92 research outputs found

    Urban Agriculture, Sustainability, and Internet-of-Things : Applying UTAUT to Determine the Behavioural Intention to Use IoT

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    Thesis (MIT (Information Systems))--University of Pretoria, 2022.The Internet of Things (IoT) is approaching the maturity stage of the technology adoption lifecycle in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). By 2025, most of the world's population will be living in urban areas. In South Africa, 66.8% of the population currently resides in urban areas with nearly two-thirds of these households experiencing food insecurity. Urbanisation affects food security in South Africa as people and physical resources migrate from the rural areas where food production typically happens. As such, there is a need to localise Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to make them more relevant and context-specific to urban farmers to ensure participation in working towards achieving these goals. Along with localising SDGs, IoT advancements should be considered by urban farmers to not only increase efficiency but to assist in realising the goal of sustainability and sustainable development. The study aims to adapt the unified theory of unified technology acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) by introducing sustainability as a construct to determine how it influences urban farmers in Johannesburg and their behavioural intention to adopt IoT. This will contribute to making the theory robust to the determinants that influence individuals’ use of IoT, which aligns with recommendations made by the originators of the theory that researchers should identify constructs that serve to edify the prediction of intention and behaviour beyond what has already been studied. The results produced in the study are based on a pragmatist mixed methods approach. The quantitative approach was an online 25-question survey based on the existing UTAUT questionnaire items with the addition of the sustainability construct. This questionnaire was distributed to Gauteng-based urban farmers with active agribusinesses. The qualitative approach was a case study in the form of a semi-structured interview with three urban farmers in Gauteng with businesses currently in operation. The findings show significant relationships between behavioural intention and effort expectancy, as well as social influence, indicating that urban farmers’ behavioural intention to use IoT will be influenced by its ease of use and whether people they deem important, or look to for leadership, believe they should adopt IoT to be more sustainable. There was a non-significant relationship between behavioural intention and sustainability despite urban farmers’ belief that sustainability is important, with most being willing to explore any available means of ensuring the sustainability of their farms, including IoT. Based on the interviews and other data, this is due to constraints such as funding, accessibility, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their businesses, the state of the economy and load-shedding. The study focuses on urban farms operating in cities around the province of Gauteng. This sector can be considered a niche, and this limited our sample size.InformaticsMIT (Information Systems)Unrestricte

    DESIGN AND EXPLORATION OF NEW MODELS FOR SECURITY AND PRIVACY-SENSITIVE COLLABORATION SYSTEMS

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    Collaboration has been an area of interest in many domains including education, research, healthcare supply chain, Internet of things, and music etc. It enhances problem solving through expertise sharing, ideas sharing, learning and resource sharing, and improved decision making. To address the limitations in the existing literature, this dissertation presents a design science artifact and a conceptual model for collaborative environment. The first artifact is a blockchain based collaborative information exchange system that utilizes blockchain technology and semi-automated ontology mappings to enable secure and interoperable health information exchange among different health care institutions. The conceptual model proposed in this dissertation explores the factors that influences professionals continued use of video- conferencing applications. The conceptual model investigates the role the perceived risks and benefits play in influencing professionals’ attitude towards VC apps and consequently its active and automatic use

    Ecosystem synergies, change and orchestration

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    This thesis investigates ecosystem synergies, change, and orchestration. The research topics are motivated by my curiosity, a fragmented research landscape, theoretical gaps, and new phenomena that challenge extant theories. To address these motivators, I conduct literature reviews to organise existing studies and identify their limited assumptions in light of new phenomena. Empirically, I adopt a case study method with abductive reasoning for a longitudinal analysis of the Alibaba ecosystem from 1999 to 2020. My findings provide an integrated and updated conceptualisation of ecosystem synergies that comprises three distinctive but interrelated components: 1) stack and integrate generic resources for efficiency and optimisation, 2) empower generative changes for variety and evolvability, and 3) govern tensions for sustainable growth. Theoretically grounded and empirically refined, this new conceptualisation helps us better understand the unique synergies of ecosystems that differ from those of alternative collective organisations and explain the forces that drive voluntary participation for value co-creation. Regarding ecosystem change, I find a duality relationship between intentionality and emergence and develop a phasic model of ecosystem sustainable growth with internal and external drivers. This new understanding challenges and extends prior discussions on their dominant dualism view, focus on partial drivers, and taken-for-granted lifecycle model. I propose that ecosystem orchestration involves systematic coordination of technological, adoption, internal, and institutional activities and is driven by long-term visions and adjusted by re-visioning. My analysis reveals internal orchestration's important role (re-envisioning, piloting, and organisation architectural reconfiguring), the synergy and system principles in designing adoption activities, and the expanding arena of institutional activities. Finally, building on the above findings, I reconceptualise ecosystems and ecosystem sustainable growth to highlight multi-stakeholder value creation, inclusivity, long-term orientation and interpretative approach. The thesis ends with discussing the implications for practice, policy, and future research.Open Acces

    Experimental Evaluation of Growing and Pruning Hyper Basis Function Neural Networks Trained with Extended Information Filter

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    In this paper we test Extended Information Filter (EIF) for sequential training of Hyper Basis Function Neural Networks with growing and pruning ability (HBF-GP). The HBF neuron allows different scaling of input dimensions to provide better generalization property when dealing with complex nonlinear problems in engineering practice. The main intuition behind HBF is in generalization of Gaussian type of neuron that applies Mahalanobis-like distance as a distance metrics between input training sample and prototype vector. We exploit concept of neuron’s significance and allow growing and pruning of HBF neurons during sequential learning process. From engineer’s perspective, EIF is attractive for training of neural networks because it allows a designer to have scarce initial knowledge of the system/problem. Extensive experimental study shows that HBF neural network trained with EIF achieves same prediction error and compactness of network topology when compared to EKF, but without the need to know initial state uncertainty, which is its main advantage over EKF

    Bioinspired metaheuristic algorithms for global optimization

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    This paper presents concise comparison study of newly developed bioinspired algorithms for global optimization problems. Three different metaheuristic techniques, namely Accelerated Particle Swarm Optimization (APSO), Firefly Algorithm (FA), and Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) are investigated and implemented in Matlab environment. These methods are compared on four unimodal and multimodal nonlinear functions in order to find global optimum values. Computational results indicate that GWO outperforms other intelligent techniques, and that all aforementioned algorithms can be successfully used for optimization of continuous functions

    Integration of Virtual Programming Lab in a process of teaching programming EduScrum based

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    Programming teaching is a key factor for technological evolution. The efficient way to learn to program is by programming and hard training and thus feedback is a crucial factor in the success and flow of the process. This work aims to analyse the potential use of VPL in the teaching process of programming in higher education. It also intends to verify whether, with VPL, it is possible to make students learning more effective and autonomous, with a reduction in the volume of assessment work by teachers. Experiments were carried out with the VPL, in the practical-laboratory classes of a curricular unit of initiation to programming in a higher education institution. The results supported by the responses to surveys, point to the validity of the model
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