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Diverse values of nature for sustainability

- Pascual, Unai, Balvanera, Patricia, Anderson, Christopher B, Chaplin-Kramer, Rebecca, Christie, Michael, González-Jiménez, David, Martin, Adrian, Raymond, Christopher M, Termansen, Mette, Vatn, Arild, Athayde, Simone, Baptiste, Brigitte, Barton, Davin N, Jacobs, Sander, Kelemen, Eszter, Kumar, Ritesh, Lazos, Elena, Mwampamba, Tuyeni H, Nakangu, Barbara, O’Farrell, Patrick, Subramanian, Suneetha M, van Noordwijk, Meine, Ahn, SoEun, Amaruzaman, Sacha, Amin, Ariane M, Arias-Arévalo, Paola, Arroyo-Robles, Gabriela, Cantú-Fernández, Mariana, Castro, Antonio J, Contreras, Victoria, de Vos, Alta, Dendoncker, Nicolas, Engel, Stefanie, Eser, Uta, Faith, Daniel P, Filyushkina, Anna, Ghazi, Houda, Gómez-Baggethun, Erik, Gould, Rachelle K, Guibrunet, Louise, Gundimeda, Haripriya, Hahn, Thomas, Harmáčková, Zuzana V, Hernández-Blanco, Marcello, Horcea-Milcu, Andra-loana, Huambachano, Mariaelena, Wicher, Natalia L H, Aydın, Cem I, Islar, Mine, Koessler, Ann-Kathrin, Kenter, Jasper O, Kosmus, Marina, Lee, Heera, Leimona, Beria, Lele, Sharachchandra, Lenzi, Dominic, Lliso, Bosco, Mannetii, Lelani M, Merçon, Juliana, Monroy-Sais, Ana S, Mukherjee, Nibedita, Muraca, Barbara, Muradian, Roldan, Murali, Ranjini, Nelson, Sara H, Nemogá-Soto, Gabriel R, Ngouhouo-Poufoun, Jonas, Niamir, Aidin, Nuesiri, Emmanuel, Nyumba, Tobias O, Özkaynak, Begüm, Palomo, Ignacio, Pandit, Ram, Pawłowska-Mainville, Agnieszka, Porter-Bolland, Luciano, Quaas, Martin, Rode, Julian, Rozzi, Ricardo, Sachdeva, Sonya, Aibek, Samakov, Schaafsma, Marije, Sitas, Nadia, Ungar, Paula, Yiu, Evonne, Yoshida, Yuki, Zent, Eglee

Diversification of the African legless skinks in the subfamily Acontinae (Family Scincidae)

- Zhao, Zhongning, Conradie, Werner C, Pietersen, Darren W, Jordaan, Adriaan, Nicolau, Gary K, Edwards, Shelley, Riekert, Stephanus, Heideman, Neil

  • Authors: Zhao, Zhongning , Conradie, Werner C , Pietersen, Darren W , Jordaan, Adriaan , Nicolau, Gary K , Edwards, Shelley , Riekert, Stephanus , Heideman, Neil
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/461495 , vital:76207 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107747"
  • Description: Cladogenic diversification is often explained by referring to climatic oscillations and geomorphic shifts that cause allopatric speciation. In this regard, southern Africa retains a high level of landscape heterogeneity in vegetation, geology, and rainfall patterns. The legless skink subfamily Acontinae occurs broadly across the southern African subcontinent and therefore provides an ideal model group for investigating biogeographic patterns associated with the region. A robust phylogenetic study of the Acontinae with comprehensive coverage and adequate sampling of each taxon has been lacking up until now, resulting in unresolved questions regarding the subfamily’s biogeography and evolution. In this study, we used multi-locus genetic markers (three mitochondrial and two nuclear) with comprehensive taxon coverage (all currently recognized Acontinae species) and adequate sampling (multiple specimens for most taxa) of each taxon to infer a phylogeny for the subfamily.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Diversity and Endemism of Southern African Gekkonids Linked with the Escarpment Has Implications for Conservation Priorities

- Nicolau, Gary K, Edwards, Shelley

  • Authors: Nicolau, Gary K , Edwards, Shelley
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/461506 , vital:76208 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.3390/d15020306"
  • Description: South Africa is recognised for its high reptile diversity and endemism, specifically among lizards. Phylogenetic diversity, endemism, and richness can have clear implications or raise important questions in a range of fields, and most urgently in conservation. Among squamate reptiles, these indices are very commonly associated with high temperatures and topographic heterogeneity. Indeed, mountainous biogeography has been a critical driver in the radiation of the family Gekkonidae within the subregion. Here, we assess the species richness, diversity, and endemism of Gekkonidae species inhabiting South Africa, Lesotho, and Eswatini, accounting for phylogenetic relationships. We also employ the CANAPE method to identify regions that have neo- and/or paleoendemics. Southern African gekkonids appear to be most diverse and show high levels of endemism in three regions of Southern Africa: the northwestern Richtersveld, the escarpment running west to southeast, and the northeastern escarpment in the Limpopo province. Implications for conservation priorities are discussed.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Do thermal requirements of Dichrorampha odorata, a shoot-boring moth for the biological control of Chromolaena odorata, explain its failure to establish in South Africa?

- Nqayi, Slindile B, Zachariades, Costas, Coetzee, Julie A, Hill, Martin P, Chidawanyika, Frank, Uyi, Osariyekemwen O, McConnachie, Andrew J

  • Authors: Nqayi, Slindile B , Zachariades, Costas , Coetzee, Julie A , Hill, Martin P , Chidawanyika, Frank , Uyi, Osariyekemwen O , McConnachie, Andrew J
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/416851 , vital:71391 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-ento_v31_n1_a14"
  • Description: Chromolaena odorata (L.) RM King and H Rob. (Asteraceae) has been subject to a biological control programme in South Africa for over three decades. A shoot-tip boring moth, Dichrorampha odorata Brown and Zachariades (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), originating from Jamaica, was released as a biological control agent in 2013 but despite the release of substantial numbers of the insect, it has not established a permanent field population. Because climate incompatibility is a major constraint for classical biological control of invasive plants, and based on the differences in climate between Jamaica and South Africa and field observations at release sites, aspects of the thermal physiology of D. odorata were investigated to elucidate reasons for its failure to establish. Developmental time decreased with increasing temperatures ranging from 20 °C to 30 °C, with incomplete development for immature stages at 18 °C and 32 °C. The developmental threshold, t, was calculated as 8.45 °C with 872.4 degree-days required to complete development (K). A maximum of 6.5 generations per year was projected for D. odorata in South Africa, with the heavily infested eastern region of the country being the most eco-climatically suitable for establishment. The lower lethal temperature (LLT50) of larvae and adults was –4.5 and 1.8 °C, respectively. The upper lethal temperature (ULT50) for larvae was 39.6 °C whilst that of adults was 41.0 °C. Larvae thus had better cold tolerance compared to adults whereas adults had better heat tolerance compared to larvae. The critical thermal (CT) limits for adults were 3.4 ± 0.07 to 43.7 ± 0.12 °C. Acclimation at 20 °C for 7 days resulted in increased cold and heat tolerance with a CTmin and CTmax of 1.9 ± 0.06 and 44.4 ± 0.07 °C respectively, compared to the relative control, acclimated at 25 °C. Acclimation at 30 °C improved neither cold (CTmin: 5.9 ± 0.08 °C) nor heat tolerance (CTmax: 42.9 ± 0.10 °C). These results suggest that thermal requirements fall within field temperatures and are thus not the main constraining factor leading to poor establishment of D. odorata in South Africa.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Dual action of asymmetrical zinc (II) phthalocyanines conjugated to silver tungstate nanoparticles towards photodegradation of tetracycline and inactivation of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria

- Mgidlana, Sithi, Sen, Pinar, Nyokong, Tebello

  • Authors: Mgidlana, Sithi , Sen, Pinar , Nyokong, Tebello
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/360400 , vital:65085 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphotochem.2022.114444"
  • Description: Asymmetric (A3B) Zn(II) phthalocyanines containing dimethoxy phenoxy as the dominant substituent and (phenoxy) propanoic acid (1), (phenoxy) acetic acid (2), and (phenoxy) acrylic acid (3) as the other substituents were synthesized and linked to silver tungstate nanoparticles (Ag2WO4 NPs). The photocatalytic activities of the prepared complexes 1–3 and nanoconjugates were evaluated for the photodegradation of tetracycline (TC) under visible-light irradiation and for photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT) activity against S. aureus. The results revealed that complex 3 had the best photocatalytic and PACT performance compared to 1 and 2, corresponding to the higher singlet oxygen quantum yield of the former in dimethyl sulfoxide. The photodegradation reaction was also examined using EPR and a mechanism for generation of singlet oxygen under visible light was confirmed. Photoinactivation of S. aureus improved in the presence of TC, when the two are applied together.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Early Plant Disease Detection using Infrared and Mobile Photographs in Natural Environment

- De Silva, Malitha, Brown, Dane L

  • Authors: De Silva, Malitha , Brown, Dane L
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/464085 , vital:76474 , xlink:href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-37717-4_21"
  • Description: Plant disease identification is a critical aspect of plant health management. Identifying plant diseases is challenging since they manifest themselves in various forms and tend to occur when the plant is still in its juvenile stage. Plant disease also has cascading effects on food security, livelihoods and the environment’s safety, so early detection is vital. This work demonstrates the effectiveness of mobile and multispectral images captured in viable and Near Infrared (NIR) ranges to identify plant diseases under realistic environmental conditions. The data sets were classified using popular CNN models Xception, DenseNet121 and ResNet50V2, resulting in greater than 92% training and 74% test accuracy for all the data collected using various Kolari vision lenses. Moreover, an openly available balanced data set was used to compare the effect of the data set balance and unbalanced characteristics on the classification accuracy. The result showed that balanced data sets do not impact the outcome.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Efficient Plant Disease Detection and Classification for Android

- Brown, Dane L, Mazibuko, Sifisokuhle

  • Authors: Brown, Dane L , Mazibuko, Sifisokuhle
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/464096 , vital:76475 , xlink:href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-99-1624-5_39"
  • Description: This paper investigates the feasibility of using a CNN model to diagnose plant diseases in the wild. Plant diseases are a major risk to ecosystems, human and animal health, and the quality of life overall. They may reduce farm productivity drastically, leaving farmers with financial losses and food insecurity. Small-scale farmers and producers cannot pay for an expert to look at their plants for plant diseases because it would cost too much. A mobile solution is thus built for the Android platform that utilises a unified deep learning model to diagnose plant diseases and provide farmers with treatment information. The literature-recommended CNN architectures were first analysed on the PlantVillage dataset, and the best-performing model was trained for integration into the application. While training on the tomato subset of the PlantVillage dataset, the VGG16 and InceptionV3 networks achieved a higher F1-score of 94.49% than the MobileNetsV3Large and EfficientNetB0 networks (without parameter tuning). The VGG model achieved 94.43% accuracy and 0.24 loss on the RGB PlantVillage dataset, outperforming the segmented and greyscaled datasets, and was therefore chosen for use in the application. When tested on complex data collected in the wild, the VGG16 model trained on the RGB dataset yielded an accuracy of 63.02%. Thus, this research revealed the discrepancy between simple and real-world data, as well as the viability of present methodologies for future research.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Electrocatalytic Behavior of Manganese and Cobalt Porphyrins Attached to Graphene Quantum Dots: Applied in the Oxidation of Hydrazine

- Jokazi, Mbulelo, Mpeta, Lekhetho S, Nyokong, Tebello

  • Authors: Jokazi, Mbulelo , Mpeta, Lekhetho S , Nyokong, Tebello
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/360411 , vital:65086 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1002/elan.202200222"
  • Description: Manganese and cobalt metalated 5, 10, 15-tris(aminophenyl)-20-(4-carboxyphenyl) porphyrins (ClMnTA3CPP and CoTA3CPP) were synthesized and attached to graphene quantum dots (GQDs) via π-π interaction and electrostatic interaction. The electrochemical oxidation of hydrazine was performed via cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The CoTA3CPP showed good electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of hydrazine in terms of catalytic rate constants and limits of detection (LoD). ClMnTA3CPP showed lower overpotential 0.60 V. The introduction of GQDs improved the electrocatalytic ability when combined with CoTA3CPP and ClMnTA3CPP with the lowest LoD (0.0025 mM CoTA3CPP–GQDs) followed by ClMnTA3CPP–GQDs with 0.0033 mM.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Enabling Vehicle Search Through Robust Licence Plate Detection

- Boby, Alden, Brown, Dane L, Connan, James, Marais, Marc, Kuhlane, Luxolo L

  • Authors: Boby, Alden , Brown, Dane L , Connan, James , Marais, Marc , Kuhlane, Luxolo L
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/463372 , vital:76403 , xlink:href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10220508"
  • Description: Licence plate recognition has many practical applications for security and surveillance. This paper presents a robust licence plate detection system that uses string-matching algorithms to identify a vehicle in data. Object detection models have had limited application in the character recognition domain. The system utilises the YOLO object detection model to perform character recognition to ensure more accurate character predictions. The model incorporates super-resolution techniques to enhance the quality of licence plate images to increase character recognition accuracy. The proposed system can accurately detect license plates in diverse conditions and can handle license plates with varying fonts and backgrounds. The system's effectiveness is demonstrated through experimentation on components of the system, showing promising license plate detection and character recognition accuracy. The overall system works with all the components to track vehicles by matching a target string with detected licence plates in a scene. The system has potential applications in law enforcement, traffic management, and parking systems and can significantly advance surveillance and security through automation.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Enhanced plant species and early water stress detection using visible and near-infrared spectra

- Brown, Dane L, Poole, Louise C

  • Authors: Brown, Dane L , Poole, Louise C
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/463384 , vital:76404 , xlink:href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-19-9819-5_55"
  • Description: This paper reports on recent successful work aimed at preventing crop loss and failure before visible symptoms are present. Food security is critical, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Detecting early-stage plant stresses in agriculture is essential in minimizing crop damage and maximizing yield. Identification of both the stress type and cause is a non-trivial multitask classification problem. However, the application of spectroscopy to early plant diseases and stress detection has become viable with recent advancements in technology. Suitable frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum and machine learning algorithms were thus first investigated. This guided data collection in two sessions by capturing standard visible images in contrast with images from multiple spectra (VIS-IR). These images consisted of six plant species that were carefully monitored from healthy to dehydrated stages. Promising results were achieved using VIS-IR compared to standard visible images on three deep learning architectures. Statistically, significant accuracy improvements were shown for VIS-IR for early dehydration detection, where ResNet-44 modelling of VIS-IR input yielded 92.5% accuracy compared to 77.5% on visible input on general plant species. Moreover, ResNet-44 achieved good species separation.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Enhancing Object Audio Control within an Immersive Sound System

- Klingebiel, Lukas, Foss, Richard

  • Authors: Klingebiel, Lukas , Foss, Richard
  • Date: 2023
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426771 , vital:72390 , https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10289235
  • Description: Real time control over sound source positioning and movement is a primary advantage of object-based sound systems over channel-based systems. This paper describes a controller, processing engine, and associated library that enhances this object control. Apart from graphic spatialization control, the controller allows, for each object, the selection of its rendering algorithm, distance-based level, high frequency attenuation, reverb parameters and speaker isolation or locking. OSC control within the controller enables further control options.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Entomopathogenic fungi associated with cultivated honeybush, Cyclopia spp., in South Africa and their pathogenicity towards a leafhopper pest, Molopopterus sp.(Hemiptera: Cicadellidae)

- Mushore, Tapiwa G, Coombes, Candice A, Hill, Martin P

  • Authors: Mushore, Tapiwa G , Coombes, Candice A , Hill, Martin P
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/451382 , vital:75045 , http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2254-8854/2023/a14183
  • Description: The southern and eastern parts of the African Fynbos region favour the production of honeybush tea. Honeybush biomass and extracts are used to prepare a beverage both locally and internationally, mainly as herbal tea with health benefits. Honeybush tea is mostly grown organically requiring natural control measures for pests and diseases. The leafhopper, Molopopterus sp., is one of the most important pests of cultivated honeybush in South Africa, as its feeding compromises the quality and quantity of the yield through leaf discolouration and reduction of the photosynthetic area. Local entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) can provide a pool of potential biocontrol agents for this pest. Therefore, a total of 98 soil samples were collected from organically grown honeybush fields and vegetation surrounding the honeybush fields in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Entomopathogenic fungi were isolated using the insect bait method and were characterised using molecular techniques. Twenty fungal isolates of Metarhizium anisopliae and Fusarium oxysporum were recovered from soil samples, of which 70% were from honeybush fields and 30% were from surrounding vegetation.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Evaluating the establishment of a new water hyacinth biological control agent in South Africa

- Miller, Benjamin E, Coetzee, Julie A, Hill, Martin P

  • Authors: Miller, Benjamin E , Coetzee, Julie A , Hill, Martin P
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/451399 , vital:75046 , http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2254-8854/2023/a15613
  • Description: Megamelus scutellaris Berg (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) is the most recent of nine biological control agents developed to manage invasive water hyacinth, Pontederia (= Eichhornia) crassipes Mart.(Pontederiaceae), in South Africa. More than a million M. scutellaris have been mass-reared and released since the first introduction of the agent into South Africa in 2013, successfully establishing overwintering populations at 32 sites in seven of the nine provinces. Establishment has also been recorded at seven of these sites through natural dispersal from sites where they had established. Inundative releases, where large numbers of M. scutellaris are released regularly, have resulted in excellent establishment, and caused a significant reduction in water hyacinth cover in areas where, historically, biological control seemed unlikely due to excessive eutrophication. Although M. scutellaris has established well throughout South Africa through classical biological control methods, this study also showed that inundative releases of biological control agents over multiple seasons results in the most effective control of the weed, especially at cool temperate and eutrophic sites.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Evaluation of the antibacterial activity of gallic acid anchored phthalocyanine-doped silica nanoparticles towards Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus biofilms and planktonic cells

- Magadla, Aviwe, Openda, Yolande Ikala, Mpeta, Lekhetho S, Nyokong, Tebello

  • Authors: Magadla, Aviwe , Openda, Yolande Ikala , Mpeta, Lekhetho S , Nyokong, Tebello
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/360424 , vital:65087 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pdpdt.2023.103520"
  • Description: In this work, we have described the synthesis of phthalocyanine complexes Zn(II) tetrakis 4-(5-formylpyridin-2-yl)oxy) phthalocyanine (2), Zn(II) tetrakis-1 butyl 4-(2-(6- (tetra-phenoxy)pyridin-3-yl) vinyl)pyridin-1-ium phthalocyanine (3) and Zn(II) tetrakis 1 butyl 5-(2-(1-butylpyridin-1-ium-4-yl)vinyl)-2-(tetra-phenoxy)pyridin-1-ium phthalocyanine (4). The effect of a varying number of charges when the Pc complexes are alone or grafted in gallic acid (GA) tagged silica nanoparticles on photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT) is investigated toward Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) and Escherichia coli (E.coli) in both planktonic and biofilm forms. Complex 4, bearing a total of 8 cationic charges, displayed the highest activity with log CFU (colony forming units) values of 8.60 and 6.42 against E.coli and S.aureus biofilms, respectively. The surface stability of E.coli and S.aureus biofilms in the presence of 4 and its conjugate was analyzed using cyclic voltammetry. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectra are also used to study the conformational and biochemical changes within biofilm upon subjecting them to PACT.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Examining the implementation of the Department of Social Development’s fatherhood strategy by FAMSA

- Sishuba, Thozama Alicia

  • Authors: Sishuba, Thozama Alicia
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: Grahamstown (South Africa) , Eastern Cape (South Africa) , South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Master's theses , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/27618 , vital:69320
  • Description: This study aimed to exam the implementation of the Department of Social Development’s Fatherhood Strategy by Families South Africa (FAMSA) Eastern Cape. FAMSA is a non-profit organization providing vital services to people in families while providing them with psychosocial and emotional support. FAMSA has been in existence since 1954. To achieve this aim, the study’s objectives were underpinned by understanding the implementation of the Department of Social Development’s Fatherhood Strategy in Buffalo City Metro, establishing FAMSA’s response to the implementation of the Department of Social Development’s Fatherhood Strategy as well as exploring the challenges faced by FAMSA in implementing the Department of Social Development’s Fatherhood Strategy. A qualitative research methodology was implemented to gather information from FAMSA and DSD. Findings from literature revealed that the fatherhood strategy has been a concern worldwide evidenced by the high levels of father-child non-residency. Data from this study revealed that FAMSA had been implementing the programme effectively regardless of numerous challenges that include funding human resources. Conclusively, a lot must be done to advocate for fatherhood. Recommendations also point to the need for several interventions which need to be done in research, social work practice and also policy formulation and development. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2023
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Exploring the Incremental Improvements of YOLOv5 on Tracking and Identifying Great White Sharks in Cape Town

- Kuhlane, Luxolo L, Brown, Dane L, Boby, Alden

  • Authors: Kuhlane, Luxolo L , Brown, Dane L , Boby, Alden
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/464107 , vital:76476 , xlink:href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-37963-5_98"
  • Description: The information on great white sharks is used by scientists to help better understand the marine organisms and to mitigate any chances of extinction of great white sharks. Sharks play a very important role in the ocean, and their role in the oceans is under-appreciated by the general public, which results in negative attitudes towards sharks. The tracking and identification of sharks are done using manual labour, which is not very accurate and time-consuming. This paper uses a deep learning approach to help identify and track great white sharks in Cape Town. A popular object detecting system used in this paper is YOLO, which is implemented to help identify the great white shark. In conjunction with YOLO, the paper also uses ESRGAN to help upscale low-quality images from the datasets into more high-quality images before being put into the YOLO system. The main focus of this paper is to help train the system; this includes training the system to identify great white sharks in difficult conditions such as murky water or unclear deep-sea conditions.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Exploring The Incremental Improvements of YOLOv7 on Bull Sharks in Mozambique

- Kuhlane, Luxolo L, Brown, Dane L, Brown, Alden

  • Authors: Kuhlane, Luxolo L , Brown, Dane L , Brown, Alden
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/464118 , vital:76478 , xlink:href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dane-Brown-2/publication/368455814_Exploring_The_Incremental_Improvements_of_YOLOv7_on_Bull_Sharks_in_Mozambique/links/63e8d321dea6121757a4ba7f/Exploring-The-Incremental-Improvements-of-YOLOv7-on-Bull-Sharks-in-Mozambique.pdf?origin=journalDetailand_tp=eyJwYWdlIjoiam91cm5hbERldGFpbCJ9"
  • Description: Scientists use bull shark data to better understand marine organisms and to reduce the likelihood of bull shark extinction. Sharks play an important role in the ocean, and their importance is underappreciated by the general public, leading to negative attitudes toward sharks. The tracking and identification of sharks is done by hand, which is inefficient and time-consuming. This paper employs a deep learning approach to assist in the identification and tracking of bull sharks in Mozambique. YOLO is a popular object detection system used in this paper to aid in the identification of the great white shark. In addition to YOLO, the paper employs ESRGAN to help upscale low-quality images from the datasets into higher-quality images before they are fed into the YOLO system. The primary goal of this paper is to assist in training the system to identify bull sharks in difficult conditions such as murky water or unclear deep-sea conditions.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Feminism and women in African philosophy

- Etieyibo, Edwin, Tabensky, Pedro

  • Authors: Etieyibo, Edwin , Tabensky, Pedro
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/453305 , vital:75244 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02580136.2023.2283674
  • Description: In this preamble, we highlight some of the more recent work on gender and sexuality in African philosophy. We do this as a way of introducing the special issue on “African Philosophy, Women, and Feminism”. In particular, we outline and highlight the trajectory and intellectual landscape of several discussions on women and feminism in African philosophy in the issue, and in this way, build on some previous work on gender, women, sexuality and African philosophy.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Fruits of the city: The nature, nurture and future of urban foraging

- Sardeshpande, Mallika, Shackleton, Charlie M

  • Authors: Sardeshpande, Mallika , Shackleton, Charlie M
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/402259 , vital:69835 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10428"
  • Description: Urban foraging is a global informal phenomenon which has been investigated in the Global North more than oth-er parts of the world. Characterising the nature of urban foraging in the Global South is imperative given the rapid urbanisation and sustainable development priorities in the region. In this study, we interviewed 80 urban forag-ers in four cities in the eastern coastal region of South Af-rica, with an aim to understand the nature of urban forag-ing in a developing nation context. We asked foragers about their initiation to and motivations for foraging, their logistics, yields and associated activities, descriptions of their foraging grounds, and if and how they had changed, and what they envisage as an ideal future for foraging.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Gender and Culture Shock at University: Perspectives of First-Year Male Students From a Public University in South Africa

- Aiseng, Kealeboga

  • Authors: Aiseng, Kealeboga
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book chapter
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/453392 , vital:75250 , ISBN 9781668469613 , DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6961-3.ch006
  • Description: The chapter seeks to embark on a qualitative study with first-year male students from a public university in South Africa to understand their adjustment and adapting to university life due to challenges with gender and sexuality matters that they face. The authors is mostly interested in male students as they are the usual perpetrators of gender and sexuality offences in universities. With this chapter, the author wants to understand the experiences of these students as they transition from one world (their hometowns) to another (university campuses). Of interest in this study is that some of the students at this university come from previously disadvantaged backgrounds: villages, townships, and farmsteads. Some of them have gone through traditional rites of passage such as initiation schools; others come from patriarchal backgrounds and heteronormative backgrounds.
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  • Date Issued: 2023
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