Can groundwater be successfully implemented as a bulk water resource within rural Limpopo Province? Analysis based on GRIP datasets

Groundwater is a strategic water resource in rural Limpopo Province and it accounts for almost 70% of rural domestic water supply. The resource is available throughout the Province in varying quantities and qualities depending on the hydrogeological properties of the underlying aquifer. These properties are mostly secondary in nature and are constrained by the processes of weathering, faulting, fracturing and the influence of intrusive rocks. These properties define typical fractured aquifers in which the selection of drilling sites requires a thorough scientific approach to locate a successful productive borehole. While most water service authorities in the Province have been randomly developing new boreholes with limited success rates, the analysis of datasets in the newly established groundwater data repository, the Limpopo Groundwater Resource Information Project (GRIP) demonstrates that large quantities of groundwater can be obtained and used for bulk supply if the drilling sites are scientifically selected. The GRIP dataset contains 24 922 entries of which 4 000 were tested. The pumping test results indicate that an estimated 576 000 m3/d (210 Mm3/a) can be sustainably abstracted from boreholes in approximately 2 500 villages that are dispersed throughout the Province. However, more than 50% of these boreholes areunequipped of which 3 000 can provide a combined yield of 109 Mm3/a based on a 24 h abstraction rate. These results show that groundwater can be developed as a potential viable bulk-water supply source. This paper attempts to demonstrate, using the existing GRIP dataset, that groundwater is an underutilised resource that can be viably and cost-effectively developed as an alternative bulk water source or conjunctively with surface water

The new SPIL logo: A face for the future

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Health professions students' interprofessional experiences on a rural learning platform

HEALTH PROFESSIONS STUDENTS’ LEARNING EXPERIENCES ON A RURAL COLLABORATIVE LEARNING PLATFORM ABSTRACTA Faculty of Health Sciences launched a rural collaborative learning platform to cultivate interprofessional key competencies and to improve health outcomes. The purpose of the study was to describe health sciences students’ experiences of an rural collaborative learning platform. Health professions students created digital stories reflecting on their collaborative learning experiences. Purposive sampling resulted in 23 submissions. Qualitative analysis of content identified themes and categories. Three themes, namely, metaphor, critical consciousness and professional socialisation, were identified. The metaphor categories, Journey, Setting world ablaze, Water, and Puzzle, represent students’ desire to use visual cues to describe their experiences. Transformation, Personal development and Empathy signified critical consciousness. Collaborative practice, Values, Reflective practice, and Key competencies relate to professional socialisation. The researchers gained understanding of students’ experiences on an rural collaborative learning platform. Through digital stories, students became aware of professional interdependency, which linked their experiences to key interprofessional competencies.

Pre-operative Planning and Intra-operative Guidance for Shoulder Replacement Surgery

Shoulder joint replacement, or arthroplasty, is indicated in cases where arthritis or trauma has resulted in severe joint damage that in turn causes increased pain and decreased function. However, shoulder arthroplasty is less successful than hip and knee replacement, mostly due to the complexity of the shoulder joint and the resultant complexity of the replacement operation. In this paper we present a complete visualization-oriented pre-operative planning and intra-operative guidance approach for shoulder joint replacement. Our system assists the surgeon by allowing a virtual arthroplasty procedure whilst giving feedback, primarily via patient- and procedure-specific joint range of motion (ROM) simulation and visualization. After a successful planning, our system automatically generates a 3D model of a patient-specific mechanical guidance device that is then produced by a rapid prototyping machine and can be used during the operation. In this way, a computer-based guidance system is not required in the operating room

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Malawian Farmers on Pre- and Post-Harvest Crop Management to Mitigate Aflatoxin Contamination in Groundnut, Maize and Sorghum—Implication for Behavioral Change

A knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) study was conducted in three districts of Malawi to test whether the training had resulted in increased knowledge and adoption of recommended pre- and post-harvest crop management practices, and their contribution to reducing aflatoxin contamination in groundnut, maize and sorghum. The study was conducted with 900 farmers at the baseline and 624 farmers at the end-line, while 726 and 696 harvested crop samples were collected for aflatoxin testing at the baseline and end-line, respectively. Results show that the knowledge and practice of pre- and post-harvest crop management for mitigating aflatoxin were inadequate among the farmers at the baseline but somewhat improved after the training as shown at the end-line. As a result, despite unfavorable weather, the mean aflatoxin contamination level in their grain samples decreased from 83.6 to 55.8 ppb (p < 0.001). However, it was also noted that increased knowledge did not significantly change farmers’ attitude toward not consuming grade-outs because of economic incentive incompatibility, leaving potential for improving the practices further. This existing gap in the adoption of aflatoxin mitigation practices calls for approaches that take into account farmers needs and incentives to attain sustainable behavioral change

Do Commercialization and Mechanization of a “Women’s Crop” Disempower Women Farmers? Evidence from Zambia and Malawi

It is widely believed that commercialization and mechanization of food crops lead to disempowering women as men take over control from women. We argue that women are not necessarily discontent in the face of the agrarian transformation. By collecting sex-disaggregated panel data and applying a ‘women’s crop tool’, we analyze and rethink the implication of agricultural commercialization for intra-household gender relation among smallholder farmers through research on groundnut producers in southern Africa, where groundnut is largely regarded as a ‘women’s crop’. In addition to examining the effect of commercialization in Zambia and Malawi, small-scale post-harvest mechanization was provided experimentally to selected farmers in Zambia. The panel regression results show that commercialization did not lead to disempowering women in either country, which is consistent with the qualitative discussions with farmers held before the baseline surveys. Furthermore, by combining PSM and DID methods, it was found that machine shelling did not disempower women farmers either. The finding provides insights into how gender relation among smallholders is affected at the initial stage of commercialization and mechanization of ‘women’s crops’

A Novel Technology for Complex Rheological Measurements

As the UK nuclear industry embarks on a second phase of nuclear power generation, the industry is faced with numerous sludge and slurry challenges associated with the decommissioning and clean-up of historical nuclear sites. The remediation of Sellafield, the largest nuclear site in the UK, is anticipated to cost GBP 53bn over the next 100 years. Substantial cost is associated with the clean-up, transfer and safe storage of legacy particulate wastes encountered in ponds, silos, highly active storage tanks and many more large tanks on site. To develop suitable design strategies for the mobilization and transfer of sludge, the rheology of the sludge should be accurately determined. The current work demonstrates the use of a Quartz Crystal Microbalance to measure sludge rheology, specifically the shear yield stress. The device is simple to operate with no mechanical parts, small and portable enabling deployment into limited access areas, and eliminates the need for operator sampling and laboratory measurement. The measurement principle relates to the resonance frequency and motional resistance of a piezo-electric sensor as the sensor is submerged in the desired test material. The air-to-sample frequency and resistance shifts are shown to correlate with the shear yield stress of the suspension as measured by conventional vane viscometry. As the particle network stiffens (increased yield stress), the sensor motional resistance and its resonant frequency become more positive These characteristic responses and their correlation to the shear yield stress have been confirmed for a range of particle suspensions