Thermal ecophysiology of seven carrion‐feeding blowflies in Southern Africa
- Richards, Cameron S, Price, Benjamin W, Villet, Martin H
- Authors: Richards, Cameron S , Price, Benjamin W , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/442384 , vital:73980 , https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1570-7458.2009.00824.x
- Description: A variety of temperature thresholds for larvae, pupae, and adults of seven African species of carrion‐feeding blowflies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) was measured and compared to understand their basic thermal biology and the influence of temperature on their behaviour. Calliphoraácroceipalpis (Jaennicke) had consistently lower temperature thresholds than all other species tested for all larval (42.9á░C), pupal (16.6á░C), and adult (45.6á░C) stages. Larvae (50.1á░C) and adults (53.4á░C) of Chrysomyaámarginalis (Robineau‐Desvoidy) had higher upper lethal temperature thresholds than all other species and weighed more than all other species. Pupae and adults of both Chrysomyaáalbiceps (Wiedemann) and Luciliaásericata (Meigen) had similar temperature thresholds, whereas Chrysomyaáputoria (Wiedemann), Chrysomyaáchloropyga (Wiedemann), and Chrysomyaámegacephala (Fabricius) had inconsistent rank temperature thresholds between the larval, pupal, and adult stages. With a few minor exceptions, the nervous activity, muscle activity, and death thresholds in female adult flies responded at higher temperatures than conspecific male flies for all species tested. Similarly, female adult flies weighed consistently more than conspecific male flies for all species tested, except Ca.ácroceipalpis. These data suggest that there is a phylogenetic component to the thermal biology of blowflies, because Ca.ácroceipalpis belongs to a primarily Holarctic genus and shows adaptation to that climate even though it inhabits Africa. Comparisons between these temperature thresholds and the distributions of blowfly species present on three rhinoceros carcasses suggest that blowfly larvae with high upper lethal temperature thresholds (particularly C.ámarginalis) dominate in interspecific competition on the carcass by raising the temperature of the amassed maggots above the thresholds of other carrion‐feeding blowflies, through metabolically generated heat.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Richards, Cameron S , Price, Benjamin W , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/442384 , vital:73980 , https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1570-7458.2009.00824.x
- Description: A variety of temperature thresholds for larvae, pupae, and adults of seven African species of carrion‐feeding blowflies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) was measured and compared to understand their basic thermal biology and the influence of temperature on their behaviour. Calliphoraácroceipalpis (Jaennicke) had consistently lower temperature thresholds than all other species tested for all larval (42.9á░C), pupal (16.6á░C), and adult (45.6á░C) stages. Larvae (50.1á░C) and adults (53.4á░C) of Chrysomyaámarginalis (Robineau‐Desvoidy) had higher upper lethal temperature thresholds than all other species and weighed more than all other species. Pupae and adults of both Chrysomyaáalbiceps (Wiedemann) and Luciliaásericata (Meigen) had similar temperature thresholds, whereas Chrysomyaáputoria (Wiedemann), Chrysomyaáchloropyga (Wiedemann), and Chrysomyaámegacephala (Fabricius) had inconsistent rank temperature thresholds between the larval, pupal, and adult stages. With a few minor exceptions, the nervous activity, muscle activity, and death thresholds in female adult flies responded at higher temperatures than conspecific male flies for all species tested. Similarly, female adult flies weighed consistently more than conspecific male flies for all species tested, except Ca.ácroceipalpis. These data suggest that there is a phylogenetic component to the thermal biology of blowflies, because Ca.ácroceipalpis belongs to a primarily Holarctic genus and shows adaptation to that climate even though it inhabits Africa. Comparisons between these temperature thresholds and the distributions of blowfly species present on three rhinoceros carcasses suggest that blowfly larvae with high upper lethal temperature thresholds (particularly C.ámarginalis) dominate in interspecific competition on the carcass by raising the temperature of the amassed maggots above the thresholds of other carrion‐feeding blowflies, through metabolically generated heat.
- Full Text:
Towards a GPS-based TEC prediction model for Southern Africa with feed forward networks
- Habarulema, John B, McKinnell, Lee-Anne, Opperman, Ben D L
- Authors: Habarulema, John B , McKinnell, Lee-Anne , Opperman, Ben D L
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6806 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004192
- Description: In this paper, first results from a national Global Positioning System (GPS) based total electron content (TEC) prediction model over South Africa are presented. Data for 10 GPS receiver stations distributed through out the country were used to train a feed forward neural network (NN) over an interval of at most five years. In the NN training, validating and testing processes, five factors which are well known to influence TEC variability namely diurnal variation, seasonal variation, magnetic activity, solar activity and the geographic position of the GPS receivers were included in the NN model. The database consisted of 1-min data and therefore the NN model developed can be used to forecast TEC values 1 min in advance. Results from the NN national model (NM) were compared with hourly TEC values generated by the earlier developed NN single station models (SSMs) at Sutherland (32.38°S, 20.81°E) and Springbok (29.67°S, 17.88°E), to predict TEC variations over the Cape Town (33.95°S, 18.47°E) and Upington (28.41°S, 21.26°E) stations, respectively, during equinoxes and solstices. This revealed that, on average, the NM led to an improvement in TEC prediction accuracy compared to the SSMs for the considered testing periods.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Habarulema, John B , McKinnell, Lee-Anne , Opperman, Ben D L
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6806 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004192
- Description: In this paper, first results from a national Global Positioning System (GPS) based total electron content (TEC) prediction model over South Africa are presented. Data for 10 GPS receiver stations distributed through out the country were used to train a feed forward neural network (NN) over an interval of at most five years. In the NN training, validating and testing processes, five factors which are well known to influence TEC variability namely diurnal variation, seasonal variation, magnetic activity, solar activity and the geographic position of the GPS receivers were included in the NN model. The database consisted of 1-min data and therefore the NN model developed can be used to forecast TEC values 1 min in advance. Results from the NN national model (NM) were compared with hourly TEC values generated by the earlier developed NN single station models (SSMs) at Sutherland (32.38°S, 20.81°E) and Springbok (29.67°S, 17.88°E), to predict TEC variations over the Cape Town (33.95°S, 18.47°E) and Upington (28.41°S, 21.26°E) stations, respectively, during equinoxes and solstices. This revealed that, on average, the NM led to an improvement in TEC prediction accuracy compared to the SSMs for the considered testing periods.
- Full Text:
Traditional food crops as a source of community resilience in Zimbabwe
- Shava, Soul, O'Donoghue, Rob B, Krasny, Marianne E, Zazu, Clayton
- Authors: Shava, Soul , O'Donoghue, Rob B , Krasny, Marianne E , Zazu, Clayton
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/438804 , vital:73501 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/18186870903101982"
- Description: This article draws on local narratives and observations of food sustenance practices in relocated farming communities in Sebakwe, Zimbabwe. Local knowledge on traditional food crops and related agricultural practices was proven to be a source of local community resilience, enabling residents to sustain their livelihoods. Local community agency in maintaining, cultivating and processing traditional food crops was found to sustain their culture and livelihoods, thereby providing community resilience in a changing environment.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Shava, Soul , O'Donoghue, Rob B , Krasny, Marianne E , Zazu, Clayton
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/438804 , vital:73501 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/18186870903101982"
- Description: This article draws on local narratives and observations of food sustenance practices in relocated farming communities in Sebakwe, Zimbabwe. Local knowledge on traditional food crops and related agricultural practices was proven to be a source of local community resilience, enabling residents to sustain their livelihoods. Local community agency in maintaining, cultivating and processing traditional food crops was found to sustain their culture and livelihoods, thereby providing community resilience in a changing environment.
- Full Text:
Umabatha: Zulu play or Shakespeare translation?
- Authors: Wright, Laurence
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: vital:7062 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007426 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351963381/chapters/10.4324%2F9781315264219-12
- Description: preprint , There can be few recent theatrical productions in greater need of interpretative effort than Welcome Msomi’s Umabatha. From its inception debate has raged over the cultural status of the production: was it an authentic expression of Zulu culture, or a tacky piece of ‘blacksploitation’? – to use Russell Vandenbroucke’s term. Was the production pleasing evidence of Shakespeare’s universality, a gift to the colonies returning joyfully to the motherland with interest accruing? Could it perhaps be a case of Zulu culture triumphing over Shakespeare, native invention swamping and overwhelming a colonially-imposed ‘high culture’? Was the show performing ‘Africa’ for the world and, if so, was this the way Africa ought to be represented in the twentieth century? Or were we perhaps looking at a fetishized theatrical commodity, wrenched from any authentic cultural roots, and circulating aimlessly but profitably through a globalised theatrical cosmopolis? Such speculative questions – and there are many others – have regularly jostled each other in the bulky heritage of Umabatha’s reception history. The central problem underlying this chapter is whether it might not be possible to define a basis for a more objective response to some of them, so that the issues involved no longer rest quite so slackly in the realm of mere critical opinion.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Wright, Laurence
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: vital:7062 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007426 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351963381/chapters/10.4324%2F9781315264219-12
- Description: preprint , There can be few recent theatrical productions in greater need of interpretative effort than Welcome Msomi’s Umabatha. From its inception debate has raged over the cultural status of the production: was it an authentic expression of Zulu culture, or a tacky piece of ‘blacksploitation’? – to use Russell Vandenbroucke’s term. Was the production pleasing evidence of Shakespeare’s universality, a gift to the colonies returning joyfully to the motherland with interest accruing? Could it perhaps be a case of Zulu culture triumphing over Shakespeare, native invention swamping and overwhelming a colonially-imposed ‘high culture’? Was the show performing ‘Africa’ for the world and, if so, was this the way Africa ought to be represented in the twentieth century? Or were we perhaps looking at a fetishized theatrical commodity, wrenched from any authentic cultural roots, and circulating aimlessly but profitably through a globalised theatrical cosmopolis? Such speculative questions – and there are many others – have regularly jostled each other in the bulky heritage of Umabatha’s reception history. The central problem underlying this chapter is whether it might not be possible to define a basis for a more objective response to some of them, so that the issues involved no longer rest quite so slackly in the realm of mere critical opinion.
- Full Text:
Understanding social learning processes in a citrus farming community of practice
- Authors: Downsborough, Linda
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/386949 , vital:68191 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122819"
- Description: This paper focuses on what would traditionally be termed ‘non-formal’ learning processes in the context of a case study examining how citrus farming communities in the Patensie Valley in the Eastern Cape in South Africa were learning conservation practices. Communities of Practice theory was used to provide a conceptual framework for researching these learning interactions. Through historical and other qualitative research methods, I was able to establish that farmers in this community of practice learned mainly through responding to change and uncertainty, through forming and drawing on networks and community structures, through intergenerational learning, and through various interactions with each other. The historical research also pointed to the significance of policy and market-based changes in farmer learning, and their attachment to the land, which is shaped through historical associations with the land, and through embedded relations in farming practice cultures. The paper provides an example of how Communities of Practice theory, complemented by historical research, can be used to understand non-formal learning.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Downsborough, Linda
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/386949 , vital:68191 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122819"
- Description: This paper focuses on what would traditionally be termed ‘non-formal’ learning processes in the context of a case study examining how citrus farming communities in the Patensie Valley in the Eastern Cape in South Africa were learning conservation practices. Communities of Practice theory was used to provide a conceptual framework for researching these learning interactions. Through historical and other qualitative research methods, I was able to establish that farmers in this community of practice learned mainly through responding to change and uncertainty, through forming and drawing on networks and community structures, through intergenerational learning, and through various interactions with each other. The historical research also pointed to the significance of policy and market-based changes in farmer learning, and their attachment to the land, which is shaped through historical associations with the land, and through embedded relations in farming practice cultures. The paper provides an example of how Communities of Practice theory, complemented by historical research, can be used to understand non-formal learning.
- Full Text:
Universal digital inclusion: Beyond connectivity, affordability and capability
- Thinyane, Mamello, Terzoli, Alfredo
- Authors: Thinyane, Mamello , Terzoli, Alfredo
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/430876 , vital:72724 , https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5338911
- Description: Traditionally digital marginalization and exclusion were understood to be a factor of connectivity to the Internet, affordability of the technology, and the capability of the communities to utilize the technology. ICT for development (ICT4D) interventions have been undertaken that address these specific factors of marginalization, however, it remains that com-munities are still excluded from the global knowledge society. In this paper we argue that key factors towards reaching greater inclusion and participation of the digitally marginalized communities, are the knowledge-centricity and context-sensitivity of the undertaken interven-tions. The solutions developed, and the services deployed, must intrin-sically encapsulate the local knowledge within the community of de-ployment. Based on this premise we have developed an architectural framework, named PIASK, that formalizes the contextualization of the developed applications within the socio-technical environment and po-sitions them within the local knowledge system of the community. We highlight the components of this architecture and discuss its implemen-tation through a knowledge platform for a community in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Thinyane, Mamello , Terzoli, Alfredo
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/430876 , vital:72724 , https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5338911
- Description: Traditionally digital marginalization and exclusion were understood to be a factor of connectivity to the Internet, affordability of the technology, and the capability of the communities to utilize the technology. ICT for development (ICT4D) interventions have been undertaken that address these specific factors of marginalization, however, it remains that com-munities are still excluded from the global knowledge society. In this paper we argue that key factors towards reaching greater inclusion and participation of the digitally marginalized communities, are the knowledge-centricity and context-sensitivity of the undertaken interven-tions. The solutions developed, and the services deployed, must intrin-sically encapsulate the local knowledge within the community of de-ployment. Based on this premise we have developed an architectural framework, named PIASK, that formalizes the contextualization of the developed applications within the socio-technical environment and po-sitions them within the local knowledge system of the community. We highlight the components of this architecture and discuss its implemen-tation through a knowledge platform for a community in South Africa.
- Full Text:
Using a transdisciplinary framework to examine mathematics classroom talk taking place in and through a second language
- Graven, Mellony, Robertson, Sally-Ann
- Authors: Graven, Mellony , Robertson, Sally-Ann
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69838 , vital:29586 , https://DOI: 10.1007/s11858-018-0952-2
- Description: This paper proposes a transdisciplinary framework to allow for a multifocal exploration of classroom talk practices. It draws on data from a broader study of talk in South African Grade 4 mathematics classrooms where the language of teaching and learning (English) was the home language for neither the teachers nor their students. Lesson transcript data from one teacher’s lessons on fractions are used to demonstrate how working with three strands of conceptual insight from the disciplines of psychology, sociology and linguistics conduces to a potentially richer understanding of a teacher’s use of classroom talk in mediating her students’ mathematical understanding. By drawing on elements of Vygotsky’s sociocultural psychology, we make visible in the lesson data the ways in which this teacher used the ‘everyday’ in trying to navigate her students’ towards more ‘scientific’ conceptualizations of unit fractions. By then taking up aspects of Bernstein’s sociological work, we articulate, and make visible, how societal circumstances impinge on students’ access to exploratory mathematical discourse needed for epistemological access to abstract and generalized mathematical concepts. Finally, through Halliday’s work on the power of particular linguistic registers for meaning-making, we highlight challenges in learning mathematics in and through a second language and reveal the constraints placed on students’ opportunity to maximally exploit the distinct forms of meaning contained within the mathematics register.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Graven, Mellony , Robertson, Sally-Ann
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69838 , vital:29586 , https://DOI: 10.1007/s11858-018-0952-2
- Description: This paper proposes a transdisciplinary framework to allow for a multifocal exploration of classroom talk practices. It draws on data from a broader study of talk in South African Grade 4 mathematics classrooms where the language of teaching and learning (English) was the home language for neither the teachers nor their students. Lesson transcript data from one teacher’s lessons on fractions are used to demonstrate how working with three strands of conceptual insight from the disciplines of psychology, sociology and linguistics conduces to a potentially richer understanding of a teacher’s use of classroom talk in mediating her students’ mathematical understanding. By drawing on elements of Vygotsky’s sociocultural psychology, we make visible in the lesson data the ways in which this teacher used the ‘everyday’ in trying to navigate her students’ towards more ‘scientific’ conceptualizations of unit fractions. By then taking up aspects of Bernstein’s sociological work, we articulate, and make visible, how societal circumstances impinge on students’ access to exploratory mathematical discourse needed for epistemological access to abstract and generalized mathematical concepts. Finally, through Halliday’s work on the power of particular linguistic registers for meaning-making, we highlight challenges in learning mathematics in and through a second language and reveal the constraints placed on students’ opportunity to maximally exploit the distinct forms of meaning contained within the mathematics register.
- Full Text:
Using pictograms in a patient information leaflet to communicate antiretroviral medicines information to HIV/AIDS patients in rural South Africa:
- Authors: Dowse, Roslind
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/156817 , vital:40053 , ISBN
- Description: The objectives were to design a simple, illustrated patient information leaflet for the antiretroviral regimen of stavudine, lamivudine and efavirenz and to evaluate its readability and acceptability in the local Xhosa population. In order to achieve this, a further objective was to design and evaluate illustrations to include in the patient information leaflet which were culturally acceptable and well interpreted. Illustrations or pictograms were designed to illustrate selected instructions appearing in the patient information leaflet and were individually tested in 30 Xhosa participants who had a maximum of 8 years of formal schooling. Results were used to improve the pictograms for inclusion in the patient information leaflet. The patient information leaflet was designed and tested in sixty Xhosa participants with varied levels of education who had stated they could read. Demographic data were collected and they were then asked to read the patient information leaflet, available in both English and isiXhosa, and a series of questions was asked to assess its comprehension and acceptability. The overall average rate of understanding was 95. Six of the 20 questions were located and understood by all participants, and only two questions resulted in less than an 85 correct response. Physical appearance and quantity of information were highly rated and all participants were enthusiastic about the inclusion of pictograms.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Dowse, Roslind
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/156817 , vital:40053 , ISBN
- Description: The objectives were to design a simple, illustrated patient information leaflet for the antiretroviral regimen of stavudine, lamivudine and efavirenz and to evaluate its readability and acceptability in the local Xhosa population. In order to achieve this, a further objective was to design and evaluate illustrations to include in the patient information leaflet which were culturally acceptable and well interpreted. Illustrations or pictograms were designed to illustrate selected instructions appearing in the patient information leaflet and were individually tested in 30 Xhosa participants who had a maximum of 8 years of formal schooling. Results were used to improve the pictograms for inclusion in the patient information leaflet. The patient information leaflet was designed and tested in sixty Xhosa participants with varied levels of education who had stated they could read. Demographic data were collected and they were then asked to read the patient information leaflet, available in both English and isiXhosa, and a series of questions was asked to assess its comprehension and acceptability. The overall average rate of understanding was 95. Six of the 20 questions were located and understood by all participants, and only two questions resulted in less than an 85 correct response. Physical appearance and quantity of information were highly rated and all participants were enthusiastic about the inclusion of pictograms.
- Full Text:
Utopianism and educational processes in the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/184756 , vital:44269 , xlink:href="https://cjee.lakeheadu.ca/article/view/866"
- Description: Recent international policy literature on Education for Sustainable Development puts forward utopian concepts of sustainable development and transformed learning as objects for educational thinking and practice. This paper, drawing on three illustrative educational investigations with youth in a South African context, critically examines how we might engage with utopian concepts such as those put forward in the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. It incorporates an engagement with other related utopian concepts such as democracy and social justice, which feature strongly in post-apartheid societal reconstruction in South Africa. The paper argues that if we are to avoid valuable utopian concepts such as democracy, sustainability, and social justice from becoming doxic knowledge, a reflexive realist orientation might best guide our educational engagements with such concepts. Such an approach to utopianism would take account of contextual realities and situated learning processes, and foster a creativity of action that is constructivist in nature, but not relativist.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/184756 , vital:44269 , xlink:href="https://cjee.lakeheadu.ca/article/view/866"
- Description: Recent international policy literature on Education for Sustainable Development puts forward utopian concepts of sustainable development and transformed learning as objects for educational thinking and practice. This paper, drawing on three illustrative educational investigations with youth in a South African context, critically examines how we might engage with utopian concepts such as those put forward in the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. It incorporates an engagement with other related utopian concepts such as democracy and social justice, which feature strongly in post-apartheid societal reconstruction in South Africa. The paper argues that if we are to avoid valuable utopian concepts such as democracy, sustainability, and social justice from becoming doxic knowledge, a reflexive realist orientation might best guide our educational engagements with such concepts. Such an approach to utopianism would take account of contextual realities and situated learning processes, and foster a creativity of action that is constructivist in nature, but not relativist.
- Full Text:
Utopianism and educational processes in the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development: a critical reflection
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437367 , vital:73373 , ISBN 978-9086860937 , https://doi.org/10.3920/9789086866915_007
- Description: South Africa and its recent political transformation pro-cess, infused with hope for a better future, is often pre-sented as a utopian form of democracy – or an icon of hope – nationally and in the contemporary global land-scape. Similarly, adult hopes for youth, and youth idealism itself, are often utopian in nature, and young people are often iconised in society as the hope for the future. Re-cent international policy literature on education for sus-tainable development puts forward the utopian concepts of sustainable development and transformed learning (UNESCO 2005a) as objects for educational thinking and practice, and ethical codes such as the Earth Charter (www.earthcharter.org) present useful visions and guid-ance on how to think about and create a better world. But, the realities of the day keep such utopianism in check. Today, South Africa is experiencing xenophobic vio-lence, extreme levels of crime, and continued disenfran-chisement.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437367 , vital:73373 , ISBN 978-9086860937 , https://doi.org/10.3920/9789086866915_007
- Description: South Africa and its recent political transformation pro-cess, infused with hope for a better future, is often pre-sented as a utopian form of democracy – or an icon of hope – nationally and in the contemporary global land-scape. Similarly, adult hopes for youth, and youth idealism itself, are often utopian in nature, and young people are often iconised in society as the hope for the future. Re-cent international policy literature on education for sus-tainable development puts forward the utopian concepts of sustainable development and transformed learning (UNESCO 2005a) as objects for educational thinking and practice, and ethical codes such as the Earth Charter (www.earthcharter.org) present useful visions and guid-ance on how to think about and create a better world. But, the realities of the day keep such utopianism in check. Today, South Africa is experiencing xenophobic vio-lence, extreme levels of crime, and continued disenfran-chisement.
- Full Text:
Variability in the fractionation of stable isotopes during degradation of two intertidal red algae
- Hill, Jaclyn M, McQuaid, Christopher D
- Authors: Hill, Jaclyn M , McQuaid, Christopher D
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/444649 , vital:74257 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2009.02.001
- Description: Macroalgae contribute to intertidal food webs primarily as detritus, with unclear implications for food web studies using stable isotope analysis. We examined differences in the thallus parts of two South African rhodophytes (Gelidium pristoides and Hypnea spicifera) and changes in overall δ13C, δ15N signatures and C:N ratios during degradation in both the field and laboratory. We hypothesized that both degrading macroalgal tissue and macroalgal-derived suspended particulate material (SPM) would show negligible changes in δ13C, but enriched δ15N signatures and lower C:N ratios relative to healthy plants. Only C:N laboratory ratios conformed to predictions, with both species of macroalgae showing decomposition related changes in δ13C and significant depletions in δ15N in both the field and laboratory. In the laboratory, algal tissue and SPM from each species behaved similarly (though some effects were non-significant) but with differing strengths. Gelidium pristoides δ13C increased and C:N ratios decreased over time in tissue and SPM; δ15N became depleted only in SPM. Hypnea spicifera, δ13C, δ15N and C:N ratios all decreased during degradation in both SPM and algae.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Hill, Jaclyn M , McQuaid, Christopher D
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/444649 , vital:74257 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2009.02.001
- Description: Macroalgae contribute to intertidal food webs primarily as detritus, with unclear implications for food web studies using stable isotope analysis. We examined differences in the thallus parts of two South African rhodophytes (Gelidium pristoides and Hypnea spicifera) and changes in overall δ13C, δ15N signatures and C:N ratios during degradation in both the field and laboratory. We hypothesized that both degrading macroalgal tissue and macroalgal-derived suspended particulate material (SPM) would show negligible changes in δ13C, but enriched δ15N signatures and lower C:N ratios relative to healthy plants. Only C:N laboratory ratios conformed to predictions, with both species of macroalgae showing decomposition related changes in δ13C and significant depletions in δ15N in both the field and laboratory. In the laboratory, algal tissue and SPM from each species behaved similarly (though some effects were non-significant) but with differing strengths. Gelidium pristoides δ13C increased and C:N ratios decreased over time in tissue and SPM; δ15N became depleted only in SPM. Hypnea spicifera, δ13C, δ15N and C:N ratios all decreased during degradation in both SPM and algae.
- Full Text:
Vocational language learning and teaching at a South African university: preparing professionals for multilingual contexts
- Maseko, Pamela, Kaschula, Russell H
- Authors: Maseko, Pamela , Kaschula, Russell H
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Intercultural communication in education -- South Africa , African languages , Cultural awareness , Communication and culture , Multilingualism -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59412 , vital:27597 , doi: 10.5842/38-0-60
- Description: This paper highlights the methodology that has been used at Rhodes University and other South African universities in implementing vocation-specific African language learning programmes. Essentially, the paper links the curriculum design to the theoretical paradigm of intercultural communication. Intercultural theory is used as a basis to develop vocation-specific courses where language and culture are taught, for example, to second language learners of isiXhosa at Rhodes University. These courses include courses for Pharmacy and Law students. This paper offers a new theoretical paradigm for intercultural language teaching. Furthermore, examples from specific courses are provided in order to illustrate how this theoretical paradigm can be implemented in a practical way. The impact of multilingualism and intercultural communication in the wider legal and healthcare work environment in South Africa is also discussed.
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- Authors: Maseko, Pamela , Kaschula, Russell H
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Intercultural communication in education -- South Africa , African languages , Cultural awareness , Communication and culture , Multilingualism -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59412 , vital:27597 , doi: 10.5842/38-0-60
- Description: This paper highlights the methodology that has been used at Rhodes University and other South African universities in implementing vocation-specific African language learning programmes. Essentially, the paper links the curriculum design to the theoretical paradigm of intercultural communication. Intercultural theory is used as a basis to develop vocation-specific courses where language and culture are taught, for example, to second language learners of isiXhosa at Rhodes University. These courses include courses for Pharmacy and Law students. This paper offers a new theoretical paradigm for intercultural language teaching. Furthermore, examples from specific courses are provided in order to illustrate how this theoretical paradigm can be implemented in a practical way. The impact of multilingualism and intercultural communication in the wider legal and healthcare work environment in South Africa is also discussed.
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Water-soluble phthalocyanines mediated photodynamic effect on mesothelioma cells
- Saydan, Nil, Durmus, Mahmut, Dizge, Meltem G, Yaman, Hanif, Gürek, Ayşe G, Antunes, Edith M, Nyokong, Tebello, Ahsen, Vefa
- Authors: Saydan, Nil , Durmus, Mahmut , Dizge, Meltem G , Yaman, Hanif , Gürek, Ayşe G , Antunes, Edith M , Nyokong, Tebello , Ahsen, Vefa
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/263480 , vital:53631 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1142/S1088424609000863"
- Description: The new peripherally 2-mercaptopyridine tetrasubstituted zinc phthalocyanine (2) and its quaternized derivative (3) have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, IR, 1H NMR spectroscopy, electronic spectroscopy and mass spectra. The quaternized compound (3) shows excellent solubility in water, which makes it a potential photosensitizer for use in photodynamic therapy (PDT) of cancer. Fluorescence and singlet oxygen quantum yield measurements were conducted on 2-mercaptopyridine appended zinc phthalocyanines in dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO) for both the non-ionic (2) and quaternized (3) derivatives, and in aqueous media for the water-soluble complex 3. General trends are described for fluorescence and singlet oxygen quantum yields of these compounds. In this study, the cells were incubated with a novel water-soluble zinc phthalocyanine derivative (3) and thereafter the cells were illuminated using broad-band incoherent light source of various energy levels. Cytotoxicity of PDT on two pleural malign mesothelioma cell lines was determined by colorimetric proliferation assay. In addition, after PDT treatment, determination of activity matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) were evaluated using gelatine zymography.
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- Authors: Saydan, Nil , Durmus, Mahmut , Dizge, Meltem G , Yaman, Hanif , Gürek, Ayşe G , Antunes, Edith M , Nyokong, Tebello , Ahsen, Vefa
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/263480 , vital:53631 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1142/S1088424609000863"
- Description: The new peripherally 2-mercaptopyridine tetrasubstituted zinc phthalocyanine (2) and its quaternized derivative (3) have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, IR, 1H NMR spectroscopy, electronic spectroscopy and mass spectra. The quaternized compound (3) shows excellent solubility in water, which makes it a potential photosensitizer for use in photodynamic therapy (PDT) of cancer. Fluorescence and singlet oxygen quantum yield measurements were conducted on 2-mercaptopyridine appended zinc phthalocyanines in dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO) for both the non-ionic (2) and quaternized (3) derivatives, and in aqueous media for the water-soluble complex 3. General trends are described for fluorescence and singlet oxygen quantum yields of these compounds. In this study, the cells were incubated with a novel water-soluble zinc phthalocyanine derivative (3) and thereafter the cells were illuminated using broad-band incoherent light source of various energy levels. Cytotoxicity of PDT on two pleural malign mesothelioma cell lines was determined by colorimetric proliferation assay. In addition, after PDT treatment, determination of activity matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) were evaluated using gelatine zymography.
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What's wrong with Walden Two?
- Authors: Tabensky, Pedro
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/305791 , vital:58612 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC96066"
- Description: Despite being eminently forgettable from the literary point of view, B. F. Skinner's novel, Walden Two, provides us with an excellent opportunity, not so much to show what is wrong with mainstream accounts of free will, as Robert Kane thinks, but rather to explore another key and importantly neglected condition for genuine agency; namely, that properly lived human lives are those that are and must continue to be vulnerable to unforseable reversals, as Aldous Huxley speculates in his Brave New World. In short, I argue, perhaps scandalously, that one of the central conditions for genuine agency is that our lives are and must continue to be, to a large extent, out of our personal control. The promise of too much personal control, not too little (as Kane thinks), is what is wrong with Skinner's social utopia.
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- Authors: Tabensky, Pedro
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/305791 , vital:58612 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC96066"
- Description: Despite being eminently forgettable from the literary point of view, B. F. Skinner's novel, Walden Two, provides us with an excellent opportunity, not so much to show what is wrong with mainstream accounts of free will, as Robert Kane thinks, but rather to explore another key and importantly neglected condition for genuine agency; namely, that properly lived human lives are those that are and must continue to be vulnerable to unforseable reversals, as Aldous Huxley speculates in his Brave New World. In short, I argue, perhaps scandalously, that one of the central conditions for genuine agency is that our lives are and must continue to be, to a large extent, out of our personal control. The promise of too much personal control, not too little (as Kane thinks), is what is wrong with Skinner's social utopia.
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White Guys Can't Beg
- Authors: Krueger, Anton
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/229796 , vital:49711 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC47812"
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- Authors: Krueger, Anton
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/229796 , vital:49711 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC47812"
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Why ontology matters to reviewing environmental education
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182646 , vital:43850 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620902807550"
- Description: This paper responds to a keynote paper presented by William Scott at the 2007 World Environmental Education Congress held in Durban, South Africa. The keynote address reviewed 30 years of environmental education research. In this response to William Scott's paper I contemplate the way in which environmental education research may enable reflexivity in modernity and develop knowledge that can serve as cultural mediator between individual and society. Through emphasizing ontology, I consider the reality of global knowledge production in relation to the way in which ontology may influence the reasons how and why we come to do particular forms of research, providing an ontological reference for the ever‐expanding pluralism that characterizes the field of environmental education research. The paper comments on various aspects of the Scott paper, but presents an argument for not only valuing pluralism, methodological experimentation and ‘reaching out’, but for embracing the cosmopolitan implications of wider ontological referents of environmental concerns in environmental education research. The paper argues that research in environmental education ought to become ontologically defensible at both local and global scales.
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- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182646 , vital:43850 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620902807550"
- Description: This paper responds to a keynote paper presented by William Scott at the 2007 World Environmental Education Congress held in Durban, South Africa. The keynote address reviewed 30 years of environmental education research. In this response to William Scott's paper I contemplate the way in which environmental education research may enable reflexivity in modernity and develop knowledge that can serve as cultural mediator between individual and society. Through emphasizing ontology, I consider the reality of global knowledge production in relation to the way in which ontology may influence the reasons how and why we come to do particular forms of research, providing an ontological reference for the ever‐expanding pluralism that characterizes the field of environmental education research. The paper comments on various aspects of the Scott paper, but presents an argument for not only valuing pluralism, methodological experimentation and ‘reaching out’, but for embracing the cosmopolitan implications of wider ontological referents of environmental concerns in environmental education research. The paper argues that research in environmental education ought to become ontologically defensible at both local and global scales.
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“The Two Cultures reunited: entomology for everyone”
- Authors: Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Audio , text
- Identifier: vital:587 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018947
- Description: Fifty years ago C.P. Snow delivered his essay, "The Two Cultures", sparking the schism between the Humanities and the Sciences. This lecture explores cultural entomology as a means of reconciling two other cultures: academia and society, and suggests one way of addressing this alienating dilemma.
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- Authors: Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Audio , text
- Identifier: vital:587 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018947
- Description: Fifty years ago C.P. Snow delivered his essay, "The Two Cultures", sparking the schism between the Humanities and the Sciences. This lecture explores cultural entomology as a means of reconciling two other cultures: academia and society, and suggests one way of addressing this alienating dilemma.
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Engendering childhood: concerning the content of South African Television content
- Boshoff, Priscilla A, Prinsloo, Jeanne
- Authors: Boshoff, Priscilla A , Prinsloo, Jeanne
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143560 , vital:38257 , ISBN , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: The essays in this volume reflect a wide-range of issues and concerns related to children’s media culture in Africa. For example, several address the role of entertainment television in Addis Abba, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, and Zambia and in the lives of Muslim children. Other essays introduce us to children-centered media from Ghana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, and the innovative programs of PLAN-International. In addition to entertainment media and children-centered media, media education and digital media literacy are also discussed.
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- Authors: Boshoff, Priscilla A , Prinsloo, Jeanne
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143560 , vital:38257 , ISBN , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: The essays in this volume reflect a wide-range of issues and concerns related to children’s media culture in Africa. For example, several address the role of entertainment television in Addis Abba, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, and Zambia and in the lives of Muslim children. Other essays introduce us to children-centered media from Ghana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, and the innovative programs of PLAN-International. In addition to entertainment media and children-centered media, media education and digital media literacy are also discussed.
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Professor Emeritus Denis William Ewer MBE FRSSAf 1913 - 2009: biographical memoir
- Authors: Hodgson, Alan N
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6884 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011643
- Description: Denis Ewer went to University College School in London. In 1931 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge (his father had studied mathematics at Trinity) where he read for the Natural Science Tripos, obtaining a B.A. in 1934. In his second year at Cambridge he gained the nickname of 'Jakes' via a literary route (his father's nickname also had literary origins). The word 'ewer' can mean a jug, chamber pot, or jerry, and hence the progress to 'jakes', Elizabethan English for an outside lavatory. It was at Cambridge that he also met the future communist spy, Kim Philby. After graduating, Jakes Ewer moved to the University of Birmingham where he undertook his doctoral studies (graduating PhD in 1940) under H. Munro Fox. World War II, however, temporarily halted any further academic career, and during the war years he was an Experimental Officer for the Army Operational Research Group (Ministry of Supply) achieving the rank of Major. For his work, which included being a Scientific Advisor to the Chief, Air Defence Division, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, he was awarded the M.B.E. (Member of the British Empire).
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- Authors: Hodgson, Alan N
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6884 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011643
- Description: Denis Ewer went to University College School in London. In 1931 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge (his father had studied mathematics at Trinity) where he read for the Natural Science Tripos, obtaining a B.A. in 1934. In his second year at Cambridge he gained the nickname of 'Jakes' via a literary route (his father's nickname also had literary origins). The word 'ewer' can mean a jug, chamber pot, or jerry, and hence the progress to 'jakes', Elizabethan English for an outside lavatory. It was at Cambridge that he also met the future communist spy, Kim Philby. After graduating, Jakes Ewer moved to the University of Birmingham where he undertook his doctoral studies (graduating PhD in 1940) under H. Munro Fox. World War II, however, temporarily halted any further academic career, and during the war years he was an Experimental Officer for the Army Operational Research Group (Ministry of Supply) achieving the rank of Major. For his work, which included being a Scientific Advisor to the Chief, Air Defence Division, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, he was awarded the M.B.E. (Member of the British Empire).
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