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This dissertation investigates the nature and management of information infrastructure risks in organizations. Specifically, it examines how practitioners identify and manage threats towards their organizational aims, and suggests ways of achieving sustainable risk management, in settings characterized by the integration of information technology (IT) and organizational processes. The dissertation is motivated by the difficulties organizations encounter when attempting to leverage IT as an organizational resource and the observation that IT projects have high rates of failure despite three decades of research on and practice of risk management in Information Systems (IS). Three aspects of the underlying logic of existing research and practice on IS risk management are challenged: (1) the infrastructural character of IT is suggested to be consequential for organizational risk management, however not recognized by either IS research on risk or risk experts, (2) risk management is enacted within and across practices beyond the boundaries of formal risk management models, and subsequently, (3) risks are increasingly emergent rather than predictable. To investigate such risks and risk management processes the studies in the dissertation build on information infrastructure theory and practice theory and a qualitative approach. As the role of IT in organizations has changed significantly over the last decades, so has both practice and research concerned with IT related risks. Research on risk in the field of IS has thus come to encompass a large variety of levels of analysis, risk levels and dimensions, organizational processes and research approaches. An analysis of the extant literature shows that despite this richness, it still does not account, or offer support, for situations characterized by a high degree of uncertainty and equivocality. In these kinds of situations, risks are typically emergent and cannot be identified or managed by the prescriptions found within the IS discourse. However, emergence has long been recognized as a characteristic of the organizational consequences of information technology. Paradoxically, while most IS scholars would recognize the socio-technical, or even sociomaterial, nature of IT, it has had little impact on research on risk in our field. A key argument in this dissertation is that theories of technology and organizational change within IS are equally valid for practice and research on IT related risk and risk management. Information infrastructure theory has been influential in improving our understanding of the changing nature and role of contemporary IT in organizational processes. It highlights the infrastructural character of IT, technological agency, and the entanglement of IT and organizational practices. Grounded in information infrastructure theory, this dissertation examines how practitioners identify, assess, prioritize and resolve risk in their everyday organizational practices. While risk has been used as a concept to characterize the underlying logic of information infrastructure evolution, scant attention has been paid to the particularities of risk emergence and operational risk management practices. As such, existing IS research on risk management explains why risk emerges but not how. The notion of practice has recently gained momentum in the IS field for its usefulness as an analytical lens in approaching complex, dynamic and emergent phenomena, and it is reflective of information infrastructure theory in its fundamental ontological and epistemological assumptions. All of the papers included in this dissertation build, to varying degrees, on information infrastructure theory and a practice approach. The dissertation contributes new knowledge to research on information infrastructure risk and risk management in IS by theorizing information infrastructure risk as emergent, interstitial, and rooted in practice and sociomaterial contexts.

Prescription medicine samples are a product based promotion designed to facilitate brand switching or uptake of a new product. Marketing of pharmaceuticals differs from other products since the primary decision maker (doctor) is not the ultimate consumer (patient). Marketing of medicines also has an overlay of government regulations and political influence. It is argued whether free samples of prescription medicines provided to doctors constitute a “gift” or a trial quantity with which to initiate therapy and test patient tolerance of the drug concerned. Either way, samples are an integral part of the prescription medicine marketing tapestry and they have become woven into the “fabric” of drug promotion. The international literature abounds with papers describing pharmaceutical promotion and myriads of surveys obtaining prescribers’ opinions about pharmaceutical promotion. Few studies have been conducted or reported to ascertain the reasons behind the opinions expressed as disagreement/agreement scales to specific statements. Interventions to alter practice targeting alternative methods of distribution of samples (rather than direct from company to prescriber) are also rare; therefore the aim of this research was to qualitatively explore opinions regarding samples to develop an intervention to ensure samples do not have an adverse effect on prescribing practice and to test the model in a practice environment. In order to assess the place of samples within the totality of pharmaceutical promotion, a model was derived from the literature and tested with a hypothetical, but realistic practice-based scenario. This highlighted the interplay between the various methods involved in pharmaceutical promotion, their target audiences and the potential interplay and synergism that could be achieved through a co-ordinated campaign. Quantification of the expenditure on samples was also required in the Australian context to assess the potential impact of interventions targeting this promotional mode. Samples were found to account for approximately 5% of the total marketing spend in Australia. No clear relationship could be found between sample expenditure and drug sales, utilizing data on the proton pump inhibitor therapeutic class. However, a pattern of decaying spending was found between the amount spent on samples per unit pack dispensed and the time a product had been available on the market. A range of interested parties were then interviewed to gain their opinions about free prescription medicine samples. The interviews were split into two groups: consumers, pharmacists and practicing general practitioners (GPs) provided an operational level focus, while a range of key informants from organisations involved in Quality Use of Medicines in Australia provided a strategic overview. The transcripts of the focus groups and interviews were qualitatively analysed to extract key themes which were quite similar. Examples included ‘pay’ in the operational group compared to ‘cost’ in the strategic group. These concepts express a similar sentiment, yet ‘pay’ is a more personal action whereas ‘cost’ does not imply who must meet the financial outlay. These resultant themes formed the basis of the intervention developed to pilot in a practice environment to assess its practicality for wider study. In addition to the extensive interview process, a mail survey was conducted in three divisions (geographical groupings) of general practice. Each family doctor (General Practitioner (GP)) and community pharmacist within the divisions received a questionnaire to gather their opinions about samples. This was the first time GPs and pharmacists had been surveyed simultaneously to gather comparative results. No differences were found between the metropolitan division and the accumulated results from the two regional divisions. Pharmacists and GPs differed predominantly in their perceptions of promotional influence of samples, appropriateness of self use and meeting legal requirements for labelling dispensed medicines. These factors were incorporated in the pilot study design. An action research methodology was utilised to assess the practicality of community pharmacist dispensing of starter packs for antihypertensives and antidepressants in two regional GP practices in Queensland, Australia. In this pilot study, a total of 32 starter packs were prescribed to 31 patients over the four months of the intervention period, with 29 (91%) dispensed at a study pharmacy and 17 (53%) of subsequent full prescriptions able to be tracked through Medicare Australia data or the study pharmacies. Antidepressants comprised the majority of prescriptions (n=16, 55%) Each of the 29 patients who received a starter pack completed a patient survey which demonstrated high levels of support (n=22, 76%) for the model in the pilot. GPs and pharmacists involved in the pilot were also generally supportive of the pilot model. In conclusion, opinions held about free prescription medicine samples by a wide range of apparently disparate groups show similar themes and community pharmacist involvement in dispensing starter (or sample) packs has general acceptance. The model piloted in this research was applicable in daily practice for general practitioners and community pharmacists in Australia. Consumers accepted the pilot model as an acceptable change to current procedures. The research presented in this thesis provides a solid foundation for development of a more widespread trial for dispensing of all prescription medicine starter packs through community pharmacies to be rigorously evaluated in Australia.

This is a film practice PhD investigating how selfhood, love and responsibility within couple and family units are conveyed, imagined or problematized in contemporary cinema and how the properties of screen fiction can be used to explore contemporary parental experience. The research project incorporates an original feature screenplay (Nuclear) and short film (Inhabit) which were developed in parallel to, and informed by, the theoretical research in the accompanying critical thesis. Chapter One explores how parenthood, with an emphasis on motherhood, might be imagined by non or aspiring parents, and what anxieties or desires are expressed through these imaginings. Miranda July’s The Future (2010) and Joanna Hogg’s Unrelated (2006) are placed in dialogue with Inhabit (2014) in an examination of the slippage of generational identity experienced by the characters as they struggle with the prospect of impending or denied parenthood. Chapter Two concentrates of evocations of the everyday as it intersects with stories of family life. Drawing from cultural theorists of the everyday including Giard, de Certeau and Highmore, I examine why and how we might attend to the everyday on screen. Taking Henri Lefebvre’s notion of ‘rhythmanalysis’ as a tool with which to analyse Michael Winterbottom’s Everyday (2012), Joanna Hogg’s Archipelago (2010) and Nuclear, I explore how rhythm and patterns of repetition and difference can embody and communicate experiences of domestic relationships and the everyday. In Chapter Three, I analyse spectator engagement via character, and look at how Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation (2011), Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale (2005) and Nuclear utilise a multi-protagonist structure to create a democracy within the narrative. Through a symbiotic approach to theory and practice and a focus on British middle-class subjects, I have sought to investigate parallel drives within couple and family units and to accomplish a balance between the demands of drama and a desire to describe the everyday.

An isometric, zero-order (position), one dimensional pursuit tracking task was used to investigated the effects of alterations in the speed of target movement and the control/response ratio (C/R ratio) on human tracking performance. The speed of target movement was varied through different frequency sine-wave forcing functions. The C/R ratio was controlled by varying the force level required to track the target. This required force level was individually tailored I with force levels scaled to the isometric maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) of elbow extension for each subject. It was hypothesized that higher frequencies of forcing function (5 levels) and higher required force levels (5 levels) would result in degraded tracking performance. The dependent variable investigated was absolute tracking error as a proportion of the required force level for the trial. Results revealed significant main effects for both Frequency and Force, but not for any of the two- or three-way interactions. The trend was linear for Frequency, with superior tracking occurring at slower frequencies. The effect of Force level was modelled using a second-order polynomial, indicating that superior tracking occurred at the middle required force levels. Regression analysis provided a predicted optimal force level of approximately 65% extension MVC. Subjective mental workload evaluations using the Modified Cooper-Harper scale showed similar results. Results are interpreted with regards to selecting optimum system gains for human manual control. / Master of Science

Electronic medical record databases (e.g. the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, CPRD) are increasingly used in epidemiological research. The CPRD has two formats of data: coded, which is the sole format used in almost all research; and free-text (or ‘hidden’), which may contain much clinical information but is generally unavailable to researchers. This thesis examines the ramifications of omitting free-text records from research. Cases with bladder (n=4,915) or pancreatic (n=3,635) cancer were matched to controls (n=21,718, bladder; n=16,459, pancreas) on age, sex and GP practice. Coded and text-only records of attendance for haematuria, jaundice and abdominal pain in the year before cancer diagnosis were identified. The number of patients whose entire attendance record for a symptom/sign existed solely in the text was quantified. Associations between recording method (coded or text-only) and case/control status were estimated (χ2 test). For each symptom/sign, the positive predictive value (PPV, Bayes' Theorem) and odds ratio (OR, conditional logistic regression) for cancer were estimated before and after supplementation with text-only records. Text-only recording was considerable, with 7,951/20,958 (37%) of symptom records being in that format. For individual patients, text-only recording was more likely in controls (140/336=42%) than cases (556/3,147=18%) for visible haematuria in bladder cancer (χ2 test, p<0.001), and for jaundice (21/31=67% vs 463/1,565=30%, p<0.0001) and abdominal pain (323/1,126=29% vs 397/1,789=22%, p<0.001) in pancreatic cancer. Adding text records reduced PPVs of visible haematuria for bladder cancer from 4.0% (95% CI: 3.5–4.6%) to 2.9% (2.6–3.2%) and of jaundice for pancreatic cancer from 12.8% (7.3–21.6%) to 6.3% (4.5–8.7%). Coded records suggested that non-visible haematuria occurred in 127/4,915 (2.6%) cases, a figure below that generally used for study. Supplementation with text-only records increased this to 312/4,915 (6.4%), permitting the first estimation of its OR (28.0, 95% CI: 20.7–37.9, p<0.0001) and PPV (1.60%, 1.22–2.10%, p<0.0001) for bladder cancer. The results suggest that GPs make strong clinical judgements about the probable significance of symptoms – preferentially coding clinical features they consider significant to a diagnosis, while using text to record those that they think are not.

There has long been a concern about the research-practice gap within Library and Information Science (LIS). Several authors have highlighted the disconnection between the world of professional practice, interested in service and information system development, and the world of the academy, focused on the development of theory and the progress of the discipline. A virtual organization, such as a collaboratory, might support collaboration between LIS professionals and academics in research, potentially transforming the way research between these two groups is undertaken. The purpose of this study was to examine how sociotechnical aspects of work organization influence the initiation, development, and conclusion of collaboration between LIS academics and professionals in distributed research projects. The study examined the development of three collaborative projects from the start to completion in two countries, Italy and another European country. The data analysis aimed at deriving implications for the further development of theory on remote scientific collaboration, and for the design of a sustainable collaboratory to support small-scale, distributed research projects between LIS academics and professionals. The research design, data collection, and data analysis were informed by Actor- Network-Theory (ANT), in particular by Callon’s model of translation of interests. Qualitative interviews and analysis of literary inscriptions formed the key sources of data for the three case studies. The analysis of how and why collaborations between LIS academics and professionals initiated and developed revealed that the initial motivation to pursue collaboration has to do with the lack of economic and organizational resources on either or both sides, and with a genuine interest in a topic by both academics and professionals. The case studies in this study were decentralized and bottom-up projects in which LIS academics and professionals pursued collaboration because they had a genuine interest in a given topic and not because they were mandated by their employers, or they hoped to be acknowledged and promoted by them on the basis of their participation in the project. Market conditions and/or institutional pressures did not exert much influence on the start and development of these collaborations, although one project was influenced by political considerations and funding conditions in healthcare. The patterns emerged from the findings of the three cases underpin the development of a sociotechnical framework aimed at providing a better understanding of remote collaboration between academics and professionals not only in LIS but also in other fields affected by the research-practice gap. / <p>Akademisk avhandling som med tillstånd av samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten vid Göteborgs universitet för vinnande av doktorsexamen framläggs till offentlig granskning kl. 13.15 torsdagen den 29 april 2010, i hörsal C203, Högskolan i Borås, Allégatan 1, Borås.</p>

Im Rahmen der aktuellen Debatte über Veränderungen im Schulsystem rückt auch die Lehramtsausbildung stärker in den Fokus universitärer und öffentlicher Diskussionen. Um Unterricht und Schule weiterzuentwickeln, bedarf es, nach Ansicht des Autors, kompetenter Lehrkräfte, welche reflexiv und forschungsgeleitet ihre Arbeit als einen permanenten Entwicklungsprozess betrachten. Das „Praxisforschen“ ist eine Form des Lehrens und Lernens, mittels dessen die Hochschullehre verbessert werden kann und Lehramtsstudierende gut auf die zukünftigen Anforderungen als Lehrende vorbereitet werden. „Praxisforschen“ bedeutet, anhand konkreter Forschungsfragen Schule und/oder die eigene Unterrichtstätigkeit weiterzuentwickeln. Studierende durchlaufen hierzu einen typischen Forschungsprozess, vom Entwickeln einer Fragestellung bis zur Auswertung und Darstellung der Ergebnisse. Der Artikel beschreibt die Umsetzung des Praxisforschens, wie es momentan in den Begleitseminaren zum Praxissemester an der Universität Potsdam durchgeführt wird und gibt praktische Hinweise für das forschende Lernen mit Studierenden. / The current debate about changes in the school system also approaches teachers' education in public and university discussions. From the author's point of view it is crucial to have competent teachers who are reflexive thus research conducted and acknowledge their work as a permanent process of development, in order to enhance the school and the classes. The "practice research" is a way of teaching and learning by which the higher education can be improved and student teachers are properly prepared for their future as teachers. "Practice research" depicts a course through the typical process of a research project, from the development of the question to the evaluation and the presentation of the (ascertained) results. This article describes the practical implementation of the practice research as it is executed at the University of Potsdam and provides practical hints for working with students.

Given the accessibility of media devices available to us today and utilising van Leeuwen's concept of inscription and synthesis as a guide, this thesis explores the practice of re-presenting a domestic material object, the Croxley Recipe Book, into digital media. Driven by a creative practice research method, but also utilising materiality, digital storytelling practices and modality as important conceptual frames, this project was fundamentally experimental in nature. A materiality-framed content analysis, interpreted through cultural analysis, initially unraveled some of the cookbook's significance and contextualised it within a particular time of New Zealand's cultural history. Through the expressive and anecdotal practice of digital storytelling the cookbook's significance was further negotiated, especially as the material book was engaged with through the affective and experiential digital medium of moving-image. A total of six digital film works were created on an accompanying DVD, each of which represents some of the cookbook's significance but approached through different representational strategies. The Croxley Recipe Book Archive Film and Pav. Bakin' with Mark are archival documentaries, while Pav is more expressive and aligned with the digital storytelling form. Spinning Yarns and Tall Tales, a film essay, engages and reflects with the multiple processes and trajectories of the project, while Extras and The Creative Process Journal demonstrate the emergent nature of the research. The written thesis discusses the emergent nature of the research process and justifies the conceptual underpinning of the research.

The aim of this study was to investigate the production of knowledge that can emerge in the use of Practice Research by Mirror method. This by finding out what it is in the practical work that leads to the production of knowledge and how knowledge production takes form. The empirical data that form the basis for this study is recorded group within the Mirror method discussions and a focus group interview with social workers who participated in the discussions. Those who have participated are social workers with experience from working with financial aid support and only real cases have been used in the discussions. The results have been analyzed according to Lipsky's theory of street-level bureaucracy and their discretion and Fook and Gardner´s theory of critical reflection. The results of the study show that evaluation and review of a difficult work using critical reflection as a tool and a reflexive approach leads to the development of the practical work.