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This thesis investigates the hidden geography of Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) sites, state military bases concerned with the interception, interpretation and communication of information transmitted through technological systems. Focusing on three such sites in North Yorkshire, Fylingdales, Irton Moor, and primarily, Menwith Hill, it examines their histories and functions, and the discourses of different actors and interest groups about these processes and places. The histories, functions and discursive constructions of SIGINT sites are examined using a theoretical framework of surveillance theory, an emerging transdisciplinary field which understands that surveillance, the monitoring and control of actors, is as important to the analysis of contemporary societies as production. The thesis analyses the sites as part of a hidden geography of transnational surveillance and ultimately weaponry. This geography encompasses not only the places themselves, but also socio-technological networks that stretch across land, air, sea, outer space, and the virtual realm. The thesis is an attempt to trace some of this hidden geography, to assign it history and social meaning, and to subject it to critical interpretation. The thesis adopts a semiotic discourse analysis methodology informed by Actor-Network Theory to analyse the data gathered. The concept of discourse, the whole array of ways in which actors describe themselves, others and the world around them, is central to the way in which the thesis examines the evidence relating to SIGINT sites. This evidence includes officially generated and unofficial written documents, academic and non-academic analysis, visual representations, and interviews with key actors. Because these networks of sites are hidden, it does not mean that they cannot be made visible and their presence in the landscape and in society contested. The semiotic structure of the sites has come under attack from actors who derive meanings from their viewing of these places that are at odds with official state discourse, wherein the necessity of surveillance and secret intelligence are bound up with the foundations of the state and with inter-state relationships. This thesis will examine the whole spectrum of rejection: civil rights and privacy campaigners, peace activists, politicians and parapoliticians, Ufologists and conspiracists. These counter-discourses challenge official discourses in different ways, with differing intensities, and with varied outcomes, from failure to appropriation by the state to success in adjusting or supplanting official discourses and practices. The thesis raises questions about the development of the contemporary capitalist state and its relationship to its people and to other states and peoples. Drawing on recent adaptations of complexity theory to the social sciences, and the work of Foucault, Lyon and Chomsky, the trajectory of societies is considered to be strongly influenced by a dynamic tension between the tendency towards panopticism, a total surveillance society, and opposing tendencies towards individual and collective liberation.

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This thesis is first and foremost about oppression - the oppression experienced in our society by those with particular impairments. It is also about technology - the new information and communication systems which have increasing primacy in today's world. Specifically it is about the ways in which the communication systems of a disablist society hold both opportunities and threats for disabled people and their organisations in the twenty first century, perhaps changing the boundaries of the disabled category. In drawing on literature from both the sociology of technology and disability studies, it contributes to two bodies of academic work. It is intended as a welcome palliative to the growing tendency towards speculative futurology that characterises both disciplines, since it places an empirical study at centre stage. It is unusual in that its main emphasis is on domestic usage of communication systems, not on their use in employment. The research participants were largely unwaged people, many of them in older age groups. The study gave participants the opportunity to describe their experiences and opinions of technological developments in the last throes of the twentieth century. Access to communications systems emerged as a major issue, with disabled people facing a variety of barriers to their beneficial use of technology. Concerns were voiced however about the provision of such systems constituting little more than a 'technical fix', cutting welfare costs,enforcing further segregation and distracting attention from the real source of disabled people's oppression. These findings highlight the increasing importance of more radical social transformation. The opportunities and threats presented by the utilisation of communication systems are examined through an analysis of their usevalue - how they allow or disallow the satisfaction of basic unmet needs. In conclusion, various recommendations are proposed which will go some way towards making technology more accessible and appropriate for disabled people. It is however acknowledged that this will merely treat a symptom of their oppression, not eradicate the cause.

Over the past several years, increasing the adoption of interoperable EHRs has been one of central goals of the US healthcare system. This study is the first known state-wide assessment of adoption rates of EDRs and certified EHRs in dental clinics in Tennessee. Institutional theory is used in this work as a conceptual framework to examine factors associated with the adoption of EDRs and EHRs. Also included is a historical analysis of factors that contributed to the medical-dental divide and subsequent formation of the organization and institutional forms of dentistry. Through a survey methodological approach, it was found that institutional factors, in the manner that they were operationalized, do not have a major impact on the adoption of information technology in dentistry.

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Trademarks are an essential and usual part of business. Even though the most part of signs registered in the European Union consists of ‘traditional’ marks (such as words, letters, numerals, etc.), with the development of technologies the registration of ‘non-traditional’ marks (such as colours, sounds, holograms, smells, etc.) became possible and sometimes daily practice. In 2015, European Commission and European Parliament faced the necessity to harmonize an established trademark system by amending the regulations. One of the main changes was the removal of the graphical representation requirement which opens new possibilities for trademark holders in relation to register non-traditional marks like olfactory marks that were not generally accepted for the registration before. This thesis is a brief research of the requirements that are established for the registration of non-traditional marks and the future perspective of European trademark regulation due to the latest amendments.

It is necessary to find out what the role of art is in order to see whether it changes. The role of art can be taken as synonymous with the words, 'function of art'. The role of art and the art work itself are inextricably linked. If we look at the role of art as analogous to a wheel we can look at the argument thus : the wheel exists in order to roll. Its function is to roll. The wheel's function of rolling informs us about its existence. Function and the wheel's existence cannot be separated. The role of art and the art work itself are inextricably tied. Intro. p. 1.