No abstract provided / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Over 18 years after the democratic government took power in South Africa, environmental changes relevant to the land reform policies are taking place because of unintended consequences of land reform policy. This study aimed at investigating the effects of the South African land reform policy on land use and land cover change on a land restitution project in Makotopong, Limpopo province, South Africa. The study used remote sensing techniques through the analysis of Landsat TM images acquired in 1994 and 2007 to produce landscape maps and derive land cover change. Statistics deriving the nature of the decline in the general condition of the land restitution project gave an insight into the kind of landscape transformation that has taken place before and after land restitution program. Quantification of land cover classes have shown a decline in post-transfer activities with a decline in agricultural productivity, as illustrated by the decline in area covered by agricultural crops (showing a decline from 78.03 ha in 1994 to 20.43 ha in 2007). The study recommends that spatial data analysis through remote sensing procedures should form the information base in monitoring and evaluating the land reform projects. Results of this study demonstrated that quantification of the changes in land use and land cover types can be very useful in deriving the nature of the general environmental and social condition of the land reform project. / Thesis (M. Sc (Geography) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2012

Published Article / Sunscreen lotions are the skins protection against sunburn. Even though this sounds like a simple fact, somatologists appear to know remarkably little about the usage, ingredients present and their adverse effects on the skin. In the South African Association of Health and Skincare Professionals (SAAHSP) accredited salons of Bloemfontein, 43 somatologists were tested by means of questionnaires in order to determine their awareness and knowledge regarding sunscreen usage, the ingredients in the lotions and their adverse effects. The results were statistically analysed by means of frequencies and percentages which proved that more than half (58%) of somatologists use sunscreen daily, but do not have the knowledge or awareness of toxic ingredients found in these products. In conclusion, most Somatologists in Bloemfontein are not fully equipped with the knowledge surrounding sunscreens in order for them to provide adequate information to their clients. It is recommended that information regarding sunscreens should be included as a higher priority in the professional product house training including the Somatology curriculum.

Land use change is one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity, and agricultural intensification has severely affected farmland birds in Europe. As a rapidly declining long-distance migrant and obligatory brood parasite, the common cuckoo Cuculus canorus is an interesting species on which to investigate the impacts of land use on birds. My thesis focuses on understanding the causes and mechanisms behind cuckoo declines in Britain by exploring relationships between land use, cuckoos, their hosts and adult cuckoo prey. Cuckoo population trends vary between habitat types, resulting in changes to cuckoo-habitat associations. There was little evidence of preference for semi-natural or agricultural habitats where cuckoos were widespread before their declines began, but they were strongly selective of semi-natural grass, heath and woodland by the 2000s while avoiding farmland. This suggests that female cuckoos specialised in parasitizing dunnocks (Prunella modularis) are now scarce while meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis) cuckoos have been retained in semi-natural habitats. However, as habitat cover had a consistently stronger statistical effect than host abundance on the presence or retention of cuckoos, the availability of other resources may limit current cuckoo distribution. The probability of cuckoo presence increased with the abundance of known cuckoo prey, predominantly large, hairy moth caterpillars. These species have undergone greater declines than other moths and their population trends also vary by habitat: abundance has increased in semi-natural habitats but declined in improved grassland and woodland. Therefore changing prey abundance may be a key driver of cuckoo declines in farmland. Although fundamental questions on the causes of cuckoo declines remain unanswered, maintaining semi-natural habitats as a stronghold for cuckoos in Britain might be an effective conservation strategy in the immediate future. However, measures adopted under agri-environment schemes which increase moth abundance may offer long-term mitigation of cuckoo declines while benefiting other insectivorous species.

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published_or_final_version / Geography / Master / Master of Arts in China Development Studies

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The present work has been concerned with a study of the structure of germanium and silicon dichalcogenide glasses. Initially, the aim of this research was to obtain direct structural evidence of reversible photostructural changes in bulk germanium chalcogenide glasses. However, having confirmed the existence of such changes using EXAFS and neutron scattering techniques, it became obvious that a more comprehensive understanding of the as-quenched, annealed glass structure is required before a valid interpretation of the data can be made; in particular, the extent of medium-range order in these systems is of interest. Although limited to few examples at the moment, the potenital of both structural modelling and NMR studies for solving such problems has been investigated in a variety of inorganic glass systems, and these approaches can now be extended to those glasses exhibiting photostructural changes. Modelling studies of the structure of a-SiSe<SUB>2</SUB> have shown that the total correlation function T(r) is sensitive to different structural features in the generated glass structure. The present studies heavily favour a structure based on chains of edge-sharing (SiSe<SUB>4</SUB>) tetrahedra. A degree of spatial correlation is required between the chains, such as can only be obtained by short lengths of parallel chains 'pinned' by corner-sharing tetrahedra. <SUP>29</SUP>Si NMR studies of vitreous silica have shown that water, incorporated into the SiO<SUB>2</SUB> network as OH, acts as a major source of spin-lattice relaxation in this system. Numerical methods of self-calibration ('phasing') and removal of data truncation and lineshape apodization effects have been investigated, thereby enabling quantitative information concerning the Si-O-Si bond-angle distribution in silica to be obtained. Although these algorithms are presented with reference to NMR spectroscopy, their extension to other branches of spectroscopy is obvious. NMR has also been used to probe defect states in a-Se. <SUP>77</SUP>Se spin-lattice relaxation time data provide evidence of a defect state (perhaps a VAP) in equilibrium with C<SUB>1<SUP>0</SUB></SUP> centres in the glass.