A mineração de grandes coleções de textos, imagens e outros tipos de documentos tem se mostrado uma forma efetiva para exploração e interação com grandes quantidades de informações disponíveis, principalmente na World Wide Web. Neste contexto, diversos trabalhos têm tratado de mineração tanto de coleções estáticas quanto de coleções dinâmicas de objetos. Adicionalmente, técnicas de visualização têm sido propostas para auxiliar o processo de entendimento e de exploração dessas coleções, permitindo que a interação do usuário melhore o processo de mineração (user in the loop). No caso específico de dados dinâmicos, foi desenvolvido por Roberto Pinho e colegas uma técnica incremental (IncBoard) com o objetivo de visualizar coleções dinâmicas de elementos. Tal técnica posiciona os elementos em um grid bidimensional baseado na similaridade de conteúdo entre os elementos. Procura-se manter elementos similares próximos no grid. A técnica foi avaliada em um processo que simulava a chegada de novos dados, apresentando iterativamente novos elementos a serem posicionados no mapa corrente. Observa-se, entretanto, que um aspecto importante de tal ferramenta seria a possibilidade de novos elementos - a serem exibidos no mapa, mantendo coerência com o mapa corrente - serem selecionados a partir do interesse demonstrado pelo usuário. Realimentação de relevância tem se mostrado muito efetiva na melhoria da acurácia do processo de recuperação. Entretanto, um problema ainda em aberto é como utilizar técnicas de realimentação de relevância em conjunto com exploração visual no processo de recuperação de informação. Neste trabalho, é investigado o desenvolvimento de técnicas de exploração visual utilizando realimentação de relevância para sistemas de recuperação de informação de domínio específico. O Amuzi, um sistema de busca de músicas, foi desenvolvido como uma prova de conceito para a abordagem investigada. Dados coletados da utilização do Amuzi, por usuários, sugerem que a combinação de tais técnicas oferece vantagens, quando utilizadas em determinados domínios. Nesta dissertação, a recuperação de informação com realimentação de relevância apoiada em visualização, bem como o sistema Amuzi são descritos. Também são analisados os registros de utilização dos usuários / The mining of large text collections, images and other types of digital objects has shown to be a very effective way to explore and interact with big data, specially on the World Wide Web. On that subject, many researchers have been done on data mining of static and dynamic collections. Moreover, data visualization techniques have been proposed to aid on the understanding and exploration of such data collections, also allowing users to interact with data, user in the loop. On the speciific subject of dynamic data, Roberto Pinho and colleagues have developed an incremental technique, called Inc-Board, which aims to visualize dynamic data collections. IncBoard displays the documents on a two dimensional grid in a way that similar elements tends to be close to each other. This technique was evaluated in a process that simulated the arrival of new data elements, iteratively inserting new elements on the grid. Nonetheless, it would be useful if the user could interact with such documents to point out which are relevant and which are not relevant to his/her search. Relevance Feedback has also shown to be effective on improving the accuracy of Information Retrieval techniques. An issue that still open is how to combine data visualization and Relevance Feedback to improve Information Retrieval. On this dissertation, the development of techniques with data visualization and Relevance Feedback are investigated to aid on the Information Retrieval task, for specific domains. Amuzi is an Information Retrieval system, built to be a proof of concept for the investigated approach. Data collected from the usage of the system suggests that combining such techniques may outperform traditional Information Retrieval systems when applied for specifc domains. This dissertation has the description the information retrieval process with feedback relevance supported by visualization and the Amuzi system. Usage log are processed and analyzed to evaluate the investigated approach

Análise de expressão gênica em larga escala é de fundamental importância para a biologia molecular atual pois possibilita a medida dos níveis de expressão de milhares de genes simultaneamente, o que torna viável a realização de trabalhos voltados para biologia de sistemas (systems biology). Dentre as principais técnicas experimentais disponíveis para esta finalidade, a tecnologia de microarray tem sido amplamente utilizada. Este procedimento para medida de expressão gênica é bastante complexo e os dados obtidos são freqüentemente observacionais, o que dificulta a modelagem estatística. Não existe um protocolo padrão para a geração e avaliação desses dados, sendo portanto necessário buscar procedimentos de análise que sejam adequados para cada caso. Assim, os principais métodos matemáticos e estatísticos aplicados para a análise desses dados deveriam estar disponíveis de uma forma organizada, coerente e simples em um ambiente computacional que confira robustez, confiabilidade e reprodutibilidade às análises realizadas. Uma forma de garantir estas características é através da representação (e documentação) de todos os algoritmos utilizados na forma de um grafo direcionado e acíclico que descreva todo o conjunto de transformações, ou operações, aplicadas seqüencialmente ao conjunto de dados. De acordo com esta filosofia, um ambiente foi implementado neste trabalho incorporando diversos procedimentos disponíveis na literatura atual, além de outros que foram aprimorados ou propostos nesta tese. Dentre os métodos de análise já disponíveis que foram incorporados destacam-se aqueles para a construção de agrupamentos, busca de genes diferencialmente expressos e classificadores, construção de redes de relevância e classificação funcional de grupos gênicos. Além disso, o método de construção de redes de relevância foi revisto e aprimorado e um modelo estatístico para a classificação funcional de redes de regulação gênica foi proposto e implementado. Esses dois últimos métodos surgiram a partir de problemas biológicos para os quais não existiam procedimentos de análise adequados na literatura. Finalmente, são apresentados dois conjuntos de dados que foram analisados utilizando diversas ferramentas disponíveis neste ambiente computacional. / High throughput gene expression analysis has a great importance to molecular biology nowadays because it can measure expression profiles for hundreds of genes, and this turn possible studies focused in systems biology. Between the main experimental techniques available in this direction, the microarray technology has been widely used. This experimental procedure to quantify gene expression profiles is very complex and the data obtained is frequently observational, what difficult the statistical modelling. There is not a standard protocol for the generation and evaluation of microarray data, therefore it is necessary to search by adequate analysis methods for each case. Thus, the main mathematical and statistical methods applied to microarray data analysis would have to be available in an organized, coherent and simple way in a computational environment that confer robustness, reliability and reproducibility to the data analysis. One way to guarantee these characteristics is through the representation (and documentation) of all used algorithms as a directed and acyclic graph that describes the set of transformations, or operations, applied sequentially to the dataset. According to this philosophy, an environment was implemented in this work aggregating several data analysis procedures already available in the literature, beyond other methods that were improved or proposed in this thesis. Between the procedures already available that were incorporated we can distinguish that ones for cluster analysis, differentially expressed genes and classifiers search, construction of relevance networks and functional classification of gene groups. Moreover, the method for construction of relevance networks was revised and improved and an statistical model was proposed and implemented for the functional classification of gene regulation networks. The last two procedures was born from biological problems for which adequate data analysis methods didn?t exist in the literature. Finally, we presented two datasets that were evaluated using several data analysis procedures available in this computational environment.

[EN] Despite the vast research into motivation in traditional Foreign Language Learning (FLL) environments, there has been little done into retention for online FLL. There are many factors that influence retention in online FLL environments and this thesis' original contribution to knowledge was to study the most important aspects for that context. Thus the objectives of this study are to explore the co-existence and interconnectedness between peers, students' indications of autonomous behaviour and the significance of relevance for continuity within a distant / online learning environment and how these issues relate to motivation. This qualitative research study developed a 5-week Intercultural Communication course for students who were at a B1 and B2 (following the Common European Framework of reference for Languages) level of Spanish and English that was delivered entirely online. These students were placed into groups for tutorials and met twice a week on Google Hangouts to practise their target language with natives of that language and discuss the course concepts and their relevance to FLL and their personal lives. These linguistic exchanges were recorded. The dataset that was analysed to draw conclusions were these recordings, statistics from the Blackboard learning platform course site and the pre- and post-course questionnaires. Research into distance and online learning shows that isolation plays a key role in students' decisions to abandon their chosen course. Despite that, current and available technologies have not yet exploited online learning tools that foster and encourage networked learning connections. This thesis concluded that those results are also true for the online FLL context and that emphasis must be placed on giving students opportunities to work autonomously; create spaces that will foster peer interaction, resulting in peer support; and ensure students are continuously aware of the relevance of what they are learning in order to maintain motivation and retention and consequently knowledge acquisition. / [ES] A pesar de la amplia investigación en motivación en los entornos tradicionales del aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera (ALE), se ha trabajado poco la cuestión de la retención del conocimiento en el ALE en línea. Existen muchos factores que influyen en la retención en entornos de ALE y la contribución al conocimiento de esta tesis es el estudio de los aspectos más importantes en ese contexto. Por lo tanto los objetivos que se plantean en esta tesis doctoral son analizar la colaboración y comunicación entre pares, los indicadores del comportamiento autónomo de los estudiantes y la importancia de continuar en un medio de aprendizaje a distancia/en línea y cómo todo ello se relaciona con la motivación. Este estudio cualitativo ha partido del desarrollo de un curso en linea de comunicación intercultural para alumnos con niveles de conocimiento de lenguas B1 y B2 (según el Marco Común Europeo de Referencia para lenguas) de cinco semanas de duración. Durante la realización del curso, estudiantes ingleses y españoles fueron distribuidos en grupos para realizar tutorías, siendo citados dos veces por semana en Google Hangouts para practicar la lengua de destino con alumnos nativos de la lengua meta (español o inglés). Los alumnos comentaban los conceptos del curso y su relevancia respecto a la enseñanza de una lengua nativa así como temas personales. Esos intercambios lingüísticos fueron grabados y junto con las estadísticas extraidas desde la plataforma de aprendizaje Blackboard y los cuestionarios previos y posteriores al curso conformaron la metodología a seguir y los resultados. Los resultados extraidos del estudio mostraron que el aislamiento juega un papel clave en la decisión de los estudiantes de abandonar el curso escogido. A pesar de eso, hemos detectado que la tecnología actual no saca provecho de las herramientas en línea para el aprendizaje de lenguas. La conclusión de esta tesis es que esos resultados son también válidos para los contextos de aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera online y por ello se ha de poner énfasis en proporcionar a los estudiantes oportunidades para trabajar autónomamente, crear espacios que fomenten la interacción entre pares, dar lugar a un apoyo mutuo, asegurándose que los estudiantes son conscientes de la relevancia de lo que aprenden para mantener la motivación y la retentiva, adquiriendo de este modo conocimiento. / [CAT] Malgrat l'àmplia recerca en motivació en entorns tradicionals d'aprenentatge d'una llengua estrangera (ALE), s'ha treballat poc la qüestió de la retentiva per a ALE online. Hi ha molts factors que influeixen en la retentiva en entorns de ALE online i la contribució original al coneixement d'aquesta tesi ha sigut l'estudi dels aspectes més importants en aqueix context. Per això, els objectius d'aquesta tesis doctoral són analitzar la col.laboració i comunicació entre parells, els indicadors del comportament autònom dels estudiants i la importància de continuar en un mitjà d'aprentatge a distància/en linia i com tot això es relaciona amb la motivació. Aquest estudi de recerca qualitativa ha desenvolupat un curs de comunicació intercultural per a estudiants amb un nivell de llengua B1 i B2 (seguint el Mac Comú Europeu de Referència de llengues) de cinc setmanes de durada, que va ser realitzat enterament online. Estudiants anglesos i espanyols van ser distribuits en grups per a tutorials i citats dues vegades a la setmana en Google Hangouts per a practicar la llengua meta amb nadius en eixe idioma i comentar els conceptes del curs, la seua rellevància respecte al ALE i també questions personals. Aqueixos intercanvis lingüístics van ser gravats. Els resultats són el conjunt de dades recopilats en els enregistraments, les estadístiques des de Blackboard learning platform course site i els qüestionaris previs i posteriors al curs. La recerca sobre l'aprenentatge a distància i online va demostrar que l'aïllament juga un paper clau en la decisió dels estudiants d'abandonar el curs escollit. Malgrat açò, les tecnologies actuals disponibles no han aprofitat les eines online d'aprenentatge per a promoure les connexions en xarxa per a animar a aprendre en línea. La conclusió d'aquesta tesi és que aqueixos resultats són també vàlids per als contextos d'aprenentatge de FLL online i per açò l'èmfasi ha de ser posat a proporcionar als estudiants oportunitats per a treballar autònomament, crear espais que fomenten la interacció entre parells, donant lloc a un suport mutu i assegurar-se que els estudiants són conscients contínuament de la rellevància del que aprenen per a mantenir la motivació i la retentiva, adquirint d'aquesta manera coneixement. / D'arcy Hernández, LH. (2016). Intercultural communication in foreign language learning and retention in online learning [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/67692 / TESIS

De Morgan monoids are algebraic structures that model certain non-classical logics. The variety DMM of all De Morgan monoids models the relevance logic Rt (so-named because it blocks the derivation of true conclusions from irrelevant premises). The so-called subvarieties and subquasivarieties of DMM model the strengthenings of Rt by new logical axioms, or new inference rules, respectively. Meta-logical problems concerning these stronger systems amount to structural problems about (classes of) De Morgan monoids, and the methods of universal algebra can be exploited to solve them. Until now, this strategy was under-developed in the case of Rt and DMM. The thesis contributes in several ways to the filling of this gap. First, a new structure theorem for irreducible De Morgan monoids is proved; it leads to representation theorems for the algebras in several interesting subvarieties of DMM. These in turn help us to analyse the lower part of the lattice of all subvarieties of DMM. This lattice has four atoms, i.e., DMM has just four minimal subvarieties. We describe in detail the second layer of this lattice, i.e., the covers of the four atoms. Within certain subvarieties of DMM, our description amounts to an explicit list of all the covers. We also prove that there are just 68 minimal quasivarieties of De Morgan monoids. Thereafter, we use these insights to identify strengthenings of Rt with certain desirable meta-logical features. In each case, we work with the algebraic counterpart of a meta-logical property. For example, we identify precisely the varieties of De Morgan monoids having the joint embedding property (any two nontrivial members both embed into some third member), and we establish convenient sufficient conditions for epimorphisms to be surjective in a subvariety of DMM. The joint embedding property means that the corresponding logic is determined by a single set of truth tables. Epimorphisms are related to 'implicit definitions'. (For instance, in a ring, the multiplicative inverse of an element is implicitly defined, because it is either uniquely determined or non-existent.) The logical meaning of epimorphism-surjectivity is, roughly speaking, that suitable implicit definitions can be made explicit in the corresponding logical syntax. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (CoE-MaSS) / Mathematics and Applied Mathematics / PhD / Unrestricted

No description available.

The purpose of this case study is to examine how the employees perceive the usability of RISEintranet, Medarbetarportalen, and their attitude toward using it. Semi-structured interviews were used as a method to gather empirical data. A theoretical framework was made based on the selected usability components Relevance, Efficiency, and Learnability in combination with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The theoretical framework was then used to analyse the empirical findings. The study shows an overall average, with a tendency towards low attitude against the usability of the intranet.

This study compared the projections by young people in a rural school of risk factors and protective resources in the first and second sand tray. From an indigenisation perspective, the assumption was that sand tray therapy could be suitable to understand risk factors and protective resources in two sand trays of young people. As part of a clinical case study design first and second sand trays (n=22) of clients (n=11) were purposefully selected for comparative analysis. Data sources included visual data (photographs), accompanying client narratives (verbatim transcriptions and field notes), ASL student reflections, and semi-structured interviews with purposefully sampled ASL students. Following thematic data analysis two main themes emerged: risk and protection in first and second sand trays of young people in a rural school; and progression in projections of first and second sand trays of young people in a rural school. Sand tray therapy has utility for use with young people in a rural ecology to (i) use as a contextually and culturally appropriate technique (ii) use in groups in school-based educational psychology services (iii) assess risk factors, (iv) protective resources and (v) the use of first and second sand trays for young people to project positive progression in their experiences of their life-worlds. Consequently, educational psychologists can integrate sand tray therapy, as a contextually appropriate technique, into intervention programmes to understand the experiences of young people in rural ecologies and support them. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted

Young people’s interest in the study of science-related courses is declining worldwide. In most developing countries, this waning aspiration has been coupled with reports of poor performance in science subjects. Fading interest and poor performance have led to low enrolment rates in science courses in higher institutions of learning, which pose the potential threat of reduced research activity and economic productivity. The methods usually used to teach science subjects in schools – which often involve the transmission of abstract facts and ideas, that are not explicitly relatable to learners – fail to provide learners with the opportunity to see the relevance of studying science. The failure to see the significance of science education could partly account for the lack of appeal and poor performance in the study of science. This study was an attempt to use contexts as a theoretical framework, and applications of life sciences (biology) to develop and implement “relevant” curriculum materials as a means of motivating learners and improving performance in genetics, a topic which learners consider difficult to learn. The context-based approach was premised on the use of contexts which learners themselves identified as being relevant, meaningful and interesting in the study of genetics, and a five-phase learning cycle. The relative efficacy of the context-based and traditional approaches to the teaching of genetics in enhancing learner performance was assessed. The study was essentially a quantitative research, involving a quasi-experimental non-equivalent pre-test–post-test control group design. Qualitative data were collected using focus group learner interviews and one-to-one educator interviews to complement and triangulate the quantitative data. The study sample comprised 190 Grade 11 learners and six life sciences educators from six high schools randomly selected from the Tshwane South educational district in Gauteng, South Africa. Five instruments were used to assess learner performance in genetics content knowledge, science inquiry skills, problem-solving and decision-making abilities, and their attitudes towards the study of life sciences. The findings of the study, based on learner performance and perceptions, and their educators’ views, revealed that in comparison with traditional teaching approaches, the context-based approach was significantly better in enhancing learner performance in genetics content knowledge (F = 63.00; p = <0.0001), ability to formulate hypotheses (F = 33.21; p = <0.0001), ability to draw conclusions from results (F = 7.70; p = 0.0062), decision-making ability (F = 17.22; p = <0.0001), problem-solving ability (F = 16.57; p = <0.0001), and in improving learners’ attitude towards the study of life sciences (F = 25.04; p = <0.0001). The educational implications of the study are discussed. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted

In diesem Bericht soll der Frage nachgegangen werden, ob sich bei den studentischen Erwartungen an das Lehramtsstudium tatsächlich Schwerpunkte in den Bereichen "Praxis", "soziale Kompetenzen", und "methodisch-didaktisches Wissen" bilden. Außerdem soll erörtert werden, ob sich bezüglich der Schulformen oder dem Studienfortschritt Unterschiede in den Erwartungen zeigen. Weiterhin stellt sich die Frage, ob die Studierenden "zu wenig Gelegenheit zum Erwerb sozialer Kompetenzen, methodisch-didaktischen Grundwissens etc. erhalten [… oder ob] sie das angebotene methodisch-didaktische Grundwissen, das angebotene psychologische Grundwissen etc. für verfehlt halten, weil es nicht den erwünschten Praxisbezug bietet".

Implicit feedback is usually data that comes from users’ clicks, search queries and text highlights. It exists in abun- dance, but it is riddled with much noise and requires advanced algorithms to properly make good use of it. Several findings suggest that factors such as click-through data and reading time could be used to create user behaviour models in order to predict the users’ information need. This Master’s thesis aims to use click-through data and search queries together with heuristics to create a model that prioritises metadata-fields of the documents in order to predict the information need of a user. Simply put, implicit feedback will be used to improve the precision of a search engine. The Master’s thesis was carried out at Findwise AB - a search engine consultancy firm. Documents from the benchmark dataset INEX were indexed into a search engine. Two different heuristics were proposed that increment the priority of different metadata-fields based on the users’ search queries and clicks. It was assumed that the heuristics would be able to change the listing order of the search results. Evaluations were carried out for the two heuristics and the unmodified search engine was used as the baseline for the experiment. The evaluations were based on simulating a user that searches queries and clicks on documents. The queries and documents, with manually tagged relevance, used in the evaluation came from a data set given by INEX. It was expected that listing order would change in a way that was favourable for the user; the top-ranking results would be documents that truly were in the interest of the user. The evaluations revealed that the behaviour of the heuristics and the baseline have erratic behaviours and metrics never converged to any specific mean-relevance. A statistical test revealed that there is no difference in accuracy between the heuristics and the baseline. These results mean that the proposed heuristics do not improve the precision of the search engine and several factors, such as the indexing of too redundant metadata, could have been responsible for this outcome. / Implicit feedback är oftast data som kommer från användarnas klick, sökfrågor och textmarkeringar. Denna data finns i överflöd, men har för mycket brus och kräver avancerade algoritmer för att man ska kunna dra nytta av den. Flera rön föreslår att faktorer som klickdata och läsningstid kan användas för att skapa beteendemodeller för att förutse användarens informationsbehov. Detta examensarbete ämnar att använda klickdata och sökfrågor tillsammans med heuristiker för att skapa en modell som prioriterar metadata-fält i dokument så att användarens informationsbehov kan förutses. Alltså ska implicit feedback användas för att förbättra en sökmotors precision. Examensarbetet utfördes hos Findwise AB - en konsultfirma som specialiserar sig på söklösningar. Dokument från utvärderingsdatamängden INEX indexerades i en sökmotor. Två olika heuristiker skapades för att ändra prioriteten av metadata-fälten utifrån användarnas sök- och klickdata. Det antogs att heuristikerna skulle kunna förändra ordningen av sökresultaten. Evalueringar utfördes för båda heuristiker och den omodifierade sökmotorn användes som måttstock för experimentet. Evalueringarna gick ut på att simulera en användare som söker på frågor och klickar på dokument. Dessa frågor och dokument, med manuellt taggad relevansdata, kom från en datamängd som tillhandahölls av INEX. Evalueringarna visade att beteendet av heuristikerna och måttstocket är slumpmässiga och oberäkneliga. Ingen av heuristikerna konvergerar mot någon specifik medelrelevans. Ett statistiskt test visar att det inte är någon signifikant skillnad på uppmätt träffsäkerhet mellan heuristikerna och måttstocket. Dessa resultat innebär att heuristikerna inte förbättrar sökmotorns precision. Detta utfall kan bero på flera faktorer som t.ex. indexering av överflödig meta-data.