Research data management in public universities in Malawi

Philosophiae Doctor - PhDThe emergence and subsequent uptake of Information and Communication Technologies has transformed the research processes in universities and research institutions across the globe. One indelible impact of Information and Communication Technologies on the research process is the increased generation of research data in digital format. This study investigated how research data has been generated, organised, shared, stored, preserved, accessed and re-used in Malawian public universities with a view to proposing a framework for research data management in universities in Malawi. The objectives of the study were: to determine research data creation, sharing and re-use practices in public universities in Malawi; to investigate research data preservation practices in public universities in Malawi; to investigate the competencies that librarians and researchers need to effectively manage research data; and to find out the challenges that affect the management of research data in public universities in Malawi. Apart from being guided by the Community Capability Model Framework (Lyon, Ball, Duke & Day, 2011) and Data Curation Centre Lifecycle Model (Higgins, 2008), the study was inspired by the pragmatic school of thought which is the basis for a mixed methods research enabling the collection of quantitative and qualitative data from two purposively selected universities. A census was used to identify researchers and librarians while purposive sampling was used to identify directors of research. Questionnaires were used to collect mostly quantitative and some qualitative data from 36 librarians and 187 researchers while interviews were conducted with directors of research. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was used to analyse the quantitative data by producing percentages, means, independent samples ttest and one-way analysis of variance. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data

Risk management in enterprise resource planning projects

In recent years Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have received much attention. ERP are extremely complex information systems, whose implementation is often a complex adventure for business enterprises. The organizational relevance and risk of ERP projects make it important for organizations to focus on ways to make ERP implementation successful. However, dealing with risk management in ERP project introduction is an ambitious task. Numerous risk factors have to be taken into account which include technological and managerial aspects, both psychological and sociological; moreover they can be deeply interconnected and have indirect e ects on the project. Therefore, the risk management process is highly difficult and uncertain. The general purpose of this study is to develop an innovative risk management methodology supporting the formulation of risk treatment strategies and actions during ERP introduction projects in order to nally improve the success rate. In this thesis, the research context, framework and methodology are presented; then main phases are introduced and results discussed

New Perspectives on Electric Vehicles

Modern transportation systems have adverse effects on the climate, emitting greenhouse gases and polluting the air. As such, new modes of non-polluting transportation, including electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, are a major focus of current research and development. This book explores the future of transportation. It is divided into four sections: “Electric Vehicles Infrastructures,” “Architectures of the Electric Vehicles,” “Technologies of the Electric Vehicles,” and “Propulsion Systems.” The chapter authors share their research experience regarding the main barriers in electric vehicle implementation, their thoughts on electric vehicle modelling and control, and network communication challenges

Internationalization of Portuguese management consulting companies : case study of GTBC performance potential and internationalization opportunities in Angola, Brazil and Mozambique

Title: Internationalization of Management Consulting Companies: Case Study of GTBC performance potential and internationalization opportunities in Angola, Brazil and Mozambique Author: Marina Ishchenko The objectives of this dissertation include the development of two practical models: first, to estimate external Management Consulting markets´ attractiveness and second, to understand potential for successful performance of a Portuguese Management Consulting SME1 on these markets. The two objectives are approached through the development of theoretical and practical platforms. Theoretical platform is based on academic and business literature. Practical platform is constructed through methodological choice and planning. Importantly, the methodology of qualitative case study is used in order to examine formulated hypotheses in practice and derive theory from real life situation. The main focus of case study is GTBC2- a firm that is considered to be a typical Portuguese Management Consulting SME3. In addition, we select external markets of Angola, Brazil and Mozambique in order to facilitate our analysis and test assumptions in practice. Our findings suggest that among the analyzed external markets, Brazil is considered to be the most attractive destination for internationalization of Portuguese Management Consulting SMEs. Importantly, the potential for successful performance in this country is estimated to be higher in comparison to the one on other markets, including Portugal.Título: Internacionalização das Empresas de Consultoria de Gestão: Estudo específico das oportunidades de internacionalização e do possível desempenho da GTBC nos mercados de Angola, Brasil e Moçambique. Autor: Marina Ishchenko Os objectivos desta dissertação incluem o desenvolvimento de dois modelos práticos: primeiro, avaliar o potencial mercado externo em consultadoria de gestão para o investimento das empresas PME Portuguesas de Consultadoria de Gestão e segundo, estimar o seu potencial sucesso. Estes dois objectivos são abordados através do desenvolvimento de plataformas teóricas e práticas. A plataforma teórica é baseada na literatura académica e empresarial. A plataforma prática é construída através de uma escolha metodológica e planeamento. Um facto importante é que a metodologia do estudo qualitativo é usada para examinar hipóteses formuladas na prática e a sua teoria deriva de situações reais. O foco principal deste estudo é a GTBC – uma empresa PME [3] Portuguesa típica na área da Consultadoria de Gestão. Além disso, são seleccionados os mercados externos de Angola, Brasil e Moçambique, de forma a facilitar a análises práticas. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que entre os mercados estudados, o Brasil é considerado o destino mais atraente para a internacionalização das PME Portuguesas no ramo de Consultadoria de Gestão. Um ponto importante é o facto do potencial sucesso neste país ser considerado maior em comparação com outros mercados, incluindo Portugal

Replication and Caching Systems for the support of VMs stored in File Systems with Snapshots

Recently, in a relatively short timeframe, there were fundamental changes in the way computing power is used. Virtualisation technology has changed both the model of a data centre’s infrastructure and the way physical computers are now managed. This shift is a consequence of today’s fast deployment rate of Virtual Machines (VM) in a high consolidation environment with minimal need for human management. New approaches to virtualisation techniques are being developed at a surprisingly fast rate, leading to a new exciting and vibrating ecosystem of platforms and services. We see the big industry players tackling problems such as Desktop Virtualisation with moderate success, but completely ignoring the computation power already present in their clients’ infrastructures and, instead, opting for a costly solution based on powerful new machines. There’s still room for improvement in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and development of new architectures that take advantage of the computation power available at the user’s desk, with a minimum effort on the management side; Infrastructure for Client-Based Desktops (iCBD) is one of these projects. This thesis focuses on the development of mechanisms for the replication and caching of VM images stored in a local filesystem, albeit one with the ability to perform snapshots. In this work, there are some challenges to address: the proposed architecture must be entirely distributed and completely integrated with the already existing client-based VDI platform; and it must be able to efficiently cope with very large, read-only files, (some of them snapshots) and handle their multiple versions. This work will also explore the challenges and advantages of deploying such a system in a high throughput network, with both high availability and scalability while efficiently supporting a large number of users (and their workstations)

Building the Future Internet through FIRE

The Internet as we know it today is the result of a continuous activity for improving network communications, end user services, computational processes and also information technology infrastructures. The Internet has become a critical infrastructure for the human-being by offering complex networking services and end-user applications that all together have transformed all aspects, mainly economical, of our lives. Recently, with the advent of new paradigms and the progress in wireless technology, sensor networks and information systems and also the inexorable shift towards everything connected paradigm, first as known as the Internet of Things and lately envisioning into the Internet of Everything, a data-driven society has been created. In a data-driven society, productivity, knowledge, and experience are dependent on increasingly open, dynamic, interdependent and complex Internet services. The challenge for the Internet of the Future design is to build robust enabling technologies, implement and deploy adaptive systems, to create business opportunities considering increasing uncertainties and emergent systemic behaviors where humans and machines seamlessly cooperate

Knowledge Solutions: Tools, Methods, and Approaches to Drive Development Forward and Enhance Its Effects

[Excerpt] Today, sustainable competitive advantage derives from strenuous efforts to identify, cultivate, and exploit an organization’s core competencies. This calls for relentless design of strategic architecture, deployment of competence carriers, and commitment to collaborate across silos. Put simply, core competencies are the product of collective learning: their tangible fruits are composite packages of products and services that anticipate and meet demand. Knowledge is what you learn from experience before, during, and after the event. Since it is both a thing and a flow, the best way to manage knowledge is to cater at all times to the environment in which it can be identified, created, stored, shared, and used. Tools, methods, and approaches are needed to enable that. And so, to drive development forward and enhance its effects, the Asian Development Bank has, since 2008, published the Knowledge Solutions series, available at www.adb.org/knowledgesolutions. It aims to build competencies in the areas of strategy development, management techniques, collaboration mechanisms, knowledge sharing and learning, and knowledge capture and storage—all of which are essential to high-performance organizations