The advent of the World Wide Web and digital photography has led to a phenomenal increase in the number and complexity of stored images. Accordingly, the ability to browse and retrieve images based upon image content is of rapidly growing importance. The goals of this research project are to develop a Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) system that combines dynamic, user-driven search capabilities with artificial intelligence techniques and to examine the system's effectiveness. The experimental method will be used to test the specific hypotheses and various research questions proposed in this research project. All of the experiments will be conducted using a CBIR prototype system that incorporates intelligent User Interface Agents (UIA). The UlAs will use both neural networks and an expert reasoning system. The actual experiments will be conducted using a task-oriented approach, with both descriptive and analytical statistics used to assess the results. In addition, a new evaluation CBIR metric will be proposed and applied. It is expected that this research will benefit CBIR research and CBIR system development by: 1) demonstrating the effectiveness of providing users with an interface that allows them to sketch an image, provides a relevance feedback mechanism that is based on providing similar images, and offers query refinement suggestions; 2) presenting a reusable modular design approach that can be used to create CBIR systems; 3) showing how AI techniques, particularly intelligent User Interface Agents, can be used effectively in CBIR systems; 4) proposing a "standard" CBIR user interface; and 5) proposing a new CBIR evaluation metric. The results of this research project should advance the current state of CBIR in that it designs, implements and evaluates an interactive CBIR system that uses image input and incorporates both the user's interactive guidance and artificial intelligence techniques to access images.

Psychometric and photometric studies have shown that psychophysical retinoptical reactions occur when slight changes are made to contrast and size attributes even if those changes are not consciously seen. It was hypothesized that minimum response thresholds for contrast and size exist and that, if these minimum thresholds could be identified, instructional designers and others could subtly encourage computer users to follow optimal yet optional navigation strategies. The goal of this study was to determine the minimum thresholds of contrast and size attributes needed to visually cue computer users. It was hypothesized that variations in contrast (luminance), size, or a combination of contrast and size could attract a viewer's attention and subtly cue them along a particular navigation strategy. One hundred gratings were developed to examine five conditions of contrast and size both individually and in combination. The five conditions were used to determine the minimum contrast and size observation thresholds. The study results indicated that at levels just below conscious awareness subjects observed a difference in contrast nearly 40% of the time. When contrast attributes were raised to levels slightly above conscious awareness, contrast observations were made nearly 45% of the time. When size attributes were studied the results were lower but more significant than for contrast. Size attributes just below conscious awareness was observed only 25% of the time but when size values were raised slightly above the visual threshold observation rose to nearly 45%. When both contrast and size attributes were studied in combination, the most significant results occurred. At levels just below conscious awareness the combination study results were in the 46% range. When the combination attributes were slightly above the Just-Noticeable-Difference range, observations rose to nearly 60%.

Thailand embarked on a course of deregulation and financial liberalization in the early 1990s. Starting with the acceptance of Article 8 of the International Monetary Fund, Thailand phased in liberalization of capital flows, deregulation in the scope of operation of financial institutions, and partial entry of foreign competitors into the domestic financial system. Also many firms in the financial industry were encouraged to integrate their information systems. The linkage of competitive strategy, information technology (IT) maturity and size has received much attention in recent years. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the state of IT application in Thai financial institutions and to examine the impact of competitive strategy, information technology maturity, and size on strategic responses to the liberalization of financial markets. Mintzberg (1973) conceived of strategy as a pattern or a stream of important decisions. This study operationalized strategy through the use of Miles and Snow’s (1978) typology, which identifies four archetypes of strategic adaptation: defenders, analyzers, prospectors and reactors. This study examines the relationships between strategic changes in IT investment patterns and the factors of competitive strategy, IT maturity, and size. Financial executives from three groups of financial institutions: (1) Thai commercial banks (N = 13), (2) foreign banks (N = 14), and (3) finance and securities companies (N = 23), responded to the researcher constructed questionnaire. Statistical methods used in this study included independent-samples t-test. One-way ANOVA were conducted to determine the significance of the differences of the mean responses among Thai commercial banks, foreign banks, and finance and securities companies. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to identify the significant relationships among the relevant variables. The results revealed that different IT factors impact the relationships between the linkage of competitive strategy, information technology maturity and size with strategic response to financial liberalization differently. The analysis of strategy provides strong support for Miles and Snow's (1978) typology. Finally, the results show that a firm's competitive strategy significantly affects change in its IT investment. The practical implication of this finding relates to issues of strategic response to financial liberalization in Thailand.

No description available.

Forensic multimedia is the specific term for computer simulation and computer animation presented as evidence in a court of law. Since its first use in the courtroom in the early 1990's, many high profile legal teams have used forensic multimedia to present arguments to reproduce an occurrence of events. Since that time, significant literature has been written on the use of forensic multimedia in the courtroom specifically targeted “towards the legal aspects of inclusion of the media as evidence, and rules and regulations about its admissibility. Special courtrooms have been developed to facilitate the use of multimedia, yet there has been no published research on the subject of the capabilities of lawyers to understand the process and address the educational aspects of the medium. The author's goal for this dissertation was the evaluation of the use of forensic multimedia in the greater Atlanta legal community. The study includes research on the use of forensic multimedia in the target area, a usability evaluation of a forensic multimedia product, a survey of southern US law school curricula as to the inclusion of forensic multimedia conceptual training in the programs, and a survey of the capabilities of lawyers in the target area as to their understanding of the multimedia process and use of forensic multimedia in the courtroom. Results of the research indicate a lack of formal education by law schools in the concepts and use of forensic multimedia. A survey of legal professionals confirms that lawyers are unfamiliar with the components and methodologies of use of the media. In addition, usability research of forensic multimedia software indicates areas for usability improvement.

The explosive growth of the Internet, information technologies, computer software applications, and telecommunications has affected marketing educators who are faced with the now on-going challenge of developing and delivering marketing instruction that integrates pertinent and timely technology. Marketing educators must determine the relevance of their program curriculum to the graduates' work environment and then align marketing program outcomes and competencies with workplace expectations. A Web-based modified Delphi procedure involving marketing practitioners and educators was used to identify the current and emerging workplace technology competencies that employers expect AAS marketing program students to possess upon graduation. The Delphi also determined the curriculum performance criteria that can be used to integrate and assess the requisite technology competencies and established into which marketing courses the technology competencies should be integrated. Ultimately, the Delphi established the state-of-the-art exit technology competencies that graduates will have mastered as a result of the upgraded marketing curriculum. The research identified 15 essential technology competencies with 42 matching performance criteria for integration and assessment. Five traditional marketing courses and eight marketing technology courses were selected for primary or supplementary technology competency integration. The findings indicated that: Technology competency expectations keep changing and more frequent assessment is needed. Very technical technology skills are not desired, but discipline-specific and generic technology skills are desired. There are different ways to integrate technology content and there are possible barriers to technology integration at the local program level. Recommendations to evaluate, integrate, innovate, and replicate were provided to get the most value out of the marketing technology integration framework that was the result of the study. Based on Cronbach's alpha and Kendall's W statistical tests, the procedure employed in the study was deemed a valid and reliable process that can be applied to future competency identification and integration studies.

The problem investigated in this research was the difficulty of providing bibliographic instruction to all first year students who required such instruction, in a timely manner utilizing the traditional in class face-to-face instructional method. In recent years the College Of The Bahamas (COB) has been expanding its campus to other islands in the Bahamas. As all students are required to complete the Library Orientation (Libr 013) course as a general education requirement, it has proven difficult to provide all students with instruction utilizing the traditional method of instruction. This study focused on students at the main campus (COB) who were entering the College in the Fall semester of 2004. The study investigated the feasibility of offering an online bibliographic instructional tutorial, based on the Texas Information Literacy Tutorial (TILT) developed at the University of Texas. The tutorial was adapted to the College of The Bahamas' learning environment and course content was identical to the in-class, face-to-face instructional section. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups, one receiving instruction via the in class method and the other via the online method. Both groups were administered a pre-test and a post-test. Questions on the post-test were identical to those on the pre-test but differed in the order in which the questions appeared. Additionally, participants were asked to complete a demographic survey and an end-of-course evaluation form. Participants were also allowed to make opened responses about any aspect of the instruction they received. Data gathered were assessed and analyzed utilizing the Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) to determine if there were any statistical differences between the two groups. Feasibility was determined accordingly. The results of the data analysis suggested no statistically significant differences in technical skill development, student's overall learning experience, students' involvement with the course content and experience with using the computer and the Internet based on method of instruction. Results further suggested statistically significant differences between the Web-based group and the traditional in-class group on post-test performances and level of satisfaction with the instructional method. Based on the margin of significance it was further determined that these results, though statistically significant, raised the question of practical significance between the groups.

Retention is important to the success of any computer training and learning initiative. In the community college, retention has been inadequately studied and the factors that influence it are not well understood. This paper examines the first time, degree seeking, and non-ESL students at Atlantic Community College who entered spring of 1992. It follows this cohort, semester by semester, to learn which factors influence semester to semester retention. After two years, the cohort is examined to determine which factors, present at entry, influence long-term attendance and graduation. Analysis of the data suggests that academic success, measured by GPA, is a strong determinant for all semesters and for long-term attendance and graduation. There was no significant difference in retention for gender or ethnicity. Students who stated at entrance an intent to transfer prior to earning a degree were less likely to retain after four semesters or to graduate. Students who tested into developmental courses retained at the same rate as those who proved competency. If developmental students completed the required developmental course the first semester, they retained at almost the same or at a higher rate as non-developmental students. In contrast, developmental students who did not complete the required developmental course the first semester had significantly lower retention to second semester. The retention rate increased from semester to semester. While 60. 2 % of the students returned for the second semester, by the fifth semester, 88% of the students attending the previous semester either returned or graduated. At the end of four semesters, in spring 1994, discriminant analysis showed the following: Academic progress, measured by GPA in the last semester attended, and completion of developmental course work in math during the first semester, are the major factors influencing the number of semesters attended. This finding has implications for community colleges, many of whose students require developmental work. Results from this paper will be used to guide Atlantic Community College in the use of resources and will help the college in defining the data elements necessary in an ongoing retention database. This database can be used as a benchmark for measuring the effectiveness of future retention efforts.

The purpose of this dissertation is to present a conceptual framework and enterprise architectural model to support information systems technology. The dissertation first discusses several information technology (IT) problems facing a typical enterprise in today's dynamic business environment, such as ineffective data management, non-integrated and fragmented systems, excessive system delivery times, user dissatisfaction, availability management, connectivity issues, Poor capacity and performance planning, inadequate data storage, ineffective security, and the question of centralization versus decentralization. Next, the rationale for the development of an effective enterprise architecture, together with a description of a new vision, is presented. An extensive literature review which addresses the significant work and findings of subject matter experts (SME) in the IT field are discussed. The dissertation then critiques and evaluates, with the assistance of these experts, fifteen already deployed information systems frameworks and architectures. Next, a view of information engineering (IE) as it relates to the enterprise architecture is addressed, because IE provides many of the foundations for the proposed enterprise architecture. The expanding role of IE has forced strategic systems planners to change the scope, objectives, style, and sources of expertise in planning. The dissertation then builds upon these concepts and proposes an enterprise architecture which provides enterprises with a structure that should allow them to support their visions, missions, objectives and goals. The enterprise architecture permits enterprises, by using open systems, to move computer application systems across different environments and platforms to various work groups and geographic locations within the various enterprises, and makes it possible for them to share processes and information with external business partners. After presenting the environmental impacts and driving forces which influence the enterprise architecture, the dissertation subsequently details each of the building blocks which constitute the enterprise architecture. The dissertation concludes by addressing several of the peripheral considerations which impact the enterprise architecture. Among these are a discussion of: business strategy development and the alignment of an organization's business strategies with information systems strategies ; the importance of perceiving information systems from a strategic perspective; strategic business initiatives; competitive positioning; an assessment of how risk analysis can be used to establish the business case for effective information systems; the development of a transition plan, and how an enterprise migrates from its embedded base of current information systems to a targeted portfolio of systems; a possible interoperability architecture; and closes with concluding comments on the enterprise architecture and its impact on the enterprise. A definition of terms, concepts, acronyms and abbreviations is presented in Appendix A. Appendix B depicts some mappings to assist with functional data modeling. Appendix C presents a taxonomy of emerging technologies which should be considered by enterprises when addressing their technical architecture. Appendix D presents an enterprise architecture example and template.

The goal of this research was to design a collaborative contract initiation system that protects sensitive information, and uses the ebXML service oriented architecture to provide web services, while utilizing the internal systems currently in place. The system was designed to use the Elemica trading exchange and to send CIDX Chern eStandard XML payloads across the Internet. The Elemica trading exchange was not permitted to store any sensitive data at their site, such as price, quantities or delivery dates. The contract initiation system was a combination of ebXML-based services that are executed utilizing intelligent agents. The use of software agents to implement the web services was an important component of the design. The integration with a back end ERP system at the buyer and supplier sites was specifically designed for use with SAP version 4.6. The design used the UNICEF ACT Modeling Methodology (UMM), which defines a series of steps to be followed in order to design public business processes. The public business processes were constructed to form a Business Process Specification Schema (BPSS). Once the BPSS was created the Collaboration Protocol Profiles (CPP) I Collaboration Protocol Agreements (CPA) were created. At this point the agent design took place based upon the public processes designed in the prior steps. The validation of the system relied upon: (a) The creation of test cases based on the use case scenarios; (b) syntax validation by generating XMI; (c) tracing of requirements to assure coverage; (d) a static and dynamic analysis of the model artifacts against the use cases, and (e) a walkthrough of the test cases. The development and implementation of the contract initiation system design would contribute to the elimination of the manual contract setup efforts and would significantly reduce the amount of time needed to build a trading partner relationship between a buyer and a seller. Implementation of the contract initiation process through the Elemica trading exchange can be used as a model for other trading exchanges or similar technologies.