"Making it all normal": the role of the Internet in problematic pregnancy

Women are actively encouraged to educate themselves about pregnancy from formal sources (e.g., information leaflets, antenatal classes, books). In addition, informal stories of pregnancy and birth are routinely told between women. However, increased prenatal testing means that more fetuses are diagnosed with abnormalities, shifting the information requirements during pregnancy. Traditional sources of information cannot cover all possible outcomes, and the Internet is beginning to fill this gap. In this article, we draw from interviews about experiences of antenatal screening and pregnancy to explore how the Internet provides a unique resource for problematic pregnancies. It allows access to information about rarer conditions beyond standard pregnancy texts, as well as personal narratives about conditions. Learning how others have coped or are coping in similar situations can help alleviate feelings of isolation, and also places women back in a familiar territory of shared pregnancy narratives.

EU governance of the internet:analyzing Europol’s role in the development of a EU cyber crime and cyber security policies

In recent years, the European Union has come to view cyber security, and in particular, cyber crime as one of the most relevant challenges to the completion of its Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. Given European societies’ increased reliance on borderless and decentralized information technologies, this sector of activity has been identified as an easy target for actors such as organised criminals, hacktivists or terrorist networks. Such analysis has been accompanied by EU calls to step up the fight against unlawful online activities, namely through increased cooperation among law enforcement authorities (both national and extra- communitarian), the approximation of legislations, and public- private partnerships. Although EU initiatives in this field have, so far, been characterized by a lack of interconnection and an integrated strategy, there has been, since the mid- 2000s, an attempt to develop a more cohesive and coordinated policy. An important part of this policy is connected to the activities of Europol, which have come to assume a central role in the coordination of intelligence gathering and analysis of cyber crime. The European Cybercrime Center (EC3), which will become operational within Europol in January 2013, is regarded, in particular, as a focal point of the EU’s fight against this phenomenon. Bearing this background in mind, the present article wishes to understand the role of Europol in the development of a European policy to counter the illegal use of the internet. The article proposes to reach this objective by analyzing, through the theoretical lenses of experimental governance, the evolution of this agency’s activities in the area of cyber crime and cyber security, its positioning as an expert in the field, and the consequences for the way this policy is currently developing and is expected to develop in the near future.

The dark side of the internet:protecting yourself and your family from online criminals

In less than a decade, personal computers have become part of our daily lives. Many of us come into contact with computers every day, whether at work, school or home. As useful as the new technologies are, they also have a darker side. By making computers part of our daily lives, we run the risk of allowing thieves, swindlers, and all kinds of deviants directly into our homes. Armed with a personal computer, a modem and just a little knowledge, a thief can easily access confidential information, such as details of bank accounts and credit cards. This book helps people avoid harm at the hands of Internet criminals. It offers a tour of the more dangerous parts of the Internet, as the author explains who the predators are, their motivations, how they operate and how to protect against them. In less than a decade, personal computers have become part of our daily lives. Many of us come into contact with computers every day, whether at work, school or home. As useful as the new technologies are, they also have a darker side. By making computers part of our daily lives, we run the risk of allowing thieves, swindlers, and all kinds of deviants directly into our homes. Armed with a personal computer, a modem and just a little knowledge, a thief can easily access confidential information, such as details of bank accounts and credit cards. This book is intended to help people avoid harm at the hands of Internet criminals. It offers a tour of the more dangerous parts of the Internet, as the author explains who the predators are, their motivations, how they operate and how to protect against them. Behind the doors of our own homes, we assume we are safe from predators, con artists, and other criminals wishing us harm. But the proliferation of personal computers and the growth of the Internet have invited these unsavory types right into our family rooms. With a little psychological knowledge a con man can start to manipulate us in different ways. A terrorist can recruit new members and raise money over the Internet. Identity thieves can gather personal information and exploit it for criminal purposes. Spammers can wreak havoc on businesses and individuals. Here, an expert helps readers recognize the signs of a would-be criminal in their midst. Focusing on the perpetrators, the author provides information about how they operate, why they do it, what they hope to do, and how to protect yourself from becoming a victim.

Fluctuation-driven traffic congestion in a scale-free model of the Internet

In studies of complex heterogeneous networks, particularly of the Internet, significant attention was paid to analysing network failures caused by hardware faults or overload. There network reaction was modelled as rerouting of traffic away from failed or congested elements. Here we model network reaction to congestion on much shorter time scales when the input traffic rate through congested routes is reduced. As an example we consider the Internet where local mismatch between demand and capacity results in traffic losses. We describe the onset of congestion as a phase transition characterised by strong, albeit relatively short-lived, fluctuations of losses caused by noise in input traffic and exacerbated by the heterogeneous nature of the network manifested in a power-law load distribution. The fluctuations may result in the network strongly overreacting to the first signs of congestion by significantly reducing input traffic along the communication paths where congestion is utterly negligible. © 2013 IEEE.

Why are health care interventions delivered over the internet? A systematic review of the published literature

Background: As Internet use grows, health interventions are increasingly being delivered online. Pioneering researchers are using the networking potential of the Internet, and several of them have evaluated these interventions. Objective: The objective was to review the reasons why health interventions have been delivered on the Internet and to reflect on the work of the pioneers in this field in order to inform future research. Methods: We conducted a qualitative systematic review of peer-reviewed evaluations of health interventions delivered to a known client/patient group using networked features of the Internet. Papers were reviewed for the reasons given for using the Internet, and these reasons were categorized. Results: We included studies evaluating 28 interventions plus 9 interventions that were evaluated in pilot studies. The interventions were aimed at a range of health conditions. Reasons for Internet delivery included low cost and resource implications due to the nature of the technology; reducing cost and increasing convenience for users; reduction of health service costs; overcoming isolation of users; the need for timely information; stigma reduction; and increased user and supplier control of the intervention. A small number of studies gave the existence of Internet interventions as the only reason for undertaking an evaluation of this mode of delivery. Conclusions: One must remain alert for the unintended effects of Internet delivery of health interventions due to the potential for reinforcing the problems that the intervention was designed to help. Internet delivery overcomes isolation of time, mobility, and geography, but it may not be a substitute for face-to-face contact. Future evaluations need to incorporate the evaluation of cost, not only to the health service but also to users and their social networks. When researchers report the outcomes of Internet-delivered health care interventions, it is important that they clearly state why they chose to use the Internet, preferably backing up their decision with theoretical models and exploratory work. Evaluation of the effectiveness of a health care intervention delivered by the Internet needs to include comparison with more traditional modes of delivery to answer the following question: What are the added benefits or disadvantages of Internet use that are particular to this mode of delivery? © Griffiths, Frances, Lindenmeyer, Antje, Powell, John, Thorogood, Margaret.

Strategizing networks of power and influence:the internet and the struggle over contested space

Whilst some authors have portrayed the Internet as a powerful tool for business and political institutions, others have highlighted the potential of this technology for those vying to constrain or counter-balance the power of organizations, through e-collectivism and on-line action. What appears to be emerging is a contested space that has the potential to simultaneously enhance the power of organizations, whilst also acting as an enabling technology for the empowerment of grass-root networks. In this struggle, organizations are fighting for the retention of “old economy” positions, as well as the development of “new economy” power-bases. In realizing these positions, organizations and institutions are strategizing and manoeuvering in order to shape on-line networks and communications. For example, the on-line activities of individuals can be contained through various technological means, such as surveillance, and the structuring of the virtual world through the use of portals and “walled gardens”. However, loose groupings of individuals are also strategizing to ensure there is a liberation of their communication paths and practices, and to maintain the potential for mobilization within and across traditional boundaries. In this article, the unique nature and potential of the Internet are evaluated, and the struggle over this contested virtual space is explored.

Stakeholder communication and the internet in UK electricity companies

This paper is located within the corporate social reporting and stakeholder management literature. It is concerned with the use of the Internet as a way of communicating with stakeholders and the extent to which this communication is or is not two-way. The evidence from the electricity industry in the UK is that the Internet is used but this use is selective and there is little true dialogue. It appears that the Internet provides an opportunity for greater corporate accountability in the future but whether this potential will be fulfilled is as yet unclear. Further research of a longitudinal nature is required to see how the Internet and more specifically corporate social or stakeholder reporting develops over time.

The Internet's unexploited path diversity

The connectivity of the Internet at the Autonomous System level is influenced by the network operator policies implemented. These in turn impose a direction to the announcement of address advertisements and, consequently, to the paths that can be used to reach back such destinations. We propose to use directed graphs to properly represent how destinations propagate through the Internet and the number of arc-disjoint paths to quantify this network's path diversity. Moreover, in order to understand the effects that policies have on the connectivity of the Internet, numerical analyses of the resulting directed graphs were conducted. Results demonstrate that, even after policies have been applied, there is still path diversity which the Border Gateway Protocol cannot currently exploit.

Reinforcing the security of corporate information resources:a critical review of the role of the acceptable use policy

Increasingly users are seen as the weak link in the chain, when it comes to the security of corporate information. Should the users of computer systems act in any inappropriate or insecure manner, then they may put their employers in danger of financial losses, information degradation or litigation, and themselves in danger of dismissal or prosecution. This is a particularly important concern for knowledge-intensive organisations, such as universities, as the effective conduct of their core teaching and research activities is becoming ever more reliant on the availability, integrity and accuracy of computer-based information resources. One increasingly important mechanism for reducing the occurrence of inappropriate behaviours, and in so doing, protecting corporate information, is through the formulation and application of a formal ‘acceptable use policy (AUP). Whilst the AUP has attracted some academic interest, it has tended to be prescriptive and overly focussed on the role of the Internet, and there is relatively little empirical material that explicitly addresses the purpose, positioning or content of real acceptable use policies. The broad aim of the study, reported in this paper, is to fill this gap in the literature by critically examining the structure and composition of a sample of authentic policies – taken from the higher education sector – rather than simply making general prescriptions about what they ought to contain. There are two important conclusions to be drawn from this study: (1) the primary role of the AUP appears to be as a mechanism for dealing with unacceptable behaviour, rather than proactively promoting desirable and effective security behaviours, and (2) the wide variation found in the coverage and positioning of the reviewed policies is unlikely to be fostering a coherent approach to security management, across the higher education sector.

Integrating supply chain operations in the Internet era

The internet's potential impact on supply chain operations is often approached in the literature in a quite generic way due to the complex nature of supply chains and the different levels of operations' integration. Drawing on existing research, this paper proposes an overall framework of supply chain integration and then attempts to provide a categorisation of the internet's role in the supply chain activities, providing insights from various sectors. The purpose of this paper is to describe and present the alternative ways that the internet impacts on the integration of supply chain operations, by comparing four different sectors: the automotive, the computer, the food and the grocery sector. The paper concludes that in the food, grocery and computer sector, internet's impact on supply chain operations has been quite poor, particularly forward integration, while it has been significant, in the backward integration of the automotive sector. Copyright © 2007 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

The impact of board independence and ownership structure on the timeliness of corporate internet reporting of Irish-listed companies

Purpose – This study seeks to provide valuable new insight into the timeliness of corporate internet reporting (TCIR) by a sample of Irish-listed companies. Design/methodology/approach – The authors apply an updated version of Abdelsalam et al. TCIR index to assess the timeliness of corporate internet reporting. The index encompasses 13 criteria that are used to measure the TCIR for a sample of Irish-listed companies. In addition, the authors assess the timeliness of posting companies’ annual and interim reports to their web sites. Furthermore, the study examines the influence of board independence and ownership structure on the TCIR behaviour. Board composition is measured by the percentage of independent directors, chairman’s dual role and average tenure of directors. Ownership structure is represented by managerial ownership and blockholder ownership. Findings – It is found that Irish-listed companies, on average, satisfy only 46 per cent of the timeliness criteria assessed by the timeliness index. After controlling for size, audit fees and firm performance, evidence that TCIR is positively associated with board of director’s independence and chief executive officer (CEO) ownership is provided. Furthermore, it is found that large companies are faster in posting their annual reports to their web sites. The findings suggest that board composition and ownership structure influence a firm’s TCIR behaviour, presumably in response to the information asymmetry between management and investors and the resulting agency costs. Practical implications – The findings highlight the need for improvement in TCIR by Irish-listed companies in many areas, especially in regard to the regular updates of information provided on their web sites. Originality/value – This study represents one of the first comprehensive examinations of the important dimension of the TCIR in Irish-listed companies.