Bibliography: leaves 116-138 / Bibliography: leaves 116-138 / The purpose of this research study was to examine the impact of institutional constraints, management competencies, strategic and structural constraints on the performance of black-owned small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs) in City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM). A quantitative survey was conducted using the probability sampling (N=353) of the black-owned SMMEs in CTMM. The Pearson’s correlational analysis was used to determine the relationship between institutional constraints, management competencies (as composite sets of human resources, financial resources and information resources), strategic and structural constraints, and the performance of the business (as composite sets of financial growth and organizational growth). The results indicated a negative relationship between the dependent variables and independent variables. The item analysis, dimensionality analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were performed to determine the factor structure of all the independent and dependent variables, the results yielded a good fit of all the measurement models. These findings may provide new practical knowledge for the financial and non-financial institutions to consider the position of black-owned SMMEs when they design policies, which add to the theoretical knowledge in the SMMEs sector. / Business Management / M. Comm. (Business Management (Finance))

Open government relies heavily on reliable records to uphold service delivery and access to information. Without proper records management of business transactions and activities of an organization, the primary objective of openness becomes obscured and difficult to achieve. Within the digital space and environment, establishing good record- keeping procedures is challenging to both paper and e-records, because of a scarcity of clarity in the processes and measures in place, as well as as a result of lack of suitable ICT infrastructure plus skilled human resources to help facilitate good e-records management. The aim of this research was to provide a structure for the integration of records into open government initiatives in Botswana with the aim of assisting access to information and service delivery, and a subsequent transparent, accountable and open government. This is a mixed research study framed within the interpretivism epistemological inquiry model, and used Open Government Implementation Model and Action research being a theoretical lense in this study. Document analysis was used to gather information, complemented by interviews and questionnaires with participants and respondents alike purposively selected from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD). According to the findings, the legislative as well as regulatory frameworks in order to manage both paper and e-records were available in Botswana although inadequate. Similarly, the research showed that legislation that gives the citizens access to information and subsequently make compulsory for organizations to avail information upon request is absent. Furthermore, it was established through the study findings that information management practitioners are particularly are ill equipped and inexperienced to manage paper and electronic records. Due to the inavailability of ICT infrastructure to help facilitate both paper and e-records management was noted. In addition, open government initiatives were identified as producing e- records, but there were no defined protocols to help aid in their management. Therefore, this weakness can be addressed by integrating records management into open government initiatives, and be able to utilize suitably identified Enterprise Content Management (ECM) or Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS). Currently, open government remains ensured through the reliance of only open government initiatives, without leveraging on good records management. This project study suggests a structure to integrate records management into open government initiatives anchored on legislation and regulatory frameworks with the confidence that its employment would support better information and service accessibility by the citizens. Finally, because of poor records management and a lack of legislation that encourage access to information, there will be continued reliance on the discretion of records professionals by the citizens to have information access. Similarly, without proper records management procedures, Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) will remain underutilized. Thus, it is a recommendation that MLGRD should develop proper records management procedures to guide and improve on the management of records. A further study to establish the level of e-readiness of the Botswana government to fully automate and guarantee the success of open government is recommended. / Information Science / D. Litt et Phil (Information Science)

The aim of the diploma thesis is to describe and analyse information sources, which are useful for the molecules portfolio selection suitable for the future development of a generic drug. These information sources should be examined on the case study of the portfolio selection in a given therapeutic area. The topic of the diploma thesis is presented in the context of basic principles and functions of the generic farmaceutical industry and its information needs. The introductory chapter characterizes the farmaceutical industry in general and warn on a competitive environment, which the farmaceutical companies can succeed in thanks to the advanced methods of the business intelligence. The second chapter focuses on the differences betwen the generic and original pharmaceutical industry, a drug lifecycle is also introduced there. The next chapter specifies the methods of the business intelligence in the generic pharmaceutical industry on the ground of its information needs. The fourth chapter plays a key role. First of all, it introduces general characteristics of information sources used in the strategic portfolio management. Secondly, the detailed description and analysis of eight main information sources used by the generic companies within business intelligence follows. In the last chapter these...

The purpose of the thesis is to search out, analyse and evaluate an open access and commercial electronic information resources in educational theories available on WWW. First and sekond part determinates topic of education, describes his development, problems, nomenclature, experimental method and information support. The objective of the thesis is to analyse and evaluate selected bibliographic and full-text databases, digital libraries, portals, subject gateways and catalogs. Online services are especially emphasized. Analyses are elaboration in the Czech education theory context. Final summary evaluates results of analysis.

The overall theme of the thesis is the current state of Internet portals (gateways) dedicated to electronic information resources at Czech academic libraries. The purpose of such portal (or sites within academic library web pages) is to form a gateway to every electronic resource available within the university. In the theoretical part of the thesis history, purpose and components of such portals are described followed by the typology and organization of electronic information resources used at library portals in the USA and other mainly English speaking countries. The following part of the thesis is a practical application where 6 selected portals are first analyzed then compared with each other according to 5 criterions described in the previous part: organization of its resources, readability, consistency, usability and presence of additional functions or services. Subsequently by applying the method called "Thinking Aloud" usability testing of two selected portal is performed. The aim of the paper is not only to map the current state of portals but also to present methodology for analysis of other similar portals. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

(anglicky) This thesis entitled Information support in a financial institution discusses how information services and resources are currently used internally in an institution focusing on the Czech banking environment. The reader is thus provided an insight directly into the organization and the position it takes towards working with information aiming at fulfilment of its employees' information needs. The thesis also reflects description of the most important information sources. Information needs of employees were analyzed and identified based on their frequency of occurrence and distribution across the bank. The following part of the work covers detailed identification of information services. The reader is hereby given the opportunity to find out where, by whom and to what extent the services are used. The conclusion deals primarily with the information models of the flow of information in the organization and the analysis of various entities affecting the relevant processes.

The author designed the dispatching system structure of metalcutting FMS, at that it was placed high emphasis on hardware recourses, in the course of study. The author analyzed present information transmission and encoding methods in FMS: uniform codes, codes with control at par, optimum code, Chudakov code and Huffman - Liberman codes. The last one is the best for given problem. It was created the original Huffman - Liberman codes synthesis algorithm, which is conformed to present hardware level of development. On the base of this algorithm it was coded the Huffman - Liberman codes synthesis program, which was taken out the Certificate of state program registration № 2013612951. Huffman - Liberman codes for Russian, Ukrainian and English alphabets and CNC machines executive program were synthesized with the help of this program. The results of the work were published in four scientific-technical journals. In the course of study the author designed automatic guided vehicle control system, which involves rate of movement, motion path, positioning and acceleration -braking control systems. The latest two systems are original, which are designed by the author. Designed positioning control system allows to program the break time of automatic guided vehicle and avoid missing of stop place. This system took out a patent of Russian Federation № 130540. Designed acceleration -braking control system allows to change automatic guided vehicle speed fluently (without stage), and to change rate of acceleration -braking and maximum speed depending on cargo tonnage. This system took out a patent of Russian Federation № 132278. Engineering solutions, introduced in the work, can be used at any metalcutting FMS. / В ходе научной работы была разработана структура системы диспетчирования ГАЦ механообработки, при этом особое внимание было уделено средствам технического обеспечения разработанной системы. Были рассмотрены и проанализированы существующие методы передачи и кодирования информации в ГПС: равномерные коды, коды с контролем по паритету, оптимальные коды, коды Чудакова и коды Хаффмена - Либермана. Наиболее оптимальными для решения поставленных задач являются последние. Был создан оригинальный алгоритм синтеза кодов Хаффмена - Либермана, отвечающий современному уровню развития вычислительной техники, на основе которого была написана программ синтеза кодов Хаффмена - Либермана, получившая Свидетельство о государственной регистрации программы для ЭВМ № 2013612951. С помощью данной программы были получены коды Хаффмена - Либермана для управляющих программ станков ЧПУ, русского, украинского и английского алфавитов. Результаты работы были опубликованы в трех научно-технических журналах. В ходе работы также была разработана система управлением робокаром, включающая в себя системы управления скоростью движения, траекторией движения, позиционирования и разгоном - торможением робокара, при этом две последние системы являются оригинальными, разработанными автором диссертации. Разработанная система управления позиционированием робокара, в отличии от существующих аналогов, позволяет программировать время выстоя робокара и избежать "проскока" требуемой позиции остановки. На данную систему был выдан Патент РФ № 130540. Разработанная система управления разгоном - торможением робокара, в отличие от существующих аналогов, позволяет осуществлять регулирование скорости привода плавно, без ступеней, а также способна изменять темп разгона - торможения и максимальную скорость автоматически в зависимости от массы перевозимого груза. На данную систему был выдан Патент РФ № 132278. Технические решения, предложенные в диссертации могут рассматриваться как типовые для ГАП механообработки.

In a landmark report, the Secretary of Health and Human Services once characterized the legacy of disparities in healthcare and health outcomes in the United States as “an affront to our ideals and the ongoing genius of American medicine.” Since then, a vast amount of scientific evidence regarding health equity has been generated and important interventions developed. Yet despite substantial concerted efforts, health inequity remains a persistent and pervasive public health concern. A significant challenge is the lack of scalable resources to organize, synthesize, and integrate knowledge gleaned from available scientific evidence and real-world observational data in a comprehensive, systematic fashion. Recognizing this, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities recently embarked on a science visioning process and enumerated a set of strategic goals to foster a new generation of research capable of making major strides. Among the strategies proposed, the institute promotes development of new methods and measurements that enable 1) evaluation of health equity research and ensuring its relevance to a diversity of populations, 2) better leveraging and fostering linkage between existing and emerging data sources to enhance analytic capacity, and 3) analysis of health determinants contributing to health disparities among subpopulations and small groups. In alignment with this vision, the studies presented in this thesis seek to advance health equity science by developing, applying, and evaluating informatics-based approaches to support evidence synthesis, monitoring, and precision. In particular, systematic, scalable, and sustainable (i.e., reproducible) approaches are emphasized. This dissertation employs robust methods for big data collection, integration, and analysis while drawing from a rich set of existing and emerging data sources including a large corpus of biomedical literature, electronic health records from the largest public health information exchange in the United States, open datasets provided by public agencies, proprietary national insurance claims datasets, and public health reporting data. The dissertation first aims to facilitate large-scale evidence synthesis to identify major areas of focus in health equity research and elucidate potentially less well studied populations, conditions, and topics. In order to accomplish these tasks, it draws from the informatics toolbox by leveraging machine learning, natural language processing, and symbolic reasoning to assess a vast portfolio of research and compare it to real-world data on condition prevalence. In doing so, it spotlights potential paths for additional scientific inquiry and attention in public health practice. Ultimately, we find that there are indeed potential disparities in disparities research and elucidate less well studied areas of interest. Building on these insights, this thesis then leverages underutilized real-world data sources (e.g., health information exchanges) and a common data model to buttress the highly fragmented and outdated public health data infrastructure currently used to monitor conditions of interest and elucidate potential disparities among populations. By intention, the illustrative example presented operates at a scale commensurate with current regional public health reporting, increases the number and types of data elements available for analysis, and improves turnaround time for surveillance report generation. We found a substantial lack of alignment between testing practices and population- and neighborhood-level trends in cases of sexually transmitted infections, signaling potential disparities and inefficient resource allocation. Thus, our work meets several hallmarks of infectious disease surveillance in the era of big data including volume, variety, velocity, and value, respectively. Importantly, these findings were not otherwise or less likely detectable given existing public health reporting practices. Finally, as existing health equity literature and public health surveillance practices do not often incorporate intersectionality as an integral lens for drawing comparisons, in large part due to the technical intractability of examining all possible demographic intersections, we demonstrate a novel subgroup discovery approach tailored to elucidating intersectional disparities in health outcomes. In doing so, it aims to better inform efforts to recognize and engage subgroups who might benefit from greater attention and more closely tailored interventions. To our knowledge, this new approach is the first to leverage supervised clustering to operationalize intersectionality for health disparities research. To ground this work, clinical examples focus especially on demonstrating application of each new approach to generalizable use cases involving HIV and other sexually transmitted infections – highly stigmatized conditions for which there is a long history of inequity.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the training needs of law academics by examining their ability to use legal electronic information resources at Unisa effectively. Using the survey method, a questionnaire was used to collect data. The data was descriptively analysed. The study revealed that law academics are aware of the wide variety of electronic resources relevant to their work. Further, these academics possess the necessary basic skills to use these resources. However, the majority of academics do not have high levels of confidence in using specific electronic legal resources. This study concluded that, despite the library's provision of user training sessions for academics, training does not focus on legal electronic resources. The variety of responses revealed the diverse training needs of law academics. The study recommended that training needs analysis be conducted by subject librarians who would conduct specialised legal electronic training. / Information Sscience / M.Inf.

Social media is an important part of the everyday lives of young and old alike. Consumers today turn to online sources more and more to help them make decisions. They ask for advice online on purchases they want to make and read extensive reviews that help them to make a purchase decision. With a broad literature review conducted, it was noted that in the past traditional media was mainly used by students as information sources in their decision-making process. The purpose of this study was to determine what role social media as an information source has in the decision making of students when selecting a university. Data was collected from University of South Africa students by means of an online questionnaire. The sample was selected using probability sampling in the form of simple random sampling. The results of this study indicated that students use social media as an information source to some extent when making a decision about a university. Social media was found to be a credible source of information albeit it only has a slight influence on their decision-making process. Students are present online and use social media mostly on their cell phones for entertainment purposes. Universities should take note of the role that social media plays in the lives of students. It can enable them to better market their institutions to potential students. / Business Management / MCOM (Business Management)