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Development and Evaluation of a Holistic Framework and Maturity Assessment Tools for Data Governance in Cloud Computing Environments
Get PDFCloud computing is an emerging technology that is changing the way that public sector organisations consume Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in different countries. The adoption rate of cloud computing services is still very low to none in many countries. Saudi Arabia, for instance, despite their huge investments in the Digital Transformation, as part of the recent Vision 2030, the loss of governance and control of data is one of their major barriers facing the adoption of cloud computing services. Cloud Data Governance, is not only a Saudi concern, it is actually a worldwide challenge, which is under researched and mostly not practiced. This research attempted, for the first time to unlock this challenge in Saudi Arabia, more specifically, for the Public Sector, by advancing research in this field and proposing means by which Cloud Data Governance programmes can be implemented. In this research, existing data governance frameworks were analysed – these frameworks were limited as they lacked consideration of the cloud computing perspective. Hence, the purpose of this research is to develop a generalised Strategy Framework that can be utilised to design, deploy and sustain an effective cloud data governance programme; it also aims to provide knowledge for organisations that wish to apply a cloud data governance programme, to empower them to control their data in cloud environments. Understanding data governance taxonomy and its key dimensions for non-cloud and cloud computing was an important step in developing the proposed Framework. To support the development of the proposed Framework, the Analytic Theory and concept of Critical Success Factors (CSFs) were adopted. The Framework includes a number of complex operations, therefore, to ensure an effective Cloud Data Governance programme, organisations need to have means by which they can assess their current state and define their requirements. To facilitate this, a Maturity Model was proposed together with an Assessment Matrix. The proposed Framework and Maturity Model alongside the Assessment Matrix, were then validated and evaluated for the Public Sector in Saudi Arabia, as a Case Study. Mixed research methods, Qualitative and Quantitative, were adopted for this purpose, where the State of the Art of cloud adoption, data governance and cloud data governance, in the Saudi Public Sector were all analysed. Moreover, a number of Barriers and Critical Success Factors were identified for the case study. For validation purposes, the Focus Group approach was adopted, with appropriate representations from the Saudi Public Sector. The Structural Equation Modelling was adopted for the evaluation of the proposed Framework, using quantitative results from the questionnaire. The Evaluation of the Assessment Matrix was done by developing a Tool, which allows organisations to identify their levels of maturity for cloud data governance programmes, and define requirements for target levels
“Enheduanna—A Manifesto of Falling” Live Brain-Computer Cinema Performance: Performer and Audience Participation, Cognition and Emotional Engagement Using Multi-Brain BCI Interaction
Get PDFThe fields of neural prosthetic technologies and Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) have witnessed in the past 15 years an unprecedented development, bringing together theories and methods from different scientific fields, digital media, and the arts. More in particular, artists have been amongst the pioneers of the design of relevant applications since their emergence in the 1960s, pushing the boundaries of applications in real-life contexts. With the new research, advancements, and since 2007, the new low-cost commercial-grade wireless devices, there is a new increasing number of computer games, interactive installations, and performances that involve the use of these interfaces, combining scientific, and creative methodologies. The vast majority of these works use the brain-activity of a single participant. However, earlier, as well as recent examples, involve the simultaneous interaction of more than one participants or performers with the use of Electroencephalography (EEG)-based multi-brain BCIs. In this frame, we discuss and evaluate “Enheduanna—A Manifesto of Falling,” a live brain-computer cinema performance that enables for the first time the simultaneous real-time multi-brain interaction of more than two participants, including a performer and members of the audience, using a passive EEG-based BCI system in the context of a mixed-media performance. The performance was realised as a neuroscientific study conducted in a real-life setting. The raw EEG data of seven participants, one performer and two different members of the audience for each performance, were simultaneously recorded during three live events. The results reveal that the majority of the participants were able to successfully identify whether their brain-activity was interacting with the live video projections or not. A correlation has been found between their answers to the questionnaires, the elements of the performance that they identified as most special, and the audience's indicators of attention and emotional engagement. Also, the results obtained from the performer's data analysis are consistent with the recall of working memory representations and the increase of cognitive load. Thus, these results prove the efficiency of the interaction design, as well as the importance of the directing strategy, dramaturgy and narrative structure on the audience's perception, cognitive state, and engagement
Do we acknowledge families’ sexual and reproductive health needs within maternity services? A practising midwife’s reflection
Get PDFShakespeare Connected- Shakespeare's New Place: Artefacts and Inhabitants
No full textThe purpose of this Shakespeare Connected exhibition is to highlight the contribution that archaeology and the artefacts recently discovered have made to our understanding of New Place. These artefacts show us that the ground upon which New Place was constructed had already seen human occupation and activity dating back several thousand years to the prehistoric period.
The numerous developments on the site of New Place have shaped its story. This online exhibition attempts to show through artefacts that the site was once within an Iron Age farmstead, its location chosen because of the proximity to the River Avon. Objects from the 13th century reveal the development into a housing plot and the construction of the first timber-framed building on the site. The construction of New Place by Hugh Clopton around 1483 is documented and the life of its residents can be imagined thanks to its accompanying artefacts. Following the residency of Shakespeare, his family, and his descendants, New Place was demolished around 1702 and an entirely new and radically different house was built in its Place. This only survived for a few decades, as in 1759 the then owner Reverend Francis Gastrel removed all trace of the property above ground, and the surviving artefacts record these events. Evidence of earlier investigations of the site undertaken by an antiquarian scholar in the 1860’s provide us with an insight into early archaeological excavation techniques
Quantification of the traffic-generated particulate matter capture by plant species in a living wall and evaluation of the important leaf characteristics
Get PDFTraffic-generated particulate matter (PM) is a significant fraction of urban PM pollution and little is known about the use of living walls as a short-term strategy to reduce this pollution. The present study evaluated the potential of twenty living wall plants to reduce traffic-based PM using a living wall system located along a busy road in Stoke-on-Trent, UK. An Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) and ImageJ software were employed to quantify PM accumulation on leaves (PM1, PM2.5 and PM10) and their elemental composition was determined using Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX). Inter-species variation in leaf-PM accumulation was evaluated using a Generalized Linear Mixed-effect Model (GLMM) using time as a factor; any differential PM accumulation due to specific leaf characteristics (stomatal density, hair/trichomes, ridges and grooves) was identified. The study showed a promising potential for living wall plants to remove atmospheric PM; an estimated average number of 122.08 ± 6.9 × 107 PM1, 8.24 ± 0.72 × 107 PM2.5 and 4.45 ± 0.33 × 107 PM10 were captured on 100 cm2 of the living wall used in this study. Different species captured significantly different quantities of all particle sizes; the highest amount of all particle sizes was found on the leaf-needles of Juniperus chinensis L., followed by smaller-leaved species. In the absence of an apparent pattern in correlation between PM accumulation and leaf surface characteristics, the study highlighted the importance of individual leaf size in PM capture irrespective of their variable micro-morphology. The elemental composition of the captured particles showed a strong correlation with traffic-based PM and a wide range of important heavy metals. We conclude that the use of living walls that consist largely of smaller-leaved species and conifers can potentially have a significant impact in ameliorating air quality by removing traffic-generated PM pollution to improve the wellbeing of urban dweller
Wi-Fi based people tracking in challenging environments
Get PDFPeople tracking is a key building block in many applications such as abnormal activity detection, gesture recognition, and elderly persons monitoring. Video-based systems have many limitations making them ineffective in many situations. Wi-Fi provides an easily accessible source of opportunity for people tracking that does not have the limitations of video-based systems. The system will detect, localise, and track people, based on the available Wi-Fi signals that are reflected from their bodies. Wi-Fi based systems still need to address some challenges in order to be able to operate in challenging environments. Some of these challenges include the detection of the weak signal, the detection of abrupt people motion, and the presence of multipath propagation. In this thesis, these three main challenges will be addressed.
Firstly, a weak signal detection method that uses the changes in the signals that are reflected from static objects, to improve the detection probability of weak signals that are reflected from the person’s body. Then, a deep learning based Wi-Fi localisation technique is proposed that significantly improves the runtime and the accuracy in comparison with existing techniques.
After that, a quantum mechanics inspired tracking method is proposed to address the abrupt motion problem. The proposed method uses some interesting phenomena in the quantum world, where the person is allowed to exist at multiple positions simultaneously. The results show a significant improvement in reducing the tracking error and in reducing the tracking delay
The Science Fiction of Iain M. Banks
No full textCritics have paid less attention to Banks’s SF than his ‘mainstream’ work although a substantial body of scholarship on the Culture series has developed since at least 1996, significantly increasing in volume since around the time of Banks’s death in 2013. Banks’s non-Culture SF such as The Algebraist, Feersum Endjinn and Against a Dark Background has received the least attention of his oeuvre to date. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the author's science fiction, determining unique areas of connection
Long-Term Testosterone Therapy in Type 2 Diabetes Is Associated with Decreasing Waist Circumference and Improving Erectile Function.
No full textTo describe the 4-year metabolic follow-up results from the BLAST study. Baseline hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), weight, and waist circumference (WC) data were recorded in 185 men recruited for the BLAST randomised controlled trial (RCT) and erectile function (EF) scores were also available in an additional 48 men screened for the RCT. Intra/inter-group associations between these parameters and testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) were assessed at 1) end of the RCT (30 weeks), 2) open-label phase (82 weeks), and 3) final assessment via non-parametric statistics. Improvement in HbA1c and weight at the end of the RCT and open-label phase in men on TRT was not maintained long-term. The convergence in HbA1c could have been due to incentivised care with HbA1c targets. Interestingly those on TRT at final assessment required fewer anti-diabetic agents. The weight increase in routine care may have been due to changes in diabetes medication or an increase in lean muscle mass. WC continued to decrease in men on TRT indicating possible reduction in visceral fat. Improvement in EF scores continued with long-term TRT, this was abolished when TRT was discontinued. This study hints at benefits in glycaemic control, weight and WC, and long-term RCTs studying mechanisms of benefit and clinical outcomes are necessary. Our results also show that EF scores continued to improve with long-term TRT, even beyond the 6 months that we previously reported in the BLAST RCT. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2018 Korean Society for Sexual Medicine and Andrology.
Supercooled meltwater discharge from Skeiðarárjökull and Skaftafellsjökull and associated glacial debris entrainment
Get PDFIntroduction
Glaciers and ice sheets entrain large quantities of sediment and processes by which they do so continue to be debated. Knowledge of glacial sediment entrainment processes is crucial to understanding past and present sediment fluxes and the sedimentary record. Glaciohydraulic supercooling has been identified as an active sediment entrainment mechanism at glaciers in Alaska(e.g. Lawson et al., 1998; Evenson et al., 1999) and was subsequently documented at several temperate Icelandic glaciers (e.g. Roberts et al., 2002; Tweed et al., 2005; Cook et al., 2007, 2010;Larson et al., 2010). It has also been suggested that that rapid discharge of supercooled meltwaterfrom the base of over-deepened ice sheet basins during the Quaternary constitutes a plausible mechanism for entraining extensive amounts of sediment in the Laurentide Ice Sheet (Alley et al.,1998, 1999; Roberts et al., 2002; Larson et al., 2006). There has been a tendency for the process tobe uncritically accepted and the controls on the spatial and temporal variability of glaciohydraulic supercooling have yet to be thoroughly investigated; even at sites that fulfil the physical requirements to enable the process to occur, researchers report inconsistency in the presence offield evidence and the supercooled signature in meltwater temperature measurements (e.g. Tweed et al., 2005). Over the last fifteen years there has been robust debate regarding i) the link between glaciohydraulic supercooling and the formation of thick sequences of basal ice (e.g. Cook et al.,2007; Larson et al., 2010; Cook et al., 2010, 2011), iii) the potential for silt dominance in basal ice sequences to be used as a diagnostic indicator of the process (e.g. Evenson et al., 1999; Larson etal., 2006; Cook et al., 2011, 2012) and iii) the degree to which landform-sediment assemblages can be attributed to super cooling (e.g. Larson et al., 2006; Evans, 2009). Some of these issues are considered elsewhere in this volume. Here we summarise evidence of super cooling from Skeiðarárjökull and Skaftafellsjökull during a range of hydrological conditions and present evidence of associated glacial sediment entrainment
Smart e-Health System for Real-time Tracking and Monitoring of Patients, Staff and Assets for Healthcare Decision Support in Saudi Arabia
Get PDFHealthcare in Saudi Arabia has been lagging behind the developed countries of the world, due to the insufficient number of healthcare practitioners and the lack of applications of tracking and monitoring technology. These shortages have contributed to problems such as patient misidentification, long patient waiting times, and the inability to locate medical equipment efficiently. The country’s Vision 2030 plan outlines ways to solve the deficient workforce problem by promoting more local health-related educational outlets, and by funding this expanding sector. Consequently, Saudi Arabia needs to adapt to the demanding nature of modern healthcare, which presents major problems that this research aims to help solve. The literature has shown that Information Technology systems have begun to be implemented in some hospitals across Saudi Arabia, but even in those hospitals these technologies are being under-utilised.
The intention of this thesis is to provide an appropriate choice for a real-time tracking and monitoring technology in healthcare, in the form of an integrated RFID/ZigBee system. This thesis develops a holistic framework for healthcare institutions, to be followed for customised solutions in improving staff efficiency and productivity, and for better patient care, while minimising long-term costs. This holistic framework incorporates contextual elements from both the Information System Strategy Triangle (ISST) and the Human, Organisation and Technology-fit factors (HOT-fit) frameworks, in a way that ensures the new framework addresses technology, organisational, human and business factors. The holistic model is refined through Communities of Practice (CoPs), one of which was developed and utilised for the research purposes of this thesis, and assisted in the creation of a questionnaire for assessing the requirements and challenges of the KSA healthcare system. This questionnaire was based on 220 usable responses. It also helped to refine the framework for its final version, which included all identified factors relevant to the decision a healthcare institution faces in choosing a health information technology system.
Various cases were analysed to improve the hospitals workflow, using the proposed technology and including processes such as relocating staff and medical assets. This led to the need for visualisation and knowledge management, to support real-time data analysis for business intelligence decision making. The end goal of this analysis is to provide interactive platforms to healthcare staff for use in improving efficiency and productivity. The outcomes of these improvements will be to ensure better patient care, lower patient waiting time, reduced healthcare costs, and to allow more time for staff to provide improved patient-centric care in the Saudi healthcare sector.
Keywords: e-Health, Health Information Technology, Tracking and Monitoring System, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Holistic Framework, Communities of Practice, Knowledge Management, Visualisation, KFM
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