Expanding the prevention armamentarium portfolio: A framework for promoting HIV-Conversant Communities within a complex, adaptive epidemiological landscape

The article describes a design journey that culminated in an HIV-Conversant Community Framework that is now being piloted in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The objective of the initiative is to reduce the aggregate community viral load by building capacity at multiple scales that strengthens peoples’ HIV-related navigational skill sets—while simultaneously opening a ‘chronic situation’ schema. The framework design is based upon a transdisciplinary methodological combination that synthesises ideas and constructs from complexity science and the management sciences as a vehicle through which to re-conceptualise HIV prevention. This resulted in a prototype that included the following constructs: managing HIV-prevention in a complex, adaptive epidemiological landscape; problematising and increasing the scope of the HIV knowledge armamentarium through education that focuses on the viral load and Langerhans cells; disruptive innovation and safe-fail probes followed by the facilitation of path creations and pattern management implementation techniques. These constructs are underpinned by a ‘middle-ground’ prevention approach which is designed to bridge the prevention ‘fault line’, enabling a multi-ontology conceptualisation of the challenge to be developed. The article concludes that stepping outside of the ‘ordered’ epistemological parameters of the existing prevention ‘messaging’ mind-set towards a more systemic approach that emphasises agency, structure and social practices as a contribution to ‘ending AIDS by 2030’ is worthy of further attention if communities are to engage more adaptively with the dynamic HIV landscape in South Africa.Keywords: chronic schemas, complex adaptive epidemiological landscape, disruptive innovation, pattern management, safe-fail probe

W-shaped chirp free and chirped bright, dark solitons for perturbed nonlinear Schrödinger equation in nonlinear optical fibers

In the present investigation, we employed the Jacobi elliptic function (JEF) method to invoke the perturbed nonlinear Schrödinger equation with self-steepening (SS), self-phase modulation (SPM), and group velocity dispersion (GVD), which govern the propagation of solitonic pulses in optical fibres. The proposed algorithm proves the existence of the family of solitons in optical fibers. Consequently, chirped and chirp free W-shaped bright, dark soliton solutions are obtained from dn(ξ), cn(ξ) and sn(ξ) functions. The final results are displayed in three-dimensional plots with specific physical values of GVD, SPM and SS for an optical fiber

Weak signal detection: A discrete window of opportunity for achieving ‘Vision 90:90:90’?

INTRODUCTION: UNAIDS’ Vision 90:90:90 is a call to ‘end AIDS’. Developing predictive foresight of the unpredictable changes that this journey will entail could contribute to the ambition of ‘ending AIDS’. There are few opportunities for managing unpredictable changes. We introduce ‘weak signal detection’ as a potential opportunity to fill this void. METHOD: Combining futures and complexity theory, we reflect on two pilot case studies that involved the Archetype Extraction technique and the SenseMakerw CollectorTM tool. RESULTS: Both the piloted techniques have the potentials to surface weak signals but there is room for improvement. DISCUSSION: A management response to a complex weak signal requires pattern management, rather than an exclusive focus on behaviour management. CONCLUSION: Weak signal detection is a window of opportunity to improve resilience to unpredictable changes in the HIV/AIDS landscape that can both reduce the risk that emerges from the changes and increase the visibility of opportunities to exploit the unpredictable changes that could contribute to ‘ending AIDS’.IS

Comparing trends in global and domestic mango commodity chains

Paper presented at the NRF/RCN feedback workshop, Regent Hotel, East London, 7 Octobe

Food buying patterns in rural Eastern Cape and Limpopo

How rural households meet their food needs is shifting the food-security policy debate. This became clear from research collected from both female- and male-headed households in rural Eastern Cape and Limpopo. PETER JACOBS, MOGAU APHANE and ROBERT DZIVAKWI report.

On Quasimetrizability of Quasicone Metric Spaces

The aim of this work is to extend interesting results on the metrizability of cone metric spaces as it appears in the literature. In this paper we appeal to quasiuniformities and uniformities to prove that a quasicone metric space is qausimetrizable, and from our results we will deduce that every cone metric space is metrizable; our approach is more on bitopological and topological properties and differs from the one used by the papers mentioned above but affirms some of their results

Livelihood strategies of rural women in Eastern Cape and Limpopo

This analysis of new household data collected in rural Limpopo and the Eastern Cape of South Africa reveals that structural inequalities exist between men and women: many rural women might be better educated than men, but they remain at the bottom of the rural social pyramid. This is evidenced by their limited access to farm and non-farm assets as well as household spending levels below common poverty lines. This suggests that socio-economic institutions in rural society work against the participation of rural women in agro-food value chains as farm workers, roadside traders and smallholder farmers. This situation calls for policy interventions to clear the structural impediments to gender equity. Social transfers, such as Child Support Grants, might alleviate income poverty in women-headed households and improve food and nutrition security, which is increasingly dependent on affordability. Gender equity in the distribution of critical farm assets remains a vital step to transition rural women-headed households to secure and sustainable livelihoods.

Academic interaction with external social partners: investigating the contribution of universities to economic and social development

A lively debate on the relationship between the university and society in a developing country like South Africa is emerging. Academic Interaction looks at the main results of a research study on university interaction with external social partners. It centres on definitional boundaries around whether engagement requires new forms of knowledge that differ from traditional academic modes and around who is defined as 'the community' at local, regional, national or international levels. There is general agreement that the field is conceptually under-specified and theoretically rather thin. Academic Interaction presents a comprehensive data set stemming from research conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) on behalf of the National Research Foundation (NRF). The study aims to present not only an analysis of 'what exists' but also utilises an analytical approach that will encourage future debates to be more empirically informed, contextually grounded and hence conducted in a more rigorous and robust manner. This book will be of interest to higher education scholars across the globe as well as innovation systems scholars and university academics.

Viscosity extragradient with modified inertial method for solving equilibrium problems and fixed point problem in Hadamard manifold

In this article, we propose a viscosity extragradient algorithm together with an inertial extrapolation method for approximating the solution of pseudomonotone equilibrium and fixed point problem of a nonexpansive mapping in the setting of a Hadamard manifold. We prove that the sequence generated by our iterative method converges to a solution of the above problems under some mild conditions. Finally, we outline some implications of our results and present several numerical examples showing the implementability of our algorithm. The results of this article extend and complement many related results in linear spaces.</p

Education, training and skills development in the Cape Town City Region: background paper

Commissioned for the Cape Town Global Competitiveness Project, DecemberThis background report provides an overview of current conditions, capacity and performance on the education and training supply side in the Cape Town City Region, as distinct from and in relation to provincial and national trends. The Cape Town City Region covers seven municipalities centred on the City of Cape Town, including Saldanha Bay, Swartland, Drakenstein, Stellenbosch, Theewaterskloof and Overstrand local municipalities. The report provides a detailed descriptive analysis of trends at three education and training and skills development levels: the schooling foundation, intermediate level provision and higher education. Its purpose is to feed into and inform analysis in Workstreams 1:4 (Locational advantage), 2 (Benchmarking) and 5 (SWOT Analysis). It draws on national education and skill datasets to extract trends at the city region level, a task that has not been undertaken systematically. The quality and coverage of the available data is limited, particularly when drilled down to the level of the city region. Hence, the analysis focuses on overall enrolments and completions, as well as demographic trends and where possible disciplinary field or sectoral trends, at each of the three levels of the education and training system. It is apparent that while the Cape Town City Region performs well relative to the Western Cape provincial and national trends, there are significant gaps in provision, concerns about equity of access and outcomes, and concerns about the scale and quality of the skills and qualifications produced, that impact on global competitiveness