Thesis (Ph.D. (Zoology & Entomology)) - Rhodes University, 2009.

Frankfurt (Main), Univ., Diss., 2001.

This study constitutes an inquiry into how Olive Schreiner‟s peripheral position as a colonial woman writer enabled her rewriting of feminine identity, specifically her subversion of Victorian feminine stereotypes. I focus particular attention on three novels: The Story of an African Farm (1890), and the posthumously published From Man to Man (1926) and Undine (1929). I employ a feminist literary approach to examine how Schreiner‟s hybrid identity as a British South African enabled her revisioning of femininity. If Schreiner is situated within the context of her time, it can be demonstrated that her negotiations of feminine identity are influenced by her dual intellectual and cultural heritage. On the one hand, she can be situated within a British tradition of women‟s writing – in particular, the New Woman fiction which emerged in the late nineteenth century. On the other hand, she can be situated within a nascent South African literary tradition – and demonstrates prototypically post-colonial concerns. Schreiner‟s writing style develops out of her colonial heritage and her experiences as a woman living in a patriarchal society. The resultant voice subverts the narrative traditions of the metropolitan novel in an attempt to articulate an alternative view of femininity. I examine in detail how Schreiner undermines and subverts Victorian stereotypes, and focus particular attention on the „fallen woman‟ and the „mother-figure‟. She attempts to challenge conventional Victorian conceptions of femininity by erasing the binary between the „angel‟ and the „whore‟ in order to create a New Woman. In Undine and The Story of an African Farm the full realisation of this New Woman is deferred, since both protagonists die, but From Man to Man is more nuanced, particularly in its emphasis on economic empowerment for women. Schreiner also destabilises traditional notions of motherhood, in order to offer glimpses of an alternative maternal role. It is my contention that, in her depiction of mother-figures and (un)fallen women, Schreiner challenges stock Victorian notions of femininity and, in the process, creates a space in which new possibilities for women can be imagined and negotiated.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The popularization and health benefits associated with the "Mediterranean diet" saw a world wide increase in the production and consumption of processed olives and olive oil. During the brining of table olives large quantities of processed olive waste water is seasonally generated. This blackish-brown, malodours liquid is rich in organic and phenolic compounds, which cause environmental problems upon discarding. Currently, processed wastewater is discarded into large evaporation ponds where it poses serious environmental risks. The biodegradation of organic substrates present in the olive wastewater is inhibited by the high concentrations of phenolic compounds.

Soil-borne pests and pathogens, such as Verticillium dahliae, can devastate a wide range of annual and perennial crops. Current management options for organic production are limited and sustainable management of pathogens, weeds, and arthropods is important for staying profitable and reducing the use of harmful chemicals. Organic soil amendments play an important role in supplying some of the nutritional needs of vegetable crops and improving soil structure, while also contributing to pest control. The objective of this research was to determine the effects of grape and olive-based composts on soil pathogen load, arthropod communities, and weed biomass and diversity. Field experiments were conducted in both organic and conventionally grown bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) systems during the summer growing season of 2018 on the Cal Poly campus in San Luis Obispo, California. Four different organic amendment treatments were tested including: olive based compost, grape based compost, dairy manure compost, and plant waste compost. Abundance of the fungal pathogen Verticillium dahliae was assessed from composite soil samples collected at several time points throughout the growing season. Olive, grape, and plant waste composts all displayed significant reduction of V. dahliae abundance between two to eight weeks post application of treatment when compared to the control. Insufficient evidence was found correlating farm management type with V. dahliae abundance after adjusting for treatment and time. Total dry weed biomass was assessed after one month of unhindered growth. The organic amendments tested appeared to alter weed species composition but not overall biomass though no significant differences were found. The soil arthropods symphylans and collembolans were sampled throughout the growing season, significant trends in population were found over time but not across treatments. This research demonstrates how agricultural waste-based compost amendments have potential as tools in pest management.

Reclaimed coal-mined lands in the Appalachian region can be successful established and utilized for beef cattle production. Currently, these areas are underutilized partly due to an increase in invasive plant species, such as multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora Thunb. Ex Murr.), autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata Thunb.), and sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata (Dum.-Cours.) G. Don). The steep topography and low economic returns from beef cattle make conventional control methods inhibitive. Goats are effective browsing on invasive plant species. An experiment was conducted in 2006 and 2007 at the Powell River Research and Education Center near Wise, VA (77° 43' 30" west longitude, 38° 57' 30" north latitude, elevation 155.5 m) to determine the effects of an ungrazed control, cattle alone grazing, and mixed grazing goats with cattle on forage biomass, botanical composition, relative plant abundance, and animal performance. The three treatments included an ungrazed control, cattle grazing alone, and mixed grazing goats with cattle. Experimental design was a randomized complete block design with two replicates for the control and three replicates for the grazed treatments. Three times during the grazing season the following were measured, analyzed or assessed: nutritive values of pasture, autumn olive, multiflora rose, and sericea lespedeza were assessed; forage biomass was determined by clipping four 0.25 m² quadrants per control replicate and eight 0.25 m² quadrants per grazed replicate; botanical composition and relative abundance of plant species was assessed by the Double DAFOR method from five fixed points in each control replicate and ten fixed points in each grazed replicate; animals were weighed; autumn olive shrub height was measured with a clinometer from a distance of 10 m from the shrub. Branch length was measured with a tape measure from the base of the branch to the end tip. Shrub survival was measured by counting shrubs in each replicate and determining visually percent leaf-out. Each year, control and cattle alone treatments had greater (P < 0.05). Generally, grass content increased in the grazed treatments from spring to fall while weed content increased in the control treatment (P < 0.05). By the end of the two experimental years, the legume components of the pasture were low. This was more evident in the ungrazed control than the grazed treatments. The relative abundance of tall fescue and orchardgrass (P < 0.05) increased in grazed treatments while sericea lespedeza became a dominant weed in the control (P < 0.05). Goats showed high preference for sericea lespedeza and maintain this plant in a leafy, vegetative stage. This leafy, vegetative growth was found to acceptable to cattle. Cattle performance was not affected by treatment (P < 0.05) but total animal output was higher for mixed grazed compared to cattle alone treatments (P < 0.05). The nutritive values of multiflora rose, autumn olive, and sericea lespedeza were higher than pasture in most instances (P < 0.05). In our experiment, autumn olive was severely impacted by goat browsing. Shrub survival was lower in mixed grazing (61%) by the end of the experiment compared to over 90% for the control and cattle grazing treatments (P < 0.05). Overall, pastures were utilized more uniformly in mixed grazing compared to other treatments. Mixed grazing goats with cattle appear to be a viable option for livestock producers in the Appalachian coal mining region. / Master of Science

In 2023, approximately 2.36 million metric tons of olive oil were produced globally. Olive pomace, a byproduct of the flesh and pits left after olive oil extraction, presents environmental challenges when used as landfill due to its high polyphenol and organic contents, or when combusted due to greenhouse gas emissions. Its potential as animal feed is limited, yet it holds promise for methane production via anaerobic digestion (AD), providing a source of renewable energy. However, the highly crystallized polysaccharides in olive pomace, such as cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin, impede its conversion to methane, and the high polyphenol content inhibits methanogen growth. To address this, phenolics were extracted from olive pomace, producing a phenolics-extracted olive pomace (PEOP) and a phenolics-rich olive liquid. After further resin-based extraction of phenolics-rich olive liquid, approximately two-thirds of the phenolics were removed, yielding phenolics-extracted olive liquid (PEOL). Enzymatic hydrolysis was conducted on several olive byproduct streams: olive pomace with water, PEOP with PEOL, and PEOP with water, to convert insoluble polysaccharides into reducing sugars that are more readily utilized by methane-producing microorganisms. Various enzymes, including cellulase, hemicellulase, xylanase, and pectinase, were individually treated with olive pomace to determine the optimal hydrolysis time and enzyme concentrations. Response surface methodology (RSM) identified the optimal enzyme cocktail ratio (1.1% cellulase, db, and 0.9% pectinase, db) for achieving the highest reducing sugar contents (22.3 mg/mL), which had 79.1% increase when compared to the control sample (12.5 mg/mL). After 19 days of anaerobic digestion at 37 °C, olive samples before phenolics extraction (olive pomace with water) and olive samples after phenolics extraction (phenolics-extracted olive pomace with phenolics-extracted olive liquid), produced similar amounts of methane (~175 mL CH4/g VS). This indicated that in our experimental settings, the phenolics reduction did not significantly impact methane yields. Carbohydrate profiles may also influence biofuel yields, as hexoses (C6 sugars) are preferred over pentoses (C5 sugars) for end-product production during biotechnical conversion. To explore the effect of carbohydrate profiles on methane production from olive byproducts, two response surface methodology (RSM) coded enzyme cocktail-treated samples with different carbohydrate profiles underwent anaerobic digestion for 19 days at 37 °C, yielding similar amounts of methane (~156 mL CH4/g VS), comparable to the control sample. This suggested that anaerobic digestion can utilize different hexoses and pentoses at similar rates. These findings demonstrated that olive pomace can be used for biomethane production instead of being landfilled or combusted. While enzymatic hydrolysis increased reducing sugar contents, it did not enhance methane yields. Reducing phenolic contents of 2/3 did not improve biomethane yield, and the impact of greater reduction requires further assessment.

L'UMR ITAP d'IRSTEA à Montpellier et la société Pellenc SA souhaitent développer un système de mesure par spectrométrie visible - proche infrarouge permettant d'évaluer la qualité des olives et d'en suivre la maturité. La mesure doit être effectuée sur une seule olive et de manière non destructive. Les critères de maturité retenus pour une première phase d'étude sont les teneurs en eau et en huile. L'objectif de ces travaux est d'optimiser la mesure des critères de maturité par spectrométrie portable, en s'adaptant aux contraintes induites par l'objet d'étude et en levant des verrous imposés par la technologie retenue. En lien avec les objectifs industriels, trois questions scientifiques ont été soulevées :QS1 : Comment obtenir les valeurs de référence des critères de maturité à partir d'une seule olive ?QS2 : Comment mesurer le spectre d'une olive ? Quelle configuration optique est la plus adaptée à l'objet mesuré ? Quel volume de l'olive est interrogé lors de la mesure spectrale ? Le noyau intervient-il dans cette mesure ?QS3 : Comment étalonner la mesure spectrale ? Les modèles de prédiction sont-ils robustes au regard d'une variété non incluse dans leur étalonnage ? Comment inclure la masse du noyau dans les valeurs prédites ?Afin de répondre à ces questions, des études expérimentales et comparatives ont été menées. Pour la détermination de la teneur en huile (QS1) deux méthodes ont été évaluée, la résonance magnétique nucléaire (RMN) et l'extraction à l'hexane, lorsqu'elles sont appliquées à la pulpe d'une olive unique. L'étude sur les différentes configurations optiques (QS2) a permis de mettre en évidence l'impact de chacune sur la mesure spectrale et ainsi déterminer si l'ensemble de ces configurations proposées (transmission, réflexion diffuse avec propagation guidée de la lumière au moyen d'une sphère, réflexion diffuse avec propagation libre de la lumière et rétrodiffusion) sont envisageables pour la mesure sur une seule olive. De plus, ces travaux se sont intéressés au volume de peau et de pulpe réellement interrogé lors de la mesure spectrale par une étude de la perte de lumière transmise à travers la peau et la pulpe. Le questionnement de l'étalonnage des mesures spectrales (QS3) a consisté en une analyse fine des modèles construits mais aussi en une étude de la robustesse et des différentes méthodes envisageables pour l'améliorer (sélection de longueurs d'onde, mise à jour des modèles, correction “biais-pente”, méthode DOP). Le dernier point traité par ces travaux de thèse est la prise en compte de la masse du noyau dans les valeurs prédites et l'évaluation des différentes méthodes pour réaliser cette correction.L'ensemble des résultats obtenus au cours de cette thèse ont servi à fournir des éléments pour guider la conception d'un outil portable de mesures par spectrométrie sur olives individuelles. / ITAP Research Unit of IRSTEA and Pellenc SA company want to developa visible - near infrared spectroscopy measurement system in order to assess the quality of olives and monitor their ripeness. The measurement has to be non-destructive and performed on a single olive. The ripeness criteria selected are water and oil content. The main objective of this work is to optimize the measurement of these criteria, recorded by a portable spectrometer, by taking into account the constraints linked to the studied object and by overcoming the obstacles imposed by the technology used. In relation to the industrial objectives, three scientific questions were raised :SQ1 : How to get the reference values of the ripeness criteria from a single olive ?SQ2 : How to measure the spectrum of one olive ? Which optical configuration isbest suited for an olive ? Which volume of the olive is actually analyzed during thespectral measurement ? Does the spectrum contain information about the kernel ?SQ3 : How to calibrate the spectral measurement ? Are the prediction models robustregarding a variety not used for the calibration step ? How to include the kernel mass in the predicted values ?In order to answer those questions, experimental and comparative studies have been led. As the determination of water content is easily transposable to a single olive, only the measurement of oil content is studied (SQ1). Two existing methods nuclear magnetic resonance and hexane extraction have been characterized end evaluated when they are applied to the pulp of a single olive.The comparative study conducted on different optical configurations(SQ2) has high-lighted the impact of each configuration (transmission, diffuse reflectance with guidedpropagation of light through a sphere, diffuse reflectance with free propagation of light and interactance) on the spectral measurement. This study has also determined if all of these configurations are suitable for the whole olive measurements. Furthermore, the real volume analyzed during the spectral measurement has been investigated by studying the loss of transmitted light through the skin and the pulp.In order to answer SQ3, the present work provides optimized models for prediction ofwater content on the one hand and oil content on the other hand. The robustness study leads us to consider different methods (Model Update, Biais and Slope, DOP, wavelength selection) depending on the correction set used and therefore the finality of the future device. Concerning the introduction of kernel mass in predicted values, it has be done using various methods which are more or less destructive. The choice of one of these methods has been be determined by the technical possibilities of the device and the minimum expected accuracy of water and oil content predictions.Therefore, the results of this thesis provide some elements to guide the development of a portable spectrometer for measurements on individual olive fruits.

Olive Schreine'rs novel, The Story of an African Farm, and nonfiction work, Woman and Labor, have compelled critics to apply the term New Woman to her main character, Lyndall, who speaks out for change against the established gender roles. The thesis proposes that by placing Lyndall in a colonial context, Schreiner creates a plot where place and language embody the possibilities for change. Considering that Schreiner's life consisted of a life in the colonies, first as a governess, later as a wife, one sees Schreiner's personal interest in change. Analyzing Schreiner's style of representing Lyndall's relationship with nature and other characters, one discovers the way Schreiner balances a feminist (and hence radical) shadow discourse of masochism with the discourses of nature and evolution. Schreiner registers an interest in change in her language by turning the linguistic-mental neighborhoods of Jane Austen inside out in favor of a more extrinsic language, the dialect of real South African neighborhoods. In her personal details, furthermore, Schreiner brings to life the language and landscape of her beloved country, creating the conceptual groundwork for political change. Read in this way, Olive Schreiner's work can be seen as creating space for more literature about social change like the award-winning work of the South African writer, Nadine Gordimer. / by Mellissa M. Carr. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (MTech (Food Technology))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2007 / The olive industry in South Africa, although small compared to the rest of the world, is rapidly expanding and producing increased volumes of wastewater on an annual basis that could in future develop into a major environmental problem. Olive mill wastewater (OMWW) and table olive wastewater (TOWW) are characterised by high chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and phenolic content that are toxic to the environment. Due to the nature of olive wastewater (OWW), its irresponsible and unregulated environmental release will result in oxygen depletion, nutrient enrichment and accumulation of toxic compounds in receiving water bodies that ultimately disrupts aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. An estimated 3500 - 4500 tons of olives are processed on an annual basis by 51 farmers .in the Western Cape. Economic forecasts predict a steady growth, i.e. increased production and processing of olives in the South African olive industry, in the future due to consumer demand. These production increases will consequently lead to increased volumes of wastewater production, which would, in tum, require an expansion of treatment capacity of the wastewater prior to release. Two South African olive factories were chosen for this study: Buffet Olives, situated in Dal Josefat (Paarl), that produces table olives and Vesuvio Estate on Sorento farm (Wellington) that produce extra-virgin olive oil. Preliminary COD determinations showed that indigenous OWW biofilms within a rotating biological contactor set-up reduced the COD from TOWW and OMWW by 47% and 32%, respectively, over a l0-day period. These preliminary results strongly suggested that biofilms indigenous to OWW have the potential to remediate the pollution problems of OWW. However, the overall aim of this study was to determine how sustainable the application of indigenous biofilms in the OWW are over two production seasons and whether it would be feasible to apply and develop these naturally occurring biofilms as an effective bioremediation tool to reduce the COD and polyphenol content of OWW.