Special issue: Selected papers from the sixth IFIP 2.6 working conference on visual database systems: Guest editors' introduction

While multimedia data, image data in particular, is an integral part of most websites and web documents, our quest for information so far is still restricted to text based search. To explore the World Wide Web more effectively, especially its rich repository of truly multimedia information, we are facing a number of challenging problems. Firstly, we face the ambiguous and highly subjective nature of defining image semantics and similarity. Secondly, multimedia data could come from highly diversified sources, as a result of automatic image capturing and generation processes. Finally, multimedia information exists in decentralised sources over the Web, making it difficult to use conventional content-based image retrieval (CBIR) techniques for effective and efficient search. In this special issue, we present a collection of five papers on visual and multimedia information management and retrieval topics, addressing some aspects of these challenges. These papers have been selected from the conference proceedings (Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN: 1-4020- 7060-8) of the Sixth IFIP 2.6 Working Conference on Visual Database Systems (VDB6), held in Brisbane, Australia, on 29–31 May 2002.

Supporting content-based image retrieval and computer-aided diagnosis systems with association rule-based techniques

In this work, we take advantage of association rule mining to support two types of medical systems: the Content-based Image Retrieval (CBIR) systems and the Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) systems. For content-based retrieval, association rules are employed to reduce the dimensionality of the feature vectors that represent the images and to improve the precision of the similarity queries. We refer to the association rule-based method to improve CBIR systems proposed here as Feature selection through Association Rules (FAR). To improve CAD systems, we propose the Image Diagnosis Enhancement through Association rules (IDEA) method. Association rules are employed to suggest a second opinion to the radiologist or a preliminary diagnosis of a new image. A second opinion automatically obtained can either accelerate the process of diagnosing or to strengthen a hypothesis, increasing the probability of a prescribed treatment be successful. Two new algorithms are proposed to support the IDEA method: to pre-process low-level features and to propose a preliminary diagnosis based on association rules. We performed several experiments to validate the proposed methods. The results indicate that association rules can be successfully applied to improve CBIR and CAD systems, empowering the arsenal of techniques to support medical image analysis in medical systems. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The effects of information request ambiguity and construct incongruence on query development

This paper examines the effects of information request ambiguity and construct incongruence on end user's ability to develop SQL queries with an interactive relational database query language. In this experiment, ambiguity in information requests adversely affected accuracy and efficiency. Incongruities among the information request, the query syntax, and the data representation adversely affected accuracy, efficiency, and confidence. The results for ambiguity suggest that organizations might elicit better query development if end users were sensitized to the nature of ambiguities that could arise in their business contexts. End users could translate natural language queries into pseudo-SQL that could be examined for precision before the queries were developed. The results for incongruence suggest that better query development might ensue if semantic distances could be reduced by giving users data representations and database views that maximize construct congruence for the kinds of queries in typical domains. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

A model of factors affecting an information system's change in state

Management are keen to maximize the life span of an information system because of the high cost, organizational disruption, and risk of failure associated with the re-development or replacement of an information system. This research investigates the effects that various factors have on an information system's life span by understanding how the factors affect an information system's stability. The research builds on a previously developed two-stage model of information system change whereby an information system is either in a stable state of evolution in which the information system's functionality is evolving, or in a state of revolution, in which the information system is being replaced because it is not providing the functionality expected by its users. A case study surveyed a number of systems within one organization. The aim was to test whether a relationship existed between the base value of the volatility index (a measure of the stability of an information system) and certain system characteristics. Data relating to some 3000 user change requests covering 40 systems over a 10-year period were obtained. The following factors were hypothesized to have significant associations with the base value of the volatility index: language level (generation of language of construction), system size, system age, and the timing of changes applied to a system. Significant associations were found in the hypothesized directions except that the timing of user changes was not associated with any change in the value of the volatility index. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

European information users: topics from a comparative analysis within the European Union

Purpose – The aim of this article is to present some results from research undertaken into the information behaviour of European Documentation Centre (EDC) users. It will reflect on the practices of a group of 234 users of 55 EDCs covering 21 Member States of the European Union (EU), used to access European information. Design/methodology/approach – In order to collect the data presented here, five questionnaires were sent to users in all the EDCs in Finland, Ireland, Hungary and Portugal. In the remaining EU countries, five questionnaires were sent to two EDCs chosen at random. The questionnaires were sent by post, following telephone contact with the EDC managers. Findings – Factors determining access to information on the European Union and the frequency of this access are identified. The information providers most commonly used to access European information and the information sources considered the most reliable by respondents will also be analysed. Another area of analysis concerns the factors cited by respondents as facilitating access to information on Europe or, conversely, making it more difficult to access. Parallel to this, the aspects of accessing information on EU that are valued most by users will also be assessed. Research limitations/implications – Questionnaires had to be used, as the intention was to cover a very extensive geographical area. However, in opting for closed questions, it is acknowledged that standard responses have been obtained with no scope for capturing the individual circumstances of each respondent, thus making a qualitative approach difficult. Practical implications – The results provide an overall picture of certain aspects of the information behaviour of EDC users. They may serve as a starting point for planning training sessions designed to develop the skills required to search, access, evaluate and apply European information within an academic context. From a broader perspective, they also constitute factors which the European Commission should take into consideration when formulating its information and communication policy. Originality/value – This is the first piece of academic research into the EDCs and their users, which aimed to cover all Members State of the EU.

Facebook vs moodle : Surveying university students on the use of learning management systems to support learning activities outside the classroom

CISTI'2015 - 10ª Conferência Ibérica de Sistemas e Tecnologias de Informação, 17 a 20 de junho de 2015, Águeda, Aveiro, Portugal.

Qualidade dos sistemas de informação no serviço de radiologia do Hospital de Curry Cabral: um estudo de caso

Mestrado em Intervenção Sócio-Organizacional na Saúde - Área de especialização: Políticas de Administração e Gestão de Serviços de Saúde

The contribution of multitemporal information from multispectral satellite images for automatic land cover classification at the national scale

Thesis submitted to the Instituto Superior de Estatística e Gestão de Informação da Universidade Nova de Lisboa in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Management – Geographic Information Systems

Finding a school technological partner: a multicriteria method for school information system producer selection

The choice of an information systems is a critical factor of success in an organization's performance, since, by involving multiple decision-makers, with often conflicting objectives, several alternatives with aggressive marketing, makes it particularly complex by the scope of a consensus. The main objective of this work is to make the analysis and selection of a information system to support the school management, pedagogical and administrative components, using a multicriteria decision aid system – MMASSITI – Multicriteria Method- ology to Support the Selection of Information Systems/Information Technologies – integrates a multicriteria model that seeks to provide a systematic approach in the process of choice of Information Systems, able to produce sustained recommendations concerning the decision scope. Its application to a case study has identi- fied the relevant factors in the selection process of school educational and management information system and get a solution that allows the decision maker’ to compare the quality of the various alternatives.

Group decision making for selection of an information system in a business context

The main objective of this work is to report on the development of a multi-criteria methodology to support the assessment and selection of an Information System (IS) framework in a business context. The objective is to select a technological partner that provides the engine to be the basis for the development of a customized application for shrinkage reduction on the supply chains management. Furthermore, the proposed methodology di ers from most of the ones previously proposed in the sense that 1) it provides the decision makers with a set of pre-defined criteria along with their description and suggestions on how to measure them and 2)it uses a continuous scale with two reference levels and thus no normalization of the valuations is required. The methodology here proposed is has been designed to be easy to understand and use, without a specific support of a decision making analyst.