Traceability systems and origin based meat products in the South African sheep meat industry

In a consumer-driven world, consumers want to experience a connection between the product that they are consuming and the product’s origin. To guarantee the validity of this connection and therefore the origin attribute of the product, traceability systems are required. The main purpose of this paper is to assess current traceability systems implemented in South African sheep abattoirs, thereby establishing their ability to guarantee the origin of a carcass. Research indicated that the South African sheep abattoirs have traceability systems in place and they can guarantee the origin of a meat product. The descriptive analysis and hypothesis tests identified the tipping factor for the implementation of a traceability system, as the requirement from retail markets to which these abattoirs deliver their product.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ragr20hb2016Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Developmen

From suffering towards communal well-being: experiences of a Dalcroze-inspired workshop for a community in crisis

This qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study aims to describe the meaning that members of the Parys community ascribed to their experiences of a Dalcroze-inspired workshop. Stakeholders were a number of local residents of Parys, a scenic town situated on the banks of the Vaal River in South Africa’s Free State Province. Local residents were asked to share their water-related experiences at a workshop organized by a North-West University research group. It became clear from their stories that they had experienced severe stressful circumstances. They had suffered stress because of the health risks posed by polluted water and the frequent lapses in the town’s water supply system. Dalcroze-inspired activities were used to facilitate this meeting. Data were collected through focus group interviews, open-ended individual interviews, photos, videos, and observations. All these data were consolidated in one heuristic unit in ATLAS.ti, a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software program. The codes were organized into categories and themes. Friese’s (2014) notice, collect and think (NCT) method for computer-assisted qualitative data analysis was used. From the data analysis, five themes emerged related to the Dalcroze-inspired activities. It included: joyful experiences, which facilitated social interaction that made it possible for personal relationships to be transformed. Virtues arose from this transformation, and participants’ experience was that the group engagement supported their well-being. We, therefore, argue that the Dalcroze approach can be used in communities in crisis to facilitate conflict resolution and transform relationships

Resensies

Book Review 1Book Title: Skollie: One man’s struggle to survive by telling storiesBook Author: John W. FredericksCape Town: Penguin Random House. 251 pp. ISBN: 978-1-77609-199-7.Book Review 2Book Title: A Gap in the HedgeBook Author: Johan Vlok LouwCape Town: Umuzi, 2017. 233 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4152-08915Book Review 3Book Title: Iziganeko zesizwe: Occasional Poems (1900–1943)Book Authors: S.E.K. Mqhayi. Eds. and trans. Jeff Opland and Peter T. MtuzePietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu Natal Press, 2017. 469 pp. ISBN: 9781869143343; e-ISBN: 9781869143350.Book Review 4Book Title: Oorlog en terpentynBook Authors: Stefan Hertmans. Vertaal deur Daniel HugoPretoria: Protea Boekhuis, 2016. 335 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4853-0610-8; e-Boek: 978-1-4853-0722-8; Epub: 978-1-4853-0723-5.Book Review 5Book Title: Groen soos die hemel daarboBook Author: Eben VenterKaapstad: Tafelberg, 212 pp. ISBN: 978-0-624-08261-3.Book Review 6Book Title: Die wêreld van Charlie OengBook Author: Etienne van HeerdenKaapstad: Tafelberg, 2017. 559 pp. ISBN 978-0-624-08052-7.Book Review 7Book Title: Die diepblou seeBook Author: François LootsKaapstad: Umuzi, 2017. 239 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4152-0953-0.Book Review 8Book Title: Die derde spoelBook Author: S.J. NaudéKaapstad: Umuzi, 2017. 342 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4152-0747-5 (Druk). ISBN: 978-1-4152-0748-2 (ePub).Book Review 9Book Title: Nou, hierBook Author: Corné CoetzeeKaapstad: Human & Rousseau, 2017. 107 pp. ISBN 978-0-7981-7620-0.Book Review 10Book Title: RadbraakBook Author: Jolyn PhillipsKaapstad: Human & Rousseau, 2017. 68 pp. ISBN: 978-0-7981-7616-3.Book Review 11Book Title: VuurvasBook Author: Carel AntonissenNaledi, 2016. ISBN 978-0-928316-97-1.Book Review 12Book Title: Voor ek my kom kryBook Author: Pirow BekkerPretoria: Protea Boekhuis, 2017. 110 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4853-0648-1.Book Review 13Book Title: Nuwe stemme 6Book Authors: Bibi Slippers en Charl-Pierre Naudé (samenstellers)Kaapstad: Tafelberg, 2017. 176 pp. ISBN 9780624082644.Book Review 14Book Title: UittogboekBook Author: Johan MyburgPretoria: Protea, 2017. 100 pp. ISBN: 9781485307761.Book Review 15Book Title: Krap uit die seeBook Author: Fourie BothaPretoria: Protea Boekehuis, 2017. 64 pp. ISBN 9781485307570.Book Review 16Book Title: Skepelinge. Aanloop tot ‘n romanBook Author: Karel SchoemanKaapstad: Human & Rousseau, 2017. 576 pp. ISBN: 978079817610.Book Review 17Book Title: Die reis gaan inwaarts: Die kuns van sterwe in kreatiewe werke van Karel SchoemanBook Author: Cas WepenerStellenbosch: Sun MeDIA MeTRO. Druknaam: SUN PRESS, 2017. 233 pp. ISBN: 978-1-928355-14-4 (Druk); ISBN: 979-1-928355-15-1 (e-boek)

Effect of creatine monohydrate supplementation for 3 weeks on testosterone conversion to dihydrotestosterone in young rugby players

Thesis (MPhil (Physiological Sciences))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006.Background. Creatine monohydrate is widely used for its purported ergogenic and anabolic properties. The mechanism by which creatine supplementation enhances muscle growth is not understood. This study was undertaken to determine whether creatine monohydrate supplementation increases the conversion rate of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone. An increase in dihydrotestosterone could partly explain the beneficial effect of creatine monohydrate on muscle hypertrophy. Methods. Subcommittee C of the research committee of the University of Stellenbosch approved the study. Project number 2001/ C045. The study was designed as a double blind crossover with subjects (n = 20) in each leg of the study. Group 1 (n = 10) taking creatine monohydrate and group 2 (n = 10) glucose during the first leg of the study. In accordance with crossover study design the groups were reversed in the second leg of the study. Gelatin capsules were filled with 5g of either creatine monohydrate or 5g of glucose. Subjects taking creatine monohydrate also took 25g of glucose to improve absorption of creatine. Subjects took creatine monohydrate 25g plus 25g of glucose (ten capsules in all) or glucose ten capsules per day for seven days in the loading phase. In the maintenance phase they took 5g of creatine monohydrate plus 25g of glucose (six capsules in all) per day or six capsules of glucose, for 14 days. The groups were reversed after a six-week washout period and the dosages repeated as per crossover study design. Blood samples were taken on day zero of the study as baseline measurements, repeated on day 7, (after the loading phase), and again on day 21, (after the maintenance phase). These were again repeated in the second leg of the study as per crossover design. Serum was separated within one hour of collection and stored at minus 70 oC. Testosterone and dihydrotestosterone concentrations were determined using a radio-immunoassay kit by an accredited university laboratory. The percentage conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone was calculated. The results were statistically analyzed: A paired t - tests at the beginning of each leg of the study and repeated measure analysis of variance, for the pooled data for each condition over the whole study. Results. The difference in blood levels of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone on both days 0, were not statistically significant. This made the pooling of the data possible. The difference in the percentage conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone over the study period between the creatine monohydrate condition and the glucose condition, was however significant (p < 0.0001). In this small study highly significant statistical results were obtained. The answer to how creatine taken as a supplement exerts its effect may lie in the increased rate of conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone. Conclusion. With the known greater androgenic effect of dihydrotestosterone as opposed to testosterone, the increase in testosterone conversion to dihydrotestosterone could explain how creatine supplementation exerts its anabolic effect in susceptible individuals. A larger study should be done to confirm these results and answer the questions arising from the findings

Barthesian Eco/s : the fine art of detecting boeuf

This article discusses the means by which a visually creative, artistic language can imitate the communicative abilities of a written/spoken language, making it possible to "read" a work of art as a visual text. Comparing Barthes' critique of myths with Eco's use of denotative and connotative systems leads to the conclusion that allowing for dissimilarities, the two systems can be read as texts with similar goals. Reading certain works of art through the mediation of Barthesian Eco/s, it becomes clear that a visual language can successfully copy the semantic modes of a social linguistic system and achieve the same ends.In hierdie artikel word die wyse bespreek waarop 'n visueel skeppende, kuns-gebaseerde taalvorm die kommunikasievermoens van 'n geskrewe taal kan naboots, om sodoende dit moontlik te maak dat 'n kunswerk "gelees" kan word as 'n teks. Deur Barthes se kritiek van mites met Eco se gebruik van denotasie en konnotasie te vergelyk kan daar tot die slotsom gekom word dat nieteenstaande verskille, die twee sisteme as tekste gelees kan word met dieselfde doel voor oe. Deur sekere kunswerke te "lees" deur die bemiddeling van Barthesiaanse Eco/s kan tot die besef gekom word dat 'n visuele taalgebruik suksesvol die semantiese vormgewing van 'n sosiaal geskrewe sisteem kan navolg.Article digitised using: Suprascan 1000 RGB scanner, scanned at 400 dpi; 24-bit colour; 100% Image derivating - Software used: Adobe Photoshop CS3 - Image levels, crop, deskew Abbyy Fine Reader No.9 - Image manipulation + OCR Adobe Acrobat 9 (PDF)http://explore.up.ac.za/record=b171913

The sur-reality of contemporary semantics

This article is a response to both Bert Olivier's article "'Natural Born Killers', violence and contemporary culture" (this journal, last issue) and the accompanying report by Amanda du Preez. Based mainly on two issues derived from du Preez's report, this article argues the points raised from a social structuration perspective as against the report's perceived postmodern perspective. The question of the absence of a role for narrative in the social sense is discussed, as well as the schizophrenic "normality" that can be created by the non-presence of such a normative structure. The article ends by looking at Stone's supposed criticism of violence, and questioning what is really being criticised.Article digitised using: Suprascan 1000 RGB scanner, scanned at 400 dpi; 24-bit colour; 100% Image derivating - Software used: Adobe Photoshop CS3 - Image levels, crop, deskew Abbyy Fine Reader No.9 - Image manipulation + OCR Adobe Acrobat 9 (PDF)http://explore.up.ac.za/record=b171913

The postmodern simulacrum - a critique of the work of Allen Weiss and Barbara Kruger

To effect the change from an active 60s/70s style political dialogue to a user-friendly dialogue of-and-for the people, postmodern language use enters the sublime arena of virtual reality, wherein 'fictions' are created by those who 'know better': and fictions/truths become synonymous in a psychoanalytic world of uncertainty and doubt. This is highlighted in the critical essay "Lucid intervals: postmodernism and photography" (1990) by Allen Weiss, in which he also discusses the work of the artist Barbara Kruger. In his essay Weiss shows the transference, from theory to practice, of this new basis of knowledge in the epistemological shift. The new epistemology allows a subject to be seemingly 'destroyed' in favour of an object (but this only means an attempt is made to change the subject into an object, it does not mean the subject disappears). The object itself is then changed to a copy of the real, and in this false 'mirror image' no subject (so it would seem) can be found to refer [to] or to relate to - a psychological shift in perception that isolates anyone viewing these images from normal interrelational contact re:social communication and cultural values as guidelines. 'Visual words' in art are not in themselves indicative of reality; they can, however, change our perception of reality. Because virtual reality may be persuasive in this irrational way - because there still remains a very strong link between object and subject as far as information-in-the-world is concerned - the simulated object (in its operation as a hidden subject) can relate back to the 'normal' primacy of the subject over object relation, and psychologically this is accepted as the domination of the one over the other. Because we do not consciously think of this relation of primacy as domination, in the political and ideological sense, we may mistake[nly interpret] the transformation process that takes place in the visual persuasiveness of Kruger's work. This transformation or shift in the epistemology of postmodernism re-interprets language as a communication system that facilitates a reading of the 'new social reality': the control of information and knowledge disguised as the postmodern call to freedom.Om die aktiewe sestiger/sewentiger politieke dialoogstyl na 'n gebruikersvriendelike van-en-vir die mense dialoog te verander, betree postmoderne taalgebruik die verhewe arena van skyn-realiteit waarin 'fiksies' geskep word deur die wat 'beter weet': en fiksies/waarhede word sinonieme in 'n psigo-analitiese wereld van onsekerheid en twyfel. Dit word beklemtoon in die kritiese essay "Lucid intervals: postmodernism and photography" (1990), deur Allen S. Weiss, waarin hy die werk van die kunstenaar Barbara Kruger bespreek. In sy essay weerspieel Weiss die verplasing, van die teorie na die praktyk, van hierdie nuwe kennisbasis in die epistemologiese verskuiwing. Die onderwerp word oeskynlik ten gunste van die voorwerp 'vernietig' (maar dit beteken slegs dat die onderwerp verander word na 'n voorwerp), en die voorwerp self word verander na 'n kopie van die werklikheid. ln hierdie vals spieelbeeld is daar geen onderwerp waarna verwys kan word of wat verstaan kan word nie - 'n sielkundige verskuiwing in waarneming, wat enigeen wat hierdie beelde sien van normale interrelasionele kontak isoleer met betrekking tot sosiale kommunikasie en kulturele waardes as riglyne. 'Visuele woorde' in kuns is nie op sigself bewyse van realiteit nie, maar hulle kan ons waarneming van realiteit verander. Omdat skyn-realiteit op hierdie irrasionele wyse oortuigend kan wees - daar is nog steeds 'n sterk skakel tussen onderwerp en voorwerp insoverre dit inligting-in-die-wereld betref - kan die gesimuleerde voorwerp (as versteekte voorwerp) terugverwys na die 'normale' voorrang-verwantskap wat die onderwerp oor die voorwerp het en sielkundig word dit aanvaar as die dominasie van die een oor die ander. Omdat ons nie bewustelik aan hierdie voorrangverwantskap as dominasie, in die politieke en ideologiese sin, dink nie, kan ons die transformasieproses, wat in die visuele oortuigingskrag van Kruger se werk plaasvind, verkeerd interpreteer. Hierdie transformasie, of epistemologiese verskuiwing van postmodernisme, herinterpreteer taal as 'n kommunikasiesisteem wat die bewuswording van die 'nuwe sosiale realiteit' vergemaklik: die beheer van inligting en kennis verbloem as die postmoderne uitroep na vryheid.Article digitised using: Suprascan 1000 RGB scanner, scanned at 400 dpi; 24-bit colour; 100% Image derivating - Software used: Adobe Photoshop CS3 - Image levels, crop, deskew Abbyy Fine Reader No.9 - Image manipulation + OCR Adobe Acrobat 9 (PDF)http://explore.up.ac.za/record=b171913

Changing a phenomenal change Reassembling the self through a new ethics of negotiation

The only change we can be sure of is that over which we do have control, when we change ourselves, and even then this control is mediated by our interactions with others, by a mediating and normative environment that includes the designed objects we let into our lives. That change, seen against a broad canvas of sustainable social structuration, is necessary, is not in doubt. How to go about effecting this change has to be, even if only for the sake of not making the same mistakes as have been made in the past. Change has to be controlled from within, has to be designed into being as a normal part of the individual’s ongoing growth process

Rocking shear wall foundations in regions of moderate seismicity

Thesis (MScEng (Civil Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In regions of moderate seismicity it has been shown that a suitable structural system is created when designing the shear wall with a plastic hinge zone at the lower part of the wall, with the shear walls resisting lateral loads and all other structural elements designed to resist gravity loads. A suitably stiff foundation is required for the assumption of plastic hinge zones to hold true. This foundation should have limited rotation and should remain elastic when lateral loads are applied to the structure. Ensuring a foundation with a greater capacity than the shear wall results in excessively large shear wall foundations being required in areas of moderate seismicity for buildings with no basement level. This study aims to investigate the feasibility of reducing the size of shear wall foundations in areas of moderate seismicity for buildings with no basement level. The investigation is aimed at allowing shear wall foundation rocking and taking into account the contribution of structural frames to the lateral stiffness of the structure. An example building was chosen to investigate this possibility. Firstly, lateral force-displacement capacities were determined for a shear wall and an internal reinforced concrete frame of this investigated building. Nonlinear momentrotation behaviour was determined for the wall foundation size that would traditionally be required as well as for six other smaller foundations. The above capacity curves against lateral loads were then used to compile a simplified model of the structural systems assumed to contribute to the lateral stiffness of the building. This simplified model therefore combined the effect of the shear wall, internal frame and wall foundation. Nonlinear time-history analyses were performed on this simplified model to investigate the dynamic response of the structure with different wall foundation sizes. By assessing response results on a global and local scale, it was observed that significantly smaller shear wall foundations are possible when allowing foundation rocking and taking into account the contribution of other structural elements to the lateral stiffness of the building.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Daar is reeds getoon dat ʼn voldoende strukturele sisteem verkry word in gebiede van gematigde seismiese risiko indien ʼn skuifmuur ontwerp word met ʼn plastiese skarnier sone naby die ondersteuning van die muur. Skuifmure word dan ontwerp om weerstand te bied teen laterale kragte met alle ander strukturele elemente ontwerp om gravitasie kragte te weerstaan. Vir die aanname van plastiese skarnier sones om geldig te wees word ʼn fondasie met voldoende styfheid benodig. Só ʼn fondasie moet beperkte rotasie toelaat en moet elasties bly wanneer laterale kragte aan die struktuur aangewend word. ʼn Fondasie met ʼn groter kapasiteit as dié van die skuifmuur lei daartoe dat uitermate groot fondasies benodig word in gebiede van gematigde seismiese risiko vir geboue met geen kelder vlak. Hierdie studie is daarop gemik om die moontlikheid van kleiner skuifmuur fondasies te ondersoek vir geboue met geen kelder vlak in gebiede van gematigde seismiese risiko. Die ondersoek het ten doel om skuifmuur fondasie wieg aksie toe te laat en die bydrae van strukturele rame tot die laterale styfheid van die struktuur in ag te neem. Eerstens is die laterale krag-verplasing kapasiteit van ʼn skuifmuur en ʼn interne gewapende beton raam van die gekose gebou bepaal. Nie-lineêre moment-rotasie gedrag is bepaal vir die skuifmuur fondasie grootte wat tradisioneel benodig sou word asook vir ses ander kleiner fondasie grotes. Die bogenoemde kapasiteit kurwes is gebruik om ʼn vereenvoudigde model van die strukturele sisteme wat aanvaar word om laterale styfheid tot die gebou te verleen, op te stel. Hierdie vereenvoudigde model kombineer gevolglik die effek van die skuifmuur, interne raam en skuifmuur fondasie. Nie-lineêre tydgeskiedenis analises is uitgevoer op die vereenvoudigde model ten einde die dinamiese reaksie van die struktuur te ondersoek vir verskillende fondasie grotes. Resultate is beoordeel op ʼn globale en lokale vlak. Daar is waargeneem dat aansienlik kleiner skuifmuur fondasies moontlik is deur wieg aksie van die fondasie toe te laat en die bydrae van ander strukturele elemente tot die laterale styfheid van die gebou in ag te neem