The sound of South Africa : Johan Vlok Louw’s Karoo Dusk

Abstract: This article examines the choices some South African authors have made as regards the setting and style of their writing, and the implications of these choices. It looks in some detail at Johan Vlok Louw’s Karoo Dusk (2014), and concludes with a brief look at Steven Boykey Sidley’s latest novel, Free Association (2017). The article was written with the current calls for decolonising the university curriculum in mind. It speculates about what a decolonised South African literature would be like and whether or not this is even possible. It argues that the global marketplace and increasingly borderless nature of modern culture are likely to be forces that the decolonisers will be unable to resist

On the Cost of Negation for Dynamic Pruning

Negated query terms allow documents containing such terms to be filtered out of a search results list, supporting disambiguation. In this work, the effect of negation on the efficiency of disjunctive, top-k retrieval is examined. First, we show how negation can be integrated efficiently into two popular dynamic pruning algorithms. Then, we explore the efficiency of our approach, and show that while often efficient, negation can negatively impact the dynamic pruning effectiveness for certain queries

Water quality and welfare assessment on United Kingdom trout farms

Interest in the subject of fish welfare is continuing to grow, with increasing public awareness and new legislation in the UK. Water quality has long been recognised as being of prime importance for welfare: water provides the fish with oxygen and removes and dilutes potentially toxic waste metabolites. This thesis investigates the interactions between water quality and the welfare of farmed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss Walbaum). A literature review was undertaken to identify current recommended water quality limits for the health and welfare of farmed rainbow trout. Contradictions in the literature regarding suggested ‘safe’ water quality limits were also identified, as were deficiencies in some of the methods used to arrive at conclusions for recommended limits. The literature relating to the effects of poor water quality on welfare were also reviewed. The review ends with a discussion about water quality monitoring in the context of on-farm welfare assessment and how the information might be used in such a scheme. A telephone survey of UK rainbow trout farmers was undertaken to ascertain the level of water quality monitoring currently conducted. Participants in this study accounted for over 80% of 2005 UK rainbow trout production. It was established that 54% of farmers monitored dissolved oxygen to some extent and 69% monitored temperature, the most commonly measured water quality parameters and among the most important for health, welfare and growth. Subsequent visits were made to a sample of the participants in the telephone survey to obtain more detailed information of the farming operations, such as frequency of water quality monitoring, retention of production data and slaughter methods. Monitoring water quality will be an integral part of any on-farm welfare assessment scheme, and while measuring some water quality parameters requires specialist equipment, farmers should be able to monitor the essential parameters, dissolved oxygen and temperature. Any on-farm welfare assessment scheme for rainbow trout should incorparate fish-based measures in addition to resource-based parameters in order to provide as complete an overview of trout welfare as possible. An epidemiological study was undertaken to investigate the current status of welfare on UK rainbow trout farms and to identify risk factors for welfare. Forty-four trout farms from throughout the British Isles were visited between July 2005 and April 2007, sampling a total of 3700 fish from 189 different systems. Farms were visited twice, once in winter and once in summer, to account for any seasonal differences in fish physiology and environmental conditions. Data were collected on a range of fish parameters, together with background information on the batch from which the fish originated. Particular emphasis was placed on water quality due to the potential effects this can have on welfare. The water in each system sampled was monitored for 24 hours, with measurements of dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, specific conductivity and ammonia taken every 15 minutes. A welfare score was developed for each fish using a multifactorial method, combining data on the condition of the fins, the condition of the gills, the stress hormone cortisol, the splenosomatic index and the mortality levels for the population of fish in the system. Using this welfare score and the individual components of the score as response variables, multi-level models were developed using the water quality, system and husbandry data collected. The primary risk factor that was associated with deteriorating welfare was disease. The purpose for which the fish was being farmed was also important, as fish farmed for the table market had on average worse welfare than those farmed for restocking fisheries. Seasonal effects, linked to higher water temperatures in summer, were associated with poorer welfare scores. Aside from seasonal effects, there is not much evidence that poor water quality is a major problem for the welfare of farmed rainbow trout in the UK. While deteriorating water quality certainly has the potential to affect the welfare of farmed rainbow trout, water quality measurements were within recommended ranges for the majority of farms visited. The results of this epidemiological study suggest that factors other than water quality may have a greater impact on trout welfare, such as exposure to diseases and production differences between farming for the table and restocking markets

Tertiary Alphabet for the Observable Protein Structural Universe

Here, we systematically decompose the known protein structural universe into its basic elements, which we dub tertiary structural motifs (TERMs). A TERM is a compact backbone fragment that captures the secondary, tertiary, and quaternary environments around a given residue, comprising one or more disjoint segments (three on average). We seek the set of universal TERMs that capture all structure in the Protein Data Bank (PDB), finding remarkable degeneracy. Only ∼600 TERMs are sufficient to describe 50% of the PDB at sub-Angstrom resolution. However, more rare geometries also exist, and the overall structural coverage grows logarithmically with the number of TERMs. We go on to show that universal TERMs provide an effective mapping between sequence and structure. We demonstrate that TERM-based statistics alone are sufficient to recapitulate close-to-native sequences given either NMR or X-ray backbones. Furthermore, sequence variability predicted from TERM data agrees closely with evolutionary variation. Finally, locations of TERMs in protein chains can be predicted from sequence alone based on sequence signatures emergent from TERM instances in the PDB. For multisegment motifs, this method identifies spatially adjacent fragments that are not contiguous in sequence—a major bottleneck in structure prediction. Although all TERMs recur in diverse proteins, some appear specialized for certain functions, such as interface formation, metal coordination, or even water binding. Structural biology has benefited greatly from previously observed degeneracies in structure. The decomposition of the known structural universe into a finite set of compact TERMs offers exciting opportunities toward better understanding, design, and prediction of protein structure

The oral-style South African short story in English A.W. Drayson to H.C. Bosman

This study is concerned with a particular kind of short story in South African English literature - a kind of story variously called the fireside tale, tall tale, yarn, skaz narrative, frame narrative, or (the term used in this study), the 'oral-sty Ie story.' This kind of story is characterised by the use of an internal narrator (a fictional narrator or storyteller figure), the cadences of his or her speaking voice, and a 'reporting' frame narrator. Stories by A. W. Drayson, Frederick Boyle, J. Forsyth Ingram, W. C. Scully, Percy FitzPatrick, Ernest Glanville, Perceval Gibbon, Francis Carey Slater, Pauline Smith, Aegidius Jean Blignaut and Herman Charles Bosman form the principal body of primary sources examined in this study. The Bakhtinian notion of "simple" and "parodistic" skaz narratives is deployed to analyse the increasing complexity to be discerned in the works by these writers, which roughly span the 100 years from the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the present century. A "simple" use of the skaz narrative is evident in the early or 'ur-South African' oral-style story, represented here by Drayson, Boyle and Ingram. With Scully and FitzPatrick the form is still used 'artlessly,' although the beginnings of a greater self-consciousness can be discerned. The' Abe Pike' tales by Glanville introduce a more complex use of the fictional narrator, a process taken a step further by Gibbon in his 'Vrouw Grobelaar' tales. With the latter, in particular, the complex or "parodistic" skaz narrative makes its advent in South African literature. The oral-style stories of Slater and Smith are largely a regression to the ear lier form, although there are aspects of their stories which anticipate Bosman. With Blignaut and Bosman, however, the South African oral-style story comes into its own. In their Hottentot Ruiter and Oom Schalk Lourens characters is invested all the complexity and 'double-voicedness' that was latent, and largely dormant, in the earlier oral-style narratives. Through Blignaut, and Bosman in particular, the South African oral-style story achieves its most economical, sophisticated and successful form of expression. The study concludes by looking briefly at the use of an oral style in short stories by black South African writers and argues that their stories are not, formally speaking, to be categorised alongside those by the other~ writers examined. The oral-style story, the study concludes, achieved its apogee in Bosman's Oom Schalk Lourens sequence and went into sharp decline after Bosman's death in 1951

Investing in the Social Work Profession Benefits the Health and Well-Being of Us All

Social workers are the backbone of Minnesota\u27s human services and mental health system. Social workers worked diligently to assist people in receiving health care, connecting to community resources, and overcoming grief and loss throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Social workers are a versatile workforce serving Minnesotans in every sector of our society: hospitals, mental health centers, schools, social service agencies, community centers, and politics and advocacy. Minnesota has an aging social work workforce that must be replenished. However the high cost of getting a social work degree, especially in relationships to pay, is a hinderance to people entering and staying in the field. The time to invest in the social work profession is NOW