http://hdl.handle.net/10500/2748 2013-05-22T11:07:19Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/9380 iSemServ: a framework for engineering intelligent semantic services Mtsweni, Jabu Saul The need for modern enterprises and Web users to simply and rapidly develop and deliver platform-independent services to be accessed over the Web by the global community is growing. This is self-evident, when one considers the omnipresence of electronic services (e-services) on the Web. Accordingly, the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is commonly considered as one of the de facto standards for the provisioning of heterogeneous business functionalities on the Web. As the basis for SOA, Web Services (WS) are commonly preferred, particularly because of their ability to facilitate the integration of heterogeneous systems. However, WS only focus on syntactic descriptions when describing the functional and behavioural aspects of services. This makes it a challenge for services to be automatically discovered, selected, composed, invoked, and executed – without any human intervention. Consequently, Semantic Web Services (SWS) are emerging to deal with such a challenge. SWS represent the convergence of Semantic Web (SW) and WS concepts, in order to enable Web services that can be automatically processed and understood by machines operating with limited or no user intervention. At present, research efforts within the SWS domain are mainly concentrated on semantic services automation aspects, such as discovery, matching, selection, composition, invocation, and execution. Moreover, extensive research has been conducted on the conceptual models and formal languages used in constructing semantic services. However, in terms of the engineering of semantic services, a number of challenges are still prevalent, as demonstrated by the lack of development and use of semantic services in real-world settings. The lack of development and use could be attributed to a number of challenges, such as complex semantic services enabling technologies, leading to a steep learning curve for service developers; lack of unified service platforms for guiding and supporting simple and rapid engineering of semantic services, and the limited integration of semantic technologies with mature service-oriented technologies. vi In addition, a combination of isolated software tools is normally used to engineer semantic services. This could, however, lead to undesirable consequences, such as prolonged service development times, high service development costs, lack of services re-use, and the lack of semantics interoperability, reliability, and re-usability. Furthermore, available software platforms do not support the creation of semantic services that are intelligent beyond the application of semantic descriptions, as envisaged for the next generation of services, where the connection of knowledge is of core importance. In addressing some of the challenges highlighted, this research study adopted a qualitative research approach with the main focus on conceptual modelling. The main contribution of this study is thus a framework called iSemServ to simplify and accelerate the process of engineering intelligent semantic services. The framework has been modelled and developed, based on the principles of simplicity, rapidity, and intelligence. The key contributions of the proposed framework are: (1) An end-to-end and unified approach of engineering intelligent semantic services, thereby enabling service engineers to use one platform to realize all the modules comprising such services; (2) proposal of a model-driven approach that enables the average and expert service engineers to focus on developing intelligent semantic services in a structured, extensible, and platform-independent manner. Thereby increasing developers’ productivity and minimizing development and maintenance costs; (3) complexity hiding through the exploitation of template and rule-based automatic code generators, supporting different service architectural styles and semantic models; and (4) intelligence wrapping of services at message and knowledge levels, for the purposes of automatically processing semantic service requests, responses and reasoning over domain ontologies and semantic descriptions by keeping user intervention at a minimum. The framework was designed by following a model-driven approach and implemented using the Eclipse platform. It was evaluated using practical use case scenarios, comparative analysis, and performance and scalability experiments. In conclusion, the iSemServ framework is considered appropriate for dealing with the complexities and restrictions involved in engineering intelligent semantic services, especially because the amount of time required to generate intelligent semantic vii services using the proposed framework is smaller compared with the time that the service engineer would need to manually generate all the different artefacts comprising an intelligent semantic service. Keywords: Intelligent semantic services, Web services, Ontologies, Intelligent agents, Service engineering, Model-driven techniques, iSemServ framework. 2013-05-09T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/5808 An investigation of ICT integration in the Lesotho secondary and high school science classroom Kalanda, Kasongo This research investigates progress in the integration of information and communication technology (ICT) into curriculum-based teaching and learning in the Lesotho secondary and high school science classroom, with the aim of establishing how effective e-learning and integration of ICT can be supported. E-learning was perceived by education stakeholders in Lesotho as an effective way to enhance teaching and learning. To this end, Lesotho embarked on three partnership projects, namely SchoolNet, Microsoft STIC and NEPAD e-School Projects. There is a volume of research, international and regional, on e-learning and ICT integration, mainly conducted by European and American researchers. This study by an African author, therefore, fills a gap. Using a variant of action research, the author undertook six studies over four years, investigating the extent of computing infrastructure in schools and ways in which e-learning was implemented in subject-based teaching. In particular, he studied barriers to ICT implementation in Lesotho; advantages and disadvantages of combining e-learning with classroom practice; the perceptions, aptitude and skills of Lesotho science teachers and students; professional development programmes; and preparations for introducing e-learning, including infrastructural issues. Literature studies were conducted, following which pertinent concepts from the literature were used to generate a framework of evaluation categories and criteria for addressing the research questions of this study. The criteria were translated into questions and evaluation statements for data collection instruments for the empirical studies. Triangulation in data collection and analysis was provided by applying multiple and mixed data collection methods: questionnaires, interviews, observations and case studies, to gather data from principals, teachers and students in selected schools across the three projects and in varying regions of Lesotho. The study identified notable progress, but determines that more remains to be done, on an ongoing basis, to support secondary and high schools in Lesotho with implementation plans and strategies. The study concludes with guideline and recommendations for educators. 2012-06-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/5789 Towards developing an evaluation tool for business management information systems' success at public further education and training (FET) colleges in South Africa Visser, Margaretha Maria 2011-11-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/5621 Towards the formalisation of use case maps Dongmo, Cyrille Formal specification of software systems has been very promising. Critics against the end results of formal methods, that is, producing quality software products, is certainly rare. Instead, reasons have been formulated to justify why the adoption of the technique in industry remains limited. Some of the reasons are: • Steap learning curve; formal techniques are said to be hard to use. • Lack of a step-by-step construction mechanism and poor guidance. • Difficulty to integrate the technique into the existing software processes. Z is, arguably, one of the successful formal specification techniques that was extended to Object-Z to accommodate object-orientation. The Z notation is based on first-order logic and a strongly typed fragment of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory. Some attempts have been made to couple Z with semi-formal notations such as UML. However, the case of coupling Object-Z (and also Z) and the Use Case Maps (UCMs) notation is still to be explored. A Use Case Map (UCM) is a scenario-based visual notation facilitating the requirements definition of complex systems. A UCM may be generated either from a set of informal requirements, or from use cases normally expressed in natural language. UCMs have the potential to bring more clarity into the functional description of a system. It may furthermore eliminate possible errors in the user requirements. But UCMs are not suitable to reason formally about system behaviour. In this dissertation, we aim to demonstrate that a UCM can be transformed into Z and Object-Z, by providing a transformation framework. Through a case study, the impact of using UCM as an intermediate step in the process of producing a Z and Object-Z specification is explored. The aim is to improve on the constructivity of Z and Object-Z, provide more guidance, and address the issue of integrating them into the existing Software Requirements engineering process. 2011-11-01T00:00:00Z