'God is my forest': Xhosa cultural values provide untapped opportunities for conservation
- Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Dold, Anthony P , Vetter, Susan M
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141198 , vital:37952 , DOI: 10.4102/sajs.v108i5/6.880
- Description: In South Africa conservation is still largely framed in terms of Western scientific values, with a focus on material benefits to local communities, whilst little is known about the intangible values local people attach to nature and biodiversity. We explored the cultural, spiritual and emotional relationships with nature expressed by Xhosa people, within the MaputalandPondoland-Albany Hotspot, as well as the activities that mediate this relationship. A descriptive research approach was applied to document the emotions, meanings and values associated with landscape elements. This approach included group and individual interviews and ‘walk-in-the-woods’ interviews and participatory mapping exercises. Respondents portrayed a strong, although not always easily articulated, appreciation for nature, especially ihlathi lesiXhosa (‘Xhosa forest’, vegetation types within the Thicket Biome).
- Full Text:
4-Azidoaniline-based electropolymer as a building block for functionalisation of conductive surfaces
- Authors: Coates, Megan , Elamari, Hichem , Girard, Christian , Griveau, Sophie , Nyokong, Tebello , Bedioui, Fethi
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/244404 , vital:51254 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelechem.2012.01.001"
- Description: We propose in this work to compare three approaches using 4-azidoaniline combined with “click” chemistry and electrochemistry to anchor ferrocene moieties at glassy carbon surfaces. The immobilisation of a newly synthesised molecule, 4-(4-ferrocenyl-1H-1,2,3-triazol-1-yl)aniline, through direct electropolymerisation or via in situ diazotization followed by electrografting is studied by analysing the samples by XPS and electrochemistry.
- Full Text:
A comparative study on the sensitive detection of hydroxyl radical using thiol-capped CdTe and CdTe/ZnS quantum dots
- Authors: Adegoke, Oluwasesan , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/242778 , vital:51077 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10895-012-1089-2"
- Description: Four types of water-soluble luminescent quantum dots (QDs) whose surface was functionlaized with thioglycolic acid (TGA), 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA), or glutathione (GSH), were investigated for the sensitive and selective detection of hydroxyl radical (●OH) in aqueous media. It was found that the type of capping agent and QD influenced the sensitivity of the probe. The order of sensitivity of the probe was: GSH-CdTe@ZnS > MPA-CdTe@ZnS > TGA-CdTe > MPA-CdTe QDs. Under the optimum conditions, a limit of detection as low as 8.5 × 10-8 M was obtained using GSH-CdTe@ZnS. The effects of foreign reactive oxygen species and the Fenton reactants and products as possible interferences on the proposed probe were negligible for CdTe@ZnS QDs. Besides, experimental results indicated that CdTe@ZnS QDs were more attractive for the selective recognition of ●OH than CdTe QDs. The mechanistic reaction pathway between the QDs and ●OH is proposed.
- Full Text:
A computer network attack taxonomy and ontology
- Authors: Van Heerden, Renier P , Irwin, Barry V W , Burke, Ivan D , Leenen, Louise
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/430064 , vital:72663 , DOI: 10.4018/ijcwt.2012070102
- Description: Computer network attacks differ in the motivation of the entity behind the attack, the execution and the end result. The diversity of attacks has the consequence that no standard classification ex-ists. The benefit of automated classification of attacks, means that an attack could be mitigated accordingly. The authors extend a previous, initial taxonomy of computer network attacks which forms the basis of a proposed network attack ontology in this pa-per. The objective of this ontology is to automate the classifica-tion of a network attack during its early stages. Most published taxonomies present an attack from either the attacker's or defend-er's point of view. The authors' taxonomy presents both these points of view. The framework for an ontology was developed using a core class, the "Attack Scenario", which can be used to characterize and classify computer network attacks.
- Full Text:
A critical psychology of the postcolonial: the mind of apartheid. A book review
- Authors: Matthews, Sally
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142351 , vital:38072 , DOI: 10.1080/14725843.2012.730818
- Description: This book provides a careful and detailed defence of the idea that the (post)colonial condition, and particularly the role that race has played in the (post)colony, cannot properly be understood without the theorisation of the ‘psychopolitical’. By the ‘psychopolitical’, Hook refers to ‘a reciprocal form of critique in which we not only place the psychological within the register of the political, but, perhaps more challengingly, in which the political is also – although strategically – approached through the register of the psychological’ (p. 40). In order to do this, Hook engages with and develops upon the insights of some key postcolonial thinkers, most notably Frantz Fanon and Homi Bhabha. Hook argues convincingly that concepts and approaches from psychoanalysis are helpful in properly understanding the postcolonial condition and, particularly, in getting to grips with the malleability and persistence of racism.
- Full Text:
A Framework for the Static Analysis of Malware focusing on Signal Processing Techniques
- Authors: Zeisberger, Sascha , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/427914 , vital:72473 , https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Barry-Ir-win/publication/327622833_A_Framework_for_the_Static_Analysis_of_Mal-ware_focusing_on_Signal_Processing_Techniques/links/5b9a1396a6fdcc59bf8dfc87/A-Framework-for-the-Static-Analysis-of-Malware-focusing-on-Signal-Processing-Techniques.pdf
- Description: The information gathered through conventional static analysis of malicious binaries has become increasingly limited. This is due to the rate at which new malware is being created as well as the increasingly complex methods employed to obfuscating these binaries. This paper discusses the development of a framework to analyse malware using signal processing techniques, the initial iteration of which focuses on common audio processing techniques such as Fourier transforms. The aim of this research is to identify characteristics of malware and the encryption methods used to obfuscate malware. This is achieved through the analysis of their binary structure, potentially providing an additional metric for autonomously fingerprinting malware.
- Full Text:
A highly selective and sensitive pyridylazo-2-naphthol-poly (acrylic acid) functionalized electrospun nanofiber fluorescence “turn-off” chemosensory system for Ni 2+
- Authors: Adewuyi, Sheriff , Ondigo, Dezzline A , Zugle, Ruphino , Tshentu, Zenixole , Nyokong, Tebello , Torto, Nelson
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/246012 , vital:51428 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1039/C2AY25182E"
- Description: A fluorescent nanofiber probe for the determination of Ni2+ was developed via the electrospinning of a covalently functionalized pyridylazo-2-naphthol-poly(acrylic acid) polymer. Fluorescent nanofibers with diameters in the range 230–800 nm were produced with uniformly dispersed fluorophores. The excitation and emission fluorescence were at wavelengths 479 and 557 nm respectively, thereby exhibiting a good Stokes' shift. This Ni2+ probe that employs fluorescence quenching in a solid receptor–fluorophore system exhibited a good correlation between the fluorescence intensity and nickel concentration up to 1.0 μg mL−1 based on the Stern–Volmer mechanism. The probe achieved a detection limit (3δ/S) of 0.07 ng mL−1 and a precision, calculated as a relative standard deviation (RSD) of more than 4% (n = 8). The concentration of Ni2+ in a certified reference material (SEP-3) was found to be 0.8986 μg mL−1, which is significantly comparable with the certified value of 0.8980 μg mL−1. The accuracy of the determinations, expressed as a relative error between the certified and the observed values of certified reference groundwater was ≤0.1%. The versatility of the nanofiber probe was demonstrated by affording simple, rapid and selective detection of Ni2+ in the presence of other competing metal ions by direct analysis, without employing any further sample handling steps.
- Full Text:
A lover’s shame
- Authors: Jones, Ward E
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/275692 , vital:55071 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-012-9356-5"
- Description: Shame is one of the more painful consequences of loving someone; my beloved’s doing something immoral can cause me to be ashamed of her. The guiding thought behind this paper is that explaining this phenomenon can tell us something about what it means to love. The phenomenon of beloved-induced shame has been largely neglected by philosophers working on shame, most of whom conceive of shame as being a reflexive attitude. Bennett Helm has recently suggested that in order to account for beloved-induced shame, we should deny the reflexivity of shame. After arguing that Helm’s account is inadequate, I proceed to develop an account of beloved-induced shame that rightly preserves its reflexivity. A familiar feature of love is that it involves an evaluative dependence; when I love someone, my well-being depends upon her life’s going well. I argue that loving someone also involves a persistent tendency to believe that her life is going well, in the sense that she is a good person, that she is not prone to wickedness. Lovers are inclined, more strongly than they otherwise would be, to give their beloveds the moral benefit of the doubt. These two features of loving—an evaluative dependence and a persistent tendency to believe in the beloved’s moral goodness—provide the conditions for a lover to experience shame when he discovers that his beloved has morally transgressed.
- Full Text:
A Mobile Phone Solution to Improve Geographic Mobility
- Authors: Miteche, Sacha , Terzoli, Alfredo , Thinyane, Hannah
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/428423 , vital:72510 , https://www.cs.ru.ac.za/research/g10m4201/docs/SATNACWIP.pdf
- Description: Motor vehicle ride sharing is a popular way of travelling in most coun-tries. Different incentives have made this mode of travelling to exist formally and informally, for example as in carpooling clubs and hitchhik-ing respectively. Advances in Information and Communication Tech-nology (ICT) have facilitated developments of formal Dynamic Ride Sharing (DRS) systems that target mobile devices. These are seen as solutions to people’s preference of flexible ride sharing services. In de-veloping countries, hitchhiking is a common technique for ride sharing travels. This paper describes a proposal to develop a DRS system that primarily targets mobile phone users in South Africa for informal ride sharing methods done in hitchhiking.
- Full Text:
A model for the analysis of small group interaction–and beyond?:
- Authors: Hunt, Sally
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/139171 , vital:37711 , DOI: 10.1080/10118063.1997.9724122
- Description: This article describes a branching model developed for the analysis of interaction in small teaching groups in a tertiary setting. Based within Conversation Analysis, the model constitutes a set of justifications for the validity of utterances in terms of their place on the conversational floor. Examples of the classifications included in the model are provided from a broader study of interaction in tutorials at an Eastern Cape university. It is suggested that while the model was developed for a specific context, it could be adapted for use in a variety of contexts.
- Full Text:
A network telescope perspective of the Conficker outbreak
- Authors: Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/429728 , vital:72635 , 10.1109/ISSA.2012.6320455
- Description: This paper discusses a dataset of some 16 million packets targeting port 445/tcp collected by a network telescope utilising a /24 netblock in South African IP address space. An initial overview of the collected data is provided. This is followed by a detailed analysis of the packet characteristics observed, including size and TTL. The peculiarities of the observed target selection and the results of the flaw in the Conficker worm's propagation algorithm are presented. An analysis of the 4 million observed source hosts is reported by grouped by both packet counts and the number of distinct hosts per network address block. Address blocks of size /8, 16 and 24 are used for groupings. The localisation, by geographic region and numerical proximity, of high ranking aggregate netblocks is highlighted. The paper concludes with some overall analyses, and consideration of the application of network telescopes to the monitoring of such outbreaks in the future.
- Full Text:
A new broom sweeps clean: the economic and cultural value of grass brooms in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Dold, Anthony P
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141382 , vital:37967 , DOI: 10.1080/14728028.2004.9752477
- Description: In southern Africa over the last twenty years, much attention has been given to the importance of NTFPs for rural livelihoods through their household consumption and sale. They have been classified as having either subsistence consumption or commercial values. These values are mostly related to their utilitarian functions, but recent studies show that NTFPs also hold strong cultural functions. Such cultural functions can play a role in both rural and urban livelihoods; consequently the values of NTFPs may be related to both utilitarian and cultural functions. This paper demonstrates the cultural functions of grass brooms in urban areas in South Africa and the impact of their trade on income generation in rural areas, and discusses the concept of culture as a significant factor in the understanding of the role of NTFPs in livelihoods, and their values.
- Full Text:
A production function for cricket: the South African perspective
- Authors: Brock, Kelsey , Fraser, Gavin , Botha, Ferdi
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/396007 , vital:69143 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC124240"
- Description: Production functions are common to any productive activity. Although it may not appear obvious, cricket is no different. Production functions in cricket provide a wide range of information, utilised to enhance efficiency and maximize match success. Given these benefits, this study involved the derivation of a production function for the South African SuperSport Series and an analysis of technical efficiency. An econometric analysis was conducted on data from the 2004-2011 cricket seasons and it was concluded that the most optimal strategy for South African teams involved a combination of attacking batting and defensive bowling. Furthermore, South African teams had a relatively low variable substitutability and a high degree of technical efficiency.
- Full Text:
A qualitative analysis to determine the readiness of rural communities to adopt ICTs: A Siyakhula Living Lab Case Study
- Authors: Gumbo, Sibukelo , Jere, Norbert , Terzoli, Alfredo
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/431396 , vital:72771
- Description: Rural schools have a pressing need for ICT and Internet services, for them-selves and the surrounding communities. Educators can play a crucial role of fulfilling this need. But how ready are schools, educators and communi-ties to engage with ICT and use it for their empowerment? This paper re-ports the findings of an e-readiness assessment and promotion drive by re-searchers from the Siyakhula Living Lab in parts of the Mbashe Municipali-ty, in South Africa. The Siyakhula Living Lab is a multi-disciplinary, multi-year initiative to foster grassroots innovation in marginalized communities with the aim of improving their lives and economies. The drive was con-ducted to support the expansion of the network of Digital Access Nodes, ie ICT points-of-presence of the Living Lab in the community: this network rep-resents the structural backbone on which all other activities rest. The as-sessment shows that, while the practical difficulties are many, the communi-ties are very eager to engage with ICT and understand fairly well the con-nection between ICT availability and the possibility of improvement in their life conditions.
- Full Text:
A study on the morphology of thin copper films on para-aramid yarns and their influence on the yarn’s electro-conductive and mechanical properties
- Authors: Schwarz, Anne , Hakuzimana, Jean , Westbroek, Philippe , Mey, Gilbert De , Priniotakis, Georgios , Nyokong, Tebello , Langenhove, Lieva Van
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/243487 , vital:51157 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0040517511431291"
- Description: The latest technological advances in new materials and devices enabled wearable systems to be created by utilizing textile solutions. These solutions require electro-conductive yarns as a basic component. Although the production of electroconductive yarn is widely reported, research is still necessary to characterize them to advance their electro-conductive and mechanical properties. Hence, we served this need and characterized copper-coated para-aramid yarns produced by an in-house developed electroless deposition method. In this paper we present our investigation on the yarn’s copper layer characteristics after deposition. Furthermore, we looked, in depth, at the yarn’s electro-conductive properties before and after washing as well as their mechanical properties before and after copper deposition. We found a dependency of the copper layer morphology on its deposition time. This is directly correlated to the resulting layer thickness and hence to the yarn’s electro-conductive properties, demonstrating the autocatalytic nature of the coating process. Above that, the electro-conductive properties of the coated yarn linearly decrease with washing cycles. Furthermore, the copper coating impairs the yarn’s mechanical properties decreasing its specific stress at break by 30%.
- Full Text:
An Analysis and Implementation of Methods for High Speed Lexical Classification of Malicious URLs
- Authors: Egan, Shaun P , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/429757 , vital:72637 , https://digifors.cs.up.ac.za/issa/2012/Proceedings/Research/58_ResearchInProgress.pdf
- Description: Several authors have put forward methods of using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) to classify URLs as malicious or benign by using lexical features of those URLs. These methods have been compared to other methods of classification, such as blacklisting and spam filtering, and have been found to be as accurate. Early attempts proved to be as highly accurate. Fully featured classifications use lexical features as well as lookups to classify URLs and include (but are not limited to) blacklists, spam filters and reputation services. These classifiers are based on the Online Perceptron Model, using a single neuron as a linear combiner and used lexical features that rely on the presence (or lack thereof) of words belonging to a bag-of-words. Several obfuscation resistant features are also used to increase the positive classification rate of these perceptrons. Examples of these include URL length, number of directory traversals and length of arguments passed to the file within the URL. In this paper we describe how we implement the online perceptron model and methods that we used to try to increase the accuracy of this model through the use of hidden layers and training cost validation. We discuss our results in relation to those of other papers, as well as other analysis performed on the training data and the neural networks themselves to best understand why they are so effective. Also described will be the proposed model for developing these Neural Networks, how to implement them in the real world through the use of browser extensions, proxy plugins and spam filters for mail servers, and our current implementation. Finally, work that is still in progress will be described. This work includes other methods of increasing accuracy through the use of modern training techniques and testing in a real world environment.
- Full Text:
An APPRAISAL analysis of the discourse of student assistants' reports at an Eastern Cape girls' boarding school
- Authors: Mpofu, Lindiwe , Adendorff, Ralph
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/123052 , vital:35401 , https://doi.org/10.2989/16073614.2011.651943
- Description: This article reports on a pilot investigation into the language of assessment in a bi-weekly report system of an urban South African all-girls boarding school. The data are drawn principally from four student assistants working in one of the school’s hostels and are analysed using the theoretical framework of APPRAISAL. The focus is on the APPRAISAL resources that the stooges use in writing their reports, specifically their choices from the ATTITUDE and GRADUATION subsystems. Analysis indicates that Judgement and Affect instantiations, augmented by the use of Force rather than Focus, are dominant. There is also individual variation within the overarching prosody, indicating a difference between the ‘newer’ and the ‘older’ student assistants’ reports. We argue that such choices reflect and reaffirm the school’s core values and vision, the reports functioning as monitors of behaviour and as a means of aligning the learners with the school’s standards. The matron’s feedback is suggested to be an added measure of ensuring alignment with the school’s values.
- Full Text:
An Exploratory Framework for Extrusion Detection
- Authors: Stalmans, Etienne , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/428027 , vital:72481 , https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Barry-Ir-win/publication/327622736_An_Exploratory_Framework_for_Extrusion_Detection/links/5b9a12ba299bf14ad4d6a3d7/An-Exploratory-Framework-for-Extrusion-Detection.pdf
- Description: Modern network architecture allows multiple connectivity options, increasing the number of possible attack vectors. With the number of internet enabled devices constantly increasing, along with employees using these devices to access internal corporate networks, the attack surface has become too large to monitor from a single end-point. Traditional security measures have focused on securing a small number of network endpoints, by monitoring inbound con-nections and are thus blind to attack vectors such as mobile internet connections and remova-ble devices. Once an attacker has gained access to a network they are able to operate unde-tected on the internal network and exfiltrate data without hindrance. This paper proposes a framework for extrusion detection, where internal network traffic and outbound connections are monitored to detect malicious activity. The proposed framework has a tiered architecture con-sisting of prevention, detection, reaction and reporting. Each tier of the framework feeds into the subsequent tier with reporting providing a feedback mechanism to improve each tier based on the outcome of previous incidents.
- Full Text:
An RTSP proxy for implementing the IPTV media function using a streaming server
- Authors: Shibeshi, Zelalem S , Terzoli, Alfredo , Bradshaw, Karen L
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/429136 , vital:72562 , https://www.informatica.si/index.php/informatica/article/view/383
- Description: Multimedia content delivery in IMS, including IPTV, is handled by a separate unit, the Media Function (MF), made up of media control and media delivery units, which in the case of IPTV are the Media Control Function (MCF) and Media Delivery Function (MDF), respectively. According to the different specifications of an IMS based IPTV architecture, the User Equipment (UE) is expected to use the RTSP protocol as a media control protocol to interact with the MCF, and obtains delivery of media from the MDF using the RTP protocol. This also means that the streaming session needs to be initiated from the media controller on behalf of the user but the delivery of media is sent to the UE from the media deliverer (media server). Due both to the lack of free and open source Media Servers and the availability of free and open source Streaming Servers, the ideal choice for the delivery of multimedia services, including IPTV, by the research community is Streaming Servers. Nevertheless, because of denial of service attacks and other issues, most streaming servers do not allow a different location for the session setup request and the delivery of media in the streaming session. In other words, most streaming servers are not designed to be controlled by some other entity other than the RTSP client that consumes the media. This makes it difficult to have a separate media control unit for IPTV service in IMS if one wanted to use a streaming server as an MDF unit. So, while waiting for streaming servers to work in this manner, it is better to find a work around in order to use streaming servers to develop and test IPTV services in IMS environments. For this purpose we propose another component (an RTSP proxy and relay unit) as part of the IPTV MF and to mediate between the MCF and MDF. This unit correctly relays media control commands from the MCF to the MDF and RTP packets from the MDF to the UE. It also helps in the implementation of other streaming functionalities that are required for IPTV service delivery, but which are not implemented in the current open source streaming servers. Additional services can also be easily implemented with the help of this unit. This will facilitate the development of an IPTV service using readily available open source streaming servers and help researchers to evaluate their proposals on new services they would like to develop. In this paper we show how this RTSP proxy unit can be integrated into the Media Function of the IPTV architecture to ease the media delivery process of an IMS based IPTV service.
- Full Text:
Are arts events a good way of augmenting the economic impact of sport?: The case of the 2010 FIFA world cup and the national arts festival in South Africa
- Authors: Snowball, Jeanette D
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71430 , vital:29848 , https://econrsa.org/system/files/publications/working_papers/wp294.pdf
- Description: Despite the debate about whether arts consumers are also sports consumers, many countries have used cultural events to leverage further tourism spending from sports events, the most famous example being the cultural Olympics. This paper reports the findings of research conducted at the 2010 South African National Arts Festival, which was specifically timed to coincide with SoccerWorld Cup matches being played in a nearby city. Of the 600 interviews conducted with Festival-goers, only 23% reported also attending World Cup soccer matches. Regression analysis revealed that, while there is some overlap between arts and sports attendees, their demographics and consumption habits are significantly different. However, consumption outside of major events showed somewhat more overlap. This suggests that staging cultural events at the same time as major sporting events is not an ideal strategy, since they tend to compete with, rather than complement, each other.
- Full Text: