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Parameter relationships in high-speed audio networks

- Chigwamba, Nyasha, Foss, Richard, Gurdan, Robby, Klinkradt, Bradley

Authors: Chigwamba, Nyasha , Foss, Richard , Gurdan, Robby , Klinkradt, Bradley
Date: 2012
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/427027 , vital:72409 , https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=16211
Description: When related audio control parameters are distributed in many devices in a high-speed audio network, a means for centralizing remote control and monitoring is required. Changes in one parameter may need to affect other parameters. The XFN protocol enables management of distributed parameters. This paper focuses on how to group related parameters that are physically separated and provides a corresponding implementation using the protocol. A comprehensive grouping theory is presented.
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Date Issued: 2012

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Radical thinking in South Africa’s age of retreat

- Helliker, Kirk D, Vale, Peter C J

Authors: Helliker, Kirk D , Vale, Peter C J
Date: 2012
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71214 , vital:29818 , https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909612442654
Description: This article traces the rise and fall of radical praxis in South Africa and offers a critique of the prevailing practices of former Marxists under post-apartheid conditions. Western Marxism emerged in the 1970s in South Africa and Marxist activists became deeply involved in the liberation movements. With the unravelling of apartheid, the main liberation forces made a social pact with capitalist forces and former Marxists embraced a statist project. In the context of the rise of ‘new’ social movements, radical thinking of a more Libertarian kind is emerging in contemporary South Africa.
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Date Issued: 2012

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Research Testbed Networks: Practical Tools for Service Delivery?

- Wertlen, Ronald R, Siebörger, Ingrid, Tsietsi, Mosiuoa, Shibeshi, Zelalem S, Terzoli, Alfredo

Authors: Wertlen, Ronald R , Siebörger, Ingrid , Tsietsi, Mosiuoa , Shibeshi, Zelalem S , Terzoli, Alfredo
Date: 2012
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/429204 , vital:72567 , https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2012.tb00351.x
Description: The Telkom Centre of Excellence (CoE) at Rhodes University, housed in the Computer Science department was opened in 1997. The CoE's focus on Distributed multimedia service platforms soon showed that the technology being researched could be applied in the disadvantaged peri‐urban communities. The CoE has thus concentrated its research on building a testbed network that delivers real services to real users. In 2007, the testbed was extended to include a marginalised rural area in the Siyakhula Living Lab. The greatest factor in the sustainability of the CoE testbed network has been maintaining usefulness to all the stakeholders over the last 12 years. Industrial funding, University outreach goals and research goals could all be harmonised, while sustaining the delivery of high quality informatics services in the community. This paper presents a brief case study of the communications network testbed and how it was applied to the Development Informatics space. It analyses the roles played by stakeholders in either assisting and sustaining or obstructing the service delivery. It makes key recommendations on best practices for research networks that can also bring informatics to disadvantaged communities. It shows how testbeds for the research of new technologies can be designed so as to allow Development Informatics work to take place on such networks.
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Date Issued: 2012

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Teacher education in post-apartheid South Africa: navigating a way through competing state and global imperatives for change

- Schäfer, Marc, Wilmot, P Dianne

Authors: Schäfer, Marc , Wilmot, P Dianne
Date: 2012
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140905 , vital:37928 , DOI: 10.1007/s11125-012-9220-3
Description: This article focuses on teacher education in post-apartheid South Africa. It argues that the restructuring and reorganization of teacher education is at the nexus of the axes of tension created by national and global imperatives for change. Along with the dismantling of apartheid and the transition to a free and democratic state in 1994 came the urgent need for social reconstruction, democratization, redress, social justice, and equity. At the same time, and as part of a global context, the country needed global competitiveness, human capital development, global skills, international standards, and accountability. These competing modernist discourses have informed the design and orientation of the National Qualifications Framework and national curriculum that took place in parallel with, and simultaneous to, the restructuring and reform of teacher education. This article reviews literature pertinent to understanding the post-apartheid transformation in South African education in general and teacher education in particular. It concludes that policy makers have managed to navigate a way through the axis of tension created by opposed orientations to transformation. A more equitable and improved system of teacher education has been achieved but critical issues of teacher quality and quantity have emerged which urgently need resolution.
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Date Issued: 2012

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Toxic effect of herbicides used for water hyacinth control on two insects released for its biological control in South Africa

- Hill, Martin P

Authors: Hill, Martin P
Date: 2012
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69960 , vital:29601 , https://doi.org/10.1080/09583157.2012.725825
Description: The integrated control of water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes (Martius) Solms-Laubach (Pontederiaceae) has become necessary in South Africa, as biological control alone is perceived to be too slow in controlling the weed. In total, seven insect biological control agents have been released on water hyacinth in South Africa. At the same time, herbicides are applied by the water authorities in areas where the weed continues to be troublesome. This study investigated the assumption that the two control methods are compatible by testing the direct toxicity of a range of herbicide formulations and surfactants on two of the biological control agents released against water hyacinth, the weevil, Neochetina eichhorniae Warner (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) and the water hyacinth mirid,Eccritotarsus catarinensis (Carvalho) (Hemiptera: Miridae). A number of the formulations used resulted in significant mortality of the mirid and the weevil. Products containing 2,4-D amine and diquat as active ingredients caused higher mortality of both agents (up to 80% for the mirid) than formulations containing glyphosate. Furthermore, when surfactants were added to enhance herbicide efficiency, it resulted in increased toxicity to the insects. We recommend that glyphosate formulations should be used in integrated control programmes, and that surfactants be avoided in order to reduce the toxic nature of spray formulations to the insect biological control agents released against water hyacinth.
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Date Issued: 2012

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A revision of the Pyura stolonifera species complex (Tunicata, Ascidiacea), with a description of a new species from Australia

- Teske, Peter R, Ruis, Marc

Authors: Teske, Peter R , Ruis, Marc
Date: 2011
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/445654 , vital:74411 , https://www.biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.2754.1.2
Description: Pyura stolonifera is a large solitary ascidian found in Africa, Australasia and South America. The taxonomic status of different populations of this species is disputed, especially since there is evidence for several distinct morphological and genetic units that point towards the existence of multiple cryptic species. While some researchers still recognize P. stolonifera as a single species, others treat the different populations as distinct species. Here, we present a revision of the P. stolonifera species complex based on the examination of samples from all regions where there are reliable reports of this taxon. We recognize four species that are both morphologically and genetically distinct, one of which is new to science and is formally described here. This species is morphologically distinct from the other three members of the species complex in terms of the colour and texture of the tunic, the arrangement of the gonads within the gut and the shape of the dorsal tubercle, among other characters. We name the new species Pyura dalbyi after Dr. J.E. Dalby Jr., whose research on its ecology and distribution provided the incentive for examining this species more closely.
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Date Issued: 2011

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Hierarchical spatial organization and prioritization of wetlands: a conceptual model for wetland rehabilitation in South Africa

- Sieben, E J J, Ellery, William F N, Kotze, Donovan C, Rountree, M

Authors: Sieben, E J J , Ellery, William F N , Kotze, Donovan C , Rountree, M
Date: 2011
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144399 , vital:38342 , DOI: 10.1007/s11273-011-9212-8
Description: Wetland rehabilitation planning needs to take into account many different aspects of the wetland and its context. In South Africa, much emphasis is placed on the delivery of ecosystem services, poverty relief and skills development for those involved in labour-intensive rehabilitation measures. A framework is presented that facilitates decision-making with regards to wetland rehabilitation planning. This starts with prioritizing which wetlands need attention within a catchment. This is followed by decisions regarding which rehabilitation measures would be effective in improving certain ecosystem services based upon the aims of rehabilitation and the social context of the surrounding catchment.
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Date Issued: 2011

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Human DNAJ in cancer and stem cells:

- Sterrenberg, Jason N, Edkins, Adrienne L, Blatch, Gregory L

Authors: Sterrenberg, Jason N , Edkins, Adrienne L , Blatch, Gregory L
Date: 2011
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/165118 , vital:41210 , DOI: 10.1016/j.canlet.2011.08.019
Description: The heat shock protein 40 kDa (HSP40/DNAJ) co-chaperones constitute the largest and most diverse sub-group of the heat shock protein (HSP) family. DNAJ are widely accepted as regulators of HSP70 function, but also have roles as co-chaperones for the HSP90 chaperone machine, and a growing number of biological functions that may be independent of either of these chaperones. The DNAJ proteins are differentially expressed in human tissues and demonstrate the capacity to function to both promote and suppress cancer development by acting as chaperones for tumour suppressors or oncoproteins. We review the current literature on the function and expression of DNAJ in cancer, stem cells and cancer stem cells. Combining data from gene expression, proteomics and studies in other systems, we propose that DNAJ will be key regulators of cancer, stem cell and possibly cancer stem cell function. The diversity of DNAJ and their assorted roles in a range of biological functions means that selected DNAJ, provided there is limited redundancy and that a specific link to malignancy can be established, may yet provide an attractive target for specific and selective drug design for the development of anti-cancer treatments.
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Date Issued: 2011

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Learning to squander: making meaningful connections in the infinite text of world culture

- Jamal, Ashraf

Authors: Jamal, Ashraf
Date: 2011
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147391 , vital:38632 , https://0-hdl.handle.net.wam.seals.ac.za/10520/EJC45816
Description: In this article on South African visual art I fix my sight on a global interhuman and aesthetic sphere in which region/nation/transnation merge to produce a cultural economy that overlaps and cannot be satisfactorily grasped according to a centre-periphery model. This eschewal of existing binary models also means a reconceptualisation of the liminal as an in-between space in a fixed divide. Currently it is not only the margin that is indeterminate, but the infinite text of the global cultural economy within which visual art plays its part.
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Date Issued: 2011

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Shaking a hornets' nest: pitfalls of abortion counselling in a secular constitutional order–a view from South Africa

- Vincent, Louise

Authors: Vincent, Louise
Date: 2011
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141521 , vital:37982 , DOI: 10.1080/13691058.2011.627469
Description: There exists an enormous gulf between the aspirations of South Africa's abortion legislation – among the most liberal in the world – and its implementation. One weakness in the provision of abortion services in South Africa is the absence of comprehensive abortion counselling services. On the face of it, the idea that counselling ought, as a matter of course, to be a significant component of a country's termination of pregnancy service provision, seems both straightforwardly sensible and politically innocent. This paper describes how abortion counselling has historically, in many different contexts, been saturated with questionable assumptions about women and their bodies. Counselling has more often than not been deployed, either as the formal policy of states or through informal mechanisms, as a means of curbing the right to abortion rather than deepening the meaning of that right. Differing approaches to counselling emerge as a reflection of contestations over reproductive and gender politics. Specifying an appropriate model for the provision of state-sponsored abortion counselling in the public health sector of a secular constitutional state provokes more of a hornet's nest of dilemmas than is sometimes supposed.
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Date Issued: 2011

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South Africa’s Abortion Values Clarification Workshops: an opportunity to deepen democratic communication missed

- Vincent, Louise

Authors: Vincent, Louise
Date: 2011
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141981 , vital:38021 , DOI: 10.1177/0021909610396161
Description: A rich literature exists on local democracy and participation in South Africa. While the importance of participation is routinely built into the rhetoric of government, debate has increasingly focused on the dysfunctionality of participatory mechanisms and institutions in post-apartheid South Africa. Processes aimed ostensibly at empowering citizens, act in practice as instruments of social control, disempowerment and cooptation. The present article contributes to these debates by way of a critique of the approach used by the South African state, in partnership with the non-governmental sector, in what are called abortion ‘values clarification’ (VC) workshops. This article examines the workshop materials, methodology and pedagogical tools employed in South African abortion VC workshops which emanate from the organization Ipas — a global body working to enhance women’s sexual and reproductive rights and to reduce abortion-related deaths and injuries. VC workshops represent an instance of a more general trend in which participation is seen as a tool for generating legitimacy and ‘buy-in’ for central state directives rather than as a means for genuinely deepening democratic communication.
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Date Issued: 2011

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The potential for voluntary instruments to achieve conservation planning goals : the case of conservancies in South Africa

- Downsborough, Linda, Shackleton, Charlie M, Knight, Andrew T

Authors: Downsborough, Linda , Shackleton, Charlie M , Knight, Andrew T
Date: 2011
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6629 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006821
Description: Spatial prioritizations and gap analyses are increasingly undertaken to allocate conservation resources. Most spatial prioritizations are conducted without specifying the conservation instruments to be implemented and gap analyses typically assess formally protected areas but increasingly include private land conservation instruments. We examine conservancies to see if these voluntary instruments contribute towards achieving goals of South African conservation planning initiatives. We conducted a nationwide survey and interviews with conservancy members in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. Conservancies have potential for assisting South Africa to achieve conservation planning goals at national and local scales but their inclusion in spatial prioritizations and gap analyses predicates improved protection for nature, operational refinement and increased support. We sound a warning to conservation planning initiatives that incorporate voluntary instruments on private land, and present recommendations for strengthening such instruments to make them more effective. Our findings may assist conservation planners elsewhere to design more effective conservation planning initiatives focused on private land.
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Date Issued: 2011

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A proposed methodology for contextualised evaluation in higher education

- Nygaard, Claus, Belluigi, Dina Z

Authors: Nygaard, Claus , Belluigi, Dina Z
Date: 2010
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/482809 , vital:78691 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02602931003650037
Description: This paper aims to inspire stakeholders working with quality of higher education (such as members of study boards, study programme directors, curriculum developers and teachers) to critically consider their evaluation methods in relation to a focus on student learning. We argue that many of the existing methods of evaluation in higher education are underpinned by a conception of learning that is de‐contextualised. As a consequence, many data collection methods do not address aspects that affect students’ learning. This is problematic because the core aim of higher education is to facilitate student learning. We propose a contextualised evaluation methodology, guided by 10 key questions, which can help evaluators address concepts and questions of student learning in their evaluations.
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Date Issued: 2010

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Causative disguised as stative: The affix-ik-ek in ciCewa

- Simango, Silvester R

Authors: Simango, Silvester R
Date: 2010
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/469245 , vital:77223 , https://doi.org/10.2989/SALALS.2009.27.2.1.864
Description: Discussions of the suffix -ik/-ek, which attaches to the ciCewa verb stem, have generally focused on its valence-reducing properties (Mchombo, 1993, 2004; Dubinsky and Simango, 1996; Seidl and Dimitriadis, 2003). The affix, known as the stative, typically attaches to transitive verbs and has the effect of eliminating the underlying subject from the verb's argument structure and promoting the underlying object of the verb to the subject grammatical function. This article describes a less common variant of the suffix -ik/-ek in ciCewa which (i) typically attaches to intransitive verbs, and (ii) has the effect of increasing the verb's valence by one argument. This affix introduces an agentive argument into the verb's argument structure. It is argued that this transitive affix is a variant of the causative morpheme.
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Date Issued: 2010

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Infusing service learning in curricula: a theoretical exploration of infusion possibilities

- Hlengwa, Amanda I

Authors: Hlengwa, Amanda I
Date: 2010
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/70765 , vital:29727
Description: In South Africa one result of the appeal for greater social responsiveness from Higher Education institutions has been for service-learning, a component of Community Engagement, to be infused into curricula in higher education. This paper suggests that infusion of service-learning into curricula is based on broad assumptions which need to be researched further. There are complexities which need to be considered regarding the potential of service-learning to bridge the gap between the university and society, and the extent to which it is the most appropriate pedagogic tool for this purpose. This paper argues that Basil Bernstein’s theory of classification and framing as well as his work on vertical and horizontal discourses is potentially useful for understanding the factors that could impact on infusing service-learning into curricula. Thus, the potential of Bernstein’s work to provide insights into the possibilities and constraints of infusing service-learning into the curricula is explored.
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Date Issued: 2010

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Introducing a learning management system in a large first year class: impact on lecturers and students

- Snowball, Jeanette D, Mostert, Markus

Authors: Snowball, Jeanette D , Mostert, Markus
Date: 2010
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68631 , vital:29297 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC37639
Description: Publisher version , The challenges of teaching large classes are well documented in the literature on teaching in higher education. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have the potential to address some of these challenges, but, used inappropriately, technology can perpetuate entrenched practices and simply support performance models of teaching that encourage transmission approaches to learning. This article reports on the impact of implementing a learning management system (LMS) in a first year introductory macroeconomics course with 600 students in a blended learning context. Experiences of the course coordinator, lecturers and an educational technologist are discussed and data was also collected on student perceptions via a course evaluation questionnaire. Results show that the LMS was successful in a number of areas, particularly in improving the lecturers' accessibility to students and in encouraging interaction and participations in online discussion forums.
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Date Issued: 2010

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