&Ouml / YP processes are complex due to four different types of actors and many interdependent stages it involves. All the registration, application and placement stages are performed using a paper-based information system and the number of actors involved increases each year. As a consequence of this, collecting, storing and processing the required information becomes more difficult, error prone and insufficient. In this study, to enhance &Ouml / YP processes and to eliminate the errors and difficulties of the paper-based information system in use, a computer-based information system consisting of a web-based tool was developed, implemented and evaluated.

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.

Das »Sächsische Informationssystem für Moore und organische Nassstandorte« (SIMON) bündelt Informationen zur Lage, Ausdehnung, Ausstattung und Gefährdung von Mooren. Landesweit vorliegende Karten zu biotischen und abiotischen Daten wurden zu Moorkomplexkarten verschmolzen. Auf dieser Grundlage konnten in Sachsen für 20 Moore Steckbriefe u. a. mit Angaben zu Fläche, FFH-Lebensraumtyp, Torfmächtigkeit, Landnutzung, ökologischem Zustand und aktuellem Schutzstatus erstellt werden. Die Gesamtfläche an Moorböden, oberflächennahen Torfvorkommen und moortypischen Biotopen beträgt in Sachsen 46.800 Hektar.

No description available.

If construction is about delivering a built asset that is of high quality and efficiency, wouldn t most companies use all the tools and processes available at the highest organizational level possible? A major assumption is made that Prolog Manager is an effective Project Management Information System. Saying Company X will benefit from more module use with Prolog Manager system is not the same as saying they will suffer from lack of module usage. If a company has already attained success using manual systems it successes may continue. To be as successful as possible, maximum utilization of all modules of Prolog Manager at the unique project type organizational level is necessary, and correlations can be made between higher module usage and greater project successes with this type of company size and structure.

Suicide has drawn much attention from both the scientific community and the public. Examining the impact of socio-environmental factors on suicide is essential in developing suicide prevention strategies and interventions, because it will provide health authorities with important information for their decision-making. However, previous studies did not examine the impact of socio-environmental factors on suicide using a spatial analysis approach. The purpose of this study was to identify the patterns of suicide and to examine how socio-environmental factors impact on suicide over time and space at the Local Governmental Area (LGA) level in Queensland. The suicide data between 1999 and 2003 were collected from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Socio-environmental variables at the LGA level included climate (rainfall, maximum and minimum temperature), Socioeconomic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) and demographic variables (proportion of Indigenous population, unemployment rate, proportion of population with low income and low education level). Climate data were obtained from Australian Bureau of Meteorology. SEIFA and demographic variables were acquired from ABS. A series of statistical and geographical information system (GIS) approaches were applied in the analysis. This study included two stages. The first stage used average annual data to view the spatial pattern of suicide and to examine the association between socio-environmental factors and suicide over space. The second stage examined the spatiotemporal pattern of suicide and assessed the socio-environmental determinants of suicide, using more detailed seasonal data. In this research, 2,445 suicide cases were included, with 1,957 males (80.0%) and 488 females (20.0%). In the first stage, we examined the spatial pattern and the determinants of suicide using 5-year aggregated data. Spearman correlations were used to assess associations between variables. Then a Poisson regression model was applied in the multivariable analysis, as the occurrence of suicide is a small probability event and this model fitted the data quite well. Suicide mortality varied across LGAs and was associated with a range of socio-environmental factors. The multivariable analysis showed that maximum temperature was significantly and positively associated with male suicide (relative risk [RR] = 1.03, 95% CI: 1.00 to 1.07). Higher proportion of Indigenous population was accompanied with more suicide in male population (male: RR = 1.02, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.03). There was a positive association between unemployment rate and suicide in both genders (male: RR = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.02 to 1.06; female: RR = 1.07, 95% CI: 1.00 to 1.16). No significant association was observed for rainfall, minimum temperature, SEIFA, proportion of population with low individual income and low educational attainment. In the second stage of this study, we undertook a preliminary spatiotemporal analysis of suicide using seasonal data. Firstly, we assessed the interrelations between variables. Secondly, a generalised estimating equations (GEE) model was used to examine the socio-environmental impact on suicide over time and space, as this model is well suited to analyze repeated longitudinal data (e.g., seasonal suicide mortality in a certain LGA) and it fitted the data better than other models (e.g., Poisson model). The suicide pattern varied with season and LGA. The north of Queensland had the highest suicide mortality rate in all the seasons, while there was no suicide case occurred in the southwest. Northwest had consistently higher suicide mortality in spring, autumn and winter. In other areas, suicide mortality varied between seasons. This analysis showed that maximum temperature was positively associated with suicide among male population (RR = 1.24, 95% CI: 1.04 to 1.47) and total population (RR = 1.15, 95% CI: 1.00 to 1.32). Higher proportion of Indigenous population was accompanied with more suicide among total population (RR = 1.16, 95% CI: 1.13 to 1.19) and by gender (male: RR = 1.07, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.13; female: RR = 1.23, 95% CI: 1.03 to 1.48). Unemployment rate was positively associated with total (RR = 1.40, 95% CI: 1.24 to 1.59) and female (RR=1.09, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.18) suicide. There was also a positive association between proportion of population with low individual income and suicide in total (RR = 1.28, 95% CI: 1.10 to 1.48) and male (RR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.23 to 1.72) population. Rainfall was only positively associated with suicide in total population (RR = 1.11, 95% CI: 1.04 to 1.19). There was no significant association for rainfall, minimum temperature, SEIFA, proportion of population with low educational attainment. The second stage is the extension of the first stage. Different spatial scales of dataset were used between the two stages (i.e., mean yearly data in the first stage, and seasonal data in the second stage), but the results are generally consistent with each other. Compared with other studies, this research explored the variety of the impact of a wide range of socio-environmental factors on suicide in different geographical units. Maximum temperature, proportion of Indigenous population, unemployment rate and proportion of population with low individual income were among the major determinants of suicide in Queensland. However, the influence from other factors (e.g. socio-culture background, alcohol and drug use) influencing suicide cannot be ignored. An in-depth understanding of these factors is vital in planning and implementing suicide prevention strategies. Five recommendations for future research are derived from this study: (1) It is vital to acquire detailed personal information on each suicide case and relevant information among the population in assessing the key socio-environmental determinants of suicide; (2) Bayesian model could be applied to compare mortality rates and their socio-environmental determinants across LGAs in future research; (3) In the LGAs with warm weather, high proportion of Indigenous population and/or unemployment rate, concerted efforts need to be made to control and prevent suicide and other mental health problems; (4) The current surveillance, forecasting and early warning system needs to be strengthened, to trace the climate and socioeconomic change over time and space and its impact on population health; (5) It is necessary to evaluate and improve the facilities of mental health care, psychological consultation, suicide prevention and control programs; especially in the areas with low socio-economic status, high unemployment rate, extreme weather events and natural disasters.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / It is difficult to decide when to replace (major components of) information systems (IS) used in large organisations. Obstacles include not only the cost and the technical complexities but also the fact that the workplace is dependent on the current IS and the users have familiarity with their functionalities. The problems become more complicated with increasing need for IS interconnectivity within and between organisations. Formal guidelines to assist in making replacement decisions are not commonly used. This thesis aims to develop a model of key factors involved in the IS replacement decision and to investigate the role of interoperability in this decision. It concentrates on the healthcare domain in NSW, Australia, which represents a complex distributed multilevel organisation, which has identified interoperability as a problem and has started initiatives to improve it. Research in IS and software engineering has shed light on many of the issues associated with the replacement decision. For example, studies in technology acceptance have explained why organisations delay in moving to new technologies, and modelled the effect of increasing popularity of such technologies. IS success models have explored the factors that contribute to success and failure of deployed systems, providing checklists to assess the appropriateness of current systems from the point of view of the users and other organisational stakeholders. Research into the value of user feedback has helped managers to align user expectations with workplace IS. In terms of software function, metrics have been developed to measure a range of factors including performance, usability, efficiency and reliability that help determine how well the systems are performing from a technical perspective. Additional research has identified important points to consider when comparing custom made systems versus buying off-the-shelf systems, such as skill availability and after sale support. Maturity models and life cycle analyses consider the effect of age on IS, and Lehman’s laws of software evolution highlight the need for maintenance if an IS is to survive. Improvements in interoperability at the information level have been achieved through domain specific standards for data integrity, and modular approaches for partial changes in IS. In particular, the healthcare domain has developed a number of standardised terminological systems such as SNOMED, LOINC, ICD and messaging standards such as HL7. Template high level data models have also been trialled as a way to ensure new IS remain compatible with existing systems. While this literature partially covers and contributes to the understanding of when and how to replace IS and/or components, to our knowledge there has been no attempt to provide an integrated model identifying factors to be considered in the replacement decision. The thesis adopts a multi method approach to build a model of IS replacement and to explore aspects of interoperability. Preliminary factors and their potential interactions were first identified from the literature. In depth interviews were conducted with 10 experts and 2 IS users to investigate the validity and importance of the factors and interactions and to elicit further potential items. The analysis of the transcripts guided review of further literature and contemporary data, which led to the development of a final model and insights into the role of interoperability. A member check was used to validate both the model and the researcher’s conclusions on interoperability. The final model is centred about the change request, that is, any request made by or on behalf of an executive officer in order to maintain or replace part or all of an IS. The change request is informed by user feedback but our research distinguishes the two factors because the change request factor filters and manages requests for change from multiple sources. Other factors that have an important direct or indirect effect on generating change requests include: the extent of system specialisation, that is, how the system is tailored to satisfy organisational requirements; popularity, the degree to which an IS or a component is liked or supported by its user community; the prevalence and severity of errors and failures in the systems; the usability and performance of the systems; and the adequacy of support, including training, documentation, and so on. The dependent factors are maintenance and replacement, determined through the change requests. The validation through member checking showed that IS practitioners found our model useful in explaining the replacement process. The model provided an interpretation of the change requests. By exposing and clustering reasons behind the change requests, the complexity of deciding whether to maintain or replace system components can be reduced. Individual factors can be addressed more specifically. Formal guidelines on whether to maintain or replace components or entire IS can be drawn up using this understanding. The factors and their interactions as explained in the model could be the basis of a decision tree, which would be customised for organisational jargon and priorities. The requirement for interoperability is an aspect of system specialisation. An important finding from the research was that one of the most significant reasons to change a system is when problems are encountered in exchanging data and information. Conversely, as long as systems can exchange data, there is less pressure to replace them. Organisations benefit more from systems that provide more support for interoperability. Findings on interoperability in the health domain were that existing messaging standards (mostly HL7) used in the information exchange between subsystems including legacy databases are useful and are used. Also, ambiguities are diminished with vocabularies (mostly SNOMED, LOINC and ICD are used in NSW health domain). However, a methodology known as Interoperability Framework supported by government funding bodies for comparing data models has not been adopted and is not given any significant credit by the users. Likewise, a government proposal to use an overarching high level data model has not been adopted, in part because it is too complex. To guide use of such a data model requires a methodology for comparing data models: an example of such a methodology is developed in this thesis. The thesis research found that replacement decisions in the healthcare domain are affected by the existing quasi-monopoly of large vendors which tend to use proprietary standards that limit interoperability. The research concludes that interoperability should be achieved by increased use of vendor-independent messaging and terminological standards. In order to get the co-operation of individual health institutions within the domain, initial investments should be concentrated on simple and easy to adopt standards. A primary limitation of this thesis is the extent of testing of the findings. Data from a broader range of organisations, in different sectors and different countries, is needed to validate the model and to guide development of decision making tools that are based on it. Particularly valuable would be case studies of IS replacement decision making and the process which executives use in determining change requests. The priorities of the factors and their attributes as well as the strengths of the relationships in the model need to be tested empirically using tailored survey instruments. Another interesting research avenue which was only touched on in the thesis was the effect of policies and legislation on interoperability and on replacement decisions.

Information security technologists and business scholars are motivated by a desire to understand how and to what extent the application of IT within enterprise systems leads to improved and secured organizational performance. An effective relationship between business and IT professionals is a primary determinant of success in gaining business advantage through the enterprise system. As business innovation has relied increasingly on partnerships between business and IT professional, a different perspective of how IT professionals view their organizational contributions was needed for organizations to remain competitive. Business knowledge is essential if IT professionals are to create linkages with other organizational units and have a wider perspective about business objectives, thus achieving fit between IT and organizational strategies. Organizations have started responding to this challenge by demanding more business acumen in their IT staff. The focus of this study is on the knowledge that is beyond that of independent business and IT only domain knowledge of information security. Therefore, technical areas of knowledge, such as hardware and software, all of which are closely associated with IT skills, are not discussed in this thesis. This is not to declare that such knowledge is not important. Clearly technical knowledge is part of the IT professional's overall information security technology expertise, but this study is about the organization proficiency of business and the IT professional, and is therefore interested in what enables business and IT professionals to apply their business domain and technical knowledge in ways that are beneficial to the organization and to act cooperatively with their customers and business partners. The purpose of this study is to employ the triangulation method to identify the theoretical links and empirically examine the association between business and IT perspective of information security. An important contribution of this study is the identification of business and IT perspectives on information security technology. By establishing the link between business and IT, the study focuses and evaluates Virtual Private Network (VPN) as an information security technology to find out if VPN can secure and gain competitive advantage by partisan business process and organization performance. This study articulates distinctive characteristics of Virtual Private Network and management processes that extend the range of applicability across diverse business segments. It distinguishes between business and IT and explains why the exploitation of a complementary set of related information security entities (such as VPN) across multiple functions create competitive vi advantages even across a diverse set of businesses that have limited opportunity to exploit business process and organization performance. The most important direct predictor of this study is a high level of communication between business and IT. However, one cannot mandate meaningful communication between individuals. IT people have to earn the right to play a meaningful role in management forums. Based on the findings from this study, one important way for an IT person to be heard is for him/her to devote the time necessary to create competitive advantage and develop shared domain knowledge, the most influential construct in the research model. An IT person needs to understand the leverage points of the industry, the history and current issues of the business units, and to learn to apply business oriented objectives in the application of technology to business problems. This change in view would help focus their attention on security technology and ideas that could produce the most benefit and create competitive advantage, rather than those that offer the most technical promise.

This research developed a versatile land-use information system (VLUIS) based on moderate- and high-spatial resolution imagery for supporting local planning in Indonesia. It was motivated by the fact that the existing land-use information contained by the Key Dataset for Local Development (KDLD) was not adequate to support environmental planning at local levels in Indonesia. This was due to its inconsistent mapping methods, contents/classification scheme, and inflexibility to be used as an input to local physical planning processes. Although the KDLD was developed by most local coordinating agencies for development planning (Bappedas), the land-use map was not used as a common reference by various local and provincial institutions in assessing the state of environment. Therefore, each institution had a tendency to develop its own land-cover/land-use information, resulting redundant works of land-cover/land-use mapping, which were incompatible to each others. With regard to that problem, the objectives of this study were: (a) to specify land-use related planning tasks at local level in Semarang-Salatiga area, Java, Indonesia; (b) to design a versatile landuse classification scheme for urban and rural environment at local level in Java in order to support various applications in the local planning context; and (c) to develop and verify the versatile land-use mapping methods based on moderate- and high-spatial satellite imagery. Semarang-Salatiga area was chosen due to its relatively complex land-use phenomena and data availability. In this study, two types of satellite image dataset were used, Landsat-7 ETM+ and Quickbird, representing moderate- and high-spatial resolution imagery respectively. To achieve the research objectives, a methodology comprising three stages of activity was developed. The first stage specified local physical planning tasks and their required land-cover/land-use information, based on literature study and interview with 36 stakeholders in the study area. In the second stage, versatile land-use information contents were specified in a classification scheme containing five land-use dimensions, i.e. spectral, spatial, temporal, ecological, and socio-economic. In the third stage, a set of image classification methods was developed for generating all land-use dimension maps with the specified classes. For each type of imagery, the study area was divided into northern and southern parts. The northern part represents more developed/urbanised area, while the southern part represents less developed or rural areas. Multi-spectral classification in terms of both standard and non-standard approaches were explored to derive the spectral-related land-cover classes, while visual interpretation and object-oriented image segmentation were compared to find most accurate method in generating the spatial dimension classes. The standard multi-spectral classification approach made use of original bands as input to the classification process, while the non-standard approach involved texturally filtered and texturally aggregated bands in addition to the original ones. The spectral-related land-cover and spatial dimension maps, supported by a terrain unit map, were integrated in a raster GIS environment to derive the temporal, ecological, and socio-economic maps in separate processing methods. After that, all derived maps were integrated into a single dataset of VLUIS, ready for query-based activation at will and translation to other classification systems. Based on the interview with the respondents, a list of variables related to land-cover/land-use information required by various local planning tasks was regrouped with respect to the developed five land-use dimensions. After that, a classification scheme containing five columns representing spectral-related land-cover, spatial, temporal, ecological, and socioeconomic dimensions were created. The specified classes under each dimension referred to the variables used in various local planning and to the existing, widely used, classification systems. The spectral-related land-cover mapping results showed that standard multi-spectral classification methods using the original spectral bands gave higher accuracy results (84.63% or Kappa=0.8276 for Landsat-7 ETM+ and 68.75% or Kappa=0.6813 for Quickbird) than non-standard classification methods involving textural filtering (80.55% or Kappa=0.7988 for Landsat-7 ETM+ and 66.45 or Kappa=0.6503 for Quickbird) and textural aggregation (66.68% or Kappa=0.6512 for Landsat-7 ETM+ and 63.91% or Kappa=0.6222 for Quickbird) approaches. This was due to the fact that the texture is closer to spatial rather than spectral concept, while the specified categories in the spectral-related land-cover dimension is purposively developed for spectral classification. For the same image coverage and number of classes, Landsat-7 ETM+ gave higher accuracies (84.63% or Kappa=0.8276 for 40 classes, and 87.05% or Kappa=0.8535 for 25 classes) than Quickbird’s (82.81% or Kappa=0.8118 for 40 classes, and 83.23% or Kappa=0.8184% for 25 classes). In terms of spatial dimension mapping, the object-oriented image segmentation could not generate an accurate spatial dimension map in comparison with the visual interpretation, since the categories were specified using location/site and regularity criteria in addition to shape and density, which were not possible to recognise using the available software. However, by integrating the spectral-related land-cover dimension and the visual interpretation-based spatial dimension maps in a raster GIS environment, the temporal, ecological and socio-economic dimension maps could be derived in relatively accurate levels, i.e. with overall accuracies higher than 80%. For all land-use dimensions, the results obtained using Landsat-7 ETM+ and Quickbird imagery consistently showed that rural areas were more accurately classified than urban areas. This study demonstrated that a VLUIS could be developed based on moderate- and highspatial resolution imagery. In this VLUIS, a multi-dimensional classification scheme was developed first, with separate column representing spectral-related land-cover, spatial, temporal, ecological, and socio-economic dimensions. After that, the classification scheme was used as reference in extracting information and mapping each dimension into separate map layers. The five layers were then stacked into a single dataset. An example of querybased translation from the VLUIS to the Indonesian National Land Agency (BPN)’s classification system was given to show its versatility. However, it was also realised that land-use is too complex to be mapped merely using remotely sensed imagery and be modelled simply based on the five dimensions. With its limitations, remote sensing should be put in the context of complementary and alternative approach, where field surveys often fail to generate comprehensive, efficient and rapidly provided information that is required in a planning process. This study also recommends future work for more effective impact of the results, i.e. (a) development of information extraction methods of versatile land-use information system (VLUIS)’s dimensions using state of the art image and spatial data analyses, (b) development of translation system from the VLUIS to widely used landcover/ land-use classification schemes, and (c) demonstration of versatility in supporting several applications related to local planning tasks.

This paper presents a set of factors to consider when conducting investment evaluations for small scale IT systems. These factors have been derived by combining information from an extensive literature review, a single case study and an external expert. The literature review uses prior research on evaluation of large scale investments to inform and constrain the single case study. The single case study adds depth to the analysis by combining technical and operational perspectives from senior management, middle management and the general workforce. Ultimately an expert was consulted to evaluate the generalizability of the findings from the single case study, before the final list of factors was compiled. These factors should not be applied formulaically, as one of the main findings of this study is the diversity and complexity of small scale IT projects, preventing the application of general models. Instead, decision makers are encouraged to use these factors as a complement to their own experience, and to maintain close communication with potential stakeholders throughout the decision process.