Published Article / Although deterministic models still dominate hydrological modelling, there is a notable paradigm shift in catchment response modelling. An approach to represent the daily rainfall-flow (R-F) relationship using Data-Based Mechanistic (DBM) modelling is presented. DBM modelling is an inductive empirical transfer function (TF) approach relating input to output. The study used secondary data from the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry for the Upper Vaal water management area at station C1H007. The R-F model identification and optimisation was implemented in the CAPTAIN Toolbox in MATLAB. The best estimated R-F model was a 2nd order TF with an input lag of one day and R 2T= 56%. In mechanistic interpretation, three parallel flow pathways were discerned; the fast flow, slow flow and the loss component each constituting 49.8%, 24% and 26.2% of the modelled flow respectively. The study demonstrates that the approach adopted herein produces reasonably satisfactory results with a minimum of the readily available catchment data.

The purpose of this study was to explore how a potential model of a tourism industry cluster could be developed in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). To undertake this task an extensive literature review of cluster-based economic strategies was done. This was followed by a synopsis of the tourism industry from a global and South African perspective in order to determine issues of competitiveness and their impact on provincial dynamics. The study employed a qualitative research design and focused on the tourism industry in KwaZulu-Natal as a case study. Major stakeholders in the industry were interviewed. The main findings of the study are that KZN has the necessary preconditions for existence of a potential tourism cluster, and these conditions make it ripe for the cluster to be activated and developed. Activating and developing a cluster would bring home major benefits. The study highlighted various tools and mechanisms which could be used to analyse the province’s cluster map, and a model cluster map is also suggested based on contributions from different respondents. Using Porter’s Diamond Model, the competitiveness of the KZN tourism industry was assessed. Overall, it has been found that the province’s tourism industry possesses a mixture of resources and capabilities, which could be capitalised upon to developing the industry in future. However, glaring weaknesses are also exposed, which need to be dealt with urgently. In particular, crime and grime, together with the lack of tourism infrastructure to attract the high-end of the market, are seen as huge liability for the industry. A major contribution of this study is in identifying strategic management challenges that cluster studies have not addressed previously. The study also highlighted important critical success factors for cluster development and the drivers for change. The presence of some of these factors contributes to making the future prospect of the tourism industry in KZN to look bright. The study concludes by recommending that a tourism cluster be activated and developed in KZN and this process be led by an Independent Cluster Facilitator, who must be appointed by the Member of the Executive Committee responsible for Finance and Economic Development in the province in consultation with industry leaders.

Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Bioconversion of hydrocarbons to value-added intermediates and products has significant industrial potential using both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. In particular, alkanes can be converted to an expansive range of commercially important products using aerobic bioprocesses under mild process conditions. Coupled with the relative abundance of alkanes derived from gas to liquid (GTL) technologies, such as those employed by SASOL, South Africa, the commercial potential for bioconverison of alkanes is large. However, unlike carbohydrate substrates, alkane feedstocks are devoid of oxygen in their molecular structure. This means that the entire oxygen demand needs to be met by oxygen transfer. Furthermore, a decline in oxygen transfer in aqueous-hydrocarbon dispersions with increasing alkane concentration has been observed to result from depression of the overall volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient (KLa). Therefore, understanding KLa and the fundamental parameters underpinning its behaviour is critical to ensuring the bioprocess is kinetically, rather than transport, limited in terms of both operation and scale-up. Previous studies have examined KLa in aerated-alkane-aqueous systems. In light of the importance of oxygen transfer in bioprocesses, this study expands on the KLa understanding in 3-phase studies by including a fourth solid phase, thus more closely representing a hydrocarbonbased bioprocess. The project aimed to determine the impact of agitation, alkane concentration and solid loading on the Sauter mean bubble diameter (DSM), gas hold-up and specific interfacial area (a) and correlate these parameters to KLa. This ultimately determined which parameter was dominant over a range of process conditions. Furthermore, concurrent measurement of the KLa and interfacial area meant the behaviour of the liquid side oxygen transfer coefficient (KL) could be defined, providing further insight into how changes in the process conditions impact on KLa. Experiments were conducted in a 5 litre stirred tank bioreactor containing n-C14-20 straight chain alkane, sparged with air at 0.8 vvm. In line with process conditions typical of a hydrocarbonbased bioprocess, KLa and a were measured for agitation rates from 450 to 1000 RPM, alkane concentrations from 2 to 20% v/v and yeast solids from 1 to 10 g/l. KLa was measured using the gassing out procedure using a dissolved oxygen (DO) probe which measured the response of the system to a step change in the sparge gas oxygen pressure. The probe response lag ( P), equal to the time taken for the probe to reach 63.2% of the saturation DO concentration, was determined for every set of process conditions. The inverse of P, KP was taken into account when calculating KLa from the DO probe response. The area was calculated from DSM and gas hold-up. DSM was quantified using high speed photography and image analysis was performed in Matlab® using bespoke routines. Elimination of optical distortion and the development of an adequate light source was key to acquiring clear images. Both KLa and interfacial area were found to be affected by changes in agitation, alkane concentration and yeast loading. An increase in agitation increased the KLa over the entire range of alkane concentration and yeast loading. Similarly, an increase in agitation resulted in an increase in interfacial area, underpinned by a decrease in the DSM. It is therefore likely that the interfacial area plays a dominant role in defining KLa when considering an increase in agitation. Increases in alkane concentration resulted in a peak in KLa between 2.5 and 5% alkane concentration while further increases in alkane concentration depressed KLa. This peak was not observed in interfacial area, where an increase in alkane concentration resulted only in a decrease in interfacial area, thus indicating a positive influence of KL on KLa at low alkane concentrations. Further increases in alkane concentration beyond those creating the peak KLa resulted in KLa depression, suggesting that the increasing viscosity imparted by the alkane decreases both KL and interfacial area. Increased yeast loading had opposing effects at low and high agitation rates. At low agitation rates, increased loadings were observed to increase KLa, while increased loadings at high agitation rates caused a decrease in KLa. This behaviour was also evident in interfacial area, suggesting that in this regime KLa was defined by interfacial area behaviour. Increased yeast loading was observed to depress the KLa for all alkane concentrations when examined at a constant midpoint agitation rate. This trend was not evident in interfacial area, which increased with increasing yeast loading at the same agitation rate. The positive influence of yeast on interfacial area was likely caused by adhesion of the yeast particles to the bubble surface, lowering the DSM by preventing coalescence. The disagreement between the KLa and interfacial area results suggested that yeast loading impacted negatively on KL, which had an over-riding negative impact on KLa. The use of reliable methods for the determination of both interfacial area and KLa were demonstrated for application in model hydrocarbon-based bioprocesses. The combined results offer a unique insight into how changes in the process conditions impact independently on KL and interfacial area, which when combined ultimately defined the KLa behaviour. Quantification of the relative magnitude of the impact each parameter had on KLa contributed toward a fundamental understanding of oxygen transfer in model hydrocarbon-based bioprocesses. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Biologiese omsetting van koolwaterstowwe na produkte met finansiële waarde het beduidende industriële potensiaal met behulp van beide prokariotiese en eukariotiese organismes. In die besonder, kan alkane omgeskakel word na ’n uitgebreide reeks van kommersieel belangrike produkte met behulp van aerobiese bioprosesse onder ligte proses voorwaardes. Tesame met die relatiewe oorvloed van alkane afgelei van GTL tegnologie, soos dié van Sasol, Suid-Afrika, die kommersiële potensiaal vir bioconverison van alkane is groot. Maar, in teenstelling koolhidrate substrate, alkaan voerstowwe is beroof van suurstof in hul molekulêre struktuur. Dit beteken dat die hele suurstof vereiste moet nagekom word deur suurstof oordrag. Verder het ’n afname in suurstof oordrag in waterige-koolwaterstof dispersies met toenemende alkaan konsentrasie waargeneem te lei van depressie van die algehele volumetriese suurstofoordragkoëffisiënt (KLa). Daarom verstaan KLa en die fundamentele parameters onderliggend sy gedrag is van kritieke belang om te verseker dat die bioprocess is kineties, eerder as vervoer, beperk in terme van beide werking en skaal-up van bioprosesse. Vorige studies het KLa in deurlug-alkaan-waterige stelsels ondersoek. In die lig van die belangrikheid van suurstof oordrag in bioprosesse hierdie studie brei uit op die KLa begrip in driefase studies deur die insluiting van ’n vierde soliede fase, dus meer nou wat ’n koolwaterstofgebaseerde bioprocess. Die doel van die projek is om die impak van vermengingstempo, alkaan konsentrasie en soliede inhout op die Sauter gemiddelde borrel deursnee (DSM), gas-vasvanging en spesifieke gas-vloistof oppervlakarea (a) te kwantifiseer en korreleer met KLa gedrag. Dit sou defineer die dominante parameter oor ’n verskeidenheid van proses voorwaardes. Verder, gelyktydige meting van die KLa en oppervlakarea kan die gedrag van die vloeistof-kant suurstofoordragkoëffisiënt (KL) gedefinieer. Dit sal verskaf verdere insig in hoe die veranderinge in die proses voorwaardes impak op KLa. Eksperimente was uitgevoer in ’n 5 liter belugte geroerde tenk bioreaktor bevat n - C14-20 reguitketting alkane, met lug met lug deurgeborrel by 0.8 VVM. In lyn met die proses voorwaardes tipies van ’n koolwaterstof-gebaseerde bioprocess, KLa en a was gemeet vir vermengignstempos van 450-1000 RPM, alkaan konsentrasies van 2-20 % v/v en gis vastestowwe van 1 tot 10 g / l. KLa is gemeet deur die vergassinguit prosedure met behulp van ’n suurstofmeter wat die reaksie van die stelsel na ’n stap verandering in die voer gas suurstof druk gemeet het. Die suurstofmeter reaksie vertraging ( P), gelyk aan die tyd wat dit neem vir die suurstofmeter 63.2 % van die versadiging DO konsentrasie te bereik, is bepaal vir elke procesopset. Die inverse van P, KP is in ag geneem by die berekening van KLa uit die suurstofmeter reaksie. Die gas-vloistof oppervlak is bereken vanaf DSM en gas hold-up. DSM is gekwantifiseer met behulp van hoë spoed fotografie en beeld analise is uitgevoer in Matlab ® roetines. Uitskakeling van optiese vervorming en die ontwikkeling van ’n voldoende ligbron was die sleutel tot die verkryging van helder beelde. Beide KLa en grens oppervlakarea gevind geraak word deur veranderinge in vermengignstempo, alkaan konsentrasie en gis laai. ’N toename in geroer het die KLa verbeter oor die hele reeks van alkaan konsentrasie en gis laai. Net so, ’n toename in geroer het gelei tot ’n toename in grens oppervlak, ondersteun deur ’n afname in die DSM. Dit is dus waarskynlik dat die grens oppervlak speel ’n dominante rol in die definisie van KLa by die oorweging van ’n toename in roering. Stygings in alkaan konsentrasie gelei tot ’n hoogtepunt in KLa tussen 2.5 en 5 % alkaan konsentrasie terwyl verdere verhogings in alkaan konsentrasie druk die KLa af. Die piek was nie in oppervlakarea duidelik, waar ’n toename in alkaan konsentrasie gelei net tot ’n afname in oppervlakarea, dus dui op ’n positiewe invloed van KL op KLa teen lae alkaan konsentrasies waargeneem. Verdere stygings in alkaan konsentrasie verder as die skep van die piek KLa gelei tot KLa depressie, wat daarop dui dat die toenemende viskositeit meegedeel deur die alkaan verminder beide KL en grens oppervlak. Verhoogde gis laai het opponerende effekte teen ’n lae en hoë vermengingstempo. By lae vermengingstempo, ’n verhoging in gis laai waargeneem KLa te verhoog, terwyl ’n verhoging in gis laai op ’n hoë vermengingstempo veroorsaak ’n afname in KLa . Hierdie gedrag was ook duidelik in grens oppervlak, wat daarop dui dat daar in hierdie regime KLa gedefinieer deur grens oppervlak gedrag. Verhoogde gis laai waargeneem die KLa te onderdruk vir alle alkaan konsentrasies wanneer ondersoek teen ’n konstante middelpunt vermengingstempo. Hierdie tendens was nie duidelik in tussenvlak gebied, wat verhoog met toenemende gis laai op dieselfde geroer koers. Die positiewe invloed van gis op grens oppervlak is waarskynlik veroorsaak deur adhesie van die gis deeltjies aan die borrel oppervlak, die verlaging van die DSM deur die voorkoming van die saamsmelting van gasborrels. Die meningsverskil tussen die KLa en grens oppervlakarea resultate voorgestel dat gis laai negatiewe uitwerking op KL, met ’n dominante negatiewe impak op KLa. Die gebruik van ’n betroubare metodes vir die bepaling van beide oppervlakarea en KLa gedemonstreer vir toepassing in model koolwaterstof-gebaseerde bioprosesse. Die gekombineerde resultate bied ’n unieke insig in hoe die veranderinge in die proses voorwaardes impak onafhanklik op KL en oppervlakarea, wat wanneer gekombineer gedefinieer die KLa gedrag. Kwantifisering van die relatiewe grootte van die impak elke parameter het op KLa bygedra tot ’n fundamentele begrip van suurstof oordrag in model koolwaterstof-gebaseerde bioprosesse.

Policy-based management (PBM) is an adaptable security policy mechanism in information systems (IS) that confirm only authorised users can access resources. A few decades ago, the traditional PBM has focused on closed systems, where enforcement mechanisms are trusted by system administrators who define access control policies. Most of current work on the PBM systems focuses on designing a centralised policy decision point (PDP), the component that evaluates an access request against a policy and reports the decision back, which can have performance and resilience drawbacks. Performance and resilience are a major concern for applications in military, health and national security domains where the performance is desirable to increase situational awareness through collaboration and to decrease the length of the decision making cycle. The centralised PDP also represents a single point of failure. In case of the failure of the centralised PDP, all resources in the system may cease to function. The efficient distribution of enforcement mechanisms is therefore key in building large scale policy managed distributed systems. Moving from the traditional PBM systems to dynamic PBM systems supports dynamic adaptability of behaviour by changing policy without recoding or stopping the system. The SANTA history-based dynamic PBM system has a formal underpinning in Interval Temporal Logic (ITL) allowing for formal analysis and verification to take place. The main aim of the research to automatically distribute enforcement mechanisms in the distributed system in order to provide resilience against network failure whilst preserving efficiency of policy decision making. The policy formalisation is based on SANTA policy model to provide a high level of assurance. The contribution of this work addresses the challenge of performance, manageability and security, by designing a Decentralised PBM framework and a corresponding Distributed Enforcements Architecture (DENAR). The ability of enforcing static and dynamic security policies in DENAR is the prime research issue, which balances the desire to distribute systems for flexibility whilst maintaining sufficient security over operations. Our research developed mechanisms to improve the efficiency of the enforcement of security policy mechanisms and their resilience against network failures in distributed information systems.

BACKGROUND:Shewanella is a genus of facultatively anaerobic, Gram-negative bacteria that have highly adaptable metabolism which allows them to thrive in diverse environments. This quality makes them an attractive bacterial target for research in bioremediation and microbial fuel cell applications. Constraint-based modeling is a useful tool for helping researchers gain insights into the metabolic capabilities of these bacteria. However, Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 is the only strain with a genome-scale metabolic model constructed out of 21 sequenced Shewanella strains.RESULTS:In this work, we updated the model for Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 and constructed metabolic models for three other strains, namely Shewanella sp. MR-4, Shewanella sp. W3-18-1, and Shewanella denitrificans OS217 which span the genus based on the number of genes lost in comparison to MR-1. We also constructed a Shewanella core model that contains the genes shared by all 21 sequenced strains and a few non-conserved genes associated with essential reactions. Model comparisons between the five constructed models were done at two levels - for wildtype strains under different growth conditions and for knockout mutants under the same growth condition. In the first level, growth/no-growth phenotypes were predicted by the models on various carbon sources and electron acceptors. Cluster analysis of these results revealed that the MR-1 model is most similar to the W3-18-1 model, followed by the MR-4 and OS217 models when considering predicted growth phenotypes. However, a cluster analysis done based on metabolic gene content revealed that the MR-4 and W3-18-1 models are the most similar, with the MR-1 and OS217 models being more distinct from these latter two strains. As a second level of comparison, we identified differences in reaction and gene content which give rise to different functional predictions of single and double gene knockout mutants using Comparison of Networks by Gene Alignment (CONGA). Here, we showed how CONGA can be used to find biomass, metabolic, and genetic differences between models.CONCLUSIONS:We developed four strain-specific models and a general core model that can be used to do various in silico studies of Shewanella metabolism. The developed models provide a platform for a systematic investigation of Shewanella metabolism to aid researchers using Shewanella in various biotechnology applications.

This thesis discusses how best to design, implement and evaluate a Case-Based Learning and Reasoning (CB-LR) model to assist accountants in identifying Top Management Fraud (TMF). There is no structured knowledge about TMF in the fonn of rules, only cases encountered by experienced auditors. The changing economic, financial and social environment has produced more fraud which at the same time has become increasingly complex to identify and isolate. Previous research shows that fraud has evaded auditors, and highlights a need for new computer-based learning and reasoning paradigms in this domain. Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) has been considered as an approach to building knowledge systems which involves reasoning about the current situation on the basis of pinpointing and resuscitating past instances. As with artificial intelligence in general, there is no standard readymade CBR method suitable for any domain or application: the challenge in CBR is to come up with methods that are suitable for problem-solving and learning in particular subject domains and for particular application environments. INCASE, a Top Management Fraud diagnostic application, has been designed with a specific methodology derived from Schank and Riesbeck's principles. INCASE works on the basis of the interviewees' concerns so that it can act as a 'stimulus agent' for decision support. The intention is for auditors to use it proactively in a conversational mode, focusing on learning and reasoning about the problem domain~ hence the use of the CB-LR model. Although evaluation methods relevant to traditional rule-based expert systems have been discussed in the literature, their emphasis on system issues was found to be inappropriate for this CB-LR application. Since there is no agreed and established method for evaluating a casebased tool, 'a new approach is discussed including verification (where the focus is on response accuracy of infonnation retrieval) and validation (where user judgement and satisfaction are key issues). One important component in the evaluation was an in-house questionnaire based on total quality management ideas. Findings from the evaluation of the TMF diagnostic system suggest that case-based learning and reasoning has a valuable part to play in assisting auditing profession in the detection of fraud

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Goals of this study are to set up the frame-work for analyzing residential buildings using the functional scenarios method and to tests the applicability of the method on large scale projects. The metrics for the analysis are based on guidelines for designing spaces that promote healthy aging. In addition, the study was providing an opportunity to developing and refined the method. The result of the analysis determines that the functional scenarios method is applicable to large scale buildings as effectively as smalls scale buildings; design configurations can be extracted from the results of the analysis to inform future designs. The limitations of the analysis are due to the available resources. Opportunities for continued work include 1) developing standard ways of representing the results of the analysis; and 2) developing a systematic approach for extracting design configurations based on the research questions asked.