Women in Anti-Colonial and Nationalist Movements: A Comparative Study of India and South Africa

Women have been at the forefront of global nationalist movements. In Latin America, Asia and Africa colonialism and its subjugation of men and women inevitably led to the rise of nationalistic fervour. In both South Africa and India women were at the forefront of the struggle challenging gender roles and creating new spaces for their political activism. This paper adopts a gender lens and engages in a comparative approach to document the role and contributions of women in the nationalist and anti-apartheid movement in India and South Africa respectively. It highlights the similarities and differences in terms of their mode of resistance, political agency and mobilisation. More significantly, it documents the challenges and constraints they endured in different geographical settings, in the context of gender, class, race/ethnicity and religion and how it shaped and defined their political activism and consciousness. This article contributes to narratives on gender and nationalism and how regional and continental histories shape and define women’s participation and opportunities.&nbsp

A System-on-Programmable-Chip Approach for MIMO Lattice Decoder

The past decade has shown distinct advances in the theory of multiple input multi output techniques for wireless communication systems. Now, the time has come to demonstrate this progress in terms of applications. This thesis introduces implementation of Schnorr- Euchner strategy based decoding algorithm applied on Altera system-on-chip (Stratix EP1S10F780C6) with Nios embedded processor. The lattice decoder is developed on FPGA using VHDL. The preprocessing part of algorithm is targeted for Nios embedded processor using C language. A controller is also designed to interface and communicate between the Nios embedded processor and lattice decoder

Obstetric and neonatal outcomes among pregnancies with hepatitis E infection

Background: Maternal mortality is an important health indicator. Hepatitis E is a common viral infection affecting pregnant women. The maternal morbidity and mortality relating to this infection is not extensively reported and deserves to be studied.Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in a tertiary care referral centre and the obstetric and neonatal outcomes among patients with hepatitis E infection were studied for duration of 1 year.Results: Among 24 patients, there were 7 mortalities. Majorities were primigravidae and presented during third trimester. A sizeable number required blood transfusions and ICU stay. 7 were stillbirths and majorities were low birth weight babies.Conclusions: Hepatitis E causes significant maternal and neonatal morbidity

Age hardening heat treatment behavior of as-cast Mg–Zn–Al alloys

Magnesium alloys have generated renewed interest as a light alloys; replacing some conventional structural materials for weight reduction in applications like aerospace, automotive and electronics industries. In interior components and powertrains, cast alloys are widely used and represent more than 99% of magnesium alloys used today, whereas only a few wrought products are used. Mostly in automotive applications, Mg-engine block can noticeably reduce the weight and consequently its fuel consumption and environmental impact. Due to solid-state precipitates, these alloys are strong in nature and are produced by an age-hardening heat treatment process. In the present work the age hardening behavior of the as cast Mg–Zn–Al alloys (ZA85 alloy) in the composition of 8 wt. %Zn, 5 wt. %Al has been investigated. Through the differential thermal analysis (DTA) studies, it has been found out that dissolution temperature of ternary eutectic precipitates is present in the alloy. Based on the DTA results, the as cast samples have been solutionised at 360 °C temperature for different intervals of time. Solutionising time has been optimized from the enthalpy values of un-dissolved precipitates. The solution treated samples have been then aged at temperature of 180° C for different time intervals. From the peak hardness values, the ageing conditions have been optimized

The effect of surface texturing in the sliding surface on tribological characteristics of alloy steel under wet condition

Surface texturing plays a significant role on the tribological performance of contact surfaces. The tribological characteristics are mostly dependent upon the different pattern and methods of surface texturing. This research works investigates lubricated wear behaviour on circular dimples textured EN-31 alloy steel materials using DUCOM linear reciprocating tribometer. The surface dimples are fabricated by micro-EDM and micro-drilling CNC methods. Initially plane surfaces are tested under different lubricants ISO-68 and ISO-220 oil on a couple of EN31 plates with EN8 steel pin. At loading conditions the results clearly shows that the ISO 68 oil gives better performance than ISO-220 oil in terms of frictional force and COF. The operation during test under ISO-220 oil observed is very noisy and wear rate is also more. Then after experiments under different load conditions on textured surfaces were investigated using optimized ISO-68 oil. An experimental results on m-EDM provides superior frictional characteristics with respect to m-CNC. Surface texturing may act as wear debris trapper, lubricant reservoirs, hydrodynamic lift, and retarding the lubricant molecules flow in a particular path where potential exists. Here micro-dimples EDM surface textures can enhance mixed lubrication and in mixed lubrication the friction is least and this may leads to decrement of wear loss

Towards zero solid waste: utilising tannery waste as a protein source for poultry feed

Zero waste is now a strongly emerging issue for sustainable industrial development where minimisation and utilisation of waste are a priority in the leather industry. In a tannery hides and skins converted in to leather through various processes. Approximately 20% (w/w) of the chrome containing tannery solid waste (TSW) is generated from one tonne of raw hides and skins. However, tannery solid waste may also be a resource if it is managed expertly as we move towards zero waste. This research illustrates the potential of tannery solid waste as a poultry feed additive. An oxidation method was used to achieve 95% of dechroming rate of chrome tanned waste followed with thermal and enzymatic treatment to produce gelatin solution and collagen concentrates. The thermal stability and fibre structure of samples were analysed by Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Protein content and fourteen amino acid concentrations were determined using amino acid analysis. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) was used to compare the amino acid composition with wheat and soya bean meal that is conventionally used in poultry feed. The nutrient requirements for poultry feed vary according to the purpose for which they have been developed. The high content of arginine, leucine, threonine, serine and methionine in the extract were of a sufficient level for poultry feed. Hexavalent chromium test was performed and showed that levels of the metal were low enough to be used in feed additives. In addition, the extracted product showed 75% digestibility (in vitro) and appears that treated TSW may be utilised in poultry feed, this demonstrates a clear example of waste utilisation. In Bangladesh plans are being formed to use the extract in poultry feed production

Al2O3 and TiO2 flux enabling activated tungsten inert gas welding of 304 austenitic stainless steel plates

Gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) is important in those manufacturing where it is significant to control the mechanical and metallurgical characteristics and its weld bead geometry. This work has been committed to study the influence of oxide fluxes on welding of 4 mm thick 304 austenitic stainless steel plates. The Al2O3 and TiO2 were used as an oxide flux in powder form and are mixed with the acetone. The prepared mixture is applied on bead plate without any joint preparation and without filler wire addition. The Taguchi method with L9 orthogonal array is used to determine the optimal parameters. The current work aims to explore the influence of weld parameters on weld bead geometry (i.e. weld bead width, penetration and angular distortion), and mechanical & metallurgical characteristics for 304 stainless steel welds. The oxide flux seems to narrow the arc and thereby the current density increases at the anode spot, that results in high weld depth

Effect of fermentation and nutritional conditions on the profile of flavour active ester compounds in beer.

Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2011.During fermentation, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae produces a broad range of aroma-active esters that are important for the desirable complex flavour of beer. The sensory threshold levels of these esters in beer are low, ranging from 0.2 ppm for isoamyl acetate to 15-20 ppm for ethyl acetate. Although esters are only present in trace amounts in beer, they are extremely important as minor changes in their concentration may have dramatic effects on beer flavour. Therefore, optimization of the concentrations of these aroma-active esters in beer is of interest in beer brewing. The number and concentration of esters in beer may be influenced by the fermentation parameters, nutritional composition of fermentation medium and yeast strain type. Therefore, this study investigated the influence of fermentation temperature, pH, and wort nutritional supplements (amino acids and zinc) on the production of yeast-derived ester compounds. In addition, the overall fermentation performance was evaluated based on the reducing sugar and Free Amino Nitrogen (FAN) utilization, ethanol production and yeast cell density. These parameters were analysed using the Dinitrosalicyclic acid method, Ninhydrin assay, Gas Chromatography and standard spread plate technique. The concentration and stability of ethyl acetate, isoamyl acetate, phenyl ethyl acetate, ethyl hexanoate, ethyl decanoate and ethyl octanoate was monitored during storage at 4 °C and room temperature (RT), in the final beer by Chromatography. The expression levels of the ester synthetase genes under conditions that resulted in the highest increase in ester production were quantified by Real-Time PCR. For the lager beer, the best fermentation performance was achieved at RT (±22.5°C), resulting in the utilization of the highest amount of nutrients and production of 4.86% (v/v) ethanol. This was accompanied by the highest production of acetate and ethyl esters, which were 40.86% and 87.21%, respectively, higher than that of the control. Spent yeast density ranged from 2.492 to 3.358 mg/ml for all parameters tested, with the highest yield produced when wort was supplemented with 0.120 g/l zinc sulphate. Fermentations at 14 °C yielded the highest foam head stability and spent yeast viability with a foam head rating of 2.67 and a spent yeast viability of 3.85 × 107 cfu/ml. Ester compounds were relatively stable at 4 °C than at room temperature decreasing by only 7.93% after three months. Of all the volatile esters produced, ethyl decanoate was the least stable, with a 36.77% decrease in concentration at room temperature. For the ale beer, the best fermentation performance which resulted in the highest nutrient utilization was achieved when wort was supplemented with 0.75 g/l L-leucine resulting in the utilization of the highest amount of nutrients (51.25% FAN and 69.11% reducing sugar utilization) and production of 5.12% (v/v) ethanol. At the optimum fermentation pH of 5, 38.27% reducing sugars and 35.28% FAN were utilized, resulting in 4.32% ethanol (v/v) production. Wort supplemented with 0.12 g/l zinc sulphate resulted in 5.01% ethanol (v/v) production and 54.32% reducing sugar utilization. Spent yeast density ranged from 1.985 to 2.848 mg/ml for all parameters tested with the highest yield produced when wort was supplemented with 0.120 g/l zinc sulphate. This was also accompanied by the highest yeast viability of 2.12 × 107 cfu/ml achieved on day 3 of fermentation. Supplementation with 0.75 g/l L-leucine yielded the highest foam head stability with a rating of 2.67. Overall, ester compounds were relatively more stable at 4 °C than at RT decreasing by only 6.93% after three months, compared to a decrease of up to 16.90% observed at RT at the same time. Of all the volatile esters produced, ethyl octanoate was the least stable, with a 32.47% decrease in concentration at RT, phenyl ethyl acetate was the most stable ester at RT, decreasing by 9.82% after three months. Wort supplemented with 0.75 g/l L-leucine resulted in an increase in isoamyl acetate and phenyl ethyl acetate production by 38.69% and 30.40%, respectively, with a corresponding high expression of alcohol acetyltransferases, ATF2 (133.49-fold higher expression than the control). Elevation of fermentation temperature to RT resulted in the upregulation of ATF2 (27.11-fold), and producing a higher concentration of isoamyl acetate. These findings indicate that ester synthesis during fermentation is linked to both substrate availability and the regulation of gene expression. Therefore, it would be possible to manipulate the expression of certain ester synthestase genes to create new yeast strains with desirable ester production characteristics. Results from this study also suggest that supplementing wort with essential nutrients required for yeast growth and optimizing the fermentation conditions could be effective in controlling aroma-active ester concentrations to a desired level in beer

Responses of Avicennia marina (Forssk.) Vierh. to contamination by selected heavy metals.

Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2008.Heavy metal contamination of mangroves is of critical concern due to its accumulative and adverse effects in aquatic ecosystems. This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of mercury (Hg ), lead (Pb ), copper (Cu ) and zinc (Zn ) on plant responses, specifically growth and productivity, in Avicennia marina (Forssk.) Vierh. A. marina plants were grown for twelve months in pots contaminated with Hg +, Pb +, Cu2+ and Zn2+ at concentrations of 0, 40, 80, 120 and 160 ppm (1 ppm = 1 (agmf1). Accumulation and distribution of the heavy metals in shoot and root tissues were determined using atomic absorption spectroscopy (Perkin-Elmer Model 303) while secretion of the heavy metals from leaves was studied using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis. I hypothesized that heavy metals have deleterious effects on plant growth and that they are absorbed by roots and secreted from salt glands present on the leaves. SEM X-ray microanalyses confirmed secretion of Cu + and Zn + ions as well as salt (NaCl) from glandular structures on both the adaxial and abaxial surfaces of leaves; however Hg2+ and Pb2+ were not detected in the secretion. Ion concentrations were significantly higher in plant roots than in shoots, particularly at 160 ligml"1 for all heavy metals. In addition, toxic levels of Hg and Pb were detected in the shoot tissue; however, Cu2+ and Zn2+ were within the normal ion concentration in the shoots. Plant height, number of leaves, biomass accumulation and chlorophyll content were significantly lower at 160 ugml" than the control values for all heavy metals. Carbon dioxide exchange, transpiration and leaf conductance generally decreased with increasing metal concentration. CO2 exchange at a concentration of 160 (J-gmf1 was significantly lower than the control for all metals. CO2 exchange at 160 ugml"1 for Hg2+, Pb2+, Cu2+ and Zn were 49.6 %, 55 %, 47.6 % and 63.6 % respectively lower than the control values. Photosystem II (PS II) quantum yield, photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm) and electron transport rate (ETR) through PS II generally decreased with increasing concentration for all heavy metals. XV This study has shown that A. marina experiences dose-dependent stress responses to Cu2+, Zn2+, Hg2+ and Pb2+ in shoot and root tissue at a concentration of 160 lagmi"1, evidenced by decreases in growth and photosynthetic performance. The results also ~)A- "7-1- 9-1- "J-\-indicate that CuZT, Znz\ HgZT and PbZT are taken up by roots and transported to shoots. In addition, only Cu and Zn are secreted via the glands while Hg and Pb accumulate within the shoots

Change management strategies, post-acquisition and merger, at a private wellness organisation in South Africa.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Organisations use mergers and acquisitions as a growth strategy in the quest for market domination and sustained competitive advantage. This growth strategy is still actively employed even though global statistics reveal that eighty three percent of all mergers and acquisitions result in failure. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the change management strategies employed by Company XXX during its 2017/2018 acquisition of Company YYY. This qualitative study utilised a phenomenological research design and the collection of data was done through semi-structured interviews. Ten line managers (Grade 12-15) participated in the study from Company XXX and Company YYY. The change management process relating to post-merger integration, communication and leadership during and postmerger was investigated using the Kotter eight step change management model as the theoretical framework. The data collected was transcripted and NVIVO was used for data analysis where the information was coded and themes were identified. Themes that emerged from the study was that the organisation did not have a formal change management strategy that addressed pre and post-merger integration processes, managers who were tasked with the integration process felt that this proved to be difficult for them as they felt disengaged from the organisation. Poor communication, a lack of structure and silo management from senior leadership increased employee disengagement. This resulted in demotivated employees, increased uncertainty relating to job security and the eventual loss of employees with critical skillsets. The study participants also provided valuable insight from a human and operations perspective on how change should be managed more effectively for the organisation to benefit meaningfully from the merger. The overarching theme was the lack of communication and silo management practices. A recommendation was for the organisation to initiate communication and maintain open communication throughout the process with evaluations done at the different stages of the integration. The establishment of a cross-functional change management team to guide the required changes was also highly recommended