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open access

Modeling Email Phishing Attacks

Description: Cheating, beguiling, and misleading information exist all around us; understanding deception and its consequences is crucial in our information environment. This study investigates deception in phishing emails that successfully bypassed Microsoft 365 filtering system. We devised a model that explains why some people are deceived and how targeted individuals and organizations can prevent or counter attacks. The theoretical framework used in this study is Anderson's functional ontology constructi… more
Date: December 2021
Creator: Almoqbil, Abdullah
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Document and Information Experience in Virtual Zenanas: An Exploration of a Diaspora Small World

Description: The word diaspora is currently understood as the large scale voluntary movement of people, along with capital and goods due to the mechanisms of globalization. Adopting a diaspora, gender and leisure perspective, this dissertation looked at the information and document experiences of a particular fan community of women belonging to the Indian diaspora and the online spaces created and occupied by them (fan fiction blogs which can be viewed as book clubs). The study also looked at memory making … more
Date: December 2020
Creator: Kizhakkethil, Priya
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Fabric of Entropy: A Discussion on the Meaning of Fractional Information

Description: Why is the term information in English an uncountable noun, whereas in information theory it is a well-defined quantity? Since the amount of information can be quantified, what is the meaning of a fraction of that amount? This dissertation introduces a quasi-entropy matrix which developed from Claude Shannon's information measure as an analytical tool for behavioral studies. Such matrix emphasizes the role of relative characteristics of individual level data across different collections. The re… more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Zhang, Yuan
Partner: UNT Libraries

Social Exchange Theory in the Context of X (Twitter) and Facebook Social Media Platforms with a Focus on Privacy Concerns among Saudi Students

Description: The current research examines the use of social media and its security settings using the Social Exchange Theory (SET) within a Saudi student environment. This research includes an introduction, literature review, methodology, results, and conclusion with the results section presenting the findings from the three essays. The first essay employs the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) methodology of SET. PRISMA's systematic and exhaustive approach to liter… more
This item is restricted from view until January 1, 2026.
Date: December 2023
Creator: Alqahtani, Sameer Mohammed S.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Information Receptivity: The Information-Seeking Behavior and Networking Activity of Women in a Rural Texas County Judicial System

Description: This study identified the information seeking behavior and networking practices used by members of a specific marginalized population, that of adult female probationers (AFPs) in a rural county in Texas. The study focused on how they seek out information when faced with a self-identified need in their lives. Beyond the basic "food, shelter and clothing" that comes to mind, the respondents find themselves faced with questions not only about the judicial system but also ones involving health care… more
Date: May 2023
Creator: Livingston, Jo Ann
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Role of Tie Strength in the Diffusion of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Information among Yoga Practitioners

Description: The National Center for Complementary and Integrated Health, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has highlighted a need for research to better understand the usage of complementary and alternative medicine practices. The purpose of this study was to investigate the flow of complementary and alternative medicine information among yoga practitioners. The study consisted of 51 yoga practitioners from 7 yoga studio locations. This mixed-methods study used in… more
Date: May 2017
Creator: Weaver, Margaret Louise
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Grounded Theory of Information Quality in Web Archives

Description: Web archiving is the practice of preserving websites as a historical record. It is a technologically-challenging endeavor that has as its goal the creation of a high-quality archived website that looks and behaves exactly like the original website. Despite the importance of the notion of quality, comprehensive definitions of Information Quality (IQ) in a web archive have yet to be developed. Currently, the field has no single, comprehensive theory that describes what is a high-quality or low-qu… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Reyes, Brenda
Partner: UNT Libraries

Information-Seeking Behaviors of Rural Community-Based Hospice Social Workers during a Pandemic: Challenges and Opportunities

Description: When it comes to hospice care, patients and their families residing in rural counties need competent rural community-based hospice social workers on their team. The study of information seeking behaviors of rural community-based hospice social workers during the global COVID-19 pandemic is significant as there is a need to fill gaps regarding how this specific medical discipline performs their job responsibilities when duties become more complicated due to evolving infection control protocols, … more
This item is restricted from view until June 1, 2025.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Alvarado, Angela
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Designing Archival Collections to Support Language Revitalization: Case Study of the Boro Language Resource

Description: Indigenous communities around the world are losing their languages at accelerating rates to the effects of the climate crisis and global capitalism. To preserve samples of these languages facing endangerment and extinction, samples of language use (e.g., audio-video recordings, photographs, textual transcriptions, translations, and analyses) are created and stored in language archives: repositories intended to provide long-term preservation of and access to language materials. In recent years, … more
Date: May 2023
Creator: Burke, Mary
Partner: UNT Libraries

Information Sharing and Storage Behavior via Cloud Computing: Security and Privacy in Research and Practice and Users' Trust

Description: This research contributes to the cloud computing (CC) literature and information science research by addressing the reality of information sharing and storage behavior (ISSB) of the users' personal information via CC. Gathering information about usage also allows this research to address the paradox between the research and practice. Additionally, this research explores the concept of trust and its role in the behavioral change relative to CC. The findings help reconcile the paradox between th… more
Access: Restricted to UNT Community Members. Login required if off-campus.
Date: May 2019
Creator: Al Smadi, Duha
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Analyzing Tradeoffs between Privacy Concerns and Active Social Media Presence of 18- to 30-Year-Old College Students

Description: This study applied the impression management theory in the context of social networking to investigate the generalized research question of this dissertation which is "Do active social media presence and various privacy concerns influence online behaviors of students on social media?" The results and conclusions are presented via the conduct of three different studies and the summary provides insights and explain the overall contribution of the research. For each study we developed a research m… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Gadgil, Guruprasad Yashwant
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Examining Human Information Behavior on Social Media: Introducing the Concept of Social Noise

Description: Social media information behavior is increasingly critical, impacting not only individuals and groups but the beliefs, values, and direction of society and culture. The purpose of this study was to investigate how persistent observation by members of the online network influences social media users' information behavior, resulting in the phenomenon of social noise. Data analytics, including LDA, LSA, and clustering methodologies, were performed but could not provide information about the users'… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Zimmerman, Tara D
Partner: UNT Libraries

Social Networking Sites Usage Behavior: Trust and Risk Perceptions

Description: This dissertation addresses research questions related to defining user's trust and risk perceptions associated with social networking usage behavior in relation to the repeated privacy and security breaches. The general research question is explored in the dissertation via the conduct of three related studies. The finding from these three investigations are presented in the results section as 3 essays that collectively examine the social networking sites usage behavior. Essay 1 proposes a con… more
This item is restricted from view until June 1, 2027.
Date: May 2022
Creator: Mekala, Nithin Kumar Reddy
Partner: UNT Libraries

The Impact of Sociocultural and Information Communication Technology Adoption Factors on the Everyday Life Information Seeking Behavior of Saudi Students in the United States

Description: This study analyzes the sociocultural factors that affect Saudi students in the U.S. as they seek information and explores to what extent these factors impact their everyday life information seeking (ELIS) behavior and their information technology behavior (ITB). The factors in this study illustrate the unique sociocultural values that distinguish Saudi students from other international student groups: gender segregation, emphasis on religion, social support, and utilization of the consultatio… more
Access: Restricted to UNT Community Members. Login required if off-campus.
Date: May 2019
Creator: Alkahtani, Latifah M
Partner: UNT Libraries

Adoption of Wearable Devices by Older Adults

Description: This dissertation is organized in a traditional format while including three essays that address specific research questions. Essay 1 examined the relationship between physical activity and community engagement and their effect on mental well-being among older men and women. Data from National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) from 2018 to 2020 were explored and the posited relationships were tested. This essay provides empirical support that older adults who are reasonably active and invol… more
This item is restricted from view until June 1, 2027.
Date: May 2022
Creator: Enamela, Pranathy
Partner: UNT Libraries

The Scope and Value of Healthcare Data Science Applications

Description: Health disparities are a recognized public health concern and the need to address these disparities remains worthy of bringing new methods that assist in closing the gap. This research examined the effectiveness of data science to highlight health disparities, and to convey the value of data science applications in related health care applications. The goal of this research was accomplished by undertaking a multi-phased and multi-method approach, best represented in three individual essays. In … more
Date: May 2021
Creator: Huerta, Jose Oscar
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Factor Analytic Evaluation of the Private Club Members' Benefits Scale

Description: This study's first goal is to investigate whether a 23-item multidimensional scale is a valid and reliable measure of benefits private club members perceive to be important. Seven theoretically plausible model structures are empirically tested: a unidimensional model, a two oblique first-order factors model, a four oblique first-order factors model, a two oblique second-order factors model, a bifactor model with two domain-specific factors, a bifactor model with four domain-specific factors, an… more
Date: July 2023
Creator: Njeri, Millicent
Partner: UNT Libraries

Digital Equity in K-12 Education: Conceptualization and Analysis of Students' Digital Opportunity

Description: Although digital equity is a recognized challenge in our K-12 school system, there is little research in using a holistic framework to investigate pre-conditions necessary for K-12 students to participate in digital learning and online processes. A conceptual framework of students' digital opportunity (SDO) is developed to represent the essential components of digital connectivity. The four key components are broadband internet availability, broadband usage, digital device ownership, and speed … more
This item is restricted from view until June 1, 2024.
Date: May 2022
Creator: Jim, Cary Ka Wai
Partner: UNT Libraries

Social Disruption in Nigerian Public Universities: A Study of the Impact of Strikes on Students' Information Behavior

Description: This study applied social disruption as a concept that highlights factors responsible for the breakdown of social relationships in societies. Social disruption has many forms, however, the focus in this study was on strikes, which create constant social disruption in Nigerian public universities and could have serious impact on students' information behavior. Two universities – Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) and Imo State University Owerri (IMSU) – were chosen for the study, and… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Onye, Uriel U
Partner: UNT Libraries

Examination of Online Health Information Seeking Effectiveness: Case Studies of Online Health Communities in COPD Patients

Description: When people access online health information, unfortunately, they have access to both clinically accurate and inaccurate information that they may then utilize to make informed personal health decisions. This research fills a gap in the literature of online health communities as they relate to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The conduct of this research required a multi-phased and multi-method approach, best presented in three distinct essays. In Essays 1 and 2, data gathering wi… more
Date: December 2020
Creator: Boyce, LeAnn Kendetta
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

An Analysis of Student Perceptions of Teaching Effectiveness for Instructors Who Teach the Same Course in the Same Semester in Both Online and Face-to-Face Formats

Description: There is an increasingly number of students taking online classes in lieu of or in addition to the traditional face-to-face format. With this trend, there are questions that naturally come to the surface. The biggest question being "is teaching in the online arena just as effective as the face-to-face arena?" This dissertation aims to pursue that line of questioning by analyzing students' perceptions of the teaching effectiveness for instructors who teach the same course in both an online and… more
Date: December 2019
Creator: Asher, Donna Brooks
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Perceptions of Associates to Embrace Technology Used in Teams in the Workplace

Description: This study explores employees' desire to embrace both a legacy operating system and a new workflow engine utilized in the workplace. The goal is to better understand the partnership and relationship the users build with the technologies and how that impacts usage behavior. The research is centered on a mixed-method case study using survey and episodic interview techniques of data collection. Models and methodologies providing the foundation for this study include Venkatesh and Davis's techno… more
Date: August 2019
Creator: McGowan, Michael T.
Partner: UNT Libraries

A Quantitative Approach to Understand Cyberbullying

Description: After more than two decades, bullying and cyberbullying is still negatively impacting the lives of many of our youth and their families. The prevalence of the phenomenon is widespread and part of the everyday life activities. The impact of cyber aggression and violation can have severe consequences, up to the destruction of lives. While cyberbullying prevention programs exist, not much progress seems to have been made in the effort to combat the phenomenon. This research provides new insights i… more
Date: August 2021
Creator: Stegmair, Juergen Georg
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Life Coaches, Communities of Practice, and Everyday Life Information Seeking and Practices: An Exploratory Case Study

Description: Life coaching is a rapidly expanding industry that focuses on client development, enhancement of life experience, and goal attainment often when clients are experiencing personal, professional, and social change. Online communities of practice (CoPs) provide opportunity for individuals to connect, share experiences, and learn from each other under the auspices of a unifying theme or subject. Since the 1990s, CoPs have spread from education to other areas of business and industry and continue to… more
Date: May 2022
Creator: Klein, Janette Dorlene
Partner: UNT Libraries
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