Ensuring water supply for all towns and villages in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape Provinces of South Africa

The Department of Water Affairs (DWA) has embarked on a nationwide programme to develop water-reconciliation strategies for all towns across the country. Reconciliation strategies for the major metropolitan areas and systems (e.g. Johannesburg/Pretoria, East London, Cape Town and Durban) were developed next. The implementation of these strategies is monitored by strategy steering committees. The approach has now been extended to all other metropolitan areas as well as all towns and villages or clusters of villages. In order to prepare the actual strategies, regardless of the size of the town, thorough documentation, research and analysis of the available information was required, as well as evaluation of projected growth scenarios to assess water requirements over the next 25 years and identification of potential additional sources to meet this growing requirement. It has emerged that the poor operation and maintenance of water supply, treatment and reticulation infrastructure are resulting in significant losses, which, if corrected, can reverse the current water shortages being experienced. Similarly, the generally poor management of effluent remains a threat to surface water and groundwater quality downstream. It appears that many municipalities perceive groundwater as an unreliable resource; however, in general, the issue of staff and skills shortages to manage the resource effectively is the actual problem. This is an operational issue rather than a groundwater-resource-specific issue. This aspect requires special attention for existing groundwater schemes and proposed groundwater development. In most instances water conservation and water-demand management and the development of local surface and groundwater resources are the most feasible options to meet any current or projected future water-supply shortfalls. Any intervention must be combined with a skills-development programme at the operational level to ensure the sustainability of the proposed supply options. This paper is based on the experience gained in the development of reconciliation strategies for the towns and villages in the DWA Southern Planning Region (i.e. surface water drainage areas in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape Provinces), which was carried out by Umvoto Africa in association with engineering consulting practice Aurecon

Hong Kong executive business students' motivations for pursuing an MBA

published_or_final_versio

Concert recording 2018-01-21

[Track 1]. Une flȗte soupire (A Sighing Flute) / Mel Bonis -- [Track 2]. Suite en trio for Flute, Violin, and Piano, Op. 59. I. Sérénade [Track 3]. II. Pastorale [Track 4]. III. Scherzo / Mel Bonis -- [Track 5]. Sonata in C-sharp minor for Flute and Piano, Op. 64. I. Andantino con moto [Track 6]. II. Scherzo - Vivace [Track 7]. III. Adagio - Allegro ma non troppo - Adagio [Track 8]. IV. Finale - Moderato / Mel Bonis -- [Track 9]. Scherzo (Final) for Flute and Piano, Op. posth. 187 / Mel Bonis -- [Track 10]. Barcarolle in E-flat Major for Piano, Op. 71 / Mel Bonis -- [Track 11]. Scénes de la forêt (Forest Scenes) for Flute, Horn, and Piano, Op. 123. I. Nocturne [Track 12]. II. A l\u27aube (At Dawn) [Track 13]. III. Invocation [Track 14]. IV. Pour Artémis / Mel Bonis

Who Watches the Watchmen? An Appraisal of Benchmarks for Multiple Sequence Alignment

Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) is a fundamental and ubiquitous technique in bioinformatics used to infer related residues among biological sequences. Thus alignment accuracy is crucial to a vast range of analyses, often in ways difficult to assess in those analyses. To compare the performance of different aligners and help detect systematic errors in alignments, a number of benchmarking strategies have been pursued. Here we present an overview of the main strategies--based on simulation, consistency, protein structure, and phylogeny--and discuss their different advantages and associated risks. We outline a set of desirable characteristics for effective benchmarking, and evaluate each strategy in light of them. We conclude that there is currently no universally applicable means of benchmarking MSA, and that developers and users of alignment tools should base their choice of benchmark depending on the context of application--with a keen awareness of the assumptions underlying each benchmarking strategy.Comment: Revie

From z>6 to z~2: Unearthing Galaxies at the Edge of the Dark Ages

Galaxies undergoing formation and evolution can now be observed over a time baseline of some 12 Gyr. An inherent difficulty with high-redshift observations is that the objects are very faint and the best resolution (HST) is only ~0.5 kpc. Such studies thereby combine in a highly synergistic way with the great detail that can be obtained for nearby galaxies. 3 new developments are highlighted. First is the derivation of stellar masses for galaxies from SEDs using HST and now Spitzer data, and dynamical masses from both sub-mm observations of CO lines and near-IR observations of optical lines like Halpha. A major step has been taken with evidence that points to the z~2-3 LBGs having masses that are a few x 10^10 Msolar. Second is the discovery of a population of evolved red galaxies at z~2-3 which appear to be the progenitors of the more massive early-type galaxies of today, with dynamical masses around a few x 10^11 Msolar. Third are the remarkable advances that have occurred in characterizing dropout galaxies to z~6 and beyond, < 1 Gyr from recombination. The HST ACS has played a key role here, with the dropout technique being applied to i & z images in several deep ACS fields, yielding large samples of these objects. This has allowed a detailed determination of their properties and meaningful comparisons against lower-z samples. The use of cloning techniques has overcome many of the strong selection biases affecting the study of these objects. A clear trend of size with redshift has been identified, and its impact on the luminosity density and SFR estimated. There is a significant though modest decrease in the SFR from z~2.5 to z~6. The latest data also allow for the first robust determination of the LF at z~6. Finally, the latest UDF ACS and NICMOS data has resulted in the detection of some galaxies at z~7-8.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures. To appear in Penetrating Bars through Masks of Cosmic Dust: The Hubble Tuning Fork Strikes a New Note, eds. D. Block, K. Freeman, R. Groess, I. Puerari, & E.K. Block (Dordrecht: Kluwer), in pres

Concert recording 2015-10-26

[Track 01]. Sonata for piano no. 1 in B-flat minor, op. 74. Andante, appassionato ; [Track 02]. Albumblatt for trumpet and piano ; [Track 03]. Chant du ménestrel, op. 71 for violoncello and piano ; [Track 04]. Elegy, op. 44 for viola and piano ; [Track 05]. Méditation, op. 32 for violin and piano ; [Track 06]. Mazurka-oberek for violin and piano ; [Track 07]. Rêverie, op. 24 for horn and piano ; [Track 08]. Fantasy, op. 104 for two pianos. Moderato tranquillo, allegro ; [Track 09]. Scherzo ; [Track 10]. Moderato, andante mosso, allegro ; [Track 11]. Grand adagio from Raymonda / Aleksandr Glazunov

Concert recording 2016-04-20

[Track 01]. River melos ; [Track 02]. After Bach ; [Track 03]. Romanza ; [Track 04]. Daughter of the Sea ; [Track 05]. Concertino for marimba / Andrea Clearfield