Information systems have become an essential part of every business organization's production and management process. It is critical to an enterprise to integrate its organization and information systems. However, the lack of computer-supported tools for modeling organization and information systems has put their integration far beyond our reach. In this research, a metasystem approach that can integrate organization and information system modeling by means of group decision support systems (GDSS) and computer-aided software engineering (CASE) has been proposed. A prototype system, called MetaPlex, has been designed and implemented to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach. The emphasis in design and implementation of MetaPlex has been on making the underlying knowledge representation expressive enough to meet modeling requirements and ensuring that the user interface is easy for managers and users to use. The use of a GDSS makes it possible to capture strategic assumptions and business objectives, as well as structures of an organization, from managers through face-to-face group meetings. The application of the metasystem concepts in generating GDSS tools makes the customization of a GDSS environment possible. Because of GDSS environment driven by a metasystem can be used to acquire information about a target system from multiple experts in a structured format that can be integrated with CASE tools, this approach provides a basis for a seamless integration of GDSS and CASE tools to support both organization and information system modeling.

The design of information systems to support crisis management can be improved when more is known about the ways in which people process information under time pressure. A laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of time pressure on decision behavior. The decision task required the subjects to use a computerized information display to search for information under time pressure. When the time limit for searching expired, the subjects were required to make a decision. The decision task type, choice or judgment, and three separate information display formats were also manipulated. A total of 144 student subjects were randomly assigned to the resulting six combinations of task/display treatments. Each subject performed the decision task at three levels of time pressure. Dependent measures included information search strategy, decision strategy, decision consistency, and decision quality. Analyses of the results suggest that time pressure had no effect on the information search strategy or the decision strategy. For five of the six task/display groups, time pressure was inversely related to consistency and quality. One group exhibited an inverted U relationship between time pressure and consistency. Display format had an effect on information search strategy. Task type had an effect on both consistency and quality; the performances of the choice groups were superior to those of the judgment groups. The implications of these findings with respect to the design of information systems is discussed.

This dissertation describes partial requirements for the Plexsys Development Environment (DE) for developing and implementing Management Information Systems (MIS). A DE is a complete and unified set of concepts, techniques, and tools (methods) that aid in normative requirements analysis, elicitation and ideation of unique requirements, modeling, analyzing, and performing design transforms. A framework is proposed as an aid for evaluating existing MIS analysis and design methods, and for developing a complete DE. A MIS produces decision support information and performs the transaction processing task. Part of this dissertation is to formalize the analysis and modeling of transaction processing. As part of this process, a modeling language and processing requirements are proposed. A design transform is proposed that develops logical system requirements given a set of decision support and transaction processing information requirements. This transform uses a formalization of the output decomposition process. In order to automate the transform, functional data types are defined. Further, constant data processing requirements are defined. Using the Plexsys software base as a model, the concept of the Enterprise Software Development Library (ESDL) is proposed. This library contains software tools specifically for the extension of programming languages for the business data processing environment.

Since the mid-1960s, the Communist Party and government of the Soviet Union have allocated substantial resources for introducing computers into industrial enterprises. This dissertation assesses the results of this program by addressing three fundamental questions: (1) To what extent have computerized management information systems been absorbed into Soviet enterprises? (2) What has facilitated or hindered absorption? (3) What is the long-range potential for computerized enterprise management information systems (ASUPs)? Although computing has had a revolutionary impact on the way that business is done in the United States, no such effect has been obtained in the USSR. Mainframes have been installed in a relatively small number of large Soviet enterprises, but computing has failed to become an integral part of management with the exception of some routine accounting and planning applications. A handful of time-sharing centers provide computing services for other enterprises. At the superstructure level, which comprises primarily those organizations positioned above the enterprise, the Soviet enterprise is subject to conflicting or misdirected incentives and a great deal of bureaucratic interference. ASUPs have been constrained because informal, marginal, or illegal procedures and relationships necessary to manage Soviet enterprises are not amenable to computerization; the payoff from computing is small, while the risk is great; and other parts of the system have failed to adapt to it. At the infrastructure level, which provides computing services to enterprises, the overall quality of hardware, software, and systems design has been poor. Even within the constraints on applicable usage, ASUPs have failed to live up to their potential. The focus of the Soviet computing effort is shifting away from enterprise management into other areas which are somewhat more isloated from the surrounding system: process control, robotics, and computer-aided design and manufacturing. Further efforts within the ASUP program are being directed towards time-sharing centers to provide services to smaller enterprises and national standards for accounting applications. The incremental absorption of management applications will continue, but without major systemic changes, its impact will remain marginal.

An important part of the process of assessing the environmental impacts of coal-fired energy development in the Southwest is the transfer of information between electric utilities, federal agencies, and the interested public. There are, however, several problems associated with the transfer of information among the different groups. The acquisition of factual material on power projects by the interested public, for example, is adversely affected by the sufficiency, convenience, and credibility of present sources. Efforts of electric utilities and federal agencies to effectively communicate impact information are hindered by the inability of existing sources to selectively transfer information and to rapidly transmit information on the cumulative impacts of many combinations of power plants. This research concerns the development and evaluation of a computerized information system designed to selectively transfer information on both the cumulative and individual impacts of several electric generating facilities located in the southwestern United States. The information system incorporates features of management information systems, environmental information systems, and an issue-oriented system developed at The University of Illinois, making it a hybrid system capable of communicating impact information derived from a variety of sources. Specifically, the system is able to either retrieve textual material stored in a base information file or to execute on-line simulation models and routines in order to describe environmental impacts. Interactions with the information system are performed at a remote computer terminal by an information specialist who, with the assistance of supporting documents, helps users select information of interest. Evaluation of the system was carried out by demonstrating it to prospective users from electric utilities, government agencies, and the interested public in Arizona. The response of the users to the system shows that this type of communications technology is a viable means of transmitting environmental information. The results of the evaluation also indicate that the system's usefulness is more likely to depend on its credibility than on its convenience and that computer models are an effective way of describing cumulative impacts caused by a series of power plants.

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This thesis concerns a study of the application, and performance optimization, of standard lead-lag compensation techniques to improve the closed loop performance of a focus servo system for an optical data storage device. Only with proper application of these compensation techniques will it be possible to meet the sub-micrometer focus error tolerances while maintaining the stability of the closed loop system. The performance indices used in this optimization study are the Integral of the Squared Error (ISE), the Integral of the Absolute Error (IAE), and the Integral of the Time multiplied by the Absolute Error (ITAE) as defined below, with the error function e(t) being the focus error of the closed loop servo system in response to a step input. ISE= ∫OT e²(t) dt IAE= ∫OT / e(t) / dt ITAE= ∫OT t / e(t) / dt

The increasing demand for water to provide for South Africa's growing population has resulted in increasing pressure being placed on the country's limited water resources. Water developments however cannot be undertaken without considering the water resource base and the key policy frameworks that governs its use and protection. The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry as the custodian of water resources in the country initiated the implementation of the National Water Act during 1999. It has therefore the mandate to ensure that the protection, use, development, conservation, management and control of water resources be achieved in an equitable, efficient and sustainable manner, to the benefit of society at large. The National Water Act prescribes that the Minister of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry develop a system for the classification of all significant water resources to ensure its protection and sustainable utilisation. The classification system is to be used to determine the class and resource quality objectives of all significant water resources. In the absence of a formal classification system, a framework was developed through this research study in order to guide both the development of a classification system and the implementation, hence ensuring an overarching structure within which intergrated water resource management can be achieved. The main goal of this framework was to seek an appropriate balance between protecting significant water resources and at the same time promoting water resource utilisation in support of socio-economic development. This framework was executed in the preliminary determination of the Reserve for the Thukela River catchment to ensure that informed and calculated decision-making processes are followed once significant water resources are classified.

It is recognized that security services in information-processing systems require access to finite resources in the execution of their duties. In response to the changing threats faced by a system and/or the availability of system resources, it is desired that the system be able to adjust its operational security policies automatically while continuing to function under an acceptable global security policy. This work involves the analysis and integration of a dynamic security service (DSS)-enabled IPsec implementation into a form ready for installation into the MYSEA environment. The feasibility of dynamic security services is demonstrated with support for secrecy and/or integrity protection of MLS server-to-end-user communication via a Trusted Path Extension. This is accomplished through the modulation of the IPsec security associations to adapt to operational needs. The result of this research is beneficial to Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and the intelligence community by enabling remote distributed computing clients to operate in a secure manner that remains flexible to adapt to changing requirements of protection on the network and the availability of resources on terminating hosts. Furthermore, these methods can aid the realization of high-assurance edge-client connectivity in the creation and extension of the Global Information Grid (GIG).

Dissertation submitted in compliance with the requirements for Masters Degree in Technology in the Department of Electrical Engineering (Light Current, Technikon Natal, 2000. / The computational analysis of eukaryotic promoters are among the most important and complex research domains that may contribute to complete gene identification. The current methods for promoter recognition are not sufficiently developed. Eukaryotic promoters contain a number of short motifs that may be used in promoter recognition. Having good computational models for these motifs can be crucial for increased efficiency of promoter recognition programs. This study proposes a combined statistical and LVQ neural network system as a computational model of the TAT A box motif of eukaryotic promoters. The methodology used is universal and applicable to any short functional motif in DNA. The statistical analysis of the core TAT A motif hexamer and its neighboring haxamers show strong regularities that can be used in motif recognition. Moreover, the positional distribution of the TAT A motif in terms of its distance from the transcription start site is very regular and is used in the statistical modeling. Furthermore, the matching score of the position weight matrix for the motif was used as a part of the model. Based on these statistical properties. a novel LV Q classifier for TAT A motif recognition is developed. The characteristics of the method are that the genetic algorithm was used for finding good initial weights of the LV Q system, while fine tuning of two LVQ networks was done by the lvq? algorithm. The final computational model is developed for a recognition level of 67.8o/c correct recognition on the test set with less than 1% false recognition. This model is evaluated in the task of promoter recognition on an independent test set. The results in promoter recognition outperform three other promoter recognition programs. It is shown that the recognition of promoters based on the recognition of the TAT A motifs using this new model is superior to the recognition based on the currently used position weight matrix description of this motif. / M