Analysis of the Relationship between Inflation, Economic growth and Agricultural growth in Swaziland from 1980-2013

While there is an on-going debate on the nexus between economic growth and inflation, with some authors arguing a positive relationship and others arguing a negative relationship, policymakers are faced with the need to balance economic growth with low inflation. Although monetary policies have been undertaken to curb inflation in Swaziland, its economic growth remains slow. This study investigated the relationship between inflation, agricultural growth and economic growth in Swaziland for the period 1980 to 2013. The existence of long-run relationship and causality were tested. The study also determined the inflation threshold in Swaziland. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ADRL) model, a long-run relationship between these variables was found to exist. Granger causality results show that, in 1980-2013, there was uni-directional causality in Swaziland that flows from economic growth to inflation, no causality was detected between economic growth and agricultural growth, and between inflation and agricultural growth. Using the non-linear model, Swaziland’s inflation threshold was estimated at 12.56% with respect to economic growth and 10.36% with respect to agricultural growth. The elasticities from the long-run and short-run regressions showed that inflation has a negative impact of about 2% in the long-run on the economy and  impacts positively by about 0.05% in the short-run. In the short-run, the agricultural growth has a positive relationship with the economic growth in Swaziland, with an influence of 15% on economic growth.Based on these findings it is recommended that the Government promote the agricultural sector and that the monetary authorities in Swaziland Government pay more attention to the inflation trend and pursue policies that will ensure single digit inflation. Keywords: Agricultural growth, ARDL, GDP, economic growth, inflation, threshol

Summary of research paper published in atmospheric chemistry and physics titled: Spatial, temporal and source contribution assessments of black carbon over the northern interior of South Africa

Non peer reviewe

Research on Teaching and Learning Mathematics at the Tertiary Level:State-of-the-art and Looking Ahead

This topical survey focuses on research in tertiary mathematics education, a field that has experienced considerable growth over the last 10 years. Drawing on the most recent journal publication as well as the latest advances from recent high quality conference proceedings, our review culls out the following five emergent areas of interest: mathematics teaching at the tertiary level; the role of mathematics in other disciplines; textbooks, assessment and students’ studying practices; transition to the tertiary level; and theoretical-methodological advances. We conclude the survey with a discussion of some potential ways forward for future research in this new and rapidly developing domain of inquiry

Double diffusion and Hall effects on MHD sinusoidal natural convection flow of silver water-based nanofluid from a porous vertical plate

This paper scrutinizes Hall current, Soret and Dufour impacts on natural convective flow of nanofluid attributable to variation in sinusoidal surface temperature over a vertical plate through a porous medium with strong transverse magnetic field applied normally to the flow. In this regard, the silver metal is considered as nanoparticles with water as base fluid. The overlapping multi-domain bivariate spectral local linearization method (OMD-BSLLM) has been utilized to solve the dimensionless governing equations which are attained by means of appropriate transformations. The obtained results are portrayed via graphical and tabular formations to inspect flow fields, shear stresses, heat and mass transmission characteristics for varying thermo-physical parameters. We found that there is an enhancement in the flow fields, shear stresses and heat transportation with the use of silver nanoparticles. Thermal and concentration boundary layer thickness enhance by using porous material, whereas diminish with improvement in Hall effect and ratio of buoyancy forces. The flow characteristics decline with the inclusion of porous medium while elevates with increment in Hall parameter. Moreover, an upgrade in thermal-diffusion correspond to a substantial growth in concentration field along with mass transfer rate. Current analysis can be useful in MHD energy generators, and industrial applications such as heating and cooling procedures owing to the involvement of nanoparticles having superior thermal conductivity features

Spatial, temporal and source contribution assessments of black carbon over the northern interior of South Africa

After carbon dioxide (CO2), aerosol black carbon (BC) is considered to be the second most important contributor to global warming. This paper presents equivalent black carbon (eBC) (derived from an optical absorption method) data collected from three sites in the interior of South Africa where continuous measurements were conducted, i.e. Elandsfontein, Welgegund and Marikana, as well elemental carbon (EC) (determined by evolved carbon method) data at five sites where samples were collected once a month on a filter and analysed offline, i.e. Louis Trichardt, Skukuza, Vaal Triangle, Amersfoort and Botsalano.Analyses of eBC and EC spatial mass concentration patterns across the eight sites indicate that the mass concentrations in the South African interior are in general higher than what has been reported for the developed world and that different sources are likely to influence different sites. The mean eBC or EC mass concentrations for the background sites (Welgegund, Louis Trichardt, Skukuza, Botsalano) and sites influenced by industrial activities and/or nearby settlements (Elandsfontein, Marikana, Vaal Triangle and Amersfoort) ranged between 0.7 and 1.1, and 1.3 and 1.4 µg m−3, respectively. Similar seasonal patterns were observed at all three sites where continuous measurement data were collected (Elandsfontein, Marikana and Welgegund), with the highest eBC mass concentrations measured from June to October, indicating contributions from household combustion in the cold winter months (June–August), as well as savannah and grassland fires during the dry season (May to mid-October). Diurnal patterns of eBC at Elandsfontein, Marikana and Welgegund indicated maximum concentrations in the early mornings and late evenings, and minima during daytime. From the patterns it could be deduced that for Marikana and Welgegund, household combustion, as well as savannah and grassland fires, were the most significant sources, respectively.Possible contributing sources were explored in greater detail for Elandsfontein, with five main sources being identified as coal-fired power stations, pyrometallurgical smelters, traffic, household combustion, as well as savannah and grassland fires. Industries on the Mpumalanga Highveld are often blamed for all forms of pollution, due to the NO2 hotspot over this area that is attributed to NOx emissions from industries and vehicle emissions from the Johannesburg–Pretoria megacity. However, a comparison of source strengths indicated that household combustion as well as savannah and grassland fires were the most significant sources of eBC, particularly during winter and spring months, while coal-fired power stations, pyrometallurgical smelters and traffic contribute to eBC mass concentration levels year round