Research Management and Administration (RMA) is a developing profession. Many RMA staff work in Universities and other Research Organisations, but they can also be found in agencies that fund research; in fact anywhere where research is undertaken or managed. RMA can be defined as “the leadership, management or support of research activities” and one area of endeavour that RMAs are involved with is Electronic Research Administration (ERA): “IT system(s) designed specifically to support research management or administration”. The aim of my professional doctorate is two-fold: to show my contribution to the development of RMA as a profession in the UK; and to demonstrate my practical contribution to advancing ERA systems including undertaking research to address the question: “is it perceived by RMAs and academic staff that ERA can affect the quality and quantity of research?” Over the years (1997-2011) I have been involved in and led many initiatives that have helped to shape RMA, such that it is now recognised as a profession in the UK. I chart my role in the development of RMA in the UK through the growth of the professional Association for Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA) and other related initiatives. The second strand of this doctoral work reflects on the specific ERA developments that I have introduced at the University of Sunderland; collectively known as GRS On-line. In particular it highlights how and why the various Sunderland GRS systems were initiated, developed, enhanced and sometimes superseded. Two elements of GRS On-line are discussed in detail and reflected upon as case studies: Costing & Pricing, which underwent a number of major changes; and Publications Information, which evolved in a more organic way. The impact of both areas is considered in terms of benefits and detriments to research endeavour. A mixed methods study of the perceived effects of ERA systems across the UK on the quality and quantity of research undertaken is also conducted. This report presents the results of the Sunderland case studies which are complemented by the analysis of a series of national questionnaires looking at the perceptions of research managers and administrators, and academic staff regarding ERA systems. From the evidence presented it is shown that both RMA and ERA are perceived to have a positive impact on both the quality and quantity of research undertaken. Furthermore, the evidence base for the value of research management and administration as a profession is advanced; not only for individual RMAs, but also to the research community as a whole.

Nowadays, documents are increasingly being associated with multi-level category hierarchies rather than a flat category scheme. To access these documents in real time, we need fast automatic methods to navigate these hierarchies. Today’s vast data repositories such as the web also contain many broad domains of data which are quite distinct from each other e.g. medicine, education, sports and politics. Each domain constitutes a subspace of the data within which the documents are similar to each other but quite distinct from the documents in another subspace. The data within these domains is frequently further divided into many subcategories. Subspace Learning is a technique popular with non-text domains such as image recognition to increase speed and accuracy. Subspace analysis lends itself naturally to the idea of hybrid classifiers. Each subspace can be processed by a classifier best suited to the characteristics of that particular subspace. Instead of using the complete set of full space feature dimensions, classifier performances can be boosted by using only a subset of the dimensions. This thesis presents a novel hybrid parallel architecture using separate classifiers trained on separate subspaces to improve two-level text classification. The classifier to be used on a particular input and the relevant feature subset to be extracted is determined dynamically by using a novel method based on the maximum significance value. A novel vector representation which enhances the distinction between classes within the subspace is also developed. This novel system, the Hybrid Parallel Classifier, was compared against the baselines of several single classifiers such as the Multilayer Perceptron and was found to be faster and have higher two-level classification accuracies. The improvement in performance achieved was even higher when dealing with more complex category hierarchies.

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This thesis is concerned with the processes involved in the perception, adoption and use of location-based services (LBS). Location-based services are able to pinpoint the geographical position of an individual and are most often deployed on mobile devices. The capability for LBS to be integrated into other systems such as social networking sites is also growing. The focus of current LBS research is on the development of security measures to protect privacy. The actual privacy concerns of real LBS users, however, have not been considered. The work in this thesis examines location-based services from a user perspective. A previously untested predictive model of LBS was assessed, and shown to be unsuited to account for intentions to use the technology in a workplace setting. A revised and improved model is proposed that suggests four factors account for intentions: perceived usefulness, trust of the LBS provider, disclosure to employer and trust of the employer. This research investigated the types of location information that might be disclosed when using LBS, who the recipients might be, and how people categorise location information into meaningful clusters. Results showed that people have explicit LBS preferences, with the receiver of information and context playing a large role in determining disclosure. Three qualitative case studies aimed to understand implications of LBS use with different populations. Participants raised concerns about trustworthiness of their employer and knowledge of LBS providers, providing support for the theoretical model. These case studies suggest LBS could also successfully be applied to alternate user groups. These findings have important implications for LBS providers and industry. People have a desire to know who the LBS provider is and what role they will play. Making these issues explicit should improve trust and develop the user-LBS provider relationship. When implementing LBS in the workplace, consultation with employees and providing clear information may enhance trust of the employer.

Data-to-text systems are Natural Language Generation (NLG) systems that generate textural summaries of raw numerical data. To date such systems have concentrated exclusively on time series data. This is despite the increasing use and availability of low cost Geographical Information Systems (GIS), which has made analysis of georeferenced data commonplace in many scientific areas. This thesis describes original research in the field of NLG by addressing the problem of automatically generating textual summaries of georeferenced data; that is, any data that has a reference to its location on the Earth’s surface. The postulation that data-to-text technology can generate textural summaries of georeferenced data of comparable quality to human written ones for the same data set provides its focus. This research has carried out in the context of the RoadSafe project, whose primary outcome was development of a date-to-text application for generating road maintenance weather forecasts. This thesis is a thorough investigation of the practical and theoretical issues involved in generating good quality textural summaries of georeferenced data. It begins by surveying the current state of the art in data-to-text and the challenges that georeferenced data poses to such systems. Subsequently empirical observations are outlined that lead to the proposal of a model for georeferenced data-to-text. This model has been implemented and evaluated in a system fielded in the meteorology domain. Techniques for data analysis, content determination and generating spatial descriptions are outlined.

Information systems (IS) researchers and practitioners have for some time now been advocating the use of Action Research as an appropriate means of undertaking work in the field of information systems (Checkland and Scholes, 1990; Mansell, 1991; Stowell and West, 1994; Baskerville and Wood-Harper, 1996,1998; Stowell, West and Stansfield, 1997; Checkland and Holwell, 1998, West and Stansfield, 2001; Mumford, 2001). Yet little has been written about the application of Action Research during the real-world development of organizational strategic plans, where an important aim of the Action Researcher is also the attainment of an academic qualification. A possible explanation for this may be the amount of controversy that still surrounds the theoretical principles (Cady and Caster, 2000) and the practice and application (Stowell et. al, 1997) of Action Research. In particular, Action Research has been criticised for producing research with little action or action with little research (Foster, 1972), lacking in the rigor of true scientific research (Cohen and Manion, 1980), lacking in validity of data (Baskerville and Wood-Harper, 1996), lacking in internal and external control (Merriam and Simpson, 1984) and likely to be a problematic research method for doctoral students (Eden and Huxham, 1993,1995,1996). This doctoral research programme has been set up to investigate two 'themes'. The first, of more research/academic interest, concerns the development and testing of a diagrammatic Action Research Approach that will help to ensure the delivery of valid/robust research results. Also, because most existing diagrams don't describe Action Research at a more useful lower 'micro' level (Lau, 1997). The second research theme, of more practical interest, concerns understanding what can happen when a 'novice' practitioner attempts to use Action Research and JOURNEY Making (Eden and Ackermann, 1998) to solve a real-world organizational strategic problem. To ensure that the research is seen as 'valid' Action Research, Checkland and Holwell's (1998) 'FMA' model is applied because "This is the intellectual structure which will lead to findings and research lessons being recognised as such. Without that declaration, it is difficult to see how the outcome of Action Research can be more than anecdotal" (p. 13-14).

In this project, a range of characteristics describing farmers as decision-makers and details of their land holdings are integrated within a Geographic Information System (GIS) and used to predict overall farm response to defined policy scenarios, for a study area in the upland fringe of Grampian Region. Agriculture has undergone considerable adjustments over the past 40 years, characterised by the processes of intensification and specialisation of farming systems. These changes have been essentially policy-driven, although the precise interaction of policy, technological and macro-economic forces are not entirely understood. Further to this, rural areas are subject to an increasing range of consumption demands which has stimulated a new range of land-use policy schemes, and constraints, on farmers and landowners. From a position of assured government support which was enjoyed by the majority of farmers until the mid-1980s, the policy situation has developed into one of uncertainty and some confusion over the requirements and responsibilities placed on individual farmers. This research links spatial, behavioural and economic elements which combine to condition farm-level response to policy change. The complexity of individuals' decision environments, coupled with the diversity of individuals' values, objectives and resources is immense. The focus is on individual farms, and the implications of change at the individual level in developing a model of farm-level response to policy and market shifts.

Parallel computing techniques have become more important especially now that we have effectively reached the limit on individual processor speeds due to unacceptable levels of heat generation. Multi-core processors are already the norm and will continue to rise in terms of number of cores in the near future. However clusters of machines remain the next major step up in system performance effectively allowing vast numbers of cores to be devoted to any given problem. It is in that context that this Professional Doctorate thesis and Portfolio exists. Most parallel or cluster based software is custom built for an application using techniques such as OpenMP or MPI. But what if the capability of writing such software does not exist, what if the very act of writing a new piece of software compromises the integrity of an industry standard piece of software currently being used in a research project? The first outcome was to explore how grid/cluster computing teaching and learning facilities could be made accessible to students and teaching staff alike within the Department of Computing, Engineering & Technology in order to enhance the student experience. This was achieved through the development of VCNet, a virtual technology cluster solution, based on the design of the University of Sunderland Cluster Computer (USCC) and capable of running behind a dual boot arrangement on standard teaching machines. The second outcome of this Professional Doctorate was to produce a framework for efficient cluster computing services in a collaborative university environment. Although small by national and international standards, the USCC, with its forty machines and 160 cores, packs a mighty punch in computing terms. Through the work of this doctorate, ‘supercomputer class’ performance has been successfully used in cross- disciplinary research through the development and use of the Application Framework for Computational Chemistry (AFCC). In addition, I will also discuss the contribution this doctorate has made within the context of my community of practice by enhancing both my teaching and learning contribution as well as cross-disciplinary research and application.

A research report submitted to the School of Public Health, University of WItwatersrand in partial completion of the requirements of the degree Master of Public Health : Social and Behaviour change communication / Three randomised control trials in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa have shown that Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) reduces the risk of heterosexual HIV transmission to men by up to 60%. This has resulted in a WHO and UNAIDS recommendation to promote VMMC as part of comprehensive HIV prevention programming. In order for South Africa to achieve its 80% national coverage target of VMMC, significant investment needs to be made in demand creation programming. The Centre for HIV/AIDS Prevention Studies (CHAPS) provides free VMMCs through 28 community based clinics and hospitals in Gauteng, North West and Limpopo Provinces. In 2013, CHAPS demand creation activities have resulted in some increases in demand but CHAPS have committed to exploring additional demand creation opportunities. In terms of reach, mobile telephones are highly prevalent in South Africa, with more than 90% of South African households surveyed in 2011 reporting to have at least one cellular telephone in the home. The ongoing advancement of mobile phones to allow data transfer and internet access also means that more ‘Technology-Poor’ or ‘ICT Have-nots’ will be able to access the ever increasing knowledge content of the internet, participate in digital social-domains and be reached in shorter times and at lower costs.

There are 5 files which have been withheld at the author's request. Master of Commerce - Commerce / Business processes in all sectors of the business community require information to achieve the missions of their organisations. The quality of the information is directly related to the quality of the application system which process or produce such information. During application systems development, the project manager should consciously gather the application owner’s quality requirements, and ensure that those requirements are built into the application which is delivered at the conclusion of the development project. The specified quality requirements should be measurable to ensure that their presence can be verified in the end product. This report uses quality attributes obtained from the International Standard (ISO) 9126 Software Evaluation Framework, to specify these requirements and to verify their achievement. This research found that there is a consensus among application system owners and project managers on the importance of quality attributes as an evaluation tool of the quality of an application system. In the quest for quality, the starting point should be gathering of quality requirements and their correct interpretation.