“I slipped into the pages of a book”: intertextuality and literary solidarities in South African writing about London
- Authors: Thorpe, Andrea
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68402 , vital:29252 , https://doi.org/10.1080/17533171.2018.1482882
- Description: Publisher version , In this article, I argue that London plays a dual role in South African writing, as a “real” city at a particular moment in history, and as a textual, imaginative space. For many South African writers, London comes to stand metonymically for English culture and literature even if their attitude toward Englishness and Empire may be one of ambivalent critique. The intertexts invoked in South African representations of London forge literary solidarities, and foreground belated postcolonial engagements with modernity that are significantly displaced from the “margin” to the “center” of modernism (and Empire) itself.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2018
“Telling freedom” or “telling the spades back home how to behave”? re-examining Peter Abrahams’s writing in London
- Authors: Thorpe, Andrea
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68412 , vital:29253 , https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/eia.v45i1.3
- Description: Publisher version , This article considers the notable dearth of recent scholarship on Peter Abrahams’s writing in the context of his exile and his complex, shifting ideological self-positioning throughout his career. To attempt to address this lacuna in South African literary criticism, and to partially explain why Abrahams has been under-researched, I look at key moments during his early career, including the publication of Dark Testament (1942), Song of the City (1945) and Return to Goli (1953). By focusing on texts by Abrahams that were published during his time in London, I also wish to address the significance of the city in the history of South African literature, and in African anti-colonial and anti-racist thinking more broadly.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2018
“The Bag Is My Home”: recycling “China Bags” in contemporary African art
- Authors: Cheng, Yeng
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145676 , vital:38457 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1162/afar_a_00400
- Description: Frequently used as mobile storage containers or baggage by migrants and traders moving across borders, the mesh bag made of red, blue, and white polypropylene fibers has become a prominent element of African visual culture. This light, strong, and affordable woven bag, often referred to as “China bag” or “Chinese tote,”1 features prominently in recent artistic practices by African artists such as Nobukho Nqaba, Dan Halter, and Gerald Machona. In this essay I examine how these artistic interventions using photography, installation, video, and performance, circulating in galleries, museums, and the streets, contribute to sociological discussions about the ways in which emerging trajectories, relationships, and identities are perceived and debated in the context of the global South.
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- Date Issued: 2018
“The scales were peeled from my eyes”: South African academics coming to consciousness to become agents of change
- Authors: Vincent, Louise , Idahosa, Grace Ese-osa
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141759 , vital:38002 , DOI: 10.18848/2327-0055/cgp/v15i04/13-28
- Description: For postcolonial societies, addressing the impact of the previous oppressive system in a bid to attain equity and social justice necessitates transformation in various spheres and sectors of society. As cradles of learning, research, and knowledge development, higher education institutions are one such sphere with a particular duty to contribute to, and embody, social transformation. However, almost 25 years after the country’s first democratic elections, the institutional cultures and structures of many South African universities still bear the imprimatur of past inequities. Existing research suggests that the success of transformation policies is influenced by the extent to which individual staff members exercise agency to effect transformative practices. But what determines whether an individual becomes an agent of change? This paper draws on the experiences of ten academic staff members who have taken actions that can be said to have contributed to shifting in important ways relations and/or practices at one university in South Africa. It adopts a hermeneutic phenomenological lens to understand the lived experiences of participants of having agency and undertaking transformative actions.
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- Date Issued: 2018
“We are white”: oral tradition, documented history and molecular biology of Xhosa clans descended from non-African forebears and their expression of this ancestry through the idiom of ancestor religion
- Authors: Hayward, Janet M
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Clans -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Patrilineal kinship -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Xhosa (African people) -- Genealogy , Oral history -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Genetic genealogy , Xhosa (African people) -- Rites and ceremonies , Xhosa (African people) -- Race identity
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62939 , vital:28312
- Description: Xhosa clan membership is symbolised by a clan-name (isiduko) and passed along the male line from father to son. This social indicator has a biological counterpart in Y chromosome DNA that passes through successive generations in the patriline. Both relate specifically to a distant patrilineal forebear or apical ancestor. The present study has involved the collection and documentation of oral-historical information relating to the descent of certain Cape Nguni clans from non-African forebears and (where possible) a review of documented accounts of such origins. The research has also included collection of buccal cells from male research participants and analysis of their Y chromosome DNA. This method indicates whether a man’s patrilineal forebear lived in Africa. Otherwise, it indicates the broad geographical region from which he originated, hence providing an additional, independent source of information relating to ancestry that can confirm or challenge claims made based on oral history. Ethnographic research into the performance of distinctive ancestor rituals by clan members explores the continuing relevance of foreign ancestry in the contemporary context of rural communities in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study heeds calls for the decolonisation of scholarship in various ways: methodologically, through transdisciplinary research; ontologically, by questioning the utility of the nature: culture and related dichotomies; and epistemologically, because instead of relying entirely on the western academic tradition, it takes account of other modes of knowledge production. In rejection of the notion that only one side of history is true, it records multiple voices – those of the powerful but also the ordinary. The study deals with race and racial identification, but confirms the superficiality of these constructed differences by offering evidence of their submergence in the unifying power of kinship and descent.
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- Date Issued: 2018
A moderate elevation in [CO 2] results in potential hypervirulence on SABBIErica
- Authors: Gallagher, Sean , Hill, Jaclyn M , Murugan, N , Botha, Christiaan E J
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68835 , vital:29329 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2017.10.010
- Description: The Russian Wheat Aphid (Diuraphis noxia Kurdjumov, 1913) (RWA) is a serious pest of grain crops and is of considerable concern in South Africa, particularly in terms of barley grown specifically for the brewing industry. This paper highlights the effect of a small (50 ppm) increase in [CO2] on the growth rate of the four South African RWA biotypes on the SABBIErica barley cultivar. Controlled environment experiments revealed that the colony growth rate for RWASA4 was significantly lower than SA1 under ambient conditions as well as significantly lower than SA1, SA2 or SA3 under elevated CO2 conditions. The unexpected difference suggested an atypical, non-preferential feeding habit on SABBIErica, for RWASA4. The small RWASA4 colonies inflicted similar morphological damage to the significantly larger RWASA1 – RWASA3 biotype populations — indicative of potential hypervirulence under elevated CO2. The continuous feeding of RWASA biotypes causes damage to the transport system as well as substantial, catastrophic damage to mesophyll chloroplasts as well as mitochondria within the host plant's leaves. The TEM study revealed evidence of sequential/systematic degeneration of chloroplasts and mitochondria with continued aphid feeding, which we suggest is an indication of potential emergent hypervirulence under elevated CO2 conditions.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
Exploratory mathematics talk in a second language: a sociolinguistic perspective:
- Authors: Graven, Mellony , Robertson, Sally-Ann
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69907 , vital:29594 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-018-0952-2
- Description: This paper illuminates challenges confronting teachers and students at the literacy/numeracy interface in contexts where students have not developed sufficient English language proficiency to be learning mathematics through English but, due to socio-politically and economically driven perceptions are being taught in English. We analyse transcript data of classroom talk in a South African grade 4 mathematics lesson on fractions. Together with interview data, the lesson data highlight some of the consequences students’ diminished access to their home language appear to have on their access to mathematical meaning-making.
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- Date Issued: 2009
Using a transdisciplinary framework to examine mathematics classroom talk taking place in and through a second language
- 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.
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- Date Issued: 2009
Beneficial effects of medicinal plants in fish diseases
- Authors: Stratev, Deyan , Zhelyazkov, Georgi , Noundou, Xavier Siwe , Krause, Rui W M
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/123487 , vital:35447 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s10499-017-0219-x
- Description: Fish are constantly in contact with pathogens inhabiting water. High population density as well as poor hydrodynamic conditions and feeding lead to an increased sensitivity towards infections. In order to prevent major economic losses due to diseases, various medications are used for treatment and prevention of infections. The use of antimicrobial drugs in aquacultures could lead to emergence of resistance in pathogenic microorganisms. Alternatives are being sought over the last few years to replace antibiotics, and medicinal plants are one of available options for this purpose. These plants are rich in secondary metabolites and phytochemical compounds, which have an effect against viral, bacterial, and parasitic diseases in fish. Their main advantage is their natural origin and most of these plants do not represent threat for human health, the fish, and the environment. The goal of this review is to present information on the treatment of viral, bacterial, and parasitic diseases in fish through medicinal plants, with focus on the mechanisms of action of the identified secondary metabolites, fractions, or plant extracts.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Fundal pressure during the second stage of labour
- Authors: Hofmeyr, Georges Justus , Vogel, Joshua. P , Cuthbert, Anna , Singata, Mandisa
- Date: 03-2017
- Subjects: South Africa Pregnancy Computer File
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/5766 , vital:44640 , https://DOI:10.1002/14651858.CD006067.pub3
- Description: Background Fundal pressure during the second stage of labour (also known as the 'Kristeller manoeuvre') involves application of manual pressure to the uppermost part of the uterus directed towards the birth canal, in an attempt to assist spontaneous vaginal birth and avoid prolonged second stage orthe need for operative birth. Fundal pressure has also been applied using an inflatable belt. Fundal pressure is widely used, however methods of its use vary widely. Despite strongly held opinions in favour of and against the use of fundal pressure, there is limited evidence regarding its maternal and neonatal benefits and harms. There is a need for objective evaluation of the eGectiveness and safety of fundal pressure in the second stage of labour. Objectives To determine if fundal pressure is eGective in achieving spontaneous vaginal birth, and preventing prolonged second stage or the need for operative birth, and to explore maternal and neonatal adverse eGects related to fundal pressure. Search methods We searched Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth's Trials Register (30 November 2016) and reference lists of retrieved studies. Selection criteria Randomised and quasi-randomised controlled trials of fundal pressure (manual or by inflatable belt) versus no fundal pressure in women in the second stage of labour with singleton cephalic presentation. Data collection and analysis Two or more review authors independently assessed potential studies for inclusion and quality. We extracted data using a pre-designed form. We entered data into Review Manager 5 soAware and checked for accuracy. Main results Nine trials are included in this updated review. Five trials (3057 women) compared manual fundal pressure versus no fundal pressure. Four trials (891 women) compared fundal pressure by means of an inflatable belt versus no fundal pressure. It was not possible to blind women and staG to this intervention. We assessed two trials as being at high risk of attrition bias and another at high risk of reporting bias. All other trials were low or unclear for other risk of bias domains. Most of the trials had design limitations. Heterogeneity was high for the majority of outcomes. Manual fundal pressure versus no fundal pressure Manual fundal pressure was not associated with changes in: spontaneous vaginal birth within a specified time (risk ratio (RR) 0.96, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.71 to 1.28; 120 women; 1 trial; very low-quality evidence), instrumental births (RR 3.28, 95% CI 0.14 to 79.65; 197 women; 1 trial), caesarean births (RR 1.10, 95% CI 0.07 to 17.27; 197 women; 1 trial), operative birth (average RR 0.66, 95% CI 0.12 to 3.55; 317 women; 2 studies; I2 = 43%; Tau2 = 0.71; very low-quality evidence), duration of second stage (mean diGerence (MD) -0.80 minutes, 95% CI -3.66 to 2.06 minutes; 194 women; 1 study; very low-quality evidence), low arterial cord pH in newborn babies (RR 1.07, 95% CI 0.72 to 1.58; 297 women; 2 trials; very low-quality evidence), or Apgar scores less than seven at five minutes (average RR 4.48, 95% CI 0.28 to 71.45; 2759 infants; 4 trials; I2 = 89%; Tau2 = 3.55; very low-quality evidence). More women who received manual fundal pressure had cervical tears than in the control group (RR 4.90, 95% CI 1.09 to 21.98; 295 women; 1 trial). No neonatal deaths occurred in either of the two studies reporting this outcome (very low-quality evidence). No trial reported the outcome severe maternal morbidity or death. Fundal pressure by inflatable belt versus no fundal pressure Fundal pressure by inflatable belt did not reduce the number of women havinginstrumental births (average RR 0.73, 95% CI 0.52 to 1.02; 891 women; 4 trials; I2 = 52%; Tau2 = 0.05) or operative births (average RR 0.62, 95% CI 0.38 to 1.01; 891 women; 4 trials; I2 = 78%; Tau2 = 0.14; very low-quality evidence). Heterogeneity was high for both outcomes. Duration of second stage was reported in two trials, which both showed that inflatable belts shortened duration of labour in nulliparous women (average MD -50.80 minutes, 95% CI -94.85 to -6.74 minutes; 253 women; 2 trials; I2 = 97%; Tau2 = 975.94; very low-quality evidence). No data on this outcome were available for multiparous women. The inflatable belt did not make any diGerence to rates of caesarean births (average RR 0.56, 95% CI 0.14 to 2.26; 891 women; 4 trials; I2 = 70%; Tau2 = 0.98), low arterial cord pHin newborn babies (RR 0.47, 95% CI 0.09 to 2.55; 461 infants; 1 trial; low-quality evidence), or Apgar scores less than seven atfive minutes (RR 4.62, 95% CI 0.22 to 95.68; 500 infants; 1 trial; very low-quality evidence). Third degree perinealtears were increased in the inflatable belt group (RR 15.69, 95% CI 2.10 to 117.02; 500 women; 1 trial). Spontaneous vaginal birth within a specified time, neonatal death, andsevere maternal morbidity or death were not reported in any trial. Authors' conclusions There is insuGicient evidence to draw conclusions on the beneficial or harmful eGects of fundal pressure, either manually or by inflatable belt. Fundal pressure by an inflatable belt during the second stage of labour may shorten duration of second stage for nulliparous women, and lower rates of operative birth. However, existing studies are small and their generalizability is uncertain. There is insuGicient evidence regarding safety for the baby. There is no evidence on the use of fundal pressure in specific clinical settings such as inability of the mother to bear down due to exhaustion or unconsciousness. There is currently insuGicient evidence for the routine use of fundal pressure by any method on women in the second stage of labour. Because of current widespread use of the procedure and the potential for use in settings where other methods of assisted birth are not available, further good quality trials are needed. Further evaluation in other groups of women (such as multiparous women) will also be required. Future research should describe in detail how fundal pressure was applied and consider safety of the unborn baby, perineal outcomes, longer-term maternal and infant outcomes and maternal satisfaction.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 03-2017
An (auto)-biographical account of nursing transformation: 1970-2018
- Authors: Ricks, Esmeralda Jennifer
- Subjects: Nursing -- Study and teaching , Nursing -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , An (auto)-biographical account of nursing transformation: 1970-2018 , Lectures
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/21055 , vital:29434
- Description: This lecture provides a description of how nursing education and practice, research and technology has transformed over the past 48 years. The information provided in this lecture is based on personal experience and own research, and research of various other authors. The first part of the lecture provides an overview of the era in which I trained and is used as a benchmark to compare current day practices. The changes in nursing education and practice with regard to the Nursing Act and regulations over the past 48 years are highlighted, depicting the number of times that the different nursing acts and regulations were amended with regard to all basic nursing qualification programmes. This lecture also includes a brief discussion of the new nursing education programme that will be implemented soon, as well as its opportunities and challenges. A detailed description is provided with regard to how nursing research has evolved over the past 48 years because of the dedication and vision that nurse leaders have for the profession. A national nursing strategy has been developed to enhance collaborative, rigorous scientific enquiry that builds a significant body of knowledge in order to improve the health of the people of South Africa. It is envisaged that the research strategy will contribute significantly to directing future nursing research development in South Africa. It is evident in this lecture that the use of technology in nursing has truly evolved and can be seen as a major driver of changes in the nursing profession. There are huge shifts in how patient records are maintained, how medications are tracked and ordered, how care is passed from one provider to another, how blood and X-ray results are retrieved and how information is being accessed at the point of care in nursing. In today’s healthcare system technology is the foundation of the future. Today’s nurses must not only know how to care for patients, but how to use technology safely and appropriately in their day-to-day work. It is evident that nursing has transformed in many ways since 1970 and that nurses have always been the drivers of nursing transformation.
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Arsenic in the boardroom: strategies to deal with toxic leaders
- Authors: Mey, Michelle
- Subjects: Bullying in the workplace , Psychology, Industrial
- Language: English
- Type: text , Lectures
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/20945 , vital:29421
- Description: Effective leaders are critical in building successful organisations, communities and nations. Whilst academia and business alike advocate positive organisational psychology and the development of positive leadership, the sad reality is that there is a growing global prevalence of toxic leadership, with research indicating that between 20% and 60% of leaders may be defined as toxic (Veldsman, 2016). While toxic leaders, who initially come across as charming, confident and persuasive, may be effective in achieving organisational objectives in the short term, the long-term consequences can be devastating to the organisational brand and reputation, as well as to the morale and psyche of its members. Even though toxic leaders and bullies are becoming increasingly prevalent in organisations there is a lack of empirical research on workplace bullying.
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Cinnamoyl-Oxaborole Amides: Synthesis and Their in Vitro Biological Activity.
- Authors: Gumbo, Maureen , Beteck, Richard M , Mandizvo, Tawanda , Seldon, Ronnett , Warner, Digby F , Hoppe, Heinrich C , Isaacs, Michelle , Laming, Dustin , Tam, Christina C , Cheng, Luisa W , Liu, Nicole , Land, Kirkwood , Khanye, Setshaba D
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/122879 , vital:35362 , https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules23082038
- Description: Due to the increased interest in their application in the treatment of infectious diseases, boron-containing compounds have received a significant coverage in the literature. Herein, a small set of novel cinnamoly-oxaborole amides were synthesized and screened against nagana Trypanosoma brucei brucei for antitrypanosomal activity. Compound 5g emerged as a new hit with an in vitro IC50 value of 0.086 μM against T. b. brucei without obvious inhibitory activity against HeLa cell lines. The same series was also screened against other human pathogens, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), for which moderate to weak activity (10 to >125 μM) was observed. Similarly, these compounds exhibited moderate activity against the human protozoal pathogen Trichomonas vaginalis with no observed effect on common microbiome bacterial species. The cross-species inhibitory activity presents the possibility of these compounds serving as broad-spectrum antibiotics for these prevalent three human pathogens.
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Happiness: a business model
- Authors: Cullen, Margaret
- Subjects: Happiness , f-sa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Lectures
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/20956 , vital:29422
- Description: The concept of happiness might appear elusive. It has been extensively analysed by philosophers and historians, who agree that the concept of happiness in antiquity centered on good luck and fortune. Something beyond human agency and therefore controlled by the Gods (McMahon, 2006).Today, happiness is viewed as something over which you can have control and something that can be pursued (Oishi, 2012).
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Novobiocin–ferrocene conjugates possessing anticancer and antiplasmodial activity independent of HSP90 inhibition.
- Authors: Mbaba, Mziyanda , de la Mare, Jo-Anne , Sterrenberg, Jason N , Kajewole, Deborah , Maharaj, Shantal , Edkins, Adrienne L , Isaacs, Michelle , Hoppe, Heinrich C , Khanye, Setshaba D
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/122858 , vital:35359 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s00775-018-1634-9
- Description: A series of tailored novobiocin–ferrocene conjugates was prepared in moderate yields and investigated for in vitro anticancer and antiplasmodial activity against the MDA-MB-231 breast cancer line and Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 strain, respectively. While the target compounds displayed moderate anticancer activity against the breast cancer cell line with IC50 values in the mid-micromolar range, compounds 10a–c displayed promising antiplasmodial activity as low as 0.889 µM. Furthermore, the most promising compounds were tested for inhibitory effects against a postulated target, heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90).
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The Plastic University: Knowledge, Disciplines and Decolonial 'Circulations'
- Authors: Keet, Andre
- Subjects: Critical pedagogy , Transformative learning , f-sa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Lectures
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/21077 , vital:29436
- Description: The university is as plastic as the social figure of ‘Mandela’ after whom it is named. It is as plastic as the globe and its humanity in whose name it exists. And, it is as plastic as the human subject that is ‘perpetually called on to reconfigure itself in relation to the artefacts of the age’, as Mbembe2 argues in Critique of Black Reason. The very nature of addressing, of writing … of inaugurating … oneself, through an address is an act of reconfiguration, of responding to an artefact of the university and the professoriate. It is, when all is said and done, a performance, a performative act: declaring so and so a professor of this or that status, authorizing ‘it’ to utter something with some kind of formative force.
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