A dynamic approach to assess the International Criminal Court's performance in the Kenya cases
- Authors: Juma, Laurence , Khamala, C A
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/125241 , vital:35749 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-e9dcefddf
- Description: Victims of crimes against humanity perpetrated during Kenya’s post-2007 conflicts may feel aggrieved by the International Criminal Court’s discontinuance of all Kenya cases without having found the suspects either culpable or non-culpable. Neither did the suspects benefit from acquittals. Unprecedentedly, Ruto and Sang’s charges were vacated at half-time. Cases against other suspects were withdrawn. Given the circumstances which led to the ICC’s intervention in the Kenyan situation, this paper argues that in lieu of either quantitative or qualitative studies, arguments of various proxy approaches for evaluating judicial performance, are problematic. Neither judicial independence, rule-compliance, community of purpose, nor even institutional design, adequately measure judicial performance. Besides interrogating limitations of using such proxies, the paper appraises the merits of constructing a modified version of the goal-based approach. It will demonstrate that by incorporating both process-oriented as well as strategic constituency models, a more dynamic evaluative methodology can be developed for measuring the ICC’s performance in the Kenya cases.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
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
A netFlow scoring framework for incident detection
- Authors: Sweeney, Michael , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/428301 , vital:72501 , https://researchspace.csir.co.za/dspace/bitstream/handle/10204/9693/Sweeney_19662_2017.pdf?sequence=1andisAllowed=y
- Description: As networks have grown, so has the data available for monitoring and security purposes. This increase in volume has raised significant chal-lenges for administrators in terms of how to identify threats in amongst the large volumes of network traffic, a large part of which is often back-ground noise. In this paper we propose a framework for scoring and coding NetFlow data with security related information. The scores and codes are added through the application of a series of independent tests, each of which may flag some form of suspicious behaviour. The cumulative effect of the scoring and coding raises the more serious po-tential threats to the fore, allowing for quick and effective investigation or action. The framework is presented along with a description of an implementation and some findings that uncover potentially malicious network traffic.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
A perfect end: A study of syllable codas in South African Sign Language
- Authors: Köhlo, Mikhaela D.K. , Siebörger, Ian , Bennett, William G
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/385295 , vital:68005 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/splp/article/view/156629"
- Description: South African Sign Language (SASL) is an understudied language with a rich and interesting phonology. For instance, while the language allows onsetless syllables, it does not allow codaless syllables, except in a small class of signs which do not include path movement. This article identifies and defines possible constraints on syllable codas in SASL. Using a video dictionary as data, we have coded handshapes at locations occurring at the onset and coda of the more common signs in the lexicon. In handshape, it has been found that the selected fingers may move to create different handshapes in the coda position, but that these coda handshapes are often [1], [5], [A], [Å] or [S], which are the unmarked handshapes of the non-dominant hand in asymmetrical two-handed signs (Sandler and Lillo-Martin 2006). Furthermore, the joint specification for the selected fingers can also vary in the coda position, but there appear to be strict limitations on which joint combinations are permitted in the onset-coda relationship. There are also constraints on coda location. The major body region can change within a single syllable, and the preferred body regions in the coda position are [body] and [H2]. It is evident not only that handshape and location constraints occur at the coda position, but that these constraints show patterns similar to coda neutralisation in many spoken languages.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
A privacy and security threat assessment framework for consumer health wearables
- Authors: Mnjama, Javan , Foster, Greg , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/429217 , vital:72568 , https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8251776
- Description: Health data is important as it provides an individual with knowledge of the factors needed to be improved for oneself. The development of fitness trackers and their associated software aid consumers to understand the manner in which they may improve their physical wellness. These devices are capable of collecting health data for a consumer such sleeping patterns, heart rate readings or the number of steps taken by an individual. Although, this information is very beneficial to guide a consumer to a better healthier state, it has been identified that they have privacy and security concerns. Privacy and Security are of great concern for fitness trackers and their associated applications as protecting health data is of critical importance. This is so, as health data is one of the highly sort after information by cyber criminals. Fitness trackers and their associated applications have been identified to contain privacy and security concerns that places the health data of consumers at risk to intruders. As the study of Consumer Health continues to grow it is vital to understand the elements that are needed to better protect the health information of a consumer. This research paper therefore provides a conceptual threat assessment framework that can be used to identify the elements needed to better secure Consumer Health Wearables. These elements consist of six core elements from the CIA triad and Microsoft STRIDE framework. Fourteen vulnerabilities were further discovered that were classified within these six core elements. Through this, better guidance can be achieved to improve the privacy and security of Consumer Health Wearables.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
A record of cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) diet in the Northern Tuli Game Reserve, Botswana
- Authors: Craig, Christie A , Brassine, Eleanor I , Parker, Daniel M
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/123004 , vital:35395 , https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.12374
- Description: Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) typically prey upon the most available small to medium-sized (23–56 kg) antelope (Hayward et al., 2006). In Botswana, impala (Aepyceros melampus) and springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), followed by steenbok (Raphicerus campestris) and duiker (Sylvicapra grimmia), are the prey species most frequently killed by cheetahs (Klein, 2007). Juvenile eland (Tragelaphus oryx), gemsbok (Oryx gazella), hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus) and kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) are also taken (Klein, 2007). The Northern Tuli Game Reserve (NOTUGRE) in eastern Botswana is naturally delineated by the nonperennial Shashe and Limpopo rivers in the east and south and has relatively porous game fencing along portions of the western and southern boundaries (Fig. 1) (Jackson, McNutt & Apps, 2012). Neither the fences nor the rivers restrict the movement of large carnivores such as cheetahs, lions (Panthera leo), leopards (Panthera pardus), spotted hyaenas (Crocuta crocuta) and African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) onto neighbouring pastoral land (Jackson, McNutt & Apps, 2012). It is thus possible that cheetahs are feeding on livestock outside of the park. However, the diet of the cheetahs in NOTUGRE has not been evaluated. Our study serves to describe the diet of the cheetahs in NOTUGRE using both scats and kill sightings.
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- Date Issued: 2017
A symmoriiform chondrichthyan braincase and the origin of chimaeroid fishes
- Authors: Coates, Michael I , Gess, Robert W , Finarelli, John A , Surname, Name - one for each creator , Criswell, Katharine E , Tietjen, Kristen
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/72246 , vital:30021 , https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20806
- Description: Chimaeroid fishes (Holocephali) are one of the four principal divisions of modern gnathostomes (jawed vertebrates). Despite only 47 described living species1, chimaeroids are the focus of resurgent interest as potential archives of genomic data2 and for the unique perspective they provide on chondrichthyan and gnathostome ancestral conditions. Chimaeroids are also noteworthy for their highly derived body plan1,3,4. However, like other living groups with distinctive anatomies5, fossils have been of limited use in unravelling their evolutionary origin, as the earliest recognized examples already exhibit many of the specializations present in modern forms6,7. Here we report the results of a computed tomography analysis of Dwykaselachus, an enigmatic chondrichthyan braincase from the ~280 million year old Karoo sediments of South Africa8. Externally, the braincase is that of a symmoriid shark9,10,11,12,13and is by far the most complete uncrushed example yet discovered. Internally, the morphology exhibits otherwise characteristically chimaeroid specializations, including the otic labyrinth arrangement and the brain space configuration relative to exceptionally large orbits. These results have important implications for our view of modern chondrichthyan origins, add robust structure to the phylogeny of early crown group gnathostomes, reveal preconditions that suggest an initial morpho-functional basis for the derived chimaeroid cranium, and shed new light on the chondrichthyan response to the extinction at the end of the Devonian period.
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- Date Issued: 2017
A2B type copper (III) corroles containing zero-to-five fluorine atoms
- Authors: Li, Minzhi , Niu, Yingjie , Zhu, Weihua , Mack, John , Fomo, Gertrude , Nyokong, Tebello , Liang, Xu
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/238275 , vital:50604 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dyepig.2016.10.044"
- Description: Four low symmetric A2B meso-substituted Cu(III)corroles with electron withdrawing meso-aryl rings have been synthesized and characterized. A detailed analysis of the optical and redox properties has been carried out by comparing their optical spectroscopy, electrochemistry and spectroelectrochemistry to a series of DFT and TD-DFT calculations. A series of experiments demonstrate that these Cu(III)corroles can be used as highly effective catalysts for hydrogen evolution reactions (HERs). Moreover, when the number of fluorine atoms at B meso-position is increased, there is a marked enhancement in the catalytic ability of the corrole complexes, which demonstrates that modification to the structures of low symmetry corroles is a useful strategy for developing new HER catalysts.
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- Date Issued: 2017
Abortion in legal, social, and healthcare contexts
- Authors: Marecek, Jeanne , Macleod, Catriona I , Hoggart, Lesley
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68478 , vital:29262 , https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353516689521
- Description: Publisher version , From Introduction: The subject of abortion is both timely and of high relevance to feminists. In the past few months, women’s access to abortion has been contested in various parts of the world. In many countries in Latin America, the Zika outbreak raised the demand for abortions among pregnant women who had contracted (or feared contracting) the virus, with its risk of severe foetal abnormalities. In Poland, mass demonstrations by women succeeded in turning back proposed legislation prohibiting abortions. The outcome of the U.S. elections in late 2016 raised grave concerns about the future of American women’s access to abortion, which was already limited by stringent regulations and funding restrictions. We chose the title ‘‘Abortion in Context’’ to signal that we sought to publish work that moved beyond examining abortion as a ‘‘stress experience’’ encountered by individual women or as a possible precursor of mental illness. Our goal was to assemble a set of articles that would prompt readers to think critically about practices and discourses surrounding abortion. We further hoped to include work that would address the meanings and practices of abortion in the global South and among minoritized groups in the global North. We were pleased by the enthusiastic response to our Call for Papers. We note that Eklund and Purewal (2017, this issue) address abortion in China and India. Thoradeniya’s (2017, this issue) review of Abortion in Asia (Whittaker, 2010) provides a glimpse of the complex and varied practices, policies, and experiences of abortion in parts of South and Southeast Asia. Chiweshe, Mavuso, and Macleod (whose work will appear in Part 2 of the Special Issue) take up abortion in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Le Grice and Braun (whose work will also appear in Part 2), examine Maori perspectives on abortion. In this Part 1 of the Special Issue, we present work that locates abortion practices and policies in legal, social, and healthcare contexts. Women’s efforts to exercise agency with regard to bodily integrity in the context of pregnancy are shaped most obviously by the legal regulations in the jurisdictions where they live, but they are also shaped by social and cultural issues, biotechnological advances, and healthcare systems. The articles offer detailed examinations of some of these complex contextual framings of abortion.
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- Date Issued: 2017
Abundance, population structure and harvesting selection of two palm species (Hyphaene coriacea and Phoenix reclinata) in Zitundo area, southern Mozambique
- Authors: Martins, Angelina R O , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182003 , vital:43789 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2017.05.005"
- Description: In southern Mozambique, the sap and leaves of the palms Hyphaene coriacea and Phoenix reclinata are harvested by local people as sources of traditional beverages, weaving, roofing, fencing and furniture material. The harvesting of these palm products may affect palm population structure, dynamics and viability. This work evaluates the abundance, population structure and harvesting selection of these two heavily harvested palm species. Hyphaene coriacea was more abundant, with a mean density of 601.5 ± 455.9 stems ha−1 against the 251.9 ± 527.3 stems ha−1 of Phoenix reclinata. Both species exhibited steeper negative slopes in the regression analyses of the size class distribution, indicating the presence of more individuals in smaller size classes. Although there was a dominance of shorter over taller size classes, limited recruitment was observed through low densities of seedling and juvenile size classes compared to the size class 1–50 cm. The Simpson index of dominance, the permutation index, and the fluctuating quotients between the consecutive size classes showed a degree of instability in both populations. Hyphaene coriacea appears to be more resilient to tapping than Phoenix reclinata, evident in the higher rate of stem survival after tapping. Hyphaene coriacea is favored for tapping compared to Phoenix reclinata. Tappers exhibited positive selection for five out of the six Hyphaene coriacea size classes, against only one Phoenix reclinata size class. The most preferred size class to tap for both species was between 101 cm and 150 cm tall. The instability detected by the indices of population stability, the coincidence between the size classes with high numbers of dead stems and the most preferred and the low level of the sexual reproduction encountered in both population emphasizes the need for long-term monitoring as well as management measures that integrate the resource users, to ensure the long-term sustainability of these populations.
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- Date Issued: 2017
Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Authors: Walker, Roderick B
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/184768 , vital:44270 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-98c37d47c"
- Description: It is an honour and a pleasure to report on the activities of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences since the PSSA AGM in 2016. The Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa (APSSA) held their 37th Annual Conference and 38th Annual General Meeting at the All African Congress on Pharmacology and Pharmacy. The conference was jointly organised by the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences of South Africa (APSSA), the South African Society for Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (SASBCP) on behalf of Pharmacology for Africa (Pharfa) and the Toxicology Society of South Africa (ToxSA). The annual APSSA conference was hosted by the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tshwane University of Technology under the leadership of Dr Ilze Vermaak and was held from 5-8 October 2016 at Misty Hills Conference Centre, situated close to the Cradle of Humankind.
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- Date Issued: 2017
Addressing constraints in promoting wild edible plants’ utilization in household nutrition: case of the Congo Basin forest area
- Authors: Ngome, Precillia Ijang Tata , Shackleton, Charlie M , Degrande, Anne , Tieguhong, Julius Chupezi
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60822 , vital:27836 , DOI 10.1186/s40066-017-0097-5
- Description: It is worth raising the question, why are wild edible plants (WEPs) which are rich in diverse nutrients and widely abundant underutilized despite the increasing rate of undernourishment in poor regions? One reason is that their culinary uses are not quantified and standardized in nutrition surveys, and therefore, they are not properly included in household diet intensification and diversification across regions and cultures. Active steps are needed to bridge this gap. This paper outlines the constraints to including WEPs in nutritional surveys as the lack of standard ways of food identification of diverse WEPs, lack of specific food categorization and therefore difficult dissemination across regions and cultures. As a way forward, a functional categorization of 11 subgroups for WEPs is introduced and discussed. In labeling these sub-food groups, the paper advocates that more WEPs food items and culinary uses should be enlisted during household nutrition surveys. Food researchers could then capitalize these enlisted species and disseminate them to promote diverse food use of WEPs in other regions where they exist but are not utilized as food.
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- Date Issued: 2017
Aesthetic and spiritual ecosystem services provided by urban sacred sites
- Authors: De Lacy, Peter J G , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60919 , vital:27891 , http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su9091628
- Description: The range and use of ecosystem services provided by urban sacred sites has hardly been considered in studies of urban ecology, sustainability and human wellbeing. This paper examines the perceived ecosystem services supplied by green spaces or gardens associated with places of religious worship and appreciated by worshippers in a mid-sized town in South Africa. A questionnaire with open, closed and Likert scale questions was administered at 30 places of worship (25 with gardens and five without). Respondents identified a wide diversity of ecosystem services provided by gardens, with social ones being more recognized than ecological, and economic services the least. Approximately two-thirds of respondents visited a sacred site garden weekly or more often. The majority of respondents (96%) felt that a garden was necessary because it added to their feelings of connection with God, or helped them relax and so be better able to concentrate, and 54% stated that a garden enhanced their overall spiritual experience. Regression analysis revealed that aesthetic appreciation of a garden was significantly related to woody plant species richness, number and basal area in the garden. On the other hand, spiritual experience was positively related to woody plant basal area, but not species richness nor tree number. Neither size of the garden, nor number of years the respondents had been vising a particular sacred site had any influence on the rated spiritual or aesthetic experiences. These results reveal the widely appreciated ecosystem services provided by urban sacred spaces and their centrality in enhancing spiritual satisfaction for some.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
African transnationalism in China: at the interface of local, transnational, bilateral and multilateral responses
- Authors: Bischoff, Paul, 1954-
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/161522 , vital:40635 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1177/0021909615623809
- Description: The growing presence of a diversifying group of Africans in China raises broader issues of their status and permanence. The politics associated with African transnationalism in China are evident in Chinese and African government responses and the transnational African voice. This article looks at facets of an African transnational presence and some key responses at a local, international and transnational level to suggest an evolving state of Sino-African relations in which African multilateralism and the transnational African actor play a greater part.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Alex Baine's women's emancipation in Uganda: a visual archive of the history of a new generation of women in Uganda
- Authors: Tumusiime, Amanda
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145631 , vital:38453 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1162/AFAR_a_00344
- Description: Alex Baine is a contemporary Ugandan woman artist who graduated from the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Art (or MTSIFA) in 1989. During her final year, she painted a large work, Women's Emancipation in Uganda (Fig. 1) (1989), in which she represented women in domestic and nondomestic (conventional and unconventional) economies, spaces, and histories. Baine has not produced any other painting since her graduation. It is evident that Baine's art career, like those of several other female graduates of the Art School, has been interrupted by many issues including family, business, further education, and diversion into other professions. However, in this article I acknowledge that she championed women's emancipation in Uganda's contemporary art in the 1980s, a debate that I trace in her work.
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- Date Issued: 2017
Alice in Wonderland: translating to read across Africa
- Authors: Kaschula, Russell H
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/174901 , vital:42520 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2016.1160827
- Description: This article comments on various translation strategies aiming at equivalence used by translators when reworking Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland into nine African languages. The back translations provided by the translators form the basis for the discussion [Lindseth, Jon, ed. 2015. Alice in a World of Wonderlands. Volume 1: Essays. Delaware: Oak Knoll Press]. This article provides examples and discussion of how African language translators deviated from the original text and it analyses the possible reasons for doing so, both linguistic and socio-cultural. The way in which translators created an African voice in the target languages is discussed by analysing their reflective essays and back translations.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Allosteric modulation of conformational dynamics in human Hsp90α: a computational study
- Authors: Penkler, David L , Atilgan, Canan , Tastan Bishop, Özlem
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68531 , vital:29276 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/198341
- Description: Central to Hsp90’s biological function is its ability to interconvert between various conformational states. Drug targeting of Hsp90’s regulatory mechanisms, including its modulation by co-chaperone association, presents as an attractive therapeutic strategy for Hsp90 associated pathologies. Here, we utilize homology modeling techniques to calculate full-length structures of human Hsp90α in closed and partially-open conformations. Atomistic simulations of these structures demonstrated that bound ATP stabilizes the dimer by ‘tensing’ each protomer, while ADP and apo configurations ‘relax’ the complex by increasing global flexibility. Dynamic residue network analysis revealed regions of the protein involved in intra-protein communication, and identified several overlapping key communication hubs that correlate with known functional sites. Perturbation response scanning analysis identified several potential residue sites capable of modulating conformational change in favour of interstate conversion. For the ATP-bound open conformation, these sites were found to overlap with known Aha1 and client binding sites, demonstrating how naturally occurring forces associated with co-factor binding could allosterically modulate conformational dynamics.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
An analysis on the re-emergence of SQL Slammer worm using network telescope data
- Authors: Chindipha, Stones, D , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/428326 , vital:72503 , https://researchspace.csir.co.za/dspace/bitstream/handle/10204/9705/Chindipha_19658_2017.pdf?sequence=1ansisAllowed=y
- Description: The SQL Slammer worm is a self propagated computer virus that caused a denial of service on some Internet hosts and dramatically slowed down general Internet traffic. An observation of network traffic captured in the Rhodes University’s network telescopes shows that traf-fic observed in it shows an escalation in the number of packets cap-tured by the telescopes between January 2014 and December 2016 when the expected traffic was meant to take a constant decline in UDP packets from port 1434. Using data captured over a period of 84 months, the analysis done in this study identified top ten /24 source IP addresses that Slammer worm repeatedly used for this attack together with their geolocation. It also shows the trend of UDP 1434 packets re-ceived by the two network telescopes from January 2009 to December 2015. In line with epidemic model, the paper has shown how this traffic fits in as SQL Slammer worm attack. Consistent number of packets ob-served in the two telescopes between 2014 and 2016 shows qualities of the Slammer worm attack. Basic time series and decomposition of additive time series graphs have been used to show trend and ob-served UDP packets over the time frame of study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
An IMS subscriber location function for OpenBaton—A standards based MANO environment
- Authors: Tsietsi, Mosiuoa , Chindeka, Tapiwa , Terzoli, Alfredo
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/430567 , vital:72700 , 10.1109/AFRCON.2017.8095600
- Description: In the past, virtualisation, and with it the move toward the cloud, has had a strong influence on the ICT (Information Communication Technology) sector, and now seems set to revolutionise the telecommunications sector as well. The virtualisation into software artefacts of functions that would usually be deployed as hardware has come to be known as Net-work Function Virtualisation (NFV), and the European Telecommunica-tions Standards Institute (ETSI) through its MANO (Management and Orchestration) framework has outlined comprehensively how such functions could be orchestrated and managed over infrastructure such as the cloud. A set of functions of particular interest are the call session control functions (CSCFs) and HSS (Home Subscriber Server) of the IP Multimedia System (IMS) which perform signalling and authentication functions for multimedia calls in contexts such as Voice over LTE (VoLTE). IMS has enjoyed significant focus in the past from the re-search community, as such an implementation of an IMS service pack-age has been provided in an open source MANO-compliant implemen-tation called OpenBaton. While the service package provides the IMS CSCFs and HSS, it does not include a Subscriber Location Function (SLF) which provides a mapping function to map a subscriber identity to a hosting HSS. The SLF is an important element for building distributed networks that partition user data into multiple databases, and as such represents a useful inclusion to the developer community. This paper describes an extension to the OpenBaton service package that in-cludes an SLF for partitioning large user populations across multiple HSSes and resolving individual addresses in real-time.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
An update on the management of breast cancer in Africa
- Authors: Vanderpuye, V , Grover, S , Hammad, N , Prabhakar, Pooja , Simonds, H , Olopade, F , Stefan, D C
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Africa Cancer--Treatment
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/6048 , vital:45108 , DOI 10.1186/s13027-017-0124-y
- Description: There is limited information about the challenges of cancer management and attempts at improving outcomes in Africa. Even though South and North Africa are better resourceds to tackle the burden of breast cancer, similar poor prognostic factors are common to all countries. The five-year overall Survival rate for breast cancer patients does not exceed 60% for any low and middle-income country (LMIC) in Africa. In spite of the gains achieved over the past decade, certain characteristics remain the same such as limited availability of breast conservation therapies, inadequate access to drugs, few oncology specialists and adherence to harmful socio-cultural practices. This review on managing breast cancer in Africa is authored by African oncologists who practice or collaborate in Africa and with hands-on experience with the realities. A search was performed via electronic databases from 1999 to 2016. (PubMed/Medline, African Journals Online) for all literature in English or translated into English, covering the terms "breast cancer in Africa and developing countries". One hundred ninety were deemed appropriate. Breast tumors are diagnosed at earlier ages and later stages than in highincome countries. There is a higher prevalence of triple-negative cancers. The limitations of poor nursing care and surgery, inadequate access to radiotherapy, poor availability of basic and modern systemic therapies translate into lower survival rate. Positive strides in breast cancer management in Africa include increased adaptation of treatment guidelines, improved pathology services including immuno-histochemistry, expansion and upgrading of radiotherapy equipment across the continent in addition to more research opportunities. This review is an update of the management of breast cancer in Africa, taking a look at the epidemiology, pathology, management resources, outcomes, research and limitations in Africa from the perspective of oncologists with local experience.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017