Thesis (Ph.D)--Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Foley, James D.; Committee Member: Abowd, Gregory D.; Committee Member: Marchionini, Gary; Committee Member: Potts, Colin; Committee Member: Stasko, John. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Conventional parallel computer architectures do not provide support for non-uniformly distributed objects. In this thesis, I introduce sparsely faceted arrays (SFAs), a new low-level mechanism for naming regions of memory, or facets, on different processors in a distributed, shared memory parallel processing system. Sparsely faceted arrays address the disconnect between the global distributed arrays provided by conventional architectures (e.g. the Cray T3 series), and the requirements of high-level parallel programming methods that wish to use objects that are distributed over only a subset of processing elements. A sparsely faceted array names a virtual globally-distributed array, but actual facets are lazily allocated. By providing simple semantics and making efficient use of memory, SFAs enable efficient implementation of a variety of non-uniformly distributed data structures and related algorithms. I present example applications which use SFAs, and describe and evaluate simple hardware mechanisms for implementing SFAs. Keeping track of which nodes have allocated facets for a particular SFA is an important task that suggests the need for automatic memory management, including garbage collection. To address this need, I first argue that conventional tracing techniques such as mark/sweep and copying GC are inherently unscalable in parallel systems. I then present a parallel memory-management strategy, based on reference-counting, that is capable of garbage collecting sparsely faceted arrays. I also discuss opportunities for hardware support of this garbage collection strategy. I have implemented a high-level hardware/OS simulator featuring hardware support for sparsely faceted arrays and automatic garbage collection. I describe the simulator and outline a few of the numerous details associated with a "real" implementation of SFAs and SFA-aware garbage collection. Simulation results are used throughout this thesis in the evaluation of hardware support mechanisms.

Um in einer Menge von Daten nach bestimmten Informationen suchen und filtern zu können, verwenden Suchmaschinen und Datenbanksysteme Queries (Suchanfragen). Diese Queries sind häufig durch eine eigene Sprache definiert, welche die Bildung von komplexen Ausdrücken erlaubt. Die Systeme antworten auf die Suchanfrage in Form einer Ergebnismenge. Komplexe Suchanfragen ermöglichen dabei das Auffinden von präzisen Ergebnissen. Faceted Browsing ist ein Benutzerschnittstellen-Paradigma zum Suchen und Filtern von Daten. Dabei können Suchanfragen visuell erstellt und sukzessiv verfeinert werden, ohne die spezielle Anfragesprache kennen zu müssen. Die einfache und intuitive Benutzbarkeit der Oberfläche bildet das Erfolgsrezept, sodass Faceted Browsing in vielen Anwendungen, wie beispielsweise auch in Online-Shops, zum Einsatz kommt. Bisher sind die Systeme überwiegend so konzipiert, dass Queries, welche aus Konjunktionen von Disjunktionen bestehen, gebildet werden können. Es stellt sich nun die Frage, ob auch komplexere Suchanfragen mittels Faceted Browsing erstellt werden können und welche Veränderungen der Oberfläche dafür notwendig sind. Reichen die Veränderungen dabei so weit, dass zu Gunsten der Komplexität der Suchanfrage auf die Einfachheit der Oberfläche verzichtet werden muss oder existieren Möglichkeiten, komplexere Queries zu bilden und dabei die Einfachheit der Oberfläche zu bewahren? Ziel der Arbeit ist es, zu ermitteln, welche Komplexität die Suchanfragen, die mittels Faceted Browsing gebildet werden, aufweisen können, ohne dabei die einfache Benutzbarkeit der Facettenbrowseroberfläche zu verlieren. Dazu wird die bisherige Mächtigkeit von Facettenbrowseroberflächen hinsichtlich der Querybildung analysiert. Weiterhin werden komplexere Suchanfragen auf ihre Umsetzbarkeit mit Hilfe des Faceted Browsing untersucht. Es wird betrachtet, auf welche Weise sich bisherige Facettenbrowseroberflächen verändern müssen, um die visuelle Erstellung solcher Suchanfragen zu ermöglichen. Durch die prototypische Erweiterung eines bestehenden Facettenbrowsers um notwendige Oberflächenelemente soll die Möglichkeit bestehen, komplexere Suchanfragen, als bisher mittels Faceted Browsing möglich, zu bilden.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the stress experienced by teenage mothers attending school and the need for multi-faced and strength-based stress management programs. Trends of teenage pregnancy in developing and developed countries are looked at. Causes and consequences of teenage motherhood stress are also explored. One of the consequences of teenage motherhood is stress. There are programs aimed at alleviating stress of teenage motherhood. Some of these programs are evaluated. The findings of this study indicate that there is a need for multi-faced and strength-based interventions for teenage mothers. After the literature study, an empirical research was conducted to explore challenges faced by teenage mothers. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews with ten teenage mothers attending school and ten educators teaching teenage mothers. Collected data was analysed using the thematic data analysis approach. The major findings of the study include opinions that teenage mothers do not get assistance from school, home and in the community; teenage mothers are not ready for motherhood; they experience a feeling of vulnerability and poor performance at school. There is a need for educators to be trained in handling teenage mothers, as well as the need for multi-faceted and strength-based interventions. However, it was evident through empirical research that some teenage mothers cope with their lives through talking to caring parents, spending quality time with their children, having a vision, keeping themselves busy and accepting that having a child while attending school is a challenge. Lastly, conclusions from the literature study and empirical research are presented in chapter five. Recommendations for practice, the contribution of the study, limitations of the study and recommendations for further study are also detailed. Motivation for designing and implementing intervention programs is also outlined. / Thesis (MEd (Learner Support))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013

Faceted browsing (also called faceted search or faceted navigation) is an exploratory search model where facets assist in the interactive navigation of search results. Facets are attributes that have been assigned to describe resources being explored; a faceted taxonomy is a collection of facets provided by the interface and is often organized as sets, hierarchies, or graphs. Faceted browsing has become ubiquitous with modern digital libraries and online search engines, yet the process is still difficult to abstractly model in a manner that supports the development of interoperable and reusable interfaces. We propose category theory as a theoretical foundation for faceted browsing and demonstrate how the interactive process can be mathematically abstracted in order to support the development of reusable and interoperable faceted systems. Existing efforts in facet modeling are based upon set theory, formal concept analysis, and light-weight ontologies, but in many regards they are implementations of faceted browsing rather than a specification of the basic, underlying structures and interactions. We will demonstrate that category theory allows us to specify faceted objects and study the relationships and interactions within a faceted browsing system. Resulting implementations can then be constructed through a category-theoretic lens using these models, allowing abstract comparison and communication that naturally support interoperability and reuse. In this context, reuse and interoperability are at two levels: between discrete systems and within a single system. Our model works at both levels by leveraging category theory as a common language for representation and computation. We will establish facets and faceted taxonomies as categories and will demonstrate how the computational elements of category theory, including products, merges, pushouts, and pullbacks, extend the usefulness of our model. More specifically, we demonstrate that categorical constructions such as the pullback and pushout operations can help organize and reorganize facets; these operations in particular can produce faceted views containing relationships not found in the original source taxonomy. We show how our category-theoretic model of facets relates to database schemas and discuss how this relationship assists in implementing the abstractions presented. We give examples of interactive interfaces from the biomedical domain to help illustrate how our abstractions relate to real-world requirements while enabling systematic reuse and interoperability. We introduce DELVE (Document ExpLoration and Visualization Engine), our framework for developing interactive visualizations as modular Web-applications in order to assist researchers with exploratory literature search. We show how facets relate to and control visualizations; we give three examples of text visualizations that either contain or interact with facets. We show how each of these visualizations can be represented with our model and demonstrate how our model directly informs implementation. With our general framework for communicating consistently about facets at a high level of abstraction, we enable the construction of interoperable interfaces and enable the intelligent reuse of both existing and future efforts.

O presente trabalho teve por objetivo classificar as técnicas criativas utilizadas no processo de desenvolvimento de produto, através de uma taxonomia facetada. Essa taxonomia originou uma tabela de referência que pode auxiliar designers, engenheiros, arquitetos, publicitários e outros profissionais que utilizam processo criativo a escolherem a(s) técnica(s) criativa(s) mais adequada(s) aos diferentes requisitos de projeto e características da equipe projetista. Para a elaboração da taxonomia, foram abordadas duas áreas do conhecimento: o processo de desenvolvimento de produto, com ênfase nas técnicas criativas, e a teoria da classificação, com o objetivo de conhecer e aplicar uma metodologia com finalidade prática e foco no usuário. Os resultados deste trabalho foram a compilação e a classificação de 31 técnicas criativas, sob 6 facetas, a listar: quantidade de participantes, perfil técnico dos participantes, característica do problema a ser resolvido, ação utilizada na técnica criativa, exigência de ferramental e tempo de execução da técnica. / This work’s aim to classify the creative techniques used at product development process, through a faceted taxonomy. This taxonomy has led to a reference table that can help designers, engineers, architects, advertisers and other professionals who use creative process to choose the most appropriate creative technique(s) to different design goals and characteristics of the design team. In developing the taxonomy were addressed two areas of knowledge: the product development process, with emphasis on creative techniques, and the theory of classification, in order to know and apply a methodology with practical purpose and focus on the user. The results of this study were the compilation and the classification of 31 creative techniques under six facets, which are: number of participants, technical profile of the participants, nature of the problem to be solved, creative technique used in the action, demand for tooling and runtime of the technique.

New Zealand prisons were a colonial construct established by early colonial administrations to deal with criminal behaviour occurring at the time of European settlement. Like the prison system, prison chaplaincy also had its origins in colonial experiences from the United Kingdom where chaplains were employed to meet the spiritual needs of those in institutions such as schools, hospitals, colleges, the military and legations. This thesis addressed the question of how the partnership between Church and State administrators in New Zealand for the provision of chaplaincy services developed between 1840 and 2006. Four phases were identified in the evolution of prison chaplaincy: phase one 1840-to-1950, characterised by ad hoc arrangements between clergy and local prison management; phase two 1951-to-1989 when Secretary for Justice Samuel Barnett established a formal relationship with the National Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church to provide chaplains for penal institutions; phase three identified as ‘prisons in change’ 1990-1999, when the Interim Chaplaincy Advisory Board and Prison Chaplaincy Advisory Board worked in tandem with the Departments of Justice and Corrections to administer the Prison Chaplaincy Service, arising from the recommendations of the Roper and Perry Reports; and phase four 2000-to-2006, a period when the Prison Chaplaincy Service of Aotearoa New Zealand was contracted to the Department of Corrections to employ prison chaplains. The research adopted a multi-faceted approach, consisting of phenomenology, ethno-methodology and hermeneutics to understand attitudes and experiences of key players and institutions in the evolution of Prison Chaplaincy. Data was collected through interviews of key informants, critical evaluation of published and unpublished material in public and private collections. The study identified six key factors that influenced the development of Prison Chaplaincy in New Zealand. These were: the nature of the Church-State interface, the impact of biculturalism, the influence of theological and ecclesiastical trends, and the impact of inter-church politics, the influence of socio economic trends and developments, and changes in Government policy. It also found that while there were tensions, the Church-State partnership had positive benefits for the spiritual outcomes for prisoners.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the stress experienced by teenage mothers attending school and the need for multi-faced and strength-based stress management programs. Trends of teenage pregnancy in developing and developed countries are looked at. Causes and consequences of teenage motherhood stress are also explored. One of the consequences of teenage motherhood is stress. There are programs aimed at alleviating stress of teenage motherhood. Some of these programs are evaluated. The findings of this study indicate that there is a need for multi-faced and strength-based interventions for teenage mothers. After the literature study, an empirical research was conducted to explore challenges faced by teenage mothers. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews with ten teenage mothers attending school and ten educators teaching teenage mothers. Collected data was analysed using the thematic data analysis approach. The major findings of the study include opinions that teenage mothers do not get assistance from school, home and in the community; teenage mothers are not ready for motherhood; they experience a feeling of vulnerability and poor performance at school. There is a need for educators to be trained in handling teenage mothers, as well as the need for multi-faceted and strength-based interventions. However, it was evident through empirical research that some teenage mothers cope with their lives through talking to caring parents, spending quality time with their children, having a vision, keeping themselves busy and accepting that having a child while attending school is a challenge. Lastly, conclusions from the literature study and empirical research are presented in chapter five. Recommendations for practice, the contribution of the study, limitations of the study and recommendations for further study are also detailed. Motivation for designing and implementing intervention programs is also outlined. / Thesis (MEd (Learner Support))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013

This work presents our research into visualization for digital repository search interfaces, motivated by the prevalence of existing hierarchical data structures and the general lack of contextualization present in existing systems. We develop the ResultMap concept, a treemap-based visualization that we have applied to keyword search engine and faceted classification data environments, and present the results of their empirical evaluation, which show limited objective and subjective benefits for some users and no detrimental effects in any cases. We organize this work as follows: Chapter 1 provides an introduction to our problem area, motivates our general approach of leveraging hierarchical structure (via ResultMaps) for context, and proposes a thesis statement and corresponding research questions. Chapter 2 discusses related work, and includes a survey and design characterization of faceted navigation tools. Chapter 3 defines the key visual and interactive features of the ResultMap concept and justifies their basic design. Chapter 4 presents our implementation and evaluation of ResultMaps applied to digital library search engine result pages (SERPs). Chapter 5 consists of two major portions: a presentation of formal data and query models for faceted environments, and our implementation and evaluation of ResultMaps in a faceted UI context. In Chapter 6 we conclude--based on our results from Chapter 4 and Chapter 5--with a set of principles for designing both visual search interfaces themselves and designing their evaluation. We finish with suggestions for future research in this area.