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Comparative study of brine treatment using a functionalized nanofibre and an ion exchange resin
No full textThesis (MTech (Chemistry))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015.In this study, comparative sorption studies of the major metal ions (Mg2+, Ca2+, K+ and Na+) in the brine wastewater were performed on hydrophilic materials (PAN nanofibre, PAN+TiO2 nanofibre, PAN+ZEOLITE nanofibre) and Purolite S950 resin to investigate their uptake performances. For this purpose, PAN nanofibre was electrospun and subsequently doped with 3 wt% each of titanium dioxide and zeolite respectively, in controlled experimental conditions in order to improve its performance. This was followed by the characterization of the respective hydrophilic materials (PAN, PAN+TiO2 and PAN+ZEOLITE nanofibres) using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR); Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). SEM showed that the incorporation of titanium dioxide or zeolite into the PAN structure made the surface rougher than that of the ordinary PAN nanofibre and FT-IR revealed the peaks belonging to titanium dioxide and zeolite respectively, showing the inorganic materials are within the PAN structure. The XRD analysis complemented the FT-IR of the nanofibres by revealing the peaks characteristic of titanium dioxide and zeolite are present on the PAN structure
The design and construction of the front end section of an L-band receiver for nano- satellite application
No full textThesis (MTech (Electrical Engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016.Optimum communication can only be achieved with a very sensitive front-end section in the receiver on a satellite because the transmitted signal from the ground station must travel hundreds of kilometres through the earth's atmosphere to a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite. This dissertation presents the design of the front end section of the receiver suitable for use in a nano-satellite. Specifically, various transistor technologies are evaluated by designing five low noise amplifiers to determine the optimum performing amplifier. The bandwidth of the front end section was controlled by designing coupled line microstrip filter.
For consistency, the same design technique was followed in the design of each LNA. Simulations were performed and the results were compared to the actual measured results of the constructed amplifiers to facilitate conclusions to be made.
Design specifications for the LNAs were obtained from the F'SATI Space CubeSat Programme Technical Specification document.
To control the bandwidth of the front end section, various types of band-pass filters were investigated, resulting in a coupled line band-pass filter being simulated and implemented. The simulated results were compared to the measured results of the constructed filter.
In the final stage of this dissertation, comparisons of each amplifier’s performance were made, resulting in the final recommendation for this project
Design and implementation of IEC 61499 standard-based nonlinear controllers using functional block programming in distributed control platform
No full textThesis (DTech (Electrical Engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016.Majority of the industrial systems encountered are significantly non-linear in nature, so if they are synthesised and designed by linear methods, then some of salient features characterising of their performance may not be captured. Therefore designing a control system that captures the nonlinearities is important. This research focuses on the control design strategies for the Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) process. To control such a process a careful design strategy is required because of the nonlinearities, loop interaction and the potentially unstable dynamics characterizing the system. In these systems, linear control methods alone may not perform satisfactorily. Three different control design strategies (Dynamic decoupling, Decentralized and Input-output feedback linearization controller) are proposed and implemented .in the Matlab/Simulink platform and the developed strategies are then deployed to the design of distributed automation control system configuration using the IEC 61499 standard based functional block programming language. Twin CAT 3.1 system real-time and Matlab/Simulink (www.mathworks.com) environment are used to test the effectiveness of the models The simulation results from the investigation done between Simulink and TwinCAT 3 software (Beckhoff Automation) platforms in the case of the model transformation and closed loop simulation of the process for the considered cases have shown the suitability and the potentials of merging the Matlab/Simulink control function blocks into the TwinCAT 3.1 function blocks in real-time. The merits derived from such integration imply that the existing software and software components can be re-used. This is in line with one of the IEC 6144 standard requirements such as portability and interoperability. Similarly, the simplification of programming applications is greatly achieved. The investigation has also shown that the integration the of Matlab/Simulink models running in the TwinCAT 3.1 PLC do not need any modification, hence confirming that the TwinCAT 3.1 development platform can be used for the design and implementation of controllers from different platforms. Also, based on the steps required for model transformation the between the Matlab/Simulink to the TwinCAT 3 functional blocks, the algorithms of the control design methodologies developed, simulation results are used to verify the suitability of the controls to find whether the effective set-point tracking control and disturbance effect minimisation for the output variables can be achieved in real-time using the transformed Simulink blocks to the TwinCAT 3 functional blocks, then downloaded to the Beckhoff CX5020 PLC for real-time execution. Good set-point tracking control is achieved for the MIMO closed loop nonlinear CSTR process for the considered cases of the developed control methodologies. Similarly, the effects of disturbances are investigated. TwinCAT functional modules achieved good set-point tracking with these disturbances minimization under all the cases considered
The role of design thinking in brand strategy
No full textThesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Design in the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyThe study explores the development of an activist animation brand, The Adventures of Soeperguava. As a lesbian anti-heroine, Soeperguava’s raison d'être is to expose and challenge discrimination – still prevalent in South Africa, twenty years after apartheid. Although human rights are entrenched in Chapter 2 (Section 2.1) of the South African Constitution and these rights exist on paper, myriad forms of prejudice persist within our society and need to be addressed.
As a qualified legal scholar, brand strategy educator and brand development specialist, the author utilised Design Thinking methodology to identify brands as cultural artefacts. As such, brands are able to create meaning and effect social change. Design Thinking endeavours to address ‘wicked problems’, defined as social or cultural problems that are difficult or impossible to solve (Rittel 1967).
This study explores the manner in which Design Thinking is applied to mitigate wicked problems through the development of a creative-activist brand. The researcher traces the development of the animation brand from its inception in December 2010 to its dissolution in March 2012.
The research was conducted via a qualitative, illustrative, single case study methodology focused on Soeperguava. Elements of appreciative inquiry, journaling, lived experience, narrative and thematic analysis are included in the research. Design thinking, team dynamics and brand identity models are supplemented by open-ended questionnaire analyses. The selected methodologies aim to establish the reasons why the collaboration between an animator, a brand strategist, film producer, content producer and a writer failed. Subsequent rigorous analysis identified themes traversing three sets of data. These were refined into five meta-themes, the determining factors for effective brand development via a design thinking approach.
The five meta-themes are:
1 collective buy-in;
2 in-depth, collective comprehension and commitment;
3 evolutionary leadership and management;
4 clarity and transparency; and
5 insightful reflection.
For the purposes of this study, the research questions the role of Design Thinking and Team Dynamics within the context of brand development. A new model for collaboration is proposed as a framework for implementation in the 21st century. The model integrates and synthesises three key aspects: two Design Thinking models and a Team Dynamics model.
Design Thinking is an under-researched topic in South Africa. This study reveals the need for further multi- and interdisciplinary research, identifying and discussing potential research opportunities
Development of a habitat suitability model to determine the potential distribution of Klipspringer (Oreotragus Oreotragus subsp. Oreotragus) in Table Mountain National Park
No full textThesis (MTech (Nature Conservation))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015.The klipspringer (Oreotragus oreotragus subsp. oreotragus) population became extinct on the Cape Peninsula in 1930. Being re-introduced into Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) in 1999 it became one of the species of special conservation concern to monitor in the Park. Most klipspringer territories are known by Park management but the distribution of all potentially suitable habitats for this species in the Park is not known. The main aim of this study is to produce a distribution range map that is representative of all potentially suitable habitats for the klipspringer within TMNP, through the use of a species distribution modelling tool. Since only presence data were available for this study, a popular presence-only modelling tool namely maximum entropy (MaxEnt) was used. The use of MaxEnt in species distribution modelling has become popular as it has proven to provide robust predictions of a species’ geographic distribution. Klipspringer occurrence data and five environmental variables namely altitude, slope, aspect, vegetation, and distance to urban edge were used as model input. Occurrence data were sourced through existing databases and employing a stratified random sampling technique of dividing the Park into different habitat subtypes to survey the Park for more klipspringer occurrences. These habitat subtypes consisted of a variety of vegetation communities or vegetation types and altitudinal and slope ranges available in the Park. Grid size for all the raster layers used was 10x10 m. Spatial filtering of one point per 100 m² grid was used to eliminate clumping of points. Six models were run at different regularisation multiplier (RM) values namely 0.25, 0.5, default (1), 2, 4 and 7. To assist in better understanding of the spatial extent of the occurrence data and the areas inhabited by the klipspringer, home range analyses were carried out. This was done through kernel density estimation in the Geospatial Modelling Environment (GME). All six bandwidth parameters in GME namely smoothed cross validation (SCV), biased cross-validation (BCV), a second BCV algorithm, plug-in estimator, least squares cross validation and the likelihood cross validation (CVh) were tested. The smoothed cross validation and likelihood cross validation bandwidth algorithms provided the best visual output of klipspringer home ranges and territories. Home range sizes from the SCV output ranged from about 3 – 11 ha across the study area, and home range size for the CVh output ranged from 0.6 – 2.5 ha. The output from the CVh algorithm was interpreted as territories rather than home ranges, as it is based on a univariate kernel unlike, the SCV algorithm that produces rotated bivariate kernels. iv The default regularisation multiplier of 1 provided the best probability distribution output, whilst values lower than the default tended to underestimate the prediction and those values higher than the default were tending towards overestimations. Response curves for the default RM also gave the most ecologically meaningful responses of the klipspringer to each environmental variable. Model evaluation in the form of area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC AUC) showed that all models performed well. Therefore, the choice of the “best” model was based on the ability to provide ecological interpretation, on the shape of the response curve and the probability distribution maps. Consequently, the default RM model was considered the best, with an AUC score of 0.903. Altitude and vegetation contributed the most to suitable habitat and therefore indicates that klipspringer in the Park do prefer high altitudinal areas with the right vegetation to feed on. Suitable altitudinal ranges are from 400 m.a.s.l. and higher and ericaceous fynbos is the most preferred vegetation community. Slope, aspect and distance to urban edge played a less important role in suitable klipspringer habitat. The probability map and an additional binary map produced at the 10 percentile training logistic presence threshold showed that suitable habitat for the klipspringer occurs in all three sections of the Park in different proportions. These maps can be used by Park management to prioritise conservation efforts and future re-introductions.National Research Foundatio
The influence of customer relationship management on customer loyalty at a South African life insurance company
No full textThesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology.This thesis is prompted by the discussions around Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) in the financial industry and life insurance companies in
particular. The study seeks to gain better understanding of the influence that CRM
has on Customer Loyalty in a selected South African life insurance company. While
CRM has been approached by academics and practitioners from different
perspectives, literature seems to be viewed as inconsistent and fragmented on this
concept. The concept of CRM is a new approach by management in South Africa and
it is due to this fact that there are not sufficient studies on it.
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the influence of Customer Relationship
Management on customer loyalty in Metropolitan. To achieve this purpose, a
questionnaire was distributed amongst selected Metropolitan customer service
offices nationally and a selected number of customers were approached to
participate in the study. The findings show that Customer Relationship Management has an influence on customer loyalty and that Metropolitan does employ the principles of Customer Relationship Management
Characterisation of radiation effects on power system components for cubesats
No full textThesis (MTech (Electrical Engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology.Front-end power converters for nanosatellite applications demand better performance in
accurate reference tracking because of the wide-range input voltage of the solar panels. The very tight output voltage requirements demand a robust, reliable, and high-efficiency
converter. The control of such a converter is very complex and time consuming to design. Two commonly used control modes are current and voltage control. The design and
implementation of a voltage controller for DC–DC power converter is simpler but compared to current mode controller, does not do provide for overcurrent protection.
A single-ended primary inductance converter (SEPIC) was selected for this research work because of its ability to buck or boost the input voltage coupled with the ability to provide noninverting polarity with respect to the input voltage. Parameter values for the converter studied are used to analyse and design both the voltage and the current mode controllers for the nanosatellite front-end power converter. Output voltage reference tracking with step and ramp changes in the input voltage is evaluated in terms of the time taken to reach steady-state after the induced disturbances and either the overshoot or undershoot of the output voltage reference. The design of analogue pulse width modulation (PWM) study was carried out in order to drive the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) switch. For the two controllers, changes in the reference output voltage in response to load changes are also studied. An examination of the effects of solar radiation on the MOSFET switch was conducted; this switch is the main component of the front-end DC–DC power converter for a nanosatellite. At the more general level the examination also provided information on the response of the
semiconductor technology in space application. The overall purpose of studying the MOSFET switch was to investigate the mechanisms that will facilitate its ability of switching ‘on’ and ‘off’ without failure as a result of solar radiation. The effects of solar radiation on MOSFET device in space, has resulted in more malfunctions of these devices in the past five years than over the preceding 40 years
Extended attribution retraining in the reduction of mathematics anxiety experienced by first-time design students at a South African university of technology
No full textThesis (MTech (Design))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015.Mathematical literacy among the citizenry of a nation is considered indispensable to the economic welfare and global competitiveness of that nation (World Economic Forum, 2013a). In a world governed by technology, quantitative literacy is crucial (Colwell cited by Steen, 2002:8) and becomes a “most important professional and life skill” (Maloney et al., 2012:380). It is also seen as an individual’s ability to “manage situations or solve problems in practice” (Frith & Prince, 2006). Lastly, Jansen (2012) believes that sound mathematical literacy leads to an understanding of cause and effect and would guide citizens in their choices of actions. Yet, the belief that mathematical competence (or even just quantitative literacy) is the privilege of a small group of intellectually predisposed individuals is widely accepted in society, further entrenched by erroneous stereotyping (Eccles et al., 1990; Bonnot & Croizet, 2007; Mangels et al., 2011), as well as inadequate teaching methods in the Mathematics classroom/lecture theatre (Artigue, 1999; NSTF, 2009, 2010; Department of Basic Education, 2014). The consequences of this skewed view of Mathematics, and the emotional stress caused by regular failure at the subject, have resulted in wide-spread maths anxiety and maths avoidance among scholars and students. This dissertation examines an intervention programme which was designed to alter students’ negative perceptions of their intellectual ability to grasp mathematical concepts. Instead of attributing their past failures to internal, stable and uncontrollable causes, such as cognitive inability (Weiner, 1985), they were asked to consider factors which were internal or external, but certainly unstable and controllable, and which played a major role in their disappointing history in Mathematics. The interventions were aimed at bringing about a paradigm shift from a fixed mindset (entity theory) to a growth mindset (increment theory) as researched by Dweck since the 1980s. The intervention programme was implemented in the Foundation Course of a South African university of technology. It involved four interventions spread over roughly four months of the first semester and was comprised of the following lecture units and activities: a session of free-writing (Elbow, 1973), lectures on the plasticity of the brain (Hebb, 1949; Diamond 2001, Zull, 2002), the three memory systems (Eysenck & Calvo, 1992), a very basic version of Kolb’s experiential and reflective learning cycle (Atherton, 2009), and the notion of threshold concepts (Meyer & Land, 2003
Framework for evaluating information technology benefits in local communities
No full textThesis (DTech (Informatics))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015.Governments of the developing world, including South Africa, have a strong commitment and resolve to accelerate the rollout of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to achieve developmental benefits in communities. Consequently both government and the private sector are delivering a number of interventions in South Africa based on Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D).
Hard evidence regarding the development benefits of ICT4D interventions is lacking and there is little agreement on measures to evaluate the benefits of such projects. One possible reason for this is that there are no established evaluation frameworks to assess the benefits. Frameworks used in ICT4D evaluation are investigated in this study to ascertain their usefulness to identify benefits of ICT4D initiatives. Sen’s Capability Approach defines development as freedom. An example of such development can be the process of providing opportunities through ICT and meaningful ways to use these opportunities to realise various benefits. Tangible benefits are simple to identify (e.g. number of people using the public access centre, or number of people finding employment). Intangible benefits include the real ‘wins’—capabilities garnered through access and meaningful use of ICT, leading to the recognition of new opportunities for the users of the public access centres. Sen’s Capability Approach is operationalised, demonstrating the inclusion of a person’s agency and conversion factors that inhibit or enhance utilisation of opportunities and choices in realising benefits. The SmartCape initiative is a 2002 ICT4D intervention established in the libraries of Cape Town, South Africa, and is used as a case in this research study. The libraries act as public access centres that provide free ICT and Internet access to library members in the community. Surveys completed by users of these centres provided useful quantitative data. A broad spectrum of qualitative data was gleaned from interviews and focus groups with users of the ICT centre at a recently established library and with focus groups from other centres in two underserved areas of Cape Town. Quantitative data analysis techniques applied to qualitative content data was used to investigate users’ diverse perceptions. An initial framework guided the analysis of data to identify the benefits realised by the users of the public access centre. Perceptions of a changed life, aspirations for a better life, and ‘hope’ emerged as intangible benefits. On the intangible side, the effect of keyboard proficiency, greater ease in finding information, and a preference for accessing the Internet at a public access centre emerged as having a significant effect on the hopefulness of PAC users. Two theme-groups were identified through using co- occurrences of themes and the statistical techniques of cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling. The Benefits-framework, produced by this study, based on Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach, represents the relationship between all the themes, includes emergent intangible benefits and can be used to identify the benefits of ICT4D interventions in public access centres. This study also produces empirical evidence of the developmental impact of the SmartCape ICT4D programme in Cape Town and thus provides evidence of its value
Melting point-structure relationships of multicomponent crystals
No full textThesis (MTech (Chemistry))--Cape Peninsula University Of Technology, 2015.Twelve multicomponent crystals of dicarboxylic acids (succinic, adipic and suberic acid) with derivatives of picoline (4-picoline, 2,4-lutidine, 3,4-lutidine and 3,5-lutidine) were analyzed with the aim of finding correlation between their melting points and crystalline structural features. The solvates of SUC•2,4LUT, SUC•3,4LUT, SUC•3,5LUT and ADP•4PIC are already known structures but were remade for completeness and to obtain their accurate melting temperatures. The acids were selected because of their systematically increasing chain lengths and the selection of the picoline derivatives were based on the systematic variation of the positions of the methyl groups around the pyridine moiety. All the formed multicomponent crystals were analyzed with single crystal X-ray diffraction and parallel to the solution crystallizations, grinding experiments were carried out to prepare the aimed inclusion compounds by using much less of the solvent of crystallization. Thermogravimetry was used to confirm the solvent content of the bulk material and differential scanning calorimetry was applied to obtain information about the melting process, such as the onset and the peak temperature of the melting and the concomitant enthalpy change. The melting temperatures revealed that the inclusion formation significantly decreased the melting points of the staring materials and the melting points of the inclusion compounds for the same acid varied significantly. Hirshfeld surfaces of the base-acid-base moieties and the related fingerprint plots were compared both qualitatively and quantitatively. The melting points of the compounds were plotted against the percentage contribution of the various intermolecular interactions