Nonlinear optical studies of phthalocyanines and their conjugates with nanomaterials
- Authors: Sanusi, Sikiru Olukayode
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Phthalocyanines , Nonlinear optics
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4545 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017925
- Description: A number of metallophthalocyanines (MPcs) and metal-free phthalocyanines (H₂Pcs) have been synthesized and characterized using various characterization tools such as ¹H-NMR, TOF mass spectrometry, FT-IR, UV-visible spectrophotometry and CHNS elemental analysis. Some of the MPcs were covalently linked to nanomaterials such as silica nanoparticles (SiNPs), single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) and quantum dots (QDs), or embedded in polymer thin-films using poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) as the polymer sources. The phthalocyanine-nanomaterial composites (Pc-NMCs) were characterized with FT-IR, UV-visible spectrophotometry, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetry analysis and X-ray diffractometry. The nonlinear optical (NLO) properties (using the open-aperture Z-scan technique) of the MPcs and the Pc-NMCs were investigated. In general, most of the investigated MPcs showed good optical limiting behaviors, except for a few, like the non-peripherally-substituted 2-pyridyloxy phthalocyanines, which showed inhibited NLO response as a result of the ring-strain effects. The absence of a metal center was found to greatly reduce the inherent high nonlinearities expected of some of the phthalocyanine complexes. The octaphenoxy derivatives (61a – 61e) were found to exhibit reverse saturable absorption (RSA) that depends on the singlet-singlet transitions, hence making them less reliable optical limiters. The optical limiting properties of the MPcs were improved in the presence of nanomaterials such as the QDs, MNPs and SWCNTs, with MPc-QDs showing the best optical limiting behavior of the three. SiNPs have no significant effect on the optical limiting behavior of the MPcs. The optical limiting properties of the MPcs were greatly enhanced in the presence of PMMA or PAA polymers. The PAA polymer showed better optical limiting behavior compared to PMMA
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Sanusi, Sikiru Olukayode
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Phthalocyanines , Nonlinear optics
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4545 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017925
- Description: A number of metallophthalocyanines (MPcs) and metal-free phthalocyanines (H₂Pcs) have been synthesized and characterized using various characterization tools such as ¹H-NMR, TOF mass spectrometry, FT-IR, UV-visible spectrophotometry and CHNS elemental analysis. Some of the MPcs were covalently linked to nanomaterials such as silica nanoparticles (SiNPs), single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) and quantum dots (QDs), or embedded in polymer thin-films using poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) as the polymer sources. The phthalocyanine-nanomaterial composites (Pc-NMCs) were characterized with FT-IR, UV-visible spectrophotometry, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetry analysis and X-ray diffractometry. The nonlinear optical (NLO) properties (using the open-aperture Z-scan technique) of the MPcs and the Pc-NMCs were investigated. In general, most of the investigated MPcs showed good optical limiting behaviors, except for a few, like the non-peripherally-substituted 2-pyridyloxy phthalocyanines, which showed inhibited NLO response as a result of the ring-strain effects. The absence of a metal center was found to greatly reduce the inherent high nonlinearities expected of some of the phthalocyanine complexes. The octaphenoxy derivatives (61a – 61e) were found to exhibit reverse saturable absorption (RSA) that depends on the singlet-singlet transitions, hence making them less reliable optical limiters. The optical limiting properties of the MPcs were improved in the presence of nanomaterials such as the QDs, MNPs and SWCNTs, with MPc-QDs showing the best optical limiting behavior of the three. SiNPs have no significant effect on the optical limiting behavior of the MPcs. The optical limiting properties of the MPcs were greatly enhanced in the presence of PMMA or PAA polymers. The PAA polymer showed better optical limiting behavior compared to PMMA
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Reading identities: a case study of grade 8 learners' interactions in a reading club
- Scheckle, Eileen Margaret Agnes
- Authors: Scheckle, Eileen Margaret Agnes
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Group reading -- South Africa , Reading (Middle school) -- South Africa , Literacy programs -- South Africa , Identity (Psychology) in adolescence , Identity (Psychology) in adolescence -- South Africa , Discourse analysis -- Social aspects , Critical realism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1329 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017766
- Description: This study offers an account of reading clubs as a literacy intervention in a grade 8 English class at a former ‘Coloured’ high school in South Africa. Using Margaret Archer’s social realist methodology, it examines different practices of ‘reading’ used by learners in talking and writing about text. Archer’s analytical dualism and morphogenetic model provided an explanatory framework for this study. Analytical dualism allows for the separation of the parts (structural and cultural elements) from the people (the grade 8 learners) so as to analyse the interplay between structure and culture. The morphogenetic model recognises that antecedent structures predate this, and any study but that through the exercise of agency, morphogenesis, in the form of structural elaboration or morphostasis in the form of continuity, may occur. This study used a New Literacies perspective based on an ideological model of literacy which recognises many different literacies, in addition to dominant school literacies. Learners’ talk about books as well as personal journal writing provided an insight into what cultural mechanisms and powers children bring to the reading of novels. Understandings of discourses as well as of Gee’s (1990; 2008) construct of Discourse provided a framework for examining learners’ identities and shifts as readers. The data in this study, which is presented through a series of vignettes, found that grade 8 learners use many different experiences and draw on different discourses when making sense of texts. Through the separation of the structural and cultural components, this research could explore how reading clubs as structures enabled learners to access different discourses from the domain of culture. Through the process and engagement in the reading clubs, following Gee (2000b), learners were attributed affinity, discoursal and institutional identities as readers. It was found, in the course of the study, that providing a safe space, scaffolding, multiple opportunities to practice and a variety of reading material, helped learners to access and appropriate dominant literacies. In addition, learners need a repertoire of literacy practices to draw from as successful reading needs flexibility and adaptability. Reading and writing inform each other and through gradual induction into literary writing, learners began to appropriate and approximate dominant literacy practices. Following others who have contributed to the field of New Literacy Studies (Heath, 1983; Street, 1984; Gee 1990; Prinsloo & Breier, 1996), this study would suggest that literacies of traditionally underserved communities should not be considered in deficit terms. Instead these need to be understood as resources for negotiating meaning making and as tools or mechanisms to access dominant discourse practices. In addition the resilience and competition from Discourses of popular culture need to be recognised and developed as tools to access school literacies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Scheckle, Eileen Margaret Agnes
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Group reading -- South Africa , Reading (Middle school) -- South Africa , Literacy programs -- South Africa , Identity (Psychology) in adolescence , Identity (Psychology) in adolescence -- South Africa , Discourse analysis -- Social aspects , Critical realism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1329 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017766
- Description: This study offers an account of reading clubs as a literacy intervention in a grade 8 English class at a former ‘Coloured’ high school in South Africa. Using Margaret Archer’s social realist methodology, it examines different practices of ‘reading’ used by learners in talking and writing about text. Archer’s analytical dualism and morphogenetic model provided an explanatory framework for this study. Analytical dualism allows for the separation of the parts (structural and cultural elements) from the people (the grade 8 learners) so as to analyse the interplay between structure and culture. The morphogenetic model recognises that antecedent structures predate this, and any study but that through the exercise of agency, morphogenesis, in the form of structural elaboration or morphostasis in the form of continuity, may occur. This study used a New Literacies perspective based on an ideological model of literacy which recognises many different literacies, in addition to dominant school literacies. Learners’ talk about books as well as personal journal writing provided an insight into what cultural mechanisms and powers children bring to the reading of novels. Understandings of discourses as well as of Gee’s (1990; 2008) construct of Discourse provided a framework for examining learners’ identities and shifts as readers. The data in this study, which is presented through a series of vignettes, found that grade 8 learners use many different experiences and draw on different discourses when making sense of texts. Through the separation of the structural and cultural components, this research could explore how reading clubs as structures enabled learners to access different discourses from the domain of culture. Through the process and engagement in the reading clubs, following Gee (2000b), learners were attributed affinity, discoursal and institutional identities as readers. It was found, in the course of the study, that providing a safe space, scaffolding, multiple opportunities to practice and a variety of reading material, helped learners to access and appropriate dominant literacies. In addition, learners need a repertoire of literacy practices to draw from as successful reading needs flexibility and adaptability. Reading and writing inform each other and through gradual induction into literary writing, learners began to appropriate and approximate dominant literacy practices. Following others who have contributed to the field of New Literacy Studies (Heath, 1983; Street, 1984; Gee 1990; Prinsloo & Breier, 1996), this study would suggest that literacies of traditionally underserved communities should not be considered in deficit terms. Instead these need to be understood as resources for negotiating meaning making and as tools or mechanisms to access dominant discourse practices. In addition the resilience and competition from Discourses of popular culture need to be recognised and developed as tools to access school literacies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
On the characterisation of diffused light and optical elements in high concentrator photovoltaic modules
- Authors: Schultz, Ross Dane
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Photovoltaic cells , Solar concentrators , Optical materials
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5170 , vital:20817
- Description: High Concentrated Photovoltaics (H-CPV) promise a more efficient, higher power output than traditional photovoltaic modules. This is achieved by concentrating sunlight onto a small triple junction (CTJ) InGaP/InGaAs/Ge cell (ranging from 3.14 mm2 to 1 cm2) by using precision optical systems. These systems utilise non-imaging optics to concentrate and distribute the incident solar flux uniformly onto the CTJ device receiver to achieve maximum performance and power output from an H-CPV module. However, the performance of the device can be reduced due to the partial or complete absorption of a range of wavelengths present in the solar spectrum by the optical materials that are used for concentration. An investigation to determine the current density topographies of each subcell in a CTJ cell by multiple raster scans of an optical fibre receiver of a spectrometer in the plane of the aperture of the secondary’s optical element was conducted. Results showed that the physical properties of the optical elements’ material absorbed different amounts of the spectral content with respect to the subcell photosensitive wavelength regions. The facet properties of the primary optical Fresnel lens showed that the more rounded the Fresnel facets were, the lower the concentration of sunlight incident onto the CTJ cell. The increase in facet numbers showed an increase in scattering of the incident sunlight and chromatic aberrations. Chromatic aberration created by the refractive optics showed a variation in the amount of concentration on each individual subcell as well as the difference in intensity profiles across for the different subcells. Based on these results and the development of new multi-junction devices by industry, the performance of a four and six-junction device with the optical materials was investigated by simulations. The simulations showed that the careful integration of an additional subcell in a multi-junction device could rectify current mismatch between the subcells in the device. Based on the simulations, the best performing multi-junction cell was identified as the four-junction device that showed a cell and module efficiency under operation of 42.5 % and 35.5 %, respectively. Additionally, based on the performance results observed from the H-CPV module, the development of an HCPV module that would attempt to harness the incident tracked diffuse sunlight available to a concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) module for additional energy yield was undertaken. The part of the study comprised of measurements of the solar source, design of a prototype Hybrid High Concentrator Photovoltaic (HH-CPV) module. Results showed that power generation from the H-CPV system was highly dependent on the DNI levels and fluctuates greatly with variation in the DNI. The irradiance levels within the diffuse regions of the H-CPV module showed that the baseplate and vertical sides had an average irradiance range of 140-450 and 50-225 W.m-2, respectively. Irradiance topographic raster scans revealed that the baseplate and vertical sides had a relatively uniform intensity distribution and was identified as favourable sites for diffuse cell population. Simulations of various PV technologies showed the most suitable technology for the placement within the cavity of the HH-CPV module. The developed HH-CPV module was finalized with the utilization of CIS modules to harness the diffuse irradiance. During a 3 month power monitoring of the HH-CPV system, it was determined that the major power generation for the HH-CPV module come from the CPV component, while the CIS modules showed a minor power contribution. The total energy yield for the monitoring period was 45.99, 3.89 and 1.76 kW.h for the CPV, four-vertical sides and baseplate components, respectively. The increase in energy yield of the HH-CPV module when compared to the standard H-CPV module was determined to be 12.35 % for the monitoring period. The incorporation of the CIS modules into the H-CPV module to create the HH-CPV module did increase the energy yield of the module during high DNI conditions and did offset the almost zero power generation during low DNI conditions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Schultz, Ross Dane
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Photovoltaic cells , Solar concentrators , Optical materials
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5170 , vital:20817
- Description: High Concentrated Photovoltaics (H-CPV) promise a more efficient, higher power output than traditional photovoltaic modules. This is achieved by concentrating sunlight onto a small triple junction (CTJ) InGaP/InGaAs/Ge cell (ranging from 3.14 mm2 to 1 cm2) by using precision optical systems. These systems utilise non-imaging optics to concentrate and distribute the incident solar flux uniformly onto the CTJ device receiver to achieve maximum performance and power output from an H-CPV module. However, the performance of the device can be reduced due to the partial or complete absorption of a range of wavelengths present in the solar spectrum by the optical materials that are used for concentration. An investigation to determine the current density topographies of each subcell in a CTJ cell by multiple raster scans of an optical fibre receiver of a spectrometer in the plane of the aperture of the secondary’s optical element was conducted. Results showed that the physical properties of the optical elements’ material absorbed different amounts of the spectral content with respect to the subcell photosensitive wavelength regions. The facet properties of the primary optical Fresnel lens showed that the more rounded the Fresnel facets were, the lower the concentration of sunlight incident onto the CTJ cell. The increase in facet numbers showed an increase in scattering of the incident sunlight and chromatic aberrations. Chromatic aberration created by the refractive optics showed a variation in the amount of concentration on each individual subcell as well as the difference in intensity profiles across for the different subcells. Based on these results and the development of new multi-junction devices by industry, the performance of a four and six-junction device with the optical materials was investigated by simulations. The simulations showed that the careful integration of an additional subcell in a multi-junction device could rectify current mismatch between the subcells in the device. Based on the simulations, the best performing multi-junction cell was identified as the four-junction device that showed a cell and module efficiency under operation of 42.5 % and 35.5 %, respectively. Additionally, based on the performance results observed from the H-CPV module, the development of an HCPV module that would attempt to harness the incident tracked diffuse sunlight available to a concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) module for additional energy yield was undertaken. The part of the study comprised of measurements of the solar source, design of a prototype Hybrid High Concentrator Photovoltaic (HH-CPV) module. Results showed that power generation from the H-CPV system was highly dependent on the DNI levels and fluctuates greatly with variation in the DNI. The irradiance levels within the diffuse regions of the H-CPV module showed that the baseplate and vertical sides had an average irradiance range of 140-450 and 50-225 W.m-2, respectively. Irradiance topographic raster scans revealed that the baseplate and vertical sides had a relatively uniform intensity distribution and was identified as favourable sites for diffuse cell population. Simulations of various PV technologies showed the most suitable technology for the placement within the cavity of the HH-CPV module. The developed HH-CPV module was finalized with the utilization of CIS modules to harness the diffuse irradiance. During a 3 month power monitoring of the HH-CPV system, it was determined that the major power generation for the HH-CPV module come from the CPV component, while the CIS modules showed a minor power contribution. The total energy yield for the monitoring period was 45.99, 3.89 and 1.76 kW.h for the CPV, four-vertical sides and baseplate components, respectively. The increase in energy yield of the HH-CPV module when compared to the standard H-CPV module was determined to be 12.35 % for the monitoring period. The incorporation of the CIS modules into the H-CPV module to create the HH-CPV module did increase the energy yield of the module during high DNI conditions and did offset the almost zero power generation during low DNI conditions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
The supervisor’s tale: postgraduate supervisors’ experiences in a changing Higher Education environment
- Authors: Searle, Ruth Lesley
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Graduate students -- Supervision of -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Educational change -- South Africa , Archer, Margaret Scotford -- Political and social views , Critical realism , Knowledge, Sociology of , Dissertations, Academic , Faculty advisors -- South Africa , Education -- Study and teaching (Graduate) -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- Graduate work
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1331 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1019952
- Description: The environment in which higher education institutions operate is changing, and these changes are impacting on all aspects of higher education, including postgraduate levels. Changes wrought by globalisation, heralded by rapid advances in technology have inaugurated a new era in which there are long term consequences for higher education. The shift towards more quantitative and measurable "outputs" signifies a fundamental change in the educational ethos in institutions. Effectiveness is now judged primarily on numbers of graduates and publications rather than on other aspects. The drive is to produce a highly educated population, especially through increasing postgraduates who can drive national innovation and improve national economies. This affects academics in a range of ways, not least in the ways in which they engage in teaching, what they are willing to do and how they do it. Such changes influence the kinds of research done, the structures and funding which support research, and thus naturally shapes the kinds of postgraduate programmes and teaching that occurs. This study, situated in the field of Higher Education Studies, adopting a critical realist stance and drawing on the social theory of Margaret Archer and the concepts of expert and novice, explores the experiences of postgraduate supervisors from one South African institution across a range of disciplines. Individual experiences at the level of the Empirical and embodied in practice at the level of the Actual allow for the identification of possible mechanisms at the level of the Real which structure the sector. The research design then allows for an exploration across mezzo, macro and micro levels. Individuals outline their own particular situations, identifying a number of elements which enabled or constrained them and how, in exercising their agency, they develop their strategies for supervision drawing on a range of different resources that they identify and that may be available to them. Student characteristics, discipline status and placement, funding, and the emergent policy environment are all identified as influencing their practice. In some instances supervisors recognise the broader influences on the system that involve them in their undertaking, noting the international trends. Through their narratives and the discourses they engage a number of contradictions that have developed in the system with growing neo-liberal trends and vocationalism highlighting tensions between academic freedom and autonomy, and demands for productivity, efficiency and compliance, and between an educational focus and a training bias in particular along with others. Especially notable is how this contributes to the current ideologies surrounding knowledge and knowledge production. Their individual interests and concerns, and emergent academic identities as they take shape over time, also modifies the process and how individual supervisors influence their own environments in agentic moves becomes apparent. Whilst often individuals highlight the lack of support especially in the early phases of supervision, the emergent policy-constrained environment is also seen as curtailing possibilities and especially in limiting the possibilities for the exercise of agency. Whilst the study has some limitations in the range and number of respondents nevertheless the data provided rich evidence of how individual supervisors are affected, and how they respond in varied conditions. What is highlighted through these experiences are ways pressures are increasing for both supervisors and students and changing how they engage. Concerns in particular are raised about the growing functional and instrumental nature of the process with an emphasis on the effects on the kinds of researchers being developed and the knowledge that is therefore being produced. As costs increase for academics through the environments developed and with the varied roles they take on so they become more selective and reluctant to expand the role. This research has provided insights into ideas, beliefs and values relating to the postgraduate sector and to the process of postgraduate supervision and how it occurs. This includes the structures and cultural conditions that enable or constrain practitioners as they develop in the role in this particular institution. It has explored some of the ways that mechanisms at international, national and institutional levels shape the role and practices of supervisors. The effects of mechanisms are in no way a given or simply understood. In this way the research may contribute to more emancipatory knowledge which could be used in planning and deciding on emergent policies and practices which might create a more supportive and creative postgraduate environment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Searle, Ruth Lesley
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Graduate students -- Supervision of -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Educational change -- South Africa , Archer, Margaret Scotford -- Political and social views , Critical realism , Knowledge, Sociology of , Dissertations, Academic , Faculty advisors -- South Africa , Education -- Study and teaching (Graduate) -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- Graduate work
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1331 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1019952
- Description: The environment in which higher education institutions operate is changing, and these changes are impacting on all aspects of higher education, including postgraduate levels. Changes wrought by globalisation, heralded by rapid advances in technology have inaugurated a new era in which there are long term consequences for higher education. The shift towards more quantitative and measurable "outputs" signifies a fundamental change in the educational ethos in institutions. Effectiveness is now judged primarily on numbers of graduates and publications rather than on other aspects. The drive is to produce a highly educated population, especially through increasing postgraduates who can drive national innovation and improve national economies. This affects academics in a range of ways, not least in the ways in which they engage in teaching, what they are willing to do and how they do it. Such changes influence the kinds of research done, the structures and funding which support research, and thus naturally shapes the kinds of postgraduate programmes and teaching that occurs. This study, situated in the field of Higher Education Studies, adopting a critical realist stance and drawing on the social theory of Margaret Archer and the concepts of expert and novice, explores the experiences of postgraduate supervisors from one South African institution across a range of disciplines. Individual experiences at the level of the Empirical and embodied in practice at the level of the Actual allow for the identification of possible mechanisms at the level of the Real which structure the sector. The research design then allows for an exploration across mezzo, macro and micro levels. Individuals outline their own particular situations, identifying a number of elements which enabled or constrained them and how, in exercising their agency, they develop their strategies for supervision drawing on a range of different resources that they identify and that may be available to them. Student characteristics, discipline status and placement, funding, and the emergent policy environment are all identified as influencing their practice. In some instances supervisors recognise the broader influences on the system that involve them in their undertaking, noting the international trends. Through their narratives and the discourses they engage a number of contradictions that have developed in the system with growing neo-liberal trends and vocationalism highlighting tensions between academic freedom and autonomy, and demands for productivity, efficiency and compliance, and between an educational focus and a training bias in particular along with others. Especially notable is how this contributes to the current ideologies surrounding knowledge and knowledge production. Their individual interests and concerns, and emergent academic identities as they take shape over time, also modifies the process and how individual supervisors influence their own environments in agentic moves becomes apparent. Whilst often individuals highlight the lack of support especially in the early phases of supervision, the emergent policy-constrained environment is also seen as curtailing possibilities and especially in limiting the possibilities for the exercise of agency. Whilst the study has some limitations in the range and number of respondents nevertheless the data provided rich evidence of how individual supervisors are affected, and how they respond in varied conditions. What is highlighted through these experiences are ways pressures are increasing for both supervisors and students and changing how they engage. Concerns in particular are raised about the growing functional and instrumental nature of the process with an emphasis on the effects on the kinds of researchers being developed and the knowledge that is therefore being produced. As costs increase for academics through the environments developed and with the varied roles they take on so they become more selective and reluctant to expand the role. This research has provided insights into ideas, beliefs and values relating to the postgraduate sector and to the process of postgraduate supervision and how it occurs. This includes the structures and cultural conditions that enable or constrain practitioners as they develop in the role in this particular institution. It has explored some of the ways that mechanisms at international, national and institutional levels shape the role and practices of supervisors. The effects of mechanisms are in no way a given or simply understood. In this way the research may contribute to more emancipatory knowledge which could be used in planning and deciding on emergent policies and practices which might create a more supportive and creative postgraduate environment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Strategies to facilitate community-based health care for severely and persistently mentally ill persons
- Authors: Shasha, Nontembeko Grycelda
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Mentally ill -- Rehabilitation , Community mental health services , Community mental health services -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/3755 , vital:20461
- Description: The goal of mental health delivery system is to allow the individual with severe and persistent mental illness to live and function effectively in the community and to ensure that the consumers and their families have access to accurate information that promotes learning, self-monitoring and accountability (Stuart & Laraia, 2005:710). In community-based health care, the persons living with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) are in their natural environment in the context of the family and the community. The goals of care are focused around maximizing the person living with SPMI’s quality of life (Hunt, 2001:15-16). In South Africa, an integrated package of essential Primary Health Care (PHC) services has been made available to the entire population in order to provide the solid foundation of a single unified health care service (Department of Health, 2000:4). The assessment of health care needs of persons living with SPMI is a dynamic on-going process that is used to collect information, recognise changes, analyse needs and plan health care to provide baseline information to help evaluate the physiological and psychological normality and functional capacity of persons with SPMI (Hunt, 2001:100). There is insufficient information from the Department of Health to either satisfy the enquiry of whether the health care needs of persons living with SPMI are being met comprehensively or whether the practitioners rendering community-based health care are knowledgeable and comply with PHC norms and standards developed by this Department. The researcher is interested in understanding how the persons living with SPMI and their families experience the community-based health care provided by PHC nurses. The purpose of this research study is to develop strategies that would assist the PHC nurses in the selected rural areas of the Eastern Cape to facilitate community-based health care and to render a health care service relevant to the health care needs of the persons living with SPMI and their families. To achieve the objective of the study, the research design was based on a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, contextual research approach. Phase one includes describing and selecting the research population and the sampling process prior to conducting the field work which comprises individual interviews with persons living with SPMI and their families as well as PHC nurses. According to Dickoff, James and Weidenbach (1968:422) and Chinn and Kramer (1995:78), this strategy involves identifying concepts from fieldwork and creating conceptual meaning to provide a foundation for developing strategies to facilitate community-based care for persons living with mental illness. Phase two of the research design will focus on development of conceptual framework in order to allow better understanding of the phenomenon of interest, as the major concepts will be simplified by connecting all related concepts together by means of statements. This was done by making use of the themes identified during data analysis and the literature sources used throughout this research process. The evaluation criteria of Chinn and Kramer (2008:237-248) were used to evaluate the strategies. It is therefore concluded that the researcher succeeded in achieving the purpose of this study because strategies which were understandable, clear, applicable and relevant to the nursing practice have been developed for use by Department of Health and Primary Health Care to facilitate the multifaceted role of the PHC nurses.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Shasha, Nontembeko Grycelda
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Mentally ill -- Rehabilitation , Community mental health services , Community mental health services -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/3755 , vital:20461
- Description: The goal of mental health delivery system is to allow the individual with severe and persistent mental illness to live and function effectively in the community and to ensure that the consumers and their families have access to accurate information that promotes learning, self-monitoring and accountability (Stuart & Laraia, 2005:710). In community-based health care, the persons living with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) are in their natural environment in the context of the family and the community. The goals of care are focused around maximizing the person living with SPMI’s quality of life (Hunt, 2001:15-16). In South Africa, an integrated package of essential Primary Health Care (PHC) services has been made available to the entire population in order to provide the solid foundation of a single unified health care service (Department of Health, 2000:4). The assessment of health care needs of persons living with SPMI is a dynamic on-going process that is used to collect information, recognise changes, analyse needs and plan health care to provide baseline information to help evaluate the physiological and psychological normality and functional capacity of persons with SPMI (Hunt, 2001:100). There is insufficient information from the Department of Health to either satisfy the enquiry of whether the health care needs of persons living with SPMI are being met comprehensively or whether the practitioners rendering community-based health care are knowledgeable and comply with PHC norms and standards developed by this Department. The researcher is interested in understanding how the persons living with SPMI and their families experience the community-based health care provided by PHC nurses. The purpose of this research study is to develop strategies that would assist the PHC nurses in the selected rural areas of the Eastern Cape to facilitate community-based health care and to render a health care service relevant to the health care needs of the persons living with SPMI and their families. To achieve the objective of the study, the research design was based on a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, contextual research approach. Phase one includes describing and selecting the research population and the sampling process prior to conducting the field work which comprises individual interviews with persons living with SPMI and their families as well as PHC nurses. According to Dickoff, James and Weidenbach (1968:422) and Chinn and Kramer (1995:78), this strategy involves identifying concepts from fieldwork and creating conceptual meaning to provide a foundation for developing strategies to facilitate community-based care for persons living with mental illness. Phase two of the research design will focus on development of conceptual framework in order to allow better understanding of the phenomenon of interest, as the major concepts will be simplified by connecting all related concepts together by means of statements. This was done by making use of the themes identified during data analysis and the literature sources used throughout this research process. The evaluation criteria of Chinn and Kramer (2008:237-248) were used to evaluate the strategies. It is therefore concluded that the researcher succeeded in achieving the purpose of this study because strategies which were understandable, clear, applicable and relevant to the nursing practice have been developed for use by Department of Health and Primary Health Care to facilitate the multifaceted role of the PHC nurses.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Enabling and constraining factors in Zimbabwe's 3-3-3 teacher education curriculum model : the case of a secondary teacher education college
- Authors: Shava, Nosizo
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Education -- Curricula -- Zimbabwe Teacher participation in curriculum planning -- Zimbabwe Teachers -- Training of -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/5686 , vital:29362
- Description: This study offers an explanation of enabling and / or constraining factors in Zimbabwe‘s 3-3-3 secondary teacher education model for Post ‗O‘ Level Science. It is a theory driven study that derives its theoretical foundation from Roy Bhaskar‘s critical realism and Margaret Archer‘s morphogenetic approach to reality. The study therefore offers explanations about structural, cultural and agential influences that facilitate and / or hinder the 3-year program for Post ‗O‘ Level Science. This was a qualitative case study of one secondary teacher education college in Zimbabwe. Qualitative data were collected through interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis. One official from the Department of Teacher Education(DTE) at the University of Zimbabwe(UZ),the Principal, the Vice Principal and 10 lecturers from the studied college,3 Heads of Science department in secondary schools,3mentors and 5 groups of 10 and 11eleven student teachers participated in the study. The DTE Handbook (2012), vision and mission statements and core values of the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education Science and Technology Development (MHTESTD),DTE and the studied college, syllabuses, teaching practice reports, policy documents, external examining reports, College Academic Board (CAB) minutes, admission records, mark profiles and pass lists among other relevant documents complemented interview data. As a theory driven study, structural, cultural and agential influences were found to be enabling and / or constraining the model. The acute shortage of Science teachers in secondary schools and the few Post ‗A‘ Level Science graduates led to the re-introduction of the 3- year Post ‗O‘ Level Science program in secondary teacher education colleges. The bureaucratic structures in educational institutions, the In-Out-In structure, institutional structures such as the family, the University, the studied college, secondary schools, infrastructural facilities, material and financial resources, transport facilities and utilities such as water, electricity and the internet were established as some among other structural factors affecting the 3-3-3 model. Discourses held about the teaching profession, the vision, mission and core values of the MHTESTD,DTE and the studied college, beliefs about what Science teachers should learn, knowledge, skills, attitudes and values they should acquire and how they should be taught were established as cultural factors enabling and / or constraining the 3-3-3 model. Agential influences offering causal explanation for enablers and / or constrainers of the model were established as the decision by the Principal and the CAB to re-introduce the 3- year Post ‗O‘ Level Science program, the decision by the students to enroll for the program, the recruitment of under qualified students, the use of various teaching methods, conducting staff development and mentorship workshops and failure to increase staff establishment. The study has put forth recommendations for the improvement on constraining factors in pre-service teacher education programs. With the understanding that agency has power to reinforce or transform structures and cultures, it should not be seen to be reinforcing disadvantaged structural positions and cultures; instead, after having identified structural and cultural constrainers, it should engage in communicative and meta-reflexivity to come up with the best possible solutions to the hindrances. Courses of action should then be taken accordingly.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Shava, Nosizo
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Education -- Curricula -- Zimbabwe Teacher participation in curriculum planning -- Zimbabwe Teachers -- Training of -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/5686 , vital:29362
- Description: This study offers an explanation of enabling and / or constraining factors in Zimbabwe‘s 3-3-3 secondary teacher education model for Post ‗O‘ Level Science. It is a theory driven study that derives its theoretical foundation from Roy Bhaskar‘s critical realism and Margaret Archer‘s morphogenetic approach to reality. The study therefore offers explanations about structural, cultural and agential influences that facilitate and / or hinder the 3-year program for Post ‗O‘ Level Science. This was a qualitative case study of one secondary teacher education college in Zimbabwe. Qualitative data were collected through interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis. One official from the Department of Teacher Education(DTE) at the University of Zimbabwe(UZ),the Principal, the Vice Principal and 10 lecturers from the studied college,3 Heads of Science department in secondary schools,3mentors and 5 groups of 10 and 11eleven student teachers participated in the study. The DTE Handbook (2012), vision and mission statements and core values of the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education Science and Technology Development (MHTESTD),DTE and the studied college, syllabuses, teaching practice reports, policy documents, external examining reports, College Academic Board (CAB) minutes, admission records, mark profiles and pass lists among other relevant documents complemented interview data. As a theory driven study, structural, cultural and agential influences were found to be enabling and / or constraining the model. The acute shortage of Science teachers in secondary schools and the few Post ‗A‘ Level Science graduates led to the re-introduction of the 3- year Post ‗O‘ Level Science program in secondary teacher education colleges. The bureaucratic structures in educational institutions, the In-Out-In structure, institutional structures such as the family, the University, the studied college, secondary schools, infrastructural facilities, material and financial resources, transport facilities and utilities such as water, electricity and the internet were established as some among other structural factors affecting the 3-3-3 model. Discourses held about the teaching profession, the vision, mission and core values of the MHTESTD,DTE and the studied college, beliefs about what Science teachers should learn, knowledge, skills, attitudes and values they should acquire and how they should be taught were established as cultural factors enabling and / or constraining the 3-3-3 model. Agential influences offering causal explanation for enablers and / or constrainers of the model were established as the decision by the Principal and the CAB to re-introduce the 3- year Post ‗O‘ Level Science program, the decision by the students to enroll for the program, the recruitment of under qualified students, the use of various teaching methods, conducting staff development and mentorship workshops and failure to increase staff establishment. The study has put forth recommendations for the improvement on constraining factors in pre-service teacher education programs. With the understanding that agency has power to reinforce or transform structures and cultures, it should not be seen to be reinforcing disadvantaged structural positions and cultures; instead, after having identified structural and cultural constrainers, it should engage in communicative and meta-reflexivity to come up with the best possible solutions to the hindrances. Courses of action should then be taken accordingly.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Working Towards Improved Facilitation of Research Capacity Development at Walter Sisulu University (WSU) Using Action Research (AR) Methodology
- Sotshangane, Nkosinathi Owen
- Authors: Sotshangane, Nkosinathi Owen
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Capacity development -- Research Research -- Higher education Research development -- Study and teaching -- South Africa Education, higher -- Action Research -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , D Ed
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/901 , vital:30009
- Description: This study was originally undertaken to change and improve the way I do my practice at Walter Sisulu University as a Research Associate whose responsibility is to facilitate research capacity development and research excellence within the University, amongst academics and postgraduate students. The success of the Research Resource Centre that I manage depends on the way I promote research culture and research productivity amongst academics and postgraduate students. According to Leedy and Ormrod (2013, p. 2), research is a systematic process that is used to collect, analyse, and interpret data in order to increase my understanding of the phenomenon about interest and concern about a given/identified phenomenon. In this case my own practice changed and improved for the better. The main objective of this study, therefore, was to examine the reasons behind the decline in research productivity in terms of research output and how this could be reversed through action research study intervention in order to enhance research productivity at Walter Sisulu University (WSU). The Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET) allocation of research output units for WSU indicated that there was a decline in research output from 2005 to 2010. The extent to which my practice improvement could contribute towards changing or improving research productivity was a question which this study addressed through a quantitative, qualitative and self-reflective action research cyclic inquiry. I organized sample strategies of this study as follows: For quantitative data, I used 120 lecturers as my respondents through questionnaires (females = 47 and males = 73) who were randomly selected; For qualitative data, I used 24 lecturers as respondents who were randomly selected with whom I conducted interviews; and For self-reflective action research cyclic inquiry I used 7 Transformative Education/al Studies (TES) project group members as my focus group. My research findings concluded that the heavy teaching workload at WSU was problematic and lecturers/academics could not devote time to do research. My recommendation is that research should be made compulsory so that academics become aware that at least one or two published articles are required from them, for the benefit of annual university research productivity. Some research participants also recommended that the Research Resource Centre must include programs that focus directly on active participation in research in order to increase the capacity of individual researchers so as to build a critical mass of competent researchers, perhaps by even including incentives as a reward for doing research. According to Koshy (2010), action research is a specific method of conducting research by professionals and practitioners with the ultimate aim of improving practice. My new knowledge, therefore, in respect of how a concerned Research Associate, from a Historically Disadvantaged Institution (HDI), provided the impetus to create a collaborative practice in a higher education institution which was forced to merge with two former technikons (which lacked understanding of what a university means by research productivity and research output). I consequently developed the Nkosinathi Sotshangane’s cyclic practice improvement model through self-reflective action research, from which I believed other research practitioners could learn by doing something similar in their own context.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Sotshangane, Nkosinathi Owen
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Capacity development -- Research Research -- Higher education Research development -- Study and teaching -- South Africa Education, higher -- Action Research -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , D Ed
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/901 , vital:30009
- Description: This study was originally undertaken to change and improve the way I do my practice at Walter Sisulu University as a Research Associate whose responsibility is to facilitate research capacity development and research excellence within the University, amongst academics and postgraduate students. The success of the Research Resource Centre that I manage depends on the way I promote research culture and research productivity amongst academics and postgraduate students. According to Leedy and Ormrod (2013, p. 2), research is a systematic process that is used to collect, analyse, and interpret data in order to increase my understanding of the phenomenon about interest and concern about a given/identified phenomenon. In this case my own practice changed and improved for the better. The main objective of this study, therefore, was to examine the reasons behind the decline in research productivity in terms of research output and how this could be reversed through action research study intervention in order to enhance research productivity at Walter Sisulu University (WSU). The Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET) allocation of research output units for WSU indicated that there was a decline in research output from 2005 to 2010. The extent to which my practice improvement could contribute towards changing or improving research productivity was a question which this study addressed through a quantitative, qualitative and self-reflective action research cyclic inquiry. I organized sample strategies of this study as follows: For quantitative data, I used 120 lecturers as my respondents through questionnaires (females = 47 and males = 73) who were randomly selected; For qualitative data, I used 24 lecturers as respondents who were randomly selected with whom I conducted interviews; and For self-reflective action research cyclic inquiry I used 7 Transformative Education/al Studies (TES) project group members as my focus group. My research findings concluded that the heavy teaching workload at WSU was problematic and lecturers/academics could not devote time to do research. My recommendation is that research should be made compulsory so that academics become aware that at least one or two published articles are required from them, for the benefit of annual university research productivity. Some research participants also recommended that the Research Resource Centre must include programs that focus directly on active participation in research in order to increase the capacity of individual researchers so as to build a critical mass of competent researchers, perhaps by even including incentives as a reward for doing research. According to Koshy (2010), action research is a specific method of conducting research by professionals and practitioners with the ultimate aim of improving practice. My new knowledge, therefore, in respect of how a concerned Research Associate, from a Historically Disadvantaged Institution (HDI), provided the impetus to create a collaborative practice in a higher education institution which was forced to merge with two former technikons (which lacked understanding of what a university means by research productivity and research output). I consequently developed the Nkosinathi Sotshangane’s cyclic practice improvement model through self-reflective action research, from which I believed other research practitioners could learn by doing something similar in their own context.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Nutritional value and cultivation requirements of Cleome Gynandra: a wild vegetable growing in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Sowunmi, Linda Ifeanyichukwu
- Authors: Sowunmi, Linda Ifeanyichukwu
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Ethnobotany -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Vegetables -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Nutrition -- South Africa -- Evaluation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/2600 , vital:27907
- Description: South Africa has wide ranges of plants among which are leafy vegetables growing in the wild. These wild vegetables have been reported to have high nutritive and medicinal potentials. Yet, there is still high prevalence of malnutrition and micronutrients deficiencies among the low income bracket of the population. Effective utilization of wild vegetables has been proposed as part of the solutions to address the problem of dietary deficiencies among the populace. Their importance is mainly as relish to accompany and complement starch based diets. They are also known to serve as supplements for food which have the potential to improve the health status of its consumers in many rural communities. Cleome gynandra L. (Capparaceae) is one of the underutilized species mentioned during asurvey conducted in Nkonkobe municipality of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The plant is an erect annual herb with alternate, palmately compound leaves and its petals are white, pink or lilac. It grows as a weed in this part of the Province and is usually gathered from the wild for food and medicine. It is commonly found on wastes land, road sides and on grass lands. Therefore, this research work was designed to contribute to the possible domestication of this wild vegetable in order to explore the nutritive and therapeutic potentials which would broaden the food base in the Eastern Cape Province. The ultra-micromorphological features of plants have become an essential tool in proper identification and authentication of several plant species. In the light of this, the micromorphology of Cleome gynandra was examined to reveal the micro-morphological characters of the plantand to determine if micro and macro mineral elements are present using energy dispersive x-rays. The present study revealed the epidermal cells of the leaves to be asymmetric in shape with undulating cell walls having four subsidiary cells around the stomata. The leaves have anomocyctic stomata which are more distributed in the abaxial surface than the adaxial surface. The mean length and width of the guard cells in the abaxial surface are 0.09 ± 0.01 mm and 0.08 ± 0.01 mm respectively while that of adaxial surface are 0.1± 0.01 mm and 0.07 ± 0.01 mm respectively. The energy dispersive x-rays (EDXS) micro-analysis of the leaf revealed the presence of phosphorus, manganese, iron, calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium and zinc as the major constituents of the crystal deposits present in the stomata pores and the mesophyll. C. gynandra was collected from the wild and analysed for its mineral and proximatecomposition using standard analytical methods. The plant showed high levels of sodium, iron, zinc, calcium and potassium while many other macro and micro minerals were moderately present. Amongst the proximate factors investigated, moisture content was found to be 82.1% while crude fibre and protein contents were 39.9 percent and 31.03 percent respectively. Vitamin C was also high (345.3 mg/100g). The anti-nutrients compositions revealed low concentrations of oxalate (7.4 ± 0.4) and phytate (0.6 ± 0.0) mg/100g. The study revealed high nutritive value of the species growing naturally from the wild. Interest in the phenolic compounds has greatly increased recently because these compounds have been implicated in suppressing the risk of degenerative diseases in humans. The pharmacological properties of plants may be related to their antioxidant capacities and hence there was need to investigate the antioxidant potential using aqueous, ethanolic and acetone extracts of different parts of C. gynandra. The quantities of phenols, flavonoids and flavonols were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in both aqueous and ethanol extracts of the leaf while the concentration of proanthocyanidins was higher in the aqueous stem extract compared to other plant parts. The aqueous extract of the different parts exhibited better ABTS, reducing power and NO radical scavenging abilities than ethanol extract.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Sowunmi, Linda Ifeanyichukwu
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Ethnobotany -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Vegetables -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Nutrition -- South Africa -- Evaluation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/2600 , vital:27907
- Description: South Africa has wide ranges of plants among which are leafy vegetables growing in the wild. These wild vegetables have been reported to have high nutritive and medicinal potentials. Yet, there is still high prevalence of malnutrition and micronutrients deficiencies among the low income bracket of the population. Effective utilization of wild vegetables has been proposed as part of the solutions to address the problem of dietary deficiencies among the populace. Their importance is mainly as relish to accompany and complement starch based diets. They are also known to serve as supplements for food which have the potential to improve the health status of its consumers in many rural communities. Cleome gynandra L. (Capparaceae) is one of the underutilized species mentioned during asurvey conducted in Nkonkobe municipality of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The plant is an erect annual herb with alternate, palmately compound leaves and its petals are white, pink or lilac. It grows as a weed in this part of the Province and is usually gathered from the wild for food and medicine. It is commonly found on wastes land, road sides and on grass lands. Therefore, this research work was designed to contribute to the possible domestication of this wild vegetable in order to explore the nutritive and therapeutic potentials which would broaden the food base in the Eastern Cape Province. The ultra-micromorphological features of plants have become an essential tool in proper identification and authentication of several plant species. In the light of this, the micromorphology of Cleome gynandra was examined to reveal the micro-morphological characters of the plantand to determine if micro and macro mineral elements are present using energy dispersive x-rays. The present study revealed the epidermal cells of the leaves to be asymmetric in shape with undulating cell walls having four subsidiary cells around the stomata. The leaves have anomocyctic stomata which are more distributed in the abaxial surface than the adaxial surface. The mean length and width of the guard cells in the abaxial surface are 0.09 ± 0.01 mm and 0.08 ± 0.01 mm respectively while that of adaxial surface are 0.1± 0.01 mm and 0.07 ± 0.01 mm respectively. The energy dispersive x-rays (EDXS) micro-analysis of the leaf revealed the presence of phosphorus, manganese, iron, calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium and zinc as the major constituents of the crystal deposits present in the stomata pores and the mesophyll. C. gynandra was collected from the wild and analysed for its mineral and proximatecomposition using standard analytical methods. The plant showed high levels of sodium, iron, zinc, calcium and potassium while many other macro and micro minerals were moderately present. Amongst the proximate factors investigated, moisture content was found to be 82.1% while crude fibre and protein contents were 39.9 percent and 31.03 percent respectively. Vitamin C was also high (345.3 mg/100g). The anti-nutrients compositions revealed low concentrations of oxalate (7.4 ± 0.4) and phytate (0.6 ± 0.0) mg/100g. The study revealed high nutritive value of the species growing naturally from the wild. Interest in the phenolic compounds has greatly increased recently because these compounds have been implicated in suppressing the risk of degenerative diseases in humans. The pharmacological properties of plants may be related to their antioxidant capacities and hence there was need to investigate the antioxidant potential using aqueous, ethanolic and acetone extracts of different parts of C. gynandra. The quantities of phenols, flavonoids and flavonols were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in both aqueous and ethanol extracts of the leaf while the concentration of proanthocyanidins was higher in the aqueous stem extract compared to other plant parts. The aqueous extract of the different parts exhibited better ABTS, reducing power and NO radical scavenging abilities than ethanol extract.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Barriers to and enablers of climate change adaptation in four South African municipalities, and implications for community based adaptation
- Authors: Spires, Meggan Hazel
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Climatic changes -- South Africa , Climatic changes -- Risk management -- South Africa , Climatic changes -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Climate change mitigation -- South Africa , Climatic changes -- Government policy -- South Africa , Municipal government -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4787 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018913
- Description: The focus of this study is on understanding the multiple and interacting factors that hinder or enable municipal planned climate change adaptation, here called barriers and enablers respectively, and their implications for community based adaptation. To do this I developed a conceptual framework of barriers to and enablers of planned climate change adaptation, which informed a systematic literature review of barriers to planned community based adaptation in developing countries. In this framework barriers were grouped into resource, social and physical barriers. I then conducted empirical case study analysis using qualitative research methods in four South African municipalities to understand what barriers and enablers manifested in these contexts. In light of the reflexive nature of my methodology, my framework was adjusted based on my empirical findings, where contextual barriers were found to better represent the empirical results and subsumed physical barriers. I found my framework useful for analysis, but in the empirical cases, barriers and enablers overlaid and interacted so significantly that in reality it was often difficult to separate them. A key finding was that enablers tended to be more about the way things are done, as opposed to direct opposites of barriers. Comparison of barriers and enablers across the case studies revealed a number of key themes. Municipalities struggle to implement climate change adaptation and community based adaptation within contexts of significant social, economic and ecological challenges. These contextual barriers, when combined with certain cognitive barriers, lead to reactive responses. Existing municipal systems and structures make it difficult to enable climate change adaptation, which is inherently cross‐sectoral and messy, and especially community based adaptation that is bottom‐up and participatory. Lack of locally applicable knowledge, funding and human resources were found to be significant resource barriers, and were often underlain by social barriers relating to perceptions, norms, discourses and governance challenges. Enablers of engaged officials, operating within enabling organisational environments and drawing on partnerships and networks, were able to overcome or circumvent these barriers. When these enablers coincided with windows of opportunity that increased the prioritisation of climate change within the municipality, projects with ancillary benefits were often implemented. Analysis of the barriers and enablers identified in the literature and case studies, informed discussion on whether municipalities are able to implement community based adaptation as defined in the literature, as well as the development of recommendations for how municipal planned climate change adaptation and community based adaptation can be further understood and enabled in the future. These recommendations for practice and research include: (a) To acknowledge and understand the conceptual framings of municipal climate change work, as these framings inform the climate change agenda that is pursued, and hence what municipal climate change adaptation work is done and how it was done. (b) The need for further research into the social barriers that influence the vital enablers of engaged officials, enabling organisational environments, and partnerships and networks. (c) To learn from pilot community‐level interventions that have been implemented by municipalities, as well as from other disciplines and municipalities. (d) To develop top‐down/bottom‐up approaches to enable municipal planned climate change adaptation and community based adaptation, that benefits from high level support and guidance, as well as local level flexibility and learning‐by‐doing. (e) To develop viable mechanisms for municipalities to better engage with the communities they serve.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Spires, Meggan Hazel
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Climatic changes -- South Africa , Climatic changes -- Risk management -- South Africa , Climatic changes -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Climate change mitigation -- South Africa , Climatic changes -- Government policy -- South Africa , Municipal government -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4787 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018913
- Description: The focus of this study is on understanding the multiple and interacting factors that hinder or enable municipal planned climate change adaptation, here called barriers and enablers respectively, and their implications for community based adaptation. To do this I developed a conceptual framework of barriers to and enablers of planned climate change adaptation, which informed a systematic literature review of barriers to planned community based adaptation in developing countries. In this framework barriers were grouped into resource, social and physical barriers. I then conducted empirical case study analysis using qualitative research methods in four South African municipalities to understand what barriers and enablers manifested in these contexts. In light of the reflexive nature of my methodology, my framework was adjusted based on my empirical findings, where contextual barriers were found to better represent the empirical results and subsumed physical barriers. I found my framework useful for analysis, but in the empirical cases, barriers and enablers overlaid and interacted so significantly that in reality it was often difficult to separate them. A key finding was that enablers tended to be more about the way things are done, as opposed to direct opposites of barriers. Comparison of barriers and enablers across the case studies revealed a number of key themes. Municipalities struggle to implement climate change adaptation and community based adaptation within contexts of significant social, economic and ecological challenges. These contextual barriers, when combined with certain cognitive barriers, lead to reactive responses. Existing municipal systems and structures make it difficult to enable climate change adaptation, which is inherently cross‐sectoral and messy, and especially community based adaptation that is bottom‐up and participatory. Lack of locally applicable knowledge, funding and human resources were found to be significant resource barriers, and were often underlain by social barriers relating to perceptions, norms, discourses and governance challenges. Enablers of engaged officials, operating within enabling organisational environments and drawing on partnerships and networks, were able to overcome or circumvent these barriers. When these enablers coincided with windows of opportunity that increased the prioritisation of climate change within the municipality, projects with ancillary benefits were often implemented. Analysis of the barriers and enablers identified in the literature and case studies, informed discussion on whether municipalities are able to implement community based adaptation as defined in the literature, as well as the development of recommendations for how municipal planned climate change adaptation and community based adaptation can be further understood and enabled in the future. These recommendations for practice and research include: (a) To acknowledge and understand the conceptual framings of municipal climate change work, as these framings inform the climate change agenda that is pursued, and hence what municipal climate change adaptation work is done and how it was done. (b) The need for further research into the social barriers that influence the vital enablers of engaged officials, enabling organisational environments, and partnerships and networks. (c) To learn from pilot community‐level interventions that have been implemented by municipalities, as well as from other disciplines and municipalities. (d) To develop top‐down/bottom‐up approaches to enable municipal planned climate change adaptation and community based adaptation, that benefits from high level support and guidance, as well as local level flexibility and learning‐by‐doing. (e) To develop viable mechanisms for municipalities to better engage with the communities they serve.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Learners' numeracy progression and the role of mediation in the context of two after school mathematics clubs
- Authors: Stott, Deborah Ann
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- South Africa , After-school programs -- South Africa , Numeracy -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- South Africa , Learning, Psychology of , Education -- Research -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2017 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017181
- Description: National and international assessment results, research studies and reports point to South Africa as having educational challenges, specifically with mathematics, science and language. Addressing some of these issues is a key aim for the SANC project at Rhodes University, the context in which this study takes place. Working from a broad Vygotskian perspective of learning and development, this study had a dual focus and investigated how Grade 3 learners’ mathematical proficiency progressed (or not) whilst participating in after school maths clubs over the course of a year, and explored how the mediation offered in the clubs enabled or constrained the emergence of zones of proximal development (ZPD) and thus learning for the club learners. Methodologically, this study works within a largely qualitative, interpretive research paradigm and is designed using a longitudinal case study research strategy. Two after school maths clubs formed the empirical field. The study drew on a range of data collection methods to investigate the dual nature of the research questions for Grade 3 learners. Examples include adapted one-to-one mathematical proficiency interviews and paired task based interviews. The study highlighted the relationship between the multiple roles I played both within the research study and within the SANC project context and emphasises the influence and future implications for these various roles within the SANC project and beyond in terms of my own role as club mentor, for the future design of the SANC project maths club programme and for broader teacher and club facilitator development within and beyond the project. This study has offered insight into how mathematical proficiency may develop in Grade 3 South African learners and as such is an important contribution to the newly developing field of both numeracy and primary educational research in Southern Africa. Additionally, the research findings point to the clubs, as an example of an out-of-school time (OST) programme, providing potentially enabling spaces for both recovery and extension of mathematical proficiency in learners as these spaces are free from several contextual constraints that teachers face in their classrooms. Furthermore, it was found that learners showed development of their conceptual understanding, procedural fluency and adaptive reasoning as proposed by Kilpatrick, Swafford and Findell (2001). The use of various elements of the Maths Recovery (MR) programme (Wright, 2003) in the research process has highlighted various important contributions for broader research. For example, the need to investigate less time consuming approaches to both diagnostic assessment and learner mathematical profiling. Findings from this study support Meira and Lerman’s (2001, 2009) recently developed notion that catching attention is key to the creation or emergence of a ZPD. The study found that a combination of ‘attention catching’ and ‘tuning in’ enabled the creation (emergence) and sustainment of ZPDs in club learners. The study proposed the notion of tuning in where participants in a mathematical interaction continually adjust to each other in order to communicate mathematically. Furthermore, the study found that when attention is not caught or the participants are not tuned in, the learning activity may still be useful in assisting learners to consolidate their existing learning and / or build confidence and as such is particularly relevant to the South African context where fluency in calculating is weak (Hoadley, 2012; Schollar, 2008). This emergent notion of ‘flow’ additionally can play a supporting role in the emergence of a ZPD. The study also found that the manner in which the mediation was offered is important. The results show that the mathematical contributions learners make during interactions captured the mentors’ attention and resulted in mediation that was intentional but spontaneous, flexible, responsive and in-the-moment. This study makes theoretical and methodological contributions to various aspects of mathematics education research particularly with regard to how ZPDs emerge and are sustained and how mediation is offered to facilitate the emergence of ZPDs. Additionally, some aspects of the Learning Framework in Number (LFIN) as part of the Maths Recovery programme have been extended to work in a South African after school club context and to provide useful information for both learner progression over time and for planning of club activities. As such this study thus also contributes to the newly developing field of primary mathematics research in South Africa and to the body of research on primary after school learning programmes both locally and internationally.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Stott, Deborah Ann
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- South Africa , After-school programs -- South Africa , Numeracy -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- South Africa , Learning, Psychology of , Education -- Research -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2017 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017181
- Description: National and international assessment results, research studies and reports point to South Africa as having educational challenges, specifically with mathematics, science and language. Addressing some of these issues is a key aim for the SANC project at Rhodes University, the context in which this study takes place. Working from a broad Vygotskian perspective of learning and development, this study had a dual focus and investigated how Grade 3 learners’ mathematical proficiency progressed (or not) whilst participating in after school maths clubs over the course of a year, and explored how the mediation offered in the clubs enabled or constrained the emergence of zones of proximal development (ZPD) and thus learning for the club learners. Methodologically, this study works within a largely qualitative, interpretive research paradigm and is designed using a longitudinal case study research strategy. Two after school maths clubs formed the empirical field. The study drew on a range of data collection methods to investigate the dual nature of the research questions for Grade 3 learners. Examples include adapted one-to-one mathematical proficiency interviews and paired task based interviews. The study highlighted the relationship between the multiple roles I played both within the research study and within the SANC project context and emphasises the influence and future implications for these various roles within the SANC project and beyond in terms of my own role as club mentor, for the future design of the SANC project maths club programme and for broader teacher and club facilitator development within and beyond the project. This study has offered insight into how mathematical proficiency may develop in Grade 3 South African learners and as such is an important contribution to the newly developing field of both numeracy and primary educational research in Southern Africa. Additionally, the research findings point to the clubs, as an example of an out-of-school time (OST) programme, providing potentially enabling spaces for both recovery and extension of mathematical proficiency in learners as these spaces are free from several contextual constraints that teachers face in their classrooms. Furthermore, it was found that learners showed development of their conceptual understanding, procedural fluency and adaptive reasoning as proposed by Kilpatrick, Swafford and Findell (2001). The use of various elements of the Maths Recovery (MR) programme (Wright, 2003) in the research process has highlighted various important contributions for broader research. For example, the need to investigate less time consuming approaches to both diagnostic assessment and learner mathematical profiling. Findings from this study support Meira and Lerman’s (2001, 2009) recently developed notion that catching attention is key to the creation or emergence of a ZPD. The study found that a combination of ‘attention catching’ and ‘tuning in’ enabled the creation (emergence) and sustainment of ZPDs in club learners. The study proposed the notion of tuning in where participants in a mathematical interaction continually adjust to each other in order to communicate mathematically. Furthermore, the study found that when attention is not caught or the participants are not tuned in, the learning activity may still be useful in assisting learners to consolidate their existing learning and / or build confidence and as such is particularly relevant to the South African context where fluency in calculating is weak (Hoadley, 2012; Schollar, 2008). This emergent notion of ‘flow’ additionally can play a supporting role in the emergence of a ZPD. The study also found that the manner in which the mediation was offered is important. The results show that the mathematical contributions learners make during interactions captured the mentors’ attention and resulted in mediation that was intentional but spontaneous, flexible, responsive and in-the-moment. This study makes theoretical and methodological contributions to various aspects of mathematics education research particularly with regard to how ZPDs emerge and are sustained and how mediation is offered to facilitate the emergence of ZPDs. Additionally, some aspects of the Learning Framework in Number (LFIN) as part of the Maths Recovery programme have been extended to work in a South African after school club context and to provide useful information for both learner progression over time and for planning of club activities. As such this study thus also contributes to the newly developing field of primary mathematics research in South Africa and to the body of research on primary after school learning programmes both locally and internationally.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
A conscious leadership model to achieve sustainable business practices
- Sukhdeo, Beverley Amanda Faith
- Authors: Sukhdeo, Beverley Amanda Faith
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Industrial management -- Environmental aspects , Sustainable development , Social responsibility of business
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5885 , vital:21008
- Description: Business sustainability is a fundamental concern amongst business leaders and it is imperative that business defines an environmentally and socially sustainable path to financial prosperity. This focus on sustainable business practices has been caused by the perceived contribution of businesses to undesirable conditions such as environmental and social degradation including global warming and the global financial crises. This study suggests that a leadership style that differs from leadership that is currently causing business unsustainability is needed in order to achieve the goal of sustainable business practices. This study therefore proposes a new kind of leadership, called conscious leadership. The main contribution of the study is to increase the achievement of sustainable business practices by investigating the importance of conscious leadership in achieving this objective. Convenience sampling was used to select senior managers and directors from mainly JSE listed companies. This resulted in a total of 371 usable questionnaires (317 from listed companies and 54 from unlisted companies) being received. A quantitative approach was adopted to investigate whether conscious leadership would be related to increased sustainability competencies and more effective sustainability-related corporate governance and whether these in turn would increase sustainability behaviours which would generate sustainable business practices as measured by financial, social and environmental performance. Regression analyses were conducted to investigate the hypothesised relationships among these variables. Pearson correlations and descriptive statistics were also calculated. The empirical results showed that respondents in this study regarded conscious leadership, not as a separate construct, but as a way they governed their businesses. The empirical results showed that corporate governance and systems thinking competency had a strong interactive relationship and should therefore be cultivated within business firms. Corporate governance (including conscious leadership) and systems-thinking competency were positive influencers of employee relations, equal opportunities and workforce diversity. The empirical results however showed that corporate governance (including conscious leadership) had a negative influence on profitability. The present study cannot argue for the discouragement of corporate governance (including conscious leadership), as measured in this study, because reduced corporate governance would decrease healthy employee relations and the latter would decrease the achievement of equal opportunities and workforce diversity in these firms. A decrease in healthy employee relations would decrease profitability. The most important finding of this study is that senior managers and directors of big business firms, mostly JSE-listed companies, regarded conscious leadership as an important part of corporate governance. Corporate governance that includes conscious leadership must be developed to higher levels in business firms, so that the negative and not-significant relationships to profitability as viewed by lower and high conscious leaders respectively can be changed to positive relationships.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Sukhdeo, Beverley Amanda Faith
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Industrial management -- Environmental aspects , Sustainable development , Social responsibility of business
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5885 , vital:21008
- Description: Business sustainability is a fundamental concern amongst business leaders and it is imperative that business defines an environmentally and socially sustainable path to financial prosperity. This focus on sustainable business practices has been caused by the perceived contribution of businesses to undesirable conditions such as environmental and social degradation including global warming and the global financial crises. This study suggests that a leadership style that differs from leadership that is currently causing business unsustainability is needed in order to achieve the goal of sustainable business practices. This study therefore proposes a new kind of leadership, called conscious leadership. The main contribution of the study is to increase the achievement of sustainable business practices by investigating the importance of conscious leadership in achieving this objective. Convenience sampling was used to select senior managers and directors from mainly JSE listed companies. This resulted in a total of 371 usable questionnaires (317 from listed companies and 54 from unlisted companies) being received. A quantitative approach was adopted to investigate whether conscious leadership would be related to increased sustainability competencies and more effective sustainability-related corporate governance and whether these in turn would increase sustainability behaviours which would generate sustainable business practices as measured by financial, social and environmental performance. Regression analyses were conducted to investigate the hypothesised relationships among these variables. Pearson correlations and descriptive statistics were also calculated. The empirical results showed that respondents in this study regarded conscious leadership, not as a separate construct, but as a way they governed their businesses. The empirical results showed that corporate governance and systems thinking competency had a strong interactive relationship and should therefore be cultivated within business firms. Corporate governance (including conscious leadership) and systems-thinking competency were positive influencers of employee relations, equal opportunities and workforce diversity. The empirical results however showed that corporate governance (including conscious leadership) had a negative influence on profitability. The present study cannot argue for the discouragement of corporate governance (including conscious leadership), as measured in this study, because reduced corporate governance would decrease healthy employee relations and the latter would decrease the achievement of equal opportunities and workforce diversity in these firms. A decrease in healthy employee relations would decrease profitability. The most important finding of this study is that senior managers and directors of big business firms, mostly JSE-listed companies, regarded conscious leadership as an important part of corporate governance. Corporate governance that includes conscious leadership must be developed to higher levels in business firms, so that the negative and not-significant relationships to profitability as viewed by lower and high conscious leaders respectively can be changed to positive relationships.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
A narrative exploration of the experiences of children from child-headed households into early adulthood : a case study of Nkonkobe District, Eastern Cape
- Authors: Sumbulu, Manowa Abie
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Children's rights--South Africa--Eastern Cape Child caregivers--South Africa--Eastern Cape Children--Legal status, laws, etc.--South Africa--Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , Social Work
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/11850 , vital:39112
- Description: The past three decades have seen dramatic changes within the childcare system. There has been a bourgeoning death rate of child-bearing parents resulting in an unprecedentedly high number of parentless children (orphans) leading to the formation of child-headed households (CHHs). This formation came about as a result of the paucity of informal care for such children as well as the incapacity of the formal child care system. Most of these children are disadvantages with the prospect of facing a bleak future. However, some of them survive and presumably make it in life despite the odds. It is resilience and strengths they have in coping with their life’s’ situations that the research addresses. An exploratory-descriptive and qualitative design was applied in this research as well as Guba's (1981) approach to ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research. A systematic probability sampling procedure was applied in selecting participants. A semi-structured interview schedule with open-ended questions was applied to both the pilot study and to the study proper. The latter was conducted in the form of fourteen in-depth interviews and a focus group of eight discussants. The protocols were explicated in terms of a full delineation of the themes while the data were analysed by utilizing the thematic approach based on the grounded theory. Three developmental stages were identified: their base before becoming a child-headed household; the transition stage when they were in the child-headed household and the central narrative of how they progressed and coped since leaving the CHH. The third stage was the time for reflecting on what they had gone through and offered advice on coping capacity to children who might find themselves in child-headed households. Each of these stages has been marked by its highs and lows as they navigate through life and developing coping strategies. Some of these coping mechanisms were stage-specific while others persisted through all the stages.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Sumbulu, Manowa Abie
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Children's rights--South Africa--Eastern Cape Child caregivers--South Africa--Eastern Cape Children--Legal status, laws, etc.--South Africa--Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , Social Work
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/11850 , vital:39112
- Description: The past three decades have seen dramatic changes within the childcare system. There has been a bourgeoning death rate of child-bearing parents resulting in an unprecedentedly high number of parentless children (orphans) leading to the formation of child-headed households (CHHs). This formation came about as a result of the paucity of informal care for such children as well as the incapacity of the formal child care system. Most of these children are disadvantages with the prospect of facing a bleak future. However, some of them survive and presumably make it in life despite the odds. It is resilience and strengths they have in coping with their life’s’ situations that the research addresses. An exploratory-descriptive and qualitative design was applied in this research as well as Guba's (1981) approach to ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research. A systematic probability sampling procedure was applied in selecting participants. A semi-structured interview schedule with open-ended questions was applied to both the pilot study and to the study proper. The latter was conducted in the form of fourteen in-depth interviews and a focus group of eight discussants. The protocols were explicated in terms of a full delineation of the themes while the data were analysed by utilizing the thematic approach based on the grounded theory. Three developmental stages were identified: their base before becoming a child-headed household; the transition stage when they were in the child-headed household and the central narrative of how they progressed and coped since leaving the CHH. The third stage was the time for reflecting on what they had gone through and offered advice on coping capacity to children who might find themselves in child-headed households. Each of these stages has been marked by its highs and lows as they navigate through life and developing coping strategies. Some of these coping mechanisms were stage-specific while others persisted through all the stages.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Pro-active visualization of cyber security on a National Level : a South African case study
- Authors: Swart, Ignatius Petrus
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Internet -- Security measures -- South Africa , Computer security -- Government policy -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4718 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017940
- Description: The need for increased national cyber security situational awareness is evident from the growing number of published national cyber security strategies. Governments are progressively seen as responsible for cyber security, but at the same time increasingly constrained by legal, privacy and resource considerations. Infrastructure and services that form part of the national cyber domain are often not under the control of government, necessitating the need for information sharing between governments and commercial partners. While sharing of security information is necessary, it typically requires considerable time to be implemented effectively. In an effort to decrease the time and effort required for cyber security situational awareness, this study considered commercially available data sources relating to a national cyber domain. Open source information is typically used by attackers to gather information with great success. An understanding of the data provided by these sources can also afford decision makers the opportunity to set priorities more effectively. Through the use of an adapted Joint Directors of Laboratories (JDL) fusion model, an experimental system was implemented that visualized the potential that open source intelligence could have on cyber situational awareness. Datasets used in the validation of the model contained information obtained from eight different data sources over a two year period with a focus on the South African .co.za sub domain. Over a million infrastructure devices were examined in this study along with information pertaining to a potential 88 million vulnerabilities on these devices. During the examination of data sources, a severe lack of information regarding the human aspect in cyber security was identified that led to the creation of a novel Personally Identifiable Information detection sensor (PII). The resultant two million records pertaining to PII in the South African domain were incorporated into the data fusion experiment for processing. The results of this processing are discussed in the three case studies. The results offered in this study aim to highlight how data fusion and effective visualization can serve to move national cyber security from a primarily reactive undertaking to a more pro-active model.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Swart, Ignatius Petrus
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Internet -- Security measures -- South Africa , Computer security -- Government policy -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4718 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017940
- Description: The need for increased national cyber security situational awareness is evident from the growing number of published national cyber security strategies. Governments are progressively seen as responsible for cyber security, but at the same time increasingly constrained by legal, privacy and resource considerations. Infrastructure and services that form part of the national cyber domain are often not under the control of government, necessitating the need for information sharing between governments and commercial partners. While sharing of security information is necessary, it typically requires considerable time to be implemented effectively. In an effort to decrease the time and effort required for cyber security situational awareness, this study considered commercially available data sources relating to a national cyber domain. Open source information is typically used by attackers to gather information with great success. An understanding of the data provided by these sources can also afford decision makers the opportunity to set priorities more effectively. Through the use of an adapted Joint Directors of Laboratories (JDL) fusion model, an experimental system was implemented that visualized the potential that open source intelligence could have on cyber situational awareness. Datasets used in the validation of the model contained information obtained from eight different data sources over a two year period with a focus on the South African .co.za sub domain. Over a million infrastructure devices were examined in this study along with information pertaining to a potential 88 million vulnerabilities on these devices. During the examination of data sources, a severe lack of information regarding the human aspect in cyber security was identified that led to the creation of a novel Personally Identifiable Information detection sensor (PII). The resultant two million records pertaining to PII in the South African domain were incorporated into the data fusion experiment for processing. The results of this processing are discussed in the three case studies. The results offered in this study aim to highlight how data fusion and effective visualization can serve to move national cyber security from a primarily reactive undertaking to a more pro-active model.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Supportive strategies for teachers and parents dealing with learners experiencing mild intellectual barriers to learning
- Authors: Swartz, Deon Jude
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Learning disabilities , Inclusive education
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5065 , vital:20799
- Description: Education support provision underwent a complete metamorphosis with the adoption of Education White Paper 6: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System in 2001. Within this new paradigm, learners who experience Mild intellectual barriers to learning are understood from a culture of inclusion and accommodation within mainstream education, alongside their non disabled peers. Another important development within Inclusive Education is the recognition of parents as important role-players in their children’s education. This bold transformation implies that teachers and parents need the necessary support from health professionals and support staff at District Based Support Teams (DBSTs) attached to the local Education Support Centres, in order for them to support their children who experience Mild intellectual barriers to learning. As a result of the radical overhaul of the education system to accommodate learners who experience Mild intellectual barriers to learning in mainstream schools, the main aim of the study is to establish the implications for teachers and parents who deal with such learners. The researcher employed a qualitative research design within an interpretive paradigm from a phenomenological perspective, in order to capture the organic richness of the participants’ perceived experiences with regards to the phenomenon under investigation. The researcher made use of a combination of convenience, judgement and purposive sampling. The sample group included teachers and parents from two primary schools who deal with learners who experience Mild intellectual barriers to learning. The learners had previously been assessed psychometrically by Educational Psychologists and identified as fulfilling the criteria for Mild intellectual barriers to learning. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and separate interview schedules were drafted for teachers and parents. Data was analysed using Tesch’s eight step data analysis procedure to identify common themes which emerged from the participants’ responses. The findings of the research indicated teachers and parents had different perceptions about their roles in regards to the children whose learning they support. It also indicated that teachers experience challenges in their attempts to support their learners who experience Mild intellectual barriers in their classes, and with understanding the philosophy of Inclusive education. Furthermore, both parents and teachers experience a lack of support from health professionals and Inclusive Education specialists at the DBSTs within Bronfenbrenner’s eco-systemic framework, which formed the theoretical foundation for this study. Consequently, strategies to support teachers and parents to address these challenges were proposed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Swartz, Deon Jude
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Learning disabilities , Inclusive education
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5065 , vital:20799
- Description: Education support provision underwent a complete metamorphosis with the adoption of Education White Paper 6: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System in 2001. Within this new paradigm, learners who experience Mild intellectual barriers to learning are understood from a culture of inclusion and accommodation within mainstream education, alongside their non disabled peers. Another important development within Inclusive Education is the recognition of parents as important role-players in their children’s education. This bold transformation implies that teachers and parents need the necessary support from health professionals and support staff at District Based Support Teams (DBSTs) attached to the local Education Support Centres, in order for them to support their children who experience Mild intellectual barriers to learning. As a result of the radical overhaul of the education system to accommodate learners who experience Mild intellectual barriers to learning in mainstream schools, the main aim of the study is to establish the implications for teachers and parents who deal with such learners. The researcher employed a qualitative research design within an interpretive paradigm from a phenomenological perspective, in order to capture the organic richness of the participants’ perceived experiences with regards to the phenomenon under investigation. The researcher made use of a combination of convenience, judgement and purposive sampling. The sample group included teachers and parents from two primary schools who deal with learners who experience Mild intellectual barriers to learning. The learners had previously been assessed psychometrically by Educational Psychologists and identified as fulfilling the criteria for Mild intellectual barriers to learning. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and separate interview schedules were drafted for teachers and parents. Data was analysed using Tesch’s eight step data analysis procedure to identify common themes which emerged from the participants’ responses. The findings of the research indicated teachers and parents had different perceptions about their roles in regards to the children whose learning they support. It also indicated that teachers experience challenges in their attempts to support their learners who experience Mild intellectual barriers in their classes, and with understanding the philosophy of Inclusive education. Furthermore, both parents and teachers experience a lack of support from health professionals and Inclusive Education specialists at the DBSTs within Bronfenbrenner’s eco-systemic framework, which formed the theoretical foundation for this study. Consequently, strategies to support teachers and parents to address these challenges were proposed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Counting of finite fuzzy subsets with applications to fuzzy recognition and selection strategies
- Authors: Talwanga, Matiki
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Möbius transformations , Fuzzy sets , Functions, Zeta , Partitions (Mathematics)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:5431 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018186
- Description: The counting of fuzzy subsets of a finite set is of great interest in both practical and theoretical contexts in Mathematics. We have used some counting techniques such as the principle of Inclusion-Exclusion and the Mõbius Inversion to enumerate the fuzzy subsets of a finite set satisfying different conditions. These two techniques are interdependent with the M¨obius inversion generalizing the principle of Inclusion-Exclusion. The enumeration is carried out each time we redefine new conditions on the set. In this study one of our aims is the recognition and identification of fuzzy subsets with same features, characteristics or conditions. To facilitate such a study, we use some ideas such as the Hamming distance, mid-point between two fuzzy subsets and cardinality of fuzzy subsets. Finally we introduce the fuzzy scanner of elements of a finite set. This is used to identify elements and fuzzy subsets of a set. The scanning process of identification and recognition facilitates the choice of entities with specified properties. We develop a procedure of selection under the fuzzy environment. This allows us a framework to resolve conflicting issues in the market place.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Talwanga, Matiki
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Möbius transformations , Fuzzy sets , Functions, Zeta , Partitions (Mathematics)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:5431 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018186
- Description: The counting of fuzzy subsets of a finite set is of great interest in both practical and theoretical contexts in Mathematics. We have used some counting techniques such as the principle of Inclusion-Exclusion and the Mõbius Inversion to enumerate the fuzzy subsets of a finite set satisfying different conditions. These two techniques are interdependent with the M¨obius inversion generalizing the principle of Inclusion-Exclusion. The enumeration is carried out each time we redefine new conditions on the set. In this study one of our aims is the recognition and identification of fuzzy subsets with same features, characteristics or conditions. To facilitate such a study, we use some ideas such as the Hamming distance, mid-point between two fuzzy subsets and cardinality of fuzzy subsets. Finally we introduce the fuzzy scanner of elements of a finite set. This is used to identify elements and fuzzy subsets of a set. The scanning process of identification and recognition facilitates the choice of entities with specified properties. We develop a procedure of selection under the fuzzy environment. This allows us a framework to resolve conflicting issues in the market place.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
A model for mobile, context-aware in-car communication systems to reduce driver distractions
- Authors: Tchankue-Sielinou, Patrick
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Automobiles -- Safety measures , Context-aware computing , Mobile communication systems
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/4144 , vital:20556
- Description: Driver distraction remains a matter of concern throughout the world as the number of car accidents caused by distracted driving is still unacceptably high. Industry and academia are working intensively to design new techniques that will address all types of driver distraction including visual, manual, auditory and cognitive distraction. This research focuses on an existing technology, namely in-car communication systems (ICCS). ICCS allow drivers to interact with their mobile phones without touching or looking at them. Previous research suggests that ICCS have reduced visual and manual distraction. Two problems were identified in this research: existing ICCS are still expensive and only available in limited models of car. As a result of that, only a small number of drivers can obtain a car equipped with an ICCS, especially in developing countries. The second problem is that existing ICCS are not aware of the driving context, which plays a role in distracting drivers. This research project was based on the following thesis statement: A mobile, context-aware model can be designed to reduce driver distraction caused by the use of ICCS. A mobile ICCS is portable and can be used in any car, addressing the first problem. Context-awareness will be used to detect possible situations that contribute to distracting drivers and the interaction with the mobile ICCS will be adapted so as to avert calls and text messages. This will address the second problem. As the driving context is dynamic, drivers may have to deal with critical safety-related tasks while they are using an existing ICCS. The following steps were taken in order to validate the thesis statement. An investigation was conducted into the causes and consequences of driver distraction. A review of literature was conducted on context-aware techniques that could potentially be used. The design of a model was proposed, called the Multimodal Interface for Mobile Info-communication with Context (MIMIC) and a preliminary usability evaluation was conducted in order to assess the feasibility of a speech-based, mobile ICCS. Despite some problems with the speech recognition, the results were satisfying and showed that the proposed model for mobile ICCS was feasible. Experiments were conducted in order to collect data to perform supervised learning to determine the driving context. The aim was to select the most effective machine learning techniques to determine the driving context. Decision tree and instance-based algorithms were found to be the best performing algorithms. Variables such as speed, acceleration and linear acceleration were found to be the most important variables according to an analysis of the decision tree. The initial MIMIC model was updated to include several adaptation effects and the resulting model was implemented as a prototype mobile application, called MIMIC-Prototype.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Tchankue-Sielinou, Patrick
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Automobiles -- Safety measures , Context-aware computing , Mobile communication systems
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/4144 , vital:20556
- Description: Driver distraction remains a matter of concern throughout the world as the number of car accidents caused by distracted driving is still unacceptably high. Industry and academia are working intensively to design new techniques that will address all types of driver distraction including visual, manual, auditory and cognitive distraction. This research focuses on an existing technology, namely in-car communication systems (ICCS). ICCS allow drivers to interact with their mobile phones without touching or looking at them. Previous research suggests that ICCS have reduced visual and manual distraction. Two problems were identified in this research: existing ICCS are still expensive and only available in limited models of car. As a result of that, only a small number of drivers can obtain a car equipped with an ICCS, especially in developing countries. The second problem is that existing ICCS are not aware of the driving context, which plays a role in distracting drivers. This research project was based on the following thesis statement: A mobile, context-aware model can be designed to reduce driver distraction caused by the use of ICCS. A mobile ICCS is portable and can be used in any car, addressing the first problem. Context-awareness will be used to detect possible situations that contribute to distracting drivers and the interaction with the mobile ICCS will be adapted so as to avert calls and text messages. This will address the second problem. As the driving context is dynamic, drivers may have to deal with critical safety-related tasks while they are using an existing ICCS. The following steps were taken in order to validate the thesis statement. An investigation was conducted into the causes and consequences of driver distraction. A review of literature was conducted on context-aware techniques that could potentially be used. The design of a model was proposed, called the Multimodal Interface for Mobile Info-communication with Context (MIMIC) and a preliminary usability evaluation was conducted in order to assess the feasibility of a speech-based, mobile ICCS. Despite some problems with the speech recognition, the results were satisfying and showed that the proposed model for mobile ICCS was feasible. Experiments were conducted in order to collect data to perform supervised learning to determine the driving context. The aim was to select the most effective machine learning techniques to determine the driving context. Decision tree and instance-based algorithms were found to be the best performing algorithms. Variables such as speed, acceleration and linear acceleration were found to be the most important variables according to an analysis of the decision tree. The initial MIMIC model was updated to include several adaptation effects and the resulting model was implemented as a prototype mobile application, called MIMIC-Prototype.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Assessment of the quality indices and prevalence of Escherichia coli pathotypes in selected rivers of Osun state, Southwestern Nigeria
- Authors: Titilawo, Osuolale Yinka
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Microbiology)
- Identifier: vital:11295 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1021274
- Description: Surface waters are important freshwater sources used for domestic, industrial, agricultural and recreational activities, and the availability of good quality freshwater is indispensable for preventing water-borne diseases and improving quality of life especially in communities that lack pipe-borne water. Water samples were collected from ten rivers at different locations in Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria. A total of 12 physicochemical parameters, counts of total coliforms (TC) and Escherichia coli isolates were determined using standard analytical procedures. Confirmed Escherichia coli isolates (n=300) were assessed for the presence of 10 virulence genes (VGs) associated with Escherichia coli strains causing intestinal and extra-intestinal infections. The recovered Escherichia coli isolates were elucidated for their antibiogram profiling by disk diffusion method and the resistant isolates were further profiled for their genotypic antimicrobial resistance by polymerase chain reaction technique. The physicochemical qualities ranged as follows: pH (6.9 - 7.6), temperature (26 – 29 ºC), turbidity (2.28 – 9.46 NTU), electrical conductivity (229 – 581 μS/cm), nitrate (0.03 – 0.05 mg/L), nitrite (0.00 – 0.01 mg/L), sulphate (3.33 – 20.33 mg/L), chloride ions (7.83 – 27.33 mg/L), dissolved oxygen (4.23 – 5.57 mg/L), total dissolved solids (56 – 184 mg/L), total hardness (78 – 519 mg/L) and alkalinity (50.67 – 146.67 mg/L). Statistical analysis showed that pH, temperature, electrical conductivities, nitrates, nitrites, chloride, dissolved oxygen, total dissolved solid, total hardness and alkalinity were significantly different (P < 0.05), whereas turbidity and sulphate were not significantly different (P ˃ 0.05) from each parameter with respect to sampling sites. While the VG lt for enterotoxigenic E. coli had the highest prevalence of 45%, the enteropathogenic E. coli genes eae and bfp were detected in 6% and 4% of the isolates respectively. The VGs stx1 and stx2 specific for the enterohemorrhagic E. coli pathotypes were equally detected in 7% and 1% of the isolates respectively. Also, the VG eagg harboured by enteroaggregative pathotype and diffusely-adherent E. coli VG daaE were detected in 2% and 4% of the isolates respectively and enteroinvasive E. coli VG ipaH was not detected. In addition, the VGs papC for uropathogenic and ibeA for neonatal meningitis were frequently detected in 19% and 3% of isolates respectively. While all the isolates tested were susceptible to imipenem, meropenem, amikacin and gatilofloxacin, others were variously susceptible, and resistant as follows; ciprofloxacin (96%), kanamycin (95%), neomycin (92%), streptomycin (84%), chloramphenicol (73%), nalidixic acid (66%), nitrofuratoin (64%), gentamycin (63%), doxycycline (58%), cefepime (57%), tetracycline (49%) and cephalothin (42%). Conversely, all the isolates were resistant to sulphamethoxazole, and high levels of resistance were equally observed against amoxycillin (59%), ampicilin (57%) and cefuroxime (40%). Cefepime, cephalothin, cefuroxime, nalidixic acid, nitrofuratoin, chloramphenicol and tetracycline were not significantly different in their effect against the isolates from all locations (P > 0.05), whereas the resistance profile of the isolates against gentamycin, ciprofloxacin, sulphamethoxazole, ampicillin and amoxicillin were significantly different (P < 0.05). Amikacin, kanamycin, streptomycin, meropenem, imipenem and gatilofloxacin were statistically excluded from the analysis since all tested isolates showed total susceptibility to these antimicrobials. The multiple antibiotic resistance indexing ranged from 0.50 to 0.80 for all the sampling locations and exceeded the threshold value of 0.2. Prevalence and distributions of the 19 resistance determinants assessed were obtained as follows; [sulfonamides (sulI (8%), sulII (41%)], [beta-lactams; (ampC 22%; blaTEM, (21%), blaZ (18%),], [tetracyclines (tetA (24%), tetB (23%), tetC (18%), tetD (78%), tetK (15%), tetM, (10%)], [phenicols; (catI (37%), catII (28%), cmlA1 (19%)] and [aminoglycosides; (aacC2 (8%), aphA1 (80%), aphA2 (80%), aadA (79%) and strA (38%)]. The Pearson chi square exact test revealed many strong significant associations among ampC, blaTEM, blaZ and tetA genes with some determinants screened. In the same vein, a grand total of 366 resistance gene fingerprints were spotted across the sampling locations and among the resistant pathotypes, the modal prevalent gene prints were found among the ETEC strains in 148 (40%), being the predominant pathotype observed, followed by UPEC strains 80 (22%) while the lowest was the least occurring EAEC pathotype 14 (4%). While some physicochemical parameters exceeded prescribed standards for drinking water, some fell within. The total coliforms obtained in all the sampling sites were above the acceptable limits. Findings reveal the presence of diarrhoeagenic and non-diarrhoeagenic E. coli in the selected rivers and suggest a potential public health risk as the rivers are important resources for domestic, recreational and livelihood usage by their host communities. The multiple drug resistance indexing signifies isolates and pathotypes of high antimicrobial usage origin. An increase in the antimicrobial resistance signatures towards conventionally used antibiotics as observed in this study necessitates for safe water supply, adequate sanitation facilities and proper surveillance programs towards the monitoring of antimicrobial resistance determinants in water-bodies. Generally, results from this study indicate that the river waters are not suitable for consumption, domestic or recreational use and re-echo the importance of safeguarding the freshwater resources of Southwestern Nigeria.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Titilawo, Osuolale Yinka
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Microbiology)
- Identifier: vital:11295 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1021274
- Description: Surface waters are important freshwater sources used for domestic, industrial, agricultural and recreational activities, and the availability of good quality freshwater is indispensable for preventing water-borne diseases and improving quality of life especially in communities that lack pipe-borne water. Water samples were collected from ten rivers at different locations in Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria. A total of 12 physicochemical parameters, counts of total coliforms (TC) and Escherichia coli isolates were determined using standard analytical procedures. Confirmed Escherichia coli isolates (n=300) were assessed for the presence of 10 virulence genes (VGs) associated with Escherichia coli strains causing intestinal and extra-intestinal infections. The recovered Escherichia coli isolates were elucidated for their antibiogram profiling by disk diffusion method and the resistant isolates were further profiled for their genotypic antimicrobial resistance by polymerase chain reaction technique. The physicochemical qualities ranged as follows: pH (6.9 - 7.6), temperature (26 – 29 ºC), turbidity (2.28 – 9.46 NTU), electrical conductivity (229 – 581 μS/cm), nitrate (0.03 – 0.05 mg/L), nitrite (0.00 – 0.01 mg/L), sulphate (3.33 – 20.33 mg/L), chloride ions (7.83 – 27.33 mg/L), dissolved oxygen (4.23 – 5.57 mg/L), total dissolved solids (56 – 184 mg/L), total hardness (78 – 519 mg/L) and alkalinity (50.67 – 146.67 mg/L). Statistical analysis showed that pH, temperature, electrical conductivities, nitrates, nitrites, chloride, dissolved oxygen, total dissolved solid, total hardness and alkalinity were significantly different (P < 0.05), whereas turbidity and sulphate were not significantly different (P ˃ 0.05) from each parameter with respect to sampling sites. While the VG lt for enterotoxigenic E. coli had the highest prevalence of 45%, the enteropathogenic E. coli genes eae and bfp were detected in 6% and 4% of the isolates respectively. The VGs stx1 and stx2 specific for the enterohemorrhagic E. coli pathotypes were equally detected in 7% and 1% of the isolates respectively. Also, the VG eagg harboured by enteroaggregative pathotype and diffusely-adherent E. coli VG daaE were detected in 2% and 4% of the isolates respectively and enteroinvasive E. coli VG ipaH was not detected. In addition, the VGs papC for uropathogenic and ibeA for neonatal meningitis were frequently detected in 19% and 3% of isolates respectively. While all the isolates tested were susceptible to imipenem, meropenem, amikacin and gatilofloxacin, others were variously susceptible, and resistant as follows; ciprofloxacin (96%), kanamycin (95%), neomycin (92%), streptomycin (84%), chloramphenicol (73%), nalidixic acid (66%), nitrofuratoin (64%), gentamycin (63%), doxycycline (58%), cefepime (57%), tetracycline (49%) and cephalothin (42%). Conversely, all the isolates were resistant to sulphamethoxazole, and high levels of resistance were equally observed against amoxycillin (59%), ampicilin (57%) and cefuroxime (40%). Cefepime, cephalothin, cefuroxime, nalidixic acid, nitrofuratoin, chloramphenicol and tetracycline were not significantly different in their effect against the isolates from all locations (P > 0.05), whereas the resistance profile of the isolates against gentamycin, ciprofloxacin, sulphamethoxazole, ampicillin and amoxicillin were significantly different (P < 0.05). Amikacin, kanamycin, streptomycin, meropenem, imipenem and gatilofloxacin were statistically excluded from the analysis since all tested isolates showed total susceptibility to these antimicrobials. The multiple antibiotic resistance indexing ranged from 0.50 to 0.80 for all the sampling locations and exceeded the threshold value of 0.2. Prevalence and distributions of the 19 resistance determinants assessed were obtained as follows; [sulfonamides (sulI (8%), sulII (41%)], [beta-lactams; (ampC 22%; blaTEM, (21%), blaZ (18%),], [tetracyclines (tetA (24%), tetB (23%), tetC (18%), tetD (78%), tetK (15%), tetM, (10%)], [phenicols; (catI (37%), catII (28%), cmlA1 (19%)] and [aminoglycosides; (aacC2 (8%), aphA1 (80%), aphA2 (80%), aadA (79%) and strA (38%)]. The Pearson chi square exact test revealed many strong significant associations among ampC, blaTEM, blaZ and tetA genes with some determinants screened. In the same vein, a grand total of 366 resistance gene fingerprints were spotted across the sampling locations and among the resistant pathotypes, the modal prevalent gene prints were found among the ETEC strains in 148 (40%), being the predominant pathotype observed, followed by UPEC strains 80 (22%) while the lowest was the least occurring EAEC pathotype 14 (4%). While some physicochemical parameters exceeded prescribed standards for drinking water, some fell within. The total coliforms obtained in all the sampling sites were above the acceptable limits. Findings reveal the presence of diarrhoeagenic and non-diarrhoeagenic E. coli in the selected rivers and suggest a potential public health risk as the rivers are important resources for domestic, recreational and livelihood usage by their host communities. The multiple drug resistance indexing signifies isolates and pathotypes of high antimicrobial usage origin. An increase in the antimicrobial resistance signatures towards conventionally used antibiotics as observed in this study necessitates for safe water supply, adequate sanitation facilities and proper surveillance programs towards the monitoring of antimicrobial resistance determinants in water-bodies. Generally, results from this study indicate that the river waters are not suitable for consumption, domestic or recreational use and re-echo the importance of safeguarding the freshwater resources of Southwestern Nigeria.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Uncertainties in modelling hydrological responses in gauged and ungauged sub‐basins
- Authors: Tumbo, Madaka Harold
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Hydrologic models , Watersheds -- Tanzania , Water-supply -- Tanzania -- Great Ruaha River Watershed , Water resources development -- Tanzania -- Great Ruaha River Watershed , Rain and rainfall -- Mathematical models , Rain gauges -- Tanzania -- Great Ruaha River Watershed , Great Ruaha River Watershed (Tanzania)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:6053 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018568
- Description: The world is undergoing rapid changes and the future is uncertain. The changes are related to modification of the landscape due to human activities, such as large and small scale irrigation, afforestation and changes to the climate system. Understanding and predicting hydrologic change is one of the challenges facing hydrologists today. Part of this understanding can be developed from observed data, however, there often too few observations and those that are available are frequently affected by uncertainties. Hydrological models have become essential tools for understanding historical variations of catchment hydrology and for predicting future possible trends. However, most developing countries are faced with poor spatial distributions of rainfall and evaporation stations that provide the data used to force models, as well as stream flow gauging stations to provide the data for establishing models and for evaluating their success. Hydrological models are faced with a number of challenges which include poor input data (data quality and poorly quantified human activities on observed stream flow data), uncertainties associated with model complexity and structure, the methods used to quantify model parameters, together with the difficulties of understanding hydrological processes at the catchment or subbasin. Within hydrological modelling, there is currently a trend of dealing with equifinality through the evaluation of parameter identifiability and the quantification of uncertainty bands associated with the predictions of the model. Hydrological models should not only focus on reproducing the past behaviour of a basin, but also on evaluating the representativeness of the surface and subsurface model components and their ability to simulate reality for the correct reasons. Part of this modelling process therefore involves quantifying and including all the possible sources of uncertainty. Uncertainty analysis has become the standard approach to most hydrological modelling studies, but has yet to be effectively used in practical water resources assessment. This study applied a hydrological modelling approach for understanding the hydrology of a large Tanzanian drainage basin, the Great Ruaha River that has many areas that are ungauged and where the available data (climate, stream flow and existing water use) are subject to varying degrees of uncertainty. The Great Ruaha River (GRR) is an upstream tributary of the Rufiji River Basin within Tanzania and covers an area of 86 000 km2. The basin is drained by four main tributaries; the Upper Great Ruaha, the Kisigo, the Little Ruaha and the Lukosi. The majority of the runoff is generated from the Chunya escarpment, the Kipengere ranges and the Poroto Mountains. The runoff generated feeds the alluvial and seasonally flooded Usangu plains (including the Ihefu perennial swamp). The majority of the irrigation water use in the basin is located where headwater sub‐basins drain towards the Usangu plains. The overall objective was to establish uncertain but behavioural hydrological models that could be useful for future water resources assessments that are likely to include issues of land use change, changes in patterns of abstraction and water use, as well the possibility of change in future climates.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Tumbo, Madaka Harold
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Hydrologic models , Watersheds -- Tanzania , Water-supply -- Tanzania -- Great Ruaha River Watershed , Water resources development -- Tanzania -- Great Ruaha River Watershed , Rain and rainfall -- Mathematical models , Rain gauges -- Tanzania -- Great Ruaha River Watershed , Great Ruaha River Watershed (Tanzania)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:6053 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018568
- Description: The world is undergoing rapid changes and the future is uncertain. The changes are related to modification of the landscape due to human activities, such as large and small scale irrigation, afforestation and changes to the climate system. Understanding and predicting hydrologic change is one of the challenges facing hydrologists today. Part of this understanding can be developed from observed data, however, there often too few observations and those that are available are frequently affected by uncertainties. Hydrological models have become essential tools for understanding historical variations of catchment hydrology and for predicting future possible trends. However, most developing countries are faced with poor spatial distributions of rainfall and evaporation stations that provide the data used to force models, as well as stream flow gauging stations to provide the data for establishing models and for evaluating their success. Hydrological models are faced with a number of challenges which include poor input data (data quality and poorly quantified human activities on observed stream flow data), uncertainties associated with model complexity and structure, the methods used to quantify model parameters, together with the difficulties of understanding hydrological processes at the catchment or subbasin. Within hydrological modelling, there is currently a trend of dealing with equifinality through the evaluation of parameter identifiability and the quantification of uncertainty bands associated with the predictions of the model. Hydrological models should not only focus on reproducing the past behaviour of a basin, but also on evaluating the representativeness of the surface and subsurface model components and their ability to simulate reality for the correct reasons. Part of this modelling process therefore involves quantifying and including all the possible sources of uncertainty. Uncertainty analysis has become the standard approach to most hydrological modelling studies, but has yet to be effectively used in practical water resources assessment. This study applied a hydrological modelling approach for understanding the hydrology of a large Tanzanian drainage basin, the Great Ruaha River that has many areas that are ungauged and where the available data (climate, stream flow and existing water use) are subject to varying degrees of uncertainty. The Great Ruaha River (GRR) is an upstream tributary of the Rufiji River Basin within Tanzania and covers an area of 86 000 km2. The basin is drained by four main tributaries; the Upper Great Ruaha, the Kisigo, the Little Ruaha and the Lukosi. The majority of the runoff is generated from the Chunya escarpment, the Kipengere ranges and the Poroto Mountains. The runoff generated feeds the alluvial and seasonally flooded Usangu plains (including the Ihefu perennial swamp). The majority of the irrigation water use in the basin is located where headwater sub‐basins drain towards the Usangu plains. The overall objective was to establish uncertain but behavioural hydrological models that could be useful for future water resources assessments that are likely to include issues of land use change, changes in patterns of abstraction and water use, as well the possibility of change in future climates.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Evaluating the effectiveness of public participation in the environmental impact assessment process in South Africa
- Authors: Uithaler, Eldrid Marlon
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Environmental impact analysis -- South Africa , Environmental policy -- Citizen participation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5928 , vital:21015
- Description: This research is based on reflections of various practitioners and their views on how public participation processes may or may not contribute to effective EIA decisions. It is therefore grounded in what is described as practitioner-based research. To study comparative development activities effectively, one must draw on many disciplines and construct a balanced understanding of historical and contemporary development processes. No single conventional disciplinary area of research is able to integrate the issues of public participation, EIA and decision-making in the context of the current development debate. The emergence of Trans-disciplinary areas of research allows for such integration. The Africa Earth Observatory Network (AEON) institute creates the space for this study to achieve an integrated response to the question of the effectiveness of public participation in EIA and decision-making. This further creates the opportunity to contribute and expand the growing body of knowledge and literature of public participation in the earth stewardship science discipline. Making use of triangulation, this study fulfils four major tasks: firstly, an assessment is made on the historical and theoretical importance, process and outcome of both EIA and public participation internationally and in South Africa. Secondly, three prominent case studies (i) the Coega IDZ, (ii) the Pondoland N2 Toll Road, and (iii) the anticipated Hydraulic Fracturing in the Karoo each focusses on concerns of an environmental, socio-economic, and political nature to assess if the public participation process has had influence, if any, on the final decisions for these projects to go-ahead. Thirdly, a survey was conducted to establish the views and perceptions of practitioners in the EIA and public participation domain on the effectiveness of public participation in EIA processes. Lastly, face-to-face interviews were conducted with various ‘pracademics’, i.e. consultants, practitioners, government, and non-governmental officials to establish their views on how public participation may or may not influence EIA decisions. Utilising the International Association for Public Participation’s (IAP2) participation spectrum as an evaluation tool, this research explores thirteen key criteria normally attributed to effective public participation. This provides a scale (inform, involve, consult, collaborate) to assess whether public participation in EIA in South Africa is least effective (inform) or most effective (collaborate). My research confirms that in South Africa an enabling environment to address impacts on our environment is emerging. One of the main challenges remains putting in place robust, clear and effective regulations, models or approaches that provide for effective public participation and decision-making in EIAs. My research also suggests that the legislation on which EIA is based cannot by itself guarantee the effectiveness of public participation processes. In practice, EIA is an institutional process of power division between different actors, and the practitioner or ‘pracademic’ has to play a more fundamental role to ensure effectiveness and fairness in the public participation process. Academic commentators should therefore call for new approaches that emphasise collaborative interaction between decision-makers and the public as well as deliberation amongst participants.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Uithaler, Eldrid Marlon
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Environmental impact analysis -- South Africa , Environmental policy -- Citizen participation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5928 , vital:21015
- Description: This research is based on reflections of various practitioners and their views on how public participation processes may or may not contribute to effective EIA decisions. It is therefore grounded in what is described as practitioner-based research. To study comparative development activities effectively, one must draw on many disciplines and construct a balanced understanding of historical and contemporary development processes. No single conventional disciplinary area of research is able to integrate the issues of public participation, EIA and decision-making in the context of the current development debate. The emergence of Trans-disciplinary areas of research allows for such integration. The Africa Earth Observatory Network (AEON) institute creates the space for this study to achieve an integrated response to the question of the effectiveness of public participation in EIA and decision-making. This further creates the opportunity to contribute and expand the growing body of knowledge and literature of public participation in the earth stewardship science discipline. Making use of triangulation, this study fulfils four major tasks: firstly, an assessment is made on the historical and theoretical importance, process and outcome of both EIA and public participation internationally and in South Africa. Secondly, three prominent case studies (i) the Coega IDZ, (ii) the Pondoland N2 Toll Road, and (iii) the anticipated Hydraulic Fracturing in the Karoo each focusses on concerns of an environmental, socio-economic, and political nature to assess if the public participation process has had influence, if any, on the final decisions for these projects to go-ahead. Thirdly, a survey was conducted to establish the views and perceptions of practitioners in the EIA and public participation domain on the effectiveness of public participation in EIA processes. Lastly, face-to-face interviews were conducted with various ‘pracademics’, i.e. consultants, practitioners, government, and non-governmental officials to establish their views on how public participation may or may not influence EIA decisions. Utilising the International Association for Public Participation’s (IAP2) participation spectrum as an evaluation tool, this research explores thirteen key criteria normally attributed to effective public participation. This provides a scale (inform, involve, consult, collaborate) to assess whether public participation in EIA in South Africa is least effective (inform) or most effective (collaborate). My research confirms that in South Africa an enabling environment to address impacts on our environment is emerging. One of the main challenges remains putting in place robust, clear and effective regulations, models or approaches that provide for effective public participation and decision-making in EIAs. My research also suggests that the legislation on which EIA is based cannot by itself guarantee the effectiveness of public participation processes. In practice, EIA is an institutional process of power division between different actors, and the practitioner or ‘pracademic’ has to play a more fundamental role to ensure effectiveness and fairness in the public participation process. Academic commentators should therefore call for new approaches that emphasise collaborative interaction between decision-makers and the public as well as deliberation amongst participants.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Aspects of the biology, thermal physiology and nutritional ecology of Pareuchaetes insulata (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae), a specialist herbivore introduced into South Africa for the biological control of Chromolaena odorata (L.) King and Robinson (Asteraceae)
- Authors: Uyi, Osariyekemwen
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Chromolaena odorata , Chromolaena odorata -- Biological control -- South Africa , Arctiidae
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:5936 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017916
- Description: Chromolaena odorata (L.) King and Robinson (Asteraceae) is an invasive weedy shrub native to the Americas that has proven to be a significant economic and ecological burden to many tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world where it impacts negatively on agriculture, biodiversity and livelihoods. A distinct biotype of C. odorata was first recognised as naturalized in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, South Africa, in the 1940s and has since spread to other climatically suitable provinces. Pareuchaetes insulata (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae) was released in KZN, South Africa, as a biological control agent against the weed between 2001 and 2009. Although the moth did establish at one out of some 30 release sites, its population level is generally low in the field. This thesis attempts to unravel the reasons for the poor performance of P. insulata in South Africa.Studies of life history traits of P. insulata in the laboratory indicated that the moth possess good biological attributes such as low mortality, high fecundity, egg hatchability and high female mating success. Overall, adult female moths eclosed before their male counterparts suggesting the presence of protogyny. Beyond the contribution of this study to our understanding of the life history traits of erebid moths, it hypothesized that the absence of protandry might have contributed to the low population levels of the moth in the field. To determine if a degree of agent-host plant incompatibility is culpable for the poor performance of P. insulata, insect performance metrics were compared on two distinct C. odorata plants (one from Florida and another from South Africa) in laboratory experiments. Pareuchaetes insulata performance metrics were similar on both plant forms; there were no significant differences in total leaf area consumed, egg and larval development, immature survival rates, feeding index (FI), host suitability index (HSI), growth index (GI), and fecundity between the Floridian and southern African C. odorata plants. In sum, there was no evidence to demonstrate that differences in plant forms in C. odorata are culpable for the poor performance of P. insulata in South Africa.The effects of temperature on the developmental and reproductive life history traits, locomotion performance and thermal tolerance range of P. insulata were studied in order to elucidate the possible role of temperature on the poor performance of the moth. The results showed that at temperatures below 25 °C, mortality increased and development time was prolonged. Fecundity and egg hatchability were negatively affected at a constant temperature of 15 °C. Results futher showed that third instar larvae were unable to initiate movement at 6 °C and locomotor abilities were significantly reduced at 11 °C. In sum, it is hypothesized that both direct and indirect negative impacts of low temperature may partly explain the poor performance of P. insulata in South Africa. Theeffects of seasonal and spatial variations in the leaf characteristics of C. odorata on the performance of P. insulata were investigated. Foliar nitrogen and magnesium concentrations were higher in shaded plants during winter due to low temperatures. Leaves of C. odorata plants growing in the shaded habitat (relative to full sun) and leaves of plants during autumn (relative to winter) were more nutritionally balanced and suitable for herbivore performance. Consequently, P. insulata developed faster, had heavier pupal mass and increased fecundity when reared on shaded leaves (relative to full sun) or when reared on autumn leaves compared to leaves growing in winter. This study demonstrates that low winter temperatures can indirectly affect insect herbivore performance by changing the phytochemistry of host plant and hypothesized that excess nitrogen and possibly magnesium may have detrimental effects on the insect herbivore performance.A cross-feeding experiment was conducted to determine P. insulata response to a change in the diet of offspring due to a shift in plant quality in shaded versus full sun habitats. The results showed that a ‘negative switch’ in herbivore diet (i.e. when progeny from parents reared on shaded leaves were fed on full sun leaves) resulted in high (40%) mortality, prolonged development time and reduced fecundity. Thus full sun foliage is an inferior diet for P. insulata offspring. In laboratory experiments, foliar nitrogen was positively correlated with the performance of P. insulata. From this study, it is demonstrably evident that the poor performance of P. insulata on C. odorata in South Africa is caused by multiple factors such as low temperatures as well as spatio-temporal variations in the leaf characteristic of C. odorata leaves. This study shows the complexity of determining the causes of low populations and apparent low impact of biological control agents and herbivorous insects generally, in the field. The implications of this research to the biological control programme against C. odorata and the direction of future research for the control of C. odorata are discussed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Uyi, Osariyekemwen
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Chromolaena odorata , Chromolaena odorata -- Biological control -- South Africa , Arctiidae
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:5936 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017916
- Description: Chromolaena odorata (L.) King and Robinson (Asteraceae) is an invasive weedy shrub native to the Americas that has proven to be a significant economic and ecological burden to many tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world where it impacts negatively on agriculture, biodiversity and livelihoods. A distinct biotype of C. odorata was first recognised as naturalized in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, South Africa, in the 1940s and has since spread to other climatically suitable provinces. Pareuchaetes insulata (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae) was released in KZN, South Africa, as a biological control agent against the weed between 2001 and 2009. Although the moth did establish at one out of some 30 release sites, its population level is generally low in the field. This thesis attempts to unravel the reasons for the poor performance of P. insulata in South Africa.Studies of life history traits of P. insulata in the laboratory indicated that the moth possess good biological attributes such as low mortality, high fecundity, egg hatchability and high female mating success. Overall, adult female moths eclosed before their male counterparts suggesting the presence of protogyny. Beyond the contribution of this study to our understanding of the life history traits of erebid moths, it hypothesized that the absence of protandry might have contributed to the low population levels of the moth in the field. To determine if a degree of agent-host plant incompatibility is culpable for the poor performance of P. insulata, insect performance metrics were compared on two distinct C. odorata plants (one from Florida and another from South Africa) in laboratory experiments. Pareuchaetes insulata performance metrics were similar on both plant forms; there were no significant differences in total leaf area consumed, egg and larval development, immature survival rates, feeding index (FI), host suitability index (HSI), growth index (GI), and fecundity between the Floridian and southern African C. odorata plants. In sum, there was no evidence to demonstrate that differences in plant forms in C. odorata are culpable for the poor performance of P. insulata in South Africa.The effects of temperature on the developmental and reproductive life history traits, locomotion performance and thermal tolerance range of P. insulata were studied in order to elucidate the possible role of temperature on the poor performance of the moth. The results showed that at temperatures below 25 °C, mortality increased and development time was prolonged. Fecundity and egg hatchability were negatively affected at a constant temperature of 15 °C. Results futher showed that third instar larvae were unable to initiate movement at 6 °C and locomotor abilities were significantly reduced at 11 °C. In sum, it is hypothesized that both direct and indirect negative impacts of low temperature may partly explain the poor performance of P. insulata in South Africa. Theeffects of seasonal and spatial variations in the leaf characteristics of C. odorata on the performance of P. insulata were investigated. Foliar nitrogen and magnesium concentrations were higher in shaded plants during winter due to low temperatures. Leaves of C. odorata plants growing in the shaded habitat (relative to full sun) and leaves of plants during autumn (relative to winter) were more nutritionally balanced and suitable for herbivore performance. Consequently, P. insulata developed faster, had heavier pupal mass and increased fecundity when reared on shaded leaves (relative to full sun) or when reared on autumn leaves compared to leaves growing in winter. This study demonstrates that low winter temperatures can indirectly affect insect herbivore performance by changing the phytochemistry of host plant and hypothesized that excess nitrogen and possibly magnesium may have detrimental effects on the insect herbivore performance.A cross-feeding experiment was conducted to determine P. insulata response to a change in the diet of offspring due to a shift in plant quality in shaded versus full sun habitats. The results showed that a ‘negative switch’ in herbivore diet (i.e. when progeny from parents reared on shaded leaves were fed on full sun leaves) resulted in high (40%) mortality, prolonged development time and reduced fecundity. Thus full sun foliage is an inferior diet for P. insulata offspring. In laboratory experiments, foliar nitrogen was positively correlated with the performance of P. insulata. From this study, it is demonstrably evident that the poor performance of P. insulata on C. odorata in South Africa is caused by multiple factors such as low temperatures as well as spatio-temporal variations in the leaf characteristic of C. odorata leaves. This study shows the complexity of determining the causes of low populations and apparent low impact of biological control agents and herbivorous insects generally, in the field. The implications of this research to the biological control programme against C. odorata and the direction of future research for the control of C. odorata are discussed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015