The mobile era is well established and the number of smartphone users is showing exponential growth. The capability of smartphones and enabling technologies is also increasing and has opened many possibilities of personalized mobile services. The goal of personalization is to support the user by providing the right service at the rightmoment. Early focus of personalization was on content adaptations in different information systems. The new approaches of personalization are still needed for mobileservices as it is a compelling feature of mobile communication systems for both endusers and service providers.Personalization is providing a means of fulfilling users’ needs more effectively andefficiently and, consequently increasing users’ satisfaction. By providing successfulpersonalization, a high degree of user satisfaction and a pleasant user experience can beachieved. Some features of personalization can cause problems and may outweigh thebenefits of personalization.This thesis has focused on how to achieve scrutable mobile client-side personalizationwhile keeping the user’s privacy. The issue of privacy in personalization of mobileservices can be reduced by shifting the control of their personal information towards theusers. Our research goal is to understand and improve the personalization process anddevelop an architecture for scrutable mobile client-side personalization while keepingthe user s’ privacy. Moreover, there is a need to develop an evaluation framework tomeasure the effectiveness of mobile services personalization. A design science researchmethodology is adopted in this research work. More particular contributions of thethesis are as follows: C1: Identifications of the research issues and challenges in personalization of mobileservices. C2: An approach for delivering personalized mobile services. C3: Development of mobile client-side personalization architecture. C4: Development of mobile services Personalization Evaluation Model. C5: Identification of the prospects of scrutable personalization of mobile services.

The convergence of mobile commerce and internet technologies has promised users unprecedented convenience and greater enjoyment. Over the past few years, the development of mobile information and entertainment services (MIES) has been phenomenal. Recently, research has been conducted into ways toward better acceptance of these services by users. However, many of these studies are technical driven, without discussing important end user needs. To understand users' perception associated with mobile information and entertainment services the author extended and empirically tested a new antecedent model of Perceived Playfulness an intrinsic motivator toward technology acceptance by users, based on previous research. It has been shown that user's Perceived Playfulness toward information technologies has a direct impact on his/her subsequent use. Using the new antecedent model of Perceived Playfulness, the author argues users' Autotelic Personality, Perceived Service Quality, Perceived Technology Compatibility, their Motivation for Using and tolerance of Social Influence affect their Perceived Playfulness when interacting with MIES. A questionnaire was administered to students in business and computing schools at Auckland University of Technology. The closed-ended questions within the questionnaire were used to validate the proposed research model. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares. Most of the proposed hypotheses were supported, rendering several significant findings in this thesis. In this study, it has been found that individuals who are more innovative and confident about using MIES are more likely to develop a positive image toward these services. They also value services that are useful and easy to use and demonstrate high enthusiasm for more personalized mobile services. More importantly, their perceptions toward MIES can be further reinforced if their mobile phone functionalities are highly compatible with these services. Therefore, service providers should strive to create a seamless MIES experience for users. Furthermore, given that mobile phones have their own strengths and limitations, the motivation behind user's choices of various applications becomes an important issue for service providers to consider. It has been shown that the importance of service attributes vary with user's motivations of using MIES. This study therefore focuses on several important end user issues which are not well explored in the research of mobile internet services. Overall, this study contributed to existing research into user s perception toward MIES as an information technology based on his/her intrinsic motivator. Several important antecedents have been identified to influence user's Perceived Playfulness in this context. Limitations and suggestions for future studies are considered at the end of this thesis. Implications are also discussed.

The convergence of mobile commerce and internet technologies has promised users unprecedented convenience and greater enjoyment. Over the past few years, the development of mobile information and entertainment services (MIES) has been phenomenal. Recently, research has been conducted into ways toward better acceptance of these services by users. However, many of these studies are technical driven, without discussing important end user needs. To understand users' perception associated with mobile information and entertainment services the author extended and empirically tested a new antecedent model of Perceived Playfulness an intrinsic motivator toward technology acceptance by users, based on previous research. It has been shown that user's Perceived Playfulness toward information technologies has a direct impact on his/her subsequent use. Using the new antecedent model of Perceived Playfulness, the author argues users' Autotelic Personality, Perceived Service Quality, Perceived Technology Compatibility, their Motivation for Using and tolerance of Social Influence affect their Perceived Playfulness when interacting with MIES. A questionnaire was administered to students in business and computing schools at Auckland University of Technology. The closed-ended questions within the questionnaire were used to validate the proposed research model. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares. Most of the proposed hypotheses were supported, rendering several significant findings in this thesis. In this study, it has been found that individuals who are more innovative and confident about using MIES are more likely to develop a positive image toward these services. They also value services that are useful and easy to use and demonstrate high enthusiasm for more personalized mobile services. More importantly, their perceptions toward MIES can be further reinforced if their mobile phone functionalities are highly compatible with these services. Therefore, service providers should strive to create a seamless MIES experience for users. Furthermore, given that mobile phones have their own strengths and limitations, the motivation behind user's choices of various applications becomes an important issue for service providers to consider. It has been shown that the importance of service attributes vary with user's motivations of using MIES. This study therefore focuses on several important end user issues which are not well explored in the research of mobile internet services. Overall, this study contributed to existing research into user s perception toward MIES as an information technology based on his/her intrinsic motivator. Several important antecedents have been identified to influence user's Perceived Playfulness in this context. Limitations and suggestions for future studies are considered at the end of this thesis. Implications are also discussed.

Mobile service provisioning is intended to serve interoperable functionality from mobile devices over the network. The mobile service paradigm shifts the role of mobile devices from consumers to providers, opening up new opportunities for a multitude of collaborative services and applications ranging from sharing personal information to collaborative participatory sensing. Although many basic principles of the standard Web service approach continue to apply, the inherent limitations of mobile devices and broadband wireless access render the deployment of standard architectures in mobile environments inefficient. This research introduces two concepts that revolutionize mobile service provisioning: personal and cloud-assisted service provisioning. Personal services are intended to offer a range of user-centric data services to a limited set of consumers that are explicitly authorized by the user providing the service. Personal services facilitate prevailing trends such as social networking and mobile healthcare services, without compromising personal privacy. Cloud-assisted service provisioning bridges the gap between limited resources of mobile devices and increasing resource demands of mobile applications. This approach provides reliable and efficient mobile services, while alleviating the burden on limited mobile resources. Both approaches take advantage of the device's mobility and real time access to various context information. Experimental results reveal that personal services offer personalization based on the user's context and preferences, while cloud-assisted service provisioning, in addition to optimizing the consumption of mobile scarce resources, offers significant improvement to the reliability and availability of mobile services. / Thesis (Ph.D, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-03 10:28:42.795

Mobile phones have become a necessity that is used by people everyday. Enterprise wants to take advantage of this new channel to deliver their advertising messages to the consumer, while the consumers are interested in obtaining new product information. A mobile advertisement platform can bring the enterprise advertiser and the consumer needs together. The main purpose of this research is to explore the current status of mobile advertisement platform and how this kind of platform can be designed. The study includes several major parts: (1) review of literature related to mobile advertising platforms, (2) adopt design science method to analyze system requirements and design a prototype system, (3) use experts to review the system and provide suggestions for improvement. The course of planning and prototype development in a case company are described and evaluated by a group of experts. The contributions of this research are as follows: 1. Understand the current status of mobile advertising to help managers and system developers if they are interested in building such a system. 2. Explore feasible platform implementation through a real prototype development in our case company to show the value and potential of such a platform.

yes / This article reports the use of a mobile cancer care unit (Cancer Van) to provide continuity of care to patients with cancer who utilise the services of Airedale NHS Foundation Trust. The article contains data that shows the resilience of this service during the Covid19 pandemic and provides evidence that this type of service is beneficial for patient care. / Hope for Tomorrow

The advancement of Information Technology (IT) has changed the business landscape in many industries and especially the airline sector. Modern Information Communication Technologies (ICT) provide powerful tools for organizations and can significantly influence their operation, structure, and strategy. The emergence of mobile technologies has created a new innovation for airline companies by increasing the availability, frequency, and speed of communication between the company and their customers. This research aims to investigate the factors influencing the customers behavioural intention to adopt and utilize mobile services during their travel process. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) provide the theoretical basis for explaining how consumers perceive mobile services which they access and operate by their mobile handset. To achieve that, this research employed a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative approaches with a dominant quantitative method. A consumer web-based survey was conducted in the Saudi Arabia travel sector with respect to mobile services usage in airline sector , 307 valid questionnaires were received and analyzed by using SPSS (V.18), correlation, regression and factor analysis tests were conducted . The findings of this research revealed that, perceived usefulness, mobility and compatibility are loaded to be one predictor of behavioural intention to use mobile services in Saudi Arabia. The reason behind it may be interpreted as customers nowadays have seen mobility and compatibility as attributes of perceived usefulness. Further, social influence, perceived ease of use and personal innovativeness were found to significantly influence the behavioural intention .whereas, perceived risk was found not to be a predictor to the behavioural intention to use mobile services in Saudi Arabia. Finally, the model analysis and survey evaluation enable airline companies to make mobile commerce service provision decision, these findings contribute to a road map for airline companies to encourage their customers to adopt mobile services and keep them engaged during the overall travel life cycle.

This thesis deals with public procurement of mobile network operators services and analysis of institutional and procedural characteristics under which public authorities are able to reach lower prices than regular retail customers. The applied model attempts to explain a variation in final price of high consumption mobile services consumer basket. The variation is explained as a function of estimated price of consumer basket, year of tender, length of contract, supplier, governance structure of public authority, number of bidders and use of electronic auction. The results indicate that usage of electronic auction brings lower final price of mobile services by 8.6 %, T-Mobile is more expensive than O2 and Vodafone on average by 8 % and each additional bidder decreases the final price on average by 6.1 %. We found that there exists statistically significant difference in the final price with respect to type of public authority. The final price of mobile services is decreasing in time, on average by 9 % per year. Together with insignificance of the variable measuring length of contract, it follows that long term contracts are not cost-efficient.

[pt] Desde 1999, com a entrada de novas operadoras de telefonia móvel no mercado brasileiro, trazendo consigo a telefonia celular digital, o número de usuários vem crescendo exponencialmente. Com a entrada em operação da tecnologia GSM, padrão usado na Europa, uma nova gama de serviços se abriu aos usuários, intensificando ainda mais o crescimento do número de aparelhos celulares habilitados, que hoje chega à casa dos 75 milhões. A quantidade de serviços móveis, muito além do serviço básico de voz - isto é, o serviço de conversação - vem crescendo a cada ano, o que levanta a questão: quais serviços móveis terão sucesso junto ao público? Este trabalho estuda, dentre os serviços móveis já disponíveis e outros em fase de desenvolvimento, quais deles têm o interesse do público brasileiro. Através de uma pesquisa de campo busca descobrir as atitudes dos consumidores frente a diversos tipos de serviços móveis. Os resultados revelam as preferências sobre os serviços móveis, que, se analisadas de acordo com o sexo e a idade dos respondentes, mostram diferenças de atitude. Entre elas, mostram que os consumidores aprovam os serviços de mensagem de texto, o uso do aparelho celular como controle remoto e para pagamento de ingressos de cinema, mas não se interessam por TV ou jogos no aparelho celular. / [en] Since 1999 with the arrival of new mobile operators in Brazilian market place, bringing the digital telephony, the number of mobile phone users has been growing steadily. With the beginning of operation of GSM - the european mobile technology pattern - this growth had increased dramatically, boosted by a new mobile service portfolio offer. Nowadays the number of mobile lines in service reaches the amount of 75 million. The variety of mobile services, each of them far beyond the basic voice service, has been also growing year by year, a fact that raises a question: which mobile services will succeed? This work studies, among mobile services already available and those still being developed, witch of them would interest Brazilian users. By using a survey, it intends to find consumer attitudes face several kinds of mobile services. The results show preferences about mobile services that may change depending on gender or age of respondents. The survey indicates the approval of text messaging service, remote control service and theater ticket´s payment, but also reveals a lack of interest in watching TV or playing games in mobile phones.

Nas ciências de computação, o estudo de emoções tem sido impulsionado pela construção de ambientes interativos, especialmente no contexto dos dispositivos móveis. Pesquisas envolvendo interação humano-robô têm explorado emoções para propiciar experiências naturais de interação com robôs sociais. Um dos aspectos a serem investigados é o das abordagens práticas que exploram mudanças na personalidade de um sistema artificial propiciadas por alterações em um estado emocional inferido do usuário. Neste trabalho, é proposto um ambiente para interação humano-robô baseado em emoções, reconhecidas por meio de análise de expressões faciais, para plataforma Android. Esse sistema consistiu em um agente virtual agregado a um aplicativo, o qual usou informação proveniente de um reconhecedor de emoções para adaptar sua estratégia de interação, alternando entre dois paradigmas discretos pré-definidos. Nos experimentos realizados, verificou-se que a abordagem proposta tende a produzir mais empatia do que uma condição controle, entretanto esse resultado foi observado somente em interações suficientemente longas. / In computer sciences, the development of interactive environments have motivated the study of emotions, especially on the context of mobile devices. Research in human-robot interaction have explored emotions to create natural experiences on interaction with social robots. A fertile aspect consist on practical approaches concerning changes on the personality of an artificial system caused by modifications on the users inferred emotional state. The present project proposes to develop, for Android platform, an environment for human-robot interaction based on emotions. A dedicated module will be responsible for recognizing emotions by analyzing facial expressions. This system consisted of a virtual agent aggregated to an application, which used information of the emotion recognizer to adapt its interaction strategy, alternating between two pre-defined discrete paradigms. In the experiments performed, it was found that the proposed approach tends to produce more empathy than a control condition, however this result was observed only in sufficiently long interactions.