Students??? perception of the online self-assessment support tools/information on depressive related disorders.

Background: Mental health issues are prevalent among students; research has found that university students experience significantly higher levels of psychological distress than the general population. However, research on help seeking behavior has found that distressed individuals are less likely to seek professional help. This study will examine Attitudes toward online mental health resources and identify the effects of external factors such as Social Influence and Online Tool Designs on its usage. Results: We conducted a two-part survey about students??? perception of online mental health resources. We modified the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM); an information system theory that models how users come to accept and use a technology. Conclusions: Results indicate TAM-Mod predicts a substantial proportion of Intention to Use online mental health resources. Although not all external factors are significant, research indicates that external variables are contributing factors in the individual decision to access and utilize online mental health resources

Internet banking acceptance model: Cross-market examination

This article proposes a revised technology acceptance model to measure consumers’ acceptance of Internet banking, the Internet Banking Acceptance Model (IBAM). Data was collected from 618 university students in the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. The results suggest the importance of attitude, such that attitude and behavioral intentions emerge as a single factor, denoted as “attitudinal intentions” (AI). Structural equation modeling confirms the fit of the model, in which perceived usefulness and trust fully mediate the impact of subjective norms and perceived manageability on AI. The invariance analysis demonstrates the psychometric equivalence of the IBAM measurements between the two country groups. At the structural level, the influence of trust and system usefulness on AI vary between the two countries, emphasizing the potential role of cultures in IS adoption. The IBAM is robust and parsimonious, explaining over 80% of AI

Web Acceptance and Usage Model: A Comparison between Goal-directed and Experiential Web Users

In this paper we analyse the Web acceptance and usage between goal-directed users and experiential users, incorporating intrinsic motives to improve the particular and explanatory TAM value –traditionally related to extrinsic motives-. A field study was conducted to validate measures used to operationalize model variables and to test the hypothesised network of relationships. The data analysis method used was Partial Least Squares (PLS).The empirical results provided strong support for the hypotheses, highlighting the roles of flow, ease of use and usefulness in determining the actual use of the Web among experiential and goal-directed users. In contrast with previous research that suggests that flow would be more likely to occur during experiential activities than goal-directed activities, we found clear evidence of flow for goal-directed activities. In particular the study findings indicate that flow might play a powerfulrole in determining the attitude towards usage,intention to useand, in turn,actual Web use among experiential and goal-directed users

Validity of the technology acceptance model (TAM) : A sensemaking perspective

This study investigates whether sensemaking activities influence technology acceptance and if the strength of relationship between TAM’s constructs changes over a period of time. This study was a panel-based longitudinal study, whereby data was collected in three stages within a single semester. The setting of the study was at the School of Management, USM. The major findings of the study showed that sensemaking does influence the TAM if activities are undertaken at high and low levels and also sensemaking influences individual constructs of TAM rather than the whole model. This study failed to prove that there is a significant change in the strength of relationship between TAM constructs over a period of time under sensemaking influence, which is that sensemaking activities were found not to exhibit any moderation effect on the TAM constructs. Sensemaking acts as an external variable which influences TAM rather than moderate the strength of the relationship between TAM constructs. This could be because the technology in question was mandatory to be used by the subjects rather than voluntary. Implications for managers are discussed

Fuzzification of quantitative data to predict tumour size of colorectal cancer

Regression analysis has become more popular among researchers as a standard tool in analyzing data. This paper used fuzzy linear regression model (FLRM) to predict tumour size of colorectal cancer (CRC) data in Malaysia. 180 patients with colorectal cancer received treatment in hospital were recorded by nurses and doctors. Based on the patient records, a triangular fuzzy data will be built toward the size of the tumour. Mean square error (MSE) and root mean square error (RMSE) will be measured as a part of the process for predicting the size of the tumour. The degree of fitting adjusted is set between 0 and 1 in order to find the least error. It was found that the combination of FLRM model with fuzzy data provided a better prediction compared to the FLRM model alone. Hence, this study concluded that the tumour size is directly proportional to several factors such as gender, ethnic, icd 10, TNM staging, diabetes mellitus, Crohn’s disease

An Empirical Investigation of the Level of Users’ Acceptance of E-Banking in Nigeria

Nigeria was depicted to be the fastest growing telecommunications nation in African. Presently, all members of the Nigeria banking industry have engaged the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a platform for effective and efficient means of conducting financial transactions. This paper focuses on determining the level of users’ acceptance of the electronic banking services and investigating the factors that determine users’ behavioral intentions to use electronic banking systems in Nigeria. The survey instrument employed involved design and administration of a total of 500 survey questionnaires within the Lagos metropolis and its environs. An extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was employed as a conceptual framework to investigate the factors that influence users’ acceptance and intention to use electronic banking. To test the model, data was collected from 292 customers from various commercial banks in Nigeria. The model measured the impact of Perceived Credibility (PC), Computer Self-Efficacy (CSE), Perceived Usefulness (PU), and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) on customer attitude and customer attitude on customer adaptation. The result of this research shows that ATM still remains the most widely used form e-Banking service. Banks’ customers who are active users of e-Banking system use it because it is convenient, easy to use, time saving and appropriate for their transaction needs. Also the network security and the security of the system in terms of privacy are the major concerns of the users and constitute hindrance to intending users

Ethical use of information technology and cyber cafe among Malaysian youth

This report is based on a research study under the Ministry of Higher Education’s Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) involving 6 researchers from the Graduate Department of Information Technology, College of Arts and Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia. The aim of the research is to investigate ethical use of information technology and cyber café among Malaysian youths and to propose a framework for ethical usage of public access ICT services. With the proliferation of the Internet, there has been an unprecedented trend in public access to information and digital content.This has brought about a new kind of social challenge particularly among the youth, who based on their nature are inquisitive and tend to look for explicit and exciting endeavor to satisfy their youthful lust. Public Internet access facilities such as cyber cafés have been at the forefront as avenues in attracting youths to perform anti-social and unethical activities.This study intends to gather empirical data on the activities performed at cyber cafés and propose an ethical cyber café model as guidelines for ethical usage of ICT services at public access centres. To meet the objectives of the study, surveys were carried out involving users and operators of cyber cafes. Feedbacks from communities and parents were also sought using the Theory of Planned Behavior to operationalise the research variables.In addition, relevant enforcement and regulatory bodies were also interviewed to provide inputs and experiences in enforcing and monitoring the cyber cafés. Appropriate sample sizes were used to represent the populations for each unit of analysis following the principle of statistics.For cyber café users and communities of infinite population, the sample size taken was 650, whilst sampling for cyber café operators is based on a sampling frame from the Companies Commission of Malaysia.Questionnaires were designed using items constructed from the Theory of Planned Behavior. Four factors representing the independent variables were identified: Attitude, Subjective Norm, Perceived Behavioral Control and External Factors determining the dependent variables represented by Behavioral Intention.The questionnaires were tested and found to be valid and reliable.Data collection involved administration of the questionnaire to the respective respondents and field works in the form of interviews to the respective regulatory authorities.Among the main findings of the study are that there was no clear regulations and consistent enforcement of cyber café operations.Whilst peers and teachers do influence ethical use of cyber cafés, parents appear not to be a significant factor.The study also found that the use of CCTV is an effective behavioral control, however the imposition of rules and regulations were found to have no significant influence.Similarly, external factors such as internal environment of cyber café and location are found not to be significantly related to ethical use.Results of this study indicate positive implication to the operation of cyber cafés in Malaysia if efforts are made to focus attention to education and good personal values, with clear visibility to discourage unethical acts as a form of behavioral control. Based on the findings of the study, an ethical cyber café model is suggested which comprises of three main components namely people, facilities, and governance

Probabilistic Human Mobility Model in Indoor Environment

Understanding human mobility is important for the development of intelligent mobile service robots as it can provide prior knowledge and predictions of human distribution for robot-assisted activities. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic method to model human motion behaviors which is determined by both internal and external factors in an indoor environment. While the internal factors are represented by the individual preferences, aims and interests, the external factors are indicated by the stimulation of the environment. We model the randomness of human macro-level movement, e.g., the probability of visiting a specific place and staying time, under the Bayesian framework, considering the influence of both internal and external variables. We use two case studies in a shopping mall and in a college student dorm building to show the effectiveness of our proposed probabilistic human mobility model. Real surveillance camera data are used to validate the proposed model together with survey data in the case study of student dorm.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN) 201

Airline Ticket E-Reservation: Adoption Among Malaysians

Sistem tempahan tiket penerbangan telah banyak direvolusikan oleh syarikat-syarikat penerbangan melalui penggunaan Internet dan pengenalan alat-alat mudah alih moden. The air ticket reservation system has been much revolutionized by the airline companies through the usage of the Internet and introduction of modern mobile devices