Education in South Africa is experiencing challenges of interest in its learners towards science and mathematics within the primary and secondary phases of learning. The result of this failed interest is represented by the amount of scarce skills present in the technology, ICT and engineering sectors, resulting in a lack of research and development of current and future technologies. The solution to this problem is to create a lateral approach through learners’ interests by using performance media as a medium of instruction. This intervention is established as part of the University of the Witwatersrand where it will serve as a crucible of research, exploration and education of science and technology through cross-faculty co-operation. Using the University’s vast academic and educational resources, this intervention will become a staging ground for new scientific and technological development conveyed through a variety of performance mediums which will be presented to learners, students and the general public. Situated adjacent to the Parktown Education Campus, this facility is the beginning of planned expansion by the University linking its various campuses through Braamfontein civic district. The site has an important historical and heritage association with Johannesburg - through its heritage landmarks - and by its use through the National Children’s Theatre. Whilst this has been a site for performance art over the last two decades, the expansion and integration of this building will continue this legacy into the future through the exploration of new and dynamic performance mediums. / 2014 Thesis - M.Arch(Prof.)

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The purpose of the research undertaken for this thesis was to examine management practices relating to new product development processes in small to medium-sized manufacturing firms (SMEs). The thesis topic has its origins in a European Community funded research project carried out during 1997-9 and designated CIMA (Continuous Improvement in Global Innovation Management) ESPRIT project 26056. The CIMA project had as its objective the development, testing and dissemination of a methodology to support knowledge transfer in the product innovation process. The CIMA model suggested a relationship between management behaviours and performance outcomes that used literature from a variety of research areas including continuous improvement, product innovation, performance measurement, and inter-project learning. This literature was centred largely on research undertaken in large organisations, with little information available on the new product development (NPD) practices in SMEs. This thesis sought to examine the management of NPD activities in SMEs across a range of important variables as identified in larger organisations in an effort to evaluate whether they were as relevant in smaller organisations. The literature review reduced the research to four broad questions: 1.what is the relationship between a business unit’s competitive strategy and its new product development strategy, 2.how management involvement in improving NPD performance, 3.does a more systematic approach to management of NPD projects would lead to better outcomes, and finally 4.how new product development performance is measured in SMEs. A two-stage, field based research methodology was used to gather data for this thesis. Firstly, a quantitative survey instrument was used to collect data across a broad range of variables. The data thus gathered were supported by a subsequent set of interviews in three SMEs that. In each of these firms, employees from the broad functional areas of sales, operations, and design, were interviewed to gain a greater understanding of the issues that might emerge in the quantitative survey. Thematic analysis was used to examine the qualitative data. Descriptive statistics, in the main were used to evaluate the quantitative data. Findings relevant to each of the research questions provide valuable insights into NPD practices in SMEs. For instance, strategies tend to be hazy, and have a short term emphasis. The qualitative interviews in particular showed a lack of certainty and direction when it came to strategy. With regard to management involvement, there was more emphasis on individual effort rather than team-based activities. Managers tended not to look for external sources to improve their NPD performance. The approach taken in managing NPD activities, whether it was systematic or informal, did not appear to affect innovativeness, though it did appear to impact other variables such as time-to-market. Finally, performance measurement in SMEs tended to emphasise cost outcomes as opposed to variables critical to customers such as conformance quality or time-to-market. Further, outcomes in those performance dimensions did not appear to influence future strategy or actions within the organisations. A detailed review of the data is provided in chapters five, six and seven. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This research is an investigation into how organisations can engineer new collaborative business processes. This engineering of processes is based on technical advances, which enables organisations to enhance their communication and collaboration with their customer and each other. This research identifies how advanced technologies can be properly applied to create collaborative business processes of within and across organisations. This research has enabled this collaboration and extended its boundaries to facilitate dynamic collaborations amongst multiple organisations that may not necessarily be known to each other. The new model of collaboration achieves the recommended collaborative environment by restructuring the business processes for Web-based applications. This thesis also validates the proposed model for the collaboration in a global environment. This creation and validation of the model satisfies the requirements of a PhD-level research. The concept of Collaborative Business Process Engineering (CBPE) is unique in that it describes how cluster-based processes of multiple organisations can be engineered. Furthermore, this research also integrates the existing concepts of Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) and Business Process Management (BPM) in the model. CPBE is able to evaluate the impact of the interoperability of the organisations on their engineered business processes as well as their business structures. This research further demonstrates the implementation of CBPE in a proposed Collaborative Web-Based System (CWBS). This thesis discusses how the Web Services (WS) and mobile technologies, specifically Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI), influence the interoperation amongst multiple organisations. The impact of the WS on engineered business processes and the extension of this impact on multiple organisations and their clusters are included in this research. This thesis also describes the existing model of collaboration and provides a literature review to support the need for the proposed model of collaboration. Existing technologies for the engineering of the new collaborative business processes are explained. Detailed descriptions of the research methodologies (quantitative and qualitative), philosophies (interpretivist and constructivist) and theories (evolutionary and socio-technical) used are identified and described here. The dynamic aspects of collaboration in the proposed new model of collaboration, wherein organisations can enter and exit the collaboration at will are discussed. The thesis also discusses the factors influencing the collaboration, such as trust, security, confidence level and the availability of the channels for collaboration. The dynamic aspects of the proposed model are tested against the static aspects of the current model wherein the collaborating organisations need to set up prior contract before collaboration. A part of this study deals with evaluation of the significance of the CBPE for the organisations that adapt technologies such as Web Service and mobility. Finally, this thesis demonstrates an investigation in the impact of interoperability emanating from emerging technologies, specifically the Web Services technology, on organisations by providing a model as well as conceptual implementations. The proposed model of CBPE and the conceptual implementations facilitate the use of the emerging technologies for effective collaborations. These emerging technologies are presented and described in Chapter 2 while their impacts on the proposed model of CBPE are explained in Chapter 4. The proposed model in this thesis enables numerous businesses to collaborate electronically thereby producing dynamically collaborating groups/clusters. This thesis presents the modelling, understanding of collaborative business process that transcend the organisational boundaries, factors that influence collaborative business processes and the entry and exit criteria for these collaborative organisations. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Australia's space activities since the early sixties have been science-oriented and uncoordinated. As a result, Australia has been unable to develop a long-term sustainable domestic technological capability; with industry being dependent on government funding for its involvement in the nation's space plan. This thesis examines public policy aspects focussing on technology independence that is the building of competencies for the sustainable development of an industry. It compares national technological development by relating Australia's recent space-related successes and failures to those of other nations (especially selected Asian countries and Israel). The overarching research problem addressed within this thesis examined the Australian national space policy and strategy since 1984.It investigated why the Australian Space Industry Development Strategy was not a successful influence on the development of a long-term sustainable national technological base or on the establishment of a viable commercial space-related industry in Australia. The research included the development of a strategic multilevel planning system involving a network innovation model into a nation's space science and technology policy development. The outcomes of the research reported in the thesis are discussed. The level of technological capability and capacity is a direct, inversely related factor to an increase in the degree in technology dependency. Australia needs a change of philosophy by accepting the global challenge through defining and supporting, within a national strategic planning, a national space strategy that incorporates network innovation concepts: a concept that must involve a balanced supply (science) and demand (commercial) characteristics of an innovation network system. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) (Management)

The dissolution profile of orally delivered drugs can be controlled through the use of osmotically controlled drug delivery devices. The most commonly used device is the osmotic tablet, which is essentially a tablet core that is coated with a rate-limiting semipermeable membrane. The feasibility of applying a coating onto a tablet using dense gas techniques was studied. Two different coating materials, polymethymethacrylate (PMMA, Mw = 120,000 g/mol) and cellulose acetate (CA, 39.8 wt% acetyl content) were applied onto an 8 mm osmotic tablet core using the Gas Anti-solvent (GAS) process. For PMMA, the pressurisation rate, coating temperature and volumetric expansion of up to 250% had minimal effect on the coating quality. The concentration, solvent type and the use of polyethylene glycol (Mw = 200 g/mol) had a more pronounced effect on the coating. The coating process was optimised to apply a smooth and uniform coating with a 50 ??m thickness. For CA, the pressurisation rate and the coating temperature had little effect on the coating that was applied. The process was more sensitive to a change in the concentration of the solution and the volumetric expansion that was used. It was found that the concentration could not be increased too much without affecting the coating quality. A CA coating was applied onto a PMMA-coated tablet using the optimised conditions. The thickness in the tablet coating increased by 10 ??m. Dissolution tests of the uncoated and coated tablets were carried out. The CA coatings were found to be insufficient in limiting the rate of water entering the tablet and performed similarly to an uncoated tablet core. The PMMA coatings were found to limit the rate of delivery of the model drug. However, variations in the PMMA coatings resulted in an inconsistent delivery profile across batches. The tablets coated with both PMMA and CA had a delivery rate in between that of uncoated and PMMA-coated tablets, indicating that the application of the second coating had compromised the initial PMMA coating.

By the year 2020 the number of aircraft will have increased substantially and will be in �Free Flight�(that is, ATC will be devolved to the aircraft rather than being ground based). As an aid to navigation a more advanced form of collision avoidance will be required. This thesis proposes a method of collision avoidance planning using Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) and Dynamic Programming (DP). It in essence enables Air Traffic Control (ATC) from within the cockpit for remote or uncontrolled airspace and is a step toward Free Flight. Free Flight requires quite different strategies than those used in the present collision avoidance schemes. This thesis reviews the approaches to collision avoidance used in the Air traffic navigation and to similar problems in other industries. In particular it considers the extended problem of collision avoidance within the framework of path planning. This is a key departure from the approach to aircraft collision avoidance used in the industry to date. Path planning reflects the real goal of an aircraft, which is to reach a particular destination efficiently and safely. Dynamic Programming is one solution method used in other industries for the problem of path planning to avoid collisions with fixed obstacles. The solution proposed herein for the Aircraft case uses Dynamic Programming applied to the moving obstacle case. The problem is first simplified by assuming fixed (static) obstacles for the cost minimisation algorithms. These fixed obstacles are then moved with time and the minimisation process is repeated at each time increment. Although this method works well in most cases, situations can be constructed where this method fails, allowing a collision. A modified approach is then used, whereby the movement of obstacles is included more explicitly (by modifying the shapes of the obstacles to represent motion) in the cost minimisation algorithm and a safe manoeuvre distance for each aircraft is used (by expanding the object size), to allow space for aircraft to execute safe evasive manoeuvres in difficult cases. This modification allows solutions which are complete (with no known cases of failure � collision situations) and should be considered as an important extension to the current Aircraft and Collision Avoidance System (ACAS). The testing of these solutions is focussed on the most difficult cases, and includes aircraft movement in �real space� (that is simulations using real aircraft dynamics together with dynamic programming algorithms running in discrete time steps).

This dissertation is comprised of four distinct formulation sections, which are described below: A novel solid dosage formulation was investigated for achieving zero-order drug release profile by combining tablet shape design and tablet membrane film coating. Verapmail (model drug) was compressed into hydrophilic matrix tablet cores of flat-faced and bi-convex shape, which were encapsulated with membrane controlling film. The hydrophilic tablet core contained hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) 15 LV, pectin, and Avecil��. The membrane film coating solution was comprised of deionized water, Opadry��, Surelease�� and talc. The combination of membrane film coating and tablet shape design was found to influence in vitro verapamil release profile towards the zero-order release demonstrated by the commercial Covera HS�� (Pharmacia). An alternative formulation for the commercial Bactroban�� (Smithkline Beacham) ointment 2% was developed. Both the texture and consistency of the new ointment were comparable to the Bactroban�� ointment. The new and the commercial formulations were found to be equivalent in drug release by the Bauer-Kirby test. Mupirocin remained unstable in the new formulation. Mg����� was added to help stabilize mupirocin and was shown to complex with mupirocin by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The modified formulation including Mg����� however failed to stabilize mupirocin. The stability assay results showed an average of 67.2% mupirocin recovery along with 25.2% degradation products. A generic omeprazole formulation was developed, which was comprised of nonpareil core, omeprazole matrix layer, and an enteric locating layer of ammoniated hydroxypropyl methylcellulose phthalate (HPMCP) 55S. The new formulation was gastro-resistant in protecting against omeprazole degradation for up to 2 h, but failed to dissolve as rapidly as the commercial Prilosec�� (Astra Merk) in simulated intestinal fluid. The addition of expotab�� to the enteric coating layer failed to improve omeprazole dissolution rate. A novel hot-melt coating methodology utilizing direct blending technique has been developed. The processing steps for the direct blending hot-melt coating are: (a) Hot-melt system preparation; (b) Dispersion/dissolution of the active ingredient(s) in the hot-melt system; (c) Pre-heating of the coating substrate; and (d) Cooling and congealing of the hot-melt on substrate surface. Immunogenic effect was observed in mice administered with enteric-coated ragweed pollen extract (RPE) alpha fraction by the hot-melt coating encapsulation with direct blending method. The effect was not shown to be statistically significant. / Graduation date: 2003

Graduation date: 2000

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in electronic version.