Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-43). / This dissertation develops data metrics that represent the extent to which data standards can be applied to an organization's data. The research identified key issues that affect data interoperability or the feasibility of a move towards interoperability. This research tested the unwritten rule that organizational setups tend to regard and design data requirements more from internal needs than interoperability needs. Essentially, by generating metrics that affect a number of data attributes, the research quantified the extent of the gap that exists between organizational data and data standards.

In South Africa and many other countries, credit registers and credit scores are used to determine how much credit a person can get access to, as well as the interest rate which they will be charged. In addition to this, some companies (such as insurance companies and rental agencies), use this data as part of the process to vet potential clients before allowing them to sign a contract. Part of the problem with this approach is that only certain records are stored on these credit registers. This excludes a large number of individuals, specifically those who are unbanked, those who have not got access to credit from formal institutions or those who do not own property and therefore pay their landlord for utilities. The purpose of this research is to determine the feasibility of using blockchain to store payment histories from small businesses to give their clients access to a credit record. The case study for this research will look specifically at a business which offers insurance to individuals living in informal settlements. This could be extended to many other businesses who work within informal settlements which allow cash payments on a regular basis for services offered. Shops in informal marketplaces which allow people to take products on credit and only pay later could also be included. By storing these transactions on the blockchain, individuals who would not usually have access to a credit history will have access to records of transactions that they have made and will be able to use these to show their ability and willingness to meet their financial obligations. This paper provides insight into existing credit registers and the process followed to build an informal credit register on the blockchain. The research covers an investigation into the feasibility of the project and it was found that this could is feasible and could add a lot of value, especially to those who do not have a credit history. There are many considerations, such as speed, security and costs which need to be taken into account, but these are outweighed by the benefits of the blockchain.

Includes bibliographical references. / This paper presents the findings from a study, which was carried out to investigate how the design of knowledge management systems could be improved for enhanced performance and greater customer satisfaction. The ICTS Department's helpdesk at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, was the venue for this case study. The study set out to meet the following objectives: - undertaking a knowledge acquisition strategy by carrying out a systems evaluation and analysis of the existing web-based user support system, - suggesting a knowledge representation model for an adaptive web-based user support system, and - developing and testing an online troubleshooter prototype for an improved knowledge use support system. To achieve the objectives of the study, knowledge engineering techniques were deployed on top of a qualitative research design. Questionnaires, which were supplemented by interview guides and observations, were the research tools used in gathering the data. In addition to this, a representative sample of the ICTS clientele and management was interviewed. It was discovered that poorly designed knowledge management systems cause frustration among the clientele who interact with the system. Specifically, it was found that the language used for knowledge representation plays a vital role in determining how best users can interpret knowledge items in a given knowledge domain. In other words, knowledge modelling and representation can improve knowledge representation if knowledge engineering techniques are appropriately followed in designing knowledge based systems. It was concluded that knowledge representation can be improved significantly if, firstly, the ontology technique is embraced as a mechanism of knowledge representation. Secondly, using hierarchies and taxonomies improves navigability in the knowledge structure. Thirdly, visual knowledge representation that supplements textual knowledge adds more meaning to the user, and is such a major and important technique that it can even cater for novice users.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / HIV Disease Management Programs (DMP's) are comprehensive programs that are designed to manage the HIV infected patient's treatment in an integrated manner.

Information technology (IT) has become one of the key technologies for economic and social development in any organization. Therefore the management of Information technology incidents, and particularly in the area of resolving the problem very fast, is of concern to Information technology managers. Delays can result when incorrect subjects are assigned to Information technology incident calls: because the person sent to remedy the problem has the wrong expertise or has not brought with them the software or hardware they need to help that user. In the case study used for this work, there are no management checks in place to verify the assigning of incident description subjects. This research aims to develop a method that will tackle the problem of wrongly assigned subjects for incident descriptions. In particular, this study explores the Information technology incident calls database of an oil and gas company as a case study. The approach was to explore the Information technology incident descriptions and their assigned subjects; thereafter the correctly-assigned records were used for training decision tree classification algorithms using Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis (WEKA) software. Finally, the records incorrectly assigned a subject by human operators were used for testing. The J48 algorithm gave the best performance and accuracy, and was able to correctly assign subjects to 81% of the records wrongly classified by human operators.

My thesis is going to focus on the development of a standalone, web based, machine learning educational platform. This platform will have a specific focus on neural networks. This tool will have the primary intention to provide a theoretical background to the mathematics of neural networks and thereafter to allow users to train their own networks on regression problems of their own creation. This is so as to provide the user with both theoretical, and first-hand, experience in the applications and functions of artificial intelligence. The primary success metric of this project will be how informative it is to the user. The key deliverable will be a fully functional prototype in additional to a written piece inclusive of a literature review and any other relevant findings and conclusions.

This study investigated the application of Machine Learning to portfolio selection by comparing the application of a Factor Based Investment strategy to one using a Support Vector Machine performing a classification task. The Factor Based Strategy uses regression in order to identify factors correlated to returns, by regressing excess returns against the factor values using historical data from the JSE. A portfolio-sort method is used to construct portfolios. The machine learning model was trained on historical share data from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The model was tasked with classifying whether a share over or under performed relative to the market. Shares were ranked according to probability of over-performance and divided into equally weighted quartiles. The excess return of the top and bottom quartiles was used to calculate portfolio payoff, which is the basis for comparison. The experiments were divided into time periods to assess the consistency of the factors over different market conditions. The time periods were defined as pre-financial crisis, during the financial crisis, post financial crisis and over the full period. The study was conducted in the context of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Historical data was collected for a 15-year period - from May 2003 to May 2018 - on the constituents of the All Share Index (ALSI). A rolling window methodology was used where the training and testing window was shifted with each iteration over the data. This allowed for a larger number of predictions to be made and for a greater period of comparison with the factorbased strategy. Fourteen factors were used individually as the basis for portfolio construction. While combinations of factors into Quality, Value and Liquidity and Leverage categories was used to investigate the effect of additional inputs into the model. Furthermore, experiments using all factors together were performed. It was found that a single factor FBI can consistently outperform the market, a multi factor FBI also provided consistent excess returns, but the SVM provided consistently larger excess returns with a wide range of factor inputs and beat the FBI in 12 of the 14 different experiments over different time periods.

Bibliography: p. 130-146. / The objective of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching high school students the Java language utilising Java classes. These classes were designed to simplify the syntax of the language and to introduce the concept of inheritance. Two Java classes were created. The main class used an artefact called a Tortoise, based on the Logo idea of a Turtle, and provided a number of graphical methods for the user. The second class was called "Please" and simplifed the Java syntax using a number of class methods which required a very straightforward English-like syntax.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / This project aims to find the minimum video resolution and frame rate that supports intelligible cell phone based video communications in South African Sign Language.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-147). / Professional audio equipment is migrating towards general purpose computers running professional audio software systems such as Virtual Studio Technology [VST) and VST plugins that have been adopted as an informal standard for audio and MIDI plugins. The proliferation of computer networks has facilitated sharing and distributing musical content over networked technology and has benefits of allowing multiple, simultaneous, remote access to audio resources, it allows processing and computer hardware resources to be distributed amongst many computers and therefore has potential for VST processing farms, and facilities location independent musical collaborations. Open Sound Control is an open high-level application protocol developed to facilitate modern networked communications amongst audio processing units like VST plugins. OSC has been suggested as a successor to MIDI addressing its shortcomings in its design. This dissertation presents a prototype VST plugin called OscVstBridge that bridges the network isolated VST plugin and VST host to the OSC network domain. The prototype facilitates modern, high speed, networked, musical control communications amongst VST audio processes. OSC is an open protocol allowing OscVstBridge to communicate between VST systems from different vendors furthering inter-operability of audio and musical system and promotes standardisation.