Introdução: O laudo radiológico com entrada de dados estruturada proporciona precisão na recuperação de informações, todavia, é menos abrangente que o texto-livre e pode impedir o especialista de descrever um achado importante, não contemplado pela estrutura pré-definida. Portanto, a solução está em interpretar o texto escrito pelo especialista e os transportar para uma estrutura computacional ontológica formalizando o conhecimento. Objetivos: Elaborar e avaliar uma metodologia para estruturação de informações de laudos radiológicos em texto livre que contemple as especificidades brasileiras, incluindo a terminologia empregada. Métodos: Coleta de 1701 laudos radiológicos de ressonância magnética da coluna lombossacra em três instituições distintas. Para estruturar a informação, foram utilizadas técnicas de mineração de texto e conceituação ontológica das unidades lexicais. Dez radiologistas especialistas avaliaram a superestrutura textual e a terminologia extraída e conceituada, por meio de questionário eletrônico onde foram sugeridas 3 superestruturas textuais e 30 termos com a descrição do respectivo conceito. Resultados: A metodologia criada é constituída por 6 passos: 1) coleta dos laudos radiológicos de determinado tipo de exame; 2) decomposição textual; 3) normalização das unidades lexicais; 4) identificação das superestruturas textuais; 5) conceituação dos termos candidatos; 6) avaliação das superestruturas identificadas e da terminologia extraída e conceituada pelos especialistas na linguagem de especialidade estudada. Foram identificadas três superestruturas textuais diferentes. Após processamento automático inicial, 6129 unidades lexicais foram normalizadas obtendo 4568 termos candidatos dos quais 4183 foram conceituados e originaram 727 conceitos. Foram estabelecidas 13963 relações entre termos candidatos e conceitos, e 789 relações entre conceitos. Quanto a adequada descrição dos termos, 40% dos avaliadores concordam plenamente que estão adequados, 60% concordam parcialmente que estão adequados e nenhum avaliador discordou que os termos são adequados. Em relação a quantidade de termos utilizados pelos avaliadores, em sua respectiva instituição, 70% utilizam de 24 a 30 termos e 30% de 16 a 23 termos. A conceituação de um termo foi considerada inadequada por dois avaliadores. Conclusão: A metodologia proposta foi avaliada por radiologistas especialistas que identificaram as diferenças das superestruturas textuais entre as instituições e os termos com a descrição do respectivo conceito. Portanto, foi possível estruturar a informação de laudos radiológicos da coluna lombossacra a partir do texto livre identificando as superestruturas textuais, extraindo as unidades lexicais, normalizando as unidades lexicais e conceituando ontologicamente os termos candidatos preservando a referência com as respectivas partes constituintes dos laudos radiológicos produzidos no contexto brasileiro. / Introduction: The radiological report with structured data entry provides precision in information retrieval, however, is less comprehensive than the text-free and may prevent the expert to describe an important finding, not covered by the pre-defined structure. So the solution is to interpret the text written by expert and carry for a computational framework formalizing the ontological knowledge. Objectives: Develop and evaluate a methodology for structuring information in free text radiology reports that contemplates the Brazilian specifications, including terminology. Methods: 1701 radiological reports of lumbosacral MRI were collected in three different institutions. To structure the information we used techniques of text mining and ontological conceptualization of lexical units extracted. Ten dedicated radiologists evaluated the textual superstructure and terminology extracted by the electronic questionnaire which were suggested textual 3 superstructures and 30 terms with the description of its concept. Results: The established methodology consisted of six steps: 1) collection of radiology reports of certain type of examination; 2) textual decomposition; 3) lexical units normalization; 4) textual superstructures identification ; 5) conceptualization of candidate terms; 6) evaluation of identified superstructures and terminology extracted by experts in the specialized language study. We identified three different textual superstructures. After automatic processing initial 6129 lexical units were normalized getting 4568 candidate terms of which 4183 were conceptualized and originated 727 concepts. 13963 were established relations between candidate terms and concepts and 789 relations between concepts. As for adequate description of the terms, 40% of the evaluators agree fully that are appropriate, 60% somewhat agree that they are adequate and no evaluator disagreed that the terms are adequate. Regarding the number of words used by evaluators in their respective institution using 70% between 24 and 30 terms and 30% from 16 to 23 terms. The conceptualization of a term was considered inadequate by two evaluators. The established methodology consisted of six steps: 1) collection of radiology reports of certain type of examination; 2) textual decomposition; 3) lexical units normalization; 4) textual superstructures identification ; 5) conceptualization of candidate terms; 6) evaluation of identified superstructures and terminology extracted by experts in the specialized language study. Conclusions: The proposed methodology was evaluated by radiologists who identified the differences between the textual superstructures institutions and the terms describing the relevant concept. Therefore, it was possible to structure the information of the lumbosacral spine radiology reports from free text by identifying textual superstructures, extracting lexical units, normalizing the lexical units and conceptualizing the terms ontologically candidates preserving the reference to the respective constituent parts of radiology reports produced in the Brazilian context.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Zoology)) --University of Limpopo, 2012 / A microsatellite-based study was performed on five populations of Gemsbok (Oryx gazella). This study was aimed at estimating genetic diversity in introduced South African gemsbok populations (an opportunity that arose when additional animals from the same source were imported into South Africa), and determine genetic structure. Population sizes at the time of sampling were: Namibia (n = 6500), Cohen (n = 70), Tempelhof (n = 55), STS Kalahari Game Ranch (n = 1000) and Elias (n = 35). The purpose of the study was to determine the genetic structure of the aforementioned O. Gazelle populations, and to assess the impact of the founder effect on isolated populations. The following primers (BMS1237, MAF46, OARFC304, OARHH64, ETH225, RBP3, MAF50, HDZ8) developed for commercial purposes in the bovine group were used. Genetic diversity were calculated as Expected Heterozygosity (He), proportion of polymorphic loc (P) and number of alleles per locus (A). Conformation to expected Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium of genotypes was also determined, using a Chi-square test. Tests for the signature of bottlenecks in the populations studied were also performed. Genetic drift/differentiation was tested by using FST and RST coefficients. Assignment tests were performed to identify the true number of genetic populations (clusters). Genetic distance was used as an additional measure of differentiation. The results indicated that all loci showed allelic polymorphism in all the populations except one (at the OARHH64 locus). The South African Cohen population displayed the highest level of genetic diversity, with He = 0.595 ± 0.247. This population also did not show evidence of a bottleneck. Genetic distance values indicated the greatest similarity between the Cohen and Namibian populations, in line with the Namibian origin of the Cohen group. Greatest distance was observed between the STS and Tempelhof populations. conclusion, results from this study reflects the origins of populations and suggest that inbreeding in small isolated populations may be less than previously estimated.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Revised work with minor emendations approved by supervisor. / This dissertation considers three broad issues which emerge from the sustainability discourse. First is the nature of the discourse itself, particularly the underlying philosophical positions which are represented. Second, is the nature of the highly complex types of problem which the discourse exposes. And third is whether the engineering profession, as it is practised currently, is adequate to deal with such problems. The sustainability discourse exposes two distinct, fundamentally irreconcilable philosophical positions. The first, “sustainable development”, considers humanity to be privileged in relation to all other species and ecosystems. It is only incumbent upon us to look after the environment to the extent to which it is in our interests to do so. The second, “sustainability”, sees humanity as having no special moral privilege and recognises the moral status of other species, ecosystems, and even wilderness areas. Thus, sustainability imposes upon us a moral obligation to take their status into account and not to degrade or to destroy them. These two conflicting positions give rise to extremely complex problems. An innovative taxonomy of problem complexity has been developed which identifies three broad categories of problem. Of particular interest in this dissertation is the most complex of these, referred to here as the Type 3 problem. The Type 3 problem recognises the systemic complexity of the problem situation but also includes differences of the domain of interests as a fundamental, constituent part of the problem itself. Hence, established systems analysis techniques and reductionist approaches do not work. The domain of interests will typically have disparate ideas and positions, which may be entirely irreconcilable. The dissertation explores the development of philosophy of science, particularly in the last 70 years. It is noted that, unlike the philosophy of science, the philosophy of engineering has not been influenced by developments of critical theory, cultural theory, and postmodernism, which have had significant impact in late 20th-century Western society. This is seen as a constraint on the practice of engineering. Thus, a set of philosophical principles for sustainable engineering practice is developed. Such a change in the philosophy underlying the practice of engineering is seen as necessary if engineers are to engage with and contribute to the resolution of Type 3 problems. Two particular challenges must be overcome, if Type 3 problems are to be satisfactorily resolved. First, issues of belief, values, and morals are central to this problem type and must be included in problem consideration. And second, the problem situation is usually so complex that it challenges the capacity of human cognition to deal with it. Consequently, extensive consideration is given to cognitive and behavioural psychology, in particular to choice, judgement and decision-making in uncertainty. A novel problem-structuring approach is developed on three levels. A set philosophical foundation is established; a theoretical framework, based on general systems theory and established behavioural and cognitive psychological theory, is devised; and a set of tools is proposed to model Type 3 complex problems as a dynamic systems. The approach is different to other systems approaches, in that it enables qualitative exploration of the system to plausible, hypothetical disturbances. The problem-structuring approach is applied in a case study, which relates to the development of a water subsystem for a major metropolis (Sydney, Australia). The technique is also used to critique existing infrastructure planning processes and to propose an alternative approach.

This work consists in proposing a methodology to improve automated evaluation of the ergonomic quality of web sites (with special focus on usability and accessibility) by static analysis of HTML code of their pages using the evaluation technique called guideline review. This methodology will be articulated around: - A framework that defines a systematic and consistent way for structuring guidelines in order to enable their automatic evaluation; - A guideline definition language (GDL) able to express guideline information in a sufficiently rich manner to enable an evaluation engine to perform automated evaluation of any GDL-compliant guideline; - Tools to support the proposed methodology. The tools are (1) a structuring tool (editor) to enable the specification and manipulation of guidelines structures (structured following the framework and expressed in a GDL-compliant form) and (2) an evaluation tool which uses the guidelines to conduct the evaluation of Web sites.

This thesis aims to develop a knowledge structuring framework to organize knowledge according to means-ends relationships. Means-ends relationships are particularly relevant in technology and goal-oriented domains such as the geo-engineering domain, where technical problems are identified, and solutions proposed. The proposed goal oriented representation in this thesis does not replace current classification methodologies. In this project, a small corpus of research publications from a technology domain is used to help construct the framework. The main means-ends relationships from the articles are manually extracted and represented in a graphical model showing which problems are approached, by which solutions proposed, and in which publications. Proposed solutions can lead to new problems which are in turn addressed by solutions proposed in other publications. A metamodel is derived to capture the important concepts and relationships relevant for this purpose. The metamodel, and the framework have undergone several iterations before finalization.

The two principal elements comprising this thesis are 1) a description of the development of a theory concerning schizophrenic psychosis and 2) an attempt to develop a treatment strategy based on this theory. The theory was developed by Palle Villemoes on the basis of the French psychoanalyst Lacan's work and may be described as an ego-structuring psychotherapy with its foundation in the castration complex. The psychosis is seen as a consequence of the child's inability, for various reasons, to a apt itself to symbolic castration - i e disappointment and frustration over not constantly having its own way, and over being required to subordinate itself to universal principles and authorities. The psychotic person has not subordinated under symbolic is castration but continues to exist in the original symbiotic relation with the imagined pre-oedipal mother, When the pressures of the teenage and early adult years make themselves felt, such an ego-weak person is unable to withstand and deal with them and develops a psychotic relation to her/his surroundings, The- treatment strategy described in this thesis, was developed by the author and colleagues at the treatment centre Norrgården in Härnösand. It is a milieu therapyoriented treatment during which the patient optimally passes through three phases. During the first - narcissistic - phase the aim is that the patient's contact person develop such a relationship with her/him that "idolization" of the contact person occurs. This idolization is achieved by means of interest on the part of the contactperson, and a non-polarized attitude. The contact person shows interest in the patient and in her/his situation, life-story and interests. The non-polarized attitude means that little or no importance is attached to differences, particularly those due to gender and power position. The contact person avoids provoking the patient in areas about which she/he is sensitive. When a balanced, conflict-free relationship with the patient bas been achieved, treatment moves into a so- called working phase. Now the establishing of her/ his own history in the patient takes over from the idolization built up in the course of the close relationship. The patient is to become the subject of her/his own life-story, to achieve which patient and contact person go through the story together. If all goes well the patient passes through the castration complex and is able to find a realistic place for her himself in the story, the culture, and the society that has to be lived in with all its relations towards other people. The patient now begins to view her/himself, with both possibilities and limitations, more and more realistically. She/he also begins to show interest in the future and in plans for a life after treatment. In the final phase, progressively more responsibility for decisions is left to the patient. The aim of this phase of the treatment is to consolidate the narcissism of the patient's own ego. She/he must be released from the symbiotic dyad with the contact person who now leaves it to the patient to make choices and decisions and to be aware of the passage of time. The thesis discusses the development of the theory in a dialectic relation to the practical experiences of treatment work during the earliest years at Norrgården. A central place in the thesis is occupied by 11 case descriptions of the first patients who completed the treatment at Norrgården. / digitalisering@umu

Dealing with the problem between user related knowledge and design, the present thesis underlines the guiding role of designer&rsquo / s user concept as a concept in problem structuring, by framing his/her understanding about user and influencing knowledge use and solution generation. Considering limitations of prevailing user concept in the architectural design studio, underlying problems are detected with reference to knowledge and design contexts, which have critical influence on the formation of user concept, particularly on its capacity to cover qualities of user and its relation with design. Defined narrow content of knowledge context and the detachment between design and knowledge contexts constitute the problematic basis of limited user concept and indicate a need for a shift in student&rsquo / s user understanding. The thesis aims to provide a conceptual framework to define required change referring underlined contexts. The broadening of knowledge context is defined addressing unifying perspective of Universal Design, with its emphasis on diversity, user experience, and knowing user by experience. With reference to the notion of designerly ways of knowing, required constructive relation between knowledge and design contexts is reconceptualized as designerly way of knowing user and defined as user related knowledge generation as part of problem structuring and design concept generation through this knowledge base. The potentials of proposed framework are exemplified by an architectural design studio experience. The analysis shows that when student&rsquo / s user learning is organized within student&rsquo / s actual user investigation as part of problem structuring, it is possible for students to acquire needs and expectations of diverse users and translate them to solutions from user perspective generating user related design concepts. Therefore, proposed conceptual base promises to improve user concept of student not only to involve experiences of diverse users, but also to be designerly.

One can fairly adopt the ideas of Donald E. Knuth to conclude that process modeling is both a science and an art. Process modeling does have an aesthetic sense. Similar to composing an opera or writing a novel, process modeling is carried out by humans who undergo creative practices when engineering a process model. Therefore, the very same process can be modeled in a myriad number of ways. Once modeled, processes can be analyzed by employing scientific methods. Usually, process models are formalized as directed graphs, with nodes representing tasks and decisions, and directed arcs describing temporal constraints between the nodes. Common process definition languages, such as Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) and Event-driven Process Chain (EPC) allow process analysts to define models with arbitrary complex topologies. The absence of structural constraints supports creativity and productivity, as there is no need to force ideas into a limited amount of available structural patterns. Nevertheless, it is often preferable that models follow certain structural rules. A well-known structural property of process models is (well-)structuredness. A process model is (well-)structured if and only if every node with multiple outgoing arcs (a split) has a corresponding node with multiple incoming arcs (a join), and vice versa, such that the set of nodes between the split and the join induces a single-entry-single-exit (SESE) region; otherwise the process model is unstructured. The motivations for well-structured process models are manifold: (i) Well-structured process models are easier to layout for visual representation as their formalizations are planar graphs. (ii) Well-structured process models are easier to comprehend by humans. (iii) Well-structured process models tend to have fewer errors than unstructured ones and it is less probable to introduce new errors when modifying a well-structured process model. (iv) Well-structured process models are better suited for analysis with many existing formal techniques applicable only for well-structured process models. (v) Well-structured process models are better suited for efficient execution and optimization, e.g., when discovering independent regions of a process model that can be executed concurrently. Consequently, there are process modeling languages that encourage well-structured modeling, e.g., Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) and ADEPT. However, the well-structured process modeling implies some limitations: (i) There exist processes that cannot be formalized as well-structured process models. (ii) There exist processes that when formalized as well-structured process models require a considerable duplication of modeling constructs. Rather than expecting well-structured modeling from start, we advocate for the absence of structural constraints when modeling. Afterwards, automated methods can suggest, upon request and whenever possible, alternative formalizations that are "better" structured, preferably well-structured. In this thesis, we study the problem of automatically transforming process models into equivalent well-structured models. The developed transformations are performed under a strong notion of behavioral equivalence which preserves concurrency. The findings are implemented in a tool, which is publicly available. / Im Sinne der Ideen von Donald E. Knuth ist die Prozessmodellierung sowohl Wissenschaft als auch Kunst. Prozessmodellierung hat immer auch eine ästhetische Dimension. Wie das Komponieren einer Oper oder das Schreiben eines Romans, so stellt auch die Prozessmodellierung einen kreativen Akt eines Individuums dar. Somit kann ein Prozess auf unterschiedlichste Weise modelliert werden. Prozessmodelle können anschließend mit wissenschaftlichen Methoden untersucht werden. Prozessmodelle liegen im Regelfall als gerichtete Graphen vor. Knoten stellen Aktivitäten und Entscheidungspunkte dar, während gerichtete Kanten die temporalen Abhängigkeiten zwischen den Knoten beschreiben. Gängige Prozessmodellierungssprachen, zum Beispiel die Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) und Ereignisgesteuerte Prozessketten (EPK), ermöglichen die Erstellung von Modellen mit einer beliebig komplexen Topologie. Es gibt keine strukturellen Einschränkungen, welche die Kreativität oder Produktivität durch eine begrenzte Anzahl von Modellierungsalternativen einschränken würden. Nichtsdestotrotz ist es oft wünschenswert, dass Modelle bestimmte strukturelle Eigenschaften haben. Ein bekanntes strukturelles Merkmal für Prozessmodelle ist Wohlstrukturiertheit. Ein Prozessmodell ist wohlstrukturiert genau dann, wenn jeder Knoten mit mehreren ausgehenden Kanten (ein Split) einen entsprechenden Knoten mit mehreren eingehenden Kanten (einen Join) hat, und umgekehrt, so dass die Knoten welche zwischen dem Split und dem Join liegen eine single-entry-single-exit (SESE) Region bilden. Ist dies nicht der Fall, so ist das Modell unstrukturiert. Wohlstrukturiertheit ist aufgrund einer Vielzahl von Gründen wünschenswert: (i) Wohlstrukturierte Modelle sind einfacher auszurichten, wenn sie visualisiert werden, da sie planaren Graphen entsprechen. (ii) Wohlstrukturierte Modelle zeichnen sich durch eine höhere Verständlichkeit aus. (iii) Wohlstrukturierte Modelle haben oft weniger Fehler als unstrukturierte Modelle. Auch ist die Wahrscheinlichkeit fehlerhafter Änderungen größer, wenn Modelle unstrukturiert sind. (iv) Wohlstrukturierte Modelle eignen sich besser für die formale Analyse, da viele Techniken nur für wohlstrukturierte Modelle anwendbar sind. (v) Wohlstrukturierte Modelle sind eher für die effiziente Ausführung und Optimierung geeignet, z.B. wenn unabhängige Regionen eines Prozesses für die parallele Ausführung identifiziert werden. Folglich gibt es eine Reihe von Prozessmodellierungssprachen, z.B. die Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) und ADEPT, welche den Modellierer anhalten nur wohlstrukturierte Modelle zu erstellen. Solch wohlstrukturiertes Modellieren impliziert jedoch gewisse Einschränkungen: (i) Es gibt Prozesse, welche nicht mittels wohlstrukturierten Prozessmodellen dargestellt werden können. (ii) Es gibt Prozesse, für welche die wohlstrukturierte Modellierung mit einer erheblichen Vervielfältigung von Modellierungs-konstrukten einhergeht. Aus diesem Grund vertritt diese Arbeit den Standpunkt, dass ohne strukturelle Einschränkungen modelliert werden sollte, anstatt Wohlstrukturiertheit von Beginn an zu verlangen. Anschließend können, sofern gewünscht und wo immer es möglich ist, automatische Methoden Modellierungsalternativen vorschlagen, welche "besser" strukturiert sind, im Idealfall sogar wohlstrukturiert. Die vorliegende Arbeit widmet sich dem Problem der automatischen Transformation von Prozessmodellen in verhaltensäquivalente wohlstrukturierte Prozessmodelle. Die vorgestellten Transformationen erhalten ein strenges Verhaltensequivalenzkriterium, welches die Parallelität wahrt. Die Resultate sind in einem frei verfügbaren Forschungsprototyp implementiert worden.

This thesis aims to develop a knowledge structuring framework to organize knowledge according to means-ends relationships. Means-ends relationships are particularly relevant in technology and goal-oriented domains such as the geo-engineering domain, where technical problems are identified, and solutions proposed. The proposed goal oriented representation in this thesis does not replace current classification methodologies. In this project, a small corpus of research publications from a technology domain is used to help construct the framework. The main means-ends relationships from the articles are manually extracted and represented in a graphical model showing which problems are approached, by which solutions proposed, and in which publications. Proposed solutions can lead to new problems which are in turn addressed by solutions proposed in other publications. A metamodel is derived to capture the important concepts and relationships relevant for this purpose. The metamodel, and the framework have undergone several iterations before finalization.

With the scope of this study, certain tasks of the finance inspectors have been restructured by means of information technology in an effective way. The new structure has been integrated to the Internet technology and thus can eliminate the problems of time and place. The Documentation and Personnel Departments of FIB have been chosen for piloting and performance assesment has been performed after the restructuring with new technology. The result of the assesment suggest that, when compared to the old system, the new system has ensured approximately 70% more efficiency.