Critical Capabilities for Offshore Outsourcing of Information Systems

No Abstrac

The virtual participant : story telling in a computer supported collaborative learning environment

This thesis presents a study of a novel approach for supporting students in text based electronic conferencing. It describes the development of a concept known as the Virtual Participant. An initial prototype was developed which was tested on the Open University Business School MBA course on Creative Management. The Virtual Participant first presented itself to the users as Uncle Bulgaria. a metaphor for collecting and recycling important information. The Virtual Participant approach is to store the discussions students have had in previous years that the course has run. and to retrieve those discussions at a time most appropriate to helping the students studying this year. It was never intended to provide 'the answer' but rather examples of similar discussions on similar topics. Uncle Bulgaria interacted with the students over a period of 16 weeks. during which time the students prepared two assignments and completed the first half of the course. The information gained from the students' interactions with the system and their feedback to a questionnaire survey was then fed back into a second prototype' which was again tested on the same course. In the second study the system was known to the students as the Active Archive. an active component of an archive of past student discussions. Through cross year comparisons it was possible to evaluate the improvements made between the Active Archive and Uncle Bulgaria systems. The Active Archive interacted with the students on a much larger scale than Uncle Bulgaria had. but with no increased negative impact. The second study provided examples where the Active Archive stimulated discussion amongst the students and vicarious learning could be said to have taken place. Taking the lessons learned from these two studies a number of guidelines for the development of such systems have been produced and are described and discussed

Safety and resilience engineering in Saudi Arabian industries

Large industrial accidents attract attention due to their catastrophic effects on human lives, economic growth, and the environment. Early studies on accident causations have concluded that 98% of all industrial accidents are preventable, and 88% can be prevented through the enforcement of a proper control system. There have been relentless efforts to develop models of accidents to understand this phenomenon and minimise the catastrophic outcomes of mishap events. These efforts have led to the development of systematic models of accident causations; in which accidents causations are viewed as dynamic processes that interact in a non-linear fashion. One of these systematic models is Resilience Engineering (RE), which takes a holistic view of the organisation and its natural abilities to maintain the system in a dynamically stable state under either stresses or normal operations. This research attempts to explore safety of industrial corporations by evaluating resilience in the Saudi Arabian process industry. The Saudi Arabia context is substantially different from the Western cultures where resilience concepts were developed and studied. The rapid expansion of the petroleum industries has had a major impact on the development of the Saudi socio-economic dynamics. The unique national culture dimensions of the Saudi Arabian society (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism) will help in understanding cultural influences on resilience and safety in general. Therefore, this research is conducted to identify the main contributing factors to resilience in the Saudi Arabian context. The outcomes of the research help engineers and administrators in industrial organisations to engineer resilient systems that minimize the risks of mishaps and recover quickly to a normal state of operations. The findings support the influence of the national culture in different countries on organisational safety culture, which is extended to individuals’ behaviour towards safety. Evidence has shown that collectivism, on the contrary to the common belief, has a positive impact on both resilience potential and safety culture in the process industry. In addition, the process industry in Saudi Arabia is characterised by resilience of the second type, where there is good ability to respond and monitor but a low ability to learn or anticipate. The main contributing factors to this resilience are: effective communication, information availability, control over work tasks, and dealing with external pressure. Lastly, the findings suggest an association between management commitment to safety and both resilience optimisation and organisational safety culture

Analysis of the Head of the Contracting Activity (HCA) oversight responsibilities within the Naval Supply System Command (NAVSUP)

Joint Applied ProjectThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the Head of the Contracting (HCA) oversight responsibilities within the Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP). Statutes as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) (and lower level regulations) mandate the oversight responsibilities of the HCA. This responsibility is further delegated in NAVSUP instructions and policy and other higher-level policy. The objective of this paper is to establish a single source that identifies the regulations, instructions, policies, etc. that promulgate the HCA oversight responsibility within NAVSUP. The end result of the paper is to analyze the challenges associated with implementing the HCA oversight function, whether this oversight is being performed in the required manner, and whether it is delegated to the appropriate level.http://archive.org/details/analysisofheadof1094510005Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

HISTORY URBANISM RESILIENCE VOLUME 03:

The 17th conference (2016, Delft) of the International Planning History Society (IPHS) and its proceedings place presentations from different continents and on varied topics side by side, providing insight into state-of-the art research in the field of planning history and offering a glimpse of new approaches, themes, papers and books to come. VOLUME 03: Change and Responsive Plannin

An investigation into the attitudes of teachers in Port Elizabeth to the inplementation of computer assisted learning

In general, insufficient research has been done to validate the usefulness and relevance of computers in educational settings (Hitchcock, 2000; Robinson et al., 2003; Baillie et al., 2000; Housego et al., 2000; Valdez et al., 2004). Schools therefore tend to adopt educational technologies before determining whether and how the technology will be used to its full capacity, or what the human and educational impact would be on learners and teachers (Hobson et al., 1998; McCabe et al., 2003; Hugo, 2002). In South Africa the eEducation policy, scripted by the Department of Education (DOE), has been created as an implementation and integration plan for educational technologies in South African schools, where all South African learners at schools are to be functionally computer literate by the year 2013 (DOE, 2003c). However, a limited amount of research has been performed investigating the educational relevance or optimal method for Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) implementation in South African schools. The purpose of the undertaken research study is to create an understanding of teachers’ attitudes toward CAL implementation and integration, as well as to provide insight into the optimal CAL implementation and integration methods in South African schools. The research problem under study therefore is: What are teachers’ attitudes toward the implementation and integration of CAL systems in South African schools? The research study is performed within the quantitative research paradigm and can be described as both exploratory and descriptive in orientation. In the context of this research the population under study is Grade 10 Mathematics teachers that teach in the city of Port Elizabeth. Out of a total of 153 teachers who form part of the study population, 78 successfully completed survey instruments, returning a high yield of 51% of the total study population. The analysis of the total teacher sample group provides the most statistically robust analysis breakdown of the study, and therefore can be reported with a high level of confidence. However, as the study is exploratory in nature, the analysis of various subject breakdowns have been included and iii reported in the study to provide anecdotal insight across diverse variable groups. Subject breakdowns include gender, demographic groups, and age groups, levels of qualifications and level of computer use experience. The findings indicate that teachers in general feel very positive about the use of computers in schools, specifically for teaching purposes, and believe the use of computers in education is inevitable but provides value in the educational context. Though teachers demonstrate high levels of access to computers and fairly capable computer abilities, they demonstrate low levels of awareness of available computer facilities, as well as low levels of computer use. The findings therefore indicate a need for greater integration of CAL systems into the curricula and greater training opportunities. However, teachers show that they have a preference for traditional teaching methods to CAL instructional methods, demonstrating a specific preference for traditional chalk and whiteboard media. The findings suggest that teachers do not value computers for their instructional purposes, but rather for their practical educational related activities. The findings also suggest that the use of computers to teach is not a priority of education related computer use. Teachers indicate that a variety of both traditional and modern media is best suited to various educational activities. With regard to CAL instruction, teachers demonstrate a preference for a teaching scenario where teachers use computers to prepare and teach lessons, but learners only perform exercises on computers under teacher supervision. Teachers demonstrate greater aversion to teaching situations where learners learn independently off computers. Teachers therefore indicate that Drill and Practice and Testing software are the most suitable for general CAL implementation and use, in support of previous studies in South Africa. Finally, from a developmental perspective in the context of South Africa, teachers overwhelmingly indicate that the widespread implementation of CAL systems should not occur before all schools have their basic needs of water, sanitation, electricity and human resources fulfilled

Engineering and built environment project conference 2016: book of abstracts - Toowoomba, Australia, 19-23 September 2016

Book of Abstracts of the USQ Engineering and Built Environment Conference 2016, held Toowoomba, Australia, 19-23 September 2016. These proceedings include extended abstracts of the verbal presentations that are delivered at the project conference. The work reported at the conference is the research undertaken by students in meeting the requirements of courses ENG4111/ENG4112 Research Project for undergraduate or ENG8411/ENG8412 Research Project and Dissertation for postgraduate students

Rediscovering the arcane science of ground handling large airships : an investigation into ways of reducing the risks inherent in the development of a new generation of very large airships and of establishing guidelines for their ground handling procedure

This research, which was begun as part of the now defunct CargoLifter project, concerns the ground handling and support systems of the large rigid airships (commonly known as "Zeppelins") that were built between 1900 and 1940. The intention was to assess the value of such historical information as has survived from the previous generation of very large airships in order to minimise the physical and financial risks inherent in the development of any future generations of such aircraft. The idea was to isolate and understand the fundamental issues that were actually encountered by the ground based personnel responsible for looking after the various British, German, American and Italian airships of the previous generation, and to gather as much information as possible about the techniques and operational procedures that were devised, tried and tested in the field. This information would then be used to establish guidelines for future projects that are based on real experience rather than on prediction, assumption or theory. Sadly, the CargoLifter project foundered in 2002; however the author had by then amassed sufficient research material for him to complete the study independently and to present it as a guide for the ground handling of hitherto unrealised concepts such as the proposed new "Transport category" or "CargoLifter" type large airships. Such practical skills as those required by airship ground crew personnel are normally passed on by firsthand instruction from one experienced practitioner to the trainee. This option is not available for the next generation of very large airships because there are no personnel alive today with any operational experience of the previous generation of really large airships. The problem therefore is to examine the historical records and to evaluate the written information in order to interpret it and pass on knowledge that will reduce the risk of future generations wasting their time in "re-inventing the wheel. " In the course of the study it was found that historical research (HR) enabled the results of the pre-war prototype projects to be usefully assessed despite the fact that very little of the material was written with that end in view. More specifically the analysis of historical airship activities (AHAA) revealed that it was possible to retrieve a considerable amount of lost or forgotten knowledge concerning the ground handling of very large airships, also to unearth ideas that were ahead of their time, which might be applicable today or in the future; and in addition to identify several areas worthy of further investigation (e. g. ideas that were rejected at the time but which may now be feasible due to technological progress). The research and analysis also uncovered some ideas and suggested solutions which are fundamentally flawed and that should be avoided by designers of large airships and their support systems. The work includes a detailed analysis of the tasks involved in the ground handling of very large airships and concludes with a suggested strategy for all those intent upon the design and planning of ground support infrastructures for any further large airship development projects either today or in the future

Fault-tolerant satellite computing with modern semiconductors

Miniaturized satellites enable a variety space missions which were in the past infeasible, impractical or uneconomical with traditionally-designed heavier spacecraft. Especially CubeSats can be launched and manufactured rapidly at low cost from commercial components, even in academic environments. However, due to their low reliability and brief lifetime, they are usually not considered suitable for life- and safety-critical services, complex multi-phased solar-system-exploration missions, and missions with a longer duration. Commercial electronics are key to satellite miniaturization, but also responsible for their low reliability: Until 2019, there existed no reliable or fault-tolerant computer architectures suitable for very small satellites. To overcome this deficit, a novel on-board-computer architecture is described in this thesis.Robustness is assured without resorting to radiation hardening, but through software measures implemented within a robust-by-design multiprocessor-system-on-chip. This fault-tolerant architecture is component-wise simple and can dynamically adapt to changing performance requirements throughout a mission. It can support graceful aging by exploiting FPGA-reconfiguration and mixed-criticality.  Experimentally, we achieve 1.94W power consumption at 300Mhz with a Xilinx Kintex Ultrascale+ proof-of-concept, which is well within the powerbudget range of current 2U CubeSats. To our knowledge, this is the first COTS-based, reproducible on-board-computer architecture that can offer strong fault coverage even for small CubeSats.European Space AgencyComputer Systems, Imagery and Medi

Conservative Moments

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. As a complex and multifaceted world-view, conservatism is often pigeonholed and partially understood. And while the nature of conservative ideology is warmly contested among scholars, no-one can deny its prominence in contemporary debates and its effects on the politics of everyday life. These 16 essays written by expert scholars and specialists offer a broad survey of conservative thought that extends beyond typical historical and geographic boundaries to include past thinkers like Plato and Edmund Burke, non-European conservative traditions such as Japan and Russia, and political ‘practitioners’ including Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Charles de Gaulle. Each essay grapples with short primary source extracts while offering instructive criticism and commentary. Conservative Moments offers students a useful, accessible, and comprehensive exposition of this political ideology