PROSPECTS FOR ETHNIC AFRICAN PRODUCTS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

This paper attempts to identify factors which are conducive to the exportation of ethnic African products into the European Union (EU) market. We develop a conceptual framework within which to examine the main players and processes at work. We also analyse the prospects for authentic African products in selected EU member states, namely France and the UK. We conclude that the reality on the ground often involves complex structures in socially and culturally heterogeneous contexts. Our exploratory study thus seeks to offer insights into these structures and processes, noting that the relationship between ethnic producers/ retailers and their distributional channel members is often volatile and conflictual.ethnic African products ; authentic African product; retailing

Alternative ways of protecting and promoting Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Zambia

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, both of 1966; the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted at the World Conference on Human Rights in June 1993; and the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development of 1986, all affirm the indivisible and interdependent nature of all human rights. Sadly, despite Zambia’s subscription to the provisions of these treaties and declarations, the State’s protection and enforcement of economic, social and cultural rights is still a far cry. Much controversy, resistance and debate still surrounds the importance of these rights and the need for their enforcement. The Faith and Justice Programme of the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR), in continuing with its work in the area of research and advocacy for the promotion and protection of economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR), decided to undertake this study and explore alternative ways of promoting and protecting economic, social and cultural rights. This report discusses what human rights, and in particular economic, social and cultural rights are, and the state of their enjoyment and enforcement in Zambia. The report looks at some interventions that Zambia has made to promote these rights. It will also examine the methods applied in other countries and the recommendations made towards their fulfilment. The report establishes that there is an irrefutable interconnection and interdependence between economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights. It concludes with recommendations on how Zambia can better protect and promote the economic, social and cultural rights of its people.Considering Zambia’s history in the area of constitution making, particularly with regard to amendments to the Bill of Rights and the adoption of stronger measures to protect rights, including economic, social and cultural rights, and owing to the realisation that economic social and cultural rights cannot be promoted by mere inclusion in the Bill of Rights, JCTR decided to undertake this study and explore alternative ways of promoting and protecting economic, social and cultural rights. Many countries in the world do not have economic, social and cultural rights enshrined in their Bills of Rights yet they remain committed to promoting the

The relationship between immunization and food allergy and sensitisation in South African children

Abstract The prevalence of food allergies is higher in children compared to adults and it is increasing. The factors that influence food allergies in children are not clear. In light of the hygiene hypothesis, vaccinations may contribute towards to a predominant allergen specific response or exposure to the virus or microbe in the vaccine may decrease the risk for allergy. Previous studies have shown that the effect of vaccinations on food allergy and food sensitisation varies. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine if a relationship exists between vaccinations and food allergies and food sensitisation in children in the first 18 months of life who live in urban Cape Town and in rural Mqanduli in the Eastern Cape. Secondary data analysis of an observational cross sectional study was carried out which involved univariate logistic regression to calculate odds ratios between self-reported immunisation status and food sensitisation and food allergy at a 95% confidence interval in children between 12 and 36 months of age. The same method was employed to investigate the relationship between immunisation and atopy. Multivariate analysis was utilised to adjust for potential confounders. Food sensitisation and food allergy were determined through skin prick tests (SPT) and oral food challenges respectively. The results indicate that, the number of participants positive for food sensitisation and allergy, eczema, hay fever and asthma were significantly greater in the urban sample (n= 708) compared to the rural sample (n= 400) (P<0.05). Further, in 708 urban children, those who had a BCG vaccine at birth were 0.05 (OR 0.05; 95% CI: 0.004 - 0.6) times less likely to have an SPT ≥ 7mm. The BCG unvaccinated cohort consisted of three individuals. There were no other significant associations between childhood vaccinations and food sensitization at SPT ≥ 1mm ,≥ 3mm and ≥ 7mm. There was no significant association between vaccinations and food allergy or other forms of atopy. In conclusion, there was very little evidence of an association between BCG vaccination in children and food allergic sensitisation or food allergy. However, in a small subgroup, there was evidence in an association between BCG and SPT ≥ 7 mm

Achieving a lean wayfinding system in complex hospital environments: Design and Through-life Management

Complex products, such as buildings and other infrastructure, should aim to provide value to the customer over all stages of the product life-cycle. This paper considers some of the challenges associated with maximising customer value when designing, producing, implementing and maintaining a wayfinding system for complex hospital environments. The hypothesis of this paper is that the tri-partite conception of knowledge flow provides a robust evaluative framework for the problems of wayfinding in complex hospital environments. The framework supplements the concepts of information and practice, conventionally applied in knowledge management, with a conception of physical objects and environments as knowledge carrying entities which are constituted, recognised and used in the course of social practice. From a lean perspective, the problems of wayfinding must be reduced or eliminated through adopting a lean knowledge management approach. A review of knowledge management, design, wayfinding and lean literature, together with ongoing participant action research at Salford Royal hospital, are reported in this paper. To ensure that wayfinding information remains immortal throughout the long life cycles of the building, a Through Life Management (TLM) approach is suggested. Thus TLM is viewed as an important consideration in lean construction

Understanding the local state, service delivery and protests in post-apartheid South Africa: the case of Duncan Village and Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, East London

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of Witwatersrand in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Industrial Sociology Johannesburg 2015This research report rests on the argument that community protests are a reflection of different understandings of a decent life by protesters and state representatives. South Africa’s democracy has been characterised by continuities in community protests, mainly targeted at the state or its representatives. Interestingly, most scholarship is biased towards interpreting these protests from a community perspective with limited attention to the state-centred perspective. This ethnographic study explores subjectivities constructed around community protests by Duncan Village and the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality in East London. It employed participant observation, in-depth interviews and focus groups to collect data from state representatives, community members and protesters. The study shows how meanings of a decent life are constructed by different actors, and how these meanings inform the state’s approach to service delivery. It further explores the understanding of protest action from the perspective of state representatives and the protesters. It concludes that contestations over the scarce resources have led to the forging of and contestations over new identities like inzalelwane (born and bred) and abantu bokufika (newcomers) as these identities inform how state resources are allocated in Duncan Village. Furthermore, the installation of prepaid electricity metres, which is part of a project to electrify shacks, has exacerbated poverty in Duncan Village. Residents have resorted to protests to challenge what they consider to be threats to decent life. Through their experiences with the BCMM, protesting communities have come to realise that the state prioritises business interests at the expense of the interests of the marginalised masses. This has led to protesters assigning new meanings and significance to the old repertoires of protest. For the residents of Duncan Village, as long as the perceived promises of a decent life remain unrealised, the state and/or its representatives (BCMM) will continue to experience protests in the unforeseeable future

The influence of job design on job satisfaction of human resources practitioners at Eskom in KwaZulu-Natal.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Job satisfaction can be influenced by a variety of factors such as physical environment, personal disposition, social environment, remuneration and benefits, co-workers, leadership, supervisors, work conditions, and job design. Job design is just one of those factors that can influence job satisfaction. This study creates an understanding of the intrinsic characteristics of the job that influence job satisfaction among Human Resource Practitioners at Eskom in KwaZulu-Natal. The study focused on job design as the antecedent factor to job satisfaction. The job characteristic model was adopted as the theoretical framework for the study. The study was conducted through a mixed method design. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. Study participants were the Human Resources’ staff at Eskom in KwaZulu-Natal. Analysis of the data was conducted separately using the SPSS 22, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and the Shapiro-Wilk for the quantitative analysis, the NVIVO 10, and word trees and tag clouds for the qualitative analysis. The qualitative interpretation of the data was used to complement and expand on the quantitative analysis. The findings of the study show that there is a strong relationship between job design characteristics and job satisfaction; however there are other factors that have a significant impact on the level of satisfaction. The core characteristics of job design are shown to be present in the job of a Human Resource Practitioner and these lead to feelings of meaningfulness, a sense of responsibility, and the knowledge of results. Based on the findings, the study recommends the use of job design techniques based on the job characteristic model to enhance the quality of jobs towards improved job satisfaction. Job enrichment techniques such as job rotation should be used routinely to manage work teams. Employers should consider giving employees control over their work and more discretion over how it gets done towards improved job satisfaction and resultant better performance. The study finally concludes that the job design ignites job satisfaction in a challenging work environment such as the public sector while job satisfaction enhances performance towards helping the organization to achieve its strategic objectives

Ecological engineering on rocky shores: grazing, predation, nutrient availability and their influence on epifaunal communities

“Ecosystem engineers modify, create/destroy habitat and directly/indirectly modulate availability of resources to other species by causing physical state changes to biotic and abiotic materials” (Jones et al, 1994, page 1). Previous studies have analysed top-down and bottom-up relationships to determine which form of regulation is key in controlling community composition. This study assessed the direct and indirect effects of top down and bottom up factors on the epifaunal communities of macro-algae. Epifauna are subject to the direct top-down effects of predation and bottom up effects of habitat availability. Habitat availability in turn experiences the direct top down effects of grazing and bottom up effects of nutrient availability due to upwelling. Grazing and upwelling may therefore have indirect effects on macro-algal epifauna. Four treatments (Procedural controls, Controls, Predator or Grazer exclusion) set out in a block design (n = 5) were monitored monthly for algal cover of the substratum for 12 months with the surface area of algal plants and epifaunal species composition and abundances assessed at the end of the experiment. The red alga Gelidium pristoides was selected as the ecosystem engineer as it is common, supports a diverse community of epiphytic animals and acts as a nursery for small epifaunal organisms. The experiment was run at two upwelling sites interspersed with two non-upwelling sites. Sites were separated on scales of 100km along approximately 500km of coastline. Dipping whole algae in dish washing liquid provided a strong relationship between their surface area and the weight of the film of dish washing liquid covering them. Surface area was strongly correlated to dry weight but neither surface area nor dry weight was correlated to algal cover of the substratum. Algal cover was influenced by the interactions of treatment with site (nested in upwelling) and upwelling. At all sites, treatments that allowed access to grazers, Grazer + and Control treatments, showed no significant differences and these two treatments had lower algal cover than Predator + and Closed treatments which did not differ from one another 3 [Grazer + = Control < Predator + = Closed]. A total of 44 epifaunal species were identified, with the predominant orders being Amphipoda and Isopoda. Primer results showed that only site had a significant effect on species composition, with sites that were further apart being more different. Site (nested in upwelling) had an effect on total epifaunal abundances when data were non-normalised. When total epifaunal abundances were normalised for algal cover of the substratum or algal surface area to provide density data, predation had no significant effect. Grazing did have a significant effect, but only when data were normalised to algal surface area, not cover, leading to the conclusion that indirect top-down factors through grazing of the sea weed are important in structuring epifaunal communities depending on how habitat availability is measured

Does Importing of Everyday Mathematics to the Classroom Guarantee better Mathematics Learning? Lessons from a Study of Ngoni/Tumbuka Learners in Zambia

The present research paper comprises of two parts. Part I discusses the difference between the epistemic basis of everyday practices of Ngoni/Tumbuka children and the school mathematics practices in Zambia and the embedded nature of everyday and school mathematics concepts in the respective discursive practices. The second part looks at the mathematics pedagogy of Grade I and VI. The analyses show that the teachers in Grade I brought in a lot of everyday examples, materials and ideas to teach the young children the number concept, place value, concept of zero etc. In contrast, the teachers in Grade VI used very few examples of everyday experiences for children in the mathematics class. They emphasise the use of routines, templates and the procedures for teaching mathematics in school. Most children excepting a few in Grade VI had not developed any theoretical understanding well. They could, sometimes, solve the problems because the teacher presented the problems in familiar templates but not because they understood the problem. Some teachers tried to link everyday experiences to the school mathematics concepts like ratios and factors. Yet, they failed to exhibit any understanding of how to help these children shift from everyday discourse to school mathematics discourse. Most of the teachers in Government schools emphasised specific use of mathematical signs, symbols and registers, standards of accuracy, language etc. without working sufficiently on how to help these children mathematize everyday experiences using this representational and semiotic system of school mathematics. The paper concludes with some suggested activities to bridge this gap

Characterization, bioavailability and health risk assessment of mercury in dust impacted by gold mining

A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015.Gold mining in South Africa has been the backbone of the economy for many years. With it came economic well-being, the growth and development of satellite towns, cities and metropolitan cities, e.g. Johannesburg-a place of gold. Unfortunately, it also came with adverse effects, most of which are now evident, after a century of mining, with little or no regard for pollution prevention or any form of remediation. Of interest, in this study, is the presence of tailings storage facilities (TSFs) found within the residential areas, in close proximity to commercial district and industry, having been built around them. Currently, some 270 TSFs lie dormant, pregnant with vast number of toxic heavy metals from the initially low efficient but selective gold processing techniques. This led to the deposition of the sand dumps, with high sulphur, iron, chromium, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury amongst other toxic metals. Exposure to oxygen, and water, the pyrites were oxidized and formed acid mine drainage (AMD), which resulted in the leaching out all toxic heavy metals into ground water and surface water causing serious water pollution and environmental degradation. Due to the low efficient gold processing technique, some gold amount was discarded together with the tailings materials. The reprocessing of these dumps led to the generation of dust, which is easily distributed over large areas of land. The unrehabilitated, semi-rehabilitated, and the abandoned TSFs contributed to all forms of pollution, majorly, windblown dust from unprotected tops and sides, AMD leaching toxic heavy metals. In this study, mercury, one of the most toxic elements found within the vast TSFs was determined. This was carried out as part of a larger environmental impact assessment on the effects and scale of pollution from the gold mining in the Witwatersrand. The study area consisted of the greater Johannesburg area, covering commercial business district (CBD), the industrial areas (Aeroton, City Deep, Germiston, Selby, Springs), and the residential areas (Alberton, Boksburg, Centurion, Germiston, Greenside, Sandton, Springs). Dust samples were collected from paved surfaces in the streets, and accessible buildings, were sieved into three sieved into three fractions (PM100, PM50, PM25), and most of the work focused on the smallest size fraction (PM25) in order to study impact of inhalable and respirable dust. Three sequential extraction procedures (modified BCR-the European Community Bureau of Reference, selective sequential procedure (SSE), and novel sequential extraction procedure (n-SEP)) were applied for partitioning and evaluating the mobility, availability and persistence of mercury in urban dusts. Bioavailability of mercury was assessed by leaching dust with artificial gastric and lung fluids which mimicked body conditions. Contamination levels were assessed based on the enrichment factor (EF), contamination factor (Cf) and geoaccumulation index (Igeo) were calculated to further assess the environmental risk and provide a preliminary estimate of the main sources of mercury in street dust. Non-carcinogenic effects and carcinogenic effects due to exposure to urban street dusts were assessed for both children and adults. The total mercury (HgTOT) ranged from 269 to 1350 μg kg-1. In the PM25 size fraction, mercury exhibited the following decreasing order of HgTOT: industrial area > CBD > residential area. This order shows that the HgTOT concentration in the street dust decreased with increased distance from the TSFs. The highlight was that the highest HgTOT was reported in industrial areas next to the TSFs, tailings reprocessing areas, and tailings footprints. Furthermore, in residential areas grossly affected by TSFs and tailings reprocessing, reported high HgTOT values similar to those reported for industrial samples. These results indicated that the presence of TSFs were largely responsible for the mercury found in the dust. The results from the characterization of the dust showed a large concentration of fine particulate matter, with the characteristically high quartz (74 – 98 wt. %), and minor minerals phases such as chloritoid, chlorite, K-feldspar, jarosite, mica, muscovite, pyrite, and pyrophyllite, all below 10 wt. %. These have been known to enrich trace metals, hence a high concentration of mercury. The close proximity of the tailings to the communities led to the determination of bioavailability of mercury from dust. The bioaccessible Hg extracted by lung fluid (up to 3% of HgTOT) was higher than that of gastric fluid (up to 1% of HgTOT) and was related to the mobile pool of Hg in dust. This suggests that human exposure to Hg in dust via inhalation is greater than that via the gastric tract. These values were very similar to the values obtained from water soluble phase in the sequential extraction procedure (average 1.4% of HgTOT). This indicated that these fluids were able to extract the most bioavailable fraction of Hg, which is responsible for most of the transformation reactions involving mercury. Contamination assessment factor was carried out to classify the pollution levels and indicate whether they are from natural or anthropogenic sources. Based on the EF, Cf, and Igeo, 70, 82, and 84% of the street dust samples were classified as heavily enriched, very highly contaminated, and strongly polluted by mercury, respectively, indicating that they are of anthropogenic origin. The human health risk model was useful in identifying the areas of health risks from exposure to mercury pollution. It showed that children were more vulnerable than adults when exposed to mercury in dust via ingestion. The cancer risk for exposure to As, Cd, and Cr by both children and adults was significantly high for oral ingestion of dust. Cr (VI) was the highest contributor followed by As and lastly Cd. For inhalation pathway, the possibility of developing cancer after a lifetime exposure was low and below the acceptable limits (10-6)

Accounting for knowledge embedded in artefacts within healthcare settings: Defining the direction of the research

This research takes place within the framework of the Knowledge and Information Management (KIM) is an EPSRC funded Grand Challenge Project which brings together expertise from management and engineering disciplines. The project recognises that, 'in response to customers‟ changing needs, organisations across all sectors are increasingly being asked not only to provide products in the first instance, but also to support them throughout their service life' (KIM 2006).Thus, the need to consider ways in which knowledge can be preserved in practices, records and artefacts is considered. The aim of this research, which is in its earliest stages, is to explore multi-disciplinary contributions to this problem from the knowledge management and production management perspectives. The focus is on the role of artefacts in preserving and communicating knowledge. An ethnomethodological approach will be used to produce uniquely adequate (UA) accounts of the situated meaning of artefacts within social processes. The proposed settings for research are healthcare facilities where the researcher will adopt an ethnographic approach to achieve a UA understanding of how patients, staff and visitors in chosen healthcare settings make sense of their built environments