Density and regrowth of a forest restio (Ischyrolepis eleocharis) under harvest and non-harvest treatments in dune forests of Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Ruwanza, Sheunesu, Shackleton, Charlie M
- Authors: Ruwanza, Sheunesu , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/180828 , vital:43649 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-015-9306-y"
- Description: Ischyrolepis eleocharis (Mast.) H.P.Linder is a perennial rush or sedge-like herb in the Restionaceae family and has been harvested for various uses from coastal forest dunes of South Africa. Around 2005, a ban on I. eleocharis harvesting in Bathurst coastal forest was instituted by provincial conservation authorities based on their unsubstantiated impression that the species population was decreasing. Here we report on the population density pre and post the harvest ban, as well as further explore the autecology of the species by assessing plant density relative to environmental factors (slope and aspect) and a controlled experiment on regrowth after harvesting at different intensities. The results show that the shoot density of both living and dead I. eleocharis increased significantly over the past eight years. This concurs with results from the harvesting experiment which showed that I. eleocharis recovered rapidly within a year of harvesting. Both aspect and slope play a key role in the distribution of I. eleocharis, with most plants found in open patches in the forest located on the summit and upper slopes of dunes facing the landward side. These results indicate that I. eleocharis is highly abundant and resilient to harvesting.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Ruwanza, Sheunesu , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/180828 , vital:43649 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-015-9306-y"
- Description: Ischyrolepis eleocharis (Mast.) H.P.Linder is a perennial rush or sedge-like herb in the Restionaceae family and has been harvested for various uses from coastal forest dunes of South Africa. Around 2005, a ban on I. eleocharis harvesting in Bathurst coastal forest was instituted by provincial conservation authorities based on their unsubstantiated impression that the species population was decreasing. Here we report on the population density pre and post the harvest ban, as well as further explore the autecology of the species by assessing plant density relative to environmental factors (slope and aspect) and a controlled experiment on regrowth after harvesting at different intensities. The results show that the shoot density of both living and dead I. eleocharis increased significantly over the past eight years. This concurs with results from the harvesting experiment which showed that I. eleocharis recovered rapidly within a year of harvesting. Both aspect and slope play a key role in the distribution of I. eleocharis, with most plants found in open patches in the forest located on the summit and upper slopes of dunes facing the landward side. These results indicate that I. eleocharis is highly abundant and resilient to harvesting.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Design and development of a multi-axis controlled thermal scanner
- Authors: Ikho, Bambiso
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Temperature measurements Heat -- Transmission -- Measurement , Heat -- Transmission
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MTech
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/50066 , vital:41998
- Description: Surface temperature measurement is applicable to a vast number of fields including manufacturing, processing, agricultural, medical and pharmaceutical fields just to name a few. Two methods for obtaining surface temperature measurements exist; ‘surface contact measurement’ in which the measuring device makes physical contact with the surface in question or alternatively, ‘non-contact surface measurement’ where there is no contact at all. Both of these methods have got advantages, as well as disadvantages. However, in recent times, non-contact methods have been preferred since they are non-intrusive and allow for remote measurements to be made. In this research, a non-contact mobile temperature measurement system is developed. The system is microcontroller-based and uses infrared sensors to acquire temperature measurements. The infrared sensors are mounted on a three-axes, x-y-z coordinate system which allows a thermal profile of a particular surface to be generated and displayed on a Graphical User Interface (GUI) in real-time. Various tests were carried out to compare contact and non-contact measurement methods; to determine the most suitable operating height for accurate non-contact measurement given a specific surface and to investigate the benefit of single and/ or multiple sensor arrangements. The research showed that a non-contact thermal scanning system could be used to obtain detailed yet accurate surface temperature measurements following an initial sensor calibration phase to determine the most favourable scanning parameters for a particular surface. The measurements taken could then be used to generate a thermal map of a surface with a significant improvement in resolution as compared with measurements taken using contact devices. The research further showed that a multiple sensor arrangement significantly reduced the time taken to generate the thermal profiles without undermining accuracy.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Ikho, Bambiso
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Temperature measurements Heat -- Transmission -- Measurement , Heat -- Transmission
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MTech
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/50066 , vital:41998
- Description: Surface temperature measurement is applicable to a vast number of fields including manufacturing, processing, agricultural, medical and pharmaceutical fields just to name a few. Two methods for obtaining surface temperature measurements exist; ‘surface contact measurement’ in which the measuring device makes physical contact with the surface in question or alternatively, ‘non-contact surface measurement’ where there is no contact at all. Both of these methods have got advantages, as well as disadvantages. However, in recent times, non-contact methods have been preferred since they are non-intrusive and allow for remote measurements to be made. In this research, a non-contact mobile temperature measurement system is developed. The system is microcontroller-based and uses infrared sensors to acquire temperature measurements. The infrared sensors are mounted on a three-axes, x-y-z coordinate system which allows a thermal profile of a particular surface to be generated and displayed on a Graphical User Interface (GUI) in real-time. Various tests were carried out to compare contact and non-contact measurement methods; to determine the most suitable operating height for accurate non-contact measurement given a specific surface and to investigate the benefit of single and/ or multiple sensor arrangements. The research showed that a non-contact thermal scanning system could be used to obtain detailed yet accurate surface temperature measurements following an initial sensor calibration phase to determine the most favourable scanning parameters for a particular surface. The measurements taken could then be used to generate a thermal map of a surface with a significant improvement in resolution as compared with measurements taken using contact devices. The research further showed that a multiple sensor arrangement significantly reduced the time taken to generate the thermal profiles without undermining accuracy.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Design and Fabrication of a Low Cost Traffic Manipulation Hardware Platform
- Pennefather, Sean, Irwin, Barry V W
- Authors: Pennefather, Sean , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/427873 , vital:72468 , https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Barry-Ir-win/publication/327622941_Design_and_Fabrication_of_a_Low_Cost_Traffic_Manipulation_Hardware/links/5b9a1625458515310583fc8c/Design-and-Fabrication-of-a-Low-Cost-Traffic-Manipulation-Hardware.pdf
- Description: This paper describes the design and fabrication of a dedicated hardware platform for network traffic logging and modification at a production cost of under $300. The context of the device is briefly discussed before characteristics relating to hardware development are explored. The paper concludes with three application examples to show some to the potential functionality of the platform. Testing of the device shows an average TCP throughput of 84.44 MiB/s when using the designed Ethernet modules.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Pennefather, Sean , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/427873 , vital:72468 , https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Barry-Ir-win/publication/327622941_Design_and_Fabrication_of_a_Low_Cost_Traffic_Manipulation_Hardware/links/5b9a1625458515310583fc8c/Design-and-Fabrication-of-a-Low-Cost-Traffic-Manipulation-Hardware.pdf
- Description: This paper describes the design and fabrication of a dedicated hardware platform for network traffic logging and modification at a production cost of under $300. The context of the device is briefly discussed before characteristics relating to hardware development are explored. The paper concludes with three application examples to show some to the potential functionality of the platform. Testing of the device shows an average TCP throughput of 84.44 MiB/s when using the designed Ethernet modules.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Design of a low-cost autonomous guided cart for material handling
- Authors: Cawood, Gareth James
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Automobiles -- Design and construction , Automobiles -- Automatic control , Vehicles -- Automatic control
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEngineering
- Identifier: vital:9655
- Description: This dissertation covers the design and manufacture of an autonomous guided cart (AGC) for use in the material handling industry. General Motors South Africa (GMSA) requires a low-cost AGC for use in their Struandale plant. A budget of R35 000 per unit was proposed. The researcher, in collaboration with staff at GM, compiled a list of engineering requirements for the AGC. After research into the unique problems of the project, an examination of a previous design attempt by staff of GM Thailand, the researcher developed a new design, the subject of this report. Different solutions for each design problem were investigated before the design was finalised. A three-wheeled vehicle was designed making use of two motors in a differential-drive setup to control motion. Navigation is via a line-following mechanism, using an induction sensor-array in conjunction with a pre-laid metallic strip. To aid the design, the system was modelled to understand the different control elements at play. The researcher developed software for several aspects of the design: for the PLC controlling the system and motors; for a microcontroller that communicates with the PLC and a wireless module; for a computer server that communicates with a second wireless device, receiving information from the PLC; and a web interface to view this information. These form the SCADA integration of the project. The final product meets the GMSA specifications. It is a robot capable of towing a trolley of mass not exceeding 350 kg. While the robot is able to navigate a pre-laid route, it cannot reliably stop at marked locations. It is possible to monitor the system via a web-interface. The robot is capable of operating for an entire 8-hour shift before the batteries need to be recharged. The total cost of the prototype was R26 340.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Cawood, Gareth James
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Automobiles -- Design and construction , Automobiles -- Automatic control , Vehicles -- Automatic control
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEngineering
- Identifier: vital:9655
- Description: This dissertation covers the design and manufacture of an autonomous guided cart (AGC) for use in the material handling industry. General Motors South Africa (GMSA) requires a low-cost AGC for use in their Struandale plant. A budget of R35 000 per unit was proposed. The researcher, in collaboration with staff at GM, compiled a list of engineering requirements for the AGC. After research into the unique problems of the project, an examination of a previous design attempt by staff of GM Thailand, the researcher developed a new design, the subject of this report. Different solutions for each design problem were investigated before the design was finalised. A three-wheeled vehicle was designed making use of two motors in a differential-drive setup to control motion. Navigation is via a line-following mechanism, using an induction sensor-array in conjunction with a pre-laid metallic strip. To aid the design, the system was modelled to understand the different control elements at play. The researcher developed software for several aspects of the design: for the PLC controlling the system and motors; for a microcontroller that communicates with the PLC and a wireless module; for a computer server that communicates with a second wireless device, receiving information from the PLC; and a web interface to view this information. These form the SCADA integration of the project. The final product meets the GMSA specifications. It is a robot capable of towing a trolley of mass not exceeding 350 kg. While the robot is able to navigate a pre-laid route, it cannot reliably stop at marked locations. It is possible to monitor the system via a web-interface. The robot is capable of operating for an entire 8-hour shift before the batteries need to be recharged. The total cost of the prototype was R26 340.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Design, development and evaluation of novel lead compounds as HIV-1 enzyme inhibitors
- Authors: Sekgota, Khethobole Cassius
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Enzyme inhibitors , Viruses -- Reproduction , HIV (Viruses)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4546 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017926
- Description: This project has been concerned with the application of the Baylis-Hillman methodology to the synthesis of medicinally important diketo acid analogues (cinnamate ester-AZT conjugates and 3-hydroxy ester-AZT conjugates) as dual-action HIV-1 IN/RT inhibitors; and on exploratory studies in the preparation of 3-(amidomethyl)-(1H)-2-quinolones as PR inhibitors; and (1H)-2- quinolone-AZT conjugates as dual action IN/RT inhibitors. A series of Baylis-Hillman adducts has been prepared, typically in moderate to excellent yield, by reacting 2-nitrobenzaldehyde with methyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate and methyl vinyl ketone in the presence of 1,4- diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO). Subsequently, various transformations that include conjugate addition of primary and secondary amines to the α,ß-unsaturated moiety to obtain 2- (aminomethyl)-3-hydroxy-3-(2-nitrophenyl)propanoate derivatives, effective SN2´ substitution of the BH ß-hydroxy by a Vilsmeier-Haack in situ-generated chloride to afford Baylis-Hillman allyl chlorides, iron in acetic acid-catalyzed cyclisation to 3-acetoxymethyl-(1H)-2-quinolone derivatives were achieved. Thus, using the Baylis-Hillman methodology, two nuanced classes of diketo acid analogues were constructed. These involved conjugating appropriate propargylamine derivatives with AZT using the „click‟ reaction. In an exploratory study, the quinolone derivative, precisely 3-acetoxymethyl- (1H)-quinol-2-one, was transformed into 3-hydroxymethyl-(1H)-quinol-2-one using potassium carbonate in a mixture of methanol and water (1:1). Following successful hydrolysis, the resulting alcohol was transformed to the corresponding chloride, 3-chloromethyl-(1H)-quinol-2- one, using thionyl chloride. Subsequent nucleophilic substitution afforded 3-(aminomethyl)- (1H)-2-quinolone derivatives which were subsequently transformed to 3-(amidomethyl)-(1H)-2- quinolones; and 3-[(propargylamino)-methyl]-(1H)-quinol-2-one as precursors to quinolone- AZT derivatives. All compounds were characterized by NMR, IR, and where appropriate, high resolution MS
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Sekgota, Khethobole Cassius
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Enzyme inhibitors , Viruses -- Reproduction , HIV (Viruses)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4546 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017926
- Description: This project has been concerned with the application of the Baylis-Hillman methodology to the synthesis of medicinally important diketo acid analogues (cinnamate ester-AZT conjugates and 3-hydroxy ester-AZT conjugates) as dual-action HIV-1 IN/RT inhibitors; and on exploratory studies in the preparation of 3-(amidomethyl)-(1H)-2-quinolones as PR inhibitors; and (1H)-2- quinolone-AZT conjugates as dual action IN/RT inhibitors. A series of Baylis-Hillman adducts has been prepared, typically in moderate to excellent yield, by reacting 2-nitrobenzaldehyde with methyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate and methyl vinyl ketone in the presence of 1,4- diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO). Subsequently, various transformations that include conjugate addition of primary and secondary amines to the α,ß-unsaturated moiety to obtain 2- (aminomethyl)-3-hydroxy-3-(2-nitrophenyl)propanoate derivatives, effective SN2´ substitution of the BH ß-hydroxy by a Vilsmeier-Haack in situ-generated chloride to afford Baylis-Hillman allyl chlorides, iron in acetic acid-catalyzed cyclisation to 3-acetoxymethyl-(1H)-2-quinolone derivatives were achieved. Thus, using the Baylis-Hillman methodology, two nuanced classes of diketo acid analogues were constructed. These involved conjugating appropriate propargylamine derivatives with AZT using the „click‟ reaction. In an exploratory study, the quinolone derivative, precisely 3-acetoxymethyl- (1H)-quinol-2-one, was transformed into 3-hydroxymethyl-(1H)-quinol-2-one using potassium carbonate in a mixture of methanol and water (1:1). Following successful hydrolysis, the resulting alcohol was transformed to the corresponding chloride, 3-chloromethyl-(1H)-quinol-2- one, using thionyl chloride. Subsequent nucleophilic substitution afforded 3-(aminomethyl)- (1H)-2-quinolone derivatives which were subsequently transformed to 3-(amidomethyl)-(1H)-2- quinolones; and 3-[(propargylamino)-methyl]-(1H)-quinol-2-one as precursors to quinolone- AZT derivatives. All compounds were characterized by NMR, IR, and where appropriate, high resolution MS
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Destination marketing: George
- Authors: Hunt, Norman William
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Place marketing -- South Africa -- George , Branding (Marketing) -- South Africa -- George , George (South Africa)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5604 , vital:20914
- Description: A destination is often given its identity by its brand name, creating an image thereof in the customers’ minds which means that destinations exist not only physically but also mentally in the minds of people. Destination marketers play a role in the creation of the images of such destinations which is dependent on what the destination offers in its depth and breadth. Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) should be able to not only understand their destination’s offerings but also who they are targeting and how they should market the destination. DMOs have evolved to become more than mere destination information providers as considerable destination information is now created by fellow travellers which are shared via social networks. The most important change resulting from adopting the concept of social capital in the context of tourism would be that tourism scholars and DMOs become aware of the importance of resources obtained through an individual’s social interactions. Despite the fact that the town of George has a number of attributes it is able to market to potential visitors, it does however not automatically make it a desired destination. The main objective of this treatise is to determine what would give George its marketable destination identity which will be achieved by gaining an understanding of the local residents’ viewpoints of George and to measure them according to specific attributes which are carefully formulated in a survey questionnaire. This treatise aims to determine what George can do to create a destination identity and how such an identity can be applied in the successful marketing of George as a destination town. It is an exploratory quantitative study consisting of literature and case study components used to test proposed hypotheses. It aims to provide guidance to the destination marketers by way of researched literature on the topic of destination marketing as well as offer empirical data gathered from responses to a survey conducted with local residents of George which is focused on creating a destination identity through its business, cultural and sporting events. Based on the statistical analysis of the survey results it will be shown that a relationship exists between Destination Marketing and Events, Branding and Media,which plays a pivotal role in the successful marketing of such events and thereby the brand image of the destination. Based on the literature findings and the empirical data gained for this treatise it was shown that events can be used to create a new brand image for a town like George which already possesses a natural beauty and friendly people. Examples will be discussed where destinations throughout the world have managed to change their brand without changing their environment, from which they have gained a new destination brand. George can strategically convert what it already has to become the destination of choice in terms of intra-town activities and events which could not only enhance its own economy but also that of the surrounding towns. The geographic location of George and that of the Surrounding tourist attractive towns make it possible to design and implement intra-town events with relative ease. As found in researched literature, the residents should be made part of any destination marketing campaign. These events should be designed to incorporate the surrounding towns to capitalise on the concept of intra-town events where George becomes the main centre but uses outlying towns to lure tourist. Respondents to the survey indicate that they somewhat agree that George has sufficient infrastructure to host sports (μ = 3.77), cultural (μ = 3.61) and business events (μ = 3.88) and that hosting such events in George would create job opportunities. The responses for all three event types in this regard have a mean value above μ = 4. Respondents indicated that religious events are deemed the most important (mean value μ = 4.25) while also indicating that they agreed with a mean value of μ = 4.18 that entrance fees influence their decision to attend events. The empirical research conducted in George was designed to gain a representative viewpoint of its residents in terms of what they deem the identity of George to be, the main objective (ROM) of which was to determine what would give George its destination identity. The composite image of the residents of George was measured according to specific attributes which were carefully formulated in the survey.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Hunt, Norman William
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Place marketing -- South Africa -- George , Branding (Marketing) -- South Africa -- George , George (South Africa)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5604 , vital:20914
- Description: A destination is often given its identity by its brand name, creating an image thereof in the customers’ minds which means that destinations exist not only physically but also mentally in the minds of people. Destination marketers play a role in the creation of the images of such destinations which is dependent on what the destination offers in its depth and breadth. Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) should be able to not only understand their destination’s offerings but also who they are targeting and how they should market the destination. DMOs have evolved to become more than mere destination information providers as considerable destination information is now created by fellow travellers which are shared via social networks. The most important change resulting from adopting the concept of social capital in the context of tourism would be that tourism scholars and DMOs become aware of the importance of resources obtained through an individual’s social interactions. Despite the fact that the town of George has a number of attributes it is able to market to potential visitors, it does however not automatically make it a desired destination. The main objective of this treatise is to determine what would give George its marketable destination identity which will be achieved by gaining an understanding of the local residents’ viewpoints of George and to measure them according to specific attributes which are carefully formulated in a survey questionnaire. This treatise aims to determine what George can do to create a destination identity and how such an identity can be applied in the successful marketing of George as a destination town. It is an exploratory quantitative study consisting of literature and case study components used to test proposed hypotheses. It aims to provide guidance to the destination marketers by way of researched literature on the topic of destination marketing as well as offer empirical data gathered from responses to a survey conducted with local residents of George which is focused on creating a destination identity through its business, cultural and sporting events. Based on the statistical analysis of the survey results it will be shown that a relationship exists between Destination Marketing and Events, Branding and Media,which plays a pivotal role in the successful marketing of such events and thereby the brand image of the destination. Based on the literature findings and the empirical data gained for this treatise it was shown that events can be used to create a new brand image for a town like George which already possesses a natural beauty and friendly people. Examples will be discussed where destinations throughout the world have managed to change their brand without changing their environment, from which they have gained a new destination brand. George can strategically convert what it already has to become the destination of choice in terms of intra-town activities and events which could not only enhance its own economy but also that of the surrounding towns. The geographic location of George and that of the Surrounding tourist attractive towns make it possible to design and implement intra-town events with relative ease. As found in researched literature, the residents should be made part of any destination marketing campaign. These events should be designed to incorporate the surrounding towns to capitalise on the concept of intra-town events where George becomes the main centre but uses outlying towns to lure tourist. Respondents to the survey indicate that they somewhat agree that George has sufficient infrastructure to host sports (μ = 3.77), cultural (μ = 3.61) and business events (μ = 3.88) and that hosting such events in George would create job opportunities. The responses for all three event types in this regard have a mean value above μ = 4. Respondents indicated that religious events are deemed the most important (mean value μ = 4.25) while also indicating that they agreed with a mean value of μ = 4.18 that entrance fees influence their decision to attend events. The empirical research conducted in George was designed to gain a representative viewpoint of its residents in terms of what they deem the identity of George to be, the main objective (ROM) of which was to determine what would give George its destination identity. The composite image of the residents of George was measured according to specific attributes which were carefully formulated in the survey.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Determinants of internet banking adoption by banks in Ghana
- Authors: Bart-Williams, Edem
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Internet banking -- Ghana , Banks and banking -- Ghana , Banks and banking -- Automation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/3715 , vital:20457
- Description: Growth in information and communication technology (ICT) is drastically changing the way businesses, especially in the service industries, are conducted. The financial services industry and banking in particular, is not excluded from this technology explosion. Internet banking, even though not new in advanced countries, is a new transaction channel being used by banks in some parts of Africa, especially Ghana, to offer various products and services to their customers. However, this medium has not been fully exploited by these banks as there are many hurdles the banks must triumph over. In deploying this technology and these systems, there are several factors which banks must take into consideration before fully deploying such a system to their customers, hence the motivation for this study. The absence of suitable and sufficient knowledge on this topic also exposes a “rhetoric versus reality” argument of whether the intention to adopt Internet banking is critical to the strategies and ultimate success of banks in Ghana. For banks to stay ahead of competition as well as to attract and maintain their clientele, it is of paramount importance to gather and link the perspectives of both clients and bank managers in order for banks to ensure that they perform according to the needs and expectations of their clients. In order to achieve the intended results, an empirical study was conducted by taking into consideration the viewpoints of both bank clients and bank managers in determining the factors that customers take into consideration before adopting the Internet banking medium. The primary aim of this study was to quantify significant relationships between the selected variables. Therefore the positivism research paradigm was used, while the phenomenological paradigm was employed for the measuring instruments. Because multiple sources of data were used, from the perspectives of banking clients and managers in Ghana, methodological triangulation was adopted for this study. The results of the empirical investigation showed that both groups (clients and managers) considered the variables of market share, technology acceptance, diffusion of innovation, organisational variables, organisational efficiency, and business strategy to have direct influence on the adoption of Internet banking. However, they differed in opinion concerning the degree of influence of these variables. The bank managers’ responses leaned more towards strong agreement with the importance of these variables than did those of the bank clients. Thus, for bank clients to readily adopt the Internet banking medium for their banking transactions, bank managers must take a closer look at these determinant factors described in the study. The study showed that the population group, educational and income levels exerted an influence on the perceptions clients have regarding Internet banking adoption factors. It was found that the higher the education and income levels of the clients, the easier it was for them to adopt Internet banking. Also, the male group dominated the use of the Internet banking. This is supported by the fact that there is a growing middle class in Ghana that falls within this category of banking clients.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Bart-Williams, Edem
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Internet banking -- Ghana , Banks and banking -- Ghana , Banks and banking -- Automation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/3715 , vital:20457
- Description: Growth in information and communication technology (ICT) is drastically changing the way businesses, especially in the service industries, are conducted. The financial services industry and banking in particular, is not excluded from this technology explosion. Internet banking, even though not new in advanced countries, is a new transaction channel being used by banks in some parts of Africa, especially Ghana, to offer various products and services to their customers. However, this medium has not been fully exploited by these banks as there are many hurdles the banks must triumph over. In deploying this technology and these systems, there are several factors which banks must take into consideration before fully deploying such a system to their customers, hence the motivation for this study. The absence of suitable and sufficient knowledge on this topic also exposes a “rhetoric versus reality” argument of whether the intention to adopt Internet banking is critical to the strategies and ultimate success of banks in Ghana. For banks to stay ahead of competition as well as to attract and maintain their clientele, it is of paramount importance to gather and link the perspectives of both clients and bank managers in order for banks to ensure that they perform according to the needs and expectations of their clients. In order to achieve the intended results, an empirical study was conducted by taking into consideration the viewpoints of both bank clients and bank managers in determining the factors that customers take into consideration before adopting the Internet banking medium. The primary aim of this study was to quantify significant relationships between the selected variables. Therefore the positivism research paradigm was used, while the phenomenological paradigm was employed for the measuring instruments. Because multiple sources of data were used, from the perspectives of banking clients and managers in Ghana, methodological triangulation was adopted for this study. The results of the empirical investigation showed that both groups (clients and managers) considered the variables of market share, technology acceptance, diffusion of innovation, organisational variables, organisational efficiency, and business strategy to have direct influence on the adoption of Internet banking. However, they differed in opinion concerning the degree of influence of these variables. The bank managers’ responses leaned more towards strong agreement with the importance of these variables than did those of the bank clients. Thus, for bank clients to readily adopt the Internet banking medium for their banking transactions, bank managers must take a closer look at these determinant factors described in the study. The study showed that the population group, educational and income levels exerted an influence on the perceptions clients have regarding Internet banking adoption factors. It was found that the higher the education and income levels of the clients, the easier it was for them to adopt Internet banking. Also, the male group dominated the use of the Internet banking. This is supported by the fact that there is a growing middle class in Ghana that falls within this category of banking clients.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Determination and validation of medicinal plants used by farmers to control internal and external parasites in goats in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Authors: Sanhokwe, Marcia
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Medicinal plants -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Goats -- Parasites -- Control
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/2249 , vital:27718
- Description: The broad objective of the study was to determine and validate medicinal plants used by resource-limited farmers to control internal and external parasites in goats in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. A survey was conducted among 50 farmers and three herbalists to determine medicinal plants used to control parasites in goats. The survey revealed nine plant species belonging to eight families that were used. Among the identified plant species, Aloe ferox, Acokanthera oppositifolia and Elephantorrhiza elephantina were the plants having the highest Fidelity Level for their use, each scored 100.00 percent, followed by Albuca setosa (83.33 percent). These plants were then selected for validation studies. Gas-Chromatography-Mass-Spectrometry (GC-MS) revealed 7, 33, 26 and 32 bioactive phytochemicals in A. ferox, E. elephantina, A. oppositifolia and A. setosa, respectively. Terpenes and fatty acids were present, oxygenated terpenes being the most abundant hydrocarbons present in all the four plant species. The effect of acetone, methanol and ethanol extracts of leaves of Aloe ferox and Acokanthera oppositifolia on tick repellency and acaricidal activity were investigated on blood engorged Ambylomma hebraeum and Rhipicephalus decoloratus ticks at concentration 15, 30 and 50 percent. The 30 and 50 percent acetone extract of A. ferox and Dazzel dip had the highest acaricidal properties of 100 percent. The 50 percent methanol extract of A. oppositifolia and 50 percent acetone extract of A. ferox had the highest repellency activity of 89 percent and 85.33 percent, respectively. Results from this study revealed that the efficacy of medicinal plants used by farmers to control ticks vary with the type of solvent used for extracting the bioactive compounds. Furthermore, it revealed that Aloe ferox and A. opppositifolia plant extracts possess repellent and acaricidal activities. In a study to investigate the anthelminthic effect of crude extracts of Elephantorrhiza elephantina and Albuca setosa plants, significant anthelminthic effect on nematodes was observed in both plants. In this study, all E. elephantina and A. setosa extracts caused paralysis and mortality. Methanol was the most effective solvent in extracting bioactive compounds and methanol extract showed the best anthelminthic effects among the crude extracts investigated in both plants. The least time taken for the worms to be paralysed was 8.33 mins and 14.33mins in 100mg/ml methanol extracts of E. elephantina and A. setosa, resepectively. Methanol extract of E. elephantina and A. setosa (100mg/ml) had the highest anthelminthic activity and mortality was recorded after 18mins and 20mins, respectively. Results from this study revealed that these two plants possess anthelminthic activities. The study revealed that resource-limited farmers use medicinal plants to control internal and external parasites in goats. Gas-Chromatography-Mass-Spectrometry analysis showed that these plants contain bioactive compounds that have a potential in controlling parasites. Validation studies showed that A. ferox and A. oppositifolia possess repellent and acaricidal activities whereas A. setosa and E. elephantina possess anthelminthic activities.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Sanhokwe, Marcia
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Medicinal plants -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Goats -- Parasites -- Control
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/2249 , vital:27718
- Description: The broad objective of the study was to determine and validate medicinal plants used by resource-limited farmers to control internal and external parasites in goats in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. A survey was conducted among 50 farmers and three herbalists to determine medicinal plants used to control parasites in goats. The survey revealed nine plant species belonging to eight families that were used. Among the identified plant species, Aloe ferox, Acokanthera oppositifolia and Elephantorrhiza elephantina were the plants having the highest Fidelity Level for their use, each scored 100.00 percent, followed by Albuca setosa (83.33 percent). These plants were then selected for validation studies. Gas-Chromatography-Mass-Spectrometry (GC-MS) revealed 7, 33, 26 and 32 bioactive phytochemicals in A. ferox, E. elephantina, A. oppositifolia and A. setosa, respectively. Terpenes and fatty acids were present, oxygenated terpenes being the most abundant hydrocarbons present in all the four plant species. The effect of acetone, methanol and ethanol extracts of leaves of Aloe ferox and Acokanthera oppositifolia on tick repellency and acaricidal activity were investigated on blood engorged Ambylomma hebraeum and Rhipicephalus decoloratus ticks at concentration 15, 30 and 50 percent. The 30 and 50 percent acetone extract of A. ferox and Dazzel dip had the highest acaricidal properties of 100 percent. The 50 percent methanol extract of A. oppositifolia and 50 percent acetone extract of A. ferox had the highest repellency activity of 89 percent and 85.33 percent, respectively. Results from this study revealed that the efficacy of medicinal plants used by farmers to control ticks vary with the type of solvent used for extracting the bioactive compounds. Furthermore, it revealed that Aloe ferox and A. opppositifolia plant extracts possess repellent and acaricidal activities. In a study to investigate the anthelminthic effect of crude extracts of Elephantorrhiza elephantina and Albuca setosa plants, significant anthelminthic effect on nematodes was observed in both plants. In this study, all E. elephantina and A. setosa extracts caused paralysis and mortality. Methanol was the most effective solvent in extracting bioactive compounds and methanol extract showed the best anthelminthic effects among the crude extracts investigated in both plants. The least time taken for the worms to be paralysed was 8.33 mins and 14.33mins in 100mg/ml methanol extracts of E. elephantina and A. setosa, resepectively. Methanol extract of E. elephantina and A. setosa (100mg/ml) had the highest anthelminthic activity and mortality was recorded after 18mins and 20mins, respectively. Results from this study revealed that these two plants possess anthelminthic activities. The study revealed that resource-limited farmers use medicinal plants to control internal and external parasites in goats. Gas-Chromatography-Mass-Spectrometry analysis showed that these plants contain bioactive compounds that have a potential in controlling parasites. Validation studies showed that A. ferox and A. oppositifolia possess repellent and acaricidal activities whereas A. setosa and E. elephantina possess anthelminthic activities.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Determination of the effects of sunlight and UV irradiation on the structure, viability and reapplication frequency of the biopesticide cryptophlebia leucotreta granulovirus in the protection against false codling moth infestation of citrus crops
- Authors: Mwanza, Patrick
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Cryptophlebia leucotreta -- Effect of ultraviolet radiation on , Natural pesticides
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/6346 , vital:21075
- Description: Cryptophlebia leucotreta granulovirus (CrleGV-SA) is a baculovirus specifically pathogenic to the citrus pest false codling moth, Thaumatotibia leucotreta. CrleGV- SA is formulated as a commercial biopesticide, Cryptogran® (River Bioscience, South Africa). The virus has a stable, proteinaceous crystalline occlusion body (OB) that protects the nucleocapsid. The major limitation to the use of baculoviruses is their susceptibility to the ultraviolet (UV) component of sunlight, which rapidly and greatly reduces their efficacy as biopesticides. The UVA and UVB components are the most destructive to biological organisms. To date no publication has reported the effect of UV on the structure and virulence of CrleGV, or the effectiveness of the OB as a UV protectant. In this study the effect of UV irradiation on the structure and infectivity of pure CrleGV-SA and Cryptogran® was investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, qPCR, and bioassays. The project included laboratory and field studies. In the laboratory, CrleGV-SA and Cryptogran® were exposed to either UVA or UVB for periods of 24 hours to 7 days before analysis. In the field, Cryptogran® was applied to trees in a citrus orchard with young fruit. The fruit were collected from 24 hours to 28 days after application and bioassays conducted to assess the effect of sunlight over time on virus structure and efficacy when applied to the northern or southern sides of the trees. No surface morphological changes to the virus were detected using SEM. However, small compositional changes were detected by Raman spectroscopy. qPCR and bioassays demonstrated that UV irradiation damaged the viral DNA, greatly reducing the infectivity of pure CrleGV-SA and Cryptogran®. Exposure to UVB reduced the virulence of the virus more than UVA. The field studies revealed that the activity of CrleGV-SA decreased more on the northern side of the trees than on the southern side.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Mwanza, Patrick
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Cryptophlebia leucotreta -- Effect of ultraviolet radiation on , Natural pesticides
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/6346 , vital:21075
- Description: Cryptophlebia leucotreta granulovirus (CrleGV-SA) is a baculovirus specifically pathogenic to the citrus pest false codling moth, Thaumatotibia leucotreta. CrleGV- SA is formulated as a commercial biopesticide, Cryptogran® (River Bioscience, South Africa). The virus has a stable, proteinaceous crystalline occlusion body (OB) that protects the nucleocapsid. The major limitation to the use of baculoviruses is their susceptibility to the ultraviolet (UV) component of sunlight, which rapidly and greatly reduces their efficacy as biopesticides. The UVA and UVB components are the most destructive to biological organisms. To date no publication has reported the effect of UV on the structure and virulence of CrleGV, or the effectiveness of the OB as a UV protectant. In this study the effect of UV irradiation on the structure and infectivity of pure CrleGV-SA and Cryptogran® was investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, qPCR, and bioassays. The project included laboratory and field studies. In the laboratory, CrleGV-SA and Cryptogran® were exposed to either UVA or UVB for periods of 24 hours to 7 days before analysis. In the field, Cryptogran® was applied to trees in a citrus orchard with young fruit. The fruit were collected from 24 hours to 28 days after application and bioassays conducted to assess the effect of sunlight over time on virus structure and efficacy when applied to the northern or southern sides of the trees. No surface morphological changes to the virus were detected using SEM. However, small compositional changes were detected by Raman spectroscopy. qPCR and bioassays demonstrated that UV irradiation damaged the viral DNA, greatly reducing the infectivity of pure CrleGV-SA and Cryptogran®. Exposure to UVB reduced the virulence of the virus more than UVA. The field studies revealed that the activity of CrleGV-SA decreased more on the northern side of the trees than on the southern side.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Determining the competency of children with developmental delays to testify in criminal trials
- Authors: Van Niekerk, Hester Aletta
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Child witnesses -- South Africa , Developmentally disabled children -- South Africa , Children -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa , Evidence (Law) -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3722 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017878
- Description: In South Africa children are required to testify under oath or admonition. The shortcomings of the competency test are of particular relevance to children with developmental disabilities, since courts are not equipped to adequately assess the competency of these children to give evidence. One component of testimonial competency, namely the understanding of the concepts truth and lies, is overemphasised and is examined with questions that are developmentally inappropriate for child witnesses in general. For children with cognitive disabilities, such questions create barriers for participation in the truth-seeking process. Consequently, convictions have been set aside on appeal owing to procedural irregularities found in the implementation of this test. In the literature review on testimonial competency, attention was given to restrictions that specific developmental disabilities impose on the perceptual, cognitive, communication and moral development of children. Two of four components – narrative ability and moral capacity – were studied in a sample of 184 children in middle childhood. Participants’ ability to give coherent and detailed accounts of events, their understanding of the concepts truth, lies, promises and the oath, and the Lyon and Saywitz oath-taking competency test, were investigated. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data analysis. Three groups were identified: those children with very limited, average or full testimonial competency. Their capacities were found to be related to maturation of cognitive functions and level of intellectual functioning. Participants were better able to demonstrate their understanding of truth and falsity by responding to the oathtaking test than giving verbal descriptions of these concepts. Whereas 1 percent of participants had a conceptual understanding of an oath, 15 percent understood the concept of a promise. Syncretism and confabulation compromised the narrative accounts of a substantial number of participants. Syncretism relates to immature narrative ability: correct details are combined in an illogical fashion. Confabulation refers to filling memory gaps with fabricated information. Guidelines on the competency determination of children with developmental disabilities were compiled. It is suggested that the competency examination be replaced by a formal, pre-trial competency assessment. The court should also receive expert evidence on how to facilitate meaningful participation when a child with sufficient testimonial competence is the witness.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Van Niekerk, Hester Aletta
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Child witnesses -- South Africa , Developmentally disabled children -- South Africa , Children -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa , Evidence (Law) -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3722 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017878
- Description: In South Africa children are required to testify under oath or admonition. The shortcomings of the competency test are of particular relevance to children with developmental disabilities, since courts are not equipped to adequately assess the competency of these children to give evidence. One component of testimonial competency, namely the understanding of the concepts truth and lies, is overemphasised and is examined with questions that are developmentally inappropriate for child witnesses in general. For children with cognitive disabilities, such questions create barriers for participation in the truth-seeking process. Consequently, convictions have been set aside on appeal owing to procedural irregularities found in the implementation of this test. In the literature review on testimonial competency, attention was given to restrictions that specific developmental disabilities impose on the perceptual, cognitive, communication and moral development of children. Two of four components – narrative ability and moral capacity – were studied in a sample of 184 children in middle childhood. Participants’ ability to give coherent and detailed accounts of events, their understanding of the concepts truth, lies, promises and the oath, and the Lyon and Saywitz oath-taking competency test, were investigated. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data analysis. Three groups were identified: those children with very limited, average or full testimonial competency. Their capacities were found to be related to maturation of cognitive functions and level of intellectual functioning. Participants were better able to demonstrate their understanding of truth and falsity by responding to the oathtaking test than giving verbal descriptions of these concepts. Whereas 1 percent of participants had a conceptual understanding of an oath, 15 percent understood the concept of a promise. Syncretism and confabulation compromised the narrative accounts of a substantial number of participants. Syncretism relates to immature narrative ability: correct details are combined in an illogical fashion. Confabulation refers to filling memory gaps with fabricated information. Guidelines on the competency determination of children with developmental disabilities were compiled. It is suggested that the competency examination be replaced by a formal, pre-trial competency assessment. The court should also receive expert evidence on how to facilitate meaningful participation when a child with sufficient testimonial competence is the witness.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Detriments associated with substance abuse among out - of - school youth in Ntselamanzi, village, Alice Town
- Authors: Chatikobo, Nyasha
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Substance abuse--South Africa--Eastern Cape , Drug abuse--South Africa--Eastern Cape , Youth--Substance use--South Africa--Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/19442 , vital:43087
- Description: The main aim of the study was to investigate the detriments associated with substance abuse among the out- of- school youth of Ntselamanzi Village in Alice. This study intended to achieve the following objectives. (i) to establish the causes of increased indulgence in substance abuse in Ntselamanzi village, Eastern Cape. (ii) to identify the various kinds of drugs abused by the society of Ntselamanzi (iii) to identify the consequences of substance abuse to the lives of the out-of-school youth. (iv) to suggest the strategies that can be used to reduce substance abuse in order to enhance the youth‟s socio-economic growth and societal bliss. Using the quantitative method ninety-eight questionnaires were administered to the out-of-school youth in Ntselamanzi village and eighty questionnaires were returned fully answered. The major findings of the study outlined that dominating factors of substance abuse in Ntselamanzi village were family drug use, increased drug accessibility, lack of recreation and peer influence. As a result drug abuse among the out of school youth has indicated that the youth end up dropping out of school, unemployed, facing health complications and committing anti-social activities in the village which causing family conflicts and rifts in the community. These all affected the out-of-school youths‟ well-being, academic future and their quality of life was lowered due to all related issues with drug abuse. It can be concluded that drug use among rural outof-school youth is detrimental to the out-of-school youths, their families destroyed and their community crippled from the anti-social activities that take place. The future of the youths‟ education is hampered; the quality of persons in the community and families is lowered. Having unproductive out-of-school youth as a result of drug abuse is not good for the development of the village and all the persons therein. , Thesis (M Soc Sc) (Social Work) -- University of Fort Hare, 2015
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Chatikobo, Nyasha
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Substance abuse--South Africa--Eastern Cape , Drug abuse--South Africa--Eastern Cape , Youth--Substance use--South Africa--Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/19442 , vital:43087
- Description: The main aim of the study was to investigate the detriments associated with substance abuse among the out- of- school youth of Ntselamanzi Village in Alice. This study intended to achieve the following objectives. (i) to establish the causes of increased indulgence in substance abuse in Ntselamanzi village, Eastern Cape. (ii) to identify the various kinds of drugs abused by the society of Ntselamanzi (iii) to identify the consequences of substance abuse to the lives of the out-of-school youth. (iv) to suggest the strategies that can be used to reduce substance abuse in order to enhance the youth‟s socio-economic growth and societal bliss. Using the quantitative method ninety-eight questionnaires were administered to the out-of-school youth in Ntselamanzi village and eighty questionnaires were returned fully answered. The major findings of the study outlined that dominating factors of substance abuse in Ntselamanzi village were family drug use, increased drug accessibility, lack of recreation and peer influence. As a result drug abuse among the out of school youth has indicated that the youth end up dropping out of school, unemployed, facing health complications and committing anti-social activities in the village which causing family conflicts and rifts in the community. These all affected the out-of-school youths‟ well-being, academic future and their quality of life was lowered due to all related issues with drug abuse. It can be concluded that drug use among rural outof-school youth is detrimental to the out-of-school youths, their families destroyed and their community crippled from the anti-social activities that take place. The future of the youths‟ education is hampered; the quality of persons in the community and families is lowered. Having unproductive out-of-school youth as a result of drug abuse is not good for the development of the village and all the persons therein. , Thesis (M Soc Sc) (Social Work) -- University of Fort Hare, 2015
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Developed teacher leadership in a township high school : an interpretive case study
- Authors: John, Daisy Mary
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Educational leadership -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , School management and organization -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Teacher participation in administration -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Teacher effectiveness -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:2052 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018548
- Description: South Africa’s future success depends on a number of national priorities, amongst them the transformation of its education system. Education is the best route to follow to alleviate poverty and many other social ills. One way to overcome some of the complex challenges and crises that we face in South African schools is to pay attention to issues of leading and leadership, including the leadership of teachers. This study is done with the hope that research into teacher leadership will be one of the answers to the crisis in education. It should become a beacon of hope for all educationists who passionately want progress in the youth of South Africa. What better way than to ‘Awaken the Sleeping Giant’ of teacher leadership, borrowing the term from Katzenmeyer and Moller (2009). This study was designed as a case study, the purpose of which was to find out about the enactment of teacher leadership in an Eastern Cape township high school as well as the enhancing and hindering factors to this enactment. This study was done as a replication study of a similar study done by a group of 11Master’s students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2010. Similar to the original study, this case study was located within the interpretive paradigm and drew on school profiling, survey questionnaires, a focus group interview, selfreflective journals and individual interviews for its methods of data collection. The study was framed by distributed leadership while Grant’s (2008; 2012) Model of teacher leadership was adopted as the analytical tool. It emerged from the data that the three teacher leaders, my primary participants, exhibited teacher leadership across all four zones of Grant’s (2008) Model. The first zone was leadership in the classroom where all three teacher leaders showed leadership to varying degrees. Zones Two to Four are about leadership beyond the classroom into the school and beyond. In Zone Two, the zone where teachers work with each other and the learners outside the classroom, substantial levels of leadership were enacted by the three teacher leaders. Zone Three, where leadership is exhibited in whole-school development, the three primary participants showed distinct leadership qualities as well. The fourth zone, which is about interaction with neighbouring schools, also revealed that all three teacher leaders demonstrated active leadership on a regular basis. Findings further revealed that there were only a few inhibiting factors to the leadership of teachers at the case study school, including limited resources and infrastructure as well as insufficient support and acknowledgement from the relevant stakeholders when leadership initiatives were made, either successfully or otherwise. However, the enhancing factors superseded the inhibiting factors. A functional committee culture guided by a shared vision existed in the case study school together with an ethos of trust which enabled the staff to work collaboratively. Though there was certainly room for improvement in leadership practices at this case study school, the enactment of teacher leadership in this school illustrated a strong case of ‘developed’ teacher leadership (Muijs& Harris, 2007) within a dispersed leadership framing (Gunter, 2005)
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: John, Daisy Mary
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Educational leadership -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , School management and organization -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Teacher participation in administration -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Teacher effectiveness -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:2052 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018548
- Description: South Africa’s future success depends on a number of national priorities, amongst them the transformation of its education system. Education is the best route to follow to alleviate poverty and many other social ills. One way to overcome some of the complex challenges and crises that we face in South African schools is to pay attention to issues of leading and leadership, including the leadership of teachers. This study is done with the hope that research into teacher leadership will be one of the answers to the crisis in education. It should become a beacon of hope for all educationists who passionately want progress in the youth of South Africa. What better way than to ‘Awaken the Sleeping Giant’ of teacher leadership, borrowing the term from Katzenmeyer and Moller (2009). This study was designed as a case study, the purpose of which was to find out about the enactment of teacher leadership in an Eastern Cape township high school as well as the enhancing and hindering factors to this enactment. This study was done as a replication study of a similar study done by a group of 11Master’s students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2010. Similar to the original study, this case study was located within the interpretive paradigm and drew on school profiling, survey questionnaires, a focus group interview, selfreflective journals and individual interviews for its methods of data collection. The study was framed by distributed leadership while Grant’s (2008; 2012) Model of teacher leadership was adopted as the analytical tool. It emerged from the data that the three teacher leaders, my primary participants, exhibited teacher leadership across all four zones of Grant’s (2008) Model. The first zone was leadership in the classroom where all three teacher leaders showed leadership to varying degrees. Zones Two to Four are about leadership beyond the classroom into the school and beyond. In Zone Two, the zone where teachers work with each other and the learners outside the classroom, substantial levels of leadership were enacted by the three teacher leaders. Zone Three, where leadership is exhibited in whole-school development, the three primary participants showed distinct leadership qualities as well. The fourth zone, which is about interaction with neighbouring schools, also revealed that all three teacher leaders demonstrated active leadership on a regular basis. Findings further revealed that there were only a few inhibiting factors to the leadership of teachers at the case study school, including limited resources and infrastructure as well as insufficient support and acknowledgement from the relevant stakeholders when leadership initiatives were made, either successfully or otherwise. However, the enhancing factors superseded the inhibiting factors. A functional committee culture guided by a shared vision existed in the case study school together with an ethos of trust which enabled the staff to work collaboratively. Though there was certainly room for improvement in leadership practices at this case study school, the enactment of teacher leadership in this school illustrated a strong case of ‘developed’ teacher leadership (Muijs& Harris, 2007) within a dispersed leadership framing (Gunter, 2005)
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Developing a cross platform IMS client using the JAIN SIP applet phone
- Authors: Muswera, Walter Tawanda
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Internet Protocol multimedia subsystem , Java (Computer program language)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4712 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017934
- Description: Since the introduction of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in 2002, a lot of research has been conducted aimed at designing and implementing IMS capable clients and network elements. Though considerable work has been done in the development of IMS clients, there is no single, free and open source IMS client that provides researchers with all the required functionality needed to test the applications they are developing. For example, several open and closed source SIP/IMS clients are used within the Rhodes University Conver- gence Research Group (RUCRG) to test applications under development, as a result of the fact that the various SIP/IMS clients support different subsets of SIP/IMS features. The lack of a single client and the subsequent use of various clients comes with several problems. Researchers have to know how to deploy, configure, use and at times adapt the various clients to suit their needs. This can be very time consuming and, in fact, contradicts the IMS philosophy (the IMS was proposed to support rapid service creation). This thesis outlines the development of a Java-based, IMS compliant client called RUCRG IMS client, that uses the JAIN SIP Applet Phone (JSAP) as its foundation. JSAP, which originally offered only basic voice calling and instant messaging (IM) capabilities, was modified to be IMS compliant and support video calls, IM and presence using XML Configuration Access Protocol (XCAP).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Muswera, Walter Tawanda
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Internet Protocol multimedia subsystem , Java (Computer program language)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4712 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017934
- Description: Since the introduction of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in 2002, a lot of research has been conducted aimed at designing and implementing IMS capable clients and network elements. Though considerable work has been done in the development of IMS clients, there is no single, free and open source IMS client that provides researchers with all the required functionality needed to test the applications they are developing. For example, several open and closed source SIP/IMS clients are used within the Rhodes University Conver- gence Research Group (RUCRG) to test applications under development, as a result of the fact that the various SIP/IMS clients support different subsets of SIP/IMS features. The lack of a single client and the subsequent use of various clients comes with several problems. Researchers have to know how to deploy, configure, use and at times adapt the various clients to suit their needs. This can be very time consuming and, in fact, contradicts the IMS philosophy (the IMS was proposed to support rapid service creation). This thesis outlines the development of a Java-based, IMS compliant client called RUCRG IMS client, that uses the JAIN SIP Applet Phone (JSAP) as its foundation. JSAP, which originally offered only basic voice calling and instant messaging (IM) capabilities, was modified to be IMS compliant and support video calls, IM and presence using XML Configuration Access Protocol (XCAP).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Developing a GIS based method for school site identification in the rural Eastern Cape
- Authors: Swart, Conrad Dirk
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Geographic information systems -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , School sites -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , School sites -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Planning , Rural schools -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4891 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018939
- Description: Historically, South Africa has not had equal education in terms of funding, curriculum or physical resources and structures. These issues are still present in contemporary South Africa and none more so than the issues surrounding “mud schools”. Recently the Department of Basic Education (DBE) implemented a plan to eradicate inappropriate school structures using the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative program (ASIDI). Questions around effective placement of schools are now being asked. Using interviews and analysis of literature, this research developed criteria needed to determine how rural school sites are selected. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was used to determine if current sites are in the most appropriate areas. The results of the research included a unique set of Eastern Cape criteria as well as an analysis of the current site selection methods used by the DBE. It also revealed that most of the schools are being constructed in acceptable areas. The main result that emerged from the research was that schools will be placed in areas where they are needed. Developing site selection criteria is still needed as South Africa seeks to reduce the education gap between rich and poor schools.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Swart, Conrad Dirk
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Geographic information systems -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , School sites -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , School sites -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Planning , Rural schools -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4891 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018939
- Description: Historically, South Africa has not had equal education in terms of funding, curriculum or physical resources and structures. These issues are still present in contemporary South Africa and none more so than the issues surrounding “mud schools”. Recently the Department of Basic Education (DBE) implemented a plan to eradicate inappropriate school structures using the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative program (ASIDI). Questions around effective placement of schools are now being asked. Using interviews and analysis of literature, this research developed criteria needed to determine how rural school sites are selected. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was used to determine if current sites are in the most appropriate areas. The results of the research included a unique set of Eastern Cape criteria as well as an analysis of the current site selection methods used by the DBE. It also revealed that most of the schools are being constructed in acceptable areas. The main result that emerged from the research was that schools will be placed in areas where they are needed. Developing site selection criteria is still needed as South Africa seeks to reduce the education gap between rich and poor schools.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Developing a performance measurement tool to monitor the performance of a public sector agency : a balanced scorecard approach
- Authors: Lisani, Ncedo
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: South Africa. Economic Development Department , South Africa. Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism , Performance -- Measurement , Performance -- Management , Public administration -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:848 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017515
- Description: The world has seen unparalleled pressure put on the public sector to improve the speed and quality of service delivery, whilst simultaneously employing measures to cut the costs. South Africa and the Eastern Cape have not been immune to this as there have been complaints and demonstrations from various national and provincial stakeholders demanding more and improved services. The Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEDEAT) in particular has employed the services of public entities in its quest to realise government’s socio-economic developmental objectives and ease some of the service delivery pressures. These agencies are unfortunately struggling to deliver and the Department is unable to play the oversight role it is legislatively mandated to carry out. The main reason for this seem to be the lack of the capacity to objectively track and measure the performance of these agencies. As they say “you cannot manage what you cannot measure”. This is despite the fact that there is a shareholders’ compact and many other measures in place to enable performance monitoring. Also, the public sector is known to have inherent and unique performance management challenges like broad and vague objectives which lead to too many measurements, a propensity to focus on the “easy to measure” but often irrelevant indicators at the expense of critical outcomes and a short-term orientation that is usually fuelled by political expediency. Against this background, this study sought to make use of a comprehensive and dynamic performance monitoring framework, namely the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), to explore its potential use in assisting government to monitor the performance of public agencies, in particular the Development Finance Institutions (DFI) in South Africa. The proposed framework helps government to focus on the performance drivers of future value, and what decisions and actions are necessary to achieve critical outcomes. The aim of the study therefore is to develop an adjusted BSC framework to monitor the activities of a public sector agency and thus demonstrate how a BSC framework could be used to monitor a public agency by the government department. The study is evaluative in nature and is divided into three sections. Section one is presented as an Evaluation Report. It sets the scene, discusses briefly the key theoretical concepts, outlines the research methods used and presents the findings followed by a discussion and recommendations. Section two delves into the literature in more detail, providing a more extensive review of the literature that informed the investigation, whilst section three provides a more extensive description of the research methodology employed in the study. To achieve the aims of the study, the research drew from the work of various authors in the field including that of Bigliardi, Dormio and Galati, 2011; Bititci, Garengo, Dörfler, and Nudurupati, 2012; Julyan, 2011; Kaplan and Norton, 1992, 1993, 1996, 2001, 2004 and 2006; Niven, 2003 and 2008 and Northcott and Taulapapa, 2012. Also, five BSC perspectives - including the programme specific “equity” perspective - were used to develop an interview schedule. These were used to formulate the key performance objectives and indicators, based on the stakeholder’s responses. These respondents have experience within the programme as administrators, beneficiaries and funders. The research employed purposive sampling with semi-structured in-depth interviews and document analysis as primary and secondary instruments for data collection. In essence, five officials from the agency, one from DEDEAT and two co-operatives participated in the research. The results indicate a general appreciation of and gravitation towards outcome based measures, even though the government culture of focusing on outputs is still prevalent. The results of the study indicated that, generally, a government - public agency BSC based performance monitoring framework would have the following features: Customer objectives and programme mission as the main goal and this will provides clarity at all levels on who the customers are and what are their primary requirements. Clear, visible and stringent financial controls as the agency is administering public resources. Few carefully selected processes and systems that have a direct and positive impact on the customer objectives. Deliberate and consistent efforts to promote the participation of designated groups in the economy of the country. Comprehensive indicators on capacity building as “mission based-organisations rely heavily on skills, dedication and alignment of staff”. Overall, the study concludes that the make-up of the BSC is beneficial to the public sector and in monitoring the public sector agencies for the following reasons: It helps the agency to focus on customers and their needs. It forces the agency to engage and communicate strategic intention with both internal and external stakeholders and thus synchronize competing stakeholder needs. It forces the agency to limit the number of indicators and therefore select the few value adding measures that are aligned to customer outcomes. Through its cause and effect relationship, the agency is compelled to align all the resources, activities and processes to the main goal of the entity. All these help to minimize the principal agent problem, as the use of the BSC can bring clarity on strategy and expectations, provided it is supported with regular communication.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Lisani, Ncedo
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: South Africa. Economic Development Department , South Africa. Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism , Performance -- Measurement , Performance -- Management , Public administration -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:848 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017515
- Description: The world has seen unparalleled pressure put on the public sector to improve the speed and quality of service delivery, whilst simultaneously employing measures to cut the costs. South Africa and the Eastern Cape have not been immune to this as there have been complaints and demonstrations from various national and provincial stakeholders demanding more and improved services. The Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEDEAT) in particular has employed the services of public entities in its quest to realise government’s socio-economic developmental objectives and ease some of the service delivery pressures. These agencies are unfortunately struggling to deliver and the Department is unable to play the oversight role it is legislatively mandated to carry out. The main reason for this seem to be the lack of the capacity to objectively track and measure the performance of these agencies. As they say “you cannot manage what you cannot measure”. This is despite the fact that there is a shareholders’ compact and many other measures in place to enable performance monitoring. Also, the public sector is known to have inherent and unique performance management challenges like broad and vague objectives which lead to too many measurements, a propensity to focus on the “easy to measure” but often irrelevant indicators at the expense of critical outcomes and a short-term orientation that is usually fuelled by political expediency. Against this background, this study sought to make use of a comprehensive and dynamic performance monitoring framework, namely the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), to explore its potential use in assisting government to monitor the performance of public agencies, in particular the Development Finance Institutions (DFI) in South Africa. The proposed framework helps government to focus on the performance drivers of future value, and what decisions and actions are necessary to achieve critical outcomes. The aim of the study therefore is to develop an adjusted BSC framework to monitor the activities of a public sector agency and thus demonstrate how a BSC framework could be used to monitor a public agency by the government department. The study is evaluative in nature and is divided into three sections. Section one is presented as an Evaluation Report. It sets the scene, discusses briefly the key theoretical concepts, outlines the research methods used and presents the findings followed by a discussion and recommendations. Section two delves into the literature in more detail, providing a more extensive review of the literature that informed the investigation, whilst section three provides a more extensive description of the research methodology employed in the study. To achieve the aims of the study, the research drew from the work of various authors in the field including that of Bigliardi, Dormio and Galati, 2011; Bititci, Garengo, Dörfler, and Nudurupati, 2012; Julyan, 2011; Kaplan and Norton, 1992, 1993, 1996, 2001, 2004 and 2006; Niven, 2003 and 2008 and Northcott and Taulapapa, 2012. Also, five BSC perspectives - including the programme specific “equity” perspective - were used to develop an interview schedule. These were used to formulate the key performance objectives and indicators, based on the stakeholder’s responses. These respondents have experience within the programme as administrators, beneficiaries and funders. The research employed purposive sampling with semi-structured in-depth interviews and document analysis as primary and secondary instruments for data collection. In essence, five officials from the agency, one from DEDEAT and two co-operatives participated in the research. The results indicate a general appreciation of and gravitation towards outcome based measures, even though the government culture of focusing on outputs is still prevalent. The results of the study indicated that, generally, a government - public agency BSC based performance monitoring framework would have the following features: Customer objectives and programme mission as the main goal and this will provides clarity at all levels on who the customers are and what are their primary requirements. Clear, visible and stringent financial controls as the agency is administering public resources. Few carefully selected processes and systems that have a direct and positive impact on the customer objectives. Deliberate and consistent efforts to promote the participation of designated groups in the economy of the country. Comprehensive indicators on capacity building as “mission based-organisations rely heavily on skills, dedication and alignment of staff”. Overall, the study concludes that the make-up of the BSC is beneficial to the public sector and in monitoring the public sector agencies for the following reasons: It helps the agency to focus on customers and their needs. It forces the agency to engage and communicate strategic intention with both internal and external stakeholders and thus synchronize competing stakeholder needs. It forces the agency to limit the number of indicators and therefore select the few value adding measures that are aligned to customer outcomes. Through its cause and effect relationship, the agency is compelled to align all the resources, activities and processes to the main goal of the entity. All these help to minimize the principal agent problem, as the use of the BSC can bring clarity on strategy and expectations, provided it is supported with regular communication.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Developing and using an assessment instrument for spatial skills in Grade 10 geometry learners
- Authors: Cowley, Jane
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Geometry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Geometry -- Evaluation. , Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:2025 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017336
- Description: This qualitative investigation took the form of a case study and fell within the interpretive research paradigm. The Mathematics Chair at the Education Department of Rhodes University launched the Mathematics Teacher Enrichment Programme (MTEP) in 2010 in order to combat poor Mathematics performance of learners in the lower Albany district of the Eastern Cape. The challenge that the participating MTEP teachers faced was a lack of time available to implement new teaching ideas. This was because most of their time was spent catching up “lost” or untaught concepts in the classroom. To address this problem, the Catch-Up Project was launched, whereby selected Mathematics teachers in the area taught lost concepts to Grade Ten learners during afternoon classes in an attempt to improve their fundamental Mathematics knowledge. In order to establish which sections of Mathematics were more difficult for the learners in this programme, bench mark tests were administered biannually. Whilst these tests certainly identified deficient areas within their Mathematics knowledge, the poorest performance areas were the sections of the syllabus which were spatial in nature, such as Space and Shape and Geometry. However, a more in depth assessment tool was required to establish which specific spatial skills the learners were not able to employ when doing these Geometry tasks. To this end, the Spatial Skills Assessment Tasks (SSAT) was developed. It consisted of traditional text book type Geometry tasks and real-world context tasks, both of which were used to assess six spatial skills deemed crucial to successfully facilitate learning Geometry. The case study took place in two of the schools which participated in the Grade Ten Catch-Up project. The case was focused on Grade Ten learners and the unit of analysis was their responses to the SSAT instrument. The learners that participated all did so on a strictly voluntary basis and great care was taken to protect their wellbeing and anonymity at all times. The results of the SSAT instrument revealed that the real world context tasks were in general far more successfully answered than the traditional text book type questions. Important trends in learner responses were noted and highlighted. For example, geometric terminology remains a huge challenge for learners, especially as they study Mathematics in their second language. The ability of the learners to differentiate between such concepts as congruency and similarity is severely compromised, partly due to a lack of terminological understanding but also due to a perceived lack of exposure to the material. Concepts such as verticality and horizontality also remain a huge challenge, possibly for the same reasons. They are poorly understood and yet vital to achievement in Geometry. Recommendations for the development and strengthening of spatial skills support the constructivist approach to learning. Hands on activities and intensive sustained practice over a period of a few months, in which both teachers and learners are actively involved in the learning process, would be considered most beneficial to the long term enhancement of these vital spatial skills and to the learning of Geometry in general.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Cowley, Jane
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Geometry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Geometry -- Evaluation. , Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:2025 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017336
- Description: This qualitative investigation took the form of a case study and fell within the interpretive research paradigm. The Mathematics Chair at the Education Department of Rhodes University launched the Mathematics Teacher Enrichment Programme (MTEP) in 2010 in order to combat poor Mathematics performance of learners in the lower Albany district of the Eastern Cape. The challenge that the participating MTEP teachers faced was a lack of time available to implement new teaching ideas. This was because most of their time was spent catching up “lost” or untaught concepts in the classroom. To address this problem, the Catch-Up Project was launched, whereby selected Mathematics teachers in the area taught lost concepts to Grade Ten learners during afternoon classes in an attempt to improve their fundamental Mathematics knowledge. In order to establish which sections of Mathematics were more difficult for the learners in this programme, bench mark tests were administered biannually. Whilst these tests certainly identified deficient areas within their Mathematics knowledge, the poorest performance areas were the sections of the syllabus which were spatial in nature, such as Space and Shape and Geometry. However, a more in depth assessment tool was required to establish which specific spatial skills the learners were not able to employ when doing these Geometry tasks. To this end, the Spatial Skills Assessment Tasks (SSAT) was developed. It consisted of traditional text book type Geometry tasks and real-world context tasks, both of which were used to assess six spatial skills deemed crucial to successfully facilitate learning Geometry. The case study took place in two of the schools which participated in the Grade Ten Catch-Up project. The case was focused on Grade Ten learners and the unit of analysis was their responses to the SSAT instrument. The learners that participated all did so on a strictly voluntary basis and great care was taken to protect their wellbeing and anonymity at all times. The results of the SSAT instrument revealed that the real world context tasks were in general far more successfully answered than the traditional text book type questions. Important trends in learner responses were noted and highlighted. For example, geometric terminology remains a huge challenge for learners, especially as they study Mathematics in their second language. The ability of the learners to differentiate between such concepts as congruency and similarity is severely compromised, partly due to a lack of terminological understanding but also due to a perceived lack of exposure to the material. Concepts such as verticality and horizontality also remain a huge challenge, possibly for the same reasons. They are poorly understood and yet vital to achievement in Geometry. Recommendations for the development and strengthening of spatial skills support the constructivist approach to learning. Hands on activities and intensive sustained practice over a period of a few months, in which both teachers and learners are actively involved in the learning process, would be considered most beneficial to the long term enhancement of these vital spatial skills and to the learning of Geometry in general.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Developing high-fidelity mental models of programming concepts using manipulatives and interactive metaphors
- Authors: Funcke, Matthew
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Computer programming -- Study and teaching (Higher) , Computer programmers
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4707 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017929
- Description: It is well established that both learning and teaching programming are difficult tasks. Difficulties often occur due to weak mental models and common misconceptions. This study proposes a method of teaching programming that both encourages high-fidelity mental models and attempts to minimise misconceptions in novice programmers, through the use of metaphors and manipulatives. The elements in ActionWorld with which the students interact are realizations of metaphors. By simple example, a variable has a metaphorical representation as a labelled box that can hold a value. The dissertation develops a set of metaphors which have several core requirements: metaphors should avoid causing misconceptions, they need to be high-fidelity so as to avoid failing when used with a new concept, students must be able to relate to them, and finally, they should be usable across multiple educational media. The learning style that ActionWorld supports is one which requires active participation from the student - the system acts as a foundation upon which students are encouraged to build their mental models. This teaching style is achieved by placing the student in the role of code interpreter, the code they need to interpret will not advance until they have demonstrated its meaning via use of the aforementioned metaphors. ActionWorld was developed using an iterative developmental process that consistently improved upon various aspects of the project through a continual evaluation-enhancement cycle. The primary outputs of this project include a unified set of high-fidelity metaphors, a virtual-machine API for use in similar future projects, and two metaphor-testing games. All of the aforementioned deliverables were tested using multiple quality-evaluation criteria, the results of which were consistently positive. ActionWorld and its constituent components contribute to the wide assortment of methods one might use to teach novice programmers.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Funcke, Matthew
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Computer programming -- Study and teaching (Higher) , Computer programmers
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4707 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017929
- Description: It is well established that both learning and teaching programming are difficult tasks. Difficulties often occur due to weak mental models and common misconceptions. This study proposes a method of teaching programming that both encourages high-fidelity mental models and attempts to minimise misconceptions in novice programmers, through the use of metaphors and manipulatives. The elements in ActionWorld with which the students interact are realizations of metaphors. By simple example, a variable has a metaphorical representation as a labelled box that can hold a value. The dissertation develops a set of metaphors which have several core requirements: metaphors should avoid causing misconceptions, they need to be high-fidelity so as to avoid failing when used with a new concept, students must be able to relate to them, and finally, they should be usable across multiple educational media. The learning style that ActionWorld supports is one which requires active participation from the student - the system acts as a foundation upon which students are encouraged to build their mental models. This teaching style is achieved by placing the student in the role of code interpreter, the code they need to interpret will not advance until they have demonstrated its meaning via use of the aforementioned metaphors. ActionWorld was developed using an iterative developmental process that consistently improved upon various aspects of the project through a continual evaluation-enhancement cycle. The primary outputs of this project include a unified set of high-fidelity metaphors, a virtual-machine API for use in similar future projects, and two metaphor-testing games. All of the aforementioned deliverables were tested using multiple quality-evaluation criteria, the results of which were consistently positive. ActionWorld and its constituent components contribute to the wide assortment of methods one might use to teach novice programmers.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Developing the marital life course perspective as a conceptual framework for describing and understanding marital life events and marital transitions
- Authors: Rautenbach, John Victor
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Marriage , Marital status , Married people
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/2991 , vital:20384
- Description: This research seeks to explore the development of the Marital Life Course Perspective as a conceptual framework for describing and understanding marital life events and marital transitions. The study’s orientation is guided by the Life Course Perspective (Glen Elder Jr.) as a theoretical framework and draws on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Jonathan Smith) and Concept Analysis (Walker & Avant) as methodological approaches. One hundred and thirty (130) academic works that use the term marital life course in their texts constituted a literature-dataset for a Concept Analysis (Walker & Avant, 1988; 2011) that tracked the theoretical development of the Marital Life Course Perspective since 1980 (George, 1980, p. 80). The residents of retirement centres and old age homes in East London and Buffalo City (all older than 65 years of age) were invited to share a retrospective history of their relationship experiences, about their multiple marital life events and the marital transitions that shaped their marital life course. The 16 women who participated in the in-depth interviews had all been previously married more than once and were currently single due to divorce or the death of their husbands. This empirical data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a guide (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). After the analysis and synthesis of both datasets the following proposed operational definition of the Marital Life Course Perspective was constructed: The Marital Life Course Perspective is a conceptual framework for describing and understanding marital life events and marital transitions. As a subset of the Life Course Perspective, the Marital Life Course Perspective seeks to understand all stages of the marital experience within their wider social and cultural contexts, which are shaped by the historical dimension of a cohort’s specific time and geographic location. Marital life events include, but are not limited to, marital status changes. An individual may experience multiple marriage life events throughout their life, each with associated role transitions that vary according to their temporality and the individuals whose lives are linked to the marital experience. Well-being and transition outcomes across the marital life course may be promoted or impeded by an interplay of risk and protective factors, and agency-related capacity or resilience.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Rautenbach, John Victor
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Marriage , Marital status , Married people
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/2991 , vital:20384
- Description: This research seeks to explore the development of the Marital Life Course Perspective as a conceptual framework for describing and understanding marital life events and marital transitions. The study’s orientation is guided by the Life Course Perspective (Glen Elder Jr.) as a theoretical framework and draws on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Jonathan Smith) and Concept Analysis (Walker & Avant) as methodological approaches. One hundred and thirty (130) academic works that use the term marital life course in their texts constituted a literature-dataset for a Concept Analysis (Walker & Avant, 1988; 2011) that tracked the theoretical development of the Marital Life Course Perspective since 1980 (George, 1980, p. 80). The residents of retirement centres and old age homes in East London and Buffalo City (all older than 65 years of age) were invited to share a retrospective history of their relationship experiences, about their multiple marital life events and the marital transitions that shaped their marital life course. The 16 women who participated in the in-depth interviews had all been previously married more than once and were currently single due to divorce or the death of their husbands. This empirical data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a guide (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). After the analysis and synthesis of both datasets the following proposed operational definition of the Marital Life Course Perspective was constructed: The Marital Life Course Perspective is a conceptual framework for describing and understanding marital life events and marital transitions. As a subset of the Life Course Perspective, the Marital Life Course Perspective seeks to understand all stages of the marital experience within their wider social and cultural contexts, which are shaped by the historical dimension of a cohort’s specific time and geographic location. Marital life events include, but are not limited to, marital status changes. An individual may experience multiple marriage life events throughout their life, each with associated role transitions that vary according to their temporality and the individuals whose lives are linked to the marital experience. Well-being and transition outcomes across the marital life course may be promoted or impeded by an interplay of risk and protective factors, and agency-related capacity or resilience.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Development and manufacture of sustained release captopril beads
- Authors: Mhaka, Farai Arthur
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MPharm
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/54712 , vital:26602
- Description: Hypertension has a high mortality rate in developing countries such as South Africa. Although the prevention and control of hypertension is a health priority, efforts to decrease the global burden of hypertension and improve control over the condition are inadequate. The use of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors such as captopril (CPT) have been effective for the management of hypertension when used as first line therapy alone or in combination. Commercially available immediate release dosage forms containing 12.5, 25 and 50 mg of CPT are administered two or three times a day to treat hypertension. CPT degrades in aqueous media with the sulfhydryl functional moiety responsible for adverse effects such as hypersensitivity, taste disturbances and/or presenting with a dry hacking cough. CPT has a short elimination half-life of between 1.6 and 1.9 hours, which means that the compound is a suitable candidate for inclusion in sustained release (SR) dosage forms. Manufacturing a SR dosage form of coated beads for twice daily dosing may reduce the incidence and intensity of undesirable adverse effects, improve the stability of CPT and improve patient adherence. A stability indicating reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method was developed and optimised using a central composite design approach. As part of this approach the interactive effects of input factors, viz. pH, methanol (MeOH) content and column temperature on retention time, were investigated to achieve a separation with well-resolved and symmetrical peaks for CPT and salicylic acid. The method was validated using ICH guidelines and was found to be simple, linear, precise, accurate, selective and rapid for the in vitro quantitation of CPT. The method was successfully applied for the analysis of both commercially available and test formulations. Preformulation studies were undertaken to establish the physical and chemical properties of CPT, excipients and dosage forms to ensure the production of stabile and bioavailable products. Powder blends were assessed for flow properties using angle of repose (AOR), and bulk and tapped density, which were subsequently used to calculate Carr’s Index (CI) and the Hausner ratio (HR). The addition of talc resulted in the most powder blends with AOR, CI and HR that were within a range indicative of satisfactory to good flow properties. The use of talc was necessary to ensure that blending prior to wet granulation and extrusion-spheronisation would produce homogenous powders. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) were used for the identification and purity of CPT alone and 1:1 binary mixtures with excipients in an effort to establish if CPT was likely to undergo physical and/or chemical modification during production. The DSC thermograms for all CPT-excipient mixtures revealed the presence of a melting endotherm that was wider, occurring at 110.93 °C (Tpeak for pure CPT). The characteristic peaks for specific functional groups were present in the FT-IR spectra for powder mixtures, indicating the absence of incompatibilities. Dialysis studies were used to investigate if the ammonium oleate present in Surelease® E-7-19010 interacted with CPT. The results suggests that an interaction between CPT and Surelease® E-7-19010 during processing of CPT beads was unlikely to occur. Preliminary investigations reveal that Methocel® K100M, Methocel® E4M, Avicel® PH102, Eudragit® RS PO, Surelease® E-7-19010 and talc are compatible with CPT and could be used for the manufacture of SR CPT beads. CPT beads were manufactured using extrusion-spheronisation and coated using a fluidised bed drier fitted with a Wurster insert. The amount of granulating fluid, coating levels, curing time and formulation composition were varied to achieve CPT release with specific criteria to develop a preliminary formulation. The coated beads met all desired quality attributes in respect of micromeritic and flow properties, content uniformity and friability. Response Surface Methodology was used to further optimise the SR CPT formulation. The Plackett-Burman design was used for this process to produce an SR dosage form with desirable quality attributes achieved by altering formulation composition, extrusion-spheronisation variables and coating parameters. ANOVA data revealed significant responses for yield, aspect ratio, sphericity, coating efficiency and cumulative percent CPT released at 2 and 12 hours. Formulations in which the high molecular weight HPMC were used in increased concentrations resulted in the formation of a sticky wet mass and extrudate, resulting in a decrease in yield. The application of a permeable, but insoluble Surelease® coat onto the surface of the beads formed a barrier that complements the activity of the hydrophilic matrix in preventing rapid dissolution and retarding the release of CPT from the beads. The amount of CPT released over 12 hours revealed that increasing the Methocel® K100M content entrapped CPT and retained it more efficiently in the hydrated matrix, resulting in a slow rate of CPT release. In vitro release data were fitted to a number of models in an attempt to elucidate mechanistic aspects of transport processes specific to CPT from the coated bead formulations. The results of fitting data from optimised batches revealed that the goodness of fit based on the adjusted correlation coefficient ranged between 0.953 and 0.976 for the Higuchi model, indicating that diffusion is a predominant factor that controls CPT release from the coated beads. The results of fitting data to the Korsmeyer-Peppas model suggest that the mechanism of CPT release includes transport of the dissolution medium from the vessel reservoir into the core of the bead due to osmotic potential, dissolution of CPT, mass transfer of the dissolved CPT within the core, partitioning between the solution and polymeric film, mass transfer of dissolved CPT through the film to ultimately reach the bulk dissolution fluid. A SR CPT bead formulation that has potential for further development and optimisation for scaled-up production using RSM approaches and Design of Experiments such as CCD or Box-Behnken has been successfully developed and manufactured using extrusion, spheronisation and coating processes. Assessment of all batches of beads manufactured exhibited satisfactory to good flow properties and demonstrated SR profiles over 12 hours that met USP criteria for SR dosage forms.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Mhaka, Farai Arthur
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MPharm
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/54712 , vital:26602
- Description: Hypertension has a high mortality rate in developing countries such as South Africa. Although the prevention and control of hypertension is a health priority, efforts to decrease the global burden of hypertension and improve control over the condition are inadequate. The use of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors such as captopril (CPT) have been effective for the management of hypertension when used as first line therapy alone or in combination. Commercially available immediate release dosage forms containing 12.5, 25 and 50 mg of CPT are administered two or three times a day to treat hypertension. CPT degrades in aqueous media with the sulfhydryl functional moiety responsible for adverse effects such as hypersensitivity, taste disturbances and/or presenting with a dry hacking cough. CPT has a short elimination half-life of between 1.6 and 1.9 hours, which means that the compound is a suitable candidate for inclusion in sustained release (SR) dosage forms. Manufacturing a SR dosage form of coated beads for twice daily dosing may reduce the incidence and intensity of undesirable adverse effects, improve the stability of CPT and improve patient adherence. A stability indicating reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method was developed and optimised using a central composite design approach. As part of this approach the interactive effects of input factors, viz. pH, methanol (MeOH) content and column temperature on retention time, were investigated to achieve a separation with well-resolved and symmetrical peaks for CPT and salicylic acid. The method was validated using ICH guidelines and was found to be simple, linear, precise, accurate, selective and rapid for the in vitro quantitation of CPT. The method was successfully applied for the analysis of both commercially available and test formulations. Preformulation studies were undertaken to establish the physical and chemical properties of CPT, excipients and dosage forms to ensure the production of stabile and bioavailable products. Powder blends were assessed for flow properties using angle of repose (AOR), and bulk and tapped density, which were subsequently used to calculate Carr’s Index (CI) and the Hausner ratio (HR). The addition of talc resulted in the most powder blends with AOR, CI and HR that were within a range indicative of satisfactory to good flow properties. The use of talc was necessary to ensure that blending prior to wet granulation and extrusion-spheronisation would produce homogenous powders. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) were used for the identification and purity of CPT alone and 1:1 binary mixtures with excipients in an effort to establish if CPT was likely to undergo physical and/or chemical modification during production. The DSC thermograms for all CPT-excipient mixtures revealed the presence of a melting endotherm that was wider, occurring at 110.93 °C (Tpeak for pure CPT). The characteristic peaks for specific functional groups were present in the FT-IR spectra for powder mixtures, indicating the absence of incompatibilities. Dialysis studies were used to investigate if the ammonium oleate present in Surelease® E-7-19010 interacted with CPT. The results suggests that an interaction between CPT and Surelease® E-7-19010 during processing of CPT beads was unlikely to occur. Preliminary investigations reveal that Methocel® K100M, Methocel® E4M, Avicel® PH102, Eudragit® RS PO, Surelease® E-7-19010 and talc are compatible with CPT and could be used for the manufacture of SR CPT beads. CPT beads were manufactured using extrusion-spheronisation and coated using a fluidised bed drier fitted with a Wurster insert. The amount of granulating fluid, coating levels, curing time and formulation composition were varied to achieve CPT release with specific criteria to develop a preliminary formulation. The coated beads met all desired quality attributes in respect of micromeritic and flow properties, content uniformity and friability. Response Surface Methodology was used to further optimise the SR CPT formulation. The Plackett-Burman design was used for this process to produce an SR dosage form with desirable quality attributes achieved by altering formulation composition, extrusion-spheronisation variables and coating parameters. ANOVA data revealed significant responses for yield, aspect ratio, sphericity, coating efficiency and cumulative percent CPT released at 2 and 12 hours. Formulations in which the high molecular weight HPMC were used in increased concentrations resulted in the formation of a sticky wet mass and extrudate, resulting in a decrease in yield. The application of a permeable, but insoluble Surelease® coat onto the surface of the beads formed a barrier that complements the activity of the hydrophilic matrix in preventing rapid dissolution and retarding the release of CPT from the beads. The amount of CPT released over 12 hours revealed that increasing the Methocel® K100M content entrapped CPT and retained it more efficiently in the hydrated matrix, resulting in a slow rate of CPT release. In vitro release data were fitted to a number of models in an attempt to elucidate mechanistic aspects of transport processes specific to CPT from the coated bead formulations. The results of fitting data from optimised batches revealed that the goodness of fit based on the adjusted correlation coefficient ranged between 0.953 and 0.976 for the Higuchi model, indicating that diffusion is a predominant factor that controls CPT release from the coated beads. The results of fitting data to the Korsmeyer-Peppas model suggest that the mechanism of CPT release includes transport of the dissolution medium from the vessel reservoir into the core of the bead due to osmotic potential, dissolution of CPT, mass transfer of the dissolved CPT within the core, partitioning between the solution and polymeric film, mass transfer of dissolved CPT through the film to ultimately reach the bulk dissolution fluid. A SR CPT bead formulation that has potential for further development and optimisation for scaled-up production using RSM approaches and Design of Experiments such as CCD or Box-Behnken has been successfully developed and manufactured using extrusion, spheronisation and coating processes. Assessment of all batches of beads manufactured exhibited satisfactory to good flow properties and demonstrated SR profiles over 12 hours that met USP criteria for SR dosage forms.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Development of high performance computing cluster for evaluation of sequence alignment algorithms
- Authors: Ngxande, Mkhuseli
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11399 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1020163
- Description: As the biological databases are increasing rapidly, there is a challenge for both Biologists and Computer Scientists to develop algorithms and databases to manage the increasing data. There are many algorithms developed to align the sequences stored in biological databases - some take time to process the data while others are inefficient to produce reasonable results. As more data is generated, and time consuming algorithms are developed to handle them, there is a need for specialized computers to handle the computations. Researchers are typically limited by the computational power of their computers. High Performance Computing (HPC) field addresses this challenge and can be used in a cost-effective manner where there is no need for expensive equipment, instead old computers can be used together to form a powerful system. This is the premise of this research, wherein the setup of a low-cost Beowulf cluster is explored, with the subsequent evaluation of its performance for processing sequent alignment algorithms. A mixed method methodology is used in this dissertation, which consists of literature study, theoretical and practise based system. This mixed method methodology also have a proof and concept where the Beowulf cluster is designed and implemented to perform the sequence alignment algorithms and also the performance test. This dissertation firstly gives an overview of sequence alignment algorithms that are already developed and also highlights their timeline. A presentation of the design and implementation of the Beowulf Cluster is highlighted and this is followed by the experiments on the baseline performance of the cluster. A detailed timeline of the sequence alignment algorithms is given and also the comparison between ClustalW-MPI and T-Coffee (Tree-based Consistency Objective Function For alignment Evaluation) algorithm is presented as part of the findings in the research study. The efficiency of the cluster was observed to be 19.8%, this percentage is unexpected because the predicted efficiency is 83.3%, which is found in the theoretical cluster calculator. The theoretical performance of the cluster showed a high performance as compared with the experimental performance, this is attributable to the slow network, which was 100Mbps, low processor speed of 2.50 GHz, and low memory of 2 Gigabytes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Ngxande, Mkhuseli
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11399 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1020163
- Description: As the biological databases are increasing rapidly, there is a challenge for both Biologists and Computer Scientists to develop algorithms and databases to manage the increasing data. There are many algorithms developed to align the sequences stored in biological databases - some take time to process the data while others are inefficient to produce reasonable results. As more data is generated, and time consuming algorithms are developed to handle them, there is a need for specialized computers to handle the computations. Researchers are typically limited by the computational power of their computers. High Performance Computing (HPC) field addresses this challenge and can be used in a cost-effective manner where there is no need for expensive equipment, instead old computers can be used together to form a powerful system. This is the premise of this research, wherein the setup of a low-cost Beowulf cluster is explored, with the subsequent evaluation of its performance for processing sequent alignment algorithms. A mixed method methodology is used in this dissertation, which consists of literature study, theoretical and practise based system. This mixed method methodology also have a proof and concept where the Beowulf cluster is designed and implemented to perform the sequence alignment algorithms and also the performance test. This dissertation firstly gives an overview of sequence alignment algorithms that are already developed and also highlights their timeline. A presentation of the design and implementation of the Beowulf Cluster is highlighted and this is followed by the experiments on the baseline performance of the cluster. A detailed timeline of the sequence alignment algorithms is given and also the comparison between ClustalW-MPI and T-Coffee (Tree-based Consistency Objective Function For alignment Evaluation) algorithm is presented as part of the findings in the research study. The efficiency of the cluster was observed to be 19.8%, this percentage is unexpected because the predicted efficiency is 83.3%, which is found in the theoretical cluster calculator. The theoretical performance of the cluster showed a high performance as compared with the experimental performance, this is attributable to the slow network, which was 100Mbps, low processor speed of 2.50 GHz, and low memory of 2 Gigabytes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015