Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Information storage and retrieval systems Education Information technology'

This study identified determinants existing within the academic environment of professional education faculty that influence the development and implementation of an information technology system to support their professional endeavors. Such a system would encourage these faculty to integrate technology into their curriculum and, consequently, produce teacher graduates who could employ information technology effectively in teaching. This study used a field survey research design with a mailed questionnaire. Both institutional and personal demographic factors were examined. The population exhibited a high level of homogeneity. This study indicated that ease of use, reliable operation, and capability to integrate technology into their personal work style were the most important concerns of faculty members. These factors reduce the emotional and intellectual costs of using technology.

Governments and school communities are heavily investing in information technology (IT) assuming that this will prepare their children for the workforce and in future life. This research aimed to establish an IT investment effectiveness model in the educational, domain easily applicable to schools in assessing whether their IT investments were effective. Literature research revealed a dearth of information on IT investment effectiveness in the area of education and it was therefore deemed necessary to implement an interpretive approach. Consequently a qualitative combined research methodology involving literature research, interviews, and a modified Delphi Survey I was undertaken. An initial starting point investigated the extensive business literature in IT effectiveness and IT investment particularly in small business, as most schools due to their size and budget can be categorised as thus. The information gleaned from the literature assisted in establishing a questionnaire for the interviews. Participants were selected from thirteen Victorian State, private and Catholic secondary schools that were perceived as expert in the area of IT. An in-depth three stage analysis of the interview data revealed twenty-four initial key issues. These key issues were then circulated to the participants who were requested to rate each issue using an interval scale. They were also asked to add or delete any issues, giving a rationale for their action. Participants underwent a two round process of highlighting and reassessing the key issues and the Delphi Survey was found to be valid as two new issues not identified from the interview process were raised. Based on their responses ten key issues were derived: the Principal, teachers, curriculum and IT planning, technical support, the students, the actual use of IT, training and personal development, the school council, budget, and the Learning Technologies Committee. These key issues revealed themselves as indicators or determinants of IT investment effectiveness exhibiting organisational or individual perspectives. The analysis of previous research, together with the current research findings enabled the development of a functional Model of IT Investment Effectiveness which can now be used by schools to assess their IT investment effectiveness. Finally the schools surveyed were utilising the best business IT practise and were treating IT as a strategic issue with their IT goals closely aligned and based upon the goals of the school.

This was a study of the information processing instruction in Virginia Community Colleges. The purposes of the study were (a) to obtain baseline information about the information processing instruction programs, and (b) to evaluate the information processing programs using the information processing"content" portion of the Standards for Excellence in Business Education. The respondents in the study were secretarial science program directors in the Virginia community colleges. Responses to the survey instrument were received from 22 of the 32 mailed (69%). For the responding institutions, 2314 students were enrolled in courses that involve word processing. Sixty-six percent of the students were younger than 25. There were 57 instructors of information processing in the community colleges; two male and 55 female. Fifteen were full time, 42 part-time. Six of the faculty had doctor's degrees, 42 had master's degrees, six had bachelor's degrees. Of the 419 computers used for word processing, over one-half were IBM compatible. In addition, 106 dedicated word processors were in use. WordStar computer software was used by one-half of the community colleges. Other software most used included WordPerfect and Display Write. Word processing was the most-offered secretarial science course. The secretarial science program directors rated their information processing instruction programs to"meet" or"exceed the standard" in 112 of the 113 items in the"content" portion of the Standards published by the U. S. Department of Education. The one item that was rated"below standard" was an item dealing with data communications instruction. The Standards items were divided into 12 subtopics. The subtopic to receive the highest rating was"Employability Traits and Attitudes." The subtopic to receive the lowest rating was"Computer Programming."
M.S.

This project was created to develop a database for students and teachers to allow accurate, efficient and reliable tracking of student's academic information. The database was designed specifically for faculty and students within the Master of Arts in Education, Instructional Technology Program at California State University, San Bernardino.

Thesis (M. Tech.) - Central University of Technology, Free State, 2010
The main aim of this research was to automate student attendance registration, thereby reducing human involvement in the whole process. This was made possible using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. The Central University of Technology uses student cards that are compatible for use with RFID technology. As a result, no initial investment (except for the existing personal computer’s and the constructed RFID reader) in infrastructure was required for this project. The basic working of the project was as follows. The students belonging to a specific class had their vital educational data (Student number, Name) entered into a database table at the time of registration. A student card containing a serial number, with reference to the data contained in the database table, was given to the students after registration. The students walk into their respective classes and scan their student cards with the RFID reader. The serial number stored in the student card is transferred to the reader and from there wirelessly to the main server using ZigBee technology. In the main server, using Java programming language, the card serial number is sent to the Integrated Development Environment (IDE). In this project the Netbeans IDE (Java platform) was used. The Netbeans IDE is connected to the Apache Derby database using Java Database Connector (JDBC), so the serial number (which is referenced to the educational data of the students) from the student card is automatically compared with the original database created at the time of registration. Once a match is confirmed between the two entries, the data is entered into a separate database table which serves as the basic attendance sheet for a specific day.

The diffusion of information and communication technology (ICT) into healthcare has been generally low. This varies with application and setting, but at the point of care clinical level it has been particularly slow. The ICT niche in clinics has been recognised in numerous publications, where it potential benefits are proclaimed. A reoccurring factor identified with criticism of design i information systems research (ISR) is the difficulty in integrating the different human and technical elements. Activity Theory (AT) has been proposed as a means of overcoming this by providing single theoretical framework able to represent relevant factors across all levels of operational abstraction. In this work the (practical) operational functionality of AT is employed (tested) as a basis for design and evaluation of ICT, applied to integration at the clinical level of the National Health Service (NHS) healthcare organisation. Chronic wound healing is a complex activity, with a long history and strong dependence on data, as observed and recorded by clinicians, to treat and heal patients. Wound clinics that are part of the NHS, which is currently actively pursuing a strategy for information technology (IT) integration in healthcare, afford the opportunity to develop specific ICT for wound data and consider issues of diffusion at different levels of the organisation. An Action Research paradigm, using methods borrowed from soft systems methodology (SSM), is applied to the problem of producing ICT to manage wound data in participating NHS clinics. Data are collected via naturalistic (participant) observation, 'in-depth' interviews and focus groups, and are recorded using ethnographic field notes, a research logbook and diary, and digital and analogue voice recordings. Activity models are generated, to interpret the research process and represent the activity at the action level of the clinic, situating the analysis, both within the network of supporting activities, and the influence and constraints of the administrative and the organisational levels. Practical findings highlight the potential of ICT in participating clinics, showing how this can be expanded to the chronic wound healing activity in general, and reporting the implications that this has for the NHS IT strategy at the level of the clinics involved with regards to integration of ICT. Theoretical findings support the suitability of the Action Research strategy and the relevance of AT both as a descriptive framework for information systems development (!SD), and as an evaluative framework for ISR.

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed February 12, 2010). Thesis advisor: Dr. Toni Kazic. Includes bibliographical references.

In the past decade, the amount of scientific data collected and generated by scientists has grown dramatically. This growth has intensified an existing problem: in large archives consisting of datasets stored in many files, formats and locations, how can scientists find data relevant to their research interests? We approach this problem in a new way: by adapting Information Retrieval techniques, developed for searching text documents, into the world of (primarily numeric) scientific data. We propose an approach that uses a blend of automated and curated methods to extract metadata from large repositories of scientific data. We then perform searches over this metadata, returning results ranked by similarity to the search criteria. We present a model of this approach, and describe a specific implementation thereof performed at an ocean-observatory data archive and now running in production. Our prototype implements scanners that extract metadata from datasets that contain different kinds of environmental observations, and a search engine with a candidate similarity measure for comparing a set of search terms to the extracted metadata. We evaluate the utility of the prototype by performing two user studies; these studies show that the approach resonates with users, and that our proposed similarity measure performs well when analyzed using standard Information Retrieval evaluation methods. We performed performance tests to explore how continued archive growth will affect our goal of interactive response, developed and applied techniques that mitigate the effects of that growth, and show that the techniques are effective. Lastly, we describe some of the research needed to extend this initial work into a true “Google for data”.

Developed with the intention to make the patient data storage system in the clinical outpatient area more efficient, this system stores all pertinent and relevant patient data such as lab results, patient history and X-ray images. The system is accessible via the internet as well as operable over a local area network (LAN). The intended audience for this program is essentially the clinical staff (e.g., physicians, nursing staff, secretarial staff). The computer program was developed using Java Server Pages (JSP) and utilizes the Oracle 9i database.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD
A phenomenological philosophy underlies this research study which attempts to understand clinicians’ perception and understanding of an electronic patient record (EPR) system currently operational at a hospital in the Western Cape Province in South Africa (SA). Healthcare is a human right, thus patient records contain critical data and mostly paper-based in many SA hospitals. Clinicians are the EPR primary users and their attitude in its use is important for its success. This study explores, identifies and determines clinicians’ cognitive attributes towards EPR with a technology use framework developed. An initial quantitative approach was applied but unsuccessful due to low sample size. A pilot study was then conducted using 11 respondents. Purposive sampling was first initiated then snowball introduced later to improve the sample size qualitatively. Interviews were administered to 15 clinicians and tape recorded. Narrative content analysis was used as the preferred analysis technique because of the advantage of gaining direct information from study participants, unobtrusive and a nonreactive way to study the phenomenon of interest. Research findings tested 12 propositions and found high impact relationships between attitude (ATT) and each listed theme namely: perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), complexity (COM), facilitating condition (FC), use behaviour (USE). Use behaviour had high impact relationships with storage (STO) and retrieval (RET). There were moderate impact relationships between PU and USE; PEOU and PU; RA and ATT; job fit (JF) and ATT; USE and share (SHA). The implication here is that any EPR system to be implemented should be tested using this framework to ascertain its usefulness and fit with a hospital's objectives and users expectations. By so doing, anticipated problems can be mitigated against and resolved before implementation. The study contributes to the information system (IS) body of knowledge through the technology use framework. The framework is for adoption by hospital management and its use by clinicians where EPR is operational. Traditional IS frameworks can be adopted for hospitals about to implement EPR because of the relevance of the "intent to use" theme.

Thesis (M.S. in Information Technology Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2009.
Thesis Advisor(s): Cook, Glenn. "September 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on 6 November 2009. Author(s) subject terms: Enterprise architecture, project management, business process transformation, operating model, IT governance, IT systems, data quality, data migration, business operating model, personnel IT systems, HRM, ERP. Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-92). Also available in print.

Thesis (M. Tech.) -- Central University of Technology, Free State, 2007
With technology advancing, more and more people turn to the World Wide Web to conduct business. This may include buying and selling on the Web, advertising and monitoring of business activities. There is a big need for software and systems that enable remote monitoring and controlling of business activities. The Mechatronics Research Group of the Faculty of Engineering, Information and Communication Technology at the Central University of Technology, Free State, has identified a similar need. This research group has created an Automated Manufacturing System around which research topics revolve. They want to monitor this Automated Manufacturing System from remote locations like their offices or, if possible, from home. The Remote Information Management (RIM) System was developed, using the Rapid Application Development (RAD) Methodology. The reasons why this methodology was used, is because it is the best to use in a changing environment, when the system needs to be developed very quickly and when most of the data is already available. This is a good description of the Automated Manufacturing System’s environment. The RAD methodology consists of four stages: Requirements Planning, User Design, Rapid Construction and Transition. Project Management is used throughout these stages to ensure that the project goes according to plan. Development of the RIM system went through all four stages and project management was applied. The final system consisted of a Web Page with Web Camera views of the Automated Manufacturing System. The application that was developed using National Instruments LabVIEW, Microsoft Visual C++, and Microsoft Excel, is embedded in this Web Page. This application is called a Virtual Instrument (VI). The VI shows real-time data from the Automated Manufacturing System. Control over the VI can be granted and will allow the remote user to create reports on how many different products was produced and system downtimes. A system like the RIM System has advantages in the business world. It can enable telecommuting and will allow employees and managers to monitor (and even control) manufacturing systems, or any system connected to a PLC, from remote locations.

Thesis (MTech (Information Technology))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016.
In the Western Cape, South Africa, despite the prospective benefits that e-Health information systems (e-Health IS) offer to support the healthcare sector; there are limitations in terms of usability, functionality and peculiar socio-technical factors. Thus, healthcare professionals do not make the most use of the implemented e-Health IS. Unfortunately, explanations remain tentative and unclear, yet non-usage of the e-Health IS defeats the objectives of its adoption, in the sense that the plan to improve and deliver quality healthcare service in the public sector may not be achieved as envisaged. The aim of the study was to acquire explanations to the causes of the limitations regarding the adoption and, particularly, the use (or non-use) of e-Health IS by clinical staff in the public healthcare institutions in South Africa. The choice of research approach was informed by the research problem, objectives, and the main research question. By the reasons of the subjective and socio-technical nature of the phenomenon, a deductive approach was adopted for this investigation. The nominalist ontology and interpretivist epistemology positions were taken by the researcher as a lens to conduct this research; which informed a qualitative methodology for this investigation. The purposive sampling technique was used to identify the appropriate participants from different hospital levels consisting of Hospital Administrative staff, and Clinical staff (Clinicians and Nurses) of relative experiences in their clinical units. Subsequently, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and content analysis technique were used to contextualize, simplify, and analysis the text data transcripts. The findings indicate that healthcare professionals have a high level of awareness and acceptance to use implemented e-Health IS. There are positive perceptions on the expected outcomes, that e-Health IS would improve processes and enhance healthcare services delivery in the public healthcare sector. Also, findings indicate that social influence plays a vital role especially on the willingness of individuals (or groups); as the clinical staff are influenced by their colleagues despite the facilitating conditions provided by the hospital management. Further, findings indicate that it is somewhat problematic to maintain balance in running a parallel paper-electronic system in the hospital environment. Hence, the core factors that influence successful adoption and use of e-Health IS include; willingness of an individual (or group) to accept and use a technology, the performance expectancy, social influence among professionals in the healthcare scenery and adequate facilitating conditions. In summary, it is recommended that there should be an extensive engagement inclusive of all respective stakeholders involved in the adoption processes. This would ensure that e-Health IS are designed to meet both practical organizational and clinical needs (and expectations) with respect to the hospital contexts.

This study observed the interaction between historically disadvantaged undergraduate students and on-line information retrieval systems at the University of the Western Cape and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2008.
Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 98 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-52).

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2004.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Education Management Information System (EMIS) is the business unit that is responsible for information management and business reporting in the Department of Education. EMIS finds it difficult to provide high quality information to the Department of Education internally and its stakeholders externally and attributes the reduction of the quality of its education information to factors such as the organisational nature of the South African education system, the lack of information management standards and practices, the low level of information technology skills in EMIS, the existence of a multitude of disparate information systems in the Department of Education and Provincial Education Departments, and the apparent discontinuity in the flow of information from education institution level to the national department and back. Most research in information management confirmed the state of EMIS as being typical of most large organisations whose functioning depends on the quality of their information. The factors that influence information quality in EMIS had been identified as accuracy, timeliness, consistency and relevance of the information. A “quick-fix” to the information problem is not possible but research in information systems management indicates that there are trends in the electronic business arena that may provide an acceptable solution to most of the problems encountered by EMIS. This report investigates the nature of EMIS problems in terms of information management and investigates possible solutions to the problems. The investigation is done within the framework of acknowledged information systems planning process and aligned to the process model of information management. An exposition is given on the theory pertaining to information management, information systems and information systems management to give insight into the particular fields of study and their interdependencies. A section on business intelligence is included since business reporting is the primary function of EMIS. Investigations into information systems development indicate an exponential growth in electronic technology development specifically the Internet and the Web. The information systems plan provides the framework or set of guidelines to determine the information systems solution that will be able to solve their problems. The research report included four stages of the information systems plan framework. The first stage pertains to the identification of minimum information required from the education sector and supporting sectors to provide high quality education information for decision-making and planning. The second stage determines and benchmarks the state of EMIS in terms of information management processes. The third stage investigates the trends in electronic business and specifically electronic information systems applications. Current best practices indicate that a possible solution to information management problems in large organisations is the application of a web-based, electronic, enterprise-wide, integrated information system.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: EMIS as ‘n besigheidseenheid in die nasionale Onderwysdepartement is verantwoordelik vir inligtingsbestuur en verslaggewing. EMIS vind dit moeilik om hoë kwaliteit inligting intern aan die onderwysdepartement en ekstern aan sy rolspelers te verskaf. en skryf die verlaging in die kwaliteit van inligting toe aan faktore soos die organisasiestruktuur van die Suid Afrikaanse onderwysstelsel, die gebrek aan standaarde vir inligtingsbestuur en -praktyke, die lae vlak van inligtingstegnologiekennis van die personeel in EMIS, die bestaan van ‘n magdom van ongelyksoortige inligtingstelsels in die nasionale onderwysdepartement en provinsiale onderwysdepartemente en die sigbare diskontinuïteit in die vloei van inligting vanaf die onderwysinrigtings na die nasionale onderwysdepartement en terug. Die meeste navorsing in inligtingsbestuur bevestig dat die toestand waarin EMIS verkeer tipies is van die meeste groot organisasies wie se funksionering van die kwaliteit van hulle inligting afhang. Die faktore wat ‘n rol speel in die kwaliteit van inligting in EMIS word geïdentifiseer as akkuraatheid, tydigheid, uniformiteit en geldigheid. ‘n Vinnige oplossing vir die inligtingsprobleem is nie moontlik nie maar navorsing in inligtingstelselsbestuur dui aan dat daar tendense in die rigting van elektroniese besigheidarena is wat aanvaarbare oplossings bied vir die meeste van EMIS se probleme. Hierdie verslag ondersoek die aard van EMIS se probleme in terme van inligtingsbestuur en ondersoek moontlike oplossings vir die probleme. Die ondersoek word gedoen binne die raamwerk van ‘n aanvaarde inligtingstelsel-beplanningsproses wat opgestel is om binne die prosesmodel vir inligtingsbestuur te val. ‘n Uiteensetting van die teorie ten opsigte van inligtingsbestuur, inligtingstelsels en inligtingstelselbestuur word gegee ten einde insig oor die betrokke studieterreine en hul interafhanklikheid te gee. ‘n Afdeling oor besigheidsintelligensie word ingesluit aangesien besigheidsverslaggewing die primêre funksie van EMIS is. ‘n Ondersoek na inligtingstelselontwikkeling dui op ‘n eksponensiële groei in die ontwikkeling van die elektroniese tegnologiebedryf en spesifiek die Internet en Web. Die inligtingstelselsplan voorsien die raamwerk of riglyne waarbinne die inligtingstelseloplossing gesoek kan word. Die navorsingsverslag sluit vier fases van die raamwerk van die inligtingstelselsplan in. Die eerste fase het te make met die identifisering van die minimum inligting wat nodig is vir besluitneming en beplanning. Die tweede fase stel die toestand van EMIS ten opsigte van inligtingsbestuur vas. Die derde fase ondersoek die neigings in elektroniese besigheidstransaksies en toepassings. Huidige beste praktyke dui aan dat ‘n moontlike oplossing vir die inligtingsbestuurprobleme van groot organisasies die toepassing van ‘n web-gebaseerde, elektroniese, geïntegreerde inligtingstelsel, wat al die komponente van die onderneming insluit, is.

Knowledge Management is associated with organisational initiatives in response to the demands of a knowledge-based economy in which the potential value of knowledge as a source for competitive advantage is recognised. However, the lack of a common understanding about knowledge itself, its characteristics and how it is constructed has led to diverse approaches about how to "manage" it. This study presents a critical overview of traditional and contemporary KM approaches. The main focus of this study was to discover and apply a suitable methodology for assessing an organisation's knowledge processing environment. This includes an analysis of the current practices and behaviours of people within the organisation relating to the creation of new knowledge and integrating such knowledge into day-to-day work. It also includes inferring from the above practices those policies and programmes that affect knowledge outcomes. This research makes extensive use of the Knowledge Life Cycle (KLC) framework and the Policy Synchronisation Method (PSM) developed by advocates of the New Knowledge Management movement. A case study approach was followed using a range of data collection methods, which included personal interviews, a social network survey and focus group discussions. The selected case is the small IT department at the East London campus of Rhodes University. Evidence from the case suggests that the knowledge processing environment within the IT department is unhealthy. The current knowledge processing practices and behaviours are undesirable and not geared towards the creation of new knowledge and the integration of such knowledge within the business processes of the IT department. There is little evidence of individual and organisational learning occurring and the problem solving process itself is severely hampered by dysfunctional knowledge practices. The study concludes that the above state of affairs is a reflection of the quality and appropriateness of policies and programmes in the extended organisation. Equally, the local definition of rules, procedures and the execution thereof at a business unit level is mostly lacking. The study illustrates that a systematic assessment of the knowledge processing environment provides the organisation with a sound baseline from where knowledge-based interventions can be launched.

Two experiments were conducted to determine the feasibility of providing online command-selection aids to novice users of an information retrieval system. The results of the first experiment revealed a difference in the mean and variability of search performance between novice and expert computer users. Half of the novices were performing much like experts, while the rest of the sample was extremely slow. These slower novices were using inefficient scrolling strategies and appeared to be unfamiliar with the structure of the database. The second experiment evaluated whether novices could be assisted or trained with command-selection aids developed from the behavior of experts. The command-selection aids were defined in a 3 X 3 mixed factor design with type of model (frequency, sequence, or plan-based) as the between-subjects variable and dialogue initiative (user, computer, or mixed) as the within-subjects variable. The frequency and sequence models presented and ranked search procedures based on a command-usage profile and a command-transition matrix, respectively. The plan-based model presented an ordered set of search procedures with verbal explanations. All models were constructed for groups of homogeneous search problems selected by a sorting and cluster analysis. The three dialogue-initiatives determined whether the user, the computer, or both the user and computer controlled presentation of advice. Administration of the dialogue initiatives was completely counterbalanced and was followed by a final unaided transfer session. As a result of receiving online aiding, the wide ranging search performance of novice subjects was improved both during assistance and transfer. Performance of aided novices was superior to the slow novices and equal to the fast novices and experts. All three command-selection models were equally effective, with exception of the sequence model which sometimes presented frequent and complicated advice. Of the dialogues, mixed-initiated advice was ineffective during the first aiding session possibly due to the difficulties novices faced deciding whether to receive the suggested assistance. The conclusion of the study was that online command—selection aids can be effective if providing appropriate feedback and minimizing the amount of dialogue in aiding.
Ph. D.

One of the important branches of government and vital to the community, police agencies are organizations that have high usage rates of information technology systems since they are in the intelligence sector and thus have information incentives. Not only can information technologies develop intra- and inter-relationships of law enforcement agencies, but they also improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the police officers and agencies without adding additional costs. Thus, identifying the factors that influence the police officers' adoption of information technology can help predict and determine how information technology will contribute to the social organization of policing in terms of effectiveness and efficiency gains. A research framework was developed by integrating three different models, theory of planned behavior (TPB), technology acceptance theory (TAM), and diffusion of innovation theory (DOI) while adding two other factors, facility and voluntariness, to better determine the factors affecting the implementation and adoption of the POLNET software system used by the Turkish National Police (TNP). The integrated model used in this study covers not only basic technology acceptance factors, but also the factors related to policing. It also attempts to account for the factors of cultural differences by considering the important aspects of Turkish culture. A cross sectional survey was conducted among TNP officers using the POLNET system. The LISREL 8.5® analysis for the hypothesized model resulted in a good model fit; 13 of the 15 hypotheses were supported.

As informações fornecidas por sistemas de informações são recursos fundamentais para uma organização e são utilizados por usuários que apresentam características individuais, ou seja, apresentam necessidades e comportamentos particulares e ao interagir com o sistema de informação esperam resultados diferentes. Assim, avaliando o impacto da qualidade informação na organização, de acordo com as características individuais dos usuários, obtém-se o resultado do desempenho do trabalho. O impacto dos sistemas de informação no contexto da organização é influenciado pelo impacto no trabalho em termos individuais. Nesse contexto, pesquisas relacionadas à adoção de tecnologia da informação buscam compreender a aceitação da tecnologia da informação pelos indivíduos. Um dos modelos mais referenciados na literatura para verificar a aceitação da tecnologia e o uso de tecnologia da informação no contexto das organizações é o Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) que prevê o comportamento humano na utilização de tecnologias, por meio da análise da utilidade e da facilidade de uso de sistemas de informações percebidas pelos indivíduos. A finalidade de um sistema de informação é fornecer informações. O sucesso de uso de sistemas de informação está relacionado a aspectos como a Qualidade da Informação, características dos indivíduos e Impacto Individual. Nesta pesquisa, por meio da análise de equações estruturais, dos dados coletados com usuários do Sistema de Concessão de Diárias e Passagens (SCDP) que é utilizado pela Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), o objetivo foi, portanto, analisar como a qualidade de informação e os impactos individuais são influenciados por características individuais na percepção dos usuários do Sistema de Concessão de Diárias e Passagens na Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná. O estudo de natureza descritiva e os construtos utilizados eram conhecidos e anteriormente validados, no entanto, o arranjo desses construtos e a utilização de variáveis antecedentes, que podem influenciar a percepção da qualidade da informação e dos impactos individuais são o diferencial da pesquisa. A unidade de pesquisa é o servidor público que trabalha na UTFPR e utiliza o sistema SCDP para realizar o seu trabalho. Foi realizada pesquisa de levantamento social, por meio de questionário eletrônico autoaplicado. Os resultados confirmaram a influência da qualidade da informação sobre o impacto individual, e mostram que as características individuais interferem na percepção da qualidade da informação e no impacto individual no uso do SCDP na UTFPR. Assim como demonstraram que as informações obtidas com o SCDP atedem as dimensões da qualidade da informação.
The information provided by information systems are key resources for an organization and are used by users who have individual characteristics, they present particular needs and behaviors and interact with the information system expect different results. Thus, evaluating the impact of information quality in the organization, according to the individual characteristics of users, we obtain the result of the impact work. The performance of information systems at the organizational context is influenced by the impact at work on an individual basis. In this context, research related to information technology adoption seek to understand the acceptance of information technology by individuals. One of the most referenced in the literature to verify the acceptance of the technology and the use of information technology in the context of organizations is the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) which provides human behavior models in the use of technology, through the use of analysis and ease of use of information perceived by individuals systems. The purpose of an information system is to provide information. The successful use of information systems is related to aspects such as the quality of information, characteristics of individuals and Individual Impact. In this study, through the analysis of structural equations, data collected from users of the system Concession Daily and Cheap (SCDP) that is used by the Federal Technological University of Paraná (UTFPR), the aim is therefore to analyze the quality of information and individual impacts are influenced by individual characteristics in the perception of users of the system Concession Daily and Cheap in the Federal Technological University of Paraná. The study is descriptive, the constructs are known and used previously validated, however, the arrangement of these constructs and the use of the antecedent variables which can influence the perceived quality information and the individual impact is the difference in research. The research unit is the public servant who works in UTFPR and uses the SCDP system to carry out their work. Social research survey by means of electronic self-administered questionnaire was performed. The results confirmed the influence of the quality of information on the individual impact, and show that individual characteristics influence the perception of information quality and individual impact on the use of the SCDP in UTFPR. As demonstrated that the information obtained from the SCDP meet the dimensions of information quality.

Thesis (MTech (Information Technology))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2012.
This research is an attempt to investigate the utilisation of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Healthcare to support the flow of HIV/AIDS patient’s general information in public and private sector. Furthermore, the research examines the detail flow of database information for healthcare service delivery to patients, in particular HIV/AIDS patients, in Khayelitsha Township. Finally, the research will detail the types of technologies currently being utilised to transfer this information, technology utilised for capturing or data collection profile of the patient. The research study data collecting was done in 2009 in mostly private and public healthcare centre in Khayelitsha township. First, the study will concentrate on general utilisation of ICT in healthcare service delivery and flow of information for public and private sector healthcare centres. Additionally, the research also looks at NGOs such as HIV/AIDS Unit in Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and Treament Action Campaign (TAC) to find out what ICT equipment is being utilised to transfer this information to adult people to inform and make them to be aware of HIV/AIDS and improve healthcare service delivery to patients and particularly to HIV/AIDS patients. Taking NGO’s such as TAC and CPUT HIV/AIDS Unit that are well informed about HIV/AIDS, nationally and internationally will make our research results to be more precise. The research will also look at the utilisation of ICT in flow of information at healthcare centre such as communication between healthcare providers such as receptionist/clerk, nurses, doctors and medical researchers since they are the first people who deal with HIV/AIDS patient cases when they come for healthcare provision.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology (MTech) in Information Technology In the Faculty of Informatics and Design, at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), 2013
Healthcare services are vital to all human beings, as our daily lives depend on them. In South Africa approximately eighty per cent of the population uses the public healthcare services. In the current healthcare systems data corruption exists which threatens data quality in the systems. The aim of this study was to understand the existing information handling processes and factors that affect the accuracy and integrity of healthcare data. A qualitative research methodology, under the interpretive paradigm was used for this investigation. Activity theory is used to formulate an analytical framework, the “healthcare information system data quality activity theory framework”. This was very helpful for understanding the healthcare information handling process as an activity system that consists of actors with individual goals. Though the goals are varied, they are joined together by the common objective. The logic of the framework is that a realisation of goals in the activity system depends on a number of factors. At the beginning, there must be a synchronous inter-linkage between the goals of the actors, the mediating factors such as adequate tools, user skills, enabling policies, and the systematic procedures that are diligently enforced. It is assumed that any situation which prevents this inter-linkage will have a negative impact on the realisation of the sought objective. The framework therefore, was very helpful in informing questions, the data collection and ultimately, the analysis processes. The public healthcare sector is the main source of data; other sources were literature, the Internet and books. The analysis of data was done using content analysis to find what themes emerge and the relationship (s) between them in what is being analysed. The findings reveal a lack of adherence to information handling procedures and processes which lead to corrupt data in the systems. In addition, most users have limited skills, which is a hindrance to them in performing their duties as expected by the healthcare sector. In fact, the healthcare sector is also challenged by systems which are constantly slow or down, due to limited network capacity and human errors. The presence of these challenges suggests non-adherence to data handling procedures, which explains the existing corrupt data in the healthcare systems. Therefore the recommendation is that the public healthcare administration must enhance their training programs. The training must be re-designed to cater for the needs of all users, regardless of their background. It needs to improve user skills and boast their confidence in using electronic systems. Obviously, any changes and improvements need to be sustainable, and the sector is unlikely to succeed without enforcement of new procedures. Therefore, adherence to data handling procedures must be strictly enforced, with policies thoroughly communicated to the users. That way, the sector will not only have systems and related policies, but also ensure their full exploitation for improved service delivery in the public healthcare sector in South Africa.

Thesis (M. Tech.) - Central University of Technology, Free State, 2009
The purpose of the study was to design and develop a prototype Indigenous Knowledge (IK) database that will be productive within a Knowledge Management (KM) framework specifically focused on IK. The need to develop a prototype IK database that can help standardise the work being done in the field of IK within South Africa has been established in the Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) policy, which stated that “common standards would enable the integration of widely scattered and distributed references on IKS in a retrievable form. This would act as a bridge between indigenous and other knowledge systems” (IKS policy, 2004:33). In particular within the indigenous people’s organizations, holders of IK, whether individually or collectively, have a claim that their knowledge should not be exploited for elitist purposes without direct benefit to their empowerment and the improvement of their livelihoods. Establishing guidelines and a modus operandi (KM framework) are important, especially when working with communities. Researchers go into communities to gather their knowledge and never return to the communities with their results. The communities feel enraged and wronged. Creating an IK network can curb such behaviour or at least inform researchers/organisations that this behaviour is damaging. The importance of IK is that IK provides the basis for problem-solving strategies for local communities, especially the poor, which can help reduce poverty. IK is a key element of the “social capital” of the poor; their main asset to invest in the struggle for survival, to produce food, to provide shelter, or to achieve control of their own lives. It is closely intertwined with their livelihoods. Many aspects of KM and IK were discussed and a feasibility study for a KM framework was conducted to determine if any existing KM frameworks can work in an organisation that works with IK. Other factors that can influence IK are: guidelines for implementing a KM framework, information management, quality management, human factors/capital movement, leading role players in the field of IK, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), ethics, guidelines for doing fieldwork, and a best plan for implementation. At this point, the focus changes from KM and IK to the prototype IK database and the technical design thereof. The focus is shifted to a more hands-on development by looking at the different data models and their underlying models. A well-designed database facilitates data management and becomes a valuable generator of information. A poorly designed database is likely to become a breeding ground for redundant data. The conceptual design stage used data modelling to create an abstract database structure that represents real-world objects in the most authentic way possible. The tools used to design the database are platform independent software; therefore the design can be implemented on many different platforms. An elementary prototype graphical user interface was designed in order to illustrate the database’s three main functions: adding new members, adding new IK records, and searching the IK database. The IK database design took cognisance of what is currently prevailing in South Africa and the rest of the world with respect to IK and database development. The development of the database was done in such a way as to establish a standard database design for IK systems in South Africa. The goal was to design and develop a database that can be disseminated to researchers/organisations working in the field of IK so that the use of a template database can assist work in the field. Consequently the work in the field will be collected in the same way and based on the same model. At a later stage, the databases could be interlinked and South Africa can have one large knowledge repository for IK.

This project develops a new version of the Wiki style administration of online course content. It will implement a teaching and learning tool that works as a easy and quick communication interface between instructor and student. The second purpose of the project is to design an easily extendable and maintainable architecture, which provides a generic Wiki system that can work for any information technology department and handle sets of courses and insturctors.

The purpose of this project is to analyze whether i3 Strategy of Applied Digital Solutions (ADS) was necessary to meet the fast-moving IT industry. i3 Services Strategy is an integrated corporate strategy to reengineer the organizational structure of ADS.

El trabajo de investigación está orientado a proponer un Modelo de Gestión de Incidentes, aplicando las buenas prácticas de ITIL v3.0 con elpropósito de mejorar la calidad de los servicios de tecnología de la información (TI) ofrecidos por la entidad en estudio. La aplicación del nuevo modelo de gestión de incidentes implicó la formalización del proceso de gestión de incidentes de tal manera que de modificaran algunos procedimientos que se esfecifican en el presente trabajo. La aplicación del modelo propuesto estuvo respaldada por la gerencia que permitió organizar mejor al personal en el proceso de gestión de incidentes, permitiendoles capacitarse y entender la aplicación del modelo propuesto. de los resultados de la aplicación del modelo, se puede observar que la atención de incidentes y la satisfacción del usuario final mejoraron. La creación de una linea base de indicadores permitirá hacer los ajustes necesarios al modelo con el objetivo de buscar la mejora continua del modelo.
Tesis

Förmågan att hantera konflikter och kriser har blivit en huvuduppgift för många av Europasförsvarsmakter. Marinstridskrafternas förmåga att kunna operera med andra nationer ställer krav påinteroperabilitet. Att kunna kommunicera med varandra och kunna delge information i realtid är avyttersta vikt för att undvika vådabekämpning vid internationella insatser.Denna uppsats syftar till att ge en sammanställd beskrivning av tre taktiska datalänkar för marint bruk.Vidare skall uppsatsen kunna ligga till grund för ett framtida val av datalänk. Inledningsvis görs enredovisning av de interoperabilitetsmål som Sverige ingått med Nato samt erfarenheter fråninternationella övningar där svenska marina förband deltagit. De länkar som ligger till grund för dentekniska beskrivningen är: 8000-systemet, Link 11 samt Link 22. I analysen jämförs dessa länkar medde avtal som Sverige ingått med Nato samt mot de erfarenheter som svenska marina förband gjort vidinternationella övningar. Därefter besvaras frågeställningarna om tekniska möjligheter att byta länk samtvilka taktiska fördelar och nackdelar detta innebär för marinen. Slutligen genomförs en diskussion ochförslag till fortsatt arbete.Uppsatsen visar att det finns två vägar att gå för att byta länk. Dels att använda sig av en översättare frånbefintligt format till Link- format. Dels att man från början konstruerar ledningssystemen för länkformat.De taktiska nackdelar som ett byte innebär är kopplat till Link 11 och dess begränsade EW och C2funktionalitet. Vidare visar det sig att sambandsreglementen måste skrivas om samt att utbildning måstegenomföras. Fördelarna är att Sverige uppnår den högsta nivån av interoperabilitet samt att även dennationella interoperabiliteten ökar vid ett byte till Nato- länk.
The ability to handle conflicts and crises has become a main goal for many of the Europeandefence forces. The Naval Forces’ ability to operate together with other nations puts demandson interoperability. To be able to communicate in real time is of major importance ininternational operations to avoid blue on blue engagement.This research paper’s aim is to compile a description of three tactical data links for navalpurposes. Furthermore, it will be one of the bases for a future data link choice. To begin with,this research paper describes the interoperability goal that Sweden has entered with NATO andlessons learned from Swedish naval forces participating in international exercises. The links thatthis paper is based on are: 8000-format, Link 11 and Link 22. In the analysis these links arecompared to the agreement that Sweden has made with NATO and with the lessons learned.Finally, these questions are answered - What are the technical possibilities of changing link?and What tactical advantages and disadvantages would they have for the Swedish Naval Forces?This paper shows that there are two ways of implement ing a NATO link. The use of a translatoror to reprogram the command and control system for link format. The tactical disadvantage isconnected to Link 11 and its limited EW and C2 functionality. It shows furthermore thatenhanced education and training is needed. The advantages are that Sweden will reach thehighest level of NATO interoperability and a raised national interoperability with a new NATOLink.
Avdelning: ALB - Slutet Mag 3 C-uppsHylla: Upps. ChP T 02-04

Senior Health Care System (SHCS) is created for users to enter participants' conditions and store information in a central database. When users are ready for quarterly assessments the system generates a simple summary that can be reviewed, modified, and saved as part of the summary assessments, which are required by Federal and California law.

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Information retrieval systems for information retrieval can occur through the search by author name, title of the work, by text words and through the theme or subject of a work. For accuracy in information search by subject, it becomes essential to use structured languages, called indexing languages, which are instruments with a view to enabling represent the contents of the collection. Thus, the theme of our research is to identify construction parameters of an instrument subject representation for information retrieval by subject in units of scientific and technical information (USTI). In this study, the units of scientific and technical information correspond to the libraries of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of São Paulo. Our research problem is characterized by the absence of social cognitive parameters for the construction of an instrument of representation of thematic information of technical and scientific areas. Identify proposed construction parameters of an instrument of thematic representation of information on the technical and scientific literature in the area of Knowledge Representation and Organization in the context of social cognitive librarian and user and the prospect of the units of scientific and technical information feds. Our overall objective was to present parameters for the construction of social cognitive instrument thematic representation of information techno-scientific areas. The specific objectives were: 1. identify the interdisciplinary Science, Technology and Society, Information Science, with emphasis on the Organization of Knowledge and Cognitive Science, to establish a collaborative dialogue in building a tool for thematic representation of information 2. present on the documentary languages, viewed as representation language for subject areas of technical and scientific information retrieval systems; 3. identify methods of construction of alphabetical indexing languages, given the technical and scientific literature in the area of Knowledge Representation and Organization in Information Science, 4. describe the context of social cognitive librarian and user units of scientific and technical information feds 5. the views of librarians and users of information units on federal technical-scientific parameters in the collaborative construction of an instrument subject representation in Science, Technology and Education, from the application of verbal protocol viewed as a qualitative methodology with sociocognitive approach. Our research is justified by the need for an indexing language for representation and retrieval of information in units of scientific and technical information to enable the correct representation of information by librarians in indexing activity and access to information for users seeking quality and specificity in recovery the information. As methodology we conducted bibliographic research on thematic Science, Technology, Society, Information Science, Cognitive Science, Knowledge Organization, Documentary Languages, Intelligence Units, Thesaurus, Federal Institute of Education. Subsequently, we apply the Protocol Verbal Group (PVG), knowing opinions of librarians and users on indicators for the construction of the instrument. The results were analyzed from grants acquired by literature accompanied by statements of participants and enabled PVG Eleven parameters indicate the collaborative construction of an instrument subject representation: 1. characterization of the user profile (target) that will make use of language learners and teachers of upper-level courses and medium 2. terms must serve the needs of representation and retrieval of information (guarantees and literary usage) 3. terms must originate in natural language and specialty (fair usage and literary) 4. terms should represent the vocabulary usage of the organization (organizational guarantee) 5. language must have both generic and specific terms; 6. language should promote control of synonyms; 7. language must identify the homonymous accordance with the use of qualifiers 8. establishment of logical-semantic relationships between terms of orders hierarchical, associative and equivalency; 9. inclusion of terms of scope notes when needed; 10. assignment of terms must be contemplating the balance between comprehensiveness and specificity achieved by the information retrieval system; 11. identification / building information retrieval system (catalog) that includes also factors such as being available online, offering reservation services online and renewal; allow viewing of information such as: cover, table of contents, introduction and full text materials contained in the collection of USTI; possess and to enable a feature suggestion terms, the timing of the search, both to fix the search expression as for the storage of subjects / search terms. This feature is important in terms of collection, aimed at updating process of language also from the user's perspective; provide and ensure accessibility of the language so that the librarian can realize the representation of information with it and from it, and allow available the accessibility of the language so that the user can perform a search by subject, for recovering useful information with it and from it. We believe that the diversity of the public pointed verbal protocols with respect to factors such as age, level of education (knowledge) and different areas of expertise, which makes us think and recommend to the IFSP USTI the construction and use of an indexing language with vocabulary arising from natural language and specialty (as in a thesaurus) but with the logical structure semantics between terms / headers from a list of subject headings, covering scope also notes that become necessary.
A recuperação da informação em sistemas de recuperação da informação pode dar-se através da busca por nome do autor, por título da obra, por palavras do texto e através do tema ou assunto de uma obra. Para a precisão na busca da informação por assunto, torna-se fundamental o uso de linguagens estruturadas, denominadas linguagens documentárias, que são instrumentos com vistas a permitir representar os conteúdos do acervo de uma unidade de informação. Dessa forma, o tema de nossa pesquisa é a identificação de parâmetros de construção de um instrumento de representação temática para recuperação de informação por assunto em unidades de informação técnico-científicas (UITC). Nesta pesquisa, as unidades de informação técnico-científicas correspondem às bibliotecas do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de São Paulo. Nosso problema de pesquisa caracteriza-se pela ausência de parâmetros sociocognitivos para a construção de instrumento de representação temática da informação de áreas técnico-científicas. Propusemos identificar parâmetros de construção de um instrumento de representação temática da informação, diante das literaturas técnica e científica na área de Organização e Representação do Conhecimento, no contexto sociocognitivo do bibliotecário e do usuário e pela perspectiva das unidades de informação técnico-científicas federais. Nosso objetivo geral foi apresentar parâmetros sociocognitivos para a construção de instrumento de representação temática da informação de áreas técnico-científicas. Os objetivos específicos foram: 1. identificar a interdisciplinaridade entre a Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade, Ciência da Informação, com destaque para a Organização do Conhecimento e Ciência Cognitiva, visando estabelecer um diálogo colaborativo na construção de um instrumento de representação temática da informação; 2. apresentar sobre as linguagens documentárias, vistas como linguagem de representação por assunto de áreas técnico-científicas e de sistemas de recuperação da informação; 3. identificar os métodos de construção de linguagens documentárias alfabéticas, diante das literaturas técnica e científica na área de Organização e Representação do Conhecimento em Ciência da Informação; 4. descrever o contexto sociocognitivo do bibliotecário e do usuário de unidades de informação técnico-científicas federais; 5. conhecer as opiniões de bibliotecários e usuários de unidades de informação técnico-científicas federais sobre parâmetros colaborativos na construção de um instrumento de representação temática em Ciência, Tecnologia e Educação, a partir da aplicação do protocolo verbal visto como uma metodologia qualitativa com abordagem sociocognitiva. Nossa pesquisa justificou-se pela necessidade de uma linguagem documentária para representação e recuperação da informação em unidades de informação técnico-científicas que permitam a correta representação da informação por bibliotecários na atividade de indexação e o acesso a informação por usuários que buscam especificidade e qualidade na recuperação da informação. Como metodologia realizamos pesquisa bibliográfica sobre temáticas Ciência, Tecnologia, Sociedade, Ciência da Informação, Ciência Cognitiva, Organização do Conhecimento, Linguagens Documentárias, Unidades de Informação, Tesauros, Instituto Federal de Educação. Posteriormente, aplicamos o Protocolo Verbal em Grupo (PVG), conhecendo opiniões de bibliotecários e usuários acerca dos indicadores para a construção do instrumento. Os resultados foram analisados a partir dos subsídios adquiridos pela literatura acompanhados das declarações dos participantes do PVG e possibilitaram indicar onze parâmetros colaborativos na construção de um instrumento de representação temática: 1. caracterização do perfil do usuário (público alvo) que fará uso da linguagem: discentes e docentes de cursos de nível superior e médio; 2. termos devem atender as necessidades de representação e recuperação da informação (garantias literária e de uso); 3. termos devem ter origem na linguagem natural e de especialidade (garantias de uso e literária); 4. termos devem representar o vocabulário de uso da organização (garantia organizacional); 5. a linguagem deve possuir tanto termos genéricos quanto específicos; 6. a linguagem deve promover o controle de sinônimos; 7. a linguagem deve identificar a homonímia com o uso de termos qualificadores; 8. estabelecimento de relações lógicosemânticas entre os termos de ordens hierárquica, equivalência e associativa; 9. inclusão de notas de escopo dos termos, quando necessário; 10. atribuição de termos deve ser contemplar o equilíbrio entre a exaustividade e a especificidade alcançada pelo sistema de recuperação da informação; 11. identificação/construção de sistema de recuperação da informação (catálogo) que contemple, também, fatores, tais como: estar disponíveis online; oferecer os serviços de reservas e renovação online; permitir a visualização de informações como: capa, sumário, introdução e texto completo de materiais constantes do acervo das UITCs; possuir e ativar um recurso para sugestão de termos, na momento de realização da busca, tanto para correção da expressão de busca quanto para o armazenamento dos assuntos/termos procurados. Tal recurso é importante na coleta de termos, visando o processo de atualização da linguagem a partir também da perspectiva do usuário; disponibilizar e permitir a acessibilidade da linguagem para que o bibliotecário possa realizar a representação da informação com ela e a partir dela; disponibilizar e permitir a acessibilidade da linguagem para que o usuário possa realizar a busca por assunto, para a recuperação de informações úteis, com ela e a partir dela. Consideramos que a diversidade de públicos apontada nos protocolos verbais diz respeito a fatores como idade, níveis de escolaridade (conhecimento) e áreas de especialidades distintas, o que nos faz refletir e recomendar às UITCs do IFSP a construção e uso de uma linguagem documentária com vocabulários advindos da linguagem natural e de especialidade (como ocorre em um tesauro), porém com a estrutura lógico-semântica entre os termos/cabeçalhos de uma lista de cabeçalhos de assunto, contemplando também as notas de escopo que se fizerem necessárias

A explosão de novas formas de comunicação entre empresas e clientes proporciona novas oportunidades e meios para que empresas possam tirar proveito desta interação. A forma como os clientes interagem com as empresas tem evoluído nos últimos anos, devido ao aumento dos dispositivos móveis e o acesso à internet: clientes que tradicionalmente solicitavam atendimento via telefone migraram para meios de atendimento eletrônicos, sejam eles via app´s dos smartphones ou via portais de atendimento a clientes. Como resultado desta transformação tecnológica do meio de comunicação, a Mineração de Textos tornou-se uma atrativa forma das empresas extraírem conhecimento novo a partir do registro das interações realizadas pelos clientes. Dentro deste contexto, o ambiente de telecomunicações proporciona os insumos para a realização de experimentos devido ao grande volume de dados gerados diariamente em sistemas de atendimento a clientes. Esse trabalho tem por objetivo analisar se o uso de Mineração de Textos aumenta a acurácia dos modelos de Mineração de Dados em aplicações que envolvem textos livres. Para isso é desenvolvido uma aplicação que visa a identificação de clientes propensos a saírem de ambientes internos de atendimento (CRM) e migrarem para órgãos regulamentadores do setor de telecomunicações. Também são abordados os principais problemas encontrados em aplicações de Mineração de Textos. Por fim, são apresentados os resultados da aplicação de algoritmos de classificação sobre diferentes conjuntos de dados, para a avaliação da melhoria obtida com a inclusão da Mineração de Textos para este tipo de aplicação. Os resultados obtidos mostram um ganho consolidado na melhoria da acuraria na ordem de 32%, fazendo da Mineração de Textos uma ferramenta útil para este tipo de problema.
The explosion of new forms of communication between companies and new opportunities and means for companies to take advantage of this interaction. The way customers interact with companies has evolved in the recent years due to the increase in mobile devices and Internet access: clients who traditionally requested phone service migrated to electronic means of service, whether via smartphone app's or via customer service portals. As a result of this technological transformation of the communication medium, text mining has become an attractive form for companies to extract new knowledge from the register of interactions carried out by customers. Within this context, the telecommunications environment provides the inputs for conducting experiments due to the large volume of data generated daily in customer service systems. This job aims to analyze if the use of text mining increases the accuracy of data mining models in applications involving free texts. For this purpose, an application is developed that aims to identify clients likely to leave internal service environments (CRM) and migrate to regulatory agencies in the telecommunications sector [Baeza, Ricardo e Berthier ,1999]. Also addressed are the main problems encountered in text mining applications. Finally, the results of the application of classification algorithms on different data sets are presented for the evaluation of the improvement obtained with the inclusion of text mining for this type of application. The results obtained show a consolidated gain in the improvement of the acuraria in the order of 32%, making the mining of texts a useful tool for this type of problem.

Thesis (M. of Bus. by Research) - Swinburne University of Technology, 2001.
"A thesis submitted of the requirement for the award of the degree Masters of Business by Research, Swinburne University of Technology, 2001. Typescript. Includes index. Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-177).

The study investigated the effect of accessibility and utilization of electronic resources by academic staff on productivity at the University of Calabar and the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. In order to determine the effect of accessibility and utilization of e-resources on productivity of academic staff, a lone hypothesis was formulated thus: there is no significant correlation between accessibility and utilization of e-resources and productivity of academic staff in Nigerian universities. The study adopted quantitative approach as research paradigm; with survey and bibliometrics as research methods. Questionnaire was used as the primary instrument for data collection on accessibility and utilization of e-resources and productivity of academic staff in the study. The population of 2035 academic staff and sample size of 586 academic staff were used for the study, and a response rate of 55.29% was obtained for data analysis. The data for the study were analysed with SPSS. The finding of the study revealed that there is significant correlation between accessibility and utilization of e-resources and productivity of academic staff at the surveyed universities (r=0.135; p=0.004), especially at the level of international publication (r=0.158; p=0.004). The study concluded that there is a positive effect due to accessibility and utilization of e-resources on productivity at the surveyed universities. Further findings of the study revealed a low level of electronic information environment at the surveyed universities in relation to global practices; although, the University of Ibadan was found to have a better electronic information environment than the University of Calabar. The result from questionnaire survey revealed that the University of Calabar was more productive than the University of Ibadan; the converse was obtained with bibliometric analysis as the University of Ibadan was found to be more productive than the University of Calabar. From the findings of the study the influence of demographic variables (discipline, gender, age, education and professional rank) on accessibility and utilization of e-resources was not significant at the surveyed universities. The study recommended increased investment in ICT facilities at the surveyed universities to promote increase in accessibility and utilization of e-resources by academic staff in research.
Information Science
D.Litt et. Phil. (Information Science)

Information extraction systems are complex software tools that discover structured information in natural language text. For instance, an information extraction system trained to extract tuples for an Occurs-in(Natural Disaster, Location) relation may extract the tuple from the sentence: "A tsunami swept the coast of Hawaii." Having information in structured form enables more sophisticated querying and data mining than what is possible over the natural language text. Unfortunately, information extraction is a time-consuming task. For example, a state-of-the-art information extraction system to extract Occurs-in tuples may take up to two hours to process only 1,000 text documents. Since document collections routinely contain millions of documents or more, improving the efficiency and scalability of the information extraction process over these collections is critical. As a significant step towards this goal, this dissertation presents approaches for (i) enabling the deployment of efficient information extraction systems and (ii) scaling the information extraction process to large volumes of text. To enable the deployment of efficient information extraction systems, we have developed two crucial building blocks for this task. As a first contribution, we have created REEL, a toolkit to easily implement, evaluate, and deploy full-fledged relation extraction systems. REEL, in contrast to existing toolkits, effectively modularizes the key components involved in relation extraction systems and can integrate other long-established text processing and machine learning toolkits. To define a relation extraction system for a new relation and text collection, users only need to specify the desired configuration, which makes REEL a powerful framework for both research and application building. As a second contribution, we have addressed the problem of building representative extraction task-specific document samples from collections, a step often required by approaches for efficient information extraction. Specifically, we devised fully automatic document sampling techniques for information extraction that can produce better-quality document samples than the state-of-the-art sampling strategies; furthermore, our techniques are substantially more efficient than the existing alternative approaches. To scale the information extraction process to large volumes of text, we have developed approaches that address the efficiency and scalability of the extraction process by focusing the extraction effort on the collections, documents, and sentences worth processing for a given extraction task. For collections, we have studied both (adaptations of) state-of-the art approaches for estimating the number of documents in a collection that lead to the extraction of tuples as well as information extraction-specific approaches. Using these estimations we can identify the collections worth processing and ignore the rest, for efficiency. For documents, we have developed an adaptive document ranking approach that relies on learning-to-rank techniques to prioritize the documents that are likely to produce tuples for an extraction task of choice. Our approach revises the (learned) ranking decisions periodically as the extraction process progresses and new characteristics of the useful documents are revealed. Finally, for sentences, we have developed an approach based on the sparse group selection problem that identifies sentences|modeled as groups of words|that best characterize the extraction task. Beyond identifying sentences worth processing, our approach aims at selecting sentences that lead to the extraction of unseen, novel tuples. Our approaches are lightweight and efficient, and dramatically improve the efficiency and scalability of the information extraction process. We can often complete the extraction task by focusing on just a very small fraction of the available text, namely, the text that contains relevant information for the extraction task at hand. Our approaches therefore constitute a substantial step towards efficient and scalable information extraction over large volumes of text.

M.A. (Information Technology)
The Internet contains large amounts of information that researchers can use, however, finding the required relevant information can be a lengthy exercise. Internet search engines, such as Google, allow users to search the Internet but these search engines only supply lists of information that "could" be relevant thereby forcing us, the users, to manually examine the list to select the relevant information that we require. Instead of requiring users to use Internet search engines to find lists of possibly useful information, it would be advantageous to have a system that would give an academic user a research summary report for the specified research query. This research summary report can be formatted in such a manner that would allow the user to have a list of links to the relevant information obtained, which could be used as an aid in the researcher's research projects. The design of the Mobile Agent Information Processing (MAIP) model and prototype relied heavily on mobile software agents (MSA). These MSAs will move from the creator system (the user's computer) to other known peer computer systems participating in the MAIP system. Whilst the MSAs are on the remote computer systems, relevant information is extracted from any of the text documents that are acknowledged as available by the remote host system. The extracted information will be returned to the creator system by each MSA where it will be processed and used to create the research summary report. The MAIP model is designed to locate, retrieve, and summarise information that is relevant to a researcher's research query, it can, therefore, be said that the MAIP model meets all the stated research objectives. The new and innovative model is deemed to offer an effective and feasible technology solution to the problem of information overload that exists within the electronic environment.

M.Bibl.
Although written records have existed for a long time, the management of unpublished documentation or unpublished information has emerged only recently as part of the management of information as a resource to the organisation. The management of unpublished information is therefore the cost effective management of the document from the creation of the record to its disposal, so that the information contained in the document can be retrieved when required (Cook 1991:3) ...