In this investigation the chemistry of three southern African plants used for medicinal purposes was investigated. The plants were Dioscorea dregeana, Avonia rhodesica and Equisetum ramossisimum. Extracts of all three of these plants have been found to be active on the central nervous system. The structures of the compounds isolated were determined by using 1H and 13C n.m.r., i.f., UV-VIS, - mass spectroscopy and chemical methods. D. dregeana yielded two alkaloids and three aromatic compounds. A. rhodesica contained a large amount of wax which was analysed by GC-MS and its distribution and physical nature on the surface of the leaves was determined by SEM (scanning electron microscopy). This plant also contained two sterols. Equisetum ramossisimum extracts contained a carotenoid and several porphyrins, as well as large amounts of silica. A DTSA X-ray microanalysis system (which was a component of the scanning electron microscope) was used to determine the distribution of silica in the stem. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1998.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Technology: Industrial Engineering, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2014. / The SADC region has seen both man-made and natural disasters killing over 90 thousand people and affecting millions in the past 33 years. Most of these deaths were as a result of lack of infrastructure and preparedness. Looking at the challenges for providing relief to victims/evacuees throughout the entire disaster and post-disaster periods in the region, the emphasis of this thesis is on last mile transportation of resources, victims, emergency supplies, aiming to optimize the effectiveness (quick­I response) and efficiency (low-cost) of logistics activities including humanitarian supply chain. A survey was used for data collection. Statistical analysis helped determine the impact of disaster relief chains and lead to the development of a mathematical model that shall equip the region with mechanisms for response and recovery operations. An EXCEL optimization tool was used to find the optimal way of transporting relief in the region in case of a disaster. / PDF Full-text unavailable. Please refer to hard copy for Full-text / M

徐宇航. / "2009年8月". / "2009 nian 8 yue". / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-153). / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Xu Yuhang. / Chapter 第一章 --- 引言 --- p.1 / Chapter 1. --- 潮州方言槪貌 --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- 文獻回顧 --- p.3 / Chapter 3. --- 硏究方法、目的和意義 --- p.11 / Chapter 4. --- 調查方法與規劃 --- p.12 / Chapter 第二章 --- 潮州方言聲韻調系統 --- p.20 / Chapter 1. --- 潮州方言語音系統 --- p.20 / Chapter 2. --- 咸深二攝字音韻文分佈情況及異讀現象 --- p.24 / Chapter 第三章 --- 潮州方言咸深二攝[-m]、[-p]韻尾年齡變化分佈硏究 --- p.30 / Chapter 1. --- 理論基礎 --- p.30 / Chapter 2. --- 調查情況分析 --- p.31 / Chapter 3. --- 調查結果統計 --- p.33 / Chapter 第四章 --- 潮州方言咸深二攝[-m]、[-p]韻尾空間變化分佈硏究 --- p.53 / Chapter 1. --- 理論基礎 --- p.53 / Chapter 2. --- 調查情況分析 --- p.54 / Chapter 3. --- 調查結果統計 --- p.59 / Chapter 4. --- 年齡、區域因素比較分析與推算模型的建立 --- p.69 / Chapter 第五章 --- 潮州方言咸深二攝字音韻尾變化類型與原因分析 --- p.73 / Chapter 1. --- 咸深二攝字音韻尾的存現與變化類型分析 --- p.73 / Chapter 2. --- 咸深二攝字音韻尾變化原因分析 --- p.78 / Chapter 3. --- 咸深二攝字音韻尾的變化規律與趨勢 --- p.91 / Chapter 第六章 --- 結語 --- p.92 / Chapter 1. --- 總結 --- p.92 / Chapter 2. --- 本硏究有待完善之處 --- p.92 / Chapter 3. --- 展望 --- p.93 / 附錄 --- p.94 / 參考文獻 --- p.142

This thesis examines the collective labour and resources utilized by farm women within the context of the farm women’s neighbourhood club in rural communities in twentieth century Southern Alberta. The ethnographic research explores the historic, cultural and political foundations of women’s labour on farms and in formal and informal farm organizations through interviews conducted with former members of two clubs that were actively involved in fundraising and philanthropic projects in their rural communities for more than forty-five years. The critical perspective argues farm women in rural clubs responded to the patriarchal farm discourse that gendered their labour by using their reproductive skills and resources to build and maintain friendships, social networks and mutuality, and do good works that ensured the livelihood of their rural communities. / vi, 141 leaves ; 29 cm.

It has been suggested that fruit features such as nutrient content, size and colour have co-evolved with dispersal agent behaviour, physiology and morphology. Avian nectarivore feeding ecology is relatively well studied; however, less is known about fruit selection in avian frugivores. Previous work highlights the importance of individual factors that contribute towards fruit preferences, but few studies bring these factors together. Consequently the aim of this dissertation was to attempt this in terms of frugivory by investigating behavioural, physiological and morphological aspects of fruit selection in generalist avian dispersers. This was achieved by manipulating the nutritional content, size and colour of fruits (artificial fruits) under controlled conditions. The first part of the dissertation addresses physiological aspects of fruit selection in Red-winged Starling Onychognathus morio, Speckled Mousebird Colius striatus and Dark-Capped Bulbul Pycnonotus tricolor. Assimilation efficiency of birds fed glucose and sucrose diet treatments of varying concentration was observed. All study species showed high apparent assimilation efficiency irrespective of artificial fruit sugar concentration and type (with the exception of Red-winged Starlings on an all sucrose diet). The second part of the dissertation addresses behavioural aspects of fruit selection in the same three species by observing selective preferences between glucose and sucrose fruits of varying concentration and molarity. While Mousebirds displayed no preference for any of the diet treatments, Bulbuls occasionally favoured glucose diets over sucrose diets and Starlings always favoured glucose diets over sucrose diets. Another behavioural aspect of fruit selection was addressed in the third part of the dissertation. Colour preferences of Red-winged Starling and Speckled Mousebird were observed. Although study species did not conform to trends by favouring black and red fruits, they did show avoidance of green fruits and (Starlings) presented evidence of learning. A morphological aspect of fruit selection is presented in the fourth part of the dissertation. Starlings, Bulbuls and Mousebird beak morphology was measured to investigate if this has an effect on fruit size preferences. Starlings with the largest beak dimensions were more selective of fruit size classes than Bulbuls and Mousebirds which displayed the importance of feeding method (thrashing/swallowing/mashing) to compensate for larger fruit sizes. The final section of this dissertation is a synthesis of the observed behavioural, physiological and morphological aspects of fruit selection in Red-winged Starlings, Dark-capped Bulbuls and Speckled-Mousebirds. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

The purpose of this naturalistic inquiry was to understand factors that influence patients’ commitment to colorectal cancer screening, specifically colonoscopy. Fifteen personcentred interviews were conducted: 10 with individuals who had completed screening, and 5 with individuals who declined. Three subthemes (relationship, motivation, and human agency) were associated with the overarching theme of regard or disregard for vulnerability. Participants who perceived a disregard for their vulnerability by their health care provider (HCP) frequently chose to decline screening even though they showed a high level of commitment to health promotion. Participants who perceived a regard for vulnerability by their HCP frequently chose to accept screening. The nursing profession can show a regard for patient vulnerability by enhancing communication techniques and concentrating on being attentive to patient concerns which will build a trusting relationship with patients and enhance screening rates. Persistence in the relationship can change a patient’s decision in time. / 132 leaves : col. ill. ; 29 cm

Climate change predictions suggest that the continent most vulnerable to climate change is Africa. The impacts of potential changes which include increases in air temperatures and rainfall variability are negative with potential species extinctions projected throughout southern Africa. A number of climate models have been applied to examine the consequences of climate change for ranges of South African animal species. One such model frequently predicted range shifts from west to east, which is realistic considering the marked aridity gradient in an east-west direction across the country, but the authors suggested that these shifts may not be as marked if species are able to use physiological and behavioural methods to adapt to an increase in aridity. Information on the degree to which behavioural and physiological flexibility affect species range in southern Africa is scant which is surprising given its importance with regard to climate change. Thallomys nigricauda occurs along an east-west aridity gradient in southern Africa, inhabiting mesic, semi-xeric and xeric regions. One would expect phenotypic flexibility in physiological and behavioural traits in response to the diverse environmental conditions to be related to the success and range of the species. The wide distribution and arboreal habits, suggesting that T. nigricauda is exposed to greater extremes of temperature than fossorial rodents, makes T. nigricauda an ideal species to test this assumption. Hence I expected that T. nigricauda would exhibit variation in physiological and behavioural traits measured along an aridity gradient. This has important implications in predicting the survival of small mammal species in the light of climate change in southern Africa. Thallomys nigricauda were live-trapped in winter 2006 and 2007 and summer 2007 using Elliot traps in three sites: mesic site Weenen Game Reserve (KwaZuluiv Natal Province, South Africa); semi-xeric site Haina Game Farm (Botswana) on the northern boundary of the Central Kalahari Desert and xeric site Molopo Nature Reserve (southern Kalahari savannah, North-West Province, South Africa). I studied the home-range size of T. nigricauda by radiotracking 12 males and 16 females in winter 2006, 2007 and summer 2007. Home ranges were estimated using 100% and 95% minimum convex polygons and 95% and 50% fixed kernels. Home ranges varied widely, from 166 to 80199m2 for males and from 46 to 8810m2 for females. Males had larger home ranges than females, which supports a promiscuous mating system reported for the species. Although range size was reduced in both sexes in winter, this was not significant. I found no significant difference in home range size along the aridity gradient. It is suggested that a combination of precipitation, habitat productivity and breeding system influences the size of home range of the species, and that this species displays phenotypic flexibility in terms of its behavioural responses to these factors. I measured the urine concentrating ability (UCA), as indicated by urine osmolality and relative medullary thickness (RMT), and water turnover rate (WTR) of T. nigricauda. There was no significant difference in RMT between sites or sex and no difference in osmolalities when site, season and sex were taken into account. In addition, specific WTR was not significantly influenced by season. Lack of significant differences could be the result of the high degree of individual variation in the traits measured, an indication of the flexibility in UCA and WTR. However, higher urine osmolality and lower WTR’s were recorded in the dry winter months. I quantified the thermal environment perceived by a small, arboreal, mammalian endotherm using a number of methods at three study sites in winter and summer. Our area of interest was how well these methods accurately portrayed the actual temperatures that small mammals are exposed to. Temperature differences between the methods were largest during the midday, when temperatures were highest. All methods recorded a greater range of temperatures during photophase than during scotophase. Black-bulb and model temperatures produced more accurate, rapid measurements when compared to measurements produced by direct temperature recording devices, particularly during photophase, when solar radiation is the major influence of heating. Other methods lagged behind black-bulb measurements. Although the mean temperatures of some of the methods were significantly different, there was a high degree of correlation between all methods, even after randomization and generation of 25% and 10% subsamples. Computed thermal indices and blackbulb temperatures produced similar thermal profiles. In studies requiring accurate time series measurements, it is suggested that black-bulb or copper models be employed rather than direct temperature recording devices. Simpler measurement devices would suffice for studies requiring an estimate of the temperature variation and trends in the microclimate of small mammalian endotherms, particularly arboreal or cavity dwelling species. In the wild, across an aridity gradient, I measured abdominal body temperarture (Tb) of T. nigricauda using implanted iButtons®. All but three T. nigricauda displayed significant 24 h Tb rhythmicity. The Tb range for free-living T. nigricauda was 32.33-40.63 oC (n = 13) and 32.69-40.15 oC (n = 17) in winter and summer respectively. Although there was variation in Tb profiles, T. nigricauda generally displayed a bimodal distribution of Tb, with high and low Tb values during scotophase and photopase respectively. Body temperature range was significantly greater in winter, when T. nigricauda reduced its minimum Tb. It was shown that the maximum amplitude of circadian rhythms of body temperature was on average 259.6% of expected values. To determine the extent to which the microclimate of T. nigricauda cavities assists in the maintenance of Tb, I measured the temperatures of cavities across the gradient, providing an indication of the degree of buffering provided by refugia. I measured the temperatures of shallow and deep regions of cavities using iButtons® in summer and winter and recorded operative and shade temperatures for comparison. Compared with operative temperature, cavities had stable microclimates, displaying smaller ranges in temperature. Mean minimum and maximum cavity temperatures differed significantly to operative temperature and between seasons, whereas there was no significant difference between shallow and deep measurements in cavities. Differences in the buffering capacities of the cavities between seasons were not significant. To determine whether T. nigricauda alter its length of exposure in response to lower ambient temperatures in winter as a means of maintaining Tb, I measured the activity of T. nigricauda, defined as the proportion of fixes outside the home cavity of the individual. Males spent a greater proportion of the active phase away from their home cavity in summer, and significantly in winter when compared with females, but there were no differences between seasons. It is suggested that T. nigricauda realize energy savings by lowering its Tb during their rest phase during the day, allowing them to maintain nocturnal activity and overall energy balance. Thus, besides the larger male home range, a result of the reproductive pattern, the physiological and behavioural traits of T. nigricauda measured in this study did not differ between aridity sites or seasons. The results of this study, in highlighting the variation in physiological and behavioural responses of subpopulations of T. nigricauda to diverse conditions, suggest that this variation is due to phenotypic flexibility. Understanding the extent and nature of this flexibility is critical to our comprehension of the consequences climate change. By defining the presence and extent of intraspecific variation in physiology and behaviour, this study resolved the necessary first step towards this understanding for the widely distributed T. nigricauda in southern Africa. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

This study was developed around concerns about how indigenous knowledges have been represented and applied in environment and development education. The first phase of the study is a genealogical analysis after Michel Foucault. This probes representations and applications of plant-based indigenous knowledge in selected anthropological, botanical and environmental education texts in southern Africa. The emerging insights were deepened using a Social (Critical) Realism vantage point after Margaret Archer to shed light on agential issues in environmental education and development contexts. Here her morphogenetic/morphostatic analysis of social transformation or reproduction is used to trace changes in indigenous knowledge representations and applications over time (from the pre-colonial into the post-colonial era). The second phase uses the same perspectives and tools to extend the analysis of power/knowledge relationships into the interface of indigenous communities and modern institutions in two case study settings in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. This study reveals colonially-derived hegemonic processes of modern/Western scientific institutional representations/interpretations of the knowledges of indigenous communities. It also tracks a continuing trajectory of their dominating and prescriptive mediating control over local knowledges from the pre-colonial context through into the post-colonial period in southern Africa. The analysis reveals how this hegemony is sustained through the deployment of institutional strategies of representation that transform local knowledges into the disciplinary knowledge discourses of modern scientific institutions. These representational strategies therefore generate/reproduce and validate disciplinary discourses about the other, constructing disciplinary 'regimes of truth'. In this way modern institutions appropriate and displace indigenous/local knowledges, silence the voices of local communities and regulate individual and community agency within a continuing subjugation of indigenous knowledges. This study reveals how working within modern institutions and disciplinary knowledges in participative education and development interactions can serve to implicate indigenous researchers in these institutional hegemonic processes. The study also notes evidence of a continued resistance to hegemonic Western knowledge discourses as indigenous communities have sustained many knowledge practices alongside Western knowledge discourses. There is also evidence of a recent emergence of counter-hegemonic indigenous knowledge discourses in environmental education and development practices in southern Africa. It is noted that these have been contingent upon the changing political terrain in southern Africa as this has opened the way for alternative discourses to the dominant conventional Western knowledges in formal education and development contexts. The counterhegemonic discourses invert power/knowledge relations, decentre hegemonic discourses and reposition indigenous knowledges in formal education and development contexts. This study suggests the need to foreground indigenous knowledges as a process of knowledge decolonisation that gives contextual and epistemic relevance to environmental education and development processes. This calls for a need for new strategies to transform existing institutions by creating enabling spaces for the representational inclusion of indigenous knowledges in formal/conventional knowledge discourses and their application in social contexts. This opens up possibilities for plural knowledge representations and for their integrative and reciprocal co-engagement in situated contexts of environmental education and development in southern Africa.

Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) in southern Africa has gained an important role in alleviating poverty and conserving natural resources. The attention and funding CBNRM is receiving from governments, non-governmental organisations and donors is seen as one way to strengthen civil society‟s involvement in decision-making and participating in activities that contribute to a sustainable livelihood, whilst at the same time learning in their social contexts to adapt and care for the ever changing environment characterised by constraints, challenges, contradictions, new opportunities for learning and change. This study focuses on social learning in commercialisation of natural resource products in two case studies of commercial beekeeping in rural southern African contexts. In this study social learning entails a process of qualitative change taking place in a social context for the purpose of personal and social adaptation. This perspective is useful in this study as learning in the two cases, Hluleka in South Africa and Buhera in Zimbabwe involved the transition beekeeping.from traditional honey harvesting practices and subsistence beekeeping to commercial beekeeping. This study is informed by two related theoretical perspectives namely Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and Social Learning Theory. CHAT was used as conceptual and methodological framework to inform the first phase of data gathering and analysis processes; as well as second phase data gathering. In the first phase, I gathered data through semistructured interviews, document reviews and observations to identify problems, challenges and critical incidents in learning commercial beekeeping, technically known as tensions and contradictions within the CHAT framework. These tensions and contradictions, surfaced through analysis of first phase data were used as "mirror data‟ in Intervention Workshops within CHAT's process of Developmental Work Research, which supports social learning in response to tensions and contradictions in workplace activity. Use of mirror data provided a basis for dialogue and the modelling of new solutions to identified contradictions. To interpret the social learning processes resulting from these interactions, I drew on Wals' (2007) analytical lenses, through which I was able to monitor social learning processes that emerged from the Intervention Workshop dialogues while beekeepers modelled new solutions to contradictions in learning commercial beekeeping. The findings of the study revealed that social learning in commercial beekeeping is internally and externally influenced by socio-cultural, political and economic complexities. Social learning in Intervention Workshops was supported by different knowledge bases of participants, in this study these are beekeepers, extension officers, trainers and development facilitators. Such knowledge bases were the source of information for learning and constructing model solutions. The study also revealed that learning in CBNRM workplaces can be observed across the development processes, and CHAT as a methodological tool and Wals‟ (2007) analytical tool are complementary and can be used in researching social learning in other CBNRM workplaces. The study contributes in-depth insight into participatory research and learning processes, especially within the context of CBRM in southern Africa. It gives some empirical and explanatory insight into how change-oriented social learning can emerge and be expanded in Education for Sustainable Development. It also provides learning and extension tools to work with contradictions that arise from socio-cultural and historical dimensions of learning commercialisation of natural resources in southern African context. Its other key contribution is that it provides further insight into the mobilisation of human agency and reflexivity in change oriented social learning processes of commercialisation of sustainable natural resources products and poverty alleviation processes that are critical for responding to socioecological issues and risks and development challenges in southern Africa.

M.Phil. (Energy Studies) / Southern Africa is a major source of regional aerosols and trace gases from biomass burning, and this creates a need for experimental validation and systematics of the magnitude and frequency of aerosol transport episodes affecting the atmosphere of the region. This study links surface measurements of biomass burning atmospheric aerosols and trace gases with air mass trajectory analysis to determine transport pathways for periods of high and low concentrations. The hypothesis of this study is that from chemical signatures of trace gases and aerosols, as well as trajectory analyses, it is possible to identify sources of these emissions from industrial, traffic, marine and biomass burning activities. Consequently, frequencies, durations, intensities and seasonal variations of trace gases can be established. The study aims to interpret the long-term atmospheric monitoring record from a remote monitoring station at Botsalano (North West Province, South Africa) to determine the origin, frequencies, durations, intensities and seasonal occurrences of aerosol/haze episodes influencing the atmosphere of southern Africa. A suite of trace gas analysers and a Differential Mobility Particle Sizer (DMPS®) were used to measure ground level trace gas and aerosol quantities. MATLAB® scripts were used in performing quality assurance and processing to provide a working set of data from which different fire periods could be selected. Fire signatures, based on excess CO above average tropospheric levels and episodes of enhanced particulate matter concentrations in the 10 to 200 nm range, were identified using MATLAB® scripts and Excel®. Altogether 36 plumes were accepted as biomass burning plumes. Twenty-nine fire plumes had weak signals with excess CO ratios ranging between 0.07 and 0.32; seven plumes had strong signals ranging between 0.41 and 0.64. The occurrence of identified biomass burning plumes was high in the dry season from May to October (83%) and low (17%) during the wet season from November to April. Four pathways were identified for the long-range transportation of biomass burning aerosols to the site: easterly, south-westerly, re-circulation and northerly modes, with occurrence frequencies of 39%, 31%, 22% and 8%, respectively. Anti-cyclonic circulation was observed over southern Africa and was evident in the re-circulation and Indian Ocean slow modes. CO and Aitken-mode aerosol number intensities were generally larger for fire emissions arriving in the easterly and south-westerly air masses when compared with those arriving in re-circulation and northerly air masses. Easterly and south-westerly flows were dominated by Aitken-mode aerosol, whereas accumulation mode particles dominated in the re-circulation and northerly modes. Consequently, easterly and south-westerly flows transported emissions from young/fresh fire plumes, with source regions probably close to Botsalano. Re-circulation and northerly flows were responsible for transport of rather aged plumes from more distant regional fires. Based on forward trajectories, this study revealed that the 2006/2007 measurement period exhibited transport features of a La Niña ENSO during which transport of biomass v burning aerosols towards the south in the Indian Ocean slow and Indian Ocean fast modes was most frequent. This study is significant in that it complements earlier studies of regional aerosol transport over the sub-continent and adds to the understanding of the regional scale generation and transport of trace substances through the atmosphere. Furthermore, the study combines a technique for identifying enhanced CO concentrations as a unique identifier of large scale biomass combustion events with the use of the Aitken-mode particle number densities and size distributions. This technique reveals aspects of aerosol growth dynamics through the changing size distributions, thereby adding fresh insights normally not available through conventional particle volume/mass concentrations measurements.