Proefschrift--Letteren--Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 1998. / Bibliogr. p. 375-437.

Interstellar molecular clouds play an essential role in the Universe. Such clouds are invoked for the production and destruction of stars, galaxies and gas and also for energy transport in galaxies. The Galaxy, or the Milky Way, is a large spiral galaxy, with a central bar structure, that harbours a few hundred billion stars and large amounts of gas and dust. At the centre of the Galaxy, a 4 million solar mass supermassive black hole resides, surrounded by a dense core of millions of stars, as well as molecular and dust clouds. The Galactic centre (GC) is hidden by gas and dust, such that only astronomical observations of radio-, infrared-, X-rays and gamma-rays are available for a gathering of information at the centre. In this work, I have studied neutral molecular clouds in absorption at the innermost 50 light years from the centre with the Karl Jansky Very Large Array Observatory in New Mexico in the USA, and with data from observations with the Swedish-ESO Submillimetre Telescope in Chile, and also from the orbital observatory Odin. I have detected a new stream-like feature of gas that seems to link a previously known ring of gas clouds (the CND) and the GC. Moreover, the hypothesis of feeding the CND from an outside cloud is supported by this work. Contemporary discussions in the literature that the central bar structure would act as a pump of material inwards from the spiral arms towards the GC via molecular clouds are also suggested by the data. A number of maser sources have been observed and some of those are shown to reside at shock fronts or anticipated regions of collisions between molecular clouds or at star forming regions. Unusually high water abundance was detected at the south-west part of the CND, indicative of shocks and strong turbulence. Moreover, I have produced high-resolution spectral line maps of hydroxyl (OH) absorption intensity in the four main transition lines of OH at 1612, 1720, 1665 and 1667 MHz, as well as apparent opacity and position-velocity maps of the GC region.

Th.--Géogr.--Rouen, 1986.

Thèse de doctorat : Géographie : Metz : 1997. / 1997METZ004L. 133 ref.

Thèse--Lettres--Paris IV, 1980. / Bibliogr. p. XXVII-XXXVII. Index.

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The argument in this dissertation is that housing studies focus mainly on the politicaleconomy paradigms and ignore the role played by other social theories. On the one hand, conventional economic theory, mainly built on new-Liberal principles, suggests that privatisation is required to ensure that markets work better. In the housing field, privatisation is mainly seen as a way to ensure the initiation of a secondary housing market. On the other hand, Neo-Marxist views argue that privatisation leads to a range of negative impacts, such as eventual homelessness and the unaffordable nature of housing bonds. The main problem with these two political and economic viewpoints is that they are blind to other social theories and ignore, to a large degree, the historical context of housing, especially in South Africa. The debates in this study point out that the pathdependency theory (with historical methodology as a sub-approach) in housing policy discourses provides additional understanding of privatisation, especially in the South African context. In contradiction to general observation, housing processes in South Africa may be locked in their own trajectory, and they may not be similar to those in the parent colonial power such as Britain. This study identifies a policy and research gap in privatisation. It is the first attempt to assess the privatisation of housing in South Africa through empirical evidence since the introduction of the Discount Benefit Scheme two decades ago. The international literature shows that there has been an effort in both developed and developing countries to privatise rental housing stock. This move is related to the overwhelming pro-market policy developments after the Second World War. Neo-Liberal and Neo-Marxist thinkers put forward various opinions for and against the process. With South Africa having had strong economic and political ties with Britain during apartheid, the South African government also privatised the nearly 500 000 state-owned housing units. Researchers in South Africa also made postulations that were either Neo-Liberal or Neo-Marxist in assessing the future possible impact of housing privatisation, this despite the work of Turner and Tipple on the social context of housing. The dissertation tests the original argument of the political-economy continuum by interrogating the empirical evidence obtained from the suburb of Rocklands, Bloemfontein. In this environment, tenants improve the state-subsidised core houses through what Tipple terms âtransformationsâ, which are more a response to social needs than to economic imperatives. The empirical analysis looks at the outcomes of housing privatisation relating to the physical effects on housing after transformations, the processes involved in transformations that accentuate self-dependence and resourcefulness and the capacity of tenants to borrow from the market and trade their improved assets in the market. The main findings from the empirical evidence support a key theoretical assumption that housing debates should look beyond the binary political-economic debate. The findings in the study refute the political-economic assumptions forwarded in the Neo-Liberal and Neo-Marxist theories. However, the findings in the study support Tippleâs contentions on the critical role of the social and historical context of housing. To this effect, the main findings in the study are similar to Tippleâs contentions, namely that privatisation leads to transformations that combat housing stress, that transformations produce economic multipliers in the locality, that transformations occur outside the basis of secure tenure and that income is not the most important variable in housing extensions. The study goes further and suggests the historical context of housing, whereby privatisation is a way of ensuring a foothold in urban South Africa. Such a foothold in urban South Africa is important considering the historical exclusion of black people from urban South Africa. The social context of black housing in South Africa is characterised by a long quest for urban citizenship and housing rights. These characteristics give rise to a distinct housing environment not observable in the developed countries.

This thesis is the first study in South Africa to explore the concept of logistics cities in peripheral areas with in the context of local economic development. Although the term logistics city is used freely to denote cities in which logistics forms an important part of their economic base â as is the case in Dubai, Shangai and Zaragoza â the body of academic literature on the topic is extremely limited. The logistics city concept was formulated in Australia as an academic concept from approximately 2006 onwards. In South Africa, there is seemingly a tendency among decision makers to regard the mere existence of an airport, especially its potential transformation into an air-freight hub, as a possible local economic development initiative. The aim of this study was to evaluate Upington (as a peripheral area within the South African economy) and its ability to utilise the Upington International Airport as a local economic development initiative, specifically from the perspective of a logistics city. The study analysed the latest theoretical developments in location theory, specifically the new economic geography (NEG) and cluster theory as a basis of the logistics city. The NEG, which was developed in the 1990s in response to the changes brought about by globalisation and the strides made in technology, argues that â theoretically at least â peripheral regions could grow through the development of logistic clusters at the location of an airport. In addition, given the current capacity problems at OR Tambo International Airport, the NEG should pave the way for the development of a logistics facility at the UIA, the more so from the perspective of the logistics city concept. The study confirmed that, in spite of the theoretical opportunities presented by the NEG, the logistics city concept and the incorporation of an air-freight hub in provincial policy and strategy documents, air-freight hub development is still fundamentally dependent on market conditions and that the existence of well-developed airport infrastructure alone is not sufficient reason for transforming a regional airport in a peripheral area into a logistics facility. The study further showed that despite the increasing range of local economic development (LED) research in South Africa, academic literature focusing on the relationship between air-freight transport, logistics and LED is virtually non-existent. Moreover, the study showed that LED efforts are seriously hampered by a number of issues, such as the lack of assimilation of the logistics and air-freight industries into local economic development policy and plans, a lack of capacity at the institutional level, the lack of integrated planning between the spheres of government, the LED stakeholders, parastatals, agencies and the private sector and also the lack of clear policies on the developmental role of regional airports in South Africa. The dominance of ACSA, and the companyâs own lack of a strategic focus on regional airports, has also been shown to be problematic. The study further demonstrated efficient logistics to be an important determinant of a countryâs competitiveness and that South Africa may lose competiveness because both of high logistics costs and low logistics performance levels. The study also showed that there is generally a lack of accurate information and data on logistics and air freight in South Africa, particularly at the regional and the local level, which makes effective and integrated planning even more difficult.

Although several cases of successful Local Economic Development (LED) programmes and initiatives addressing poverty and inequity are present in South Africa, there are still a number of challenges to overcome. Firstly, the definition of LED varies, however the essence of LED is local partnerships for locality planning â based on economic growth. Consequently, the analysis in this thesis uses the âL-E-Pâ model, combining elements of âLocalityâ, âEconomicâ and âPartnershipsâ. This model could be an answer for LED policy and practice to make use of all these elements. Secondly, LED strategies need to go beyond merely compiling LED documents. Municipalities need to engage with communities and the private sector in prioritising and designing appropriate strategies that unlock local potential. However, in South Africa partnerships have not always been central to LED planning. Furthermore, the soft factors of co-operation â trust and social capital -, which are considered essential for effective collaboration between state and non-state actors, should be constructed. Consequently, LED practitioners need to pay greater attention to social relationships and networks, which fundamentally mould local economies. Thirdly, academic research is only starting to incorporate social resources into economic development practice. Furthermore, only a few authors have taken the concept of civic culture into consideration when analysing LED. Local civic culture relates to how local problems are defined, how solutions are found, how the local economic problems can be solved, who is involved and how the decisions are made. International civic culture literature has been contextualised to classify civic culture in South African terms. If an understanding of the civic culture of an area is acknowledged, planning and development of this area can be simplified. Beaufort West is used as an example of a typical Karoo town to illustrate how the type of civic culture a community has, can influence local economic growth. Fourthly, there is a lack of research related to the establishment, growth and development of mining towns. Although numerous international mining companies have identified the Karoo surrounding Beaufort West for uranium extraction, planning documents of the Western Cape Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS) and also in the Integrated Development plans (IDPs) of the Central Karoo District Municipality and the Beaufort West Local Municipality do not make any suggestions for the economic âroller-coasterâ ride ahead. The sustainability of mining (non-renewable resource) towns is not as important as are the economic developments of and the proactive planning (in partnerships) in these towns. Fifthly, business confidence helps explain the sentiments that business owners or managers have towards current and future business conditions. Several ways of measuring business confidence are compared. Business confidence is mostly surveyed at national level. A methodology for business confidence surveys at the local level is provided. This approach has been piloted in the town of Beaufort West in the Karoo area of South Africa. There are plans for a new uranium mine near Beaufort West, and the researcher speculates on its impact on the broader local business confidence. The results of the 2007 and 2009 study in terms of the opinions of business confidence in Beaufort West are compared. There are very few comparative studies in terms of all the above-mentioned factors. Therefore, the researcher proposes that these methodologies and models should be tested in other towns. This will then determine whether the results differ in other Karoo towns and from the rest of South Africa.

From a research and literature survey, the incidence of alcohol related problems is discussed and past and current approaches to intervention and treatment outlined. An ideal model for intervention and treatment based on inter professional work in Primary Health Care Teams is proposed. One Health Centre is the basis of study of responses by the professionals working on a primary health care team approach to the alcohol and alcohol related problems in the area. The knowledge and attitudinal basis of the professionals are measured by questionnaire and interview. Incidence of alcohol and alcohol related problems in one of the two practices in the Health Centre is measured and compared with national guideline figures. Professional responses by professionals to drinkers and to affected persons are analysed by questionnaire and particular attention is given to responses to people living in nuclear families. Two case studies are included for illustrative purposes. The discrepancy between the ideal model and actual practice is established in relation to numbers treated, division of labour and lack of ongoing support to the patient. The model is accepted as the desirable method of intervention. The study ends with sets of recommendations relating to community based prevention strategies, early detection and intervention, ongoing support, monitoring and interdisciplinary collaboration, methodological weaknesses are acknowledged and areas for further future research identified.