Cultural impacts on web: An empirical comparison of interactivity in websites of South Korea and the United Kingdom

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel UniversityThis thesis explores cultural differences on interactive design features used in websites of South Korea and the United Kingdom from the perspective of both: professional website designers and end-users. It also investigates how the use of interactive design features from different cultures change over time. Four interaction types on websites; User to Interface (U2I), User to Content (U2C), User to Provider (U2P), and User to User (U2U) interactivity, and three interaction types on blogs; Blogger to Interface (B2I), Blogger to Content (B2C) and Blogger to Blogger (B2B) interactivity have been identified. Four cultural dimensions were used for the theoretical base of this study based on which four hypotheses were proposed in relation to the interaction types identified above; (a) High versus Low Context cultures for U2I, (b) High versus Low Uncertainty Avoidance for U2C, (c) High versus Low Power Distance for U2P and (d) Individualism versus Collectivism for U2U interactivity, in order to discover the effects of national cultures on interactivity in websites. We derived our own interactivity dimensions and mapped them to the four interaction types for websites and three for blogs. Interactive design features were derived from interactivity dimensions and examined in our studies. The findings revealed that there have been some changes towards homogeneity in the use of interactive design features on charity websites between South Korea and United Kingdom although there is still evidence of some cultural differences. With regard to end-users’ perspective, the result show that the use of interactive design features of blogs may be influenced by culture but this is only within a certain context. The findings also provide a valuable indication that users interacting within the same blog service can be considered as being shared concerns rather than shared national location, thus create a particular type of community in which bloggers are affected by social influence so they adopt a shared set of value, preferences and style that would indicate almost a common social culture. As a result, the cultural differences derived from their country of origin do not have that much impact

Applying Content Analysis to Web-based Content

Using Content Analysis onWeb-based content, in particular the content available onWeb 2.0 sites, is investigated. The relative strengths and limitations of the method are described. To illustrate how content analysis may be used, we provide a brief overview of a case study that investigates cultural impacts on the use of design features with regard to self-disclosure on the blogs of South Korean and United Kingdom’s users. In this study we took a standard approach to conducting the content analysis. Based on our experience in using content analysis, in that study we make several suggestions on the benefits of using content analysis and on how content analysis of the material from the Web can be improved

Development of Classification Method of the Flattened Body Surface Figures for the Mass Customization of Men\u27s Formal Jacket

The purpose of this study is to develop a new body shape classification method using variables measured on the flattened figures of men\u27s body surface. It is designed to reflect the concrete characteristics of the men\u27s formal jacket patterns so that it becomes easy to be utilized for the mass customization of men\u27s formal jacket. 152 men\u27s body scan surfaces were flattened into development figures using automatic flattening software and 17 angles and 2 size differences were measured on the flattened figures. The measured sizes were put into factor analysis and 5 factors are extracted: \u27Width and protrusion of hip\u27, \u27Anteroposterior position of hip\u27, \u27Bending of shoulder\u27, \u27Protrusion of chest\u27 and \u27Sway back\u27. K-means clustering were conducted using extracted factor scores and 152 subjects were classified into 5 flattened figure types of \u27straight\u27, \u27sway back\u27, \u27bend forward\u27, \u27lean back-b\u27 and \u27lea back-I\u27. An estimation model for the flattened body surface figure types was developed using logistic regression analysis. The agreements between logistic regression model and k-means clustering were 90.8% on average. It became possible to anticipate the specific shapes of flattened body surface figures of the random subjects using the results of this study. It could be applied to the mass customization system and will make it easy to offer the jacket patterns tailored to the individual consumer\u27s body shapes

Software Architectures and Efficient Data Sharing for Promoting Continuous Drug Re-purposing

The proposed layered and component based architectural style enables data sharing and accessibility of computational software components across problem domains in Biomedical Science. However, it also opens door to translational informatics, which bridges the gap between knowledge generated in biomedical science and clinical practices. Software applications generated from such an architectural style, are able to support continues drug repurposing. They exploit the semantic which exists, and is available across biomedical problem domains, between drug chemical compounds, their biological targets, particularly unintentional targets and drug therapeutic effects. The excerpt from the proposed software architectures has already been deployed in computationally light-weight software applications which based drug repurposing on reasoning upon collected available semantic. However a full scale implementation of the ideas of data sharing across the spectrum of biomedical research and disciplines, would require some changes in the way therapeutic drugs are discovered, tested and approved

Analysis of ZIKA Virus Tweets: Could Hadoop Platform Help in Global Health Management?

This paper investigates possibilities of enhancing everyday decision making in global health management, by looking at the power of twitter data and the use of big data platforms in order to collect and interpret excessive amounts of information generated in a short period of time. We use the scenario of the ZIKA virus because it has triggered a massive response through tweets and retweets. Our goal is to find out a) if we can make sense of twitter data in a global health scare and b) if information available on Twitter could help in the management and containment of the spread of the virus. The results of manual content analysis of selected tweets has been juxtaposed with the results of the manipulation of the same tweets through the Hadoop platform. We wanted to know which approach should be used for addressing public concerns about the ZIKA virus and answer a) and b) at the same time. Both approaches have their advantages and drawbacks. Therefore this paper should be used as an overview of options available for public health organizations, when they need to manipulate social media data in situations where we need to manage health on a global scal

Manifestations of Culture in Website Design

The web is a global phenomenon and its reach and influence ignores political and cultural boundaries. However, the web’s global presence and easy accessibility does not also mean there are no issues related to the understanding and interpretations of its content. Of particular interest to us is to find out whether there is any effect of culture on web design. In this paper, we report on our research into the identification of elements that can be attributed to culture on website design. We examined and compared South Korean and UK’s charity websites and identified these elements of the websites. The findings suggest that there are some differences and preferences in the website design that are mostly related to whether the websites employ multimedia and provide facilities for user input. <!--EndFragment--

First-order differential subordinations associated with Carathéodory functions

In the present paper, we investigated some conditions to be in the class of Carathéodory functions by using the concept of the first-order differential subordinations. Moreover, various interesting special cases were considered in the geometric function theory as applications of main results presented here

Social and structural determinants of injection drug use-associated bacterial and fungal infections: a qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Injection drug use-associated bacterial and fungal infections are increasingly common, and social contexts shape individuals' injecting practices and treatment experiences. We sought to synthesize qualitative studies of social-structural factors influencing incidence and treatment of injecting-related infections. METHODS: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, CINAHL, and PsycINFO from January 1, 2000, to February 18, 2021. Informed by Rhodes' "risk environment" framework, we performed thematic synthesis in three stages: (1) line-by-line coding; (2) organizing codes into descriptive themes, reflecting interpretations of study authors; (3) consolidating descriptive themes into conceptual categories to identify higher-order analytic themes. RESULTS: We screened 4,841 abstracts and included 26 qualitative studies on experiences of injecting-related bacterial and fungal infections. We identified six descriptive themes organized into two analytic themes. The first analytic theme, social production of risk, considered macro-environmental influences. Four descriptive themes highlighted pathways through which this occurs: (1) unregulated drug supply, leading to poor drug quality and solubility; (2) unsafe spaces, influenced by policing practices and insecure housing; (3) health care policies and practices, leading to negative experiences that discourage access to care; and (4) restrictions on harm reduction programs, including structural barriers to effective service provision. The second analytic theme, practices of care among people who use drugs, addressed protective strategies people employ within infection risk environments. Associated descriptive themes were: (5) mutual care, including assisted-injecting and sharing sterile equipment; and (6) self-care, including vein health and self-treatment. Within constraining risk environments, some protective strategies for bacterial infections precipitated other health risks (e.g., HIV transmission). CONCLUSIONS: Injecting-related bacterial and fungal infections are shaped by modifiable social-structural factors, including poor quality unregulated drugs, criminalization and policing enforcement, insufficient housing, limited harm reduction services, and harmful health care practices. People who inject drugs navigate these barriers while attempting to protect themselves and their community

Hyeonggaeyeongyo-Tang for Treatment of Allergic and Nonallergic Rhinitis: A Prospective, Nonrandomized, Pre-Post Study

Hyeonggaeyeongyo-tang (HYT) is an ancient formula of oriental medicine traditionally used to treat rhinitis; however, clinical evidence has not yet been established. The aim of this study was to investigate the short-term and long-term efficacy and safety of HYT for chronic rhinitis. Adult subjects with chronic rhinitis symptoms were recruited. The subjects received HYT for 4 weeks and had follow-up period of 8 weeks. Any medicines used to treat nasal symptoms were not permitted during the study. The skin prick test was performed to distinguish the subjects with allergic rhinitis from those with nonallergic rhinitis. After treatment, the total nasal symptoms score and the Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire score significantly improved in the whole subject group, in the allergic rhinitis group, and in the nonallergic rhinitis group, with no adverse events. This improvement lasted during a follow-up period of 8 weeks. Total IgE and eosinophil levels showed no significant difference after treatment in the allergic rhinitis group. HYT improved nasal symptoms and quality of life in patients with allergic rhinitis and nonallergic rhinitis. This is the first clinical study to evaluate the use of HYT to treat patients with rhinitis. This trial has been registered with the ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT02477293

Social and structural determinants of injection drug use-associated bacterial and fungal infections: A qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Injection drug use-associated bacterial and fungal infections are increasingly common, and social contexts shape individuals' injecting practices and treatment experiences. We sought to synthesize qualitative studies of social-structural factors influencing incidence and treatment of injecting-related infections. METHODS: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, CINAHL and PsycINFO from 1 January 2000 to 18 February 2021. Informed by Rhodes' 'risk environment' framework, we performed thematic synthesis in three stages: (1) line-by-line coding; (2) organizing codes into descriptive themes, reflecting interpretations of study authors; and (3) consolidating descriptive themes into conceptual categories to identify higher-order analytical themes. RESULTS: We screened 4841 abstracts and included 26 qualitative studies on experiences of injecting-related bacterial and fungal infections. We identified six descriptive themes organized into two analytical themes. The first analytical theme, social production of risk, considered macro-environmental influences. Four descriptive themes highlighted pathways through which this occurs: (1) unregulated drug supply, leading to poor drug quality and solubility; (2) unsafe spaces, influenced by policing practices and insecure housing; (3) health-care policies and practices, leading to negative experiences that discourage access to care; and (4) restrictions on harm reduction programmes, including structural barriers to effective service provision. The second analytical theme, practices of care among people who use drugs, addressed protective strategies that people employ within infection risk environments. Associated descriptive themes were: (5) mutual care, including assisted-injecting and sharing sterile equipment; and (6) self-care, including vein health and self-treatment. Within constraining risk environments, some protective strategies for bacterial infections precipitated other health risks (e.g. HIV transmission). CONCLUSIONS: Injecting-related bacterial and fungal infections are shaped by modifiable social-structural factors, including poor quality unregulated drugs, criminalization and policing enforcement, insufficient housing, limited harm reduction services and harmful health-care practices. People who inject drugs navigate these barriers while attempting to protect themselves and their community