Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 226-235).

<p>Information assurance (IA) is about protecting key attributes of information and the data systems. Treating IA as a system, it is appropriate to consider the three major elements of any system: <i>people</i>, <i> processes</i>, and <i>tools</i>. While IA tools exist in the form of hardware and software, tools alone cannot assure key information attributes. IA procedures and the people that must follow those procedures are also part of the system. There is no argument that people do not follow IA procedures. A review of the literature showed that not only is there no general consensus on why people do not follow IA procedures, no discovered studies simply asked people their reasons. Published studies addressed reasons for non-compliance, but always within a framework of any one of several assumed theories of human performance. The study described here took a first small step by asking a sample from an under-studied population, users of U.S. federal government information systems, why they have failed to comply with two IA procedures related to password management, and how often. The results may lay the groundwork for extending the same methodology across a range of IA procedures, eventually suggesting new approaches to motivating people, modifying procedures, or developing tools to better meet IA goals. In the course of the described study, an unexpected result occurred. The study plan had included comparing the data for workers with and without IA duties. However, almost all of the respondents in the survey declared having IA duties. Consideration of a comment by a pilot study participant brought the realization that IA awareness programs emphasizing universal responsibility for information security may have caused the unexpected responses. The study conclusions address suggestions for refining the question in future studies. </p><p> <i>Keywords</i>: information assurance, cyber security, compliance, systems engineering, self-efficacy, password </p>

Most of the time we are not passively viewing scenes but want to extract behaviourally relevant information. In addition, objects do not often occur in isolation outside the visual scientist’s laboratory but are embedded in complex visual scenes. If the brain is to be adaptive, it needs to process visual information with regards to its context. Thus perception is not purely determined by the specific input to the retina but depends on the surrounding scene, objects, attention, memory, prior knowledge, expectations and predictions. Traditionally, the visual system in the human brain has been viewed as having a hierarchical organisation with signals travelling in one direction: input from the eyes arrives at "lower" order areas, which then transmit their computations to "higher" order areas. As one moves up the hierarchy, visual areas code more complex and more abstract information, and after the final processing stage, the system gives an output. However, in reality things are not so simple. In fact, in the primary visual cortex (V1), which is one of the first visual processing stages in the brain, external stimuli constitute less than 10% of the total input. The rest of the input originates from internal connections, either within V1 itself or via signals arriving from "higher" areas, back down to V1. In this way, "higher" areas can tell "lower" ones about the bigger picture and the neighbouring elements. This internal processing in the brain is the mechanism which provides context and enriches the information reaching us from the external world. The signals arriving to V1 from the retina are referred to as feedforward, while the signals going in the opposite direction, from higher areas back to V1, are called feedback. Each neuron responds to its preferred stimulus in a specific region of the visual field, called the receptive field. Feedforward signals act on the central region of a neuron’s receptive field, while feedback signals act on a larger surround region and thus are able to inform the centre about the surrounding context. However, it is not well established which aspects of the surrounding scene define these contextual interactions. This thesis investigated the influence of the scene surround on feedback to V1. We aimed to establish how the scene surround contributes to informative feedback signals. An introduction about what is already known regarding the function of feedback and the information it transmits is provided in Chapter 1. I give an overview of the previous studies which highlight the various contextual roles of feedback, such as perceptual grouping, contour and object completion, expectation, attention and prediction, as well as being the mechanism allowing visual imagery. Chapter 2 aimed to address whether feedback provides coarse or fine-grained information about the surrounding scene. Since during normal viewing both feedback and feedforward signals are present, we investigated feedback signals in isolation by using a partial occlusion paradigm to remove meaningful feedforward input in a specific region of the scene. We filtered the scene surrounding the occluded region into a fine-grained and a coarse version. We also varied how much information was shared between the fine-grained and coarse version of the same scene. This was done to investigate whether the information feedback carried was tightly tuned to the spatial scale of the surrounding scene, or whether the information it contained was similar across the two types of the scene surround. We found that the feedback contained signals about both coarse and fine-grained surrounds, but there was also some overlap between these feedback signals. In addition, we found that the feedback information did not correspond to a direct "filling-in" of the missing feedforward input, suggesting that feedback and feedforward signals represent the scene in different ways. In Chapter 3 we took a closer look at the amount of meaningful scene surround that is necessary to elicit informative feedback signals. The results showed that increasing the amount of scene information in the surround resulted in more meaningful feedback signals. We confirmed our earlier finding that the feedback information in the occluded region is dissimilar to the corresponding feedforward input when the feedforward region is isolated from the scene surround. Adding the scene surround to the feedforward stimulus increased this feedback/feedforward similarity. Overall, these findings point to the notion that feedback signals combine with feedforward input under normal visual processing. Isolated feedforward input in the absence of the surround provides V1 neurons with impoverished information. Neighbouring elements of the scene or its overall global structure can be sources of context. In Chapter 4 we explored which regions of the scene surround contribute the most to the contextual feedback signals arriving at V1 – is this limited to only local neighbouring regions or does the feedback directly contain information about the overall global image structure, taking into account distant retinotopic regions as well? In the first experiment, we used simple global structures made up of four Gabor elements and showed that such simplistic shapes failed to induce contextual feedback into the occluded region. However, in the presence of feedforward information, we saw that feedback from the local surround combined with identical feedforward input to give rise to different activity patterns in that feedforward region. This suggests that feedback may be recruited differentially depending on whether feedforward stimulation is present or absent. In the second experiment, we used natural scenes and tested whether contextual feedback can originate from a distant retinotopic region in the situation when the local scene surround was not informative. We manipulated scene information in a distant retinotopic region (in the opposite hemisphere) while keeping the local neighbouring surround information the same. The results showed a lack of meaningful feedback in the occluded region, and that feedback from the distant surround had a negligible effect on the identical feedforward information, in contrast to the finding obtained previously with the local surround. These findings suggest that feedback preferentially originates from nearby regions and provides context to disambiguate local feedforward elements. Therefore context about the global scene structure may arise from a series of local surround interactions. Chapter 5 summarises these findings and discusses the overarching themes regarding the content of feedback and its role in full visual processing. At the end, I propose some future research directions.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-207). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Since the second half of twentieth century, the economic value of scientific work produced in academic settings has been increased, the terms of &lsquo / Science Park&rsquo / , &lsquo / Technopark&rsquo / , &lsquo / Technopole&rsquo / and &lsquo / Technoburb&rsquo / are appeared. And these settlements attempt to stimulate and promote further use of the knowledge on a certain part of studies that can be put in commercial use. Consequently, the need for concerning the relations in between these technopark settings -within the university settings- and the social network they constitute occurred. This need brought new aspects in &lsquo / architecture of knowledge&rsquo / into consideration and found its reflection in the physical setting such as / the architectural spaces for innovation, and the social quality of spaces for the spatial performance issues. This spatial point of view is the issue that the study considers through the methodology of spatial data analysis based over social sciences. The study consigns the initial proposition of the analysis on the relationship between the spatial organization of the Technopark and its communal networks in spatial, communal and virtual mediums. The second proposition is the relationships whether in the consequence this relationship form spatial typologies or not. The focus of the study is a socio-spatial analysis of the interior public spaces of communal interaction within the technology producing factories, named as &ldquo / Technoparks&rdquo / . The study is basically circumscribed within the borders of the case / METU Technopolis&rsquo / s public or common spaces.

This thesis summarises a selection of forty-two studies [1-42], published by the author during the period 2000-2012, investigating the conceptual basis of Insomnia Disorder, and its evaluation and treatment, principally using cognitive and behavioural interventions. The work reflects a range of research methodologies including experimental, psychometric, qualitative and population-based studies, and randomised controlled trials. Important theoretical contributions to the literature published in this period are also included and reference is made to major textbooks, position papers, and influential chapter contribution.

This dissertation investigates the nature by which social class membership and identity figure in judgements of transition institutions for the citizens of post-communist Central and Eastern Europe. Using a unique dataset and a series of novel conceptual frameworks, it argues that social class is, in effect, an operationalisation of socioeconomic risk and vulnerability-a premise from which several important implications derive. Drawing on social identity theory, it presents and tests a model of self-conceptualisation, grounded in the belief that individuals variously identify with their social classes, depending on their perceptions of shared socioeconomic risk. From this, it follows that strong identifiers should derive more relevant information about the emerging market system from class-level economic experiences, and therefore accord these cues greater weight in judgements about transition institutions. Beyond testing this theory of interpersonal variation, it invokes signal detection theory from cognitive psychology to determine whether cross-group differences in economic vulnerability are responsible for observed class differentials in reliance on class-based economic cues. It then takes a wider view of class-based economic cognition by considering how the process of transition, itself, influenced the evaluative calculus of post-communist citizens. Building on cognitive mobilisation theory in political science, it is posited that on-going exposure to the prevailing economic system endows these citizens with the ability to link their class-level economic experiences to the effects of the market mechanism. The analysis largely supports the constituent hypotheses, as well as the larger notion that perceptions of shared socioeconomic risk led social class experiences to figure prominently in the minds of post-communist citizens.

Untersucht wurde die Auseinandersetzung um das Autobahnbauvorhaben A 17 Dresden - Prag zwischen 1990 und 1995 als ein Beispiel der Stadtentwicklung Dresdens. Seit 1935 als Reichsautobahn ins Sudetenland geplant, sollte dieses Verkehrsprojekt nach 1990 als „Lückenschluß im europäischen Autobahnnetz“ umgesetzt werden. Angesichts des hohen Konfliktpotentials erlangte der Fall überregionale Aufmerksamkeit und Beispielcharakter für die neuen Bundesländer. Die Kontroverse gipfelte im ersten Bürgerentscheid der Geschichte Dresdens im Jahre 1995. Das Entscheidungsprocedere wurde erstmals anhand der Theorie des Entscheidungsautismus (SCHULZ-HARDT, 1996) dargestellt. Daraus abgeleitet werden Wege zur Reduzierung von dessen Defiziten aufgezeigt. Dieser Fall wurde dazu aus umwelt-, sozial- und entscheidungspsychologischer Sicht im Hinblick auf die Repräsentation in verschiedenen gesellschaftlichen Gruppen, auf den politischen Kontext und die Partizipationsmöglichkeiten analysiert. Im Mittelpunkt standen dabei Strategien, Handlungsspielräume und Interessen sowie Werte- und Motivstrukturen beteiligter Entscheidungsträger. Die zugrundeliegenden gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen mit ihren Auswirkungen auf die Stadt- und Verkehrsplanung spiegelten Visionen, Interessenlagen und Machtverhältnisse wider und ermöglichten Rückschlüsse auf das Demokratie-, Stadt- und Naturverständnis der jeweiligen Akteure. Für den auf Übertragbarkeit zielenden Forschungsansatz hinsichtlich komplexer und folgenreicher Entscheidungsprozesse erwiesen sich Dresdner Beispiele als besonders geeignet, weil man hier auf eine fast mythologisch erscheinende Verklärung der Stadt und ihrer Geschichte trifft. Sie ist bis heute mit einer engagierten Anteilnahme der Bevölkerung an Stadtentwicklungsprozessen verknüpft. Nach der den Ruf einer europäischen Kunstmetropole begründenden Augustäischen Epoche (1694-1763) verlief die Großstadtwerdung dank vorbildlicher Bauordnungen relativ geordnet. Neben der hohen Baukultur sorgte die oft ideal wirkende Einbeziehung der Landschaft für das „Gesamtkunstwerk Dresden“. Ein Großteil dessen ging 1945 unter. Der Neuaufbau als sozialistische Stadt veränderte nahezu alles, was überkommen war. Dieses zweite Verlusttrauma bestimmt bis heute die Streitkultur im „Dresdner Bürgerinitiativen-Biotop“. Komplexität, Historizität sowie die Extraktion und Synthese interdisziplinärer Gegenstände in dieser Arbeit erforderten die Verwendung des qualitativen Forschungsansatzes unter besonderer Verwendung des Ansatzes des behavior setting (BARKER, 1975) und der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse (MAYRING, 1990). In der deutschen Tradition der Thematisierung kommunaler Entscheidungsprozesse in der lokalen Politikforschung stehend, konnten mit der literaturgestützten Annäherung aus Gebieten der Umwelt- und Entscheidungspsychologie, der Politikwissenschaft, Stadtökologie und des Verkehrs die wesentlichen Facetten und Perspektiven konfliktträchtigen Entscheidens im städtischen Kontext dargestellt werden. / In the work at hand, the controversial about the construction project of the motorway A17 from Dresden to Prague from 1990 to 1995 is investigated as an examplification for the urban evolution of the city of Dresden. Planned as German Reichsautobahn into the region of Sudeten Germany since 1935, this project was to be realised after 1990 as a “gap closing in the European motorway net”. Due to its high potential for conflicts, this project obtained supra-regional attention and became an example for the German New Laender. In 1995 the controvery culminated in the first referendum in the history of Dresden. This decision procedure was referred to the theory of “Entscheidungsautismus” (SCHULZ-HARDT, 1996). Based on this thesis, the present work will derive strategies concerning the reduction of its deficiencies. Moreover, this subject matter was analysed from an environmental, social and psychological point of view, taking into consideration its political context, how the case was represented in various relevant social groups and which opportunities of social participation the respective groups had. At this point, the strategies, latitudes of action, interests, values and motivation of the involved decision makers were in the centre of consideration. The underlying social reformations with their effects on urban and transport planning reflected perspectives, visions, interests and power structures, and thus enabled conclusions to the democratic, urban and environmental consciousness of the respective protagonists. Due to the almost mythological transfiguration of the city and its history, which, until this day, is connected to a dedicated commitment of the citizens for developmental processes of Dresden, this example from Dresden proved to be especially appropriate concerning its applicability of the scientific approach. After the Augustäische Epoche (1694- 1763) in which Dresden´s reputation as a European metropolis of fine arts was established, the creation of a major city proceeded relatively systematic, owing to an exemplary building regulation. The sophisticated architectural culture and the most of the times ideally inclusion of the surrounding nature lead to the holistic artwork Dresden used to be, a major part of which perished in 1945. The reconstruction as a socialist city deformed almost everything that was historical. This second trauma of deprivation, until this day, created and determines a culture of constructive controversy within the citizens´ initiatives of Dresden. The complexity, historicity as well as the extraction and synthesis of inter-disciplinary subject matters in the work at hand required the use of a qualitative paradigm, in particular the approach of Behavior Setting (BARKER, 1975) and the Qualitative Content Analysis (MAYRING, 1990). Based on the German tradition of communicating local developmental processes in the regional policy research and with the help of a literary exploration in the areas of environmental and decision making psychology, political science, and urban and transport ecology, this work displays the most fundamental facets and perspectives of controversial decisions in a municipal context.

In Sweden, Bachelard is mostly known for his works about poetry and literature, but he was also very productive in philosophy of science. Having studied engineering and taught physical sciences, his main writings in this field concern contemporary physics. He developed the idea of “epistemological rupture”, closely linked to the concept of “epistemological obstacle”. Those notions show science in its historicity and are linked to the idea of progress: a progress that strives not only towards a better approximation of reality, but that can also be seen as a progress of the scientific mind itself. Epistemological ruptures take place when epistemological obstacles are defeated. It is when an epistemological obstacle is met that the ways of thinking that prevents progress become visible; it needs to become an obstacle before we can get rid of it, which causes not only a more precise knowledge, but also a restructuration of the scientific mind. This way, epistemological rupture do not only refer to a historical process, but also to a psychological one. In The formation of the scientific mind, Bachelard shows, through examples taken from history of science, the path that each “scientific mind” has to travel. He analyses science with the aim of finding in its history a history of thought and of its progress: therefore, in The formation of the scientific mind, he gives the same status to the errors of the high school students, as to the ways of thinking that have impeded or slowed down sciences’ developments. By stressing the importance of history, Bachelard insists on the psychological aspects of the constitution of science: as much as it is absurd to try to understand an answer without knowing the question it replies to, it is not possible to cut knowledge from its context of emergence, or to understand an object of study without referring to the subject that constituted it. Thus, Bachelard emphasises the importance of the subject in science, but without making of science something subjective, or without falling into psychologism. The reference to the scientists’ subjectivity is not, for Bachelard, a way of questioning the validity of the scientific discourse; on the contrary, it is by describing science in terms of the scientist’s mind and psychology that Bachelard will find the grounds for science’s objectivity and its success. Bachelard shows science as a practice, as a training of the mind, as an effort involving a lot more than mere rationality, thereby destroying the myth of a universal reason as an underlying principle in the construction of science. / En Suède, Bachelard est surtout connu pour ses travaux sur la poésie et la littérature, mais il a été tout aussi productif en épistémologie. Ayant étudié et enseigné les sciences physiques, ses principaux écrits dans ce domaine concernent la physique contemporaine. Il a développé le concept de « rupture épistémologique », lié à celui d’ « obstacle épistémologique ». La notion d’obstacle épistémologique montre la science dans son historicité ; elle est liée à l’idée de progrès : un progrès qui recherche non seulement une meilleure approximation de la réalité, mais qui peut aussi être compris comme un progrès de l’esprit scientifique lui-même. Ce progrès est accompli lors de ruptures épistémologiques, c’est-à-dire lorsqu’un obstacle épistémologique est vaincu : c’est à ce moment que ce qui empêche la pensée d’avancer devient visible, ce qui cause non seulement une connaissance plus précise, mais aussi une restructuration de l’esprit scientifique.       De cette manière, le concept de rupture épistémologique ne réfère pas seulement à un processus historique, mais aussi à un processus psychologique. Dans La formation de l’esprit scientifique, Bachelard donne des exemples pris de l’histoire des sciences et montre, à travers elles, le cheminement que chaque « esprit scientifique » doit accomplir. Il analyse la science avec le but  de trouver dans son histoire, une histoire de la pensée et de ses progrès : c’est pour cela que Bachelard, dans son livre La formation de l’esprit scientifique, compare le développement des sciences au niveau historique avec l’apprentissage des sciences au niveau individuel, et fait souvent référence aux erreurs des lycéens autant qu’aux bévues historiques. Ainsi, Bachelard met en lumière l’aspect construit des sciences : pour autant qu’il soit absurde d’essayer de comprendre une réponse sans connaître la question à laquelle celle-ci répond, il est impossible de couper la connaissance de son contexte d’émergence, ou d’essayer de comprendre un objet d’étude sans référer au sujet qui l’a constitué. Il ne s’agit pas pour autant faire de la science quelque chose de subjectif ou de tomber dans le psychologisme. La référence à l’esprit du savant ou à l’intersubjectivité scientifique n’est pas, pour Bachelard, un moyen de questionner la validité du discours scientifique ; au contraire, c’est en décrivant la science grâce à la psychologie du savant que Bachelard montre la science comme une pratique, comme un entrainement de l’esprit, comme un effort impliquant bien plus que la simple rationalité, détruisant de ce fait le mythe d’une raison universelle comme principe sous-jacent de la construction des sciences.