A practical transition of employees towards information systems adoption: A public service perspective

This paper is a case study which studies change management in the pilot study phase of the implementation of an ERP system. This system, when rolled out in its entirety, will affect all parts of the public service and all state departments of an unnamed African country. Amongst the challenges faced is the matrix structure of the public sector, with one department seen as the driver of this change. This wide scope means that particularly skillful change management is required. Nine factors that had previously been identified from research literature on change management, IS adoption models, and different people-centric approaches to change management, that relate specifically to issues concerning the people involved with or affected by the proposed changes, are used as the basis for engaging research participants familiar with the case being studied. This is done in order to verify the relevance of the factors in practice and to show relationships between the factors. The results show that perceptions of change vary widely amongst the people involved and, therefore, inflexible or standardized change management processes are inappropriate. In addition, it is found that where there is a need to implement the system as a modular process, change will be extensive and lengthy and change management practice must take the possibility of change fatigue into account. The organization and the individuals need to be assisted to adapt and accept ongoing change as a norm rather than seeking stable periods after planned disruptions

Speech Perception in Virtual Environments

Many virtual environments like interactive computer games, educational software or training simulations make use of speech to convey important information to the user. These applications typically present a combination of background music, sound effects, ambient sounds and dialog simultaneously to create a rich auditory environment. Since interactive virtual environments allow users to roam freely among different sound producing objects, sound designers do not always have exact control over what sounds a user will perceive at any given time. This dissertation investigates factors that influence the perception of speech in virtual environments under adverse listening conditions. A virtual environment was created to study hearing performance under different audio-visual conditions. The two main areas of investigation were the contribution of "spatial unmasking" and lip animation to speech perception. Spatial unmasking refers to the hearing benefit achieved when the target sound and masking sound are presented from different locations. Both auditory and visual factors influencing speech perception were considered. The capability of modern sound hardware to produce a spatial release from masking using real-time 3D sound spatialization was compared with the pre-computed method of creating spatialized sound. It was found that spatial unmasking could be achieved when using a modern consumer 3D sound card and either a headphone or surround sound speaker display. Surprisingly, masking was less effective when using real-time sound spatialization and subjects achieved better hearing performance than when the pre-computed method was used. Most research on the spatial unmasking of speech has been conducted in pure auditory environments. The influence of an additional visual cue was first investigated to determine whether this provided any benefit. No difference in hearing performance was observed when visible objects were presented at the same location as the auditory stimuli. Because of inherent limitations of display devices, the auditory and visual environments are often not perfectly aligned, causing a sound-producing object to be seen at a different location from where it is heard. The influence of audio-visual integration between the conflicting spatial information was investigated to see whether it had any influence on the spatial unmasking of speech in noise. No significant difference in speech perception was found regardless of whether visual stimuli was presented at the correct location matching the auditory position, at a spatially disparate location from the auditory source. Lastly the influence of rudimentary lip animation on speech perception was investigated. The results showed that correct lip animations significantly contribute to speech perception. It was also found that incorrect lip animation could result in worse performance than when no lip animation is used at all. The main conclusions from this research are: That the 3D sound capabilities of modern sound hardware can and should be used in virtual environments to present speech; Perfectly align auditory and visual environments are not very important for speech perception; Even rudimentary lip animation can enhance speech perception in virtual environments

PRA RANCANGAN PABRIK AMMONIUM CHLORIDE DARI AMMONIUM SULPHATE DAN SODIUM CHLORIDE KAPASITAS: 80.000 TON/TAHUN

Pabrik ammonium chloride dirancang dengan kapasitas 80.000 ton/tahun, menggunakan bahan baku berupa sodium chloride yang diperoleh dari PT. Garam (persero) di Gresik dan ammonium sulphate yang diperoleh dari PT. Petrokimia Gresik. Perusahaan akan didirikan dengan badan hukum Perseroan Terbatas (PT), dengan jumlah karyawan 207 orang. Didasarkan pada aspek ketersediaan bahan baku lokasi pabrik didirikan di Gresik, Jawa Timur. Pabrik beroperasi selama 330 hari dalam setahun, dengan proses produksi selama 24 jam. Bahan baku berupa NaCl dan (NH4)2SO4 padat dilarutkan dan dinaikkan suhunya menjadi 100°C di M-01 dan M-03 kemudian dimasukkan ke dalam reaktor. Reaksi di dalam reaktor alir tangki berpengaduk (RATB) berlangsung secara eksotermis pada suhu 100°C dan tekanan 1 atm dalam waktu 20,6 menit. Suhu dalam reaktor dijaga konstan dengan pendingin air dalam jaket pendingin. Hasil reaksi dari reaktor didinginkan hingga 20°C dan dicampur dengan larutan NaCl di IT-01 pada suhu 20°C dan tekanan 1 atm untuk mengendapkan Na2SO4 kemudian dipisahkan dengan RDVF-01 sehingga padatan Na2SO4 terpisah dari filtrat. Selanjutnya filtrat dialirkan ke EV-01 untuk diuapkan airnya pada 120°C dan tekanan 1,96 atm agar NaCl dapat mengendap. Hasil keluar EV-01 disaring dengan RDVF-02 sehingga padatan NaCl terpisah dari filtrat. Padatan NaCl kemudian dilarutkan kembali dengan menggunakan air di M-05 dan dikembalikan ke reaktor, sedangkan filtratnya dicampur dengan larutan (NH4)2SO4 di IT-02 pada suhu 10°C dan tekanan 1 atm untuk mengendapkan NH4Cl. Hasil keluar IT- 02 disaring dengan RDVF-03 sehingga padatan NH4Cl terpisah dari filtrat. Padatan NH4Cl dilewatkan dalam RD untuk dikeringkan hingga kemurnian 99% dan dimasukkan ke dalam silo, sedangkan filtratnya dikembalikan ke M-04 dan EV-02. Filtrat keluar EV-02 kemudian dikembalikan ke M-03. Untuk menunjang proses produksi dan berjalannya operasi pabrik, maka dibutuhkan unit penunjang untuk penyediaan air sebanyak 108.738,46 l/jam, freon-22 81.455,59 kg/jam, bahan bakar boiler 5.356,43 kg/jam, bahan bakar generator 102.671,58 kg/tahun, udara tekan 68,4 m3/jam, steam 54.120,19 kg/jam dan kebutuhan listrik 3.287,7 kW, generator 3.300 kW. Pabrik ini membutuhkan Fixed Capital US$30.731.423 + Rp 512.120.016.337, Working Capital US$ 57.117.832 + Rp 160.849.225.194. Analisis ekonomi pabrik ammonium chloride ini menunjukkan nilai RoI sebelum pajak sebesar 51,59% dan RoI sesudah pajak sebesar 33,54%. Nilai POT sebelum pajak adalah 1,77 tahun dan POT sesudah pajak adalah 2,6 tahun. DCF sebesar 22,44%. BEP sebesar 21,81% kapasitas produksi dan SDP sebesar 9,68% kapasitas produksi. Berdasarkan data analisis ekonomi tersebut, maka pabrik ammonium chloride layak untuk dikaji lebih lanjut

Smeared versus localised sources in flux compactifications

We investigate whether vacuum solutions in flux compactifications that are obtained with smeared sources (orientifolds or D-branes) still survive when the sources are localised. This seems to rely on whether the solutions are BPS or not. First we consider two sets of BPS solutions that both relate to the GKP solution through T-dualities: (p+1)-dimensional solutions from spacetime-filling Op-planes with a conformally Ricci-flat internal space, and p-dimensional solutions with Op-planes that wrap a 1-cycle inside an everywhere negatively curved twisted torus. The relation between the solution with smeared orientifolds and the localised version is worked out in detail. We then demonstrate that a class of non-BPS AdS_4 solutions that exist for IASD fluxes and with smeared D3-branes (or analogously for ISD fluxes with anti-D3-branes) does not survive the localisation of the (anti) D3-branes. This casts doubts on the stringy consistency of non-BPS solutions that are obtained in the limit of smeared sources.Comment: 23 pages; v2: minor corrections, added references, version published in JHE

Measuring health inequality among children in developing countries: does the choice of the indicator of economic status matter?

Background Currently, poor-rich inequalities in health in developing countries receive a lot of attention from both researchers and policy makers. Since measuring economic status in developing countries is often problematic, different indicators of wealth are used in different studies. Until now, there is a lack of evidence on the extent to which the use of different measures of economic status affects the observed magnitude of health inequalities. Methods This paper provides this empirical evidence for 10 developing countries, using the Demographic and Health Surveys data-set. We compared the World Bank asset index to three alternative wealth indices, all based on household assets. Under-5 mortality and measles immunisation coverage were the health outcomes studied. Poor-rich inequalities in under-5 mortality and measles immunisation coverage were measured using the Relative Index of Inequality. Results Comparing the World Bank index to the alternative indices, we found that (1) the relative position of households in the national wealth hierarchy varied to an important extent with the asset index used, (2) observed poor-rich inequalities in under-5 mortality and immunisation coverage often changed, in some cases to an important extent, and that (3) the size and direction of this change varied per country, index, and health indicator. Conclusion Researchers and policy makers should be aware that the choice of the measure of economic status influences the observed magnitude of health inequalities, and that differences in health inequalities between countries or time periods, may be an artefact of different wealth measures used

Twisted supersymmetric 5D Yang-Mills theory and contact geometry

We extend the localization calculation of the 3D Chern-Simons partition function over Seifert manifolds to an analogous calculation in five dimensions. We construct a twisted version of N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory defined on a circle bundle over a four dimensional symplectic manifold. The notion of contact geometry plays a crucial role in the construction and we suggest a generalization of the instanton equations to five dimensional contact manifolds. Our main result is a calculation of the full perturbative partition function on a five sphere for the twisted supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with different Chern-Simons couplings. The final answer is given in terms of a matrix model. Our construction admits generalizations to higher dimensional contact manifolds. This work is inspired by the work of Baulieu-Losev-Nekrasov from the mid 90's, and in a way it is covariantization of their ideas for a contact manifold.Comment: 28 pages; v2: minor mistake corrected; v3: matches published versio

(Anti-)Brane backreaction beyond perturbation theory

We improve on the understanding of the backreaction of anti-D6-branes in a flux background that is mutually BPS with D6-branes. This setup is analogous to the study of the backreaction of anti-D3-branes inserted in the KS throat, but does not require us to smear the anti-branes or do a perturbative analysis around the BPS background. We solve the full equations of motion near the anti-D6-branes and show that only two boundary conditions are consistent with the equations of motion. Upon invoking a topological argument we eliminate the boundary condition with regular H flux since it cannot lead to a solution that approaches the right kind of flux away from the anti-D6-brane. This leaves us with a boundary condition which has singular, but integrable, H flux energy density.Comment: 12 pages + appendices, 1 figure; v2: minor changes, version published in JHE

The problematic backreaction of SUSY-breaking branes

In this paper we investigate the localisation of SUSY-breaking branes which, in the smeared approximation, support specific non-BPS vacua. We show, for a wide class of boundary conditions, that there is no flux vacuum when the branes are described by a genuine delta-function. Even more, we find that the smeared solution is the unique solution with a regular brane profile. Our setup consists of a non-BPS AdS_7 solution in massive IIA supergravity with smeared anti-D6-branes and fluxes T-dual to ISD fluxes in IIB supergravity.Comment: 27 pages, Latex2e, 5 figure

The optical afterglow of the short gamma-ray burst GRB 050709

It has long been known that there are two classes of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), mainly distinguished by their durations. The breakthrough in our understanding of long-duration GRBs (those lasting more than ~2 s), which ultimately linked them with energetic Type Ic supernovae, came from the discovery of their long-lived X-ray and optical afterglows, when precise and rapid localizations of the sources could finally be obtained. X-ray localizations have recently become available for short (duration <2 s) GRBs, which have evaded optical detection for more than 30 years. Here we report the first discovery of transient optical emission (R-band magnitude ~23) associated with a short burst; GRB 050709. The optical afterglow was localized with subarcsecond accuracy, and lies in the outskirts of a blue dwarf galaxy. The optical and X-ray afterglow properties 34 h after the GRB are reminiscent of the afterglows of long GRBs, which are attributable to synchrotron emission from ultrarelativistic ejecta. We did not, however, detect a supernova, as found in most nearby long GRB afterglows, which suggests a different origin for the short GRBs.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, press material at http://www.astro.ku.dk/dark