The field of technical consultancy is centered around the value that each individual consultant can provide. This value has its ground in the set of skills and knowledge which the consultant possesses, and from an organizational standpoint, must be probably managed as to be fully utilized within the organization. The knowledge that consultants acquire during project missions is not every fully utilized within the base organization, due to the restrictions of knowledge barriers, prohibiting the transfer and retention of knowledge.    Knowledge management therefore becomes an important aspect to consider in the technical consultancy field, as technology is constantly changing at a higher pace. This are of knowledge management has been neglected in the past, as most research regard knowledge management focus on more linear organization and management consultancy. This report aims to identify what and how knowledge barriers are created within the technical consultancy field and how the barriers affect knowledge acquisitions, transfer, and retention. This report follows a qualitative study approach, with semi structured interviews of 12 managers in key positions at 9 consulting firms, ranging from senior consultancy managers to senior consultants.    The results of the empirical study identified 19 knowledge barriers affecting knowledge acquisition, transfer, and retention. The aspect of knowledge and organizational culture was found to be a foundational part of KM affecting the entire cycle of KM. The major barriers related to technical consultancy holding specialized and diverse knowledge, a lack of adequate knowledge management systems implemented, economic factors affecting KM utilization, market drivers creating barriers and internal as well as external cultural factors affecting the KM cycle.

En el presente estudio se propone el diseño de un sistema de SST para reducir los riesgos laborales en la empresa Casa Blanca SRL. Para ello, se diagnosticó la situación actual de toda la empresa, en el que se identificó un total de 200 días por ausentismo del personal durante el periodo 2019-2021 a causa de accidentes laborales, generando costos directos de S/ 23 275, así como el cumplimiento de solo el 11% en relación a los requisitos de la Ley 29783 y por medio de la matriz Ishikawa se determinó las causales de mano de obra, medio, método y maquinaria. Luego, a través de la Matriz IPER se identificaron un total de 14 riesgos en las actividades de la empresa, de los cuales el 79 % son del tipo moderado y el 21 % son altos. Posteriormente, para el diseño del sistema de SST se terminaron los controles operacionales para las causales antes mencionadas, midiendo el impacto por medio de una matriz IPERC, obteniendo la reducción de riesgos a 86% tolerables y 14% a moderados. Para el diseño de sistema propuesto se tomó en cuenta los documentos y registros obligatorios que establece la ley 29783, proyectándose al cumplimiento de los requisitos en un 86%. Finalmente, con la evaluación económica, se demostró la viabilidad de la propuesta de diseño, obteniendo un VAN de S/ 37 265, TIR de 88% y un B/C de 1,61. / In the present study, the design of an OSH system is proposed to reduce occupational risks in the company Casa Blanca SRL. For this, the current situation of the entire company was diagnosed, in which a total of 200 days due to staff absenteeism during the 2019-2021 period due to work accidents were identified, generating direct costs of S/ 23,275, as well as compliance of only 11% in relation to the requirements of Law 29783 and through the Ishikawa matrix, the causes of labor, means, method and machinery were determined. Then, through the IPER Matrix, a total of 14 risks were identified in the company's activities, of which 79% are of the moderate type and 21% are high. Subsequently, for the design of the SST system, the operational controls for the aforementioned causes were completed, measuring the impact through an IPERC matrix, obtaining a risk reduction of 86% tolerable and 14% moderate. For the proposed system design, the mandatory documents and records established by Law 29783 were taken into account, projecting 86% of the requirements to be met. Finally, with the economic evaluation, the feasibility of the design proposal was demonstrated, obtaining a NPV of S/ 36,436, an IRR of 96% and a B/C of 1.66.

In higher education institutions, virtual learning systems (VLSs) have been adopted, and are becoming increasingly popular among educators. However, despite this ubiquity of VLS use, there has not been widespread change in pedagogic practice to take advantage of the functionality afforded by VLSs. Knowledge of the actual usage of e-learning systems is limited in terms of what specific feature sets are deemed useful, and how this influences system usage. VLSs have a suite of tools with associated functions/features and properties, as well as non-functional system characteristics. In addition, these systems incorporate pedagogic features to cater for online teaching. Educators in higher education, who are the chief agents of e-learning, are confounded by system-related, pedagogic, organisational, user difference and demographic factors that influence VLS usage. Virtual learning system usage involves system feature usage extent and frequency, total system usage and usage clusters. The aim of this study is to develop a model representing the factors that influence usage of VLSs in higher education. The links between system usage and system-related factors, pedagogic factors, organisational factors, user-difference and demographic factors is researched. This research incorporated a literature study, a pilot study, interviews and surveys. A case study research strategy was combined with a mixed methods research design. The results of the qualitative analysis was triangulated with the findings of the quantitative analysis and compared to the findings of the literature study. The study was conducted at two residential higher education institutions (HEI), namely, University of KwaZulu-Natal and Durban University of Technology. The main contribution of this study is the Virtual Learning System Usage Model (VLSUM) representing the factors that influence VLS usage in residential higher education institutions. The proposed VLSUM is based on the empirical results of this study. VLSUM can be used by managers of educational technology departments and instructional designers to implement interventions to optimize usage. The constructs of VLSUM confirmed existing theories, replicated and synthesised theories from different fields, and extended existing models to produce a new model for understanding the factors that influence VLS usage in higher education. / Computing / D. LITT. et. Phil. (Information Systems)

A continuous increase in demands from the utility grid and traction applications have steered public attention toward the integration of energy storage (ES) and hybrid ES (HESS) solutions. Modern technologies are no longer limited to batteries, but can include supercapacitors (SC) and flywheel electromechanical ES well. However, insufficient control and algorithms to monitor these devices can result in a wide range of operational issues. A modern day control platform must have a deep understanding of the source. In this dissertation, specialized modular Energy Storage Management Controllers (ESMC) were developed to interface with a variety of ES devices. The EMSC provides the capability to individually monitor and control a wide range of different ES, enabling the extraction of an ES module within a series array to charge or conduct maintenance, while remaining storage can still function to serve a demand. Enhancements and testing of the ESMC are explored in not only interfacing of multiple ES and HESS, but also as a platform to improve management algorithms. There is an imperative need to provide a bridge between the depth of the electrochemical physics of the battery and the power engineering sector, a feat which was accomplished over the course of this work. First, the ESMC was tested on a lead acid battery array to verify its capabilities. Next, physics-based models of lead acid and lithium ion batteries lead to the improvement of both online battery management and established multiple metrics to assess their lifetime, or state of health. Three unique HESS were then tested and evaluated for different applications and purposes. First, a hybrid battery and SC HESS was designed and tested for shipboard power systems. Next, a lithium ion battery and SC HESS was utilized for an electric vehicle application, with the goal to reduce cycling on the battery. Finally, a lead acid battery and flywheel ES HESS was analyzed for how the inclusion of a battery can provide a dramatic improvement in the power quality versus flywheel ES alone.

The radio astronomy and space geodesy scientific instrumentation of the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) in Gauteng, South Africa, generate large volumes of data. Additional large data volumes will be generated by new geodesy instruments that are currently under construction and implementation, including a lunar laser ranging (LLR) system, seismic and meteorological systems and a Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) global observing system (VGOS) radio telescope. The existing HartRAO data management and storage system is outdated, incompatible and has limited storage capacity. This necessitates the design of a new geodetic research data management system (GRDMS). The focus of this dissertation is on providing a contextual framework for the design of the new system, including criteria, characteristics, components, an infrastructure architectural model and data structuring and organisation. An exploratory research methodology and qualitative research techniques were applied. Results attained from interviews conducted and literature consulted indicates a gap in the literature regarding the design of a data management system, specifically for geodetic data generated by HartRAO instrumentation. This necessitates the development of a conceptual framework for the design of a new GRDMS. Results are in alignment with the achievement of the research questions and objectives set for this study. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)

In higher education institutions, virtual learning systems (VLSs) have been adopted, and are becoming increasingly popular among educators. However, despite this ubiquity of VLS use, there has not been widespread change in pedagogic practice to take advantage of the functionality afforded by VLSs. Knowledge of the actual usage of e-learning systems is limited in terms of what specific feature sets are deemed useful, and how this influences system usage. VLSs have a suite of tools with associated functions/features and properties, as well as non-functional system characteristics. In addition, these systems incorporate pedagogic features to cater for online teaching. Educators in higher education, who are the chief agents of e-learning, are confounded by system-related, pedagogic, organisational, user difference and demographic factors that influence VLS usage. Virtual learning system usage involves system feature usage extent and frequency, total system usage and usage clusters. The aim of this study is to develop a model representing the factors that influence usage of VLSs in higher education. The links between system usage and system-related factors, pedagogic factors, organisational factors, user-difference and demographic factors is researched. This research incorporated a literature study, a pilot study, interviews and surveys. A case study research strategy was combined with a mixed methods research design. The results of the qualitative analysis was triangulated with the findings of the quantitative analysis and compared to the findings of the literature study. The study was conducted at two residential higher education institutions (HEI), namely, University of KwaZulu-Natal and Durban University of Technology. The main contribution of this study is the Virtual Learning System Usage Model (VLSUM) representing the factors that influence VLS usage in residential higher education institutions. The proposed VLSUM is based on the empirical results of this study. VLSUM can be used by managers of educational technology departments and instructional designers to implement interventions to optimize usage. The constructs of VLSUM confirmed existing theories, replicated and synthesised theories from different fields, and extended existing models to produce a new model for understanding the factors that influence VLS usage in higher education. / Computing / D. LITT. et. Phil. (Information Systems)

In the world in which we live today, information and communication technology (ICT) has proliferated in all spheres of society, including in the corporate, social and academic arenas. Within these arenas ICT has made noteworthy contributions. In the academic space, which is the focus of this study, ICT has made a significant contribution to the communication and consultation between students and higher education institution staff. One such example has been the emergence of learning management systems (LMSs) in higher education institutions, both locally and globally, with LMSs providing higher education institutions with several possibilities as regards facilitating the online teaching and learning process. Nevertheless, research has shown that there is underutilisation of LMSs throughout the world. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate the utilisation of LMSs in an open and distance learning (ODL) institution in South Africa to ascertain whether they are being used to their full potential. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Adult Education)

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Socially, politically and economically, Cape Town Central City is one of the most important urban areas in South Africa. Apart from the fact that it is historically and culturally the oldest and most cosmopolitan city in South Africa, the Central Business District (CBD)accommodates about 240 000 commuters every day, generates more than R133 million in rates every year, constitutes over 20% of the economic turnover of the entire metropolitan area and provides over a quarter of all jobs in the Cape Town metropolitan area. Major challenges facing the Cape Town central precinct in the mid-1990s included growing vacancies, the capital flight to decentralised business nodes, the loss of value in buildings and the municipal rate base, the decline in building refurbishments, the shortage of parking, badly managed public open spaces and a rise in general crime rates. Through the transformation and revitalisation of the Central City, traditional economic sectors, such as the financial and business services sector, have been retained while the retail sector, tourism, information and communication technologies, and the creative industries have all shown growth. The formation of the Cape Town Partnership (CTP) and the Central City Improvement District (CID) gave the Central City an opportunity to combat the decay. The successful implementation of quality urban management systems has led to the development of new buildings and the refurbishment / redevelopment or recycling of approximately 160 buildings and public open spaces. Vacancies have decreased while the cumulative investment in the Central City since 2000 amounted to approximately R14 billion. This includes the capital value of leases, new developments, upgrades and renewals of buildings, and purchasing buildings for investment purchases. Since the last Municipal Valuation, the value of property in the Central City has increased significantly. As a result, the municipal rates base of the area also increased. With the implementation of the new General Valuation in July 2007, the city increased its annual revenue in the form of rates by more than 65%. Improved property fundamentals, sustainable rentals, increases in new developments and greater diversity are the result of the increased value of properties in the Central City. Office rentals increased steadily since the first quarter of 1995, while capitalisation rates decreased dramatically since the first quarter of 2003. Vacancy rates also decreased over the same period. Retail rentals are still in an upward phase since 1999 and the forecast by property economist Erwin Rode states that office rentals should continue to increase over the next five years with an average of approximately 14,6%. The last major challenge facing the Central City is the ability of the different spheres of government to work together as a unit and in turn with civil society organisations, NGOs and the private sector to ensure the success of the Cape Town Metropolitan area. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die sentrale stad van Kaapstad is een van die belangrikste stedelike gebiede in Suid-Afrika wat maatskaplike, politieke en ekonomiese kwessies betref. Buiten die feit dat dit histories en kultureel die oudste en mees kosmopolitaanse stad in Suid-Afrika is, word die Sentrale Sakegebied (SSG) elke dag deur sowat 240 000 pendelaars besoek en genereer dit elke jaar meer as R133 miljoen in munisipale belasting. Die SSG verteenwoordig ook 20% van die ekonomiese omset van die hele metropolitaanse gebied en verskaf meer as 'n kwart van al die werkgeleenthede in die Kaapstadse metropolitaanse gebied. Die uitdagings wat die Kaapstadse sentrale gebied in die mid-1990's ervaar het, sluit in toenemende leegstande, kapitaalvlug na gedesentraliseerde sakenodusse, waardeverlies in geboue en in munisipale belastingbasis, afname in gebou-opkappings, tekort aan parkering, openbare oop ruimtes wat swak bestuur word, en 'n toename in algemene misdaadsyfers. Deur die transformasie en heroplewering van die sentrale stadsgebied kon tradisionele ekonomiese sektore soos die finansiële en sakedienstesektor behou word terwyl die kleinhandelsektor, toerisme, inligting- en kommunikasietegnologie, en die kreatiewe bedryfsrigtings almal groei aangetoon het. Die ontstaan van die Kaapstadse Vennootskap (KV) en die sentrale stadsverbeteringsdistrik (SSVD) het aan die sentrale stad 'n geleentheid gebied om die verval om te swaai. Die suksesvolle implementering van stedelike bestuurstelsels van gehalte het tot die ontwikkeling van nuwe geboue en die opknapping / herontwikkeling of herbenutting van sowat 160 geboue en openbare oop ruimtes gelei. Leegstande het aansienlik gedaal terwyl die kumulatiewe belegging in die sentrale stad sedert 2000 op sowat R14 miljard beraam word. Dit sluit in die kapitaalwaarde van huurkontrakte, nuwe ontwikkelings, opgraderings en die opknapping van geboue, en die koop van geboue vir beleggingsdoeleindes. Die waarde van eiendom in die sentrale stad het sedert die vorige Munisipale Waardasie beduidend toegeneem. As gevolg hiervan het die munisipale belastingbasis van die gebied ook toegeneem. Met die implementering van die nuwe Algemene Waardasie in Julie 2007 het die stad sy jaarlikse inkomste in die vorm van belasting met meer as 65% verhoog. Die toename in die waarde van eiendom in die sentrale stad het gelei tot verbeterde eiendomsfundamentele, volhoubare huurkontrakte, 'n toename in nuwe ontwikkelings en groter diversiteit. Kantoorhuur het sedert die eerste kwartaal van 1995 bestendig toegeneem terwyl kapitalisasiekoerse sedert die eerste kwartaal van 2003 dramaties gedaal het. Leegstandsyfers het ook oor dieselfde tydperk gedaal. Kleinhandelhuur is sedert 1999 steeds in 'n opswaaifase en die eiendomsekonoom Erwin Rode voorspel dat kantoorhuur oor die volgende vyf jaar gemiddeld met sowat 14,6% sal toeneem. Die laaste groot uitdaging vir sentrale stad is die vermoë van die verskillende sfere van die regering om as 'n eenheid saam te werk, en ook om met die burgerlike gemeenskapsorganisasies, NRO's en die private sektor saam te werk om die sukses van die Kaapstadse metropolitaanse gebied te verseker.

The Semantic Web is the vision of the future Web. Its aim is to enable machines to process Web documents in a way that makes it possible for the computer software to "understand" the meaning of the document contents. Each document on the Semantic Web is to be enriched with meta-data that express the semantics of its contents. Many infrastructures, technologies and standards have been developed and have proven their theoretical use for the Semantic Web, yet very few applications have been created. Most of the current Semantic Web applications were developed for research purposes. This project investigates the major factors restricting the wide spread of Semantic Web applications. We identify the two most important requirements for a successful implementation as the automatic production of the semantically annotated document, and the creation and maintenance of semantic based knowledge base. This research proposes a framework for Semantic Web implementation based on context-oriented controlled automatic Annotation; for short, we called the framework the Semantic Web Implementation Framework (SWIF) and the system that implements this framework the Semantic Web Implementation System (SWIS). The proposed architecture provides for a Semantic Web implementation of stand-alone websites that automatically annotates Web pages before being uploaded to the Intranet or Internet, and maintains persistent storage of Resource Description Framework (RDF) data for both the domain memory, denoted by Control Knowledge, and the meta-data of the Web site's pages. We believe that the presented implementation of the major parts of SWIS introduce a competitive system with current state of art Annotation tools and knowledge management systems; this is because it handles input documents in the ii context in which they are created in addition to the automatic learning and verification of knowledge using only the available computerized corporate databases. In this work, we introduce the concept of Control Knowledge (CK) that represents the application's domain memory and use it to verify the extracted knowledge. Learning is based on the number of occurrences of the same piece of information in different documents. We introduce the concept of Verifiability in the context of Annotation by comparing the extracted text's meaning with the information in the CK and the use of the proposed database table Verifiability_Tab. We use the linguistic concept Thematic Role in investigating and identifying the correct meaning of words in text documents, this helps correct relation extraction. The verb lexicon used contains the argument structure of each verb together with the thematic structure of the arguments. We also introduce a new method to chunk conjoined statements and identify the missing subject of the produced clauses. We use the semantic class of verbs that relates a list of verbs to a single property in the ontology, which helps in disambiguating the verb in the input text to enable better information extraction and Annotation. Consequently we propose the following definition for the annotated document or what is sometimes called the 'Intelligent Document' 'The Intelligent Document is the document that clearly expresses its syntax and semantics for human use and software automation'. This work introduces a promising improvement to the quality of the automatically generated annotated document and the quality of the automatically extracted information in the knowledge base. Our approach in the area of using Semantic Web iii technology opens new opportunities for diverse areas of applications. E-Learning applications can be greatly improved and become more effective.

Linear algebra operations appear in nearly every application in advanced analytics, machine learning, and of various science domains. Until today, many data analysts and scientists tend to use statistics software packages or hand-crafted solutions for their analysis. In the era of data deluge, however, the external statistics packages and custom analysis programs that often run on single-workstations are incapable to keep up with the vast increase in data volume and size. In particular, there is an increasing demand of scientists for large scale data manipulation, orchestration, and advanced data management capabilities. These are among the key features of a mature relational database management system (DBMS). With the rise of main memory database systems, it now has become feasible to also consider applications that built up on linear algebra. This thesis presents a deep integration of linear algebra functionality into an in-memory column-oriented database system. In particular, this work shows that it has become feasible to execute linear algebra queries on large data sets directly in a DBMS-integrated engine (LAPEG), without the need of transferring data and being restricted by hard disc latencies. From various application examples that are cited in this work, we deduce a number of requirements that are relevant for a database system that includes linear algebra functionality. Beside the deep integration of matrices and numerical algorithms, these include optimization of expressions, transparent matrix handling, scalability and data-parallelism, and data manipulation capabilities. These requirements are addressed by our linear algebra engine. In particular, the core contributions of this thesis are: firstly, we show that the columnar storage layer of an in-memory DBMS yields an easy adoption of efficient sparse matrix data types and algorithms. Furthermore, we show that the execution of linear algebra expressions significantly benefits from different techniques that are inspired from database technology. In a novel way, we implemented several of these optimization strategies in LAPEG’s optimizer (SpMachO), which uses an advanced density estimation method (SpProdest) to predict the matrix density of intermediate results. Moreover, we present an adaptive matrix data type AT Matrix to obviate the need of scientists for selecting appropriate matrix representations. The tiled substructure of AT Matrix is exploited by our matrix multiplication to saturate the different sockets of a multicore main-memory platform, reaching up to a speed-up of 6x compared to alternative approaches. Finally, a major part of this thesis is devoted to the topic of data manipulation; where we propose a matrix manipulation API and present different mutable matrix types to enable fast insertions and deletes. We finally conclude that our linear algebra engine is well-suited to process dynamic, large matrix workloads in an optimized way. In particular, the DBMS-integrated LAPEG is filling the linear algebra gap, and makes columnar in-memory DBMS attractive as efficient, scalable ad-hoc analysis platform for scientists.