Scale of data generated and processed is exploding in the Big Data era. The MapReduce system popularized by open-source Hadoop is a powerful tool for the exploding data problem, and is widely employed in many areas involving large scale of data. In many circumstances, hypothetical MapReduce systems must be evaluated, e.g. to provision a new MapReduce system to provide certain performance goal, to upgrade a currently running system to meet increasing business demands, to evaluate novel network topology, new scheduling algorithms, or resource arrangement schemes. The traditional trial-and-error solution involves the time-consuming and costly process in which a real cluster is first built and then benchmarked. In this dissertation, we propose to simulate MapReduce systems and evaluate hypothetical MapReduce systems using simulation. This simulation approach offers significantly lower turn-around time and lower cost than experiments. Simulation cannot entirely replace experiments, but can be used as a preliminary step to reveal potential flaws and gain critical insights. We studied MapReduce systems in detail and developed a comprehensive performance model for MapReduce, including sub-task phase level performance models for both map and reduce tasks and a model for resource contention between multiple processes running in concurrent. Based on the performance model, we developed a comprehensive simulator for MapReduce, MRPerf. MRPerf is the first full-featured MapReduce simulator. It supports both workload simulation and resource contention, and it still offers the most complete features among all MapReduce simulators to date. Using MRPerf, we conducted two case studies to evaluate scheduling algorithms in MapReduce and shared storage in MapReduce, without building real clusters. Furthermore, in order to further integrate simulation and performance prediction into MapReduce systems and leverage predictions to improve system performance, we developed online prediction framework for MapReduce, which periodically runs simulations within a live Hadoop MapReduce system. The framework can predict task execution within a window in near future. These predictions can be used by other components in MapReduce systems in order to improve performance. Our results show that the framework can achieve high prediction accuracy and incurs negligible overhead. We present two potential use cases, prefetching and dynamic adapting scheduler. / Ph. D.

In this thesis, we benchmark the Cognitive Radios Test System version 2.0 (CRTSv.2) to analyze its software performance with respect to its internal structure and design choices. With the help of system monitoring and profiling tools, CRTSv.2 is tested to quantitatively evaluate its features and understand its shortcomings. With the help of GNU Radio, a popular, easy-to-use software radios framework, we ascertain that CRTSv.2 has a low memory footprint, fewer dependencies and overall, is a lightweight framework that can potentially be used for real-time signal processing. Several open-source measurement tools such as valgrind, perf, top, etc. are used to evaluate the CPU utilization, memory footprint and to postulate the origins of latencies. Based on our evaluation, we observe that CRTSv.2 shows a CPU utilization of approximately 9% whereas GNU Radio is 59%. CRTSv.2 has lower heap memory consumption of approximately 3MB to GNU Radio's 25MB. This study establishes a methodology to evaluate the performance of two SDR frameworks systematically and quantitatively. / Master of Science / When picking the best person for the job, we rely on the person's performance in past projects of a similar nature. The same can be said for software. Software radios provide the capability to perform signal processing functions in software, making them prime candidates towards solving modern problems such as spectrum scarcity, internet-of-things(IoT) adoption, vehicle-to-vehicle communication etc. In order to operate and configure software radios, software frameworks are provided that let the user make changes to the waveform, perform signal processing and data management. In this thesis, we consider two such frameworks,GNU Radio and CRTSv.2. A software performance evaluation is conducted to assess framework overheads contributing to operation of an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) digital modulation scheme. This provides a quantitative analysis of a signals-specific use case which can be used by researchers to evaluate the optimal framework for research. This analysis can be generalized for different signal processing capabilities by understanding the total framework overhead removed from signal processing costs.

The study examined how the induction experiences of beginner secondary school teachers impact on their teaching performance. A total of 15 participants were purposively selected from the four schools. They were four school heads, three senior teachers' staff development and eight teachers who were last to be employed in the four secondary schools in the Boteti District far north of Botswana. The school heads were selected as they are overseers of the schools. The senior teachers' staff development were selected because their job description entail staff development which includes induction and lastly beginner teachers were chosen as they are the ones who are supposed to be inducted. A qualitative case study research design was used whereby data was collected through face-to-face semi structured interviews and open-ended questionnaires. It was fow1d that the maj01ity of beginner teachers who undergo induction training do not perform satisfactorily with regard to delivering to learners; do not fit well in their duties and some even leave the teaching profession at an early stage. The findings indicated that Newly Qualified Teachers are not given enough professional guidance and support. It is recommended that p1incipals as key personnel for induction of Newly Qualified Teachers should welcome Newly Qualified Teachers and assure them of the support and guidance during their initial year of teaching and throughout. Induction programmes should be given more priority and the seriousness they deserve since the first year of teaching is tl1e most important determiner in the teaching career of an individual. / Thesis (M.Ed) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2013

This study presents the term Participation Cartography as an overarching category of analysis for a wide range of artistic practices that, in one way or another, enable participants to position themselves subjectively in relation to a given performed space. By re-defining cartography from a discipline concerned with the visual representation of the observable world into a performance praxis that requires audience participation, enabling participants to position themselves in relation to a given performed space, I expand the range of practices considered by previous literature. Further, I raise issues in relation to the connections of subjectivity, space, performance, and cartography. My argument is that Participation Cartography describes a type of practice in and through which the Subject who moves in space is both mapped and positioned. By linking Felix Guattari’s (1995) term ‘cartography of subjectivity’ with Deirdre Heddon’s (2008) investigation on autobiographical tours made by artists (‘autotopographies’), Participation Cartography locates the practices here under study within a terrain that blurs everyday life and art, autobiography and representation of subjects-in-movement. In so doing, Participation Cartography expands previous notions such as ‘psychogeography’ (Kanarinka, 2006, McDonough, 2002), ‘collaborative mapping’ (Sant, 2004), ‘locative media’ (Hemment, 2006) and ‘autotopography’ (Heddon, 2008). Participation Cartography describes a type of social activity or, in Allan Kaprow’s terms, a kind of ‘participation performance’ (Kaprow, 2003) that enables participants to present the self (Goffman, 1990) as a being-in-motion within the public arena of performance. Michel De Certeau’s (1984) ‘The Practice of Everyday Life’ is used as a theoretical model to analyse the tensions raised by Participation Cartography between the artists’ strategies, the participants’ performances, and the representations of those performances that remain. Positioning, as used within a field in social psychology called ‘Positioning Theory’ (Harre and Van Langenhove, 1999) is applied to the analysis of the practices here under study. Participation Cartography turns the spectator into a participant. More concretely, participants are turned into both producers and users of cartographies of the Subject they co-produce with others. As a self-reflexive practice that creates agency, it enables participants to fabricate interconnections between performance, space, and subjectivity, blurring the boundaries between art and therapy. Key practices that are discussed in this thesis include a locative media project by Jen Southern (UK) and Jen Hamilton (Canada) titled Running Stitch (2006), Untitled Action for the Arches (2005), a live art work by Kira O’Reilly (Ireland), and my own collaborative pieces, The Shoemakers’ Ball (2006) and We the Colombia National Team (2003)

This study is a qualitative examination on the impact of mobile banking, commonly known as MPESA on the lived experiences of the marginalised poor of Bukhalalire sub-location in western Kenya. Using Capability Approach as the guiding theoretical framework, this research project answers Denzin's (2003) call to performance, a performance which contributes to a more 'enlightened and involved citizenship'. It is 'revolutionary' in that it 'enlightens citizens to the possibilities' of MPESA by staging dramatic texts or performances rewritten from the interviews with the poor. These Performances make sites of oppression visible in the process, affirming an oppositional 'politics' that reasserts the value of self-determination and mutual solidarity. Here, the project explores Performance Ethnography to interrogate and evaluate specific, social, educational, economic and political processes as mechanisms that affect the adoption and successful implementation of MPESA as a poverty eradication strategy. The research work conducts focus groups to draw out dimensions of concerns which this research construes as a capability set, then interviews persons in poverty to establish, firstly, what the dimensions of concerns are and the relationship between them, effectively corroborating the findings from the focus group then secondly establish how MPESA is impacting on those dimensions of concern. The research then uses performances to bring to the front the voices of the poor, making visible sites of oppression in one sense and on another, sites of opportunities within MPESA. This exercise answers the research question in evidencing how Performance Ethnography illuminates dimensions of concerns within a Capability Approach study and as research tool it provokes the interviewer and the interviewee to self examination and reflection, seen thus, the performance becomes vehicle for moving persons, subjects, performer, and audience members in new, critical, 'political' spaces, a space of hope that transcends the conservative politics of neoliberalism rescuing the radical democracy. As such, it 'tells a true and previously untold tale' effectively calling for social transformation.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the practices involved in the educational monitoring system in the UAE boys' elementary schools. Monitoring the performance of students is considered one of the significant factors in promoting students' achievement and in determining school effectiveness. Process factors are increasingly becoming the concern of the Third W orId countries' research after being confined to the Western countries' research. This study is an attempt to examine and investigate monitoring students' performance, as one of these factors, in the UAE educational system and context. The study is also an attempt to establish a basis that will allow for more comprehensive research in terms of process paradigm. The study involved a qualitative research method in an attempt to gain an indepth insight into the working of the different school staff as well as their perceptions of inspectors as representatives of the central level in the educational monitoring system. TIle study investigated the practices of teachers, headmasters and social workers at the school level. A semi-structured interview was designed to collect data from interviewees in addition to document analysis which is mainly derived from school records and students' pamphlets. The sample used in the study consisted of a number of thirty teachers of different subjects, eight school headmasters, twelve school social workers. The main results of the study showed that most of the practices involved in the process of monitoring the performance of students were ineffectively conducted by the vast majority of practitioners at the school level. The study revealed that the current state of monitoring the performance of students is poor. It showed lack of systematization of data collection, a poor state of communication and coordination amongst the school members, ineffective methods of intervention, poor system of record keeping, and limited use of data collected. In genera~ the educational monitoring system at the school level was found to be ineffective in most of its aspects and practices that form the basis for monitoring the educational performance. Although the study attempted to identify the current state of the educational monitoring system it also revealed that there are many features that characterize the current system and contribute to the ineffectiveness of the educational monitoring system. The findings of this study have many implications for the educationalists and the practitioners as well as for the policy makers at the higher educational and government levels to increase their efforts in order to improve the quality of primary school education in the UAE. Finally, the researcher hopes that the findings of this study provide a basis for recommendations that will contribute to the enhancement of the educational monitoring system at the school level and consequently the improvement of the educational performance and educational provision for all children.

It is claimed that, nationally, women undergraduates obtain proportionately fewer First Class degrees than their male counterparts. This thesis examines the extent to which gender differentiation in First Class achievement exists in Higher Education. Historically, various hypotheses have been presented within literature on Higher Education to account for this pattern and the thesis explores the extent to which these hypotheses continue to hold explanatory power using the University of Sussex as a case study. To ascertain the hypotheses' continued relevance and salience, a multi-faceted methodological approach was employed. The empirical programme comprised a national (N=657534) and a local statistical survey (N=8349) examining HESA defined subject groups, in addition to a local statistical survey (N=568) examining specific disciplines. The empirical programme also included detailed analyses of a student cohort of 'high achievers' (N=199) who were tracked throughout their degree. A range of information was collected on this cohort including cognitive ability and personality test scores, socio-demographic data, pre-university qualifications and measures of application. Some of the cohort (N=84) completed a questionnaire, and interviews were carried out with a smaller sub-section (N=23). Structured observations of seminars (N=24) were also conducted alongside interviews with members of faculty (N=21). Findings indicate that, nationally, gender inequity in First Class performance is prevalent in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Physical Sciences. In relation to local patterns of performance, evidence suggests that the University of Sussex may be spearheading incipient shifts in attainment with gender differentiation in existence only in the Humanities. Notwithstanding this moving and improving picture vis a vis the gender distribution of Firsts, the thesis concludes that many of the hypotheses remain pertinent.

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244 leaves printed on single pages, preliminary pages and numbered pages 1-234. Includes bibliography, list of appendices. Digitized at 330 dpi black and white PDF format (OCR), using a KODAK i 1220 PLUS scanner. / Thesis (DPhil (Drama))--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Late twentieth century theatre studies has been characterised by an expansion of the notion of theatre to encompass an enormous variety of performance-based activities. A range of pioneering academics and practitioners have moved beyond the old European-American paradigm of the literary theatre, to recognize the unique qualities of the performance as a theatrical artefact in its own right. One of the by-products of this paradigm shift has been what some would term the death - or at least diminution - of the dramatist or playwright. Another has been the (re-)discovery of what is vaguely referred to as "African theatre". This study had no intention of taking up the argument about the precise forms and processes that belong under that rubric, nor the many problems associated with such categorizing. It has a much more mundane aim, namely to look at one form of play creation - formal playwriting - in a specified region of the vast African continent, south of the Zambezi. The focus is very specifically on published or written texts, created and produced in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique. For a variety of reasons not all these countries could be studied, but enough material was found to arrive at some initial conclusions. In this respect, this is a pioneering study, since no such comparative survey has yet been done. Based on a previous pilot study by Dennis Schauffer at the University of Durban-Westville, the study utilises a process model of the theatrical system proposed by Temple Hauptfleisch (1997) as a frame of reference and a range of four basic kinds of data to answer a number of questions to study the writers and their works. The materials utilized are: 1. Play scripts 2. Biographical data, press cuttings, video recordings, articles. 3. Interviews and interviewer's journal entries. 4. Studies of the socio-political milieu. Data was gathered on 12 writers and their works, as well as some substantial information on community theatre and related forms in the region. The primary authors discussed in some detail are Gibson Kente, Zakes Mda, Gcina Mhlope, Matsemela Manaka, Fani-Kayode Osazuwa Omoregie, Freddy Philander, Vickson Tablah Hangula, Tsokolo Muso (Tjotela mor'a Moshpela), Sonny Sampson-akpan, Andreas Mavuso, and Sipho Mtetwa. With this data the study seeks to address a number of questions concerning playwriting in the sub-continent. These include: 1. a comparison of existing performance forms and their relationships to oral traditions; 2. the influence of socio-political contexts on the works produced; 3. the relationship between plays and the other media, such as film and television; 4. a consideration of audiences (or target audiences) and their impact on the form and content of works; 5. the impact of the nature of, access to and availability of venues; 6. the role played by funding and relationships to state institutions; 7. language choices and their impact on the arts; 8. And finally, the interesting question of cross-cultural encounters and their influence on the forms of theatre in the region. This set of questions provide the context for a study of the variety of theatrical and performance output generated in Africa, south of the Zambezi, and to identify some common and/or divergent cultural influences in the works of the selected black African dramatists in the southern sub-continent of Africa. As expected, one such common denominator was the oral tradition, the other was the colonial heritage of western, Eurocentric theatre and literary practices. The dynamic between these traditions proved to be a point of some interest, but also posed many methodological problems. Two other major factors in many of the countries have proven to be the lack of a strong theatrical infrastructure and divergent audience expectations, which have led to a proliferation of non-formal and applied theatre processes (e.g. in political theatre, popular theatre, community theatre, theatre for development, etc), which in their turn pose their own methodological problems for researchers. In the final analysis, given the restraints under which the candidate had to work, the study could only look at some interesting but selected authors, who in their works seem to illustrate some of the variety and energy of the widely dispersed region. Hopefully in doing this it provided a few broad indications of important trends. More importantly perhaps, the study did identify a number of areas for future research. It would seem that, besides a tremendous need to do considerably more work on the collection and archiving of data on theatre and performance systems, practitioners and practice in Southern Africa, there are at least three additional areas of research that require particular attention: 1. the development of an appropriate theatre research methodology for application in the region; 2. a study of the role played by foreign nationals; 3. the setting up of a national and continent-wide database on theatre in Africa. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Teaternavorsing word in die laat twintigste eeu gekenmerk deur 'n uitbreiding van die konsep teater om 'n enorme spektrum tipes aanbiedings-aktiwiteite ("performance activities") te behels. Verskeie leidinggewende akademici en praktisyns het verby die ou Europees-Amerikaanse paradigma van literere teater beweeg om die die unieke kwaliteite van die aanbieding ("performance") as 'n kreatiewe artefak in eie reg. Een van die newe-produkte van hierdie verskuiwing in paradigma is die sogenaamde "dood" - of ten minste die afskaling van die rol van die toneelskrywer of dramaturg. 'n Ander (her)ontdekking was wat ons breedweg na verwys as Afrikateater. Die studie beoog nie om al die ou argumente oor die presiese vorms en prosesse wat onder daardie benaming behoort te behandel nie, of om nogeens te spekuleer oor die menige probleme wat met sodanige kategorisering gepaard gaan nie. Die doelwit is veel eenvoudiger: om na een vorm van teksskepping (formele toneelskryf) te kyk in 'n gespesifiseerde streek van die Afrika-kontinent, suid van die Zambesi. Die fokus is pertinent op gepubliseerde of geskrewe tekste, geskep en opgevoer in Suid-Afrika, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland en Mozambique. Om verskeie redes is nie al die lande uiteindelik deurtastend bestudeer nie, maar genoeg materiaal kon ingewin word om tog by 'n aantal voorlopige gevolgtrekkings uit te kom. In hierdie opsig is die studie uniek, aangesien nog geen ander vergelykende studie van teater in hierdie lande onderneem is nie. Die ondersoek is gebaseer op 'n loodsprojek wat deur Dennis Schauffer by die Universiteit van Durban-Westville onderneem is, en maak gebruik van 'n prosesmodel van die teatersisteem wat deur Temple Hauptfleisch (1997) ontwikkel is om as 'n raamwerk te dien waarbinne vier stelle bronne ontleed en bespreek word. Die tersake bronne behels: 1. Toneeltekste 2. Biografiese inligting 3. Onderhoude, persberigte, video-opnames, artikels 4. Studies van die sosio-politieke milieu. Inligting is oor twaalf dramaturge en hulle werk ingewin, saam met substansiele inligting oor gemeenskapsteater en aanverwante vorme. Die hoof skrywers wat in besonderhede bespreek word is Gibson Kente, Zakes Mda, Gcina Mhlope, Matsemela Manaka, Fani-Kayode Osazuwa Omoregie, Freddy Philander, Vickson Tablah Hangula, Tsokolo Muso (Tjotela mar' a Moshpela), Sonny Sampson-akpan, Andreas Mavuso, en Sipho Mtetwa. Met hierdie data het die ondersoeker gepoog om 'n aantal vrae oor toneelskryf op die sub-kontinent aan te spreek. Die vrae sluit in: 1. 'n vergelyking tussen bestaande aanbiedingsvorms en hulle verwantskap met orale tradisies; 2. die invloed van sosio-politieke kontekste op die werke gelewer; 3. die verhouding tussen toneelstukke en ander media vorme, soos film en televisie; 4. 'n kyk na gehore (of teiken gehore) en hulle impak op die vorm en inhoud van werke; 5. die impak, aard en toeganklikheid van speelruimtes; 6. die rol gespeel deur befondsing en die verhouding met staats-instellings; 7. taalkeuses en hulle impak op die kunste; 8. en laastens: die interressante kwessie van kruis-kulurele kontakte en hulle invloed op die vorme van teater in die streek. Hierdie stel vrae vorm die konteks vir 'n ondersoek na die verskeidenheid van teater en aanbiedingsuitsette wat suid van die Zambesi gegenereer word, en die identifisering van sommige gemeenskaplike en uiteenlopende kulturele invloede in die werke van swart Afrika-skrywers in die gebied. Soos verwag, was een van die gemeenskaplikhede die orale tradisie, 'n ander die koloniale erfenis van Westerse, Eurosentriese teater en literere gebruike. Die dinamiese interaksie tussen hierdie twee tradisies het van besondere belang geblyk te wees, maar impliseer ook n hele aantal metodologiese probleme. Twee ander faktore wat in baie van die bestudeerde lande sleutel rolle speel is die tekort aan 'n sterk teaterinfrastruktuur en uiteenlopende gehoorverwagtinge - wat lei tot 'n proliferasie van nie-formele en toegepaste teaterprosesse (bv. in politieke teater, populêreteater, gemeenskapsteater, teater vir ontwikkeling, ens.), wat op hulle beurt ook spesifieke metodologiese uitdagings aan die navorser stel. Gegee die beperkinge waaronder die kandidaat moes werk, kon die studie dus slegs na 'n aantal interessante maar geselekteerde outeurs kyk, wie se werke die verskeidenheid en energie van teater in die wydverspreide streek illustreer. Hopelik het die studie op die wyse 'n aantal bree aanduidings kon gee van belangrike tendense. Terselfdertyd is 'n aantal belangrike terreine vir toekomstige navorsing geidentifiseer. Dit wil voorkom asof daar, benewens 'n enorme behoefte aan die byeenbring en argivering van data oor teater sisteme, praktisyns en aanbiedings in die streek, drie terreine is waarop dringned gewerk moet word: 1. Die ontwikkelling van 'n toepaslike teaternavorsingsmetodologie; 2. 'n studie van die rol gespeel deur buitelandse praktisyns in die ontwikkelling van inheemse vorme; 3. die daarstel van 'n omvangryke nasionale en trans-kontinentale databasis oor teater in Afrika.