artigo, também teórico, trata da formação do Estado brasileiro e como sua estruturação influenciou as políticas de assistência social. O terceiro apresenta os resultados empíricos da representação social da assistência social na perspectiva dos usuários. Tal representação apresenta-se como contraditória revelando duas dimensões centrais, uma ideológica e outra crítica. No quarto e último artigo, também empírico, é enfatizada uma dimensão específica da representação social que se destacou das informações colhidas e que se julgou oportuno aprofundá-la: a representação social que os usuários revelaram sobre si mesmos. Tal representação revelou duas dimensões contraditórias, mas inter-relacionadas: por um lado os usuários discriminam-se como “bons” e “maus”; por outro, se reconhecem como iguais pertencentes a um mesmo grupo social e deixam entrever sinais de solidariedade, que oferece condições para a emergência de uma cidadania para além dos direitos. / The dissertation proposes to analyze and interpret the social representation of the user about social assistance. The methodology of epistemological circles inspired by the educational theory of cultural circles of Paulo Freire was used, which seeks to overcome the dichotomy between researcher and research subject. As in the circles of culture, the research subjects actively participate in the research process. Nine epistemological circles were conducted with users in three reference centers of Social Assistance-CRAS of Porto Alegre RS, three in each CRAS. After the completion of the nine epistemological circles , all the information was transcribed, read, categorized from its semantic dimension and analyzed in the light of the theory of social representations. From the data analysis, representational maps were constructed with the categories and subcategories which revealed the central elements that constitute such representation. The results were interpreted from theoretical contributions of authors who worked on welfare-related themes. Research subject users ' contributions were taken into consideration in the production end of the dissertation. The dissertation consists of four chapters arranged in article form. The first presents the theoretical framework of social representations and discusses the methodology of the epistemological circles demonstrating the connections between them. The second article, also theoretical, deals with the formation of the Brazilian State and how its structure influenced the policies of social assistance. The third presents the empirical results of social representation of social assistance from the perspective of the users. Such representation is presented as contradictory revealing two central dimensions, an ideological one and another critical one. In the fourth and last article, also empirical, emphasized a specific dimension of social representation that stood out from the information collected which was deemed appropriate to deepen into: social representation that users reveal about themselves. Such representation revealed two contradictory but interrelated dimensions: on the one hand users discriminate as "good" and "bad"; on the other, recognize each other as equals belonging to the same social group and they see signs of solidarity, which provides conditions for the emergence of a citizenship beyond rights.

Smart homes are a growing digital phenomenon worldwide. It is widely used in everyday life by many people and the number of users increases significantly the more the area develops. The smart home contributes to many advantages both from an environmental perspective and from a comfort perspective, but as with most digital solutions, smart homes also have a backside, in the form of security problems. There are many risks associated with using a smart home, and the purpose of the study is to find out to what extent the individuals are aware of the risks associated with smart homes, and to find out which risks affect the individuals the most, based on their own point of view. The questions underlying the study are as follows: "To what extent is the individual aware of the risks associated with smart homes?" and "What risks have the greatest impact on the individual?". In order to answer these questions, the study has been carried out through a quantitative method in which a questionnaire was designed, the survey presented, among other things, the risks that were chosen from the theory where we asked the respondents how conscious they are about these risks. The result shows that the majority of respondents are aware that there are risks with smart homes. The study shows that the greatest knowledge existed about the risks of eavesdropping and traffic analysis, even for those who were not users of smart homes and regardless of age group. As for the other risks, it is users of smart homes who have the greatest knowledge about the risks and also individuals aged 30-39. Eavesdropping is the risk that the individuals consider to be the most and least serious risk. Future research in the field can be to find out how the users protect themselves against the risks and to carry out a similar study with a qualitative method to get more nuanced answers.

This thesis critically investigates how female and male opioid users are represented in local newspapers in Ohio, one of the states which has been most severely affected by the ongoing ‘opioid crisis’ in the United States. Through an analysis of 20 articles from the The Plain Dealer and The Columbus Dispatch, the study aims to highlight how women and men who use opioids are portrayed, and what ideologies are hidden in the texts. Guided by Fairclough’s framework for critical discourse analysis and van Dijk’s sociocognitive approach, the analysis was performed on three levels: text-level, whereby journalists’ word choices, contextualisation and linguistic emphasis were studied; discursive level, which focused on processes involved in the production and consumption of the news pieces, and; sociocultural level, which entailed analysing historical and current developments of drug policy locally and nationally. The study finds that journalists downplay the seriousness of (white) male opioid use by calling men by their nicknames, by portraying them as ‘mischievous’ and by using jokey undertones when referring to their drug use. Female opioid use is constructed as abnormal by use of words such as ‘erratic’ and ‘unruly’ and women are discursively penalised for failing in their roles as caregivers to children. This thesis exemplifies how language use by local journalists’ in Ohio reinforces societal perceptions of male and female opioid users, which may influence counteractive measures by authorities.

En el presente proyecto de la bebida Mood-On, que está hecha a base de papas y frutos exóticos, se muestra su sostenibilidad a través de los distintos análisis realizados en Lima Metropolitana. Asimismo, este producto va dirigido hacia los sectores socioeconómicos A, B, C y que se encuentren en el rango de edad de 18 a 24 años. Del mismo modo, podemos indicar que, si bien hay una presencia consistente de bebidas RTD en el mercado peruano, los consumidores no se identifican con los productos ya establecidos. Por consiguiente, podemos mencionar que el mercado limeño tiene una necesidad que no ha sido satisfecha; ya sea por falta de sabores u otro factor clave. En adición a esto, para la realización del trabajo, se desarrollaron entrevistas a los usuarios para ratificar el nivel de aceptación del producto, a su vez, se hizo contacto con las licorerías a través de medios tradicionales y no tradicionales para la estimación de las ventas. Asimismo, se contactó con un ingeniero de alimentos para la elaboración de la receta, puesto que se ha tenido que considerar diferentes aspectos con respecto a la bebida RTD. Finalmente, se ha requerido para la inversión un total de S/27,261.72 para que se puedan iniciar las actividades de producción y la utilidad neta que se generará en el primer año es de39,186.95 nuevos soles, 60,913.85 nuevos soles en el segundo año y para el tercer año ascendería a 613,802.47 nuevos soles. / In the present project of the Mood-On drink, which is made from potatoes and exotic fruits, its sustainability is shown through the different analyzes carried out in Metropolitan Lima. Likewise, this product is aimed at socioeconomic sectors A, B, C, and that are in the age range of 18 to 24 years. Similarly, we can indicate that although there is a consistent presence of RTD beverages in the Peruvian market, consumers do not identify with the already established products. Therefore, we can mention that the Lima market has a need that has not been met; either for lack of flavors or another key factor. In addition to this, to carry out the work, interviews were carried out with users to ratify the level of acceptance of the product, in turn, contact was made with the liquor stores through traditional and non-traditional means for estimating sales. Likewise, a food engineer was contracted to prepare the recipe, since different aspects of the RTD drink had to be considered. Finally, a total of S /. 27,261.72 so that production activities can begin and the net profit that will be generated in the first year is –S/39,186.95, S/60,913.85 in the second year and for the third year it would amount to S/613,802.47 / Trabajo de investigación