Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Supervisor: Steven A. Moore. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available from UMI.

Thesis (M.S.)--Baylor University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-56).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 223-246). Also available in an electronic version.

Thesis (M.Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2009 / Refer to document

Thesis (DTech (Informatics))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015. / Governments of the developing world, including South Africa, have a strong commitment and resolve to accelerate the rollout of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to achieve developmental benefits in communities. Consequently both government and the private sector are delivering a number of interventions in South Africa based on Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D). Hard evidence regarding the development benefits of ICT4D interventions is lacking and there is little agreement on measures to evaluate the benefits of such projects. One possible reason for this is that there are no established evaluation frameworks to assess the benefits. Frameworks used in ICT4D evaluation are investigated in this study to ascertain their usefulness to identify benefits of ICT4D initiatives. Sen’s Capability Approach defines development as freedom. An example of such development can be the process of providing opportunities through ICT and meaningful ways to use these opportunities to realise various benefits. Tangible benefits are simple to identify (e.g. number of people using the public access centre, or number of people finding employment). Intangible benefits include the real ‘wins’—capabilities garnered through access and meaningful use of ICT, leading to the recognition of new opportunities for the users of the public access centres. Sen’s Capability Approach is operationalised, demonstrating the inclusion of a person’s agency and conversion factors that inhibit or enhance utilisation of opportunities and choices in realising benefits. The SmartCape initiative is a 2002 ICT4D intervention established in the libraries of Cape Town, South Africa, and is used as a case in this research study. The libraries act as public access centres that provide free ICT and Internet access to library members in the community. Surveys completed by users of these centres provided useful quantitative data. A broad spectrum of qualitative data was gleaned from interviews and focus groups with users of the ICT centre at a recently established library and with focus groups from other centres in two underserved areas of Cape Town. Quantitative data analysis techniques applied to qualitative content data was used to investigate users’ diverse perceptions. An initial framework guided the analysis of data to identify the benefits realised by the users of the public access centre. Perceptions of a changed life, aspirations for a better life, and ‘hope’ emerged as intangible benefits. On the intangible side, the effect of keyboard proficiency, greater ease in finding information, and a preference for accessing the Internet at a public access centre emerged as having a significant effect on the hopefulness of PAC users. Two theme-groups were identified through using co- occurrences of themes and the statistical techniques of cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling. The Benefits-framework, produced by this study, based on Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach, represents the relationship between all the themes, includes emergent intangible benefits and can be used to identify the benefits of ICT4D interventions in public access centres. This study also produces empirical evidence of the developmental impact of the SmartCape ICT4D programme in Cape Town and thus provides evidence of its value.

Didėjant įmonių ir šalių inovatyvumui, svarbu tirti inovacijų pokyčius, jų įtaką ekonomikai.Šiame darbe išanalizavus inovacijų teoriją, jų vertinimo indeksus bei pagrindinių inovacijų veiksnių pokyčius, įvertinamas inovacinių veiksnių poveikis suminio inovacijų indekso (SII)kaitai bei atliekama lyginamoji analizė tarp atrinktų Europos sąjungos šalių narių. / In order to maintain growth and stability companies and counties must be innovative, it`s important to reveal to concept of innovation. In this paper, the analysis of innovation theory, the evaluation indexes and main innovation factors, assesses their impact on summary innovation index (SII)change and a comparative analysis among selected European Union Member States.

This thesis details research performed in modeling, simulation, and rational design of porous SOFC cathodes via development, extension, and use of the key tools to aid in the fundamental understanding and engineering design of cathode materials. Phenomenological modeling of triple phase boundary (TPB) reactions and surface transport on La₁₋ₓSrₓMnO₃ (LSM) was conducted, providing insight into the role of the bulk versus surface oxygen reduction pathway and the role of sheet resistance in thin-film patterned electrode measurements. In response to observation of sheet resistance deactivation, a modeling study was conducted to design thin-film patterned electrodes with respect to sheet resistance. Additionally, this thesis outlines the application of phenomenological chemical kinetics to describe and explain the performance and stability enhancements resulting from surface modification of La₁₋ₓSrₓCo₁₋yFeyO₃₋delta (LSCF) with a conformal LSM coating. The analysis was performed in close coordination with electrochemical experiments and transmission electron microscopy. Finally, the thesis describes conformal modeling of porous cathode microstructures using chemical kinetics and transport models. A novel application of conservative point defect ensembles was developed to allow simulations with complicated chemical surface kinetics to be efficiently coupled with bulk transport within the porous structure. The finite element method was employed to simulate electrochemical response conformal to sintered porous ceramic structures using actual 3D microstructural reconstructions obtained using x-ray microtomography. Mesh refinement, linear, and nonlinear reaction rate kinetics were employed to study the bulk versus surface oxygen reduction pathways and the effect of near-TPB nanostructure.

University of Macau / Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences

In today’s knowledge-based economy, modern organisations understand the importance of technology in their quest to be considered global leaders. South African markets like others worldwide are regularly flooded with the latest technology trends which can complicate the acquisition, use, management and maintenance of software. To achieve a competitive edge, companies tend to leverage agile methods with the best possible combination of innovative supporting tools as a key differentiator. Software technology firms are in this light faced with determining how to leverage technology and efficient development processes for them to consistently deliver quality software projects and solutions to their customer base. Previous studies have discussed the importance of software development processes from a project management perspective. African academia has immensely contributed in terms of software development and project management research which has focused on modern frameworks, methodologies as well as project management techniques. While the current research continues with this tradition by presenting the pertinence of modern agile methodologies, it additionally further describes modern agile development processes tailored in a sub-Saharan context. The study also aims novelty by showing how innovative sometimes disruptive technology tools can contribute to producing African software solutions to African problems. To this end, the thesis contains an experimental case study where a web portal is prototyped to assist firms with the management of agile project management and engineering related activities. Literature review, semi-structure interviews as well as direct observations from the industry use case are used as data sources. Underpinned by an Activity Theory analytical framework, the qualitative data is analysed by leveraging content and thematic oriented techniques. This study aims to contribute to software engineering as well as the information systems body of knowledge in general. The research hence ambitions to propose a practical framework to promote the delivery of quality software projects and products. For this thesis, such a framework was designed around an information system which helps organizations better manage agile project management and engineering related activities. / Information Science / Ph. D. (Information Systems)

The agile manifesto has certainly changed the way software is produced in the Information Communications Technology (ICT) industry. However, many persistent challenges cripple agile software development. One challenge is that the constant change in technology makes the requirements hard to implement. Another is that issues of the agile requirements engineering (ARE) process are abundant and pervasive throughout software projects. The aim of this study is to determine common issues in agile requirements engineering in the South African software industry and identify tools and frameworks to mitigate risks emanating from such problems. This includes finding out how much value software practitioners put in the agile principles. This study was essentially quantitative, based on a cross-sectional survey. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect required data which was then subjected to exploratory data analysis using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), a tool for statistical analysis. The results show that software practitioners have a strong penchant for principles of the Agile Manifesto. Major issues in agile requirements engineering include lack of proper validation tools and techniques, scope problems, lack of proper documentation, issues of prioritisation, as well as unavailability of customer representative. A detailed baseline of issues in agile requirements engineering was created along with a set of recommended tools and techniques used in the software industry. As for the recommendation, it is suggested that companies invest more on validation tools and techniques and consider non-functional requirements integration during software development. / School of Computing / M. Sc. (Computing)