The world’s freshwater resources are being placed under increasing pressure owing to growth in population, economic development, improved standards of living, agricultural intensification (linked mainly to irrigation), pollution and mismanagement of available freshwater resources. Already, in many parts of the Orange River Catchment, water availability has reached a critical stage. It has become increasingly evident that water related problems can no longer be resolved by water managers alone, owing to the problems becoming more interconnected with other development related issues, as well as with social, economic, environmental, legal and political factors. With the advent of climate change and the likelihood of increases in extreme events, water managers’ awareness of uncertainties and critical reflections on the adequacy of current management approaches is increasing. In order to manage water resources effectively a more holistic approach is required than has hitherto been the case, in which technological, social and economic development are linked with the protection of natural ecosystems and with dependable projections of future climatic conditions. To assess the climate risk connected with rural and urban water management, and to develop adaptive strategies that can respond to an increasingly variable climate that is projected into the future and help to reduce adverse impacts, it is necessary to make connections between climate related hazards, climate forecasts as well as climate change, and the planning, design, operation, maintenance, and rehabilitation of water related infrastructure. Therefore, adaptive water resources management (AWRM), which in essence is “learning by doing”, is believed to be a timely extension of the integrated water resources management (IWRM) approach as it acknowledges uncertainty and is flexible in that it allows for the adjustment of actions based on information learned about the system. Furthermore, it is suggested that climate risk management be imbedded within the AWRM framework. The objective of the research presented in this thesis is to develop techniques to integrate state-of-the-art climate projection scenarios – which forms part of the first step of the adaptive management cycle – downscaled to the regional/local scale, with hydro-climatic hazard determination – which forms part of the first step in the risk management process – in order to simulate projected impacts of climate change on hydro-climatic hazards in the Orange River Catchment (defined in this study as those areas of the catchment that exist within South Africa and Lesotho). The techniques developed and the results presented in this study can be used by decision-makers in the water sector in order to make informed proactive decisions as a response to projected future impacts of hydro-climatic hazards – all within a framework of AWRM. Steps towards fulfilling the above-mentioned objective begins by way of a comprehensive literature review; firstly of the study area, where it is identified that the Orange River Catchment is, in hydro-climatic terms, already a high risk environment; and secondly, of the relevant concepts involved which are, for this specific study, those pertaining to climate change, and the associated potential hydro-climatic impacts. These include risk management and its components, in order identify how hazard identification fits into the broader concept of risk management; and water resources management practices, in order to place the issues identified above within the context of AWRM. This study uses future projections of climate from five General Circulation Models, all using the SRES A2 emission scenario. By and large, however, where techniques developed in this study are demonstrated, this is done using the projections from the ECHAM5/MPI-OM GCM which, relative to the other four available GCMs, is considered to provide “middle of the road” projections of future climates over southern Africa. These climate projections are used in conjunction with the locally developed and widely verified ACRU hydrological model, as well as a newly developed hydro-climatic database at a finer spatial resolution than was available before, to make projections regarding the likelihood and severity of hydro-climatic hazards that may occur in the Orange River Catchment. The impacts of climate change on hydro-climatic hazards, viz. design rainfalls, design floods, droughts and sediment yields are investigated, with the results including a quantitative uncertainty analysis, by way of an index of concurrence from multiple GCM projections, for each of the respective analyses. A new methodology for the calculation of short duration (< 24 hour) design rainfalls from daily GCM rainfall projections is developed in this study. The methodology utilises an index storm approach and is based on L-moments, allowing for short duration design rainfalls to be estimated at any location in South Africa for which daily GCM rainfall projections exist. The results from the five GCMs used in this study indicate the following possible impacts of climate change on hydro-climatic hazards in the Orange River Catchment: · Design rainfalls of both short and long duration are, by and large, projected to increase by the intermediate future period represented by 2046 - 2065, and even more so by the more distant future period 2081 - 2100. · Design floods are, by and large, projected to increase into the intermediate future, and even more into the more distant future; with these increases being larger than those projected for design rainfalls. · Both meteorological and hydrological droughts are projected to decrease, both in terms of magnitude and frequency, by the period 2046 - 2065, with further decreases projected for the period 2081 - 2100. Where increases in meteorological and hydrological droughts are projected to occur, these are most likely to be in the western, drier regions of the catchment. · Annual sediment yields, as well as their year-to-year variability, are projected to increase by the period 2046 - 2065, and even more so by the period 2081 - 2100. These increases are most likely to occur in the higher rainfall, and especially in the steeper, regions in the east of the catchment. Additionally, with respect to the above-mentioned hydro-climatic hazards, it was found that: · The statistic chosen to describe inter-annual variability of hydro-climatic variables may create different perceptions of the projected future hydroclimatic environment and, hence, whether or not the water manager would decide whether adaptive action is necessary to manage future variability. · There is greater uncertainty amongst the GCMs used in this study when estimating design events (rainfall and streamflow) for shorter durations and longer return periods, indicating that GCMs may still be failing to simulate individual extreme events. · The spatial distribution of projected changes in meteorological and hydrological droughts are different, owing to the complexities introduced by the hydrological system · Many areas may be exposed to increases in hydrological hazards (i.e. hydrological drought, floods and/or sediment yields) because, where one extreme is projected to decrease, one of the others is often projected to increase. The thesis is concluded with recommendations for future research in the climate change and hydrological fields, based on the experiences gained in undertaking this study. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

Urban and peri-urban agriculture is a strategy that can be adapted by low income households in Orange Farm to meet their food and nutritional requirements. The practice is a basis upon which poor families can enhance their incomes by producing part of their food needs, hence saving money for use on other livelihood obligations. This dissertation discusses the importance of urban and peri-urban agriculture as a method easily available to low income families residing in informal settlements to access food and incomes. Urban agriculture is examined in the context of poverty alleviation. A descriptive and quantitative assessment of the salient variables of the practice in the area is attempted in order to give an insight of the potential role the sector can play in eliminating poverty, enhancing incomes and creating employment. The study shows that participation in urban farming can impact significantly on poverty conditions and improve livelihoods. / MA (Development Studies)

Studien är en kvalitativ innehållsanalys av den amerikanska tv-serien Orange  is the new black, där vi har undersökt hur etniska stereotyper konstrueras i serien. Orange is the new black har omtalats som en tv-serie som bryter mot många av de klassiska fördomarna kring etniska grupper. Genom att undersöka vilka stereotyper som tidigare har förekommit i media har vi sedan kunnat undersöka hur etniciteter framställs i vårt undersökningsobjekt, hur de framställs i relation till varandra och om serien lyckas utmana gamla stereotyper, och i så fall hur? För att undersöka detta har vi använt semiotik som metod. Problemet som vi ser är att människor påverkas av vad de ser i medierna och att media påverkar hur samhället ser ut. Med hjälp av postkolonial teori och begreppen stereotyp och hegemoni undersöker vi hur en tv-serie kan hjälpa till att styra samhällets strukturer och attityder gentemot andra etniciteter. Den postkoloniala teorin menar att västerländsk kultur ofta är etnocentrisk och bidrar till att skapa klyftor mellan “vi” i väst, och “de” andra.   Vi kom fram till att Orange is the new black bekräftar existerande stereotyper snarare än att bryta mot dem, och att serien i hög grad bidrar till att förstärka skillnaden mellan etniska grupper. Vi har därmed dragit slutsatsen att tv-serien också då påverkar samhällets hegemoni genom att porträttera den vita medelklassen som en grupp som står över afroamerikaner, latinamerikaner, asiater och white trash. Som vidare forskning föreslår vi att fokus förflyttas från innehållet till hur mottagarna uppfattar stereotyper i Orange is the new black.

Heat treated orange juice, both pasteurized and concentrate, are being increasingly consumed in the U.S. Orange juice is primarily heat treated to increase its shelf life, by curbing the growth of microorganisms; and to inactivate pectin methylesterase, which demethylates pectin and leads to cloud loss in the juice. However, because of heat processing, orange juice undergoes undesirable flavor changes that decrease its acceptability to consumers. The objectives of this study were to differentiate between fresh frozen and heat treated orange juice employing descriptive analysis, and to determine by Osme, a gas chromatography-olfactometry (GCO) method, odor active volatiles that were either lacking or created in the heat treated juice. The second objective was to determine how changes in the odor-active volatile profile of heat treated orange juice, relates to changes in the aroma and flavor intensities of the samples as assessed by descriptive analysis. Through descriptive analysis, the panel was successful in significantly (p<0.05) separating the fresh, pasteurized, and concentrate samples. Orange, orange peel, sweet, and grassy descriptors were found to be important for fresh aroma and flavor, while cooked, yam, metallic, tamarind, green bean and artificial orange descriptors were higher in heat treated samples. Using Osme, it was possible to separate fresh frozen from heat treated orange juice, on the basis of their aroma profiles. Fresh frozen samples show a higher concentration of peaks tentatively identified as gamma-butyrolactone, citral, nonanal, carvone, perillaldehyde, carvyl propinate, valencene, and other unidentified peaks possessing descriptors such as floral, lime, citrus, pine, bamboo leaf, metallic, and vinyl. Pasteurized samples show a larger concentration of peaks tentatively identified as hexanol, octanol, nerol / carveol, myrcene, 2-octanone, p-cymene, terpenen-4-ol, betacitronellol, and other unidentified peaks with descriptors such as cilantro, vinyl, melon, mushroom, and metallic. Descriptors such as orange, orange peel, sweet, grapefruit, and grassy are more pronounced in the fresh samples and are similar to the odor descriptors of Osme peaks higher in the fresh samples. Descriptors such as cooked, artificial orange, yam, metallic, tamarind, and green bean are higher in the pasteurized samples, and are similar to the odor descriptors of peaks higher in these samples. / Graduation date: 1999

Food insecurity is on the rise throughout the United States. Today more than 11.6% of American household’s face food insecurity. Many of these food insecure households reside in the suburbs. Despite these rising rates of food insecurity, the issue of suburban food insecurity has largely gone unnoticed. In this paper, I use Orange County as a case study to investigate how the rise of poverty in the suburbs relates to the issue of suburban food insecurity. Some questions this paper addresses are: What are the driving forces of poverty in the suburbs? What barriers to food security do suburban residents face and how are they different from urban areas? And lastly, what are the next steps to solving suburban food insecurity?

This paper examines the evolution of government policy through Congressional debate and citizen involvement on the topic of Agent Orange. Use of primary sources from newspaper and journal articles, Congressional records, scientific studies, and press releases and some secondary literature by scholars from multiple disciplines builds a picture of the ongoing debate of Agent Orange and its two component herbicides from circa 1940 to 1991. Within this paper are four primary focuses, divided into three parts. First, the Congressional discussions prior to 1970 of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, the two herbicides that comprise Agent Orange. Second and third, discussed in the same section, the involvement of the scientific community and the ratification of the Geneva Protocol. Lastly, the movement after the Vietnam War for veteran benefits due to Agent Orange exposure.

Abstract: Background: The global estimated adult and child deaths from HIV/AIDS in 2006 were 2.9 million and those living with HIV stood at 39.5 million. Of the HIV deaths, 72% (2.1 million) occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Two thirds (63%) of all adults and children with HIV globally live in, with its epicenter in Southern Africa. One third (32%) of all people with HIV globally live in Southern Africa and 34% of all deaths due to AIDS in 2006 occurred there. In South Africa, a total of 5.5 million people, including 240,000 children younger than 15 years, were living with HIV in 2005. HIV data gathered in the country’s antenatal clinic surveillance system suggest that HIV prevalence has not yet reached a plateau. There is a continuing trend nationally in HIV infection levels among pregnant women attending public antenatal clinics: from 22.4% in 1999 to 30.2% in 2005 (a 35% increase). Aim: The aim of this study was to assess sexual practices, the prevalence of condom usage and sexually transmitted diseases, and their associations among 930 men and women aged 15-60 years in Orange farm South Africa. Objectives: 1. To determine condom usage among males and females aged 15–60 year old. 2. To determine the number of new partners, short-term partners and unprotected sexual acts in this particular age group of men and women. 3. To assess the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases in this age group. 4. To assess the relationship between sexual practices and sexually transmitted diseases in this community. Methods: The project was a secondary data analysis of a population-based, cross-sectional study was conducted in Orange Farm, South Africa in 2002. The original study involved 930 men and women respondents. A two-stage random sampling technique was used to select households. A self-weighting random sample of twenty households was chosen from clusters of 15 households. All men and women aged 15 to 60 years, who slept in the selected households the night before the study team’s visit, were eligible for inclusion in the study. The main focus of this secondary study was to analyze the baseline data collected for the level and risk factors for sexually transmitted diseases in this age group. All 930 men and women were included in the analysis. Results: The risk factor under consideration viz: condom usage was not optimal, and the prevalence of sexually transmitted disease is high in this population with HIV prevalence at 21.8%. Women in the age-group 15-24 years were disproportionately more affected by HIV in this community as compared to men. Among the HIV positive respondents, 61.8% had at least single or over 2 non-spousal partners in the last year. At the time of the interviews, 34.7% had never used condoms and 84.3% did not use condoms in any of the sexual episodes of the last month. Conclusion: An important goal is to practice partner reduction and to encourage especially those who are single to use condoms consistently. Further qualitative research on sexual behaviours involving focus group discussions, in-depth interviews or participant observation should be conducted in this community to complement the quantitative methods. They produce results that directly represent how people feel and provide information on behaviour through the observation of events and activities.

A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Wfitwatersvand, Johannesburg for the Degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 1977,

No description available.

No description available.