A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. June 2017, Johannesburg / As sequencing and genotyping technologies are advancing, larger and more complex sets of biological data are being produced. Databases can be used to efficiently store and manage the data. Typically, publicly available datasets are accessed through web browsers that offer a user-friendly interface to a database, making complex queries simple to execute. However, research projectspecific data are not commonly stored in this way. In this research, a database (designed in MySQL) and accompanying interface (developed using PHP, HTML and CSS) has been designed for the storage and querying of the quality controlled data from the current project using Metabochip-genotyped Birth to Twenty (Bt20) cohort participants and their female caregivers. Users can easily access the data to generate summary statistics on the phenotype data and download phenotype, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) annotation and association analysis data that match user-supplied criteria. Some of the data from the database was used to investigate the genetics of blood pressure (BP) in black South African individuals. Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). BP variation is known to have a genetic component, but genetic studies in indigenous Africans have been limited. Association analysis, carried out in a merged sample of caregivers and participants, pointed to novel regions of interest in the NOS1AP (DBP and SBP), MYRF (SBP) and POC1B (SBP) genes and two intergenic regions (DACH1|LOC440145 (DBP and SBP) and INTS10|LPL (SBP)). Two SNPs in the MYRF gene met the calculated “array-wide” significance threshold (p<6.7x10-7 for the merged dataset) for multiple testing. Genotype imputation is a useful addition to association studies to increase the SNP panel for association testing. An investigation into the efficiency of imputation in this dataset using a mixed population reference panel was carried out. Imputation was achieved with high confidence in all genes, but a more detailed view of the region was only seen in NOS1AP (DBP and SBP in both the merged and female caregiver datasets) and POC1B (Bt20 participant dataset only). Overall, the research contributed a useful tool for the efficient management of project-specific biological data. The analysis and genotype imputation, which is a promising tool in future studies in this or other African datasets, also provided some insight into the genetics of blood pressure in black South Africans with further functional and replication studies in larger samples required to confirm and explain the findings. / MT 2017

No description available.

Com o advento da Internet, as empresas puderam mostrar-se para o mundo. A possibilidade de colocar um negócio na World Wide Web (WWW) criou um novo tipo de dado que as empresas podem utilizar para melhorar ainda mais seu conhecimento sobre o mercado: a sequência de cliques que um usuário efetua em um site. Esse dado pode ser armazenado em uma espécie de Data Warehouse para ser analisado com técnicas de descoberta de conhecimento em bases de dados. Assim, há a necessidade de se realizar pesquisas para mostrar como retirar conhecimento a partir dessas sequências de cliques. Neste trabalho são discutidas e analisadas algumas das técnicas utilizadas para atingir esse objetivo. é proposta uma ferramenta onde os dados dessas sequências de cliques são mapeadas para o formato atributo-valor utilizado pelo Sistema Discover, um sistema sendo desenvolvindo em nosso Laboratório para o planejamento e execução de experimentos relacionados aos algoritmos de aprendizado utilizados durante a fase de Mineração de Dados do processo de descoberta de conhecimento em bases de dados. Ainda, é proposta a utilização do sistema de Programação Lógica Indutiva chamado Progol para extrair conhecimento relacional das sessões de sequências de cliques que caracterizam a interação de usuários com as páginas visitadas no site. Experimentos iniciais com a utilização de uma sequência de cliques real foram realizados usando Progol e algumas das facilidades já implementadas pelo Sistema Discover.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston University

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology. / Department of Computer and Information Science

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology. / Department of Computer and Information Science

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology. / Department of Computer and Information Science

Atualmente, um dos grandes desafios enfrentados pelas empresas que operam no comércio eletrônico é de garantir a fidelidade de seus clientes. Devido a este fato, as empresas têm se preocupado cada vez mais na utilização de uma ferramenta capaz de integrar os dados distribuídos em banco de dados operacionais, para transformar suas informações em diferencial competitivo. Desta forma, a aplicabilidade da ferramenta Data Warehouse no comércio eletrônico, juntamente com a estratégia do Customer Relationship Management (CRM), surge como um elemento central da empresa focada no cliente, pois é capaz de fornecer informações competitivas e essenciais aos responsáveis pelas decisões estratégicas. Assim, através da ferramenta Data Warehouse sustentada pela estratégia de CRM, toda a \"sequência de cliques\" realizada pelos clientes do comércio eletrônico é armazenada historicamente, possibilitando a retenção destes com a empresa. Portanto o objetivo do presente trabalho é analisar a aplicabilidade do Data Warehouse no comércio eletrônico, visando o CRM analítico. O trabalho contribui também para mostrar às empresas que a integração entre tecnologia de informação (Data Warehouse) e marketing (CRM) em um ambiente Web oferece diferentes oportunidades de coleta de dados a respeito dos clientes, promovendo desta forma a personalização de produtos e serviços, garantindo maior lealdade destes com a empresa e, conseqüentemente, maior lucratividade. / Currently, one of the greatest challenges faced by companies that operate in the electronic commerce is to guarantee their customers\' fidelity. Due to this fact, these companies have been considering the employment of tools capable of integrating distributed data onto operational databases in order to transform information into a competitive and distinguishing asset. Thus, the applicability of Data Warehouse tools in Electronic Commerce, together with the strategy of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), appear as a key element for customer-oriented companies, since they are capable of supplying the ones responsible for strategic decisions with competitive and essential information . Hence, through Data Warehouse tools supported by the CRM strategy, all the \"clickstream\" carried out by the customers in electronic commerce, can be historically stored, making it possible, through further analyses, to identify potential customers, as well as keeping them with the company. The objective of the present research is to consider the applicability of Data Warehouse in Electronic Commerce, aiming at the analytical CRM. The research also shows companies that Data Warehouse, when combined with the CRM in a Web environment, offers alternative means for customer-related data collection, thus, providing the customization of products and services, reassuring clients\' loyalty to the company and, consequently, greater profits.

by Chan Chun-kwong, Lau Yick-man. / Bibliography: leaves 107-110 / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1983

by Ng Wai-ming. / Abstract in English and Chinese / Bibliography: leaves 121-123 / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1983