Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Support information and analytical'

1. Bezrodna T.M. Accounting and analytical support of enterprise management: defining the essence of the concept. Bulletin of the East Ukrainian National un-tu them. V. Dahl. 2008. № 10 (128). Part 2. URL: http://www.nbuv.gov.ua/portal-/Soc_Gum/VSUNU/2008_10_2/ bezrodna.pdf. 2. Volskaya V.V. Methodical approaches to accounting and analytical support and audit of management activities of agricultural enterprises. Problems of theory and methodology of accounting, control and analysis. 2012. № 3 (24). Pp. 83–88. 3. Golyachuk N.V. Accounting and analytical support as an important component of enterprise management. Coll. Science. works of Ternopil National economy. University "Economic Analysis". 2010. Vol. 6. pp. 408-410.
Substantiation of theoretical provisions for accounting and analytical support of enterprise management and identification of the basic principles of construction of accounting and analytical information system.
Обґрунтування теоретичних положень обліково-аналітичного забезпечення управління підприємством та визначення основних принципів побудови обліково-аналітичної інформаційної системи.

This thesis describes a scalable system for visualizing and exploring global synthetic populations. The implementation described in this thesis addresses the following existing limitations of the Syn- thetic Information Viewer (SIV): (i) it adds ability to support synthetic populations for the entire globe by resolving data inconsistencies, (ii) introduces opportunities to explore and find patterns in the data, and (iii) allows the addition of new synthetic population centers with minimal effort. We propose the following extensions to the system: (i) Data Registry: an abstraction layer for handling heterogeneity of data across countries, and adding new population centers for visualizations, and (ii) Visual Query Interface: for exploring and analyzing patterns to gain insights. With these additions, our system is capable of visual exploration and querying of heterogeneous, temporal, spatial and social data for 14 countries with a total population of 830 million. Work in this thesis takes a step towards providing visual analytics capability for synthetic information. This system will assist urban planners, public health analysts, and, any individuals interested in socially-coupled systems, by empowering them to make informed decisions through exploration of synthetic information.
Master of Science

Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) has become the de facto data analysis technology used in modern decision support systems. It has experienced tremendous growth, and is among the top priorities for enterprises. Open source systems have become an effective alternative to proprietary systems in terms of cost and function. The purpose of the study was to investigate the performance of two leading database storage engines in an open source OLAP environment. Despite recent upgrades in performance features for the InnoDB database engine, the MyISAM database engine is shown to outperform the InnoDB database engine under a standard benchmark. This result was demonstrated in tests that included concurrent user sessions as well as asynchronous user sessions using data sets ranging from 6GB to 12GB. Although MyISAM outperformed InnoDB in all test performed, InnoDB provides ACID compliant transaction technologies are beneficial in a hybrid OLAP/OLTP system.

From 2006 to 2016, an estimated average of 50% of big data analytics and decision support projects failed to deliver acceptable and actionable outputs to business users. The resulting management inefficiency came with high cost, and wasted investments estimated at $2.7 trillion in 2016 for companies in the United States. The purpose of this quantitative descriptive study was to examine the data model of a typical data analytics project in a big data environment for opportunities to improve the information created for management problem-solving. The research questions focused on finding artifacts within enterprise data to model key business scenarios for management action. The foundations of the study were information and decision sciences theories, especially information entropy and high-dimensional utility theories. The design-based research in a nonexperimental format was used to examine the data model for the functional forms that mapped the available data to the conceptual formulation of the management problem by combining ontology learning, data engineering, and analytic formulation methodologies. Semantic, symbolic, and dimensional extensions emerged as key functional forms of analytic extension of the data model. The data-modeling approach was applied to 15-terabyte secondary data set from a multinational medical product distribution company with profit growth problem. The extended data model simplified the composition of acceptable analytic insights, the derivation of business solutions, and the design of programs to address the ill-defined management problem. The implication for positive social change was the potential for overall improvement in management efficiency and increasing participation in advocacy and sponsorship of social initiatives.

Searching is something we do everyday both in digital and physical environments. Whether we are searching for books in a library or information on the web, search is becoming increasingly important. For many years, however, the standard for search in software has been to provide a keyword search box that has, over time, been embellished with query suggestions, Boolean operators, and interactive feedback. More recent research has focused on designing search interfaces that better support exploration and learning. Consequently, the aim of this research has been to develop a framework that can reveal to designers how well their search interfaces support different styles of searching behaviour. The primary contribution of this research has been to develop a usability evaluation method, in the form of a lightweight analytical inspection framework, that can assess both search designs and fully implemented systems. The framework, called Sii, provides three types of analyses: 1) an analysis of the amount of support the different features of a design provide; 2) an analysis of the amount of support provided for 32 known search tactics; and 3) an analysis of the amount of support provided for 16 different searcher profiles, such as those who are finding, browsing, exploring, and learning. The design of the framework was validated by six independent judges, and the results were positively correlated against the results of empirical user studies. Further, early investigations showed that Sii has a learning curve that begins at around one and a half hours, and, when using identical analysis results, different evaluators produce similar design revisions. For Search experts, building interfaces for their systems, Sii provides a Human-Computer Interaction evaluation method that addresses searcher needs rather than system optimisation. For Human-Computer Interaction experts, designing novel interfaces that provide search functions, Sii provides the opportunity to assess designs using the knowledge and theories generated by the Information Seeking community. While the research reported here is under controlled environments, future work is planned that will investigate the use of Sii by independent practitioners on their own projects.

Інформація, її одержання, аналіз, синтез складають основу людської діяльності. Діяльність працівників поліції також пов’язана з величезними об’ємами інформації, яка в багатьох випадках є оперативною, службовою, таємною і навіть становить державну таємницю. Тому в контексті цього, інформаційноаналітичне забезпечення діяльності органів Національної поліції України нерозривно пов’язано з інформаційною безпекою держави загалом.
Информация, ее получение, анализ, синтез составляют основу человеческой деятельности. Деятельность сотрудников полиции также связана с огромными объемами информации, которая во многих случаях является оперативной, служебной, тайной и даже составляет государственную тайну. Поэтому в контексте этого информацийно аналитичне обеспечения деятельности органов Национальной полиции Украины неразрывно связано с информационной безопасностью государства в целом.
Information, its reception, analysis, synthesis form the basis of human activity. The activities of police officers are also associated with huge amounts of information, which in many cases is operational, service, secret and even state secrets. Therefore, in the context of this, informational and analytical support of the activities of the National Police of Ukraine is inextricably linked with the information security of the state as a whole.

Thesis (PhD (Industrial Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The crucial role of innovation in creating sustainable competitive advantage is widely recognised in industry today. Likewise, the importance of having the required information accessible to the right employees at the right time is well-appreciated. More specifically, the dependency of effective, efficient innovation processes on the availability of information has been pointed out in literature. A great challenge is countering the effects of the information overload phenomenon in organisations in order for employees to find the information appropriate to their needs without having to wade through excessively large quantities of information to do so. The initial stages of the innovation process, which are characterised by free association, semi-formal activities, conceptualisation, and experimentation, have already been identified as a key focus area for improving the effectiveness of the entire innovation process. The dependency on information during these early stages of the innovation process is especially high. Any organisation requires a strategy for innovation, a number of well-defined, implemented processes and measures to be able to innovate in an effective and efficient manner and to drive its innovation endeavours. In addition, the organisation requires certain enablers to support its innovation efforts which include certain core competencies, technologies and knowledge. Most importantly for this research, enablers are required to more effectively manage and utilise innovation-related information. Information residing inside and outside the boundaries of the organisation is required to feed the innovation process. The specific sources of such information are numerous. Such information may further be structured or unstructured in nature. However, an ever-increasing ratio of available innovation-related information is of the unstructured type. Examples include the textual content of reports, books, e-mail messages and web pages. This research explores the innovation landscape and typical sources of innovation-related information. In addition, it explores the landscape of text analytical approaches and techniques in search of ways to more effectively and efficiently deal with unstructured, textual information. A framework that can be used to provide a unified, dynamic view of an organisation‟s innovation-related information, both structured and unstructured, is presented. Once implemented, this framework will constitute an innovation-focused knowledge base that will organise and make accessible such innovation-related information to the stakeholders of the innovation process. Two novel, complementary text analytical techniques, Latent Dirichlet Allocation and the Concept-Topic Model, were identified for application with the framework. The potential value of these techniques as part of the information systems that would embody the framework is illustrated. The resulting knowledge base would cause a quantum leap in the accessibility of information and may significantly improve the way innovation is done and managed in the target organisation.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die belangrikheid van innovasie vir die daarstel van „n volhoubare mededingende voordeel word tans wyd erken in baie sektore van die bedryf. Ook die belangrikheid van die toeganklikmaking van relevante inligting aan werknemers op die geskikte tyd, word vandag terdeë besef. Die afhanklikheid van effektiewe, doeltreffende innovasieprosesse op die beskikbaarheid van inligting word deurlopend beklemtoon in die navorsingsliteratuur. „n Groot uitdaging tans is om die oorsake en impak van die inligtingsoorvloedverskynsel in ondernemings te bestry ten einde werknemers in staat te stel om inligting te vind wat voldoen aan hul behoeftes sonder om in die proses deur oormatige groot hoeveelhede inligting te sif. Die aanvanklike stappe van die innovasieproses, gekenmerk deur vrye assosiasie, semi-formele aktiwiteite, konseptualisering en eksperimentasie, is reeds geïdentifiseer as sleutelareas vir die verbetering van die effektiwiteit van die innovasieproses in sy geheel. Die afhanklikheid van hierdie deel van die innovasieproses op inligting is besonder hoog. Om op „n doeltreffende en optimale wyse te innoveer, benodig elke onderneming „n strategie vir innovasie sowel as „n aantal goed gedefinieerde, ontplooide prosesse en metingskriteria om die innovasieaktiwiteite van die onderneming te dryf. Bykomend benodig ondernemings sekere innovasie-ondersteuningsmeganismes wat bepaalde sleutelaanlegde, -tegnologiëe en kennis insluit. Kern tot hierdie navorsing, benodig organisasies ook ondersteuningsmeganismes om hul in staat te stel om meer doeltreffend innovasie-verwante inligting te bestuur en te gebruik. Inligting, gehuisves beide binne en buite die grense van die onderneming, word benodig om die innovasieproses te voer. Die bronne van sulke inligting is veeltallig en hierdie inligting mag gestruktureerd of ongestruktureerd van aard wees. „n Toenemende persentasie van innovasieverwante inligting is egter van die ongestruktureerde tipe, byvoorbeeld die inligting vervat in die tekstuele inhoud van verslae, boeke, e-posboodskappe en webbladsye. In hierdie navorsing word die innovasielandskap asook tipiese bronne van innovasie-verwante inligting verken. Verder word die landskap van teksanalitiese benaderings en -tegnieke ondersoek ten einde maniere te vind om meer doeltreffend en optimaal met ongestruktureerde, tekstuele inligting om te gaan. „n Raamwerk wat aangewend kan word om „n verenigde, dinamiese voorstelling van „n onderneming se innovasieverwante inligting, beide gestruktureerd en ongestruktureerd, te skep word voorgestel. Na afloop van implementasie sal hierdie raamwerk die innovasieverwante inligting van die onderneming organiseer en meer toeganklik maak vir die deelnemers van die innovasieproses. Daar word verslag gelewer oor die aanwending van twee nuwerwetse, komplementêre teksanalitiese tegnieke tot aanvulling van die raamwerk. Voorts word die potensiele waarde van hierdie tegnieke as deel van die inligtingstelsels wat die raamwerk realiseer, verder uitgewys en geillustreer.

The data produced and collected by organizations represents both challenges and opportunities for the modern firm. Business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) comprises a wide variety of information management technologies and information seeking activities designed to exploit these information resources. As a result, BI&A has been heralded as a source of improved organizational outcomes in both the academic and practitioner literature, and these technologies are among the largest continuous IT expenditures made over the last decade.Despite the interest in BI&A, there is not enough theorizing about its role in improving firm performance. Scholarly investigations of the link between BI&A and organizational benefits are scarce and primarily exploratory in nature. Further, the majority of the extant research on BI&A is techno-centric, conceptualizing BI&A primarily an organizational technical asset. This study seeks to explicate the relationship between BI&A and improved organizational outcomes by viewing this phenomenon through the lens of dynamic capabilities, a promising theoretical perspective from the strategic management discipline. In so doing, this research reframes BI&A as an organizational capability, rather than simply a technical resource. Guided by a comprehensive review of the BI&A and dynamic capabilities literature, as well as a series of semi-structured focus groups with senior-level business practitioners with BI&A experience, this study develops and tests a model of BI&A enabled firm performance. Using a snowball sample, an online survey was administered to 137 business professionals in 24 industries. The data were analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings support the contention that BI&A serve as the sensing and seizing components of an organizational dynamic capability, while transformation is achieved through business process change capability. These factors influence firm financial performance through their impact on the functional performance of the firm’s business processes. Further, this study demonstrates that traditional BI&A success factors are positively associated with BI&A sensing capability. This study makes several important contributions to BI&A research. First, this study addresses a gap in the scholarly literature by establishing a theoretical framework for the role of BI&A in achieving firm performance which is grounded in an established strategic management theory. Second, by drawing on the sense-seize-transform view of dynamic capabilities, this dissertation proposes a new conceptualization of BI&A as sensing and seizing organizational capabilities. Third, this research links the use of BI&A to improved organizational outcomes through the transformation of business processes, consistent with the view that the value of IT is derived from its impact on the value generating processes of the firm. Fourth, by viewing BI&A and business process change as distinct but inter-related components of dynamic capabilities, this research clarifies the role of BI&A in the dynamization of organizational processes, providing insight into the relationship between BI&A and business agility. Finally, this dissertation shows how BI&A capabilities are related to BI&A success factors identified in prior research.

When the data warehouse concept was first introduced by IBM as a part of their new information system in 1988, the first step in the field of modern decision support systems or business intelligence was taken. Since then, academics, practitioners and solution developers have put a considerable effort in introducing new trends of these systems. Each new trend has roots in what enterprises demand from these systems. The advances in Web technologies and social media, has led to introduction of new trends such as Cloud BI and Big Data which are both cost-effective and also have the potential to take advantage of semi-structured and unstructured data within organizations. This paper deals with these new trends and the influences of organizational demands and new technologies and tools on them. A deep literature review deals with four major BI trends in detail. (Data warehouse, Business Performance Management (BPM), Cloud BI and Big Data). Two case studies from local Business intelligence developers are carried out in order to explore the influences mentioned above. As the result of this study, a model is proposed that addresses the elements that affect the BI trends, both in organizational and technological perspectives. It is observed that despite the fact that lots of new trends have been introduced in the past years (e.g. Cloud BI and Big Data), it does not necessarily mean that older trends are becoming obsolete. Data warehouses and BPM systems are still being used vastly in the industry. However, the later trends can be offered to clients that have the demand for them. The results imply that Cloud BI is mainly suitable for companies with low initial budgets and Big Data can be adopted by organizations that want to exploit their social data sources. The mere fact that both implied trends are built upon their preceding ones, has transformed data warehouses and BPM approach the ground work for any new trends to come.

Este trabalho trata da especificação, desenvolvimento e utilização do Sistema de Apoio à Gestão de Utilidades e Energia - SAGUE, um sistema concebido para auxiliar na análise de dados coletados de sistemas de utilidades como ar comprimido, vapor, sistemas de bombeamento, sistemas para condicionamento ambiental e outros, integrados com medições de energia e variáveis climáticas. O SAGUE foi desenvolvido segundo conceitos presentes em sistemas de apoio à decisão como Data Warehouse e OLAP - Online Analytical Processing - com o intuito de transformar os dados oriundos de medições em informações que orientem diretamente as ações de conservação e uso racional de energia. As principais características destes sistemas, que influenciaram na especificação e desenvolvimento do SAGUE, são tratadas neste trabalho. Além disso, este texto aborda a gestão energética e os sistemas de gerenciamento de energia visando apresentar o ambiente que motivou o desenvolvimento do SAGUE. Neste contexto, é apresentado o Sistema de Gerenciamento de Energia Elétrica - SISGEN, um sistema de informação para suporte à gestão de energia elétrica e de contratos de fornecimento, cujos dados coletados podem ser analisados através do SAGUE. A aplicação do SAGUE é tratada na forma de um estudo de caso no qual se analisa a correlação existente entre o consumo de energia elétrica da CUASO - Cidade Universitária Armando de Sales Oliveira, obtido através do SISGEN, e as medições de temperatura ambiente, fornecidas pelo IAG - Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas da USP.
This work deals with specification, development and utilization of the Support System for Utility and Energy Management - SAGUE, a system created to assist in analysis of data collected from utilities systems as compressed air, vapor, water pumping systems, environmental conditioning systems and others, integrated with energy consumption and climatic measurements. The development of SAGUE was based on concepts and methodologies from Decision Support System as Data Warehouse and OLAP - Online Analytical Processing - in order to transform data measurements in information that guide the actions for energy conservation and rational utilization. The main characteristics of Data Warehouse and OLAP tools that influenced in the specifications and development of SAGUE are described in this work. In addition, this text deals with power management and energy management systems in order to present the environment that motivated the SAGUE development. Within this context, it is presented the Electrical Energy Management System - SISGEN, a system for energy management support, whose electrical measurements can be analyzed by SAGUE. The SAGUE utilization is presented in a case study that discusses the relation between electrical energy consumption of CUASO - Cidade Universitária Armando de Sales Oliveira, obtained throughout SISGEN, and the local temperature measurements supplied by IAG - Institute of Astronomic and Atmospheric Science of USP.

Atualmente, uma das grandes vantagens competitivas que uma empresa possui em relação a seu concorrente é a informação sobre seu cliente. As estratégias de Customer Relationship Management (CRM), propiciam o profundo conhecimento do cliente, para que a empresa possa tratá-lo de forma personalizada e reconhecê-lo como seu principal patrimônio. Segundo TAURION (2000) e DW BRASIL (2001), para suportar essa tecnologia, é necessário que as empresas possuam um repositório de dados históricos de clientes. O Data Warehouse (DW) possui diversas características que utilizam, de forma adequada e eficiente, ferramentas de desenvolvimento de modernos bancos de dados. Através da ferramenta Data Mining (DM), é possível descobrir novas correlações, padrões e tendências entre informações de uma empresa pela extração e análise dos dados do DW. A análise dos dados também pode ser feita através de sistemas On Line Analytical Proccess (OLAP), os quais ajudam analistas a sintetizar informações sobre as empresas, por meio de comparações, visões personalizadas, análise histórica e projeção de dados em vários cenários. Diante deste contexto, parece possível afirmar que o DW, juntamente com o OLAP, podem proporcionar grande suporte à estratégia de CRM. Desta forma, esta pesquisa apresenta como objetivo identificar e analisar as principais contribuições que o DW e suas ferramentas podem dar à estratégia CRM Analítico.
Nowadays, the great competitive advantage that a company possesses in relation to your competitor is the information about its customer. The strategies of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) provide deep knowledge about the customer, so that the company can treat them in a personalized way and it recognizes them as its main patrimony. According to TAURION (2000) and DW BRASIL (2001), to support that technology, it is necessary that the companies possess a repository of customers\' historical data. Data Warehouse (DW) possesses several characteristics that use, in appropriate and efficient way, tools of development of modern databases and, through the too Data Mining (DM) discovers new correlations, pattems and tendencies among information of a company, for the analysis of the data of DW. The analysis of the data can also be made through the systems On Line Analytical Proccess (OLAP), which help analysts and executives to synthesize information on the companies, by means of comparisons, personalized visions, historical analysis and projection of data in several sceneries. In this context, it can be stated that DW and DM can provide great support to the strategy of CRM. Thus, this work presents as objective to identify the main contributions that DW and their tools can give to the strategy of Analytical CRM.

For manufacturing firms, having knowledge about customers is very important, in particular for the developers and designers of new products. A way in which software can help to build an information channel between the customers and the firm is through Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Business Intelligence (BI) solutions. Customers’ data are captured into the Customer Relationship Management solution while Business Intelligence analyses them and provide clear processed information to the developers and designers of new products. In this study we have researched if this process occurs in the industry, if and how it can be improved and what advantages it could bring to manufacturing firms. We have carried out the data collection by interviewing experts in four companies, three software companies that provide Business Intelligence solutions and one manufacturing firm. We found out that those software solutions are not used to directly connect developers and designers to customers’ data, and that there are no specific technical obstacles that prevents this, if not managerial reasons rooted in everyday practice. We also uncovered facts that would help to make this process more efficient and make customers’ data even more relevant to development.

Det svenska skolsystemet genomgår en digitaliseringsprocess. I och med digitaliseringen har ett starkt intresse av att utforska olika typer av lärodata via olika läroplattformar utvecklats. För att analysera sådan data kan man ta hjälp av Learning Analytics (LA). LA är när man samlar, analyserar och rapporterar lärodata från diverse lärandeaktiviteter. För att analysera datan mer effektivt kan man ta hjälp av visualisering. Denna studie presenterar ett visualiseringsverktyg riktat till lärare. Det har utvecklats för att stödja lärare i deras förståelse av hur valda självreglerat lärande (SRL)strategier har utvärderats av studenter. Att kunna applicera SRL-strategier är av stor vikt eftersom studenter som lär sig att applicera dessa kommer att ha fördelar båda vid framtida studier och framtida arbete. Syftet med denna studie var att se hur lärodata kan visualiseras för att förstå studenters användning av lärostrategier och hur bra visualiseringsverktyget var ur ett användbarhetsperspektiv. Användbarheten av verktyget testades genom ett experiment där ett antal frågor ställdes. Svaren gick att finna i visualiseringen. Deltagarna i studien fick sedan svara på ett System Usabilityformulär. Resultaten visar att det utvecklade verktyget är användbart och att olika användare använder sig av, om möjligt, olika metoder för att komma fram till ett svar. Denna uppsats presenterar riktlinjer att ha i beaktande när ett visualiseringsverktyg som ska stödja lärare i att förstå studenters användning av SRL-strategier ska designas.
The Swedish school system is going through a digitalization process. With digitalization, a strong interest in exploring learner data available through various digital platforms has emerged. In order to analyse the data, one can take help of learning analytics (LA) which relates to collect, report and analyse data from learners or learning activities. To be able to analyse it in a more efficient way, one can take help from visualization. This study presents a visualisation tool aimed at teachers. It has in particular been developed to support teachers in their understanding of how chosen self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies were evaluated by students. SRL strategies are important to be able to apply since students who can learn to apply SRL strategies have an advantage during both future studies and work compared to those who cannot. The aim with this study was to see how learner data can be visualized in order to understand students' use of learning strategies and how good the developed visualization tool is from a usability perspective. The perceived usability of this tool was tested by means of interviews where a series of questions was asked where the answers could be found in the visualization tool. The participants also answered a System Usability Questionnaire. The results showed that the tool developed is usable and that different users of the tool tend to, if possible, use different methods to reach the answer. This thesis presents design guidelines to have in consideration when designing a visualization tool in order to aid teachers in analysing students' use of SRL strategies.

Context: In today's world, we have access to so much data than at any time in the past with more and more data coming from smartphones, sensors networks, and business processes. But, most of this data is meaningless, if it's not properly formatted and utilized. Traditionally, in service support teams, issues raised by customers are processed locally, made reports and sent over in the support line for resolution. The resolution of the issue then depends on the expertise of the technicians or developers and their experience in handling similar issues which limits the size, speed, and scale of the problems that can be resolved. One solution to this problem is to make relevant information tailored to the issue under investigation to be easily available. Objectives: The focus of the thesis is to improve turn around time of customer queries using recommendations and evaluate by defining metrics in comparison to existing workflow. As Artificial Intelligence applications can have a broad spectrum, we confine the scope with a relevance in software service and Issue Tracking Systems. Software support is a complicated process as it involves various stakeholders with conflicting interests. During the course of this literary work, we are primarily interested in evaluating different AI solutions specifically in the customer support space customize and compare them. Methods: The following thesis work has been carried out by making controlled experiments using different datasets and Machine learning models. Results: We classified Axis data and Bugzilla (eclipse) using Decision Trees, K Nearest Neighbors, Neural Networks, Naive Bayes and evaluated them using precision, recall rate, and F-score. K Nearest Neighbors was having precision 0.11, recall rate 0.11, Decision Trees had precision 0.11, recall rate 0.11, Neural Networks had precision 0.13, recall rate 0.11 and Naive Bayes had precision 0.05, recall rate 0.11. The result shows too many false positives and true negatives for being able to recommend. Conclusions: In this Thesis work, we have gone through 33 research articles and synthesized them. Existing systems in place and the current state of the art is described. A debug suggestion tool was developed in python with SKlearn. Experiments with different Machine Learning models are run on the tool and highest 0.13 (precision), 0.10 (f-score), 0.11 (recall) are observed with MLP Classification Neural Network.

The work begins with a review on the concept of group and phase velocity, and a discussion about pulses propagation in dispersive media. After that, we are going to study the Helmholtz equation, followed by Drude-Lorentz s model description of electric susceptibility. In this study we have analyzed the relations between the real and imaginary part of the dielectric constant, using Kramers-Kronig relations. Moreover, we have analyzed the necessary conditions to obtain these relations, and the causality principle. We have shown physical systems in which is possible to obtain anomalous dispersion. The systems are population inversion, system with gain-assisted and photonic crystal. To understand better about some mathematical methods used to study the propagation of pulses, we have reviewed Fourier, Laplace and Green s methods. We used the wave equation to show how the methods mentioned above became a problem simpler to be solved. Finally, we have studied Cauchy-Riemann s conditions and the analyticity of real and imaginary functions. We have studied the propagation of Gaussian pulse and a compact support pulse, in the anomalous dispersion region. We have shown that the Gaussian pulse can propagate with a bigger group velocity than the speed of light in the vacuum, and these results are the same when we use the whole expression for the refractive index or not. However, in the case of the compact support pulse we have seen that is not true. On the other hand, in the study of the compact support pulse propagation, it was observed that the non-analytical points never exceed the speed of light in the vacuum. Associating the information to the non-analytical points we have observed the impossibility to send information faster than light in the vacuum.
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
O trabalho inicia com uma revisão sobre o conceito de velocidade de grupo e de fase, e uma breve discussão do que ocorre quando um pulso se propaga num meio dispersivo. Em seguida, fazemos um estudo da equação de onda de Helmholtz, seguido por uma descrição do modelo de Drude-Lorentz para a susceptibilidade elétrica. Durante este estudo exploramos as relações que existem entre a parte real e imaginária da constante dielétrica, através da relação de Kramers-Kronig. Além disso, discutimos o que é necessário na obtenção deste tipo de relação além do princípio de causalidade. Apresentamos os seguintes sistemas físicos nos quais é possível obter regiões com dispersão anômala: sistema com inversão de população, com ganho assistido e cristal fotônico. Com o objetivo de aprofundar o entendimento das ferramentas matemáticas usadas no estudo da propagação de pulsos, revisamos os métodos de Fourier, de Laplace e de Green. Aplicamos estes métodos na equação de onda para mostrar como os mesmos tornam o problema mais simples de ser resolvido. Por fim, estudamos as condições de Cauchy-Riemann e a analiticidade de funções reais e imaginárias. Estudamos a propagação de um pulso Gaussiano e de um pulso com suporte compacto, na região de dispersão anômala. Mostramos que um pulso Gaussiano se propaga com uma velocidade de grupo maior que a velocidade da luz no vácuo, e que o resultado obtido é o mesmo se usarmos somente a parte real do índice de refração ou se usarmos a expressão completa no estudo da propagação. No caso de um pulso com suporte compacto vimos que isto não é verdade. Percebemos ainda que na propagação do pulso com suporte compacto os pontos não analíticos nunca excedem a velocidade da luz no vácuo. Associando a informação a pontos não analíticos mostramos ser impossível enviar informação mais rápida que a luz no vácuo.

Варгатюк, М. О. Інституційно-аналітичне забезпечення розвитку аграрного сектору в Україні : дис. ... канд. екон. наук : 08.00.03 / М. О. Варгатюк. - Одеса, 2021. - 227 с.
Дисертація присвячена поглибленню теоретичних і методичних засад інституційно-аналітичного забезпечення розвитку аграрного сектору та розробці практичних рекомендацій щодо його удосконалення. Досліджено генезис теорії і практики інструментів інституційно-аналітичного забезпечення розвитку аграрного сектору. Запропоновано концептуальні положення формування системи інституційно-аналітичного забезпечення розвитку аграрного сектору, які виходять із відповідних завдань і принципів та визначають, що провідними теоретичними засадами функціонування такої системи мають бути положення методології управління проектами в аграрному секторі і проєктування інформаційних систем. Обґрунтовано науковометодичний підхід до оцінювання розвитку аграрного сектору України та його взаємозв’язку з результативністю інституційно-аналітичного забезпечення шляхом розрахунку інтегральних показників. Доведено, що для конкретизації шляхів реалізації системи інституційноаналітичного забезпечення розвитку аграрного сектору необхідною є розробка відповідного комплексного механізму. Запропоновано організаційнометодичний підхід до використання аналітичного інструментарію оцінки стану та перспектив розвитку аграрного сектору в Україні.
Диссертация посвящена углублению теоретических и методических основ институционально-аналитического обеспечения развития аграрного сектора и разработке практических рекомендаций по его усовершенствованию. Исследован генезис теории и практики инструментов институционально-аналитического обеспечения развития аграрного сектора. Предложены концептуальные положения формирования системы институционально-аналитического обеспечения развития аграрного сектора, которые выходят из соответствующих задачи и принципов и определяют, что ведущими теоретическими основами функционирования такой системы должны быть положения методологии управления проектами в аграрном секторе и проектирования информационных систем. Обоснованно научнометодический подход к оценке развития аграрного сектора Украины и его взаимосвязи с результативностью институционально-аналитического обеспечения путем расчета интегральных показателей. Обосновано, что институционально-аналитическое обеспечение состоит из трех неотъемлемых и взаимосвязанных составляющих: институциональноправовой; институционально-организационной и методической. Обоснованные стратегические доминанты модернизации механизмов институционально-аналитического обеспечения развития аграрного сектора в Украине: 1) институционально-правовые, которые ориентированы на разработку и совершенствование нормативно-правовой базы по развитию аграрного сектора в части реализации системы сельскохозяйственного консультирования, повышения результативности функционирования саморегулируемых организаций, адаптация отечественного законодательства с требованиями ЕС; 2) институционально-организационные, действие которых ориентирована на совершенствование механизмов сотрудничества всех стейкхолдеров аграрного сектора, развитие системы аграрной логистики и мелкотоварного аграрного производства, повышение результативности использования инструментов регулирования отечественного аграрного рынка; 3) методические, которые предусматривают использование совокупности методов. Доказано, что для конкретизации путей реализации системы институционально-аналитического обеспечения развития аграрного сектора необходима разработка соответствующего комплексного механизма, который включает предложения по перечню методов и инструментов в соответствии с положениями архитектурного подхода, группировка их по основным управленческими функциями (планирование, мотивация, организация и контроль). Предложено организационно-методический подход к использованию аналитического инструментария оценки состояния и перспектив развития аграрного сектора в Украине, который предусматривает осуществление анализа деятельности субъектов аграрного бизнеса для идентификации факторов влияния на ее результативность, разработку, ранжирование, оценку эффективности и согласования со стейкхолдерами. Разработаны методические положения по оценке состояния и перспектив развития аграрного сектора в Украине, предусматривающих осуществление анализа деятельности субъектов аграрного бизнеса для идентификации факторов влияния на ее результативность, разработку, ранжирование, оценку эффективности и согласования со стейкхолдерами. Для обеспечения эффективности использования информации и аналитических методов в системе информационно-аналитического обеспечения развития аграрного сектора предложено использовать метод DMADV концепции «Шесть сигм», который включает инструментарий проектирования, совершенствование и управления процессом развития аграрного сектора.
The dissertation is devoted to deepening of theoretical and methodical bases of institutional and analytical maintenance of development of agricultural sector and development of practical recommendations concerning its improvement. The genesis of the theory and practice of tools of institutional and analytical support for the development of the agricultural sector is studied. Conceptual provisions for the formation of a system of institutional and analytical support for the development of the agricultural sector, which are based on the relevant tasks and principles and determine that the leading theoretical foundations of such a system should be the provisions of project management methodology in the agricultural sector and information systems design. The scientific and methodological approach to assessing the development of the agricultural sector of Ukraine and its relationship with the effectiveness of institutional and analytical support by calculating integrated indicators is substantiated. It is proved that to specify the ways of implementing the system of institutional and analytical support of the agricultural sector it is necessary to develop an appropriate comprehensive mechanism, which includes proposals for a list of methods and tools in accordance with the architectural approach, grouping them by basic management functions (planning, motivation, organization and control).

Given its relative infancy, there is a dearth of research on a comprehensive view of business social media analytics (SMA). This dissertation first examines current literature related to SMA and develops an integrated, unifying definition of business SMA, providing a nuanced starting point for future business SMA research. This dissertation identifies several benefits of business SMA, and elaborates on some of them, while presenting recent empirical evidence in support of foregoing observations. The dissertation also describes several challenges facing business SMA today, along with supporting evidence from the literature, some of which also offer mitigating solutions in particular contexts. The second part of this dissertation studies one SMA implication focusing on identifying social influencer. Growing social media usage, accompanied by explosive growth in SMA, has resulted in increasing interest in finding automated ways of discovering influencers in online social interactions. Beginning 2008, many variants of multiple basic approaches have been proposed. Yet, there is no comprehensive study investigating the relative efficacy of these methods in specific settings. This dissertation investigates and reports on the relative performance of multiple methods on Twitter datasets containing between them tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of tweets. Accordingly, the second part of the dissertation helps further an understanding of business SMA and its many aspects, grounded in recent empirical work, and is a basis for further research and development. This dissertation provides a relatively comprehensive understanding of SMA and the implementation SMA in influencer identification.

Acquérir et traiter des données est de moins en moins coûteux, à la fois en matériel et en temps, mais encore faut-il pouvoir les analyser et les interpréter malgré leur complexité. La dimensionnalité est un des aspects de cette complexité intrinsèque. Pour aider à interpréter et à appréhender ces données le recours à la visualisation est indispensable au cours du processus d’analyse. La projection représente les données sous forme d’un nuage de points 2D, indépendamment du nombre de dimensions. Cependant cette technique de visualisation souffre de distorsions dues à la réduction de dimension, ce qui pose des problèmes d’interprétation et de confiance. Peu d’études ont été consacrées à la considération de l’impact de ces artefacts, ainsi qu’à la façon dont des utilisateurs non-familiers de ces techniques peuvent analyser visuellement une projection. L’approche soutenue dans cette thèse repose sur la prise en compte interactive des artefacts, afin de permettre à des analystes de données ou des non-experts de réaliser de manière fiable les tâches d’analyse visuelle des projections. La visualisation interactive des proximités colore la projection en fonction des proximités d’origine par rapport à une donnée de référence dans l’espace des données. Cette technique permet interactivement de révéler les artefacts de projection pour aider à appréhender les détails de la structure sous-jacente aux données. Dans cette thèse, nous revisitons la conception de cette technique et présentons ses apports au travers de deux expérimentations contrôlées qui étudient l’impact des artefacts sur l’analyse visuelle des projections. Nous présentons également une étude de l’espace de conception d’une technique basée sur la métaphore de lentille et visant à s’affranchir localement des problématiques d’artefacts de projection
The cost of data acquisition and processing has radically decreased in both material and time. But we also need to analyze and interpret the large amounts of complex data that are stored. Dimensionality is one aspect of their intrinsic complexity. Visualization is essential during the analysis process to help interpreting and understanding these data. Projection represents data as a 2D scatterplot, regardless the amount of dimensions. However, this visualization technique suffers from artifacts due to the dimensionality reduction. Its lack of reliability implies issues of interpretation and trust. Few studies have been devoted to the consideration of the impact of these artifacts, and especially to give feedbacks on how non-expert users can visually analyze projections. The main approach of this thesis relies on an taking these artifacts into account using interactive techniques, in order to allow data scientists or non-expert users to perform a trustworthy visual analysis of projections. The interactive visualization of the proximities applies a coloring of the original proximities relatives to a reference in the data-space. This interactive technique allows revealing projection artifacts in order to help grasping details of the underlying data-structure. In this thesis, we redesign this technique and we demonstrate its potential by presenting two controlled experiments studying the impact of artifacts on the visual analysis of projections. We also present a design-space based on the lens metaphor, in order to improve this technique and to locally visualize a projection free of artifacts issues

Responsável pela recuperação de dados a partir de várias fontes, por analisar e dar apoio à decisão através de procedimentos computacionais e análises estatísticas, Analytics vem conquistando grande interesse da comunidade científica e também no atual mercado de negócios. Através da enorme oferta de ferramentas tecnológicas e do grande entusiasmo relacionado com a evolução das tecnologias da informação, a implementação de Analytics, na ausência de planejamento estruturado pode ocasionar baixo desempenho do projeto e agregar pouco valor ao negócio, apo ponto de trazer prejuízos para a organização. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo investigar os fatores críticos deste tipo de implementação na literatura científica e analisar como estes se manifestam nas organizações. A pesquisa constrói um quadro teórico conceitual a partir da revisão de literatura do tema para a análise da evolução deste nas discussões acadêmicas, através da aplicação de análises bibliométricas. Fatores são selecionados com base na literatura, referentes ao sucesso da implementação de Analytics relacionados aos sistemas de apoio à decisão, sendo divididos em construtos de Gestão de Negócios e Tecnologia da Informação. A pesquisa qualitativa, através do uso do método de estudo de caso, analisou quatro organizações de diferentes segmentos e projetos de implementação de soluções de Analytics. O trabalho conclui que há aderência aos fatores depreendidos da literatura e que haja reações distintas do alinhamento da Tecnologia da Informação com a estratégia do negócio de acordo com o tipo de solução implementada na organização.
Responsible for retrieving data from several fonts, for analyzing and providing support decision through computational procedures and statistical and for descriptive and predictive analysis, Analytics has been achieving great interest from scientific community and in the today\'s business market. Through the huge offer of technological tools and the great enthusiasm related to the information technology evolution, the implementing of Analytics in the absence of structured planning may cause low performance of the project and add low value to the business, and even bring loss to the organization. This research aims to investigate the critical actors of this kind of implementing and evaluate how they manifest on organizations. The methodology adopted focus on conceptual theoretical model built from the literature review followed by the analysis of the evolution of the topic in academic discussions through a bibliometric analysis application. Several factors are selected based on scientific production, all related to the success of implementing Analytics based on knowledge from other decision support system literature, divided in two constructs, Business Management and Information Technology. The qualitative research, with the use of case study method, analyzed four organizations from distinct market and products, as well as distinct Analytics implementation projects. The research concludes that there are strong relationship between the factors extracted from literature and shows that there are dissimilar reactions regarding the alignment between Information Technology and the business\' strategy, being related to the type of Analytics solution implemented in the organization.

More than ninety per cent of projects are run by project teams and the stronger the team the more likely the project will succeed. Team building activities are performed to both increase team performance and to enhance the likelihood of project success. For the purpose of this study, information technology (IT) business projects were chosen as IT is a major driving force in business today and there is widespread dissatisfaction with the performance of IT business projects. In analysing the causes of dissatisfaction, increasingly researchers are recognising that technology is a secondary issue behind the human side of project team management. Business projects were chosen because increasingly IT is being used in the business environment to solve problems in the post-industrial era characterised by the service industry, while the manufacturing industry, from which much of the project literature has emerged, reduces. The importance of the project team in developing IT business projects is well recognised and managers are concerned about their ability to transform an ad-hoc collection of people assigned to a particular project into a coherent, integrated project team. In most cases the activities recommended to build a successful IT business project team have been theoretically based, rather than empirically founded. The goal of this research was to investigate the team building activities used on successful projects. To achieve this goal, the research defines the key measures of project success and establishes their relative importance; determines the most important team building activities for project success with experienced project managers; enhances the understanding of implementation of team building activities on successful projects; and provides suggestions on how to increase the likelihood of project success through focusing on team building activities. The research used the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to develop a hierarchical model linking project success measures with team building activities. Confirmation of the AHP results and additional understanding of team building activities implementation was achieved by interviewing experienced project managers. The research found that customer satisfaction, although seldom used, was significantly more important as a project success measure than the three measures most often used - time, budget and scope. As identified by project managers, the most important team building activities for achieving customer satisfaction are team leadership; ensuring senior management support; staffing the team properly; planning the project with the team and empowering team members; building commitment among team members; developing strong communication channels and developing appropriate organisational interfaces. The research found successful projects focused on relationships in addition to the task focus of many project methodologies. The research findings on team building activities will enable project leaders on IT business projects to develop empowered project teams with stronger affiliations and support throughout the organisation. By empowering project teams to create effective internal and external relationships there will be fewer project failures, increased customer satisfaction and improved achievement of project success.

The advance of the Internet has resulted in an immensely interconnected world, which produces a tremendous amount of data. It has come to change our daily lives and behaviours tremendously. The trend is especially seen in the field of e-commerce where the customers have started to require more and more from the product and service providers. Moreover, with the rising competition, the companies have to adopt new ways of doing things to keep their position on the market as well as keeping and attracting new customers. One important factor for this is excelling customer service. Today, companies adopt technologies like BDA and AI to enhance and provide excellent customer service. This study aims to investigate how two Swedish cooperations extract value from their customer services with the help of BDA and AI. This study also strives to create an understanding of the expectations, requirements and implications of the technologies from the participants' perspectives that in this case are the employees of these mentioned businesses. Moreover, many fail to see the true potential that the technologies can bring and especially in the field of customer service. This study helps to address these challenges and by pinpointing the ’value- factors’ that companies participating in this study extracts, it might encourage the implementation of digital technologies in the customer service with no regard to the size of the company. This thesis was conducted with a qualitative approach and with semi-structured interviews and systematic observations with two Swedish companies acting on the Chinese market. The findings from the interviews, conducted with these selected companies, present that the companies actively use BDA and AI in their customer service. Moreover, several value-factors are pinpointed in the different stages of customer service. The most reoccurring themes are: ”proactive support”, ”relationship establishment”, ”identifying attitudes and behaviours” and ”real-time support”. Moreover, as for the value-creating factors before and after the actual interaction the reoccurring themes are ”competitive advantage”, ”high-impact customer insights”, ”classification”, ”practicality”, as well as ”reflection and development”. This essay provides knowledge that can help companies to further their understanding of how important customer service along with BDA and AI is and how they can support competitive advantage as well as customer loyalty. Since the thesis only focused on the investigation of Swedish organizations on the Shanghainese market, it would be of interest to continue further research on Swedish companies as China is seen to be in the forefront when it comes to utilizing these technologies.

Data warehousing and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) technology has been used to access, visualize and analyze multidimensional, aggregated, and summarized data. Large part of data contains spatial components. Thus, these spatial components convey valuable information and must be included in exploration and analysis phases of a spatial decision support system (SDSS). On the other hand, Geographic Information Systems (GISs) provide a wide range of tools to analyze spatial phenomena and therefore must be included in the analysis phases of a decision support system (DSS). In this regard, this study aims to search for answers to the problem how to design a spatially enabled data warehouse architecture in order to support spatio-temporal data analysis and exploration of multidimensional data. Consequently, in this study, the concepts of OLAP and GISs are synthesized in an integrated fashion to maximize the benefits generated from the strengths of both systems by building a spatial data warehouse model. In this context, a multidimensional spatio-temporal data model is proposed as a result of this synthesis. This model addresses the integration problem of spatial, non-spatial and temporal data and facilitates spatial data exploration and analysis. The model is evaluated by implementing a case study in weather pattern searching.

Physical asset management in the electric power sector encompasses the scheduling of the maintenance and replacement of grid components, as well as decisions about investments in new components. Data plays a crucial role in these decisions. The importance of data is increasing with the transformation of the power system and its evolution toward smart grids. This thesis deals with questions related to data management as a way to improve the performance of asset management decisions. Data management is defined as the collection, processing, and storage of data. Here, the focus is on the collection and processing of data. First, the influence of data on the decisions related to assets is explored. In particular, the impacts of data quality on the replacement time of a generic component (a line for example) are quantified using a scenario approach, and failure modeling. In fact, decisions based on data of poor quality are most likely not optimal. In this case, faulty data related to the age of the component leads to a non-optimal scheduling of component replacement. The corresponding costs are calculated for different levels of data quality. A framework has been developed to evaluate the amount of investment needed into data quality improvement, and its profitability. Then, the ways to use available data efficiently are investigated. Especially, the possibility to use machine learning algorithms on real-world datasets is examined. New approaches are developed to use only available data for component ranking and failure prediction, which are two important concepts often used to prioritize components and schedule maintenance and replacement. A large part of the scientific literature assumes that the future of smart grids lies in big data collection, and in developing algorithms to process huge amounts of data. On the contrary, this work contributes to show how automatization and machine learning techniques can actually be used to reduce the need to collect huge amount of data, by using the available data more efficiently. One major challenge is the trade-offs needed between precision of modeling results, and costs of data management.

QC 20210330

Шира Т. Б. Стратегія та механізми забезпечення корпоративної безпеки підприємств: дисертація на здобуття наукового ступеня доктора економічних наук за спеціальністю 21.04.02 – економічна безпека суб’єктів господарської діяльності / Шира Тарас Богданович. – Львів: Львівський державний університет внутрішніх справ МВС України, 2020. - 463 С.
Дисертаційна робота присвячена концептуальному вирішенню науковоприкладної проблеми формування стратегії та механізмів забезпечення корпоративної безпеки підприємств та обґрунтуванню практичних рекомендацій їх застосування. У першому розділі «Теоретико-методологічні аспекти забезпечення корпоративної безпеки підприємств» обгрунтовано, що проблема забезпечення безпеки є актуальною не лише сьогодні, але перебувала завжди у центрі уваги філософів, мислителів, науковців, представників влади і т.д., оскільки була і є безпосередньо пов’язаною із існуванням та продовженням людського роду. Намагання забезпечити собі та найближчому оточенню безпечні умови існування підштовхувало людей до поклоніння богам, жертвоприношення, покірного ставлення до правлячої верхівки, а також до об’єднання населення у громади із подальшим формування держави. Сформовано теоретичний базис забезпечення корпоративної безпеки підприємств, що визначає взаємозв’язок таких дефініцій як «безпека», «небезпека», «розвиток», «загроза» й «ризик» та полягає в уточненні їх змісту, виходячи із суті процесу підтримки життєздатності підприємства як соціально-економічної системи, що створює передумови для досягнення економічних інтересів усіма учасниками, попри посилення агресивності зовнішнього середовища та високої динамічності внутрішньогосподарських процесів. Дослідження історичних етапів виникнення та поширення корпоративної форми організації підприємницької діяльності дозволило сформувати ґенезу із визначенням основних чинників, які сприяли розвитку корпорацій. Виявлено, що в Україні сьогодні юридично не врегульовано питання застосування терміну «корпорація», що спонукає до більш активного застосування світової практики та суттєвого розширення кола суб’єктів господарювання для яких є актуальним вирішення проблеми забезпечення корпоративної безпеки. З’ясовано, що в науковій літературі термін «економічна безпека підприємства» визначається виходячи із тлумачення підприємства як соціально-економічну систему, що, перебуваючи під впливом зовнішнього середовища й внутрішніх змін, потребує захисту, який полягає в діях суб’єктів безпеки стосовно об’єктів безпеки. Обґрунтовано, що сьогодні наявні ознаки наступного етапу наукового поступу, який полягає у переході від трактування безпечних умов стійкого розвитку підприємств шляхом забезпечення економічної безпеки до їх формування через корпоративну безпеку. Запропоновано тлумачити корпоративну безпеку підприємства як діяльність спрямовану на досягнення взаємоузгоджених корпоративних інтересів шляхом ефективного використання наявних ресурсів та захисту від негативної дії загроз, що уможливлює формування безпечних умов для стійкого розвитку підприємства. Визначено мету корпоративної безпеки як реалізацію комплексу взаємоузгоджених заходів спрямованих на формування безпечних умов функціонування та розвитку корпорації із відповідною деталізацією ключових завдань для суб’єктів безпеки. Розроблено концептуальні основи забезпечення корпоративної безпеки підприємств, які сформовані шляхом визначення відмінностей національної моделі корпоративного управління від інших, враховують фактичний спектр проблем у використанні корпоративної форми в національній економіці, передбачають необхідність протидії специфічним внутрішнім і зовнішнім загрозам, що у сукупності надає орієнтири та обумовлює цілеспрямованість процесу формування безпечних умов розвитку українських підприємств. У другому розділі «Методологічний базис формування та розвитку системи корпоративної безпеки підприємства» розрблено методологічні засади формування системи корпоративної безпеки підприємства, що передбачають запстосування системного і синергетичного підходів для обґрунтування послідовності створення та інтеграції системи корпоративної безпеки, як системи нижчого порядку, у систему підприємства, що сприяє відстеженню флуктуацій із подальшим діагностуванням біфуркації та забезпечення переходу до бажаного варіанту атракторів, які збігаються із цілями системи, та недопущення критичного рівня хаосу, що руйнує систему. Запропоновано теоретичні положення забезпечення корпоративної безпеки підприємств, які доповнюють та встановлюють логічні зв’язки між базовими категоріями та спеціальними поняттями, зокрема: «стійкість», «стабільність», «рівновага», «гомеостаз», «життєздатність», «адаптація» та «надійність» як основа для уточнення завдань суб’єктам безпеки, виконання яких уможливлює збереження цілісності підприємства, як системи, та досягнення економічних інтересів усіх учасників. Розроблено методичні засади удосконалення системи корпоративної безпеки підприємств, в основі якихпокладені чотири детермінанти (специфіка фінансово-господарської діяльності підприємства; ступінь агресивності зовнішнього середовища; взаємодія із зовнішніми суб’єктами безпеки; консолідація учасників щодо забезпечення безпеки підприємства), дотримання яких забезпечує перехід до оптимального варіанту системи, який забезпечує необхідний рівень корпоративної безпеки та відповідає наявному організаційному та ресурсному забезпеченню У третьому розділі «Аналітичне підґрунтя забезпечення корпоративної безпеки підприємств», на основі узагальнення офіційних статистичних даних було охарактеризовано основні тенденції діяльності промислових підприємств, які безпосередньо пов’язані із процесом забезпечення їх корпоративної безпеки. Здійснені аналітичні дослідження дозволили ідентифікувати ряд загроз для корпоративної безпеки підприємств: невикористання такої важливої переваги корпорацій як «ефективне залучення капіталу» внаслідок слабкого розвитку фондового ринку; політична вмотивованість, відсутні чіткі критерії, які б дозволяли оцінювати його ефективність, ступінь досягнення економічних та соціальних цілей і т.д. та недостатня прозорість й публічність (стосовно господарських товариств, частка в статуті яких належить державі); зменшення кількості промислових підприємств, скорочення наявного в них трудового потенціалу та погіршення фінансових результатів діяльності. Розроблено методичний підхід до формування та функціонування інформаційно-аналітичного забезпечення корпоративної безпеки підприємств, який передбачає здійснення оцінювання за двома взаємодоповнювальними компонентами: корпоративної безпеки підприємства, із отриманням результатів у вигляді інтегрального показника, та внутрішніх і зовнішніх загроз, із побудовою моделі їх ієрархічного впорядкування, що в сукупності сприяє отриманню своєчасної та достовірної інформації як основи для прийняття та реалізації суб’єктами безпеки управлінських рішень. Запропоновано здійснювати оцінювання корпоративної безпеки промислових підприємств за трьома рівнями: на першому відбувається розрахунок базових індикаторів, відповідно до порогових значень визначається рівень безпеки; другий, який враховує результати попереднього, передбачає розрахунок групових індексів за кожною із функціональних складових корпоративної безпеки, виходячи із вагомість кожного індикатора; третій уможливлює на основі групових індексів, виходячи із вагомості кожної функціональної складової в загальній структурі корпоративної безпеки, визначення інтегрального показника Виходячи із доведеного впливу загроз на рівень корпоративної безпеки розглянуто зміст основних етапів оцінювання впливу загроз (встановлення й ідентифікації, аналітичний та координаційний), реалізація яких, за допомогою методу експертного опитування, забезпечило визначення групи ключових загроз, які, шляхом застосування теорії графів, були ієрархічно впорядковані за ступенем необхідності реалізації захисних заходів. Отримані результати ієрархічного впорядкування ключових зовнішніх та внутрішніх загроз вказують, що на найвищому рівні розташована загроза «Наявність корпоративних конфліктів між акціонерами та менеджерами, мажоритаріями та міноритаріями». Зроблено висновок, що саме ця загроза вимагає особливої уваги зі сторони суб’єктів безпеки. У графічному вигляді, шляхом побудови моделі впливу загроз та варіантів захисту, продемонстровано можливість реалізації захисних заходів стосовно певної групи «внутрішні» загроз, шляхом застосування механізмів і розвитку корпоративної культури. У четвертому розділі «Механізми забезпечення корпоративної безпеки підприємств» розроблено механізм управління корпоративною безпекою промислових підприємств, який ґрунтується на першочерговій необхідності виявлення, протидії та ліквідації внутрішніх та зовнішніх суперечностей, які є першоджерелами виникнення та посилення негативного впливу загроз, шляхом визначення змісту його основних складових (принципи, функції, інструментарій, забезпечення, техніка і технологія та процесів оцінювання результатів), застосування яких уможливлює формування безпечних умов для стійкого розвитку та ефективного функціонування підприємства. Науково обґрунтовано методичні основи побудови організаційноекономічного механізму забезпечення корпоративної безпеки промислових підприємств, які визначають зміст його двох основних складових (організаційна та економічна) із регламентуванням послідовності створення та застосування в умовах певного підприємства, можливими варіантами заходів та очікуваними результатами (тактичні і стратегічні), що загалом дає змогу покращити динамічну адаптивність системи корпоративної безпеки, здатність оперативного реагувати на зміну впливу внутрішніх і зовнішніх загроз, пошук невикористаних раніше внутрішніх резервів та зовнішніх можливостей. Розроблено науково-практичний підхід до забезпечення функціонування системи корпоративної безпеки підприємств, що дає можливість, завдяки використання методу функціонального моделювання IDEF0, поєднувати формальні та евристичні методи в процесі підготовки й прийняття суб’єктами безпеки рішень для досягнення вищої ефективності при їх реалізації, проявляти гнучкість в управлінні при виявленні нових факторів та вносити корективи в процес функціонування системи корпоративної безпеки у відповідності до рівня виконання поставлених завдань та змінених тактичних й стратегічних орієнтирах в розвитку підприємства. У п’ятому розділі «Стратегічні орієнтири розвитку корпоративної безпекою підприємств» запропоновано теоретико-методологічне підґрунтя формування та розвитку внутрішньокорпоративного контролю, яке полягає у запровадженні і поетапному внесенні змін у внутрішньогосподарський контроль та внутрішніх аудиту для задоволення інформаційних потреб суб’єктів безпеки та учасників корпоративних відносин, що сприяє покращенню інформаційного супроводу процесу забезпечення корпоративної безпеки підприємств. Розроблено технологію розвитку корпоративної культури, що передбачає врахування безпекових аспектів для узгодження і збереження корпоративних цінностей, посилення внутрішніх звязків із орієнтацією на досягнення загальних інтересів та зменшення ризиків й протидію загрозам, які пов’язані із корпоративними конфліктами, застосування якої сприяє стабілізації й передбачуваності змін у внутрішньому середовищі. Сформовано концептуальний підхід до вибору та реалізації стратегії забезпечення корпоративної безпеки промислових підприємств, який полягає у використанні методу аналізу ієрархій для встановлення, у відповідності до фактичного рівня корпоративної безпеки, базового варіанту стратегії із подальшим коригуванням процесу її реалізації у відповідності до зміни впливу зовнішніх та внутрішніх загроз, що забезпечує максимальну гнучкість у реалізації захисних заходів для досягнення стратегічних цілей. The dissertation is devoted to the conceptual solution of the scientific and applied problem of forming the strategy and mechanisms for ensuring corporate security of enterprises and the substantiation of practical recommendations for their application. In the first chapter, “Theoretical and Methodological Aspects of Ensuring Corporate Security of Enterprises,” it is substantiated that the security problem is relevant not only today, but has always been in the centre of attention of philosophers, thinkers, scientists, government representatives, etc., since it was and is directly related with the existence and continuation of the human race. Attempts to secure a safe living environment for themselves and their immediate environment encouraged people to worship the gods, sacrifice, obedient attitude to the ruling elite, as well as to unite the population into communities with the subsequent formation of the state. The theoretical basis for ensuring corporate security of enterprises has been formed, determines the relationship between such definitions as “security”, “danger”, “development”, “threat” and “risk” and consists in clarifying their content, based on the essence of the process of maintaining the viability of the enterprise as a socio-economic system, which creates the prerequisites for the achievement of economic interests by all participants, despite the increased aggressiveness of the external environment and the high dynamism of on-farm processes. The study of the historical stages of the emergence and spread of the corporate form of organizing entrepreneurial activity allowed us to form a genesis with the definition of the main factors that contributed to the development of corporations. It was revealed that in Ukraine today the issue of the use of the term “corporation” has not been legally resolved, which encourages more active application of world practice and a significant expansion of the circle of business entities for which the solution of the problem of ensuring corporate security is relevant. It has been established that in the scientific literature the term “economic security of enterprise” is defined on the basis of the interpretation of the enterprise as a socio-economic system, which, being influenced by the external environment and internal changes, needs to be protected, which consists in the actions of security entities in relation to the scope of security facilities. It is proved that today there are signs of the next stage of scientific progress, which consists in the transition from the interpretation of safe conditions for the sustainable development of enterprises by ensuring the economic security to their formation through corporate security. It is proposed to interpret the corporate security of the enterprise as an activity aimed at achieving mutually agreed corporate interests through the effective use of available resources and protection from the negative impact of threats, making it possible to create a safe environment for the sustainable development of the enterprise. The objectives of corporate security are defined as the implementation of a set of mutually agreed measures aimed at creating a safe environment for the functioning and development of the corporation with appropriate detailing of key tasks for security entities. The conceptual framework for ensuring the corporate security of enterprises has been developed, which are formed by identifying differences in the national corporate governance model from others, taking into account the actual spectrum of problems in using the corporate form in the national economy, provide for the need to counter specific internal and external threats, which together provide guidance and determine the purposefulness of the process formation of safe conditions for the development of Ukrainian enterprises. In the second chapter, “Methodological basis for the formation and development of an enterprise corporate security system,” the methodological foundations for the formation of an enterprise corporate security system are developed, providing for the implementation of systemic and synergetic approaches to justify the sequence of creation and integration of a corporate security system, as a lower order system, into an enterprise system, contributes to tracking fluctuations with subsequent diagnosis of bifurcation and ensuring the transition to the desired variant of attractors, which coincide with the goals of the system, and preventing a critical level of chaos, destroys the system.. Theoretical provisions for ensuring corporate security of enterprises are proposed, which complement and establish logical connections between basic categories and special concepts, including: “sustainability”, “stability”, “balance”, “homeostasis”, “vitality”, “adaptation” and “reliability” as the basis for clarifying tasks for security entities, the implementation of which ensures the integrity of the enterprise as a system and the achievement of the economic interests of all participants. Methodological foundations have been developed to improve the corporate security system of enterprises, based on four determinants (specifics of the financial and economic activities of the enterprise, the degree of aggressiveness of the environment; interaction with external security entities; consolidation of participants to ensure the security of the enterprise), compliance with which ensures the transition to the optimal version of the system, which provides the necessary level of corporate security and corresponds to the existing authority insulation and resource support In the third chapter, “The Analytical Framework for Ensuring Corporate Security of Enterprises,” based on a compilation of official statistics, the main trends in the activities of industrial enterprises that are directly related to the process of ensuring their corporate security were described. The carried out analytical studies made it possible to identify a number of threats to the corporate security of enterprises: failure to use such an important advantage of corporations as “effective capital raising” due to the weak development of the stock market; political motivation, there are no clear criteria that would allow us to evaluate its effectiveness, the degree of achievement of economic and social goals, etc. and lack of transparency and publicity (regarding business entities whose share in the charter belongs to the state); a decrease in the number of industrial enterprises, a reduction in their existing labour potential and a deterioration in financial performance. A methodological approach has been developed to the formation and functioning of information and analytical support for corporate security of enterprises, which provides for the assessment of two complementary components: corporate security of the enterprise, with obtaining results in the form of integral indicator, and internal and external threats, with the construction of a model for their hierarchical ordering, which together contributes to the receipt of timely and reliable information as the basis for the adoption and implementation by security entities of management decisions. It is proposed to assess the corporate security of industrial enterprises at three levels: at the first, basic indicators are calculated, and the security level is determined according to threshold values; the second, taking into account the results of the previous one, provides for the calculation of group indices for each of the functional components of corporate security, based on the weight of each indicator; the third one makes, on the basis of group indices, based on the significance of each functional component in the overall corporate security structure, the definition of an integral indicator Based on the proven impact of threats on the level of corporate security, the content of the main stages of assessing the impact of threats (authentication and identification, analytical and coordination) is considered, the implementation of which, using the expert survey method, determined the group of key threats by applying graph theory, were hierarchically ordered by degree of need for protective measures. The results of the hierarchical ordering of key external and internal threats indicate that the threat “The presence of corporate conflicts between shareholders and managers, majorities and minority shareholders” is at the highest level. It is concluded that this particular threat requires special attention from security actors. In graphical form, by constructing a model of the influence of threats and protection options, the possibility of implementing protective measures against a certain group of “internal” threats by using mechanisms and developing a corporate culture has been demonstrated. In the fourth section “Mechanisms for ensuring corporate security of enterprises” a mechanism for managing corporate security of industrial enterprises is developed, based on the urgent need to identify, counter and eliminate internal and external contradictions that are the primary sources of the emergence and amplification of the negative impact of threats by determining the content of its main components (principles, functions, tools, software, technology and processes and evaluation processes), the use of which will allows to create a safe environment for sustainable development and effective functioning of the enterprise. The methodological foundations of building the organizational and economic mechanism for ensuring the corporate security of industrial enterprises are scientifically substantiated, which determine the content of its two main components (organizational and economic) with the regulation of the sequence of creation and application in a particular enterprise, possible options for events and expected results (tactical and strategic), which in general allows to improve the dynamic adaptability of the corporate security system, the ability to respond quickly to changes in influence in internal and external threats, the search for previously unused internal reserves and external capabilities. A scientific and practical approach has been developed to ensure the functioning of the corporate security system of enterprises, which makes it possible, through the use of the functional modelling method IDEF0, to combine formal and heuristic methods in the process of preparation and adoption by security entities of decisions to achieve high efficiency in their implementation, to show flexibility in management when the discovery of new factors and make adjustments to the functioning of the corporate security system in accordance with level of implementation of the set and changed tactical and strategic guidelines in the development of the enterprise. The fifth section “Strategic guidelines for the development of corporate security of enterprises” proposes a theoretical and methodological basis for the formation and development of internal control, which consists in the introduction and phased changes to internal management and internal audits to meet the information needs of security entities and participants in corporate relations, which helps to improve information support of the corporate security process before acceptances. A technology for the development of corporate culture has been developed, it involves taking into account the security aspects for the harmonization and storage of corporate values, strengthening internal relations with a focus on achieving common interests and reducing risks and countering threats associated with corporate conflicts, the use of which helps to stabilize and predictability of changes in the internal environment. A conceptual approach has been formed to the selection and implementation of a strategy for ensuring corporate security of industrial enterprises, which consists in using the hierarchy analysis method to establish, in accordance with the actual level of corporate security, a basic version of the strategy with subsequent adjustment of its implementation process in accordance with changes in the impact of external and internal threats that provides maximum flexibility in the implementation of protective measures to achieve strategic goals.

Sport clubs are always searching for innovative ways to improve performance and obtain a competitive edge. Sports analytics today is focused primarily on evaluating metrics thought to be directly tied to performance. Injuries indirectly decrease performance and cost substantially in terms of wasted salaries. Existing sports injury research mainly focuses on correlating one specific feature at a time to the risk of injury. This paper provides a multidimensional approach to non-contact injury prediction in Swedish professional ice hockey by applying machine learning on historical data. Several features are correlated simultaneously to injury probability. The project’s aim is to create an injury predicting algorithm which ranks the different features based on how they affect the risk of injury. The paper also discusses the business potential and strategy of a start-up aiming to provide a solution for predicting injury risk through statistical analysis.
Idrottsklubbar letar ständigt efter innovativa sätt att förbättra prestation och erhålla konkurrensfördelar. Idag fokuserar data- analys inom idrott främst på att utvärdera mätvärden som tros vara direkt korrelerade med prestation. Skador sänker indirekt prestationen och kostar markant i bortslösade spelarlöner. Tidigare studier på skador inom idrotten fokuserar huvudsakligen på att korrelera ett mätvärde till en skada i taget. Den här rapporten ger ett multidimensionellt angreppssätt till att förutse skador inom svensk elitishockey genom att applicera maskininlärning på historisk data. Flera attribut korreleras samtidigt för att få fram en skadesannolikhet. Målet med den här rapporten är att skapa en algoritm för att förutse skador och även ranka olika attribut baserat på hur de påverkar skaderisken. I rapporten diskuteras även affärsmöjligheterna för en sådan lösning och hur en potentiell start-up ska positionera sig på marknaden.

This dissertation focuses on developing imaging informatics algorithms for clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) based on histopathological whole-slide images (WSIs). Currently, histopathological analysis is a common clinical procedure for diagnosing cancer presence, type, and progression. While diagnosing patients using biopsy slides, pathologists manually assess nuclear morphology. However, making decisions manually from a slide with millions of nuclei can be time-consuming and subjective. Researchers have proposed CDSSs that help in decision making but they have limited reproducibility. The development of robust CDSSs for WSIs faces several informatics challenges: (1) Lack of robust segmentation methods for histopathological images, (2) Semantic gap between quantitative information and pathologist’s knowledge, (3) Lack of batch-invariant imaging informatics methods, (4) Lack of knowledge models for capturing informative patterns in large WSIs, and (5) Lack of guidelines for optimizing and validating diagnostic models. I conducted advanced imaging informatics research to overcome these challenges and developed novel methods to extract information from WSIs, to model knowledge embedded in large histopathological datasets, such as The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and to assist decision making with biological and clinical validation. I validated my methods for two applications: (1) diagnosis of histopathology-based endpoints such as subtype and grade and (2) prediction of clinical endpoints such as metastasis, stage, lymphnode spread, and survival. The statistically emergent feature subsets in the diagnostic models for histopathology-based endpoints were concordant with pathologists’ knowledge.

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The Field Information Support Tool (FIST) is a field-based collection system using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) smartphones, customized software, and a robust information management backend known as FusionPortal with a deployable sensor fusion system known as FusionView that enables information to flow from the point of capture to an analyst in near real-time regardless of location or physical proximity. FIST is designed to operate in a variety of environments and supports a variety of mission sets such as counterinsurgency operations (COIN), counter-narcotic missions (CN), and humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HA/DR). The overarching principle of FIST is the development of a user-friendly data collection tool that utilizes automated information systems to enable unstructured data to be collected, processed, and structured for analysis and visualization in a variety of analytic packages. FusionView enables real-time integration of disparate sensor systems that provides a powerful common operating picture critical for today's decision makers. FusionPortal allows for data to be exported and analyzed using geospatial, geo-statistical, link, and social network analysis in addition to enabling the exchange of information with external databases such as the Worldwide Civil Information Database (WCID), the International Studies of Violent Groups (ISVG), and the Combined Information Data Network Exchange (CIDNE).

Advanced information technologies promise a massive influx of individual-specific medical data. These rich sources offer great potential for an increased understanding of disease mechanisms and for providing evidence-based and personalized clinical decision support. However, the size, complexity, and biases of the data pose new challenges, which make it difficult to transform the data to useful and actionable knowledge using conventional statistical analysis. The so-called “Big Data” era has created an emerging and urgent need for scalable, computer-based data mining methods that can turn data into useful, personalized decision support knowledge in a flexible, cost-effective, and productive way. The goal of my Ph.D. research is to address some key challenges in current clinical deci-sion support, including (1) the lack of a flexible, evidence-based, and personalized data mining tool, (2) the need for interactive interfaces and visualization to deliver the decision support knowledge in an accurate and effective way, (3) the ability to generate temporal rules based on patient-centric chronological events, and (4) the need for quantitative and progressive clinical predictions to investigate the causality of targeted clinical outcomes. The problem statement of this dissertation is that the size, complexity, and biases of the current clinical data make it very difficult for current informatics technologies to extract individual-specific knowledge for clinical decision support. This dissertation addresses these challenges with four overall specific aims: Evidence-Based and Personalized Decision Support: To develop clinical decision support systems that can generate evidence-based rules based on personalized clinical conditions. The systems should also show flexibility by using data from different clinical settings. Interactive Knowledge Delivery: To develop an interactive graphical user interface that expedites the delivery of discovered decision support knowledge and to propose a new visualiza-tion technique to improve the accuracy and efficiency of knowledge search. Temporal Knowledge Discovery: To improve conventional rule mining techniques for the discovery of relationships among temporal clinical events and to use case-based reasoning to evaluate the quality of discovered rules. Clinical Casual Analysis: To expand temporal rules with casual and time-after-cause analyses to provide progressive clinical prognostications without prediction time constraints. The research of this dissertation was conducted with frequent collaboration with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory Hospital, and Georgia Institute of Technology. It resulted in the development and adoption of concrete application deliverables in different medical settings, including: the neuroARM system in pediatric neuropsychology, the PHARM system in predictive health, and the icuARM, icuARM-II, and icuARM-KM systems in intensive care. The case studies for the evaluation of these systems and the discovered knowledge demonstrate the scope of this research and its potential for future evidence-based and personalized clinical decision support.

The advantages of plow production for sustainable development of the country are substantiated. It is proved that the management system of any business entity directly depends on a properly constructed, organized and functioning information system based on the information generated in the accounting system. One of the objects of accounting is considered –costs, as such, which should be investigated from the standpoint of accounting and analytical support of organic production.
Обґрунтовано переваги виробництва плугів для сталого розвитку країни. Доведено, що система управління будь-яким суб’єктом господарювання безпосередньо залежить від правильно побудованої, організованої та функціонуючої інформаційної системи, заснованої на інформації, що формується в системі бухгалтерського обліку. Розглядається один з об'єктів бухгалтерського обліку – витрати як такі, які слід досліджувати з позицій бухгалтерського та аналітичного забезпечення органічного виробництва.

Healthcare systems require continuous monitoring of risk to prevent adverse events. Risk analysis is a time consuming activity that depends on the background of analysts and available data. Patient safety data is often incomplete and biased. This research proposes systematic approaches to monitor risk in healthcare using available patient safety data. The methodologies combine traditional healthcare risk analysis methods with safety theory concepts, in an innovative manner, to allocate available evidence to potential risk sources throughout the system. We propose the use of data mining to analyze near-miss reports and guide the identification of risk sources. In addition, we propose a Maximum-Entropy based approach to monitor risk sources and prioritize investigation efforts accordingly. The products of this research are intended to facilitate risk analysis and allow for timely identification of risks to prevent harm to patients.

A prerequisite for improving road safety are reliable and consistent sources of information about traffic and accidents, which will help assess the prevailing situation and give a good indication of their severity. In many countries there is under-reporting of road accidents, deaths and injuries, no collection of data at all, or low quality of information. Potential knowledge is hidden, due to the large accumulation of traffic and accident data. This limits the investigative tasks of road safety experts and thus decreases the utilization of databases. All these factors can have serious effects on the analysis of the road safety situation, as well as on the results of the analyses. This dissertation presents a three-tiered conceptual model to support the sharing of road safety–related information and a set of applications and analysis tools. The overall aim of the research is to build and maintain an information-sharing platform, and to construct mechanisms that can support road safety professionals and researchers in their efforts to prevent road accidents. GLOBESAFE is a platform for information sharing among road safety organizations in different countries developed during this research. Several approaches were used, First, requirement elicitation methods were used to identify the exact requirements of the platform. This helped in developing a conceptual model, a common vocabulary, a set of applications, and various access modes to the system. The implementation of the requirements was based on iterative prototyping. Usability methods were introduced to evaluate the users’ interaction satisfaction with the system and the various tools. Second, a system-thinking approach and a technology acceptance model were used in the study of the Swedish traffic data acquisition system. Finally, visual data mining methods were introduced as a novel approach to discovering hidden knowledge and relationships in road traffic and accident databases. The results from these studies have been reported in several scientific articles.

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scheduling solutions for routing aircraft, crews and logistical support needed to successfully operate in this new environment. The opportunity exists for the DoD's private aircraft operation, the Joint Operational Support Airlift Center (JOSAC), to utilize some of the same system features used in commercial operations such as NetJets to improve operations. This thesis will analyze the use of commercial air operator strategies and DSS's to be used in JOSAC to improve operational effectiveness. It will look to add new capabilities and processes used in commercial DSS's along with the implementation of the disruptive technology, microjets. Some of the potential benefits include improved operational performance, solutions to scheduling inefficiencies and improved mission readiness. With these improvements the potential for a military microjet operation in the future is a real possibility.
1st Lieutenant, United States Air Force

Thesis (M.S. in Information Systems and Operations) Naval Postgraduate School, June 2001.
Thesis advisors, James R. Powell, Harold D. Blanton. Includes bibliographical references (p. 57-58). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Clemson University, 2007.
Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xvi, 385 p. ; also includes graphics (some col.). Contains additional supplemental file.

This thesis is part of the knowledge representation domain and modeling of uncertainty in a context of information fusion. The main idea is to use semantic tools and more specifically ontologies, not only to represent the general domain knowledge and observations, but also to represent the uncertainty that sources may introduce in their own observations. We propose to represent these uncertainties and semantic imprecision trough a metaontology (called DS-Ontology) based on the theory of belief functions. The contribution of this work focuses first on the definition of semantic inclusion and intersection operators for ontologies and on which relies the implementation of the theory of belief functions, and secondly on the development of a tool called FusionLab for merging semantic information within ontologies from the previous theorical development. These works have been applied within a European maritime surveillance project.

Compressed sensing is a data acquisition technique that entails recovering estimates of sparse and compressible signals from n linear measurements, significantly fewer than the signal ambient dimension N. In this thesis we show how we can reduce the required number of measurements even further if we incorporate prior information about the signal into the reconstruction algorithm. Specifically, we study certain weighted nonconvex Lp minimization algorithms and a weighted approximate message passing algorithm. In Chapter 1 we describe compressed sensing as a practicable signal acquisition method in application and introduce the generic sparse approximation problem. Then we review some of the algorithms used in compressed sensing literature and briefly introduce the method we used to incorporate prior support information into these problems. In Chapter 2 we derive sufficient conditions for stable and robust recovery using weighted Lp minimization and show that these conditions are better than those for recovery by regular Lp and weighted L1. We present extensive numerical experiments, both on synthetic examples and on audio, and seismic signals. In Chapter 3 we derive weighted AMP algorithm which iteratively solves the weighted L1 minimization. We also introduce a reweighting scheme for weighted AMP algorithms which enhances the recovery performance of weighted AMP. We also apply these algorithms on synthetic experiments and on real audio signals.