Development Studies Working Paper, no. 5

A rural development project is currently under way in the Amatola Basin, Ciskei. This paper introduces the project and outlines the socio-economic and agricultural conditions current in the area. An overview of present project activities is included. It then attempts to identify a number of potential and actual human and structural constraints operating on the implementation of the project. Such constraints arise out of the existing agricultural system in the project area, as well as out of the state bureaucratic structures operating in Ciskei, and the agency implementing the project itself. One aim is to identify the units involved in dryland cultivation. This is done by tracing ties of cooperation between cultivating households in one Amatola village. It will be shown, in this village at least, that the household does not form the main unit of cultivation. A second aim of this paper is to show that checks on rural development in general should not be sought solely within the area under consideration, but derive to an important degree from outside sources.Digitised by Rhodes University Library on behalf of the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER

Logistics-related customer complaints in the South African retail industry

Abstract: Intense competition in the South African fast-moving customer goods (FMCG) retailing industry often results in price wars that encourage customer switching behaviour. Time and place utility provided by distribution, equates to customer service and forms part of the competitive strategy of retailers. Solving last-mile logistical problems in-store could be a valuable strategy in differentiation and building customer loyalty. The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of logistics-related customer complaints concerning South African mass grocery retailers (MGR) as lodged on customer complaints website Hellopeter.com, pertaining to the three largest MGR groups for the period of one year ending August 2016..

Optical spectroscopy of complex open 4dd-shell ions Sn7+^{7+}-Sn10+^{10+}

We analyze the complex level structure of ions with many-valence-electron open [Kr] 4$d^\textrm{m}$ sub-shells ($\textrm{m}$=7-4) with ab initio calculations based on configuration-interaction many-body perturbation theory (CI+MBPT). Charge-state-resolved optical and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectra of Sn$^{7+}$-Sn$^{10+}$ ions were obtained using an electron beam ion trap. Semi-empirical spectral fits carried out with the orthogonal parameters technique and Cowan code calculations lead to 90 identifications of magnetic-dipole transitions and the determination of 79 energy ground-configuration levels, questioning some earlier EUV-line assignments. Our results, the most complete data set available to date for these ground configurations, confirm the ab initio predictive power of CI+MBPT calculations for the these complex electronic systems.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

Field responsive mechanical metamaterials.

Typically, mechanical metamaterial properties are programmed and set when the architecture is designed and constructed, and do not change in response to shifting environmental conditions or application requirements. We present a new class of architected materials called field responsive mechanical metamaterials (FRMMs) that exhibit dynamic control and on-the-fly tunability enabled by careful design and selection of both material composition and architecture. To demonstrate the FRMM concept, we print complex structures composed of polymeric tubes infilled with magnetorheological fluid suspensions. Modulating remotely applied magnetic fields results in rapid, reversible, and sizable changes of the effective stiffness of our metamaterial motifs

Detection of the 5p-4f orbital crossing and its optical clock transition in Pr9+

Recent theoretical works have proposed atomic clocks based on narrow optical transitions in highly charged ions. The most interesting candidates for searches of new physics are those which occur at rare orbital crossings where the shell structure of the periodic table is reordered. There are only three such crossings expected to be accessible in highly charged ions, and hitherto none have been observed as both experiment and theory have proven difficult. In this work we observe an orbital crossing in highly charged ions for the first time, in a system chosen to be tractable from both sides: Pr9+. We present electron beam ion trap measurements of its spectra, including the inter-configuration lines that reveal the sought-after crossing. The proposed nHz-wide clock line, found to be at 452.334(1) nm, proceeds through hyperfine admixture of its upper state with an E2-decaying level. With state-of-the-art calculations we show that it has a very high sensitivity to new physics and extremely low sensitivity to external perturbations, making it a unique candidate for proposed precision studies