This thesis project is a theoretical and practical study on recommender systems (RSs). It aims to help the planning of course selection for students from the Master Programme in Computer Science in Uppsala University. To achieve the goal, the project implements a recommender service, which generates course selection recommendations based on these three factors:     (i) student users’ preferences     (ii)  course requirements from the university     (iii) best practices from senior students The implementation of the recommender service takes these three approaches:      applying frequent-pattern mining techniques on senior students’ course selection data ,  performing semantic queries on a simple knowledge organization system (SKOS) taxonomy file that classifies computing disciplines, applying constraint programming (CP) techniques for problem modelling and resolving when generating final course selection recommendations     The recommender service is implemented as a representational state transfer (REST) compliant web service, i.e., a RESTful web service. The result shows that aforementioned factors have positive impact on the output of the service. Preliminary user feedback gives encouraging rating on the quality of the recommendations.     This report will talk about recommender systems, the semantic web, constraint programming and the implementation details of the recommender service. It focuses on in-depth discussion of recommender systems and the recommender service’s implementation.

<p> The purpose of this research study was to determine K-12 school leaders&rsquo; concepts of ability and technology readiness. The Theories of Intelligence Scale (TIS) was used to analyze concepts of ability and the Technology Readiness Index (TRI) 2.0 was used to analyze the technology readiness of K-12 school leaders. Data from the two instruments were used to determine if there was any relationship between K-12 school leaders&rsquo; concept of ability and technology readiness. This analysis filled a blank spot in the research contributing to the literature on leadership, Mindset Theory (Dweck, 2006; Dweck, Chiu, &amp; Hong, 1995), and Technology Readiness (Lin &amp; Hsieh, 2012; Parasuraman, 2000). Furthermore it helped to determine the state of K-12 school leaders&rsquo; status as 21st century leaders. </p><p> The sample consisted of the school leaders of School District of Palm Beach County (SDPBC). This included 158 principals from 104 elementary, 31 middle, and 23 high schools. The researcher was a school district employee and therefore had access to the participants. </p><p> Each of the four null hypotheses were rejected as SDPBC school leaders scored significantly higher on the TIS (p&lt;.05) and TRI 2.0 (p&lt;.01), there was a significant (p&lt;.0125) positive relationship between TIS and the TRI 2.0, and that relationship was affected (p&lt;.05) by gender, race, and experience.</p>

The ever increasing expenditure and investment in information technology (IT) has been accompanied by an increasing demand to measure the business value of IT. The impact of IT on improving the productivity and performance of organisations has been varied. While some organisations have realised gains, other organisations have found the business value of IT to be elusive. In most organisations a large portion of senior management’s time is being spent on finding methods to measure the contribution of the organisations’ IT investments to business performance. IT investments in organisations are huge and increasing rapidly year on year and yet there is a lack of understanding of the impact of proper IT investment evaluation processes and practices in these organisations. This is applicable to South Africa and thus one can argue that a detailed program of research into the current practice and process of the business value of IT in South Africa is warranted. This masters dissertation which, has evolved from IT evaluation literature, is to highlight the differences between IT literature and what occurs in practice. The research objective utilised an existing questionnaire which was sent to large South African organisations to assess the understanding and activities performed by these organisations regarding the business value of IT. The aim was to investigate the business value of IT and benefits management and realisation in South African organisations so as to highlight the current practices and norms in this area and to serve as a basis for understanding and communicating findings and implications for South African organisations in general. / Mrs. D. Groenewald

M.Com. (Computer Auditing) / Modern organizations are increasingly dependent on information technology (IT) for various reasons: to enhance their operational efficiency, reduce costs or even attain a competitive advantage. The role of information technology in the organization continues to evolve and this has an impact for the internal audit functions that serve these organizations. The study investigated whether the King III report, ISACA standards and IIA standards assist the internal audit function in addressing the impact of information technology on the organization and, as a result, the internal audit function itself. This was performed by way of a comprehensive literature study on the internal audit function and the selected standards and corporate governance framework, the role of information technology in both the organization and the internal audit function, as well as an empirical study detailing a comparative analysis of the King III report, ISACA standards and IIA standards, utilizing key success factors. The study identified an alignment of the key principles and elements identified in the King III report, ISACA standards and IIA standards. There was direct support for ITrelated reviews in the King III report, ISACA Standards and IIA Standards. The comparative analysis performed between the King III report and IIA standards, as well as the ISACA standards and the IIA standards resulted in the formulation of key internal audit success factors. These key success factors compared favourably to those identified in the literature review. The study indicated that the King III report, ISACA Standards and IIA Standards assisted the internal audit function by addressing IT related risks, controls and governance elements.

<p> Affirmative action public procurement programs (AAPPP) stem from legislation related to the Civil Rights movement. Debates about program usefulness and relevance have occurred as well as court decisions challenging not only the legality of these programs, but their very existence. The problem is that, although minority small businesses are fast-growing, access to public procurement opportunities is minimal. An assessment of the perceived social and economic impact of affirmative action public procurement programs between participants and non-participants could provide needed information to inform stakeholders more about how these programs are experienced. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental causal-comparative (ex post facto) study was to determine whether minority business owners who have participated in AAPPP perceive the economic benefits, economic costs, social benefits, and social costs in minority businesses differently than non-participants. A random sample of 128 minority business owners seeking government contracts in the information technology field participated in this study. The participants were requested to complete a survey to assess their perceptions of affirmative action public procurement program participation on its economic benefits, economic costs, social benefits, and social costs. The findings showed AAPPP participants and non-AAPPP participants perceived economic costs and economic benefits similarly. The findings also showed AAPPP participants perceived both the social costs and benefits significantly greater than non-participants. Although the findings lend support for the continued use of these programs, the results paradoxically lend some support for their discontinuance. Without any overwhelming evidence to the contrary, it can be argued that continuing with these programs is necessary, since an inherent form of discrimination based on race or gender within the economic system still appears to exist, although not coherently depicted or understood. </p>

The H.264/MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) standard is a high efficiency and flexible video coding standard compared to previous standards. The high efficiency is achieved by utilizing a comprehensive full search motion estimation method. Although the H.264 standard improves the visual quality at low bitrates, it enormously increases the computational complexity. The research described in this thesis focuses on optimization of the computational complexity on H.264 scalable and multiview video coding. Nowadays, video application areas range from multimedia messaging and mobile to high definition television, and they use different type of transmission systems. The Scalable Video Coding (SVC) extension of the H.264/AVC standard is able to scale the video stream in order to adapt to a variety of devices with different capabilities. Furthermore, a rate control scheme is utilized to improve the visual quality under the constraints of capability and channel bandwidth. However, the computational complexity is increased. A simplified rate control scheme is proposed to reduce the computational complexity. In the proposed scheme, the quantisation parameter can be computed directly instead of using the exhaustive Rate-Quantization model. The linear Mean Absolute Distortion (MAD) prediction model is used to predict the scene change, and the quantisation parameter will be increased directly by a threshold when the scene changes abruptly; otherwise, the comprehensive Rate-Quantisation model will be used. Results show that the optimized rate control scheme is efficient on time saving. Multiview Video Coding (MVC) is efficient on reducing the huge amount of data in multiple-view video coding. The inter-view reference frames from the adjacent views are exploited for prediction in addition to the temporal prediction. However, due to the increase in the number of reference frames, the computational complexity is also increased. In order to manage the reference frame efficiently, a phase correlation algorithm is utilized to remove the inefficient inter-view reference frame from the reference list. The dependency between the inter-view reference frame and current frame is decided based on the phase correlation coefficients. If the inter-view reference frame is highly related to the current frame, it is still enabled in the reference list; otherwise, it will be disabled. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme is efficient on time saving and without loss in visual quality and increase in bitrate. The proposed optimization algorithms are efficient in reducing the computational complexity on H.264/AVC extension. The low computational complexity algorithm is useful in the design of future video coding standards, especially on low power handheld devices.

This study analyses the processes of agricultural and rural restructuring that have characterised rural economies since the end of the Second World War, leading to a reorientation from productivist to more entrepreneurial models of farming. In particular, the transition from the conventional role of the farmer as price taker, which requires appropriate technical and managerial competency, towards that of price maker, which calls for broader entrepreneurial competencies is highlighted. This transition is explored in the context of farm tourism, identified as a diversification strategy to promote a more sustainable rural economy and to protect farm incomes against market fluctuation. To date, the literature on farm tourism has overlooked many of these processes and whilst conceptualising the farmer as an entrepreneur, has not sufficiently engaged with key theories of entrepreneurship or indeed emergent frameworks of entrepreneurial skill and competency. The research draws on a mixed-method’s approach, which includes two distinct research phases conducted in the North West of England. In the initial phase, a survey of 118 diversified farm tourism businesses identifies that whilst the primary motivation to diversify is to provide additional household income, these farmers value business and management competencies at the expense of entrepreneurial competency. Thus, this initial phase, challenges the extent to which farmers are currently entrepreneurial in the context of the rural and agricultural restructuring highlighted. At the second research phase, utilising Q Methodology, a technique designed for the systematic study of subjectivity, a 42-item instrument developed from the extant literature on entrepreneurial competence was administered to 15 farm tourism entrepreneurs. The Q analysis identifies three distinct perspectives on entrepreneurial skill and competency which farmers identify as necessary for successful diversification, termed: the Reflective Leader, the Opportunity Aware Organiser and the Opportunity Driven Innovator. The main characteristics of these groups are discussed and provide the basis for a taxonomy of the farmer as a rural tourism entrepreneur. Moreover, the results reveal the heterogeneity of diversified farmers in the study region, which encapsulates a wide range of perspectives from the risk averse to the opportunity aware, from the managerial to the entrepreneurial The thesis concludes by presenting a conceptual model of entrepreneurial competency, as well an additional taxonomy which classifies the farmer as a rural entrepreneur within a broad landscape of farming identity. The work thus provides a better understanding of farm tourism and a valuable insight into the complexity of rural and farm tourism entrepreneurship. As well as suggestions for future research, the findings will be of interest to academics and policy actors, with the conclusions providing a foundation to better understand farm diversification. Insights that may better inform rural business support, training and advisory services and foster critical policy discussion and debate.

The games industry has developed online multiplayer three-dimensional game worlds that allow players from different geographical locations to engage in competitive and cooperative gameplay together. This has enabled players from different cultures to inhabit the same virtual game world, bypassing any geographical or cultural boundaries found in the real world. These 3D game worlds ask the player to use the basic principles of spatial awareness and movement from the real world, and are often virtual representations of real world environments. These spaces are designed for players from all nationalities to inhabit concurrently. There is now a need to determine design considerations for these multicultural multiplayer game worlds but any investigation must consider the historical evidence from the games industry of cultural differences in gameplay preferences. This thesis discusses the effect of cultural knowledge on the spatial design and interpretation of three-dimensional game environments that are based on real world affordances. A new methodology for the comparative analysis of the design of three-dimensional game environments is established using Space Syntax metrics. This facilitates the discussion of cultural models applied to design thinking for the implementation and interpretation of game environments. Through spatial metrics the analysis of the intelligibility underlying three-dimensional game environments is correlated to the imageability of the projected two-dimensional screen image. The application of this methodology to internationally popular, and culturally specific, game environments establishes new knowledge on tacit cultural influences within game design processes. The analysed intelligibility of the environments indicates cognitive differences between Eastern and Western cultures, already recognised in the interpretation of two-dimensional imagery, also exist within the design and interpretation of three-dimensional game spaces. This study establishes a new methodology through the analysis of intelligibility for design research into game environments. The resulting evaluation of tacit cultural influences within the design of the environments establishes new cultural differences and commonalities. These design characteristics can inform future game design methodologies within industry for the design and implementation of multicultural game environments.

No description available.

<p> BACKGROUND AND METHOD: Medical students are generally considered to be a unique group of experienced learners, functioning under high levels of stress and fatigue. The use of multimedia in digital environments has become a standard feature in most medical schools, but it has met with limited success. A study was designed to investigate the impact of stress and fatigue on general study resource selection, with particular interest in multimedia, and its limited uptake by medical students. A series of 58 focus groups with 107 third and fourth year medical students at the NYU School of Medicine was conducted in the spring of 2015. A survey instrument was also administered. Quantitative data analysis was conducted in SPSS-23; the qualitative data analysis was conducted through open coding and grounded theory procedures in ATLAS.ti. </p><p> FINDINGS: Results produced a model of stress and fatigue for third-year medical students, and showed a statistically significant increase in multimedia usage under fatigue but not under stress alone, and a statistically significant decline in textbook preference under conditions of stress and/or fatigue. Practice questions (i.e., &ldquo;question banks&rdquo;) and text-based websites (evidence-based, clinical decision resources related to diagnosis and case management) were the preferred study resources under all conditions. Further analysis of the qualitative data regarding multimedia&rsquo;s strengths and weaknesses under stress and fatigue produced a series of 12 multimedia design and implementation factors.</p><p> DISCUSSION While these findings are based on the specific medical student population, there may be significant implications for the general learner population, which is also confronting increased stress and fatigue. As on-line learners and other populations of learners start to look more like medical students &ndash; trying to study when they are tired, stressed, and under severe time pressure &ndash; it&rsquo;s worth considering that many of the suggestions for making multimedia resources more appealing to medical students might also have the same effects with other populations.</p>