Adoption and Usability of Online Pharmacies for Purchasing Prescription Medicines

The study examines customers’ perceptions of purchasing prescription medicine from online pharmacies. The main purpose is to find determinants affecting the adoption of online pharmacies, and to consider the role of usability in the adoption process. The theoretical part of the paper provides the overlook on adoption constructs and their relations. In addition, usability factors used in prior studies are presented, as well as how they have been connected to IS adoption research. The specialties of Finnish pharmacy business and the requirements set to online pharmacies are also discussed. The empirical part of the study is conducted with the qualitative approach. Four respondents were interviewed and observed while they tried online pharmacies. The data gathered indicates respondents’ initial beliefs toward the service, perceptions of the usability, and the changes in the perceptions and beliefs after using online pharmacies. The results indicate that usability factors and adoption determinants are interrelated. Usability influences perceived ease of use, which affects both perceived usefulness and behavioral intention. Regulations restrict the design of online pharmacies, which has affect on the both the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, and thus the whole adoption process.

Model of Big Data Failure: Review of Information System Failure

In the new age of information technology, big data has grown to be the prominent phenomena. As information technology evolves, organizations have begun to adopt big data and apply it as a tool throughout their decision-making processes. Research on big data has grown in the past years however mainly from a technical stance and there is a void in business related cases. This thesis fills the gap in the research by addressing big data challenges and failure cases. The Technology-Organization-Environment framework was applied to carry out a literature review on trends in Business Intelligence and Knowledge management information system failures. A review of extant literature was carried out using a collection of leading information system journals. Academic papers and articles on big data, Business Intelligence, Decision Support Systems, and Knowledge Management systems were studied from both failure and success aspects in order to build a model for big data failure. I continue and delineate the contribution of the Information System failure literature as it is the principal dynamics behind technology-organization-environment framework. The gathered literature was then categorised and a failure model was developed from the identified critical failure points. The failure constructs were further categorized, defined, and tabulated into a contextual diagram. The developed model and table were designed to act as comprehensive starting point and as general guidance for academics, CIOs or other system stakeholders to facilitate decision-making in big data adoption process by measuring the effect of technological, organizational, and environmental variables with perceived benefits, dissatisfaction and discontinued use.

Model of Big Data Failure: Review of Information System Failure

In the new age of information technology, big data has grown to be the prominent phenomena. As information technology evolves, organizations have begun to adopt big data and apply it as a tool throughout their decision-making processes. Research on big data has grown in the past years however mainly from a technical stance and there is a void in business related cases. This thesis fills the gap in the research by addressing big data challenges and failure cases. The Technology-Organization-Environment framework was applied to carry out a literature review on trends in Business Intelligence and Knowledge management information system failures. A review of extant literature was carried out using a collection of leading information system journals. Academic papers and articles on big data, Business Intelligence, Decision Support Systems, and Knowledge Management systems were studied from both failure and success aspects in order to build a model for big data failure. I continue and delineate the contribution of the Information System failure literature as it is the principal dynamics behind technology-organization-environment framework. The gathered literature was then categorised and a failure model was developed from the identified critical failure points. The failure constructs were further categorized, defined, and tabulated into a contextual diagram. The developed model and table were designed to act as comprehensive starting point and as general guidance for academics, CIOs or other system stakeholders to facilitate decision-making in big data adoption process by measuring the effect of technological, organizational, and environmental variables with perceived benefits, dissatisfaction and discontinued use.

Utstillingens retorikk : et bidrag til en retorisk didaktikk for kunst og håndverk

The topic of this dissertation is the didactic exhibition in the Arts and Crafts subject. Exhibiting student work and art and form culture is part of a long professional tradition in the field. Yet, exhibition as form and as a way of learning are inadequately explored and debated. The didactic problem area of the thesis, where studies of formative practices are central, place it within the research field of Educational Slojd. The didactic standpoint and main theoretical perspective relate the project to the Arts didactics research field at the University College of Bergen where the aim is to develop an alternative didactics thinking for the arts; a rhetoric arts didactics. Didactic focus is shifted from the relationship between teacher – pupil – teaching materials, to studies of how knowledge is formulated in specific practices. The thesis has a premise that every exhibition has its own rhetoric and that didactics is inscribed in this rhetoric in the broadest and cultural sense. Through impulses from classical rhetoric and recent text theory, the thesis challenges the Arts and Crafts’s own idiom, its theoretical foundation and didactic grasp such as shown in the discourse established by the discipline and its specific exhibitive practices, as well as studying the relationship between verbal language and the discipline’s own register. The overall objective is to develop knowledge about exhibition rhetoric and its potential as a knowledge and learning arena in this field, and thereby contribute to developing a rhetoric didactics for the Arts and Crafts subject. This raises questions such as: How is an exhibition considered to be used and understood in the subject’s didactics texts and texts about didactics? How do different exhibition spaces inscribe conditions for exhibition work? How can a rhetoric perspective of didactics make aspects of an exhibition’s form register visible and contribute to knowledge of the creative processes in an exhibition? How do some selected exhibitions inscribe creativity and learning? What can a rhetoric perspective bring to the Arts and Crafts? A rhetoric didactics perspective includes knowledge of the tradition. A historical-ideological overview traces how exhibition, of both pupil/student work and of art and form culture, are used and considered as used in the discipline over time. This part can be read separately, but in this thesis, is primarily conceived as a backdrop for the development of the dissertation’s main rhetoric perspective. The empirical data are collected from my teacher training institution and consist of specific exhibition spaces and practices, of which my own production of two exhibitions can link the research to artistic development work. A rhetoric didactics is concrete, specific and contextual. The rhetoric readings are descriptive and show how culture and nature, temporality, materiality and technology are inscribed in the exhibition’s form. Didactic reflection develops from, and close to, the rhetoric readings of the exhibition’s form and content to finally arrive at a rhetorical concept for creativity and learning.

Expressing the self in postmodern travel consumption: a case study of students

The study approaches student travel from the perspective of postmodern consumption. The background is in the observation that the student travel market has a vast potential, but it is not necessarily capitalized upon to the extent it could. This might partly have to do with the peculiarities of postmodernity: consumption is characterized by unpredictability and abstract motives. The research questions are built around what constitutes student travel consumption and how can students be categorized according to motivation, behaviour and values. Also identity and expressiveness are present and it is evaluated, if travel services facilitate these background is the observation that the student travel market has a vast potential, but it is not necessarily capitalized upon to the extent it could be. This might partly have to do with the peculiarities of postmodernity: consumption is characterized by unpredictability and abstract motives. The research questions are built around what constitutes student travel consumption and how can students be categorized according to motivation, behaviour and values. Also identity and expressiveness are present and it is evaluated whether travel services facilitate these constructs. The topic is approached by discovering the key concepts such as self-identity. This was done in order to create survey questions that reflect the underlying theories. The survey was sent to chosen student groups of Turku School of Economics. The data was analyzed using statistical methods, mainly principal component analysis, in order to categorize students’ motives and behaviour into distinct profiles. The findings indicate that students have a high level of awareness in their travel consumption choices. Travel services seem to facilitate identity and lifestyle expressiveness, one central dimension of postmodernity. Psychographics such as motivation seem to work well as a segmentation criteria when it comes to the student traveler market. Travel offers students an opportunity for relaxation, escape, enjoyment and gaining new experiences and social contacts. Furthermore, the enjoyment of the travel experience extends to the pre- and post-trip time.

Evaluation of the main energy scenarios for the global energy transition

Energy scenarios are used as a tool to examine credible future states and pathways. The one who constructs a scenario defines the framework in which the possible outcomes exist. The credibility of a scenario depends on its compatibility with real world experiences, and on how well the general information of the study, methodology, and originality and processing of data are disclosed. In the thesis, selected global energy scenarios’ transparency and desirability from the society’s point of view were evaluated based on literature derived criteria. The global energy transition consists of changes to social conventions and economic development in addition to technological development. Energy solutions are economic and ethical choices due to far-reaching impacts of energy decision-making. Currently the global energy system is mostly based on fossil fuels, which is unsustainable over the long-term due to various reasons: negative climate change impacts, negative health impacts, depletion of fossil fuel reserves, resource-use conflicts with water management and food supply, loss of biodiversity, challenge to preserve ecosystems and resources for future generations, and inability of fossil fuels to provide universal access to modern energy services. Nuclear power and carbon capture and storage cannot be regarded as sustainable energy solutions due to their inherent risks and required long-term storage. The energy transition is driven by a growing energy demand, decreasing costs of renewables, modularity and scalability of renewable technologies, macroeconomic benefits of using renewables, investors’ risk awareness, renewable energy related attractive business opportunities, almost even distribution of solar and wind resources on the planet, growing awareness of the planet’s environmental status, environmental movements and tougher environmental legislation. Many of the investigated scenarios identified solar and wind power as a backbone for future energy systems. The scenarios, in which the solar and wind potentials were deployed in largest scale, met best the set out sustainability criteria. In future research, energy scenarios’ transparency can be improved by better disclosure on who has ordered the study, clarifying the funding, clearly referencing to used sources and indicating processed data, and by exploring how variations in cost assumptions and deployment of technologies influence on the outcomes of the study.

A physical activity intervention in a workplace setting

Physical inactivity poses a huge burden on Canada's health care system and is detrimental to the health of Canadians (Katzmarzyk & Janssen, 2004). Walking is a viable option for individuals to become physically active on a daily basis and is in fact the most commonly reported leisure time physical activity. It has been associated with many health benefits including weight loss/weight control, reduced risk of coronary artery disease and diabetes, lowered blood pressure, and improved psychological wellbeing (Brisson & Tudor-Locke, 2004). Specifically, individuals' stage of change, selfefficacy and health related quality of life (HRQL) are three psychological constructs that can be greatly improved with increased physical activity (Dishman, 1991; Penedo & Dahn, 2005; Poag & McAuley, 1992). Public health physical activity recommendations exist but many individuals find these difficult to meet due to overly busy lifestyles (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2003). Pedometers are inexpensive devices that can monitor individual bouts of walking so that the incorporation of physical activity into one's daily life is more plausible. They are also excellent tools for motivation, goalsetting, and immediate feedback (Brisson & Tudor-Locke, 2004). Since many people spend a large proportion of their time at their places of employment, workplaces have begun to be a common site for the development of physical activity interventions. These programs have been growing in popUlarity and have shown numerous benefits for both employees and employers (Voit, 2001). The purpose of the current study was to implement and evaluate the use of a pedometer-based physical activity intervention incorporating goal-setting and physical activity logs in a workplace setting, and to examine the relationship between different types of self-efficacy (task, barrier, and scheduling) and different phases of the intervention. Twenty male participants from a local steel manufacturing plant who exhibited health risk factors (e.g. hypertension, diabetes, etc.) were assigned to one of two groups (group A or group B). All participants were asked to wear pedometers on their waists, record their daily steps, set goals that were outlined on a step-tracking sheet (detennined by their baseline number of steps), and keep track of their work days, wakelbed time, sedentary time, and time spent doing other physical activity. Group A began the intervention immediately following the baseline measures, whereas group B continued with their regular routine for 4 weeks before beginning. Physiological measures (height, weight, blood pressure, relative body fat, waist and hip circumference, and body mass index) were taken and a battery of questionnaires that assessed barrier, task and scheduling self-efficacy, HRQL, and stage of change administered at baseline, week 5 (end of intervention for group A), week 9 (end of intervention for group B; follow-up for group A) and week 13 (follow-up for both groups). Results showed that this workplace physical activity intervention was successful at increasing the participants' daily steps, that task self-efficacy is a significant predictor of participants' exercise adherence during the initial stages of participation (intervention phase), and that the participants felt that this intervention was effective. Finally, further exploratory analyses showed that this intervention was effective for all participants, but most valuable for participants most in need of improvement - that is, those who were most sedentary prior to the intervention. This intervention is an inexpensive use of simple and effective tools (e.g. pedometers), has the potential to attract a wide variety of participants and become a pennanent part of any health promotion initiative.

The study of ligand binding specificities of the lipid binding proteins : recombinant human a-tocopherol transport protein (a-ttp), supernatant protein factor (spf) and S. cerevisiae Sec 14p for vitamin e (rrr-a-tocopherol) and other hydrophobic ligands.

One of the various functions of proteins in biological systems is the transport of small molecules, for this purpose proteins have naturally evolved special mechanisms to allow both ligand binding and its subsequent release to a target site; a process fundamental to many biological processes. Transport of Vitamin E (a-tocopherol), a lipid soluble antioxidant, to membranes helps in the protection of polyunsaturated fatty acids against peroxidative damage. In this research, the ligand binding characteristics of several members of the CRALTRIO family of lipid binding proteins was examined; the recombinant human a-Tocopherol Transfer Protein (a-TIP), Supernatant Protein Factor (SPF)ffocopherol Associated Protein (TAP), Cellular Retinaldehyde Binding Protein (CRALBP) and the phosphatidylinositol transfer protein from S. cerevisiae Sec 14p. Recombinant Sec 14p was expressed and purified from E. coli for comparison of tocopherol binding to the two other recombinant proteins postulated to traffic a-tocopherol. Competitive binding assays using [3H]-a-tocopherol and Lipidex-l000 resin allowed determination of the dissociation constants ~) of the CRAL-TRIO proteins for a-tocopherol and - 20 hydrophobic ligands for evaluation of the possible biological relevance of the binding interactions observed. The KIs (nM) for RRR-a-tocopherol are: a-TIP: 25.0, Sec 14p: 373, CRALBP: 528 and SPFffAP: 615. This indicates that all proteins recognize tocopherol but not with the same affinity. Sec 14p bound its native ligand PI with a KI of381 whereas SPFffAP bound PI (216) and y-tocopherol (268) similarly in contrast to the preferential binding ofRRR-a-tocopherol by a-TIP. Efforts to adequately represent biologically active SPFff AP involved investigation of tocopherol binding for several different recombinant proteins derived from different constructs and in the presence of different potential modulators (Ca+2, Mg+2, GTP and GDP); none of these conditions enhanced or inhibited a-tocopherol binding to SPF. This work suggests that only aTTP serves as the physiological mediator of a-tocopherol, yet structural homology between proteins allows common recognition of similar ligand features. In addition, several photo-affmity analogs of a-tocopherol were evaluated for their potential utility in further elucidation of a-TTP function or identification of novel tocopherol binding proteins.

Development of a bovine adenovirus type 2-based gene delivery vector /

ABSTRACT Recombinant adenoviruses are currently under intense investigation as potential gene delivery and gene expression vectors with applications in human and veterinary medicine. As part of our efforts to develop a bovine adenovirus type 2 (BAV2) based vector system, the nucleotide sequence of BAV2 was determined. Sixty-six open reading frames (ORFs) were found with the potential to encode polypeptides that were at least 50 amino acid (aa) residue long. Thirty-one of the BAV2 polypeptide sequences were found to share homology to already identified adenovirus proteins. The arrangement of the genes revealed that the BAV2 genomic organization closely resembles that of well-characterized human adenoviruses. In the course of this study, continuous propagation of BAV2 over many generations in cell culture resulted in the isolation of a BAV2 spontaneous mutant in which the E3 region was deleted. Restriction enzyme, sequencing and PCR analyses produced concordant results that precisely located the deletion and revealed that its size was exactly 1299 bp. The E3-deleted virus was plaque-purified and further propagated in cell culture. It appeared that the replication of such a virus lacking a portion of the E3 region was not affected, at least in cell culture. Attempts to rescue a recombinant BAV2 virus with the bacterial kanamycin resistance gene in the E3 region yielded a candidate as verified with extensive Southern blotting and PCR analyses. Attempts to purify the recombinant virus were not successful, suggesting that such recombinant BAV2 was helper-dependent. Ten clones containing full-length BAV2 genomes in a pWE15 cosmid vector were constructed. The infectivity of these constructs was tested by using different transfection methods. The BAV2 genomic clones did appear to be infectious only after extended incubation period. This may be due to limitations of various transfection methods tested, or biological differences between virus- and E. co//-derived BAV2 DNA.

A minor theory of the transit of materiality into discourse, Via Campesina.

In this thesis I explore how the material properties of plant seed enter the political discourses of the international peasant coalition the Via Campesina and coalition member the National Fanners Union of Canada (NFU), querying how this process might be employed as a resource for a transformative eco-social politics. I employ several post-structural theoretical constructs, configuring them together as a "minor theory". This minor theory provides the basis for a "minor" reading of three sets of Via Campesina and NFU texts. The aim of these readings is to track the movement of seed from a local agricultural concern to a transitive political one, across both the material and discursive registers. In surfacing the presence of the seed's physical properties in the three texts, I highlight the distinctions between the constraining seed of corporate industrial agriculture, and the social and agroecological opportunities resulting from what I call a "Seed Event".

Exploring the use of effective learning strategies to increase students' reading comprehension and test taking skills /

This study examined the effects of providing students with explicit instruction in how to use a repertoire of reading comprehension strategies and test taking skills when reading and responding to three types of questions (direct, inferential, critical). Specifically, the study examined whether providing students with a "model" of how to read and respond to the text and to the comprehension questions improved their reading comprehension relative to providing them with implicit instruction on reading comprehension strategies and test taking skills. Students' reading comprehension and test taking performance scores were compared as a function of instructional condition. Students from 2 grade 8 classes participated in this study. The reading component of the Canadian Achievement Tests, Third Edition (CAT/3) was used to identify students' level of reading comprehension prior to the formal instructional sessions. Students received either explicit instruction, which involved modelling, or implicit instruction, which consisted of review and discussion of the strategies to be used. Comprehension was measured through the administration of formative tests after each instructional session. The formative tests consisted of reading comprehension questions pertaining to a specific form of text (narrative, informational, graphic). In addition, students completed 3 summative tests and a delayed comprehension test which consisted of the alternative version of the CAT/3 standardized reading assessment. These data served as a posttest measure to determine whether students had shown an improvement in their reading comprehension skills as a result of the program delivery. There were significant differences in students' Canadian Achievement Test performance scores prior to the onset of the study. Students in the implicit group attained significantly higher comprehension scores than did students in the explicit group. The results from the program sessions indicated no significant differences in reading comprehension between the implicit and explicit conditions, with the exception of the 6th session involving the reading and interpreting of graphic text. Students in the explicit group performed significantly better when reading and interpreting graphic text than those in the implicit group. No significant differences were evident between the two study conditions across the three summative tests. Upon completion of the study, the results from the Canadian Achievement Test indicated no significant differences in performance between the two study conditions. The findings from this study reveal the effectiveness of providing students with explicit strategy instruction when reading and responding to various forms of text. Modelling the appropriate reading comprehension strategies and test taking skills enabled students to apply the same thought processes to their own independent work. This form of instruction enabled students in the explicit group to improve in their abilities to comprehend and respond to text and therefore should be incorporated as an effective form of classroom teaching.

An examination of grade three mathematics textbooks for problem solving strategies

Three grade three mathematics textbooks were selected arbitrarily (every other) from a total of six currently used in the schools of Ontario. These textbooks were examined through content analysis in order to determine the extent (i. e., the frequency of occurrence) to which problem solving strategies appear in the problems and exercises of grade three mathematics textbooks, and how well they carry through the Ministry's educational goals set out in The Formative Years. Based on Polya's heuristic model, a checklist was developed by the researcher. The checklist had two main categories, textbook problems and process problems and a finer classification according to the difficulty level of a textbook problem; also six commonly used problem solving strategies for the analysis of a process problem. Topics to be analyzed were selected from the subject guideline The Formative Years, and the same topics were selected from each textbook. Frequencies of analyzed problems and exercises were compiled and tabulated textbook by textbook and topic by topic. In making comparisons, simple frequency count and percentage were used in the absence of any known criteria available for judging highor low frequency. Each textbook was coded by three coders trained to use the checklist. The results of analysis showed that while there were large numbers of exercises in each textbook, not very many were framed as problems according to Polya' s model and that process problems form a small fraction of the number of analyzed problems and exercises. There was no pattern observed as to the systematic placement of problems in the textbooks.

A Study of role conflict, role ambiguity, locus of control, job satisfaction and participation in decision making among front-line vocational service workers for mentally retarded adults

This study was an investigation of individual and organizational factors, as perceived by front-line vocational service workers from Adult Rehabilitation Centres (ARC Industries) for mentally retarded adults. The specific variables which were measured included role conflict/role ambiguity (role factors), internal/external locus of control (individual differences), job satisfaction with work and supervision (job attitudes) and participation in deci~ion making (organizational factor). The exploration of these constructs was conducted by means of self-report questionnaires which were completed by sixty-nine out of a total of ninety front-line employees. The surveys were distributed in booklet form to nine distinct rehabilitation facilities from St. Catharines, West Lincoln, Greater Niagara, Port Colborne, WeIland, Fort Erie, Hamilton, Guelph and Brantford. The survey data was evaluated by the statisti.cal Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) which used the Pearson Product Moment Correlation procedure and a compar~son of means test. A comparison of correlation coefficients test was also conducted. This statistical procedure was calculated mathematically. The results obtained from the statistical evaluation confirmed the prediction that self-reported measures of participation in decision making and satisfaction (work and supervision) would be negatively correlated with role conflict and role ambiguity. As well, the speculation that perceived satisfaction (work and supervision) would be positively correlated with participation in decision making was empirically supported. Internal and external locus of control did not contribute to a significant difference in r~sponses to role perceptions (conflict and ambiguity) , satisfaction (work and supervision) or the correlational relationship between participation in decision making and satisfaction (work and supervision). Overall, the findings from this study substantiated the importance of examining employee perceptions in the workplace and the interrelationships among individual and organizational variables. This research was considered a contribution to the general area of occupational stress and to the study of individuals in work organizations.

Construing social dimensions of personality development: nurses as educators

A convenience sample of twenty registered nurses was recruited from two' general hospitals and two community college nursing schools. Kelly's (1955) Personal Construct Theory provided the theoretical framework to discover how nurses perceived themselves as educators. The nurses completed a self-administered Self-Perception Inventory (Soares, 1983) to determine their perception of self as nurse and ideal self as nurse. In an interview, each of the nurses constructed a rank-order repertory grid adapted from Kelly's (1955) Role Repertory Construct Test. Twelve constructs derived from the Self-Perception Inventory (Soares, 1983) were ranked according to a list of ten elements common to a teaching situation. Rank order correlations among the constructs were determined with Spearman's rho. Using a dependent samples t-test, significant differences were found between perceptions of current and ideal self for staff nurses. Significant differences were also found between nurse educators' perceptions of self and ideal self as nurse. No significant differences were determined in perceptions of self as nurse and ideal self as nurse between the staff nurse and nurse educator groups with an independent samples t-test. However, observations of single constructs revealed that although several constructs are shared between the groups in the perception of self in a teaching situation, both groups hold constructs that operate exclusively in their separate domains. The nature and strength of the relationships between the common and unique constructs are different for each group. Nurses I self-perceptions appear to be influenced by the historical development of nursing, role socialization during nursing education, social expectations and gender issues in the health care system.

Exploring the relationship between professional and organizational commitment : the attitudes of Ontario chartered accountancy students

This study was undertaken to investigate the attitudes of chartered accountancy (CA) students toward professional commitment and organizational commitment. The focus of the study was to discover if a relationship between these two constructs existed and determine which situational and individual characteristics facilitate or impede commitment. The sample included those CA students who wrote the 1995 UFE (n=423). Four instruments were used for data collection: Job Diagnostic Survey, Organizational Commitment Questionnaire, Career Commitment Questionnaire, Career Facilitation Survey, and individual demographic inquiry. The study found a significant relationship between professional commitment and organizational commitment. Situational characteristics tended to influence organizational commitment, while individual characteristics more often governed professional commitment. Specific satisfactions, general satisfaction, growth satisfaction, and satisfaction with compensation, co-workers, and supervision were found to facilitate organizational commitment. Organizational commitment was also influenced by supplemental job characteristics, internal work motivation, career facilitation, and autonomy. Implications for practice involved the cooperation and collaboration of the governing body for the CA profession and the CA firms in activities addressing pertinent issues that influence commitment. Implications for future research were also discussed.