Decolonisation of institutional structures in South African universities: A critical perspective

In 2015, using social media, a new generation of South African university students launched the social justice movement #FeesMustFall. The call for social justice, equity and equality has been a burning issue in South Africa’s education system since the dark days of apartheid. In 1976, non-white students revolted against the apartheid government and many lost their lives during the protest. On 15 October 2015, 40 years later, students from all demographics mobilised to launch a protest under the theme #FeesMustFall against institutional racism which did not die with apartheid. The roots of this movement are symptomatic of deep social and economic concerns rooted in the apartheid history of South Africa. Through the use of social media, students mobilised protest marches in all regions of the country to demand justice, equality and equity. This paper discusses and describes the lack of transformation in South Africa’s higher education which has perpetuated institutional racism for decades

Purification and immobilization of engineered glucose dehydrogenase: A new approach to producing gluconic acid from breadwaste

Background Platform chemicals are essential to industrial processes. Used as starting materials for the manufacture of diverse products, their cheap availability and efficient sourcing are an industrial requirement. Increasing concerns about the depletion of natural resources and growing environmental consciousness have led to a focus on the economics and ecological viability of bio-based platform chemical production. Contemporary approaches include the use of immobilized enzymes that can be harnessed to produce high-value chemicals from waste. Results In this study, an engineered glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) was optimized for gluconic acid (GA) production. Sulfolobus solfataricus GDH was expressed in Escherichia coli. The Km and Vmax values for recombinant GDH were calculated as 0.87 mM and 5.91 U/mg, respectively. Recombinant GDH was immobilized on a hierarchically porous silica support (MM-SBA-15) and its activity was compared with GDH immobilized on three commercially available supports. MM-SBA-15 showed significantly higher immobilization efficiency (> 98%) than the commercial supports. After 5 cycles, GDH activity was at least 14% greater than the remaining activity on commercial supports. Glucose in bread waste hydrolysate was converted to GA by free-state and immobilized GDH. After the 10th reuse cycle on MM-SBA-15, a 22% conversion yield was observed, generating 25 gGA/gGDH. The highest GA production efficiency was 47 gGA/gGDH using free-state GDH. Conclusions This study demonstrates the feasibility of enzymatically converting BWH to GA: immobilizing GDH on MM-SBA-15 renders the enzyme more stable and permits its multiple reuse

Towards a consolidation of worldwide journal rankings - A classification using random forests and aggregate rating via data envelopment analysis

AbstractThe question of how to assess research outputs published in journals is now a global concern for academics. Numerous journal ratings and rankings exist, some featuring perceptual and peer-review-based journal ranks, some focusing on objective information related to citations, some using a combination of the two. This research consolidates existing journal rankings into an up-to-date and comprehensive list. Existing approaches to determining journal rankings are significantly advanced with the application of a new classification approach, ‘random forests’, and data envelopment analysis. As a result, a fresh look at a publication׳s place in the global research community is offered. While our approach is applicable to all management and business journals, we specifically exemplify the relative position of ‘operations research, management science, production and operations management’ journals within the broader management field, as well as within their own subject domain

Globally invariant metabolism but density-diversity mismatch in springtails.

Soil life supports the functioning and biodiversity of terrestrial ecosystems. Springtails (Collembola) are among the most abundant soil arthropods regulating soil fertility and flow of energy through above- and belowground food webs. However, the global distribution of springtail diversity and density, and how these relate to energy fluxes remains unknown. Here, using a global dataset representing 2470 sites, we estimate the total soil springtail biomass at 27.5 megatons carbon, which is threefold higher than wild terrestrial vertebrates, and record peak densities up to 2 million individuals per square meter in the tundra. Despite a 20-fold biomass difference between the tundra and the tropics, springtail energy use (community metabolism) remains similar across the latitudinal gradient, owing to the changes in temperature with latitude. Neither springtail density nor community metabolism is predicted by local species richness, which is high in the tropics, but comparably high in some temperate forests and even tundra. Changes in springtail activity may emerge from latitudinal gradients in temperature, predation and resource limitation in soil communities. Contrasting relationships of biomass, diversity and activity of springtail communities with temperature suggest that climate warming will alter fundamental soil biodiversity metrics in different directions, potentially restructuring terrestrial food webs and affecting soil functioning

Global fine-resolution data on springtail abundance and community structure

Springtails (Collembola) inhabit soils from the Arctic to the Antarctic and comprise an estimated ~32% of all terrestrial arthropods on Earth. Here, we present a global, spatially-explicit database on springtail communities that includes 249,912 occurrences from 44,999 samples and 2,990 sites. These data are mainly raw sample-level records at the species level collected predominantly from private archives of the authors that were quality-controlled and taxonomically-standardised. Despite covering all continents, most of the sample-level data come from the European continent (82.5% of all samples) and represent four habitats: woodlands (57.4%), grasslands (14.0%), agrosystems (13.7%) and scrublands (9.0%). We included sampling by soil layers, and across seasons and years, representing temporal and spatial within-site variation in springtail communities. We also provided data use and sharing guidelines and R code to facilitate the use of the database by other researchers. This data paper describes a static version of the database at the publication date, but the database will be further expanded to include underrepresented regions and linked with trait data.</p

Global fine-resolution data on springtail abundance and community structure

CODE AVAILABILITY : Programming R code is openly available together with the database from Figshare.SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 1 : Template for data collectionSUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 2 : Data Descriptor WorksheetSpringtails (Collembola) inhabit soils from the Arctic to the Antarctic and comprise an estimated ~32% of all terrestrial arthropods on Earth. Here, we present a global, spatially-explicit database on springtail communities that includes 249,912 occurrences from 44,999 samples and 2,990 sites. These data are mainly raw sample-level records at the species level collected predominantly from private archives of the authors that were quality-controlled and taxonomically-standardised. Despite covering all continents, most of the sample-level data come from the European continent (82.5% of all samples) and represent four habitats: woodlands (57.4%), grasslands (14.0%), agrosystems (13.7%) and scrublands (9.0%). We included sampling by soil layers, and across seasons and years, representing temporal and spatial within-site variation in springtail communities. We also provided data use and sharing guidelines and R code to facilitate the use of the database by other researchers. This data paper describes a static version of the database at the publication date, but the database will be further expanded to include underrepresented regions and linked with trait data.Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.http://www.nature.com/sdatahj2024Plant Production and Soil ScienceSDG-15:Life on lan

The historical and cultural signifi cance of sacred sites in the Free State province, South Africa

Die historiese en kulturele belangrikheid van die heilige terreine in die Vrystaatprovinsie, Suid-AfrikaDie artikel beklemtoon die belangrikheid van die heilige terreine in die Vrystaatprovinsie. Dit toon aan dat die toenemende neiging om ekonomiese ontwikkeling in die provinsie te konsentreer, ’n impak op die terreine het deurdat hulle dikwels beskadig word. ’n Bespreking word gegee van heilige terreine soos Motouleng (tussen Fouriesburg en Clarens), Mautse (tussen Rosendal en Ficksburg) en Matsopa (inModderpoort naby Ladybrand). Ten slotte stel die skrywer voor dat die langtermyn lewensvatbaarheid van die terreine ’n interaktiewe benadering vereis tussen die plaaseienaars waar die terreine geleë is en die mense wat dit besoek.The main focus of this article is to highlight the history and culture of the sacred sites in the Free State Province. The Free State has many such sites, particularly in the eastern part of the province. The most important ones to be discussed in this article are the following: Motouleng (between Fouriesburg and Clarens), Mautse (between Rosendal and Ficksburg) and Mantsopa (at Modderpoort near Ladybrand). The author concludes that the long-term viability of such sites requires an interactive approachfrom the farm owners where these sites are situated and also from the people visiting the sites

The Impact of Squatter Settlement in Greater Breyten Urban Community: A Case Study of Kwa-Zanele Township in Mpumalanga Province

This study investigated &nbsp;the attitudes of the permanent residents &nbsp;and the squatter-settlements regarding the existence of crime, and the socio-environmental problems experienced by the permanent residents of Greater Breyten Urban Community due to the existence of the squatters in their areas. This &nbsp;growth of squatter settlements, informal settlements, slums along the formal settlement and or urban areas is a global phenomenon. The research design in this study involved a descriptive design which reveals potential relationships between variables. According to the study, the researcher was describing the attitude and impact of quarters on the social environment of the Greater Breyten area. Data was also analyzed using frequencies and percentages. The findings revealed that there are no significant differences between the attitudes of the permanent residents and those of the squatter-settlements regarding the existence of crime. Besides, the socio-environmental problems, the results indicated that the conditions of squatters are poor and unhealthy for human habitation. Considering the findings of the study, the researcher proposed that there be a multi-disciplinary approach to present and provide resources to address the problem of squatter-settlement

An analysis of the declining support for the ANC during the 2011 South African local government elections

Local government elections are notorious for low voter turnout, but the May 2011 elections in South Africa showed a record 58 percent of the 24 million registered voters. In South Africa, local government matters and not just because it provides a pointer to what might happen in the provincial and national elections due in 2014, but helps in determining the readiness of the African Nation Congress in providing basic services to the different communities. Interestingly, these elections were preceded by service delivery protests against the ANC. The article is an analysis of the decreased support for the ANC during the 2011 local government elections. The multifaceted reasons behind the boiling cauldron of this decline in support for the ANC are scrutinised. Underpinning this decline in support often lie deep and complex factors which can be uncovered through a careful analysis of the ANC’s campaigning strategies ahead of these elections; the media which has been accused of rampant sensationalism; service delivery protests and mudslinging from other political parties. However, it is not the author’s intention in this article to deal with how other parties fared during these elections, but to highlight their impact on the declined support received by the ANC in the elections. The discussion is presented in four parts: the first presents an exploratory discussion on the theory of local government in the sphere of governance. The second part discusses some key strategies and tactics used by the ANC in attempts to galvanise support, as well as the challenges encountered. The third deals with the opposition parties’ machinery in preventing the ANC from getting a majority vote during the election. Lastly, the article concludes by highlighting the lessons learnt by the ANC during these elections within the framework of electoral politics in South Africa. Keywords: local election 2011, African National Congress (ANC), local government.  Disciplines: History, political science, electoral studie