<p>Collection development in academic libraries is going through technology-driven changes relating to the new information technologies ,e.g. -Electronic databases, the Internet and CD-ROM's, joint published materials and audio-visual resources. Libraries are also facing declining budgets and spiralling costs. This research project looked closely at what collection development is and the impact it has on service rendering to undergraduates at the University of the Western Cape. It is also aimed at establishing if the librarians that formulate these policies understand what they (Collection Development Policies) are, and what they should entail.</p>

The deep web contains a massive number of collections that are mostly invisible to search engines. These collections often contain high-quality, structured information that cannot be crawled using traditional methods. An important problem is selecting which of these collections to search. Automatic collection selection methods try to solve this problem by suggesting the best subset of deep web collections to search based on a query. A few methods for deep Web collection selection have proposed in Collection Retrieval Inference Network system and Glossary of Servers Server system. The drawback in these methods is that they require communication between the search broker and the collections, and need metadata about each collection. This thesis compares three different sampling methods that do not require communication with the broker or metadata about each collection. It also transforms some traditional information retrieval based techniques to this area. In addition, the thesis tests these techniques using INEX collection for total 18 collections (including 12232 XML documents) and total 36 queries. The experiment shows that the performance of sample-based technique is satisfactory in average.

Search engines have forever changed the way people access and discover knowledge, allowing information about almost any subject to be quickly and easily retrieved within seconds. As increasingly more material becomes available electronically the influence of search engines on our lives will continue to grow. This presents the problem of how to find what information is contained in each search engine, what bias a search engine may have, and how to select the best search engine for a particular information need. This research introduces a new method, search engine content analysis, in order to solve the above problem. Search engine content analysis is a new development of traditional information retrieval field called collection selection, which deals with general information repositories. Current research in collection selection relies on full access to the collection or estimations of the size of the collections. Also collection descriptions are often represented as term occurrence statistics. An automatic ontology learning method is developed for the search engine content analysis, which trains an ontology with world knowledge of hundreds of different subjects in a multilevel taxonomy. This ontology is then mined to find important classification rules, and these rules are used to perform an extensive analysis of the content of the largest general purpose Internet search engines in use today. Instead of representing collections as a set of terms, which commonly occurs in collection selection, they are represented as a set of subjects, leading to a more robust representation of information and a decrease of synonymy. The ontology based method was compared with ReDDE (Relevant Document Distribution Estimation method for resource selection) using the standard R-value metric, with encouraging results. ReDDE is the current state of the art collection selection method which relies on collection size estimation. The method was also used to analyse the content of the most popular search engines in use today, including Google and Yahoo. In addition several specialist search engines such as Pubmed and the U.S. Department of Agriculture were analysed. In conclusion, this research shows that the ontology based method mitigates the need for collection size estimation.

Modern civil structures as well as loads on them are still too complex to be accurately modeled or simulated. Therefore, structural failures and structural defects are NOT uncommon! More and more full-scale structural monitoring systems have been deployed in order to monitor how structures behave under various loading conditions. This research focuses on how to maximise benefits from such full-scale measurements by employing advanced digital signal processing techniques. This study is based on accelerometer and GPS data collected on three very different structures, namely, the steel tower in Tokyo, the long and slender suspension bridge in Hong Kong, and the tall office tower in Sydney, under a range of loading conditions, i.e., typhoon, earthquake, heavy traffic, and small scale wind. Systematic analysis of accelerometer and GPS data has demonstrated that the two sensors complement each other in monitoring the static, quasi-static and dynamic movements of the structures. It has also been confirmed that the Finite Element Model could under-estimate the natural frequencies of structures by more than 40% in some case. The effectiveness of using wavelet to de-noise GPS measurement has been demonstrated. The weakness and strengths of accelerometer and GPS have been identified and framework has been developed on how to integrate the two as well as how to optimize the integration. The three-dimensional spectral analysis framework has been developed which can track the temporal evolution of all the frequency components and effectively represents the result in the 3D spectrogram of frequency, time and magnitude. The dominant frequency can also be tracked on the 3D mesh to vividly illustrate the damping signature of the structure. The frequency domain coherent analysis based on this 3D analysis framework can further enhance the detection of common signals between sensors. The developed framework can significantly improve the visualized performance of the integrated system without increasing hardware costs. Indoor experiments have shown the excellent characteristics of the optical fibre Bragg gratings (FBGs) for deformation monitoring. Innovative and low-cost approach has been developed to measure the shift of FBG???s central wavelength. Furthermore, a schematic design has been completed to multiplex FBGs in order to enable distributed monitoring. In collaboration with the University of Sydney, the first Australian full-scale structural monitoring system of GPS and accelerometer has been deployed on the Latitude Tower in Sydney to support current and future research.

People I Know is a conceptual visual arts project which involves collecting and archiving information with the intention of extending the notion of portraiture and identity beyond the frame of the body. The collection is a body of collaged material that is a substitute for the body of the sitter, characterizing them. My practice methodology is a combination of collage and collection which allows for a wide field of research and an interdisciplinary approach. These works could be considered case studies of people I know; in object, text, and sculpture; brought together in installation.

This is an evaluation of the contribution of the Australian Aboriginal collection in the Museum fur Volkerkunde in Berlin to the current public perception of Aboriginal cultural identity both in Berlin and wider afield. It gives an account of the collection including the origins and the nature of the objects and some of the key people who have contributed to its assembly and its presentation since the Museum’s foundation. This provides evidence of significant scientific and cultural links between Australia and Germany from the earliest times of white settlement and exploration in Australia. It also reveals how the period of active collection of Australian Aboriginal material in the Museum coincided with the activities of several key collectors within Australia who have been more widely appreciated in Australia for their other achievements in the sciences or the arts. / Assessed within a broad social and an historical context, why and how the collection was assembled, categorised, presented and received by scientists and the public over the years contributes to appreciating its role in the historical construction of a German view of Australian Aboriginal cultural identity. At the same time, the nature of institutional classifications of such cultural material is shown to contribute to the perceived gap in production of authentic Aboriginal art during the twentieth century within the Western account of art history. A comparative analysis of this information relative to other significant museum collections and presentations of Australian Aboriginal material in Germany, the UK, France and Australia contributes to a re-evaluation of the Berlin collection within a contemporary frame of reference involving both science and art. / This work leads me to recommended changes to the management and presentation of the collection of Australian material that is cognisant of the traditional scientific status of the Museum while introducing new museological strategies. It includes devising new programs of activity related to the collection that will be appropriate to its historical context while having contemporary relevance both to the institution, its wider institutional context and especially to the contemporary Australian Aboriginal communities who have links to the collection.

People I Know is a conceptual visual arts project which involves collecting and archiving information with the intention of extending the notion of portraiture and identity beyond the frame of the body. The collection is a body of collaged material that is a substitute for the body of the sitter, characterizing them. My practice methodology is a combination of collage and collection which allows for a wide field of research and an interdisciplinary approach. These works could be considered case studies of people I know; in object, text, and sculpture; brought together in installation.

The convergence of transport, communication, computing and positioning technologies has enabled a smart car revolution. As a result, pricing of roads based on telematics technologies has gained significant attention. While there are promised benefits, systematic disclosure of precise location has the ability to impinge on privacy of a special kind, known as location privacy. The aim of this thesis is to provide technical designs that enhance the location privacy of motorists without compromising the benefits of accurate pricing. However, this research looks beyond a solely technology-based solution. For example, the ethical implications of the use of GPS data in pricing models have not been fully understood. Likewise, minimal research exists to evaluate the technical vulnerabilities that could be exploited to avoid criminal or financial penalties. To design a privacy-aware system, it is important to understand the needs of the stakeholders, most importantly the motorists. Knowledge about the anticipated privacy preferences of motorists is important in order to make reasonable predictions about their future willingness to adopt these systems. There is limited research so far on user perceptions regarding specific payment options in the uptake of privacy-aware systems. This thesis provides a critical privacy assessment of two mobility pricing systems, namely electronic tolls and mobility-priced insurance. As a result of this assessment, policy recommendations are developed which could support a common approach in facilitating privacy-aware mobility-pricing strategies. This thesis also evaluates the existing and potential inferential threats and vulnerabilities to develop security and privacy recommendations for privacy-aware pricing designs for tolls and insurance. Utilising these policy recommendations and analysing user-perception with regards to the feasibility of sustaining privacy , and willingness to pay for privacy, two privacy-aware mobility pricing designs have been presented which bridge the entire array of privacy interests and bring them together into a unified approach capable of sustaining legal protection as well as satisfying privacy requirements of motorists. It is maintained that it is only by social and technical analysis working in tandem that critical privacy issues in relation to location can be addressed.

Extensive research has been undertaken to improve the robustness of runoff quantity predictions for urban catchments. However, equally robust predictions for runoff quality have yet to be attained. Past studies addressing this issue have typically been confined to the use of simple conceptual or empirical models which forgo the tedious steps of providing a physical representation of the actual system to be modelled. Consequently, even if the modelling results for the test catchments are satisfactory, the reliability and applicability of these models for other catchments remain uncertain. It is deemed that by employing process-based, deterministic models, many of these uncertainties can be eliminated. A lack of understanding of the hydrological processes occurring during storm events and the absence of good calibration data, however, hamper the advancement of such models and limit their use in the field. This research proposes that the development of a hydrologic model based on the kinematic wave equations linked to an advection-dispersion model that simulates pollutant detachment and transport will improve both runoff quantity and quality simulations and enhance the robustness of the predictions. At the very worst, a model of this type could still highlight the underlying issues that inhibit models from reproducing the recorded historical hydrographs and pollutographs. In actual fact, this approach has already been applied by various modellers to simulate the entrainment of pollutants from urban catchments. Also, the paradigm shift to using the Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) approach in designing urban stormwater systems has prompted the need to differentiate the various sources of pollutants in urban catchments such as roads, roofs and other impervious surfaces. The primary objective of the study reported herein is to model runoff quantity and quality from small urban catchments, facilitated by the procurement of the necessary field data to calibrate and validate the model via implementation of a comprehensive field exercise based in Sydney. From a water quality perspective, trace metals were selected as the foci. The study outcomes include the formulation of a linkage of models capable of providing accurate and reliable runoff quantity and quality predictions for the study catchments by taking into consideration: - The different availability of pollutants from urban catchments, i.e. roads vs. roofs; - The build-up characteristics of pollutants on the distinct urban surfaces and their spatial distribution; - The contribution of rainwater to urban runoff pollution; - The partitioning of pollutants according to particulate bound and dissolved phases; - The respective role of rainfall and runoff in the detachment and entrainment of pollutants; - The influence of particle properties such as particle size distribution and density on pollutant transport; and - The relationship associating particulate bound metals to suspended solids. The simulation results obtained using the proposed model were found to be suitable for modelling the detachment and transport of pollutants for small urban catchments. Interpretation of these results reveals several key findings which could help to rectify shortcomings of existing modelling approaches. Even though the robustness of the model presented here may not translate into a significant improvement in the overall robustness of model predictions, the physical basis on which this process-based model was developed nevertheless provides the flexibility necessary for implementation at alternative sites. It is also shown that the availability of reliable runoff data is essential for implementation of the model for other similar urban catchments. In conclusion, the proposed model in this study will serve as a worthy tool in future urban catchment management studies.

This thesis seeks to examine the nineteenth-century art collections and architectural style of the original buildings at the University of Sydney in order to demonstrate ways in which visual material may be employed to shape public perception of an institution. I shall argue that the architectural style of the original university buildings was specifically chosen with particular aims which extended beyond the mere establishment of a tertiary institution for the colony. I will also argue that the style shaped the character of the institution, contributed to the maintenance of law and order in the colony, linked the colony more firmly than hitherto to the mother country and provided social benefits for the founders of the institution. The instant history and character thus imposed upon the institution was reinforced by the assembly of a portrait collection in emulation of other collections of portraits at leading institutions of the colony and the mother country, including the Oxbridge universities. Once the building proclaimed that the institution was comparable with the great universities of the world, the subjects of the portraits at the university could be placed in the class of founders of a great historical institution, thus at the same time enhancing the reputation of the institution and the individuals. The construction of an indentity through visual images was extended by the benefactions of Sir Charles Nicholson, the principal donor of works of art to the university in the nineteenth century. I argue that his intentions in relation to his collections were didactic but were also concerned with the entrenchment of the imperial hegemony over the colony, and again with the enhancement of his personal repuatation. This analysis shows how, by a complex of personal ambition and aspiration for the colony, the style of the buildings and the art collections formed were used to establish the colony as civilized and the new university as a bastion of English tradition.