Governance Practices in Zimbabwean Public Higher Education Institutions

This conceptual paper sought to cross-examine the enactment of governance practices in public higher education institutions. The discussion was guided by qualitative content analysis approach with the view to provide a rich and thick inquiry into the issue. In this context, 60 articles, which met the inclusion conditions were purposively sampled and later on interrogated through content analysis. The discussion noted that governance as a concept had various definitions depending on the context. In addition, in public higher education institutions, there are governance policies, and procedures guiding institutional activities. In the same context relationship between stakeholders and public higher education institutions guided by a systems of governance practices. However, the implementation of these in public higher education institutions with the view to achieving the set was hindered by multi-faceted challenges. Therefore, this draws interest to several issues related to how effective are the public higher education institutions’ operational mechanisms, and the effective use of both the human, financial and infrastructural resources in the interest of the relevant stakeholders. Thus, Zimbabwe’s public higher education institutions are employing rudimentary governance practices to advance substantial implementation of set goals, as far as the "Heritage-Based Education 5.0" doctrine was concerned

ARCHANGEL: Tamper-proofing Video Archives using Temporal Content Hashes on the Blockchain

We present ARCHANGEL; a novel distributed ledger based system for assuring the long-term integrity of digital video archives. First, we describe a novel deep network architecture for computing compact temporal content hashes (TCHs) from audio-visual streams with durations of minutes or hours. Our TCHs are sensitive to accidental or malicious content modification (tampering) but invariant to the codec used to encode the video. This is necessary due to the curatorial requirement for archives to format shift video over time to ensure future accessibility. Second, we describe how the TCHs (and the models used to derive them) are secured via a proof-of-authority blockchain distributed across multiple independent archives. We report on the efficacy of ARCHANGEL within the context of a trial deployment in which the national government archives of the United Kingdom, Estonia and Norway participated.Comment: Accepted to CVPR Blockchain Workshop 201

Decentralization and quality assurance in the Ugandan primary education sector

The study presented in this thesis is a case study analysis of decentralization and quality assurance in a decentralized set up of the Ugandan Primary Schooling. The research looked at how the monitoring and evaluation informed the policy formulation process to regulate quality assurance in a decentralized governance of primary education. The Study was positioned in the critical realist paradigm, interpretive in orientation and used both coding and thematic techniques to understand the teachers’, SMC members’, and officers’ (at district and ministry levels) experiences and perceptions of quality assurance in a decentralized set up. Data was gathered using interviews, document analysis and observation methods. The findings indicated that the study was affected by eleven themes: Management System and Leadership, Human Resource Management, Finance Administration and Management, Parenting and Nutrition, Politics, Motivation, Social Structures and Patterns, Legislative Process and Policies, Infrastructure Development and Management, Community Involvement in Education and Curriculum and Professionalism. The monitoring and evaluation system had a framework in which it operates, though there was no quality assurance policy to guide the provision of quality education. The study finally indicated that there are more threats in a decentralized set up that put Quality in danger. Secondly, there was absence of supervision/inspection in schools as there was no evidence to prove this due to absence of reports. However, document analysis indicated visits of officers to schools. Records management was a problem to schools. Decentralization was adopted at different levels by different countries to address specific problems identified in view of service delivery. Finally, though monitoring and evaluation results informed the policy and decision makers, there was no quality assurance policy to guide the provision of quality education in institutions

Wireless Monitoring Systems for Long-Term Reliability Assessment of Bridge Structures based on Compressed Sensing and Data-Driven Interrogation Methods.

The state of the nation’s highway bridges has garnered significant public attention due to large inventories of aging assets and insufficient funds for repair. Current management methods are based on visual inspections that have many known limitations including reliance on surface evidence of deterioration and subjectivity introduced by trained inspectors. To address the limitations of current inspection practice, structural health monitoring (SHM) systems can be used to provide quantitative measures of structural behavior and an objective basis for condition assessment. SHM systems are intended to be a cost effective monitoring technology that also automates the processing of data to characterize damage and provide decision information to asset managers. Unfortunately, this realization of SHM systems does not currently exist. In order for SHM to be realized as a decision support tool for bridge owners engaged in performance- and risk-based asset management, technological hurdles must still be overcome. This thesis focuses on advancing wireless SHM systems. An innovative wireless monitoring system was designed for permanent deployment on bridges in cold northern climates which pose an added challenge as the potential for solar harvesting is reduced and battery charging is slowed. First, efforts advancing energy efficient usage strategies for WSNs were made. With WSN energy consumption proportional to the amount of data transmitted, data reduction strategies are prioritized. A novel data compression paradigm termed compressed sensing is advanced for embedment in a wireless sensor microcontroller. In addition, fatigue monitoring algorithms are embedded for local data processing leading to dramatic data reductions. In the second part of the thesis, a radical top-down design strategy (in contrast to global vibration strategies) for a monitoring system is explored to target specific damage concerns of bridge owners. Data-driven algorithmic approaches are created for statistical performance characterization of long-term bridge response. Statistical process control and reliability index monitoring are advanced as a scalable and autonomous means of transforming data into information relevant to bridge risk management. Validation of the wireless monitoring system architecture is made using the Telegraph Road Bridge (Monroe, Michigan), a multi-girder short-span highway bridge that represents a major fraction of the U.S. national inventory.PhDCivil EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116749/1/ocosean_1.pd

Agent-based inter-organizational systems in advanced logistics operations

“Agent-based Inter-organizational Systems (ABIOS) in Advanced Logistics Operations” explores the concepts, the design, and the role and impact of agent-based systems to improve coordination and performance of logistics operations. The dissertation consists of one conceptual study and three empirical studies. The empirical studies apply various research methods such as a multiple-case study research, coordination mechanism design, and predictive analytics using big data. The conceptual study presents a theoretical exploration and synthesis explaining the demand for inter-organizational systems (IOS) and the corresponding IOS functionalities. The first empirical study presents a multiple-case study exploring real

Serbia - public sector accounting review : report on the enhancement of public sector financial reporting

The government’s public financial management (PFM) Reform Program 2016-2020 foresees the gradual transition of public sector financial reporting from a cash basis to an accrual basis of accounting and the application of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS). This will significantly improve the quality of financial information and should enable better informed decision-making, more efficient use of public funds and resources and improved fiscal performance. This Report on the Enhancement of Public Sector Financial Reporting is one output of the Serbia Public Sector Accounting Reform Technical Assistance project funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) through the Strengthening Accountability and Fiduciary Environment (SAFE) Trust Fund under the Public Sector Accounting and Reporting Program (PULSAR) which provides support for the development and implementation of public sector accounting standards. This report supports the development of a plan towards that goal by assessing the institutional framework for public sector accounting as well as the gap between Serbian public sector generally accepted accounting principles (PS GAAP) and IPSAS

The role of local municipal branches in planning, developing and managing urban growth in Saudi Arabian cities :a case study of the city of Jeddah

PhD ThesisThe impacts of urbanization are becoming increasingly recognized and severe both on national and international levels. The demands of growing populations in cities cause major economic, social and environmental problems. These problems can relate to inadequate infrastructure and lack of access to essential services. The rising awareness and challenges of rapid urbanization has led to urban governance and growth management becoming major research themes in the academic literature as good development principles are sought for effective planning management in urban and surrounding areas. This study focuses on cities in Saudi Arabia, in particular the Jeddah Municipality, which shows some classic problems and issues relating to urbanization. The main research aim was to determine to what extent the current organizational structure of Jeddah is appropriate to address the problems of urban areas. Furthermore, this study has looked at establishing an analytical framework that can contribute to improving management and organization of urban development in the city of Jeddah, by investigating the role of the Jeddah Municipality and Municipal branches to improve the management of urban areas and address their impact on city planning both economically and socially. Primary data was collected through questionnaires and interviews with officials and citizens in the city of Jeddah. It was found that the city of Jeddah grew rapidly and significant activity in terms of physical changes and economic and population growth created a number of problems including inadequate provision of municipal services and public facilities to the citizens; reliance on central administration to conduct affairs and do decision-making without taking into account requests and needs of citizens and their desires to participate in the urban development of the city. A number of recommendations are made to promote change in the organizational structure of the Jeddah Municipality and the municipal branches, as the study showed that the current structure lacks integrity with regard to urban planning, development and management of growth. These include improving the existing organizational structure and making it more efficient and improving in the ability to iv manage changes informed by citizen needs. It is hoped that these recommendations will be effective not only in Saudi cities but also in other cities worldwide

Digital Twins for Industry 4.0 in the 6G Era

Having the Fifth Generation (5G) mobile communication system recently rolled out in many countries, the wireless community is now setting its eyes on the next era of Sixth Generation (6G). Inheriting from 5G its focus on industrial use cases, 6G is envisaged to become the infrastructural backbone of future intelligent industry. Especially, a combination of 6G and the emerging technologies of Digital Twins (DT) will give impetus to the next evolution of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) systems. This article provides a survey in the research area of 6G-empowered industrial DT system. With a novel vision of 6G industrial DT ecosystem, this survey discusses the ambitions and potential applications of industrial DT in the 6G era, identifying the emerging challenges as well as the key enabling technologies. The introduced ecosystem is supposed to bridge the gaps between humans, machines, and the data infrastructure, and therewith enable numerous novel application scenarios.Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE Open Journal of Vehicular Technolog

Army Information Technology Procurement: a Business Process Analysis

This thesis presents a business process analysis of the Army\u27s ICT procurement system. The research identified several inefficiencies and proposes several potential solutions. the contributions of this research include a unified taxonomy, a method to prioritize requests, and system architecture products for development of an automated and sustainable collaboration interface for the CIO/G6 to streamline their IT acquisition process. Development of a centralized system would reduce waste in the request process from submission to formal accounting, hasten the movement of requests between stakeholders, maintain a digital signature authorization for each approval authority, provide a reporting database to recognize reprogramming thresholds, and deliver relevant metrics and analysis to help inform the Army\u27s IT resourcing decisions