Municipal commonage policy and livestock owners : findings from the Eastern Cape, South Africa

The new African National Congress government announced after 1994 that municipal commonage would be a pillar of their land reform programme. The Department of Land Affairs spearheaded this by acquiring new land to complement the existing ‘old’ commonages. The aim of old commonage was to supplement the income of poor urban residents through the subsistence user system whereas new commonage was intended as a ‘stepping stone’ for emergent farmers. We investigated the differences between old and new commonage farmers as well as how they perceived the Makana local municipality's capacity to manage the commonage. The results showed that local institutions were weak. Only 46% of the old commonage farmers were members of a local livestock association whereas 74% of the new commonage farmers were members. Most old commonage farmers (59%) were dissatisfied with local government's management of the commonage. In contrast, only 37% of the new commonage farmers were dissatisfied with the management of the commonage. There were no differences between old and new commonage farmers in terms of livestock owners’ characteristics and mean annual net direct-use value of livestock. There were also no differences in the age of the two types of commonage farmers. Furthermore, there was no association between the type of commonage and level of education. The mean annual net direct-use value of livestock on old commonage was R6308 compared with R9707 on new commonage. Although the income from livestock for new commonage farmers varied slightly from that of old commonage farmers, the annual productive output per farmer on old commonage was R473 ha−1, three times higher than that of new commonage farmers which was R134 ha−1. We suggest that new land policy legislation is needed in which poverty as well as the legal arrangements between all stakeholders is clearly defined. Furthermore, national departments need to be more involved with local municipalities to increase local management capacity

A nullstellensatz for sequences over F_p

Let p be a prime and let A=(a_1,...,a_l) be a sequence of nonzero elements in F_p. In this paper, we study the set of all 0-1 solutions to the equation a_1 x_1 + ... + a_l x_l = 0. We prove that whenever l >= p, this set actually characterizes A up to a nonzero multiplicative constant, which is no longer true for l < p. The critical case l=p is of particular interest. In this context, we prove that whenever l=p and A is nonconstant, the above equation has at least p-1 minimal 0-1 solutions, thus refining a theorem of Olson. The subcritical case l=p-1 is studied in detail also. Our approach is algebraic in nature and relies on the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz as well as on a Vosper type theorem.Comment: 23 page

Phase separation and electron pairing in repulsive Hubbard clusters

Exact thermal studies of small (4-site, 5-site and 8-site) Hubbard clusters with local electron repulsion yield intriguing insight into phase separation, charge-spin separation, pseudogaps, condensation, in particular, pairing fluctuations away from half filling (near optimal doping). These exact calculations, carried out in canonical (i.e. for fixed electron number N) and grand canonical (i.e. fixed chemical potential $\mu$) ensembles, monitoring variations in temperature T and magnetic field h, show rich phase diagrams in a T-$\mu$ space consisting of pairing fluctuations and signatures of condensation. These electron pairing instabilities are seen when the onsite Coulomb interaction U is smaller than a critical value U$_c$(T) and they point to a possible electron pairing mechanism. The specific heat, magnetization, charge pairing and spin pairing provide strong support for the existence of competing (paired and unpaired) phases near optimal doping in these clusters as observed in recent experiments in doped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_{4+y}$ high T$_c$ superconductors.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Older adults’ experiences of the rehabilitation process in acute health care.

Rehabilitation is a key component of nursing and allied healthcare professionals’ roles in most health and social care settings. This paper reports on stage 2 of an action research project to ascertain older adult’s experience of rehabilitation. Twenty postdischarge interviews were conducted and the interview transcripts were analysed using thematic content analysis. All older adults discharged from an acute older acute rehabilitation ward to their own homes in the community were eligible to participate. The only exclusion criterion was older adults who were thought to be unable to give consent to participate by the nurse in charge and the researcher. Whilst 92 older adults were eligible to participate in this research study, only 20 were interviewed. The findings from this study suggest that older adults valued communication with health professionals but were aware of their time constraints that hindered communication. This study suggests that both nurses and allied health professionals are not actively providing rehabilitative services to promote health and well-being which contradicts the focus of active ageing. Furthermore, there was evidence of unmet needs on discharge, and older adults unable to recall the professions that were involved in their interventions and the rationale for therapy input. It is suggested that further research is needed to explore the effectiveness of allied health rehabilitation in the acute setting. This study highlights the need for further research into older adults’ perceptions of the rehabilitation process in the acute setting