For any organisation it is necessary for their managers to be well developed and highly skilled. Managers who lack the necessary skills often have to be provided with the opportunity to develop further. The objectives of this research were to conceptualise the terms leadership development and development assessment centre; to explore the content and methodology related to a leadership development assessment centre; and to evaluate the results of a leadership development programme for employees on leadership skills/competencies. The study was implemented since little research in the South African context could be traced concerning the evaluation of DACs in a leadership context. Therefore the purpose of this study was to evaluate a developmental assessment centre. The participants were managers selected from a steel manufacturing organisation from the Gauteng plant. The entire population comprising 72 (N=72) participants, of whom 36 (N=36) were managers and 36 (N=36) subordinates, peers or management, were utilised in the study. The measuring instrument administered before and after the implementation of the development assessment centre was the Leadership behaviour inventory (LBI-2) ,pre- and post-leadership measures can be utilized to determine the effectiveness of various organisational interventions. Levene‟s test was utilised to establish whether the variance of the scores for the pre- and post-test was the same and Paired-samples t-test was used to analyse the data. The results indicate that statically significant increases were recorded across all the leadership competencies between the pre-test and the post-test measurements. The largest increase manifested between the Articulating vision competency, and the Systems competency between the pre- and post-test. The smallest increase was noticeable between the pre- and post-test rating for the Co-ordination competency. It can therefore be concluded that the DAC was successful in developing the leadership competencies of the middle-level managers. / MCom (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

Classroom observation - particularly the post observation conference - is one of the most important aspects of staff development. The headmaster should create the climate in which the teacher has scope for self-development. During and especially after the class observation, it is imperative that the headmaster provides a restful, relaxed atmosphere, particularly for the post observation conference. This conference is of the utmost importance, as it provides feedback to the teacher on how another knowledgeable person experiences his presentation of a lesson. This research initially focused on staff development, what it entails and how it can be utilized by headmasters in schools. A closer look was taken at the post observation conference after a classroom observation, a questionnaire was distributed among the headmasters of various schools and the paper closes with recommendations and definite guidelines to headmasters. It is important for the school to be a pleasant working environment, where mutual respect and trust should exist. In such a climate, it is possible for the headmaster, during the post observation conference, to make recommendations and give advice without causing any hurt-feelings, enabling the teacher to develop professionally. A staff development plan with clear goals and target dates should ultimately be compiled. / Skripsie (MEd (Onderwysbestuur))--PU vir CHO, 1996

For any organisation it is necessary for their managers to be well developed and highly skilled. Managers who lack the necessary skills often have to be provided with the opportunity to develop further. The objectives of this research were to conceptualise the terms leadership development and development assessment centre; to explore the content and methodology related to a leadership development assessment centre; and to evaluate the results of a leadership development programme for employees on leadership skills/competencies. The study was implemented since little research in the South African context could be traced concerning the evaluation of DACs in a leadership context. Therefore the purpose of this study was to evaluate a developmental assessment centre. The participants were managers selected from a steel manufacturing organisation from the Gauteng plant. The entire population comprising 72 (N=72) participants, of whom 36 (N=36) were managers and 36 (N=36) subordinates, peers or management, were utilised in the study. The measuring instrument administered before and after the implementation of the development assessment centre was the Leadership behaviour inventory (LBI-2) ,pre- and post-leadership measures can be utilized to determine the effectiveness of various organisational interventions. Levene‟s test was utilised to establish whether the variance of the scores for the pre- and post-test was the same and Paired-samples t-test was used to analyse the data. The results indicate that statically significant increases were recorded across all the leadership competencies between the pre-test and the post-test measurements. The largest increase manifested between the Articulating vision competency, and the Systems competency between the pre- and post-test. The smallest increase was noticeable between the pre- and post-test rating for the Co-ordination competency. It can therefore be concluded that the DAC was successful in developing the leadership competencies of the middle-level managers. / MCom (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

There is a generally accepted reality among first and second language reading researchers and practitioners that learners who study in a second or foreign language are almost always at a disadvantage, particularly in the area of reading. In light of this learners who register for high school study each year in South Africa are very often under prepared for high school education and many of these learners also have low levels of reading ability. This has an adverse effect on their chances of academic success. In order to meet the reading needs of these learners, educators need to develop effective instructional means for teaching reading comprehension and reading strategy use. It is evident from the volume and quality of research published that the teaching of reading strategies enhances the learners' reading comprehension ability. The purpose of this study was to: • determine what reading strategies Grade 11 ESL learners use; • determine what reading strategies should be taught; • determine how and when reading strategies should be taught in the ESL classroom; • determine what the effect of an implemented reading strategy programme is on the reading comprehension of the Grade 11 ESL learners participating in this study; and • provide guidelines in terms of the composition (i.e. format, outcomes, content, teaching method 1 approach, etc.) of a reading strategy instruction programme. In this study a quasi-experimental pretest - posttest control group design was used. The participants in this study included a total of 60 Grade 11 ESL learners from a high school in the Eastern Cape. Two intact randomly selected classes participated in the study. Both males and females participated in the study and ranged in age from 18 - 22 years. The Reading Performance Test in English: Advanced Level (Roux, 1996) and a Reading Strategy Questionnaire based on the work of Oxford (1990), Pressley and Afflerbach (1995) and Pressley et al. (1995) was used in this study. A t-test was used to determine whether the mean scores of the experimental and control group differed statistically significantly from each other. Cohen's (1977) effect size d was used to determine whether the mean differences were practically significant. The results of the study can be summarized as follows: The results indicated that the learners who followed the reading strategy programme and received strategic reading instruction (experimental group) obtained both statistically and practically significantly higher marks on the reading comprehension test (posttest) than did the learners in the control group. The posttest results indicated that the learners in the experimental group used certain strategies statistically (p<0.05), as well as practically significantly (small to large effect size), more often than the learners in the control group. The reading instruction programme developed in this study focuses on five reading strategies, namely guessing the meaning of words from the context, making inferences, predicting what is to come in a text, identifying the main idea and summarising. The programme presents an overview of the guidelines for a reading strategy instruction programme. It outlines the purpose, target group, content and other aspects, instruction, classroom procedure and assessment concerning a meaningful reading strategy instruction programme. English Second Language teachers may find it worth their while to implement reading strategy training models of a similar nature in order to develop their learners' proficiency in reading comprehension and reading strategy use. / Thesis (Ph.D. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007

Internet of things (IoT) är det överläggande området i denna rapport. IoT är ett väldigt intressant I nuläget och är snabbt växande. IoT kan beskrivas som ett nätverk av kommunicerande enheter som delar information och automatiserar eller försimplar uppgifter och därav ökar effektivitet och säkerhet. Området växer så pass fort att det förväntas vara 24 miljarder anslutna enheter vid år 2050, denna utökning leder i sin tur till ett ökat behov av förståelse för IoT protokollen som hanterar kommunikationen emellan enheterna. Detta för att kunna välja det mest optimala protokollet för ett givet scenario. Detta arbete kommer att välja ett lovande protokoll för undersökning samt evaluering gällande dess prestation berörande fördröjning, dataöverföringshastighet och skalbarhet.  Protokollet som valdes var MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport). Baserat på dessa evaluerade värden föra en diskussion gällande protokollets lämplighet inom scenariona. Värdena kommer att tas fram via tidmätningar start till slut för kommunikationen samt tid för att skicka en mängd meddelanden, båda i respekt till antalet samtidigt kommunicerande program. Testen körs med en lokal PC som agerar Broker och en Raspberry Pi som kör samtliga programmen i individuella terminaler. Resultaten var att fördröjningen verkar ha en näst intill linjär relation och dataöverföringshastighet ett exponentiellt avtagande beteende i respekt till samtidigt kommunicerande enheter. Dem mätta resultaten analyseras och diskuteras, och kommer till slutsatsen att protokollet är en lämplig kandidat för de flesta scenarion, så som smarta bilar, smarta hem och till viss del industriell användning. Den största nackdelen med protokollet var dess höga standardavvikelse gällande individuella meddelandens fördröjning. / Internet of things (IoT) is the base topic of this thesis, and it is a rapidly growing area, it can be described  as a network of communicating devices sharing information and streamlining tasks in addition to increasing efficiency and security. It is expected to be 24 billion connected devices by year 2050 and with this growth comes an increased demand on understanding the IoT protocols to be able to choose a suitable protocol for a given scenario. This thesis will discuss this area and pick one protocol to evaluate specifically regarding latency, throughput, and scalability. The protocol chosen were MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport). Based on these values then discuss whether the protocol is a suitable candidate for the scenarios. The data to evaluate this will be gathered by measuring the end-to-end time of the protocol in respect to the number of communicating programs, and to measure the time it takes to communicate a number of messages with respect to the number of programs handling the communication. These tests are performed with a local PC acting as the broker and a Raspberry pi running each of the communicating programs on individual terminals. The results were that latency seem to have a close to liner relation, and that throughput seem to have an exponentially decreasing relation with respect to number of clients cooperating. The measured results are analyzed and discussed and concluded that the protocol is a fitting candidate for most scenarios such as smart cars, smart homes and to some extent industry. The biggest flawed concluded was the protocols high standard deviation for individual messages latency. The outcome of the benchmarks measurement showed that increasing the number of nodes would not result in superior performance. It was noted that an optimal number of nodes was found to be between 1 and 20 for all the tests performed. The study showed that no load balancer could be considered a clear winner, instead, different configurations of load balancers performed varyingly well at different tests.

Denna studie utforskar hur valet mellan två metoder för evaluering av individer i en evolutionär algoritm påverkar procedurellt genererat innehåll. Evolutionär generering är ett delområde av sökbaserad-procedurell generering som tar inspiration från verkligevolution med implementation av koncept som; ärvda egenskaper, mutation och naturligselektion. Studiens två evalueringsmetoder användes vid framställningen av spelbanor till ett imaginärt spel inom genren realtidsstrategi. Banor skapades för i teorin två spelare och visualiserade i en egenskapad testmiljö. Resultaten fastställde att valet av evalueringsmetod påverkar hur ett set av banor kan upplevas i förhållande till en spelare och till varandra. Användningen av studiens traditionella metod för evaluering resulterade i banor med mer snarlika egenskaper tillvarandra men kunde alla anses besitta balanserade förutsättningar för banornas två spelare. Användningen av studiens multiobjektiva metod för evaluering resulterade i banor mervarierande från varandra men som alla inte kunde anses besitta balanserade förutsättningarför spelare. Utifrån studiens resultat skulle en utvecklare kunna skapa en evolutionär algoritm och veta till vilken grad valet av evalueringsmetod påverkar genererat innehåll. Framtida studierskulle även från resultaten i denna studie kunna undersöka personers upplevelse vidspelsessioner med evolutionärt genererade banor jämfört med manuellt skapade banor i existerande spel. / <p>Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter tillhörande examensarbetet som ska skickas till arkivet.</p>

Generative machine learning models are capable of generating remarkably realistic samples. Some models generate images that look entirely natural, and others generate text that reads as if a human wrote it. However, judging the quality of these models is a major challenge. Today, the most convincing method is to use humans to evaluate the quality of generated samples. However, humans are biased, costly, and inefficient. Therefore, there is a great need for automatic methods. MAUVE is a recent advancement in the evaluation of generative text models. It compares generated data with real data and returns a score that quantifies their similarity. This is accomplished with the help of a neural network, which provides the understanding of text required to evaluate its quality. MAUVE is motivated by its correspondence with human judgment, and this is shown in multiple experiments. This thesis contributes in two significant ways: First, we complement experiments and discussions made in the original paper. Importantly, we demonstrate that MAUVE sometimes fails to recognize quality differences between generative models. This failure is due to the choice of neural network. Later, we demonstrate that MAUVE can be used for more than just text evaluation. Specifically, we show that it can be applied to images. This is accomplished by using a neural network specialized in image recognition. However, the steps can be repeated for any data type, meaning that MAUVE can potentially become a more generalized measurement than suggested in the original paper. Our second contribution is an extension toMAUVEcalled Sequence-MAUVE (S-MAUVE). The score MAUVE produces can be seen as an average of the overall quality of generated text. However, some generative models initially produce excellent text, but see drops in quality as the sequences grow longer. Therefore, a single score that represents entire sequences is likely to omit important details. Instead, S-MAUVE evaluates generated text at the smallest possible level. The result is a sequence of scores, which give users more detailed feedback about the behavior of a generative model. / Generativa maskininlärningsmodeller kan generera data av enastående kvalitet. Vissa modeller genererar bilder av ansikten som ser helt realistiska ut, och andra genererar text som verkar varit skriven av en människa. Trots detta så är det inte klart hur dessa modeller ska evalueras. Idag så är den främsta metoden mänsklig evaluering: En person får utgöra huruvida generade data verkar realistisk eller inte. Mänsklig evaluering har flera nackdelar. Människor är partiska, dyra och långsamma. Därför behövs det automatiska evalueringsverktyg. MAUVE är ett ny metod för att evaluera generative textmodeller som jämför hur lik genererad data är med äkta data. Detta åstadkoms med hjälp av ett neuralt nätverk, som bidrar med den förståelse av text som krävs för att evaluera den. MAUVE är motiverat av att dess omdömen överensstämmer med mänsklig evaluering. Den här uppsatsen bidrar på två sätt. Till att börja med komplementerar vi experiment och diskussioner gjorda i den ursprungliga rapporten o m MAUVE. Till exempel så visar vi att MAUVE ibland inte lyckas känna av kvalitetsskillnader mellan olika generativa modeller. Detta på grund av val av neuralt nätverk. Efteråt så demonstrerar vi att MAUVE kan appliceras på andra typer av data än text. Mer specifikt så applicerar vi MAUVE på bilder. Detta åstadkoms genom att använda ett neuralt nätverk specialiserat på bildigenkänning, istället för text. Stegen vi följer kan upprepas för vilken typ av data som helst, vilket innebär att MAUVE kan användas som ett mer generellt mått än vad den ursprungliga artikeln ger sken för. Vårt andra bidrag är att utveckla MAUVE till det vi kallar för S-MAUVE. MAUVE använder bara sammanfattningar av hela texter som bas för sina jämförelser. En konsekvens av det är att den endast gör påståenden om textdatas genomsnittliga kvalitet. Men, det är välkänt att kvaliteten hos genererad textdata kan variera beroende på var i texten man befinner sig. Många generativa textmodeller producerar sekvenser som är verklighetstrogna i början, men blir sämre och repetitiva senare. Till skillnad från MAUVE så evaluerar S-MAUVE genererad text på minsta möjliga detaljnivå. Resultaten är en sekvens av poäng, som ger användare mer information om egenskaperna hos den studerade generativa modellen.

The electrical grid balances production capacity and demand in real-time. With an increased demand for renewable energy sources, challenges such as stability of the grid, the balance between generation and demand, and power quality occur. One way to deal with the variability is by introducing Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) to the electric grid. To ensure a stable connection, the BESS must be reliable, and much research has been carried out on the BESS reliability. However, the previous studies have mainly focused on the DC reliability of the system and little research has been conducted on the AC side of a BESS. This thesis aims to provide a reliability-based maintenance strategy for the AC-side of a BESS. First, the reliability index of each AC component is calculated with established models, and based on the results, the maintenance strategy is developed. It is shown that the load current and ambient temperature are the two main parameters that affect a BESS’s reliability. For longer periods of continuous operation, the reliability declines with time and the failure rate increases. The most suitable maintenance strategy is a combination of preventive and predictive. The frequency of the scheduled preventive maintenance differs between the AC components since the schedule is based on the results from individual reliability indices. The preventive maintenance uses the condition monitoring method to observe some key elements such as DC-bus neutral current and junction temperature. / Det elektriska distributionsnätet balanserar produktionskapacitet och efterfrågan i realtid. I samband med den ökade efterfrågan av förnyelsebara energikällor uppstår nya utmaningar, såsom nätstabilitet, balans mellan produktion och efterfrågan och kvaliteten. Ett sätt att hantera variationen är att introducera Batterienergilagringssystem (BESS) till distributionsnätet. För att säkerställa en stabil anslutning måste BESS vara tillförlitlig och mycket forskning har utförts kring BESS tillförlitlighet. Fokus från de tidigare studierna har dock främst varit på DC-sidan av systemet och nästintill ingen forskning har fokuserats på den AC-sidan och dess tillförlitlighet. Denna masteruppsats syftar till att tillhandahålla en tillförlitlighetsbaserad underhållsstrategi för AC-sidan av en BESS. Först beräknas tillförlitlighetsindexet för varje AC-komponent från etablerade modeller och den underhållsstrategin utvecklas senare baserats på resultaten från tillförlighetsindex. Det visar sig att strömmen och omgivningstemperaturen är de två huvudparametrarna som påverkar tillförlitligheten. Vid längre perioder av kontinuerlig drift minskar tillförlitligheten med tiden och felfrekvensen ökar. Den mest lämpliga underhållsstrategin är en kombination av förebyggande och förutsägande. Frekvensen av det schemalagda förebyggande underhållet skiljer sig mellan AC-komponenterna eftersom schemat är baserat på resultaten från individuella tillförlitlighetsindex. Det förebyggande underhållet använder tillståndsövervakningsmetoden för att observera några nyckelelement såsom likström och kopplingstemperatur.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the "beautification of schools" programme as an environmental management tool with a view to facilitating the improvement thereof wherever necessary. An in-depth literature review on theoretical perspectives in environmental management indicated that these partially addressed the problem of the study, namely, to comply with some principles of environmental management system, but not to implement them fully. The theory developed from the literature review facilitated the development of an empirical research. Qualitative research was conducted to evaluate the "beautification of schools" programme as an environmental management tool with a view to facilitating the improvement thereof wherever necessary. It emerged from the findings of the research, that some schools do not have environmental policies. Those schools with environmental policies lack environmental policy objectives. They do not have time frames according to which environmental programmes of action need to be reviewed. Although some schools have used the environmental management strategies in the "beautification of schools" campaign as a management tool, they have never taken proactive measures to better manage the environment of their schools. / Thesis (M. Environmental Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

When comparing numerous educational advantages of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with the slow integration of GIS practice within education globally, results are confounding. This paradoxical development is also found within South Africa. In fact, GIS has been included in the Further Education and Training (FET) phase by the Department of Basic Education (DoBE) since 2006. However, following the same global trend, curriculum development in South Africa has outpaced educational GIS software research. In addition, the e-learning White paper of SA also urges software development. Barriers hindering GIS practice include the lack of suitable curriculum-aligned GIS software within the South African digital divide context. A need therefore exists for further research regarding educational GIS practice applications within South Africa. Bearing this in mind, a case study was done investigating the viability of an educationally orientated Interactive-GIS-Tutor (I-GIS-T) application within FET phase in Geography. The study was conducted with the grade 11 Geography learners of a secondary school in a rural area of KwaZulu-Natal, as well as with their Geography teacher and two other Geography teachers of the same school. These three teachers have different ICT/GIS abilities and years of teaching experience. Furthermore, the study aimed to identify the main GIS educational barriers, globally and locally, as well as to investigate the viability of the I-GIS-T in relation to these identified barriers. The strategy followed was a case study evaluation, with a qualitative approach to data collection and analysis, supported by quantitative data, since this was most suited to the research questions and context. Pragmatism was therefore the underpinning philosophy within this case study. One-on-one semi-structured teacher interviews were conducted to identify the main barriers of GIS education within the FET phases. Data collection by means of questionnaires, individual interviews, focus group interviews, video recordings and field notes provided a thick description regarding the viability of the I-GIS-T within the natural class setting. ATLAS.tiTM and SPSS software were utilised with analysis of qualitative and supportive quantitative data. Attitudinal tests provided supportive quantitative data. Findings indicated that main GIS practice barriers, globally as well as in the school of study, were the lack of preparation time, a full curriculum, lack of GIS support, complex educational GIS software and the teacher‟s lack of ICT skills. The grade 11 Geography teacher and most of the learners evaluated the I-GIS-T as workable. The I-GIS-T also surmounted the main GIS practice barriers. Furthermore, GIS attitudinal tests revealed an overall positive shift on all the attitudinal questions. The combination of lack of basic computer skills and language (where English is not the mother tongue) were the main reasons why some learners suggested that they struggled with the software. Future I-GIS-T development recommended incorporation of a multi-language choice component, as well as exploratory activities. Within this case study, learners who have mastered basic computer skills found the I-GIS-T effective and workable and therefore a viable GIS software application option within the FET phase Geography. In order to be able to generalise statistically, further quantitative research is suggested. In fact, future quantitative research, employing SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) within the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) might prove the I-GIS-T to be a viable option within FET schools throughout SA, as well as in other developing countries. / Thesis (MEd (Curriculum Development))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013