The use of graphics processing units (GPUs) in general-purpose computation (GPGPU) is a growing field. GPU instruction sets, while implementing a graphics pipeline, draw from a range of single instruction multiple datastream (SIMD) architectures characteristic of the heyday of supercomputers. Yet only one of these SIMD instruction sets has been of application on a wide enough range of problems to survive the era when the full range of supercomputer design variants was being explored: vector instructions. This paper proposes a reconceptualization of the GPU as a multicore design with minimal exotic modes of parallelism so as to make GPGPU truly general.
{"title":"How General-Purpose can a GPU be?","authors":"P. Machanick","doi":"10.18489/SACJ.V0I57.347","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18489/SACJ.V0I57.347","url":null,"abstract":"The use of graphics processing units (GPUs) in general-purpose computation (GPGPU) is a growing field. GPU instruction sets, while implementing a graphics pipeline, draw from a range of single instruction multiple datastream (SIMD) architectures characteristic of the heyday of supercomputers. Yet only one of these SIMD instruction sets has been of application on a wide enough range of problems to survive the era when the full range of supercomputer design variants was being explored: vector instructions. \u0000 \u0000This paper proposes a reconceptualization of the GPU as a multicore design with minimal exotic modes of parallelism so as to make GPGPU truly general.","PeriodicalId":55859,"journal":{"name":"South African Computer Journal","volume":"57 1","pages":"113-117"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67990658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The purpose of this study was to investigate approaches (techniques and technologies) for the coordination of collaborative tasks using synchronous gesture manipulation. Business Process Modelling (BPM) tasks are often performed in teams of modellers who need to collaborate with each other in order to coordinate and integrate their individual contributions into the various process models in a co-located environment. These collaborative BPM tasks were used as a case study in order to develop the artifact (the BPM-Touch approach) as a proof of concept. The BPM-Touch approach allows for the coordination and collaboration of BPM tasks in co-located modelling teams using synchronous gesture manipulation approaches. The Design Science Research (DSR) methodology was used and several cycles of developing and evaluating the artifact took place. This paper reports on the last cycle and set of evaluations. The proposed approach was implemented in a BPM software package in order to provide empirical validation. Usability evaluations of the software were undertaken with both students and BPM professionals as participants. The empirical results of the evaluations revealed that the participants found the approach to be effective and rated the usability and satisfaction of the collaboration and gesture manipulation aspects of the software positively.
{"title":"Synchronous gesture manipulation for collaboration and coordination of co-located Business Process Modelling","authors":"B. Scholtz, A. Calitz, Irene Snyman","doi":"10.18489/SACJ.V0I57.269","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18489/SACJ.V0I57.269","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this study was to investigate approaches (techniques and technologies) for the coordination of collaborative tasks using synchronous gesture manipulation. Business Process Modelling (BPM) tasks are often performed in teams of modellers who need to collaborate with each other in order to coordinate and integrate their individual contributions into the various process models in a co-located environment. \u0000 \u0000These collaborative BPM tasks were used as a case study in order to develop the artifact (the BPM-Touch approach) as a proof of concept. The BPM-Touch approach allows for the coordination and collaboration of BPM tasks in co-located modelling teams using synchronous gesture manipulation approaches. The Design Science Research (DSR) methodology was used and several cycles of developing and evaluating the artifact took place. \u0000 \u0000This paper reports on the last cycle and set of evaluations. The proposed approach was implemented in a BPM software package in order to provide empirical validation. Usability evaluations of the software were undertaken with both students and BPM professionals as participants. The empirical results of the evaluations revealed that the participants found the approach to be effective and rated the usability and satisfaction of the collaboration and gesture manipulation aspects of the software positively.","PeriodicalId":55859,"journal":{"name":"South African Computer Journal","volume":"57 1","pages":"90-112"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67990729","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper studies the output of South African universities in terms of computing-related doctorates in order to determine trends in numbers of doctorates awarded and to identify strong doctoral study research areas. Data collected from a variety of sources relating to Computing doctorates conferred since the late 1970s was used to compare the situation in Computing with that of all doctorates. The number of Computing doctorates awarded has increased considerably over the period of study. Nearly three times as many doctorates were awarded in the period 2010–2014 as in 2000–2004. The universities producing the most Computing doctorates were either previously “traditional” universities or comprehensive universities formed by amalgamating a traditional research university with a technikon. Universities of technology have not yet produced many doctorates as they do not have a strong research tradition. The analysis of topic keywords using ACM Computing classifications is preliminary but shows that professional issues are dominant in Information Systems, models are often built in Computer Science and several topics, including computing in education, are evident in both IS and CS. The relevant data is in the public domain but access is difficult as record keeping was generally inconsistent and incomplete. In addition, electronic databases at universities are not easily searchable and access to HEMIS data is limited. The database built for this paper is more inclusive in terms of discipline-related data than others.
{"title":"A study of computing doctorates in South Africa from 1978 to 2014 : research article","authors":"I. Sanders, P. Alexander","doi":"10.18489/SACJ.V0I57.294","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18489/SACJ.V0I57.294","url":null,"abstract":"This paper studies the output of South African universities in terms of computing-related doctorates in order to determine trends in numbers of doctorates awarded and to identify strong doctoral study research areas. Data collected from a variety of sources relating to Computing doctorates conferred since the late 1970s was used to compare the situation in Computing with that of all doctorates. \u0000 \u0000The number of Computing doctorates awarded has increased considerably over the period of study. Nearly three times as many doctorates were awarded in the period 2010–2014 as in 2000–2004. The universities producing the most Computing doctorates were either previously “traditional” universities or comprehensive universities formed by amalgamating a traditional research university with a technikon. Universities of technology have not yet produced many doctorates as they do not have a strong research tradition. \u0000 \u0000The analysis of topic keywords using ACM Computing classifications is preliminary but shows that professional issues are dominant in Information Systems, models are often built in Computer Science and several topics, including computing in education, are evident in both IS and CS. \u0000 \u0000The relevant data is in the public domain but access is difficult as record keeping was generally inconsistent and incomplete. In addition, electronic databases at universities are not easily searchable and access to HEMIS data is limited. The database built for this paper is more inclusive in terms of discipline-related data than others.","PeriodicalId":55859,"journal":{"name":"South African Computer Journal","volume":"57 1","pages":"58-89"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67990416","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
When I wrote my above-mentioned letter to the editor of SACJ several years ago (2007), I had not been aware of the fact that the Austrian computer pioneer Heinz Zemanek (1920-2014) had published an article of the same title already in the year 1972 in the Management Informatics journal. In that publication, Zemanek had characterised informatics as a new type of an engineering discipline - i.e.: the informatician emerges as new type of engineer for abstract objects (instead of material devices). His notion of 'abstract object' Zemanek had defined already four years earlier in the journal Elektronische Rechenanlagen (1968): abstract objects can generally represent both the structure of linguistic expressions as well as the various sub-states of finite automata. Zemanek reconfirmed his point of view in the Nachrichtentechnische Zeitschrift (1973), in which he stated with regard to the goals and purposes of informatics: "man braucht dazu Ingenieure neuer Art: sie hantieren mit abstrakten Objekten, wie sie bisher nur in der Mathematik vorkamen". Though further definitions of the term 'informatics' have been numerous since then, Zemanek's early definition continues to possess (i.m.h.o.) a true core, and is also by-and-large compatible with the opinion which I had expressed previously about this topic in this journal.
当我在几年前(2007年)给SACJ的编辑写这封信时，我并不知道奥地利计算机先驱海因茨·泽曼内克(Heinz Zemanek, 1920-2014)早在1972年就在《管理信息学》杂志上发表了一篇同名文章。在该出版物中，Zemanek将信息学描述为一种新型的工程学科-即:信息学家作为抽象对象(而不是物质设备)的新型工程师而出现。泽马内克的“抽象对象”概念早在四年前就已经在《电子研究》(1968)杂志上定义:抽象对象通常既可以表示语言表达的结构，也可以表示有限自动机的各种子状态。泽曼内克在1973年出版的《新技术时代》(nachrichtenttechnische Zeitschrift)中重申了他的观点，他在书中谈到了信息学的目标和目的:“man braucht dazu Ingenieure neuer Art: sie hantieren mit abstrakten object, wie sie bisher nur in der Mathematik vorkamen”。尽管此后对“信息学”一词的进一步定义有很多，但泽马内克的早期定义仍然拥有(i.m.h.o)一个真正的核心，并且大体上与我之前在本刊中就这一主题所表达的观点相一致。
{"title":"BELATED COMMENT to: `What is Informatics?' (2007)","authors":"S. Gruner","doi":"10.18489/SACJ.V0I57.342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18489/SACJ.V0I57.342","url":null,"abstract":"When I wrote my above-mentioned letter to the editor of SACJ several years ago (2007), I had not been aware of the fact that the Austrian computer pioneer Heinz Zemanek (1920-2014) had published an article of the same title already in the year 1972 in the Management Informatics journal. In that publication, Zemanek had characterised informatics as a new type of an engineering discipline - i.e.: the informatician emerges as new type of engineer for abstract objects (instead of material devices). His notion of 'abstract object' Zemanek had defined already four years earlier in the journal Elektronische Rechenanlagen (1968): abstract objects can generally represent both the structure of linguistic expressions as well as the various sub-states of finite automata. Zemanek reconfirmed his point of view in the Nachrichtentechnische Zeitschrift (1973), in which he stated with regard to the goals and purposes of informatics: \"man braucht dazu Ingenieure neuer Art: sie hantieren mit abstrakten Objekten, wie sie bisher nur in der Mathematik vorkamen\". Though further definitions of the term 'informatics' have been numerous since then, Zemanek's early definition continues to possess (i.m.h.o.) a true core, and is also by-and-large compatible with the opinion which I had expressed previously about this topic in this journal.","PeriodicalId":55859,"journal":{"name":"South African Computer Journal","volume":"57 1","pages":"118"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67990494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We present a series of experiments involving the machine translation of Zulu to English using a well-known statistical software system. Due to morphological complexity and relative scarcity of resources, the case of Zulu is challenging. Against a selection of baseline models, we show that a relatively naive approach of dividing Zulu words into syllables leads to a surprising improvement. We further improve on this model through manual configuration changes. Our best model significantly outperforms the baseline models (BLEU measure, at p < 0.001) even when they are optimised to a similar degree, only falling short of the well-known Morfessor morphological analyser that makes use of relatively sophisticated algorithms. These experiments suggest that even a simple optimisation procedure can improve the quality of this approach to a significant degree. This is promising particularly because it improves on a mostly language independent approach — at least within the same language family. Our work also drives the point home that sub-lexical alignment for Zulu is crucial for improved translation quality.
{"title":"Syllabification and parameter optimisation in Zulu to English machine translation","authors":"G. Kotzé, Friedel Wolff","doi":"10.18489/SACJ.V0I57.323","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18489/SACJ.V0I57.323","url":null,"abstract":"We present a series of experiments involving the machine translation of Zulu to English using a well-known statistical software system. Due to morphological complexity and relative scarcity of resources, the case of Zulu is challenging. Against a selection of baseline models, we show that a relatively naive approach of dividing Zulu words into syllables leads to a surprising improvement. We further improve on this model through manual configuration changes. Our best model significantly outperforms the baseline models (BLEU measure, at p < 0.001) even when they are optimised to a similar degree, only falling short of the well-known Morfessor morphological analyser that makes use of relatively sophisticated algorithms. These experiments suggest that even a simple optimisation procedure can improve the quality of this approach to a significant degree. This is promising particularly because it improves on a mostly language independent approach — at least within the same language family. Our work also drives the point home that sub-lexical alignment for Zulu is crucial for improved translation quality.","PeriodicalId":55859,"journal":{"name":"South African Computer Journal","volume":"57 1","pages":"1-23"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67990681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The insider threat concern is a complex issue, as the problem domain intersects the social, technical and socio-technical dimensions. Consequently, counteracting the insider threat involves influencing the insider’s perceptions and behaviour in order to ensure compliance. When an individual’s actions and beliefs are incongruent, this induces a phenomenon known as cognitive dissonance. In order to reduce this dissonance, individuals are self-motivated either to change their behaviours or beliefs, or to rationalize their behaviour. Neutralization is a technique used by criminals to rationalize maleficence. In terms of the insider threat, it has been proposed that if the justifications for committing an offence are eliminated, then the insider is less likely to commit the offence. This process is known as neutralization mitigation. The research reported on here proposes that inducing cognitive dissonance may be a means of mitigating the neutralizations that the insider may use to justify maleficence. To integrate these concepts into a pragmatic implementable solution the Insider Threat Neutralization Mitigation model predicated on Cognitive Dissonance (ITNMCD) is proposed. A proof-of-concept was developed and the model concept was evaluated using the design science method.
{"title":"An Insider Threat Neutralization Mitigation Model Predicated On Cognitive Dissonance (ITNMCD)","authors":"Keshnee Padayachee","doi":"10.18489/SACJ.V56I1.263","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18489/SACJ.V56I1.263","url":null,"abstract":"The insider threat concern is a complex issue, as the problem domain intersects the social, technical and socio-technical dimensions. Consequently, counteracting the insider threat involves influencing the insider’s perceptions and behaviour in order to ensure compliance. When an individual’s actions and beliefs are incongruent, this induces a phenomenon known as cognitive dissonance. In order to reduce this dissonance, individuals are self-motivated either to change their behaviours or beliefs, or to rationalize their behaviour. Neutralization is a technique used by criminals to rationalize maleficence. In terms of the insider threat, it has been proposed that if the justifications for committing an offence are eliminated, then the insider is less likely to commit the offence. This process is known as neutralization mitigation. The research reported on here proposes that inducing cognitive dissonance may be a means of mitigating the neutralizations that the insider may use to justify maleficence. To integrate these concepts into a pragmatic implementable solution the Insider Threat Neutralization Mitigation model predicated on Cognitive Dissonance (ITNMCD) is proposed. A proof-of-concept was developed and the model concept was evaluated using the design science method.","PeriodicalId":55859,"journal":{"name":"South African Computer Journal","volume":"56 1","pages":"50-79"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67992744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Determining the most appropriate search method or artificial intelligence technique to solve a problem is not always evident and usually requires implementation of the different approaches to ascertain this. In some instances a single approach may not be sufficient and hybridization of methods may be needed to find a solution. This process can be time consuming. The paper proposes the use of hyper-heuristics as a means of identifying which method or combination of approaches is needed to solve a problem. The research presented forms part of a larger initiative aimed at using hyper-heuristics to develop intelligent hybrid systems. As an initial step in this direction, this paper investigates this for classical artificial intelligence uninformed and informed search methods, namely depth first search, breadth first search, best first search, hill-climbing and the A* algorithm. The hyper-heuristic determines the search or combination of searches to use to solve the problem. An evolutionary algorithm hyper-heuristic is implemented for this purpose and its performance is evaluated in solving the 8-Puzzle, Towers of Hanoi and Blocks World problems. The hyper-heuristic employs a generational evolutionary algorithm which iteratively refines an initial population using tournament selection to select parents, which the mutation and crossover operators are applied to for regeneration. The hyper-heuristic was able to identify a search or combination of searches to produce solutions for the twenty 8-Puzzle, five Towers of Hanoi and five Blocks World problems. Furthermore, admissible solutions were produced for all problem instances.
确定最合适的搜索方法或人工智能技术来解决问题并不总是显而易见的，通常需要实现不同的方法来确定这一点。在某些情况下，单一的方法可能是不够的，可能需要混合的方法来找到一个解决方案。这个过程可能很耗时。本文建议使用超启发式作为确定解决问题所需的方法或方法组合的手段。这项研究是一项更大的计划的一部分，旨在利用超启发式技术开发智能混合系统。作为这个方向的第一步，本文研究了经典的人工智能无信息搜索和知情搜索方法，即深度优先搜索、广度优先搜索、最佳优先搜索、爬坡和A*算法。超启发式算法确定要使用的搜索或搜索组合来解决问题。为此，实现了一种超启发式进化算法，并在解决8-Puzzle, Towers of Hanoi和Blocks World问题中对其性能进行了评估。超启发式算法采用分代进化算法，通过比赛选择迭代优化初始种群，选择亲本，并应用突变和交叉算子进行再生。超启发式能够识别搜索或搜索组合，以产生解决方案的二十八个谜题，五个河内塔和五个街区世界的问题。此外，为所有问题实例生成了可接受的解决方案。
{"title":"Intelligent system design using hyper-heuristics","authors":"N. Pillay","doi":"10.18489/SACJ.V56I1.268","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18489/SACJ.V56I1.268","url":null,"abstract":"Determining the most appropriate search method or artificial intelligence technique to solve a problem is not always evident and usually requires implementation of the different approaches to ascertain this. In some instances a single approach may not be sufficient and hybridization of methods may be needed to find a solution. This process can be time consuming. The paper proposes the use of hyper-heuristics as a means of identifying which method or combination of approaches is needed to solve a problem. The research presented forms part of a larger initiative aimed at using hyper-heuristics to develop intelligent hybrid systems. As an initial step in this direction, this paper investigates this for classical artificial intelligence uninformed and informed search methods, namely depth first search, breadth first search, best first search, hill-climbing and the A* algorithm. The hyper-heuristic determines the search or combination of searches to use to solve the problem. An evolutionary algorithm hyper-heuristic is implemented for this purpose and its performance is evaluated in solving the 8-Puzzle, Towers of Hanoi and Blocks World problems. The hyper-heuristic employs a generational evolutionary algorithm which iteratively refines an initial population using tournament selection to select parents, which the mutation and crossover operators are applied to for regeneration. The hyper-heuristic was able to identify a search or combination of searches to produce solutions for the twenty 8-Puzzle, five Towers of Hanoi and five Blocks World problems. Furthermore, admissible solutions were produced for all problem instances.","PeriodicalId":55859,"journal":{"name":"South African Computer Journal","volume":"56 1","pages":"107-119"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67993899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Higher education students use mobile phones, equipped for Internet access. Mobile technologies can offer effective, satisfying and accessible m-learning experiences. A contribution has been made to knowledge on evaluating m-learning environments and to mobile human-computer interaction (MHCI), with the innovative synthesis of the MUUX-E Framework, which fills a gap in the domain of m-learning. MUUX-E is a single comprehensive, multi-faceted instrument for evaluating m-learning environments, emphasising usability and user experience in mobile educational contexts. It was developed by extensive literature studies on each aspect, and has five categories, 31 criteria and numerous sub-criteria. Using a design-based research paradigm, MUUX-E was applied iteratively to evaluate and enhance successive versions of m-LR, a mobile application created for a Software Engineering module. Participants were students and expert evaluators. MUUX-E served well to identify problems and strengths. The students were more positive than the experts regarding the benefits of m-LR, yet insightfully reported more system problems.
{"title":"MUUX-E, a framework of criteria for evaluating the usability, user experience and educational features of m-learning environments","authors":"Patricia Harpur, R. D. Villiers","doi":"10.18489/SACJ.V56I1.240","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18489/SACJ.V56I1.240","url":null,"abstract":"Higher education students use mobile phones, equipped for Internet access. Mobile technologies can offer effective, satisfying and accessible m-learning experiences. A contribution has been made to knowledge on evaluating m-learning environments and to mobile human-computer interaction (MHCI), with the innovative synthesis of the MUUX-E Framework, which fills a gap in the domain of m-learning. MUUX-E is a single comprehensive, multi-faceted instrument for evaluating m-learning environments, emphasising usability and user experience in mobile educational contexts. It was developed by extensive literature studies on each aspect, and has five categories, 31 criteria and numerous sub-criteria. Using a design-based research paradigm, MUUX-E was applied iteratively to evaluate and enhance successive versions of m-LR, a mobile application created for a Software Engineering module. Participants were students and expert evaluators. MUUX-E served well to identify problems and strengths. The students were more positive than the experts regarding the benefits of m-LR, yet insightfully reported more system problems.","PeriodicalId":55859,"journal":{"name":"South African Computer Journal","volume":"56 1","pages":"1-21"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67993082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The youth, especially school going children, are the future of any society. It is therefore important that children should receive adequate healthcare support at an early age in order to strive to preserve and ensure better education and welfare of the children and continuity in societal success. Despite the strategic initiatives that aim at improving the general health of school going children, such as South Africa’s Integrated School Health Policy, there still exist challenges in support programmes meant to alleviate the barriers to effective healthcare towards improved education for the school children. Advances in ICT enable a fundamental redesign of healthcare processes based on the use and integration of electronic communication at all levels. New communication technologies can support a transition from institution centric to user-centric applications. This paper defines key principles and challenges for designers, policy makers, and evaluators of user-centred technologies for healthcare in schools. The paper employs the User Experience Management Model (UXM 2 ) to review the current and emerging trends, and highlights challenges related to the design of a typical m-ICT application that supports delivery of healthcare in schools. The paper reaches conclusions for next steps that will advance the domain.
{"title":"User-centered applications: Use of mobile information technologies to promote sustainable school healthcare services","authors":"A. Veldsman, D. Greunen, Job Mashapa","doi":"10.18489/SACJ.V56I1.314","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18489/SACJ.V56I1.314","url":null,"abstract":"The youth, especially school going children, are the future of any society. It is therefore important that children should receive adequate healthcare support at an early age in order to strive to preserve and ensure better education and welfare of the children and continuity in societal success. Despite the strategic initiatives that aim at improving the general health of school going children, such as South Africa’s Integrated School Health Policy, there still exist challenges in support programmes meant to alleviate the barriers to effective healthcare towards improved education for the school children. \u0000 \u0000Advances in ICT enable a fundamental redesign of healthcare processes based on the use and integration of electronic communication at all levels. New communication technologies can support a transition from institution centric to user-centric applications. This paper defines key principles and challenges for designers, policy makers, and evaluators of user-centred technologies for healthcare in schools. The paper employs the User Experience Management Model (UXM 2 ) to review the current and emerging trends, and highlights challenges related to the design of a typical m-ICT application that supports delivery of healthcare in schools. The paper reaches conclusions for next steps that will advance the domain.","PeriodicalId":55859,"journal":{"name":"South African Computer Journal","volume":"109 1","pages":"155-164"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67993774","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper propose a Virtual-Field Programmable Gate Array (V-FPGA) architecture that allows direct access to its configuration bits to facilitate hardware evolution, thereby allowing any combinational or sequential digital circuit to be realized. By using the V-FPGA, this paper investigates two possible ways of making evolutionary hardware systems more scalable: by optimizing the system’s genetic algorithm (GA); and by decomposing the solution circuit into smaller, evolvable sub-circuits. GA optimization is done by: omitting a canonical GA’s crossover operator (i.e. by using a 1+λ algorithm); applying evolution constraints; and optimizing the fitness function. A noteworthy contribution this research has made is the in-depth analysis of the phenotypes’ CPs. Through analyzing the CPs, it has been shown that a great amount of insight can be gained into a phenotype’s fitness. We found that as the number of columns in the Cartesian Genetic Programming array increases, so the likelihood of an external output being placed in the column decreases. Furthermore, the number of used LEs per column also substantially decreases per added column. Finally, we demonstrated the evolution of a state-decomposed control circuit. It was shown that the evolution of each state’s sub-circuit was possible, and suggest that modular evolution can be a successful tool when dealing with scalability.
{"title":"Hardware genetic algorithm optimisation by critical path analysis using a custom VLSI architecture","authors":"F. Smith, A. Berg","doi":"10.18489/SACJ.V56I1.275","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18489/SACJ.V56I1.275","url":null,"abstract":"This paper propose a Virtual-Field Programmable Gate Array (V-FPGA) architecture that allows direct access to its configuration bits to facilitate hardware evolution, thereby allowing any combinational or sequential digital circuit to be realized. \u0000By using the V-FPGA, this paper investigates two possible ways of making evolutionary hardware systems more scalable: by optimizing the system’s genetic algorithm (GA); and by decomposing the solution circuit into smaller, evolvable sub-circuits. GA optimization is done by: omitting a canonical GA’s crossover operator (i.e. by using a 1+λ algorithm); applying evolution constraints; and optimizing the fitness function. \u0000A noteworthy contribution this research has made is the in-depth analysis of the phenotypes’ CPs. Through analyzing the CPs, it has been shown that a great amount of insight can be gained into a phenotype’s fitness. \u0000We found that as the number of columns in the Cartesian Genetic Programming array increases, so the likelihood of an external output being placed in the column decreases. Furthermore, the number of used LEs per column also substantially decreases per added column. \u0000Finally, we demonstrated the evolution of a state-decomposed control circuit. It was shown that the evolution of each state’s sub-circuit was possible, and suggest that modular evolution can be a successful tool when dealing with scalability.","PeriodicalId":55859,"journal":{"name":"South African Computer Journal","volume":"56 1","pages":"120-135"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67994167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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