The North West Company, a Montreal based fur trading corporation, dominated by Scots, developed a commercial operation that between 1779 and 1821 extended to the Atlantic and Pacific axes of the British Empire. The enterprise emerged at a critical juncture in the development of Empire. It was a period of colossal growth and partial dismemberment as well as one of redefinition. Adapting Atlantic and trans-oceanic perspectives this dissertation examines the socio-entrepreneurial networks forged by the North West Company as it sought to expand its commercial reach to encompass Montreal, Quebec, London, New York, Calcutta, Bombay and Canton in a hitherto unexplored form of global economy. To date Imperial and fur trade studies have viewed the fur trade within the confines of a British North Atlantic triangle. This historiographical tendency towards a geographically limited concept of the trade has been exacerbated by the perceived political and economic dislocations brought about by the loss of the American colonies in 1783. The dissertation revises historical orthodoxies to reveal the scale and scope of the fur trade as a pan-imperial activity. Exploring the Company's multi-layered networks highlights not only how the merchants integrated their operation into the Anglo-American Atlantic and beyond but also demonstrates how the Empire actually operated, bringing together its maritime and continental spheres. Identifying the origin, character and evolution of their business practices and linkages modifies conceptions of an increasingly centralised imperial economy of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Merchants negotiated between competing and at times overlapping tensions on a local, provincial, imperial and global level as they traversed a plurality of political, cultural and legal frameworks. The manner in which the fur traders co-ordinated and structured their organisation in response to these tensions further challenges the idea of an uncomplicated metropolitan control to reveal the existence of a negotiated imperialism. Placing the North West Company in a broad context allows for a critical and meaningful revision of key geographic, economic, political and chronological disjunctures within the historiography of this crucial phase of Britain's Empire.

A long-term grazing trial was started in 1977 at Armoedsvlakte Research Station, about 10km west of Vryburg, in Tarchonanthus veld of the Ghaap’s Plateau, which is a variation of the Kalahari Thornveld veld type. The main aim of this study was to use the extensive veld condition and animal production data set to investigate the effects and interactions of stocking rate, grazing system applied and seasonal rainfall on veld condition and cattle production. The grazing trial has changed three times since its inception resulting in three different phases. The main changes in veld condition during phase one (1977-1991) was due to density independent effects (e.g. seasonal rainfall) and not density dependent effects (e.g. stocking rate). A major change occurred in 1985 following a multiple year drought. The drought resulted in adverse changes in species composition, basal cover and residual biomass of all treatments. The system did not recover from the drought during phase one, despite well above mean seasonal rainfall for a number of years after the drought. During phase two (1992-1999) and phase three (2000 to present) completely different vegetation dynamics occurred than what was experienced during phase one. Density dependent effects (e.g. stocking rate) were more important in explaining variation in veld condition during these two phases. High stocking rates resulted in adverse changes in species composition, poor basal cover and a low residual biomass production. It is however important to note that seasonal rainfall did explain a significant additional amount of variation in veld condition. This suggests that a continuum of non-equilibrium and equilibrium vegetation dynamics occurred in these two phases. The residual biomass and seasonal rainfall model for phase one indicate completely different results for the gain per animal data. In the seasonal rainfall model, stocking rate does not have a significant effect on gain per animal, but seasonal rainfall and the interaction of stocking rate with seasonal rainfall explains most of the variation in gain per animal. This suggest a continuum of non-equilibrium and equilibrium dynamics and that animal production is more sensitive to seasonal rainfall than to stocking rate, although the significant interaction of stocking rate with seasonal rainfall suggest that the seasonal rainfall effect on animal production is dependant on stocking rate. The residual biomass model however indicates that stocking rate is more important than rainfall in explaining variation in the mass gains per animal. The stocking rate effect on gain per animal was significant and indicated that as stocking rate increased, that gain per animal decreases. Seasonal rainfall and the interaction of stocking rate with seasonal rainfall had no significant effect on gain per animal. The amount of variation explained by the seasonal rainfall model was larger than the residual biomass model and this indicates that rainfall explains more variation in gain per animal, than residual biomass does. This possibly indicates that non-equilibrium effects are stronger than the equilibrium effects, but it is important to notice that stocking rate had a significant effect in some cases. The gain per hectare models (seasonal rainfall and residual biomass) for phase one indicates that stocking rate has a significant effect on gain per hectare. Increasing stocking rates resulted in higher gain per hectare, which suggests that the turning point of the typical “Jones and Sandland model” has not been reached and this might be due to light stocking rates applied during the duration of phase one. The seasonal rainfall model however has significant effects of seasonal rainfall and interactions of stocking rate with seasonal rainfall on gain per hectare. This suggests that the effect of stocking rate is dependent on seasonal rainfall and that seasonal rainfall explain an additional amount of variation in gain per hectare. In general, it appreared that the optimal stocking rate for animal production was higher than those applied during the duration of the trial, but this is due to lower than planned actual stocking rates applied during all three phases of the trial. It is very difficult to determine a generic optimal stocking rate for different rainfall volumes and it is recommended that the actual stocking rate for different ecological zones be determined based on rainfall, biomass, species compos[i]tion, basal cover and available browse and not just on the provisional recommendations. The type of grazing system applied did not show any statistically significant effects on both gain per animal and gain per hectare for the animal production data during phase one. This result is interesting and contradictive to most of the scientific literature where some authors concluded from their studies that rotational grazing systems produce higher animal production than continuous grazing systems, whereas others researchers state that continuous grazing systems produce higher animal production than rotational grazing systems. In phase two both the residual biomass and seasonal rainfall models for phase two did not show any significant effects and interactions of stocking rate, seasonal rainfall level and/or residual biomass on both gain per animal and gain per hectare. Both the residual biomass and seasonal rainfall models for phase three did not show any significant effects and interactions of stocking rate, seasonal rainfall level and/or residual biomass on animal gains per animal. The seasonal rainfall model did not show any any significant effects and interactions of stocking rate, seasonal rainfall level and/or residual biomass on animal gains per hectare. However, the residual biomass model indicated that stocking rate had a significant effect on gain per hectare and the production closely followed the Jones and Sandland (1974) model as at low stocking rates, gain per hectare increases at a rapid rate, but as stocking rates increases to high stocking rates, the rate of increase in gain per hectare declines, until it eventually reaches a turning point, where after gain per hectare declines with increasing stocking rates. Stocking rate only had a significant effect on the condition score of cows during phase two and phase three, as high stocking rates resulted in poor animal condition in both phases. No significant effects and interactions of stocking rate and seasonal rainfall were indicated on calving percentage, weaning percentage, conception rates and percentage of desirable meat produced during phase two. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, [2011].

Thesis (D.Phil.(Public Affairs))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

In South Africa, HIV and AIDS as a communicable diseases is difficult to eradicate. The government sector is advocating for comprehensive management thereof. Still the challenge is that the health sector tend to focus on the treatment pillar, pumping a lot of resources into treatment with minimal productivity. The point is, too much emphasis is put on post-intervention as opposed to pro-activity. Prevention is one of the under resourced pillars in terms of funding and capacity, but can bring about positive behavioural change in safe sex and deter other risk behavioural patterns that transmits HIV within our communities, thus combating further HIV infections. It is important to continually find gaps in the prevention techniques and markets when promoting or communicating HIV risks prevention. The study explores if the mainstream promotional and communication messages are reaching the Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual and Transgenders (LGBTs) and are soliciting positive behavioural change or discrimination. The study is qualitative and explores a probable social problem concerning the LGBTs in their natural setting. Probability, snowball sampling was used. Data were collected through structured questionnaires, and loaded into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), a software for analysis. The measure of correlation used was the Spearman's Rho. / Thesis (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2012

Safety and security have become major educational problems in secondary schools because many learners report feeling unsafe in the school environment. For example, the South African Institute of Race Relation conducted a research study in 2008 that indicated that 23 percent of learners still feel unsafe in their schools. Typical of present-day schooling system, teachers are scared of learners, and that is why many parents - even the poorest of the poor- are taking their children to former model C schools. The problem that was researched was the impact of violence in schools and how it affects learners and teachers' performance. The study was conducted in the Rustenburg District of Bojanala Region in the North West Province, South Africa. Data was collected from five (5) secondary schools because of their history of violence. A questionnaire was set to ensure that the questions were structured not to miss any important factor of violence in schools. Individual teachers and learners were questioned in face-to-face interview. The tape recorder was used to record the interview sessions because it is reliable, and taped answers can be analysed by several judges. Qualitative research analysis was used to interpret the data to draw inferences as well as conclusions. Inferences drawn from the survey were that there was a 70% certainty that violence contributed to low performance in schools; 52.7% agreement that violence causes physical and bodily harm; 48.7% certainty that violence can be addressed. / Thesis (M.Ed) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2012

No description available.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (PhD (Rural Development Planning))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted

M. Tech. Language Practice

This study evaluated potential health risks associated with the consumption of commonly consumed leafy vegetables, Amaranthus hybridus (tepe), Brassica oleracea (cabbage) and Spinacia oleracea (spinach) in the gold mining town of Kanana in North West Province, where these three plants were the most commonly consumed. Structured interviews were conducted with 40 households to determine their socioeconomic status and the consumption patterns of vegetables (cultivated and wild plants). Along with interviews, plant samples were sampled in home gardens and at various harvesting locations in the wild for chemical analysis. Finally, analysis of mercury content in the sampled three leafy vegetable species was performed to ascertain the contributions of the vegetables to the dietary mercury intake among a predominantly young and poor subpopulation of Kanana, which was found to be largely dependent on state welfare grants and on the cultivation and gathering of wild plants for survival. The study found that all three leafy vegetable species under analysis had mercury concentrations that exceeded the maximum permitted by the World Health Organisation. The highest mean mercury concentrations were found in A. hybridus 0.287μg/g dry mass and the lowest in S. oleracea 0.128μg/g dry mass. Equally, mercury ingestion through the three leafy vegetables by adults in the surveyed subgroups of Kanana exceeded thresholds prescribed by the (2007). Based on consumption patterns, dietary mercury intake by adults exceeded the recommended limits by one order of magnitude, with yearly dose exceeding by as much as four and three orders of magnitude. Long term mercury exposure can cause damage to the central nervous system and chronic intoxication. The surveyed subpopulation is therefore exposed to health risks from mercury toxicity. To ensure food safety and to protect the residents from metal toxicity, awareness programmes are recommended to educate communities living in the vicinity of mines to avoid the areas of highest contamination, such as the artisanal mine dumps and (in this case) the Schoonspruit stream, and to control the artisanal use of mercury. Alternative vegetable gardening methods such as vegetable container gardening using unpolluted soil can also be implemented for the community. In addition, remediation of all the sites where local people cultivate vegetables and gather edible wild plants should be considered where feasible. The insights gained through the study should be used to inform local land use planning and create awareness among personnel from local regulators and development agencies. The insights can also be used to inform environmental management planning processes, risk mitigation and social impact assessment for industries in the region, in particular those involved in mining. Keywords: consumption patterns, gold mining, human health risk, leafy vegetables, mercury.

A great deal is expected of the construction industry and this study will stimulate reflections by participants on their role and performance. Leadership and collaboration are needed to enhance the capability and focus of all who engage in the delivery process- a focus to grow, transform and nurture the national asset base of the construction industry. The study highlights areas of progress and provides insight on the significant challenges to the construction industry growth and creation of infrastructure, challenges that are closely linked to the need for raised levels of performance and empowerment. Construction accounts for about I 0 per cent of the world economy and approximately 70 per cent of construction investment is accounted for in the USA, Western Europe and Japan. The continent of Africa accounts for about one per cent. Per capita investment in construction in the developed world is approximately $2500 per annum compared to $46 per annum in Africa. Embodied in the policies and legislations is a fundamental recognition that a developing society inherited a construction sector that supports a strategically developed industry with world-class capability and an established material manufacturing sector. The post-1994 expansion of South African engineering and construction services into global markets is testament to this inherent capability and the potential of the industry, and was enabled by the country's passage to democracy. In parallel with policy and institutional reform, a range of early practical initiatives were introduced by government to direct the process of change. In this context, growth needs to be coupled with sustainable employment, empowerment and investment in human capital as a pre-requisite for improved industry performance and competitiveness. The policy framework also addresses the role and potential impact of government as facilitator, regulator and major client to the industry. These included the implementation of preferential procurement to stimulate access to the market by historically disadvantaged enterprises, and measures to address supply-side constraints such as access to entrepreneurial training, finance, and credit. The Black Economic Empowerment is defined as empowerment of a broad-based process, and adopts a scorecard approach covering ownership, management, employment equity, skills development, procurement, corporate social investment, as well as investment and enterprise formation. By meeting any, or a combination of these objectives, every company has the potential to promote empowerment (SA Construction Industry Report, 2004 ). The main objective is to create new business ventures which play a significant role in economic growth. For this reason, it makes sense to explore correlations between black economic empowerment activities and lagged indicators of procurement policies and procedures. Some of the findings are: •Lack of consistency in the application of preferential procurement policies • Ambiguous regulations • Clients' planning shortcomings • Inadequate budget • Capacity constraints The biggest concern is the lack of core skills among emerging contractors, that is, financial literacy, record-keeping and marketing Although there are excellent examples of financing initiatives in South Africa (SA), there are only a small number of financial institutions in SA that have low default rates on small business loans. / (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2006