A Review of Indigenous Food Crops in Africa and the Implications for more Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems

Indigenous and traditional foods crops (ITFCs) have multiple uses within society, and most notably have an important role to play in the attempt to diversify the food in order to enhance food and nutrition security. However, research suggests that the benefits and value of indigenous foods within the South African and the African context have not been fully understood and synthesized. Their potential value to the African food system could be enhanced if their benefits were explored more comprehensively. This synthesis presents a literature review relating to underutilized indigenous crop species and foods in Africa. It organizes the findings into four main contributions, nutritional, environmental, economic, and social-cultural, in line with key themes of a sustainable food system framework. It also goes on to unpack the benefits and challenges associated with ITFCs under these themes. A major obstacle is that people are not valuing indigenous foods and the potential benefit that can be derived from using them is thus neglected. Furthermore, knowledge is being lost from one generation to the next, with potentially dire implications for long-term sustainable food security. The results show the need to recognize and enable indigenous foods as a key resource in ensuring healthy food systems in the African continent

The unemployed mid-career adult: stressors and support.

The high rate of unemployment in South Africa is of national concern yet the experience of being unemployed is little understood; not enough is known about the unemployed condition in South Africa. In this study eight unemployed mid-career adults who had been out of work for longer than six months were interviewed in order to explore their lived experience. A qualitative methodology was used and from the extensive interview data, using qualitative content analysis, themes relating to the unemployed condition emerged. Results support, to a large degree, the existing literature and studies on the stressors impacting on the unemployed. This study offers additional insight into the support structures available for the unemployed adult

Illness perceptions and illness behaviours in back pain : A cross-sectional cluster analysis

Funding sources: The data contained herein were provided by the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) project C45810/A17927 at the University of Aberdeen. This secondary analysis was undertaken as part of L. Morton’s doctoral studentship which was supported by the Versus Arthritis/Medical Research Council Centre for Musculoskeletal Health and Work (grant number: 20665). Acknowledgements: The data contained herein were provided by the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) project C45810/A17927 at the University of Aberdeen. We would like to thank Peter Murchie and Phil Hannaford at the University of Aberdeen who facilitated access to the USEFUL Study dataset for this secondary analysis. This work was undertaken as part of L. Morton’s doctoral studentship which was supported by the Versus Arthritis/Medical Research Council Centre for Musculoskeletal Health and Work (grant number: 20665).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Strengthening graduate employee commitment through internal marketing in the South African retail banking industry

Abstract: A strong internal marketing strategy can be critical to achieving and sustaining a competitive advantage as well as driving organisational change and enhanced organisational performance. This study sought to determine the influence of internal marketing mix elements on the satisfaction levels of recently employed graduates (GradDPs) within the retail banking industry in South Africa. The study also identified links between the satisfaction of GradDPs and their affective commitment in this context. A census approach to generating data was applied in the study by using a person-administered and an electronic survey method. Regression analysis was used to test the relationships proposed in the study. The results indicated that internal marketing significantly influences GradDP employee satisfaction within retail banks in South Africa and that a positive relationship exists between GradDP employee satisfaction and their affective commitment. The study results allowed for recommendations that retail banks provide training and support programmes to assist managers in developing a more participative style of leading. Such programmes would assist leaders in consulting employees more often and ensuring that they have sufficient autonomy when executing their work. It would also help leaders to create a safer GradDP employee environment that fosters openness, risk-taking and idea generation

Throughput of ADSL modems

This paper considers the throughput of ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) modems, used for high-speed data transmission over relatively unreliable connections, e.g. copper telephone wires. The modem technique uses an error correcting code and interleaving. The settings include a grouping factor $S$ which affects the amount of data per code word, the number $R$ of redundant bytes per code word and the interleave depth $D$. The influence of these parameters on both the effective data transmission rate and the resulting error rate in the received signal are determined for two error situations: random errors and bursts of errors. An approximate analysis for the random error case of the throughput of a TCP (Transport Control Protocol) connection using an ADSL modem shows that maximum throughput is obtained for the highest values of $S$ and $R$

Equilibrium states for potentials with \sup\phi - \inf\phi < \htop(f)

In the context of smooth interval maps, we study an inducing scheme approach to prove existence and uniqueness of equilibrium states for potentials $\phi$ with he `bounded range' condition \sup \phi - \inf \phi < \htop, first used by Hofbauer and Keller. We compare our results to Hofbauer and Keller's use of Perron-Frobenius operators. We demonstrate that this `bounded range' condition on the potential is important even if the potential is H\"older continuous. We also prove analyticity of the pressure in this context.Comment: Added Lemma 6 to deal with the disparity between leading eigenvalues and operator norms. Added extra references and corrected some typo

Analysis of monotonic greening and browning trends from global NDVI time-series

Remotely sensed vegetation indices are widely used to detect greening and browning trends; especially the global coverage of time-series normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data which are available from 1981. Seasonality and serial auto-correlation in the data have previously been dealt with by integrating the data to annual values; as an alternative to reducing the temporal resolution, we apply harmonic analyses and non-parametric trend tests to the GIMMS NDVI dataset (1981-2006). Using the complete dataset, greening and browning trends were analyzed using a linear model corrected for seasonality by subtracting the seasonal component, and a seasonal non-parametric model. In a third approach, phenological shift and variation in length of growing season were accounted for by analyzing the time-series using vegetation development stages rather than calendar days. Results differed substantially between the models, even though the input data were the same. Prominent regional greening trends identified by several other studies were confirmed but the models were inconsistent in areas with weak trends. The linear model using data corrected for seasonality showed similar trend slopes to those described in previous work using linear models on yearly mean values. The non-parametric models demonstrated the significant influence of variations in phenology; accounting for these variations should yield more robust trend analyses and better understanding of vegetation trends

Acinetobacter species in the hospital environment : tracing and epidemiology.

In the course of the investigation a new taxonomic classification of Acinetobacter strains was introduced. The groups of this classification were established on the basis of DNA-DNA hybridization data of strains. In a final study of the present thesis, we investigated whether cell envelope protein profiles could be used to identify strains according to this classification of DNA groups. The profiles of 120 strains were determined densitometrically and subjected to numerical analysis. When a restricted part of the protein profile was used in the numerical analysis, a number of protein profile clusters corresponded to specific DNA groups. Thus, this part of the profile, comprising minor bands of relatively high molecular weight, appeared useful for identification of strains to the level of these DNA groups. The remaining part of the protein profile, which comprised major protein bands, seemed to be more useful to distinguish strains of the same DNA group. The latter is important in epidemiological studies. The studies allowed to deduce, that strains of DNA group 2 (A. baumannii) are highly prevalent in infections and nosocomial outbreaks. It is concluded that this group is of particular clinical-epidemiological significance