L'indexation des images est une étape indispensable pour valoriser un fond d'archive professionnel ou des collections d'images personnelles. Le "documentaliste" se doit de décrire précisément chaque document collecté dans la perspective de le retrouver. La difficulté est alors d'interpréter les contenus visuels et de les associer entre eux afin de couvrir différentes catégories qui peuvent être souvent très subjectives. Dans ce travail, nous nous inspirons du principe de l'apprentissage actif pour aider un utilisateur dans cette tâche de structuration de collections d'images. A partir de l'analyse des contenus visuels des images, différentes stratégies de sélection active sont développées afin d'aider un utilisateur à identifier et cerner des catégories pertinentes selon son point de vue. Nous proposons d'exprimer ce problème de classification d'images avec apprentissage actif dans le cadre du Modèle des Croyances Transférables (MCT). Ce formalisme facilite la combinaison, la révision et la représentation des connaissances que l'on peut extraire des images et des classes existantes à un moment donné. La méthode proposée dans ce cadre permet ainsi une représentation détaillée de la connaissance, notamment en représentant explicitement les cas d'appartenances à aucune ou à de multiples catégories, tout en quantifiant l'incertitude (liée entre autre au fossé sémantique) et le conflit entrainé par l'analyse des images selon différentes modalités (couleurs, orientations). Une interface homme-machine a été développée afin de valider notre approche sur des jeux de tests de référence, des collections d'images personnelles et des photographies professionnelles issues de l'Institut National de l'Audiovisuel. Une évaluation a été conduite auprès d'utilisateurs professionnels et a montré des résultats très positifs en termes d'utilité, d'utilisabilité et de satisfaction.

Les aérosols atmosphériques consistent en un mélange hétérogène de particules de différentes natures. La technique MEB-EDS permet de caractériser à la fois morphologiquement et chimiquement la fraction particulaire de l'aérosol à l'échelle de la particule individuelle. Pour rendre l'analyse représentative, un système de pilotage de la platine combiné avec un logiciel d'analyse d'image permet d'examiner en mode automatisé des milliers de particules par échantillon. Le développement de détecteurs X dotés de fenêtres minces, qui limitent l'absorption des éléments de faibles numéros atomiques, permet la détection du carbone, de l'azote et de l'oxygène, éléments très abondants dans les échantillons environnementaux. Pour bénéficier de ce progrès technologique rendant faisable l'analyse qualitative étendue à C, N, O, il convient en premier lieu d'optimiser le choix du substrat de collection des particules, afin que sa contribution spectrale soit différenciable de celle de la particule. A cette fin, une procédure de fabrication de plaquettes de bore a été mise au point. Par ailleurs, la technique MEB-EDS n'est pas standardisée pour l'analyse élémentaire quantitative de particules micrométriques dont le volume est plus petit que le volume d'interaction. Les performances d'un programme de quantification inverse par simulation des trajectoires électroniques au sein des particules par la méthode de Monte Carlo ont été évaluées pour des particules modèles de tailles comprises entre 0,25 et 10 µm. L'ensemble de la procédure analytique a permis d'atteindre des justesses estimées à +/-8,8% d'erreur relative moyenne, C, N et O compris.

<p>The aim of this study is to examine how work at music departments in public libraries has changed with time. To analyze this, the role of music libraries as well as music library users, selection, holdings, acquisition and technological development have been examined. The examined data consists of qualitative interviews with music librarians and library assistants at public libraries in Sweden. To get a time perspective, handbooks and articles about music departments in libraries have also been analyzed.</p><p>This study emanates from Sanna Talja’s discourse analysis of music libraries in Finland. In her study of Finnish music libraries she has found three discourses that give the library different roles in society. The first discourse, <em>The General Education Repertoire</em>, states that the role of the music library is to educate the citizens by supplying a broad record collection with “classics” from all kinds of genres. The second discourse, <em>The Alternative Repertoire</em>,<em> </em>states that the role of the library is to be an alternative to commercial music and the record industry by providing alternative music, that can’t be found everywhere. The third discourse, <em>The Demand Repertoire</em>, states that the role of the library is to satisfy the library users’ needs and thus adapt the collection and acquisitions to the local demand.</p><p>The study shows that all three discourses are present at the public libraries examined in this master’s thesis. My interviewees state that they want to offer a broad collection with all genres represented but they find it also important to provide alternative music that is difficult to find elsewhere. At the same time, a demand repertoire, where the collection is more adapted to users’ wishes and needs, gets more common and librarians have a less critical attitude towards certain genres that were formerly banned at public libraries.</p><p>The study also shows that work at public libraries has changed a lot with time. The music departments started with only listening service, began later to loan their music collections to the users and now even provide music files that can be downloaded and played on mp3-players. Loan figures of phonograms remain high, but have started to drop, which can partly be due to downloading and the fact that the number of young music library users, such as adolescents, has gone down. The technological development has also changed work at the music library, among other things information research, acquisition and selection. Even though technological development has changed the work and tasks at music libraries, the role of the librarian is still quite the same. An important task still is to search for and provide information even though the strategies and facilities are different.</p>

As the practice of integrative medicine becomes more common, it is important for library science professionals to understand the research needs of integrative medicine professionals in order to best provide resources and services to this population. This paper surveys integrative medicine professionals affiliated with the four North Carolina academic programs and centers for integrative medicine. The results of this study indicate that this population may need more targeted library services due to the difficulty in finding information in this field.

This thesis focuses on the use of interpreters in Swedish healthcare. The overall aim was to explore how individuals, healthcare professionals and family members experience and perceive the use of interpreters in healthcare. The study design was explorative and descriptive. The thesis included Serbo-Croatian(Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian)speaking individuals(n=17), healthcare professionals(n=24), official documents(n=60)and family members(n=10)of individuals using interpreters in healthcare. Individual interviews, written descriptions, review of official documents in the form of incident reports from a single case study and focus group interviews were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using phenomenography, qualitative content analysis and qualitative data analysis of focus group interviews. The overall finding from all perspectives was the wish to have a qualified interpreter whose role was as a communication aid but also as a practical and informative guide in healthcare. The perception of a qualified interpreter was someone highly skilled in medical terminology, Swedish and individuals’ native language with ability to adapt to different dialects, wearing non-provocative and neutral clothes, of the same gender, with a professional attitude and preferably in personal contact through face-to-face interaction. Besides being a communication aid, the interpreter was perceived as having an important role in helping individuals to find the right way to and within the healthcare system because foreign-born individuals were unable to understand information in healthcare. Another aspect was to have a well-developed organization with good cooperation between the parties involved in the interpretation situation, such as patients, interpreter, interpreter agency, family members and healthcare professionals to offer a good interpretation situation. In conclusion, the use of an interpreter was determined by individual and healthcare situational factors. Individualized holistic healthcare can be achieved by offering and using high-quality interpreters and cooperation within a well-developed interpreter organization.   Keywords: communication, healthcare service, patient-safe quality care, qualitative data collection, qualitative data analysis, users’ perceptions/experiences, utilization of interpreters.

Economic statistics are often taken as given facts, assumed to describe exactly, actual phenomena in society. Many economic series are published in various forms from preliminary, via revisions to definitive estimates. Preliminary series are issued for a number of central economic processes in order to allow for rapid, up-to-date signals. This dissertation focuses on qualitative aspects of available data, and effects of possible inaccuracy when data are used for economic modelling, analysis and planning. Four main questions are addressed: How to characterize quality of data for central economic time series? What effects may possible inaccuracies in data have when used in econometric modelling? What effects do inaccuracies and errors in data have when models are used for economic analysis and planning? Is it possible to specify a criterion for deciding the cost-effective quality of data to be produced as input for economic policy analysis? The various realizations of economic variables often show considerable systematic as well as stochastic discrepancies for the same quantity. Preliminary series are generally found to be of questionable quality, but still considerably better than simple trend forecasts. Compared with the situation in a few other industrialized countries, the variability of Swedish economic statistics is, though, not extraordinary. Illustrations of effects of using inaccurate data, especially of combining preliminary, revised and definitive observations in the same model, are presented. Such inconsistent combinations of various realizations are in actual fact found in many open sources. Inclusion of preliminary series tends to indicate stronger changes in the economy than when definite observations are used throughout. The study is concluded with a section on cost-benefit aspects of economic statistics, and a sketch model for appraising data of variable quality is proposed. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk.

The aim of this study is to examine how work at music departments in public libraries has changed with time. To analyze this, the role of music libraries as well as music library users, selection, holdings, acquisition and technological development have been examined. The examined data consists of qualitative interviews with music librarians and library assistants at public libraries in Sweden. To get a time perspective, handbooks and articles about music departments in libraries have also been analyzed. This study emanates from Sanna Talja’s discourse analysis of music libraries in Finland. In her study of Finnish music libraries she has found three discourses that give the library different roles in society. The first discourse, The General Education Repertoire, states that the role of the music library is to educate the citizens by supplying a broad record collection with “classics” from all kinds of genres. The second discourse, The Alternative Repertoire, states that the role of the library is to be an alternative to commercial music and the record industry by providing alternative music, that can’t be found everywhere. The third discourse, The Demand Repertoire, states that the role of the library is to satisfy the library users’ needs and thus adapt the collection and acquisitions to the local demand. The study shows that all three discourses are present at the public libraries examined in this master’s thesis. My interviewees state that they want to offer a broad collection with all genres represented but they find it also important to provide alternative music that is difficult to find elsewhere. At the same time, a demand repertoire, where the collection is more adapted to users’ wishes and needs, gets more common and librarians have a less critical attitude towards certain genres that were formerly banned at public libraries. The study also shows that work at public libraries has changed a lot with time. The music departments started with only listening service, began later to loan their music collections to the users and now even provide music files that can be downloaded and played on mp3-players. Loan figures of phonograms remain high, but have started to drop, which can partly be due to downloading and the fact that the number of young music library users, such as adolescents, has gone down. The technological development has also changed work at the music library, among other things information research, acquisition and selection. Even though technological development has changed the work and tasks at music libraries, the role of the librarian is still quite the same. An important task still is to search for and provide information even though the strategies and facilities are different.

This thesis presents a framework for motor vehicle detection-tracking surveillance systems. Given an optimized object detection template, the feasibility and effectiveness of the methodology is considered for vehicle counting applications, implementing both a filtering operation of false detection, based on the speed variability in each segment of traffic state, and an occlusion handling technique which considers the unusual affine transformation of tracking subspace, as well as its highly fluctuating averaged acceleration data. The result presents the overall performance considering the trade-off relationship between true detection rate and false detection rate. The filtering operation achieved significant success in removing the majority of non-vehicle elements that do not move like a vehicle. The occlusion handling technique employed also improved the systems performance, contributing counts that would otherwise be lost. For all video samples tested, the proposed framework obtained high correct count (>93% correct counting rate) while simultaneously minimizing the false count rate. For future research, the author recommends the use of more sophisticated filters for specific sets of conditions as well as the implementation of discriminative classifier for detecting different occlusion cases.

The Atlanta region will soon be faced with a choice as to how it will go about planning for and implementing its next regional fare collection system that will replace the current BREEZE system. In 2006, MARTA became the first transit agency in the United States to implement an all contactless smartcard for use on its services. However, there have been many advances in new technologies and the consumer payment preferences have evolved since the initial implementation. These developments, coupled with the rapid consumer adoption of smartphones and changing attitudes within the financial payments industry towards transit properties, have recently led four major transit agencies within North America to implement new fare collection systems based on open payments, the development of mobile ticketing applications, or a combination. This research uses a case study methodology to answer several questions related to the planning and implementation of regional fare collection systems in Chicago (CTA), Dallas (DART), Philadelphia (SEPTA) and Toronto (TTC). Based on the experience of the case study agencies, the implementation of Atlanta's next fare collection system is sure to be a long and arduous process. However, by utilizing the lessons learned from DART, CTA, SEPTA and TTC, MARTA and the other regional operators (Cobb Community Transit, Gwinnett County Transit and the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority) will be better poised to provide their patrons with additional means of paying fares while, at the same, minimizing the disruption to the existing fare collection system during the transition period.

<p>In the academic world, open access institutional repositories (IRs) are beginning to play a vital role in storing and disseminating scholarly communication. Through this method, higher education institutions are able to showcase their intellectual outputs and to contribute to sharing and building knowledge. This evolutionary process of scholarly communication is an important feature of knowledge societies. Furthermore, IRs allow scholars to make known the research they are involved in, which can result in their academic reputation improving, as well as the reputations of the institutions they represent.</p> <p>The purpose of this study is to examine the processes of establishing IRs in the four tertiary education institutions in the Western Cape, which form part of the Cape Higher Education Consortium (CHEC). Within this consortium is the collaborative library project, the Cape Library Consortium (CALICO), which represents the four academic library services. The researcher investigated whether the four Western Cape Higher Education Institutions have established IRs and their experiences in doing so. They are examined in the light of the guidelines for successful IRs already established in the international professional literature on IRs. Throughout the study, the partnerships that are needed for the success of IRs, with a specific emphasis on the crucial role that the librarian might play in this regard, are a central focus.</p> <p>The study is a qualitative case study, relying on interviews with key informants from the four HEIs and analysing policy and other supporting documents. The study confirms comment in the literature that IRs evolve in &ldquo / messy&rdquo / and &ldquo / spotty&rdquo / ways. The key findings might be summarised in the form of four assertions:</p> <ul> <li>&ldquo / It is all about people&rdquo / </li> <li>Philosophical differences are significant</li> <li>Context and history cannot be ignored</li> <li>The role of the university library is ambiguous.</li> </ul> <p>It is hoped that the study of fledgling IR projects might provide insights useful to the broader IR research and professional literature.</p>