There is a growing interest in developing systems for displaying museum artefacts as well as historic buildings and materials. This work connects with this interest by creating a 3D interactive display for Fishbourne Roman Palace Museum, West Sussex, England. The research aimed to create a reconstruction of the Palace as it would have been at its height, a reconstruction that was interactive in the sense that museum visitors would be able to walk through the buildings and local grounds and experience the site in a way not possible through traditional museum displays. The inclusion of the interactive element prompted the incorporation of game engines as a means of visualising and navigating around the reconstructed 3D model of the Palace. There are numerous game engines available, and the research evaluated a selection with respect to their functionality, cost, and ease of use. It also applied a technology readiness method to assess potential users’ response to the incorporation of different degrees of interactivity. Research was undertaken regarding the appearance of the Palace and, based on the available archaeology and relevant artistic interpretations, a model was created using Autodesk Maya software. This model was exported into each of the possible game engines, and a comparison was made based of each engine’s audio, visual, and functional fidelity, as well as composability and accessibility. The most appropriate engine is chosen based on these results. With reference to the assessment criteria, the hardware and software is in preparation for installation at the Fishbourne Roman Palace Museum. The Technology Readiness Index was applied to determine the effectiveness of such a display compared to a non-interactive representation, a study that concludes that a highly interactive display may not be the most sensible solution for the majority of visitors.

This work introduces a novel inversion-based neurocontroller for solving control problems involving uncertain nonlinear systems which could also compensate for multi-valued systems. The approach uses recent developments in neural networks, especially in the context of modelling statistical distributions, which are applied to forward and inverse plant models. Provided that certain conditions are met, an estimate of the intrinsic uncertainty for the outputs of neural networks can be obtained using the statistical properties of networks. More generally, multicomponent distributions can be modelled by the mixture density network. Based on importance sampling from these distributions a novel robust inverse control approach is obtained. This importance sampling provides a structured and principled approach to constrain the complexity of the search space for the ideal control law. The developed methodology circumvents the dynamic programming problem by using the predicted neural network uncertainty to localise the possible control solutions to consider. Convergence of the output error for the proposed control method is verified by using a Lyapunov function. Several simulation examples are provided to demonstrate the efficiency of the developed control method. The manner in which such a method is extended to nonlinear multi-variable systems with different delays between the input-output pairs is considered and demonstrated through simulation examples.

Nowadays, an increasing amount of media platforms provide the users with opportunities for sharing their opinions about products, companies or people. In order to support users accessing opinion-based information, and to support engineers building systems that require opinion-aware reasoning, intelligent opinion-aware tools and techniques are needed. This thesis contributes methods and technology for opinion-aware information management from two different perspectives, namely document summarisation and knowledge representation. Document summarisation has been widely investigated as a mean to reduce information overload. This thesis focuses on statistical models for summarisation, with a particular attention to divergence-based models, within the context of opinions. Firstly, topic-based document summarisation is addressed, contributing a study on divergence-based document to summary similarity and the definition of a novel algorithm for summarisation based on sentence removal. Secondly, summarisation models are tailored to opinion-oriented content and shown to be useful also when exploited for different tasks such as sentiment classification. Thirdly, summarisation models are applied to knowledge-oriented data, in order to tackle tasks such as entity summarisation. The comprehensive task addressed is the knowledge-based opinion-aware summarisation of content (free text, facts). This thesis also contributes a broad discussion on knowledge representation of opinions. A thorough study on how to model opinions using traditional techniques, such as Entity-Relationship (ER) modelling, underlines that a high-level, opinion-aware layer of conceptual modelling is useful since it hides away implementation details. A conceptual and logical knowledge representation methodology for modelling opinions is hence proposed, with the purpose of guiding engineers towards the use of best practices during the development of sentiment analysis applications. Specifically, an extension of the traditional ER modelling and the definition of an automatic mapping procedure, to translate opinion-aware components of the conceptual model into a relational model, help achieving a clear separation between conceptual and logical modelling. The mapping procedure yields an automatic and replicable methodology to design applications which require opinion-aware reasoning.

ThepurposeofthisBachelor’sthesiswastoexaminetheinternalinformationmanagementatBoråsBoråsTMEABviaacasestudy.InordertoachievethispurposeanInformationAuditwasconducted.ThetheoreticalframeworkormodelfortheauditwasthatofBuchananandGibb.Dataforthestudywascollectedusingfocusgroupinterviewsandpolicydocuments.Theinterviewswereanalyzedwiththehelpofqualitativecontentanalysis.ThetheoreticalmodelofChoo’sInformationmanagementcyclewasusedtofurtherdescribetheorganizationsinternalinformationmanagement.Theresultsshowalackofpredeterminedroutinesandpoliciesregardinginformationmanagementandtheuseofinformationresources.Furthermore,theunitK:,FacebookandtheweeklyThursdaystaffmeetingwereidentifiedasthethreemostimportantresourcesforinternalinformationmanagement.Inaccordancewiththeinformationauditanorganizationdescriptionwascompletedusingpolicydocuments.Theauthoralsopresentsfoursuggestionsforactionplanswiththehelpoftheresultsofthecontentanalysis.Thestudyrevealedthattheinternalinformationmanagementwasrathergood.Thiswasduetotherathersmallsizeoftheorganizationandthatthestaffhadawellfunctioningcooperation.Thiscooperationisdescribedassomewhatproblematicasfrictionbetweensomedepartmentswasidentified. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The rapid development of information technology in the recent years has added a range of new featuresto the traditional information environment, which has a profound impact on university library services and users. The Quality of Service parameter in library services has reached a broader consensus,which directly reflects customer satisfactions and loyalty. Exploring the evaluation frameworks for service quality in university libraries cannot be undermined in this context. Besides, existing evaluation frameworks of service quality of university library services are also facing numerous challenges due to their imperfections. Thus,there is an urgency and necessity to explore and enhance the efficiencies of the evaluation frameworks of service quality. To this end, this thesis conducts a systematic analysisof evaluation frameworks with a motivation of identifying the core components that needs enhancements for achieving effective service quality in Chinese university libraries through empirical methods. Furthermore, the inferences extracted from the analysis has been exploited to provide suitable recommendations for improving the service quality of university libraries.

Orientador: Marta Lígia Pomim Valentim / Banca: Ricardo Rodrigues Barbosa / Banca: Silvana Aparecida Borsetti Gregório Vidotti / Resumo: O presente trabalho apresenta uma discussão em relação aos elementos e processos constitutivos da gestão da informação e do conhecimento no ambiente Web. Para tanto, enfocou-se os processos de geração e uso da informação e do conhecimento, modelos de gestão da informação e do conhecimento utilizados pelas organizações e as tecnologias de informação e comunicação voltadas a esse ambiente. Com o crescente desenvolvimento e uso das tecnologias de informação e comunicação, as empresas desenvolveram recursos para resolver seus problemas de registro, disseminação e uso da informação interna e externa, com objetivo de gerenciar a informação organizacional, assim como estimular a construção e o compartilhamento do conhecimento. Nesse contexto, surgem os portais corporativos, cujo objetivo é reunir em um único ambiente a informação gerada, por meio de diferentes processos organizacionais e disponibilizá-la em ambiente Web. Como procedimentos metodológicos utilizou-se a pesquisa descritiva exploratória de natureza qualitativa; a coleta de dados foi realizada através da aplicação de um questionário aos sujeitos de pesquisa, um check-list aplicado aos sites corporativos e outro às Intranets corporativas. Como base para a análise e discussão dos dados, utilizou-se o método denominado 'análise de conteúdo', de Laurence Bardin. Como resultado, obteve-se uma visão atualizada sobre as organizações que atuam na área de tecnologia de informação, mais especificamente no que tange aos aspectos relacionados à gestão da informação e à gestão do conhecimento no ambiente Web, assim como às tecnologias mais utilizadas por essas organizações, referentes a esses aspectos. / Abstract: The present work presents a discussion in relation to the elements and constituent processes of the information and knowledge management in the Web space. For in such a way, one focused the processes of generation and use of the information and the knowledge, models of information and knowledge management used by the organizations and the technologies of information and communication associated to this space. With the increasing development and use of the information technologies and communication, the companies had developed resources to decide its problems of register, dissemination and use of the internal and external information, with objective to manage the organizational information, as well as stimulating the construction and the sharing of the knowledge. The corporate portals appear whose objective is to congregate in an only space the generated information, by means of different organizational processes and to provide access it in Web space. As methodological procedures, it was used exploratory descriptive research of qualitative nature; the collect of data was carried through the application of a questionnaire to the research subject, a check-list applied to the corporative sites and another one to the Intranets. As base for the analysis and discussion of the data, the called method was used ' content analysis ', of Laurence Bardin. As result, a vision brought up to date on the organizations was gotten that act in the area of information technology, more specifically in that it refers to the aspects related to the information management and knowledge management in the Web space, as well as the technologies more used by these organizations, referring to these aspects. / Mestre

This dissertation presents a study of creating maps that can be used to help people seek information from Internet documents. The study involves several different research areas in computer and information science including web mining, data mining, artificial neural network in particular self organising maps (SOM), information visualisation, user interface and information retrieval. The purpose of this dissertation is to offer an alternative way to retrieve information by visually representing the characteristics of the unseen documents and their relationships on the 2-dimensional surface of the SOM. The process starts with collecting documents that include text and images from the Internet, moving to extracting important features from them. In other words, we are performing an information retrieval indexing process. The document features are then clustered by using the SOM. As a result, documents with similar features will be clustered together on 2-dimensional maps. The maps are labelled and the documents are connected to locations on the maps based on the labels. The maps are then arranged hierarchically and visualised so that they can be used as a browsing and exploration tool for information retrieval.

In 1996 the Howard Government came to power in Australia. At that point in time the commonwealth budget was in significant deficit, the economy was weak and there was significant commonwealth debt. To address these issues the Howard Government moved to implement several cost savings and income generating projects began under the outgoing ALP government. In addition, part of the Howard reforms was the move toward the private side in the public / private mix in the delivery of government services. One of the high profile and significant projects was the outsourcing of the commonwealth public sector Information and Communications Technology (ICT) delivery. It was called the IT Initiative and was managed by the Minister for Finance, the Honourable Mr Fahey. Mr Fahey had earlier attempted significant outsourcing projects whilst in NSW government; at one time Mr Fahey was NSW Premier. The intent of the IT Initiative as policy was to achieve better and more cost effective ICT services for the commonwealth. This research reviews the efficacy of the IT Initiative. Under the Westminster system, governments can implement government policy as approved by the parliament. However not all policy is reviewed by the parliament. In this case the IT Initiative was part of the Howard pre-election policy and therefore was considered 'mandated' by the electorate. Irrespective of this approval, was the IT Initiative supported by the research at the time and did the IT Initiative and its implementation make sound business sense when compared to the research and models and in particular effectiveness, efficiency and economy. This thesis will review the IT Initiative using both static and dynamic models using Transaction Based Economics (TCE). Both models will support the view that the IT Initiative as practiced was a relatively high risk strategy. The thesis will utilise TCE and risk management to develop a risk profiling model for ICT with effectiveness, efficiency, economy as the three dimensions. Finally, the risk-profiling model, while based on earlier modelling, provides a new insight into the issue of centralising versus decentralising of government operations especially as these approaches relate to novel technological applications across various departments.

This paper presents the results of a survey of 30 adults aged 55 and older, who had taken multiple prescription medications in the past two years. The purpose of the study was to determine how older adults manage their medication information currently, what information they save and share, and how they wish to manage medication information in an electronic environment, such as a personal health record. Adults in the survey shared information most frequently with their doctors, and with friends and family. They usually shared basic information about a medication, including its name, dose, and the frequency with which it is taken. Nearly half used an artifact, such as a list, to keep track of and share their information. Nearly a third of participants desired to keep an electronic record, suggesting that a percentage of the older adult population would be open to using electronic records to manage medication information.

One form of knowledge that has been proven to be important for companies’ perfor-mance during the recent financial crisis is the understanding of the financial data and information.The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how three Swedish companies – Sto Scandi-navia AB, Swedbank and Axfood SSC – communicate internal financial information to their middle managers. As well as how the companies use knowledge management to leverage their financial communication internally.The study presents an integrated framework of information management and knowledge management based on the works of the leading and often quoted re-searchers in those fields.This study uses 12 semi structured interviews to gather qualitative data about how nine middle managers and three top managers view the communication of financial in-formation at their companies. The interviews were complimented with closed question surveys handed to the nine middle managers.Our analysis concludes that the three companies differ significantly in their approach to communicating financial information. Swedbank uses a wide range of financial in-formation in their daily operations. Further, they have an organized and structured ap-proach to communicating and managing their financial information.Sto and Axfood (SSC) do not use financial information to the same extent in their oper-ations. Additionally they communicate the information in an informal and unstruc-tured way. Although using a less structured approach, the managers at Axfood were more satisfied with how the company uses financial information then the other com-panies. This could be due to the lesser importance given to financial information at SSC compared to Swedbank.We found Sto to be at the verging point from turning from a small company to large company and thus needs to review their current strategy, which has previously been based on the ability of the managers to receive information through informal paths.