Support for decision making on the World Wide Web : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Information Science in Computer Science at Massey University, Turitea Campus, Palmerston North, New Zealand

This research explores tool support for information retrieval and comparison of multiple pieces of information on the web. The study identifies the main goals users may have in mind when using the Internet in this way, and the necessary activities users complete to fulfill their goals. The main goals web users have are information search, entertainment and consumer to business transactions. The tasks users perform on the web to fulfill their goals include collecting, comparing, filtering and processing web information. These tasks form a decision-making cycle on the web and depending on the goal at hand, users may or may not necessarily undertake all the tasks or sub-steps in any sequential order. Industry web support tools have been analyzed to find out how effective they are in supporting a common user's activities. These tools include web browsers (Netcaptor Browser and Internet Explorer), editing tools (Notes Pilot and Edit Pad), plug-ins, research tools and window management systems. Both browsers are poor at arranging multiple windows and excellent at opening web sites. The Internet Explorer browser proved to be better than the Netcaptor browser at a number of activities including, selecting web content, copying web text and images and pasting web content into editing documents. When used with either browser. Microsoft Windows is good for arranging windows but poor in switching windows views, scrolling windows and resizing and re-positioning windows. Both editing tools are poor at re-positioning and formatting web content from an HTML environment to a text-based environment. The Notes Pilot tool is also poor in making calculations and returning to the browser. It is excellent at saving work and retrieving old files. The Edit Pad tool is successful at all other activities except re-positioning and formatting web content. It can be seen that tool support is lacking or current web-based tools support the user poorly in a number of areas. The need for an integrated web support tool has been identified. The functional and non-functional requirements have been specified, the tool designed, implemented and evaluated by users. The users were requested to complete a questionnaire and conduct a think-aloud walk-through session while completing three tasks using the integrated web support tool. The sessions were observed and results recorded. Most of the users strongly agreed with the proposition that the tool would be useful for personal or academic activities. The users recognized the tool's novelty, its efficiency, and also indicated an overall level of satisfaction. The users were less satisfied about referring back to web sites, getting the software to do exactly what they wanted and arranging the work space to meet their needs. Changes were made to the tool

Search for dark matter at the LHC using missing transverse energy

Results are presented for a search for dark matter at the LHC using the signatures of a monojet plus missing transverse energy and a monophoton plus missing transverse energy. The data were collected by the CMS detector at the LHC with pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns. In the absence of an excess of events in the data compared to the Standard Model prediction, limits are set on the dark matter-nucleon scattering cross section which can be directly compared with bounds from the direct detection experiments.Comment: Contribution to Moriond Cosmology 2012 proceeding

Search for New Physics with Monojet plus missing transverse energy at CMS

Results are presented for the search for new physics in the monojet plus missing transverse energy channel using pp collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The data were collected by the CMS detector at the LHC, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 36 pb-1. The number of observed events is found to be in good agreement with Standard Model predictions and limits are placed on parameters in the framework of the ADD model and unparticles.Comment: Proceedings for the DPF2011 conference (Brown University, Providence, RI, USA