Good management information is critical to the success of any organisation. Without proper information, the organisation will starve and management will steer it towards its own destruction. Although management usually receives a constant flow of information every day, it does not necessarily serve its purpose. The information could be useful and contribute to good decision making. It could also be wrong, which could contribute to poor decisions and failure. Finally it could be available but inappropriate to the management of the organisation. Computer systems produce most of the management information in organisations. There are a variety of types of computer equipment and applications that could make a significant contribution to improve the quality of the information produced in an organisation. Improving the quality of the information could enhance the decisions and actions of management and therefore improve the results of the organisation. The objective of this study is to develop a framework for enabling managers to understand the attributes of quality information, and to identify appropriate computer equipment and applications to enhance the quality of information. The hypothesis is as follows: "Quality information is that information that can have a decisive impact on the decisions and action of the decision maker. It is feasible to identify the attributes of quality information. This research clarifies the main and supportive attributes of quality information. Computer equipment and applications, collectively known as computer tools, used and managed in an organisation contribute to enhance or impair quality information. These tools, and the role they can play to produce quality information, will be explained in this study. " To support the hypothesis the study is conducted in three phases. Phase 1 will establish the attributes of quality information. It commences by considering the historical development of computers and information. It explores the different driving forces that produced the technology of today and tomorrow. It then explores the nature and characteristics of information to develop an appreciation for the complexity and intricacies of information. This phase concludes by identifying the attributes of quality information: relevancy, accuracy, timeliness and comprehensibility. Phase 2 will assess the contribution of computer tools to produce quality information. The contribution that the computer equipment and applications make to enhance the attributes of quality information is described and evaluated. Computer tools are defined, and a method of assessing their contribution to enhance quality is designed and applied. The phase concludes with a summary of the contribution that the tools could make to enhance specific information components. The final phase produces a framework to evaluate the production of quality information. With a clear understanding on the one hand of the attributes of quality information, and, on the other hand of the contribution that different computer equipment and applications can make to improve the quality of information, a framework is developed to help managers to identify appropriate technology to improve the information on which they base their decisions. This framework could be used by information managers to improve the effectiveness of management's actions and decisions. The results of the study, it is submitted, support the stated hypothesis and add benefit to the practical application of information management. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Accounting / Unrestricted

Information is an important part of the manual assembly process. Information provides the user with the means to fulfil assembly tasks so that the right quality as well as high productivity are accomplished. This thesis addresses issues connected to information and information use in a modern manual assembly environment, and how these issues affect human operators, quality and productivity. The overall objectives of the research were to gain further knowledge on how attention affects the internal reject rate, to investigate these phenomena in industrial and laboratory environments and finally to propose a suitable evaluation method to be utilised at the design stage of an information system. Studies were performed with the purpose of investigating how the assembly personnel were affected by the information and how it affected quality and productivity. The studies were performed in an assembly plant and in the laboratory. Quantitative data collection included 10 days and nights of production where the information impact on quality was investigated. Connected to this study was a qualitative survey performed among 171 persons from the assembly personnel. The laboratory study took place during three days, approximately eight hours each day. It involved 30 persons, all experienced assembly workers from the reference assembly plant. The focus of this study was how information affected the personnel and thereby the productivity. The findings revealed that information affected the quality rates and productivity and that this can be linked to how the information is presented as well as when the information is presented. It was possible to link these findings to the outcome of a successful information search process, and to conclude that a use of an evaluation method or work process during the product lifecycle could have made it possible to avoid some of the problems connected to the information presentation. This is the basis for a proposed pragmatic evaluation method. The method was tested as a support system during the design of a prototype user interface to be used at the pilot plant. The major contribution of this research is the connection between attention and quality as well as the connection between attention and productivity. Knowledge regarding the importance of presenting the information at the right time must also be regarded as an important and proven contribution.

The rapid development of information technology in the recent years has added a range of new featuresto the traditional information environment, which has a profound impact on university library services and users. The Quality of Service parameter in library services has reached a broader consensus,which directly reflects customer satisfactions and loyalty. Exploring the evaluation frameworks for service quality in university libraries cannot be undermined in this context. Besides, existing evaluation frameworks of service quality of university library services are also facing numerous challenges due to their imperfections. Thus,there is an urgency and necessity to explore and enhance the efficiencies of the evaluation frameworks of service quality. To this end, this thesis conducts a systematic analysisof evaluation frameworks with a motivation of identifying the core components that needs enhancements for achieving effective service quality in Chinese university libraries through empirical methods. Furthermore, the inferences extracted from the analysis has been exploited to provide suitable recommendations for improving the service quality of university libraries.

Low quality information such as spam and rumors is a nuisance to people and hinders them from consuming information that is pertinent to them or that they are looking for. As social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ have become important communication platforms in people's daily lives, malicious users make them as major targets to pollute with low quality information, which we also call as Denial of Information (DoI) attacks. How to analyze and detect low quality information in social networks for preventing DoI attacks is the major research problem I will address in this dissertation. Although individual social networks are capable of filtering a significant amount of low quality information they receive, they usually require large amounts of resources (e.g, personnel) and incur a delay before detecting new types of low quality information. Also the evolution of various low quality information posts lots of challenges to defensive techniques. My work contains three major parts: 1). analytics and detection framework of low quality information, 2). evolutionary study of low quality information, and 3). detection approaches of low quality information. In part I, I proposed social spam analytics and detection framework SPADE across multiple social networks showing the efficiency and flexibility of cross-domain classification and associative classification. In part II, I performed a large-scale evolutionary study on web page spam and email spam over a long period of time. In part III, I designed three detection approaches used in detecting low quality information in social networks: click traffic analysis of short URL spam, behavior analysis of URL spam and information diffusion analysis of rumors in social networks. Our study shows promising results in analyzing and detecting low quality information in social networks.

E-learning systems provide a promising solution as an information exchanging channel. Improved technology could mean faster and easier access to information but does not necessarily ensure the quality of this information. Therefore it is essential to develop valid and reliable methods of quality measurement and carry out careful information quality evaluations. Information quality frameworks are developed to measure the quality of information systems, generally from the designers' viewpoint. The recent proliferation of e-services, and e-learning particularly, raises the need for a new quality framework in the context of e-learning systems. The main contribution of this thesis is to propose a new information quality framework, with 14 information quality attributes grouped in three quality dimensions: intrinsic, contextual representation and accessibility. We report results based on original questionnaire data and factor analysis. Moreover, we validate the proposed framework using an empirical approach. We report our validation results on the basis of data collected from an original questionnaire and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in particular. However, it is difficult to measure information quality in an e-learning context because the concept of information quality is complex and it is expected that the measurements will be multidimensional in nature. Reliable measures need to be obtained in a systematic way, whilst considering the purpose of the measurement. Therefore, we start by adopting a Goal Question Metrics (GQM) approach to develop a set of quality metrics for the identified quality attributes within the proposed framework. We then define an assessment model and measurement scheme, based on a multi element analysis technique. The obtained results can be considered to be promising and positive, and revealed that the framework and assessment scheme could give good predictions for information quality within e-learning context. This research generates novel contributions as it proposes a solution to the problems raised from the absence of consensus regarding evaluation standards and methods for measuring information quality within an e-learning context. Also, it anticipates the feasibility of taking advantage of web mining techniques to automate the retrieval process of the information required for quality measurement. This assessment model is useful to e-learning systems designers, providers and users as it gives a comprehensive indication of the quality of information in such systems, and also facilitates the evaluation, allows comparisons and analysis of information quality.

A internet passa a ter uma grande importância na comunicação em odontologia e a qualidade da informação é um dos aspectos fundamentais para a sua correta utilização. O objetivo desse trabalho foi avaliar a qualidade da informação na Internet em websites de clínicas e consultórios odontológicos. O trabalho foi dividido em duas etapas. A primeira consistiu em realizar um estudo hermenêutico da legislação e documentos pertinentes. A segunda etapa teve por objetivo verificar a qualidade da informação disponível nos websites selecionados. Para realizar a análise hermenêutica foram elaboradas 39 (trinta e nove) questões com dúvidas sobre a divulgação de assuntos odontológicos. O questionário foi enviado ao Conselho Regional de Odontologia do Estado de São Paulo. Foi revisada a legislação pertinente sobre o assunto. Para avaliar a qualidade da informação foi realizado um estudo transversal. A População do estudo foi composta por 100 websites de clínicas e consultórios odontológicos da região da Grande São Paulo. Tomou-se por base os critérios estabelecidos pela Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) em conjunto com o Health Information Technology Institute (HITI) e o Código de Ética Odontológica (2006), resultando em 25 (vinte e cinco) questões que avaliaram a qualidade da informação nos websites de clínicas e consultórios odontológicos. A qualidade da informação nos websites se mostrou regular, com 53,68% do total de pontos possíveis, apresentando baixa qualidade principalmente nos indicadores de atualização (ausência da data de atualização), hierarquia de evidência (ausência de referências bibliográficas), avisos institucionais (ausência de alertas sobre limitação da informação), perfil do site (ausência dos termos de sigilo e privacidade das informações), ausência de mecanismo de busca interno, ausência de fóruns de discussão e ausência do número de inscrição no Conselho dos profissionais mencionados, que contribuíram para a redução de credibilidade dos websites. Dessa forma, a avaliação indica que os websites de clínicas e consultórios precisam ser melhorados e que os órgãos competentes devem dar mais atenção para a qualidade da informação apresentados na Internet. Sugere-se para futuras pesquisas a avaliação da qualidade da informação a partir da importância dada por pacientes, cirurgiões-dentistas e desenvolvedores de websites com os critérios apresentados no trabalho. O objetivo é gerar uma contínua melhoria desse importante sistema de informação, contribuindo para o desenvolvimento do relacionamento entre pacientes e cirurgiões-dentistas. / Nowadays, the Internet has a great importance in communication in dentistry and quality of information is a fundamental for its correct use. The objective of this study was to evaluate the information quality on the Internet, in websites of clinics and dental offices. The work was divided into two stages. The first one was to perform a hermeneutic study of legislation and relevant documents. The second step was to verify the information quality available in selected websites. At the hermeneutic analysis, 39 (thirty nine) issues with questions were made based on the disclosure of dental subjects. The questionnaire was sent to the São Paulo Regional Council of Dentistry. It was reviewed the relevant legislation about the subject. To evaluate the information quality, a cross-sectional study was made. The study population consisted of 100 clinic websites and dental offices in the metropolis of São Paulo. It was based on the criteria established by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in with the Health Information Technology Institute (HITI) and the Code of Ethics in Dentistry (2006), resulting in 25 (twenty five) questions that evaluated quality of information on the websites of clinics and dental offices. The quality of information on websites showed regular, with 53,68% of the total possible points, with low quality indicators, especially in the update (no date of update), hierarchy of evidence (references absence), institutional warnings (alerts absence about limitation of information), the site profile (absence of the information confidentiality and privacy terms), no internal search engine, no discussion forums and absence of the registration number of the professionals mentioned in the Council, which contributed to the reduction of websites credibility. So, the evaluation indicates that the clinics websites and dental offices need to be improved and that the competent institutions should give more attention to the information quality presented on the Internet. It is suggested for future researches to evaluate the information quality from the importance given by patients, dentists and website developers with criteria presented into this study. Its objective is to improve continuously this important system of information, contributing with the development of the relationship between patients and dentists.

<p>One goal in the development of future cellular systems is to increase performance. Channel dependent scheduling can possibly contribute to a performance enhancement. It requires channel qualityinformation and uplink channel knowledge is often incomplete. This master thesis work compares channel dependent scheduling and channel independent scheduling for a Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access-based uplink in time domain and time and frequencydomain assuming continuous channel quality information updates. It also evaluates different methods for providing channel quality information by investigating how the limited channel knowledge they supply affects the performance of channel dependent scheduling.</p><p>Single-cell simulations with perfect channel knowledge indicate small gains for channel dependent scheduling. Large gains are seen when performing frequency and time domain scheduling instead of only time domain scheduling. Limited channel knowledge causes performance loss for channel dependent scheduling. The performance is only slightly decreased if a method with sufficiently frequent providing of channel quality information updates is applied.</p><p>More realistic multi-cell simulations show large gains for channel dependent scheduling. It is possible that these results are influenced by link adaptation and scheduling problems due to non predictable interference when performing dynamic scheduling. In the comparison between channel dependent and channel independent scheduling the channel dependent scheduling can benefit from the fact that the selected channel dependent scheduling algorithms result in a more static scheduling than the selected channel independent scheduling algorithms do.</p>

One goal in the development of future cellular systems is to increase performance. Channel dependent scheduling can possibly contribute to a performance enhancement. It requires channel qualityinformation and uplink channel knowledge is often incomplete. This master thesis work compares channel dependent scheduling and channel independent scheduling for a Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access-based uplink in time domain and time and frequencydomain assuming continuous channel quality information updates. It also evaluates different methods for providing channel quality information by investigating how the limited channel knowledge they supply affects the performance of channel dependent scheduling. Single-cell simulations with perfect channel knowledge indicate small gains for channel dependent scheduling. Large gains are seen when performing frequency and time domain scheduling instead of only time domain scheduling. Limited channel knowledge causes performance loss for channel dependent scheduling. The performance is only slightly decreased if a method with sufficiently frequent providing of channel quality information updates is applied. More realistic multi-cell simulations show large gains for channel dependent scheduling. It is possible that these results are influenced by link adaptation and scheduling problems due to non predictable interference when performing dynamic scheduling. In the comparison between channel dependent and channel independent scheduling the channel dependent scheduling can benefit from the fact that the selected channel dependent scheduling algorithms result in a more static scheduling than the selected channel independent scheduling algorithms do.

A internet passa a ter uma grande importância na comunicação em odontologia e a qualidade da informação é um dos aspectos fundamentais para a sua correta utilização. O objetivo desse trabalho foi avaliar a qualidade da informação na Internet em websites de clínicas e consultórios odontológicos. O trabalho foi dividido em duas etapas. A primeira consistiu em realizar um estudo hermenêutico da legislação e documentos pertinentes. A segunda etapa teve por objetivo verificar a qualidade da informação disponível nos websites selecionados. Para realizar a análise hermenêutica foram elaboradas 39 (trinta e nove) questões com dúvidas sobre a divulgação de assuntos odontológicos. O questionário foi enviado ao Conselho Regional de Odontologia do Estado de São Paulo. Foi revisada a legislação pertinente sobre o assunto. Para avaliar a qualidade da informação foi realizado um estudo transversal. A População do estudo foi composta por 100 websites de clínicas e consultórios odontológicos da região da Grande São Paulo. Tomou-se por base os critérios estabelecidos pela Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) em conjunto com o Health Information Technology Institute (HITI) e o Código de Ética Odontológica (2006), resultando em 25 (vinte e cinco) questões que avaliaram a qualidade da informação nos websites de clínicas e consultórios odontológicos. A qualidade da informação nos websites se mostrou regular, com 53,68% do total de pontos possíveis, apresentando baixa qualidade principalmente nos indicadores de atualização (ausência da data de atualização), hierarquia de evidência (ausência de referências bibliográficas), avisos institucionais (ausência de alertas sobre limitação da informação), perfil do site (ausência dos termos de sigilo e privacidade das informações), ausência de mecanismo de busca interno, ausência de fóruns de discussão e ausência do número de inscrição no Conselho dos profissionais mencionados, que contribuíram para a redução de credibilidade dos websites. Dessa forma, a avaliação indica que os websites de clínicas e consultórios precisam ser melhorados e que os órgãos competentes devem dar mais atenção para a qualidade da informação apresentados na Internet. Sugere-se para futuras pesquisas a avaliação da qualidade da informação a partir da importância dada por pacientes, cirurgiões-dentistas e desenvolvedores de websites com os critérios apresentados no trabalho. O objetivo é gerar uma contínua melhoria desse importante sistema de informação, contribuindo para o desenvolvimento do relacionamento entre pacientes e cirurgiões-dentistas. / Nowadays, the Internet has a great importance in communication in dentistry and quality of information is a fundamental for its correct use. The objective of this study was to evaluate the information quality on the Internet, in websites of clinics and dental offices. The work was divided into two stages. The first one was to perform a hermeneutic study of legislation and relevant documents. The second step was to verify the information quality available in selected websites. At the hermeneutic analysis, 39 (thirty nine) issues with questions were made based on the disclosure of dental subjects. The questionnaire was sent to the São Paulo Regional Council of Dentistry. It was reviewed the relevant legislation about the subject. To evaluate the information quality, a cross-sectional study was made. The study population consisted of 100 clinic websites and dental offices in the metropolis of São Paulo. It was based on the criteria established by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in with the Health Information Technology Institute (HITI) and the Code of Ethics in Dentistry (2006), resulting in 25 (twenty five) questions that evaluated quality of information on the websites of clinics and dental offices. The quality of information on websites showed regular, with 53,68% of the total possible points, with low quality indicators, especially in the update (no date of update), hierarchy of evidence (references absence), institutional warnings (alerts absence about limitation of information), the site profile (absence of the information confidentiality and privacy terms), no internal search engine, no discussion forums and absence of the registration number of the professionals mentioned in the Council, which contributed to the reduction of websites credibility. So, the evaluation indicates that the clinics websites and dental offices need to be improved and that the competent institutions should give more attention to the information quality presented on the Internet. It is suggested for future researches to evaluate the information quality from the importance given by patients, dentists and website developers with criteria presented into this study. Its objective is to improve continuously this important system of information, contributing with the development of the relationship between patients and dentists.

Thesis (MEng)--University of Stellenbosch, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The processes of monitoring, modelling and managing the water quality of a catchmerit system including all its unique complexities and interrelationships requires an innovative tool or set of tools to help water managers with their decision making. Numerous methods and tools have been developed to analyse and model the real world. However, many of these tools require a fair degree of technical expertise and training to operate correctly and their output may have to be translated or converted to meaningful information for decision-making using a further set of analytical and graphical display tools. A more appropriate technique for management would be to combine all these functions into a single system. The objective of this research was to develop one such tool, an integrated water quality information system (WQIS). A review of the literature revealed that there has been extensive research and development of tools for the management of individual aspects of water resource distribution, augmentation and quality. However, these tools have rarely been integrated into a comprehensive information system offering decision support to a wide variety of river users and managers. Many of the literature sources also noted that a process of interactive development and integration (i.e. including the intended users in the decision of which components to include, the interface design and the graphical display and output) was vital to ensuring the information system becomes an integral part of the users routine work and decision-making. The WQIS was developed using the recommendations from numerous knowledgeable persons in response to questionnaires, interviews and a prototype demonstration. It includes the results of hydrodynamic river and reservoir simulations and the ability to perform operational river scenario testing. However, the development process is continual and always evolving based on the current or local requirements of water managers. These further developments and research needs are discussed in more detail in the conclusion. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die proses om die waterkwaliteit van 'n opvanggebied, met al die unieke kompleksiteite en onderlinge verhoudings van so 'n stelsel te monitor, modelleer en bestuur, vereis 'n innoverende instrument om waterbestuurders te ondersteun in hul besluitnemings. Talle instrumente en metodes vir die ontleding en modellering van die werklikheid is reeds ontwikkel. Die gebruik van hierdie instrumente vereis gewoonlik 'n redelike mate van tegniese kundigheid en opleiding. Dit mag verder nodig wees om die uitvoer van sulke instrumente te vertaal en/of om te skakel na betekenisvolle inligting vir besluitneming deur die gebruik van bykomende analitiese en grafiese vertoon instrumente. 'n Meer toepaslike bestuurstegniek sou wees om al die funksies in 'n enkele stelsel te kombineer. Die doel van hierdie navorsing was om een so 'n instrument, naamlik 'n geïntegreerde waterkwaliteit inligtingstelsel (WQIS), te ontwikkel. 'n Hersiening van bestaande literatuur het getoon dat daar omvattende navorsing en ontwikkeling van instrumente gedoen is vir die bestuur van individuele aspekte van waterbronverspreiding, waterbronaanvulling en waterkwaliteit. Integrasie van hierdie instrumente, in 'n uitgebreide stelsel wat besluitnemingsondersteuning aan 'n verskeidenheid riviergebruikers en bestuurders bied, kom egter selde voor. Verskeie literatuurbronne het ook aangedui dat 'n proses van interaktiewe ontwikkeling en integrasie (m.a.w. in agname van die voorgenome gebruikers se behoeftes in die kense van komponente, die gebruiker raakvlak ontwerp en grafiese vertoon instrumente en uitvoer) noodsaaklik is om te verseker dat die inigtingstelsel 'n integrale deel word van die gebruiker se daaglikse roetine en besluitnemingsproses. Die WQIS is ontwikkel deur gebruikmaking van die insette en aanbevelings van verskeie kenners in reaksie op vraelyste, onderhoude en 'n demonstrasie van 'n prototype. Dit sluit in die resultate van hidro-dinamiese rivier en dam simulasies en die vermoë om operasionele rivier scenario ontledings uit te voer. Die ontwikkeling is egter 'n deurlopende proses, gebaseer op huidige of plaaslike behoeftes van waterbestuurders. Hierdie verdere ontwikkelings- en navorsingsbehoeftes word meer breedvoerig in die gevolgtrekkings bespreek.