Community-based co-design of a crowdsourcing task management application for safeguarding indigenous knowledge

Teaching indigenous knowledge (IK) to African youth has become more complicated due to a variety of reasons such as urban migration, loss of interest in it, the dominance of scientific knowledge and the technological revolution. Therefore, there is a considerable movement towards using technologies to safeguard IK before it becomes obsolete. It is noteworthy that research conducted and software development perspectives being used are mainly based on Western worldviews that are inappropriate for African socio-cultural contexts. IK holders are often not in charge of the digitisation process and merely treated as subjects. In this study, we explored a suitable development approach of a crowdsourcing task management application (TMA) as an auxiliary tool for safeguarding IK. Moreover, the study sought to provide an opportunity for the indigenous communities to make requests of three-dimensional (3D) models of their traditional objects independently. The delivered traditional 3D models are imported into the communities' IK visualisation tools used by the IK holders to teach the youth about their cultural heritage. The main objective of this study was to ascertain how the indigenous rural communities could appropriate a foreign technological concept such as crowdsourcing. This brought about our first research theme: investigating the necessary conditions to establish and maintain beneficial embedded community engagement. The second theme was to determine the suitable methods for technology co-design. Thirdly, to discover what does the communities' appropriated crowdsourcing concept entail. We applied a consolidated research method based on Community-based CoDesign (CBCD) extended with Afrocentric research insights and operationalised with Action Research cycle principles of planning, action and reflection. CBCD was conducted in three cycles with Otjiherero speaking indigenous rural communities from Namibia. Reflections from the first cycle revealed that the rural communities would require unique features in their crowdsourcing application. During the second cycle of co-designing with the ovaHimba community, we learnt that CBCD is matured through mutual trust, reciprocity and skills transfer and deconstructing mainstream technologies to spark co-design ideas. Lastly, in our third cycle of CBCD, we showcased that communities of similar cultures and knowledge construction had common ideas of co-designing the TMA. We also simulated that the construction of traditional 3D models requires indigenous communities to provide insight details of the traditional object to minimise unsatisfactory deliverables. The findings of this study are contributing in two areas (1) research approach and (2) appropriation of technology. We provide a synthesis of Oundu moral values and Afrocentricity as a foundation for conducting Afrocentric research to establish and maintain humanness before CBCD can take place. With those taken as inherent moral values, Afrocentricity should then solely be focused on knowledge construction within an African epistemology. For the appropriation of technology, we share codesign techniques on how the indigenous rural communities appropriated the mainstream crowdsourcing concept through local meaning-making. CBCD researchers should incorporate Afrocentricity for mutual learning, knowledge construction, and sharing for the benefit of all

Comparison of two-dimensional and three-dimensional droplet trajectory calculations in the vicinity of finite wings

Computational predictions of ice accretion on flying aircraft most commonly rely on modeling in two dimensions (2D). These 2D methods treat an aircraft geometry either as wing-like with infinite span, or as an axisymmetric body. Recently, fully three dimensional (3D) methods have been introduced that model an aircrafts true 3D shape. Because 3D methods are more computationally expensive than 2D methods, 2D methods continue to be widely used. However, a 3D method allows us to investigate whether it is valid to continue applying 2D methods to a finite wing. The extent of disagreement between LEWICE, a 2D method, and LEWICE3D, a 3D method, in calculating local collection efficiencies at the leading edge of finite wings is investigated in this paper

Environmental and economic impacts of crude oil and natural gas production in developing countries

As much as the production of crude oil and natural gas generate enormous costs on the environment, it also directly impacts on the economy of the producing state. The later, among other reasons, is the motive for investing huge capital in the industry. This paper addresses the motives for the production of crude oil and natural gas; identifying the components of these products that are toxic to the environment and public health. Apart from highlighting the economic benefits accruing to the producing countries and her citizens, the study universally looked through the processes and products involved in crude oil and natural gas production and pointed out the impacts of these processes and products on the environment and the health of the public. It is believed that a complete understanding of the interplay between these processes and products with the environment will aid producing companies as well as governments of producing nations make better decisions on the strategies to minimize the effects of production activities on the environment and the health of the public

Ultrafast optical spin echo for electron spins in semiconductors

Spin-based quantum computing and magnetic resonance techniques rely on the ability to measure the coherence time, T2, of a spin system. We report on the experimental implementation of all-optical spin echo to determine the T2 time of a semiconductor electron-spin system. We use three ultrafast optical pulses to rotate spins an arbitrary angle and measure an echo signal as the time between pulses is lengthened. Unlike previous spin-echo techniques using microwaves, ultrafast optical pulses allow clean T2 measurements of systems with dephasing times T2* fast in comparison to the timescale for microwave control. This demonstration provides a step toward ultrafast optical dynamic decoupling of spin-based qubits.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

A study of diffuse southern Ha nebulae

The result of a photographic survey for diffuse Ha emission nebulosities (HII regions) in the Southern Milky Way from galactic longitude 1+190° to 350° are given. A catalogue, which includes a number of new objects, lists positions and dimensions of 85 physically separate H II regions together with details of the exciting stars and their distance moduli when available. The faintest objects detected have n3=1, where n3 is the number of third level hydrogen atoms in a column 1 cm2 in cross-section passing through the nebula in the direction of the line of sight. A scheme of classification describing the large scale structural features of H II regions is suggested. The main criterion is the radial variation of surface brightness within the nebula. Most H II regions may then be arranged in an almost continuous sequence from those having a very high central surface brightness, (n3 up to 200), which decreased with increasing distance from the centre, (class I), to fainter objects (n3 ˷5) in which most of the emission is concentrated in a ring or in an incomplete ring (class IV). One of the intermediate classes (class III) has a practically uniform surface brightness over a circular disk with the exciting star at the geometrical centre. This class corresponds most closely to Stromgren’s idealised H II regions, which when appear as a special case in a more general sequence of structural forms. The classification is also applicable to emission nebulosities in other stellar systems where only large-scale features may be observed. The statistical relations between the apparent photographic magnitude of the exciting star and the apparent diameter of the nebulosity is discussed and compared with Hubble’s original relation derived from blue-sensitive plate material. The spatial distribution of the Southern HII regions can be studied in only a tentative fashion at present. The result suggest certain details spiral structure in the galaxy

Effective Invariant Theory of Permutation Groups using Representation Theory

Using the theory of representations of the symmetric group, we propose an algorithm to compute the invariant ring of a permutation group. Our approach have the goal to reduce the amount of linear algebra computations and exploit a thinner combinatorial description of the invariant ring.Comment: Draft version, the corrected full version is available at http://www.springer.com

Millisecond spin-flip times of donor-bound electrons in GaAs

We observe millisecond spin-flip relaxation times of donor-bound electrons in high-purity n-GaAs . This is three orders of magnitude larger than previously reported lifetimes in n-GaAs . Spin-flip times are measured as a function of magnetic field and exhibit a strong power-law dependence for fields greater than 4 T . This result is in qualitative agreement with previously reported theory and measurements of electrons in quantum dots.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Epistemic Injustice in Mathematics

We investigate how epistemic injustice can manifest itself in mathematical practices. We do this as both a social epistemological and virtue-theoretic investigation of mathematical practices. We delineate the concept both positively – we show that a certain type of folk theorem can be a source of epistemic injustice in mathematics – and negatively by exploring cases where the obstacles to participation in a mathematical practice do not amount to epistemic injustice. Having explored what epistemic injustice in mathematics can amount to, we use the concept to highlight a potential danger of intellectual enculturation