Wattle we do? alien eradication and the 'ecology of fear' on the fringes of a world heritage site, South Africa

In their article ―Naturing the Nation: Aliens, the Apocalypse and the Post Colonial State (2001) Jean and John Comaroff look at ―the contemporary predicament of South Africa through the prism of environmental catastrophe. Through it they reveal the context in which alien plants have become an urgent affair of the state. Following their lead, I show how alien plants (particularly Australian wattle) continue to provide grounds for new social and political aspirations in South Africa, though in a different setting. With reference to a group of private landowners on the fringe of a World Heritage Site -- the Baviaanskloof Mega-Reserve, Eastern Cape, South Africa -- I show how an increasingly apocalyptic and xenophobic environmental agenda has influenced local activists seeking to address social and ecological issues in tandem with alien-eradication. These local activists adhere to a particular brand of environmentalism which Milton (1993) argues can be considered a social, cultural and religious phenomenon. The subjects of my main empirical investigation offer practical ways of achieving a transformational end through a new ritual activity in relation to a spread and exchange of environmental ideas and practices on a world-wide scale. On the ground this group practices ecosocietal restoration through which they aspire to mend the bond between people and the land in a spiritual and moral sense, bolstering intrinsic incentives for environmental stewardship and achieving ―cultural reconciliation in an attempt to reimagine what South Africa could be

Left Button Picture, Right Button Bomb: Nature, Warfare and Technology in a Southern African Border Region

In this paper, we argue that the relationship between nature conservation and warfare was and continues to be actualized through socio-technical relationships and shared infrastructures. We historicize “green militari zation”—defined as the use of military techniques, technologies and partnerships in the pursuit of conservation (Lunstrum 2014)—showing that the partnership between military and nature conservation in Southern Africa has a long and violent history. Our paper accounts for the entanglements of war and nature through a shared technological infrastructure used in north-eastern Namibia during the Namibian War of Liberation (1966–1989). In particular, we focus on the Mirage IIIR2Z, an aerial reconnaissance and ground-attack supersonic jet which provided both the South African Defence Force and the civil administration’s nature conservationists with aerial photography and remote sensing data. The spatial information produced jointly by the military and the civil nature conservation department was used to produce strategic maps, but also to fight invasive plants and protect wildlife. Our reading of green militarization against this background sheds light on the long-lasting connections between warfare, conservation and ecology along Southern African border regions and contributes to a novel understanding of the contemporary “war on poachers” through a study of the techno-scientific networks that made it possible. Since there is nothing inevitable about the way technologies emerge or change over time (Bijker and Law 1992), this paper develops an empirically grounded and sustained analysis of technological change in the domain of green militarization through three interlinked concepts: “multiple” (Law 2002), “shifting down” (Latour 1994; 1999), and “firming up” (Bijker and Law 1992)

The ecology and management of the fishes of the Okavango Delta, Botswana, with particular reference to the role of the seasonal floods

The Okavango is a vast inland delta system in northern Botswana which receives an annual flood from the highlands of southern Angola. There are distinct communities of fish in the Okavango which can be separated from each other by the physical characteristics of the different habitat types with which they co-evolved. This thesis provides an account of the biology and ecology of selected fish species in the Okavango Delta. Their response to the annual flood regime, and the environmental factors which limit their distribution and abundance, are examined. The thesis emphasizes the importance of water fluctuations in determining the nature of the fish fauna and the reaction of the fishes in terms of community structure, movements, breeding, predator-prey interactions and feeding. Four major ecotones were studied in the Okavango Delta. In the riverine floodplain and perennial swamp ecotones a higher species diversity was recorded than in the seasonal swamp and drainage rivers ecotones where diversity was lowest and comprised mainly of smaller fish species. A greater variety of habitat types was associated with the riverine floodplain and perennial swamp relative to the seasonal swamp and drainage rivers. The variety of habitat types between ecotones is associated with the degree of flood inundation in the respective ecotones. During the course of this study, annual recruitment of fish into the drainage rivers was from refugia in the seasonal swamp whereas the greatest degree of lateral and longitudinal movement was in the riverine floodplain and perennial swamp. Movement was in response to both biological requirements, such as availability of food and spawning sites, and physical features of the environment, such as the changing water depth. The total catch per unit effort (CPUE) of fish throughout the year was more constant in the riverine floodplain and perennial swamp than in the seasonal swamp and drainage rivers where CPUE fluctutated widely. An increase in CPUE during the duration of this study was apparent and related to the magnitude of the annual flood. In contrast to most other African wetlands, the arrival of the annual flood in the Okavango Delta coincides largely with the dry winter months. This situation presented an opportunity to compare the influence of floods and water temperature on the reproductive biology of the selected fish species. The results show a definite pattern and indicate that both the flood cycle and increased water temperatures greatly influence the breeding cycles of the selected species. The tilapia Oreochromis andersonii exhibited a considerable degree of phenotypic plasticity. Fish from the seasonally inundated areas showed a smaller mean size, egg size and larger number of eggs relative to fish in the perennially flooded areas. The size at sexual maturity was also smaller. These different reproductive characteristics exhibited by O. andersonii are dependent on the degree of water retention in the different habitats. The fishes of the Okavango have adopted other reproductive strategies to survive the changing environmental conditions brought about by an annual flood cycle. These strategies include the construction of foam nests, as described for Hepsetus odoe, for guarding the young and to provide an oxygen-rich environment. Two main non-piscivorous feeding pathways were identified in the Okavango. These are a detritus pathway based on dead plant and animal material, and an epiphyte pathway, based on algae and invertebrates that are attached to plant stems. Seasonal changes in diet in relation to the annual flood were recorded. The most dramrtic change was demonstrated by the catfish Clarias gariepinus which congregates in mass aggregations in the northern regions of the Delta and hunt in packs. Pack-hunting by catfish is a regular response to the annual fluctuations in water level. It is my conclusion that the main flow of biotic and abiotic stimuli within the Okavango Delta originates from the relatively hydrologically stable riverine floodplain and perennial swamp ecotones to the widely fluctuating seasonal swamp and drainage rivers ecotones. The relatively stable ecotones allow a diverse and biotically interdependent fish community to develop, whereas the widely fluctuating seasonal swamp and drainage rivers ecotones are characterized by a less diverse and interdependent fish community. The degree of abiotic and biotic interdependence among fish in an ecotone is very important for the long term management of the Okavango Delta. Potential developers have to determine whether the effect of a given action by man is likely to result in a long term disturbance or merely in an elastic recoil to a more or less similar state. Recommendations are made on the conservation and management of Okavango fishes taking into account the ecological characteristics of the delta

Archivists Blog: A Content Analysis and Discussion of Blogs Maintained By Archives

Individual archivists and archives as institutions have used weblogs, or blogs, as tools to communicate a wide variety of information since approximately 2002. The blogs, which have generally been considered an informal means of communication, have varying target audiences (often unstated) and also differ greatly in subject matter, organization, frequency and length of posts, the integration (or not) of user comments, and many other characteristics. This paper discusses the development of blogs in general and blogs created by libraries and archives in particular. It then presents a content analysis performed on a sample of 20 blogs maintained by archives. Finally, it examines the results of the content analysis in the context of the potential uses and benefits of blogs and suggests further research on the topic

Ichthyological Bulletin of the J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology; No. 50

The publication of a new phase of research on the fishes of the Okavango drainage starts with this account which gives the valid names and broad distribution patterns of all species known from the system. Eighty species and subspecies are recognised, of which at least two (Parakneria fortuita Penrith; Serranochromis gracilis Greenwood) are endemic. Notes on early collections, synonymy, taxonomic status and distribution are given. New synonyms are recognized under Aplocheilichthys hutereaui (A. schalleri), Aplocheilichthys johnstoni (Haplochilus carlislei) and Ctenopoma multispinis (Ctenopoma machadoi) respectively. Recently published taxonomic changes are incorporated including two genera (Mesobola and Afromastacembelus), a species Serranochromis (Sargochromis) gracilis and the re-allocated Amphilius uranoscopus. The Zambezian Hemichromis species is re-identified as H. elongatus. A number of unresolved taxonomic problems are pointed out and certain dubious records are excluded from the checklist. The Okavango has a diverse fish fauna with tropical affinities. Many fish species are poorly studied. Man-induced threats to the continued natural functioning of this complex and dynamic system, especially large-scale water abstraction, overgrazing, deforestation and biocide spraying to eliminate tsetse fly, make it imperative that studies on the nature and role of the fishes are continued.Rhodes University Libraries (Digitisation

White matter microstructural differences underlying beta oscillations during speech in adults who stutter

The basal ganglia-thalamocortical (BGTC) loop may underlie speech deficits in developmental stuttering. In this study, we investigated the relationship between abnormal cortical neural oscillations and structural integrity alterations in adults who stutter (AWS) using a novel magnetoencephalography (MEG) guided tractography approach. Beta oscillations were analyzed using sensorimotor speech MEG, and white matter pathways were examined using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and probabilistic tractography in 11 AWS and 11 fluent speakers. TBSS analysis revealed overlap between cortical regions of increased beta suppression localized to the mouth motor area and a reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) in the AWS group. MEG-guided tractography showed reduced FA within the BGTC loop from left putamen to subject-specific MEG peak. This is the first study to provide evidence that structural abnormalities may be associated with functional deficits in stuttering and reflect a network deficit within the BGTC loop that includes areas of the left ventral premotor cortex and putamen

What we talk about when we talk about "global mindset": managerial cognition in multinational corporations

Recent developments in the global economy and in multinational corporations have placed significant emphasis on the cognitive orientations of managers, giving rise to a number of concepts such as “global mindset” that are presumed to be associated with the effective management of multinational corporations (MNCs). This paper reviews the literature on global mindset and clarifies some of the conceptual confusion surrounding the construct. We identify common themes across writers, suggesting that the majority of studies fall into one of three research perspectives: cultural, strategic, and multidimensional. We also identify two constructs from the social sciences that underlie the perspectives found in the literature: cosmopolitanism and cognitive complexity and use these two constructs to develop an integrative theoretical framework of global mindset. We then provide a critical assessment of the field of global mindset and suggest directions for future theoretical and empirical research

Normalisation to Blood Activity Is Required for the Accurate Quantification of Na/I Symporter Ectopic Expression by SPECT/CT in Individual Subjects

The utilisation of the Na/I symporter (NIS) and associated radiotracers as a reporter system for imaging gene expression is now reaching the clinical setting in cancer gene therapy applications. However, a formal assessment of the methodology in terms of normalisation of the data still remains to be performed, particularly in the context of the assessment of activities in individual subjects in longitudinal studies. In this context, we administered to mice a recombinant, replication-incompetent adenovirus encoding rat NIS, or a human colorectal carcinoma cell line (HT29) encoding mouse NIS. We used 99mTc pertechnetate as a radiotracer for SPECT/CT imaging to determine the pattern of ectopic NIS expression in longitudinal kinetic studies. Some animals of the cohort were culled and NIS expression was measured by quantitative RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. The radioactive content of some liver biopsies was also measured ex vivo. Our results show that in longitudinal studies involving datasets taken from individual mice, the presentation of non-normalised data (activity expressed as %ID/g or %ID/cc) leads to ‘noisy’, and sometimes incoherent, results. This variability is due to the fact that the blood pertechnetate concentration can vary up to three-fold from day to day. Normalisation of these data with blood activities corrects for these inconsistencies. We advocate that, blood pertechnetate activity should be determined and used to normalise the activity measured in the organ/region of interest that expresses NIS ectopically. Considering that NIS imaging has already reached the clinical setting in the context of cancer gene therapy, this normalisation may be essential in order to obtain accurate and predictive information in future longitudinal clinical studies in biotherapy