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Having a phone, having style:

  • Authors: Schoon, Alette
  • Date: 2012
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/159506 , vital:40303 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC135828
  • Description: It was dusk, and a group of young men with a dog trailing behind them, were walking past on a dusty township road in Hooggenoeg, an RDP village on the rim of the Grahamstown bowl. While they ambled along, one was holding up a mobile phone on which music was playing, dancing while he walked. This was exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to observe in my new identity as researcher and participant observer, and was why I had agreed to judge the Hooggenoeg fashion show which turned out to be more of a beauty competition. While I'm not generally fond of these kind of shows and the way they essentialise beauty, I agreed because I wanted to get more of a sense of how mobile phones are integrated into the everyday lives of these young adults.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Higher education, academic communities, and the intellectual virtues

  • Authors: Jones, Ward E
  • Date: 2012
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/275647 , vital:55066 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1111/edth.12005"
  • Description: Because higher education brings members of academic communities in direct contact with students, the reflective higher education student is in an excellent position for developing two important intellectual virtues: confidence and humility. However, academic communities differ as to whether their members reach consensus, and their teaching practices reflect this difference. In this essay, Ward Jones argues that both consensus-reaching and non-consensus-reaching communities can encourage the development of intellectual confidence and humility in their students, although each will do so in very different ways.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

How do HIV and AIDS impact the use of natural resources by poor rural populations?: The case of wild animal products

  • Authors: Kaschula, Sarah , Shackleton, Charlie M
  • Date: 2012
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182344 , vital:43822 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC97203"
  • Description: As a result of heightened financial and food insecurity, populations adversely affected by HIV and/or AIDS may be more likely to utilise wild natural resources to supplement their diet and livelihoods. Should this effect be pronounced, HIV and AIDS may pose a serious environmental threat. We explored the hypothesis that the presence of factors in the household, such as chronic illness in and recent mortality of individuals in a high HIV-risk age group, as well as the fostering of orphans, are associated with increased utilisation of wild animal products (WAPs) at the household level. We randomly surveyed 519 households from four sites in rural South Africa, recording household socio-economic status, the utilisation of wild animal products and health and demographic factors attributed to HIV or AIDS. Binary logistic regressions were used to test if households with markers of HIV and/or AIDS affliction were more likely to have a higher incidence and frequency of WAP utilisation relative to non-afflicted households, after adjusting for socio-economic and demographic variables. We found that, although households with markers of HIV and/or AIDS were generally poorer and had higher dependency ratios, there was no evidence to support the hypothesis that WAP harvesting was associated with either poverty, or markers of HIV and/or AIDS affliction. Our findings suggest that generalisations about a possible interaction between HIV and/or AIDS and the environment may not uniformly apply to all categories of natural resources or to all user groups.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Human rights and post-conflict peace building in the Democratic Republic of Congo

  • Authors: Juma, Laurence
  • Date: 2012
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/128438 , vital:36109 , https://0-hdl.handle.net.wam.seals.ac.za/10520/EJC192855
  • Description: This article deals with normative issues that arose in the post-conflict peace-building processes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It undertakes an historical review of the major episodes in the DRC peace process and highlights how these episodes yielded to the establishment of the interim government in 2003 and the enactment of the current constitution. It mainly highlights the proprietary consequences of the Lusaka peace Accord, the transformative aspects of the 2005 Constitution and the role that international organs, especially the ICC, have played in consolidating peace in the DRC.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Imidazole-functionalized polymer microspheres and fibers–useful materials for immobilization of oxovanadium (IV) catalysts

  • Authors: Walmsley, Ryan S , Ogunlaja, Adeniyi S , Coombes, Matthew J , Chidawanyika, Wadzanai J U , Litwinski, Christian , Torto, Nelson , Nyokong, Tebello , Tshentu, Zenixole R
  • Date: 2012
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/246041 , vital:51431 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1039/C2JM15485D"
  • Description: Both polymer microspheres and microfibers containing the imidazole functionality have been prepared and used to immobilize oxovanadium(IV). The average diameters and BET surface areas of the microspheres were 322 μm and 155 m2 g−1 while the fibers were 1.85 μm and 52 m2 g−1, respectively. XPS and microanalysis confirmed the incorporation of imidazole and vanadium in the polymeric materials. The catalytic activity of both materials was evaluated using the hydrogen peroxide facilitated oxidation of thioanisole. The microspheres were applied in a typical laboratory batch reactor set-up and quantitative conversions (>99%) were obtained in under 240 min with turn-over frequencies ranging from 21.89 to 265.53 h−1, depending on the quantity of catalyst and temperature. The microspherical catalysts also proved to be recyclable with no drop in activity being observed after three successive reactions. The vanadium functionalized fibers were applied in a pseudo continuous flow set-up. Factors influencing the overall conversion and product selectivity, including flow rate and catalyst quantity, were investigated. At flow rates of 1–4 mL h−1 near quantitative conversion was maintained over an extended period. Keeping the mass of catalyst constant (0.025 g) and varying the flow rate from 1–6 mL h−1 resulted in a shift in the formation of the oxidation product methyl phenyl sulfone from 60.1 to 18.6%.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

In vitro photodynamic effect of aluminum tetrasulfophthalocyanines on melanoma skin cancer and healthy normal skin cells

  • Authors: Maduray, Kaminee , Odhay, Bharti , Nyokong, Tebello
  • Date: 2012
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/245762 , vital:51403 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pdpdt.2011.07.001"
  • Description: Photodynamic therapy is a medical treatment that uses an inactive dye/drug and lasers as a light source to activate the dye/drug to produce a toxic form of oxygen that destroys the cancer cells. This study aimed at investigating the cytotoxic effects of different concentrations of aluminum tetrasulfophthalocyanines in its inactive and active state (laser induced) on melanoma skin cancer cells, healthy normal skin fibroblast and keratinocyte cells. Experimentally, 3 x 10(4) cells/ml were seeded in 24-well plates before treatment with different concentrations of aluminum tetrasulfophthalocyanines. After 2 h, cells were irradiated with a light dose of 4.5 J/cm(2). Post-irradiated cells were incubated for 24 h before cell viability was measured using the CellTiter-Blue Viability Assay. Results showed that aluminum tetrasulfophthalocyanines at high concentrations were cytotoxic to melanoma cells in the absence of laser activation. In the presence of laser activation of aluminum tetrasulfophthalocyanines at a concentration of 40 mu g/ml decreased cell viability of melanoma cells to 45%, fibroblasts to 78% and keratinocytes to 73%. At this photosensitizing concentration of aluminum tetrasulfophthalocyanines the efficacy of the treatment light dose 4.5 J/cm(2) and the cell death mechanism induced by photoactivated aluminum tetrasulfophthalocyanines was evaluated. A light dose of 4.5 J/cm(2) was more efficient in killing a higher number of melanoma cells and a lower number of fibroblast and keratinocyte cells than the other light doses of 2.5 J/cm(2), 7.5 J/cm(2) and 10.5 J/cm(2). Apoptosis features such as blebbing, nucleus condensation, nucleus fragmentation and the formation of apoptotic bodies were seen in the photodynamic therapy treated melanoma skin cancer cells. This in vitro photodynamic therapy study concludes that using aluminum tetrasulfophthalocyanines at a photosensitizing concentration of 40 mu g/ml in combination with a laser dose of 4.5 J/cm(2) was potentially lethal for melanoma skin cancer cells and less harmful for the normal healthy skin cells. (c) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Inferring direct DNA binding from ChIP-seq

  • Authors: Bailey, Timothy L , Machanick, Philip
  • Date: 2012
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/439314 , vital:73565 , https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gks433
  • Description: Genome-wide binding data from transcription factor ChIP-seq experiments is the best source of information for inferring the relative DNA-binding affinity of these proteins in vivo . However, standard motif enrichment analysis and motif discovery approaches sometimes fail to correctly identify the binding motif for the ChIP-ed factor. To overcome this problem, we propose ‘central motif enrichment analysis’ (CMEA), which is based on the observation that the positional distribution of binding sites matching the direct-binding motif tends to be unimodal, well centered and maximal in the precise center of the ChIP-seq peak regions. We describe a novel visualization and statistical analysis tool—CentriMo—that identifies the region of maximum central enrichment in a set of ChIP-seq peak regions and displays the positional distributions of predicted sites. Using CentriMo for motif enrichment analysis, we provide evidence that one transcription factor (Nanog) has different binding affinity in vivo than in vitro , that another binds DNA cooperatively (E2f1), and confirm the in vivo affinity of NFIC, rescuing a difficult ChIP-seq data set. In another data set, CentriMo strongly suggests that there is no evidence of direct DNA binding by the ChIP-ed factor (Smad1). CentriMo is now part of the MEME Suite software package available at http://meme.nbcr.net . All data and output files presented here are available at: http://research.imb.uq.edu.au/t.bailey/sd/Bailey2011a .
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Integrating stomach content and stable isotope analyses to elucidate the feeding habits of non-native sharptooth catfish Clarias gariepinus

  • Authors: Kadye, Wilbert T , Booth, Anthony J
  • Date: 2012
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124843 , vital:35703 , https://doi.10.1007/s10530-011-0116-6
  • Description: Sharptooth catfish Clarias gariepinus was introduced into the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, in 1976 and there are concerns about its possible negative impacts on native biota. This study investigated its trophic impact by examining its feeding habits. Stomach content and stable isotope analyses were compared from three localities—the Great Fish River, Sundays River and Glen Melville Dam. Stomach content analysis indicated a catholic diet dominated by fish particularly in all localities.Spatially, however, the diets revealed differences based on the dominance of macrophytes that were only present in the rivers, and aquatic invertebrates that appeared more diverse within the Great Fish River compared to other localities. By contrast, stable isotopes revealed a more generalised feeding pattern with no clear dominance of particular prey. Stable isotopes further showed that the catfish was a complex predator, with large catfish being top predators whereas smaller size groups appeared to feed lower in the food chain. An ontogenetic shift in diet was evident, with small fish predominantly consuming aquatic invertebrates and shifting towards fish with increasing size. High dietary overlap suggests the potential risk associated catfish feeding, especially the potential of piscivory by small catfish that are more likely to persist in shallow and marginal where endangered indigenous minnows occur. The alteration of environmental conditions, especially flow by inter basin water transfer (IBWT) schemes, was inferred to have had a probable influence its invasion success. Occurrence of other invaders, which was facilitated by the IBWT together with the catfish, posits the risk of invasion meltdown within the study systems.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Inter-seasonal persistence and size-structuring of two minnow species within headwater streams in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

  • Authors: Kadye, Wilbert T , Booth, Anthony J
  • Date: 2012
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124866 , vital:35705 , https://doi.10.1111/j.1439-0426.2012.02027.x
  • Description: This study examined temporal variation in population dynamics and size structuring of two cyprinid minnows, Pseudobarbus afer and Barbus anoplus, in relation to their proximate physical habitats. Population estimates were determined using three-pass depletion sampling during both summer and winter. The habitats were characterised by seasonal variation in all physico-chemical conditions and spatial variation in substrata compositions. Whereas significant differences in population size were noted between seasons for B. anoplus, no differences were found between seasons for density and capture probability for either species. An increase in boulders was associated with increase in population size and density for P. afer; for B. anoplus, increased percentages of bedrock and bank vegetation were associated with an increase in population size and probability of capture, respectively. According to Canonical Correspondence Analysis, size structuring in P. afer was explained predominantly by seasonality, with smaller length classes associated with the seasonal variable of summer, while larger length classes were associated with pH that was higher in winter. By comparison, for B. anoplus, the habitat variables – bank vegetation and bedrock – accounted for much of the explained variance for size structuring. Recruitment appeared to be the major driver of size structuring for the two species; refugia, especially boulders and bank vegetation, also appeared to be important. Overall, the two species were adapted to the headwater streams that were generally variable in environmental conditions. Potential invasions by non-native invasive fishes that occur within the mainstream habitats threaten these two species. Efforts should continue to protect these minnows from such invasions by constructing barriers to upstream migration of non-native fishes into these headwater habitats.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Interaction of CdTe quantum dots with 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical

  • Authors: Adegoke, Oluwasesan , Chidawanyika, Wadzanai J U , Nyokong, Tebello
  • Date: 2012
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/245751 , vital:51402 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10895-011-1012-2"
  • Description: The interaction of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH●) free radical with thiol-capped CdTe quantum dots (QDs) has been studied by UV–vis spectroscopy, steady state and time resolved fluorescence measurements. Addition of DPPH● radical to CdTe QDs resulted in fluorescence quenching. The interaction occurs through static quenching as this was confirmed by fluorescence lifetime measurements. Time course absorption studies indicates that DPPH● may be reduced by interaction with QDs to the substituted hydrazine form (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazine) DPPH-H. The mechanism of fluorescence quenching of CdTe QDs by DPPH● is proposed.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Investigating water knowledge flow to communities

  • Authors: Burt, Jane C , Berold, Robert
  • Date: 2012
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433013 , vital:72923 , xlink:href="https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/KV%20288-11.pdf"
  • Description: Those of us who work in water resource management have found that very few knowledge/research resources are accessible to most people. This happens because resources are not disseminated properly (or at all), or because they are inappropriately technicist, or because potential readers are hampered by low education. What is the best way to make water research accessible to as many people as possible and especially to people whose lives would be affected by the research? In the early 1980s an attempt was made to address this issue when Robert Berold edited People's Workbook (EDA 1981), a user-friendly book that presented basic technical information for rural people – not only on water, but also on agriculture, health, building construction, and income generation. The book included real-life interviews, and was disseminated by rural fieldworkers. Perhaps because there was nothing like it at the time, it was enormously popular.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Is there no urban forestry in the developing world?

  • Authors: Shackleton, Charlie M
  • Date: 2012
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/181060 , vital:43695 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.5897/SRE11.1117"
  • Description: Urban forestry and greening offer a multitude of benefits to the inhabitants of towns and cities. However, the nature and magnitude of these frequently depend upon the context. Yet, at first glance, the developing world context around urban forestry debates seems to be poorly represented in the international peer-reviewed literature. This is examined in this paper, followed by a brief outline of ten key research areas for urban forestry in the developing world. A survey of the peer-reviewed literature confirms that almost 80% of articles come from the developed world context. This correlates with the greater availability of research finance and personnel from developed regions. However, there are urban forestry questions and issues that require examination in the developing world because they cannot simply be transferred from knowledge gleaned from and tested in a developed world context. Ten of these are briefly outlined as a catalyst towards greater attention to urban forestry in the developing world and their contributions to global debates and models.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Judicial intervention in Kenya's constitutional review process

  • Authors: Juma, Laurence , Okpaluba, Chuks
  • Date: 2012
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/128412 , vital:36107 , https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/wasglo11amp;div=13amp;g_sent=1amp;casa_token=amp;collection=journals
  • Description: The constitutional reform process in Kenya, which culminated in the promulgation of a new constitution in August 2010, has been a subject of much study and scholarly deliberation.' That it ended on a rather positive note as compared to those in Zambia, Malawi, and even Zimbabwe, is seen by many as proof that Africans could, after all, redesign their constitutional frameworks to weed out moribund structures and entrench systems of democratic governance. But the Kenyan experience also indicates a rather unfortunate trend where constitutions are never allowed to grow or mature with statehood.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Juta and Co Ltd and the South African Law Journal: a milestone

  • Authors: Glover, Graham B
  • Date: 2012
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/70539 , vital:29673 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC54018
  • Description: It might be said that the relationship between a journal and its publisher is something like an arranged marriage: it is cultural rather than romantic, and it is more of a business deal carefully considered by those in charge of both sets of parties with quiet aspirations of a solid future than about the passion and emotion of the wedding. There is much that is controversial about the social construct of an arranged marriage, but the relationship between the South African Law Journal (SALJ) and Juta and Company Ltd (to be referred to hereafter by its more common sobriquet in the legal profession: 'Juta') does seem to give credence to one of the most popular psychologies about the institution: that very often the relationship, a little uncertain at the start, grows stronger and more secure over time. The year 2011 marked the centenary of the publication of the SALJ by Juta: an exceptional anniversary. This is not a time to review the history of the relationship between Juta, the SALJ, and its various editors. This task has been carried out several times by Ellison Kahn in his inimitable style (see 'Fifty years of the Journal under Union' (1960) 77 SALJ 162; 'The birth and life of the South African Law Journal' (1983) 100 SALJ 594; 'Foreword' to Patricia Cobbledick and Mervyn Dendy The South African Law Journal Cumulative Index 1973-1997 (1997); 'Farewell! Fifty years' hard work comes to an end' (1999) 116 SALJ 691; 'Speech at the Juta Dinner at the South African Law Journal Jubilee Conference' (2004) 121 SALJ 271). But a short commemorative tribute seems apt to commemorate the liaison between the two parties.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Layer by Layer Electrode Surface Functionalisation Using Carbon Nanotubes, Electrochemical Grafting of Azide‐Alkyne Functions and Click Chemistry

  • Authors: Coates, Megan , Griveau, Sophie , Bedioui, Fethi , Nyokong, Tebello
  • Date: 2012
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/243509 , vital:51159 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1002/elan.201200240"
  • Description: Ferrocene was covalently bonded to a layer of adsorbed single-walled carbon nanotubes on a glassy carbon electrode surface using electrochemical grafting and click chemistry. Grafting of the 4-azidobenzenediazonium salt onto the surface was accomplished by electrochemical reduction. The surface-bound azide groups, with the use of a copper(I) catalyst, were reacted with ethynylferrocene to form covalent 1,2,3-triazole bonds by click chemistry. This layer by layer construction of the electrode surface results in stable electrodes by combining good electrical conductivity and increased surface area of the nanotubes with the versatility of the Sharpless click reaction.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Life history strategy and population characteristics of an unexploited riverine cyprinid, Labeo capensis, in the largest impoundment in the Orange River Basin

  • Authors: Winker, A Henning , Weyl, Olaf L F , Booth, Anthony J , Ellender, Bruce R
  • Date: 2012
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124910 , vital:35709 , https://doi.10.3377/004.047.0124
  • Description: Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) is one of the world’s most widely introduced and established freshwater fishes (Casal 2006). The species is considered to be one of the eight most invasive freshwater fishes (Lowe et al. 2000) and worldwide, it accounts for most of the records of successful establishments and adverse ecological effects (Casal 2006; Kulhanek et al. 2011). This invasive success suggests that feral C. carpio is equipped with a set of adaptable life history attributes that allow it to successfully colonise a wide range of habitats (Koehn 2004; Zambrano et al. 2006; Britton et al. 2007). Where feral C. carpio occurs in high densities, it is often perceived as an invasive pest species (Sivakumaran et al. 2003; Brown and Walker 2004; Koehn 2004) because it can have severe impacts on habitat heterogeneity and biodiversity by increasing water turbidity through its bottom feeding behaviour, increasing nutrient availability, decreasing benthic and macrophyte density and diversity, altering zooplankton assemblages and decreasing endemic fish abundance (Zambrano et al. 2001; Khan 2003; Kulhanek et al. 2011). Within south-east Australia, for example, C. carpio comprises the largest proportion of the ichthyobiomass in the continent’s largest river system – the Murray–Darling Basin (Gehrke et al. 1995). As a consequence, serious concerns about its threat to endemic freshwater species (Koehn 2004) have prompted several of the most recent investigations into its life history (e.g. Sivakumaran et al. 2003; Smith and Walker 2004; Brown et al. 2005). Other potential threats posed also include competition with indigenous species and the spread of diseases and parasites (Dudgeon et al. 2006). In South Africa, for example, Asian tapeworm Bothriocephalus acheilognathi is now widely distributed in seven river systems and has infected eight novel cyprinid hosts due to the translocation of infected by C. carpio from a centralized aquaculture facility (Stadtlander et al. 2011).
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Life-history characteristics of an age-validated established invasive African sharptooth catfish, Clarias gariepinus, population in a warm–temperate African impoundment

  • Authors: Wartenberg, Reece , Weyl, Olaf L F , Booth, Anthony J , Winker, A Henning
  • Date: 2012
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124921 , vital:35710 , https://doi.10.3377/004.048.0225
  • Description: African sharptooth catfish Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822) is a widely distributed fish that has now invaded water bodies in South America, Eastern Europe, Asia and South Africa (Cambray 2003). In South Africa it is native as far south as the Orange-Vaal river system, but inter-basin water transfer schemes (IBWTs), illegal stocking by anglers and from aquaculture has resulted in the establishment of extralimital populations in almost all river systems (van Rensburg et al. 2011). Within the Eastern Cape Province, C. gariepinus has invaded the Great Fish and Sundays rivers through IBWTs, that connect the Orange River to the Great Fish River and then to the Sundays River system which flows directly into Darlington Dam (Kadye & Booth 2013a) (Fig. 1). Soon after the completion of the IBWTs sharptooth catfish were recorded in Grassridge Dam in 1976 (Laurenson & Hocutt 1985), and later from Darlington Dam in 1981 (Scott et al. 2006). Although Cambray & Jubb (1977) are of the opinion that the species was translocated prior to the IBWT connection, there is now a permanent corridor between the Orange River and its receiving river systems that can facilitate the continued introduction of non-native Orange River fishes and other aquatic biota.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Linking poverty, HIV/AIDS and climate change to human and ecosystem vulnerability in southern Africa: Consequences for livelihoods and sustainable ecosystem management

  • Authors: Shackleton, Sheona E , Shackleton, Charlie M
  • Date: 2012
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/181081 , vital:43697 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2011.641039"
  • Description: People in southern Africa are facing escalating levels of risk, uncertainty and consequently vulnerability as a result of multiple interacting stressors, including HIV/AIDS, poverty, food insecurity, weak governance, climate change and land degradation, to name but a few. Vulnerability or livelihood insecurity emerges when poor people as individuals or social units have to face harmful threats or shocks with inadequate capacity to respond effectively. In such situations, people often have no choice but to turn to their immediate environment for support. Evidence suggests that rising levels of human vulnerability are driving increased dependency on biodiversity and ecosystem services, which in turn, and along with other threats, is rendering ecosystems more vulnerable. This paper explores the dynamic and complex linkages and feedbacks between human vulnerability and ecosystem vulnerability, drawing on data from the southern African region. Human vulnerability is conceptualized as a threat to ecosystem health, as driven by the interplay between a number of current and emerging factors. We focus on poverty, HIV/AIDS and more intense climate extremes as examples of stressors on livelihoods and direct and indirect drivers of ecosystem change. We discuss how some of the responses to increased vulnerability may pose threats to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem management and sustainable development, whilst considering potential solutions that rely on a thorough understanding of coupled social–ecological systems and the interplay between multiple stressors and responses at different scales.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Living lab methodology as an approach to innovation in ICT4D: The Siyakhula Living Lab experience

  • Authors: Gumbo, Sibukelo , Thinyane, Hannah , Thinyane, Mamello , Terzoli, Alfredo , Hansen, Susan
  • Date: 2012
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/431302 , vital:72762 , https://www.siyakhulall.com/sites/default/files/ISTAfrica_Paper_ref_18_doc_4809_0.pdf
  • Description: Underdevelopment and poverty represent key challenges faced by the modern world, which have attracted the attention of NGOs, civil society, government and multinationals. Various undertakings including the United Nations Millennium Development Goals articulation and the World Summit on Information Society highlight the global commitment towards addressing these problems. The solutions to these problems should be derived out of well-structured innovation systems that take into consideration the grassroot context and concerns. A number of in-novation models have been formulated and utilized effectively in differ-ent industries, and some of these have equally been used effectively in community development contexts. This paper elaborates on the Living Lab methodology and its application in ICT4D contexts, highlighting the effectiveness of this model towards integrating end-users within their problem solving effort. This is discussed through the backdrop of the Siyakhula Living Lab, an ICT4D intervention. The embedding environ-ment for this model, which enables key synergies with other stakehold-ers, is also discussed.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Long-term catch and effort trends in Eastern Cape Angling Week competitions

  • Authors: Dicken, Matthew L , Smale, Malcolm J , Booth, Anthony J
  • Date: 2012
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124931 , vital:35711 , https://doi.org/10.2989/1814232X.2012.709961
  • Description: Recreational shore-based angling is one of the most popular sport and outdoor activity pastimes in South Africa with an estimated 412 000 fishers (McGrath et al. 1997). It is a form of linefishing where fish are caught using a hook and line and comprises a social as well as a more formal organized competitive sector (van der Elst 1989). Similar to other components of the linefishery, which include the subsistence as well as boat-based commercial sectors, excessive shore-fishing effort along the Eastern Cape has resulted not only in declining catches (Bennett 1991, Griffiths 1997, Brouwer and Buxton 2002, Pradervand and Govender 2003) but also changes in the species composition of catches (Bennett et al. 1994, Brouwer et al. 1997, Attwood and Farquhar 1999). Stock assessments indicate that many important linefish species are severely overexploited (Griffiths 1997, Hutchings 2000, Mann 2000) and that continued fishing pressure threatens endemic linefish populations. In 1996, shore-anglers alone were responsible for an annual catch of approximately 4.5 million fish, weighing around 3 000 tonnes (Brouwer et al. 1997).
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  • Date Issued: 2012
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