Water regulation in drought-resistant eggs of the brown locust Locustana pardalina (Walk.) may be mediated by specialised serosal cells in the hydropyle region. These cells are thought to both supply water to the embryo and to waterproof the egg during very dry periods. The characteristics of hydropyle cells in quiescent eggs were examined at intervals during desiccation at 15-22% RH, and again after rehydration. Embryos were pre-catatreptic and any pre-existing diapause condition had terminated. Egg water contents and the sizes of cells and nuclei decrease with desiccation, and increase after rehydration. Deformable cell and nuclear membranes accommodate size changes. Surface microvilli increase in length with rehydration and cytoplasmic vacuoles become larger, indicating absorption of water. Organelle integrity improves upon rehydration while autophagy remains common. Evidence of the production and secretion of a waterproofing protein substance, while expected, was not found. However, electron dense vesicles present at the apical boundaries suggest that the cells may nonetheless produce some substance in that region. Dehydrated and rehydrated cells show signs of desiccation damage, but this does not affect cell functioning as embryos from rehydrated eggs developed to hatching. The results indicate that, in addition to structural protection, hydropyle cells may have molecular protection against desiccation damage, and may be able to undertake limited repair upon rehydration.

A qualitative three phase research study was undertaken to explore the geometric thinking of Grade 6 teachers in the context of low performance of the Gauteng learners in the International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) tests in 2006. The van Hiele theory of geometric thinking was used as a theoretical framework. Data was collected by means of document analysis, teachers responding in writing to ICAS items and task based interviews. This research shows that the ICAS items map very well with the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) Assessment Standards and the van Hiele levels. The mapping of the 82 geometry ICAS items to the (NCS) Assessments Standards and the van Hiele levels revealed that 59% of the ICAS items were at van Hiele level 2 across all grades and therefore accessible to the majority of the learners. The written responses conducted with 40 ACE teachers and the task based interviews conducted with six teachers indicate that the majority of teachers are not at the required level of geometric thinking as expected by the NCS Assessment Standards and the van Hiele levels. This finding has serious implications for classroom practice in the learning and teaching of geometry in primary schools. The challenge for teacher education is to take into consideration the relationship between language and the van Hiele levels; the use of van Hiele levels in the development of teachers’ geometric thinking and the possible use of the van Hiele levels in identifying, explaining and rectifying geometric misconceptions.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Finance & Investment in the Faculty of Commerce Law and Management Wits Business School at the University of the Witwatersrand / The objective of this paper is to study the exit behaviour of private equity investments held by independent private equity firms in South Africa. As this is an exploratory study we examine empirical hypotheses previously tested by other authors. Firstly, we test whether portfolio companies within high technology sectors are more likely to achieve an initial public offering (IPO) exit relative to other exits. Secondly, we test the effect of the lending rate on the likelihood of a secondary sale. Lastly, we consider the relative preference of IPO compared to acquisition (M&A) and other exit modes. As South Africa is considered to be a bank-centered financial system (Levine, 2002), private equity investments within the market would be expected to experience poor IPO activity as suggested by the literature (Black and Gilson, 1998).The research is quantitative in nature and involves the use of statistical modelling, multinomial logistic regression was applied, using panel data, which assumes that the effect of explanatory variables on the choice of exit varies across observations (private equity firms) and over time. From the multinomial logit model it was found that; 1) High technology firms were more likely to be exited by means of M&A rather than IPO; 2) An increase in the lending rate was found to increase the likelihood of a Secondary sale which is contrary to previous research (Sousa, 2010); and 3) M&A was found to be the most likely mode of exit assuming all explanatory variables were at their mean, while IPO was the least likely mode of exit. / MT2017

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of M.Sc. (Building) in Property Development to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / The lack of entrepreneurship is an obstacle to economic development. In South Africa (SA), disciplines are taught in a context that is enterprise-based, with no emphasis on the need to impart business start-up skills within specific disciplines. A culture of entrepreneurship is lacking, resulting in low records of entrepreneurship incidents in SA. The challenges and/or benefits of integrating entrepreneurship education within the South African real estate (RE) course and its effects on graduates’ entrepreneurial intent, is not well understood. The purpose of the research is to investigate whether the introduction of entrepreneurship education within the RE discipline would encourage graduates to become entrepreneurial in the practice of real estates. A mixed methodology approach has been used in this research. Primary and secondary research data has been made available in the form of questionnaire surveys of graduates and course directors/lecturers from the University of the Witwatersrand and other international universities that have entrepreneurship education embedded within their real estate programmes, as will be selected by the researcher. The research has found that both pedagogical strategies of course work and applying experiential learning teaching methods would be required to effectively integrate entrepreneurship education within a real estate programme in a manner that would stimulate graduates to be entrepreneurial in the practice of real estate, although it was not known whether the graduates would actually start businesses and when they intended to do so. It was also found that those students whose studies took place in real estate programmes that had entrepreneurship education embedded in them were more commercially aware. The integration of entrepreneurship education also resulted in an improvement of graduate self-esteem and confidence. Graduates were endowed with adequate professional, interpersonal, technical and business skills. The research, however, found the majority of real estate courses lacked in teaching graduates to be more versatile. The courses largely lacked in the provision of industry exposure and were inadequate in teaching graduates how to market themselves and their real estate businesses. According to the findings on the individual entrepreneurship test, graduates that studied entrepreneurship-based real estate courses had a higher probability of starting a business. / MT2018

The modern Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry is characterized by its fragmented, complex and multidisciplinary nature. Hence, the project success is heavily pivoted on its effective collaboration among the stakeholders during various project phases. The exchange and management of massive project information under various project delivery methods are cumbersome in modern day’s projects. Information Technology applications are playing a vital role in overcoming this difficulty; however the technological adoption and its full utilisation has always been slow in the emerging economies. Among these technologies, Building Information Modelling (BIM) dominates the AEC sector in developed countries; these countries are still experiencing the transition from 3D technologies to BIM in AEC industry. In South Africa, Building Information Modelling (BIM) is becoming the prime means of information exchange between various stakeholders involved in construction projects. Various aspects of BIM are explored and tools are developed continuously in order to make BIM more and more efficient for the whole life cycle of the construction projects. Nevertheless, in most implementations, BIM services are widely utilized in schematic design, design development and working drawings for both Engineering and Architecture as a graphical modelling and clash detection tool. But the developers of various BIM tools have listed many Project Management related benefits in their product portfolio. Nonetheless, it’s utilization in various project management knowledge areas according to PMBOK such as Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Resource, Procurement, Communication, Quality, Risk, Safety, Environmental, Financial and Claim Management are not fully realized in South Africa. This paper investigates the BIM’s utilization on the above said Project Management knowledge areas and identifies its challenges towards project management utilisation and strategies to overcome the identified challenges. The research philosophy adopted in this study follows positivism and a deductive research approach is used to unwind the truth about BIM’s utilization for project management, challenges and the strategies among the South African AEC industry. A survey research strategy is used in this research; data are collected through questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaire responses were obtained from a sample of 34 BIM adopters, the sample includes architectural, engineering, contracting, quantity surveying and construction management firms, questions related to the project management applications, implementation challenges and effective utilization strategies of BIM were asked. The obtained non parametric responses data through the questionnaire are analysed using appropriate statistical tests. The questionnaire results are triangulated through 3 open ended interviews data. Conclusions from this study help the South African AEC sectors to realize and expand their utilization of BIM in project management processes. Further, the identified challenges and strategies in this study assist the AEC industry to plan for the effective utilization of BIM in their future projects

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Management in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation Johannesburg, 2017 / This research report is based on the motivations for ecological responsiveness as identified by Bansal and Roth (2000). It considers the resultant actions of different motivations for ecological responsiveness (ER), and their ability to moderate the relationship between ER and Intrapreneurship in South Africa. The study adopted a deductive positivist paradigm that assumed an ecocentric approach to management and organisational research. A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was employed and the use of both primary data collection from surveys and secondary data collection from websites and annual reports were utilised in order to determine the existence of relationships between the variables of ecological responsiveness and intrapreneurship, and the moderating variables of legitimation, competitiveness and ecological responsibility. Multiple regression analysis was used to statistically test the relationship between the independent variable of ecological responsiveness and the dependent variable of intrapreneurship, as well as the moderating effect of the variables listed above. The population of this study was employees with management/supervisory positions within financial institutions of South Africa. It was required that these organisations were listed and had accessible or publically available annual reports in order for content analysis to be conducted. The final sample consisted of 210 management level employees who were in the majority employed at 3 different large, listed, South African banks. This study found support for hypothesized relationships between ecological responsiveness and intrapreneurship, as well as the positive moderating effect of the motive of ecological responsibility on this relationship. Results pertaining to the moderating effect of legitimation and competitive motives were not supported. In addition, the study found support for the proposed relationship between an organisations ecological qualitative content analysis (QCA) score and the level of ecological responsibility perception in the organisation. The general findings contribute to research in the field of motivations for environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR) and the resulting actions. / MT2017

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Education, 1979. / This study investigated the effectiveness of televised lectures in teaching an introductory statistics course to first year commerce undergraduates, Certain constraints imposed themselves on this introductory course which dictated many of the teaching conditions. Some of these conditions were that the lecture situation formed the major teaching component in the course and that these lectures were administered to large numbers of students (groups of between 70 and 120). The primary aim of the investigation was to determine whether or not the effectiveness of these lectures (when televised) could be assessed. A secondary aim was to determine whether or not (once the effectiveness of the lectures had been assessed) the areas in the lectures which had been identified as ineffective, could be analysed and changed, so as to become effective. In order to conduct this investigation the method employed demanded that three preliminary areas be fully expounded. The first was that the meaning of 'instructional effectiveness' be fully defined in terms of the previling conditions. In order to achieve this a criterion referenced approach to instruction was adapted to the television lectures. Secondly, the 'type' of television lecture had to be disclosed. The televised lectures were traditional in that they were similar to die 'live' lectures except for a few novel innovations. The study did not however set out to compare the effectiveness of the 'live and 'T.V,1 instruction - a point which is fully discussed in the second and sixth chapters, The third preliminary area was the means employed to collect the data which was needed for the evaluation of the lectures. A recently devoWpcd educational computer system was used for this purpose and a full description of this novel system is given in this study. The experimentation was based on two important premises. First, the evaluative means which were used to assess the lectures had to be valid. In other words they had to measure what they were supposed to iii. measure. The validation procedure, adopted is therefore fully discussed. Secondly the variables had to be Identified and controlled when improvements were attempted so as to ensure that the only variable which was allowed to change was the instruction. This procedure is always a difficult one and is fully discussed in chapter six and chapter eight. The results of this investigation indicated that it was both possible to assess and improve the effectiveness of a televised lecture within the prevailing conditions. However this investigation is seen only as a preliminary study into an area which requires scientifically based analyses and conclusions in order to achieve both effective and efficient instruction in this teaching area. Therefore there is much which this study did not do and several criticisms are made in the final chapter.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / This research is a contribution to the field of development evaluation. Much of the evaluation practice in development and public policy remains weak in scientific validity, and challenged by issues of attribution and comparability of results across different studies. After an in-depth review of the existing literature and an analysis of the current shortfalls and knowledge gaps in programme evaluation, the research proposes a methodological framework that allows for the empirical measurement and comparison of the impact of diverse types of interventions aimed at addressing a specific outcome of interest. The evaluation framework informs decision-making in social-economic development processes, by combing elements of theory-based counterfactual evaluation, multiple-treatment meta-analysis, mixed methods, and participatory approaches. The evaluation framework is tested in South Africa by utilising the proposed package of methods through two case studies presented in this thesis, to generate evidence for policy-makers, programme managers, and investors operating in the education sector. The first is an evaluation of the impact of the corporate social investments of Anglo American Platinum in Limpopo and North West provinces, that utilised geo-spatial features of mining operations to conduct a quasiexperiment. The second is a comparative analysis of major interventions implemented in South Africa to improve learning outcomes in public schools. The education meta-analysis is the first of its kind to be conducted in South Africa, and has revealed many locally-produced impact studies which had not previously been captured by international reviews on school interventions in developing countries. The empirical work conducted in this research confirms existing theories and reveals new insights into the role of the private sector, the proximity of schools to mines, psycho-social and economic factors, learner age and home language, educational material, quantity and quality of teachers, school management, and accountability systems, in affecting education outcomes. The research highlights some of the programmes and policies which have been most effective in South Africa’s schooling sector, while cautioning about the contextual factors and methodological design features which influence the effect sizes being reported in the evaluations of development interventions. The research concludes by reflecting on the experiences, data and cost analysis challenges, and the lessons learnt from the application of the proposed evaluation approaches in South Africa’s education sector. It discusses the limitations of the framework, and how this can be further refined for future use in other countries, sectors, and development policy contexts. / GR2018

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for degree Master of Management in Finance and Investments in Wits Business School of the University of the Witwatersrand / This research paper examines an economy with debt and discusses the mechanism through which a financial crisis may arise, taking into account the business cycle theories as advocated by amongst others; Karl Marx, Friederich Hayek, and John Keynes. It is found that there are various channels through which financial crises may arise. Secondly, this research paper investigates the mechanism through which bank credit propagates and prolongs the business cycle. The analysis of the data reveals that post the crisis, recoveries are slower in developed nations versus developing nations and that the deeper the recession, the longer it takes for a country to recover. Thirdly, this research paper determines the critical debt level at which economies will start to recover, following a period of economic fragility. Finally, recommendations which could contribute towards the mitigation of causes and/or effects of economic crisis are made. Key words: Bank Credit, Business Cycle / GR2018

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Anthropology, Johannesburg 2015 / Research in the mining community of Carletonville focused on how individuals negotiate and contest different value orientations in trying to construct a workable moral economy. Based on in-depth qualitative interviews and observations of respondents from lower and higher wage classes, the report deconstructs the elements of differential value sets that are redefining and sometimes destabilizing the moral economy and underlining views of inequality. Wage disputes are seen not only as mine workers' expressions of economic injustice but perhaps more crucially as a form of control and protection of their craft and status. The dominance of global economic governance and decision-making is leading to more acute internal divergences but can also be a starting point for a discussion about the impact of conflicts in social values. / XL2018