Search results for: African scholars

Authors: Paul Kipchumba

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Kenya is an East African Country lying at the Equator. It had a population of 46 million in 2015 with an annual growth rate of 2.7%, making a population of at least 65 million in 2030. Kenya’s GDP in 2015 was about 63 billion USD with per capita GDP of about 1400 USD. The rural population is 74%, whereas urban population is 26%. Kenya grapples with not only access to energy but also with energy security. There is direct correlation between economic growth, population growth, and energy consumption. Kenya’s energy composition is at least 74.5% from renewable energy with hydro power and geothermal forming the bulk of it; 68% from wood fuel; 22% from petroleum; 9% from electricity; and 1% from coal and other sources. Wood fuel is used by majority of rural and poor urban population. Electricity is mostly used for lighting. As of March 2015 Kenya had installed electricity capacity of 2295 MW, making a per capital electricity consumption of 0.0499 KW. The overall retail cost of electricity in 2015 was 0.009915 USD/ KWh (KES 19.85/ KWh), for installed capacity over 10MW. The actual demand for electricity in 2015 was 3400 MW and the projected demand in 2030 is 18000 MW. Kenya is working on vision 2030 that aims at making it a prosperous middle income economy and targets 23 GW of generated electricity. However, cost and non-cost factors affect generation and consumption of electricity in Kenya. Kenya does not care more about CO2 emissions than on economic growth. Carbon emissions are most likely to be paid by future costs of carbon emissions and penalties imposed on local generating companies by sheer disregard of international law on C02 emissions and climate change. The study methodology was a simulated application of carbon tax on all carbon emitting sources of electricity generation. It should cost only USD 30/tCO2 tax on all emitting sources of electricity generation to have solar as the only source of electricity generation in Kenya. The country has the best evenly distributed global horizontal irradiation. Solar potential after accounting for technology efficiencies such as 14-16% for solar PV and 15-22% for solar thermal is 143.94 GW. Therefore, the paper recommends adoption of solar power for generating all electricity in Kenya in order to attain zero carbon electricity generation in the country.

Keywords: co2 emissions, cost factors, electricity generation, non-cost factors

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Authors: Monique Du Plessis, Anina Coetzee, Colleen L. Seymour, Claire N. Spottiswoode

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Artificial nectar feeders are used to attract nectarivorous birds to gardens and are increasing in popularity. The costs and benefits of these feeders remain controversial, however. Nectar feeders may have positive effects by attracting nectarivorous birds towards suburbia, facilitating their urban adaptation, and supplementing bird diets when floral resources are scarce. However, this may come at the cost of luring them away from the plants they pollinate in neighboring indigenous vegetation. This study investigated the effect of nectar feeders on an African pollinator-plant mutualism. Given that birds are important pollinators to many fynbos plant species, this study was conducted in gardens and natural vegetation along the urban edge of the Cape Peninsula. Feeding experiments were carried out to compare relative bird abundance and local distribution patterns for nectarivorous birds (i.e., sunbirds and sugarbirds) between feeder and control treatments. Resultant changes in their visitation rates to Erica flowers in the natural vegetation were tested by inspection of their anther ring status. Nectar feeders attracted higher densities of nectarivores to gardens relative to natural vegetation and decreased their densities in the neighboring fynbos, even when floral abundance in the neighboring vegetation was high. The consequent changes to their distribution patterns and foraging behavior decreased their visitation to at least Erica plukenetii flowers (but not to Erica abietina). This study provides evidence that nectar feeders may have positive effects for birds themselves by reducing their urban sensitivity but also highlights the unintended negative effects feeders may have on the surrounding fynbos ecosystem. Given that nectar feeders appear to compete with the flowers of Erica plukenetii, and perhaps those of other Erica species, artificial feeding may inadvertently threaten bird-plant pollination networks.

Keywords: avian nectarivores, bird feeders, bird pollination, indirect effects in human-wildlife interactions, sugar water feeders, supplementary feeding

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Authors: Fortune Mangara

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The world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in history due to rapid urbanization. Africa’s fast rate of urbanization is being driven by several factors such as population growth and migration. Urbanization results in development pressure on existing infrastructure, and numerous existing buildings are being destroyed in the process. Many of these buildings are built by environmental heritage resources which are part of the city's heritage and are therefore valuable. Many built environment heritage resources are currently being destroyed due to development pressure, while others are facing the risk of destruction or abandonment. There are different approaches that inform urban development and urban conservation. The modernist and post-modernist dichotomy has played an influencing role on how development or conservation of built environment heritage resources are approached. The fragmented nature of historical urban conservation paradigms and theories are also reflected in the evolution of policy and legislation that guide urban development and conservation of built heritage resources. Urban development and conservation have a long history of being guided by separated policies and legislation. However, recent international and South African policy and legislation had started to acknowledge the importance of integrating urban development and urban conservation. Spatial planning guides urban development and can be used as an integrative tool. With the aforementioned in mind, the main research question that guides this study is: What role does spatial planning play in the coexistence of urban development and urban conservation in a city in transition? The main purpose of this research is to use spatial planning as a tool for integrating urban conservation and urban development with reference to built environmental heritage resources. A qualitative research methodology is going to be employed in which a singular case study will be used as the research design. A qualitative document analysis will be used to collect data. Potchefstroom is going to be used as a case study as it is the oldest town in the North West province therefore is rich in built environmental heritage resources.

Keywords: built environmental heritage resources, document analysis, spatial planning, urban conservation, urban development

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Authors: M. S. Riyazulla

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Since the dawn of the 21st century, there has been a perceptible decline in Islamic supremacy in world affairs, apart from the gradual waning of the amiable relations and relevance of Islamic countries in the International political arena. For a long, Islamic countries have been marginalised by the superpowers in the global conflicting issues. This was evident in the context of their recent invasions and interference in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and Libya. The leading International Islamic organizations like the Arab League, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Gulf Cooperation Council, and Muslim World League did not play any prominent role there in resolving the crisis that ensued due to the exogenous and endogenous causes. Hence, there is a need for Islamic countries to create a credible International Islamic organization that could dictate its terms and shape a new Islamic world order. The prominent Islamic countries are divided on ideological and religious fault lines. Their concord is indispensable to enhance their image and placate the relations with other countries and communities. The massive boon of oil and gas could be synergistically utilised to exhibit their omnipotence and eminence through constructive ways. The prevailing menace of Islamophobia could be abated through syncretic messages, discussions, and deliberations by the sagacious Islamic scholars with the other community leaders. Presently, as Muslims are at a crossroads, a dynamic leadership could navigate the agitated Muslim community on the constructive path and herald political stability around the world. The present political disorder, chaos, and economic challenges necessities a paradigm shift in approach to worldly affairs. This could also be accomplished through the advancement in science and technology, particularly space exploration, for peaceful purposes. The Islamic world, in order to regain its lost preeminence, should rise to the occasion in promoting peace and tranquility in the world and should evolve a rational and human-centric solution to global disputes and concerns. As a splendid contribution to humanity and for amicable international relations, they should devote all their resources and scientific intellect towards space exploration and should safely transport man from the Earth to the nearest and most accessible cosmic body, the Moon, within one hundred years as the mankind is facing the existential threat on the planet.

Keywords: carboniferous period, Earth, extinction, fossil fuels, global leaders, Islamic glory, international order, life, marginalization, Moon, natural catastrophes

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Authors: Barbara Pemberton

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Now that people of all faiths are experiencing suffering due to many global issues, shared narratives may provide common ground in which true understanding of each other may take root. This paper will consider the all too common problem of suffering and address how adherents of the three great monotheistic religions seek understanding and the appropriate believer’s response from the same story found within their respective sacred texts. Most scholars from each of these three traditions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam— consider the writings of the Tanakh/Old Testament to at least contain divine revelation. While they may not agree on the extent of the revelation or the method of its delivery, they do share stories as well as a common desire to glean God’s message for God’s people from the pages of the text. One such shared story is that of Job, the servant of Yahweh--called Ayyub, the prophet of Allah, in the Qur’an. Job is described as a pious, righteous man who loses everything—family, possessions, and health—when his faith is tested. Three friends come to console him. Through it, all Job remains faithful to his God who rewards him by restoring all that was lost. All three hermeneutic communities consider Job to be an archetype of human response to suffering, regarding Job’s response to his situation as exemplary. The story of Job addresses more than the distribution of the evil problem. At stake in the story is Job’s very relationship to his God. Some exegetes believe that Job was adapted into the Jewish milieu by a gifted redactor who used the original ancient tale as the “frame” for the biblical account (chapters 1, 2, and 4:7-17) and then enlarged the story with the complex center section of poetic dialogues creating a complex work with numerous possible interpretations. Within the poetic center, Job goes so far as to question God, a response to which Jews relate, finding strength in dialogue—even in wrestling with God. Muslims only embrace the Job of the biblical narrative frame, as further identified through the Qur’an and the prophetic traditions, considering the center section an errant human addition not representative of a true prophet of Islam. The Qur’anic injunction against questioning God also renders the center theologically suspect. Christians also draw various responses from the story of Job. While many believers may agree with the Islamic perspective of God’s ultimate sovereignty, others would join their Jewish neighbors in questioning God, not anticipating answers but rather an awareness of his presence—peace and hope becoming a reality experienced through the indwelling presence of God’s Holy Spirit. Related questions are as endless as the possible responses. This paper will consider a few of the many Jewish, Christian, and Islamic insights from the ancient story, in hopes adherents within each tradition will use it to better understand the other faiths’ approach to suffering.

Keywords: suffering, Job, Qur'an, tanakh

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Authors: Lintle Mohase, Ninikoe Lebusa, Mpho Stephen Mafa

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Wheat is an economically important cereal crop. However, the changing climatic conditions that intensify drought in production areas, and additional pest infestation, such as the Russian wheat aphid (RWA, Diuraphis noxia), severely hamper its production. Drought and pest management require an additional water supply through irrigation and applying inorganic nutrients (including silicon) as alternative strategies to mitigate the stress effects. Therefore, other approaches are needed to enhance wheat productivity during drought stress and aphid abundance. Two wheat cultivars were raised under greenhouse conditions, exposed to drought stress, and treated with silicon before infestation with the South African RWA biotype 2 (RWASA2). The morphological evaluations showed that severe drought or a combination of drought and infestation significantly reduced the plant height of wheat cultivars. Silicon treatment did not alleviate the growth reduction. The biochemical responses were measured using spectrophotometric assays with specific substrates. An evaluation of the enzyme activities associated with oxidative stress and defence responses indicated that drought stress increased NADPH oxidase activity, while silicon treatment significantly reduced it in drought-stressed and infested plants. At 48 and 72 hours sampling periods, a combination of silicon, drought and infestation treatment significantly increased peroxidase activity compared to drought and infestation treatment. The treatment also increased β-1,3-glucanase activity 72 hours after infestation. In addition, silicon and drought treatment increased glucose but reduced sucrose accumulation. Furthermore, silicon, drought, and infestation treatment combinations reduced the sucrose content. Finally, silicon significantly increased the trehalose content under severe drought and infestation, evident at 48 and 72-hour sampling periods. Our findings shed light on silicon’s ability to induce protective biochemical responses during drought and aphid infestation.

Keywords: drought, enzyme activity, silicon, soluble sugars, Russian wheat aphid, wheat

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Authors: Thifhuriwi Emmanuel Madzunye, Patricia Harpur, Ephias Ruhode

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A review of the pertinent literature identified a gap concerning the hindrances and opportunities accompanying the implementation of real-time online learning systems (RTOLs) in rural areas. Whilst RTOLs present a possible solution to teaching and learning issues in rural areas, little is known about the implementation of digital strategies among schools in isolated communities. This study explores associated guidelines that have the potential to inform decision-making where Internet-based education could improve educational opportunities. A systematic literature review has the potential to consolidate and focus on disparate literature served to collect interlinked data from specific sources in a structured manner. During qualitative data analysis (QDA) of selected publications via the application of a QDA tool - ATLAS.ti, the following overarching themes emerged: digital divide, educational strategy, human factors, and support. Furthermore, findings from data collection and literature review suggest that signiant factors include a lack of digital knowledge, infrastructure shortcomings such as a lack of computers, poor internet connectivity, and handicapped real-time online may limit students’ progress. The study recommends that timeous consideration should be given to the influence of the digital divide. Additionally, the evolution of educational strategy that adopts digital approaches, a focus on training of role-players and stakeholders concerning human factors, and the seeking of governmental funding and support are essential to the implementation and success of RTOLs.

Keywords: communication, digital divide, digital skills, distance, educational strategy, government, ICT, infrastructures, learners, limpopo, lukalo, network, online learning systems, political-unrest, real-time, real-time online learning, real-time online learning system, pass-rate, resources, rural area, school, support, teachers, teaching and learning and training

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Authors: Malik Imtiaz Ahmad

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Human beings are the super organism granted the gift of consciousness of life by the Almighty God and endowed with an intrinsic legal value to their humanity that shall be guarded and protected respecting dignity regardless of your cultural, religious, race, or physical background; you want to be treated equally for a reason for being human. Islam graces the essential integrity of humanity and confirms the freedom and accountability impact on individuality and the open societal sphere, including the moral, economic, and political aspects. Human Rights allow people to live with dignity, equality, justice, freedom, and peace. The Kantian approach to morality expresses that ethical actions follow universal moral laws. Hence, human rights are based upon the normative approaches setting the international standards to promote, guard, and protect the fundamental rights of the people. Islam is a divine religion commanding human rights based upon the principles of social justice and regulates all facets of the moral and spiritual ethics of Muslims besides bringing balance abreast in the non-Muslims to respect their lives with safety and security and property. The Canon law manifests the faith and equality amongst Christianity, regulating the communal dignity to build and promote the sanctity of Holy life (can. 208 to 223). This concept of the community is developed after the insight of the Islamic 'canon law', which is the code of revelation itself and inseparable from the natural part of the salvation of mankind. The etymology and history of human rights is a polemical debate in a preview of Islamic and Western culture. On the other hand, international law is meticulous about the fundamental part of Conon law that focuses on the communal political, social and economic relationship. The evolving process of human rights is considered to be an exclusive universal thought regarding an open society that forms a legal base for the constituent of international instruments of the protection of Human Rights, viz. UDHR. On the other side, Muslim scholars emphasize that human rights are devolving around Islamic law. Both traditions need a dire explanation of contemporary openness for bringing the harmonious universal law acceptable and applicable to the international communities concerning the anthropology of political, economic, and social aspects of a human being.

Keywords: human rights-based approach (HRBA), human rights in Islam, evolution of universal human rights, conflict in western, Islamic human rights

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Authors: Zintle Sikhunyana

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Management of public finance in many countries such as South Africa is affected by political decisions and by policies around fiscal decentralization amongst the government spheres. Economic success is said to be determined by efficient management of public finance and by the policies or strategies that are implemented to support efficient public finance management. Policymakers focus on pay attention to how economic policies have been implemented and how they are directed into ensuring stable development. This will allow policymakers to address economic challenges through the usage of fiscal policy parameters that are linked to the achieved rate of economic growth and development. Efficient public finance management reduces the likelihood of corruption and corruption is said to have negative effects on economic growth and development. Corruption in public finance refers to an act of using funds for personal benefits. To achieve macroeconomic objectives, governments make use of government expenditure and government expenditure is financed through tax revenue. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the potential impact of public finance management on economic growth and development in South Africa. The secondary data obtained from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and World Bank for 1980- 2020 has been utilized to achieve the research objectives. To test the impact of public finance management on economic growth and development, the study will use Seeming Unrelated Regression Equation (SURE) Modelling that allows researchers to model multiple equations with interdependent variables. The advantages of using SUR are that it efficiently allows estimation of relationships between variables by combining information on different equations and SUR test restrictions that involve parameters in different equations. The findings have shown that there is a positive relationship between efficient public finance management and economic growth/development. The findings also show that efficient public finance management has an indirect positive impact on economic growth and development. Corruption has a negative impact on economic growth and development. It results in an efficient allocation of government resources and thereby improves economic growth and development. The study recommends that governments who aim to stimulate economic growth and development should target and strengthen public finance management policies or strategies.

Keywords: corruption, economic growth, economic development, public finance management, fiscal decentralization

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Authors: Eyasu Markos Woldesemayat, Paolo Vincenzo Genovese

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In recent years with an increase in the concentration of Green House Gases (GHG), Climate Change (CC) externalities are mounting, regardless of governments, are scrambling to implement mitigation and adaptation measures. With multiple social, economic and environmental benefits, Green Infrastructure (GI) has evolved as a highly valuable policy tool to promote sustainable development and smart growth by meeting multiple objectives towards quality of life. However, despite the wide range of benefits, it's uptake in African cities such as Addis Ababa is very low due to several constraining factors. This study, through content analysis and key informant interviews, examined barriers for the uptake of GI among spatial planners in Addis Ababa. Added to this, the study has revealed that the spatial planners had insufficient knowledge about GI planning principles such as multi-functionality, integration, and connectivity, and multiscale. The practice of implementing these holistic principles in urban spatial planning is phenomenally nonexistent. The findings also revealed 20 barriers categorized under four themes, i.e., institutional, socio-cultural, resource, and cognitive barriers. Similarly, it was identified that institutional barriers (0.756), socio-cultural barriers (0.730), cognitive barriers (0.700) and resource barriers (0.642), respectively, are the foremost impending factors for the promotion of GI in Addis Ababa. It was realized that resource barriers were the least constraining factor for enshrining the GI uptake in the city. Strategies to hasten the adoption of GI in the city mainly focus on improving political will, harmonization sectorial plans, improve spatial planning and implementation practice, prioritization of GI in all planning activities, enforcement of environmental laws, introducing collaborative GI governance, creating strong and stable institutions and raising awareness on the need to conserve environment and CC externalities through education and outreach mechanisms.

Keywords: Addis Ababa, climate change, green infrastructure, spatial planning, spatial planners

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Authors: Saveria Capecchi

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In this paper, the results of qualitative content research on postfeminist female representation in contemporary Western media (advertising, television series, films, social media) are presented. Female role models spectacularized in media culture are an important part of the development of social identities and could inspire new generations. Postfeminist cultural texts have given rise to heated debate between gender and media studies scholars. There are those who claim they are commercial products seeking to sell feminism to women, a feminism whose political and subversive role is completely distorted and linked to the commercial interests of the cosmetics, fashion, fitness and cosmetic surgery industries, in which women’s ‘power’ lies mainly in their power to seduce. There are those who consider them feminist manifestos because they represent independent ‘modern women’ free from male control who aspire to achieve professionally and overcome gender stereotypes like that of the ‘housewife-mother’. Major findings of the research show that feminist principles have been gradually absorbed by the cultural industry and adapted to its commercial needs, resulting in the dissemination of contradictory values. On the one hand, in line with feminist arguments, patriarchal ideology is condemned and the concepts of equality and equal opportunity between men and women are promoted. On the other hand, feminist principles and demands are ascribed to individualism, which translates into the slogan: women are free to decide for themselves, even to objectify their own bodies. In particular, it is observed that femvertising trend in media industry is changing female representation moving away from classic stereotypes: the feminine beauty ideal of slenderness, emphasized in the media since the seventies, is ultimately challenged by the ‘curvy’ body model, which is considered to be more inclusive and based on the concept of ‘natural beauty’. Another aspect of change is the ‘anti-romantic’ revolution performed by some heroines, who are not in search of Prince Charming, in television drama and in the film industry. In conclusion, although femvertising tends to simplify and trivialize the concepts characterizing fourth-wave feminism (‘intersectionality’ and ‘inclusion’), it is also a tendency that enables the challenging of media imagery largely based on male viewpoints, interests and desires.

Keywords: feminine beauty ideal, femvertising, gender and media, postfeminism

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Authors: Sergio Alejandro Cuevas, Catherine Etchebest, Fernando Luis Barroso Da Silva

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The flavivirus genus has several organisms responsible for generating various diseases in humans. Special in Brazil, Zika (ZIKV), Dengue (DENV) and Yellow Fever (YFV) viruses have raised great health concerns due to the high number of cases affecting the area during the last years. Diagnostic is still a difficult issue since the clinical symptoms are highly similar. The understanding of their common structural/dynamical and biomolecular interactions features and differences might suggest alternative strategies towards differential serological diagnostics and therapeutic intervention. Due to their immunogenicity, the primary focus of this study was on the ZIKV, DENV and YFV non-structural proteins 1 (NS1) protein. By means of computational studies, we calculated the main physical chemical properties of this protein from different strains that are directly responsible for the biomolecular interactions and, therefore, can be related to the differential infectivity of the strains. We also mapped the electrostatic differences at both the sequence and structural levels for the strains from Uganda to Brazil that could suggest possible molecular mechanisms for the increase of the virulence of ZIKV. It is interesting to note that despite the small changes in the protein sequence due to the high sequence identity among the studied strains, the electrostatic properties are strongly impacted by the pH which also impact on their biomolecular interactions with partners and, consequently, the molecular viral biology. African and Asian strains are distinguishable. Exploring the interfaces used by NS1 to self-associate in different oligomeric states, and to interact with membranes and the antibody, we could map the strategy used by the ZIKV during its evolutionary process. This indicates possible molecular mechanisms that can explain the different immunological response. By the comparison with the known antibody structure available for the West Nile virus, we demonstrated that the antibody would have difficulties to neutralize the NS1 from the Brazilian strain. The present study also opens up perspectives to computationally design high specificity antibodies.

Keywords: zika, biomolecular interactions, electrostatic interactions, molecular mechanisms

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Authors: Mary M. Park

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Hollywood has had a long and enduring history of showcasing the United States military to civilian audiences, and the portrayals of soldiers in films have had a definite impact on the civilian perception of the US military. The growing gap between the civilian population and the military in the US has led to certain stereotypes of military personnel to proliferate, especially in the area of militarized masculinity, which has often been harmful to the psychological and spiritual wellbeing of military personnel. Examining Hollywood's portrayal of soldiers can serve to enhance our understanding of how civilians may be influenced in their perception of military personnel. Moreover, it can provide clues as to how male military personnel may also be influenced by Hollywood films as they form their own military identity. The post 9/11 era has seen numerous high budget films lionizing a particular type of soldier, the 'warrior-hero', who adheres to a traditional form of hegemonic masculinity and exhibits traits such as physical strength, bravery, stoicism, and an eagerness to fight. This paper examines how the portrayal of the 'warrior-hero' perpetuates a negative stereotype that soldiers are a blend of superheroes and emotionless robots and, therefore, inherently different from civilians. This paper examines the portrayal of militarized masculinity in three of the most successful war films of the post-9/11 era; Black Hawk Down (2001), The Hurt Locker (2008), and American Sniper (2014). The characters and experiences of the soldiers depicted in these films are contrasted with the lived experiences of soldiers during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Further, there is an analysis of popular films depicting ancient warriors, such as Troy (2004) and 300 (2007), which were released during the early years of the War on Terror. This paper draws on the concept of hegemonic militarised masculinity by leading scholars and feminist international relations theories on militarized masculinity. This paper uses veteran testimonies collected from a range of public sources, as well as previous studies on the link between traditional masculinity and war-related mental illness. This paper concludes that the seemingly exclusive portrayal of soldiers as 'warrior-heroes' in films in the post-9/11 era is misleading and damaging to civil-military relations and that the reality of the majority of soldiers' experiences is neglected in Hollywood films. As civilians often believe they are being shown true depictions of the US military in Hollywood films, especially in films that portray real events, it is important to find the differences between the idealized fictional 'warrior-heroes' and the reality of the soldiers on the ground in the War on Terror.

Keywords: civil-military relations, gender studies, militarized masculinity, social pyschology

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Authors: Mansur Hamma-Adama, Tahar Kouider

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Construction Industry has been evolving since the development of Building Information Modelling (BIM). This technological process is unstoppable; it is out to the market with remarkable case studies of solving the long industry’s history of fragmentation. This industry has been changing over time; United States has recorded the most significant development in construction digitalization, Australia, United Kingdom and some other developed nations are also amongst promoters of BIM process and its development. Recently, a developing country like China and Malaysia are keying into the industry’s digital shift, while very little move is seen in South Africa whose development is considered higher and perhaps leader in the digital transition amongst the African countries. To authors’ best knowledge, Nigerian construction industry has never engaged in BIM discussions hence has no attention at national level. Consequently, Nigeria has no “Noteworthy BIM publications.” Decision makers and key stakeholders need to be informed on the current trend of the industry’s development (BIM in specific) and the opportunities of adopting this digitalization trend in relation to the identified challenges. BIM concept can be traced mostly in Architectural practices than engineering practices in Nigeria. A superficial BIM practice is found to be at organisational level only and operating a model based - “BIM stage 1.” Research to adopting this innovation has received very little attention. This piece of work is literature review based, aimed at exploring BIM in Nigeria and its prospects. The exploration reveals limitations in the literature availability as to extensive research in the development of BIM in the country. Numerous challenges were noticed including building collapse, inefficiencies, cost overrun and late project delivery. BIM has potentials to overcome the above challenges and even beyond. Low level of BIM adoption with reasonable level of awareness is noticed. However, lack of policy and guideline as well as serious lack of experts in the field are amongst the major barriers to BIM adoption. The industry needs to embrace BIM to possibly compete with its global counterpart.

Keywords: adoption, BIM, CAD, construction industry, Nigeria, opportunities

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Authors: Mornay Roberts-Lombard

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Consumers’ perceptions of value are crucial to ensuring their future commitment and behavioral intentions. As a result, service providers, such as Islamic banks, must provide their customers with products and services that are regarded as valuable, stimulating, collaborative, and competent. Therefore, the value provided to customers must meet or surpass their expectations, which can drive customers’ commitment (affective and calculative) and eventually favorably impact their future behavioral intentions. Consequently, Islamic banks in South Africa, as a growing African market, need to obtain a better understanding of the variables that impact Islamic banking customers’ value perceptions and how these impact their future behavioral intentions. Furthermore, it is necessary to investigate how customers’ perceived value perceptions impact their affective and calculative commitment and how the latter impact their future behavioral intentions. The purpose of this study is to bridge these gaps in knowledge, as the competitiveness of the Islamic banking industry in South Africa requires a deeper understanding of the aforementioned relationships. The study was exploratory and quantitative in nature, and data was collected from 250 Islamic banking customers using self-administered questionnaires. These banking customers resided in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Exploratory factor analysis, Pearson’s coefficient analysis, and multiple regression analysis were applied to measure the proposed hypotheses developed for the study. This research will aid Islamic banks in the country in potentially strengthening customers’ future commitment (affective and calculative) and positively impact their future behavioral intentions. The findings of the study established that service quality has a significant and positive impact on perceived value. Moreover, it was determined that perceived value has a favorable and considerable impact on affective and calculative commitment, while calculative commitment has a beneficial impact on behavioral intention. The research informs Islamic banks of the importance of service engagement in driving customer perceived value, which stimulates the future affective and calculative commitment of Islamic bank customers in an emerging market context. Finally, the study proposes guidelines for Islamic banks to develop an enhanced understanding of the factors that impact the perceived value-commitment-behavioral intention link in a competitive Islamic banking market in South Africa.

Keywords: perceived value, affective commitment, calculative commitment, behavioural intention

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Authors: Masoomeh Estaji, Ahdie Tahamtani

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Considering the necessity of conducting research and publishing academic papers during Master’s and Ph.D. programs, graduate students are in dire need of improving their writing skills through either writing courses or self-study planning. One key feature that could aid academic papers to look more sophisticated is the application of grammatical metaphors (GMs). These types of metaphors represent the ‘non-congruent’ and ‘implicit’ ways of decoding meaning through which one grammatical category is replaced by another, more implied counterpart, which can alter the readers’ understanding of the text as well. Although a number of studies have been conducted on the application of GMs across various disciplines, almost none has been devoted to the field of environmental management, and the scope of the previous studies has been relatively limited compared to the present work. In the current study, attempts were made to analyze different types of GMs used in academic papers published in top-tiered journals in the field of environmental management, and make a list of the most frequently used GMs based on their functions in this particular discipline to make the teaching of academic writing courses more explicit and the composition of academic texts more well-structured. To fulfill these purposes, a corpus-based analysis based on the two theoretical models of Martin et al. (1997) and Liardet (2014) was run. Through two stages of manual analysis and concordancers, ten recent academic articles entailing 132490 words published in two prestigious journals were precisely scrutinized. The results yielded that through the whole IMRaD sections of the articles, among all types of ideational GMs, material processes were the most frequent types. The second and the third ranks would apply to the relational and mental categories, respectively. Regarding the use of interpersonal GMs, objective expanding metaphors were the highest in number. In contrast, subjective interpersonal metaphors, either expanding or contracting, were the least significant. This would suggest that scholars in the field of Environmental Management tended to shift the focus on the main procedures and explain technical phenomenon in detail, rather than to compare and contrast other statements and subjective beliefs. Moreover, since no instances of verbal ideational metaphors were detected, it could be deduced that the act of ‘saying or articulating’ something might be against the standards of the academic genre. One other assumption would be that the application of ideational GMs is context-embedded and that the more technical they are, the least frequent they become. For further studies, it is suggested that the employment of GMs to be studied in a wider scope and other disciplines, and the third type of GMs known as ‘textual’ metaphors to be included as well.

Keywords: English for specific purposes, grammatical metaphor, academic texts, corpus-based analysis

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Authors: Myriam Roy

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The perspectives of the Togolese public towards mental illness were assessed, looking at religious affiliation, personal knowledge of someone with a mental illness, and education level as influencers. The goal was to observe which factors influenced most strongly the general public’s attitudes towards mental illness. The Togolese population was surveyed within the context of mental health awareness workshops and involved college and university students, rural community members, and company employees. Taylor and Dear’s Community Attitudes towards the Mentally Ill (CAMI) questionnaire was used to assess these influencers and includes four dimensions of community attitudes towards mental illness: authoritarianism, benevolence, social restrictiveness, and community mental health ideology (CMHI). Demographic questions were also included, tailored to the various realities of the Togolese population. These questions looked, among others, at religious, ethnical (region of origin within Togo), and educational background. It was found that religious affiliation and personal knowledge did not correlate significantly with changes in the four dimensions of the CAMI scale. It suggests that public perspectives towards mental illness might not be as associated with these variables as was previously thought. The dimensions, however, did correlate with themselves as was expected. Authoritarianism was associated positively with social restrictiveness, benevolence was associated negatively with social restrictiveness and positively with CMHI, and CMHI was associated negatively with social restrictiveness, indicating the CAMI did not suffer from reliability and validity issues when used with this population. Interestingly, level of education significantly impacted authoritarianism level, with higher education associated with a decrease in authoritarianism. This finding would support the notion that education is likely to provide access to a wide array of information as well as interaction with people from various backgrounds and situations. Providing increased awareness regarding mental health and illness in schools could be beneficial to favor the impact that education appears to have on public perspectives towards mental illness in Togo. Future studies could assess which mental health interventions in schools would be the most useful in Togo.

Keywords: CAMI questionnaire, cross-cultural psychology, stigma towards mental illness, West African psychology

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Authors: Nivedita Paul

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Marriages in India are part and parcel of kinship and cultural practices. Marriage practices differ in India because of cross-regional diversities in social relations which itself has evolved as a result of causal relationship between space and culture. As the place is important for the formation of culture and other social structures, therefore there is regional differentiation in cultural practices and marital customs. Based on the cultural practices some scholars have divided India into North and South kinship regions where women in the North get married early and have lesser autonomy compared to women in the South where marriages are mostly consanguineous. But, the emergence of new modes and alternative strategies such as matrimonial advertisements becoming popular, as well as the increase in women’s literacy and work force participation, matchmaking process in India has changed to some extent. The present study uses data from Indian Human Development Survey II (2011-12) which is a nationally representative multitopic survey that covers 41,554 households. Currently married women of age group 15-49 in their first marriage; whose year of marriage is from the 1970s to 2000s have been taken for the study. Based on spouse selection experiences, the sample of women has been divided into three marriage categories-self, semi and family arranged. Women in self-arranged or love marriage is the sole decision maker in choosing the partner, in semi-arranged marriage or arranged marriage with consent both parents and women together take the decision, whereas in family arranged or arranged marriage without consent only parents take the decision. The main aim of the study is to show the spatial and regional variations in spouse selection decision making. The basis for regionalization has been taken from Irawati Karve’s pioneering work on kinship studies in India called Kinship Organization in India. India is divided into four kinship regions-North, Central, South and East. Since this work was formulated in 1953, some of the states have experienced changes due to modernization; hence these have been regrouped. After mapping spouse selection patterns using GIS software, it is found that the northern region has mostly family arranged marriages (around 64.6%), the central zone shows a mixed pattern since family arranged marriages are less than north but more than south and semi-arranged marriages are more than north but less than south. The southern zone has the dominance of semi-arranged marriages (around 55%) whereas the eastern zone has more of semi-arranged marriage (around 53%) but there is also a high percentage of self-arranged marriage (around 42%). Thus, arranged marriage is the dominant form of marriage in all four regions, but with a difference in the degree of the involvement of the female and her parents and relatives.

Keywords: spouse selection, consent, kinship, regional pattern

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Authors: Kalayanee Senasu

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Research on happiness has been growing in recent decades. In the early stages, scholars were primarily concerned with establishing the validity of happiness measures and with exploring socio-economic correlates of happiness. More recent studies have focused on outcomes of happiness as well as the identification of happiness policies. This research investigates the happiness levels and influences of quality of life in terms of mental health satisfaction, family satisfaction, community satisfaction, and work satisfaction as determinants of happiness in Thailand during 2009-2014. The data collected by the National Statistic Office of Thailand in the project of Socio-economic Survey inclusion of Mental Health Survey in 2009, 2010, and 2012; and in the project of Labor Force Survey inclusion of Mental Health Survey in August 2014 were employed. There was a total of 59,430, 64,720, 54,736, and 9,997 respondents who were at least 15 years old in the survey during 2009-2014. Statistical analyses include both descriptive and inferential statistics. All research hypotheses were tested by means of hierarchical regression analysis. The analysis results reveal that happiness means during the studied period are quite at high levels (in the range of 7.42 to 7.60 from the scale 0-10). And the results indicate that all model variables (i.e., mental health satisfaction, family satisfaction, community satisfaction, and work satisfaction), have positive effects on happiness in Thailand. Additionally, the mental health satisfaction plays the most important role in predicting happiness. Further, our results indicate significant positive relationship between education, and income/expense and happiness, while other socio-economic variables reveal variety relationships during the studied period. Our results not only validate research findings in other countries but also verify the importance of quality of life (in terms of mental health satisfaction, family satisfaction, community satisfaction, and work satisfaction) as important factors of happiness for public policy makers. One conclusion stands firm in our study: happiness can be advanced in many ways. At the society level, greater happiness for people can be achieved by policies that aim to promote good health, an engaged family relationship, a high community as well as work qualities. A contented population is advantaged in many ways over one that is not. Government or policy makers should understand and realize that happiness is a valuable and tangible aspect of the population for which they are responsible. Therefore, they should include happiness issues in their political agenda.

Keywords: community satisfaction, family satisfaction, mental health satisfaction, work satisfaction, happiness, Thailand

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Authors: Yugander Arra, Florence Auguy, Melissa Stiebner, Sophie Chéron, Michael M. Wudick, Van Schepler-Luu, Sébastien Cunnac, Wolf B. Frommer, Laurence Albar

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Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) is one of the most important diseases affecting rice in Africa. The most promising strategy to reduce yield losses is the use of highly resistant varieties. The resistance gene RYMV2 is homolog of the Arabidopsis constitutive expression of pathogenesis related protein-5 (AtCPR5) nucleoporin gene. Resistance alleles are originating from African cultivated rice Oryza glaberrima, rarely cultivated, and are characterized by frameshifts or early stop codons, leading to a non-functional or truncated protein. Rice possesses two paralogs of CPR5 and function of these genes are unclear. Here, we evaluated the role of the two rice candidate nucleoporin paralogs OsCPR5.1 (pathogenesis-related gene 5; RYMV2) and OsCPR5.2 by CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. Despite striking sequence and structural similarity, only loss-of-function of OsCPR5.1 led to full resistance, while loss-of-function oscpr5.2 mutants remained susceptible. Short N-terminal deletions in OsCPR5.1 also did not lead to resistance. In contrast to Atcpr5 mutants, neither OsCPR5.1 nor OsCPR5.2 knock out mutants showed substantial growth defects. Taken together, the candidate nucleoporin OsCPR5.1, but not its close homolog OsCPR5.2, plays a specific role for the susceptibility to RYMV, possibly by impairing the import of viral RNA or protein into the nucleus. Whereas gene introgression from O. glaberrima to high yielding O. sativa varieties is impaired by strong sterility barriers and the negative impact of linkage drag, genome editing of OsCPR5.1, while maintaining OsCPR5.2 activity, thus provides a promising strategy to generate O. sativa elite lines that are resistant to RYMV.

Keywords: CRISPR Cas9, genome editing, knock out mutant, recessive resistance, rice yellow mottle virus

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Authors: Souhila Belabbas

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This paper focuses on the Kabyles’ multilingual practices in the UK, within the Kabyle/Amazigh Cultural Organisation in London, on online platforms and at home. The Kabyles have roots in northern Algeria and associate their language, Kabyle, with a pre-Arabized history of northern Africa. Drawing on ethnographic research with this community, this study brings together their post-migration language preservation activisms as well as their dynamic multilingual practices and situational language choice into a dialogue. This shows the enduring significance of the heritage language for social, cultural and historical identity. It also demonstrates that the current survival of the “mother tongue” hinges on multilingual and multi-sited language activisms, which bear the hallmarks of both new creativities and diminishing fluencies in multilingual spaces. These multilingual repertoires also included a range of ideological stances, expressed as cultural, moral, and political attitudes to the “mother tongue” and to other, potentially more dominant, languages in their lives, involving both inclusive and exclusive instances. The Kabyles in the UK practice everyday forms of multilingualism in the dynamic terms whilst making strong identity claims to an endangered heritage language. Crucially, their language contact experiences were not a post-migration novelty but part of their pre-migration lifeworlds. The participants involved in this study shared a commitment to Kabyle identity activism. They expressed this differently, varyingly foregrounding cultural, social or political issues. These differences were related to their North-African cultural background, live, gender, religious and/or political affiliation, as well as to their different migratory trajectories. Among these ethno-conscious individuals, the use of Kabyle was often particularly vibrant in informal domains of casual conversations and mixed in with French, English and often Arabic. During community events and festivals, though, many made special efforts to converse in Kabyle as if to make a point about their commitment to a shared identity.

Keywords: ethnography, language ideology, language choice, heritage language, migration trajectories, multilingual repertoires

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Authors: Souhila Belabbas

Abstract:

This paper focuses on the Kabyles’ multilingual practices in the UK, within the Kabyle/Amazigh Cultural Organisation in London, on online platforms and at home. The Kabyles have roots in northern Algeria and associate their language, Kabyle, with a pre-Arabized history of northern Africa. Drawing on ethnographic research with this community, this study brings together their post-migration language preservation activisms as well as their dynamic multilingual practices and situational language choice into a dialogue. This shows the enduring significance of the heritage language for social, cultural and historical identity. It also demonstrates that the current survival of the “mother tongue” hinges on multilingual and multi-sited language activisms, which bear the hallmarks of both new creativities and diminishing fluencies in multilingual spaces. These multilingual repertoires also included a range of ideological stances, expressed as cultural, moral, and political attitudes to the “mother tongue” and to other, potentially more dominant, languages in their lives, involving both inclusive and exclusive instances. The Kabyles in the UK practice everyday forms of multilingualism in the dynamic terms whilst making strong identity claims to an endangered heritage language. Crucially, their language contact experiences were not a post-migration novelty but part of their pre-migration lifeworlds. The participants involved in this study shared a commitment to Kabyle identity activism. They expressed this differently, varyingly foregrounding cultural, social or political issues. These differences were related to their North-African cultural background, live, gender, religious and/or political affiliation, as well as to their different migratory trajectories. Among these ethno-conscious individuals, the use of Kabyle was often particularly vibrant in informal domains of casual conversations and mixed in with French, English and often Arabic. During community events and festivals, though, many made special efforts to converse in Kabyle as if to make a point about their commitment to a shared identity.

Keywords: ethnography, language ideology, language choice, heritage language, migration trajectories, multilingual repertoires

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Authors: Ochuko K. Overen, Golden Makaka, Edson L. Meyer, Sampson Mamphweli

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Low-cost housing provided for people with small incomes in South Africa are characterized by poor thermal performance. This is due to inferior craftsmanship with no regard to energy efficient design during the building process. On average, South African households spend 14% of their total monthly income on energy needs, in particular space heating; which is higher than the international benchmark of 10% for energy poverty. Adopting energy efficient passive solar design strategies and superior thermal building materials can create a stable thermal comfort environment indoors. Thereby, reducing energy consumption for space heating. The aim of this study is to analyse the thermal behaviour of a low-cost house integrated with passive solar design features. A low-cost passive solar house with superstructure fly ash brick walls was designed and constructed in Somerset East, South Africa. Indoor and outdoor meteorological parameters of the house were monitored for a period of one year. The ASTM E741-11 Standard was adopted to perform ventilation test in the house. In summer, the house was found to be thermally comfortable for 66% of the period monitored, while for winter it was about 79%. The ventilation heat flow rate of the windows and doors were found to be 140 J/s and 68 J/s, respectively. Air leakage through cracks and openings in the building envelope was 0.16 m3/m2h with a corresponding ventilation heat flow rate of 24 J/s. The indoor carbon dioxide concentration monitored overnight was found to be 0.248%, which is less than the maximum range limit of 0.500%. The prediction percentage dissatisfaction of the house shows that 86% of the occupants will express the thermal satisfaction of the indoor environment. With a good operation of the house, it can create a well-ventilated, thermal comfortable and nature luminous indoor environment for the occupants. Incorporating passive solar design in low-cost housing can be one of the long and immediate solutions to the energy crisis facing South Africa.

Keywords: energy efficiency, low-cost housing, passive solar design, rural development, thermal comfort

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Authors: Emily S. M. Chow

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The word ‘utopia’ was coined by Thomas More in Utopia (1516). Its Greek roots ‘ou’ means ‘not’ and ‘topos’ means ‘place.’ In other words, it literally refers to ‘no-place.’ However, the possibility of having an alternative and better future society has always been appealing. In fact, at the core of every utopianism is the search for a future alternative state with the anticipation of a better life. Nonetheless, the practicalities of such ideas have never ceased to be questioned. At times, building a utopia presents itself as a divisive act. In addition to the violence that must be employed to sweep away the old regime in order to make space for the new, all utopias carry within them the potential for bringing catastrophic consequences to human life. After all, every utopia seeks to remodel the individual in a very particular way for the benefit of the masses. In this sense, utopian thinking has the potential both to create and destroy the future. While writing during a traumatic transitional period in Zimbabwe’s history, Dambudzo Marechera witnessed an age of upheavals in which different parties battled for power over Zimbabwe. Being aware of the fact that all institutionalized narratives, be they originated from the governance of the UK, Ian Smith’s white minority regime or Zimbabwe’s revolutionary parties, revealed themselves to be nothing more than fiction, Marechera realized the impossibility of determining reality absolutely. As such, this thesis concerns the writing of the Zimbabwean maverick, Dambudzo Marechera. It argues that Marechera writes a unique vision of utopia. In short, for Marechera utopia is not a static entity but a moment of perpetual change. He rethinks utopia in the sense that he phrases it as an event that ceaselessly contests institutionalized and naturalized narratives of a post-colonial self and its relationship to society. Marechera writes towards a vision of an alternative future of the country. Yet, it is a vision that does not constitute a fully rounded sense of utopia. Being cautious about the world and the operation of power upon the people, rather than imposing his own utopian ideals, Marechera chooses to instead peeling away the narrative constitution of the self in relation to society in order to turn towards a truly radical utopian thinking that empowers the individual.

Keywords: African literature, Marechera, post-colonial literature, utopian studies

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Authors: G. W. Greubel, A. Kalam

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South Africa finds itself at a confluence of forces where the national electricity supply system is constrained with under-supply primarily from old and failing coal-fired power stations and congested and inadequate transmission and distribution systems. Simultaneously the country attempts to meet carbon reduction targets driven by both an alignment with international goals and a consumer-driven requirement. The constrained electricity system is an aspect of an economy characterized by very low economic growth, high unemployment, and frequent and significant load shedding. The fiscus does not have the funding to build new generation capacity or strengthen the grid. The under-supply is increasingly alleviated by the penetration of wind and solar generation capacity and embedded roof-top solar. However, this increased penetration results in less inertia, less synchronous generation, and less capability for fast frequency response, with resultant instability. The renewable energy facilities assist in solving the under-supply issues, but merely ‘kick the can down the road’ by not contributing to grid stability or by substituting the lost inertia, thus creating an expanding issue for the grid to manage. By technically balancing its electricity demand and supply a company with facilities located across the country can be spared the effects of load shedding, and thus ensure financial and production performance, protect jobs, and contribute meaningfully to the economy. By treating the company’s load (across the country) and its various distributed generation facilities as a ‘virtual grid’ which by design will provide ancillary services to the grid one is able to create a win-win situation for both the company and the grid. This paper provides a review of the technical problems facing the South African electricity system and discusses a hypothetical ‘virtual grid’ concept that may assist in solving the problems. The proposed solution has potential application across emerging markets with constrained power infrastructure or for companies who wish to be entirely powered by renewable energy.

Keywords: load shedding, renewable energy integration, smart grid, virtual grid

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Authors: Peizhu Liu

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Dual language education, also known as immersion education, differs from traditional language programs that teach a second or foreign language as a subject. Instead, dual language programs adopt a content-based approach, using both a majority language (e.g., English, in the case of the United States) and a minority language (e.g., Spanish or Chinese) as a medium of instruction to teach math, science, and social studies. By granting each language of instruction equal status, dual language education seeks to educate not only meaningfully but equitably and to foster tolerance and appreciation of diversity, making it essential for immigrants, refugees, indigenous peoples, and other marginalized students. Despite the cognitive and academic benefits of dual language education, recent literature has revealed that English is disproportionately privileged across dual language programs. Scholars have expressed concerns about the unbalanced status of majority and minority languages in dual language education, as favoring English in this context may inadvertently reaffirm its dominance and moreover fail to serve the needs of children whose primary language is not English. Through a year-long study of a Chinese-English dual language program, the extensively disproportionate use of English has also been observed by the researcher. However, despite the fact that Chinese-English dual language programs are the second-most popular program type after Spanish in the United States, this issue remains underexplored in the existing literature on Chinese-English dual language education. In fact, the number of Chinese-English dual language programs being offered in the U.S. has grown rapidly, from 8 in 1988 to 331 as of 2023. Using Norton and Darvin's investment model theory, the current study investigates teachers' language use and investment in teaching Chinese and English in a Chinese-English dual language program at an urban public school in New York City. The program caters to a significant number of minority children from working-class families. Adopting an ethnographic and discourse analytic approach, this study seeks to understand language use dynamics in the program and how micro- and macro-factors, such as students' identity construction, parents' and teachers' language ideologies, and the capital associated with each language, influence teachers' investment in teaching Chinese and English. The research will help educators and policymakers understand the obstacles that stand in the way of the goal of dual language education—that is, the creation of a more inclusive classroom, which is achieved by regarding both languages of instruction as equally valuable resources. The implications for how to balance the use of the majority and minority languages will also be discussed.

Keywords: dual language education, bilingual education, language immersion education, content-based language teaching

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Authors: Betty Kibirige

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Students entering the University of Zululand (UNIZULU) Science Faculty mostly come with skills that allow them to prepare for exams and pass them in order to satisfy requirements for entry into a tertiary Institution. Some students hail from deep rural schools with limited facilities, while others come from well-resourced schools. Personal experience has shown that it may take a student the whole time at a tertiary institution following the same skills as those acquired in high school as a sure means of entering the next level in their development, namely a postgraduate program. While it is apparent that at this point in human history, it is totally impossible to teach all the possible content in any one subject, many academics approach teaching and learning from the traditional point of view. It therefore became apparent to explore ways of developing a graduate that will be able to approach life with skills that allows them to navigate knowledge by applying conceptual and critical thinking skills. Recently, the Science Faculty at the University of Zululand introduced two Engineering programs. In an endeavour to approach the development of the Engineering graduate in this institution to be able to tackle problem-solving in the present-day excessive information availability, it became necessary to study and review approaches used by various academics in order to settle for a possible best approach to the challenge at hand. This paper focuses on the development of a deep rural child in a graduate with conceptual and critical thinking skills as major attributes possessed upon graduation. For this purpose, various approaches were studied. A combination of these approaches was repackaged to form an approach that may appear novel to UNIZULU and the rural child, especially for the Engineering discipline. The approach was checked by offering quiz questions to students participating in an engineering module, observing test scores in the targeted module and make comparative studies. Test results are discussed in the article. It was concluded that students’ graduate attributes could be tailored subconsciously to indeed include conceptual and critical thinking skills, but through more than one approach depending mainly on the student's high school background.

Keywords: graduate attributes, conceptual skills, critical thinking skills, traditional approach

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Authors: Vincent Mokoka, Kai Behn, Edwin Mudongo, Jan Ruppert, Kingsley Ayisi, Anja Linstädter

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Severe drought may trigger a transition of vegetation composition in dryland grasslands, with productive perennial grasses often being replaced by annual grasses. Grazing pressure is thought to exacerbate drought effects, but little is known on the joint effects of grazing and drought on the functional and taxonomic composition of the herbaceous vegetation in African savannas. This study thus aimed to elucidate which herbaceous species and plant functional types (PFTs) are most resistant to prolonged drought and grazing and whether resting plays a role in this context. Thus, we performed a six-year field experiment in South Africa’s Limpopo province, combining drought and grazing treatments. Aboveground herbaceous biomass was harvested annually and separated into species. We grouped species into five PFTs, i.e. very broad-leaved perennial grasses, broad-leaved perennial grasses, narrow-leaved perennial grasses, annual grasses, and forbs. For all species, we also recorded three-leaf traits (leaf area - LA, specific leaf area – SLA, and leaf dry matter content – LDM) to describe their resource acquisition strategies. We used generalized linear models to test for treatment effects and their interaction. Association indices were used to detect the relationship between species and treatments. We found that there were no absolute winner species or PFTs, as the six-year severe drought had a pronounced negative impact on the biomass production of all species and PFTs. However, we detected relative winners with increases in relative abundances, mainly forbs and less palatable narrow-leafed grasses with comparatively low LA and high LDMC, such as Aristida stipidata Hack. These species and PFTs also tended to be favored by grazing. Although few species profited from resting, for most species, the combination of drought and resting proved to be particularly unfavorable. Winners and losers can indicate ecological transition and may be used to guide management decisions.

Keywords: aboveground net primary production, drought, functional diversity, winner and loser species

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Authors: Lydia Foucan, Laurent Larifla, Emmanuelle Durand, Christine Rambhojan, Veronique Dhennin, Jean-Marc Lacorte, Philippe Froguel, Amelie Bonnefond

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In the population of Guadeloupe Island (472,124 inhabitants and 80% of subjects of African descent), overweight and obesity were estimated at 23% and 9% respectively among children. High prevalence of diabetes has been reported (~10%) in the adult population. Nevertheless, no study has investigated the contribution of gene mutations to childhood obesity in this population. We aimed to investigate rare genetic mutations in genes involved in monogenic obesity or diabetes in obese Afro-Caribbean children from Guadeloupe Island using next-generation sequencing. The present investigation included unrelated obese children, from a previous study on overweight conducted in Guadeloupe Island in 2013. We sequenced coding regions of 59 genes involved in monogenic obesity or diabetes. A total of 25 obese schoolchildren (with Z-score of body mass index [BMI]: 2.0 to 2.8) were screened for rare mutations (non-synonymous, splice-site, or insertion/deletion) in 59 genes. Mean age of the study population was 12.4 ± 1.1 years. Seventeen children (68%) had insulin-resistance (HOMA-IR > 3.16). A family history of obesity (mother or father) was observed in eight children and three of the accompanying parent presented with type 2 diabetes. None of the children had gonadotrophic abnormality or mental retardation. We detected five rare heterozygous mutations, in four genes involved in monogenic obesity, in five different obese children: MC4R p.Ile301Thr and SIM1 p.Val326Thrfs*43 mutations which were pathogenic; SIM1 p.Ser343Pro and SH2B1 p.Pro90His mutations which were likely pathogenic; and NTRK2 p.Leu140Phe that was of uncertain significance. In parallel, we identified seven carriers of mutation in ABCC8 or KCNJ11 (involved in monogenic diabetes), which were of uncertain significance (KCNJ11 p.Val13Met, KCNJ11 p.Val151Met, ABCC8 p.Lys1521Asn and ABCC8 p.Ala625Val). Rare pathogenic or likely pathogenic mutations, linked to severe obesity were detected in more than 15% of this Afro-Caribbean population at high risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Keywords: childhood obesity, MC4R, monogenic obesity, SIM1

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Authors: Oluwaseun Ijiwade, Chris Davison, Kelvin Gregory

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In Australia, like other parts of the world, the debate on how to enhance teachers using assessment data to inform teaching and learning of English as an Additional Language (EAL, Australia) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL, United States) have occupied the centre of academic scholarship. Traditionally, this approach was conceptualised as ‘Formative Assessment’ and, in recent times, ‘Assessment for Learning (AfL)’. The central problem is that teacher-made tests are limited in providing data that can inform teaching and learning due to variability of classroom assessments, which are hindered by teachers’ characteristics and assessment literacy. To address this concern, scholars in language education and testing have proposed a uniformed large-scale computer-based assessment program to meet the needs of teachers and promote AfL in language education. In Australia, for instance, the Victoria state government commissioned a large-scale project called 'Tools to Enhance Assessment Literacy (TEAL) for Teachers of English as an additional language'. As part of the TEAL project, a tool called ‘Reading and Vocabulary assessment for English as an Additional Language (RVEAL)’, as a diagnostic language assessment (DLA), was developed by language experts at the University of New South Wales for teachers in Victorian schools to guide EAL pedagogy in the classroom. Therefore, this study aims to provide qualitative evidence for understanding beliefs about the diagnostic language assessment (DLA) among EAL teachers in primary and secondary schools in Victoria, Australia. To realize this goal, this study raises the following questions: (a) How do teachers use large-scale assessment data for diagnostic purposes? (b) What skills do language teachers think are necessary for using assessment data for instruction in the classroom? and (c) What factors, if any, contribute to teachers’ beliefs about diagnostic assessment in a large-scale assessment? Semi-structured interview method was used to collect data from at least 15 professional teachers who were selected through a purposeful sampling. The findings from the resulting data analysis (thematic analysis) provide an understanding of teachers’ beliefs about DLA in a classroom context and identify how these beliefs are crystallised in language teachers. The discussion shows how the findings can be used to inform professional development processes for language teachers as well as informing important factor of teacher cognition in the pedagogic processes of language assessment. This, hopefully, will help test developers and testing organisations to align the outcome of this study with their test development processes to design assessment that can enhance AfL in language education.

Keywords: beliefs, diagnostic language assessment, English as an additional language, teacher cognition

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