This qualitative study examines the browsing behaviours of patrons at two Swedish public libraries. Our methods were semistructured observations and semistructured interviews. The purpose of this thesis is to generate knowledge on how browsing behaviours manifest in practice, especially in the lesser-studied public library context. The research questions were: 1. Which browsing types and browsing activities can be found in our data? 2. How do the patrons describe the changes in their browsing behaviour in relation to the specificity of their information need? 3. How do the patrons describe that their behaviours and choices are influenced by the libraries’ marketing of resources in the physical library room, for example book displays and themed shelves? The results were then analysed in relation to a typology of browsing behaviour proposed by McKay et al. (2019), and in relation to models of browsing behaviour created by Kwasnik (1992) and Bates (2007). The models by Kwasnik and Bates were found to be accurate and useful in describing the browsing behaviours of the patrons we observed. Our data supported some of the types presented by McKay et al.(2019), while other types have been slightly redefined to better reflect our data. The good enough type was proposed as an alternative to McKay et al.’s satisficing type. The patrons displayed different browsing behaviours corresponding to the specificity of their information needs. The patrons show different views towards the library displays. A few patrons looked at them very rarely, while most looked at them more often.

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Major research studies have provided support for information scent based usability evaluation and have increased its parent theory's (Information Foraging theory) credibility in the HCI community. These studies have, directly and indirectly, found significant correlations between good information scent and good usability. We would like to investigate its application to less-studied platforms, such as web pages on PDAs and cell phones. The theory itself is not device specific and it implicitly assumes that information scent's importance is universal. However, all studies on the practical application of Information Foraging theory have been conducted with desktop computers. We would like to examine what role information scent plays in interfaces on mobile devices that are limited in usable screen space. For this project, we performed a controlled study with 28 participants on the BBC News web site and its PDA-optimized version. Various usability and information scent related indicators were measured and compared across devices. Contrary to our expectations, we did not find any statistically significant differences between the information scent indicators of the Desktop and PDA sessions and the paths across the devices were highly correlated. / Master of Science

In this thesis, we developed SemKPSearch which is a tool for searching documents by the keyphrases that are semantically related with the given query phrase. By relating the keyphrases semantically, we aim to provide users an extended search and browsing capability over a document collection and to increase the number of related results returned for a keyphrase query. Keyphrases provide a brief summary of the content of documents. They can be either author assigned or automatically extracted from the documents. SemKPSearch uses SemKPIndexes which are generated with the keyphrases of the documents. SemKPIndex is a keyphrase index extended with a keyphrase to keyphrase index which stores the semantic relation score between the keyphrases in the document collection. Semantic relation score between keyphrases is calculated using a metric which considers the similarity score between words of the keyphrases. The semantic similarity score between two words is determined with the help of two word-to-word semantic similarity metrics, namely the metric of Wu&amp / Palmer and the metric of Li et al. SemKPSearch is evaluated by the human evaluators which are all computer engineers. For the evaluation, in addition to the author assigned keyphrases, the keyphrases automatically extracted by employing the state-of-the-art algorithm KEA are used to create keyphrase indexes.

IT inom vården blir allt vanligare och med det möjligheterna till kommunikation mellan patient och vårdgivare. Denna uppsats syfte är att undersöka vilken nytta och möjligheter ljud- och videokommunikation kombinerat med samtidig visning av webbplatsen Onkonnect kan erbjuda patienter och vårdgivare under cancerrådgivning. Som möjliggörande teknik för denna kommunikation används WebRTC. Uppsatsen innefattar intervjuer, utveckling och test av en konceptuell prototyp samt utveckling och användartest av slutgiltig prototyp. Resultaten av testerna och intervjuerna sammanställs sedan för att visa på nyttan och möjligheterna med ljud- och videokommunikation kombinerat med samtidig visning av webbsidor i rådgivningssituationer. / IT in health care is becoming more common, and with it the possibilities of communication between patient and caregiver. This document aims to examine what benefits and opportunities audio-visual communications, combined with simultaneous viewing of the website Onkonnect, can offer patients and caregivers during cancer consultation. As the enabling technology for this communication WebRTC was used. This document includes interviews, development and testing of a conceptual prototype, development and user testing of the final prototype. The results of the tests and the interviews are then compiled to demonstrate benefits and possibilities of audio-visual communications, combined with simultaneous viewing of web pages in counseling situations.

Um in einer Menge von Daten nach bestimmten Informationen suchen und filtern zu können, verwenden Suchmaschinen und Datenbanksysteme Queries (Suchanfragen). Diese Queries sind häufig durch eine eigene Sprache definiert, welche die Bildung von komplexen Ausdrücken erlaubt. Die Systeme antworten auf die Suchanfrage in Form einer Ergebnismenge. Komplexe Suchanfragen ermöglichen dabei das Auffinden von präzisen Ergebnissen. Faceted Browsing ist ein Benutzerschnittstellen-Paradigma zum Suchen und Filtern von Daten. Dabei können Suchanfragen visuell erstellt und sukzessiv verfeinert werden, ohne die spezielle Anfragesprache kennen zu müssen. Die einfache und intuitive Benutzbarkeit der Oberfläche bildet das Erfolgsrezept, sodass Faceted Browsing in vielen Anwendungen, wie beispielsweise auch in Online-Shops, zum Einsatz kommt. Bisher sind die Systeme überwiegend so konzipiert, dass Queries, welche aus Konjunktionen von Disjunktionen bestehen, gebildet werden können. Es stellt sich nun die Frage, ob auch komplexere Suchanfragen mittels Faceted Browsing erstellt werden können und welche Veränderungen der Oberfläche dafür notwendig sind. Reichen die Veränderungen dabei so weit, dass zu Gunsten der Komplexität der Suchanfrage auf die Einfachheit der Oberfläche verzichtet werden muss oder existieren Möglichkeiten, komplexere Queries zu bilden und dabei die Einfachheit der Oberfläche zu bewahren? Ziel der Arbeit ist es, zu ermitteln, welche Komplexität die Suchanfragen, die mittels Faceted Browsing gebildet werden, aufweisen können, ohne dabei die einfache Benutzbarkeit der Facettenbrowseroberfläche zu verlieren. Dazu wird die bisherige Mächtigkeit von Facettenbrowseroberflächen hinsichtlich der Querybildung analysiert. Weiterhin werden komplexere Suchanfragen auf ihre Umsetzbarkeit mit Hilfe des Faceted Browsing untersucht. Es wird betrachtet, auf welche Weise sich bisherige Facettenbrowseroberflächen verändern müssen, um die visuelle Erstellung solcher Suchanfragen zu ermöglichen. Durch die prototypische Erweiterung eines bestehenden Facettenbrowsers um notwendige Oberflächenelemente soll die Möglichkeit bestehen, komplexere Suchanfragen, als bisher mittels Faceted Browsing möglich, zu bilden.

With the rapid advancement of mobile devices, people have become more attached to them than ever. This rapid growth combined with millions of applications (apps) make smartphones a favourite means of communication among users. In general, the available contents on smartphones, apps and the web, come into two versions: (i) free contents that are monetized via advertisements (ads), and (ii) paid ones that are monetized by user subscription fees. However, the resources (energy, bandwidth, processing power) on-board are limited, and the existence of ads in either websites or free apps can adversely impact these resources. These issues brought the need for good understanding of the mobile advertising eco-system and how such limited resources can be efficiently used. This thesis focuses on mobile web browsing. Surfing web-pages on smatphones is one of the most commonly used task among smartphone users. However, web-page complexity is increasing, especially when designed for desktop computers. On one hand, the existence of ads in web-pages is essential for publishers' monetization strategy. On the other hand, their existence in webpages leads to even higher complexity of the webpages. This complexity in the smartphone environment, where the battery and bandwidth resources are limited, is reflected in longer loading time, more energy consumed, and more bytes transferred. With this view, quantifying the energy consumption due to web ads in smartphones is essential for publishers to optimize their webpages, and for system designers to develop an energy-aware applications (browsers) and protocols. Apart from their energy impact, ads consume network bandwidth as well. Therefore, quantifying the bandwidth consumption due to downloading web ads is crucial to creating more energy and bandwidth aware applications. This thesis first classifies web content into: (i) core information, and (ii) forced ``unwanted" information, namely ads. Then, describes an approach that enables the separation of web content in a number of a websites. Having done so, the energy cost due to downloading, rendering, and displaying web ads over Wi-Fi and 3G networks is evaluated. That is, how much energy web ads contribute to the total consumed energy when a user accesses the web. Furthermore, the bandwidth consumed by web ads in a number of well-known websites is also evaluated. Motivated by our findings about ads' impact on the energy and bandwidth, the thesis proposes and implements a novel web-browsing technique that adapts the webpages delivered to smartphones, based on a smartphone's current battery level and the network type. Webpages are adapted by controlling the amount of ads to be displayed. Validation tests confirm that the system, in some cases, can extend smartphone battery life by up to ~ 30\% and save wireless bandwidth up to ~ 44\%.

Eine in vielen Bibliothekskatalogen bislang nicht verwirklichte Recherchefunktion ist die gezielte Suche nach Literatur aus bestimmten Fachgebieten. Recherchen mit Notationen der im Katalog verwendeten Klassifikation oder mit Schlagwörtern können den Anspruch an eine fachgebietsumfassende Suche meist nicht erfüllen. Eine mögliche Lösung ist die Entwicklung einer bibliotheksspezifischen fachlichen Facette, in der jeder Titel über seine sachlichen Erschließungsdaten einem oder mehreren Fächern zugeordnet wird. Im Vortrag wird nach einem Überblick über bereits vorhandene fachliche Facettierungsmöglichkeiten in verschiedenen Bibliothekskatalogen die Konzeption einer fachlichen Facette für den Bibliothekskatalog der Universitätsbibliothek Mannheim erläutert. Hierbei wurden im Besonderen die vorliegenden Sacherschließungsdaten sowie die fachlichen Schwerpunkte der Medienbestände der Universitätsbibliothek Mannheim berücksichtigt. Das Ziel war die Definition und die Zusammenstellung von Fächern, die im Bibliothekskatalog in unterschiedlichen Varianten umgesetzt und verwendet werden können.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2007. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

<p>White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus; hereafter deer) are a keystone herbivore within forest ecosystems. While deer rely on plant species for growth, reproduction, and survival, multiple external factors can dictate browsing behavior. These factors ultimately drive browsing selection, browsing intensity, and diet composition, which in turn can shape the influence deer have on forest ecosystems. To better understand the complex relationship between deer populations, their habitat, and public perception of deer, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources partnered with Purdue University to initiate the Integrated Deer Management Project (IDMP). As part of the IDMP, this dissertation evaluated the ecological condition of deer habitat to assess the influence deer have on woody and herbaceous plant species within Indiana forests. Our study aimed to i) rank woody species according to their selection by deer and evaluate how the ranking of individual species varies across the state (Chapter 2); ii) evaluate variables and spatial extents associated with differences in browsing intensity, and evaluate different indices used to assess differences in browsing intensity (Chapter 3); iii) quantify winter deer diet composition using DNA barcoding to evaluate how diets vary across a gradient of deer densities, browsing intensities, non-native plant densities, and landscape characteristics (Chapter 4); and iv) evaluate the interactive effects of deer, non-native plant species, and landscape characteristics on the herbaceous layer of forests, while further evaluating the spatial extent at which landscape characteristics are most strongly related to herbaceous-layer composition and diversity (Chapter 5). To do this, I sampled 152 woodlots over three years across three regions of Indiana, collecting data on the browsing selection of individual woody species, the browsing intensities on all woody species, and the composition of vegetation communities (Chapters 2, 3, and 5, respectively). To address diet composition (Chapter 4), we collected deer pellet groups to analyzed diet components. We ranked a total of 63 woody species regarding their browsing selection by deer. While most of these remained consistent from region to region, 16 varied greatly in selection, as deer often showed increased selection for a given species when it resided in an area that provided greater browsing opportunities. Browsing intensity was most associated with food availability, however, it was also influenced by deer density in the region with the lowest forest cover. The twig age index of browsing intensity showed promise as the most efficient and effective index for use in Indiana woodlots. Although diet composition did not differ across regions of Indiana, we found 16 that deer consumed several uncommon taxa when the greater landscape exhibited homogenous patch composition. Similarly, deer consumed different native taxa in forested landscapes with greater deer densities in comparison to agricultural landscapes with lower deer densities. Lastly, though browsing varied within and across regions landscape characteristic, and not deer, were the most influential suite of variables. Additionally, the spatial extent at which these variables exhibited their best fit varied depending on the dependent variable being evaluated and the region of analysis. Together, our results highlight that variables ranging from the woodlot to the landscape-scale influence browsing behavior. This showcases that deer respond to variables at varying scales when browsing and in general, browse more in areas that offer the greatest benefit, whether these areas offer greater food availability or quality, or offer lower risks associated with anthropogenic development. This suggests that when managing forests for deer both woodlot and landscape context should play a role in the decision process. Although differences in browsing were observed, deer had less impact on the herbaceous layer compared to other variables we examined. This suggests that, in contemporary forests, landscape characteristics may be the drivers of changes, and species composition may reflect a long-term history of deer herbivory with less variability resulting from differences in contemporary deer abundance within and across regions.  </p>