Organizing personal collections of digital documents can be frustrating for two main reasons. First, the effort required to work with the folder system on personal computers and the possible misplacement and loss of documents. Second, the lack of effective organization and management tools for personal collections of digital documents. The research in this thesis investigated specific visualization and clustering features intended for organizing collections of documents and built in a prototype interface that was compared to a baseline interface from previous research. The results showed that those features helped users with: 1) the initial classification of documents into clusters during the supervised stage; 2) the modification of clusters; 3) the cluster labeling process; 4) the presentation of the final set of organized documents; 5) the efficiency of the organization process, and 6) achieving better accuracy in the clusters created for organizing the documents.

Performance evaluation of document recognition systems is a difficult and practically-important problem. In this thesis, we contribute to the understanding of performance evaluation by studying some issues that arise in evaluation of systems for recognition of mathematical expressions. Issues that are discussed cover the reported performance evaluation experiments, the code availability, the nature of the mathematical notation, the extent of the coverage of mathematical recognition systems, and the quantification of performance evaluation results. For each issue, we discuss its impact on performance evaluation, give an overview of the state of the art for addressing it and point out open problems. / Thesis (Master, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2008-05-21 15:34:21.966

Electronic documents form an integral part of the modern computer age---virtually all personal computers have the ability to create, store and display their content. A connection to the Internet provides users with an almost endless source of documents, be they web-pages, word-processor files or emails. However, the entire contents of an electronic document are often too large to be usefully presented on a user’s screen, at a single point in time. This issue is usually overcome by placing the content inside a scrolling environment. The view onto the document is then modified by directly adjusting a scrollbar or by employing tools such as the mousewheel or paging keys. Applications may also provide methods for adjusting the document’s zoom and page layout. The scrollbar has seen widespread adoption, becoming the default tool used to visualise large information spaces. Despite its extensive deployment, researchers have little knowledge on how this and related navigation tools are used in an everyday work environment. A characterisation of users’ actions would allow designers to identify common behaviours and areas of inefficiency as they strive to improve navigation techniques. To fill this knowledge gap, this thesis aims to understand and improve navigation within desktop-based electronic documents. This goal is achieved using a five step process. First, the literature is used to explore document navigation tasks and the tools currently available to support electronic document navigation. Second, a software tool called AppMonitor, that logs users’ navigation actions, was developed. Third, AppMonitor was deployed in a longitudinal study to characterise document navigation actions in Microsoft Word and Adobe Reader. Forth, to compliment this study, two task-centric observations of electronic document navigation were performed, to probe the reasons for navigation tool selection. Finally, the Footprints Scrollbar was developed to improve one common aspect of navigation—within-document revisitation. To begin, two areas of current knowledge in this domain are overviewed: paper and electronic document navigation and electronic document navigation tools. The literature review produced five categories of document navigation tasks: ‘overviewing and browsing’, ‘reading’, ‘annotating and writing’, ‘searching’ and ‘revisitation’. In a similar fashion, electronic document navigation tools were reviewed and divided into eight categories: core navigation tools (those commonly found in today’s navigation systems), input devices, scrollbar augmentations, content-aware navigation aids, visualisations that provide multiple document views, indirect manipulation techniques, zooming tools and revisitation tools. The literature lacked evidence of an understanding of how these current document navigation tools are used. To aid the gathering of empirical data on tool use, the AppMonitor tool was developed. It records user actions in unmodified Windows applications—specifically for this research, Microsoft Word and Adobe Reader. It logs low-level interactions such as “left mouse button pressed” and “Ctrl-f pressed” as well as high level ‘logical’ actions such as menu selections and scrollbar manipulations. It requires no user input to perform these tasks, allowing study participants to continue with their everyday work. To collect data to form a characterisation of document navigation actions, 14 participants installed AppMonitor on their computer for 120 days. This study found that users primarily employ the mousewheel, scrollbar thumb and paging keys for navigation. Further, many advanced navigation tools that are lauded for their efficiency, including bookmarks and search tools, are rarely used. The longitudinal study provided valuable insights into the use of navigation tools. To understand the reasons behind this tool use, two task-centric observations of electronic document navigation were conducted. The first asked participants to perform a series of specific navigation tasks while AppMonitor logged their actions. The second was performed as a series of interactive sessions, where users performed a particular task and were then probed on their tool choice. These two studies found that many users are not aware of the advanced navigation tools that could significantly improve their navigation efficiency. Finally, the characterisations highlighted within-document revisitation as a commonly performed task, with current tools that support this action rarely used. To address this problem, the analysis, design and evaluation of a Footprints Scrollbar is presented. It places marks inside the scrollbar trough and provides shortcuts to aid users return to previously visited locations. The Footprints Scrollbar was significantly faster and subjectively preferred over a standard scrollbar for revisitation tasks. To summarise, this thesis contributes a literature review of document navigation and electronic document navigation tools; the design and implementation of AppMonitor—a tool to monitor user actions in unmodified Windows applications; a longitudinal study describing the navigation actions users perform; two taskcentric studies examining why actions are performed; and the Footprints Scrollbar, a tool to aid within-document revisitation tasks.

Alep est la seconde grande ville de la Syrie. Elle connaît actuellement un processus d'extension de son influence urbaine et économique. Ses " marges vécues " ne cessent de s'agrandir, tandis que la réaction publique et politique se fait plus lentement pour répondre aux besoins criants en termes de logemen t, de transport, de fourniture de services publics. Ce travail vise à partir du cas d'Alep à définir le processus de métropolisation et à comprendre qu'une agglomération ne devient métropole que si une combinaison de facteurs sont remplis. Il ne s'agit pas seulement d'éléments quantifiables mais aussi de composantes qualitatives. Plus encore, une métropole ne peut s'affirmer comme telle sans une réelle implication politique des parties prenantes et la mise autour de la table de l'ensemble des acteurs à cette construction urbaine.Toutes ces questions sont abordées et mises en parallèle avec le processus métropolitain lyonnais. En Syrie, malgré les efforts consentis ces dernières années en matière d'ouverture balbutiante de la décision publique, la volonté de diversifier l'économie et de l'internationaliser progressivement, l'enjeu métropolitain reste difficile. D'une part parce que les lois ne sont pas adaptées et qu'elles portent la marque d'un Etat centralisé. D'autre part parce que les acteurs impliqués dans la gestion de la cité à ces différentes échelles travaillent rarement de manière partenariale. En outre, il est à noter un manque de recherche, un déficit de données démographiques, sociales et économiques, qui seraient pourtant nécessaires pour mettre en place une planification stratégique de la métropole en puissance qu'est Alep. Des changements se font jour actuellement dans la pensée des politiques et des aménageurs en Syrie ; progressivement plus de pouvoirs sont octroyés aux collectivités locales. Mais un véritable diagnostic de la situation, ainsi qu'une réflexion sur les outils à mettre en place, sont d'une grande importance pour le futur d'Alep

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, June, 2001. / Title from PDF t.p.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-106). Also available in electronic version.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 161-163) Also available in print.

Thesis (M.SC.) - Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-88). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (MS)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2008. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Rafal A. Angryk. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-65).

Doct. thesis--Theology--Richmond,Va, 1979. / Bibliogr. p. 201-225. Index.