African indigenous knowledge systems and relevance of higher education in South Africa

The higher education system in Africa and South Africa in particular,is still too academic and distant from the developmental challengesof African local communities. The integration of African indigenousknowledge systems (AIKS) into the higher educational system couldimprove its relevance. This is due to the holistic, community-based natureand approach of AIKS to education and knowledge production. However,this requires an African indigenous theoretical framework of knowledgeto guide the integration process. The framework should also clarify therelevance of African indigenous languages in knowledge productionand sharing in the era of globalisation. There is also need for a stronginstitutional support system for a sustainable integration as shown by theexperiences of some higher educational institutions in South Africa

Broadband THz modulators based on multilayer graphene on PVC

In this study we present the direct terahertz time-domain spectroscopic measurement of CVD-grown multilayer graphene (MLG) on PVC substrate with an electrically tunable Fermi level. In a configuration consisting MLG and injected organic dopant, the transmitted intensity loss of terahertz radiation was observed with an applied voltage between 0 and 3.5 V. We showed that MLG on PVC devices provided approximately 100 % modulation between 0.2 and 1.5 THz at preferentially low operation voltage of ca. 3V. The observed modulation bandwidth in terahertz frequencies appears to be instrument limited. © 2016 IEEE

Conformations of Proteins in Equilibrium

We introduce a simple theoretical approach for an equilibrium study of proteins with known native state structures. We test our approach with results on well-studied globular proteins, Chymotrypsin Inhibitor (2ci2), Barnase and the alpha spectrin SH3 domain and present evidence for a hierarchical onset of order on lowering the temperature with significant organization at the local level even at high temperatures. A further application to the folding process of HIV-1 protease shows that the model can be reliably used to identify key folding sites that are responsible for the development of drug resistance .Comment: 6 pages, 3 eps figure

Isolation and identification of mycobacteria responsible for tuberculosis of dromedaries in Algeria

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