Users of the Web usually use search engines to find answers to a variety of questions. Although search engines can rapidly process a large number of Web documents, in many cases, the answers returned by search engines are not relevant to the user’s information need, although they do contain the same keywords as the query. This is because the Web contains information sources created by numerous authors independently, and the authors’ vocabularies vary greatly. Furthermore, most words in natural languages have inherent ambiguity. This vocabulary mismatch between user queries and Web sources is often addressed through query expansion. Moreover, user questions are often short. The results of a search can be improved when the length of the question is long. Various query expansion methods that add useful question-related terms before processing the question have been proposed and proven to increase the performance of the result. Some of these query expansion methods add contextual information related to the user and the question. On the other hand, human communications are quite successful and seem to be very easy. This is mainly due to the understanding of language and the world knowledge that humans have. Human communication is more successful when there is an implicit understanding of everyday situations of others who take part in the communication. Here the implicit situational information, or the “context” that humans share, enables them to have a more meaningful interaction amongst themselves. Similar to human–human communications, improving computers’ access to context can increase the richness of human–computer communications, giving more useful computational services to users. Based on the above factors, this research proposes a method to make use of context in order to understand and process user requests. Here, the term “context” means the meanings associated with key query terms and preferences that have to be decided in order to process the query. As in a natural environment, results produced to different users for the same question could vary in an automated system. If the automated system knows users’ preferences related to the question, then it could make use of these preferences to process user queries, producing more relevant and useful results to the user. Hence, a new approach for a personalised query expansion is proposed in this research, where user queries are expanded with user preferences and hence the expanded queries that will be used for processing vary for different users. An architecture that is required for such a Web application to carryout a personalised query expansion with contextual information is also proposed in the thesis. The preferences that could be used for the query expansion are therefore user-specific. Users have different set of preferences depending on the tasks they want to perform. Similar tasks that have same types of preferences can be grouped into task based domains. Hence, user preferences will be the same in a domain, and will vary across domains. Furthermore, there can be different types of subtasks that could be performed within a domain. The set of preferences that could be used for each sub task could vary, and it will be a sub set of the set of preferences of the domain. Hence, an approach for a personalised query expansion which adds user, domain and task-specific preferences to user queries is proposed in this research. The main stages of this expansion are identified and discussed in this thesis. Each of these stages requires different contextual information which is represented in the context model. Out of the main stages identified in the query expansion process, the first three stages, the domain identification, task identification, and missing parameter identification, are explored in the thesis. As the preferences used for the expansion depend on the query domain, it is necessary to identify the domain of the query at first instance. Hence, a domain identification algorithm which makes use of eight different features is proposed in the thesis to identify domains of given queries. This domain identification also reduces the ambiguity of query terms. When the query domain is identified, context/associating meanings of query terms are known. This limits the scope of the possible misinterpretations of query terms. A domain ontology, domain dictionary, and user profile are used by the domain identification algorithm. The domain ontology consists of objects and their categories, attributes of objects and their categories, relationships among objects, and instances and their categories in the domain. The domain dictionary consists of objects and attributes. This is created automatically from the domain ontology. The user profile has the long term preferences of the user that are domain-specific and general. When the domain of the query is known, in order to decide the preferences of the user, the task specified in the query has to be identified. This task identification process is found to be similar in domains with similar activities. Hence, domains are grouped at this stage. These domain groups and the rules that could be used to find out the tasks in the domain groups are identified and discussed in the thesis. For each sub tasks in the domain groups, the types of preferences that could be used to expand user queries are identified and are used to expand user queries. An experiment is designed to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. The first three stages of the query expansion, the domain identification, task identification, and missing parameter identification, are implemented and evaluated. Samples of five domains are implemented, and queries are collected in these domains from various users. In order to create new domains, a wizard is provided by the system. This system also allows editing the existing domains, domain groups, and types of preferences in sub tasks of the domain groups. Instances of the attributes are manually identified and added to the system using the interface provided by the system. In each of the stages of the query expansion, the results of the queries are manually identified, and are compared with the results produced by the system. The results have confirmed that the proposed method has a positive impact in query expansion. The experiments, results and evaluation of the proposed query expansion approach are also presented in the thesis. The proposed approach for the query expansion could be used by search engines, organisations with a limited set of task domains, and any application that can be improved by making use of personalised query expansion. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The overall aim of this research project was to determine whether a technological spatial innovation, such as online spatial portal (OSP), would provide an effective mechanism to support better policy dialogue between the technical capacity and decision making spheres within and between local government, enabling improved policy development and application. This was addressed by using a qualitative, multi-methodological research methodology to examine both current theory and the practical experiences and opinions of local government professionals. The literature review focused on the emerging theory field of ‘policy dialogue’ - the local governance and the importance of spatial information (SI) and geographic information systems (GIS) for supporting decisions. The interview analysis of sample Greater Western Sydney (GWS) council professionals confirmed the complexity of local government policy. A significant issue that hindered policy development across the participating local governments was the occurrence of silo cultures within internal and external relationships between council officers. The second interview phase with GWS council professionals, followed by a demonstration of an OSP concept (GWSspatial), identified the applications, opportunities and challenges for the development and use of a technological spatial innovation. The key applications identified were- sharing and knowledge management of SI, immediate management of SI, immediate online access and integration of local/regional SI, and analysis opportunities to facilitate purposeful dialogue and informed decision making by council professionals within a region. Policy framework case studies were conducted at three scales: the Pitt Town development – at LGA level; Bushfire emergency management – at cross jurisdictional level; and the Sydney Metropolitan Strategy - at regional level. The catalysts, which trigger the need, acceptance and commitment of decision makers, thereby supporting the key applications of a technological spatial innovation include disaster response, critical environment management challenges and regional land use planning and management. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In modern chemical laboratories, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has become the technique of choice amongst separation scientists as evidenced by the huge body of published literature that employ the technique as the pre-eminent analytical method. Increasingly analytical chemists are seeking to determine the chemical signature (or fingerprint) of complex and perhaps even simple samples. The analysis of environmental samples, natural products, such as essential oils, the evaluation of illicit drugs, or the quality assurance of pharmaceuticals are just four areas where chemical fingerprinting may be important. The chemical classification of these types of mixtures can be undertaken using chromatographic methods of analysis coupled with detection processes that provide identification ie. mass spectroscopy (MS), infrared spectroscopy (IR), atomic spectroscopy (ICP) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). While these techniques find widespread use and their applications are growing at a rapid rate, their limitations as routine applications for determining chemical signatures, is limited by the initial purchase price and the high associated running costs; especially for hyphenated liquid chromatographic systems. In general, a high degree of operator expertise is also required to ensure correct operation and interpretation of the results. While complete chemical specification may be undertaken by using multiple hyphenated methods, none of the above mentioned techniques provide for a rapid means of detection on a routine or continuous mode of operation. This can limit their application. However, an alternative to monitor and evaluate the chemical signature of complex samples is to employ multidimensional separations. In the expanded multidimensional separation space the probability that two species will elute with exactly the same retention time in both separation dimensions decreases compared to the one-dimensional separation. This probability further decreases as the separation mechanisms become more divergent and the two-dimensional separation space is maximised. Hence, the uniqueness of a two-dimensional retention time increases and thereby the multidimensional separation approach becomes a means of chemical fingerprinting. Hence 2D-HPLC technique is a powerful and less expensive method of separation compared to hyphenated techniques. This thesis describes the development of a stand-alone 2D-HPLC system for the separation of complex samples. A comprehensive 2D-HPLC software package has been developed for data acquisition, hardware control, data processing and graphical presentation. Two data acquisition hardware modules have also been developed. These hardware and software modules have been integrated with existing equipment in our laboratory. The performance of this newly developed 2D-HPLC system has been successfully evaluated. All these details have been described in the five chapters of this thesis. / Master of Science (Honours)

The relationship between Maori and land is imperative. It forms the basis for developing conceptual blueprints fundamental to producing a data model from a Maori paradigm and integrating that cultural paradigm with western information systems technology. The primary objective of this thesis focuses on blending ancient Maori techniques for managing land information with the advanced tools offered by information systems technology. Like other oral traditions, information about ancestral land and resources were registered in the memories of tribal elders and leaders. Today Maori land information found in the Maori land courts are largely paper-based. By contrast, western civilisations have adapted quickly to computerised systems for managing land information. Unfortunately for Maori, most GIS tend to operate on models influenced by the viewpoint of the dominating culture and their world view. This poses challenges and risks for Maori. This research rejects the idea of adopting technology wholesale, based on western paradigms. Argued from an eclectic theoretical approach incorpating a Maori world view, this study captures the cultural concept of land, develops a conceptual blueprint based on that perspective, and engages that cultural stamp into a western system of managing land information. Thus a blend of the old and the new techniques for managing Maori land information is incorporated, hence ka pu te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi.

A GIS analysis procedure was developed to explore relationships between imagery, yield data, soil information, and other assessments of a field or orchard. A set of conversion utilities, a spreadsheet, and an inexpensive shape file viewer were used to manipulate, plot, and display data. Specific features described include procedures used to: 1) display automated yield monitoring and aerial imagery data as surface maps for visual analysis, 2) generate maps from gridded soil sampling schemes that display either the collected soil data values or management information derived from further manipulation of the sample values, 3) evaluate relationships among data layers such as yield monitor, imagery, and soil data, 4) conduct an upper boundary line evaluation of potential yield-limiting factors. The analysis process is demonstrated on wheat, meadowfoam, and hazelnut data, from crops grown in Oregon. / Graduation date: 2002

by Richard S. Marcus. / "September 1, 1982." / Bbliography: p. 64-68. / National Science Foundation Division of Information Science and Technology Grant Number NSF IST-80-06516

No description available.

William G. Tuller. / "April 23, 1949." / Includes bibliographical references. / Army Signal Corps Contract No. W-36-039 sc-32037 Project No. 102B. Dept. of the Army Project No. 3-99-10-022.

This paper describes the design and initial implementation of a web-based financial information system, intended to replace a Microsoft Access financial database in support of a federally funded, international health project. This system is being reimplemented for the web in order to provide stakeholders across the country (and potentially around the world) access to the project's financial information.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Southern California.