The world, especially the business world, has changed from consisting of different countries and markets to one global market. This can be attributed to better transportation, communication and information systems. This new development has changed the rules of the business game. No more do companies compete with local players only but increasingly with foreign based entities. Many experts argue that top companies in the world today are those that have embraced new technologies to improve their entire operations. New information technology allows them to integrate their operations upstream with their suppliers, downstream with their clients as well as in-house to improve their efficiencies. This includes mining companies who have to introduce new information, communication and transportation systems to compete with their global counterparts. This study investigates the operation of South African underground mines operation. This is done with a focus on the integration of tracking technology into the horizontal transportation system. The objective is to improve productivity due to better process control. In order to achieve this objective the entire operational process had to be divided into key elements that had to be investigated. The following key elements were identified and investigated: Information and communication strategy, Organisation structure, Departmental integration, Organisational processes, Management information, Information management, Management information system, Solution selection criteria, Causes of low productivity, Problems with logistics system, Technology implementation methods, Outsourcing, Reasons for technology failure and Future challenges facing industry. The investigation was done in four phases. The first phase provided a framework for a literature study. The second phase comprised a literature study that would set the foundation for the empirical study. The third phase consisted of the empirical study, research methodology and data gathering. The fourth and final phase consisted of data grouping and analysis, conclusions and recommendations. Among the conclusions drawn, the following stand out: There is a general problem in the industry that can be attributed to logistics. There is also a problem of information quality and information flow among the different departments that lead to poor integration. Another problem that was highlighted is the non-involvement of end-users in technology selection and implementation. In terms of future challenges facing the industry, poor education levels, productivity and commodity prices were identified. In terms of solutions for the future, integrating technology, with the involvement of end users, were mentioned. All these findings were uniform across the different mining houses, which show the similarity of the industry culture. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

The popularity of the Internet and cellular networks in recent years has led to widespread use of these networks for data dissemination. Advancements in wireless communications networks like Long Term Evolution (LTE) and 5G networks indicate a trend towards higher speed mobile networks accessed by users with increasingly sophisticated mobile devices. These advancements do not include the means for users to leverage increased wireless network transmission rates by disseminating heterogeneous data. The ability to share heterogeneous data entirely through mobile networks illustrates a communications methodology where end users determine what data will be shared with no limitations based on content. Advances in this domain have introduced many aspects of this methodology on a global scale but have not addressed how heterogeneous data can be defined and distributed by end users. This thesis proposes a communications architecture for the dissemination of heterogeneous data in real-time. The implementation of this communications architecture is based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and proposes modifications to the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to permit the distribution of heterogeneous data through synchronous and asynchronous data transmission. A communications protocol is introduced defining a broker, data consumers, data producers and a message format. Algorithms for session management and packet processing are provided in an embedded system called the Reconfigurable Multimedia Collaborative System (RMCS). Results for the communications architecture demonstrate the successful generation and transmission of heterogeneous data in real-time using the proposed modifications to SIP. The successful operation of packet generation algorithms and related functions in hardware is also provided to demonstrate the means through which this architecture could be provided through hardware for optimal performance and to facilitate its implementation into mobile devices.

This thesis investigates modeling and simulation of hybrid electric vehicles with particular emphasis on transient modeling and real-time simulation. Three different computer models, i.e. a steady state model, a fully-detailed transient model and a reduced-intensity transient model, are developed for a hybrid drive-train in this study. The steady-state model, which has low computational intensity, is used to determine the optimal battery size and chemistry for a plug-in hybrid drive-train. Simulation results using the developed steady state model show the merits of NiMH and Li-ion battery technologies. Based on the obtained results and the reducing cost of Li-ion batteries, this battery chemistry is used throughout this research. A fully-detailed transient model is developed to simulate the vehicle behaviour under different driving conditions. This model includes the dynamics of the power train components such as the engine, the power-electronic converters and vehicle controllers of all levels. The developed transient model produces an accurate representation of the drive-train including the switching behaviour of the power electronic converters. A reduced-intensity transient model (also referred to as a dynamic average model) is developed for real-time hardware-in-loop simulation of the vehicle. By reducing the computational demand of the detailed transient model using averaging techniques, the reduced-intensity model is implemented on a real-time simulator and is interfaced to an external subsystem such as an actual battery. The setup can be used to test existing and emerging battery technologies, which may not have an accurate mathematical model. Extensive tests are performed to verify the accuracy and validity of the results obtained from the developed hardware-in-loop simulation setup.

Artists have been using brush strokes to generate abstractions and interpretations of the world they view, however this process is very time consuming. Many recent and diverse techniques attempt to mimic the process on a computer that an artist would go through to generate a painting; an area of research is a ectionately nick-named "painterly rendering". These applications emulate the effects of an artist's handiwork with dramatically less time invested in the process. I present a method to adapt painterly rendering for real-time simulations or video games, such that the images may appear to have been painted by hand. The work described in this document focuses on three problem areas posed for a real-time solution for painterly-rendering: brush stroke generation, temporal coherence between frames and performance. The solution presented here intends to solve these three fundamental issues with the intent to layer these methods on top of real-time applications using current generation consumer hardware. / Graduate

This dissertation presents techniques to achieve predictable execution of coarse-grained software components and for preservation of temporal properties of components during their integration and reuse. The dissertation presents a novel concept runnable virtual node (RVN) which interaction with the environment is bounded both by a functional and a temporal interface, and the validity of its internal temporal behaviour is preserved when integrated with other components or when reused in a new environment. The realization of RVN exploits techniques for hierarchical scheduling to achieve temporal isolation, and the principles from component-based software-engineering to achieve functional isolation. The proof-of-concept case studies executed on a micro-controller demonstrate the preserving of real-time properties within software components for predictable integration and reusability in a new environment, in both hierarchical scheduling and RVN contexts. Further, a multi-resource server (MRS) is proposed and implemented to enable predictable execution when composing multiple real-time components on a COTS multicore platform. MRS uses resource reservation for both CPU-bandwidth and memory-bus bandwidth to bound the interferences between tasks running on the same core, as well as, between tasks running on different cores. The later could, without MRS, interfere with each other due to contention on a shared memory-bus and memory. The results indicated that MRS can be used to "encapsulate" legacy systems and to give them enough resources to fulfill their purpose. In the dissertation, the compositional schedulability analysis for MRS is also provided and an experimental study is performed to bring insight on the correlation between the server budgets. We believe that the proposed approaches enable a faster software integration and support legacy reuse and that this work transcend the boundaries of software engineering and real-time systems. / PPMSched / PROGRESS

Background: Our daily lives and personal interactions are increasingly featuring social media and social networks in particular. Topics regarding social media, its impact on society at large – both on corporate as well as individual behavior – has been the focus of many research papers. Personal use of social networks are regularly being mapped out by researchers aiming at clarifying concepts such as engagement, trust and interactivity, and mapped by companies seeking to maximize return on investment concerning their marketing efforts. The aim of our study is (i) to map how companies and/or organizations operating on the Swedish market use their company’s pages on the social media as a way of communicating with their followers and audience, as well as (ii) identifying whether “Real-Time Marketing”, in our own definition, is used or not. Methods: The research methods used included both quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Data was collected from Facebook and Twitter pages belonging to five companies operating on the Swedish market that are among Sweden’s largest advertisers. The data, in total 1981 updates, was analyzed in order to map out patterns and to summarize all the relevant companies’ communicative activities. Subsequently, the data was qualitatively evaluated to gain deeper understanding of the activities to uncover techniques such as semiotics and usage of social media as a way to communicate with audience and customers. Results: Results show that companies that are among Sweden’s largest advertisers mainly use Facebook and Twitter as means of publicizing information with the intent of enhancing their own brands. Our quantitative analyses concluded that the second and third most frequent updates were advertising and customer service. The results of the qualitative analyses show that companies adapt their semiotics to a more informal use of language, but fail to engage in dialogs and to stimulate their audience to increased interaction with the brand. Results also demonstrate that only one update featured the technique “Real-Time Marketing”, which suggests that “Real-Time Marketing”, in our definition, is scarcely used on the Swedish market. / Bakgrund: En allt mer vedertagen sanning är hur sociala medier spelar en större roll, inte bara i våra privatliv, men även för företag som söker att marknadsföra sig och skapa dialoger med sina kunder och intressenter. Företagens marknadsföring och kommunikation har länge studerats, och idag så fortsätter de studierna med fokus på sociala medier. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka hur Sveriges största annonsörer använder deras sociala medie-sidor för att kommunicera med sina följare och publik, samt att försöka identifiera om det sker någon förekomst av ”Real-Time Marketing” enligt vår definition. Metod: I vår forskningsmetod förekommer både kvantitativ innehållsanalys och kvalitativ textanalys. Data har samlats in från fem företags sidor på Facebook och Twitter. Dessa fem är några av de företag som investerat mest pengar på marknadsföring under 2013. Den kodade och analyserade datamängden uppgår till 1981 stycken uppdateringar och ”tweets”, vilka används för att undersöka mönster och trender i företagens kommunikation. Efter den kvantitativa insamlingen genomförs en kvalitativ studie för att få en bredare förståelse för bland annat semiotiken och sättet som företagen vill föra en dialog på med sina kunder och följare. Resultat: Uppsatsens resultat visar att dessa svenska företag framför allt använder Facebook och Twitter för att publicera och sprida material som förstärker det egna varumärket. Genom vår analys finner vi också att de mest frekventa uppdateringarna som publiceras berör reklam och kundtjänst. Vidare ser vi hur företagen anpassar sitt språk till ett mer informellt sådant, men de misslyckas ofta med att öppna upp för dialog med sina kunder och därigenom möter de inte sitt eget och följarnas behov av ökad interaktion med varumärkena. Det visar sig också att endast en uppdatering kunde klassificeras som ”Real-Time Marketing”, vilket får oss att dra slutsatsen att denna teknik används mycket begränsat på den svenska marknaden.

This thesis presents a framework for the deployment of algorithms that support the correlation and real-time classification of physiological data streams through the development of clinically meaningful alerts using a blend of expert knowledge in the domain and pattern recognition programming based on clinical rules. Its relevance is demonstrated via a real world case study within the context of neonatal intensive care to provide real-time classification of neonatal spells. Events are first detected in individual streams independently; then synced together based on timestamps; and finally assessed to determine the start and end of a multi-signal episode. The episode is then processed through a classifier based on clinical rules to determine a classification. The output of the algorithms has been shown, in a single use case study with 24 hours of patient data, to detect clinically significant relative changes in heart rate, blood oxygen saturation levels and pauses in breathing in the respiratory impedance signal. The accuracy of the algorithm for detecting these is 97.8%, 98.3% and 98.9% respectively. The accuracy for correlating the streams and determining spells classifications is 98.9%. Future research will focus on the clinical validation of these algorithms and the application of the framework for the detection and classification of signals in other clinical contexts.

Scratch-pad memory is a popular alternative to caches in real-time embedded systems due to its advantages in terms of timing predictability and power consumption. However, dynamic management of scratch-pad content is challenging in multitasking environments. To address this issue, this thesis proposes the design of a novel Real-Time Scratchpad Memory Unit (RSMU). The RSMU can be integrated into existing systems with minimal architectural modi cations. Furthermore, scratchpad management is performed at the OS level, requiring no application changes. In conjunction with a two-level scheduling scheme, the RSMU provides strong timing guarantees to critical tasks. Demonstration and evaluation of the system design is provided on an embedded FPGA platform.

Ongoing work in the laboratory of Professor Chris Backhouse is aimed at developing a portable and inexpensive lab on a chip instrument. A system capable of molecular biology protocols including sample preparation (SP), polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and melting curve analysis (MCA) would meet the requirements for point of care genetic analysis. The SP, PCR, and MCA modules were designed and tested on a standalone basis and then integrated for analysis of raw clinical samples. An automated XY stage was developed for magnetic bead-based DNA purification. In addition, a LED/CCD-based optical detection module was employed for real time PCR and MCA. Data analysis algorithms and protocols were implemented to remove noise and interpret data. This work culminated in proof of principle on-chip SP-PCR-MCA to detect ß2m DNA from human buccal cells in a modular and inexpensive system. / Biomedical Engineering

Scratch-pad memory is a popular alternative to caches in real-time embedded systems due to its advantages in terms of timing predictability and power consumption. However, dynamic management of scratch-pad content is challenging in multitasking environments. To address this issue, this thesis proposes the design of a novel Real-Time Scratchpad Memory Unit (RSMU). The RSMU can be integrated into existing systems with minimal architectural modi cations. Furthermore, scratchpad management is performed at the OS level, requiring no application changes. In conjunction with a two-level scheduling scheme, the RSMU provides strong timing guarantees to critical tasks. Demonstration and evaluation of the system design is provided on an embedded FPGA platform.