This system is concerned with the design and implementation of a community health information system which fulfils some of the local needs of fourteen nursing and para-medical professions in a district health authority, whilst satisfying the statutory requirements of the NHS Korner steering group for those professions. A national survey of community health computer applications, documented in the form of an applications register, shows the need for such a system. A series of general requirements for an informations systems design methodology are identified, together with specific requirements for this problem situation. A number of existing methodologies are reviewed, but none of these were appropriate for this application. Some existing approaches, tools and techniques are used to define a more suitable methodology. It is unreasonable to rely on one single general methodology for all types of application development. There is a need for pragmatism, adaptation and flexibility. In this research, participation in the development stages by those who will eventually use the system was thought desirable. This was achieved by forming a representative design group. Results would seem to show a highly favourable response from users to this participation which contributed to the overall success of the system implemented. A prototype was developed for the chiropody and school nursing staff groups of Darlington health authority, and evaluations show that a significant number of the problems and objectives of those groups have been successfully addressed; the value of community health information has been increased; and information has been successfully fed back to staff and better utilised.

This thesis examines the ways that libraries have employed computers to assist with housekeeping operations. It considers the relevance of such applications to company libraries in the construction industry, and describes more specifically the development of an integrated cataloguing and loan system. A review of the main features in the development of computerised ordering, cataloguing and circulation control systems shows that fully integrated packages are beginning to be completed, and that some libraries are introducing second generation programs. Cataloguing is the most common activity to be computerised, both at national and company level. Results from a sample of libraries in the construction industry suggest that the only computerised housekeeping system is at Taylor Woodrow. Most of the firms have access to an in-house computer, and some of the libraries, particularly those in firms of consulting engineers, might benefit from computerisation, but there are differing attitudes amongst the librarians towards the computer. A detailed study of the library at Taylor Woodrow resulted in a feasibility report covering all the areas of its activities. One of the main suggestions was the possible use of a computerised loans and cataloguing system. An integrated system to cover these two areas was programmed in Fortran and implemented. This new system provides certain benefits and saves staff time, but at the cost of time on the computer. Some improvements could be made by reprogramming, but it provides a general system for small technical libraries. A general equation comparing costs for manual and computerised operations is progressively simplified to a form where the annual saving from the computerised system is expressed in terms of staff and computer costs and the size of the library. This equation gives any library an indication of the savings or extra cost which would result from using the computerised system.

This research concerns information systems and information systems development. The thesis describes an approach to information systems development called Multiview. This is a methodology which seeks to combine the strengths of a number of different, existing approaches in a coherent manner. Many of these approaches are radically different in terms of concepts, philosophy, assumptions, methods, techniques and tools. Three case studies are described presenting Multiview 'in action'. The first is used mainly to expose the strengths and weaknesses of an early version of the approach discussed in the thesis. Tools and techniques are described in the thesis which aim to strengthen the approach. Two further case studies are presented to illustrate the use of this second version of Multiview. This is not put forward as an 'ideal methodology' and the case studies expose some of the difficulties and practical problems of information systems work and the use of the methodology. A more contingency based approach to information systems development is advocated using Multiview as a framework rather than a prescriptive tool. Each information systems project and the use of the framework is unique, contingent on the particular problem situation. The skills of different analysts, the backgrounds of users and the situations in which they are constrained to work have always to be taken into account in any project. The realities of the situation will cause departure from the 'ideal methodology' in order to allow for the exigencies of the real world. Multiview can therefore be said to be an approach used to explore the application area in order to develop an information system.

The thesis investigates the proper~es> CQftW,o,'tpeIljs or time series which forme:! a:part of the Co,-(lj.tation ~iometr1c model "X~Ray Crystallography ~a.n1, Pr.otein Determination in, 1978., 1980 and 1982". This madeJ-Was ope of seveI'aJ. orea;te:l, for ~'19.83, ABRC Science PollcyStl,Jdywhi,oh ~ to test the utility of bibliometric modelS in a natiOnal soienoe polley context·. 'l!he outcome of the vaJidat:l.on part of that, study pr~ to ,be espeoia.Uyfavourahle coIlOeI'Iling 'the utilitY Qf trend da.~., which purport to model the developnerrt of ~ty areas, in SQ,ienoe, over tUne. This assessment QO'Ul4l, have important implioatiOI;lS' for the use of such data in policy formulation. However one '~le problem with the Science POlicy Study I S conolusiQr)S ~ ,tPa.:t insufficient time was ava i 1 ahle in the study fOr an m-depth a;na.1. ysis of the data. - The thesis aims to conti.:nu.e the vg.lidationbegl:ln in- 'the' ABRC study by providing a detailoo.exam:b;lationQf t1il.e ' " characteristics of the data conta.:inaiin the 'lTetlds ~~ ,];jJ' ' ani 44 in the model. A novel methodology for' the ~¥s±S;Qib~~:, properties of the trends with respeot to,tb.el;,rliter~-gure~~t; is presenta:l. This is followf;rl by an assessrnei:):t',j ~,on, " ': questionna.ire ani iIlterview data: of the Qibi'l;tyOf 'l'i"e:t',id 44, t~' ", reaJistioall y model the bistoriQAld.evelQprneI).t Qf' the £,ie,ig'Q£.: mobile genetic elements research, over time; witm;resp,eettQ :tts, scientific content and the aCltivities ()f:its:~t~t ,Of' , researchers. ' , , evaluate = ~~f ~~: ~~re:~~~~i: approach to the mQdelll:ng of the a.ctiVities ,·af:sc.tentif:iic fjle;~tc~h A critical eva:l.~tion of the, origXbs of'. tn.e.~~, ~\tr~;' ani weaknesses. iA the assumptions "uni~jlyipg; ~. teollrd~;~ to generate tr~ fromoo.-citationqata;, is, '1'l'<;>Vta'ej,: •. 11~.i:b1e~, . improvements. to the modelling techniques are discussed.

Concern has been expressed in the professional literature - borne out by professional experience and observation - that the supply and demand relationship existing between the 13 English and Welsh Library and Information Studies (LIS) Schools (as providers of `First Professional' staff) and the Higher Education Library and Information Services (HE LIS) sector of England and Wales (as one group of employers of such staff) is unsatisfactory and needs attention. An appropriate methodology to investigate this problem was devised. A basic content analysis of Schools' curricular and recruitment material intended for public consumption was undertaken to establish an overview of the LIS initial professional education system in England and Wales, and to identify and analyse any covert messages imparted to readers. This was followed by a mix of Main Questionnaires and Semi-Structured Interviews with appropriate populations. The investigation revealed some serious areas of dissatisfaction by the HE LIS Chiefs with the role and function of the Schools. Considerable divergence of views emerged on the state of the working relationships between the two sectors and on the Schools' successes in meeting the needs of the HE LIS sector and on CPD provision. There were, however, areas of substantial and consistent agreement between the two sectors. The main implications of the findings were that those areas encompassing divergence of views were worrying and needed addressing by both sides. Possible ways forward included recommendations on improving the image of the profession purveyed by the Schools; the forming of closer and more effective inter-sectoral relationships; recognising fully the importance of `practicum' and increasing and sustaining the network of `practicum' providers.

No description available.

Computers have, over the past 10 to 15 years, become an integral part of many activities carried out by British community pharmacists. This thesis employs quantitative and qualitative research methods to explore the use of computers and other forms of information technology (IT) in a number of these activities. Mail questionnaires were used to estimate the level of IT use among British community pharmacists in 1989 and 1990. Comparison of the results suggests that the percentage of community pharmacists using computers and other forms of IT is increasing, and that the range of applications to which pharmacy computers are put is expanding. The use of an electronic, on-line information service, PINS, by community pharmacists was investigated using mail questionnaires. The majority of community pharmacists who subscribed to the service, and who responded to the questionnaire, claimed to use PINS less than they had expected to. In addition, most did not find it user-friendly. A computer program to aid pharmacists when responding to their patients' symptoms was investigated using interviews and direct observation. The aid was not found to help pharmacists in responding to patients' symptoms because of impracticalities involved in its operation. Use of the same computer program by members of the public without the involvement of a pharmacist was also studied. In this setting, the program was favourably accepted by the majority of those who used it. Provision of computer generated information leaflets from pharmacies was investigated using mail questionnaires and interviews. The leaflets were found to be popular with the majority of recipients interviewed. Since starting to give out the leaflets, 27 out of 55 pharmacists who responded to the questionnaire had experienced an increase in the numbers of prescriptions they dispensed. 46 had experienced an increase in the number of patient enquiries they received.

For more than forty years, research has been on going in the use of the computer in the processing of natural language. During this period methods have evolved, with various parsing techniques and grammars coming to prominence. Problems still exist, not least in the field of Machine Translation. However, one of the successes in this field is the translation of sublanguage. The present work reports Deterministic Parsing, a relatively new parsing technique, and its application to the sublanguage of an aircraft maintenance manual for Machine Translation. The aim has been to investigate the practicability of using Deterministic Parsers in the analysis stage of a Machine Translation system. Machine Translation, Sublanguage and parsing are described in general terms with a review of Deterministic parsing systems, pertinent to this research, being presented in detail. The interaction between machine Translation, Sublanguage and Parsing, including Deterministic parsing, is also highlighted. Two types of Deterministic Parser have been investigated, a Marcus-type parser, based on the basic design of the original Deterministic parser (Marcus, 1980) and an LR-type Deterministic Parser for natural language, based on the LR parsing algorithm. In total, four Deterministic Parsers have been built and are described in the thesis. Two of the Deterministic Parsers are prototypes from which the remaining two parsers to be used on sublanguage have been developed. This thesis reports the results of parsing by the prototypes, a Marcus-type parser and an LR-type parser which have a similar grammatical and linguistic range to the original Marcus parser. The Marcus-type parser uses a grammar of production rules, whereas the LR-type parser employs a Definite Clause Grammar(DGC).

No description available.

Semantic web is an extension of the current web which is envisaged to offer a machine readable information space, where intelligent engines perform sophisticated tasks that can help in managing the massive and complex information on web. The shift towards the use of semantic web and semantic information is important in many areas including E-commerce enterprise applications. However, major issues remain particularly in terms of semantic information grouping, maintenance, storage and automated reasoning and retrieval support that is required for the verification, ranking and validation of E-commerce products and services. Moreover, many E-business and E-commerce approaches are deficient in a number of ways. These include the lack of semantic guidelines for building websites into a business, lack of semantic information search and real-time information leading to a lack of appropriate levels of interaction between the customers and the entrepreneur. Hence, the main aim of this research is to develop a framework for semantic information search and discovery in E-commerce enterprise applications. The proposed framework offers a new approach for semantic grouping, storing, retrieval and ranking of information semantically. Thus, to achieve its aims the research work started with an investigation into existing E-commerce websites and their evaluation using a software quality model which showed that many sites suffer from a lack of appropriate information linkage and real¬time interaction that are required for building semantic E-commerce systems and for information searches. To address these issues a semantic architecture including a semantic layer with an intelligent network based engine is proposed and implemented in this thesis. The architecture supports an automated semantic grouping and retrieval system and produces semantic ranking of information while continuously checking the information semantically and suggesting possible enhancements to the user. The experimental evaluation results, using a case study based on an E-commerce business application, demonstrated the benefits of the approach particularly in terms of semantic search and. semantic ranking of the products. Moreover, although this information search approach was applied in the context of E-commerce it is generic which makes it appropriate for many online applications and websites.