Master of Science

M.Tech (Department of Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology), Vaal University of Technology. / Due to the fickle nature of weather upon which renewable energy sources mostly depend, a shift towards a sustainable renewable energy system should be accompanied with a good intermediate energy storage system, such as a battery bank, set up to store the excess supply from renewable sources during their peak periods. The stored energy can later be utilised to supply a regulated and steady power supply for use during the off-peak periods of these renewable energy sources. Battery banks, however, are often faced with the challenge of charge imbalance due to the disparities that occur in the operating characteristics of the batteries that constitute a bank. When a battery bank with charge imbalance is repeatedly used in applications without an effective battery management system (BMS) through active charge equalisation, there could be an early degradation, loss of efficiency and reduction of service life of the entire batteries in the bank. In this research, a universal battery management system (BMS) in stand-alone photovoltaic application was proposed and designed. The BMS consists majorly of a switched capacitor (SC) active charge equaliser, designed with a unique configuration of high capacitance and relatively low switching frequency, which can be applicable to common battery types used in stand-alone photovoltaic application. The circuit was mathematically optimised to minimise losses attributed to impulsive charging and tested with lead acid, silver calcium, lead calcium and lithium ion batteries being commonly used in stand-alone photovoltaic application. The SC design was verified by comparing its simulation results to the digital oscilloscope results, and with both results showing similar values and graphs, the design configuration was validated. The design introduced a simple control strategy and less complicated circuit configuration process, which can allow an easy setup for local usage. The benefit of its multiple usage with different stand-alone photovoltaic battery types saves the cost of purchasing a different charger and balancer for different battery types. More so, the design is solar energy dependent. This could provide an additional benefit for usage in areas where energy dependence is off-grid.

Der Einsatz digitaler Medien hat in der nationalen Hochschullehre Tradition. Lernmanagementsysteme (LMS), E-Learning, Blended Learning, etc. sind Schlagwörter im Hochschulalltag. Allerdings stellt sich die Frage, was LMS und Blended Learning im Zeitalter digitaler Vernetzung und der herangewachsenen Generation der “Digital Natives” leisten (können bzw. sollen)? Die Verbreitung neuer Technologien im Zusammenhang mit neuen Lehr- und Lernkonzepten wie OER, MOOCS, etc. macht zudem die Entwicklung von Analytics-Instrumenten erforderlich. Das ist auch im nationalen Diskurs von großem Interesse und legt neue Handlungsfelder für Hochschulen offen. Doch es stellt sich die Frage, warum Learning Analytics (LA) bzw. Academic Analytics (AA) bisher nur in einem geringfügigen Maße an deutschen Hochschulen erfolgreich zum Einsatz kommen und warum eine Nutzung insbesondere in LMS, wie zum Beispiel OPAL, nicht ohne Weiteres realisierbar erscheint. Hierzu sollen Einflussfaktoren, die die Implementierung von LA- und AA-Instrumenten hemmen, identifiziert und diskutiert werden. Aufbauend darauf werden erste Handlungsfelder vorgestellt, deren Beachtung eine verstärkte Einbettung von LA- und AA Instrumenten in LMS möglich machen soll.

For several years now, the healthcare service has been facing major recruitment challenges where the shortage of nurses is a reality. As time goes by and experienced employees leave the profession, managers are facing a transition to not only having a lack of resources but also a lack of competence. Insufficient staffing or competence can create negative consequences and further aggravate the basic problem of competence management. The overall purpose of this study is to create knowledge about the situation of unit managers regarding the competence management of nurses, by examining what conditions and tools   unit managers have in their leadership to handle this. The study examines the conditions and tools that unit managers describe that they have for managing competence and need thereof in the department. What tools regarding competence management / needs, how the tools look like and how they are used in relation to competence management, and whether the unit manager lacks any tools. Finally, the study describes how the unit manager handles the unit’s competence needs and competence management, through leadership. The study is based on theories in competence management, learning organizations, learning in the workplace and leadership. Specifically, four different departments are examined at an emergency hospital in central Sweden using a qualitative method. The empirical material comes from completed semi-structured interviews with a total of eight unit managers, which were analyzed based on a qualitative content analysis approach. The results of the study show how the unit managers have adopted different strategies for working with the prevailing competence management situation. Competence management is mostly described in terms of competence development. The unit managers describe limitations regarding the shortage of nurses and there are major challenges regarding the competence level of the department. The unit managers describe a need for a larger proportion of the group of nurses who have solid professional experience within the specialty of the   department. The results show different obstacles at different levels, where the goal to have a long-term and forward-looking focus, may stand aside. The unit managers describe that other things take up their time, where a large proportion of the worktime is spent on staffing, with the right competence. The study shows how the unit managers use or develop their own competence tools to facilitate competence management. Support from the organisation is in many issues lacking but demanded. About half of the unit managers use the region's competence tools. The unit manages describes some elements of a learning organization, but the holistic approach for the entire hospital is not in focus. Leadership is described as clear, present and that the goals of the unit are linked to the employees' motivation and development needs. The lack of nurses remaining, and the lack of experienced nurses in the unit affects the unit managers' daily work. A large part of the worktime is spent on recruitment, but also on constantly developing the competence of the employees in order to ensure good patient care.

In this study the aim was to investigate and nuance how the Volvo Construction Equipment (VCE) production Hub can evolve their environmental work, at Chinese wheel loader producer Shandong Lingong (SDLG), to reach Volvo standard. The study also aimed to investigate what international companies in China should take into consideration in their environmental work. The work was carried out by answering the following research questions; In which way or ways can the VCE Hub at SDLG evolve their environmental work to reach Volvo standard? What should international companies take into consideration in their environmental work when establishing on the Chinese market, and why? A lot of the information in this Thesis is based on empirical data, i.e. interviews. Three interviews with Swedish companies have been carried out. They are all highly valuing Environmental work but use different methods, their situations are unlike and they produce diverse products. Several interviews with people working with environmental issues in different ways have also been done, as well as with the SGS; a Chinese certification body. Three different companies with production in or around Shanghai were chosen; Volvo CE, SKF, and Sandvik. All three companies are originally Swedish but with production in China. Environmental work is highly prioritized in Sweden and the companies have global environmental policies and goals. The three companies were chosen because they are in different production areas but they are striving in the same direction with environmental issues in China. They are working differently and their situations are of various kinds. In 2006 Volvo CE invested in a Chinese wheel loader producer named Shandong Lingong. Volvo CE has a Hub, at the plant, which runs independently. SDLG are still not ISO 14001 certified and do not have an environmental management system (EMS) that is conformably with the Volvo demands. The most important to take into consideration when doing business in China is according to the study; top management support, to do training for the employees, mediate the importance of awareness, and to have knowledge about Chinese regulations. These are some of the issues International companies have to deal with when doing business in China. A well established EMS is a necessity for a good environmental work. To implement an EMS in the Hub as a pilot project is the best solution according to the information gathered in this thesis. SDLG could be a part-, they can evaluate-, and later it could be possible to implement the process in the whole SDLG. Due to this methodology they will learn how to work according to Volvo requirements and obtain benefits of an implementation. There are three different alternatives for the ISO 14001 certification of the Hub according to this work. For the Hub to be ISO 14001 certified together with another Volvo plant seems to be the best alternative thought it reduces the amount of work with legal authorities. VCE’s EMS will also not be compared with SDLG and it will be moneysaving. The policies and Environmental aspects (EA) though have to be rewritten to be suitable for both the factories.

Learning-Management-Systeme (LMS) bilden einen festen Bestandteil schulischer, universitärer und betrieblicher Technologiearrangements in der Aus- und Weiterbildungslandschaft (Meyer, 2016). Sie verstehen sich als webbasierte „Softwaresysteme zur Organisation, Steuerung und Kommunikation zum Lernen und Lehren“ (Kultusministerkonferenz, 2016, S. 42) und ermöglichen die Erstellung, Modifizierung und Veröffentlichung von Lerncontent. LMS finden vor allem dort ihren Einsatz, „wo große Nutzerzahlen auf einen nachhaltigen Lernbedarf stoßen“ (Müller, 2018). Sie adressieren als webbasierte Plattformen ein breites Spektrum bildungsbezogener Aufgaben angefangen bei der Verwaltung von Benutzern und Kursen über die Rollen- und Rechtevergabe bis hin zu verschieden Möglichkeiten der Kommunikation und Kollaboration von Lehrenden und Lernenden. Zudem gelten LMS im Kontext der Digitalisierung in Schulen, Hochschulen und Betrieben als entscheidende Marker für die Veränderung und Neuausrichtung von Lehre (Borchert, Fritzenberg, & Schlöffel, 2014). Für den Paradigmenwechsel ‚from teaching to learning’ und eine stärkere Lernerzentrierung sollen LMS eine wesentliche Rolle spielen (Barr & Tagg, 1995). [Aus der Einleitung.]

Both integrated library management systems and DAISY production and manipulation tools become widespread. We study how they could be combined to build a ready-to-use digital library with DAISY as its core format. The obtained framework should cover the entire book processing, from digital files provided either by publishers or by scanning printed material, until the delivery of DAISY content to end-users in a possibly secured way. We first give a functional description of the framework we have in mind. Then, we examine the existing tools of interest and give some tracks for further software developments.

In today's knowledge economy, intellectual capabilities are one of the most important resources for organizations. Attempts have therefore been made to consolidate knowledge and facilitate knowledge sharing within organizations. For this purpose, many organizations turn to knowledge management systems. This study aims to investigate the barriers and enablers that affect the use of knowledge management systems for virtual teams within the public sector. To investigate this, we have conducted a qualitative case study of one of the largest multi-entity projects ever conducted within the Swedish public sector, and their use of their knowledge management system “Muster”. Our findings suggest there are multiple barriers and enablers for knowledge management use. Furthermore, our findings reveal that most enablers are related to organizational factors whilst barriers consist of both organizational and system factors.The barriers are limited access, inadequate routines, and lack of informal meetings in virtual teams. The last one we found to be unique for virtual teams. The enablers are importance of knowledge, organizational attitude, and routines for knowledge capture and storage. This suggests that duality of routines is present and a factor in knowledge management system use.

The first part of this project focused on evaluating aspects of the environmental management practices of Texas chemical industries, particularly waste generation and management of the data related to these processes. The waste generation data included Texas notifications required to track wastes. The next phase consisted of characterizing industrial waste disposal methods, waste container management, and transportation including an overview of required documentation for each activity. This led to identification of issues encountered from inefficient recordkeeping, ineffective internal communication, or inadequate environmental management systems. The result of an ineffective hazardous waste data management program can be fines, damage to the environment, and even adverse impacts on worker health and safety. For example, for the situations outlined in this document, violations could have resulted in penalties totaling $550,000 per day. This led to an effort to evaluate and develop solutions needed to develop a robust management system. The goal was to provide an operating and hazardous waste management program which optimally resulted in “zero findings” by the state regulatory agency. This would be achieved through personal experiences of this environmental engineer while working at a chemical plant augmented by information obtained through observations of others at the facility and a review of published documentation. This document focuses on the redesign and automation of an ineffective, manual environmental management system by making modifications and enhancements with a focus on effective management of various waste media. The criteria used for determining system optimization includes regulatory compliance and noncompliance penalties, internal communication time, onsite storage accumulation time exceedances, recordkeeping efficiency, number of lost waste containers, and time needed to make waste classifications. Optimization is verified against other alternatives by comparing instances and severity of noncompliance with state and federal regulations. The result was a total environmental management system optimized in a way that ensured compliance and achieved the goal of eliminating violations. It also reduced cost, allowed automated data entry, supported rapid asset location and helped track performance.

In recent years, a second generation of Web-based technologies have as “Web 2.0” At the core of Web 2.0 are web-based services, social networking and online collaborative functions. Forestry, like other disciplines, has the potential to take advantage of these technologies to alter or change the way traditional interaction between forestry professionals and other interested parties is undertaken. This dissertation explores the use of Web 2.0 and social networking technologies in two domains: (1) eBusiness and (2) Urban Ecology. The thesis is designed to provide essentially two chapters that stand on their own, and describe the background and the design and development of two Web 2.0 online systems. The eBusiness chapter of this thesis includes the research on the applicability of the online community model for today’s forest sector electronic businesses-to-business platforms. The Urban Ecology chapter consists of the research how data integration along with a “content management system” designed for a social network website can be exploited to improve collaboration among geographically distant researchers, policy makers and other stakeholders interested in Urban Ecology. In addition to the text in this dissertation, a “supplement” to this dissertation are two computer systems and databases that the author developed over the course of 2006-2007.