The role of culture in enabling or constraining the use of technology in higher education teaching and learning: the Commerce Curriculum Project
- Authors: Mostert, Markus , Snowball, Jeanette D , Boughey, Chrissie
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: conference paper , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61073 , vital:27945
- Description: This paper draws on a project located in one faculty at a South African university which aimed to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to enhance teaching and learning. More specifically, the paper uses Archer’s (1995, 1996, 2000, 1998) ‘analytical dualism’ and ‘morphogenesis’ to explore the way individuals involved in the project were able to exercise agency in departments which were relatively hostile to the goals they were aiming to pursue despite the wider cultural domain encompassing many ideas which construct the use of ICTs as significant in promoting student learning. The paper thus contributes to the culture/agency subtheme of the HECU6 conference. The paper begins by providing some background to the project before moving on to an exploration of the way Archer’s theoretical work was used to analyse data collected by project leaders.
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- Date Issued: 2012
Trauma, (Mis) Perception and Memory in Uwem Akpan's ‘Fattening for Gabon’:
- Authors: Njovane, Thandokazi
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142726 , vital:38111 , https://doi.org/10.1080/00138398.2012.731303
- Description: It is a generally accepted principle in contemporary poststructuralist literary studies that language can only ever partially succeed in signifying that which it purports to signify. Where the profoundly dislocating experience of trauma is concerned, language loses even this partial success, and the victim of psychic violence is forced to resort to silence, a silence which is all the more expressive precisely because it overwhelms language. Thus, trauma fiction reveals what Steiner refers to as ‘the revaluation of silence’ which emphasises ‘the conceit of the word unspoken’ (67). Uwem Akpan's short story, ‘Fattening for Gabon’, from his collection Say You're One of Them (2008), is concerned with the culpability of socio-economic structures in giving rise to and perpetuating trauma in children. This paper will examine the retrospective narration of the protagonist by paying particular attention to the motif of memory. A discussion of the painful ambivalence of the experience and textualization of trauma, as conveyed through the story's use of silence and the disruption of the conventional bildung typical of narratives of remembrance, will form a substantial part of the paper.
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- Date Issued: 2012
Understanding student performance in a large class
- Authors: Snowball, Jeanette D , Boughey, Chrissie
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71333 , vital:29834 , https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14703297.2012.677658
- Description: Across the world, university teachers are increasingly being required to engage with diversity in the classes they teach. Using the data from a large Economics 1 class at a South African university, this attempts to understand the effects of diversity on chances of success and how assessment can impact on this. By demonstrating how theory can be used to understand results, the paper aims to encourage university teachers to adopt proactive strategies in managing diversity, rather than simply explaining it using student characteristics.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2012
Developmental Psychology, Psychological Testing & Assessment, Research Methods: PSY 222
- Authors: Marais, R , Hoho, V N
- Date: 2012-01
- Language: English
- Type: Examination paper
- Identifier: vital:18014 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1010591
- Description: Developmental Psychology, Psychological Testing & Assessment, Research Methods: PSY 222, Supplementary examination January 2012.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2012-01
Academic Practice & Reasoning: APR 122F
- Authors: Siziba, L P , Makwela, N
- Date: 2011-11
- Language: English
- Type: Examination paper
- Identifier: vital:18275 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1011271
- Description: Academic Practice & Reasoning: APR 122F, examination November 2011.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2011-11
Scoring an own goal? The Construction Workers 2010 World Cup Strike
- Authors: Cottle, Eddie
- Date: 2011-10-04
- Subjects: Labour disputes -- South Africa , Strikes and lockouts -- South Africa , Industrial relations -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60018 , vital:27722
- Description: The nationwide strike by 70 000 construction workers between 8 and 15 July 2009 was unprecedented and significant in several respects. This was the first national strike on 2010 World Cup sites by South African construction workers and was therefore an historic event. A second key feature of the strike was the unity displayed by workers and trade unions within a sector organised by several trade unions. Engineering and building workers came out on strike, with the Building Construction & Allied Workers Union (BCAWU) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) standing together as their representative organisations. A third feature of the strike was the widespread sympathy for it by the South African public and media. This was despite it potentially setting back progress with World Cup projects. Fourthly, the pressure placed upon the trade unions' negotiating team by the Ministry of Labour and the FIFA Local Organising Committee (LOC) proved lethal in undermining their, assisting in causing them to dilute their trade union demands and demobilising the national strike.
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- Date Issued: 2011-10-04
Accounting 1A: ACC 111 & 111E
- Authors: Mnconywa, N , Mtshwelo, L , Lockyear, M
- Date: 2011-06
- Subjects: Accounting
- Language: English
- Type: Examination paper
- Identifier: vital:17419 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1009788
- Description: Accounting 1A: ACC 111 & 111E, examination June 2011.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2011-06
Academic Practice and Reasoning: APR 122F
- Authors: Siziba, L P , Makwela, N
- Date: 2011-02
- Language: English
- Type: Examination paper
- Identifier: vital:18227 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1011218
- Description: Academic Practice and Reasoning: APR 122F, Supplementary examination February 2011.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2011-02
A review of marine phylogeography in southern Africa
- Authors: Teske, Peter R , von der Heyden, Sophie , McQuaid, Christopher D , Barker, Nigel P
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/445392 , vital:74382 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC97146
- Description: The southern African marine realm is located at the transition zone between the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific biomes. Its biodiversity is particularly rich and comprises faunal and floral elements from the two major oceanic regions, as well as a large number of endemics. Within this realm, strikingly different biota occur in close geographic proximity to each other, and many of the species with distributions spanning two or more of the region's marine biogeographic provinces are divided into evolutionary units that can often only be distinguished on the basis of genetic data. In this review, we describe the state of marine phylogeography in southern Africa, that is, the study of evolutionary relationships at the species level, or amongst closely related species, in relation to the region's marine environment. We focus particularly on coastal phylogeography, where much progress has recently been made in identifying phylogeographic breaks and explaining how they originated and are maintained. We also highlight numerous shortcomings that should be addressed in the near future. These include: the limited data available for commercially important organisms, particularly offshore species; the paucity of oceanographic data for nearshore areas; a dearth of studies based on multilocus data; and the fact that studying the role of diversifying selection in speciation has been limited to physiological approaches to the exclusion of genetics. It is becoming apparent that the southern African marine realm is one of the world's most interesting environments in which to study the evolutionary processes that shape not only regional, but also global patterns of marine biodiversity.
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- Date Issued: 2011
Life history and population dynamics of invasive common carp, Cyprinus carpio, within a large turbid African impoundment
- Authors: Winker, A Henning , Weyl, Olaf L F , Booth, Anthony J , Ellender, Bruce R
- Date: 2011
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124898 , vital:35708 , https://doi.10.1071/MF11054
- Description: Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) is one of the world’s most widely introduced and established freshwater fishes (Casal 2006). The species is considered to be one of the eight most invasive freshwater fishes (Lowe et al. 2000) and worldwide, it accounts for most of the records of successful establishments and adverse ecological effects (Casal 2006; Kulhanek et al. 2011). This invasive success suggests that feral C. carpio is equipped with a set of adaptable life history attributes that allow it to successfully colonise a wide range of habitats (Koehn 2004; Zambrano et al. 2006; Britton et al. 2007). Where feral C. carpio occurs in high densities, it is often perceived as an invasive pest species (Sivakumaran et al. 2003; Brown and Walker 2004; Koehn 2004) because it can have severe impacts on habitat heterogeneity and biodiversity by increasing water turbidity through its bottom feeding behaviour, increasing nutrient availability, decreasing benthic and macrophyte density and diversity, altering zooplankton assemblages and decreasing endemic fish abundance (Zambrano et al. 2001; Khan 2003; Kulhanek et al. 2011). Within south-east Australia, for example, C. carpio comprises the largest proportion of the ichthyobiomass in the continent’s largest river system – the Murray–Darling Basin (Gehrke et al. 1995). As a consequence, serious concerns about its threat to endemic freshwater species (Koehn 2004) have prompted several of the most recent investigations into its life history (e.g. Sivakumaran et al. 2003; Smith and Walker 2004; Brown et al. 2005). Other potential threats posed also include competition with indigenous species and the spread of diseases and parasites (Dudgeon et al. 2006). In South Africa, for example, Asian tapeworm Bothriocephalus acheilognathi is now widely distributed in seven river systems and has infected eight novel cyprinid hosts due to the translocation of infected by C. carpio from a centralized aquaculture facility (Stadtlander et al. 2011).
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- Date Issued: 2011
MMORPG: Towards a Sustainable Livelihood Model for Africa and Beyond
- Authors: Mostert, André M , Kaschula, Russell H
- Date: 2011
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/175212 , vital:42553 , ISBN ViNOrg 2011 , https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-31800-9_4
- Description: The burgeoning worlds of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) coupled with increasing access to the internet is opening a new paradigmatic window for a number of disciplines. Many of these have been slow to take up the challenges associated with this emergent framework, due, in no small measure, to the perception that work and play are mutually exclusive. The dominance of this dichotomy contributed to the slow uptake of the potential for these virtual worlds to be harnessed in the fields of education and employment. This reticence was due in no small measure to the technophobia that tends to characterise the adoption of new technologies within fields that have customarily eschewed an embrace.
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- Date Issued: 2011
Theiler’s murine encephalomyelitis virus infection induces a redistribution of heat shock proteins 70 and 90 in BHK-21 cells, and is inhibited by novobiocin and geldanamycin:
- Authors: Mutsvunguma, Lorraine Z , Moetlhoa, Boitumelo , Edkins, Adrienne L , Luke, Garry A , Blatch, Gregory L , Knox, Caroline M
- Date: 2011
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/165085 , vital:41207 , DOI: 10.1007/s12192-011-0262-x
- Description: Theiler’s murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV) is a positive-sense RNA virus belonging to the Cardiovirus genus in the family Picornaviridae. In addition to other host cellular factors and pathways, picornaviruses utilise heat shock proteins (Hsps) to facilitate their propagation in cells. This study investigated the localisation of Hsps 70 and 90 in TMEV-infected BHK-21 cells by indirect immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy. The effect of Hsp90 inhibitors novobiocin (Nov) and geldanamycin (GA) on the development of cytopathic effect (CPE) induced by infection was also examined. Hsp90 staining was uniformly distributed in the cytoplasm of uninfected cells but was found concentrated in the perinuclear region during late infection where it overlapped with the signal for non-structural protein 2C within the viral replication complex.
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- Date Issued: 2011
Water chemistry and effect of evapotranspiration on chemical sedimentation on the Mkuze River floodplain, South Africa:
- Authors: Humphries, M S , Kindness, A , Ellery, William F N , Hughes, J C
- Date: 2011
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144376 , vital:38340 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2011.01.013
- Description: The Mkuze Wetland System, forming part of the iSimangaliso World Heritage Site, is South Africa’s largest freshwater wetland area and is known to act as a sink for naturally occurring solutes within the landscape. The chemistry of groundwater and porewater samples, collected from two transects on the Mkuze River floodplain, was investigated to identify processes involved in the control of solute concentrations. Results show that solutes in the groundwater become increasingly concentrated under the influence of evapotranspiration, resulting in the saturation, precipitation, and accumulation of less soluble compounds.
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- Date Issued: 2011
General Accounting 1B: ACG 121 & ACG 121E
- Authors: Boggis, K R , Bomba, M , Heath, U
- Date: 2011-01
- Subjects: Accounting
- Language: English
- Type: Examination paper
- Identifier: vital:17402 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1009763
- Description: General Accounting: ACG 121 & ACG 121E, supplementary examination January 2011.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2011-01
Xhosa Non-Mother Tongue: XNM 122E
- Authors: Satyo, N , Myoli, N
- Date: 2010-12
- Subjects: Xhosa language -- Foreign speakers
- Language: Xhosa
- Type: Examination paper
- Identifier: vital:18375 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1011532
- Description: Xhosa Non-Mother Tongue: XNM 122E, examination December 2010.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2010-12
Estimation, Hypothesis Testing, Elementary Integration and Mathematics for Economists: STA 121
- Authors: Mutambayi, Ruffin , Chiruka, Raymond , Gwaze, A R
- Date: 2010-11
- Language: English
- Type: Examination paper
- Identifier: vital:11975 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1010340
- Description: Estimation, Hypothesis Testing, Elementary Integration and Mathematics for Economists: STA 121, degree examination November 2010.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2010-11
Academic Management and Reasoning: APR 111F
- Authors: Siziba, L P , Ndhlovu, K
- Date: 2010-07
- Language: English
- Type: Examination paper
- Identifier: vital:18256 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1011250
- Description: Academic Management and Reasoning: APR 111F, Supplementary examination July 2010.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2010-07
Adult African sharptooth catfish, Clarias gariepinus, population dynamics in a small invaded warm-temperate impoundment
- Authors: Booth, Anthony J , Traas, Graham R L , Weyl, Olaf L F
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/123596 , vital:35461 , https://doi.10.3377/004.045.0208
- Description: African sharptooth catfish, Clarias gariepinus (Burchell 1822), is a potamodromous species that is naturally distributed from Turkey to the Orange River, South Africa (Skelton 1993). It is omnivorous, feeding on plankton, vegetation, invertebrates, carrion and fish (de Moor & Bruton 1988) and may exhibit pack-hunting behaviour when foraging for small fish (Bruton 1979; Merron 1993). Clarias gariepinus is a large (>150 cm TL, >30 kg; Bruton 1976), long-lived (validated to at least 15 years, Weyl & Booth 2008) and fast-growing (Bruton & Allanson 1980; Quick & Bruton 1984; Richardson et al. 2009) fish that attains sexual maturity within two years of age (de Moor & Bruton 1988). It is eurythermic (80–35°C), mesohalic (0–10 ppt) and has the ability to airbreathe. These attributes predispose it to surviving in all but the most adverse of conditions and have directly contributed to its wide use as an aquaculture species. These attributes have also contributed to its ability to invade waterbodies beyond its natural range (de Moor & Bruton 1988) and after inadvertent introductions such as by escape from aquaculture facilities or through water transfer schemes, C. gariepinus has established populations in many non-native environments. Such invasions include the Philippines (Mercene 1997), Bangladesh (Arthur & Ahmed 2002), Thailand (Vidthayanon 2005), India (Bhakta & Bandyopadhyay 2007) and Brazil (Cambray 2005; Vitule et al. 2006; Rocha & Schiavetti 2007). In South Africa, C. gariepinus invaded the temperate Great Fish River catchment after the species was translocated from the Orange River through a Interbasin Water Transfer (IBWT) scheme (Laurenson et al. 1989). Potential threats include predation of and competition with indigenous species, habitat degradation, and the spread of diseases and parasites (Dudgeon et al. 2006).
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- Date Issued: 2010
Development of a stability-indicating high performance liquid chromatographic method for the analysis of topiramate and dissolution rate testing in topiramate tablets
- Authors: Mohammadi, Ali , Rezanour, Nasrin , Ansari Dogaheh, M , Walker, Roderick B
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6412 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006507
- Description: A stability-indicating high performance liquid chromatographic(HPLC) method was developed and validated for the quantitation and dissolution determination of topiramate in tablet dosage forms. An isocratic separation was achieved using a phenyl column with a flow rate of 1 mL/min using UV detection at 264 nm. Topiramate has low UV absorbtivity and was subjected to derivatization with 9-fluorenylmethyl chloroformate (FMOC-Cl). The mobile phase for the separation consisted of acetonitrile: 50 mM sodium dihydrogen phosphate(NaH2PO4) containing 3 % v/v triethylamine (pH 2.8) in a 48:52 v/v ratio. Topiramate was subjected to oxidation, hydrolysis, photolysis and heat for the purposes of stress testing. Separation was achieved for the parent compound and all the degradation products in an overall analytical run time of approximately 15 min with the parent compound topiramate eluting at approximately 9.2 min. The method was linear over the concentration range of 1-100 μg/mL (r = 0.9996) with limits of quantitation and detection of 1 and 0.3 μg/mL, respectively.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Estuarine use by spotted grunter Pomadasys commersonnii in a South African estuary, as determined by acoustic telemetry
- Authors: Childs, Amber-Robyn , Cowley, Paul D , Næsje, T F , Booth, Anthony J , Potts, Warren M , Thorstad, Eva B , Økland, F
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124428 , vital:35612 , https://doi.org/10.2989/A JMS.2008.30.1.12.462
- Description: Estuaries are important in the life history and the maintenance of the diversity of coastal fish species because of their function as nursery areas for juveniles as well as feeding grounds for adults (Cyrus 1991). The dependence of many fish species on estuaries is well documented (e.g. Wallace et al. 1984, Lenanton and Potter 1987, Blaber et al. 1989, Whitfield 1990, Hoss and Thayer 1993). Spotted grunter Pomadasys commersonnii (Haemulidae) (Lacepède 1801) is an estuarine-dependent species which spawns in the KwaZulu-Natal inshore coastal waters, between August and December (Wallace 1975b, Wallace and van der Elst 1975, Harris and Cyrus 1997, 1999). The eggs and larvae are transported southwards by the Agulhas Current, and juveniles between 20 mm and 50 mm TL recruit into the KwaZulu-Natal and south-eastern Cape estuaries (Wallace and van der Elst 1975, Whitfield 1990). Juvenile spotted grunter make use of the abundant food resources in estuaries, where they grow rapidly and remain for a period of 1–3 years (Wallace and Schleyer 1979, Day et al. 1981). Upon attaining sexual maturity (at between 300 mm and 400 mm TL), they return to the marine environment (Wallace 1975b). Some adults, however, return to estuaries to feed and to regain condition after spawning (Wallace 1975b, Whitfield 1994). The return of post-spawning fish coincides with increased catches by fishers in estuaries between July and January. These events are known as ‘grunter runs’ (Wallace 1975a, Marais and Baird 1980, Marais 1988, Pradervand and Baird 2002). It is suggested that adults spend up to several months in estuaries, before moving back to sea where they undergo gonadal development and ultimately spawn (Wallace 1975b, Wallace and van der Elst 1975). It is believed that adult fish also enter estuaries in a prespawning state to gain condition en route to their spawning grounds in KwaZulu-Natal (Webb 2002).
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- Date Issued: 2010