Chitin hydrolysis with chitinolytic enzymes for the production of chitooligomers with antimicrobial properties
- Authors: Oree, Glynis
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Chitin -- Biotechnology , Enzymes -- Biotechnology , Hydrolysis , Chitooligomers -- Biotechnology
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67887 , vital:29165
- Description: There are many diseases and illnesses in the world that require new drug treatments and chitin has been shown to produce chitooligomeric derivatives which exhibit promising antimicrobial and immune-enhancing properties. However, the rate-limiting step is associated with the high recalcitrance of chitinous substrates, and low hydrolytic activities of chitinolytic enzymes, resulting in low product release. To improve and create a more sustainable and economical process, enhancing chitin hydrolysis through various treatment procedures is essential for obtaining high enzyme hydrolysis rates, resulting in a higher yield of chitooligomers (CHOS). In literature, pre-treatment of insoluble biomass is generally associated with an increase in accessibility of the carbohydrate to hydrolytic enzymes, thus generating more products. The first part of this study investigated the effect of alkali- (NaOH) and acid pre-treatments (HCl and phosphoric acid) on chitin biomass, and chemical and morphological modifications were assessed by the employment of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectrometery (EDX) and x-ray diffraction (XRD). Data obtained confirmed that pre-treated substrates were more chemically and morphologically modified. These results confirmed the fact that pre-treatment of chitin disrupts the structure of the biomass, rendering the polymer more accessible for enzymatic hydrolysis. The commercial chitinases from Bacillus cereus and Streptomyces griseus (CHB and CHS) are costly. Bio-prospecting for other chitin-degrading enzymes from alternate sources such as Oidiodendron maius, or the recombinant expression of CHOS, was a more economically feasible avenue. The chit1 gene from Thermomyces lanuginosus, expressed in Pichia pastoris, produced a large range CHOS with a degree of polymerisation (DP) ranging from 1 to above 6. TLC analysis showed that O. maius exhibited chitin-degrading properties by producing CHOS with a DP length of 1 to 3. These two sources were therefore successful in producing chitin-degrading enzymes. The physico-chemical properties of commercial (CHB and CHS) and expressed (Chit1) chitinolytic enzymes were investigated, to determine under which biochemical conditions and on which type of biomass they can function on optimally, for the production of value-added products such as CHOS. Substrate affinity assays were conducted on the un-treated and pre-treated biomass. TLC revealed that chitosan hydrolysis by the commercial chitinases produced the largest range of CHOS with a DP length ranging from 1 to 6. A range of temperatures (35-90oC) were investigated and CHB, CHS and Chit1 displayed optimum activities at 50, 40 and 45 oC, respectively. Thermostability studies that were conducted at 37 and 50oC revealed that CHB and CHS were most stable at 37oC. Chit1 showed great thermostablity at both temperatures, rendering this enzyme suitable for industrial processes at high temperatures. pH optima studies demonstrated that the pH optima for CHB, CHS and Chit1 was at a pH of 5.0, with specific activities of 33.459, 46.2 and 5.776 μmol/h/mg, respectively. The chain cleaving patterns of the commercial enzymes were determined and exo-chitinase activity was exhibited, due to the production of CHOS that were predominantly of a DP length of 2. Enzyme binary synergy studies were conducted with commercial chitinases (CHB and CHS) on colloidal chitin. Studies illustrated that the simultaneous combination of CHB 75%: CHS 25% produced the highest specific activity (3.526 μmol/h/mg), with no synergy. TLC analysis of this enzyme combination over time revealed that predominantly chitobiose was produced. This suggested that the substrate crystallinity and morphology played an important role in the way the enzymes cleaved the carbohydrate. Since CHOS have shown great promise for their antimicrobial properties, the CHOS generated from the chitinous substrates were tested for antimicrobial properties on Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella and Staphlococcus aureus. This study revealed that certain CHOS produced have inhibitory effects on certain bacteria and could potentially be used in the pharamceutical or medical industries. In conclusion, this study revealed that chitinases can be produced and found in alternate sources and be used for the hydrolysis of chitinous biomass in a more sustainabe and economically viable manner. The chitinases investigated (CHB, CHS and Chit1) exhibited different cleaving patterns of the chitinous substrates due to the chemical and morphological properties of the biomass. CHOS produced from chitinous biomass exhibited some inhibitory effects on bacterial growth and show potential for use in the medical industry.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Oree, Glynis
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Chitin -- Biotechnology , Enzymes -- Biotechnology , Hydrolysis , Chitooligomers -- Biotechnology
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67887 , vital:29165
- Description: There are many diseases and illnesses in the world that require new drug treatments and chitin has been shown to produce chitooligomeric derivatives which exhibit promising antimicrobial and immune-enhancing properties. However, the rate-limiting step is associated with the high recalcitrance of chitinous substrates, and low hydrolytic activities of chitinolytic enzymes, resulting in low product release. To improve and create a more sustainable and economical process, enhancing chitin hydrolysis through various treatment procedures is essential for obtaining high enzyme hydrolysis rates, resulting in a higher yield of chitooligomers (CHOS). In literature, pre-treatment of insoluble biomass is generally associated with an increase in accessibility of the carbohydrate to hydrolytic enzymes, thus generating more products. The first part of this study investigated the effect of alkali- (NaOH) and acid pre-treatments (HCl and phosphoric acid) on chitin biomass, and chemical and morphological modifications were assessed by the employment of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectrometery (EDX) and x-ray diffraction (XRD). Data obtained confirmed that pre-treated substrates were more chemically and morphologically modified. These results confirmed the fact that pre-treatment of chitin disrupts the structure of the biomass, rendering the polymer more accessible for enzymatic hydrolysis. The commercial chitinases from Bacillus cereus and Streptomyces griseus (CHB and CHS) are costly. Bio-prospecting for other chitin-degrading enzymes from alternate sources such as Oidiodendron maius, or the recombinant expression of CHOS, was a more economically feasible avenue. The chit1 gene from Thermomyces lanuginosus, expressed in Pichia pastoris, produced a large range CHOS with a degree of polymerisation (DP) ranging from 1 to above 6. TLC analysis showed that O. maius exhibited chitin-degrading properties by producing CHOS with a DP length of 1 to 3. These two sources were therefore successful in producing chitin-degrading enzymes. The physico-chemical properties of commercial (CHB and CHS) and expressed (Chit1) chitinolytic enzymes were investigated, to determine under which biochemical conditions and on which type of biomass they can function on optimally, for the production of value-added products such as CHOS. Substrate affinity assays were conducted on the un-treated and pre-treated biomass. TLC revealed that chitosan hydrolysis by the commercial chitinases produced the largest range of CHOS with a DP length ranging from 1 to 6. A range of temperatures (35-90oC) were investigated and CHB, CHS and Chit1 displayed optimum activities at 50, 40 and 45 oC, respectively. Thermostability studies that were conducted at 37 and 50oC revealed that CHB and CHS were most stable at 37oC. Chit1 showed great thermostablity at both temperatures, rendering this enzyme suitable for industrial processes at high temperatures. pH optima studies demonstrated that the pH optima for CHB, CHS and Chit1 was at a pH of 5.0, with specific activities of 33.459, 46.2 and 5.776 μmol/h/mg, respectively. The chain cleaving patterns of the commercial enzymes were determined and exo-chitinase activity was exhibited, due to the production of CHOS that were predominantly of a DP length of 2. Enzyme binary synergy studies were conducted with commercial chitinases (CHB and CHS) on colloidal chitin. Studies illustrated that the simultaneous combination of CHB 75%: CHS 25% produced the highest specific activity (3.526 μmol/h/mg), with no synergy. TLC analysis of this enzyme combination over time revealed that predominantly chitobiose was produced. This suggested that the substrate crystallinity and morphology played an important role in the way the enzymes cleaved the carbohydrate. Since CHOS have shown great promise for their antimicrobial properties, the CHOS generated from the chitinous substrates were tested for antimicrobial properties on Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella and Staphlococcus aureus. This study revealed that certain CHOS produced have inhibitory effects on certain bacteria and could potentially be used in the pharamceutical or medical industries. In conclusion, this study revealed that chitinases can be produced and found in alternate sources and be used for the hydrolysis of chitinous biomass in a more sustainabe and economically viable manner. The chitinases investigated (CHB, CHS and Chit1) exhibited different cleaving patterns of the chitinous substrates due to the chemical and morphological properties of the biomass. CHOS produced from chitinous biomass exhibited some inhibitory effects on bacterial growth and show potential for use in the medical industry.
- Full Text:
Civil society engagement with water governance at a local government scale in South Africa
- Weaver, Matthew James Thanduxolo
- Authors: Weaver, Matthew James Thanduxolo
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Government accountability -- South Africa , Civil Society -- South Africa , Political participation -- South Africa , Local government -- South Africa , Water supply -- Management , Water resources development -- South Africa , Water quality management -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/151316 , vital:39051
- Description: The South African state’s ideological commitment to a participatory approach to managing water resources and delivering services in a way that includes all stakeholders warrants critical analysis.Realising this ideological commitment has proved challenging, due largely to the complex historical, political, social, and environmental context of integrated water resource management (IWRM) in South Africa. The overarching aim of this study was to explore and expand the learning of civil societyparticipating in water governance processes at a local government scale. To address this aim a single, in-depth, four-year case study into civil society participation in water governance in the Makana Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa was conducted between 2014 and 2018. The case study comprised two research phases. Both phases of the research were conducted using an adaptive transdisciplinary and participatory action research approach underpinned by General Complexity Theory. Located at the research-practice interface, the study sought to be transformative and advance both scientific research and societal goals. Qualitative research methods and inductive and deductive modes of inference were used to collect and analyse the data respectively. In the first phase of the study, a Communities of Practice theoretical framing was adopted to investigate the emergence, practice and learning of a civil society organisation (CSO), Water for Dignity (WfD), in response to household water service delivery issues in the municipality. This phase served to build an understanding of factors that enabled and constrained the practice of WfD in addressing local water service issues, and of their role as social learning agents in building water-related knowledge in their community. As participation with the first civil society organisation fragmented, the opportunity arose for local government, the National Department of Water and Sanitation and civil society to co-engage. This opened up the second phase of the research during which the role of a multi-stakeholder platform, the Makana Water Forum (MWF), in enabling democratic water governance was investigated. The MWF was South Africa’s first catchment management forum with an integrated water service and water resource management agenda. In this phase, the study drew on interventionist methodology, Change Laboratory, from Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to 1) describe the historical development, composition and shared purpose of the MWF multi-activity system constellation; and to 2) guide participants through seven learning actions (expansive learning cycle) to identify, analyse, model and implement remedial actions to problematic aspects (contradictions) of the MWF practice. Participants of the Change Laboratory workshops built their individual and collective transformative agency (deliberate actions to transform a problematic situation) as they navigated the expansive learning process. The development of this agency was identified through a micro-analysis of agentive talk. The two phases served to advance the exploration of civil society participation from informal participation to address water issues, to formal participation in water governance processes at a local government scale. Findings from the first phase of the research revealed that dedicated and sustained support of partners with distributed expertise and the highly motivated core members of WfD enabled the practice and emergence of the civil society organisation. However, factors such as poor internal leadership, power dynamics between supporting partners, socio-economic constraints and a deeply embedded lack of agency were found to be key constraining factors to WfD’s practice. Findings revealed that learning at WfD team level occurred in four ways, through learning as belonging, learning as doing, learning as experiencing and learning as becoming. The WfD CSO was able to catalyse social learning related to personal water rights; and best practices for improving water quality and water conservation in their wider community of practice. Social learning was fostered mainly through structured citizen engagements offered by WfD. The research provides evidence that civil society organisations can play an important role in bridging water-related knowledge gaps and can foster active citizenship in South African communities. However, despite significant inputs of support and resources through the engaged transdisciplinary research process, the practice and learning outcomes of WfD had a marginal transformative impact on improving the citizen’s every-day water service experiences. Findings from the second phase of the study revealed the MWF to resemble a multi-activity system constellation with a multiple, partially overlapping. interests related to the management of water. The establishment, function and contradictions constraining the function of the MWF were influenced by past cycles of participatory water governance-related activity and practice at national and local scales. Through the Change Laboratory process, 25 contradictions were identified that appeared to constrain the ability of the MWF to enable inclusive and meaningful participatory water governance. Through a process of expansive learning, participants sought to overcome three sets of contradictions grouped as Problem Themes: lack of clear focus of the MWF; representation, representivity and nonattendance; and the MWF relationship with the Makana Local Municipality. Remedial actions modelled and those enacted have improved aspects of the function of the MWF (such as diversified modes of engagement and a more focussed agenda) but have only resulted in incremental shifts towards enabling improved participatory practice, most markedly in building a collaborative relationship and trust between the MWF members, municipal and government officials. The microanalysis of agentive talk revealed seven different expressions of transformative agency. Constraining socio-economic and political conditions and the limited capacity of the coordinating committee of the MWF hindered the development of transformative agency to the extent to which concrete actions were implemented. Findings further revealed that contextualising a Change Laboratory process within the adaptive cycle of a complex social-ecological system, and the particular opportunity context the system presents, could inform the enactment of agency and its potential impact on the transformation of the system. The intervention with the MWF was too short a process to clearly observe the effects of transformative actions on the sustainability of the Makana Local Municipality water system. However, long-chain transformative agency through the development of one-on-one engagements, learning journeys and a reflexive component to the MWF engagements could support transformative pathways to sustainability in the municipality and water management system. The study contributes in-depth insight into the key role of learning as a catalyst in transformative processes. Learning improves the collaborative and adaptive capacity of people, and therefore, water management institutions, to manage explicitly for the complexity inherent in “complex” socialecological systems. It provides empirical evidence as to what enables and constrains “real” participation and learning in grass-roots water governance processes in the context of a shifting national drive towards a more adaptive and developmental Integrated Water Resource Management approach. It further provides methodological contributions to 1) the application of the Change Laboratory method with multi-activity system constellations in developing world contexts and 2) value and limitations of extended and engaged transdisciplinary research. Lastly, it provides practical recommendations to the establishment and sustainable function of both community-based CSOs and multi-stakeholder platforms engaging in water governance processes.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Weaver, Matthew James Thanduxolo
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Government accountability -- South Africa , Civil Society -- South Africa , Political participation -- South Africa , Local government -- South Africa , Water supply -- Management , Water resources development -- South Africa , Water quality management -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/151316 , vital:39051
- Description: The South African state’s ideological commitment to a participatory approach to managing water resources and delivering services in a way that includes all stakeholders warrants critical analysis.Realising this ideological commitment has proved challenging, due largely to the complex historical, political, social, and environmental context of integrated water resource management (IWRM) in South Africa. The overarching aim of this study was to explore and expand the learning of civil societyparticipating in water governance processes at a local government scale. To address this aim a single, in-depth, four-year case study into civil society participation in water governance in the Makana Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa was conducted between 2014 and 2018. The case study comprised two research phases. Both phases of the research were conducted using an adaptive transdisciplinary and participatory action research approach underpinned by General Complexity Theory. Located at the research-practice interface, the study sought to be transformative and advance both scientific research and societal goals. Qualitative research methods and inductive and deductive modes of inference were used to collect and analyse the data respectively. In the first phase of the study, a Communities of Practice theoretical framing was adopted to investigate the emergence, practice and learning of a civil society organisation (CSO), Water for Dignity (WfD), in response to household water service delivery issues in the municipality. This phase served to build an understanding of factors that enabled and constrained the practice of WfD in addressing local water service issues, and of their role as social learning agents in building water-related knowledge in their community. As participation with the first civil society organisation fragmented, the opportunity arose for local government, the National Department of Water and Sanitation and civil society to co-engage. This opened up the second phase of the research during which the role of a multi-stakeholder platform, the Makana Water Forum (MWF), in enabling democratic water governance was investigated. The MWF was South Africa’s first catchment management forum with an integrated water service and water resource management agenda. In this phase, the study drew on interventionist methodology, Change Laboratory, from Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to 1) describe the historical development, composition and shared purpose of the MWF multi-activity system constellation; and to 2) guide participants through seven learning actions (expansive learning cycle) to identify, analyse, model and implement remedial actions to problematic aspects (contradictions) of the MWF practice. Participants of the Change Laboratory workshops built their individual and collective transformative agency (deliberate actions to transform a problematic situation) as they navigated the expansive learning process. The development of this agency was identified through a micro-analysis of agentive talk. The two phases served to advance the exploration of civil society participation from informal participation to address water issues, to formal participation in water governance processes at a local government scale. Findings from the first phase of the research revealed that dedicated and sustained support of partners with distributed expertise and the highly motivated core members of WfD enabled the practice and emergence of the civil society organisation. However, factors such as poor internal leadership, power dynamics between supporting partners, socio-economic constraints and a deeply embedded lack of agency were found to be key constraining factors to WfD’s practice. Findings revealed that learning at WfD team level occurred in four ways, through learning as belonging, learning as doing, learning as experiencing and learning as becoming. The WfD CSO was able to catalyse social learning related to personal water rights; and best practices for improving water quality and water conservation in their wider community of practice. Social learning was fostered mainly through structured citizen engagements offered by WfD. The research provides evidence that civil society organisations can play an important role in bridging water-related knowledge gaps and can foster active citizenship in South African communities. However, despite significant inputs of support and resources through the engaged transdisciplinary research process, the practice and learning outcomes of WfD had a marginal transformative impact on improving the citizen’s every-day water service experiences. Findings from the second phase of the study revealed the MWF to resemble a multi-activity system constellation with a multiple, partially overlapping. interests related to the management of water. The establishment, function and contradictions constraining the function of the MWF were influenced by past cycles of participatory water governance-related activity and practice at national and local scales. Through the Change Laboratory process, 25 contradictions were identified that appeared to constrain the ability of the MWF to enable inclusive and meaningful participatory water governance. Through a process of expansive learning, participants sought to overcome three sets of contradictions grouped as Problem Themes: lack of clear focus of the MWF; representation, representivity and nonattendance; and the MWF relationship with the Makana Local Municipality. Remedial actions modelled and those enacted have improved aspects of the function of the MWF (such as diversified modes of engagement and a more focussed agenda) but have only resulted in incremental shifts towards enabling improved participatory practice, most markedly in building a collaborative relationship and trust between the MWF members, municipal and government officials. The microanalysis of agentive talk revealed seven different expressions of transformative agency. Constraining socio-economic and political conditions and the limited capacity of the coordinating committee of the MWF hindered the development of transformative agency to the extent to which concrete actions were implemented. Findings further revealed that contextualising a Change Laboratory process within the adaptive cycle of a complex social-ecological system, and the particular opportunity context the system presents, could inform the enactment of agency and its potential impact on the transformation of the system. The intervention with the MWF was too short a process to clearly observe the effects of transformative actions on the sustainability of the Makana Local Municipality water system. However, long-chain transformative agency through the development of one-on-one engagements, learning journeys and a reflexive component to the MWF engagements could support transformative pathways to sustainability in the municipality and water management system. The study contributes in-depth insight into the key role of learning as a catalyst in transformative processes. Learning improves the collaborative and adaptive capacity of people, and therefore, water management institutions, to manage explicitly for the complexity inherent in “complex” socialecological systems. It provides empirical evidence as to what enables and constrains “real” participation and learning in grass-roots water governance processes in the context of a shifting national drive towards a more adaptive and developmental Integrated Water Resource Management approach. It further provides methodological contributions to 1) the application of the Change Laboratory method with multi-activity system constellations in developing world contexts and 2) value and limitations of extended and engaged transdisciplinary research. Lastly, it provides practical recommendations to the establishment and sustainable function of both community-based CSOs and multi-stakeholder platforms engaging in water governance processes.
- Full Text:
Climatic suitability of Dichrorampha odorata Brown and Zachariades (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), a shoot-boring moth for the biological control of Chromolaena odorata (L.) R.M. King and H. Robinson (Asteraceae) in South Africa
- Authors: Nqayi, Slindile Brightness
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: CLIMEX , Chromolaena odorata -- Biological control -- South Africa , Tortricidae -- South Africa , Bioclimatology -- Software
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92208 , vital:30681
- Description: Biological control using natural enemies introduced from the native range is an integral component of the management of Chromolaena odorata, a serious invader in the eastern regions of South Africa. A number of biological control agents for C. odorata have been released in South Africa, and one of them, Dichrorampha odorata, has failed to establish. To understand if D. odorata failed to establish due to climate incompatibility, its thermal physiology was investigated. Thermal tolerance data were used to determine the developmental thresholds and number of generations that D. odorata is capable of going through in South Africa per year. These predictions were generated using CLIMEX temperature data and the degree-day parameters K and t0. Developmental time decreased with increasing temperatures ranging from 20 °C to 30°C, with immature stages not able to complete development at 18°C and 32°C. The developmental threshold, to, was determined as 8.45 °C with 872.4 degree-days required to complete development (K), indicating that D. odorata is capable of producing a maximum number of 6.5 generations per year in South Africa. The CLIMEX data indicated that the east coast regions of South Africa, which are the heaviest invaded areas by C. odorata in South Africa, were climatically most suitable for D. odorata to. D. odorata lower (LLT50) and upper (ULT50) lethal temperatures were -4.5°C and 39.64°C for larvae and 1.83 and 41.02°C for adults, and D. odorata adults were able to maintain locomotory functioning at 4.4 to 43.7°C, respectively. Acclimation at low and high temperatures indicate that when D. odorata was kept at a lower temperature of 20°C for 7 days, it became tolerant to warmer and cooler temperatures (1.95 and 44.41°C) when compared to D. odorata reared at 25°C (3.36 and 43.67°C) and 30°C (5.92 and 42.93°C). Dichrorampha odorata is therefore climatically suitable for release and should establish in South Africa to control C. odorata. The establishment and persistence of D. odorata will not be limited by climatic conditions but rather the distribution of its host weed, C. odorata in South Africa. Also, this study presents a decision-making protocol for the release of D. odorata to allow better performance in the field.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Nqayi, Slindile Brightness
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: CLIMEX , Chromolaena odorata -- Biological control -- South Africa , Tortricidae -- South Africa , Bioclimatology -- Software
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92208 , vital:30681
- Description: Biological control using natural enemies introduced from the native range is an integral component of the management of Chromolaena odorata, a serious invader in the eastern regions of South Africa. A number of biological control agents for C. odorata have been released in South Africa, and one of them, Dichrorampha odorata, has failed to establish. To understand if D. odorata failed to establish due to climate incompatibility, its thermal physiology was investigated. Thermal tolerance data were used to determine the developmental thresholds and number of generations that D. odorata is capable of going through in South Africa per year. These predictions were generated using CLIMEX temperature data and the degree-day parameters K and t0. Developmental time decreased with increasing temperatures ranging from 20 °C to 30°C, with immature stages not able to complete development at 18°C and 32°C. The developmental threshold, to, was determined as 8.45 °C with 872.4 degree-days required to complete development (K), indicating that D. odorata is capable of producing a maximum number of 6.5 generations per year in South Africa. The CLIMEX data indicated that the east coast regions of South Africa, which are the heaviest invaded areas by C. odorata in South Africa, were climatically most suitable for D. odorata to. D. odorata lower (LLT50) and upper (ULT50) lethal temperatures were -4.5°C and 39.64°C for larvae and 1.83 and 41.02°C for adults, and D. odorata adults were able to maintain locomotory functioning at 4.4 to 43.7°C, respectively. Acclimation at low and high temperatures indicate that when D. odorata was kept at a lower temperature of 20°C for 7 days, it became tolerant to warmer and cooler temperatures (1.95 and 44.41°C) when compared to D. odorata reared at 25°C (3.36 and 43.67°C) and 30°C (5.92 and 42.93°C). Dichrorampha odorata is therefore climatically suitable for release and should establish in South Africa to control C. odorata. The establishment and persistence of D. odorata will not be limited by climatic conditions but rather the distribution of its host weed, C. odorata in South Africa. Also, this study presents a decision-making protocol for the release of D. odorata to allow better performance in the field.
- Full Text:
Clinical psychologists’ perceptions of the phenomenon of schizophrenia in a psychiatric setting in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Hamman, Colette
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Schizophrenia -- Diagnosis -- South Africa , Schizophrenia -- Treatment -- South Africa , Schizophrenics -- Rehabilitation -- South Africa , Schizophrenics -- South Africa -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71398 , vital:29845
- Description: Numerous international and South African scholars are critical of the dominant research on the phenomenon of schizophrenia. Rather than refuting dominant biomedical psychiatric conceptualisations of schizophrenia, there is a call for incorporating a focus on the psychology of the person diagnosed with schizophrenia. In South Africa, the integration of the psychosocial components of psychotic experiences into the understanding and treatment of psychosis are still neglected in biomedically-focused psychiatric settings. In relation to this call, the role of clinical psychologists working within these settings seems pertinent. Against this background, this study aimed to explore and describe the perceptions of clinical psychologists, working in a psychiatric setting in South Africa, in relation to the phenomenon of schizophrenia. Informed by a social constructionist theoretical framework, this study utilised a qualitative research design and a semi-structured interview schedule. In-depth, individual interviews were conducted with three clinical psychologists and the transcribed interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. From the data, perceptions were identified as largely polarised in relation to the phenomenon of schizophrenia. These polarised perceptions included: Physical impact of schizophrenia versus social impact of schizophrenia; rehabilitation of schizophrenia versus recovery within schizophrenia; diagnostic frameworks as useful versus diagnostic frameworks as limiting; and institutionally-defined identity versus self-defined identity. In terms of these polarised perceptions, an overarching theme of the medicalisation versus the demedicalisation of schizophrenia was identified. Therefore, the perceptions of clinical psychologists in this study were largely polarised towards either a medicalisation of the phenomenon of schizophrenia or a demedicalisation of it. However, perceptions were also identified that evidenced an integration of the two sides of the polarities, and a holding of tension between seemingly incompatible or incongruent frameworks. The participants perceived psychologists as positioned in the middle ground between the medicalisation and demedicalisation of schizophrenia in a biomedical psychiatric setting. In response to the call for a focus on the psychology of the person diagnosed with schizophrenia, the findings support both the value and the need for an “integration of polarised perceptions”, “holding of the tension”, and “middle ground positioning” of clinicians between medicalised and demedicalised aspects of the phenomenon of schizophrenia.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Hamman, Colette
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Schizophrenia -- Diagnosis -- South Africa , Schizophrenia -- Treatment -- South Africa , Schizophrenics -- Rehabilitation -- South Africa , Schizophrenics -- South Africa -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71398 , vital:29845
- Description: Numerous international and South African scholars are critical of the dominant research on the phenomenon of schizophrenia. Rather than refuting dominant biomedical psychiatric conceptualisations of schizophrenia, there is a call for incorporating a focus on the psychology of the person diagnosed with schizophrenia. In South Africa, the integration of the psychosocial components of psychotic experiences into the understanding and treatment of psychosis are still neglected in biomedically-focused psychiatric settings. In relation to this call, the role of clinical psychologists working within these settings seems pertinent. Against this background, this study aimed to explore and describe the perceptions of clinical psychologists, working in a psychiatric setting in South Africa, in relation to the phenomenon of schizophrenia. Informed by a social constructionist theoretical framework, this study utilised a qualitative research design and a semi-structured interview schedule. In-depth, individual interviews were conducted with three clinical psychologists and the transcribed interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. From the data, perceptions were identified as largely polarised in relation to the phenomenon of schizophrenia. These polarised perceptions included: Physical impact of schizophrenia versus social impact of schizophrenia; rehabilitation of schizophrenia versus recovery within schizophrenia; diagnostic frameworks as useful versus diagnostic frameworks as limiting; and institutionally-defined identity versus self-defined identity. In terms of these polarised perceptions, an overarching theme of the medicalisation versus the demedicalisation of schizophrenia was identified. Therefore, the perceptions of clinical psychologists in this study were largely polarised towards either a medicalisation of the phenomenon of schizophrenia or a demedicalisation of it. However, perceptions were also identified that evidenced an integration of the two sides of the polarities, and a holding of tension between seemingly incompatible or incongruent frameworks. The participants perceived psychologists as positioned in the middle ground between the medicalisation and demedicalisation of schizophrenia in a biomedical psychiatric setting. In response to the call for a focus on the psychology of the person diagnosed with schizophrenia, the findings support both the value and the need for an “integration of polarised perceptions”, “holding of the tension”, and “middle ground positioning” of clinicians between medicalised and demedicalised aspects of the phenomenon of schizophrenia.
- Full Text:
Collaborative health literacy development: a World Health Organization workplace health promotion approach to address tobacco use
- Authors: Duxbury, Theodore Orlando
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Tobacco use -- Health aspects , Smoking -- Health aspects , Employee health promotion , Employee health promotion -- Computer programs , Rhodes University -- Employees -- Tobacco use
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MPharm
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/104116 , vital:29930
- Description: Background: Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are a major global public health threat and tobacco use in particular is the leading cause of preventable illness and mortality globally. Furthermore, vulnerable and socially disadvantaged people get sicker and die sooner, especially because they are at higher risk of being exposed to harmful products such as tobacco and have limited access to health services. Tobacco use also has a major impact on the workplace, adversely affecting work productivity and increasing absenteeism. Both the living and work environments, therefore, play an important role in contributing towards the NCD epidemic. Demographics, culture, behaviour change reluctance and health literacy are all factors which exacerbate tobacco prevalence in South Africa. Workplace health promotion, however, is not well established in many workplaces. This study aimed to develop, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a culturallysensitive and contextually-appropriate collaborative workplace health promotion literacy programme on tobacco use, utilizing tailored health information leaflets and the Rhodes University peer educators support staff, guided by the World Health Organization Workplace Health Promotion Framework. Method: The research was conducted using a participatory action research approach, which involved four phases: Firstly, the Exploratory phase assessed tobacco-related health promotion policies and practices at Rhodes University; and established facilitating and constraining factors related to tobacco use. Secondly, the Educational health promotion phase involved designing and testing a health promotion educational intervention to address tobacco use related challenges, which took the form of culturally sensitive and appropriate health information leaflets to be used as an educational intervention Thirdly, in the Implementation phase health promotion training workshops were conducted with volunteering Rhodes University Peer Educators. Finally, an Evaluation phase involved evaluating the tobacco health promotion programme presented to the Rhodes University Peer Educators through a focus group discussion; and evaluating Peer Educator recall on the tobacco related health information discussed during the training workshops through a post-post intervention questionnaire. Eight semi-structured interviews (SSIs) and seven focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with support staff, peer educators and key stakeholders to establish the need for a comprehensive workplace health promotion initiative, and to identify the facilitating and constraining factors to conducting such an initiative on tobacco use at the University. Three health information leaflets (HILs) were developed collaboratively with the Peer Educators following a series of scientific, end-user testing approaches. The HILs were tested for readability, comprehension, actionability and suitability. A four-day health promotion training programme was conducted to improve user friendliness, memory retention and recall of the HILs by the peer educators and to improve tobacco related health literacy aspects. The participants’ memory recall was evaluated using a pre- and post-, and post-post-intervention questionnaire to evaluate knowledge transfer. The study participants were also equipped with the completed HILs to distribute to their peers and to use as reference sources of information when needed in future. Results: The peer educators and institutional management supported the need for a tobacco workplace health promotion intervention. The intervention and evaluation phase of this study proved that health information material developed was readable, actionable, suitable, userfriendly, culturally sensitive and contextually appropriate. The workshops resulted in a significant increase in the participants’ tobacco related health knowledge. Through the adoption of a collaborative approach to the research, the participants felt empowered and ready to be agents of change amongst their peers in the workplace. Recommendations: The collective use of external expert reviewers, end-user testing techniques and validated computer programmes are recommended to improve the validity of health promotion research outcomes. A longitudinal study that focus on behaviour change, specifically, with health evaluation and monitoring aspects could be conducted as the next step to this study.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Duxbury, Theodore Orlando
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Tobacco use -- Health aspects , Smoking -- Health aspects , Employee health promotion , Employee health promotion -- Computer programs , Rhodes University -- Employees -- Tobacco use
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MPharm
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/104116 , vital:29930
- Description: Background: Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are a major global public health threat and tobacco use in particular is the leading cause of preventable illness and mortality globally. Furthermore, vulnerable and socially disadvantaged people get sicker and die sooner, especially because they are at higher risk of being exposed to harmful products such as tobacco and have limited access to health services. Tobacco use also has a major impact on the workplace, adversely affecting work productivity and increasing absenteeism. Both the living and work environments, therefore, play an important role in contributing towards the NCD epidemic. Demographics, culture, behaviour change reluctance and health literacy are all factors which exacerbate tobacco prevalence in South Africa. Workplace health promotion, however, is not well established in many workplaces. This study aimed to develop, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a culturallysensitive and contextually-appropriate collaborative workplace health promotion literacy programme on tobacco use, utilizing tailored health information leaflets and the Rhodes University peer educators support staff, guided by the World Health Organization Workplace Health Promotion Framework. Method: The research was conducted using a participatory action research approach, which involved four phases: Firstly, the Exploratory phase assessed tobacco-related health promotion policies and practices at Rhodes University; and established facilitating and constraining factors related to tobacco use. Secondly, the Educational health promotion phase involved designing and testing a health promotion educational intervention to address tobacco use related challenges, which took the form of culturally sensitive and appropriate health information leaflets to be used as an educational intervention Thirdly, in the Implementation phase health promotion training workshops were conducted with volunteering Rhodes University Peer Educators. Finally, an Evaluation phase involved evaluating the tobacco health promotion programme presented to the Rhodes University Peer Educators through a focus group discussion; and evaluating Peer Educator recall on the tobacco related health information discussed during the training workshops through a post-post intervention questionnaire. Eight semi-structured interviews (SSIs) and seven focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with support staff, peer educators and key stakeholders to establish the need for a comprehensive workplace health promotion initiative, and to identify the facilitating and constraining factors to conducting such an initiative on tobacco use at the University. Three health information leaflets (HILs) were developed collaboratively with the Peer Educators following a series of scientific, end-user testing approaches. The HILs were tested for readability, comprehension, actionability and suitability. A four-day health promotion training programme was conducted to improve user friendliness, memory retention and recall of the HILs by the peer educators and to improve tobacco related health literacy aspects. The participants’ memory recall was evaluated using a pre- and post-, and post-post-intervention questionnaire to evaluate knowledge transfer. The study participants were also equipped with the completed HILs to distribute to their peers and to use as reference sources of information when needed in future. Results: The peer educators and institutional management supported the need for a tobacco workplace health promotion intervention. The intervention and evaluation phase of this study proved that health information material developed was readable, actionable, suitable, userfriendly, culturally sensitive and contextually appropriate. The workshops resulted in a significant increase in the participants’ tobacco related health knowledge. Through the adoption of a collaborative approach to the research, the participants felt empowered and ready to be agents of change amongst their peers in the workplace. Recommendations: The collective use of external expert reviewers, end-user testing techniques and validated computer programmes are recommended to improve the validity of health promotion research outcomes. A longitudinal study that focus on behaviour change, specifically, with health evaluation and monitoring aspects could be conducted as the next step to this study.
- Full Text:
Colloquial terms used in young adults’ talk about sexual practices, sexual subjectivities and sexual desires’
- Authors: Robertson, Cassandra Ann
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Youth -- Sexual behavior , Sex in popular culture , Communication and sex , Language and sex
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96551 , vital:31293
- Description: Much of the growth in sexualities‘ research has taken the form of large scale surveys, but there is also increased interest in qualitative approaches that provide useful insights into the experiential and subjective aspects of sexuality, and illuminate the social and cultural contexts shaping these experiences. The reason for this research is to provide a richer understanding of the language that young people employ when speaking about sexuality. This study examines young adults‘ talk about sexualities with a special focus on the way in which colloquial terms are deployed in this talk and through the presence of gendered and/or heteronormative assumptions. Data consisted of posts off a student-led social media site and the study design employed was a validity check group interview. The social media site allowed its followers to post anonymously about a range of sexualities related issues. Data were analysed thematically, using a deductive, critical, and post-structuralist approach with key insights drawn on from Michael Foucault, Adrienne Rich, Gayle Rubin, Judith Butler and Rosalind Gill. Three overarching themes emerged: young adults spoke to sexual practices, sexual subjectivities and sexual desires. A major focus of this talk is casual sex. This talk showed that there are attempts to undermine gendered and heteronormative power relations, for example, non-normative sexual experiences were not seen as deviant, although those who were engaging in monogamy and casual sex were constructed as deviant sexual subjects. Yet underpinning of these power relations still took place, for example, in the female missing discourse of desire, the internalisation of male sexual desires over female sexual desires and the sexual double standard. There was a clear divide between the sexual practices and sexual subjectivities that were considered to be good and bad. This research therefore has the potential to benefit sexuality interventions by bringing into sharp focus the actual experiences of young adults.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Robertson, Cassandra Ann
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Youth -- Sexual behavior , Sex in popular culture , Communication and sex , Language and sex
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96551 , vital:31293
- Description: Much of the growth in sexualities‘ research has taken the form of large scale surveys, but there is also increased interest in qualitative approaches that provide useful insights into the experiential and subjective aspects of sexuality, and illuminate the social and cultural contexts shaping these experiences. The reason for this research is to provide a richer understanding of the language that young people employ when speaking about sexuality. This study examines young adults‘ talk about sexualities with a special focus on the way in which colloquial terms are deployed in this talk and through the presence of gendered and/or heteronormative assumptions. Data consisted of posts off a student-led social media site and the study design employed was a validity check group interview. The social media site allowed its followers to post anonymously about a range of sexualities related issues. Data were analysed thematically, using a deductive, critical, and post-structuralist approach with key insights drawn on from Michael Foucault, Adrienne Rich, Gayle Rubin, Judith Butler and Rosalind Gill. Three overarching themes emerged: young adults spoke to sexual practices, sexual subjectivities and sexual desires. A major focus of this talk is casual sex. This talk showed that there are attempts to undermine gendered and heteronormative power relations, for example, non-normative sexual experiences were not seen as deviant, although those who were engaging in monogamy and casual sex were constructed as deviant sexual subjects. Yet underpinning of these power relations still took place, for example, in the female missing discourse of desire, the internalisation of male sexual desires over female sexual desires and the sexual double standard. There was a clear divide between the sexual practices and sexual subjectivities that were considered to be good and bad. This research therefore has the potential to benefit sexuality interventions by bringing into sharp focus the actual experiences of young adults.
- Full Text:
Communicating in/from the Cave: a communication for development/social change project aimed at enhancing communication, action and learning within the science cave, a learner-led Grade 10 science club in a public school in Makhanda
- Authors: Bombi, Thandi
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Science -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa , Communication in science -- South Africa , Science -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Communication in science -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Student centered learning -- South Africa , Student centered learning-- South Africa -- Makhanda
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96837 , vital:31330
- Description: This research seeks to design, execute and reflect on a process where the principles and techniques of Communication for Development and Social Change are applied to enhance, support and develop qualitative changes within a learner-led Grade 10 science club at a public school in Makhanda. It draws and reflects on an ethnographic action research (Tacchi et al 2003) cycle proposed to explore the club’s communicative ecology (Foth & Hearn 2007) and resources, and understand how these have the potential to encourage the expression of voice (Couldry 2010: 580) and participation (Carpentier, 2011) in the members of the club. The research then attempts to understand the kind of communication, action and learning that takes place as well as the ways in which the framework is able to support the club (or not). The research uses an ethnographic narrative, told from the perspective of the researcher informed by field notes, interviews and participant reflections written during the intervention. This narrative, alongside an analytical summery of the club’s complex communicative ecology, tells the story of a club building confidence within a closed group and using that to connect with a wider public, articulating its needs, resources and potential supporting stakeholders for the club’s future development. The club is able to share its achievements with a community of peers and uses the platform of Facebook, to communicate with and inspire other like-minded people with an interest in science and their community.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Bombi, Thandi
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Science -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa , Communication in science -- South Africa , Science -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Communication in science -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Student centered learning -- South Africa , Student centered learning-- South Africa -- Makhanda
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96837 , vital:31330
- Description: This research seeks to design, execute and reflect on a process where the principles and techniques of Communication for Development and Social Change are applied to enhance, support and develop qualitative changes within a learner-led Grade 10 science club at a public school in Makhanda. It draws and reflects on an ethnographic action research (Tacchi et al 2003) cycle proposed to explore the club’s communicative ecology (Foth & Hearn 2007) and resources, and understand how these have the potential to encourage the expression of voice (Couldry 2010: 580) and participation (Carpentier, 2011) in the members of the club. The research then attempts to understand the kind of communication, action and learning that takes place as well as the ways in which the framework is able to support the club (or not). The research uses an ethnographic narrative, told from the perspective of the researcher informed by field notes, interviews and participant reflections written during the intervention. This narrative, alongside an analytical summery of the club’s complex communicative ecology, tells the story of a club building confidence within a closed group and using that to connect with a wider public, articulating its needs, resources and potential supporting stakeholders for the club’s future development. The club is able to share its achievements with a community of peers and uses the platform of Facebook, to communicate with and inspire other like-minded people with an interest in science and their community.
- Full Text:
Composition portfolio
- Authors: Cooper, Corinne Jane
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Music , Musical bow -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Sound recordings in ethnomusicology -- South Africa , Dywili, Nofinishi. The bow project , Music -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/168338 , vital:41568
- Description: In June 2014, I was introduced to Christine Dixie by a film maker I had worked with on a previous project. Christine was looking for a composer who could arrange a soundtrack around musical themes that she had commissioned from Jared Lang to accompany her video installation To Be King (Dixie 2014. Jared composed five different melodies that I wove into a palette of sounds that comprised the soundtrack. To Be King was exhibited at the National Arts Festival in 2014 as part of the Main Festival. It moved to Cape Town in 2015 and 2017, to Venice and London in 2017, and to Lithuania in 2018. In 2017, Christine approached me to compose a soundtrack for a different work, based again on seventeenth century Spanish artist, Velázquez’ painting ‘Las Meninas’ (1656), but this time, using a series of sculptures representing the different figures in the painting, a reinterpretation with strong Eastern Cape (South Africa) themes and associations. Christine proposed reimagining the figures in the painting by clothing them in Shweshwe 1 material and placing African masks on each of them, masks that she had sought out during her travels around Africa. The use of Shweshwe material, ties the figures very closely to the Eastern Cape, and in particular, close to where I grew up in Alice, just 60 kilometres away from where it is manufactured in King William’s Town. Alice is important in the unfolding of this portfolio as Ntsikana, purportedly the first Xhosa person to be converted to Christianity and a prophet, lived in Peddie (which is about 70 kilometers from Grahamstown and Rhodes University) and Gqora, near the Kat River District which is located in the Amathola District near Alice. (Kumalo 2015, p.26). Alice is steeped in history, and is the town where Lovedale Mission Station was founded in 1824 and later, the Lovedale Press in 1861. Therefore, this project felt close to my roots, hence this interaction between Western and African cultures is very relevant to my world view and has impacted on my scoring of this music. I was initially challenged by the idea that the project would require a deeper understanding of traditional Xhosa music and while I had been exposed to Xhosa culture while growing up in Alice, my formative years were largely shaped by the culture of my Christian parents who immigrated to South Africa from England during the 1960s. During the first decade of the twentieth century, in my capacity as a sound engineer, I was tasked with recording and mastering a double CD called The Bow Project. Various South African composers were invited to transcribe and paraphrase or reimagine traditional Xhosa bow music for the classical string quartet. The uhadi songs 2 of Nofinishi Dywili formed the basis for many of these intercultural explorations, and I recorded and mastered the string quartets as well as 12 individual recordings of Dywili’s music. I spent many hours listening to Dywili’s recordings while I mastered them, but though I was very familiar with how they sounded, I realised, as I started compiling this portfolio, that I was not familiar with their notation and rhythmic structures. I approach sound engineering with a very different ear and sonic perspective to that of a composer. To learn more about uhadi bow music I visited the International Library of African Music (ILAM) which is housed by Rhodes University in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. Here I consulted with sound engineer and African music specialist, Elijah Madiba, on Xhosa instruments and traditional music-making. With Madiba’s assistance I listened carefully to different bow performances and examined a variety of instruments. After this introduction I loaned a selection of recordings from the ILAM collection and listened to them as carefully as I could. Every time I listened, I seemed to hear something different, both melodically and rhythmically. To gain a deeper understanding of how this music was created I decided to transcribe some of the songs. Following a steep learning curve I completed transcriptions of two songs with my transcriptions including a wealth of vocal parts. As my ears grew accustomed to the sound world I heard additional counter melodies. Notating the rhythms using staff notation was challenging, as this music is created according to a different format, but I am familiar with staff notation and if I was going to use this material while composing then I needed to remain with that which was familiar. I finally settled on notating with shifting time signatures and the first song is scored in bars of 3/4, 4/4, and 2/4 while the other song uses 3/4, 2/4. It was a very worthwhile exercise and after completion I humbly set about composing the eleven pieces that would musically express Dixie’s new work: Worlding the White Spirit Maiden (2019).
- Full Text:
- Authors: Cooper, Corinne Jane
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Music , Musical bow -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Sound recordings in ethnomusicology -- South Africa , Dywili, Nofinishi. The bow project , Music -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/168338 , vital:41568
- Description: In June 2014, I was introduced to Christine Dixie by a film maker I had worked with on a previous project. Christine was looking for a composer who could arrange a soundtrack around musical themes that she had commissioned from Jared Lang to accompany her video installation To Be King (Dixie 2014. Jared composed five different melodies that I wove into a palette of sounds that comprised the soundtrack. To Be King was exhibited at the National Arts Festival in 2014 as part of the Main Festival. It moved to Cape Town in 2015 and 2017, to Venice and London in 2017, and to Lithuania in 2018. In 2017, Christine approached me to compose a soundtrack for a different work, based again on seventeenth century Spanish artist, Velázquez’ painting ‘Las Meninas’ (1656), but this time, using a series of sculptures representing the different figures in the painting, a reinterpretation with strong Eastern Cape (South Africa) themes and associations. Christine proposed reimagining the figures in the painting by clothing them in Shweshwe 1 material and placing African masks on each of them, masks that she had sought out during her travels around Africa. The use of Shweshwe material, ties the figures very closely to the Eastern Cape, and in particular, close to where I grew up in Alice, just 60 kilometres away from where it is manufactured in King William’s Town. Alice is important in the unfolding of this portfolio as Ntsikana, purportedly the first Xhosa person to be converted to Christianity and a prophet, lived in Peddie (which is about 70 kilometers from Grahamstown and Rhodes University) and Gqora, near the Kat River District which is located in the Amathola District near Alice. (Kumalo 2015, p.26). Alice is steeped in history, and is the town where Lovedale Mission Station was founded in 1824 and later, the Lovedale Press in 1861. Therefore, this project felt close to my roots, hence this interaction between Western and African cultures is very relevant to my world view and has impacted on my scoring of this music. I was initially challenged by the idea that the project would require a deeper understanding of traditional Xhosa music and while I had been exposed to Xhosa culture while growing up in Alice, my formative years were largely shaped by the culture of my Christian parents who immigrated to South Africa from England during the 1960s. During the first decade of the twentieth century, in my capacity as a sound engineer, I was tasked with recording and mastering a double CD called The Bow Project. Various South African composers were invited to transcribe and paraphrase or reimagine traditional Xhosa bow music for the classical string quartet. The uhadi songs 2 of Nofinishi Dywili formed the basis for many of these intercultural explorations, and I recorded and mastered the string quartets as well as 12 individual recordings of Dywili’s music. I spent many hours listening to Dywili’s recordings while I mastered them, but though I was very familiar with how they sounded, I realised, as I started compiling this portfolio, that I was not familiar with their notation and rhythmic structures. I approach sound engineering with a very different ear and sonic perspective to that of a composer. To learn more about uhadi bow music I visited the International Library of African Music (ILAM) which is housed by Rhodes University in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. Here I consulted with sound engineer and African music specialist, Elijah Madiba, on Xhosa instruments and traditional music-making. With Madiba’s assistance I listened carefully to different bow performances and examined a variety of instruments. After this introduction I loaned a selection of recordings from the ILAM collection and listened to them as carefully as I could. Every time I listened, I seemed to hear something different, both melodically and rhythmically. To gain a deeper understanding of how this music was created I decided to transcribe some of the songs. Following a steep learning curve I completed transcriptions of two songs with my transcriptions including a wealth of vocal parts. As my ears grew accustomed to the sound world I heard additional counter melodies. Notating the rhythms using staff notation was challenging, as this music is created according to a different format, but I am familiar with staff notation and if I was going to use this material while composing then I needed to remain with that which was familiar. I finally settled on notating with shifting time signatures and the first song is scored in bars of 3/4, 4/4, and 2/4 while the other song uses 3/4, 2/4. It was a very worthwhile exercise and after completion I humbly set about composing the eleven pieces that would musically express Dixie’s new work: Worlding the White Spirit Maiden (2019).
- Full Text:
Conditions constraining and enabling research production in Historically Black Universities in South Africa
- Authors: Muthama, Evelyn
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Universities and colleges, Black -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- Research -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- History , Black people -- Education -- South Africa -- History , Discrimination in higher education -- South Africa -- History
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/131527 , vital:36591
- Description: The South African higher education system has a highly uneven landscape emerging from its apartheid past. Institutions remain categorised along racial lines within categories known as ‘Historically Black’ and ‘Historically White’ institutions, or alternatively ‘Historically Disadvantaged’ and ‘Historically Advantaged’ universities. Alongside such categorisations, universities fall within three types, which arose from the restructuring of the higher education landscape post-apartheid through a series of mergers: traditional universities, comprehensive universities, and universities of technology. This study which is part of a larger National Research Foundation-funded project looking at institutional differentiation in South Africa, sought to investigate the conditions enabling and constraining production of research in the Historically Black Universities (HBUs). By providing clarity as to the nature of truth and the concept of knowledge underpinning study, Critical Realism ensures that the study moves beyond the experiences and events captured in the data to the identification of causal mechanisms. Archer’s theory of Social Realism is used alongside Critical Realism, both as a meta-theory to provide an account of the social world and as a more substantive theory in the analysis of data. Social Realism entails understanding that the social world emerges in a complex interplay of powers in the domains of structure, culture and agency. Identifying the powers in each of these domains that enabled or constrained research development meant moving beyond suggesting simple causal relationships to ensure that I identified the complexities of the interplay of mechanisms. Data was collected from all seven institutions designated by the Department of Higher Education and Training as HBUs, by online survey, in depth interviews with academics and heads of research, and through the collection of a range of national and institutional documentation. Using analytical dualism, I endeavoured to identify some of the enablements and constraints at play. There were a number of areas of strength in research in the HBUs. There has also been a significant increase in research output over the last decade; however, the study also identified a number of mechanisms that constrained research productivity. The study found that while there were a number of mechanisms that appeared to have causal tendencies across all the institutions, there were a number of very specific institutional differences. There was very little consistency in understanding of the purpose of research as being key to what universities and academics do. The implication of this incoherence in the domain of culture (i.e. beliefs and discourses in Archer’s terms) is that various interventions in the structural domain intended to foster increased research output often had unintended consequences. Unless there are explicit discussions about how and why research is valuable to the institution and to the country there is unlikely to be sustained growth in output. In particular, the data analysis raises concerns about an instrumentalist understanding of research output in the domain of culture. This in part emerged from the lack of a historical culture of research and was found to be complimentary to managerialist discourses. Another key mechanism identified in the analysis was the use of direct incentives to drive research productivity. Such initiatives seemed to be complementary to a more instrumentalist understanding of the purpose of research and thereby to potentially constrain the likelihood of sustained research growth. While many of the participants were in favour of the use of research incentives, it was also evident that this was often problematic because it steered academics towards salami slicing, and other practices focused on quantity as opposed to quality research. Predatory publications, in particular, have emerged as a problem whereby the research does not get read or cited and so it fails to contribute to knowledge dissemination. Another constraint to research production was related to the increased casualisation of academic staff, which has exacerbated difficulties in attracting and retaining staff especially in rural areas. In South Africa, 56% of academics in universities are now hired on a contract basis which constrained the nurturing of an academic identity and the extent of commitment to the university and its particular academic project. In the HBUs, these employment conditions were exacerbated by increased teaching loads as a result of increased number of students (undergraduates and postgraduates) that have not been matched with similar increases in academic staff. There was a nascent discourse of social justice that focused on research as a core driver of knowledge production in some of the HBUs. This is potentially an area of strength for the HBUs especially emerging from their rural position as there was a complementary culture of social concerns. There was evidence that the nexus between research and community engagement could be a strong means of both strengthening institutional identity and increasing research productivity. But unless the nexus is clearly articulated, a systematic process of support is unlikely to emerge. Given the extent to which the rural positioning of HBUs has been acknowledged to constrain research engagement, this finding has a number of positive implications.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Muthama, Evelyn
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Universities and colleges, Black -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- Research -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- History , Black people -- Education -- South Africa -- History , Discrimination in higher education -- South Africa -- History
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/131527 , vital:36591
- Description: The South African higher education system has a highly uneven landscape emerging from its apartheid past. Institutions remain categorised along racial lines within categories known as ‘Historically Black’ and ‘Historically White’ institutions, or alternatively ‘Historically Disadvantaged’ and ‘Historically Advantaged’ universities. Alongside such categorisations, universities fall within three types, which arose from the restructuring of the higher education landscape post-apartheid through a series of mergers: traditional universities, comprehensive universities, and universities of technology. This study which is part of a larger National Research Foundation-funded project looking at institutional differentiation in South Africa, sought to investigate the conditions enabling and constraining production of research in the Historically Black Universities (HBUs). By providing clarity as to the nature of truth and the concept of knowledge underpinning study, Critical Realism ensures that the study moves beyond the experiences and events captured in the data to the identification of causal mechanisms. Archer’s theory of Social Realism is used alongside Critical Realism, both as a meta-theory to provide an account of the social world and as a more substantive theory in the analysis of data. Social Realism entails understanding that the social world emerges in a complex interplay of powers in the domains of structure, culture and agency. Identifying the powers in each of these domains that enabled or constrained research development meant moving beyond suggesting simple causal relationships to ensure that I identified the complexities of the interplay of mechanisms. Data was collected from all seven institutions designated by the Department of Higher Education and Training as HBUs, by online survey, in depth interviews with academics and heads of research, and through the collection of a range of national and institutional documentation. Using analytical dualism, I endeavoured to identify some of the enablements and constraints at play. There were a number of areas of strength in research in the HBUs. There has also been a significant increase in research output over the last decade; however, the study also identified a number of mechanisms that constrained research productivity. The study found that while there were a number of mechanisms that appeared to have causal tendencies across all the institutions, there were a number of very specific institutional differences. There was very little consistency in understanding of the purpose of research as being key to what universities and academics do. The implication of this incoherence in the domain of culture (i.e. beliefs and discourses in Archer’s terms) is that various interventions in the structural domain intended to foster increased research output often had unintended consequences. Unless there are explicit discussions about how and why research is valuable to the institution and to the country there is unlikely to be sustained growth in output. In particular, the data analysis raises concerns about an instrumentalist understanding of research output in the domain of culture. This in part emerged from the lack of a historical culture of research and was found to be complimentary to managerialist discourses. Another key mechanism identified in the analysis was the use of direct incentives to drive research productivity. Such initiatives seemed to be complementary to a more instrumentalist understanding of the purpose of research and thereby to potentially constrain the likelihood of sustained research growth. While many of the participants were in favour of the use of research incentives, it was also evident that this was often problematic because it steered academics towards salami slicing, and other practices focused on quantity as opposed to quality research. Predatory publications, in particular, have emerged as a problem whereby the research does not get read or cited and so it fails to contribute to knowledge dissemination. Another constraint to research production was related to the increased casualisation of academic staff, which has exacerbated difficulties in attracting and retaining staff especially in rural areas. In South Africa, 56% of academics in universities are now hired on a contract basis which constrained the nurturing of an academic identity and the extent of commitment to the university and its particular academic project. In the HBUs, these employment conditions were exacerbated by increased teaching loads as a result of increased number of students (undergraduates and postgraduates) that have not been matched with similar increases in academic staff. There was a nascent discourse of social justice that focused on research as a core driver of knowledge production in some of the HBUs. This is potentially an area of strength for the HBUs especially emerging from their rural position as there was a complementary culture of social concerns. There was evidence that the nexus between research and community engagement could be a strong means of both strengthening institutional identity and increasing research productivity. But unless the nexus is clearly articulated, a systematic process of support is unlikely to emerge. Given the extent to which the rural positioning of HBUs has been acknowledged to constrain research engagement, this finding has a number of positive implications.
- Full Text:
CubiCal: a fast radio interferometric calibration suite exploiting complex optimisation
- Authors: Kenyon, Jonathan
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Interferometry , Radio astronomy , Python (Computer program language) , Square Kilometre Array (Project)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92341 , vital:30711
- Description: The advent of the Square Kilometre Array and its precursors marks the start of an exciting era for radio interferometry. However, with new instruments producing unprecedented quantities of data, many existing calibration algorithms and implementations will be hard-pressed to keep up. Fortunately, it has recently been shown that the radio interferometric calibration problem can be expressed concisely using the ideas of complex optimisation. The resulting framework exposes properties of the calibration problem which can be exploited to accelerate traditional non-linear least squares algorithms. We extend the existing work on the topic by considering the more general problem of calibrating a Jones chain: the product of several unknown gain terms. We also derive specialised solvers for performing phase-only, delay and pointing error calibration. In doing so, we devise a method for determining update rules for arbitrary, real-valued parametrisations of a complex gain. The solvers are implemented in an optimised Python package called CubiCal. CubiCal makes use of Cython to generate fast C and C++ routines for performing computationally demanding tasks whilst leveraging multiprocessing and shared memory to take advantage of modern, parallel hardware. The package is fully compatible with the measurement set, the most common format for interferometer data, and is well integrated with Montblanc - a third party package which implements optimised model visibility prediction. CubiCal's calibration routines are applied successfully to both simulated and real data for the field surrounding source 3C147. These tests include direction-independent and direction dependent calibration, as well as tests of the specialised solvers. Finally, we conduct extensive performance benchmarks and verify that CubiCal convincingly outperforms its most comparable competitor.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Kenyon, Jonathan
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Interferometry , Radio astronomy , Python (Computer program language) , Square Kilometre Array (Project)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92341 , vital:30711
- Description: The advent of the Square Kilometre Array and its precursors marks the start of an exciting era for radio interferometry. However, with new instruments producing unprecedented quantities of data, many existing calibration algorithms and implementations will be hard-pressed to keep up. Fortunately, it has recently been shown that the radio interferometric calibration problem can be expressed concisely using the ideas of complex optimisation. The resulting framework exposes properties of the calibration problem which can be exploited to accelerate traditional non-linear least squares algorithms. We extend the existing work on the topic by considering the more general problem of calibrating a Jones chain: the product of several unknown gain terms. We also derive specialised solvers for performing phase-only, delay and pointing error calibration. In doing so, we devise a method for determining update rules for arbitrary, real-valued parametrisations of a complex gain. The solvers are implemented in an optimised Python package called CubiCal. CubiCal makes use of Cython to generate fast C and C++ routines for performing computationally demanding tasks whilst leveraging multiprocessing and shared memory to take advantage of modern, parallel hardware. The package is fully compatible with the measurement set, the most common format for interferometer data, and is well integrated with Montblanc - a third party package which implements optimised model visibility prediction. CubiCal's calibration routines are applied successfully to both simulated and real data for the field surrounding source 3C147. These tests include direction-independent and direction dependent calibration, as well as tests of the specialised solvers. Finally, we conduct extensive performance benchmarks and verify that CubiCal convincingly outperforms its most comparable competitor.
- Full Text:
Cultural clusters as a local economic development strategy in rural, small town areas: the Sarah Baartman District in the Eastern Cape of South Africa
- Authors: Drummond, Fiona Jane
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Cultural industries -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Creative ability -- Economic aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Arts -- Economic aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Culture -- Economic aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Economic development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Economic development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71568 , vital:29879
- Description: It is increasingly recognized that the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) can play an important role in economic growth and development. Governments around the world, including South Africa, are implementing culture‐led economic growth and development strategies on national and regional scales. CCIs tend to cluster around large cities because of existing hard and soft infrastructure such as networking advantages and access to skilled labour, however, much less is known about the potential of the CCIs to drive rural development. This thesis thus investigates the potential of the CCIs to cluster in small towns and rural areas. Moreover, it examines the relationship between the CCIs and socio‐economic development. The CCIs have been touted as a catalyst for economic growth and development and so have often been used in urban regeneration schemes. The Sarah Baartman District (SBD) of South Africa’s Eastern Cape has identified culture as a potential new economic driver. Establishing a new development path is necessary as the former economic mainstay, agriculture, has declined in the region, creating poverty and unemployment problems. However, the SBD has only small towns which, according to the literature, are not suited to CCI clustering. Despite this, there is evidence of cultural clustering in some of the SBD’s small towns like Nieu Bethesda and Bathurst. This research therefore conducted an audit of the CCIs in the district and used geographic information systems (GIS) to map their locations by UNESCO Framework of Cultural Statistics (FCS) domains in order to determine the extent to which clustering has occurred in a small town setting. The audit identified 1 048 CCIs operating in the district and determined that clustering is possible within some small towns, depending on their demographic, economic, social, geographic and historic characteristics. For small towns where clusters exist or the potential for cluster formation is present, the domains in which the town holds a comparative advantage, based on domain proportions and location quotients, should be pursued for local economic development (LED). In this case, Visual Arts and Crafts and Cultural Heritage were prominent throughout the district while Design and Creative Services and Performance and Celebration had small regional concentrations. Theory suggests that the presence of CCIs is linked to higher levels of economic development as the creative class is more likely to be attracted to more highly developed areas, usually large cities. Furthermore, spillover effects from cultural activity promotes further development under the virtuous cycle. To investigate the relationship between CCI clusters and socio‐economic development, the locational data of municipal level CCI numbers is overlaid with a regional development indicator, a socio‐economic status index, which is based on census data and includes economic and social components. Results show that there is a general positive trend of CCIs locating in larger numbers (clustering) in areas with higher socio‐economic development performances.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Drummond, Fiona Jane
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Cultural industries -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Creative ability -- Economic aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Arts -- Economic aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Culture -- Economic aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Economic development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Economic development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71568 , vital:29879
- Description: It is increasingly recognized that the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) can play an important role in economic growth and development. Governments around the world, including South Africa, are implementing culture‐led economic growth and development strategies on national and regional scales. CCIs tend to cluster around large cities because of existing hard and soft infrastructure such as networking advantages and access to skilled labour, however, much less is known about the potential of the CCIs to drive rural development. This thesis thus investigates the potential of the CCIs to cluster in small towns and rural areas. Moreover, it examines the relationship between the CCIs and socio‐economic development. The CCIs have been touted as a catalyst for economic growth and development and so have often been used in urban regeneration schemes. The Sarah Baartman District (SBD) of South Africa’s Eastern Cape has identified culture as a potential new economic driver. Establishing a new development path is necessary as the former economic mainstay, agriculture, has declined in the region, creating poverty and unemployment problems. However, the SBD has only small towns which, according to the literature, are not suited to CCI clustering. Despite this, there is evidence of cultural clustering in some of the SBD’s small towns like Nieu Bethesda and Bathurst. This research therefore conducted an audit of the CCIs in the district and used geographic information systems (GIS) to map their locations by UNESCO Framework of Cultural Statistics (FCS) domains in order to determine the extent to which clustering has occurred in a small town setting. The audit identified 1 048 CCIs operating in the district and determined that clustering is possible within some small towns, depending on their demographic, economic, social, geographic and historic characteristics. For small towns where clusters exist or the potential for cluster formation is present, the domains in which the town holds a comparative advantage, based on domain proportions and location quotients, should be pursued for local economic development (LED). In this case, Visual Arts and Crafts and Cultural Heritage were prominent throughout the district while Design and Creative Services and Performance and Celebration had small regional concentrations. Theory suggests that the presence of CCIs is linked to higher levels of economic development as the creative class is more likely to be attracted to more highly developed areas, usually large cities. Furthermore, spillover effects from cultural activity promotes further development under the virtuous cycle. To investigate the relationship between CCI clusters and socio‐economic development, the locational data of municipal level CCI numbers is overlaid with a regional development indicator, a socio‐economic status index, which is based on census data and includes economic and social components. Results show that there is a general positive trend of CCIs locating in larger numbers (clustering) in areas with higher socio‐economic development performances.
- Full Text:
Deconstructing “the South African jazz feel”: roots, rhythms and features of South African jazz
- Authors: Thorpe, Christopher John
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Jazz -- History and criticism , Jazz -- African influences , Jazz -- Africa --History and criticism , Jazz -- South Africa --History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76649 , vital:30612
- Description: South African jazz has established itself as a distinct and influential genre in modern popular music that merges musical elements from traditional South African musics with influences from U.S.-American jazz. Formed during a time of extreme social inequality in a divided country, South African jazz became the soundtrack of the struggle against social injustice and racial oppression, and was brought to international attention by artists such as Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, and Abdullah Ibrahim who gave poignant musical expression to the hardships of the time. South African jazz is celebrated for its unique sound, original catalogue and all-important “feel”. To many listeners, performers and musicologists, it is this concept of feel that makes South African jazz so distinctive and inimitable. To date, however, much of the scholarly and popular literature on South African jazz has centred on the historical, social and political aspects of the music, with less attention given to close musical-textual analysis. A few studies have considered the melodic and harmonic language of iconic saxophonists and bass players but there are – to date – no close studies of rhythm and feel in South African jazz. Beginning to address this gap in the literature, this study uncovers some of the elements that constitute the South African jazz feel through close rhythmic and more general musical analyses of a selection of South African jazz recordings.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Thorpe, Christopher John
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Jazz -- History and criticism , Jazz -- African influences , Jazz -- Africa --History and criticism , Jazz -- South Africa --History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76649 , vital:30612
- Description: South African jazz has established itself as a distinct and influential genre in modern popular music that merges musical elements from traditional South African musics with influences from U.S.-American jazz. Formed during a time of extreme social inequality in a divided country, South African jazz became the soundtrack of the struggle against social injustice and racial oppression, and was brought to international attention by artists such as Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, and Abdullah Ibrahim who gave poignant musical expression to the hardships of the time. South African jazz is celebrated for its unique sound, original catalogue and all-important “feel”. To many listeners, performers and musicologists, it is this concept of feel that makes South African jazz so distinctive and inimitable. To date, however, much of the scholarly and popular literature on South African jazz has centred on the historical, social and political aspects of the music, with less attention given to close musical-textual analysis. A few studies have considered the melodic and harmonic language of iconic saxophonists and bass players but there are – to date – no close studies of rhythm and feel in South African jazz. Beginning to address this gap in the literature, this study uncovers some of the elements that constitute the South African jazz feel through close rhythmic and more general musical analyses of a selection of South African jazz recordings.
- Full Text:
Design and fabrication of components of dye sensitised solar cells
- Authors: Msane, Gugu
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Dye-sensitized solar cells
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/117106 , vital:34478
- Description: In recent decades there has been increasing global concern about the sustainability of our use of fossil fuels, which has led to increased interest in carbon–free sustainable renewable sources such as solar energy. Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are a cheap and clean technology that harnesses solar energy efficiently and convert it to electrical energy. A DSSC consists of a transparent working electrode coated with a dye-sensitized mesoporous film of nanocrystalline particles of semiconductor e.g. TiO2, an electrolyte containing a suitable redox couple and a platinized counter electrode. All the components of the DSSCs play vital roles in controlling the performance of the cell. The synergy of these components of the cells also needs to be investigated to optimise their interaction and create efficient and stable DSSCs. The information gathered from this investigation can give insight on how to improve the efficiencies of DSSCs. In this research study the semiconductor, transparent conducting layer and sensitizer were designed, optimized one at a time and their effect on the overall efficiency of the DSSCs studied. In this way it was easy to observe the effect of the individual components on the efficiency of the DSSCs. The conventional DSSCs usually use TiO2 as a semiconductor. In this research TiO2 was doped with cerium (Ce) to enhance its optical properties by reducing the band gap. A series of Ce-doped TiO2 with Ce content ranging from 0.1 to 1 mol % were successfully synthesized by an acid catalyzed sol-gel method, and their performance as the photoanodes of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) was investigated. Ce doping resulted in a red shift in the absorption of the TiO2 indicating narrowing of the band gap. The band gap first narrowed with increase in concentration of dopant up until 0.9 % dopant concentration. After this optimum doping concentration the band gap widened again. DFT calculations showed that Ce doping introduces Ce4f impurity states located just below the conduction band resulting in band gap narrowing. Ce content (0.9%) doped TiO2 photoanodes improved the performance of DSSCs with a conversion efficiency of 2.11% compared to 0,21% for the one with a pure TiO2 under 1 sun, AM1.5. Graphitised/TiO2 nanocomposites were also used a semiconductor to slow down recombination of electrons and holes in the cells. Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) was used to deposit graphitised/TiO2 nanocomposites onto an FTO electrode for application as photoelectrode in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). An enhanced power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.25% was observed for the 0.5 wt% graphene oxide/TiO2 (GO/TiO2) based DSSC which was higher than that of the conversion efficiency of pure TiO2 nanoparticles (i.e. 0.52%). Graphene oxide led to high migration of photoinduced electrons to the conduction band of the collection electrode and inhibition of charge carriers recombination resulting in enhanced photoconversion efficiency. A GO content above 0.5 % resulted in a reduced transparency leading to a decrease in the PCE. 0.5 wt % GO/0.9 Ce–TiO2 Ce based DSSC showed a slightly enhanced efficiency of 2.45%. 0.5 rGO/TiO2 based DSSCs had a high efficiency than 0.5 rGO/TiO2 due to improved conductivity of rGO nanosheets and suppressed recombination of charge carriers. To cut down DSSC production costs a silver wire network transparent conducting polyethylene electrodes was fabricated and used as an indium tin oxide (ITO) alternative substrates in DSSCs. The transmittance of the AgNW network was 82 % which is comparable to ITO substrates. Titanium oxide (TiO2) films on the AgWN/PET substrates were obtained using the electrophoresis method. These substrates were sensitised and used to fabricate a dye sensitised solar cell. From the measured current–voltage or I-V characteristic under AM1.5 illumination of the formed DSSC using AgWN substrates, an open circuit voltage (VOC) of 0.377 V, a short circuit current (ISC) of 0.0067 mA and a fill factor (FF) 25.7 % with an efficiency of 0.00862 % were obtained from a cell of 0.075 cm2 working area. The stability of the cell improved when a room temperature ionic liquid electrolyte was used. Gold nanofiber transparent electrodes were also prepared by the electrospinning techniques and used as an alternative to indium tin oxides substrates. Transparent conducting gold nanofiber (AuNF) transparent conducting electrodes were fabricated by using a low–cost electrospinning process and used as photoelectrodes for DSSCs. TiO2 was deposited on these electrodes by using an electrospray method. DSSC using AuNF as transparent electrodes had a power efficiency of 0.52%, compared to devices made with FTO electrodes (1.48%). DSSCs. Versatile dyes with increased spectral response, stability and suppressed recombination of holes and electrons were synthesised and used as a sensitizers for DSSCs. The boron dipyrrin (BODIPY) chromophore was combined with a carboxy coumarin moiety to create donor–acceptor (dyad) system dyes. Regenerative dyad dyes were formed through covalently linking a porphyrin chromophore to a manganese(II) ion through bridging ligands. These chromophores and also porphyrin and BODIPY dyes were used as sensitisers for DSSCs. The regenerative dye based DSSCs showed a photoconversion efficiency of 4.09% which was higher than the efficiency of the parent porphyrin (2.57%). The enhanced efficiency was attributed to the manganese bypridine cluster in the ZnTPP–Mn bpy supramolecule which acted as an electron donor to the photo-oxidized porphyrin continuously regenerating the porphyrin and preventing its decay.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Msane, Gugu
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Dye-sensitized solar cells
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/117106 , vital:34478
- Description: In recent decades there has been increasing global concern about the sustainability of our use of fossil fuels, which has led to increased interest in carbon–free sustainable renewable sources such as solar energy. Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are a cheap and clean technology that harnesses solar energy efficiently and convert it to electrical energy. A DSSC consists of a transparent working electrode coated with a dye-sensitized mesoporous film of nanocrystalline particles of semiconductor e.g. TiO2, an electrolyte containing a suitable redox couple and a platinized counter electrode. All the components of the DSSCs play vital roles in controlling the performance of the cell. The synergy of these components of the cells also needs to be investigated to optimise their interaction and create efficient and stable DSSCs. The information gathered from this investigation can give insight on how to improve the efficiencies of DSSCs. In this research study the semiconductor, transparent conducting layer and sensitizer were designed, optimized one at a time and their effect on the overall efficiency of the DSSCs studied. In this way it was easy to observe the effect of the individual components on the efficiency of the DSSCs. The conventional DSSCs usually use TiO2 as a semiconductor. In this research TiO2 was doped with cerium (Ce) to enhance its optical properties by reducing the band gap. A series of Ce-doped TiO2 with Ce content ranging from 0.1 to 1 mol % were successfully synthesized by an acid catalyzed sol-gel method, and their performance as the photoanodes of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) was investigated. Ce doping resulted in a red shift in the absorption of the TiO2 indicating narrowing of the band gap. The band gap first narrowed with increase in concentration of dopant up until 0.9 % dopant concentration. After this optimum doping concentration the band gap widened again. DFT calculations showed that Ce doping introduces Ce4f impurity states located just below the conduction band resulting in band gap narrowing. Ce content (0.9%) doped TiO2 photoanodes improved the performance of DSSCs with a conversion efficiency of 2.11% compared to 0,21% for the one with a pure TiO2 under 1 sun, AM1.5. Graphitised/TiO2 nanocomposites were also used a semiconductor to slow down recombination of electrons and holes in the cells. Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) was used to deposit graphitised/TiO2 nanocomposites onto an FTO electrode for application as photoelectrode in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). An enhanced power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.25% was observed for the 0.5 wt% graphene oxide/TiO2 (GO/TiO2) based DSSC which was higher than that of the conversion efficiency of pure TiO2 nanoparticles (i.e. 0.52%). Graphene oxide led to high migration of photoinduced electrons to the conduction band of the collection electrode and inhibition of charge carriers recombination resulting in enhanced photoconversion efficiency. A GO content above 0.5 % resulted in a reduced transparency leading to a decrease in the PCE. 0.5 wt % GO/0.9 Ce–TiO2 Ce based DSSC showed a slightly enhanced efficiency of 2.45%. 0.5 rGO/TiO2 based DSSCs had a high efficiency than 0.5 rGO/TiO2 due to improved conductivity of rGO nanosheets and suppressed recombination of charge carriers. To cut down DSSC production costs a silver wire network transparent conducting polyethylene electrodes was fabricated and used as an indium tin oxide (ITO) alternative substrates in DSSCs. The transmittance of the AgNW network was 82 % which is comparable to ITO substrates. Titanium oxide (TiO2) films on the AgWN/PET substrates were obtained using the electrophoresis method. These substrates were sensitised and used to fabricate a dye sensitised solar cell. From the measured current–voltage or I-V characteristic under AM1.5 illumination of the formed DSSC using AgWN substrates, an open circuit voltage (VOC) of 0.377 V, a short circuit current (ISC) of 0.0067 mA and a fill factor (FF) 25.7 % with an efficiency of 0.00862 % were obtained from a cell of 0.075 cm2 working area. The stability of the cell improved when a room temperature ionic liquid electrolyte was used. Gold nanofiber transparent electrodes were also prepared by the electrospinning techniques and used as an alternative to indium tin oxides substrates. Transparent conducting gold nanofiber (AuNF) transparent conducting electrodes were fabricated by using a low–cost electrospinning process and used as photoelectrodes for DSSCs. TiO2 was deposited on these electrodes by using an electrospray method. DSSC using AuNF as transparent electrodes had a power efficiency of 0.52%, compared to devices made with FTO electrodes (1.48%). DSSCs. Versatile dyes with increased spectral response, stability and suppressed recombination of holes and electrons were synthesised and used as a sensitizers for DSSCs. The boron dipyrrin (BODIPY) chromophore was combined with a carboxy coumarin moiety to create donor–acceptor (dyad) system dyes. Regenerative dyad dyes were formed through covalently linking a porphyrin chromophore to a manganese(II) ion through bridging ligands. These chromophores and also porphyrin and BODIPY dyes were used as sensitisers for DSSCs. The regenerative dye based DSSCs showed a photoconversion efficiency of 4.09% which was higher than the efficiency of the parent porphyrin (2.57%). The enhanced efficiency was attributed to the manganese bypridine cluster in the ZnTPP–Mn bpy supramolecule which acted as an electron donor to the photo-oxidized porphyrin continuously regenerating the porphyrin and preventing its decay.
- Full Text:
Determining the hydrological functioning of the palmiet wetlands in the Eastern and Western Cape South Africa
- Authors: Smith, Caitlin
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Wetlands -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Wetland ecology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Wetland management -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Prioniaceae -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Prionium serratum -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95956 , vital:31218
- Description: Wetlands provide a range of supporting, regulating and provisioning ecosystem services, including hydrological benefits such as flood attenuation and sustaining base flows. Despite their value, wetlands are one of the most vulnerable ecosystems in South Africa. Palmiet wetlands in the Eastern and Western Cape are particularly threatened. Palmiet (Prionium serratum) is a robust perennial plant that is endemic to wetlands and rivers located in the sandstones and quartzites of the Table Mountain Group (TMG), in the Eastern and Western Cape as well as the Natal Group sandstones in KwaZulu-Natal. Palmiet is described as an ecosystem engineer because of its ability to alter its environment and create large valley-bottom wetlands. The Krom River is an important water source for the city of Port Elizabeth and there has been a decline in palmiet wetlands along the Krom River as a result of alien vegetation invasion, agricultural activity, and gully erosion. Working for Water has been clearing alien vegetation and Working for Wetlands has been installing rehabilitation structures in the Krom River catchment for a number of years. There are, however, serious knowledge gaps in the understanding of palmiet wetland structure and function, particularly in respect of the hydrological functioning of these wetland systems. The aim of this study was to investigate the hydrology (surface and groundwater) behind these wetland systems. The investigation focussed on small-scale dynamics of the palmiet wetland system in order to increase general understanding of the surface water and groundwater processes of these wetland systems. Field work was concentrated on the Kompanjiesdrif and Krugersland palmiet wetlands in the upper K90A Krom River catchment. The investigation involved the installation of piezometers, water quality and stable isotope sampling and analysis, an Electrical Resistivity Tomography survey, and hydrological and mixing cell modelling. The results of the investigation indicate that the hydrological functioning of palmiet wetlands is closely linked with high sub-surface discharges typically associated with TMG aquifers. It is proposed that the palmiet wetlands are sustained by significant amounts of sub-surface water (both groundwater and interflow) moving through preferential flow paths in the alluvial fans and tributaries, which are in turn sustained by groundwater discharge from the surrounding sandstones and quartzites of the Nardouw Sub-group and Peninsula Formation. The palmiet wetlands clearly retain a significant amount of water, leading to the maintenance of prolonged flows, and a larger baseflow. However, it is hypothesised that the occurrence of palmiet as the dominant species in these wetlands is due to the sustained low flows related to catchment geology and high hydrological connectivity between the catchment and the wetland that is enabled by flow paths that allow the free flow of water from the catchment to the wetland. It is further proposed that palmiet is possibly more reliant on a consistent water supply for its existence and survival than it is on acidic nutrient-poor water and soils as stated by other authors.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Smith, Caitlin
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Wetlands -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Wetland ecology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Wetland management -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Prioniaceae -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Prionium serratum -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95956 , vital:31218
- Description: Wetlands provide a range of supporting, regulating and provisioning ecosystem services, including hydrological benefits such as flood attenuation and sustaining base flows. Despite their value, wetlands are one of the most vulnerable ecosystems in South Africa. Palmiet wetlands in the Eastern and Western Cape are particularly threatened. Palmiet (Prionium serratum) is a robust perennial plant that is endemic to wetlands and rivers located in the sandstones and quartzites of the Table Mountain Group (TMG), in the Eastern and Western Cape as well as the Natal Group sandstones in KwaZulu-Natal. Palmiet is described as an ecosystem engineer because of its ability to alter its environment and create large valley-bottom wetlands. The Krom River is an important water source for the city of Port Elizabeth and there has been a decline in palmiet wetlands along the Krom River as a result of alien vegetation invasion, agricultural activity, and gully erosion. Working for Water has been clearing alien vegetation and Working for Wetlands has been installing rehabilitation structures in the Krom River catchment for a number of years. There are, however, serious knowledge gaps in the understanding of palmiet wetland structure and function, particularly in respect of the hydrological functioning of these wetland systems. The aim of this study was to investigate the hydrology (surface and groundwater) behind these wetland systems. The investigation focussed on small-scale dynamics of the palmiet wetland system in order to increase general understanding of the surface water and groundwater processes of these wetland systems. Field work was concentrated on the Kompanjiesdrif and Krugersland palmiet wetlands in the upper K90A Krom River catchment. The investigation involved the installation of piezometers, water quality and stable isotope sampling and analysis, an Electrical Resistivity Tomography survey, and hydrological and mixing cell modelling. The results of the investigation indicate that the hydrological functioning of palmiet wetlands is closely linked with high sub-surface discharges typically associated with TMG aquifers. It is proposed that the palmiet wetlands are sustained by significant amounts of sub-surface water (both groundwater and interflow) moving through preferential flow paths in the alluvial fans and tributaries, which are in turn sustained by groundwater discharge from the surrounding sandstones and quartzites of the Nardouw Sub-group and Peninsula Formation. The palmiet wetlands clearly retain a significant amount of water, leading to the maintenance of prolonged flows, and a larger baseflow. However, it is hypothesised that the occurrence of palmiet as the dominant species in these wetlands is due to the sustained low flows related to catchment geology and high hydrological connectivity between the catchment and the wetland that is enabled by flow paths that allow the free flow of water from the catchment to the wetland. It is further proposed that palmiet is possibly more reliant on a consistent water supply for its existence and survival than it is on acidic nutrient-poor water and soils as stated by other authors.
- Full Text:
Digital colonialism: South Africa’s education transformation in the shadow of Silicon Valley
- Authors: Kwet, Michael
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Operation Phakisa Education (South Africa) , Educational technology -- South Africa , Internet in education -- South Africa , Educational sociology -- South Africa , Technological innovations -- South Africa , Technological literacy -- South Africa , Education and state -- South Africa , Open source software -- South Africa , Electronic surveillance -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Privacy, Right of -- South Africa , Business and education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/93767 , vital:30936
- Description: This dissertation investigates the social implications of technology choices for the emerging education transformation of the South African basic education sector. In October 2015, then President Jacob Zuma launched Operation Phakisa Education (OPE), an initiative designed behind closed doors to fast-track digital education into all South African public schools. This study identifies and analyses policy choices and perspectives regarding the technology considered and deployed for the national education rollout. It documents the OPE proposal, and examines how e-education policy choices relate to humanitarian objectives. Theoretically, this study draws upon libertarian socialist theory (anarchism) to examine the sociology of education technology policy. Using anarchist theory, it assesses the perspective, aims, and choices of e-education policy at the national level. It also draws on the Free Software philosophy for society as articulated by Richard Stallman and Eben Moglen. Finally, it compares classic colonialism with global power in the digital era, and posits a theory of digital colonialism. Synthesizing anarchism and the Free Software philosophy into a single theoretical framework – placed into the context of colonial relations – it is the first work to apply anarchist sociological theory to education technology policy, and the first doctoral study on digital colonialism. For its methodology, this dissertation utilizes two qualitative methods: document analysis and semi-structured interviews. Interview subjects include high-level e-education policymakers and administrators in government, key stakeholders, and experts at the intersection of technology innovation and human rights. These methods were used to both identify and interrogate e-education policy as it relates to the humanitarian objectives of education policy at the national level. The findings demonstrate that South African education policy is beholden to largely United States-based corporations and models for e-education. The study found that the types of technologies for consideration in education are rooted in surveillance capitalism, which is spreading across the world. It contends that current e-education policy choices will entrench the power and exploitation of US state-corporate power in South African education, economy, and society. It argues that an alternative set of choices, People’s Technology for People’s Power, is consistent with the spirit of South African technology policy, and should be chosen for South African schools in order to counter the power of foreign power and resist surveillance capitalism. This dissertation is the first publication to document and analyze what the new government education policy is about and how it relates to equality and human rights. It argues that present South African e-education policy constitutes a new form of digitally-driven technocratic neoliberalism which ultimately favors ruling class interests in the United States and South Africa. It also argues that OPE violates South Africa’s Free and Open Source policy and the spirit of democracy outlined in the Phakisa methodology and the Batho Pele principles. This study found that OPE replicates the latest trends in e-education implementation popular in Silicon Valley. Tech multinationals are providing both the products and models for use in South Africa. The dissertation concludes that US technological and conceptual dominance in South African education constitutes digital colonialism. It emphasizes the need for public inclusion in the policy process, and proposes alternative policies and technologies for e-education based on the idea of People’s Technology for People’s Power. It also argues that current scholarship on education technology neglects the political and sociological importance of People’s Technology to education, economy, and society, as well as the global significance of Big Tech dominance vis-a-vis digital colonialism, and that subsequent literature would be enriched by addressing these issues.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Kwet, Michael
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Operation Phakisa Education (South Africa) , Educational technology -- South Africa , Internet in education -- South Africa , Educational sociology -- South Africa , Technological innovations -- South Africa , Technological literacy -- South Africa , Education and state -- South Africa , Open source software -- South Africa , Electronic surveillance -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Privacy, Right of -- South Africa , Business and education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/93767 , vital:30936
- Description: This dissertation investigates the social implications of technology choices for the emerging education transformation of the South African basic education sector. In October 2015, then President Jacob Zuma launched Operation Phakisa Education (OPE), an initiative designed behind closed doors to fast-track digital education into all South African public schools. This study identifies and analyses policy choices and perspectives regarding the technology considered and deployed for the national education rollout. It documents the OPE proposal, and examines how e-education policy choices relate to humanitarian objectives. Theoretically, this study draws upon libertarian socialist theory (anarchism) to examine the sociology of education technology policy. Using anarchist theory, it assesses the perspective, aims, and choices of e-education policy at the national level. It also draws on the Free Software philosophy for society as articulated by Richard Stallman and Eben Moglen. Finally, it compares classic colonialism with global power in the digital era, and posits a theory of digital colonialism. Synthesizing anarchism and the Free Software philosophy into a single theoretical framework – placed into the context of colonial relations – it is the first work to apply anarchist sociological theory to education technology policy, and the first doctoral study on digital colonialism. For its methodology, this dissertation utilizes two qualitative methods: document analysis and semi-structured interviews. Interview subjects include high-level e-education policymakers and administrators in government, key stakeholders, and experts at the intersection of technology innovation and human rights. These methods were used to both identify and interrogate e-education policy as it relates to the humanitarian objectives of education policy at the national level. The findings demonstrate that South African education policy is beholden to largely United States-based corporations and models for e-education. The study found that the types of technologies for consideration in education are rooted in surveillance capitalism, which is spreading across the world. It contends that current e-education policy choices will entrench the power and exploitation of US state-corporate power in South African education, economy, and society. It argues that an alternative set of choices, People’s Technology for People’s Power, is consistent with the spirit of South African technology policy, and should be chosen for South African schools in order to counter the power of foreign power and resist surveillance capitalism. This dissertation is the first publication to document and analyze what the new government education policy is about and how it relates to equality and human rights. It argues that present South African e-education policy constitutes a new form of digitally-driven technocratic neoliberalism which ultimately favors ruling class interests in the United States and South Africa. It also argues that OPE violates South Africa’s Free and Open Source policy and the spirit of democracy outlined in the Phakisa methodology and the Batho Pele principles. This study found that OPE replicates the latest trends in e-education implementation popular in Silicon Valley. Tech multinationals are providing both the products and models for use in South Africa. The dissertation concludes that US technological and conceptual dominance in South African education constitutes digital colonialism. It emphasizes the need for public inclusion in the policy process, and proposes alternative policies and technologies for e-education based on the idea of People’s Technology for People’s Power. It also argues that current scholarship on education technology neglects the political and sociological importance of People’s Technology to education, economy, and society, as well as the global significance of Big Tech dominance vis-a-vis digital colonialism, and that subsequent literature would be enriched by addressing these issues.
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Discursive psychological analysis on the construction and performance of identity through rights talk on social media related to #FeesMustFall
- Authors: Mashaba, Tumelo Thabo
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Identity , Right to education , Human rights , Social media -- Political aspects -- South Africa , College students -- Political activity -- South Africa , College students -- Attitudes -- South Africa , College students, Black -- Psychology -- South Africa , College students, Black -- Attitudes -- South Africa , College students -- Psychology -- South Africa , Student protestors -- Attitudes -- South Africa , Student movements -- South Africa , Internet and activisim -- South Africa , Internet in political campaigns -- South Africa , Higher education and state -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96668 , vital:31306
- Description: #FeesMustFall emerged at the end of 2015 after an announcement that tuitions would increase. The student protests occurred across higher education institutions within the country in which mass shutdowns were initiated, there was the presence of violence and the use of social media. The protests occurred in 2016 but experienced a shift in tone in terms of the violence present in the protests. The research sought to unpack how identity was constructed and performed through rights talk in regards to #FeesMustFall on social media. The methodology worked from a social constructionist perspective where the research consisted of a discursive psychological analytical approach to the texts presented. The discursive repertoires that were identified were: emotions repertoire; struggle repertoire; apartheid repertoire; racial repertoire; and rights repertoire. The subject positions revealed through the repertoires indicated that protesters and supporters constructed and performed their identity in particular ways. They were positioned as black; working class; victims who are enacting a sense of agency; denied their rights; have moral authority and are a parallel to the protesters under apartheid. The repertoire of struggle, racial and apartheid all link with each other. The rights repertoire is the foundation and the emotions repertoire is the tone of the student protests.
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- Authors: Mashaba, Tumelo Thabo
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Identity , Right to education , Human rights , Social media -- Political aspects -- South Africa , College students -- Political activity -- South Africa , College students -- Attitudes -- South Africa , College students, Black -- Psychology -- South Africa , College students, Black -- Attitudes -- South Africa , College students -- Psychology -- South Africa , Student protestors -- Attitudes -- South Africa , Student movements -- South Africa , Internet and activisim -- South Africa , Internet in political campaigns -- South Africa , Higher education and state -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96668 , vital:31306
- Description: #FeesMustFall emerged at the end of 2015 after an announcement that tuitions would increase. The student protests occurred across higher education institutions within the country in which mass shutdowns were initiated, there was the presence of violence and the use of social media. The protests occurred in 2016 but experienced a shift in tone in terms of the violence present in the protests. The research sought to unpack how identity was constructed and performed through rights talk in regards to #FeesMustFall on social media. The methodology worked from a social constructionist perspective where the research consisted of a discursive psychological analytical approach to the texts presented. The discursive repertoires that were identified were: emotions repertoire; struggle repertoire; apartheid repertoire; racial repertoire; and rights repertoire. The subject positions revealed through the repertoires indicated that protesters and supporters constructed and performed their identity in particular ways. They were positioned as black; working class; victims who are enacting a sense of agency; denied their rights; have moral authority and are a parallel to the protesters under apartheid. The repertoire of struggle, racial and apartheid all link with each other. The rights repertoire is the foundation and the emotions repertoire is the tone of the student protests.
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Disrupting the familiar family in postcolonial literature
- Authors: Laubscher, Emma Kate
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Postcolonialism in literature , Families -- Fiction , Interpersonal relations in literature , Families in literature , Gender identity in literature , Gappah, Petina, 1971- -- Criticism and interpretation , Enright, Anne, 1962- -- Criticism and interpretation , Owuor, Yvonne Adhiambo
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/153757 , vital:39516
- Description: Anne Enright’s The Green Road, Petina Gappah’s The Book of Memory and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor’s Dust offer various disruptive representations that challenge the normative family, and allow for an excavation of the potency and pervasiveness of the notion of family as an organising social principle, in a postcolonial context. Through these novels’ depictions of unorthodox families, it becomes possible to unpack the metaphorical architecture that underpins the normative family – by which I mean that social formation which enables and relies upon gender binaries, heteronormative constructions of sexuality and exclusionary racial structures. Additionally, I will attempt to examine the role that the normative family plays in shaping the subject, and determining its avenues of association, through encountering the disruptive possibilities portrayed in Gappah, Owuor and Enright’s works. My analysis is concerned with how the family orientates the subject in particular ways that regulate and delimit the subject’s means of relating to herself, those who surround her and the historic and mnemonic pasts in which she is embedded. In representing alternate kinship structures, these novels expand the aesthetic and imaginative landscape of the family and allow for new forms of relation to emerge. These transgressive and radical ways of being, knowing and loving have disruptive consequences for those social formations which are structured by, and draw on, the family – in particular the nation state. This reworking of the nation state, as well as the destabilisation of the relations between nations states, provides new avenues for inhabiting the postcolonial world. In particular, my reading argues that representations of the unfamiliar family offer different ways of receiving and relating to the self, others, and the past within a social order ruptured by the violent legacies of colonisation.
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- Authors: Laubscher, Emma Kate
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Postcolonialism in literature , Families -- Fiction , Interpersonal relations in literature , Families in literature , Gender identity in literature , Gappah, Petina, 1971- -- Criticism and interpretation , Enright, Anne, 1962- -- Criticism and interpretation , Owuor, Yvonne Adhiambo
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/153757 , vital:39516
- Description: Anne Enright’s The Green Road, Petina Gappah’s The Book of Memory and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor’s Dust offer various disruptive representations that challenge the normative family, and allow for an excavation of the potency and pervasiveness of the notion of family as an organising social principle, in a postcolonial context. Through these novels’ depictions of unorthodox families, it becomes possible to unpack the metaphorical architecture that underpins the normative family – by which I mean that social formation which enables and relies upon gender binaries, heteronormative constructions of sexuality and exclusionary racial structures. Additionally, I will attempt to examine the role that the normative family plays in shaping the subject, and determining its avenues of association, through encountering the disruptive possibilities portrayed in Gappah, Owuor and Enright’s works. My analysis is concerned with how the family orientates the subject in particular ways that regulate and delimit the subject’s means of relating to herself, those who surround her and the historic and mnemonic pasts in which she is embedded. In representing alternate kinship structures, these novels expand the aesthetic and imaginative landscape of the family and allow for new forms of relation to emerge. These transgressive and radical ways of being, knowing and loving have disruptive consequences for those social formations which are structured by, and draw on, the family – in particular the nation state. This reworking of the nation state, as well as the destabilisation of the relations between nations states, provides new avenues for inhabiting the postcolonial world. In particular, my reading argues that representations of the unfamiliar family offer different ways of receiving and relating to the self, others, and the past within a social order ruptured by the violent legacies of colonisation.
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Ectomycorrhizal fungal assessment of South African Pinus patula seedlings and their biological control potential to enhance seedling growth
- FitzGerald, Véronique Chartier
- Authors: FitzGerald, Véronique Chartier
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Ectomycorrhizal fungi , Pinus patula Diseases and pests Biological control South Africa , Fusarium , Forest nurseries , Seedlings Growth , Seedlings Diseases and pests
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67902 , vital:29167
- Description: The South Africa forestry industry, covering 1.3 million hectares, is dependent on exotic pine and eucalyptus species. Nursery seedlings are not inoculated with ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi or other beneficial microbes. Fusarium circinatum is an economically important pathogen affecting seedling survival. The purpose of this investigation was to assess levels of naturally occurring ECM colonisation in South African nurseries and to determine the effects of seedling inoculation with selected ECM and bacterial isolates on plant growth and resistance to the fungal pathogen F. circiantum. Pinus patula seedlings from 10 different South African nurseries were assessed for ECM colonisation using a grid line intersect method and molecularly identified using morphological and next-generation Illumina sequencing. Explants from ECM basidiocarps, collected from Pinus stands, were plated onto MMN medium to obtain isolates which were verified using molecular techniques. Mycorrhizal helper bacteria (MHB) were also isolated from these basiocarps, tested for MHB properties, siderophore production, phospahte solubilising and IAA production. ECM and associated bacterial isolates were used to inoculate seedlings and growth was assessed over a 5 month period. Colonisation of seedlings in production nurseries was low (2-21%). Morphologically the ECM fungi T. terrestris, Suillus sibiricus, and the genera Russula, Pseudotomentella were identified. Molecularly the ECM fungi T. terrestris, Inocybe jacobi and the genera Sphaerosporella and several other ECM containing families were identified along with many saprotrophic/endophytic fungi belonging to genera such as, Penicillium, Ramasonia and Talaromyces. Inoculated seedlings showed a significant increase in growth in comparison to the un-inoculated control seedlings. ECM fungal colonisation levels of these seedlings were significantly increased and colonisation was promoted by the Suillus isolate, Salmon Suillus. Seedling growth in the presence of the pathogen F. circinatum was significantly increased and promoted by the Lactarius isolate Lactarius quieticolor. Inoculation of seedlings in the nursery would ensure the production of stronger healthy plants which may be more tolerant to fusarial infection increasing survival in the plantation. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2019
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- Authors: FitzGerald, Véronique Chartier
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Ectomycorrhizal fungi , Pinus patula Diseases and pests Biological control South Africa , Fusarium , Forest nurseries , Seedlings Growth , Seedlings Diseases and pests
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67902 , vital:29167
- Description: The South Africa forestry industry, covering 1.3 million hectares, is dependent on exotic pine and eucalyptus species. Nursery seedlings are not inoculated with ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi or other beneficial microbes. Fusarium circinatum is an economically important pathogen affecting seedling survival. The purpose of this investigation was to assess levels of naturally occurring ECM colonisation in South African nurseries and to determine the effects of seedling inoculation with selected ECM and bacterial isolates on plant growth and resistance to the fungal pathogen F. circiantum. Pinus patula seedlings from 10 different South African nurseries were assessed for ECM colonisation using a grid line intersect method and molecularly identified using morphological and next-generation Illumina sequencing. Explants from ECM basidiocarps, collected from Pinus stands, were plated onto MMN medium to obtain isolates which were verified using molecular techniques. Mycorrhizal helper bacteria (MHB) were also isolated from these basiocarps, tested for MHB properties, siderophore production, phospahte solubilising and IAA production. ECM and associated bacterial isolates were used to inoculate seedlings and growth was assessed over a 5 month period. Colonisation of seedlings in production nurseries was low (2-21%). Morphologically the ECM fungi T. terrestris, Suillus sibiricus, and the genera Russula, Pseudotomentella were identified. Molecularly the ECM fungi T. terrestris, Inocybe jacobi and the genera Sphaerosporella and several other ECM containing families were identified along with many saprotrophic/endophytic fungi belonging to genera such as, Penicillium, Ramasonia and Talaromyces. Inoculated seedlings showed a significant increase in growth in comparison to the un-inoculated control seedlings. ECM fungal colonisation levels of these seedlings were significantly increased and colonisation was promoted by the Suillus isolate, Salmon Suillus. Seedling growth in the presence of the pathogen F. circinatum was significantly increased and promoted by the Lactarius isolate Lactarius quieticolor. Inoculation of seedlings in the nursery would ensure the production of stronger healthy plants which may be more tolerant to fusarial infection increasing survival in the plantation. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2019
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Effect of substituents on the photophysical properties and nonlinear optical properties of asymmetrical zinc(II) phthalocyanine when conjugated to semiconductor quantum dots
- Authors: Mgidlana, Sithi
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Nonlinear optics , Quantum dots , Phthalocyanines , Zinc
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/97152 , vital:31404
- Description: Various characterization techniques have been used to characterize the synthesized asymmetrical zinc phthalocyanines (ZnPc) derivatives. Techniques include Ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectrophotometry, matrix assisted laser desorption time of flight mass spectrometry (MALD-TOF MS), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR), elemental analysis and Fourier-transform infra-red spectroscopy (FT-IR). The complexes are covalently linked to core/shell and core/shell/shell semiconductor quantum dots (SQDs) via amide bond formation. Photophysical properties of complexes improved in the presence of semiconductor quantum dots (SQDs). SQDs contain cadmium/telluride (CdTe) as core, coated in the first shell with zinc selenide (ZnSe) or zinc sulfide (ZnS) and with zinc oxide (ZnO) in second shell. The photophysical properties of the phthalocyanine (Pc) complexes and their conjugates with SQDs are investigated in solution. Triplet quantum yields of complexes improved in the presence of semiconductor quantum dots. The optical limiting behaviour of the Pc complexes and conjugates are assessed using the open aperture Z–scan technique at laser excitation wavelength of 532 nm with 10 ns pulse. Pcs complexes showed good nonlinear optical response with higher nonlinear absorption coefficient. The conjugates afforded higher nonlinear absorption coefficient than Pc complexes alone.
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- Authors: Mgidlana, Sithi
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Nonlinear optics , Quantum dots , Phthalocyanines , Zinc
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/97152 , vital:31404
- Description: Various characterization techniques have been used to characterize the synthesized asymmetrical zinc phthalocyanines (ZnPc) derivatives. Techniques include Ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectrophotometry, matrix assisted laser desorption time of flight mass spectrometry (MALD-TOF MS), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR), elemental analysis and Fourier-transform infra-red spectroscopy (FT-IR). The complexes are covalently linked to core/shell and core/shell/shell semiconductor quantum dots (SQDs) via amide bond formation. Photophysical properties of complexes improved in the presence of semiconductor quantum dots (SQDs). SQDs contain cadmium/telluride (CdTe) as core, coated in the first shell with zinc selenide (ZnSe) or zinc sulfide (ZnS) and with zinc oxide (ZnO) in second shell. The photophysical properties of the phthalocyanine (Pc) complexes and their conjugates with SQDs are investigated in solution. Triplet quantum yields of complexes improved in the presence of semiconductor quantum dots. The optical limiting behaviour of the Pc complexes and conjugates are assessed using the open aperture Z–scan technique at laser excitation wavelength of 532 nm with 10 ns pulse. Pcs complexes showed good nonlinear optical response with higher nonlinear absorption coefficient. The conjugates afforded higher nonlinear absorption coefficient than Pc complexes alone.
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Ekhakhamela
- Authors: Machi, Nolwazi Fortunate
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Xhosa poetry
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76332 , vital:30549
- Description: My collection of isiZulu poems is based on my rural and traditional upbringing. It draws on language and customs which have shaped and defined me as a woman born in the South of KwaZulu-Natal. I write about how I have to conform to both a rural life and an urban one that forms my second world. I find myself having to switch between these lives, which benefits me a lot, and I feel a responsibility to bring hope to young people especially from the rural side, that nothing is wrong with being who and where they are. My writing is influenced by authors such as Nazim Hikmet, Mafika Gwala, and Mazisi Kunene who encourages black writers to write about their own customs and stories rather than embracing ‘western civilization’ and foreign languages. I also like the contemporary subjects and the humour in Dr Nakanjani Sibiya’s work.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Machi, Nolwazi Fortunate
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Xhosa poetry
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76332 , vital:30549
- Description: My collection of isiZulu poems is based on my rural and traditional upbringing. It draws on language and customs which have shaped and defined me as a woman born in the South of KwaZulu-Natal. I write about how I have to conform to both a rural life and an urban one that forms my second world. I find myself having to switch between these lives, which benefits me a lot, and I feel a responsibility to bring hope to young people especially from the rural side, that nothing is wrong with being who and where they are. My writing is influenced by authors such as Nazim Hikmet, Mafika Gwala, and Mazisi Kunene who encourages black writers to write about their own customs and stories rather than embracing ‘western civilization’ and foreign languages. I also like the contemporary subjects and the humour in Dr Nakanjani Sibiya’s work.
- Full Text: