In this thesis, we explore the pipe mechanism available in Open Software Foundation's Distributed Computing Environment (OSF's DCE). OSF's DCE is one of the emerging technologies for distributed computing. The pipe mechanism in DCE provides an efficient way for transferring large or incrementally produced data that cannot fit in main memory at once. The empirical study of the pipe mechanism adds to the state of knowledge about how the pipe mechanism can be used in the development of client-server systems. / Department of Computer Science

The study is based on the context of project management; the discipline which employs skills and knowledge to achieve project goals through various project activities. The study concentrates on project management applications to deliver low cost houses (LCH) in the Metsimaholo Local Municipality (MLM). The main purpose of project management application is to enable project managers to track the progress of a project that they are working on. Institutions working on a very large project require project management applications to give periodic updates on the progress of the work that is being done on a project. By using a project management application, the process is made somewhat easier, in the sense that a project manager can just refer and check on the progress him/herself. Provision of adequate housing for the homeless and others who are inadequately housed in an attempt to reduce poverty and improve quality of people’s life has been a huge challenge to the South African government, particularly in the MLM over the years. Globally, legislators on the physical infrastructure of Parliament are pushing for the urgent construction of LCH by the government. The abovementioned challenge has resulted in an enormous housing backlog with poverty, unemployment, economic stagnation and negative behaviour. Financial constrains are seen to escalate costs and this makes the task even more enormous. The hypothesis for this study indicated that MLM does not possess sufficient institutional capacity to implement project management for the effective delivery of low cost housing. The hypothesis and research objectives of the study were validated by means of literature review and empirical surveys. Thirty-four (34) semi structured questionnaires were used to interview participants in the provision of LCH in MLM. The study is made up of five chapters. The study specifically focused on the application of project management to deliver LCH in the Metsimaholo Local Municipality (MLM). •This study contends that the application of project management in the public service sector to deliver goods and services has not been scientifically applied in a conscience and systematic manner. •In the MLM the national, provincial and the municipality efforts are challenged to provide houses for the homeless. •The increasing population in the MLM has resulted in an enormous housing backlog with poverty, unemployment, and economic stagnation. •The high demand for housing in the MLM brings about financial constrains and makes the task even more enormous. •It is realised through this study that the application of project management is lacking; whereby important pillars of project based outputs such as time, quality and cost are not necessarily the resultant finished products of the community tend to inherit. It is evident from the above that while the MLM has a mandate to provide service delivery it is limited by protocol to take full responsibility in the provision of low cost houses. The provision of LCH requires strengthened co-operative governance in the Free State Province, since the three spheres have important roles to play. In the face of the huge backlogs in housing and human settlement provision, the country urgently needs to develop the technical knowledge and skills necessary to fast track housing delivery. / M, Development and Management, Public Management and Administration, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2012

Traditional hydrological model inputs are often deemed inadequate in areas where stations are sparse, such as the northern extents of the Canadian Prairie basins. The Canadian Precipitation Analysis (CaPA) combines GEM (Global Environmental Multi-scale model) data and available observation data to provide enhanced precipitation estimates. The CaPA analysis has recently been extended to produce high-resolution precipitation data over the Canadian Prairies, encompassing the Nelson-Churchill River Basin. Manitoba Hydro and other water practitioners in Manitoba have expressed interest in potentially using CaPA precipitation as hydrological model forcing for Prairie watersheds. A three step validation approach was designed and applied to assess CaPA for hydrologic modelling applications in the Nelson-Churchill River basin. Results of validation show that the quality of CaPA data varies among regions and seasons, with CaPA proving beneficial in both data-sparse regions and winter seasons most prominently. Overall, CaPA shows promise for water resource application in the Canadian Prairies.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to present an overview of the Swedish listed companies and their compliance with the Code and its normative rules for independent decision-making.  Methodology: The authors have read and delved into the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance. The authors have chosen to study the enforcement of the code based on independent bracing guidelines. The study was conducted through a combined quantitative and qualitative approach. The study is based on primary data collected in the form of companies' corporate governance reports, which have been supplemented by structured interviews. Frame of reference: Swedish ownership structure and concentrated ownership, self regulation and normative guidelines, institutional theory and earlier research on this topic. Empirical foundations: A comparison of the selected companies has been based on the independence rules of the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance. A specific company has been presented with the company's application of the code, interviews have also been done with this company to increase the understanding of the empirical basis further. Conclusions: There are several flaws with the code and how it is applied today. The Code is complied with in an inadequate manner, and in some cases not complied with at all. The authors of this paper believe that the code, through normative guidelines, will not have a self-regulating effect on an independent decision-making in companies in Sweden.

The ideal squirrel cage motor should have a varying rotor resistance; large at standstill, and decreasing as the speed rises. Overseas - designed high impedance rotors try to fulfil these conditions - mostly used are double cage rotors and die cast aluminium rotors. However, in the South African coal-mining industry these rotors recorded high rate failures with heavy financial losses. As a result, the need for an alternative rotor type that was able to comply with basic conditions ignored before appeared on the market: • Higher reliability with extended life expectancy • Lower total ownership costs • Easy re-manufacturing with components available on the market • Specific performance stability at competitive price. Over the years, only two principles were tacitly accepted in designing squirrel cage rotors: 1. For a single cage rotor, in a circumferential direction around the rotor the squirrel cage bars are placed in the same cylindrical shell, with the same shape and same conductivity. 2. For a double cage rotor, the same rule as above applies; however, in the radial direction, the bars have different shapes and typically different conductivities. The Invention is based on a new principle, i.e. "in a circumferential direction around the squirrel cage rotor, squirrel cage bars may have different conductivities and same shapes, or different conductivities and different shapes”. Mixed Conductivity Fabricated Rotors (MCFR) are designed and manufactured based on this new principle, and are able to withstand the harsh South African mining conditions. Since patented, the invention has been materialised in a set of special rotors powering continuous miners of a reputable coal-mining house, which was spending about R5 million annually on replacing specific imported die cast aluminium rotors only. Fully complying with the above-mentioned basic conditions, the patent offers a large variety of technical and economical advantages, increasing mining processes efficiency beyond expectations. The thesis describes the MCFR's design adaptability by altering the rotor design to meet the demands of a specific engineering application as a base line of drives design. The patent is part of the new South African trend of increasing processes efficiency. It offers large possibilities of designing dedicated motors with a positive impact on the South African economy. Some socio-economical advantages are worthy of considerable study: • Being locally manufactured, the MCFR may reduce the country's economical dependence. • Requiring no special expertise, the MCFR can be produced in any quantity and size without excessive investment. • The MCFR offers an alternative option (product interchangeability) on the market as well as sound competition (with export potential). • The patent ensures business sustainability conditions which diffuse financial constraints on motor manufacturers and end-users during the re-capitalisation process (very loaded in South African economic and industrial environment). / Thesis (Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

With more and more images being uploaded to social networks each day, the resources for identifying a large portion of the world are available. However the tools to harness and utilize this information are not sufficient. This thesis presents a system, called PhacePhinder, which can build a face database from a social network and have it accessible from mobile devices. Through combining existing technologies, this is made possible. It also makes use of a fusion probabilistic latent semantic analysis to determine strong connections between users and content. Using this information we can determine the most meaningful social connection to a recognized person, allowing us to inform the user of how they know the person being recognized. We conduct a series of offline and user tests to verify our results and compare them to existing algorithms. We show, that through combining a user’s friendship information as well as picture occurrence information, we can make stronger recommendations than based on friendship alone. We demonstrate a working prototype that can identify a face from a picture taken from a mobile phone, using a database derived from images gathered directly from a social network, and return a meaningful social connection to the recognized face.

ABSTRACT Voltage instability has become a major concern in power systems. Many blackouts have been reported where the main cause is voltage instability. This thesis deals with two specific areas of voltage stability in on-line power system security assessments: small-disturbance (long-term) and large-disturbance (short-term) voltage stability assessment. For each category of voltage stability, both voltage stability analysis and controls are studied. The overall objective is to use the learning capabilities of computational intelligence technology to build up the comprehensive on-line power system security assessment and control strategy as well as to enhance the speed and efficiency of the process with minimal human intervention. The voltage stability problems are quantified by voltage stability indices which measure the system for the closeness of current operating point to voltage instability. The indices are different for small-disturbance and large-disturbance voltage stability assessment. Conventional approaches, such as continuation power flow or time-domain simulation, can be used to obtain voltage stability indices. However, these conventional approaches are limited by computation time that is significant for on-line computation. The Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approach is proposed to compute voltage stability indices as an alternative to the conventional approaches. The proposed ANN algorithm is used to estimate voltage stability indices under both normal and contingency operating conditions. The input variables of ANN are obtained in real-time by an on-line measurement system, i.e. Phasor Measurement Units (PMU). This thesis will propose a suboptimal approach for seeking the best locations for PMUs from a voltage stability viewpoint. The ANN-based method is not limited to compute voltage stability indices but can also be extended to determine suitable control actions. Load shedding is one of the most effective approaches against short-term voltage instability under large disturbances. The basic requirement of load shedding for recovering voltage stability is to seek an optimal solution for when, where, and how much load should be shed. Two simulation based approaches, particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and sensitivity based algorithm, are proposed for load shedding to prevent voltage instability or collapse. Both approaches are based on time-domain simulation.

With the development of modern technology, mobile communications are changing people’s life and making their day to day life activities easier. The aim of this thesis work is to address one of the modern technology solution that simplifies and act as an HMI solution between a pump drive and a operator based on smart phones.   Xylem provides a wide range of pump control units, serving several advanced features includes condition monitoring, cleaning sequence, flow calculation, energy optimizer, sump cleaning and so on. Smart run is a pump control unit, whose parameters installed at wastewater pump stations are possible to monitor and configure physically using keypad or remotely using extension communication  gateway, which is a costly solution for installations and maintenance. So, a simple working prototype HMI solution based on smart phones is interested to see how smart phone can relay information between a pump control and an operator in the vicinity of the pump.    For this approach a thorough study has been done on different types of smart phones, their trends and different possible wireless communication solutions between  operator’s smart phone  and the pump. An interactive design process with a focus on usability and data representation  on a smart phone application was developed to support their needs and provide a cost effective solution. The result showed that this approach has many benefits includes serving as cost effective HMI solution, data monitoring, better alarm monitoring with additional information, enhanced display over Smart Run’s OLED displays, multilingual support, provides easier support services and also useful as a receiver unit for dewatering pumps hardware developed in parallel with this thesis. This thesis work is carried out in Xylem Water Solutions AB[1], Stockholm, Sweden in collaboration with Mittuniversitetet[2], Sundsvall, Department of Electronics Design.  This report can be used as groundwork for future development of smart phone applications for Xylem products [1]  http://www.xyleminc.com [2]  http://www.miun.se

This thesis explores the design of a website to communicate international activities undertaken by or associated with the University of Victoria. The research was seeded by and undertaken in collaboration with the University of Victoria’s office of Vice-President Academics and Provost, and the Office of International Affairs. The thesis introduces and implements a product design process to create a mapping application for the university to display all of its international connections. The thesis advanced the study of how to incorporate users into the design process of an online map. User-centered design is an established practice of studying users and collecting their feedback during all stages of design. This process has begun to be used for online mapping. A challenge with online mapping is that potential users can be an unwieldy community. In this case study the users could come from anywhere within the UVic community, but also the public. With such a large and diverse group, incorporating all the potential users into the design process is not possible. A challenge therefore is to capture feedback from a meaningful representative sample of potential users. This research describes a process of user-centered design in which a sample of users were surveyed at the beginning of the process to determine their requirements and preferences for a mapping application, and then interviewed to test the usability of the product. The thesis concludes with recommendations for design and layout of an online mapping application, including identification where further study or decisions are required. / Graduate

Penetration testing is widely used in industry as a test method for web application security assessment. However, penetration testing is often performed late in a software development life cycle as an isolated task and usually requires specialized security experts. There is no well-defined test framework providing guidance and support to general testers who usually do not have in-depth security expertise to perform a systematic and cost-efficient penetration test campaign throughout a security-oriented software development life cycle. In this thesis, we propose a model-driven penetration test framework for web applications that consists of a penetration test methodology, a grey-box test architecture, a web security knowledge base, a test campaign model, and a knowledge-based PenTest workbench. The test framework enables general testers to perform a penetration test campaign in a model-driven approach that is fully integrated into a security-oriented software development life cycle. Security experts are still required to build up and maintain a web security knowledgebase for test campaigns, but the general testers are capable of developing and executing penetration test campaigns with reduced complexity and increased reusability in a systematic and cost-efficient approach. A prototype of the framework has been implemented and applied to three web applications: the benchmark WebGoat web application, a hospital adverse event management system (AEMS), and a palliative pain and symptom management system (PAL-IS). An evaluation of the test framework prototype based on the case studies indicates the potential of the proposed test framework to improve how penetration test campaigns are performed and integrated into a security-oriented software development life cycle.