Biological control of invasive climbing plants in South Africa
- Authors: King, Anthony M , Paterson, Iain D , Simelane, David O , Mawela, Khethani V , Mngeta, Zezethu
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/413471 , vital:71041 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-ento_v29_n3_a17"
- Description: Vines and other climbing plants typically invest their resources into growth at the expense of accumulating self-supporting biomass. Adaptive traits that have arisen because of the life history needs of climbing species, such as rapid and extensive growth, as well as resilience to physical damage, make these plants highly competitive. Introduced climbing species therefore have the potential to be particularly damaging in novel ranges where they escape pressure from natural enemies. In South Africa, invasive climbing species negatively influence biodiversity and plant-community structure, and as conventional management is often difficult, biological control (biocontrol) is viewed as the only viable long-term control method. This paper consolidates the work done on biocontrol programmes against climbing species in South Africa, including Anredera cordifolia (Ten.) Steenis (Basellaceae), Cardiospermum grandiflorum Sw. (Sapindaceae), Dolichandra unguis-cati (L.) L.G.Lohmann (Bignoniaceae) and Pereskia aculeata Miller (Cactaceae). To date, these programmes have investigated some 27 potential biocontrol agents, of which nine have been approved for release in the country. Since 2010, three new agents have been introduced, and considerable progress made with post-release evaluations of all the introduced agents. Some positive results have been achieved, most notably the successful reduction in seed set of C. grandiflorum due to Cissanthonomus tuberculipennis Hustache (Curculionidae), but considerable variation in efficacy over time and between infestations has been recorded for many of the other agents. Further work may help explain the factors limiting success, leading to improved control, but in some cases, such as for A. cordifolia, new biocontrol agents should be considered.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Biological control of South African plants that are invasive elsewhere in the world: A review of earlier and current programmes
- Authors: Olckers, Terence , Coetzee, Julie A , Egli, Daniella , Martin, Grant D , Paterson, Iain D , Sutton, Guy F , Wood, Alan
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/414336 , vital:71137 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-ento_v29_n3_a21"
- Description: South Africa supports a rich floral diversity, with 21 643 native plant taxa that include a high proportion (76.3%) of endemic species, and many of these favoured as ornamentals, both locally and globally. Consequently, South Africa has contributed substantially to global plant invasions, with 1093 native taxa (5% of all species) naturalized in other countries. At least 80 taxa are invasive in natural or semi-natural ecosystems elsewhere, while an additional 132 taxa are potentially invasive. Of the global naturalized flora, 8.2% originate from South Africa and largely comprise species of Poaceae, Asteraceae, Iridaceae and Fabaceae. Australia, in particular, but also Europe and North America are major recipients of South African weeds. However, few countries have targeted South African plants for biological control (biocontrol), with most efforts undertaken by Australia. Previous and current targets have involved only 26 species with 17 agents (15 insects, one mite and one rust fungus) of South African origin released on five target species in Australia and the United States of America. South Africa’s history of weed biocontrol, together with a large cohort of active scientists, is currently facilitating several internationally funded programmes targeting invasive plants of South African origin. In particular, the recently inaugurated Centre for Biological Control at Rhodes University and the University of KwaZulu-Natal have provided the impetus for novel efforts on five new target species and renewed efforts on four previously targeted species. In this contribution, we review the history of earlier biocontrol programmes against weeds of South African origin and the status of projects currently in progress in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Book Review Quinn, L.(ed.) 2019. Re-imagining Curriculum: Spaces for Disruption
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185865 , vital:44441 , xlink:href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.14426/cristal.v9i1.434"
- Description: This book is in some ways a continuation of the conversation begun with Reimaging Academic Staff Development: Spaces for Disruption (2012), also edited by Lynn Quinn. But the 2019 volume takes a much wider viewpoint including, as it does, twenty chapters by forty-two authors who are academics and academic developers across institutional types from Australia, Canada, South Africa, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and the West Indies. Quinn and Vorster (2019: 2) state in Chapter One that the purpose of the book is 'to share theoretical perspectives and practical ideas for ways in which academic developers (and academic leaders) can work in partnership with lecturers and students to respond to the urgent calls for curriculum transformation and decolonisation'. This captures the four threads that run throughout the collection.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Borneol-triarylcorrole hybrids with chiral-optical response and anticancer behaviours
- Authors: Fu, Bo , Wang, Lin , Yu, Xiaoxiao , Fang, Xianying , Mack, John , Dingiswayo, Somila , Nyokong, Tebello , Liang, Xu , Xu, Haijun
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185294 , vital:44362 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dyepig.2021.109699"
- Description: A series of four multifunctional A2B type H3corroles with meso-borneol substituents at the B position have been synthesized and characterized. A detailed analysis of the optical properties was carried out, and a comparison was made with theoretical calculations to identify the key trends in the structure-property relationships. The meso-borneol substituent couples with the corrole core leading to clear CD signals in the B band region. Enhanced anti-cancer properties are observed in vitro relative to (−)-borneol with cell inhibition rates of up to 94%.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Breaking the Rules: Zodwa Wabantu and postfeminism in South Africa
- Authors: Boshoff, Priscilla A
- Date: 2021
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/177408 , vital:42819 , http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/mac.v9i2.3830
- Description: Zodwa Wabantu, a South African celebrity recently made popular by the Daily Sun, a local tabloid newspaper, is notorious as an older working-class woman who fearlessly challenges social norms of feminine respectability and beauty. Her assertion of sexual autonomy and her forays into self-surveillance and body-modification, mediated by the Daily Sun and other tabloid and social media platforms, could be read as a local iteration of a global postfeminist subjectivity. However, the widespread social opprobrium she faces must be accounted for: Using Connell’s model of the gender order together with a coloniality frame, I argue that northern critiques of postfeminism omit to consider the forms of patriarchy established by colonialism in southern locales such as South Africa. The local patriarchal gender order, made visible within the tabloid reportage, provides the context within which the meaning of Zodwa Wabanu’s contemporary postfeminist identity is constructed. I examine a range of Zodwa Wabantu’s (self)representations in Daily Sun and other digital media in the light of this context, and conclude that a close examination of the local gender order assists in understanding the limits of postfeminism’s hegemony.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Bridging through “women’s work"
- Authors: Magadla, Siphokazi
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/298650 , vital:57724 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2020.1863158"
- Description: Bodomo’s bridge theory describes and predicts the long-term implications of African migrants’ activities and settlement in China. Drawing on research with African retail traders, university students, and corporate executives in China, I show that the bridge theory illuminates how African women and men rationalize their decisions to migrate to China within the context of the rise of Asia. Drawing on the literature regarding African women and work, I explain that structural economic conditions now force more Africans into economic sectors such as trade work that historically were dominated by African women. I demonstrate that African women’s roles as economic providers for their families and children in other sectors, such as university students and company executives, provide evidence of the continued “matricentric” nature of African households that rely on women’s economic productivity. I also examine the possibilities and limitations of building long-standing networks that shape African migrant settlement in China. I show that the historical theorization that characterizes global mobility as male – particularly regarding Africans – has contributed to the misrecognition of African women’s multiple activities in China.
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- Date Issued: 2021
Cereal stem borer (Lepidoptera) assemblage structure in a sub-tropical agro-ecosystem, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Authors: Niba, AS. , Mdazu, S.
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Cereal products Stem borers Article
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/6958 , vital:52619 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0035919X.2021.1893861"
- Description: Insect pests, especially lepidopterous stem borers, cause significant losses to cereal production at local and global scales. The borer species associated with cultivated grain cereals and alternative wild host plants were identified at three elevation gradients in the former Transkei area of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Stem borer sampling was undertaken during maize crop and non-crop seasons in Port St Johns (PSJ), Mthatha and Elliot, sites that differ in elevation above sea level, annual precipitation and temperature. Morphologically identical borers retrieved from each sampling unit were recorded, processed and reared to adult stage for identification at an ambient temperature range of 25–28°C and a relative humidity range of 65–80%. Specimens were sorted first into morphospecies (MS1–MS6) based on external morphological characteristics. Six stem borer species (Busseola fusca, Sesamia calamistis, Eldana saccharina, Chilo orichalcocili, Chilo sacchariphagus and Chilo partellus) were collected during the survey. E. saccharina and C. orichalcocili were absent in PSJ; in Elliot, E. saccahrina occurred in very low numbers whereas C. partellus was absent. Busseola fusca was more abundant at high altitude (i.e. Elliot). Borer community structure in the study showed similarity between Mthatha and Elliot. Species richness and abundance across study sites were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). The study provides information on borer species occurrence in the study area, and techniques to identify larval stages for effective control by local farmers and extension workers. When designing strategies for borer control, elevation may not be a major concern at this spatial scale.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Cereal stem borer (Lepidoptera) assemblage structure in a sub-tropical agro-ecosystem, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Authors: Niba, AS. , Mdazu, S.
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Cereal products Stem borers Article
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/6948 , vital:52620 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0035919X.2021.1893861"
- Description: Insect pests, especially lepidopterous stem borers, cause significant losses to cereal production at local and global scales. The borer species associated with cultivated grain cereals and alternative wild host plants were identified at three elevation gradients in the former Transkei area of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Stem borer sampling was undertaken during maize crop and non-crop seasons in Port St Johns (PSJ), Mthatha and Elliot, sites that differ in elevation above sea level, annual precipitation and temperature. Morphologically identical borers retrieved from each sampling unit were recorded, processed and reared to adult stage for identification at an ambient temperature range of 25–28°C and a relative humidity range of 65–80%. Specimens were sorted first into morphospecies (MS1–MS6) based on external morphological characteristics. Six stem borer species (Busseola fusca, Sesamia calamistis, Eldana saccharina, Chilo orichalcocili, Chilo sacchariphagus and Chilo partellus) were collected during the survey. E. saccharina and C. orichalcocili were absent in PSJ; in Elliot, E. saccahrina occurred in very low numbers whereas C. partellus was absent. Busseola fusca was more abundant at high altitude (i.e. Elliot). Borer community structure in the study showed similarity between Mthatha and Elliot. Species richness and abundance across study sites were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). The study provides information on borer species occurrence in the study area, and techniques to identify larval stages for effective control by local farmers and extension workers. When designing strategies for borer control, elevation may not be a major concern at this spatial scale.
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- Date Issued: 2021
Clinical outcomes of hospitalised COVID-19 patients at Mthatha Regional Hospital, Eastern Cape, South Africa: A retrospective study
- Authors: Kaswa, Ramprakash , Yogeswaran, Parimalaranie , Cawe, Busisiwe
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: COVID-19 Diabetes Hypertension Diseases Article
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/7330 , vital:53402 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.4102/safp.v63i1.5253"
- Description: Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a public health crisis that threatens the current health system. The sudden expansion in the need for inpatient and intensive care facilities raised concerns about optimal clinical management and resource allocation. Despite the pressing need for evidence to make context-specific decisions on COVID-19 management, evidence from South Africa remained limited. This study aimed to describe the clinical characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 hospitalised patients. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study design was used to evaluate the clinical outcomes of hospitalised adult patients (≥ 18 years old) with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness at Mthatha Regional Hospital (MRH), Eastern Cape. Results: Of the 1814 patients tested for COVID-19 between 20 March 2020 and 31 July 2020 at MRH, two-thirds (65.4%) were female. About two-thirds (242) of the 392 patients (21.6%) who tested positive for this disease were hospitalised and one-third (150) were quarantined at home. The mean age of the patients tested for COVID-19 was 42.6 years and there was no difference between males and females. The mean age of hospitalised patients was 55.5 years and the mean age of hospitalised patients who died (61.3 years) was much higher than recovered (49.5 years). Overall, 188 (77.6%) hospitalised patients had clinical comorbidity on admission. Diabetes (36.8%) and hypertension (33.1%) were the most common comorbidities amongst COVID-19 hospitalised patients. Conclusion: The majority of the patients who were hospitalised for COVID-19 were elderly and had high baseline comorbidities. Advance age and underlying comorbidities (diabetes, hypertension and HIV) were associated with high mortality in hospitalised COVID-19 patients. Keywords: COVID-19, diabetes; hypertension; hospitalised; co-morbidity.
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- Date Issued: 2021
Coastal dunefields maintain pre‐Holocene genetic structure in a rocky shore red alga
- Authors: Mmonwa, Kolobe L , Barker, Nigel P , McQuaid, Christopher D , Teske, Peter R
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/444784 , vital:74298 , https://doi.org/10.1111/jpy.13182
- Description: Most intertidal algae have limited dispersal potential, and areas that lack hard substratum suitable for attachment are thus expected to isolate regional populations from each other. Here, we used nuclear and mitochondrial genetic data to compare genetic structure in two co‐distributed intertidal red algae with different dispersal potential along the South African coastline. Gelidium pristoides is divided into a south‐eastern and a south‐western evolutionary lineage separated by extensive, continuous sandy shoreline habitat adjacent to coastal dunefields. In contrast, Hypnea spicifera is genetically homogeneous throughout its range. In G. pristoides, the genetic breaks are associated with contemporary coastal dunefields. The age of the divergence event suggests that this may reflect the effect of older dispersal barriers, and that genetic structure was subsequently maintained by the formation of contemporary coastal dunefields.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Constraints on improving higher education teaching and learning through funding
- Authors: Moyo, Temwa , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185854 , vital:44440 , xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2021/7807"
- Description: In the midst of massification, targeted funding has been used in various countries to address inefficiencies in teaching and learning. In South Africa, arguments have been made for significant investments to be made and the University Capacity Development Grant (UCDG) in particular is being used as a driver for improved outputs. Prior to its implementation in 2018, the UCDG comprised the Research Development Grant and the Teaching Development Grant. The Teaching Development Grant was intended to address low retention and throughput rates and ZAR5.5 billion was spent to this end over a 12-year period. The analysis presented here of all Teaching Development Grant budget plans and progress reports from 2007 to 2015 shows that the undifferentiated implementation of the Teaching Development Grant within a differentiated sector limited its potential for system-wide gains. Institutions without adequate resources tended to divert Teaching Development Grant funds to attend to backlogs rather than to address teaching and learning practices and such universities lost much of their allocation through the withholding of unspent funds. This blanket practice addressed the symptoms of underspending but not the structural, cultural and agential mechanisms that led to such under-expenditure. Uneven access to the limited teaching development expertise also impacted on the use of the grant. This call for a context-based approach to funding has been identified as a key success factor in grant interventions in both African and European universities. We recommend a sector-wide response in the form of a national body or plan for the benefit of all universities and investment in financial management enhancement. The study contributes to a better understanding of how government funding interventions can achieve intended goals. The study calls for a more contextualised approach to funding and to greater collaboration across the sector to maximise limited capacity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Covid-19 and the restrictive measures: The national security conundrum for Zimbabwe
- Authors: Mugari, Ishmael , Obioha, Emeka E.
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: COVID-19 (Disease) National security Article
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/6926 , vital:52571 , xlink:href="https://10.1080/10246029.2021.1972015"
- Description: The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic at the onset of the year 2020 brought unprecedented suffering to humanity. Economic activities in virtually all nations across the globe were brought to a shuddering halt, with the third world suffering the worst effects on the economic front. The health security of nations across the globe was shaken, as nations came to terms with the surging health needs for the infected citizens. In order to grapple with the pandemic, nations took drastic measures, chief among them being the implementation of lockdowns, coupled with harsh restrictions. These measures, however, came at a cost. This paper explores the impacts of the restrictive measures that were implemented by the Zimbabwean government to combat COVID-19 pandemic. The paper interrogates these measures in the context of the national security discourse. In the analysis, the paper also makes reference to South Africa- a more developed nation and Zimbabwe’s neighbour. Keywords: COVID-19 , national security, health security, lockdown
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- Date Issued: 2021
Creating the Ideal Push-Pull System for Electrocatalysis A Comparative Study on Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Cardanol-based Cobalt Phthalocyanines
- Authors: Nkhahle, Reitumetse , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/${Handle} , vital:44452 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1002/elan.202060019"
- Description: A symmetrical cardanol-based cobalt phthalocyanine (Pc) along with its asymmetrical acid-based derivatives were synthesized and applied in the electrocatalysis of hydrazine. Despite the inhibition of electron movement by the bulky cardanol-based substituent throughout the series of molecules, an ideal combination of substituents was established in GCE-3 (2,9,16-tris(3- pentadecylphenoxy)-23-mono propionic acid phthalocyanato cobalt (II)) where a limit of detection (LoD) value of 5.10 μM (signal to noise ratio=5) was recorded for the detection of hydrazine. The results obtained serve as an illustration that the combination of electron-donating and electron-withdrawing substituents has a significant influence on the complete functioning of the phthalocyanine molecule(s) being investigated.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Crossing the border from candidate to supervisor: The need for appropriate development
- Authors: Motshoane, Puleng , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185876 , vital:44442 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1900814"
- Description: Postgraduate education has grown enormously worldwide, which has led to supervisors being expected to take on a supervisor's role immediately upon graduation. But crossing the border from being a doctoral candidate to becoming a doctoral supervisor entails significant shifts in identity and an understanding of postgraduate pedagogy and institutional expectations. This paper argues that supervision development opportunities are crucial, but they need to be contextualised and include critical key agents with some institutional authority if they are to be deemed worthwhile and effect change. An online survey completed by 186 participants from across institutional types and disciplines in South Africa is analysed using Archer's social realism to provide insights into how emerging supervisors are currently supported. The resultant recommendations on supervision development could contribute to more confident border crossing by emerging supervisors.
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- Date Issued: 2021
Current and future biological control efforts against Solanum mauritianum (Solanaceae) in South Africa
- Authors: Venter, Nic , Cowie, Blair W , Olckers, Terence , Byrnes, Marcus J
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/414349 , vital:71138 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-ento_v29_n3_a14"
- Description: Solanum mauritianum Scop. (Solanaceae), colloquially referred to as bugweed in South Africa, remains a widespread invasive tree of global significance. Although biological control (biocontrol) efforts were undertaken from 1984 -2003 in South Africa, the programme eventually only released two agents, the sap-sucking lace bug Gargaphia decoris Drake (Hemiptera: Tingidae) and flowerbud-feeding weevil Anthonomus santacruzi Hustache (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). To date, these agents have been relatively ineffective in controlling S. mauritianum, largely due to low establishment success due to climatic incompatibility in relation to the widespread distribution of S. mauritianum. This has prompted the revival of S. mauritianum biocontrol research in 2018, with the programme focused largely on sourcing additional agents from climatically suitable regions in the plant’s native range in South America. Climate matching between cooler regions of South Africa and known S. mauritianum sites in South America identified Uruguay as a promising source of new agents. Field collections in Uruguay focused mainly on Anthonomus spp. but included stem-boring and shoot-galling weevils. Low incidence in the field and difficulties in culturing candidate species temporarily precluded research into stem-boring and shoot-galling candidates, but the rearing and assessment of the flowerbud-feeding weevil Anthonomus morticinus Clark (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is ongoing. Host-specificity testing of A. morticinus has thus far confirmed a narrow host range, suggesting it has potential as a new agent.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Determinants of Job Satisfaction Among Academics at A Selected Institution of Higher Learning in The Eastern Cape Province of South Africa
- Authors: Mefi, Nteboheng Patricia , Asoba, Samson Nambei
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Education (Higher) Education (Higher) Computer File , Job Satisfaction Job Satisfaction Computer File
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/7443 , vital:53976 , https://www.abacademies.org/articles/determinants-of-job-satisfaction-among-academics-at-a-selected-institution-of-higher-learning-in-the-eastern-cape-province-of-sout-13195.html
- Description: Many studies have considered job satisfaction and its antecedents in the profit making sector. These studies have provided a number of factors that influence job satisfaction including autonomy, compensation, growth opportunities, leadership styles, task variety and so on. There are numerous factors that have been discovered to positively influence job satisfaction. Interest in job satisfaction arises from the fact that productivity and other favourable organisational outcomes such as service delivery and quality of outputs have been found to associate with job satisfaction. This study followed a quantitative approach based on a Likert questionnaire to collect data on the antecedents of employee job satisfaction within a Higher Education Institution (HEI) in South Africa. It was established that antecedents of job satisfaction in the HEI resembled closely those established in the literature. It is recommended that HEI should consider factors such as remuneration, task variety, work autonomy, good workplace relations and leadership styles to foster employee motivation. Keywords: Job Satisfaction, Higher Education Institutions, Human Capital, Productivity
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Developing Rural Economies through Small to Medium Tourism Enterprise: the case of Matatiele and Cedarville in the Eastern Cape, South Africas
- Authors: Mxunyelwa,Siyabonga , Matarinano, Obert , Vallabh, Dinesh
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Matatiele, South Africa Small and medium-sized enterprises Small Business Computer File
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/6015 , vital:45081 , https://www.ijicc.net/index.php/ijicc-editions/2021/226-vol-15-iss-10
- Description: Globally, nations depend on small businesses as engines for economic growth. Small to Medium Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs), as part of the small business sector, are increasingly becoming important in terms of job creation, wealth creation and driving economic growth in smaller rural geographic areas. Utilising a mixed research approach, the paper identifies characteristics of SMTEs in Matatiele and Cedarville with the intention of identifying specific ways in which they can be supported to attain their real potential in enabling economic development in rural environment. Purposive sampling method was used to select respondents and self-administered questionnaires utilised to gather relevant data from managers/owners. The results indicate that the rural tourism is dominated by female-owned enterprises primarily offering accommodation services. Most of the enterprises have been in operation for a period of more than five years which points to potential growth as they are able to survive. The results further show that the businesses that participated in the survey intent employing more full-time employees. Furthermore, the results underscore that there is lack of local government support to promote entrepreneurship in the SMTEs sector particularly those that are located in the rural environment. The findings elucidate the ability of SMTEs to greatly reduce the high unemployment in rural economies if appropriate systems are put in place to support these enterprises. These findings have implications for the national, provincial and local government spheres in South Africa in their quest to create job opportunities in rural areas through entrepreneurship and SMTEs in order to provide impetus to the Eastern Cape Province and South African Economy. This paper
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Developments and prospects for biological control of Prosopis (Leguminosae) in South Africa
- Authors: Kleinjan,Catharina , Hoffman, John H , Heystek, F , Ivey, Philip J , Kistensamy, Y
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/414360 , vital:71139 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-ento_v29_n3_a13"
- Description: South Africa was the first country to deploy biological control (biocontrol) against invasive Prosopis populations. Developments in this regard have been ongoing, and have been reviewed, at approximately 10-year intervals, since 1991. This review spans the period 2011-2020, a timespan globally characterised by increased awareness of the impacts of invasive Prosopis populations, and recognition of the need for improved management. Concerted international collaboration has resulted in enhanced clarity on phylogenetic relationships within the Leguminosae and the phylogenetic placement of Prosopis. These advances have improved the framework for interpreting the host range of potential agents and for evaluating risk. At the outset of the biocontrol programme, in the 1980s, only agents that consumed mature seeds were considered. The intention was to reduce the invasiveness of Prosopis while simultaneously retaining it as a usable resource. The programme was subsequently expanded to investigate agents that prevent pod set or maturation of seed. More recently, potential agents that damage the vegetative growth of the plants have been included in response to recognition in South Africa, that there is no other route to successful management of Prosopis. There is a wealth of largely unexplored potential in this regard.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Disilane-bridged architectures with high optical transparency for optical limiting
- Authors: Feng, Hongjie , Zhou, Zhikuan , May, Aviwe K , Chen, Jiaying , Mack, John , Nyokong, Tebello , Gai, Lizhi , Lu, Hua
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190623 , vital:45011 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1039/D1TC01488A"
- Description: A novel tetraphenylethylene (TPE) architecture that makes use of a disilane bridge was developed to successfully prepare organic optical power limiting (OPL) materials with high transparency. The σ-bridged TPE derivatives exhibit enhanced solid-state emission efficacies up to 4 times that of TPE. Due to the unique σ-electron delocalization, the incorporated Si–Si bridge gives rise to intense nonlinear optics (NLO) properties. These compounds show favorable optical transparency in the visible region, since the σ–π interaction has a relatively minor effect on the absorption properties of TPE. The poly(bisphenol A carbonate) (PBC) thin films of disilane-bridged compounds exhibit significant reverse saturable absorbance (RSA) responses during Z-scan measurements at 532 nm. In contrast, negligible OPL properties were observed in tetrahydrofuran (THF) solution and when a PBC thin film was prepared with TPE. The disilane-bridged molecular system represents a novel and easily prepared architecture for the construction of solid-state optical limiting materials.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Diversity is an asset to science not a threat
- Authors: Blackie, Margaret A
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426624 , vital:72373 , xlink:href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/48687065"
- Description: In this paper, Critical Realism is used as a theoretical framework to show that diversity is an asset to science not a threat. Critical Realism situates the reliability and reproducibility of science in the realm of the real and thus relocates the notion of “objectivity” from the person of the scientist to the process of science. This means that it no longer necessary to attempt to minimise the person of the scientist in pursuit of rigorous knowledge. The implication is that diversity both in terms of intellectual training (within limits) and in terms of being multicultural, gender, sexuality, multilingual, is revealed to be an asset. This is because the construction of knowledge draws on personal experience and having people with divergent experience interrogating the same problem is more likely to provide a reliable, reproducible solution. In the latter parts of the paper, the implications for teaching are described. In addition, it is demonstrated that this argument can be extended into different knowledge areas.
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- Date Issued: 2021