Ethics-oriented learning in environmental education workplaces: An activity theory approach
- Authors: Olvitt, Lausanne L
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/370961 , vital:66398 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122874"
- Description: In the context of increasing national and global environmental challenges and their implications for the working world, new ethics and practices are being introduced into workplaces that take better account of socio-ecological relations. Little is understood, however, about the nature of ethics-oriented workplace learning. Drawing on Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), which enables historically and contextually situated relational perspectives to emerge, this paper explores contradictions in the activity systems of two young environmental education learner-practitioners struggling to engage with the ethical dimensions of their professional work and the professional development course they are studying. The study focuses in particular on the environmental values and ethics component of their course – a year-long Learnership in Environmental Education, Training and Development Practices (EETDP). The paper reflects how tensions and contradictions within and between the interacting activity systems of the workplace, the course, and its regulating qualifications authority influence the teaching and learning of the environmental ethics component of the course. Ethics-oriented teaching and learning processes are found to be strongly influenced by the ‘rules’ and ‘mediating tools’ of these interacting systems, but these are often at odds with the ethical perspectives, socio-cultural context and skills of the ‘subject’ and ‘community’. These systemic contradictions can be more fully understood when their cultural and historical origins are made explicit. The analytical process has led to a more nuanced understanding of ethics-oriented teaching and learning in a workplace-based course, and has revealed several areas needing more careful research (particularly the area of environmental discourses) and the explicit and implicit language of ethics.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Extending Java’s communication mechanisms for multicore processors
- Authors: Wells, George C
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/430526 , vital:72697 , https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1type=pdfdoi=4068ed60c317e81dc70288cf36ff586dc057233f
- Description: With the current trend towards the increased use of multicore proces-sors, there is a growing need for simple, efficient parallel programming mechanisms. While Java has good support for multithreaded and dis-tributed application development, our research into tuple-space systems for multicore processors highlighted a gap in the concurrency facilities available in Java. This arises in the context of independent applications (running in separate virtual machines) that need to synchronise their ac-tivities or communicate with each other. There are several possible solu-tions to this problem, ranging from extensions to the language and/or runtime environment through to the use of distributed programming methods. Using the latter introduces considerable performance over-heads, and so we explored the use of the Java Native Interface in order to take advantage of the interprocess communication (IPC) facilities pro-vided by the underlying operating system. The analysis and comparison of the performance of the standard approaches and our prototype library suggest that there are real benefits to be gained by alternative ap-proaches to the provision of IPC mechanisms for independent Java programs executing on multicore systems. We hope that these findings will spur further investigation of this problem and other possible solu-tions.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Fabrication and characterization of single walled carbon nanotubes-iron phthalocyanine nano-composite
- Authors: Akinbulu, Isaac A , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/262622 , vital:53537 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1039/C0NJ00395F"
- Description: Nano-composite of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and iron phthalocyanine, peripherally tetra-substituted with diethylaminoethanethiol (complex 2), was fabricated and characterized by infra red (IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TEM technique gave a convincing image of the nano-composite. Self-assembled monolayer (SAM) film of the composite (SWCNT-2-SAM) was formed on gold electrode. Its surface properties were investigated, relative to that of 2-SAM film, by cyclic voltammetry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry, using [Fe(CN)6]3− as redox probe, were used to investigate the dynamics of electron transport in the SWCNT-2-SAM film. Lower charge transfer resistance, RCT, of the SWCNT-2-SAM modified Au electrode, relative to that of the 2-SAM modified Au electrode, was an indication of enhanced electron transport in the presence of SWCNT. The SAM film of the nano-composite showed better electrocatalytic behaviour, relative to that of 2-SAM film, towards the oxidation of the insecticide, carbofuran. The electrode (SWCNT-2-SAM) showed good selectivity for carbofuran, in the presence of diazinon (a non-electroactive interferent) and at lower concentration of the electroactive interferents (chlorpyrifos and dichlorfos).
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- Date Issued: 2010
Facile electrocatalytic oxidation of diuron on polymerized nickel hydroxo tetraamino-phthalocyanine modified glassy carbon electrodes
- Authors: Mugadza, Tawanda , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/261269 , vital:53379 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2010.02.037"
- Description: The facile electro-oxidation of diuron occurred at a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with polymerized nickel tetraamino-phthalocyanine (NiTAPc), containing O–Ni–O bridges represented as poly-Ni(OH)TAPc-GCE. The oxidation of diuron occurred at a potential which is 60 mV less than that of poly-NiTAPc (without O–Ni–O bridges) and was accompanied by enhanced catalytic currents. The catalytic rate constant and the diffusion constant were found to be 5.91 × 102 mol−1 L s−1 and 6.43 × 10−6 cm2 s−1, respectively. The linear concentration range of diuron was 3.0 × 10−5 to 3.5 × 10−4 mol L−1 with a limit of detection (LOD) of 3.3 × 10−7 mol L−1 (3δ notation) and a sensitivity of 12.9 A mol−1 L cm−2.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Factors affecting recapture rates of raggedtooth sharks Carcharias taurus tagged off the east coast of South Africa
- Authors: Dicken, Matthew L , Booth, Anthony J , Smale, Malcolm J
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124493 , vital:35618 , https://doi.10.2989/AJMS.2009.31.3.9.997
- Description: Understanding differences in the recapture rate between different tags (A-, B- and C-types), capture methods (rock-and-surf anglers, scientific divers and Natal Sharks Board protection nets) and life-history stages (juvenile and adult) is critical in evaluating the results obtained from cooperative tagging programmes (CTPs). A generalised linear modelling approach, using a log-linear model, was used to determine significant differences in the probability of recapture between these various factors using data from the Oceanographic Research Institute and Port Elizabeth Museum CTPs. Between 1984 and 2004, a total of 3 385 raggedtooth sharks Carcharias taurus was tagged by volunteers from both programmes along the east coast of South Africa. A likelihood ratio test indicated significant differences in the probability of recapture between A- and C-type and B- and C-type tags (p < 0.01), between different capture methods (p < 0.05) and between juvenile and adult sharks (p < 0.01). A comparison of recapture rates between members of the CTPs also indicated a marked variability in the performance of individual taggers. The study highlights important data-quality issues inherent in large CTPs.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Fashionably ethnic
- Authors: Krueger, Anton
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/229567 , vital:49688 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1013929X.2010.9678333"
- Description: This essay highlights a shift in South African literature towards ideals of individualism and explores some of the paradoxes inherent in the competing claims of individuality and heritage. The characters created by Greig Coetzee in Happy Natives are examined as examples of identities constructed in terms of tradition, function and indoctrination. The comic potential of these incongruent identity constructions is then elaborated by means of Henri Bergson’s description of the humour arising from an inability to adapt to changing fashions. Ultimately, appeals towards tradition and individuality begin to look like similar proposals.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Fluorescence quenching and energy transfer in conjugates of quantum dots with zinc and indium tetraamino phthalocyanines
- Authors: Britton, Jonathan , Antunes, Edith M , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/262638 , vital:53539 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphotochem.2009.12.013"
- Description: CdTe QDs capped with mercapto propionic acid (MPA) and thioglycolic acid (TGA) were covalently linked to zinc and indium tetraaminophthalocyanines (TAPcs) using N-ethyl-N(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDC) and N-hydroxy succinimide (NHS) as the coupling agents. The results presented give evidence in favour of formation of an amide bond between the MTAPc and CdTe QDs. Both the linked ZnTAPc–QD complexes and the mixture of QDs and ZnTAPc (without chemical linking) showed Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET), whereas the QD interactions with InTAPc yielded no evidence of FRET. Both MTAPcs quenched the QDs emission, with quenching constants of the order of 103–104 M−1. High energy transfer efficiencies were obtained in some cases (as high as 93%), due to the low donor to acceptor distances.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Gaming culture: what lessons for pedagogy in South Africa?
- Authors: Kaschula, Russell H , Mostert, Andre
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/175189 , vital:42551 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC30895
- Description: Gaming culture is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. Whereas before it was the reserve of those who were prepared to invest in the latest gaming hardware, increasingly powerful entry level machines coupled with more powerful mobile technologies are impacting on how young learners and students assimilate information. This evolving characteristic exhibited by the learners across South Africa must generate a serious reflection of education and training methodologies. Historically, education structures have been slow to embrace the changes that are imperative if the products of the process are to be adequately prepared for the future that faces them. One of the most telling realities of the modern era, or the planetary phase as it is now being tagged, is rapid change. The question that all educators need to ask is 'how is my pedagogic approach evolving'?.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Global resonance, local amplification: Antjie Krog on a world stage
- Authors: Garman, Anthea
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/159736 , vital:40338 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02533950903562468
- Description: As a result of the publication of Country of my Skull, an extraordinary literary enactment of witness and confession, Antjie Krog has become internationally known as a writer profoundly engaged with the events and human drama uncovered by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Her voice is read as that of an expert witness of trauma, forgiveness and the means by which the horrors of the past may be addressed. In seeking to understand how Krog came to be taken up internationally as a representative voice of the South African transition, I focus on a particular global–local nexus for an explanation. I theorise that dealing with the past via truth commissions, a global publishing context and the work of a local writer with a record of excellent literary output and political action enabled a fit which resulted in Krog coming to prominence on a world stage.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Google docs and skype for a low bandwidth virtual classroom for developing countries
- Authors: Thinyane, Hannah , Mufeti, Tulimevava K , Terzoli, Alfredo , Wright, Madeleine
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/430757 , vital:72713 , https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5753006
- Description: There has been much attention recently on the use of virtual class-rooms to support distance learning. However, the required real-time and high-rate transfers for multimedia contents such as video and audio that comprise most off-the-shelf virtual classrooms make them infeasible for developing countries where bandwidth is typically more restricted. This paper describes the findings of an ongoing investigation to develop a low bandwidth virtual classroom that can provide the necessary func-tionality to deliver courses to distant students. By combining Google Docs and Skype, we realised a low bandwidth virtual classroom alterna-tive that could provide adequate functionality within our teaching con-text.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Government failure and state incapacity: the South African public sector in the 1990s
- Authors: Dollery, Brian , Snowball, Jeanette D
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71343 , vital:29835 , https://doi.org/10.1080/10113430309511164
- Description: In their editorial introduction to the 1994 Special Issue of the South African Journal of Economic History devoted to a sectoral analysis of the South African economy during the 1980s, Stuart Jones and Jon Inggs described this period as a "lost decade", with per capita incomes even lower in 1990 than they had been in 1980. Moreover, "no other Western country experienced a comparable decline in the 1980s and South Africa herself had never experienced anything like it since the formation of Union in 1910". Thus, from the perspective of economic growth, the decade of the 1990s could not have had a less auspicious beginning.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Growth and longevity of Exosphaeroma hylocoetes (Isopoda) under varying conditions of salinity and temperature
- Authors: Henninger, Tony O , Froneman, P William , Booth, Anthony J , Hodgson, Alan N
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124571 , vital:35630 , https://doi.org/10.3377/004.045.0118
- Description: Numerous studies have documented the importance of both temperature and salinity in influencing aquatic crustacean metabolic processes such as respiration and growth. For example, increased water temperatures have been shown to increase respiration rates in various species of shrimp (Chen & Nan 1993; Spanonopoulos-Hernándeza et al. 2005; Allan et al. 2006), and copepods (Isla & Perissinotto 2004). The response of invertebrates to changes in salinity is more complex, largely reflecting their evolutionary origins (Kinne 1966). For example, juvenile blue swimming crabs, Portunus pelagicus, displayed significantly faster growth and higher survival in response to increasingsalinity (Romano & Zeng 2006). Additional factors that may influence the growth rates of crustaceans include photoperiod (Gambardella et al. 1997), food availability (Shuster & Guthrie 1999) and sex (Newman et al. 2007).
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- Date Issued: 2010
Growth, reproduction and population structure of Diplotaxodon limnothrissa in the southeast arm of Lake Malawi
- Authors: Kanyerere, Geoffrey Z , Weyl, Olaf L F , Booth, Anthony J
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124583 , vital:35633 , https://doi.org/10.2989/16085910509503832
- Description: With a surface area of ca 28 800km2, Lake Malawi (9°30’S–14°30’S) is the second largest of the African Rift Valley lakes, supporting at least 500, and possibly 2 000, fish species (Turner 1995). The ichthyofauna is dominated by haplochomine cichlids, most of which are confined to the demersal and littoral zones. As a result of over-fishing, the abundance of many of these species has declined (Turner 1994a, 1995, Bulirani et al. 1999, Allison et al. 2002). In contrast, the lake’s offshore fish stocks are considered to be unexploited or only lightly exploited (Thompson and Allison 1997, Turner et al. 2000) and the redirection of fishing effort to these stocks is a high priority (Thompson and Allison 1997, Turner et al. 2000, Allison et al. 2002). Consequently, the Malawi government is currently collaborating with the African Development Bank to develop the deepwater/ offshore fishery in order to increase yields by an estimated 11 000 tons (MC Banda, National Research co-ordinator, pers. comm.). The most abundant cichlid species in the pelagic zone is the small (<210mm TL) zooplanktivorous Diplotaxodon limnothrissa (Turner 1994, Thompson and Allison 1997). It has been recorded throughout the lake at depths ranging from 20 metres down to the anoxic zone at ca 220 metres (Turner 1994b, Thompson et al. 1996, Duponchelle et al. 2000a) and it makes up ca 52% to the total fish biomass (Thompson and Allison 1997). Diplotaxodon limnothrissa will therefore be a major target species in the pelagic fishery, and already comprises in excess of 50% of the mid-water trawl fishery in the southeast arm (SEA) of the lake (Turner 1996).
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- Date Issued: 2010
Handspring Puppet Company, Jane Taylor (Ed.)
- Authors: Krueger, Anton
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/229658 , vital:49697 , xlink:href="https://0hdl.handle.net.wam.seals.ac.za/10520/EJC31088"
- Description: Handspring Puppet Company recently won three prestigious London awards (including the Olivier) for their design of the production War Horse, which is still running to great acclaim in the West End. This beautiful book has been released at exactly the right time, at a highpoint of an extraordinary company which has been producing astonishing work for 28 years already. It is an appropriate celebration of their many marvellous designs for 11 plays and two operas.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Hipper redacted:
- Authors: Jamal, Ashraf
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147902 , vital:38683 , DOI: 10.1080/02560046.2010.511888
- Description: The work of contemporary South African artist, mark Hipper, has been dogged by controversy.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Histological validation of gonadal macroscopic staging criteria for Labeo cylindricus (Pisces: Cyprinidae)
- Authors: Booth, Anthony J , Weyl, Olaf L F
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124593 , vital:35634 , https://doi.org/10.1080/15627020.2000.11657094
- Description: Histological examination of gametogenesis revealed that the current staging criteria used to assess gonadal recrudescence of the redeye labeo, Labeo cylindricus, were adequate. Gametogenesis was qualitatively similar to that of freshwater teleosts with a clearly defined seasonal reproductive cycle. L. cylindricus undergoes seasonal gross morphological and cytological gonadal changes with previtellogenesis dominating during the winter, vitellogenic development during spring and summer culminating in large-scale spawning at the end of summer. Post-spawning mass atresia of oocytes was evident in autumn. The histological data presented support macroscopical evidence that L. cylindricus is a synchronous iteroparous spawner, reproducing over a short period each year throughout its life-span.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Human impacts on hydrological health and the provision of ecosystemservices: a case study of the eMthonjeni–Fairview Spring Wetland, Grahamstown, South Africa
- Authors: Sinchembe, M , Ellery, William F N
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144343 , vital:38337 , DOI: 10.2989/16085914.2010.538508
- Description: Wetland hydrological health and the provision of indirect ecosystem services in the eMthonjeni–Fairview Spring Wetland, Grahamstown, South Africa, were assessed in 2008, using the newly developed wetland assessment tools WET-Health and WET-EcoServices. Variation in health and ecosystem services were assessed over time, based on aerial photograph interpretation and the use of the score sheets in these assessment tools. Hydrological health and indirect ecosystem services of the wetland have been altered since 1949, due to human activities both in the catchment and the wetland. The most significant human intervention on the wetland's hydrological health was the result of road construction and invasion by alien plants. Water use by local residents had an unmeasurable effect on hydrological health. Wetland health is related to the provision of wetland ecosystem services, and cumulative impacts in the catchment and wetland have reduced the provision of many indirect wetland ecosystem services.
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- Date Issued: 2010
I remember having mac and cheese at my gran’s house:
- Authors: Rennie, Gillian
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/159471 , vital:40300 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC139376
- Description: In a tutorial entitled The evolution of MEdia, writing and editing lecturer Gillian Rennie introduced Rhodes University first-year journalism and media studies students to Denis Hirson's I Remember King Kong (the boxer) and asked them to write their own I Remember, focusing on their personal relationships with the media. This is the edited result of a collective exercise in recollection by 270 students.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Identifying annotations for adventure game generation from fiction text
- Authors: Berkland, Ross , Bangay, Shaun D
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433366 , vital:72965 , https://doi.org/10.1145/1899503.1899506
- Description: Recent advancements in Text-to-Scene research have lead to the devel-opment of systems which automatically extract key concepts from the text of a fiction book and generate computer animated movies depicting the sto-ry. Extracting such annotations from raw fiction text is a laborious process and so in this work we evaluate appropriate candidates to serve as the basis for the required annotations for generating interactive virtual worlds. We val-idate our choice by generating adventure games: interactive virtual worlds which create a stylized representation of the environment described in the text, populate it with characters related to the story and define game goals related to the plot of the fiction story. Our prototype produces a fully playa-ble game, making use of an existing open-source game engine. The pro-cess is evaluated using user tests in which participants are asked to meas-ure the accuracy with which the game represents the events, characters and goals described in the story. The response indicates that the chosen an-notation set is sufficient to define a game that is a plausibly acceptable rep-resentation of the text.
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- Date Issued: 2010
In search of critical engagement: a history of South African university based journalism
- Authors: du Toit, Jeanne , de Beer, Arnold S
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/159453 , vital:40299 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC139372
- Description: Historical discussions of South African journalism education (Tomaselli 1991: 167; De Beer and Tomaselli 2000; Steenveld 2006) refer to examples of teaching practice which have served as critical interventions into political process. They occur primarily in the late 1970s and 1980s and it is arguable that the social circumstances that existed during this period presented unique opportunities for critical education. The literature suggests, however, that these examples represent the exception rather than the rule. It would seem, in fact, that a critical approach to journalism education has never been realised in South Africa in any substantive way. It is with this argument in mind that I explore, in this paper, the historical construction of journalism as a subject of university education in South Africa.
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- Date Issued: 2010