Scientific databases often need to be accessed from a variety of different applications. There are usually many ways to retrieve and analyse data already in a database. However, it can be more difficult to enter data which has originally been stored in different sources and formats (e.g. spreadsheets, other databases, statistical packages). This project focuses on investigating a generic, platform independent way to simplify the loading of databases. The proposed solution uses Web services as middleware to supply essential data management functionality such as inserting, updating, deleting and retrieval of data. These functions allow application developers to easily customise their own data entry applications according to local data sources, formats and user requirements. We implemented a Web service to support loading data to the Germinate database at the New Zealand Institute of Crop & Food Research (CFR). We also provided language specific client toolkits to help developers invoke the Web service. The toolkits allow applications to be easily customised for different platforms. In addition, we developed sample applications to help end users load data from their project data sources via the Web service. The Web service approach was evaluated through user and developer trials. The feedback from the developer trial showed that using Web services as middleware is a useful approach to allow developers and competent end users to customise data entry with minimal effort. More importantly, the customised client applications enabled end users to load data directly from their project spreadsheets and databases. It significantly reduced the effort required for exporting or transforming the source data.

The recent trend in health care has been on the development and implementation of clinical guidelines to support and comply with evidence-based care. Evidence-based care is established with a view to improve the overall quality of care for patients, reduce costs, and address medico-legal issues. One of the main questions addressed by this thesis is how to support guideline-based care. It is recognised that this is better achieved by taking into consideration the provider workflow. However, workflow support remains a challenging (and hence rarely seen) accomplishment in practice, particularly in the context of chronic disease management (CDM). Our view is that guidelines can be knowledge-engineered into four main artefacts: electronic health record (EHR) content, computer-interpretable guideline (CiG), workflow and hypermedia. The next question is then how to coordinate and make use of these artefacts in a health information system (HIS). We leverage the EHR since we view this as the core component to any HIS. / PhD Doctorate

In the last few years the demand for organic products has increased rapidly resulting in a strong growth of the organic industry worldwide. Organic certification is globally used to guarantee that 'organic' labelled produce follow the principles and standards of organic agriculture set by international and national organic certification bodies. Currently the lengthy and complex process of organic certification is entirely paper based and requires multiple access by organic primary producers to the certifying body involving precise data capture and transfer over a long period of time. The paper based organic certification has some significant disadvantages such as being time-consuming, error-prone (in particular transcription errors) and complex. Any improvement of the paper based organic certification process can lead to higher efficiency, lower costs and time savings for primary producers and certifying bodies. Australia is a major supplier of organic produce holding almost half of the organic farmland worldwide. However, Australia?s unique geography provides challenges by means of huge distances and poor rural telecommunication coverage for the sustainable agriculture sector. The disadvantages of the paper based organic certification are this kind of environment more severe. Up until now, there has not been a software solution supporting organic primary producers in their certification process, let alone a mobile software solution. In any case there are many farm management software solutions available but they do not take into account the specific issues in organic agriculture such as soil management, pest control, or fertilisation of land/animals. The Mobile Organic Certification (MobiCert) project was created to overcome these disadvantages focussing on the development of a mobile information portal which can be accessed through mobile Internet using GPRS or 3G technology enabling primary producers access and provision to organic certification related information in field using their mobile phones. The MobiCert project investigates the effectiveness of mobile devices (mobile phones/PDAs) for (some of) the stages of the computerised organic certification, in particular in terms of information access and provision. Designed as a proof-of-concept project the investigation takes place in South Australia targeting the NASAA organic certified primary producers there. The MobiCert project is a pilot project within the SAmCom (Sustainable Agriculture m-Commerce) project framework, which aims to enhance the information access and provision for primary producers through m-Commerce. It is a joint project of the University of South Australia, m.Net, NASAA, e-Cert and the Fraunhofer Institute Using a qualitative approach in a rapid appraisal case study the goals of the MobiCert project are: to create a theoretical model (RuTADIM) for the mobile technology acceptance and diffusion of innovation in remote and rural areas; and to develop and test a prototype mobile information community for organic certification which provides access to data and information related to organic certification, (online and offline) record keeping functionalities, as well as community functionalities for communication and experience exchange of primary producers. The results of the proof-of-concept MobiCert project suggest that organic primary producers can benefit from a mobile information platform to access and provide information in rural and remote areas. The high acceptance of organic primary producer to use the mobile information community indicates the willingness to embrace new technology and solutions in the existing organic certification process. The benefits and acceptance of the MobiCert solution have to bee affirmed in follow on field studies incorporating other issues such as the underlying business models. The contributions of the MobiCert project are two-fold: firstly, it provides a theoretical model (RuTADIM) which gives insights of key influence factors for the acceptance of mobile technology and the diffusion of innovation in rural and remote areas. The RuTADIM model can be foundation for future research projects involving mobile technology rural and remote areas. Secondly, the MobiCert information community displayed the potential of mobile solutions for primary producers in remote and rural areas. The MobiCert platform is a stepping stone for future mobile solution which can build upon this platform.