Abstract
In this paper we propose a multilingual method to identify health-related queries and classify them into health categories. Our method uses a consumer health vocabulary and the Unified Medical Language System semantic structure to compute the association degree of a query to medical concepts and categories. This method can be applied in different languages with translated versions of the health vocabulary. To evaluate its efficacy and applicability in two languages we used two manually classified sets of queries, each on a different language. Results are better for the English sample where a distance of 0.38 to the ROC optimal point (0,1) was obtained. This shows some influence of the translation in the method's performance.

Abstract
We conducted a user study to analyze how health literacy, topic familiarity and the terminology used in past queries affect query behavior in health searches. We found that users with inadequate health literacy have less success in web searches and show more difficulties in query formulation. These users and the ones not familiar with the topic use medico-scientific terminology less often than users with more health literacy and topic familiarity. We conclude that search engines should help these groups of users in query formulation and, since technical documents stimulate the use of medico-scientific terminology in query reformulation, mechanisms like query suggestion can have long-term benefits. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.

Abstract
The Web has profoundly changed the way we access information. The increase in the amount of information available and the easy access to the Web have contributed to the popularity of search in this medium. While this is true in several domains, it is particularly significant in the health domain. In fact, search for health information is the third most popular online activity and it is performed by almost 3 out of 4 American Internet users. Besides its popularity, health web search is particularly important to inform health consumers, encouraging them to become more participatory in their health management. In the health domain, the context surrounding the search is extremely rich and we believe it can contribute to improve system's performance. Although information retrieval has made significant progresses supporting its retrieval methods solely on the query and document collection, it has been recognized that context should be explored. Context can, for example, be used to disambiguate a query, to retrieve documents adjusted to the expertise of the searcher or to adjust documents to the patient's medical record. In this dissertation we investigate the effects of context features in consumer health information retrieval. In addition, we propose and evaluate strategies to use context features in query formulation support. The popularity of web search on the health domain made us focus on Web retrieval. We opt to concentrate on health consumers due to the lack of research focusing on this specific public. The thesis behind our work is that consumer health information retrieval is affected by context features, which can be used in query formulation support to improve retrieval performance. In three exploratory studies, we analyze how a large number of features affect different outcomes of the retrieval process. Based on findings from these studies and on the importance of query formulation support in a domain where terminology can be a barrier and translations to other languages are not always obvious, we explored the impact of query translations in users with different characteristics. Based on the assumption that a query using a language that is popular on the Web may easily reach high-quality contents, one study analyzes the effects of translating a query to the English language in users with different levels of English proficiency. Findings show that users having, at least, elementary English proficiency benefit from English query suggestions. The other studies focus on query terminology translation, that is, translation between lay and medico-scientific terminology, considering users' health literacy and topic familiarity. Although several strategies have been previously proposed to overcome the terminology gap between health consumers and web documents, none considers users health literacy and topic familiarity. Findings suggest that users with inadequate health literacy and users who are unfamiliar with the topic should be provided with recommendations of lay queries. On the other hand, users with higher health literacy or higher topic familiarity should be given alternative queries using medico-scientific terminology. Based on the above findings, we developed a query suggestion system that, using domain information gathered from an existing consumer health vocabulary, identifies the medical concepts included in the query and returns four types of suggestions combining the Portuguese or English languages with the lay or medico-scientific terminologies. We found that suggestions offered by the system had a good acceptance, with English suggestions being preferred to Portuguese ones in basic and proficient users and medico-scientific suggestions being preferred to lay ones in higher levels of health literacy. We concluded that a retrieval system including the implemented suggestion strategy without any kind of personalization tends to be better than a system without suggestions with respect to precision, correctness of the resulting knowledge and also of its incorrectness. We also concluded that this system tends to be slightly worse in terms of motivational relevance. Of these, only the incorrectness difference is significant. This is extremely relevant in the health domain where incorrect information can have serious consequences. Moreover, we also found that the personalization of this system to users' English proficiency and health literacy, biasing users towards the suggestions more beneficial to them, outperforms the system without personalization, in terms of medical accuracy of the obtained knowledge.

Abstract

Abstract
Considering the global competitiveness the organizations ability to effectively use information technologies and bet on innovation and creativity are today commonly recognized as important. In this context, research on creativity in information systems has assumed special importance. This paper illustrates the use of Action-Research Method "in research in Information Systems and Creativity, particularized in Information Systems Planning, reflecting on the advantages of using this method in this context.

Abstract
Mean sea level (MSL) in the Baltic Sea is influenced by several factors and therefore presents a complex behaviour over a wide range of time-scales. This work performs a multi-scale analysis of MSL variability in the Baltic Sea using discrete wavelet analysis. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is well known for having a strong influence in MSL variability over the Baltic; however, the relationship between MSL and NAO at different time-scales is still little understood. In this work a comparison of MSL and NAO variability is performed for a wide range of temporal scales, uncovering distinct relationships in high-frequency and long-term temporal variability. The annual and sub-annual scales are found to account for more than 50% of the total MSL variability. The MSL annual cycle is analysed and a shift from low to high amplitude values is identified in the 1970s for most stations. MSL is found to be anti-correlated to NAO at short time-scales while on the long-term NAO and MSL appear to be positively correlated for most stations. The physical mechanisms behind these distinct relationships deserve deeper study.