A thesis submi.tted to the Faculty of Science, University of the witwatersrand, Johannesburg I in the fulfillmen,,;"o:f' 't\ :he requirements of the Degree of Magister Scienta~. June 1992 / The present study was undertaken; withirl the South African " savannas, to provide "insight into a j;unctional classification of aavanna plants using ecophY$iologiLcal charact~:t's.THe pri.mary r.:>bjective of this study Was to investigate the vari.ation of these tt'aits throughout: the savanna, aridto relate this variation to plant avail.able moisture and nU~l'ie~~s• !t was conclu.ded that~ 1) no formal or specialized strategies have evolved within a number of the study sites, .2) unlike the woody component I neither divergellce nor convergence was demonstrated within the grass layer, c' 3) plant aVailable nutrients did not appear to be a major determinant of either component. Although plant available moistur~ proved to be unimportant in the woody layer, it did playa role as a determinant of the grass layer, and 4) constancy of the plant traits was not demonstrated to \": OCCllr over the gr~~ing season. A succeisf',\lclassification' would require the components to be separat~pl specific determinan.ts be identified for each component, and an element of time be included into both edaphic and biotic measurements.

M. Tech. Business Information Systems / The banking sector allocates a great deal of their annual budget to Information Technology. To maintain and optimise activities such as software licensing, data security, business continuity and upgrading of computer hardware and general technology infrastructure to meet new organisational requirements, huge financial resources are deployed. One innovative approach to meeting these demands is using virtual desktop technology to extend the computer life, reduce IT costs, improve security and increase availability of technology. One may surmise from the experiences of these companies that if banks replace the current personal computers with virtual desktops they may realise the same benefits. With the introduction of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) technology; the premise is that it will alleviate these issues currently faced by banks as all these functions can be done in one place instead of doing it on every individual PC. This study seeks to explore factors of VDI adoption and its impact in terms of reducing cost, hardware and software management, remote access, improved data security and recovery, better compliance and reduced energy consumption.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering. Johannesburg 1996 / The use of computer-based tools in the design of electrical distribution networks results in the cost effective production and implementation of designs. This is because they help automate time-consuming routine tasks and enable the optimisation of certain aspects of a network design. The production of a tool that performs an optimisation on the low voltage (LV) portion of a distribution network is discussed. It uses the influence that a network's topology has on its associated cost, by applying a search that modifies the topology to result in a minimum cost. The modification of the network's topology is achieved through changing junction positions to alternative locations. It operates on an entire radial LV network, and therefore considers the coupling between junctions in the same network. The user of the tool must specify the alternative locations for each junction in the network, as well as information about the network, such as cable lengths and cable types. The search algorithm is based on an adaptation of the branch and bound method, which is a reduced search algorithm. It has been chosen as opposed to an exhaustive search algorithm to reduce computational requirements. The tool Is most useful for optimising completely underground distribution systems. Test results revealed a 7% saving in the cost of cables for a specific case study. The software has been developed with the application of object-oriented analysis and design within an ISO 9001 accredited software development environment. iii / GR2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Unlvcrslty of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, ill partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Mastel' of Commerce / The aim of this research is to determine and analyse the 1110st important critical issues facing Information Technology (IT) Management at a major financial institution in South Africa, namely. First National Bank of Southern Africa Limited (FNB). Much has previously been written and researched on this subject. However, the information and findings has been based largely on international issues and trends. What is of particular relevance and IS emphasised in this research, are facton. influencing the local IT industry trends and critical issues in South Africa. Not only nrc we faced with the traditionally accepted industry-wide challenges, but there are certain issues and market conditions that could be considered unique to the local IT industry. Conclusions derived Iron' this research will provide factual data detailing what is currently considered as the 1110stimpcrtant critical issues at this particulnr financial institution. These will be ranked in order of importance as rated by a respondent group. The information analysed was obtained by means of questionnaires and interviews with a group of IT professionals from FNB. Although this qualitative information was obtained from one particular institution. the findings arc considered as having relevance and benefit to all participants in the local IT industry.

The aim of the present study was to assess employees' attitudes toward working with computers. A review of previous studies conducted within the area of attitudes toward computers and attitudes toward working with computers revealed that the present study needed to condifer user-task-system characteristics and that an adequate attitude scale which examined specifically attitudes towards working with computers needed to be developed. In order to conduct the present study, a checklist was developed to assess user-task-system characteristics and an attitude toward working with computers scale was developed and validated.[Abbreviated Abstract. Open document to view full version] / GR 2016

Thesis (DTech. degree in Business Informatics) / South Africa's post-apartheid Black farmers commonly referred to nowadays as "emerging farmers" need knowledge support to be successful in agricultural productions. Web-based learning enables knowledge users and knowledge providers to actively engage interactively, and provides a dynamic platform of knowledge support with unparallel flexibility and convenience. However, this technology is yet to be adequately harnessed to the benefit of South Africa Black emerging farmers, who urgently requires knowledge support that could enable their transformation into market oriented farming. In this study we present a model to solve this problem.

M. Tech. Business Information Systems / The integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) within South African schools created new possibilities for learners and educators to engage in new ways of information selection, gathering, sorting and analysis. However, the implementation of ICT in schools has had an impact on curriculum development and delivery of education around the world. The main objective of this study was to develop a framework for acceptance and use of E-learning by educators in South African secondary schools. This study intended to address the lack of interest shown by educators in integrating ICT into teaching and learning.

M. Tech. Business Information Systems / Organisations have entered into an information age where lack of knowledge on decision-making can have a negative impact on the business. Government entities deal with a huge amount of data which is a valuable asset. Decision-makers have problems in making informed decisions due to fragmented data and having to rely on IT to provide reports for them. An integrated repository can support organisations to have accurate and quality data readily available to enable them to perform reliable analyses. Currently, government departments are experiencing challenges with the adoption of data warehouse technology. Therefore, in this research, an interpretive case study was employed to explore factors influencing the adoption of data warehouse technology in a government department.

Many white primary schools in South Africa have acquired computers which are being used in various ways. In my experience few members of staff are confident enough to use the computers in the school for educational purposes. Those who have been using them, generally have been doing computer literacy. The teachers in our school expressed the view that they would like to be able to use the computer, but that they lack the necessary skills and therefore would welcome some form of training. In my opinion computers should form an integral part of a child's learning environment. It has, for some time formed a part of his social environment, either in the home or in the workplace. For computers to be used effectively in the classroom, it follows that the teachers need to be trained to use them. In an attempt to overcome this problem, I designed and presented an in-service course, which used selected computer assisted learning (CAL) programs with teachers. These teachers then used these programs with the pupils in their class and evaluated the pupils' reactions to the innovation. As a result of the observations and the feedback provided by the sample of teachers, it is suggested that this might be a possible approach to in-service training for other schools. With adaptation it should be possible to follow this approach in any school which has a computer and someone on the staff who is willing to take the initiative to implement such an innovation.

D.Litt. et Phil. (Psychology) / Career planning is a developmental process that can be facilitated by career development programmes. One of the recent developments in these programmes was the introduction of computerized career counselling which enables the user to explore career activities independently. An experimental investigation in which the DISCOVER computerized system was used, was conducted at two universities in an attempt to determine whether DISCOVER could be a useful aid for career counselling in South Africa. First-year university students (N=106) were randomly assigned to one of four groups according to the Solomon Four Group Experimental Design. Subjects completed a biographical questionnaire, the Career Maturity Scale (CMS), Senior Aptitude Test (SAT), New South African Group Test (NSAGT), Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), PHSF Relations Questionnaire (PHSF), Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes (SSHA), Self-Directed Search (SDS) and the 19 Field Interest Inventory (19FII). Evaluation questionnaires concerning the use of DISCOVER were ·also completed by students as well as counsellors. The main hypothesis, namely that there would be a statistically significant difference between the mean posttest scores on the CMS of the experimental and the control groups, was tested according to the integrated statistical procedure suggested by Spector (1981). The results showed that there is. a statistically significant increase in the career maturity of students after they had used the DISCOVER system, compared with students from the control group (F, 12,15; p <0,0007). After posttest adjustment for pretest differences, the effect of the DISCOVER programme was still statistically significant. It could be predicted with 95 , certainty that a person who used the DISCOVER programme would show an increase of between 0,68 and 2,21 points in his total score on the Career Maturity Scale (CMS). There was no statistically significant interaction effect between the DISCOVER intervention and the pretest. Variables such as aptitude, personality and study habits, correlated statistically significant (p <0,05) with the increase in career maturity after the use of the DISCOVER system.