The two-stage data mining technique for classifications in tourism recommendation system is necessary to connect user perception, decision criteria and decision purpose. In existed literature, hybrid data mining method combining Decision Tree and K-nearest neighbour approaches (DTKNN) were proposed. It has a high precision rate of approximately 80% in K-nearest Neighbour (KNN) but a much lower rate in the first stage using Decision Tree (Fu & Tu, 2011). It included two potential improvements on two-stage technique. To improve the first stage of DTKNN in precision rate and the efficiency, the amount of questions is decreased when users search for the desired recommendation on the system. In this paper, the researcher investigates the way to improve the first stage of DTKNN for full questionnaires and also determines the suitability of dynamic questionnaire based on its precision rate in future tourism recommendation system. Firstly, this study compared and chose the highest precision rate among Decision Tree, Multi-staged Binary Tree and Back Propagation of Error Neural Network (BPNN). The chosen method is then combined with KNN to propose a new methodology. Secondly, the study compared and deter¬mined the suitability of dynamic questionnaires for all three classification methods by decreasing the number of attributes. The suitable dynamic questionnaire is based on the least amount of attributes used with an appropriate precision rate. Tourism recommendation system is selected as the target to apply and analyse the usefulness of the algorithm as tourism selection is a two-stage example. Tourism selection is to determine expected goal and experience before going on a tour at the first stage and to choose the tour that best matches stage one. The result indicates that Multi-staged Bi¬nary Tree has the highest precision rate of 74.167% comparing to Decision Tree with 73.33% then BPNN with 65.47% for full questionnaire. This new approach will improve the effectiveness of the system by improving the precision rate of first stage under the current DTKNN method. For dynamic questionnaire, the result has shown that Decision Tree is the most suitable method given that it resulted in the least difference of 1.33% in precision rate comparing to full questionnaire, as opposed to 1.48% for BPNN and 4% for Multi-staged Binary Tree. Thus, dynamic questionnaire will also improve the efficiency by decreasing the amount of questions which users are required to fill in when searching for the desired recommendation on the system. It provides users with the option to not answer some questions. It also increases the practicality of non-dynamic questionnaire and, therefore, affects the ultimate precision rate.

The notion of doubledeath, as an idea to generate work, can be seen as both an ironic reflection on the medium of photography and a critical attempt to comment on contemporary culture. In short, the inherent characteristics of the photographic medium and its function within society are combined. Photography embodies both death and the beginning of something autonomous and new in the very moment of the picture-taking process. A photograph is a mere simulation of what was once there, in front of the lens, transformed onto photographic paper. It then opens up a whole range of new possibilities to the viewer. The photograph's almost life-like appearance informs the photographic myth that is the idea that a photograph provides evidence of absolute truth. This characteristic together with the possibility of manipulating and altering a photograph has been continuously exploited by mass media to influence, make and guide our perceptions towards reality. These characteristics of image-making have left the borders between fiction and fact blurred. Living in a world of over-mediation it is hard to escape and find one's way around in this melting pot of the various realities suggested. Reality today is informed by the present trace of an absent original. When this is recorded photographically, it could be described as a doubledeath. Both this research documentation and the studio work are social comments on contemporary life and artmaking. Where photographs record scenes from life informed by visual simulation (the presence of the absent) the notion of doubledeath becomes most obvious. Moreover, they reflect contemporary culture, addressing and investigating concerns fueled by today's omnipresent commodity and life-style culture, and provoking thoughts about illusion and the crises of the real. In the 21st century we interact with, acknowledge, accept or even prefer the surface over the essence of things, and real experience becomes more diluted.

La gazéification étagée est une technologie innovante pour la production d’énergie renouvelable de petite et moyenne puissances, pour laquelle l'élargissement de la gamme de biomasses utilisables constitue un enjeu majeur de développement. Cette thèse porte spécifiquement sur la pyrolyse oxydante en lit fixe, première étape clé du procédé, qui conditionne fortement la performance et la fiabilité de cette technologie. Trois types de biomasses – pin, miscanthus, et paille – conditionnées sous forme de granulés ont été étudiés. Une étude expérimentale a été réalisée sur un réacteur pilote à lit fixe de 20 cm de diamètre et 1.6 m de hauteur permettant de reproduire des conditions opératoires proches de celles rencontrées durant l'étape de pyrolyse dans les gazéifieurs industriels. Le fonctionnement du procédé pour les trois biomasses a été caractérisé par la mesure du ratio air/biomasse, des températures, des rendements en charbon, gaz permanents et condensables et de leurs compositions. Une attention particulière a été portée à la zone d'oxydation qui se propage verticalement vers le haut dans le lit de biomasse. Une méthodologie a été développée pour mesurer la vitesse de propagation, l'épaisseur et le tassement de cette zone et étudier l'impact de la nature de la biomasse. Dans un lit de granulés de bois, la vitesse et l'épaisseur de la zone d'oxydation est 25 % plus faible que dans un lit de granulés de paille ou miscanthus. L'effet catalytique des matières minérales sur les réactions de pyrolyse primaire et secondaire et son impact sur le fonctionnement du procédé, ont également été mis en évidence. / Staged gasification is an innovative technology for small and medium renewable energy production. The expansion of the range of usable biomass remains a major obstacle to development. This thesis focuses specifically on the oxidative pyrolysis in a fixed bed, the first step of the process that strongly influences the performance and reliability of this technology. Three types of biomass- pine, miscanthus and wheat straw - in form of pellets were studied. An experimental study was carried out in a pilot fixed bed reactor of 20 cm diameter and 1.6 m height allowing the reproduction of similar conditions to those existing in the pyrolysis step of an industrial gasifier. The process operation for the three biomasses was characterized by measuring the air/biomass ratio, bed temperature, yields and compositions of char, permanent gases and condensates. A particular attention was paid on the oxidation zone which propagates upward towards the raw biomass. A method was developed to measure the propagation velocity, thickness and the compaction of the oxidation zone and to study the impact of the biomass nature. Velocity and thickness of this zone were 25 % lower in a fixed bed of wood pellets than in beds of wheat straw or miscanthus. Catalytic effect of the mineral matters on primary and secondary pyrolysis reactions and their impact on the process operation have been highlighted.

The topic of the thesis is to analyze processes of the IT company developing tailored solution delivered as a project. Based on analyze the recommendation for more effective processes will be provided. Analyze of processes comply with CMMI standard with use of a PST (PIID and SCAMPI Tool) tool from Dr. Ralf Kneuper. The work describes CMMI standard and its use in process evaluation, an example is shown by using the PST tool in evaluation of processes particular IT company. There are proposed recommendations for improvement and process changes according the results of the process evaluation at the end of work. The part of work is introduction of the PST tool with Czech translation of selected process areas corresponding to the maturity level of processes that the analysis is focused.

The South African population has been experiencing an unprecedented rate of urbanization that has left government bodies struggling to meet the qualitative and the infrastructural demands of the emergent sector in undeveloped areas. This dissertation aims to focus on the intensive networks found in these developing areas of vulnerability that display strong cohesion due to activities surrounding the production process. The premise presented is that in order to intervene architecturally with these networks, designers should critically engage these networks through participative processes of research, design and ideally construction. Through the author’s process of engagement, several key Architectural principles for an intervention emerge. Primarily the concept that a built intervention in a vulnerable settlement should first seek to associate itself with a network for its initial survival, and then aim to exist in a symbiotic relationship with this network through a mutually beneficial relationship. View <a href=" http://www.jhonobennett.com/">Jhono Bennett's blog</a>. Copyright 2011, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Bennett, J 2011, Platforms of engagement : a process of critical engagement with a developing context, MArch(Prof) dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11272011-161354 / > C12/4/36/gm / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Architecture / unrestricted

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