The purpose of this study is to gain understanding of how the communicative ability affects creativity in an organization. Qualitive research with semi-structured questions with a purpose of collecting material from four respondents. Research Question -How do large organizations work with the communicative ability? -How should organizations work with the communicative ability to increase the creativity among their employees? Conclusion: -Organisations should work with a communication strategy that allows the staff to be a part of the communication ability. -The organisation's staff should have an awareness of how the communication ability work and how to use it by example education. -Clear goals and visions where the staff knows its importance and feel an involvement in the organisation. -Organisations should have an open environment that allows the staffs ideas and creative suggestions. -Using various communication channels as individuals absorb information differently. -A creative channel, a digital tool where the staff can help with creative suggestions. -A leadership that will help the staff to engage in the communication ability. / Syftet med studien är att få en förståelse om hur den kommunikativa förmågan påverkar kreativiteten i stora organisationer.  En kvalitativ forskningsmetod med deduktiv ansats och semi-strukturerade intervjumetoder har använts i uppsatsen. Forskningsfrågor -Hur arbetar stora organisationer med den kommunikativa förmågan? -Hur ska organisationer arbeta med den kommunikativa förmågan för att öka kreativiteten? Slutsats: -Organisationer ska arbeta med en kommunikationsstrategi som tillåter personalen att vara en del av den kommunikativa förmågan. -Organisationens personal ska ha en medvetenhet om hur den kommunikativa förmågan fungerar samt hur den ska användas genom exempelvis utbildningar. -Tydliga mål och visioner där personalen vet sin betydelse och kännner en delaktighet i organisationen. -Organisationer ska ha ett öppet klimat som tillåter personalens idéer och kreativa förslag. -Att använda varierande kommunikationskanaler eftersom individer tar åt sig information olika. -En kreativitetskanal, ett digitalt verktyg där personalen kan bidra med kreativa förslag. -Ett ledarskap som hjälper personalen att engagera sig i den kommunikativa förmågan.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:36:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fabio_Mascarenhas.pdf: 847207 bytes, checksum: 01b83dae6521c13d3e8695d32992b879 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2003-02-25 / Pontif?cia Universidade Cat?lica de Campinas / Research on the functions of hypertext in the informational flow in the electronic media. One first argues the concept of information in the areas of the Mathematics, Semiotics and Communication. They are presented, after that, the concepts of hypertext, one is traced retrospect historical considering it a mobilizador device of the knowledge, proceeding from the evaluative process of register and dissemination of knowing, its importance is approached to relate the users and the supplies of knowledge, and is analyzed it scientific production of the Science of the Information on hypertext during the understood period enters the years of 1990 the 2002. It has been struggled viability of use of the pertextuais resources in the processes of the information and is concluded presenting resulted and. / Pesquisa sobre as fun??es do hipertexto no fluxo informacional em meio eletr?nico. Discute-se primeiramente o conceito de informa??o nas ?reas da Matem?tica, Semi?tica e Comunica??o. Apresentam-se, em seguida, os conceitos de hipertexto, tra?a-se um retrospecto hist?rico considerando-o um dispositivo mobilizador do conhecimento, proveniente do processo evolutivo de registro e dissemina??o do saber, aborda-se sua import?ncia para relacionar os usu?rios e os estoques de conhecimento, e analisa-se a produ??o cient?fica da Ci?ncia da Informa??o sobre o hipertexto durante o per?odo compreendido entre os anos de 1990 a 2002. Debate-se a viabilidade de uso dos recursos hipertextuais nos processos da informa??o e conclui-se apresentando resultados e sugerindo linha de estudos futuros.

Apresenta-se, neste trabalho, o desenvolvimento de um modelo bioinspirado a partir do circuito neural de insetos. Este modelo é obtido através da análise de primeira ordem dada pelo STA (Spike Triggered Average) e pela transferência de informação entre os sinais neurais. São aplicadas técnicas baseadas na identificação dos atrasos de tempo da máxima coerência da informação. Utilizam-se, para esta finalidade, os conceitos da teoria de informação: a DMI (Delayed Mutual Information) e a TE (Transfer Entropy). Essas duas abordagens têm aplicação em transferência de informação, cada uma com suas particularidades. A DMI é uma ferramenta mais simples do que a TE, do ponto de vista computacional, pois depende da análise estatística de funções densidades de probabilidades de segunda ordem, enquanto que a TE, de funções de terceira ordem. Dependendo dos recursos computacionais disponíveis, este é um fator que deve ser levado em consideração. Os resultados de atraso da informação são muito bem identificados pela DMI. No entanto, a DMI falha em distinguir a direção do fluxo de informação, quando se tem sistemas com transferência de informação indireta e com sobreposição da informação. Nesses casos, a TE é a ferramenta mais indicada para a determinação da direção do fluxo de informação, devido à dependência condicional imposta pelo histórico comum entre os sinais analisados. Em circuitos neurais, estas questões ocorrem em diversos casos. No gânglio metatorácico de insetos, os interneurônios locais possuem diferentes padrões de caminhos com sobreposição da informação, pois recebem sinais de diferentes neurônios sensores para o movimento das membros locomotores desses animais. O principal objetivo deste trabalho é propor um modelo do circuito neural do inseto, para mapear como os sinais neurais se comportam, quando sujeitos a um conjunto de movimentos aleatórios impostos no membro do inseto. As respostas neurais são reflexos provocados pelo estímulo táctil, que gera o movimento na junção femorotibial do membro posterior. Nestes circuitos neurais, os sinais neurais são processados por interneurônios locais dos tipos spiking e nonspiking que operam em paralelo para processar a informação vinda dos neurônios sensores. Esses interneurônios recebem sinais de entrada de mecanorreceptores do membro posterior e da junção motora dos insetos. A principal característica dos interneurônios locais é a sua capacidade de se comunicar com outros neurônios, tendo ou não a presença de impulsos nervosos (spiking e nonspiking). Assim, forma-se um circuito neural com sinais de entradas (neurônios sensores) e saídas (neurônios motores). Neste trabalho, os algoritmos propostos analisam desde a geração aleatória dos movimentos mecânicos e os estímulos nos neurônios sensores que chegam até o gânglio metatorácico, incluindo suas respostas nos neurônios motores. São implementados os algoritmos e seus respectivos pseudocódigos para a DMI e para a TE. É utilizada a técnica de Surrogate Data para inferir as medidas de significância estatística em relação à máxima coerência de informação entre os sinais neurais. Os resultados a partir dos Surrogate Data são utilizados para a compensação dos erros de desvio das medidas de transferência de informação. Um algoritmo, baseado na IAAFT (Iterative Amplitude Adjusted Fourier Transform), gera os dados substitutos, com mesmo espectro de potência e diferentes distribuições dos sinais originais. Os resultados da DMI e da TE com os Surrogate Data fornecem os valores das linhas de base quando ocorre a mínima transferência de informação. Além disso, foram utilizados dados simulados, para uma discussão sobre os efeitos dos tamanhos das amostras e as forças de associação da informação. Os sinais neurais coletados estão disponíveis em um banco de dados com diversos experimentos no gânglio metatorácico dos gafanhotos. No entanto, cada experimento possui poucos sinais coletados simultaneamente; assim, para diferentes experimentos, os sinais ficam sujeitos às variações de tamanho de amostras, além de ruídos que interferem nas medidas absolutas de transferência de informação. Para se mapear essas conexões neurais, foi utilizada a metodologia baseada na normalização e compensação dos erros de desvio para os cálculos da transferência de informação. As normalizações das medidas utilizam as entropias totais do sistema. Para a DMI, utiliza-se a média geométrica das entropias de X e Y , para a TE aplica-se a CMI (Conditional Mutual Information) para a sua normalização. Após a aplicação dessas abordagens, baseadas no STA e na transferência de informação, apresenta-se o modelo estrutural do circuito neural do sistema neuromotor de gafanhotos. São apresentados os resultados com o STA e a DMI para os neurônios sensores, dos quais são levantadas algumas hipóteses sobre o funcionamento desta parte do FeCO (Femoral Chordotonal Organ). Para cada tipo de neurônio foram identificados múltiplos caminhos no circuito neural, através dos tempos de atraso e dos valores de máxima coerência da informação. Nos interneurônios spiking obtiveram-se dois padrões de caminhos, enquanto que para os interneurônios nonspiking identificaram-se três padrões distintos. Esses resultados são obtidos computacionalmente e condizem com que é esperado a partir dos modelos biológicos descritos em Burrows (1996). / Herein, we present the development of a bioinspired model by the neural circuit of insects. This model is obtained by analyzing the first order from STA (Spike Triggered Average) and the transfer of information among neural signals. Techniques are applied based on the identification of the time delays of the information maximum coherence. For this purpose we use the concepts of the theory of information: DMI (Delayed Mutual Information) and TE (Transfer Entropy). These two approaches have applications on information transfer and each one has peculiarities. The DMI is a simpler tool than the TE, from the computational point of view. Therefore, DMI depends on the statistical analysis of second order probability density functions, whereas the TE depends on third order functions. If computational resources are a problem, those questions can be taken into consideration. The results of the information delay are very effective for DMI. However, DMI fails to distinguish the direction of the information flow when we have systems subjected to indirect information transfer and superposition of the information. In these cases, the TE is the most appropriate tool for determining the direction of the information flow, due to the conditional dependence imposed by a common history among the signals. In neural circuits, those issues occur in many cases. For example, in metathoracic ganglion of insects, the local interneurons have different pathways with superposition of the information. Therefore, the interneurons receive signals from different sensory neurons for moving the animals legs . The main objective of this work is propose a model of the neural circuit from an insect. Additionally, we map the neural signals when the hind leg is subjected to a set of movements. Neural responses are reflexes caused by tactile stimulus, which generates the movement of femoro-tibial joint of the hind leg. In these neural circuits, the signals are processed by neural spiking and nonspiking local interneurons. These types of neurons operate in parallel processing of the information from the sensory neurons. Interneurons receive input signals from mechanoreceptors by the leg and the insect knees. The main feature of local interneurons is their ability to communicate with others neurons. It can occur with or without of the presence of impulses (spiking and nonspiking). Thus, they form a neural circuit with input signals (sensory neurons) and outputs (motor neurons). The proposed algorithms analyze the random generation of movements and mechanical stimuli in sensory neurons. Which are processing in the metathoracic ganglion, including their responses in the motor neurons. The algorithms and the pseudo-code are implemented for TE and DMI. The technique of Surrogate Data is applied to infer the measures of statistical significance related to the information maximum coherence among neural signals. The results of the Surrogate Data are used for bias error compensation from information transfer. An algorithm, based on IAAFT (Iterative Amplitude Adjusted Fourier Transform), generates Surrogate Data with the same power spectrum and different distributions of the original signals. The results of the surrogate data, for DMI and TE, achieve the values of baselines when there are minimum information transfer. Additionally, we used simulated data to discuss the effects of sample sizes and different strengths of information connectivity. The collected neural signals are available from one database based on several experiments of the locusts metathoracic ganglion. However, each experiment has few simultaneously collected signals and the signals are subjected of variations in sample size and absolute measurements noisy of information transfer. We used a methodology based on normalization and compensation of the bias errors for computing the information transfer. The normalization of the measures uses the total entropy of the system. For the DMI, we applied the geometric mean of X and Y . Whereas, for the TE is computed the CMI (Conditional Mutual Information) for the normalization. We present the neural circuit structural model of the locusts neuromotor system, from those approaches based on STA and the information transfer. Some results are presented from STA and DMI for sensory neurones. Then, we achieve some new hypothesis about the neurophisiology function of FeCO. For each type of neuron, we identify multiple pathways in neural circuit through the time delay and the information maximum coherence. The spiking interneurons areyielded by two pathways, whereas the nonspiking interneurons has revealed three distinct patterns. These results are obtained computationally and are consistent with biological models described in Burrows (1996).

Submitted by Joana Azevedo (joanad@id.uff.br) on 2017-08-21T14:09:26Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Monica Rodrigues Moreira.pdf: 2776884 bytes, checksum: 2795c3c544758a7440fced263220daae (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Biblioteca da Escola de Engenharia (bee@ndc.uff.br) on 2017-08-22T16:29:56Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Monica Rodrigues Moreira.pdf: 2776884 bytes, checksum: 2795c3c544758a7440fced263220daae (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-22T16:29:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Monica Rodrigues Moreira.pdf: 2776884 bytes, checksum: 2795c3c544758a7440fced263220daae (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-03 / Esse trabalho tem o objetivo de contribuir para a melhoria do processo decisório das organizações baseadas em informação ao analisar o ciclo de vida da informação como uma ferramenta para a gestão estratégica da informação, bem como propor um método de se identificar e classificar bens de informação no contexto organizacional, considerando as especificidades de cada nível da organização. Para alcançar esse objetivo, além de uma ampla revisão da literatura, serão analisados os métodos/metodologias e técnicas de identificação de bens de informação e modelagem de fluxos informacionais à luz do Ciclo de Vida da Informação adotados no projeto MGIC – Modelo de Gestão da Informação e do Conhecimento e, ainda, observados os resultados desse projeto sob o enfoque da gestão da informação. A revisão da literatura permitiu considerar que a informação tem se tornado um dos mais importantes recursos para as organizações e, nesse sentido, o fluxo informacional ou o ciclo de vida dessa informação no contexto organizacional precisa ser gerenciado. Em adição, a análise dos resultados do projeto MGIC permitiu contrapor os aspectos percebidos na organização onde este foi executado com o que preconiza a literatura que trata do tema em estudo, principalmente no que tange a definição e classificação de bens de informação. A conclusão do trabalho indica métodos mais precisos de identificação e classificação dos bens de informação bem como uma proposta de modelagem de fluxo de informação que assegura um ciclo de vida da informação mais eficaz para o contexto das organizações baseadas em informação. / This work aims to contribute to improving the decision-making process of information-based organizations analyzing the life cycle of information as a tool for strategic information management, and propose a method to identify and classify information assets in organizational context, considering the specificities of each level of the organization. To achieve this goal, beyond the comprehensive literature review, it will analyze the methods / methodologies and techniques for identifying information assets and modeling of information flows in the light of the Information Lifecycle adopted in MGIC project - Information Management Model and knowledge and also, above all, the observed results of this project with a focus on information management. The literature review allowed us to consider that information has become one of the most important resources for organizations and, accordingly, the information flow or the life cycle of this information in the organizational context needs to be managed. In addition, the analysis of the results of MGIC project will oppose aspects perceived in the organization where it was implemented with which advocates the literature on the subject being studied, especially regarding the definition and classification of information assets. The conclusion of the study will indicate methods more accurate of the identification and classification of information assets as well as a proposal for information flow modeling methodology to ensure a life cycle of more effective information to the context of organizations based information.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:36:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CESAR ANTONIO PEREIRA.pdf: 1899859 bytes, checksum: 0cac6660732f8e6522e83abcf31f8538 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-02-11 / The production of the knowledge has been accomplished in different more flexible and dynamic contexts. Thanks to the increase of the flow of information proportionate for the insert of TIC's and a growing interaction between different actors and agents motivated by the new politics of the knowledge, a growth is verified in the variety of the scientific and technological domains, knowledge increase, learning and innovation. Though, it exists in this context an abundant and heterogeneous literature on the problem faced by the indicators in CT&I in the evaluation of the dynamics of the production of the knowledge, as well as of the flows of information and the new politics that govern them, especially in the countries of Latin America. Like this, to present research of exploratory character with of case study, it was shown interested in knowing through bibliometrics indicators the flow and the dimensions socioespacial and socioinstitucional characterized by the cognitive and institutional aspects of the construction of the knowledge local/regional, based on the production of patents of Unicamp. In a general way, I was ended that all the lifted up hypotheses for the work, they were assisted. The patent can be a valuable instrument of evaluation of the flow and of the dimensions socioespacial and socioinstitucional of information and knowledge in CT&I. the dynamic relationship based on the " pure " basic research, " inspired for the use " and " he/she researches applied " among the scientific and technological knowledge approached it has been marking the production of patents of the University. And, finally the agents and researcher/inventors possess in your great majority entails departments/institutions place/regional. / A produ??o do conhecimento vem sendo realizada em diferentes contextos mais flex?veis e din?micos. Devido ao aumento do fluxo de informa??o proporcionado pela inser??o das Tecnologias de Informa??o e Comunica??o e uma crescente intera??o entre diferentes atores e agentes incentivada pelas novas pol?ticas do conhecimento, verifica-se um crescimento na variedade dos dom?nios cient?ficos e tecnol?gicos, aumento de conhecimento, aprendizado e inova??o. Neste contexto existe uma abundante e heterog?nea literatura sobre a problem?tica enfrentada pelos indicadores em Ci?ncia, Tecnologia & Inova??o na avalia??o da din?mica da produ??o do conhecimento, bem como dos fluxos de informa??o e as novas pol?ticas que as regem, em especial nos pa?ses da Am?rica Latina. Assim, a presente pesquisa de car?ter explorat?rio com delineamento de estudo de caso, se mostrou interessada em conhecer por meio de indicadores bibliom?tricos o fluxo e as dimens?es socioespacial e socioinstitucional caracterizadas pelos aspectos cognitivos e institucionais da constru??o do conhecimento local/regional, baseado na produ??o de patentes da Unicamp. Conclu?-se que todas as hip?teses levantadas pelo trabalho, foram atendidas: a patente pode ser um valioso instrumento de avalia??o do fluxo e das dimens?es socioespacial e socioinstitucional de informa??o e conhecimento em Ci?ncia, Tecnologia & Inova??o ; a rela??o din?mica baseada na pesquisa b?sica pura , inspirada pelo uso e pesquisa aplicada , sobretudo com forte delineamento da aplica??o da pesquisa b?sica pura na pesquisa aplicada tem marcado a produ??o do conhecimento representado pelas patentes da Universidade; a dimens?o socioespacial do conhecimento representado pelas patentes da Universidade Estadual de Campinas est? fundamentalmente baseada em sua grande maioria pelas teorias e problemas de cunho internacional, aplicados a v?rios dom?nios cient?ficos e tecnol?gicos n?o publicados ou protegidos no pa?s; e a rela??o entre a Unicamp e os agentes de conhecimentos locais/regionais ? praticamente inexistente.

在電腦整合製造（Computer Integrated Manufacturing）的系統中 ，資訊整合的良好與否，往往是系統成敗的關鍵所在。在現行組織中，常 常因為資訊的缺乏相互溝通，造成資訊的重覆製作，遂使得人力、時間經 常耗費在一些沒有價值的活動上，因而造成組織中的工作效率無法提升； 然而要真正瞭解組織中各個地區、各部單位到底擁有那些資訊，以及需求 那些資訊，並且將這些往來的資訊整合起來，卻是件相當不容易的事。為 達到此目的則端賴一完整的資訊流程（Information Flow）分析方法，並 參照電腦整合製造資訊流程參考模式（Reference Model ）來幫助我們尋 找及建立製造企業內正確的資訊流程。在本研究中，我們採用由上往下 （ Top-Down）的分析方式，並透過功能拆解（Functional Decomposition）的技術來分析電腦整合製造系統中資訊流程的關聯性， 最後再使用物件導向方法（Object-Oriented Method）來分析系統內細部 的資訊流程；經上述方式，我們發展出一套電腦整合製造系統資訊流程分 析方法，此方法中包含了分析進行的步驟與使用工具。此外，我們亦將依 據此套分析方法，試圖提出一套電腦整合製造資訊流程參考模式，以提供 分析時參考的依據，並驗證此套分析方法的可用性。

Many mammals are social. The most basic social behaviour is when the actions of one conspecific are directed toward another, what we call the dyadic interaction. Both intrinsic and extrinsic factors may affect an individuals propensity to interact with other members of a population. I used a social cervid, elk (Cervus elaphus), as a model species to test the importance of intrinsic and extrinsic factors of sociality on dyadic interactions. Dyadic interactions not only form the basis for social structure and information transfer within a population, but are also routes of pathogen transmission. My objective in this thesis was thus twofold: to improve our understanding of sociobiology, but also to gain insight into how sociality may underlie the transmission of communicable wildlife disease. I used a hierarchical, autecological approach from DNA, through individual, dyad, group, subpopulation, and ultimately population to explore the effects of intrinsic factors (e.g., sex and pairwise genetic relatedness) and extrinsic factors (e.g., season, conspecific density, habitat, and elk group size) on sociality. Elk in Riding Mountain National Park (RMNP), Manitoba, Canada, are exposed to the causal agent of bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis; TB); however, spatial variation in apparent disease prevalence suggests that TB can only persist in one subpopulation within the Park. Using the natural RMNP system and a captive elk herd that I manipulated, I explored factors that influence interaction rates and durations (as a proxy for pathogen transmission) among elk. Sexual segregation in elk results in seasonal and sex-based differences in interaction rate and duration; with interactions peaking in autumn-winter for both sexes. Female-female dyads interact more frequently than male-male dyads. However, male-male dyads interact for longer durations than do female-female dyads. Interaction rate and duration did not covary with pairwise relatedness. Conspecific density also had sex-specific results for interaction rate and duration. Whereas male-male dyadic interaction rates increase with density, female-female dyads increase until they reach a threshold and subsequently reduce their interaction rates at high density. I observed density dependence in interaction rates in experimental trials and from field data. Furthermore, social networks revealed that social familiarity (i.e., heterogeneity of interactions) can be both frequency- and- density dependent depending on the strength of the relationship (i.e., number of repeat interactions). Density also affected the likelihood that an interaction would occur; however, this was modified by vegetation association used by elk. My results reveal several ecological and evolutionary implications for information transfer and pathogen transmission. In particular, I show that seasonal inter-sex routes of transfer may exist and that transfer is likely to be density-dependent. Finally, I conclude that such transfer is modified by available resources.

Many mammals are social. The most basic social behaviour is when the actions of one conspecific are directed toward another, what we call the dyadic interaction. Both intrinsic and extrinsic factors may affect an individuals propensity to interact with other members of a population. I used a social cervid, elk (Cervus elaphus), as a model species to test the importance of intrinsic and extrinsic factors of sociality on dyadic interactions. Dyadic interactions not only form the basis for social structure and information transfer within a population, but are also routes of pathogen transmission. My objective in this thesis was thus twofold: to improve our understanding of sociobiology, but also to gain insight into how sociality may underlie the transmission of communicable wildlife disease. I used a hierarchical, autecological approach from DNA, through individual, dyad, group, subpopulation, and ultimately population to explore the effects of intrinsic factors (e.g., sex and pairwise genetic relatedness) and extrinsic factors (e.g., season, conspecific density, habitat, and elk group size) on sociality. Elk in Riding Mountain National Park (RMNP), Manitoba, Canada, are exposed to the causal agent of bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis; TB); however, spatial variation in apparent disease prevalence suggests that TB can only persist in one subpopulation within the Park. Using the natural RMNP system and a captive elk herd that I manipulated, I explored factors that influence interaction rates and durations (as a proxy for pathogen transmission) among elk. Sexual segregation in elk results in seasonal and sex-based differences in interaction rate and duration; with interactions peaking in autumn-winter for both sexes. Female-female dyads interact more frequently than male-male dyads. However, male-male dyads interact for longer durations than do female-female dyads. Interaction rate and duration did not covary with pairwise relatedness. Conspecific density also had sex-specific results for interaction rate and duration. Whereas male-male dyadic interaction rates increase with density, female-female dyads increase until they reach a threshold and subsequently reduce their interaction rates at high density. I observed density dependence in interaction rates in experimental trials and from field data. Furthermore, social networks revealed that social familiarity (i.e., heterogeneity of interactions) can be both frequency- and- density dependent depending on the strength of the relationship (i.e., number of repeat interactions). Density also affected the likelihood that an interaction would occur; however, this was modified by vegetation association used by elk. My results reveal several ecological and evolutionary implications for information transfer and pathogen transmission. In particular, I show that seasonal inter-sex routes of transfer may exist and that transfer is likely to be density-dependent. Finally, I conclude that such transfer is modified by available resources.

During the last decades, the presence of visual media has increased dramatically. However, very little empirical research has been carried out to determine the implication of the medium photograph as a visual information transmitter. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the characteristics of professional press photos that relate to war and armed conflicts and to examine the framing of victimhood. A thorough literature review as well as an iconographic interpretation of World Press Photos serves to ascertain data in order to permit answering the research questions.   The World Press Photo Foundation is the subject of research as it represents the most prestigious international competition for press photography at present and thus acts as an agenda-setter. That highlights the implication of its decisions about professional photographs since its coverage of certain issues biases the international media coverage of the same. It also affects the development of professional photojournalism. In this context the meaning of photographs in today’s visual media societies can be discussed.

The network coding is a new paradigm that has been shown to improve throughput, fault tolerance, and other quality of service parameters in communication networks. The basic idea of the network coding techniques is to relish the "mixing" nature of the information flows, i.e., many algebraic operations (e.g., addition, subtraction etc.) can be performed over the data packets. Whereas traditionally information flows are treated as physical commodities (e.g., cars) over which algebraic operations can not be performed. In this dissertation we answer some of the important open questions related to the network coding. Our work can be divided into four major parts. Firstly, we focus on network code design for the dynamic networks, i.e., the networks with frequently changing topologies and frequently changing sets of users. Examples of such dynamic networks are content distribution networks, peer-to-peer networks, and mobile wireless networks. A change in the network might result in infeasibility of the previously assigned feasible network code, i.e., all the users might not be able to receive their demands. The central problem in the design of a feasible network code is to assign local encoding coefficients for each pair of links in a way that allows every user to decode the required packets. We analyze the problem of maintaining the feasibility of a network code, and provide bounds on the number of modifications required under dynamic settings. We also present distributed algorithms for the network code design, and propose a new path-based assignment of encoding coefficients to construct a feasible network code. Secondly, we investigate the network coding problems in wireless networks. It has been shown that network coding techniques can significantly increase the overall throughput of wireless networks by taking advantage of their broadcast nature. In wireless networks each packet transmitted by a device is broadcasted within a certain area and can be overheard by the neighboring devices. When a device needs to transmit packets, it employs the Index Coding that uses the knowledge of what the device's neighbors have heard in order to reduce the number of transmissions. With the Index Coding, each transmitted packet can be a linear combination of the original packets. The Index Coding problem has been proven to be NP-hard, and NP-hard to approximate. We propose an efficient exact, and several heuristic solutions for the Index Coding problem. Noting that the Index Coding problem is NP-hard to approximate, we look at it from a novel perspective and define the Complementary Index Coding problem, where the objective is to maximize the number of transmissions that are saved by employing coding compared to the solution that does not involve coding. We prove that the Complementary Index Coding problem can be approximated in several cases of practical importance. We investigate both the multiple unicast and multiple multicast scenarios for the Complementary Index Coding problem for computational complexity, and provide polynomial time approximation algorithms. Thirdly, we consider the problem of accessing large data files stored at multiple locations across a content distribution, peer-to-peer, or massive storage network. Parts of the data can be stored in either original form, or encoded form at multiple network locations. Clients access the parts of the data through simultaneous downloads from several servers across the network. For each link used client has to pay some cost. A client might not be able to access a subset of servers simultaneously due to network restrictions e.g., congestion etc. Furthermore, a subset of the servers might contain correlated data, and accessing such a subset might not increase amount of information at the client. We present a novel efficient polynomial-time solution for this problem that leverages the matroid theory. Fourthly, we explore applications of the network coding for congestion mitigation and over flow avoidance in the global routing stage of Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) physical design. Smaller and smarter devices have resulted in a significant increase in the density of on-chip components, which has given rise to congestion and over flow as critical issues in on-chip networks. We present novel techniques and algorithms for reducing congestion and minimizing over flows.