M.Com. (Business Management ) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Today, the advent of information technologies (IT) is changing the way the world communicates. The growth of internet related technologies provides building organizations with low-cost tools that can optimize project communications. In particular, the recent development of project specific "intranets", can enhance project communication by giving all members of the project team access to a common, centralized database of construction information. This study looked at the effect of project specific intranet systems on the communications of the project team. More specifically, the study analyzed several communication variables including timeliness, completeness, understanding, barriers, speed and procedures. Additionally, graphic models were developed to help describe the intranet's role in the project communication network. The methodology triangulated three data collection methods to measure variables on three case studies. This triangulation included the comparison of information benchmarks, an examination of communication effectiveness, and the use of social network analysis. The study found that when used properly, project specific intranet systems act as a key actor in a project communication network. Intranets also have a positive effect on the timeliness and understanding of project information, and their use can improve the speed with which information is transferred between project players. On the negative side, intranet use seems to contribute to the information overload of project participants. But the success of the project intranet is largely a function of project participation. For positive results several key players need to use the system on a regular basis. These key players include the architect, the project manager, the site superintendent and key office engineers. When one of these primary players refuses to participate, then the system quickly loses its effectiveness.

The Internet has come a long way from its humble beginnings of being used as a simple way of transporting data within the US army and other academic organizations. With the exploding growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web or WWW more and more people and companies are not only providing services via the WWW but are also conducting business transactions. In today’s Web-based environment where individuals and organizations are conducting business online, it is imperative that the technologies that are being utilized are secure in every way. It is important that any individual or organization that wants to protect their data in one form or another adhere to the five (5) basic security services. These security services are Identification and Authentication, Authorization, Confidentiality, Integrity and Non-repudiation This study looks at two Web-based technologies, namely XML and XML Web services and provides an evaluation of whether or not the 5 security services form part of the security surrounding these Web-based technologies. Part 1 is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1, is an Introduction and roadmap to the dissertation. This chapter provides an introduction to the dissertation. Chapter 2 provides an Overview of XML. The reader must not view this chapter as a technical chapter. It is simply a chapter that provides the reader with an understanding of XML so that the reader is able to understand the chapter surrounding XML security. Chapter 3 provides an Overview of Web services. Again the reader must not view this chapter as a technical chapter and as in chapter 2 this chapter must be seen as an overview providing the reader with a broad picture of what Web services is. A lot of technical background and know how has not been included in these two chapters. Part 2 is divided into a further three chapters. Chapter 4 is titled Computer Security and provides the reader with a basic understanding surrounding security in general. The 5 security services are introduced in more detail and the important mechanisms and aspects surrounding security are explained. Chapter 5 looks at how XML and Web services are integrated. This is a short chapter with diagrams that illustrate how closely XML and Web services are interwoven. Chapter 6 is the most important chapter of the dissertation. This chapter is titled XML and Web services security. This chapter provides the reader with an understanding of the various XML mechanisms that form part of the Web services environment, thus providing security in the form of the 5 security services. Each XML mechanism is discussed and each security service is discussed in relation to these various mechanisms. This is all within the context of the Web services environment. The chapter concludes with a table that summarizes each security service along with its corresponding XML mechanism. Part 3 includes one chapter. Chapter 7 is titled Mapping XML and Web services against the 5 security services. This chapter makes use of the information from the previous chapter and provides a summary in the form of a table. This table identifies each security service and looks at the mechanisms that provide that service within a Web services environment. Part 4 provides a conclusion to the dissertation. Chapter 8 is titled Conclusion and provides a summary of each preceding chapter. This chapter also provides a conclusion and answers the question of whether or not the 5 information security services are integrated into XML and Web services. / von Solms, S.H., Prof.

This study aimed at investigating the content of leading energy corporations' communications about corporate social responsibility (CSR). The specific purpose was to explore how the leading energy corporations communicate CSR activities as three distinctive approaches on their websites, to compare the differences among the three approaches, and to investigate the relationship between the information on the websites that addresses stakeholder relationship and the financial performance. Drawing on the theories and instruments from corporate social responsibility literature, this study explored the performance of CSR through a content analysis of leading energy corporations' websites. The results showed that leading energy corporations employed diverse means to build the good image of socially responsible corporations, and they exhibited strong commitments to employees, shareholders, and the natural environment. Qualitative results showed that leading energy corporations crafted and disseminated information in different levels and formats, and widely adopted visualized information. Differences worth underlining were the fact that leading energy corporations do not display the same eagerness to communicate with stakeholders using these three approaches. The ethical business conduct approach was emphasized the most and the strategic public philanthropy approach was the least. Further, this study found that there was no statistically significant correlation between the information on websites that addresses stakeholder relations and company financial performance (ROIC) among the leading energy corporations. The results suggested that there was little variation among their web-based CSR information, especially stakeholders' information. Finally, the findings of this study suggested that stakeholder communication in CSR had been ingrained in leading energy corporations' norms and values. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the Master of Science. / Spring Semester, 2015. / April 1, 2015. / Corporate Social Responsibility, Financial Performance, Stakeholder Relationship, Three Key Approaches to CSR, Web Communication / Includes bibliographical references. / Ulla Sypher, Professor Co-Directing Thesis; Jaejin Lee, Professor Co-Directing Thesis; Stephen McDowell, Committee Member; Sindy Chapa, Committee Member.

This dissertation identifies and explores the composers’ practices through five aspects of composing practices: technology, affect, prior practice, environment, and sociality. Taken together, these five dimensions describe a concept of composing practices as being shaped by composers’ past experiences, uses of technologies, interactions with environments, interactions with others, and affective states like preferences and beliefs. This exploration of composing practices brings together and elaborates existing Writing Studies research like Kevin Roozen's which traces composing practices writers develop over time and across contexts and Stacey Pigg's which examines how writers' interactions with physical and virtual environments support their writing and learning. The research questions focusing this study ask (1.) if and what role these five dimensions play in the emergence of practices in composers; (2.) if any of these dimensions play a more significant role than the others; (3.) and if one or more dimension plays a greater role in the emergence of practice, why? To answer the research questions focusing this study, I use a three-part methodology: a retrospective interview, a recorded observation, and a culminating interview. First, through the retrospective interview, I develop an account of what material environments and writing technologies participants have used over time and across contexts. Such contexts include different courses or subjects at moments in their schooling and different contexts outside of school like home. Second, through the observation and final interview, I developed an account of what writing technologies and environments participants currently use and why those are the technologies and environments composers prefer. Having synthesized and interpreted these three datasets, I constructed a case study of each composer’s current practices. Through these case studies of composers’ practices, this research resulted in the following five claims: (1.) composers employ a consistent set of practices when producing texts for school and outside of school, and these practices are not included in traditional models of process; (2.) The composing practices composers develop, adapt, and employ are informed by their experiences composing in-school and out-of-school; (3.) composers have developed the practices they employ over the course of their lives, and composers’ past composing experiences figure prominently in the composing practices they currently employ. This is particularly the case for practices and aspects of practices that were part of their development as composers; (4.) composers attend to their composing environments—dwell—by making choices about where to compose as part of the composing process, and in many cases, their attention to environment is informed by a past environment—an originating writing sanctuary—where they reached an important point in their development; and (5.) belief-formation plays a significant role in the composing practices composers adapt and employ because the beliefs that composers develop about their practices and the efficacy of their practices organize and emphasize specific practices in their composing process. As a result, this dissertation shows what practices composers are employing to adapt to the effects of mobile networked technologies and what is involved in the emergence of composers’ practices. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2016. / June 20, 2016. / Composing, Mobile, Place, Rhetoric, Technology, Writing / Includes bibliographical references. / Kathleen Blake Yancey, Professor Directing Dissertation; Paul Marty, University Representative; David Gants, Committee Member; Michael Neal, Committee Member.

The exponential growth of the World Wide Web (WWW) on the Internet and accompanying WWW browsers has promoted opportunities for new methods of teaching and learning. Teaching does not simply involve presenting textual information over the Internet along with a few hyperlinks, but requires effective user engagement with the teaching module. This is the main challenge in website design. The objective of this thesis is the development of an effective training module made available over the Internet so as to train acquisition and maintenance personnel on how they can use VHDL to design and maintain digital systems. The educational modules provide extensive information on VHDL modeling and testing styles and standards at various abstraction levels. The Sobel edge detector model was chosen as an example to explain the various concepts of modeling and testing. This model was chosen since it was thought to be simple enough for any student to understand, yet complex enough to explain most of the VHDL concepts of modeling and testing. The course material on test bench development at various levels of abstraction, reuse of test bench models, use of configurations for simulation of mixed abstraction and mixed data type models, testing techniques and WAVES was developed as a part of the current thesis. Finally a complete section on website design has been included which explains the design strategy adopted for developing the website and the various key issues involved in presenting teaching modules over the Internet. / Master of Science

Este trabalho pretende estudar a world wide web sob o ponto de vista da sua forma, considerando sua forma tanto a forma aparente, que é a interface, quanto sua forma oculta, dada pelos códigos que a conformam. A intenção é reunir referências tanto para designers que queiram ir mais além no domínio das linguagens de programação e marcação, quanto para programadores que queiram ter mais domínio sobre a linguagem do design gráfico. Para isso, desmembramos o trabalho em três partes. Uma primeira, trata da formação histórica da rede, com ênfase na transformação do papel do computador, de uma ferramenta de uso militar, para o suporte para um novo meio de comunicação de massa. Em seguida, partimos para uma análise mais objetiva da web sob o ponto de vista de sua forma aparente, e para isso tentamos primeiro compreender o design gráfico como linguagem, e como linguagem, quais são seu elementos constitutivos, além de questões novas que se colocam para o design de interfaces, como arquitetura de informação e usabilidade. Na terceira parte, elaboramos um manual técnico dos protocolos, linguagens e recursos utilizados para a construção de websites. Explicamos como utilizá-los e reunimos exemplos ilustrativos para auxiliar no aprendizado. Por fim, fazemos considerações sobre os agentes envolvidos na produção de websites designers e programadores , sobre a relação entre eles no processo de trabalho e introduzimos questões que se colocam no modo de construção da web de modo mais geral, a partir da relação com um novo tipo de usuário, que é também produtor. Com isso, produzimos um material que serve como introdução ao webdesign, abarcando conceitos e linguagens relacionadas ao processo, que serve como referência para aqueles que quiserem se envolverem com a disciplina. / This work studies the world wide web under the terms of its form, considering their form as the apparent form, which is the interface, and its hidden form, given by the codes that builds it. The intention is to gather as much reference for designers who want to go further in the field of programming languages and markup, and for developers who want to have more control over the language of graphic design. For this, we have unbundled the work in three parts. The first one deals with the historical formation of the network, with an emphasis on the transformation on the role of the computer, from a tool for military use into the support for a new medium of mass communication. Then we went to a more objective analysis of the web from the point of view of its apparent form, and we try to first understand the graphic design as a language and beeing language, what are its constituent elements, and also new issues that arise for the design of interfaces, such as information architecture and usability. In the third part, we prepared a technical manual of protocols, languages and resources used to build websites. We explain how to use them and gather illustrative examples to assist in learning. Finally, we make considerations for those involved in the production of websites - designers and developers -, on the relationship between them in the work process and introduce issues that stand more generally in the way of building the web, related to a new type of user, which is also producer. As a result, produce a material that serves as an introduction to web design, covering concepts and languages related to the process, which serves as reference for those wishing to become involved in discipline.

Orientador: Ivan Rizzo Guilherme / Coorientador: Daniel C. G. Pedronette / Banca: Fabrício Aparecido Breve / Banca: Jurandy Gomes de Almeida Junior / A extração de dados em páginas Web é um imp ortante problema que começou a ganhar força a partir da metade da década de 90. Um dos sub domínios dessa categoria de extração de dados p ossui como fo co os pro dutos em páginas de vendas online, dada a riqueza de informações disponibilizadas pelas lojas de e-commerce, ou comércio eletrônico, em seus portais de vendas. A extração dos dados dos produtos contidos nessas páginas, como nomes e preços, permite a criação de uma grande variedade de outras ferramentas que façam uso de tais dados com o objetivo de fornecer uma interpretação semântica a eles, como comparações entre preços praticados por diferentes lojas ou análises de hábitos de consumo. Diversas abordagens têm sido empregadas para se chegar à correta extração dos dados de interesse das páginas, fazendo uso de uma gama variada de técnicas para alcançarem seus objetivos, sendo que a técnica de Tree Matching apresenta grande destaque devido aos bons resultados. Este trabalho teve como objetivo implementar e avaliar o uso da técnica de Tree Matching para a extração de dados de produtos, especificamente o nome do produto, seu preço e, porventura, o preço promocional, em páginas de comércio eletrônico, a fim de determinar sua aplicabilidade a um sistema comercial. Foram propostas melhorias ao processo de extração com a finalidade de reduzir o tempo de resposta e aumentar a acurácia do algoritmo Generalized Simple Tree Matching. Resultados experimentais demonstraram uma precisão na extração dos dados de produtos na ordem de 93.6% sobre as páginas contidas na base Ecommerce DB e um ganho médio no tempo de resposta na ordem de 36% quando as páginas são reduzidas pelos métodos propostos neste trabalho / Web data extraction is an imp ortant issue which started b ecoming a strong line of study in the mid 90s. A sub domain of that category of study is the pro duct data extraction from online sales pages, given the wealth of information provided by stores through their websites. Data extraction of pro ducts contained in these kind of pages, like pro duct name and prices, enables the creation of a wide variety of other to ols that are able to use such data in order to provide a semantic interpretation to them, such as prices comparison among different stores and consumption habits analysis. Several approaches have b een applied to reach the target data extraction from Web pages. These approaches, in turn, use a wide range of techniques to reach their goals, and Tree Matching technique has great prominence due to its go o d results. This dissertation aimed to implement and evaluate the Tree Matching technique for the extraction of pro duct data, sp ecifically the pro duct name, its price and, p erhaps, the promotional price, on e-commerce pages, in order to determine its applicability to a commercial system. Improvements have b een prop osed to the extraction pro cess in order to reduce the resp onse time and increase the accuracy of the Generalized Simple Tree Matching algorithm. Experimental results demonstrated that the extraction process got an accuracy of about 93.6% on pages contained in Ecommerce Database and an average gain in response time of about 36% when the pages were reduced by the methods proposed in this study / Mestre

<p>The aim of this master's thesis is to present an introduction to semiological analysis of web based material, which is a hypothesis that combines the theoretical framework of classical Saussurean semiology, visual social semiotics as was developed by Günther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, and Roland Barthes's notion of 'Myths'. Furthermore, a new tool called 'pseudo-signifier', constructed solely for the thesis, is also used in conjunction with the semiological analysis. The hypothesis is tested in a case study involving the web portal of a Swedish commune, Gothenburg (goteborg.se). A complete semiological analysis is performed on the case. The case study revealed numerous findings of interest, among others that images and texts on the web portal were sometimes used in a contradicting manner, and often in a way that symbollically excluded citizens from the portal, a fact which could be uncovered when studying underlying myths that permeated the web portal. The pseudo-signifiers combined with the notion of the Barthean myth proved to be an important tool in order to analyze images and texts on web material, to show how images and texts are to be seen together, not one by one by themselves. An attempt was also made to make the pseudo-signifiers a mean to provide assistance to the creators of the web portal, in order to make the portal more user- and information friendly.</p>

The aim of this master's thesis is to present an introduction to semiological analysis of web based material, which is a hypothesis that combines the theoretical framework of classical Saussurean semiology, visual social semiotics as was developed by Günther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, and Roland Barthes's notion of 'Myths'. Furthermore, a new tool called 'pseudo-signifier', constructed solely for the thesis, is also used in conjunction with the semiological analysis. The hypothesis is tested in a case study involving the web portal of a Swedish commune, Gothenburg (goteborg.se). A complete semiological analysis is performed on the case. The case study revealed numerous findings of interest, among others that images and texts on the web portal were sometimes used in a contradicting manner, and often in a way that symbollically excluded citizens from the portal, a fact which could be uncovered when studying underlying myths that permeated the web portal. The pseudo-signifiers combined with the notion of the Barthean myth proved to be an important tool in order to analyze images and texts on web material, to show how images and texts are to be seen together, not one by one by themselves. An attempt was also made to make the pseudo-signifiers a mean to provide assistance to the creators of the web portal, in order to make the portal more user- and information friendly.