Current Websites Research Articles

Do Hospital Web Sites Describe Available and Institutionally Restricted Family Planning Options? [188

INTRODUCTION: Women face institutional restrictions related to the provision of family planning care at Catholic hospitals. We sought to determine whether hospitals (Catholic and non-Catholic) comprehensively describe available family planning options on their web sites. METHODS: We reviewed websites of 39 Catholic hospitals and 39 non-Catholic hospitals from the 25 largest health care systems in 2011. We searched for women's health care services and family planning options. We specifically compared whether Catholic hospitals identified the provision of natural family planning care and non-Catholic hospitals identified the provision of at least one short- or long-term contraceptive option. RESULTS: More than 90% of all web sites examined identified provision of women's health services, prenatal and maternity care, and mammography and 58% identified the provision of robotic hysterectomy. Catholic hospitals were less likely to identify the provision of natural family planning when compared with non-Catholic hospitals that identified the provision of contraceptive options (23.1% compared with 53.8%, P<.01). Five Catholic hospitals (13%) identified the provision of at least one short- or long-term contraceptive option. None of the Catholic hospitals explicitly stated that other contraceptive options were not offered. IMPLICATION: Current hospital web sites do not sufficiently detail available contraceptive options, and Catholic hospitals do not detail restrictions to family planning care. The omission of available care options limits women's ability to act as well-informed consumers of health care.

Present and future hotel website marketing activities: Change propensity analysis

The objective of this study is to examine and predict website marketing activities of US hotels. An online survey is conducted to collect data from members of three major hotel associations located in the US. Change propensity analysis is utilized to evaluate future trends of website marketing activities. The results demonstrate that current website exploitation by the US hotels is relatively limited, with a focus on information dissemination. It is suggested that a number of transaction and relation-building activities will emerge in the near future. Implications based on the results are discussed.

Best Practices of Library Mobile Website Design: A Literature Review

This article is intended to serve as a guide for librarians developing mobile Websites to be linked to their current library Website. Kroski (2008a) defines the mobile Web as “the World Wide Web accessed through a mobile device, ranging from a cellular phone to an iPod Touch. It includes the entirety of the Web and is not limited to Websites that are specifically designed for mobile viewing” (5). This literature review focuses on the mobile Web, mobile device usage, and best practices for designing mobile Websites for libraries.

Usability Analysis of Laboratory Website Design to Improve Learning Process

Laboratory website is one of e-learning media for students and lecturer to ease them at obtaining information about activities and curriculum materials of laboratory. This website is used to support the learning process of the laboratory; the case study was used in ergonomic laboratory. This research concerned on the function optimality of the website regarding to the existed problems such as link errors and difficult to find information needed. The aims of this research were to improve the effectiveness, ease of use and the learning process through the website. Usability testing was conducted to ensure the improvement made and quantify the differences. Total of 33 respondents were participated in this research including students and laboratory assistants. The focus group discussion method was used to evaluate the current website design. The result concluded that there were 2 recommendation in the new web design, involve the contents and the visual display. The contents, including in working link, menu fast download and recent update should be added. The visual display need to improve such as use bigger font size, use readable font, good color, the use of icon and image also should be improve. For further research, this basic research could be analyze the effectiveness and efficiency using performance test and developed on the analysis of the specific application of laboratory website to provide better service for the student.

The Relevance of Visual Merchandising for Online Retailers

In response to consumer needs for online sensory experiences and ease of access to information, developments in online visual merchandising techniques can help to enhance the virtual environment for e-shopping. Online visual merchandising helps to reduce perceived risk for the consumer, so enabling Internet-based shopping to compete with—or to augment—traditional sales channels. The present analysis aims to test a hypothesized relationship between the visual merchandising techniques in use on those Web sites and the commercial success of fashion industry e-commerce sites (as measured by traffic data). The study uses content analysis to assess the visual merchandising techniques of 30 distribution companies in the clothing industry. On the basis of these findings, commercial enterprises of this kind using the online channel should be better able to understand the limitations and/or strengths of their current Web site, and to improve the effectiveness of their virtual environment for e-shopping.

인터넷 의류쇼핑몰 상품 사진의 표현형식과 배경이 소비자의 지각에 미치는 영향

This study examined consumer responses of photos used in Internet shopping malls. The content analysis conducted a preliminary study of the top 100 online shopping malls to investigate current website practices. Stimuli based on the preliminary study. The present study was a <TEX>$2{\times}2$</TEX> factorial design that evaluated two independent variables of product presentation and background. We analyzed 410 responses derived from the descriptive analysis, factor analysis, and covariance analysis through SPSS 20.0. The results showed that a product presentation was significantly different in attractiveness, informativeness, satisfaction, and repurchase intention after controlling apparel items and model. This product presentation in everyday life had greater mean values than product presentation with the posing model. The background had a significant mean difference in all consumer responses expect for attractiveness. Overall product presentation in everyday life and indoor cases were evaluated as most positive by the respondents. The findings provide practical implications for online shopping malls integrating product presentation.

The John Holmes Memorial Lecture: Representing the United Nations—Individual Actors, International Agency, and Leadership

THE FIRST MAJOR BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN W. HOLMES CARRIES THE EMBLEMATIC title Canadas Voice: The Public Life of John Wendell Holmes. (1) The title implies that here we have an example of one individual speaking for and shaping the voice of a whole nation, embodying the values and principles of Canadian foreign policy. This is, of course, a suitable title for a biography that by its very nature underlines the significance of the person portrayed. It may, however, also illustrate that we quite commonly refer to the fact that it is concrete individuals that represent abstract institutions or ideas. It is also customary for political institutions to regulate specifically who will speak on behalf of the respective entity--be it heads of state and government or executive heads of international organizations. In a static understanding of the term, representation is closely tied to of law and protocol defining the situations and responsibilities that are tied to the execution of political offices. But going beyond this understanding of the term for established routines and hierarchies, a dynamic understanding of the term may see it as a crucial ingredient in the growth and development of a given institution or the idea behind that institution. It is in this context that I discuss a special type of actor in the United Nations system that has not received the amount of attention in academic and political circles that it deserves: special representatives of the Secretary-General (SRSGs). (2) The argument that I present starts with a reflection on what it means to represent an international organization. Then, I analyze how the representatives of the Secretary-General have developed as a specific type of individual actor. Looking both at their origin as well as their development over time, I argue that the actions of these individual actors account for a special kind of agency of the organization that they represent. The question of how individual actions translate into international agency inevitably leads to a discussion of leadership, which I would like to introduce and illustrate as a constitutive feature of that process. SRSGs are persons appointed by the Secretary-General to fulfill various roles from peacemaking to peacekeeping and peacebuilding. They work in specific conflict situations or are engaged in transregional and thematic issues, with activities ranging from discreet mediation efforts to conducting a peace operation and, as in the case of Kosovo, virtually running a country. Since 1990, their number and the tasks they have been entrusted with have increased dramatically. The current website of the Secretary-General lists about seventy names. (3) The acronym SRSG is used for a broader category comprising a wide variety of high-level appointments. (4) Mirroring different tasks, contexts, and mandates, it includes, for example, special envoys, heads of mission, special advisers, personal representatives, and transitional administrators. Twenty years ago, Donald J. Puchala (coincidentally another Holmes Lecturer), in one of the few articles dealing with the phenomenon, argued that even some very elementary questions regarding their origin, development, functions, and performance remain unanswered. (5) Some twenty years later Puchala's assessment holds true, although a few articles and reports explicitly dealing with SRSGs have been published. (6) The work of Connie Peck especially must be mentioned since she not only wrote several pieces on the SRSGs, but also compiled material from a series of interviews with SRSGs for the UN Institute for Training and Research in an attempt to facilitate training of SRSGs. With various tasks in peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding, three main subgroups of SRSGs emerge from the titles used: representatives, envoys, and advisers. Although the labels are not the result of strict procedure and originate from such diverse rationales as tradition, preference of the officeholder, and, last but not least, preference of the country to which they are deployed, a rough distinction can be made. …

Finding Good Areas for Renting Apartments Using Apartments Information and Users' Trajectories

Abstract. Current apartment renting web sites provide services to search apartments by attribute filters while they lack the services to help find areas that are convenient for living and meet customers’ personal preference. In many cases, people not only need attributes of the apartments meeting their requirements, but also need the attributes of the area be satisfied. We propose an IT service that can find appropriate areas for customers to rent apartments while they want to move to new places. The areas are picked according to users’ life styles mined from their former moving trajectories and to the attributes of the areas calculated from preferences of present rooms of users.

Public Library Websites and Adherence to Senior-Friendly Guidelines

This article reports on the results of a study that examined public library website adherence to senior-friendly website guidelines. A total of 104 public library websites (N = 104) were analyzed. Compliance with Internet design accessibility principles recommended for older adult Internet users was analyzed, and the findings suggest that current public library website practices may be problematic. As a result, public library websites offering resources and services may present potential accessibility challenges to older adults. Recommendations relevant to public libraries for enhancing library websites and online content are presented.

Column Design and Key Technology on Learning English Paradise Website

Interest is the best teacher. There are many issues on the current learning English website such as a huge amount of information in it, the complexly of content, the lack of features and unattractive and others. So this paper integrated enrich online English resources and advanced network technology to build learning English paradise for learners that you can learn, improve, leisure and entertainment. First, conducting column design which includes five one-level columns and twenty-seven two-level columns; then, architecture design is carried on. Three-layer architecture and the workflow of PHP three-layer architecture are represented simply by graphs; finally, studying the video on demand service, and the streaming process was designed based on selecting the software Real System in Realnetworks company. Content of this paper has an important role in raising interest in learning English and cultivating self-learning ability.

A tool to evaluate your website for patient engagement

IntroductionThe current healthcare environment encourages patients to participate in their healthcare. One way to do so is to design and manage a website that empowers patients and family members to be involved in their care. The authors previously developed a model that classifies hospital websites into four levels by how well the websites engaged the patients. This paper presents a tool based on that model that can be used by hospitals to objectively measure the level of hospital website patient engagement.MethodThe tool was developed and given to 20 students in a senior-level management information systems course to evaluate 40 hospital websites taken from the 2012 Most Wired Hospitals list. Based on their comments, the tool was revised to increase readability and usability.ResultsThe tool can: (1) correctly identify the current level of engagement of a hospital's website; (2) prescribe the characteristics required to advance the website to the next level while still allowing for flexibility in website design.Implications for practiceThis tool can assist hospitals in evaluating their current website from several points of view, point out potential shortcomings, and serve as an aid in developing a plan to improve the website going forward.

The Website Interface Design and Investigation of Interactive Availability

At present, the website construction has become one of the necessary works of any industry. However, among hundreds of millions of websites, interface design is very convenient for people to use, and a small number of fast. The reason, including web interface design, web technology adoption, etc. will influence people to visit a website. Among these reasons, the interactive design of website interfaces and become the primary problem of experience that people visit the website. To address this problem, the current website interface and interactive design were discussed in this article, and try to propose improved method of most common small and medium-sized websites.

Testing the Effects of the Addition of Videos to a Website Promoting Environmental Breast Cancer Risk Reduction Practices: Are Videos Worth It?

Searching for ways to reach wider audiences in more comprehensible ways, health promotion agencies might add videos to their current web offerings. While potentially costly and time consuming to create, the effect of these videos on websites has not received much attention. This study translated research about the potential breast cancer risk for young girls associated with the household chemical perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) into two websites in which mothers with young daughters were randomly assigned to view (website with videos vs. website without videos). Results revealed that participants in the video condition found the advocated risk protective behaviors easier to perform and stated they were more likely to perform them than those in the non-video condition. Approximately 15 days after exposure, those in the video condition performed on average one more protective behavior than those in the non-video condition. Results also suggest that agencies' efforts should focus on creating one quality video to place on a homepage, as video views declined the deeper people navigated into the site. Behaviors advocated should also be ones that can have lasting impacts with one-time actions, as effects wore away over time. Additional strategies are discussed for health promoters seeking to create videos to add to their current websites.

Are the non‐governmental organizations' web sites effective?

PurposeThis study explores non‐governmental organizations' (NGOs') web sites to determine the extent the web site facilities information quality, system quality and service quality in relation to target audiences.Design/methodology/approachIn order to evaluate the current status of information quality, system quality and service quality on the internet, the research utilizes a content analysis of an international sample of NGOs associated to United Nations.FindingsThis paper provides useful information on some international NGOs' web sites. In this line of work, results indicate that the web site offers a new communication medium with which to maximize support for NGOs and enhance business performance through higher cost‐effectiveness and a more practical manner in which to carry out their tasks. However, the results of this research show that the most web sites have an average effectiveness when communicating interactively. Additionally, this paper provides evidence of current web site effectiveness and advice for its improvement in a specific social sector.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of this study is the sample size and nature because the research has only included some NGOs associated to United Nations, which may bias results. Therefore, other non‐profit organizations whose target audiences are different will be dealt with in future research.Practical implicationsThis research contributes to improving the effectiveness of NGOs' web site bidirectional communication with users, enhancing the quality of the exchange between organization and target audience.Originality/valueThis work aims to help international NGOs improve the interactivity of web site communication through practical advice. Furthermore, this study is an attempt to fill the research gap on the evaluation about the quality web site design of NGOs.

Information-Based Path Analysis of the Career Guidance for Chinese College Students from a Comparison Perspective

The information technology application of the career guidance for college students is the organic integration of the career guide ideas and the technological innovations. It is also an inevitable trend and requirements of the career guidance for college students to move forward under the new circumstances. Therere still big gaps between our current graduate career services information website and foreign countries in the network resource integration, the employment environmental prediction, the socio-professional status, the information service system, the career education curriculum development, the vocational aptitude measurement and on-line counseling, etc. The information-based paths of the career guidance for college students mainly are the career information network and its rational application, the diversity guide contents and its innovation methods, and the personalized main requirements and its interactive exchanges, and construct a comprehensive and compatible database of employment information platform, etc.

The Construction and Design of Personalized Course Website

Website Design is an important part of Website Construction. The construction of excellent course website can play its roles though designing an excellent website, which can serve the teaching better. This paper presents our own ideas of personalized excellent course website construction and innovative design from the following aspects: The analysis of problems on current excellent course website construction, the requirements of personalized website construction and personalized website design.

An interactive website for patients with ovarian cancer and their care givers - can we improve quality of life?

Objective: Health internet sites increasingly are used by patients to access information and resources to augment traditional care. Current websites for patients with ovarian cancer rely on excessive text-based information with little evaluation and have few resources tailored to patient/caregivers’ needs or to promote interactive communication. Our objective was to improve quality-of- life (QOL) outcomes for women with ovarian cancer and their caregivers using an online system we created that is applicable across the disease trajectory.

Reassessing Direct-To-Consumer Portrayals of Unproven Stem Cell Therapies: Is it Getting Better?

To determine whether increased scrutiny of 'stem cell tourism' has resulted in changes to online claims by clinics that provide putative unproven stem cell treatments. We analyzed historical and current versions of clinics' websites. The study sample consisted of 18 websites included in a 2008 peer-reviewed study and an additional 12 clinics identified through the Google™ search engine. Our analysis revealed similarities between historical and current stem cell treatment offerings, claims, representations of risk, benefit and efficacy and attention to social, ethical and regulatory concerns. Claims and representations remain overly optimistic. Current websites provide more detailed descriptions of treatment procedures and outcomes and are more aesthetically appealing. Noteworthy trends in the movements and locations of clinics was observed. Increased scrutiny of stem cell tourism has not had much impact on the online claims of clinics that provide putative unproven stem cell treatments.

Ultrasound-guided Sciatic Nerve Blocks: Higher and Popliteal Approaches

Background and objective: In modern anaesthetic practice the classical landmark approaches for sciatic nerve blocks have been constantly modified and adjusted to the ultrasound-guided techniques. This huge variety in published ‘new’ ultrasound SNB approaches may be somewhat confusing for the anaesthetic trainee. In this article we compare most popular ultrasound approaches to the landmark techniques trying to systematize them for teaching purposes. Materials and methods: After reviewing the current literature, publications and websites we describe the four most popular groups of ultrasound approaches for sciatic nerve blocks discussing the sonoanatomy, sonotechnique, clinical tips and complications. We start with the most superficial approach-the popliteal and end with the deepest of them-the anterior approach. We also hope that our classification will even accommodate the US approaches developed in the future.

Evaluation of the persuasive features of hotel chains websites: A latent class segmentation analysis

This paper is a contribution to the literature on the evaluation of the persuasive features of hotel chains websites. The paper first separates hotel chains according to their category (luxury, midscale and economy) and then proceeds to segment hotel chains in types according to the persuasiveness of their websites, using latent class segmentation. In order to achieve these objectives, it was necessary to evaluate six dimensions of website persuasiveness (informativeness, usability, credibility, inspiration, involvement and reciprocity). The methodology used is based on the analysis of a sample of 229 hotel chains websites. The results obtained allow to describe significant differences in the degree of persuasiveness displayed by the websites. The results of the latent class cluster analysis suggested that the four-cluster solution was the most coherent. This paper provides evidence of current website persuasiveness and communication, and advice for its improvement in a specific hotel industry.