210 research outputs found
Friend or Foe? Locating ICT within the South African Governmental Discourse on Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Pivoting to Russia, China and anti-Western rhetoric: South Africa's foreign policy shifts
ASC – Publicaties niet-programma gebonde
From Tags to Topic Maps: Using Marked-up Hebrew Text to Discover Linguistic Patterns
The paper discusses a series of related techniques that prepare and transform raw linguistic data for advanced processing in order to unveil hidden grammatical patterns. It identifies XML as a suitable mark-up language to build an exploitable data bank of multi-dimensional data in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. This concept is illustrated by tagging a transcription of Gen. 1:1-2:3 and manipulating this data bank. Transferring the data into a three-dimensional array allows advanced processing of the data in order to either confirm existing knowledge or to mine for new, yet undiscovered, linguistic features. Visualisation is discussed as a technique that enhances interaction between the human researcher and the computerised technologies supporting this process of knowledge creation. The empirical study is a small experiment that illustrates the viability and usefulness of the proposed expert devices as well as the benefits of applying information system techniques to linguistic databases
Building capacity and developing human capital: an exploration of curriculum development in ICT programmes at South African universities
There is a growing consensus on the potential for information and communications technologies (ICTs) to support socio-economic development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Universities as providers of higher education are critical to developing SSA countries by, amongst others, empowering the region to develop appropriate ICT solutions for local challenges. The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss how contextual realities influence the development of ICT programme curricula at public universities in South Africa, a developing country in SSA, in order to meet the demand for ICT skills. After a brief discussion of the factors that influence the content and delivery in education systems an overview of the South African public higher education context is provided. Against this background the content and delivery of ICT programme offerings and the rationale behind the programmes at four South African public universities are presented in case study format and concludes with a discussion of the case studies. The paper may be of value to academic departments as examples of how other departments are responding and adjusting their offerings, to government departments and policy makers by engendering a better understanding of the impact of policy on programme development and to industry by illustrating the diverse stakeholders in higher education and academia’s responsiveness to these diverse requirements
The clustering of H + [O III] and [O II] emitters since z \tilde 5: dependencies with line luminosity and stellar mass
We investigate the clustering properties of ∼7000 H β + [O III] and [O II] narrowband-selected emitters at z ∼ 0.8–4.7 from the High-z Emission Line Survey. We find clustering lengths, r0, of 1.5–4.0 h−1 Mpc and minimum dark matter halo masses of 1010.7–12.1 M⊙ for our z = 0.8–3.2 H β + [O III] emitters and r0 ∼ 2.0–8.3 h−1 Mpc and halo masses of 1011.5–12.6 M⊙ for our z = 1.5–4.7 [O II] emitters. We find r0 to strongly increase both with increasing line luminosity and redshift. By taking into account the evolution of the characteristic line luminosity, L⋆(z), and using our model predictions of halo mass given r0, we find a strong, redshift-independent increasing trend between L/L⋆(z) and minimum halo mass. The faintest H β + [O III] emitters are found to reside in 109.5 M⊙ haloes and the brightest emitters in 1013.0 M⊙ haloes. For [O II] emitters, the faintest emitters are found in 1010.5 M⊙ haloes and the brightest emitters in 1012.6 M⊙ haloes. A redshift-independent stellar mass dependency is also observed where the halo mass increases from 1011 to 1012.5 M⊙ for stellar masses of 108.5 to 1011.5 M⊙, respectively. We investigate the interdependencies of these trends by repeating our analysis in a Lline−Mstar grid space for our most populated samples (H β + [O III] z = 0.84 and [O II] z = 1.47) and find that the line luminosity dependency is stronger than the stellar mass dependency on halo mass. For L > L⋆ emitters at all epochs, we find a relatively flat trend with halo masses of 1012.5–13 M⊙, which may be due to quenching mechanisms in massive haloes that is consistent with a transitional halo mass predicted by models
The expatriate information flow model : towards understanding internet usage in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Expatriate adjustment research has identified a number of challenges that expatriates experience when adjusting to the host
country. These include spousal influence, cultural training/understanding,
fluency in the host language and the personality
or emotional readiness of the expatriate. These challenges are amplified when considered in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
(KSA), which has large cultural distance when compared to the average Western culture and therefore provides a setting
for an interesting study. This paper describes how the degree of information
flow", a substantive category derived through
the grounded theory methodology, provides an understanding of the emotional relationship expatriates in KSA have with
the Internet. An expatriate information
ow model was developed explaining the pre-conditions to and the consequences
of information
ow. The paper shows that the pre-conditions to information
ow include overcoming the challenges
experienced by Internet users in KSA in addition to their intention to use the Internet based on their personal needs,
status and personality. The consequences of information
ow were indicated as having an overall positive impact on the
expatriate's well-being. This was operationalised as giving expatriates an extended control over their environment, increased
social presence and an increased exchange of information between the expatriates and their benevolent communities.http://www.journals.co.za/ej/ejour_comp.htmlam201
Equivalent widths of Lyman emitters in MUSE-Wide and MUSE-Deep
The aim of this study is to better understand the connection between the
Lyman rest-frame equivalent width (EW) and spectral properties as
well as ultraviolet (UV) continuum morphology by obtaining reliable EW
histograms for a statistical sample of galaxies and by assessing the fraction
of objects with large equivalent widths. We used integral field spectroscopy
from MUSE combined with broad-band data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
to measure EW. We analysed the emission lines of Lyman
emitters (LAEs) detected in the full MUSE-Wide (one hour exposure time) and
MUSE-Deep (ten hour exposure time) surveys and found UV continuum counterparts
in archival HST data. We fitted the UV continuum photometric images using the
Galfit software to gain morphological information on the rest-UV emission and
fitted the spectra obtained from MUSE to determine the double peak fraction,
asymmetry, full-width at half maximum, and flux of the Lyman line. The
two surveys show different histograms of Lyman EW. In MUSE-Wide,
of objects have EW \r{A}, while this fraction is only
in MUSE-Deep and for the full sample. This includes objects
without HST continuum counterparts (one-third of our sample), for which we give
lower limits for EW. The object with the highest securely measured EW
has EW \r{A} (the highest lower limit being EW \r{A}).
We investigate the connection between EW and Lyman spectral or UV
continuum morphological properties. The survey depth has to be taken into
account when studying EW distributions. We find that in general, high
EW objects can have a wide range of spectral and UV morphological
properties, which might reflect that the underlying causes for high EW
values are equally varied. (abridged)Comment: 28 pages, 21 + 1 figures, 7 + 1 tables, accepted for publication in
A&
Lineage Divergence and Historical Gene Flow in the Chinese Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus sinicus)
PMCID: PMC3581519This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Effects of Cooking in Solutions of Varying pH on the Dietary Fiber Components of Vegetables
To study the effect of pH on dietary fiber components of vegetables, beans, cauliflower, potatoes, peas and corn were cooked in buffers of pH 2, 4, 6, and 10. Water-soluble pectin and hemicellulose, water-insoluble pectin and hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin were quantitated in raw, cooked vegetables and cooking medium. Tenderness and pH of raw and cooked vegetables were determined. Texture varied with cooking medium. Cooked vegetables were most firm at pH 4 and softest at pH 10. Dietary components found in cooking medium reflected these textural changes. Vegetables which showed greater pH effects exhibited greater changes in fiber components.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73821/1/j.1365-2621.1984.tb13237.x.pd
Superconception in mammalian pregnancy can be detected and increases reproductive output per breeding season
The concept of superfetation, a second conception during pregnancy, has been controversial for a long time. In this paper we use an experimental approach to demonstrate that female European brown hares (Lepus europaeus) frequently develop a second pregnancy while already pregnant and thereby increase their reproductive success. After a new, successful copulation, we confirmed additional ovulations before parturition in living, late-pregnant females by detecting a second set of fresh corpora lutea using high-resolution ultrasonography. The presence of early embryonic stages in the oviduct, demonstrated by oviduct flushing, next to fully developed fetuses in the uterus is best explained by passage of semen through the late-pregnant uterus; this was confirmed by paternity analysis using microsatellite profiling. Subsequent implantation occurred after parturition. This superfetation, categorized as superconception, significantly increased litter size and permitted females to produce up to 35.4% more offspring per breeding season. It is therefore most likely an evolutionary adaptation
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