In the age of Web2.0, various network services became critical. Exchange of messages between entities in the network is so frequent that information explosion is quite common nowadays. Volume of Information passed is growing up rapidly. With the wide development of web applications, people need to learn how to filter the important messages; service providers have urgent need to trace the ever changing role of users. This research studies the detections of the user interaction scenario, based on the result from the test function in the on-line learning platform. The learning platform users are divided into two groups, teachers and students, based on their roles. Usually students sit for an on-line examination at the end of each learning activity. The teachers are in charge of helping students with their presentations, encouraging those with good grades, and helping the weaker ones to reach their potential. But in the one-to-many teaching method, a teacher needs to face many students and the resultant grade of an examination becomes a heap of fuzzy and difficult to comprehend numbers. Even though some mathematical tools can help the teachers analyze the data, it is still very difficult to provide appropriate response to each student. The purpose of this research motives building an examination system which combines context-awareness and auto-notification, and bring the advantages of digital examination. An inference engine is used to calculate linear regression of learning curve for each student, then review the old data, and transfer the analysis into the learning context. Then the feedback is given to the students under the various learning context or the teacher will get notification after it compile the analysis. Besides analyzing the past data, the linear regression result will be adjusted to fit the characteristics of learning curve and infer the personal goal of the student. If result is better than expected goal, students should be encouraged. On the other hand, the remediable actions will be administered. Those events can be scheduled by the manager of auto-notification system, published in the appropriate time, and achieve the goal of variety, personalization, and automation.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / In recent years the concept of public participation has been embraced by governments around the world to promote citizen involvement in decision making processes both to deepen local democracy and to ensure greater effectiveness in the delivery of public services. Implementing effective participatory systems, however, has proven to be especially challenging in highly diverse societies. Despite the best intentions of policy makers, the issue of exclusion, in particular, remains problematic as participatory systems frequently fail to address the concerns of poor communities who may not even be aware of their existence. Taking as a case study the C3 notification system introduced by the City of Cape Town to facilitate citizen reporting on faulty public services, this study examined the extent to which the design and implementation of a participatory model is of benefit to poor communities in the township of Langa. Based on a qualitative methodology, which included a series of interviews with municipal officials and office bearers as well as residents of Langa, the research examined the extent to which the notification system is used by local communities and to what effect. Viewed through the lens of social exclusion theory, the findings point to the fact that the C3 system was not only based on a best-practice model imported from an advanced Western nation, but it was oriented to the needs of more affluent citizens and, as such, it failed to take into account the specific needs of poor households who frequently lack even basic services and hence have nothing to report on. As a consequence, what was intended as a mechanism for promoting greater citizen participation in service delivery processes has effectively excluded a significant proportion of the most poor and vulnerable.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the major public health problems in South Africa. The overall aim of the research project was to evaluate the completeness of TB notification data. A descriptive study design was used. The TB data from the Disease Notification System for the period 1993 to 2003 were analysed to describe 11 year trends by province, sex and population group. The levels of under-reporting of tuberculosis were estimated by comparing the annual numbers and the rates of notified cases and deaths per 100 000 population with the data of registered cases in the electronic TB register and registered TB deaths from the Statistics South Africa’s metadata on causes of deaths in South Africa. A total of 768896 cases and 39052 deaths were recorded in the Disease Notification System for the period 1993 to 2003. The annual case load declined from 42099 cases in 1993 to 36081 in 1996, then peaked to 89111 in 1998. The peak in 1998 resulted mainly from two-fold increases in notified cases in the provinces of Eastern Cape, KwaZulu- Natal and Western Cape. There was also a three-fold increase in Western Cape in 2001 and four-fold increase in Northern Cape in 2002. The lowest numbers of notified cases were for Mpumalanga in the years 1993 to 1996. In Limpopo, a total of 13 cases only were notified between the years 1999 to 2003 inclusively. Nationally and provincially, the annual numbers of notified cases and deaths and rates per 100 000 population were consistently higher among males than females. The Wilcoxon signed rank test comparing the medians between male and female cases showed a p-value of 0.003 indicating that the difference exists between the two medians. Nationally the lowest number of deaths was 1967 notified deaths in 1994 and the highest number of deaths was 6085 notified in 2002. The number of deaths notified varied between the provinces and fluctuated between the years. It was the highest for the years 1993 to 1996 in Western Cape and the highest for the years 1997 to 2003 in Eastern Cape. It was the lowest in Mpumalanga for the years 1993 to 1997 and the lowest in Limpopo for the years 1999 to 2003 and KwaZulu-Natal in the years 2002 to 2003. The Disease Notification System was found to have lesser numbers of notified cases in comparison to registered cases recorded in the TBSYS or electronic TB register. The percent difference between notified and registered cases ranged between 28% in 2001 to 69% in 1996. Comparison of notified and registered TB deaths for the period 1997-2003 showed that the annual numbers and rates of registered deaths in the Statistics South Africa’s metadata were higher for all the years than the notified deaths in the disease surveillance system. It is recommended that the disease surveillance system is evaluated periodically, facility data assessment tools are introduced and capacity for surveillance is strengthened at all levels of the national health systems. Copyright / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH) / Unrestricted

p. 1-68 / Submitted by Santiago Fabio (fabio.ssantiago@hotmail.com) on 2013-04-10T21:09:11Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissertacaoAdriana Aquino.pdf: 512112 bytes, checksum: e66844469c0d5fbd2d4cad1162b090c3 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Creuza Silva(mariakreuza@yahoo.com.br) on 2013-04-11T19:18:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissertacaoAdriana Aquino.pdf: 512112 bytes, checksum: e66844469c0d5fbd2d4cad1162b090c3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-04-11T19:18:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissertacaoAdriana Aquino.pdf: 512112 bytes, checksum: e66844469c0d5fbd2d4cad1162b090c3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Introdução: Uma parcela dos casos com tuberculose apresenta falência ao tratamento especifico, necessitando de condutas terapêuticas mais agressivas para alcançar a cura. Em 2005, foram identificados no Brasil 208 casos em tratamento com esquema III. A análise da coorte de casos novos e de retratamento demonstrou que 1% dos casos apresentou falência aos esquemas de tratamento de 1ª linha. Objetivo: Mensurar a magnitude do sub-registro da falência de tratamento antituberculose, identificar seus possíveis fatores preditores e estudar suas implicações para o desfecho dos casos. Metodologia: Estudo descritivo exploratório, pela análise do banco de dados de tuberculose do Sinan no período de 2000 a 2005. Por meio da conjunção de variáveis denominadas “condições marcadoras” e do resultado do pareamento probabilístico do Sinan com o banco de tuberculose multirresistente (SITBMR), foram identificados prováveis registros de falência não reconhecida, subdivididos em quatro categorias mutuamente exclusivas, de maior para menor rigor de classificação. Resultados: No período de 2000 a 2005 foram identificados 1.552 registros de falência reconhecida. A utilização do conjunto de variáveis previamente definidas permitiu a identificação de mais 9.299 prováveis registros de falência. Isso representou uma proporção de subnotificação de 85,7%. Entre os registros de falência, há predomínio de casos com recorrentes retornos ao sistema, notificados como reingresso após abandono ou recidivas após cura, associados com Aids, e com prescrição de esquemas terapêuticos inadequados ao tipo de entrada. A partir da análise multivariada, algumas dessas características também foram identificadas como possíveis fatores preditores de falência e para o seu não reconhecimento. Os registros de falência em relação aos registros de não falência apresentaram maior proporção de registros com desfecho desfavorável (RP=2,68) com alta proporção de abandonos (32,9%) e TBMR (11,9%). Entre os registros de falência não reconhecida a ocorrência de abandonos foi mais freqüente (RP=1,27). Conclusões: Há deficiências na forma como os registros dos casos de falência de tratamento antituberculose são notificados no sistema de informação oficial. Os dados atualmente divulgados pelo Programa Nacional de Controle da Tuberculose (PNCT) precisam ser revistos. Especial atenção precisa ser dada aos casos em falência para aumentar as chances de cura e evitar a evolução para multirresistência. / Salvador

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the major public health problems in South Africa. The overall aim of the research project was to evaluate the completeness of TB notification data. A descriptive study design was used. The TB data from the Disease Notification System for the period 1993 to 2003 were analysed to describe 11 year trends by province, sex and population group. The levels of under-reporting of tuberculosis were estimated by comparing the annual numbers and the rates of notified cases and deaths per 100 000 population with the data of registered cases in the electronic TB register and registered TB deaths from the Statistics South Africa’s metadata on causes of deaths in South Africa. A total of 768896 cases and 39052 deaths were recorded in the Disease Notification System for the period 1993 to 2003. The annual case load declined from 42099 cases in 1993 to 36081 in 1996, then peaked to 89111 in 1998. The peak in 1998 resulted mainly from two-fold increases in notified cases in the provinces of Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape. There was also a three-fold increase in Western Cape in 2001 and four-fold increase in Northern Cape in 2002. The lowest numbers of notified cases were for Mpumalanga in the years 1993 to 1996. In Limpopo, a total of 13 cases only were notified between the years 1999 to 2003 inclusively. Nationally and provincially, the annual numbers of notified cases and deaths and rates per 100 000 population were consistently higher among males than females. The Wilcoxon signed rank test comparing the medians between male and female cases showed a p-value of 0.003 indicating that the difference exists between the two medians. Nationally the lowest number of deaths was 1967 notified deaths in 1994 and the highest number of deaths was 6085 notified in 2002. The number of deaths notified varied between the provinces and fluctuated between the years. It was the highest for the years 1993 to 1996 in Western Cape and the highest for the years 1997 to 2003 in Eastern Cape. It was the lowest in Mpumalanga for the years 1993 to 1997 and the lowest in Limpopo for the years 1999 to 2003 and KwaZulu-Natal in the years 2002 to 2003. The Disease Notification System was found to have lesser numbers of notified cases in comparison to registered cases recorded in the TBSYS or electronic TB register. The percent difference between notified and registered cases ranged between 28% in 2001 to 69% in 1996. Comparison of notified and registered TB deaths for the period 1997-2003 showed that the annual numbers and rates of registered deaths in the Statistics South Africa’s metadata were higher for all the years than the notified deaths in the disease surveillance system. It is recommended that the disease surveillance system is evaluated periodically, facility data assessment tools are introduced and capacity for surveillance is strengthened at all levels of the national health systems. Copyright / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH) / Unrestricted

The environmental risk assessment of substances is introduced and the various controls used to protect the environment are outlined. The European notification system and the risk assessments required as part of the system are detailed. Through an examination of the existing European Union System for the Evaluation of Substances tool and sensitivity analyses based on variability in the measurement of physico-chemical properties for a substance, a spreadsheet model was developed to allow multiple risk assessments for the same substance to be calculated simultaneously. The development and testing of the NECXES spreadsheet tool are documented in detail. Data for the capacity and dilution factor at Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) in England and Wales were collated and statistically analysed and compared to European default values used for generic risk assessments. The default capacity value for STPs (10,000 population equivalents) was protective of 70% of the STPs sampled. The remaining 30% however, a small number of large works, contributed 94% of the total effluent discharged from STPs in England and Wales. The STP data were used with the NEXCES tool to perform and compare probabilistic risk assessments to those calculated using deterministic methods for a number of test substances. The probabilistic calculations produced a lower median exposure concentration for water than the generic assessment for all of the test substances. Regression analysis allowed the probability of adverse effects to be quantified for the various deterministic risk values. The NEXCES tool was also used to develop a rapid assessment tool for new substances in the form of contour plots, which can be used to assess the risk of substances using minimal data. The main conclusions and contributions to the academic and industrial fields, as well as the field of environmental technology are presented. Areas where there are opportunities for further research are also outlined.

O monitoramento da população animal é um instrumento imprescindível para o controle de zoonoses e outras doenças. Com o avanço tecnológico, em termos de comunicação, houve o aumento no desenvolvimento de aplicativos móveis. Este trabalho tem com o objetivo desenvolver um aplicativo móvel para o sistema operacional Android® com o propósito de otimizar o sistema de notificação de animais espoliados por morcegos e casos de suspeitas de raiva. Sendo utilizado para o desenvolvimento do aplicativo o Software LiveCode®. O Aplicativo é capaz de se conectar ao banco de dados em um servidor através da Internet móvel ou wi fi, e permite ao proprietário notificar a incidência de mordedura por morcego ou suspeita de raiva no rebanho, e ao médico veterinário visualizar e modificar os dados enviados pelo proprietário da sua região. Diante dos dados obtidos neste trabalho, conclui-se que o aplicativo atende aos objetivos propostos de coletar dados de notificação e otimizar o sistema de notificação. A baixa adesão ao aplicativo, devido a ausência de acesso a Internet pelos proprietários, sugere a necessidade de modificar o sistema de comunicação do aplicativo com o banco de dados. / Monitoring of the animal population is an essential tool for the control of zoonoses and other diseases. With the technological advancement, in terms of communication, there has been an increase in the development of mobile applications. This work aims to develop a mobile application for the Android® operating system for the purpose of optimizing the notification system of bat-bitten animals and suspected rabies cases. LiveCode® Software is used for the development of the application. The application is able to connect to the database on a mobile Internet or wi fi, and allows the owner to report the incidence of bat bitten or suspected rabies in the herd, and to the veterinarian viewing and modifying the data sent by the owner of your region. Based on the data obtained in this work, it is concluded that the application meets the proposed objectives of collecting notification and optimizing the notification system. The low adherence to the application, due to the absence of Internet access by the owners, suggests the need to modify the communication system of the application with the database.

O monitoramento da população animal é um instrumento imprescindível para o controle de zoonoses e outras doenças. Com o avanço tecnológico, em termos de comunicação, houve o aumento no desenvolvimento de aplicativos móveis. Este trabalho tem com o objetivo desenvolver um aplicativo móvel para o sistema operacional Android® com o propósito de otimizar o sistema de notificação de animais espoliados por morcegos e casos de suspeitas de raiva. Sendo utilizado para o desenvolvimento do aplicativo o Software LiveCode®. O Aplicativo é capaz de se conectar ao banco de dados em um servidor através da Internet móvel ou wi fi, e permite ao proprietário notificar a incidência de mordedura por morcego ou suspeita de raiva no rebanho, e ao médico veterinário visualizar e modificar os dados enviados pelo proprietário da sua região. Diante dos dados obtidos neste trabalho, conclui-se que o aplicativo atende aos objetivos propostos de coletar dados de notificação e otimizar o sistema de notificação. A baixa adesão ao aplicativo, devido a ausência de acesso a Internet pelos proprietários, sugere a necessidade de modificar o sistema de comunicação do aplicativo com o banco de dados. / Monitoring of the animal population is an essential tool for the control of zoonoses and other diseases. With the technological advancement, in terms of communication, there has been an increase in the development of mobile applications. This work aims to develop a mobile application for the Android® operating system for the purpose of optimizing the notification system of bat-bitten animals and suspected rabies cases. LiveCode® Software is used for the development of the application. The application is able to connect to the database on a mobile Internet or wi fi, and allows the owner to report the incidence of bat bitten or suspected rabies in the herd, and to the veterinarian viewing and modifying the data sent by the owner of your region. Based on the data obtained in this work, it is concluded that the application meets the proposed objectives of collecting notification and optimizing the notification system. The low adherence to the application, due to the absence of Internet access by the owners, suggests the need to modify the communication system of the application with the database.

Database management systems are highly specialized to efficiently organize and process huge amounts of data in a transactional manner. During the last years, however, database management systems have been evolving as a central hub for the integration of mostly heterogeneous and autonomous data sources to provide homogenized data access. The next step in pushing database technology forward to play the role of an information marketplace is to actively notify registered users about incoming messages or changes in the underlying data set. Therefore, notification services may be seen as a generic term for subscription systems or, more general, data stream systems which both enable processing of standing queries over transient data. This article gives a comprehensive introduction into the context of notification services by outlining their differences to the classical query/response-based communication pattern, it illustrates potential application areas, and it discusses requirements addressing the underlying data management support. In more depth, this article describes the core concepts of the PubScribe project thereby choosing three different perspectives. From a first perspective, the subscription process and its mapping onto the primitive publish/subscribe communication pattern is explained. The second part focuses on a hybrid subscription data model by describing the basic constructs from a structural as well as an operational point of view. Finally, the PubScribe notification service project is characterized by a storage and processing model based on relational database technology. To summarize, this contribution introduces the idea of notification services from an application point of view by inverting the database approach and dealing with persistent queries and transient data. Moreover, the article provides an insight into database technology, which must be exploited and adopted to provide a solid base for a scalable notification infrastructure, using the PubScribe project as an example.

Die Überlebenswahrscheinlichkeit der Unfallopfer nach Straßenverkehrsunfällen hängt von der Zeitspanne vom Unfall bis zur ersten suffizienten Hilfeleistung (therapiefreies Intervall) sowie von der Qualität der Erstversorgung ab. Das therapiefreie Intervall kann durch automatische Notrufsysteme (ACN) und suffiziente Laienhilfe verkürzt werden. In dieser Dissertation werden (1) Modelle zur Prognose der Verletzungsschwere von Fahrzeuginsassen für den Einsatz in erweiterten automatischen Notrufsystemen (AACN) entwickelt und (2) Anforderungen an Telemedizinsysteme zur Unterstützung von Laien bei der Durchführung von Erste-Hilfe-Maßnahmen untersucht. (1) Die Prognose der Verletzungsschwere ist für eine optimale Disposition der Rettungsmittel erforderlich. Auf der Basis der amerikanischen Unfalldatenbank NASS/ CDS und der deutschen Unfalldatenbank GIDAS werden Prognosemodelle mit multivariaten inferenzstatistischen Verfahren (decision tree, logistic regression) entwickelt, die Bedeutung einzelner Eingangsgrößen untersucht und die Leistungsfähigkeit der Modelle überprüft. Die Leistungsfähigkeit beider statistischen Verfahren stellt sich in ROC-Analysen als vergleichbar heraus. Mit den Prognosemodellen kann eine Dispositionsempfehlung erstellt werden, die heutigen Dispositionsentscheidungen auf der Grundlage eines Telefongesprächs mit dem Unfallmelder qualitativ entspricht. (2) Zur Entwicklung eines Telemedizinsystems für die Laienunterstützung wird untersucht, ob die telemedizinische Anleitung von Laien bei der Durchführung von Erste-Hilfe-Maßnahmen zu einer Erhöhung der Hilfsbereitschaft führt und welche Anforderungen ein Telemedizinsystem erfüllen muss. Dazu werden die am häufigsten indizierten Erste-Hilfe-Maßnahmen nach Verkehrsunfällen durch Auswertung der GIDAS-Datenbank identifiziert, der Stand der heutigen Laienhilfe analysiert, die erforderlichen Funktionen eines Telemedizinsystems abgeleitet und der Einfluss einer verbesserten Laienhilfe auf die Überlebenswahrscheinlichkeit bestimmt. / The probability of survival of motor vehicle accident victims depends on two factors: the time interval between the accident and the initial provision of appropriate first-aid (therapy-free interval), and the quality of the first-aid treatment. The therapy-free interval can be shortened significantly by automatic crash notification systems (ACN) and by adequate bystander first aid. In this thesis, (1) models are developed for predicting the severity of injury of vehicle occupants for use in advanced automatic crash notification systems (AACN) and (2) requirements of telemedical bystander support systems are examined. (1) The prediction of the severity of injury is needed for optimal disposition of rescue services. Therefore, prediction models are developed on the basis of the American accident database NASS/ CDS and its German counterpart, GIDAS, using multivariate inference statistical procedures (decision tree, logistic regression). In addition, the importance of individual parameters and the efficiency of these models are investigated. The performance of the two statistical procedures proves to be equal by using the ROC analyses. The prediction models allow for recommendations of rescue services that correspond in quality to contemporary dispatching decisions for rescue services on the basis of a telephone call between the individual reporting the accident and a dispatcher. (2) Concerning the development of a telemedical bystander support system, the paper examines whether the availability of telemedical guidance leads to an increase in bystander willingness to provide first aid. In order to evaluate the requirements of a telemedical system, the most frequently indicated first-aid measures after traffic accidents are identified by evaluating the GIDAS database. Furthermore, the status of assistance currently offered by bystanders is analyzed, the necessary functions of a telemedical system are scrutinized, and the influence of improved bystander assistance on the probability of accident victims’ survival is determined.