Data-to-text systems are Natural Language Generation (NLG) systems that generate textural summaries of raw numerical data. To date such systems have concentrated exclusively on time series data. This is despite the increasing use and availability of low cost Geographical Information Systems (GIS), which has made analysis of georeferenced data commonplace in many scientific areas. This thesis describes original research in the field of NLG by addressing the problem of automatically generating textual summaries of georeferenced data; that is, any data that has a reference to its location on the Earth’s surface. The postulation that data-to-text technology can generate textural summaries of georeferenced data of comparable quality to human written ones for the same data set provides its focus. This research has carried out in the context of the RoadSafe project, whose primary outcome was development of a date-to-text application for generating road maintenance weather forecasts. This thesis is a thorough investigation of the practical and theoretical issues involved in generating good quality textural summaries of georeferenced data. It begins by surveying the current state of the art in data-to-text and the challenges that georeferenced data poses to such systems. Subsequently empirical observations are outlined that lead to the proposal of a model for georeferenced data-to-text. This model has been implemented and evaluated in a system fielded in the meteorology domain. Techniques for data analysis, content determination and generating spatial descriptions are outlined.

Information systems (IS) researchers and practitioners have for some time now been advocating the use of Action Research as an appropriate means of undertaking work in the field of information systems (Checkland and Scholes, 1990; Mansell, 1991; Stowell and West, 1994; Baskerville and Wood-Harper, 1996,1998; Stowell, West and Stansfield, 1997; Checkland and Holwell, 1998, West and Stansfield, 2001; Mumford, 2001). Yet little has been written about the application of Action Research during the real-world development of organizational strategic plans, where an important aim of the Action Researcher is also the attainment of an academic qualification. A possible explanation for this may be the amount of controversy that still surrounds the theoretical principles (Cady and Caster, 2000) and the practice and application (Stowell et. al, 1997) of Action Research. In particular, Action Research has been criticised for producing research with little action or action with little research (Foster, 1972), lacking in the rigor of true scientific research (Cohen and Manion, 1980), lacking in validity of data (Baskerville and Wood-Harper, 1996), lacking in internal and external control (Merriam and Simpson, 1984) and likely to be a problematic research method for doctoral students (Eden and Huxham, 1993,1995,1996). This doctoral research programme has been set up to investigate two 'themes'. The first, of more research/academic interest, concerns the development and testing of a diagrammatic Action Research Approach that will help to ensure the delivery of valid/robust research results. Also, because most existing diagrams don't describe Action Research at a more useful lower 'micro' level (Lau, 1997). The second research theme, of more practical interest, concerns understanding what can happen when a 'novice' practitioner attempts to use Action Research and JOURNEY Making (Eden and Ackermann, 1998) to solve a real-world organizational strategic problem. To ensure that the research is seen as 'valid' Action Research, Checkland and Holwell's (1998) 'FMA' model is applied because "This is the intellectual structure which will lead to findings and research lessons being recognised as such. Without that declaration, it is difficult to see how the outcome of Action Research can be more than anecdotal" (p. 13-14).

In this project, a range of characteristics describing farmers as decision-makers and details of their land holdings are integrated within a Geographic Information System (GIS) and used to predict overall farm response to defined policy scenarios, for a study area in the upland fringe of Grampian Region. Agriculture has undergone considerable adjustments over the past 40 years, characterised by the processes of intensification and specialisation of farming systems. These changes have been essentially policy-driven, although the precise interaction of policy, technological and macro-economic forces are not entirely understood. Further to this, rural areas are subject to an increasing range of consumption demands which has stimulated a new range of land-use policy schemes, and constraints, on farmers and landowners. From a position of assured government support which was enjoyed by the majority of farmers until the mid-1980s, the policy situation has developed into one of uncertainty and some confusion over the requirements and responsibilities placed on individual farmers. This research links spatial, behavioural and economic elements which combine to condition farm-level response to policy change. The complexity of individuals' decision environments, coupled with the diversity of individuals' values, objectives and resources is immense. The focus is on individual farms, and the implications of change at the individual level in developing a model of farm-level response to policy and market shifts.

Parallel computing techniques have become more important especially now that we have effectively reached the limit on individual processor speeds due to unacceptable levels of heat generation. Multi-core processors are already the norm and will continue to rise in terms of number of cores in the near future. However clusters of machines remain the next major step up in system performance effectively allowing vast numbers of cores to be devoted to any given problem. It is in that context that this Professional Doctorate thesis and Portfolio exists. Most parallel or cluster based software is custom built for an application using techniques such as OpenMP or MPI. But what if the capability of writing such software does not exist, what if the very act of writing a new piece of software compromises the integrity of an industry standard piece of software currently being used in a research project? The first outcome was to explore how grid/cluster computing teaching and learning facilities could be made accessible to students and teaching staff alike within the Department of Computing, Engineering & Technology in order to enhance the student experience. This was achieved through the development of VCNet, a virtual technology cluster solution, based on the design of the University of Sunderland Cluster Computer (USCC) and capable of running behind a dual boot arrangement on standard teaching machines. The second outcome of this Professional Doctorate was to produce a framework for efficient cluster computing services in a collaborative university environment. Although small by national and international standards, the USCC, with its forty machines and 160 cores, packs a mighty punch in computing terms. Through the work of this doctorate, ‘supercomputer class’ performance has been successfully used in cross- disciplinary research through the development and use of the Application Framework for Computational Chemistry (AFCC). In addition, I will also discuss the contribution this doctorate has made within the context of my community of practice by enhancing both my teaching and learning contribution as well as cross-disciplinary research and application.

A research report submitted to the School of Public Health, University of WItwatersrand in partial completion of the requirements of the degree Master of Public Health : Social and Behaviour change communication / Three randomised control trials in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa have shown that Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) reduces the risk of heterosexual HIV transmission to men by up to 60%. This has resulted in a WHO and UNAIDS recommendation to promote VMMC as part of comprehensive HIV prevention programming. In order for South Africa to achieve its 80% national coverage target of VMMC, significant investment needs to be made in demand creation programming. The Centre for HIV/AIDS Prevention Studies (CHAPS) provides free VMMCs through 28 community based clinics and hospitals in Gauteng, North West and Limpopo Provinces. In 2013, CHAPS demand creation activities have resulted in some increases in demand but CHAPS have committed to exploring additional demand creation opportunities. In terms of reach, mobile telephones are highly prevalent in South Africa, with more than 90% of South African households surveyed in 2011 reporting to have at least one cellular telephone in the home. The ongoing advancement of mobile phones to allow data transfer and internet access also means that more ‘Technology-Poor’ or ‘ICT Have-nots’ will be able to access the ever increasing knowledge content of the internet, participate in digital social-domains and be reached in shorter times and at lower costs.

There are 5 files which have been withheld at the author's request. Master of Commerce - Commerce / Business processes in all sectors of the business community require information to achieve the missions of their organisations. The quality of the information is directly related to the quality of the application system which process or produce such information. During application systems development, the project manager should consciously gather the application owner’s quality requirements, and ensure that those requirements are built into the application which is delivered at the conclusion of the development project. The specified quality requirements should be measurable to ensure that their presence can be verified in the end product. This report uses quality attributes obtained from the International Standard (ISO) 9126 Software Evaluation Framework, to specify these requirements and to verify their achievement. This research found that there is a consensus among application system owners and project managers on the importance of quality attributes as an evaluation tool of the quality of an application system. In the quest for quality, the starting point should be gathering of quality requirements and their correct interpretation.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Commerce. / Information Systems (IS) project management is fundamental to organlzations who are involved in the development of information systems, yet IS projects can fail for any number of reasons, and insome cases can result in consi derable financial losses for the organisations that undertake them. One pattern of failure is .hat the IS project takes on a life of its own, continuing to absorb valuable resources without reaching its cbjective. A significant number of these projects will ultimately fail, potentially weakening an organisation's competitive position while siphoning off resources that could be spent developing and implementing successful systems. Earned value performance measurement (EVPM) is a management technique that relates resource planning to schedules and to technical performance requirements. It is formed on a platform of fundamental project management, but with earned value performance measurement, with its focus being the continuous measurement of actual achievement against a detailed performance plan, thus providing a basis for problem identification, corrective actions, and management replanning, whilst providing the information necessary to be able to predict the final costs and fmal schedule forecasts for the project. The purpose of this study is to highlight the earned value performance measurement system, and propose it as an alternative approach that can be used for controlling the IS software development effort. / AC 2018

This dissertation hypothesizes the effects of membership change within teams on team coordination and effectiveness. When member change occurs, teams are likely to make attributions relating to how unexpected is the member change, based on the predictability and controllability of that change. The impact of the change (i.e., based on the unexpected nature of that change) on team coordination can be described in terms of flux (i.e., the amount of disruption caused by member change in coordination), and thus, team effectiveness. The membership change and flux-in-coordination relationship is then moderated by the importance of the member leaving the team, referred to as role criticality. The contributions and limitations of these results are discussed, as are directions for future research and practical implications. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2009. / Date of Defense: February 27, 2009. / Teams, Coordination, Effectiveness, Member Change / Includes bibliographical references. / Gerald R. Ferris, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Stephen E. Humphrey, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Michael Brady, Outside Committee Member; Mark J. Martinko, Committee Member; Chad Van Iddekinge, Committee Member; Timothy Holcomb, Committee Member.

Beginning as an area of popular and business press interest, emotional intelligence is fast becoming a legitimate area of research for organizational science theorists. The many potential benefits of emotional intelligence have yet to be evaluated within the realm of legitimate academic research, and there are many areas of organizational concern that may be beneficially influenced by this empowering attribute. Emotional labor is one such area, and it has grown as a legitimate concern for organizational participants involved in the practice of using their emotions for organizational purposes. Furthermore, it is a concern for the organizations these individuals serve. The purpose of this dissertation is to review and analyze the literature on emotional intelligence and emotional labor and to discover how emotional intelligence moderates relationships within the emotional labor process. It is hypothesized that this investigation will reveal evidence supporting the general hypothesis that emotionally intelligent organizational members enjoy more effective participation in the emotional labor process, and that emotional intelligence, as a moderator, will alleviate detrimental individual and organizational outcomes of this process. Data were collected using questionnaires. The questionnaires were distributed to 29 stores of an 87 year-old retail chain with over 200 stores centralized in the Southeastern United States. A sample of 210 usable employee responses having matching supervisor evaluations was obtained from these efforts. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test the hypotheses. Results were found to support a number of the hypotheses set forth, including affirmative findings for the moderating influence of emotional intelligence on the relationship between various emotional labor performance efforts and outcomes of the emotional labor process. In addition, further analyses of unsupported hypotheses revealed direct main effects of emotional intelligence on some outcomes. A discussion of the results includes an evaluation of research limitations, practical limitations, and directions for future research. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2004. / Date of Defense: August 18, 2004. / Organizational Commitment, Job Satisfaction, Performance, Customer Service, Strain, Non-Acting, Emotional Intelligence, Emotional Labor, Emotion, Surface Acting, Deep Acting, Turnover, Physical Strain, Psychological Strain / Includes bibliographical references. / Gerald R. Ferris, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Pamela Perrewé, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Robert A. Brymer, Outside Committee Member; Larry Giunipero, Outside Committee Member; Ceasar Douglas, Committee Member; Wayne Hochwarter, Committee Member.

The over-arching purpose of this research is to broaden the study of trust as it applies to developing stable relationships in electronic environments. Previous research has investigated many aspects of trust, but has not looked at the incremental development of it. This may be because methods are difficult to develop that study process models and concepts are difficult to operationalize that influence the incremental progression of variables. Previous empirical research identifies antecedents that emerge to enhance initial perceptions of trust. These may possibly influence the progression of trust to deeper levels. More conceptual work identifies antecedents that swiftly cultivate trust, allowing for stable relationships to develop more quickly. The antecedents investigated in this study are the use of security symbols, trustworthy brand names, and personalization techniques. Developing and testing a process model using antecedents of trust offers one method to study trust development. This dissertation documents a longitudinal experiment that tested hypotheses of the process model, producing data sets that were analyzed using regression and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results of the study indicate that the use of security symbols and trustworthy brand names have a positive and lasting effect on trusting beliefs. The results also show that personalization has a decreasing and lasting effect on trusting beliefs. There was no support for the hypothesis that trust develops over time in electronic environments. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management Information Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2005. / Date of Defense: December 3, 2004. / Electronic Commerce, Disclosure, Trust / Includes bibliographical references. / David B. Paradice, Professor Directing Dissertation; Charles F. Hofacker, Outside Committee Member; Robert M. Mason, Committee Member; Ashley A. Bush, Committee Member.