Food security in a perfect storm: using the ecosystem services framework to increase understanding
- Authors: Poppy, G M , Chiotha, S , Eigenbrod, Felix , Harvey, C A , Honzák, M , Hudson, M D , Jarvis, A , Madise, N J , Schreckenberg, Kate , Shackleton, Charlie M , Villa, F , Dawson, T P
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60952 , vital:27900 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2012.0288
- Description: Achieving food security in a ‘perfect storm’ scenario is a grand challenge for society. Climate change and an expanding global population act in concert to make global food security even more complex and demanding. As achieving food security and the millennium development goal (MDG) to eradicate hunger influences the attainment of other MDGs, it is imperative that we offer solutions which are complementary and do not oppose one another. Sustainable intensification of agriculture has been proposed as a way to address hunger while also minimizing further environmental impact. However, the desire to raise productivity and yields has historically led to a degraded environment, reduced biodiversity and a reduction in ecosystem services (ES), with the greatest impacts affecting the poor. This paper proposes that the ES framework coupled with a policy response framework, for example Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR), can allow food security to be delivered alongside healthy ecosystems, which provide many other valuable services to humankind. Too often, agro-ecosystems have been considered as separate from other natural ecosystems and insufficient attention has been paid to the way in which services can flow to and from the agro-ecosystem to surrounding ecosystems. Highlighting recent research in a large multi-disciplinary project (ASSETS), we illustrate the ES approach to food security using a case study from the Zomba district of Malawi.
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- Date Issued: 2014
Losing, using, refusing, cruising: first-generation South African women academics narrate the complexity of marginality
- Authors: Idahosa, Grace E , Vincent, Louise
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141820 , vital:38007 , DOI: 10.1080/10130950.2014.874766
- Description: In this article we ask how senior academic women in South Africa narrate their experience of being ‘outside in’ the teaching machine. Wide research literature documents the gross underrepresentation of women in senior positions in the academy. It has been argued that intertwined sexist, patriarchal and phallocentric knowledges and practices in academic institutions produce various forms of discrimination, inequality, oppression and marginalisation. Academic women report feeling invisible and retreating to the margins so as to avoid victimisation and discrimination. Others have pointed to the tension between the ‘tenure clock’ and ‘biological clock’ as a source of anxiety. However, experiences of academic women are not identical. In the context of studies showing the importance of existing personal and social resources, prior experience and having mentors and role models in the negotiation of inequality and discrimination, we document the narratives of women academics who are the first in their families to graduate with a university degree.
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- Date Issued: 2014
Ocean warming, a rapid distributional shift, and the hybridization of a coastal fish species
- Authors: Potts, Warren M , Henriques, Romina , Santos, Carmen V D , Munnik, Kate , Ansorge, Isabelle J , Dufois, Francois , Sauer, Warwick H H , Booth, Anthony J , Kirchner, Carola , Sauer, Warwick , Shaw, Paul W
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/125375 , vital:35777 , https://doi.10.1111/gcb.12612
- Description: Despite increasing awareness of large-scale climate-driven distribution shifts in the marine environment, no study has linked rapid ocean warming to a shift in distribution and consequent hybridization of a marine fish species. This study describes rapid warming (0.8 °C per decade) in the coastal waters of the Angola-Benguela Frontal Zone over the last three decades and a concomitant shift by a temperature sensitive coastal fish species (Argyrosomus coronus) southward from Angola into Namibia. In this context, rapid shifts in distribution across Economic Exclusive Zones will complicate the management of fishes, particularly when there is a lack of congruence in the fisheries policy between nations. Evidence for recent hybridization between A. coronus and a congener, A. inodorus, indicate that the rapid shift in distribution of A. coronus has placed adults of the two species in contact during their spawning events. Ocean warming may therefore revert established species isolation mechanisms and alter the evolutionary history of fishes. While the consequences of the hybridization on the production of the resource remain unclear, this will most likely introduce additional layers of complexity to their management.
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- Date Issued: 2014
Cytotoxicity of lapachol, β-lapachone and related synthetic 1, 4-naphthoquinones against oesophageal cancer cells:
- Authors: Sunassee, Suthananda N , Veale, Clinton G L , Shunmoogam-Gounden, Nelusha , Osoniyi, Omalaja , Hendricks, Denver T , Caira, Mino R , de la Mare, Jo-Anne , Edkins, Adrienne L , Pinto, Antônio V , da Silva Junior, Eufrânio N , Davies-Coleman, Michael T
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/165207 , vital:41218 , DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2012.12.048
- Description: Naphthoquinones have been found to have a wide range of biological activities, including cytotoxicity to cancer cells. The secondary metabolites lapachol, α- and β-lapachone and a series of 25 related synthetic 1,4-naphthoquinones were screened against the oesophageal cancer cell line (WHCO1). Most of the compounds exhibited enhanced cytotoxicity (IC50 1.6–11.7 μM) compared to the current drug of choice cisplatin (IC50 = 16.5 μM).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Where angels fear to tread: online peer-assessment in a large first-year class
- Authors: Mostert, Markus , Snowball, Jeanette D
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69289 , vital:29480 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2012.683770
- Description: In the context of widening participation, large classes and increased diversity, assessment of student learning is becoming increasingly problematic in that providing formative feedback aimed at developing student writing proves to be particularly laborious. Although the potential value of peer assessment has been well documented in the literature, the associated administrative burden, also in relation to managing anonymity and intellectual ownership, makes this option less attractive, particularly in large classes. A potential solution involves the use of information and communication technologies to automate the logistics associated with peer assessment in a time-efficient way. However, uptake of such systems in the higher education community is limited, and research in this area is only beginning. This case study reports on the use of the Moodle Workshop module for formative peer assessment of students’ individual work in a first-year introductory macro-economics class of over 800 students. Data were collected through an end-of-course evaluation survey of students. The study found that using the feature-rich Workshop module not only addressed many of the practical challenges associated with paper-based peer assessments, but also provided a range of additional options for enhancing validity and reliability of peer assessments that would not be possible with paper-based systems.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2012
Knowing, acting and being: Epistemological and ontological access in a Science Extended Studies course
- Authors: Ellery, Karen
- Date: 2011
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69471 , vital:29540 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC37737
- Description: Gross participation and throughput rates in higher education institutions in South Africa indicate an inequitable and poorly functioning system. This interpretive study argues for an approach that enhances epistemological and ontological access and examines how an intervention that includes an overt approach in dealing with the nature of science, coupled with student involvement in an independent research project in a Science Extended Studies course, can enhance such access to higher education study. Analysis of project outcomes and student critical reflections indicated access to scientific and academic Discourses was enhanced through: developing improved procedural and conceptual scientific knowledge; meaningful engagement with the language, norms and conventions of the Discourse; integrating everyday knowledge into more abstract scientific knowledge; awareness of the process of validation of scientific knowledge, of the limitations of science, and of the impact of science on society; and transforming personally by developing scientific discursive identity and a sense of belonging. In conclusion, it is argued that curriculum interventions that focus on epistemological and ontological aspects of learning could appropriately be used throughout the higher education science sector.
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- Date Issued: 2011
Physical, political and local practice factors as barriers to agricultural development: a case of the Kat River valley, South Africa
- Authors: Mbatha, Cyril N , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2011
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142947 , vital:38178 , DOI: 10.2174/1874923201104010091
- Description: The Kat River Valley, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, provided a case study against which propositions of determinants of economic development were tested. Physical location was found to matter in determining the level of development and economic leverage which Middle Kat farmers had compared to those downstream in accordance with Bromley's (1982) proposition. Physical location, however, was not a determining factor for farmers in the Upper Kat River who were the least developed. As predicted by Ostrom (1990), high transaction costs stemming from information asymmetries, selfish interests coupled with poor leadership, an unequal distribution of power and the flouting of formal agreements ensured the demise of a once successful Hacop project in the Upper Kat. Finally, Hirschman's (1960) much earlier line of argument was supported in that the nature of proposed development programmes and the compatibility with community values or ‘self images’ contributed to the lack of success of an externally initiated development effort. The findings and conclusion serve an important lesson to economic researchers and decision makers not to duplicate policies for implementation in all geographical and social contexts on the basis of their success elsewhere.
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- Date Issued: 2011
'Rich man poor man': inter-household and community factors influencing the use of wild plant resources amongst rural households in South Africa
- Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Bangay, Lindsey , Shackleton, Charlie M , Wiersum, K Freerk
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141211 , vital:37953 , DOI: 10.3843/SusDev.15.3:3
- Description: Biodiversity is recognised as an integral part of people's daily livelihoods. This study therefore aims to understand the use of NTFPs at an intricate level by determining what role these resources fulfil in six rural villages and 1011 households' livelihoods. It examines how the use of NTFPs are influenced by intra-household variables, such as wealth and gender, and inter-community variables, such as accessibility to the natural resource. The results reveal that approximately 4453 kg of wild material is used annually per household, of which 1598 kg is used for cultural purposes. The influence of vegetation type and differences between villages are statistically more significant than inter-household variables. At an inter-household level, an increase in the financial status of households did not result in a decrease in the use of natural resources, nor in the quantity of material used.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Contrivance with purpose?: International relations and the reconstitution of the international
- Authors: Bischoff, Paul, 1954-
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/161480 , vital:40631
- Description: In observing and plotting the dialectics of how our present world works, fragmenting as it integrates we struggle in wanting to pin down a moving target! Unlike the world of science with its physical laws, the social nature of the world and its relations across borders keep changing course with social and transnational relations constantly mutating. This makes it rather difficult to plot the complexity of human relations, also those across borders. As the late Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon once said, the social sciences are, after all, the really ‘hard’ sciences. They are so hard because they are so hard to explain.
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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
Spatial description of hake-directed fishing activity off the west coast of South Africa
- Authors: Fairweather, T P , Booth, Anthony J , Sauer, Warwick H H , Leslie, R W
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/127031 , vital:35945 , https://doi.10.2989/18142320609504129
- Description: Historically, the two species of Cape hakes Merluccius capensis and M. paradoxus off South Africa were commercially exploited exclusively by demersal trawling. In 1994, hake-directed demersal longline was introduced on an experimental basis, and in 1998 was initiated as a commercial fishing sector. The effect of a combined fleet composed of both trawlers and longliners on the Cape hake resource is not fully understood. Analysis of fishing intensity and catch-rate data revealed that the highest catch rates were found around the 400m and 500m isobaths for the trawl and longline fisheries respectively. Catch rates from both fishing sectors were also noted to be higher over sediments with a sand component. Differences between areas of the highest fishing intensity and highest catch rates were noted. In addition to other factors, it is suggested that a ‘friction of distance’ effect applies — vessels will trade-off higher catch rates with the increased costs associated with fishing in deeper waters.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Teaching journalism to produce “interpretive communities" rather than just “professionals”:
- Authors: Garman, Anthea
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/159846 , vital:40349 , DOI: 10.1080/02560054.2005.9653330
- Description: Debates about whether journalism is a “trade” and can only be learnt “on the job”, or whether journalism should even be taught at universities, are no longer fruitful or even interesting for teachers in tertiary environments. The far more important discussion around the teaching of journalism should be on the approach which focuses too exclusively on its nature as a “profession” and so ignores the critical function of journalists in the world as “interpretive communities”.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
The largest volcanic eruptions on Earth
- Authors: Bryan, Scott E , Peate, Ingrid Ukstins , Peate, David W , Self, Stephen , Jerram, Dougal A , Mawby, Michael R , Marsh, Julian S , Miller, Jodie A
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/132887 , vital:36902 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2010.07.001
- Description: Large igneous provinces (LIPs) are sites of the most frequently recurring, largest volume basaltic and silicic eruptions in Earth history. These large-volume (> 1000 km3 dense rock equivalent) and large-magnitude (> M8) eruptions produce really extensive (104–105 km2) basaltic lava flow fields and silicic ignimbrites that are the main building blocks of LIPs.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2010
Transcending objectifications and dualisms: farm workers and civil society in contemporary Zimbabwe
- Authors: Sadomba, Zvakanyorwa W , Helliker, Kirk D
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71242 , vital:29822 , https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909609357417
- Description: In the academic literature, civil society is often conceptualized in terms of objectifications and subject—object dichotomies. This is the case with regard to both social movements and non-governmental organizations. This article seeks to transcend such argumentation by providing ‘thick descriptions’ of the agency of farm workers and civil society in the context of land reform in contemporary Zimbabwe. We examine a land-based social movement (and the role of farm workers within it) and the involvement of a particular non-governmental organization in farm worker livelihoods. On this basis, we offer a re-formulation of civil society as a social field marked by ambivalences and tensions.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2010
Mulch tower treatment system for greywater reuse Part II: destructive testing and effluent treatment
- Authors: Tandlich, Roman , Zuma, Bongumusa M , Whittington-Jones, Kevin J , Burgess, Jo E
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71547 , vital:29863 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2008.03.031
- Description: The mulch tower (MT) system described in Part I was tested to failure to determine its range of operating conditions. An increase in the influent temperature led to a statistically significant release of components of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and the five day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), as well as phosphates from the MT system. Heterotrophic plate count (HPC) of the mulch layer dropped from 1.2 (± 0.6) × 106/g dry weight to 1.5 (± 0.3) × 105/g dry weight of the mulch layer with increases of the influent temperature. This indicates that the increase in influent temperature killed off some of the active biomass in the MT biofilm. After a five day drying period under active aeration, the MT system retained the ability to remove COD, total suspended solids (TSS), and nitrates. Greywater treatment by the MT system became impossible after a 48 day drying period under active aeration. Chlorination of the simulated MT effluent with a mixture of sodium dichloroisocyanurate and trichloroisocyanuric acid decreased the faecal coliform concentrations (FC) and the total coliform concentrations (TC) below 800 CFUs/100 ml within 65 h. Beyond 65 h, the pH of the effluent became highly acidic. To maintain optimum performance influent should be fed into the MT system at least once every 5 days, sufficient aeration should be guaranteed, and the MT effluent should be chlorinated for 65 h to eliminate all pathogens before any reuse.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2009
On location: Narratives of the South African city of the late 1940s and 1950s in film and literature
- Authors: Baines, Gary F
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/125397 , vital:35779 , https://doi.10.1080/02582470308671922
- Description: This article is about narratives, about the forms and meanings constructed by South African storytellers, especially writers and filmmakers. It examines the relationships between examples of these two different narrative forms of literature (fiction and non-fiction) and feature film. Following Turner, the point of departure is that the study of narrative has the potential to provide a framework within which such a two pronged approach can be undertaken. This is not to say that the production of meaning takes place within an exclusive literary or cinematic context. Rather, this approach will allow us to obtain a fuller picture of the narrative of the South African city than is possible by concentrating on one medium. It is based on the premise that narratives are ultimately produced by culture; thus these cultural constructions generate meanings, take on a significance, and assume forms that are articufations of the values, beliefs -the ideology - of the culture.' Literature and film offer specific forms for such narratives. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach which borrows insights from literary and film studies, this article attempts to make a contribution to the fledgling field of South African cultural studies.
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- Date Issued: 2009
Vocational language learning and teaching at a South African university: preparing professionals for multilingual contexts
- 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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- Date Issued: 2009
Using the tutorial system to improve the quality of feedback to students in large class teaching
- Authors: Snowball, Jeanette D , Sayigh, E
- Date: 2007
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/70848 , vital:29752
- Description: In many universities, economics teachers now face the challenge of dealing with large, diverse classes, especially at undergraduate level. A common concern is the non-attendance at lectures of unmotivated (conscript) students. This paper presents the results of a student assessment of a macroeconomics 1 course, coupled with a self-assessment of their own input into the course. The results obtained, using an econometric model, suggest that what students do outside of lectures is equally, or more, important than lecture attendance itself. The paper concludes by examining the possibility of using peer assessed group learning as a feasible way to encourage deep learning in large classes.
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- Date Issued: 2007
Comprehension and acceptability of a patient information leaflet (PIL) for antiretroviral therapy:
- Authors: Mwingira, Betty , Dowse, Roslind
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/156902 , vital:40065 , https://doi.org/10.4102/hsag.v11i3.236
- Description: The patient information leaflet (PIL) is recognised as playing a key role in informing patients about their medicines. The objectives of this research were to evaluate the readability and understanding of a PIL for the first-line ARV (antiretroviral) regimen available in the South African public health sector, and investigate its acceptability in the target Xhosa population. The study took place between August 2003 and July 2004. A PIL was designed for the antiretroviral regimen of stavudine, lamivudine and efavirenz, using established usability guidelines. South African legal requirements concerning PILs were incorporated and the PILs were available in both English and isiXhosa.
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- Date Issued: 2006
Predictor variables for moggel (Labeo umbratus) biomass and production in small South African reservoirs
- Authors: Potts, Warren M , Booth, Anthony J , Hecht, Thomas , Andrew, Timothy G
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/125763 , vital:35815 , https://doi.10.2989/16085910609503877
- Description: South Africa has approximately 3 100 registered reservoirs, ranging in size from 1–1 000 hectares, with a surface area totalling 84 439 hectares (SADC Surface Water Body Database, unpublished data). Within southern and eastern Africa, Lindqvist (1994) estimated the number of small reservoirs to be between 50 000 and 100 000. Given Bernacsek’s (1986) estimate of the total fishery potential of small reservoirs in Africa at between 1 and 2.3 million tons, this number of reservoirs clearly could provide fishery opportunities for rural communities.
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- Date Issued: 2006