Search results for: African scholars

Authors: Silvia Lucciarini, Antonio Corasaniti

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The issue of democracy in capitalist countries has once again become the focus of debate in recent years. A number of socio-economic and political tensions have triggered discussion of this topic from various perspectives and disciplines. Political developments, the rise of both right-wing parties and populism and the constant growth of inequalities in a context of welfare downsizing, have led scholars to question if European capitalist countries are really capable of creating and redistributing resources and look for elements that might make democratic capital in European countries more dense. The aim of the work is to shed light on the trajectories, intensity and convergence or divergence between political and associative participation, on one hand, and organization, on the other, as these constitute two of the main points of connection between the norms, values and actions that bind citizens to the state. Using the European Social Survey database, some studies have sought to analyse degrees of unionization by investigating the relationship between systems of industrial relations and vulnerable groups (in terms of value-oriented practices or political participation). This paper instead aims to investigate the relationship between union participation and civil/political participation, comparing union members and non-members and then distinguishing between employees and self-employed professionals to better understand participatory behaviors among different workers. The first component of the research will employ a multilinear logistic model to examine a sample of 10 countries selected according to a grid that combines the industrial relations models identified by Visser (2006) and the Welfare State systems identified by Esping-Andersen (1990). On the basis of this sample, we propose to compare the choices made by workers and their propensity to join trade unions, together with their level of social and political participation, from 2002 to 2016. In the second component, we aim to verify whether workers within the same system of industrial relations and welfare show a similar propensity to engage in civil participation through political bodies and associations, or if instead these tendencies take on more specific and varied forms. The results will allow us to see: (1) if political participation is higher among unionized workers than it is among the non-unionized. (2) what are the differences in unionisation and civil/political participation between self-employed, temporary and full-time employees and (3) whether the trajectories within industrial relations and welfare models display greater inclusiveness and participation, thereby confirming or disproving the patterns that have been documented among the different European countries.

Keywords: union membership, participation, democracy, industrial relations, welfare systems

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Authors: Clifford Lewis

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This paper aims to advance the conversation of an alternative view of leadership, namely ‘leadership as the management of meaning’. Here, leadership is considered as a social process of the management of meaning within an employment context, as opposed to a psychological trait, set of behaviours or relational consequence as seen in mainstream leadership research. Specifically, this study explores the relationship between intersectional identities and the management of meaning. Design: Semi-structured, one-on-one interviews were conducted with women and men of colour working in the South African private sector organisations in various leadership positions. Employing an intersectional approach using gender and race, participants were selected by using purposive and snowball sampling concurrently. Thematic and Axial coding was used to identify dominant themes. Findings: Findings suggest that, both gender and race shape how leaders manage meaning. Findings also confirm that intersectionality is an appropriate approach when studying the leadership experiences of those groups who are underrepresented in organisational leadership structures. The findings points to the need for further research into the differential effects of intersecting identities on organisational leadership experiences and that ‘leadership as the management of meaning’ is an appropriate approach for addressing this knowledge gap. Theoretical Contribution: There is a large body of literature on the complex challenges faced by women and people of colour in leadership but there is relatively little empirical work on how identity influences the management of meaning. This study contributes to the leadership literature by providing insight into how intersectional identities influence the management of meaning at work and how this impacts the leadership experiences of largely marginalised groups. Practical Implications: Understanding the leadership experiences of underrepresented groups is important because of both legal mandates and for building diverse talent for organisations and societies. Such an understanding assists practitioners in being sensitive to simplistic notions of challenges individuals might face in accessing and practicing leadership in organisations. Advancing the conversation on leadership as the management of meaning allows for a better understanding of complex challenges faced by women and people of colour and an opportunity for organisations to systematically remove unfair structural obstacles and develop their diverse leadership capacity.

Keywords: intersectionality, diversity, leadership, sensemaking

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Authors: Iftikhar Ahmad

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Buried pipeline is an underground structure that is buried in certain depth of soil and surrounded by soil medium. It has become the main mode of transportation of oil and gas from production facilities to refineries and export terminals due to its low cost, fast construction speed and large transportation capacity. Poor integrity is one of the major causes of leaks and accidents in oil and gas transmission pipelines. To ensure safe operation and to keep pipeline in a fit-for-service condition, it is imperative to have an efficient and effective pipeline integrity management (PIM) system. The remaining life of the pipeline can also be extended in the most reliable, safe and cost-effective manner by implementing effective pipeline integrity management. The importance of effective pipeline integrity management increases as the pipeline infrastructure continues to age. The pipelines in Libya, which are typically made of steel are susceptible to corrosion. The corrosion can cause failure of pipeline and significant safety and environmental hazards. To address corrosion in oil and gas pipeline, several corrosion management strategies can be employed. It covers corrosion mitigation, monitoring, inspection, and risk evaluation. Libya is a North African country and its economy is based on petroleum industry. It has large network of pipelines. This paper describes the pipeline integrity management system used in the Libyan oilfields to protect pipeline facilities based on standard practices of corrosion mitigation and inspection. An effective integrity management program anticipates and mitigates or eliminate integrity issues before they lead to incidents or failures. Understanding the pipeline’s integrity and threats in the context of the surrounding environment is key to making informed integrity management decisions. The following elements are developed for the operational phase to ensure that adequate management practices are in place to assess failures, and manage and respond to emergencies: (a) Failure assessment plan; (b) Emergency response plan; and (c) Remaining life assessment plan. Fifty performance indicators, which were previously identified, were adopted to track the success of the implementation of corrosion control strategies used in Libyan petroleum industry for its oil and gas transmission pipelines.

Keywords: pipeline integrity management, buried pipeline integrity management, corrosion management in oil and gas pipelines, corrosion mitigation and inspection

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Authors: Glenda Wrenn, Juliet Muzere, Meldra Hall, Allyson Belton, Kisha Holden, Chanita Hughes-Halbert, Martha Kent, Bekh Bradley

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Understanding the help seeking decision making process and experiences of health disparity populations with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is central to development of trauma-informed, culturally centered, and patient focused services. Yet, little is known about the decision making process among adult Black women who are non-treatment seekers as they are, by definition, not engaged in services. Methods: Audiotaped interviews were conducted with 30 African American adult women with clinically significant PTSD symptoms who were engaged in primary care, but not in treatment for PTSD despite symptom burden. A qualitative interview guide was used to elucidate key themes. Independent coding of themes mapped to theory and identification of emergent themes were conducted using qualitative methods. An existing quantitative dataset was analyzed to contextualize responses and provide a descriptive summary of the sample. Results: Emergent themes revealed that active mental avoidance, the intermittent nature of distress, ambivalence, and self-identified resilience as undermining to help seeking decisions. Participants were stuck within the help-seeking phase of ‘recognition’ of illness and retained a sense of “it is my decision” despite endorsing significant social and environmental negative influencers. Participants distinguished ‘help acceptance’ from ‘help seeking’ with greater willingness to accept help and importance placed on being of help to others. Conclusions: Elucidation of the decision-making process from the perspective of non-treatment seekers has implications for outreach and treatment within models of integrated and specialty systems care. The salience of responses to trauma symptoms and stagnation in the help seeking recognition phase are findings relevant to integrated care service design and community engagement.

Keywords: culture, help-seeking, integrated care, PTSD

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Authors: Mokgophana Ramasobana

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Background: At the core of the demand to utilize evidence-based approaches in the policy-making cycle, prioritization of limited financial resources and results driven initiatives is the urgency to develop a cohort of competent Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) practitioners and public servants. The ongoing strides in the evaluation capacity building (ECB) initiatives are a direct response to produce the highly-sought after M&E skills. Notwithstanding the rapid growth of M&E short courses, participants perceived value and expectation of M&E short courses as a panacea for ECB have not been empirically quantified or measured. The objective of this article is to explicitly illustrate the importance of measuring ECB interventions and understanding what works in ECB and why it works. Objectives: This article illustrates the importance of establishing empirical ECB measurement tools to evaluate ECB interventions in order to ascertain its contribution to the broader evaluation practice. Method: The study was primarily a desktop review of existing literature, juxtaposed by a survey of the participants across the African continent based on the 43 M&E short courses hosted by the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results Anglophone Africa (CLEAR-AA) in collaboration with the Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) Results: The article established that participants perceive short course training as a panacea to improve their M&E practical skill critical to executing their organizational duties. In tandem, participants are likely to demand customized training as opposed to general topics in Evaluation. However, the organizational environments constrain the application of the newly acquired skills. Conclusion: This article aims to contribute to the 'how to' measure ECB interventions discourse and contribute towards the improvement to evaluate ECB interventions. The study finds that participants prefer training courses with longer duration to cover more topics. At the same time, whilst organizations call for customization of programmes, the study found that individual participants demand knowledge of generic and popular evaluation topics.

Keywords: evaluation capacity building, effectiveness and training, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) short course training, perceptions and expectations

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Authors: Anisah Ari

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Effects of organized crime permeate all facets of life, including public health, socio-economic endeavors, and human security. If any element of this is affected, it impacts large-scale national and global interest. Seeking to address terrorist networks through technical thinking is like trying to kill a weed by just cutting off its branches. It will re-develop and expand in proportions beyond one’s imagination, even in horrific ways that threaten human security. The continent of Africa has been bedeviled by this menace, with little or no solution to the problem. Nigeria is dealing with a protracted insurgency that is perpetrated by a sect against any form of westernization. Reimagining approaches to dealing with pressing issues like terrorism may require engaging the right set of people in the conversation for any sustainable change. These are people who have lived through the daily effects of the violence that ensues from the activities of terrorist activities. Effective leadership is required for an inclusive process, where spaces are created for diverse voices to be heard, and multiple perspectives are listened to, and not just heard, that supports a determination of the realistic outcome. Addressing insurgency in Nigeria has experienced a lot of disinformation and uncertainty. This may be in part due to poor leadership or an iteration of technical solutions to adaptive challenge peacemaking efforts in Nigeria has focused on behaviors, attitudes and practices that contribute to violence. However, it is important to consider the underlying issues that build-up, ignite and fan the flames of violence—looking at conflict as a complex system, issues like climate change, low employment rates, corruption and the impunity of discrimination due to ethnicity and religion. This article will be looking at an option of the more relational way of addressing insurgency through adaptive approaches that embody engagement and solutions with the people rather than for the people. The construction of a local turn in peacebuilding is informed by the need to create a locally driven and sustained peace process that embodies the culture and practices of the people in enacting an everyday peace beyond just a perennial and universalist outlook. A critical analysis that explores the socially identified individuals and situations will be made, considering the more adaptive approach to a complex existential challenge rather than a universalist frame. Case Study and Ethnographic research approach to understand what other scholars have documented on the matter and also a first-hand understanding of the experiences and viewpoints of the participants.

Keywords: terrorism, adaptive, peace, culture

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Authors: Mukolwe D. Lubembe, Odongo O. David, Githaka Naftali, Kanduma Esther, Marinda Oosthuizen, Kgomotso P. Sibeko

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Theileriosis is a tick-borne disease of cattle caused by an apicomplexan protozoan parasite of the genus Theileria. In eastern and southern Africa, Theileria infections in cattle are caused by the species Theileria parva whose natural reservoir is the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer). Currently, East Coast Fever (ECF) caused by the cattle-derived Theileria parva is still a major problem in eastern Africa and some parts of southern Africa but not in South Africa following its eradication in the 1950s. However, Corridor disease (CD) caused by the buffalo-derived Theileria parva still remains a concern in South Africa. The diversity of Theileria parva in South Africa in comparison to other affected countries is poorly defined yet its known to be the survival strategy of this parasite. We assessed the antigenic diversity of Theileria parva isolates from Buffalo and cattle at the wildlife-livestock interface comparing samples from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Antigenic epitopes of eight schizont antigen genes (Tp1, Tp3, Tp4, Tp5, Tp6, Tp7, Tp8 and Tp10) were amplified by PCR from genomic DNA extracted from blood samples collected from cattle and buffalo at the wildlife-livestock interface. Amplicons were purified and then sequenced on NGS platform. Full length open reading frames (ORFs) of two schizont antigen genes (Tp2 and Tp9) and one sporozoite antigen gene, p67 were also amplified from genomic DNA. Amplicons were then purified and cloned for sequencing. Analysis was based on sequence differences in the genes. Preliminary results show an extensively diverse population of Theileria parva circulating in buffalo and cattle populations at the wildlife-livestock interface. Diversity of the antigen genes contributes to the evasion of the immune system of the host by Theileria parva. This possess a concern in that, some of the Theileria parva populations may re-assort and become adapted to cattle to cause a form of theileriosis that is as fatal as ECF in areas where ECF was eradicated or is absent

Keywords: Theileria parva, east coast fever, corridor diseases, antigen genes, diversity

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Authors: Priyanka Govender, S. Mtshali, Theresa Moonsamy, Zanele Mkwanazi, L. Mthembu

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Chemically enhanced primary treatment (CEPT) can be used at wastewater works to improve the quality of the final effluent discharge, provided that the plant has spare anaerobic digestion capacity. CEPT can transfer part of the organic load to the digesters thereby effectively relieving the hydraulic loading on the plant and in this way can allow the plant to continue operating long after the hydraulic capacity of the plant has been exceeded. This can allow a plant to continue operating well beyond its original design capacity, requiring only fairly simple and inexpensive modifications to the primary settling tanks as well as additional chemical costs, thereby delaying or even avoiding the need for expensive capital upgrades. CEPT can also be effective at plants where high organic loadings prevent the wastewater discharge from meeting discharge standards, especially in the case of COD, phosphates and suspended solids. By increasing removals of these pollutants in the primary settling tanks, CEPT can enable the plant to conform to specifications without the need for costly upgrades. Laboratory trials were carried out recently at the Umbilo WWTW in Durban and these were followed by a baseline assessment of the current plant performance and a subsequent full scale trial on the Conventional plant i.e. West Plant. The operating conditions of the plant are described and the improvements obtained in COD, phosphate and suspended solids, are discussed. The PST and plant overall suspended solids removal efficiency increased by approximately 6% during the trial. Details regarding the effect that CEPT had on sludge production and the digesters are also provided. The cost implications of CEPT are discussed in terms of capital costs as well as operation and maintenance costs and the impact of Ferric chloride on the infrastructure was also studied and found to be minimal. It was concluded that CEPT improves the final quality of the discharge effluent, thereby improving the compliance of this effluent with the discharge license. It could also allow for a delay in upgrades to the plant, allowing the plant to operate above its design capacity. This will be elaborated further upon presentation.

Keywords: chemically enhanced, ferric, wastewater, primary

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Authors: Freddy Munzhelele

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Setting: the empirical research has shown that the life cycle theory has an impact on the firms’ financing decisions, particularly the dividend pay-outs. Accordingly, the life cycle theory posits that as a firm matures, it gets to a level and capacity where it distributes more cash as dividends. On the other hand, the young firms prioritise investment opportunities sets and their financing; thus, they pay little or no dividends. The research on firms’ financing decisions also demonstrated, among others, the adoption of trade-off and pecking order theories on the dynamics of firms capital structure. The trade-off theory talks to firms holding a favourable position regarding debt structures particularly as to the cost and benefits thereof; and pecking order is concerned with firms preferring a hierarchical order as to choosing financing sources. The case of life cycle hypothesis explaining the financial managers’ decisions as regards the firms’ capital structure dynamics appears to be an interesting link, yet this link has been neglected in corporate finance research. If this link is to be explored as an empirical research, the financial decision-making alternatives will be enhanced immensely, since no conclusive evidence has been found yet as to the dynamics of capital structure. Aim: the aim of this study is to examine the impact of life cycle theory on the capital structure dynamics trade-off and pecking order theories of firms listed in retail, industrial and mining sectors of the JSE. These sectors are among the key contributors to the GDP in the South African economy. Design and methodology: following the postpositivist research paradigm, the study is quantitative in nature and utilises secondary data obtainable from the financial statements of sampled firm for the period 2010 – 2022. The firms’ financial statements will be extracted from the IRESS database. Since the data will be in panel form, a combination of the static and dynamic panel data estimators will used to analyse data. The overall data analyses will be done using STATA program. Value add: this study directly investigates the link between the life cycle theory and the dynamics of capital structure decisions, particularly the trade-off and pecking order theories.

Keywords: life cycle theory, trade-off theory, pecking order theory, capital structure, JSE listed firms

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Authors: Debrah Mtshelwane, Alewyn Nel, Lizelle Brink

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Social desirability is an important topic to study. It may be possible that different cultures experience social desirability in different ways. Different cultural groups exist within South Africa, however the focus of this study is specifically in the Zulu culture. This research aims to explore social desirability from an emic perspective within the social constructivist paradigm among individuals within the Zulu culture. The researcher intended to identify those features Zulu individuals deem as socially desirable and undesirable from their cultural viewpoint. The research was conducted using a qualitative research design and the constructivism paradigm was utilised in this study. Combined purposive and quota non-probability sampling was employed for this study. A sample of 30 employees (N = 30) working in various organisations from the provinces of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal formed part of this study and data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The main findings showed that Zulu people regard certain behaviours and actions as socially desirable and others as undesirable. The following are considered socially desirable: Conscientiousness, dominance, subjective expectations and positive relations, these are the themes that were reported on the most. These are positive features in the Zulu culture, and they reflect on behaviour patterns, attitudes and manners that people display, which are also seen as acceptable and good in the Zulu culture. The following are regarded as socially undesirable features that were identified by people who belong to the Zulu culture, the themes that were identified as undesirable are: non-conscientiousness, non-dominance (male), dominance (females), tradition, negative relations and subjective expectations. This study creates awareness on social desirability in the workplace and provides basic tools to management on how to deal with such behaviours relating to this phenomenon in the workplace. This knowledge informs employees on the concept of socially desirable behaviour, and provide more insight into behaviours and/or emotions Zulu individuals. The outcome of this study provided new indigenous, empirical knowledge on the phenomenon of social desirability within the South African context.

Keywords: cultural diversity, emic perspective, social constructivism paradigm, social desirability, Zulu culture

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Authors: Kgabo H. Badimo, Sheryl Buckley

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Knowledge is increasingly recognised in this, the knowledge era, as a strategic resource, by public sector organisations, in view of the public sector reform initiatives. People and knowledge play a vital role in attaining improved organisational performance and high service quality. Many government departments in the public sector have started to realise the importance of knowledge management in streamlining their operations and processes. This study focused on knowledge management in the public healthcare service organisations, where the concept of service provider competitiveness pales to insignificance, considering the huge challenges emanating from the healthcare and public sector reforms. Many government departments are faced with challenges of improving organisational performance and service delivery, improving accountability, making informed decisions, capturing the knowledge of the aging workforce, and enhancing partnerships with stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to examine the knowledge management practices of the Gauteng Department of Health in South Africa, in order to understand how knowledge management practices influence improvement in organisational performance and healthcare service delivery. This issue is explored through a review of literature on dominant views on knowledge management and healthcare service delivery, as well as results of interviews with, and questionnaire responses from, the general staff of the Gauteng Department of Health. Web-based questionnaires, face-to-face interviews and organisational documents were used to collect data. The data were analysed using both the quantitative and qualitative methods. The central question investigated was: To what extent can the conditions required for successful knowledge management be observed, in order to improve organisational performance and healthcare service delivery in the Gauteng Department of Health. The findings showed that the elements of knowledge management capabilities investigated in this study, namely knowledge creation, knowledge sharing and knowledge application, have a positive, significant relationship with all measures of organisational performance and healthcare service delivery. These findings thus indicate that by employing knowledge management principles, the Gauteng Department of Health could improve its ability to achieve its operational goals and objectives, and solve organisational and healthcare challenges, thereby improving organisational.

Keywords: knowledge management, Healthcare Service Delivery, public healthcare, public sector

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Authors: Cesar Vazquez-Gonzalez, Sophie Avila-Foucat, Leonardo Ortiz-Lozano, Patricia Moreno-Casasola, Alejandro Granados-Barba

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In the last twenty years, academic and scientific literature has been focused on understanding the processes and factors of coastal social-ecological systems vulnerability and resilience. Some scholars argue that resilience and vulnerability are isolated concepts due to their epistemological origin, while others note the existence of a strong resilience-vulnerability relationship. Here we present an ordinal logistic regression model based on the analytical framework about dynamic resilience-vulnerability interaction along adaptive cycle of complex systems and disasters process phases (during, recovery and learning). In this way, we demonstrate that 1) during the disturbance, absorptive capacity (resilience as a core of attributes) and external response capacity explain the probability of households capitals to diminish the damage, and exposure sets the thresholds about the amount of disturbance that households can absorb, 2) at recovery, absorptive capacity and external response capacity explain the probability of households capitals to recovery faster (resilience as an outcome) from damage, and 3) at learning, adaptive capacity (resilience as a core of attributes) explains the probability of households adaptation measures based on the enhancement of physical capital. As a result, during the disturbance phase, exposure has the greatest weight in the probability of capital’s damage, and households with absorptive and external response capacity elements absorbed the impact of floods in comparison with households without these elements. At the recovery phase, households with absorptive and external response capacity showed a faster recovery on their capital; however, the damage sets the thresholds of recovery time. More importantly, diversity in financial capital increases the probability of recovering other capital, but it becomes a liability so that the probability of recovering the household finances in a longer time increases. At learning-reorganizing phase, adaptation (modifications to the house) increases the probability of having less damage on physical capital; however, it is not very relevant. As conclusion, resilience is an outcome but also core of attributes that interacts with vulnerability along the adaptive cycle and disaster process phases. Absorptive capacity can diminish the damage experienced by floods; however, when exposure overcomes thresholds, both absorptive and external response capacity are not enough. In the same way, absorptive and external response capacity diminish the recovery time of capital, but the damage sets the thresholds in where households are not capable of recovering their capital.

Keywords: absorptive capacity, adaptive capacity, capital, floods, recovery-learning, social-ecological systems

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Authors: Madifedile Thasi, Azola Mayeza

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In South Africa, provision of housing to the growing population has been described as one of the greatest challenges facing the government. Between 1994 to 2015, more than 2.5 million housing units were provided by the government for the poorest households and the low-income earners under the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). Yet, the latest census figure revealed that about 2.1 million households still live in shacks and informal dwellings. Human settlements patterns remain dysfunctional across in South Africa because of rapid urbanisation. The housing backlog is growing at a rate of 178 000 units a year. The aforementioned predicament calls the need for innovative approaches to address the issue in a sustainable way and this need not be overemphasized. Aside from the issue of cost, the delivery of more housing units comes with environmental and sustainability issues. The prefabrication building technology has resulted into accelerated housing delivery to a satisfactory level in some countries such as Nigeria and Malaysia that are facing similar issue. It is therefore expected to be a foremost option to address the social housing backlog in South Africa and within the country housing sustainability agenda. This paper appraises the factors responsible for the limited implementation of prefabrication technology in South African housing projects. The objective is to recommend the method and materials that can be best sustained in the country in terms of local availability, cost effectiveness and environmental friendliness. It presents empirical data to support the hypothesis that a wider implementation of prefabrication technology in the social housing projects will be of significant benefit, by providing fast turnaround, cost-effective and sustainable solution that will dent the housing backlog, as well as improving the quality of the social housings. It was found that only 17 000 units of the RDP housings provided were constructed using alternative building technologies. Furthermore, there are variety of prefabricated technologies in the market but mostly have limited production capacity, minimal manufacturing capacity and most materials are imported, which leads to unavailability of the technology for large scale delivery and utilization despite its obvious advantages.

Keywords: prefabrication technology, sustainable social housings, South Africa, housing delivery

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Authors: Grace Adebo

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Rural Farmers-herdsmen conflicts have resulted in a large number of causalities in many parts of Nigeria. Herds of cattle have died, while farmers recorded inestimable losses of their crops and harvests. The overall consequences have impacted negatively on food security across the country. There are divided opinions by scholars, agricultural experts and conflict analysts on the root causes of the conflicts and why traditional institutional interventions are ineffective in resolving the crisis. The study, therefore, aims to investigate the fundamentality of the conflicts’ causes in Southwest Nigeria and the correlates between traditional institutional authorities’ intervention and farmers-herdsmen conflicts in Southwest Nigeria. A structured interview schedule and focus group discussion were employed to elicit information from 180 farmers and 48 herdsmen selected through a multistage sampling procedure from the conflict zones in Southwest Nigeria. Collected data were analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, means and the Relative Importance Index (RII). The study found that climate change effects, farmland encroachment, crop damage, theft, and competition for land and water resources and pollution were the root causes of the violent herders-rural farmer’s clashes. The quest for wealth acquisition by some traditional rulers and some notable individuals in the conflict neighborhoods, occasioned tribal-mix herds possession and, thus undermining local institutional interventions and perverting justice through weak conflict resolution strategies, therefore, fueling further conflicts. Most farmers in the conflict zones have abandoned their farms for fear of death. This coupled with physical, social, economic and psychological consequences have deepened food insecurity and impaired the economic conditions of the herdsmen and the farmers. Currently, there are no mutually established mediation mechanisms as most states are opposed to the enactment of grazing laws to protect territorial encroachments of lands and subsequent multiplication of the herdsmen. It is suggested that government and Non-Governmental Organisation (NGOs) should encourage a functional stakeholder's forum for sustainable conflict resolution and establish a compensation scheme for losses incurred while extension agents are equipped with knowledge on conflict management strategies for peace attainment with the envisioned goal of achieving sustainable livelihoods and food security in Southwest Nigeria.

Keywords: conflict resolution, food security, herdsmen-farmers conflict, sustainable livelihoods, traditional institutions

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Authors: John Ibanga

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Since May 1999, when Nigeria returned to uninterrupted democratic rule, there have been various attempts by successive governments at committing themselves to democratic ideals. Such efforts include a revision of communication policies after repeated calls by civil society organisations, development partners, researchers, and academics to allow not only the commencement of campus radio broadcasting but also the takeoff of community radio broadcasting. Thus, in 2015, operating licenses were granted to several communities spread across the six geopolitical zones in the country for the establishment of community radio stations culminating in the establishment of the first community radio in Nigeria on July 17, 2015. And, since citizens’ involvement in policy matters and governance is one of the tenets of participatory democracy, it becomes imperative to investigate how the emerging community radio sector in Nigeria is facilitating participatory democracy among Nigerians, even in the face of attempts by the present government to silence all dissenting voices. This study, therefore, examines how residents in Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria, are utilising programmes on Ejule Nen and Kakaaki community radio stations in Ondo State, Nigeria, to deepen participatory democracy. Much of the existing studies on the role of community radio in participatory democracy and citizens' engagement efforts miss out on Nigeria because of the delayed implementation of community radio policy in Nigeria being Africa’s most populous nation as well as a major player in the affairs of the African continent. While the participatory communication and communication infrastructure theories were used as framework, data were collected from in-depth interviews with staff of the community radio station and community leaders, focus group discussions with the community residents, and qualitative content analysis of programmes on the station. The residents used the community radio stations as platforms for demanding accountability from government, mobilising resources for the execution of a number of community projects, promoting credible electoral practices, and influencing the implementation of free education policy in their communities. Hence the community radio stations became the reliable and authoritative voices of residents for participating in the public sphere and, generally, the democratic process.

Keywords: community, community radio, democracy, participatory democracy

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Authors: A. T. Muruviwa

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To-date, the discourse on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has primarily centred on the actions and inactions of corporations; hence, the dominant focus on CSR has been on impacts and outcomes. The obscuring effect of this approach has, arguably, resulted in the emergence of what may be termed a ‘Northern’ agenda on CSR theory and practice, in contrast to an emergency ‘Southern’ discourse, which appears to highlight the crucial issues of poverty reduction, infrastructure development and the broader questions of social provisioning and community empowerment. Some scholars have explicitly called for a CSR research agenda that focuses on the 'reciprocal duties' of the stakeholders in the CSR process rather than fixate on the actions and inactions of business. It is against the backdrop of these contestations that this study assesses the reciprocal relationships amongst CSR stakeholders in a Zimbabwean platinum mining town, with a view to demonstrating how such relationships – and the expectations and obligations embedded in them – impact on the success or failure of CSR initiatives. The existence of mutual relations between the corporation and its stakeholders signifies the successes of CSR processes and hence the outcomes. The company is Zimplats Mining Company; the community is Mhondoro-Ngezi, and the stakeholders are clearly identified in the study. The study utilised a triangulated design, with data collected using a mini survey, focus groups, in-depth interview and observation. The key findings are that the CSR process in the study community is dominated by the mining company. Despite the existence of a CSR framework that recognises government, local leaders and community members as legitimate stakeholders, there is little evidence of concrete contributions made by these stakeholders towards the realisation of CSR objectives. As a result, the community development process – in so far as CSR is concerned – fails to address the developmental concerns of the various stakeholders. On the basis of these findings, the study concludes that there is a crisis of reciprocity in the CSR process in Mhondoro-Ngezi, and that a situation where the conceptualisation of local development needs and the deployment of specific development tools seems to be driven by one stakeholder almost to the exclusion of all others, can only present contradictory development outcomes. The significance of this study is that it allows for the development of a more nuanced and robust CSR discourse. Rather than focusing on the corporate and stakeholder perspectives and outcomes of CSR initiatives, this study examines the CSR- development nexus by interrogating the idea of reciprocal responsibility as a sin qua non to CSR success. This analytical strategy and focus allow the researcher to gain a clear understanding of how stakeholder relationships and duties influence CSR processes and also the overall outcome. At a more practical level, the findings of the study should help to shape the policy on corporate community relationships with a view to enhancing the role of mining in development.

Keywords: community development, processes, reciprocity, stakeholders

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Authors: Laura Rodriguez Amaya

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Advances in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are viewed as important to countries’ national economies and their capacities to be competitive in the global economy. However, many countries experience low numbers of students entering these disciplines. To strengthen the professional STEM pipelines, it is important that students are retained in these disciplines at universities. Scholars agree that to retain students in universities’ STEM degrees, it is necessary that STEM course content shows the relevance of these academic fields to their daily lives. By increasing students’ understanding on the importance of these degrees and careers, students’ motivation to remain in these academic programs can also increase. An effective way to make STEM content relevant to students’ lives is the use of geospatial technologies and geovisualization in the classroom. The Geospatial Revolution, and the science and technology associated with it, has provided scientists and engineers with an incredible amount of data about Earth and Earth systems. This data can be used in the classroom to support instruction and make content relevant to all students. The purpose of this study was to find out the prevalence use of geospatial technologies and geovisualization as teaching practices in a USA university. The Teaching Practices Inventory survey, which is a modified version of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative Teaching Practices Inventory, was selected for the study. Faculty in the STEM disciplines that participated in a summer learning institute at a 4-year university in the USA constituted the population selected for the study. One of the summer learning institute’s main purpose was to have an impact on the teaching of STEM courses, particularly the teaching of gateway courses taken by many STEM majors. The sample population for the study is 97.5 of the total number of summer learning institute participants. Basic descriptive statistics through the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) were performed to find out: 1) The percentage of faculty using geospatial technologies and geovisualization; 2) Did the faculty associated department impact their use of geospatial tools?; and 3) Did the number of years in a teaching capacity impact their use of geospatial tools? Findings indicate that only 10 percent of respondents had used geospatial technologies, and 18 percent had used geospatial visualization. In addition, the use of geovisualization among faculty of different disciplines was broader than the use of geospatial technologies. The use of geospatial technologies concentrated in the engineering departments. Data seems to indicate the lack of incorporation of geospatial tools in STEM education. The use of geospatial tools is an effective way to engage students in deep STEM learning. Future research should look at the effect on student learning and retention in science and engineering programs when geospatial tools are used.

Keywords: engineering education, geospatial technology, geovisualization, STEM

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Authors: Surajo Ladan

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There is no doubt nowadays, the media plays a crucial role in the development of languages. Media practitioners influence and set our linguistic norms to a greater extent. Their strategic position makes them influential than school teachers as linguistic pacesetters and models. This is so because of the direct access to the general public that media enjoys being public, oriented and at the same time being patronized by the public, the media is regarded as an authority as far as language use is concerned. In the modern world, listening to the news has become part and parcel of our daily lives. Easy communication has made the world a global village. Contact between countries and people are increasing daily. In Nigeria and indeed the whole of West Africa, radio is the most widely spread out of the three types of media (radio, television, and print). This is because of its (radio) cheapness and less cumbersome and flexibility. Therefore, the positive or negative effect of radio on the lives of a typical Nigerian or African cannot be over emphasized. Hausa language, on the other hand, is one of the most widely spoken languages in West Africa and, of course, the lingua franca in the Northern part of Nigeria and Southern Niger. The language has been in use to a large extent by almost all the popular foreign media houses of BBC, VOA, Deutsche Welle Radio, Radio France International, Radio China, etc. The many people in Nigeria and West Africa depend so much on the news in this language. In fact even government programmes, mobilization, education and sensitization of the populace are done in this language through the broadcast media. It is against this background, for effective and efficient work of this nature it requires the services of a trained translator for the purpose of translating scientific and technological terms. The main thrust of this paper was necessitated for the fact that no nation develops using foreign or borrowed language. This is in lined with UNESCO declaration of 1953 where it says 'the best Language of Instruction (LOI) is the vernacular or the Mother Tongue (MT) of the learner'. This idea is in the right direction especially nowadays that the developing nations have come to terms with realities that their destiny is really in their own hands, not in the hands of the so-called developed nations.

Keywords: translation, scientific, technological, language, radio, media

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Authors: Marriette Sakah, Christoph Kuhn, Samuel Gyamfi

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Global electricity demand of households in 2005 is estimated to double by 2025 and nearly double again in 2030. The residential sector promises considerable demand growth through infrastructural and equipment investments, the majority of which is projected to occur in developing countries. This lays bare the urgency for enhanced efficiency in all energy systems combined with exploitation of local potential for renewable energy systems. This study explores options for reducing energy consumption, particularly in residential buildings and providing robust, decentralized and renewable energy supply for African cities. The potential of energy efficiency measures and the potential of harnessing local resources for renewable energy supply are quantitatively assessed. The scale of research specifically addresses the city level, which is regulated by local authorities. Local authorities can actively promote the transition to a renewable-based energy supply system by promoting energy efficiency and the use of alternative renewable fuels in existing buildings, and particularly in planning and development of new settlement areas through the use of incentives, regulations, and demonstration projects. They can also support a more sustainable development by shaping local land use and development patterns in such ways that reduce per capita energy consumption and are benign to the environment. The subject of the current case study, Tema, is Ghana´s main industrial hub, a port city and home to 77,000 families. Residential buildings in Tema consumed 112 GWh of electricity in 2013 or 1.45 MWh per household. If average household electricity demand were to decline at an annual rate of just 2 %, by 2035 Tema would consume only 134 GWh of electricity despite an expected increase in the number of households by 84 %. The work is based on a ground survey of the city’s residential sector. The results show that efficient technologies and decentralized renewable energy systems have great potential for meeting the rapidly growing energy demand of cities in developing countries.

Keywords: energy efficiency, energy saving potential, renewable energy integration, residential buildings, urban Africa

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Authors: Fabian Nde Fon

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Decolonisation is one of the hottest topics in most African Universities; this is because many researchers focus on research that does not speak to their immediate community. This research looked at postgraduate research projects that can take students to the community to apply the knowledge that they have learned as an attempt to transform their community. In regards to this, an honours project was designed to try and provide a cheaper and continuous source of protein (egg) using amber-link layers and to investigate the potential of the project to promote postgraduate student development and entrepreneurship. Two ban layer production systems were created: (1) Production system one on a Hill (PS-I) and (2) Production system two in a valley, closer to a dam (PS-II) at Nqutshini, Gingindlovu, KwaZulu-Natal Province. Forty point-of-lay (18 weeks old) amber links were bought at Inverness Rearers and divided into PS-I (20), and PS-II (20), and each of the production systems was further divided into two groups of ten (PS-I-1 and PS-II-1 (partially supplemented) and PS-I-2 and PS-II-2 (supplemented with layer mash)) by a random selection. Birds' weights were balanced in each group to avoid bias. The two groups in each production system were caged separately (1.5x1.5m² for ten birds) and in close proximity. Partially supplemented birds received 0.6 kg of layer mash (60g/per bird/day) and kitchen leftovers daily, and supplemented birds were fed 1.2 kg of layer mash (120g/per bird/day). Egg collection was daily after feeding in the morning while was given ad libitium. The eggs were assessed for internal and external quality after weighing before recording. Egg production from fully supplemented birds (PS-I-2 and PS-II-2) was generally higher (P<0.05) than those of PS-I-1 and PS-II-1. The difference in production was only 6% in the valley while on the Hill, it was only 3%. However, some of the birds in the valley showed signs of respiratory infections, which was not observed with those on the Hill. There are no differences in the internal and external qualities of eggs (york colour and egg shell) determined. This implies that both systems were sustainable. It was suggested members in the community living at the valley or Hill can use these hardy layers as a cheaper source of protein and preferable to the partially supplemented systems because it is relatively cheaper. The smallholder farmers are still pursuing the project long after the students graduate; hence the benefit of the project is reciprocal for both the university and the community (entrepreneurship).

Keywords: animal nutrition, ban layer, production, postgraduate curricula, entrepreneurship

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Authors: Hortènsia Curell, Ana Fernández-Montraveta

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This paper presents the creation, development, and analysis of a corpus designed to study the presence of attitude markers and author’s stance in research articles in two different areas of linguistics (theoretical linguistics and sociolinguistics). These two disciplines are expected to behave differently in this respect, given the disparity in their discursive conventions. Attitude markers in this work are understood as the linguistic elements (adjectives, nouns and verbs) used to convey the writer's stance towards the content presented in the article, and are crucial in understanding writer-reader interaction and the writer's position. These attitude markers are divided into three broad classes: assessment, significance, and emotion. In addition to them, we also consider first-person singular and plural pronouns and possessives, modal verbs, and passive constructions, which are other linguistic elements expressing the author’s stance. The corpus, Corpus of Attitude in Academic Writing (CAAW), comprises a collection of 21 articles, collected from six journals indexed in JCR. These articles were originally written in English by a single native-speaker author from the UK or USA and were published between 2022 and 2023. The total number of words in the corpus is approximately 222,400, with 106,422 from theoretical linguistics (Lingua, Linguistic Inquiry and Journal of Linguistics) and 116,022 from sociolinguistics journals (International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Language in Society and Journal of Sociolinguistics). Together with the corpus, we present the tool created for the creation and storage of the corpus, along with a tool for automatic annotation. The steps followed in the compilation of the corpus are as follows. First, the articles were selected according to the parameters explained above. Second, they were downloaded and converted to txt format. Finally, examples, direct quotes, section titles and references were eliminated, since they do not involve the author’s stance. The resulting texts were the input for the annotation of the linguistic features related to stance. As for the annotation, two articles (one from each subdiscipline) were annotated manually by the two researchers. An existing list was used as a baseline, and other attitude markers were identified, together with the other elements mentioned above. Once a consensus was reached, the rest of articles were annotated automatically using the tool created for this purpose. The annotated corpus will serve as a resource for scholars working in discourse analysis (both in linguistics and communication) and related fields, since it offers new insights into the expression of attitude. The tools created for the compilation and annotation of the corpus will be useful to study author’s attitude and stance in articles from any academic discipline: new data can be uploaded and the list of markers can be enlarged. Finally, the tool can be expanded to other languages, which will allow cross-linguistic studies of author’s stance.

Keywords: academic writing, attitude, corpus, english

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Authors: Khalid Alshaikh

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In recent years, leadership, Corporate Governance (CG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have been under scrutiny in the Libyan society. Scholars and institutions have commenced investigating the possible resolutions they can arrange to alleviate the economic, social and environmental problems the war has produced. Thus far, these constructs requisite an in-depth reinvestigation, reconceptualization, and analysis to clearly reconstruct their rules and regulations. With the demise of Qaddafi’s regime, levels, degrees, and efforts to apply CG regulations have varied in public and private commercial banks. CSR is a new organizational culture that still designs its route within these financial institutions. Detaching itself from any notion of dictatorship and autocratic traits, leadership counts on transformational and transactional styles. Therefore, this paper investigates the extent to which the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) redefine these concepts and how they entrench CSR within the framework of CG. The research methodology used both public and private banks as a case study and qualitative research to interview ten Board of Directors (BoDs) and eleven Chief executive managers to explore how leadership, CG, and CSR are defined and how leadership integrates CSR into CG structures. The findings suggest that the CG framework in Libya still requires great efforts to be developed. Full CG code implementation appears daunting. Also, the CSR is still influenced by the power of religion. Nevertheless, the Islamic perspective is more consistent with the social contract concept of the CSR. The Libyan commercial banks do not solely focus on the economic side of maximizing profits, but also concentrate on its morality. The issue is that CSR activities are not enough to achieve good charity publicly and needs strategies to address major social issues. Moreover, leadership is more transformational and transactional and endeavors to make economic, social and environmental changes, but these changes are curtailed by tradition and traditional values dominating the Libyan social life where religious and tribal practices establish the relationship between leaders and their subordinates. Finally, the findings reveal that transformational and transactional leadership styles encourage the incorporation of CSR into the CG regulations. The boardroom and executive management have such a particular role in flagging up how embedded corporate Social responsibility is in organizational culture across the commercial banks, yet it is still important that the BoDs and CEOs need to do much more to embed corporate social responsibility through their core functions. They need to boost their standing to be more influential and make sure that the right discussions about CSR happen with the right stakeholders involved.

Keywords: board of directors, chief executive officers, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility

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Authors: Marzieh Moattari Mitra Abbasi, Masoud Mousavinasab, Poorahmad

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Background: Nurses in their daily practice need to communicate with patients and their families as well as health professional team members. Effective communication contributes to patients’ satisfaction which is a fundamental outcome of nursing practice. There are some evidences in support of patients' dissatisfaction with nurses’ performance in communication process. Therefore improving nurses’ communication skills is a necessity for nursing scholars and nursing administrators. Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of a 2-days workshop on nurses’ competencies and performances in communication in a central hospital located in the sought of Iran. Materials and Method: This is a randomized controlled trial which comprised of a convenient sample of 70 eligible nurses, working in a central hospital. They were randomly divided into 2 experimental and control groups. Nurses’ competencies was measured by an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) and their performance was measured by asking eligible patients hospitalized in the nurses work setting during a one month period to evaluate nurses' communication skills before and 2 months after intervention. The experimental group participated in a 2 day workshop on communication skills. Content included in this workshop were: the importance of communication (verbal and non verbal), basic communication skills such as initiating the communication, active listening and questioning technique. Other subjects were patient teaching, problem solving, and decision making, cross cultural communication and breaking bad news. Appropriate teaching strategies such as brief didactic sessions, small group discussion and reflection were applied to enhance participants learning. The data was analyzed using SPSS 16. Result: A significant between group differences was found in nurses’ communication skills competencies and performances in the posttest. The mean scores of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group in the total score of OSCE as well as all stations of OSCE (p<0.003). Overall posttest mean scores of patient satisfaction with nurse's communication skills and all of its four dimensions significantly differed between the two groups of the study (p<0.001). Conclusion: This study shows that the education of nurses in communication skills, improves their competencies and performances. Measurement of Nurses’ communication skills as a central component of efficient nurse patient relationship by valid and reliable methods of evaluation is recommended. Also it is necessary to integrate teaching of communication skills in continuing nursing education programs. Trial Registration Number: IRCT201204042621N11

Keywords: communication skills, simulation, performance, competency, objective structure, clinical evaluation

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Authors: Mona Alyedreessy

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This study, which is based on a qualitative study sample of thirty-four British converts from different ages, ethnicities, social classes, areas and religious backgrounds in London, investigates the common challenges, problems and abuse in the name of Islam that many British female Muslim converts experienced during their time as Muslims, which caused them to leave the faith. It is an important study, as it creates an awareness of the weaknesses found in western Muslim societies and in various Islamic educational programs that causes people to leave Islam and contribute towards its negative reputation in the media. The women in this study shared common problems regarding gender and racial discrimination, identity development, feminism, marriage, parenting, Muslim culture, isolation, extremism, belonging and practising Islam in both Muslim and non-Muslim societies with differing sacrifices and consequences that caused them to de-convert. The study argues that many of the personal, religious and social problems female Muslim converts experience are due to a lack of knowledge about Islam and their rights as Muslim women, which often results in them being vulnerable and influenced by the opinions, attitudes and actions of uneducated, abusive, non-practising and extremist Muslims. For example, it was found that young female converts in particular were often taken advantage of and manipulated into believing that many negative actions displayed by patriarchal Muslim husbands were a part of Islam. This created much confusion, especially when their husbands used specific Quran texts and Hadiths to justify their abuse, authority and attitudes that made them miserable. As a result and based on the positive experiences of some converts, the study found that obtaining a broad Islamic education that started with an intimate study of the Prophet Muhammad’s biography alongside being guided by the teachings of western Muslim scholars contributed greatly towards a more enjoyable conversion journey, as women were able to identify and avoid problematic Muslims and abuse in the name of Islam. This in turn helped to create a healthier family unit and Muslim society. Those who enjoyed being Muslims were able to create a balanced western Muslim identity by negotiating and applying their own morals and western values to their understanding of The Prophet’s biography and The Quran and integrated Islamic values into their own secular western environments that were free from foreign cultural practices. The outcomes of the study also highlight some effective modern approaches to da’wah based on the teachings of The Prophet Mohammad and other prophets for young Arab and Asian Muslims who marry, study and live among non-Muslims and converts.

Keywords: abuse, apostasy, converts, Muslims

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Authors: Rupali Chaudhary

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Shakespeare has been widely revisited by dramatists, critics, filmmakers and scholars around the globe. Shakespeare's kaleidoscopic work has been borrowed and redesigned into resonant patterns by artists, thus weaving myriad manifestations to pick from. Along with adaptation into wholly verbal medium (e.g., translations) the practice of indigenization through performing arts has played a great role in amplifying the reach of plays. The proliferation of Shakespeare's oeuvre commenced with the spread of colonialism itself. The plays illustrating the core values of Western tradition were introduced in the colonies. Therefore, the colonial domination extended to cultural domination. The plays were translated and adapted by the locals at times as it is and sometimes intermingled with the altered landscape and culture. The present paper discusses the global dimensions of Shakespearean cinema along with the historical cinematic shift from silent era to spoken dialogue in multiple languages. The methodology followed is descriptive in nature, and related information is availed from related literature, i.e., books, research articles and films. America and Europe dominated the silent era Shakespearean film production, thereby giving the term 'global' a less broad meaning. Five nations that dominated silent Shakespearean cinema were the United States, England, Italy, France, and Germany. Gradually the work of the exemplary figure with artistic and literary greatness surpassed the boundaries of the colonies and became a global legacy. Presently apart from English speaking nations Shakespearean films have been shot or produced in many of non-Anglophone locales. The findings indicate that when discussing about global dimensions of Shakespearean cinema various factors can be considered: involvement of actors and directors of foreign origin, transportability and universal comprehensibility of visual imagery across geographical borders, commodification of art or West's use of it as a tool of cultural hegemony or promotion of international amity, propagation of interculturalism through individual director's cultural translations and localization of Western art. Understanding of Shakespeare as a global export also depends on how an individual Shakespearean film works. Shakespeare's global appeal for cinema does not reside alone in his exquisite writings, distinctive characters, the setting, the story and the plots that have nurtured cinema since the medium's formative years. Shakespeare's global cinematic appeal is present in the spirit of cinema itself, i.e., the moving images capturing human behaviour and emotions that the plays invoke in audiences.

Keywords: adaptation, global dimensions, Shakespeare, Shakespearean cinema

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Authors: Mohamed Sadok Bensalem, Soulef Amamria, Khaled Lazzez, Mohamed Ghanmi

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The southern-central Tunisian Atlas presents a typical example of external zone. It occupies a particular position in the North African chains: firstly, it is the eastern limit of atlassicstructures; secondly, it is the edges between the belts structures to the north and the stable Saharan platform in the south. The evolution of deformation studyis based on several methods such as classical or numerical methods. The principals parameters controlling the genesis of folds in the southern central Tunisian Atlas are; the reactivation of pre-existing faults during later compressive phase, the evolution of decollement level, and the relation between thin and thick-skinned. One of the more principal characters of the southern-central Tunisian Atlas is the variation of belts structures directions determined by: NE-SW direction named the attlassic direction in Tunisia, the NW-SE direction carried along the Gafsa fault (the oriental limit of southern atlassic accident), and the E-W direction defined in the southern Tunisian Atlas. This variation of direction is the result of an important variation of deformation during different tectonics phases. A classical modeling of the Jebel ElKebar anticline, based on faults throw of the pre-existing faults and its reactivation during compressive phases, shows the importance of extensional deformation, particular during Aptian-Albian period, comparing with that of later compression (Alpine phases). A numerical modeling, based on the software Rampe E.M. 1.5.0, applied on the anticline of Jebel Orbata confirms the interpretation of “fault related fold” with decollement level within the Triassic successions. The other important parameter of evolution of deformation is the vertical migration of decollement level; indeed, more than the decollement level is in the recent series, most that the deformation is accentuated. The evolution of deformation is marked the development of duplex structure in Jebel AtTaghli (eastern limit of Jebel Orbata). Consequently, the evolution of deformation is proportional to the depth of the decollement level, the most important deformation is in the higher successions; thus is associated to the thin-skinned deformation; the decollement level permit the passive transfer of deformation in the cover.

Keywords: evolution of deformation, pre-existing faults, decollement level, thin-skinned

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Authors: Li Shihao, Dieter Trau

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Bilirubin is a yellow substance that is made when the body breaks down old red blood cells. High levels of bilirubin can cause jaundice, a condition that makes the newborn's skin and the white part of the eyes look yellow. Jaundice is a serial-killer in developing countries in Southeast Asia such as Myanmar and most parts of Africa where jaundice screening is largely unavailable. Worldwide, 60% of newborns experience infant jaundice. One in ten will require therapy to prevent serious complications and lifelong neurologic sequelae. Limitations of current solutions: - Blood test: Blood tests are painful may largely unavailable in poor areas of developing countries, and also can be costly and unsafe due to the insufficient investment and lack of access to health care systems. - Transcutaneous jaundice-meter: 1) can only provide reliable results to caucasian newborns, due to skin pigmentations since current technologies measure bilirubin by the color of the skin. Basically, the darker the skin is, the harder to measure, 2) current jaundice meters are not affordable for most underdeveloped areas in Africa like Kenya and Togo, 3) fat tissue under the skin also influences the accuracy, which will give overestimated results, 4) current jaundice meters are not reliable after treatment (phototherapy) because bilirubin levels underneath the skin will be reduced first, while overall levels may be quite high. Thus, there is an urgent need for a low-cost non-invasive device, which can be effective not only for caucasian babies but also Asian and African newborns, to save lives at the most vulnerable time and prevent any complications like brain damage. Instead of measuring bilirubin on skin, we proposed a new method to do the measurement on the sclera, which can avoid the difference of skin pigmentations and ethnicities, due to the necessity for the sclera to be white regardless of racial background. This is a novel approach for measuring bilirubin by an optical method of light reflection off the white part of the eye. Moreover, the device is connected to a smart device, which can provide a user-friendly interface and the ability to record the clinical data continuously A disposable eye cap will be provided avoiding contamination and fixing the distance to the eye.

Keywords: Jaundice, bilirubin, non-invasive, sclera

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Authors: Nolitha L. Skenjana, Bongani P. Kubheka, Maxwell A. Poswal

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The Eastern Cape Province of South Africa is characterized by subsistence farming, which is mostly distributed in the rural areas of the province. It is estimated that cereal crops such as maize and sorghum, and vegetables such as cabbage are grown in more than 400.000 rural households, with maize being the most dominant crop. However, compared to commercial agriculture, small-scale farmers receive minimal support from research and development, limited technology transfer on the latest production practices and systems and have poor production infrastructure and equipment. Similarly, there is limited farmers' appreciation on best practices in insect pest management and control. The paper presents findings from the primary literature and personal observations on insect pest management practices of small-scale farmers in the province. Inferences from literature and personal experiences in the production areas have led to a number of deductions regarding the level of exposure and extent of vulnerability. Farmers' pest management practices, which included not controlling at all though there is a pest problem, resulted in their crop stands to be more vulnerable to pest attacks. This became more evident with the recent brown locust, African armyworm, and Fall armyworm outbreaks, and with the incidences of opportunistic phytophagous insects previously collected on wild hosts only, found causing serious damages on crops. In most of these occurrences, damage to crops resulted in low or no yield. Improvements on farmers' reaction and response to pest problems were only observed in areas where focused awareness campaigns and trainings on specific pests and their management techniques were done. This then calls for a concerted effort from all role players in the sphere of small-scale crop production, to train and equip farmers with relevant skills, and provide them with information on affordable and climate-smart strategies and technologies in order to create a state of preparedness. This is necessary for the prevention of substantial crop losses that may exacerbate food insecurity in the province.

Keywords: Eastern Cape Province, small-scale farmers, insect pest management, vulnerability

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Authors: Chante Van Tonder, Bart Bossink, Chris Schachtebeck, Cecile Nieuwenhuizen

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Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) play a key role in national economies around the world, being contributors to economic and social well-being. Due to this, the success, growth and competitiveness of SMEs are critical. However, there are many factors that undermine this, such as resource constraints, poor information communication infrastructure (ICT), skills shortages and poor management. The Fourth Industrial Revolution offers new tools and opportunities such as digital transformation and business model innovation (BMI) to the SME sector to enhance its competitiveness. Adopting and leveraging digital technologies such as cloud, mobile technologies, big data and analytics can significantly improve business efficiencies, value proposition and customer experiences. Digital transformation can contribute to the growth and competitiveness of SMEs. However, SMEs are lagging behind in the participation of digital transformation. Extant research lacks conceptual and empirical research on how digital transformation drives BMI and the impact it has on the growth and competitiveness of SMEs. The purpose of the study is, therefore, to close this gap by developing and empirically validating a conceptual model to determine if SMEs are achieving BMI through digital transformation and how this is impacting the growth, competitiveness and overall business performance. An empirical study is being conducted on 300 SMEs, consisting of 150 South-African and 150 Dutch SMEs, to achieve this purpose. Structural equation modeling is used, since it is a multivariate statistical analysis technique that is used to analyse structural relationships and is a suitable research method to test the hypotheses in the model. Empirical research is needed to gather more insight into how and if SMEs are digitally transformed and how BMI can be driven through digital transformation. The findings of this study can be used by SME business owners, managers and employees at all levels. The findings will indicate if digital transformation can indeed impact the growth, competitiveness and overall performance of an SME, reiterating the importance and potential benefits of adopting digital technologies. In addition, the findings will also exhibit how BMI can be achieved in light of digital transformation. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in a highly relevant and important topic in management studies by analysing the impact of digital transformation on BMI on a large number of SMEs that are distinctly different in economic and cultural factors

Keywords: business models, business model innovation, digital transformation, SMEs

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Authors: Johannes Van Der Sandt

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This quantitative study investigates different approaches of community singing, in building social capital in South Tyrol, Italy, and South Africa. The impact of the various approaches of community singing is examined by investigating the main components of social capital, namely, social norms and obligations, social networks and associations and trust, and how these components are manifested in two different societies. The research is based on the premise that community singing is an important agent for the development of social capital. It seeks to establish in what form community singing can best enhance the social capital of communities in South Tyrol that are undergoing significant changes in the ways in which social capital is generally being generated on account of demographic, economic, technological and cultural changes. South Tyrol and South Africa share some similarities in the management of their multi-cultural composition. By comparing the different approaches to community singing in two multi-cultural societies, it is hoped to gain insight, and an understanding of the connections between culture, social cohesion, identity and therefore to be able to add to the understanding of the building of social capital through community singing. Participation in music contributes to the growth of social capital in communities, this is amongst others the finding of an ever increasing amount of research. In sociological discourses on social capital generation, the dimension of community music making is recognized as an important factor. Trust and mutual cooperation are products when people listen to each other, when they work or play together, and when they care about each other. This is how social capital develops as an important shared resource. Scholars of Community Music still do not agree on a short and concise definition for Community Music. For the purpose of this research, the author concurs with the definition of Community Music of the Community Music Activity commission of the International Society of Music Education as having the following characteristics: decentralization, accessibility, equal opportunity, and active participation in music-making. These principles are social and political ones, and there can be no doubt that community music activity is more than a purely musical one. Trust, shared norms and values civic and community involvement, networks, knowledge resources, contact with families and friends, and fellowship are key components in fostering group cohesion and social capital development in a community. The research will show that there is no better place for these factors to flourish than in a community singing group. Through this comparative study, it is the aim to identify, analyze and explain similarities and differences in approaches to community across societies that find themselves in a rapid transition from traditional cultural to global cultural habits characterized by a plurality of orientation points, with the aim to gain a better understanding of the various directions South Tyrolean singing culture can take.

Keywords: community music, multicultural, singing, social capital

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