Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'CSIRO'

Past research into defining and measuring the characteristics of learning environments in Science Education Centres and Science Museums (SECSMs) has been based upon low-inference measures, such as observations and interviews. Many searchers feel that the diversity of informal education settings in SECSMs makes it difficult to develop high-inference measures for informal learning environments. This study used the semiformal environment of the CSIRO Science Education Centres as a stepping-stone between formal and informal learning environments. A review of learning environment research identified a possible procedure for the development of, and a format for, a suitable instrument. Research in SECSMs was reviewed to identify learning environment factors that defined the CSIROSEC learning environment. A pilot study was conducted to determine the feasibility of developing a learning environment instrument for CSIROSECs. This led to the more formal process of developing a learning environment instrument for CSIROSECs based upon the five scales of Affect, Social Interaction, Novelty, Independence and Involvement.A number of cycles of testing of the instrument, statistical analyses, and subsequent refinements resulted in the Learning Environment Instrument for CSIRO Science Education Centres (LEI for CSIROSECs). The instrument measures distinct, if somewhat overlapping, aspects of the learning environment. The LEI for CSIROSECs displays comparable measures for internal consistency (alpha reliability) and discriminant validity to existing learning environment instruments. The sensitivity of the instrument has been demonstrated for the comparison of different classes, comparison of teacher-student perceptions, comparison of primary and secondary classes, and the comparison of CSIROSEC programs. Suggestions have been made for applications of the LEI for CSIROSECs and its further development,as well as its potential use in research.

Past research into defining and measuring the characteristics of learning environments in Science Education Centres and Science Museums (SECSMs) has been based upon low-inference measures, such as observations and interviews. Many searchers feel that the diversity of informal education settings in SECSMs makes it difficult to develop high-inference measures for informal learning environments. This study used the semiformal environment of the CSIRO Science Education Centres as a stepping-stone between formal and informal learning environments. A review of learning environment research identified a possible procedure for the development of, and a format for, a suitable instrument. Research in SECSMs was reviewed to identify learning environment factors that defined the CSIROSEC learning environment. A pilot study was conducted to determine the feasibility of developing a learning environment instrument for CSIROSECs. This led to the more formal process of developing a learning environment instrument for CSIROSECs based upon the five scales of Affect, Social Interaction, Novelty, Independence and Involvement.
A number of cycles of testing of the instrument, statistical analyses, and subsequent refinements resulted in the Learning Environment Instrument for CSIRO Science Education Centres (LEI for CSIROSECs). The instrument measures distinct, if somewhat overlapping, aspects of the learning environment. The LEI for CSIROSECs displays comparable measures for internal consistency (alpha reliability) and discriminant validity to existing learning environment instruments. The sensitivity of the instrument has been demonstrated for the comparison of different classes, comparison of teacher-student perceptions, comparison of primary and secondary classes, and the comparison of CSIROSEC programs. Suggestions have been made for applications of the LEI for CSIROSECs and its further development,as well as its potential use in research.

Given the simultaneous demands of innovation and international expansion, how do young, internationalising, high-technology, small to medium enterprises (HTSMEs) develop their resource base? In recent years, this question has attracted increased interest in the field of international business (IB), with such firms seemingly contradicting established internationalisation theories. Existing research largely addresses this question through the use of a born global framework (Rennie 1993), grounded in the resource based view (RBV) (Barney, 1991), and/or the dynamic capabilities view (DCV) (Teece, 2007). However, born global literature fails to account for the firm's prior history, suffers from a success bias, and lacks an understanding of the nature of these firms. it has also been noted that the RBV and DCV are better suited to explaining the resource development of larger and typically older firms with generally well-established resource bases that have evolved over time (Connor, 2002; Teece, 2009). As an alternative theoretical lens, I build upon Elizabeth Garnsey's (1998) Theory of the Early Growth of the Firm (TEGF) - a theory too often neglected in the IB literature - which analyses growth in small, high-technology firms. While Edith Penrose in her Theory of the Growth of the Firm (TGF) was concerned with the growth of established firms (Penrose, 2009), Garnsey draws on a genuinely Penrosean lens to explore the development of the resource base in new firms. The TEGF is Penrosean in that it embeds open systems thinking, explains processes and mechanisms underlying development, and moves beyond simplified stage models of growth. Garnsey focuses on a general explanation of early firm growth and I extend her theory to incubated firms in the internationalising HTSME context. Given that the defining feature of internationalising HTSMEs is their technology base, it is surprising that the IB literature has offered little consideration of technology. The born global literature does not focus on the role of technology or provide a theoretical explanation of how a firm develops its technology base over time. Technology is typically treated as accepted, as fixed and pre-determined as a result. The TEGF examines early growth in firms generally, rather than high-technology firms and technology development specifically. Garnsey's emphasis on organisational and managerial aspects in the TEGF can be enriched by incorporating the evolution of the firm's technology base. To do this, I apply a social shaping of technology (SST) lens (Williams and Edge, 1996), which conceptualises technological development as a social rather than narrowly technical process. By providing an explanation for technology development from a SST perspective, I highlight the social dimensions associated with the development of the resource base over time. A SST perspective is, I argue, complementary to the TEGF and its open systems perspective. It allows me to account for the development of the technology base, something which has been missing from existing IB literature. The technology base of the eight case firms selected for this research was similar in that all were incubated within and spun off from a parent, a common parent in the case of seven of the firms, and were seeking to commercialise science-based, new-to-market innovations. I enhance the TEGF by problematising success and failure and focusing more deeply on how this journey unfolds in the high-technology context. In doing so, I make the point that success (rather than failure) is an outlier. A SST lens enabled me to recognise the complexity of the process of technology and resource base development which could result in multiple outcomes depending on contextual conditions. This offered deeper insights than simply focusing on an outcome in isolation (e.g. whether a firm survived or failed) (Wilson and Howcroft, 2000). From a social shaping perspective, I also realised how perceptions of what was considered as a technology success or failure were not predetermined but rather, subject to 'interpretive flexibility' (Rosen, 1993) among relevant social groups (RSGs) (Wilson and Howcroft, 2000). Understanding who decides and why they had the authority to decide required historical analysis that accounted for key stakeholders involved in shaping the success or failure of the technology. These RSGs also provided varying accounts of why case firms developed in the way they did, pinpointing the absence or presence of particular attributes or decisions of the firm. I explain the resource development processes of the case firms as the result of a complex array of 'forking paths' (Williams and Edge, 1996).

En géomécanique, la caractérisation de l’état de contrainte et de la rhéologie d’un massif rocheux peut être obtenue en mesurant la réponse en déformation du terrain sous l’effet d’une sollicitation connue. Une méthode parmi d’autres consiste à recourir pour cela à une cellule de mesure intégrée (comportant des capteurs de déformation orientés selon différentes directions) installée dans un forage et rendue solidaire du massif par l’intermédiaire d’une colle époxy. Ce principe de mesure est utilisé, notamment, pour déterminer l’état de contraintes in situ par la méthode dite de « surcarottage » et les caractéristiques élastiques de la roche à partir de l’essai « biaxial ».Entre novembre 2005 et janvier 2006, une campagne d’essais géomécaniques de ce type a été menée dans l’argilite de Tournemire (Aveyron, France), à l’aide des cellules CSIRO. Les mesures de déformation obtenues ont révélé des phénomènes inhabituels qui ont rendu délicate la détermination des caractéristiques élastiques anisotropes de la roche et impossible l’accès aux contraintes du site.La présente thèse a pour objectif de contribuer, par la recherche d’explications à l’origine de ces phénomènes, d’une part, à l’amélioration de la connaissance du comportement de l’argilite de Tournemire et, d’autre part, à l’amélioration du protocole de mesure et d’interprétation de déformations obtenues par cellules CSIRO.Notre démarche consiste, dans un premier temps, à émettre un certain nombre d’hypothèses explicatives des phénomènes observés par la recherche bibliographique. Dans un deuxième temps, nous testons ces hypothèses à travers la modélisation analytique et numérique des essais de surcarottage et biaxiaux, puis à travers la réalisation de nouvelles expérimentations in situ et en laboratoire sur l’argilite, mais aussi sur des matériaux-tests (ciment, échantillon de colle).Nous concluons que les phénomènes inhabituels observés résultent, pour l’essentiel, des conditions de mise en œuvre in situ des cellules CSIRO. En particulier, nous mettons l’accent sur les artéfacts induits par le comportement visco-plastique de la colle époxy lorsqu’elle n’est pas parfaitement polymérisée. Le rôle de l’endommagement de la roche généré par les opérations de forage est également discuté. Nous en tirons des recommandations pratiques pour la réalisation de nouveaux essais dans des conditions similaires
In Geomechanics, determining the state of stress and the rheology of rock massive can be obtained by measuring the strain response of the ground under the effect of a known stress. A method among others is to use a cell integrated (with strain gauges oriented in different directions) installed in a borehole and secured to the mass through an epoxy glue. This measurement is used, notably, to determine the stress state in situ by the « overcoring » method and the elastic parameters of the rock from the « biaxial » test.Between November 2005 and January 2006, a geomechanical testing campaign was conducted in the argillaceous formation of the Tournemire experimental site (Aveyron, France) using CSIRO Hi cells. The strain measurements obtained during overcoring and biaxial tests, have shown unusual phenomena, which have made difficult the determination of anisotropic elastic parameters of the rock and the access to the site stress.Therefore, through researches for explanations of the origin of these phenomena, this thesis aims to improve and to contribute to the understanding of argillite Tournemire’s behaviour and to upgrade the measurement protocol as well as the interpretation of cells CSIRO’s strain.Our approach is, firstly, to issue a number of hypotheses to explain certain, phenomena observed in literature. In a second step, we test these hypotheses through analytical and numerical modelling of the biaxial and overcoring tests then through the realization of new experiments in situ within laboratory on argillite, and also on materials tests (cement, sample of glue).We conclude that the unusual phenomena observed are essentially the result of the conditions for implementing in situ CSIRO’s cell. In particular, we focus on the artefacts induced by the visco-plastic behaviour of the epoxy glue when it is incompletely polymerised. The role of damage on the rock generated by drilling operations is also discussed. We draw some practical recommendations for implementing new tests under similar conditions

The temporal and spatial variability in wind speed and direction was investigated in a study of the mesoscale wind fields in the Canberra region. The statistical description of the winds was based on twelve months of three-hourly data at seventeen sites obtained in a joint program carried out by the Division of Land Use Research, CSIRO, the National Capital Development Commission, and the Bureau of Meteorology. The statistical analysis proceeded in stages. The first two stages were concerned with the determination and examination of averages and measures of dipersion. Information on the temporal variability in regional wind, defined as the average of the winds at the seventeen collection sites, provided the first insight into the important determinants of winds in the region. The data were then categorized on the basis of the information thus obtained, and the averages over time for each site were analysed in each category. The variation between sites revealed the extent of the spatial variability in the region. For each category, for each site, there were perturbations around the average state, and in the last stage of the study, the analysis examined how the perturbations were related across sites using correlation coefficients. Generalized Procrustes Analysis was used, followed by the extensive use of cluster analysis. Linear modelling techniques were used at all stages of the study, not only for wind speed, but also for wind direction which is an angular variate and thus required different modelling procedures. The models related the variables of interest to terrain features such as position, elevation and surface roughness. These models allowed an informed judgement to be made on the likelihood of accurately estimating the winds at other locations in the region using interpolation techniques.

Global climate model simulations indicate 1.3°C to 1.8°C increase in the Earth’s average temperature by middle of this century above the 1980 to 1999 average. The magnitude and rate of change of this projected warming is greater than the average warming during the last century. Global climate models project an even higher degree of warming later in the century also due to increasing grrenhouse gases concentrations in the atmosphere from human activity. Impacts of future climate change on viticulture are likely to be significant as viticulture requires a narrow climate range to produce grapes of suitable quality for premium wine production.In this thesis, impacts of climate change on winegrape growing conditions across the Western Australian wine regions were spatially and temporally examined by utilising fine resolution downscaled climate projections. Relationships between climate variation and grape maturity or key quality attributes of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Chardonnay were modelled from measured fruit and climate data along a natural climate gradient encompassing a 5°C range in winegrape growing season average temperature. Potential future climate change impacts on grape quality were quantitatively evaluated by driving the grape quality models with the downscaled climate projections.Analyses of climate conditions for winegrape growth were carried out under future climate projections for the Western Australian wine regions. A total of 10 global climate models forced with an A2 emission scenario were downscaled. Of these models, the MEDRES Miroc3.2 and CSIRO Mk3.5 climate models, which indicated the low and high warming ranges (projections of these models will be referred as low and high range warming, hereafter) across the study regions, were selected to take into account the uncertainty of future climate change for impact assessment. Our results indicate increasingly warmer and drier climate conditions for the Western Australian wine regions. The current October to April average temperature (averaged across the regions) is projected to be 0.5°C to 1.5°C warmer by 2030, respectively. The magnitude of the warming will likely be uneven across the regions. For example, 0.1 to 0.3°C higher average temperature during October to April period has been projected for the northern regions than the southern regions by 2030, depending on the warming ranges. On the other hand, rainfall is projected to decrease across the regions under the future scenario we assessed in this study. By 2030, annual rainfall, averaged across the regions, is projected to decline by 5 to 8%, respectively, under the low and high warming ranges of climate change under the A2 emission scenario. Among seasons, the greatest decline in rainfall is projected to occur during spring. On average, up to 8% and 19% decline in spring rainfall is projected respectively under the low and high warming ranges by 2030.The magnitude of these changes are projected to increase as time progresses. For example, by 2070, averaged across the study regions, our modelling results show current mean temperature during October to April is projected to be between 1.1°C and 3.9°C warmer, but the annual rainfall is likely to be 15 to 24% lower than the current climate averages (1975 to 2005) under the A2 scenario.Maturity dates of the studied varieties are projected to advance asymmetrically across the study regions. For example, Cabernet Sauvignon may reach 22 °Brix total soluble solid maturity about 4 and 7 days earlier respectively for the northern and the southern regions by 2030 under the low warming range. Our results also indicate maturity date shifting a further 8 and 18 days earlier by 2070 for the northern and the southern regions respectively under the same warming range. Patterns of this maturity date shifting is likely to be similar under the high warming range. However, the magnitude of advancement is projected to be doubled.If no adaptive measures are implemented future climate change will likely reduce wine quality due to declining concentrations of berry anthocyanins and acidity under a warmer climate. The reductions of berry quality attributes are likely to be more pronounced in the warmer northern wine regions compared to the cooler southern regions. For example, Cabernet Sauvignon current median anthocyanins concentration is projected to decline by about 12% and 33% for the warmer northern regions, and about 6 to 18% for the cooler southern wine regions respectively by 2030 and 2070 under the high warming range. In contrast, the maximum decline in Cabernet Sauvignon anthocyanin concentration under the lower warming range is projected to be small, up to 5% for the cooler southern and up to 8% for the warmer northern regions by 2070. Shiraz anthocyanins concentration decrease pattern is similar to that of Cabernet Sauvignon, however, our modelling indicates the magnitude is smaller, with maximum of 18% for Swan District and about 11% for the southern regions by 2070 under the high warming range.Modelled impacts of climate change on grape titratable acidity are also region and variety specific. Among the varieties studied, Chardonnay exhibits the highest decline in median titratable acidity across the regions (17% for the Margaret River and 42% for the Swan District regions), followed by Shiraz (7% for the Margaret River and 15% for the Peel regions) and Cabernet Sauvignon (no change for Blackwood and 12% for the Swan District regions) by 2070 under high climate warming. On the other hand, the median titratable acidity levels are less impacted by low warming scenario (maximum decline is 4% for Shiraz only by 2070).Under the future warming scenarios studied in this thesis currently established wine regions and wine styles across the Western Australian wine regions are likely to be affected to the extent that some regions may not be conducive to premium wine production, while for some regions changing the variety may be the only option to adapt to the climate change. For example, by 2070, under high warming range Swan District, Perth Hills, and some parts of the Peel and Geographe regions are projected to be suited more to producing fortified wines or table grapes due to high average growing season temperature (>24°C). In this future climate the present cool climate southern regions are likely to have the same climate conditions that currently prevail in the warmer Swan District. Apparent differences in currently planted varieties between the cooler southern and warmer northern regions clearly indicate the need to adapt to the warming climate in the southern wine regions.Analysis of other potential factors that influence viticulture such as frequency of hot days, vapour pressure deficit and disease pressure were examined. The results indicated that winegrape fungal disease pressure will likely decrease across the regions due to the declining rainfall, potentially lessening the need for spraying during the growing season. On the other hand, there will likely be increased frequency of hot days and elevated vapour pressure deficit. The impacts of these, combined with the decreasing rainfall during growing season will potentially drive irrigation demand higher requiring altered water management under climate change.Climatically, most of the Western Australian wine regions are known as premium wine producing areas. The results from this study indicate potential challenges of climate change for the Western Australian wine industry. Under the future climate scenarios examined, some currently warmer regions may become less suitable for premium quality wines due to the increased temperature, which is projected to be out of the optimum temperature range for premium wine production. For most of the other regions, the challenge will likely be a decreased grape quality required to produce premium wine with the current varieties. Suitable adaptation strategies may be required to maintain the current market reputation. Furthermore, the warmer and drier conditions under climate change is likely to necessitate revised water management across the wine growing regions, especially some regions which are already limited by available water for grape production. However, the magnitude of the impacts is projected to be dependent upon the magnitude of future climate change.

Lo scavo del Cunicolo Esplorativo de “La Maddalena” ha come scopo l’esplorazione geognostica, indagando le caratteristiche dell’ammasso roccioso e della sua risposta allo scavo meccanizzato sotto le alte coperture (massima copertura raggiunta 2000 metri) raggiunte al di sotto del Massiccio d’Ambin. Questo scavo servirà sia per una progettazione affidabile sia per la fase di costruzione del Tunnel di Base. La tematica al centro della tesi riguarda l’analisi delle informazioni raccolte durante lo scavo del Cunicolo Esplorativo de “La Maddalena”, situata nel Comune di Chiomonte (TO), con particolare riguardo alle prove volte a caratterizzare lo stato tensionale in situ e per valutare gli effetti sulla progettazione della nuova linea di collegamento Torino – Lione. Ogni tipo di scavo sotterraneo altera lo stato tensionale esistente negli ammassi rocciosi e l’entità di questa alterazione è funzione dello stato tensionale preesistente all’operazione di scavo. In questa tesi, vengono analizzate: le prove di sovracarotaggio CSIRO e di fratturazione idraulica (HF) per la misura dello stato tensionale in situ; le misure di convergenza per esaminare il comportamento deformativo dell’ammasso roccioso e per verificare un eventuale effetto marcato delle caratteristiche dello stato tensionale. Infine, si considerano le possibili implicazioni di tali caratteristiche sulla progettazione del futuro Tunnel di Base.

n/a---Introduction--- This thesis deals with an investigation od a Professional Development Scheme which gave three Teaching Service teachers working experience in one of Australia's largest research organisations, a Canberra hotel, and an ACT office furniture business (one of the largest manufacturers of its kind within Australia) during the September school vacation of 1988.-----Aim----The aim of the thesis is to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of the Professional Development Scheme in the context of the relationship between the school and the world of work.

This paper explores the conflicts of interest present in science policy and how claims being made for evidence based science can be used to suppress critical social science research. The specific case presented concerns the attempts to ban and censor my work criticising the economics of carbon emissions trading while I was working for the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia. The role of management and the Science Minister are documented through their own public statements. The case raises general issues about the role of epistemic communities in the production of knowledge, the potential for manipulation of information under the guise of quality control and the problems created by claiming a fact-value dichotomy in the science-policy interface. The implications go well beyond just climate change research and challenge how public policy is being formulated in modern industrial societies where scientific knowledge and corporate interests are closely intertwined. (author's abstract)
Series: SRE - Discussion Papers

A growing recognition of the need for effective marine environmental management as a result of the increasing exploitation of marine biological resources has highlighted the need for high speed ecological seabed mapping. The practice of mapping making extensive use of satellite remote sensing and airborne platforms is well established for terrestrial management. Marine biological resource mapping however is not readily available except in part from that derived for surface waters from satellite based ocean colour mapping. Perhaps the most fundamental reason is that of sampling difficulty, which involves broad areas of seabed coverage, irregularities of seabed surface and depth. Conventional grab sample techniques are widely accepted as a standard seabed mapping methodology that has been in use long before the advent of acoustic techniques and continue to be employed. However. they are both slow and labour intensive, factors which severely limit the spatial coverage available from practical grab sampling programs. While acoustic techniques have been used for some time in pelagic biomass assessment, only recently have acoustic techniques been applied to marine biological resource mapping of benthic communities. Two commercial bottom classifiers available in the market that use normal incidence echosounders are the RoxAnn and QTC View systems. Users and practitioners should be cautious however when using black box implementations of the two commercial systems without a proper quality control over raw acoustic data since some researchers in their studies have indicated problems with these two bottom classifiers such as, among others, a depth dependence. In this thesis, an alternative approach was adopted to the use of echosounder returns for bottom classification.The approach used in this study is similar to,~ used in the commercial RoxAnn system. In grouping bottom types however, Multivariate analysis (Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis) was adopted instead of the allocation system normally used in the RoxAnn system, called RoxAnn squares. In addition, the adopted approach allowed for quality control over acoustic data before further analysis was undertaken. As a working hypothesis, it was assumed that on average 0 and aE2 = 0 where E1 and E2 are the roughness and hardness indices, respectively, and RO is the depth. For roughness index (E1), this was achieved by introducing a constant angular integration interval to the tail of the first OM returns whereas for hardness index (E2), this was achieved by introducing a constant depth integration interval. Since three different frequencies, i.e. 12, 38 and kHz, were operated, Principal Component Analysis was used here to reduce the dimensionality of roughness and hardness indices, formed from the three operated qu frequencies separately. The k-means technique was applied to the first principal component of roughness index and the first principal comp component of hardness index to produce separable seabed types. This produced four separable seabed types, namely soft-smooth, soft-rough, hard-smooth and hard-rough seabeds.Principal Component Analysis was also used to reduce the dimensionality of the area backscattering coefficient sA, a relative measure of biomass of benthic mobile biota. The bottom classification results reported here appear to be robust in that, where independent ground truthing was available, acoustic classification was generally congruent with ground truth results. When investigating the relationship between derived bottom type and acoustically assessed total biomass of benthic mobile biota, no trend linking the two parameters, however, appears. Nevertheless, using the hierarchical agglomerative technique applied to a set of variables containing average first principal component of the area backscattering coefficient sA, the average first principal component of roughness and hardness indices, the centroids of first principal component of roughness and hardness indices associated with the four seabed types and species composition of fish group of the common species in trawl stations available, two main groups of quasi acoustic population are observed in the North West Shelf (NWS) study area and three groups are observed in the South East Fisheries (SEF) study area. The two main groups of quasi acoustic population in the NWS study area and the three main groups of quasi acoustic population in the study area are associated with the derived seabed types and fish groups of the common species.

A growing recognition of the need for effective marine environmental management as a result of the increasing exploitation of marine biological resources has highlighted the need for high speed ecological seabed mapping. The practice of mapping making extensive use of satellite remote sensing and airborne platforms is well established for terrestrial management. Marine biological resource mapping however is not readily available except in part from that derived for surface waters from satellite based ocean colour mapping. Perhaps the most fundamental reason is that of sampling difficulty, which involves broad areas of seabed coverage, irregularities of seabed surface and depth. Conventional grab sample techniques are widely accepted as a standard seabed mapping methodology that has been in use long before the advent of acoustic techniques and continue to be employed. However. they are both slow and labour intensive, factors which severely limit the spatial coverage available from practical grab sampling programs. While acoustic techniques have been used for some time in pelagic biomass assessment, only recently have acoustic techniques been applied to marine biological resource mapping of benthic communities. Two commercial bottom classifiers available in the market that use normal incidence echosounders are the RoxAnn and QTC View systems. Users and practitioners should be cautious however when using black box implementations of the two commercial systems without a proper quality control over raw acoustic data since some researchers in their studies have indicated problems with these two bottom classifiers such as, among others, a depth dependence. In this thesis, an alternative approach was adopted to the use of echosounder returns for bottom classification.
The approach used in this study is similar to,~ used in the commercial RoxAnn system. In grouping bottom types however, Multivariate analysis (Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis) was adopted instead of the allocation system normally used in the RoxAnn system, called RoxAnn squares. In addition, the adopted approach allowed for quality control over acoustic data before further analysis was undertaken. As a working hypothesis, it was assumed that on average 0 and aE2 = 0 where E1 and E2 are the roughness and hardness indices, respectively, and RO is the depth. For roughness index (E1), this was achieved by introducing a constant angular integration interval to the tail of the first OM returns whereas for hardness index (E2), this was achieved by introducing a constant depth integration interval. Since three different frequencies, i.e. 12, 38 and kHz, were operated, Principal Component Analysis was used here to reduce the dimensionality of roughness and hardness indices, formed from the three operated qu frequencies separately. The k-means technique was applied to the first principal component of roughness index and the first principal comp component of hardness index to produce separable seabed types. This produced four separable seabed types, namely soft-smooth, soft-rough, hard-smooth and hard-rough seabeds.
Principal Component Analysis was also used to reduce the dimensionality of the area backscattering coefficient sA, a relative measure of biomass of benthic mobile biota. The bottom classification results reported here appear to be robust in that, where independent ground truthing was available, acoustic classification was generally congruent with ground truth results. When investigating the relationship between derived bottom type and acoustically assessed total biomass of benthic mobile biota, no trend linking the two parameters, however, appears. Nevertheless, using the hierarchical agglomerative technique applied to a set of variables containing average first principal component of the area backscattering coefficient sA, the average first principal component of roughness and hardness indices, the centroids of first principal component of roughness and hardness indices associated with the four seabed types and species composition of fish group of the common species in trawl stations available, two main groups of quasi acoustic population are observed in the North West Shelf (NWS) study area and three groups are observed in the South East Fisheries (SEF) study area. The two main groups of quasi acoustic population in the NWS study area and the three main groups of quasi acoustic population in the study area are associated with the derived seabed types and fish groups of the common species.

Ända sen internets födelse och de första datavirusen dök upp har IT- och säkerhetsexperter insett behovet av att jobba tillsammans över nationsgränser. Behovet av att mötas, utbyta erfarenheter och bygga tillit mellan varandra har ledd till att olika expertnätverk av IT-incidenthanteringsteam (CERT/CSIRT) har vuxit fram internationellt och regionalt sedan 90-talet. Två exempel, som uppsatsen studerar, är The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (First) och det europeiska Task Force-CSIRT.  På senare tid har regeringar insett samma sak och sedan mitten av 00-taltet bildat mellantatliga, informella nätverk vad gäller IT-incidenthantering och cybersäkerhet. Två ytterligare exempel, vilket uppsatsen också studerar, är European Governmental CERTs (EGC) och Nordic CERT Cooperation (NCC).  EU tagit även tagit en större roll när det gäller gemensam krishantering. Komissionen och utrikestjänsten lanserade 2013 en cybersäkerhetsstrategi och la samtidigt förslag på ett direktiv för nätverks- och informationssäkerhet (NIS-direktivet) vilket blev verklighet 2016. I direktivet ingår ett EU-nätverk för nationella IT-incidenthanteringsteam (EU CSIRT-Network, EU-CNW), vilken uppsatsen studerar och särskilt jämför med tidigare, ovan nämnda, nätverk. Uppsatsen jämför tre förtroendemodeller för informationsdelning mellan IT-incidentshanteringsenheter, eller CERT/CSIRTs. Till de tre modellerna har fem olika nätverk för samarbete mellan CERT/CSIRTs kategoriserats, med hjälp av strukturerade intervjuer som genomfördes  med fyra personer med relevant bakgrund i ämnet. Undersökningen möjliggör en översiktlig jämförelse mellan de fem nätverken, och en specifik jämförelse av det nyligen skapade EU-nätverket för IT-incidentehantering.  Till sin hjälp drar uppstasen på begreppen sammarbetsdesign och tillit, vilka uppmärksamas av Fägestens (2010) forskning om underrättelsesamarbeten. Vidare operationaliseras jämförelsen efter Hollis (2010) studier av transgovernmental networks (TNGs), vilket granskas efter fyra variabler: medlemskap, struktur, autonomi och funktion. Undersökningen har identifierat tre kategorier, eller förtroendemodeller: den vidöppna metoden, den snäva metoden och den ålagda gemenskapen. Undersökningen har brottats med en skillnad i antalet öppna källor tillhörande de olika CERT-nätverken, vilket har påverkat jämförelsens metodologiska förutsättningar. Undersökningen bekräftade vikten av en frivillig, snäv krets med ett stängd eller kontrollerbart medlemskap som drivande för byggandet av förtroende mellan IT-incidenthanteringsteam. Därför bör EU:s nätverk för IT-incidenthantering vara något av det värsta av alla världar, eftersom det är en öppen krets med obligatoriskt, okontrollberbart medlemskap (om man bortser från EU-medlesmskapet i sig). Samtidigt antyder intervjumaterialet i studien på att EU-nätverket presterade över förväntan i kris, mot bakgrund av ovan variabler. Uppsatsen diskuterar därför EU:s IT-incidenthanteringsnätverk utifrån ett integrationsperspektiv – Mitranys funktionalism och Haas neo-funktionalism – där gemenskap blir ett värde i sig, snarare än operativt informationsutbyte. Detta kräver vidare framtida studier.

Includes abstract.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166-174).
In an era where knowledge is increasingly seen as an organization’s most valuable asset, many firms have implemented knowledge-management systems in an effort to capture, store, and disseminate knowledge across the firm. The creation and transfer of knowledge in an organization has become a critical factor in an organization’s success and competitiveness.

This thesis focuses on development of software for security incident reporting from GPON networks. The theoretical part introduces the principles of GPON and provides an introduction to security incidents. The practical part is focused on the selection of suitable open-source systems and the design of an application in Python for the creation of alerts. The output of the work is the deployment of TheHive, Cortex and MISP systems and the creation of an application enabling the creation of various types of alerts based on prepared template. The thesis is finalized by a detailed description of deployment, custom configuration and testing.

Public research institutions (PRIs) are tasked with generating new knowledge, as well as adding value to existing knowledge in order to come up with innovations that can contribute to national competitiveness. To this end, government provides discretionary or parliamentary grants to allow the public research institutions to execute their mandates by carrying out exploratory activities and exploitative activities in research and development.The study aimed to establish the role of the parliamentary grant in supporting the research and development endeavours of a public research institute, with a particular focus on the management of exploration and exploitation tensions in investing the parliamentary grant. The sustainability of the PRI was sus assessed using operating profits as a proxy. The relationships between levels of investment in exploratory and exploitative actives were assessed, as was the role of the innovation system in influencing the sustainability of the PRI. We use the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) the largest scientific research entity in South Africa, and its operational units as a case study.Consistent with information that is available in the literature, the data from this study shows that the discretionary grant plays a critical role as a funding stream for public research institutes, contributing to the effective execution of research and development activities of the entity. The discretionary grant is key in seeding new national competencies, and is a key initial investment in enabling the PRI to establish itself, generate outputs and outcomes that herald its competencies and thus position itself to earn other forms of income.The discretionary grant is invested for exploratory and exploitive activities. Exploratory activities generate new knowledge, which is necessary for competitiveness. Exploitative activities utilise existing knowledge to provide innovations that find utility in industries and the public sector. The manner in which the investment is split between exploration and exploitation was shown to be critical to the long term sustainability of the enterprise. Skewing investment in either exploration or exploitation alone is detrimental to sustainability.The optimal split of the discretionary grant between exploration and exploitation was found to be dependent on several factors, to include, the technology bases of the industries in which the entity operates and the connectivity and paths of knowledge flow in the innovation systems nationally and globally.Inability to earn other forms of income is in itself a threat to the long term sustainability, particularly in fiscally constrained environments that are typical of emerging economies. The ability to earn external income provides options for investment of the PG in building its capability base. Notable here is the fact that the absorptive capacity of the industry sector in the first place, the innovation system in which the entity operates and the connectedness of the entity within the system appear to have important influences on ability to earn other forms of income. In such cases, strategic decisions have to be made on whether the sector remains strategic enough for the country in deciding on continued investment.While the information derived from this study is very specific to the CSIR, a combination of the data and information in the literature provides insights that are applicable to other public research institutes, particularly in developing economies.
Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012.
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
unrestricted

This master's thesis describes methodologies used in malware forensic analysis including methods used in static and dynamic analysis. Based on those methods a tool intended to be used by Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRT) is designed to allow fast analysis and decisions regarding malware samples in security incident investigations. The design of this tool is thorougly described in the work along with the tool's requirements on which the tool design is based on. Based on the design a ForensIRT tool is implemented and then used to analyze a malware sample Cridex to demonstrate its capabilities. Finally the analysis results are compared to those of other comparable available malware forensics tools.

The Innovation Hub project is a strategic partnership between the Gauteng Provincial Government's Blue IQ initiative, and SERA, the Southern Education and Research Alliance, a partnership between the University of Pretoria and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. The site for the proposed development forms part of the Agricultural Research Farm of the University of Pretoria and calls for a synergy between urban development, architecture, and the natural surrounding. The Naledi 3D Virtual Reality factory forms part of numerous companies involved in cutting edge technology which is to be associated with the development. In this computer age, which can be compared to the industrial era in terms of the revolutionisation of our daily lives, architecture has to respond. Buildings need to be designed to ensure the productive interaction between man, machine and the natural environment. Copyright 2003, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Bergh, FS 2003, Hyperlink : the Naledi 3D virtual reality factory, MArch(Prof) dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11242003-105302 / >
Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2005.
Architecture
unrestricted

This thesis traces the changing course of locust and grasshopper outbreaks in southern Australia and relates them to environmental changes. It also examines the creation and use of scientific knowledge about locusts over more than a century of research. Together, these historical investigations show how the insects’ responses to environmental change influenced the course of ecological and agricultural science. Digitised newspaper records of locust occurrence allow a more complete reconstruction of historic plagues and a new interpretation of the species involved and the environmental correlates of their changing incidence. They also provide a different view of the scientific players who investigated locusts in Australia. These sources are complemented by the writings of many entomologists about locust outbreaks and ecologies from the 1840s to the 1970s. The popular and scientific sources reveal the complexity of ecological ideas, technologies and institutional settings, framed by the common material context of environmental change. This is a history of entomological, ecological and public agricultural science as well as an analysis of the environments in which the outbreaks developed. European settlers encountered grasshoppers and locusts soon after establishing pastoral and agricultural land use. Swarming populations developed patterns of occurrence that were observed by farmers and naturalists, and there is evidence that their incidence increased during the nineteenth century. Two species, Austroicetes cruciata and Chortoicetes terminifera, developed frequent outbreak populations on the southern grasslands, making them significant agricultural pests, but they responded differently to changes of climate, landscape and land use. The former swarmed almost annually soon after livestock altered grassland ecosystems within its range, but it declined during the twentieth century. The latter first swarmed across the southern grasslands in the 1870s, but has since maintained irregular outbreak populations through migratory exchanges. They are taxonomically related native locusts with a similar appearance but distinct ecologies. Untangling their identities was historically marked by scientific confusion. However, the two species can sometimes be distinguished in newspaper reports by diagnostic morphological features, and can often be separated by differences in their seasonal occurrence, abundance, phenology and behaviour. This thesis argues that the fundamental changes to grassy ecosystems resulting from the rapid expansion of the pastoral industry favoured the development of swarming populations of both Australian species. Evidence comes from early Aboriginal comments, thousands of newspaper and official reports, climatic sequences and the nature of landscape changes, as well as the subsequent contraction in outbreak extent and frequency when land use and land cover stabilised in the second half of the twentieth century. The writings of many investigators reveal overlapping trends in ecological and technological investigations, and place each player within their scientific era. These are examined in the context of international developments and the broader public discourse about locusts and the importance and relevance of science. In this long relationship of feedbacks, the materiality of the insects allowed scientists to discern their ecologies. Science directed government policy on how to respond and governments sponsored more science in managing the politics of successive agricultural crises.

This thesis presents a detailed study of the research activities of the CSIRO Division of Radiophysics Penrith and Dapto Solar Group, who, it will be demonstrated, achieved an international reputation in solar radiophysics during the period 1949 to 1964, by innovative design of observing equipment and by ground breaking investigations into the nature of metre wavelength solar radio bursts and the disturbances which give rise to them. An account of the planning, development and implementation of the world’s first radiospectrograph at the Penrith field station in 1949 and its extensions to increasingly lower frequencies at the Dapto field station from 1952 to 1963, as well as the first swept-frequency interferometer, is presented using archival material, personal reminiscences and published literature. The Penrith observations led to the first classification of Spectral Type I, II and III bursts. The observed frequencies of the leading edges of the slowly drifting Type II bursts and the rapidly drifting Type III bursts were converted to radial heights by using a standard coronal density model and by assuming that the radio emission occurs at the fundamental plasma frequency. This was referred as the plasma hypothesis. The resulting height-time plots suggested that the disturbances exciting the radio emissions moved outwards through the corona with velocities of the order of 1000 km/sec for Type II bursts and 100,000 km/sec for Type III bursts. This was the first evidence for the ejection of corpuscular material to such great heights in the corona and it was suggested that the Type II disturbance upon reaching the Earth might be responsible for initiating geomagnetic storms which disrupt radio communication. Likewise the fast moving Type III disturbance was considered to be a possible candidate for solar cosmic rays, although the exact nature of the particles involved in the emission of Type II and III bursts was not known at that time. The development of an improved radiospectrograph at Dapto led to the discovery in 1954 of fundamental and second harmonic components in both Type II and III bursts. This discovery gave support to the plasma hypothesis and allowed the height-time plots to be extended to greater heights in the corona. Further low frequency extensions to the spectrograph from 1956 to 1961 pushed the investigations to even greater coronal heights until it was established that the fast moving electron streams responsible for the Type III burst moved virtually unimpeded out to heights of at least 3 solar radii above the photosphere. This height was the limit that could be observed by ground based radio observations because of absorption effects in the Earth’s ionosphere at frequencies below 7 MHz. Also, the Type II disturbance was traced to similar heights indicating that the shock wave responsible also escaped into interplanetary space. Final confirmation of the plasma hypothesis was obtained with the development of the swept-frequency interferometer at Dapto in 1957. The radial heights found subsequently for Type II and III sources were in good agreement with coronal density models assuming, as before, that the emission occurs at the fundamental and second harmonic plasma level. An earlier experimental model of the interferometer, the first of its kind, had been installed at Dapto in 1954 for the study of radio scintillations from the source Cygnus A. Later, spacecraft observations confirmed that the Type III bursts were associated with electron streams travelling outwards towards the earth along Archimedes spiral paths, at speeds of the order of c/3 in agreement with the earlier Dapto results. Similarly, the Type II burst was found sometimes to be associated with interplanetary shock waves and ejected plasma clouds known as coronal mass ejections (CME’s). The latter are considered now to be the initiating cause of the Geomagnetic disturbance. The close association of Type II-IV bursts with CME’s is why ground based radiospectrographs are still used today to monitor space weather. The Dapto observations also led to the classification of a new type of burst called the Type V which sometimes followed Type III bursts. A model was proposed for this event in which some of the Type III electrons became trapped in coronal magnetic fields to produce the longer duration and broader bandwidth Type V burst. Other phenomena discovered at Dapto included the reverse drift pairs (RDPs) which were closely associated with Type I storms and the splitband and herring-bone structure in Type II bursts. The RDPs were thought to be evidence for radio echoes in the corona while several magnetic theories were proposed for the split-band structure in Type II bursts. The herringbone features were found to be highly polarized suggesting that the Type II shock wave excited streams of fast electrons as it moved across magnetic field lines in the corona. The only metre wavelength burst not discovered by the Australian group was the Type IV, first classified by the French in 1957, who attributed the emission to synchrotron radiation from electrons spiralling along magnetic field lines in the corona. Dapto interferometer observations revealed that the Type IV had two components, an early moving source, called the moving Type IV burst, followed by a stationary source called the stationary Type IV burst. A model was proposed to account for the observed characteristics of the moving Type IV burst, which involved an ejected plasmoid, containing relativistic electrons generating synchrotron radiation, behind a Type II shock wave. The second stationary component lasted several hours before degenerating into a Type I storm. It was assumed that the fast electrons generating plasma emission in these stationary sources were trapped in magnetic fields above the flare region. Spectral observations of slowly drifting chains of Type I bursts were taken as evidence that the emitting electrons were excited by Alfven waves in the corona. Although the Solar Group concentrated mainly on the collection and interpretation of the observed properties of solar radio bursts at metre wavelengths, several important contributions of a theoretical nature also were produced and theories reviewed. These concerned the propagation of electron streams and shock waves in the corona, as well as the conditions required for coherent plasma wave emission which occurs in Type II and Type III bursts. Also a two phase acceleration process for flare particles was propose based mainly on metre wavelength observations of solar bursts. By the early 1960s the Division of Radiophysics had been granted funding to build a radioheliograph at Culgoora, NSW. As a result the Dapto Field Station was closed down in 1964. Solar radio observations continued at Culgoora from 1967 until 1984.

To investigate the variability and potential climate change impacts in the Southern Ocean I use output from the c10, c15 and c16 model runs of the CSIRO and Antarctic CRC coupled ocean-atmosphere model. 300 years of the output is reported here, after a spin up of approximately 1000 years. Modifications over the earlier versions of this model (c10 and c15), including improved topography in waters south of Australia make the c16 model run more suitable for examining natural variability in the southern ocean. We use potential temperature, salinity and velocity (21 depths, 66 longitudes and 29 latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere Ocean) and surface heat flux (66 longitudes and 29 latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere). Hovmoeller diagrams of potential temperature anomalies along a streamline show circumnavigating propagation. At 400m, the strongest anomaly timescales are 4-5 years (interannual anomalies) and take approximately 20 years to travel around the globe. The anomaly strength is not uniform along this streamline and the strongest anomalies occur in the longitude band 100 to 200°E. Below 1000m, decadal variability is the dominant signal and persists to at least 2000m. Scatterplots show a clear relationship between ACC current speed and phase speed throughout the water column. This relationship is strongest at intermediate depths (500 to 1500m) where anomalies are most strongly advected and least subject to other influences such as convection, mixing and mid-ocean ridges. Using HEOF analysis revealed two dominant modes of variability in the Southern Ocean. First, a mode characterised by zonal wavenumber 3, interannual anomaly in temperature and salinity on shallow to intermediate depth and density surfaces. Interannual variability of wavenumber 2 or 3 has been described in studies using observations or models of the Southern Ocean. Also, significant correlation between temperature and pressure anomalies occurred on density surfaces. The pressure pattern is 180˚ out of phase with the temperature changes on density surfaces. This is similar to a mechanism proposed by (White et al., 1998) for the ACW. The second mode is characterised by zonal wavenumber 2, decadal variation at all intermediate to deep depths and density surfaces. Overall, the decadal signal is the dominant feature of the Southern Ocean, with more total energy in this mode throughout most of the water column. Variability in several atmospheric properties including wind stress, heat and salinity fluxes is examined. The heat flux and meridional wind component showed dominant modes of interannual variability with zonal wavenumber 3. These two properties have been shown to play a significant role in determining SSTs in the Southern Ocean. The results indicates that heat flux and meridional wind are important for creating zonal wavenumber 3 interannual variability in resultant SSTs. The second mode, consists of a decadal signal with dominant zonal wavenumber 2. This suggests that slower timescales may occur in the ocean due to natural filtering of anomalies such that interannual signals are absorbed and only the longer term decadal signals remain. The change in dominance from a signal with spatial structure zonal wavenumber 3 to zonal wavenumber 2 is more complex. Exploring the possible reasons for a zonal wavenumber 2 structure required investigation of convection regions in the Southern Ocean. An estimate of mixed layer depth revealed two dominant regions of wintertime convection. The first begins in the southeast Indian Sector of the Southern Ocean and continues to below Australia. The second region is the Pacific Ocean to the east of Drake Passage. These two regions are important for generation of SAMW and AAIW respectively. In essence, these two regions of convection act like highways in a myriad of surburban streets whereby anomalies at the surface can quickly access the deeper depths (compared with anomalies at the surface in adjacent regions of low convection). A simple model is used to test the assumption (Chapter 4). Forcing this model with interannual, zonal wavenumber 3 heat flux anomalies and applying a convection system of two convective regions, we obtain a resultant subsurface anomaly with zonal wavenumber 2. The hypothesis that the distribution of convection regions influences the zonal wavenumber structure of anomaly was shown to be reasonable. For the third aim, I compared warming and deepening signals seen in the transient model run with a control run. There is a consistent pattern of cooling on isopycnals in shallow/Mode waters and warming on isopycnals in AAIW in the transient run. This coincides with a general deepening of density surfaces. The fingerprint experiment reveals statistical significance in these results indicating that the simulation of CO₂ changes indeed produces changes to Southern Hemisphere water masses with the described spatial pattern. Qualitative comparison with studies of observed changes show a similar pattern of change.

There is an increasing demand for scientists to make the results of their research available for scrutiny by members of the public, and for scientists to demystify science. In response to this pressure, research organisations are adopting a variety of methods to communicate with the public. One approach taken by CSIRO in the mid 1990s was to build a multipurpose building, the Discovery Centre, which incorporated an exhibition, an education centre, and laboratories that featured floor to ceiling glass walls so visitors could view researchers at work. This sub-thesis documents the design phase of the Discovery building and looks at how the researchers feel about working in a ‘lab-in-view’ laboratory. It also addresses some aspects of internal communication between researchers in Discovery laboratories. The impact of being more or less in view of the public was identified as well as the role of increased contact for informal communication opportunities afforded by the convenient location of the cafe. Opportunities for further research are also identified.

The increasing importance of the Internet as an integral part of contemporary society has stressed the need to formalize the process of response to security incidents that accompany it inseparably. Security teams of the CERT/CSIRT type are established at different levels for this purpose. These teams respond to reports from their constituency and cooperate with other teams. This thesis introduces the reader to the issues these teams deal with and analyzes their needs in resolving threats and problems related to DNS and its domains. Part of the work is an overview of the basic existing tools to support the work of CERT/CSIRT teams to solve problems with domains, the design of a tool Malicious Domain Manager and description of its implementation. The results of test run of this tool by CZ.NIC-CSIRT team show its contribution to security of DNS.

This thesis presents a comparison of Ks estimates obtained by three classical devices, namely the double ring infiltrometer (DRI), the Guelph version of the constant-head well permeameter (GP) and the CSIRO version of the ten- sion permeameter (CTP). A distinguishing feature of this study is the use of steady deep flow, obtained from controlled rainfall-runoff experiments, as a benchmark of Ks at "local" and field/plot scales to assess the reliability of the above methods. Spatially representative estimates of Ks are needed for simulating catchment scale surface runoff and infiltration. Classical methods for measuring Ks at the catchment scale are time-consuming. Important insights can be obtained by experiments aimed at understanding the controls of Ks in an agricultural setting and identifying the minimum number of samples required for estimating representative plot scale Ks values. This thesis presents results from a total of 131 double-ring infiltrometer measurements at 12 plots in a small Austrian catchment. Classical field techniques to determine Ks at the plot and catchment scales are complex and time-consuming, therefore the development of pedotransfer functions, PTFs, to derive Ks from easily available soil properties is of utmost importance. However, PTFs have been generally developed at the point scale, while application of hydrological modeling requires field scale estimates. In this thesis, values of field-scale saturated hydraulic conductivity, K ̄s , measured in a number of areas within the Austrian catchment, have been used to derive two PTFs by multiple linear regression (PTFMLR) and ridge regression (PTFR). Two alternative approaches have been used: (A) soil properties have been first interpolated with successive application of the PTFs, (B) the PTFs have been first applied in the sites where soil properties were available and then interpolated.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering 2016
The nozzle contour profiles of the CSIR’s supersonic wind tunnel (high speed wind tunnel) were designed to produce smooth, uniform and shock-free flow in the operating section of the facility. The existing profiles produce weak waves in the test section region which induces flow gradients and flow angularities in the air flow, effectively degrading the air flow quality, which in turn perturbs the wind tunnel data. The wind tunnel geometry and tunnel constraints were employed in accordance with the method of characteristics technique to design the supersonic nozzle profiles. The Sivells’ nozzle design method was deemed the most feasible which calculates the profile downstream of the inflection point. The throat block profile was amalgamated with this profile to yield a profile from the throat to the test section. A boundary layer correction was applied to the profiles to account for viscous effects which cause a Mach number reduction from the desired test section Mach number. An automatic computation was used for the profile design and a computational method analysed the Mach distribution, flow angularity and density gradient (to determine the occurrence of shocks and expansions) of the profiles implemented in the tunnel, for the full Mach number range of the HSWT. The methods used, achieved uniform and shock-free flow such that the Mach number and flow angularity were within the acceptable quality limits of the HSWT.

Many researchers (Cronin&Taylor: 1992, 1994, Grönroos, 1984; Parasuraman, Zeithaml&Berry: 1985, 1988) have devoted considerable attention to the development and testing of models for the measurement of service quality. Although some researchers (Chang&Yeh, 2002; Otto&Ritchie, 1996; Sergio&Hudson 2006) paid attention to service quality research within the tourism industry, little is known about service quality research within the business tourism sector and specifically at an International Convention Centre (ICC). Service quality focuses on the standard of service delivery and the interaction between the customer and the service provider in order to ensure that the customer’s expectations are met (Hernon, 2001:1; Palmer, 2005:64). The literature addresses several models for service quality for example “SERVQUAL” (Parasuraman et al., 1985, 1988), the “Servicescape” model developed by Booms and Bitner (1981:39) and the “Servuction” model (Eiglier&Langeard, 1987 in Palmer, 2005:82). SERVQUAL plays a more important role in the measurement of the service quality at a service firm, i.e. an ICC, than “Servicescape”. SERVQUAL focuses on five service quality dimensions: (1) tangible; (2) reliability; (3) responsiveness; (4) assurance and (5) empathy as identified by Parasuraman et al. (1988:23), while “Servicescape” covers the physical features of a service firm. In this study the researcher seeks to add some conceptual insight to the theoretical literature on service quality. This paper explores the use of the SERVQUAL model at an ICC as a diagnostic tool and examines the difficulties that arise with regards to the measurement of the gaps in service quality in the convention consumer market segments, both domestically and internationally. Suggestions are made that the full value of SERVQUAL may not be fully realised if the measurement processes are not well executed. It may be easy to adapt the SERVQUAL model and implement it in a survey (i.e. the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) ICC) and continue to measure the outcomes, but if that is not acted on it becomes a futile exercise.
Dissertation (MCom (Tourism Management))--University of Pretoria, 2007.
Tourism Management
unrestricted

Thesis (M.M. (Innovation Studies))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2015.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the process that Public Research Organisations (PROs) in South Africa, such as the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), use in building technological capabilities. PROs in industrialising countries face a number of challenges such as limited access to resources, cut-backs in government funding, lack of relevance to industry needs and failure to transfer technology to industry as well as changing government priorities. In the specific case of the CSIR Biosciences Unit, the above mentioned challenges have had a detrimental effect on building technological capabilities, and are likely to have a compounded effect on how technological capabilities are built within the CSIR. One approach that has been suggested in the literature reviewed in the case of industrialising countries that could assist in understanding the challenges currently faced by the CSIR Biosciences Unit is to contrast the elements of the balanced Technological Capability Building (TCB) system model with an unbalanced TCB system model. The objective of this research is therefore to understand the factors that promote or impede technological capability building in a PRO in South Africa. The study uses the TCB model as a reference to investigate how this is done in the context of the selected case study, but it goes further to explore how the TCB model is actualised/implemented in this particular PRO, investigating how a lack of technological capabilities impacts on its overall performance. Much has been written about how best to develop technological capabilities in general. However, there is limited empirical evidence on the process through which capability building is done within public research organisations in industrialising countries. Therefore, little is known about the specifics of the process in these contexts, including considerations such as speed and decision making in the capability building process. Public Research Organisations (PROs) in such countries use highly sophisticated technology and machinery, a majority of which is sourced internationally, in order to carry out their developmental mandate. As a result, the technology and operational expertise also emanates from outside of industrialising countries. ii In this study, empirical data from the CSIR Biosciences Unit is interrogated and analysed by employing a qualitative methodology in order to gain an indepth understanding of how this process works in a PRO based in South Africa. Most of the empirical literature that has been explored by several authors and scholars primarily deals with how organisations in industrialised countries build technological capabilities, but there is very limited literature and empirical data on how public research institutions in industrialising countries build their own technological capabilities. In conclusion, the findings of this research project are in general agreement with the literature, which indicates that organisations that deploy a balanced and effective approach to TCB with equal attention given to internal and external processes are likely to yield positive results in terms of improved effectiveness. However, this study goes further to demonstrate that the more fundamental issues in this particular case are limited funding, ineffective and inconsistent leadership and a lack of retention of scarce skills.

Science and Art have a history of distinctive difference and opposing notions of experimentation. Nevertheless these ‘two cultures’, as described by C. P. Snow (1959), have more in common than might be supposed. Both are highly creative, both are exploratory, both have flashes of brilliance. They can be a perfect complement to each other, as has been shown over the long period in which the two disciplines have influenced each other. It is surprising, therefore, that ‘scienceart’ or ‘artscience’ have not been greatly studied as a ‘third culture’ (Miller, 2014). It is in this interactive space between the disciplines that this research study is focused. It is a study of communication of science, the expression of science through art, and art through science. Three case studies of communicating science through art are discussed in this thesis. Working in the fields of art and science together, the works in these studies used the art to express the science across sectors of the public, research organisations and scientists themselves. Each case study addresses a research question about the communication of science and in turn discusses the creation of the art to achieve this communication. All three case studies are linked, in that each sought to communicate with different publics in different ways to convey the science behind the artworks. The art works themselves are included as part of this thesis. The first case study, entitled FingerCodes, concerns a series of works which use the fingerprint as a foundation for expressions of identity. This idea is carried further with an audience of young children, to discover whether the scientific notion of a fingerprint can assist in their own expressions of identity through art. Two workshops with children are described. The second case study, entitled Titanium Insects, describes a collaboration between a scientist and an artist to inform both the science and the art. In this case, the art work intersects with entomological research. The case study examines the creative relationship between artist and scientist and its impact collaboratively as well as independently; how that collaboration was fruitful in facilitating an interdisciplinary approach; and the associated outcomes and benefits of such a collaboration. This third case study, StellrScope, extends the scope and depth of science art intersection through an extensive study of wheat science innovation over one hundred years, which resulted in a public artwork in a national science museum. The question addressed in this research was whether an artist in a scientific organisation can act as a catalyst for the production of art science outreach. The thesis describes how this collaboration successfully provided an opportunity to communicate the scientific story and the research to the public. The thesis makes recommendations for future practice and concludes with a new template which can serve as a model for similar collaborations.

Thesis (M.M. (Innovation Studies))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2014.
Science councils in South Africa have a mandate to produce R&D that contributes to the improvement of the quality of life of the South African population through science and technology (S&T). However, science councils seem to respond to the demands of the funders at the expense of user needs and priorities. The purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which S&T produced by science councils is relevant to social needs of users. Using the case study approach, the case of the CSIR Built Environment (BE) operating unit was selected for the study, with a specific focus on water provision projects. Data were collected from users of technology (individuals and focus groups), stakeholders in the communities, as well as the CSIR as an organisation. The study explores the implications of better integration of social dimensions into the study and practice of S&T. It is the researcher’s view that what is needed is a conscious and determined reorientation of science, technology and innovation to tackle these societal problems. The study, by focusing on social relevance makes a case that there is a need for greater attention on the political and even ideological content of S&T production activities and the interactions of science councils with users. This should include issues of power, control and ownership of resources, as well as governance of the S&T production process. Science councils are likely to improve the social relevance of the S&T they produce by increasing the consideration of the context and its implications when developing science and technology. Science councils are also likely to close the gap between the technology and the users. Participatory approaches to development are recognized as inherently superior to technocratic ones. A case is made for user involvement in determining and shaping S&T in line with the participatory development approach which advocates that S&T must address the priorities of user needs in order to be socially relevant. The social relevance of S&T produced by science councils in South Africa based on the case of the CSIR BE unit water management project can be improved. Overall, there was an opportunity for the CSIR to improve the relevance of the S&T it produces by being more effective in managing its interactions with users and stakeholders.

Conventional casting alloys Al-7Si-Mg A356/7 contain between 6.5 and 7.5% Si, together with 0.25-0.7% Mg and are used for critical castings in the automotive and aerospace industries. These alloys are also the most popular alloys used for semi-solid metal (SSM) forming due to good castability and fluidity imparted by the large volumes of the Al-Si eutectic. Despite their industrial importance, there is a lack of detailed research work revealing precipitate micro- and nanostructural evolution during aging of these alloys compared with the Al-Mg-Si 6000 series wrought alloys. This study characterises the heat treatment response of SSM-processed Al-7Si-Mg alloys in comparison with conventionally liquid cast alloys (investment casting and gravity die casting). It is shown that, provided that the maximum quantity of the alloy’s Mg is placed into solid solution during solution treatment, and that the alloy’s Fe content is within specification, the response to age hardening of Al-7Si-Mg alloys is independent of the processing technique used. The nanostructural evolution of Al- 7Si-Mg alloys after artificial aging with and without natural pre-aging has been characterized using transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography and correlated with hardness and mechanical tensile properties. The number densities and Mg:Si ratios of solute clusters, GP zones and β"-needles were determined. The heat treatment response of SSM-processed casting alloys A356/7 alloys are also compared with SSM-processed Al-Mg-Si 6000 series wrought alloys, with the advantage of having similar globular microstructures. The high Si-content of the casting alloys compared to the wrought alloys offers several advantages, including a faster artificial aging response (shorter T6 aging cycles), higher strength for comparable Mg contents and less sensitivity to prior natural aging on peak strength. Finally, an age-hardening model was developed for the Al-7Si-Mg alloys, including a method of incorporating the effects of changes in Mg-content on the aging curves.
Thesis (PhD(Eng))--University of Pretoria, 2011.
Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering
unrestricted

M.Tech. (Construction Management)
This research provides an overview of intra-organisational centralised/decentralised structures and inter-organisational consortia. It then aims to provide a theoretical explanation of Management Shared Services, prior to providing case study evidence of management shared services performance and proposed areas of improvement, comprising business units and services departments of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. The research provides empirical evidence of the proposed improvement areas of selected processes of management shared services as a viable structural option for improving services provided to the business units and a starter to currently untapped reservoir of potential research. It suggests an additional improvement options to be considered in determining the optimum management shared services model and to provide business case evidence and suggestions for optimum usage of the management shared services. The research assessed the actual level of performance of Management Shared Services Unit in order to provide a basis on which to identify potentials for efficiently improving and optimising existing Management Shared Services Unit. The research identified two areas as success areas in the current set-up and six other areas as requiring improvement if Management Shared Services Unit is to serve the purpose of providing non-core services to the Business Units. The first area of success is the organisation, governance and compliance in the Management Shared Services Unit. The second is in the area systems and technology. The areas identified by research as requiring improvement are strategy, customer relations, human resources, business processes, performance management and continuous improvement.

Pavement layers are constructed using a combination of materials, of which rock aggregates constitute a larger proportion. Current understanding is that the performance of pavements is dependent on the aggregate shape properties which include form, angularity and surface texture. However, direct and accurate measurements of aggregate shape properties remain a challenge. The current standard test methods used to evaluate aggregate shape properties cannot measure these properties accurately. Among the reasons contributing to the difficulties in the determination of aggregate shape properties is irregular shapes of aggregate particles. Therefore, current research efforts focus on developing accurate, reliable and innovative techniques for evaluation of aggregate shape properties. The work presented in this dissertation contributes to the current innovative research at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa, to automate the measurement of aggregate shape properties. The CSIR’s present research is aimed at improving pavement performance through better materials characterisation, using laser scanning and advanced modelling techniques. The objective of this study was to investigate improved techniques for the determination of aggregate shape properties using analytical and laser scanning techniques. A three-dimensional (3-D) laser scanning device was used for scanning six types of aggregate samples commonly used for construction of pavements in South Africa. The laser scan data were processed to reconstruct 3-D models of the aggregate particles. The models were further analysed to determine the shape properties of the aggregates. Two analysis approaches were used in this study. The first approach used the aggregate’s physical properties (surface area, volume and orthogonal dimensions) measured by using laser scanning technique to compute three different indices to describe the form of aggregates. The computed indices were the sphericity computed by using surface area and volume of an aggregate particle, the sphericity computed by using orthogonal dimensions of an aggregate particle, and the flat and elongated ratio computed by using longest and smallest dimensions of an aggregate particle. The second approach employed a spherical harmonic analysis technique to analyse the aggregate laser scan data to determine aggregate form, angularity and surface texture indices. A MATLABTM code was developed for analysis of laser scan data, using the spherical harmonic analysis technique. The analyses contained in this dissertation indicate that the laser-based aggregate shape indices were able to describe the shape properties of the aggregates studied. Furthermore, good correlations were observed between the spherical harmonic form indices and the form indices determined by using the aggregate’s physical properties. This shows that aggregate laser scanning is a versatile technique for the determination of various indices to describe aggregate shape properties. Further validation of the laser-based technique was achieved by correlating the laser-based aggregate form indices with the results from two current standard tests; the flakiness index and the flat and elongated particles ratio tests. The laser-based form indices correlated linearly with both, the flakiness index and the flat and elongated particles ratio test results. The observed correlations provide an indication of the validity of laser-based aggregate shape indices. It is concluded that the laser based scanning technique could be employed for direct and accurate determination of aggregate shape properties.
Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2013.
gm2013
Civil Engineering
Unrestricted

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is rapidly gathering momentum in the private, public and non-profit sectors over the last few years. First, the old business concept of placing profits and shareholders before principles is being replaced towards more accountability to shareholders and stakeholders. Second, running a business has become more public and a privilege dependent on the will of stakeholders. Third, it has become external where people affected by a firm’s decision have a voice in decision making. These reasons make CSR a strategic business imperative for sustainable growth of many firms. In CSR, paradoxically, there exists a lot of literature with an equal dearth of studies. Several streams of research and theory have been followed. One line of research has focused on the relationship between CSR and specific organizational field like financial performance or business ethics. Exploration of CSR as a comprehensive socio-economic cultural initiative remains limited. Another line of research has developed various conceptual and theoretical models, based on the debate which ranges between two extreme views, namely the classical(the business of business is business) and the socioeconomic(obligation to society for its existence). However, there is no empirical investigation on these differing(or dominant) views. A third line of CSR research is comparative studies, albeit limited and mostly based on web based, secondary data. Lastly, formal policy led collaboration between corporate and government remains largely unexplored. Specifically, in India, where CSR has the potential to usher in major social development, the focus it receives in development literature is distinctly low. This study recognizes these gaps and attempts a comparative study, taking an empirical approach, and furthermore, explores the larger area of CSR and public policy. The following objectives were defined: • Empirically investigate firms operating in India in order to understand their dominant(and differentiating) corporate social responsibility orientations. • To apply the Oliver E.Williamson’s (1985) framework of decision making (as illustrated by David Kreps) on corporate social responsibility. • To determine the nature of government policies and practices that will bring about more effective CSR by firms operating in India. These objectives were investigated through a questionnaire survey administered to the CEO/CSR head (decision maker) of those organizations which undertook CSR initiatives over a period of six months. The response rate was 17.7%. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Factor Analysis, Yate’s Chi-square test and Kruskal Wallis test were used to test the hypotheses and propositions developed. Investigations on overall CSR orientation (CSRO) of firms operating in India, through the Williamson’s framework, highlighted transaction cost economic as the dominant CSRO of firms operating in India. However these were variations according to country of origin. Significant differences in CSRO were also found according to ownership, size and nature of industry. However firms did not significantly differ on their social initiatives. To the extent that strategic concerns are important, the strategic choice of corporate social initiative was governed by considerations of the local institutional environment, and not their social orientation. Investigations on government policies for effective CSR practices highlighted corporate desire for a facilitative government approach(versus collaborative or regulatory). Firms wanted government facilitation in stakeholder management, publicity and endorsement, framing formal rules for community welfare and social disclosure. These results have implications for the industry as well as national development. Conclusions and implications of these results are discussed, and conceptual and methodological avenues for further research are illustrated.