Interdisciplinary drought risk assessment for agriculture: The case of communal farmers in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

Interdisciplinary drought risk assessment provides the true reflection of drought risk by integrating hazard data with adaptation, vulnerability and coping capacity. Traditional methods for drought risk calculation based purely on meteorological extremes do not provide an accurate reflection of disaster drought. Communal farmers in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa, experience disaster droughts regularly; even normal dry periods are experienced as disaster droughts.This research rejects the hypothesis of climate change as the reason for increased drought in the Northern Cape but rather highlight vulnerability and lack of coping capacity as the main sources of disaster droughts, especially amongst communal farmers in the Northern Cape

The usage of African languages in three selected contemporary German novels set in Africa

This paper will focus on the use of indigenous African languages as well as the acquisition of language as a motif in selected contemporary German novels set in Africa. The aim of this paper is to show where the portrayal of indigenous languages fits into the quest for high sale figures as the German contemporary novel set in Africa aims to provide the greatest amount of entertainment to the largest number of readers (cf. Nusser 2000:13; Jordaan 2008:31). The word ‘contemporary’ refers to approximately the last ten years and ‘German’ to novels written in the German language, i.e. novels from Switzerland (for example) are also included. The nature, quantity and function of utterances from three selected contemporary German novels will be presented, in order to show how the use of African languages in these novels can create, perpetuate and resolve suspense in the plot. Keywords: African languages, German novels, Ein Land das Himmel heißt, Die weiße Jägerin, Afrika mon Amour, Afric

A constitutional critique on the regulations relating to artificial fertilisation of persons

It is constitutionally impermissible for legislation to over-medicalise, that is, to legally enforce medical influence and supervision over certain actions, without good reason why such medical influence and supervision are required. Various parts of the regulations relating to artificial fertilisation of persons made in terms of the National Health Act over-medicalise aspects of artificial fertilisation and gamete donation. These offending parts of the regulations are accordingly unconstitutional and invalid. The article calls for a thorough review of the regulations from a constitutional perspective

Supply chain risks and smallholder fresh produce farmers in the Gauteng province of South Africa

A survey of 52 smallholder fresh produce farmers was conducted in the Gauteng province of South Africa to grasp how risk and its management affect the mainstreaming of smallholder farmers into formal, high-value markets. The study employed a supply chain analysis approach, which focused on the functions and risks that occur along the fresh produce chain. The results highlight the risks that impede the participation of smallholder farmers in formal, high-value chains. At the production level, risk is prominent from input procurement through to the post-harvest stage of the chains. At the retail and consumption level, risks are linked to the adherence to quality and quantity standards, including prescribed packaging, grading, labelling and traceability and transport requirements. As a result of these risks across the formal chain, smallholder farmers often resort to distributing their products in low-value informal markets. The consequence is that smallholder farmers tend to remain trapped in poverty, in part, because of their risk appetites and their ability to bear risk.Further research is required in the areas pertaining to smallholder farmers’ risk appetite and risk-bearing ability and mechanisms to deal with the particular risks in the value chain that impede their all-round ability to escape the “smallholder dilemma”.Keywords: Smallholders, supply chain risks, fresh produce, high-value market

An aspect of language for academic purposes in secondary education: complex sentence comprehension by learners in an integrated Gauteng school

Language for academic purposes is an important concept, not always recognised and developed within the education system. The ability to use language for learning can be diff icult for individuals who are educated in a second language. They are required to master complex concepts in a language they are still acquiring. We aimed to discover how secondary school learners performed on an aspect of academic language: complex sentence comprehension. A group of 464 adolescent participants’ performance on the grammatical understanding subtest of the Test of Adolescent Language was analysed in relation to their status as first or second language English learners, their grade, gender, literacyexperiences, preferred modality of learning, and other factors deemed to influence language acquisition in modern society. The results indicated that the majority of learners achieved within the average range. There were significant differences between the male and female participants and the junior phase ESL males achieved the lowest scores. It was concluded that it may take 8–9 years of formal schooling for some individuals to acquire the requisite academic language proficiency, particularly if they are learning in their second language. This has important implications for the teaching and assessment of second language learners

Control algorythm of a smart grid device for optimal radial feeder load reconfiguration

Abstract Secondary distribution network, generally speaking, performs as well as the performance of its LV feeders. The main problem a feeder is experiencing is the load unbalancing due to the stochastic nature of its individual single-phase loads: bigger losses in certain phase accompanied with bed voltage regulation and voltage unbalance. The aim of this paper is to address the issue of automatic balancing as progressing from the end of the feeder towards the front using smart device based on three-ways switch selector and artificial intelligence algorithm to minimize the neutral current

Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis due to Rickettsia conorii infection

Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) is an immune-mediated acute inflammatory demyelinating disorder, which typically occurs after viral infections or immunisation. We present a case of a man with acute Rickettsia conorii infection whose diagnosis was delayed. He presented with fever, headache, an eschar and an acute paraplegia. The R. conorii IgM serum titre was 1:128. Magnetic resonance imaging showed multifocal lesions in the brain and spinal cord consistent with inflammatory demyelination. The patient responded well to doxycycline and a short course of high-dose corticosteroids. To our knowledge this is the first case of ADEM associated with Mediterranean spotted fever – we found a previous report of ADEM in a child with Rocky Mountain spotted fever, whose diagnosis of rickettsial infection was also delayed. We hypothesise that delayed diagnosis of spotted fever group rickettsial infections could rarely result in ADEM