The existing District Health Information System in South Africa can be described as a facility based Information System, focusing on the clinics and hospitals and not on the community. Consequently, only those who access health services through these facilities are included in the system. Many children do not have access to basic health and social services and consequently, are denied their right to good health. Additionally, they are excluded from the routine Health Information System. Policy and resource decisions made by the District Managers, based on the current health facility information, reinforces the exclusion of these already marginalised children. The premise behind this research is that vulnerability of children can be tackled using two interconnected strategies. The first is through the creation of awareness of the situation of children and the second through mobilising the commitment and action of government and society to address this situation. These strategies can be supported by designing an Information System for action / an Information System that can be used to advocate and influence decisions and policies for the rights of these children / an Information System that includes all children. An interpretive participatory action research approach, using a case study in a rural municipality in South Africa, was adopted for the study of a child-health Community-Based Information System. The context in which the community is placed, as well as the structures which are embedded in it, was examined using Structuration Theory. This theory also influenced the design of the Information System. As the aim of the research is to change the Information System to include vulnerable children, a Critical Social Theoretical and longitudinal perspective was adopted. In particular, concepts from Habermas, such as the creation of a public sphere and the &rsquo / Ideal Speech Situation&rsquo / , informed the methodology chosen and were used to analyse the research undertaken. <br /> <br /> Based on the research conducted in this municipality, four main changes to the Health Information System were made. These were: &bull / determination of the community&rsquo / s own indicators / &bull / changes in data collection forms / &bull / creation of forums for analysis and reflection, and / &bull / changes in the information flows for improved feedback. Other practical contributions of the research are the development of local capacities in data collection and analysis, the development of practical guidelines on the design of a child-health Community-Based Information System, and the development of strategies for enabling participation and communication. In line with the action research approach adopted, and the desire to link theory and practice, the research also contributed on a theoretical level. These contributions include extending the use of Structuration Theory, in conjunction with Habermas&rsquo / Critical Social Theory, to the empirical context of South Africa / addressing the gap of Community-Based Information Systems in Information System design / extending the debate on participation and communication in Information Systems to &rsquo / developing&rsquo / countries, and developing generalisations from a qualitative case study.

Developed with the intention to make the patient data storage system in the clinical outpatient area more efficient, this system stores all pertinent and relevant patient data such as lab results, patient history and X-ray images. The system is accessible via the internet as well as operable over a local area network (LAN). The intended audience for this program is essentially the clinical staff (e.g., physicians, nursing staff, secretarial staff). The computer program was developed using Java Server Pages (JSP) and utilizes the Oracle 9i database.

Decisions are made with varying degrees of effectiveness and efficiency and are influenced by a myriad of internal and external forces. Decision Support Systems (DSS) software can effectively aid decision making through processing the facts and producing meaningful outputs for use by the person or team in making the final choice. Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a form of DSS, are very effective when locational data are present. This thesis talks about using GIS software in decision making procedures.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1979 K56 / Master of Science

Information Science / D.Litt. et Phil. (Information Science)

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: An area of data mining and statistics that is currently receiving considerable attention is the field of multi-label learning. Problems in this field are concerned with scenarios where each data case can be associated with a set of labels instead of only one. In this thesis, we review the field of multi-label learning and discuss the lack of suitable benchmark data available for evaluating multi-label algorithms. We propose a technique for simulating multi-label data, which allows good control over different data characteristics and which could be useful for conducting comparative studies in the multi-label field. We also discuss the explosion in data in recent years, and highlight the need for some form of dimension reduction in order to alleviate some of the challenges presented by working with large datasets. Feature (or variable) selection is one way of achieving dimension reduction, and after a brief discussion of different feature selection techniques, we propose a new technique for feature selection in a multi-label context, based on the concept of independent probes. This technique is empirically evaluated by using simulated multi-label data and it is shown to achieve classification accuracy with a reduced set of features similar to that achieved with a full set of features. The proposed technique for feature selection is then also applied to the field of music information retrieval (MIR), specifically the problem of musical instrument recognition. An overview of the field of MIR is given, with particular emphasis on the instrument recognition problem. The particular goal of (polyphonic) musical instrument recognition is to automatically identify the instruments playing simultaneously in an audio clip, which is not a simple task. We specifically consider the case of duets – in other words, where two instruments are playing simultaneously – and approach the problem as a multi-label classification one. In our empirical study, we illustrate the complexity of musical instrument data and again show that our proposed feature selection technique is effective in identifying relevant features and thereby reducing the complexity of the dataset without negatively impacting on performance. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: ‘n Area van dataontginning en statistiek wat tans baie aandag ontvang, is die veld van multi-etiket leerteorie. Probleme in hierdie veld beskou scenarios waar elke datageval met ‘n stel etikette geassosieer kan word, instede van slegs een. In hierdie skripsie gee ons ‘n oorsig oor die veld van multi-etiket leerteorie en bespreek die gebrek aan geskikte standaard datastelle beskikbaar vir die evaluering van multi-etiket algoritmes. Ons stel ‘n tegniek vir die simulasie van multi-etiket data voor, wat goeie kontrole oor verskillende data eienskappe bied en wat nuttig kan wees om vergelykende studies in die multi-etiket veld uit te voer. Ons bespreek ook die onlangse ontploffing in data, en beklemtoon die behoefte aan ‘n vorm van dimensie reduksie om sommige van die uitdagings wat deur sulke groot datastelle gestel word die hoof te bied. Veranderlike seleksie is een manier van dimensie reduksie, en na ‘n vlugtige bespreking van verskillende veranderlike seleksie tegnieke, stel ons ‘n nuwe tegniek vir veranderlike seleksie in ‘n multi-etiket konteks voor, gebaseer op die konsep van onafhanklike soek-veranderlikes. Hierdie tegniek word empiries ge-evalueer deur die gebruik van gesimuleerde multi-etiket data en daar word gewys dat dieselfde klassifikasie akkuraatheid behaal kan word met ‘n verminderde stel veranderlikes as met die volle stel veranderlikes. Die voorgestelde tegniek vir veranderlike seleksie word ook toegepas in die veld van musiek dataontginning, spesifiek die probleem van die herkenning van musiekinstrumente. ‘n Oorsig van die musiek dataontginning veld word gegee, met spesifieke klem op die herkenning van musiekinstrumente. Die spesifieke doel van (polifoniese) musiekinstrument-herkenning is om instrumente te identifiseer wat saam in ‘n oudiosnit speel. Ons oorweeg spesifiek die geval van duette – met ander woorde, waar twee instrumente saam speel – en hanteer die probleem as ‘n multi-etiket klassifikasie een. In ons empiriese studie illustreer ons die kompleksiteit van musiekinstrumentdata en wys weereens dat ons voorgestelde veranderlike seleksie tegniek effektief daarin slaag om relevante veranderlikes te identifiseer en sodoende die kompleksiteit van die datastel te verminder sonder ‘n negatiewe impak op klassifikasie akkuraatheid.

Thesis (MScEng)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Actionl'I' is a project undertaken by a consortium consisting of CSIR, Simeka Management Consulting, University of Pretoria and the University of Stellenbosch for the Innovation Fund of the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology in South Africa. Their objective is to create a basic specification for seletected information exchange that is compatible with all levels of government. The comparison between existing information systems at municipal level and ActionIT specifications will be investigated for the purpose of exposing shortcomings on both sides. Appropriate features of existing information systems will be identified for the purpose of enhancing the ActionIT specifications. The ActionIT project is presently in its user requirement and conceptual model definition phase, and this thesis aims to assist in providing information that may be helpful infuture developments. The study undertaken in this thesis requires the application of analytical theory and a working knowledge of information systems and databases in order to: 1. Research existing information systems and relevant engineering data at local municipal authorities. Also important will be the gathering of information regarding systems currently in use, and the format in which information is stored and utilised at municipalities. 2. Do an adequate analysis of the contents of recorded information. This information will establish background knowledge on the operations of local authorities and a clearer understanding of information systems. 3. Evaluate to what degree existing information systems comply with ActionIT specifications. This will be the main focus of this thesis. Thus the focus of this thesis is to record (provide an overview oj) activities in a municipal environment and the interaction with the environment on information system level where standards provided by ActionIT as an Open Decision Support Framework can be of value. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: ActionIT is in projek wat deur ActionIT konsortium bestaande uit die WNNR, Simeka Management Consulting, Universiteit van Pretoria en die Universiteit van Stellenbosch, onderneem is vir die Innovasie Vonds van die departement van Kuns, Kultuur, Wetenskap en Tegnologie van Suid-Afrika. Hul mikpunt is om in spesifikasie vir informasie sisteme te onwikkel, wat met alle vlakke van regering kan skakel. Die vergelyking tussen die bestaande informasie sisteme op munisipale vlak en ActionIT spesifikasies salondersoek word vir die doelom tekortkominge aan beide kante uit te wys. Vir die verbetering van ActionIT spesifikasies moet aanvaarbare eienskappe van bestaande informasie sisteme geindentifiseer word. Die ActionIT projek is tans in die gebruikers vereiste en konseptueIe model definisie fase, en die tesis is gemik daarop om 'n bydrae te lewer tot die bevordering van informasie wat mag help in toekomstige ontwikkeling. Die werk onderneem in die tesis vereis in teoretiese kennis van informasie sisteme en databasise om: 1. in Ondersoek in die bestaande informasie sisteem en relefante ingenieurs data van in plaaslike munisipaliteit te doen. Die insameling van informasie oor die huidige sisteme in gebruik, die formaat waarin die informasie gestoor en gebruik word is ook belangrik. 2. in Analise van die inhoud van die waargenome informasie te doen. Die informasie sal agtergrond kennis gee oor die werking van plaaslike munisipale owerheid en in beter insig in informasie sisteme gee. 3. in Evaluasie van die verband tussen die bestaande informasie sisteme en ActionIT spesifikasies te doen. Dit is die hoof fokus punt van die tesis. Dus die doel van die tesis is om in oorsig te gee oor die aktiviteite in in munisipale omgewing en die interaksie met die omgewing op informasie sisteem vlak. Waar standaarde wat deur ActionIT voorgeskryf word as in "Open Decision Support Framework" van belang kan wees.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration