A TRANSDISCIPLINARY JOURNEY: COURSE CREATION AT A SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITY

The paper reviews the process involved in developing a transdisciplinary Master’s degree in Global Change. It first considers the meaning of the various disciplinarities before reviewing the team selection and development process. It provides an overview of the research behind and development of the curriculum, and discusses dealing with academic administration. It finally provides an overview of the teaching experience. Lessons learned cover teams, their selection and development; structures and the work required to address administrative challenges; course design and the issue of transdisciplinarity; and teaching, including the use of various alternative teaching and learning methods are presented. This is followed by a postscript - an overview of a course module and students’ responses

‘Teaching and Learning for Climate Change’ – the Role of Teacher Materials and Curriculum Design in South Africa

Climate change and variability are key challenges facing the planet and humanity, particularly in South Africa. The complexity of climate as an interconnected system, including earth and socio-ecological systems and ‘deeper’ thinking, requires critical enquiry as well as reflexive and transformative education approaches. This paper provides a synoptic overview of three emerging South African cases of teacher education materials development, high school material design, and the design and implementation of a new tertiary-degree offering centred on teaching and learning for climate change. A mixed-methods approach was used in all cases, with a central focus being climate change content knowledge and examples of teaching and curriculum design opportunities that can begin a ‘transformative’ learning journey for climate change action. Educators and facilitators, in most cases, noted that the approaches used enabled a more expansive understanding of climate change content knowledge, and, in some cases, although not tested in detail, seemed to also inspire action for climate change (deeper levels of learning). The paper is predicated on enabling improved understanding of climate change as a complex ‘system’ requiring a range of responses. Probing what may be required to begin a much ‘deeper’ understanding and appreciation of the implications of climate change both now and in the future, is also examined

A TRANSDISCIPLINARY JOURNEY: COURSE CREATION AT A SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITY

The paper reviews the process involved in developing a transdisciplinary Master’s degree in Global Change. It first considers the meaning of the various disciplinarities before reviewing the team selection and development process. It provides an overview of the research behind and development of the curriculum, and discusses dealing with academic administration. It finally provides an overview of the teaching experience. Lessons learned cover teams, their selection and development; structures and the work required to address administrative challenges; course design and the issue of transdisciplinarity; and teaching, including the use of various alternative teaching and learning methods are presented. This is followed by a postscript - an overview of a course module and students’ responses

Foraging biology and habitat use of the southern African ice rat, Otomys sloggetti robertsi

Student Number : 9613963J - PhD thesis - School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences - Faculty of ScienceAnimals living in cold environments show physiological, morphological and behavioural adaptations to low temperatures. The African ice rat, Otomys sloggetti robertsi, which is endemic to the southern African Drakensberg and Maluti mountains above 2000m, is an interesting exception since, unlike most alpine small mammals, it does not hibernate or display torpor and is physiologically poorly adapted to low temperatures. It is a strict herbivore, feeding on a low quality diet. Ice rats do show some morphological (e.g. short tails) and behavioural (e.g. communal huddling; constructing underground burrows) adaptations, but little else is known about their biology, particularly how they maximise energy gain to meet thermoregulatory requirements, especially during cold periods. Since feeding represents the primary method of energy gain in endotherms, I studied aspects of the foraging biology of ice rats, including gut structure, foraging patterns and habitat choice. The gut structure of O. s. robertsi is well adapted for a high fibre, herbivorous diet and shows broad similarities with those of its mesic- and arid-occurring relatives. However, O. s. robertsi showed increased dimensions of several foregut organs which may be adaptations for increased energy uptake and/or poor diet quality in alpine environments. Furthermore, females had a larger stomach as well as a longer caecum, small and large intestine in summer than in winter but the gut of males was unaffected; such sexual asymmetry may be related to increased energy requirements of females during pregnancy and lactation. Environmental influences on the aboveground behaviour of O. s. robertsi were investigated by recording the duration of behaviours as well as sequential transitions among behaviours. Ice rats spent most of their day foraging and basking, and much time was spent in their underground burrows. Seasonal comparisons revealed that ice rats spent significantly more time acquiring energy through foraging in winter, whereas they remained below ground for longer periods of time during the middle of the day in summer to escape extreme heat and solar radiation. To understand how low temperatures and predation influenced foraging patterns, the behaviour of ice rats was studied in summer and winter in a population where predators were minimal and in another population which experienced higher levels of predation. Ice rats are central place foragers that travel short distances to forage and display significant seasonal variation in their foraging patterns. In the absence of predation risk, ice rats generally returned to a central place with forage, even though returning to a burrow after foraging in winter was energetically costly. However, these costs must be weighed against the benefits of avoiding exposure to low temperatures by feeding under cover as well as the loss of collected food and possible injury associated with aggressive interactions with conspecifics. Under moderate predation pressure in both seasons, ice rats followed a central place foraging strategy to minimise predation risk, always returning to a burrow entrance with forage collected elsewhere. However, when no perceivable threat was observed, ice rats displayed ‘optimal’ foraging patterns in summer similar to those recorded in the absence of predation pressure and only returned to a burrow with forage as distance from that burrow increased, suggesting that ice rats display facultative foraging decision making in response to multiple environmental cues. The distribution of occupied ice rat burrows was correlated against several environmental factors to determine microhabitat requirements. Ice rat burrows were situated in close proximity to herbaceous and wetland plants, but away from woody vegetation, suggesting that habitat choice is related to the presence of food plants and reduction of shade, facilitating short travel distances during foraging as well as promoting basking. Despite the physiological shortcomings of ice rats, the gut structure, foraging behaviour, and habitat choice of the taxon are adapted for life in cold alpine habitats, most likely by maximising energy intake. Similarities in foraging behaviour and habitat use between O. s. robertsi with its closely-related arid-occurring relative Parotomys spp. suggest phylogenetic influences, but it is possibly more a reflection of similar phenotypic responses to the extreme habitats inhabited by these otomyines

An invasive and a noninvasive approach for the automatic differentiation of obstructive and central hypopneas

The automatic differentiation of obstructive and central respiratory events is a major challenge in the diagnosis of sleep-disordered breathing. Esophageal pressure (Pes) measurement is the gold-standard method to identify these events. This study presents a new classifier that automatically differentiates obstructive and central hypopneas with the Pes signal and a new approach for an automatic noninvasive classifierwith nasal airflow. An overall of 28 patients underwent night polysomnography with Pes recording, and a total of 769 hypopneas were manually scored by human experts to create a gold-standard annotation set. Features were automatically extracted fromthe Pes signal to train and test the classifiers (discriminant analysis, support vector machines, and adaboost). After a significantly (p < 0.01) higher incidence of inspiratory flow limitation episodes in obstructive hypopneas was objectively, invasively assessed compared to central hypopneas, the feasibility of an automatic noninvasive classifier with features extracted from the airflow signal was demonstrated. The automatic invasive classifier achieved a mean sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 0.90 after a 100-fold cross validation. The automatic noninvasive feasibility study obtained similar hypopnea differentiation results as a manual noninvasive classification algorithm. Hence, both systems seem promising for the automatic differentiation of obstructive and central hypopneas.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Differentiation of two South African otter species (Aonyx capensis and Lutra maculicollis) from spraint based on partial CytB primer sets

AbstractAccurate species identification based on visual cues can be challenging due to morphological similarities and the cryptic nature of certain species. Thus a more conclusive method of identification is required, namely DNA barcoding. This is the case regarding two South African otter species, Cape Clawless otter (Aonyx capensis) and the spotted necked otter (Lutra maculicollis). Due to the cryptic nature of these animals faecal samples, known as spraints, are the easiest way of confirming the presence of the animal in an area. In this study, we compared results obtained for universal and partial CytB primer sets on collected spraint and tissue control samples. Universal CytB primers revealed a low percentage of amplified otter species from faecal samples (species specific amplification success of 10.9%) whereas, the partial CytB primer set resulted in successful amplification of 45 out of 55 (82%) samples. We were thus able to positively differentiate between the two otter species using the partial CytB primer set developed in this study. The ability to accurately identify species using partial DNA will be beneficial in understanding numerous aspects of the behaviour and ecological importance of animals in their environment

Real time geotechnical field data acquistion using a distributed approach

A distributed geotechnical remote analysis of data system (Distributed G-RAD) can benefit both owners and contractors in providing better quality control and assurance on geotechnical projects. The Distributed G-RAD approach involves efficient data acquisition using PDAs with GPS capability, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags for labeling soil samples, laser scanning for measuring lift thickness and volumes of stockpiles and borrow pits. Spatial data storage is provided using a geographic information system (GIS). Portions of this system are already developed while other parts are still being considered. This paper also describes how RFID and laser scanning technologies can be used in the larger Distributed G-RAD system