The transliteration principle: is this the best procedure in African language lexicography and terminology?

The creation of target language equivalents in bilingual dictionaries have always been a challenge to both lexicographers and terminologists. Lexicographers, terminologists, subject specialists and linguists face a challenging task of supplying term equivalents for foreign international languages. The lack of a sufficient technical vocabulary in the African languages poses challenges to lexicographers and terminologists when supplying technical equivalents. They often regard transliteration as the quickest lexicographical and terminological procedure without taking the practical demands of users into account. This impedes the optimal retrieval of semantic information by the target users of dictionaries. This article discusses possible reasons why transliteration should not be regarded as the first but the last resort in lexicography and terminology. It proposes different lexicographical and terminological procedures lexicographers and terminologists can use to supply accurate and appropriate translation equivalents without making excessive use of transliteration. In this way a scientific language will develop which could assist users to communicate successfully in the mother tongue. Keywords: terms, term equivalents, terminologists, subject specialists, linguists, international languages, international scientific languages, underdeveloped languages, transliteration, terminological principle, translation equivalents, semantic information, borrowing, target language

Perspectives of public higher education institutions regarding internationalisation of tourism and hospitality qualifications

Abstract : According to Ng (2017) the necessity to understand intercultural workplaces, particularly within the hospitality and tourism industry is very important, however managers still experience problems when addressing intercultural issues. Scholars such as Stier (2006), Caruana (2010), Leask (2010) suggest that internationalisation of the curriculum may be one of the solutions to solving this problem. “Internationalisation of a curriculum is the process of integrating an international, intercultural, or global dimension in the purpose, functions or delivery of higher education at the institutional and national levels” (Knight; 2003, pg. 1). South Africa was ranked as the 11th most popular international study destination in 2014 with an estimated number of 70 428 international students studying in South African higher education institutions (Guardian, 2014). The study aims to provide an insight into the progress of the internationalisation of public HEIs in the Gauteng province (Traditional Universities, Universities of Technology, and Comprehensive Universities), as well as the perceived activities, challenges, benefits, and obstacles faced by these institutions. A qualitative approach was used for this study in the form of semi-structured interviews based on existing frameworks and previous literature on internationalisation. The researcher employed three data analysis approaches to analyse the interview transcripts namely: grounded theory, narrative analysis, interim analysis. The interviews addressed six fundamental areas around internationalisation within tourism and hospitality disciplines (1) general understanding of internationalisation, (2) rationales for internationalisation, (3) internationalisation activities and resources, (4) significant benefits of internationalisation, (5) internal obstacles to advancing internationalisation, and (6) qualification features that advance internationalisation. The findings generally pointed towards the sample population having a moderate awareness of what internationalisation entails. The study revealed the prevalence of a positive perspective of internationalisation within HEIs, specifically in the tourism and hospitality programmes. Contradicting opinions emerged on the real benefits of internationalisation in these programmes. Some of the highlights within tourism and hospitality programmes are in contradictions with this study as the current socio-cultural and political climate of South Africa and the increasing discussion about the Africanisation of HE which is top on the priority of the aforementioned institutions than internationalisation.M.Com. (Tourism and Hospitality

The impact of bring-your-own-device on work practices in the financial sector

Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) refers to the practice of allowing the employees of an organisation to use their own computers, smartphones, or other devices for work purposes. This has brought a tremendous change in today's working environment. Organisations are faced with many technology trends which have the potential to create a competitive advantage in terms of both performance and efficiency. This paper follows a qualitative approach in which 15 interviews were conducted and a survey covering of 87 respondents was distributed. The findings show that the financial sector interpret s BYOD as a strategy that can create a competitive advantage to provide benefits of increased productivity, flexibility in the workforce, more autonomy, and contribute to the cost - efficiency of the business. There was also a disregard of policy formulation for BYOD from management which created a problem as employees became despondent that their personal devices were n o t allowed to access the corporate network. In addition, the findings revealed that work practices have to be re - defined and policies have to be drawn up in order to protect the company's assets and to provide guidelines. To guide the research in this emerging area, a review of several established theories that have not yet been applied to BYOD were used to form part of the proposed framework, which aims to provide a mechanism in the workplace to evaluate the impact of BYOD. This paper used exploratory analysis where six major influences of work practices were identified: 1) Change in behaviour; 2) Impact on workload; 3) Changes in motivation of individuals; 4) Re-definition of work practices; 5) Impact on overall performance; and 6) Approach required for industry. It was possible to associate them to several related constructs in IS literature which exposed possibilities for future theory-building efforts. The main influences on work practices are discussed with respect to the proposed framework

The lexicographic treatment of sublexical and multilexical items in a northern Sotho monolingual dictionary: a challenge for lexicographers

Dictionaries have in the past used a word-based approach in which sublexical and multilexical items were not regarded as lemmata. Metalexicography as the theoretical component of lexicography requires that sublexical and multilexical items be lemmatized and treated as inde-pendent lemmata in the macrostructure of dictionaries. One of the greater challenges for compiling a better and user-oriented Northern Sotho monolingual dictionary is to treat sublexical and multi-lexical items as macrostructural elements. Treating these items, the lexicographer faces quite a number of challenges. This article proposes possible ways in which sublexical and multilexical elements could be successfully treated in a Northern Sotho monolingual dictionary. Taking stock of these challenges, the writer comes with suggestions that would assist lexicographers in the compi-lation of a user-friendly, lexicon-based monolingual dictionary that would lead users to successful information retrieval. Keywords: sublexical items, multilexical items, affixes, prefixal mor-phemes, suffixal morphemes, integrated microstructure, word-based approach, lemmatization, collocations, compounds, complexes, group prepositions, fixed expressions, morphemes, metalexicographical aspects, word-formation processes, word-internal function, user-oriented mono-lingual dictionary, grammar, homonymous lemma, polysemous lemma, decoding, encoding, semantic comment, semantic transparenc

Sustained delivery system of curcuminoids rich plant Curcuma longa, L for topical application

Abstract : The research conducted in this study was aimed at extracting and studying the most bioactive elements found in the Southern Asian plant known as Curcuma longa, commercially is known as Turmeric. Curcumin is the most bioactive component of turmeric, it and other phytochemicals including essential oils, particularly the ones relevant for its topical application for skin care were studied. This plant was chosen because of its documented history as an effective active in skin care. This is because some of the plant’s phytochemicals have high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, providing skin with nutrients that can shield or protect it from environmental harm. The plant’s antioxidant activity makes it useful as a free-radical scavenger. Free radical have oxidation properties that cause skin cancer and aging. During injury (inflammation) of skin, the anti-inflammation of the phytochemicals helps in repairing and healing the wounds. This has led to the wide use of Curcuma longa in cosmetics for wound healing, sun protection, and skin lightening. The essential oils components of turmeric were extracted by the solvent extraction technique and they were studied by 2D GCxGC-TOF/MS. This was done in order to qualitatively study the various components of the essential oils and to quantify them. Various classes of compounds were identified, where it was observed that the essential oils component of turmeric consisted of mainly terpenoids, terpenes, and alkaloids. It was also found that most of these compounds had a chain length varied between 11 and 15 carbon atoms. Most of these 11-15 carbon atoms were identified as sesquiterpenoids. These results were consistent with that turmeric is used as a beauty product because these classes of compounds have been used in cosmetics because of their anti-microbial, antioxidant and therapeutic UV-induced skin care. In another study, Curcuma longa, L was subjected to extraction with the aim of isolating curcuminoids. Curcuminoids is a term that encompasses 3 compounds, curcumin, demethoxycurcumin and bis-methoxycurcumin. The extraction was achieved by solvent extraction using various organic solvents and isolated by column chromatography. The characterization of the extracts was carried out using FTIR, UV-VIS, NMR. The fraction of interest was characterized by 3 spots observed on the TLC of the fraction. These spots were assigned to curcuminoids.M.Sc. (Applied Chemistry

In vitro selection and characterisation of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 subtype C integrase strand transfer inhibitor resistant mutants

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Medicine Johannesburg 2015The currently approved integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs), raltegravir (RAL) and elvitegravir (EVG) effectively halt HIV-1 replication but their use is limited by their low genetic resistance barrier and cross resistance. For instance, integrase amino acids N155 and Q148 represent genetic pathways selected by both drugs and are associated with considerable cross resistance to both RAL and EVG. Dolutegravir (DTG) is a second generation drug manufactured to exhibit a more robust resistance profile than RAL and EVG, and retains activity against RAL and EVG resistant isolates. Most research on drug resistance patterns have been carried out with emphasis on HIV-1 subtype B and inadequately assessed in HIV-1 subtype C. Thus, the aim of this study was to establish the drug resistance mutation profiles of HIV-1 subtype C primary virus isolates that evolve/emerge under selective pressure of the INSTIs RAL, EVG and DTG, and evaluate their impact on strand transfer. In vitro selection experiments were carried out using six primary virus isolates (three wild-type, FV, and three reverse transcriptase drug resistant, MR, viruses) grown in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in the presence of increasing concentrations of RAL, EVG and DTG, and monitored to beyond virus break-through. Viral RNA was extracted from various time points and the pol region was RT-PCR amplified and sequenced using conventional Sanger-based sequencing and next generation sequencing (Illumina MiSeq). HIV-1 subtype C FV6 wild-type and mutant recombinant integrase (generated by site-directed mutagenesis) were expressed, purified and used in strand transfer assays and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) experiments to establish the binding affinities of IN-DNA. Wild-type FV primary viruses were successfully grown in the presence of increasing concentrations of RAL, EVG and DTG, up to 266 nM, 66 nM and 32 nM, respectively. Drug resistant MR viruses were successfully grown in the presence of increasing concentrations of RAL, EVG and DTG, up to 266 nM, 16 nM and 8 nM, respectively. Sequence analysis on both platforms revealed the presence of the previously described drug resistance mutations T66IK, E92Q, F121Y, Q148R, N155H and R263K in some viruses, and additionally H114L was detected. RAL was observed to select for substitutions Q148R and N155H/H114L in isolates FV6 and MR69, respectively. EVG selected F121Y, T66I/R263K, T66K and T66I in FV3, FV6, MR69, MR81, and MR89, respectively. DTG selected substitutions E92Q and M50I in FV3 and MR81, respectively. In silico data exhibited changes in hydrophilicity, hydrophobicity and side chain changes as well as changes in polarity, and all substitutions displayed acceptable minimisation energies and distances between the atoms. Seven IN mutants were expressed and purified, and thereafter tested for efficiency in strand transfer. All mutant FV6T66I, FV6E92Q, FV6H114L, FV6F121Y, FV6Q148R, FV6N155H and FV6R263K IN enzymes demonstrated an overall loss in strand transfer capacity of 37.1%, 21.5%, 66.1%, 63.2%, 60.2%, 30.5% and 3.4%, respectively. This is the first report on loss of strand transfer activity associated with H114L. The loss in strand transfer capacity in all the mutants was not reflected by their overall binding affinities to donor DNA, as determined by surface plasmon resonance, likely attributed to the role of different residues associated with DNA and drug binding in the IN quaternary structure. In conclusion, this is the first report describing IN drug selection experiments using primary HIV-1 subtype C isolates, and a detailed genotypic and biochemical characterisation of the associated mutations

Science talk: exploring students and teachers understanding of argumentation in grade 11 science classrooms

A research report submitted to the faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science by combination of coursework and research report. Johannesburg, 2016.The merits of argumentation for science teaching and learning have been established not just for South Africa, but globally. However, little is known about what both students and teachers understand by argumentation for science learning and teaching. This study aimed to investigate what seventy nine students and two teachers understood about argumentation and to examine the nature of students written scientific arguments. A sample of 79 students from two high schools in the north of Johannesburg, South Africa, was selected to complete a questionnaire that included a single Multiple Choice Question task. Students’ respective teachers were interviewed for their understanding on argumentation. The interviews were inductively analysed to extract themes related on teachers’ perspectives on argumentation. The MCQ task item was analysed using Toulmins Argumentation Pattern as adapted by Erduran et al, to show levels of argumentation. The rest of the questions on the questionnaire were analysed according to my research questions to get students’ understanding on argumentation. Three main findings were found from the study. Firstly, students understand what a good scientific argument constitutes of. They mentioned debates and discussions as an opportunity to engage in an argument. Secondly, teachers demonstrated an understanding that argumentation requires facts and evidence to support claims. Meanwhile, findings also show that teachers value science arguments as they demand students to use evidence, rather than opinions to support their claims. Thirdly, most students struggled to construct levels at a higher level. This meant that most students wrote arguments that consisted of a claim, data/ evidence or a weak warrant. Hence, arguments were at levels 1, 2 and seldom at level 3. Students written scientific arguments revealed that only 24 out of 79 students were able select the correct scientific answer. The remaining fifty students selected the wrong answer and their arguments were based on the incorrect scientific justification that, when a solid substance is in a gaseous phase in a closed system it would have lesser mass, simply because gas weighs less than a solid. This was a common misconception that most students had. These outcomes imply that there is a need to train teachers how to help students write valid scientific arguments, the inclusion of more debates and consideration to ideas as to how students can construct written argument. Lastly, those argumentation practices should assist teachers on how to minimise students’ misconception on the law of the conservation of mass. As such, argumentation can serve as an instruction for learner-centred approach to teaching and learning of science. Keywords: argumentation, written argument, nature of an argumentLG201

Population explosion and poverty amongst Africans in South Africa

The current rate of world population growth is one of today's major problems and constitutes a threat to the future of all mankind. Over three and a half billion people live on our small, in places overcrowded planet, and if the present rate of growth continues this figure will double within the next thirty to forty years. This phenomenon has been described as the "population explosion". Why does it constitute a threat? Growth in itself is not necessarily bad; it has been the basis for much human progress in the past. What concerns us is that a large proportion of this growth is concentrated in certain areas of the world and can be linked to the appalling conditions of deprivation endured by millions of men, women and children in these areas. Though the impact of the population explosion is presently restricted to only certain segments of mankind, there is every indication that future consequences may affect all of us. My main focus will be amongst the African population in South Africa. The principal purpose of my thesis is to offer an organised approach to a complex and very controversial subject on the fertility of Africans in South Africa based on research conducted within the Eastern and Western Cape regions. The thesis is divided into five parts. Part A discusses the aims and objectives of the study. It also discusses the methodology of the research and background on area study, and examines the South African population growth. Part B, details theories of population growth. It also reviews literature on the determinants of population growth. In Part C, the research results are tabled and tested for statistical significance. In Part D, the results are compared and discussed with other similar literature findings. Part E, draws conclusions from the findings and recommends possible strategies for action against African population growth in South Africa

Development of a predictive model for research paradigms and philosophies

Text in EnglishAlthough research paradigms and philosophies are highly regarded as frameworks and guides for choices of methods, application thereof is not evident. One of the reasons for the relatively limited application is the complexity and understanding surrounding paradigms and philosophies, making it hard for scholars to determine their stances and implications. This study describes a model for automatically predicting peoples’ paradigm and philosophical stance, including meaning, and their impact on research by helping the user determine the paradigm and philosophical stance closest to their beliefs. Paradigm and philosophical attributes are automatically derived from a set of structured questions that use information matching techniques. The development of a model for Research Paradigm and Philosophy Index (RPPI) follows a two-phase approach. The first phase involves automatic extraction of key indicators from a composed database that utilises an indexing scheme with different philosophies and associated implications. The second phase applies a matchmaking technique that automatically draws information reflecting the user’s attribute. This type of technology exists, but mainly in the dating and career matching fields. None exists for research paradigm and philosophical stances. The prototype system was designed and implemented to serve as a proof of concept, and was developed in Angular, using the Visual Studio Code, and Java, using Eclipse. The database was created using MySQL. The prototype system was designed and implemented to serve as a proof of concept due to the Intellectual Property nature of the product. Usability testing was conducted and results show that the participants agreed the system was simple, straight-forward to use, quite user-friendly and easy to learn, with easy navigation through menu items.Computer ScienceM.Sc. (Computing

Opportunities and challenges in open distance postgraduate student training in chemistry: Unisa’s experience

The Department of Chemistry at the University of South Africa (UNISA) has a proven track record and culture of research and postgraduate student training dating back to the correspondence era. The practice of offering postgraduate programs in laboratory-based disciplines within the Open Distance Learning (ODL) context as practiced in UNISA is discussed in detail. The authors use their experience to shed light on the models that work well for  laboratory-based postgraduate student training within the ODL framework. [AJCE 4(3), Special Issue, May 2014