Enlarged arguments in Bantu : evidence from Chichewa

This paper re-examines two types of constructions that have featured in the discussion of possessor ascension in Bantu: one type – an applicative construction – is associated with alienable possession, and the other – non-applicative – is associated with inalienable possession. The study shows that the former expresses affectedness, and that the possessor reading arises only by construal; whereas the latter expresses a part–whole relationship. The paper argues that the two constructions differ in more significant ways than has previously been acknowledged; and that their distinct derivations cannot be captured by traditional possessor ascension (PA) analyses. The putative “alienable” possessor constructions belong to the class of (benefactive) applicative constructions and should be analyzed as such. The paper proposes that the so-called “inalienable” possessor constructions can best be accounted for by positing the existence of “enlarged arguments” wherein the possessum functions as a nominal predicate which more narrowly pinpoints the locus of the action described by the verb

The evolution, structure and market for birding tourism in South Africa.

The aim of this study was to define the structure, size and evolution and growth of one of the contributing markets to recent tourism growth in South Africa, bird watching tourism. Regarded as one of the fastest growing niche ecotourism markets both internationally and in South Africa, this report traces the growth patterns and outlines the organisation and structure of the sub-sector in South Africa. The report also provides an estimate of the market’s potential contribution to the tourism economy in South Africa. The findings presented in this report are based on original interviews with 12 individuals in the birding, conservation and government sector. A wide variety of documentary sources including the 2009 Kaiser Associates report on Bird watching in South Africa and the recently published report on the South African birding watching tourism industry report by the Department of Trade and Industry have also informed the findings and content of this report. Again, findings on the demand and supply elements of birding in South Africa were analysed from 68 individually collected and an online based survey conducted amongst birders and specialised birding tour operators. Amongst the major findings of the study is the fact the growth of birding tourism in South Africa is largely run by BirdLife South Africa through its 80 year old nationwide network of more than 50 community clubs or branches which mobilise and induct new birders and volunteers into bird watching. Most critical about the bird clubs are the several day, weekend and bird monitoring events and outings that are organised by the each of the clubs. It has been shown that local birders attend approximately 31 birding events and outings and spend R1415 per annum per trip excluding spend on, birding services and equipment per annum. There are between 13000 to 24000 bird watchers in South Africa and that between 8000 and 16000 international birders visit South Africa per annum (the dti, 2010). Based on these numbers, this study has shown that birding tourism industry contributes between R 809 million to R 1.668 billion per annum to South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product

Motherhood and alcoholism: exploring maternal experiences and perceptions of mothers who abuse alcohol

School of Human and Community Development Department of Psychology Degree: MA in Social and Psychological Research Research Report 2016South Africa has experienced increased rates of substance use, in particular the use of alcohol. These increased rates have also been witnessed amongst women of reproduction age. This has manifested in the high rate of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in South Africa. This study explored how mothers abusing and recovering from alcohol use, experience and perceive motherhood. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven mothers who were abusing and recovering from alcohol use. It was revealed from the data that identifying one’s self as an alcoholic was important to determine how women view themselves as alcoholic mothers. In order to understand how these mothers experience motherhood, it was crucial to understand how alcoholism manifests in women. Particularly, whether these women are recovering or currently using alcohol; the impact of alcohol use on mothering responsibilities; how different stages of alcohol use impacts on mothering behaviours and responsibilities; and the mother-child relationship. Motherhood is regarded as central to these women’s identities as they are still able to practice what is expected of them as mothers, despite using alcohol. This study contributes to the existing knowledge on alcoholism amongst South African women, assisting in understanding how mothering is practiced in the context of alcohol use and how motherhood is important to women seeking to recover from alcohol use. From the findings, treatment centers will gain a holistic view of women using alcohol which could assist in developing programmes aimed at addressing maternal practices and training in these centers; especially considering the difficulty of engaging in maternal duties while in a treatment center. Results indicating difficulties mothers have with their children indicate the importance of this study in assisting treatment centers to focus on mother-child relationships during rehabilitation. Lastly the effectiveness of support groups (e.g. Alcoholic Anonymous) based treatment could also serve as important in women-based rehabilitation.MT 201

Lactic acid fermentation of sour porridge and mahewu, a non-alcoholic fermented cereal beverage

A research paper on lactic acid fermentation of nutritious cereals found in Zimbabwe.The microbiological and acidic changes during the natural fermentation of mahewu, a non-alcoholic cereal beverage, and sour porridge were investigated. The presence of pathogenic yeasts in both products was also investigated. The study was carried out over a period of six months in the year 2000. The pH and total acidity as well as microbiological analysis were carried out at intervals of time during the fermentation period. There was a sharp decrease in pH in the mahewu and sour porridge broths in the first 12 to 24 hours of fermentation. Very little titratable acids were produced in the first 6 to 12 hours which was followed by a steady increase during the rest of the fermentation period. Enteric bacteria increased slightly in the first 12 hours but decreased sharply afterwards and could not be detected when the pH was around 3.5 whereas lactic acid bacteria predominated during the fermentation period. Yeasts increased in numbers as the pH dropped and were detected in lower numbers than lactic acid bacteria throughout the fermentation period. The yeasts isolated in both mahewu and sour porridge broths were Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida species which included the pathogenic species, C.glabrata, C.kefyr, and Zygosaccharomyces species. The other pathogenic Candida species isolated in sour porridge broth only were C.inconspicua and C.guilliermondii. Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter species, Escherichia coli and Serratia ficaria were the enteric bacteria isolated in mahewu broth whereas Klebsiella and Enterobacter species were the enteric bacteria isolated in sour porridge. The lactic acid bacteria isolated in mahewu broth were Lactobacillus species, Pediococcus pentosaceus, Lactococcus lactis and Leuconostoc lactis whereas Lactobacillus coprophilus and Leuconostoc lactis were isolated in sour porridge broth

Investigating the existence of common and agreed design and construction process among consulting professionals

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Science in Building (Project Management in Construction) to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Construction Economics and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017The prevalence and persistence of problems of late project delivery, cost overruns, poor quality and many others, coupled with the lack of concrete solutions to eliminate the causes of these problems over many years have driven construction industries around the world to reconsider their design and construction processes that are used to deliver projects. A government led study in the UK recommended re-thinking the design and construction process; learning from the manufacturing industry. The process protocol was developed as a result, in order to bring about a common and agreed project delivery process. Other construction industries around the world have considered adopting similar models, believing change intended to introduce process-thinking for consistency and standardisation is required to improve project delivery. In South Africa, the existence of a common and agreed project delivery process is not clear. This study has endeavoured to explore the current phenomenon among professional councils and bodies on the existence of a common and agreed design and construction process. The research is a general opinion survey without the need for a statistical analysis. Therefore, utilising the qualitative research method was deemed to be most appropriate at this high level stage. From the research findings, it has been concluded that while there are six stages recognised by all professional councils and associations, these stages are not used as a project delivery process. The six stages are only applied to the measurement of the professional fees due at a given stage though not applied the same way by all professional disciplines. The underlying details in the stages overlap between disciplines in some instances and are inconsistent as well. The general consensus, from the research participants, is that a more defined and agreed process is required. The government has already taken the lead with the initiative of developing the Infrastructure Delivery Management System (IDMS) for public infrastructure projects. There is unanimous agreement among the research participants that the IDMS would be appropriate to be applied throughout the industry as a starting point for process standardisation.XL201

Comparing vowel hiatus resolution in ciNsenga and chiShona: An Optimality Theory analysis

This article seeks to contribute to typology by presenting a formal comparative analysis of repair strategies used to resolve vowel hiatus in ciNsenga and chiShona. In these two languages, hiatus resolution is sensitive to phonology and morphosyntax such that hiatus resolution strategies apply differently depending on the phonological and morphosyntactic context. Across the prefix + noun stem boundary and within the Inflectional Stem, V1 undergoes “resyllabification” (Myers 1987:222) in the form of glide formation, secondary articulation and elision. An interlinguistic difference occurs when V2 is MacroStem-initial: in ciNsenga, hiatus resolution is blocked but in chiShona spreading is triggered. We follow Mudzingwa (2010) in proposing that resyllabification in chiShona is blocked at the Prosodic Stem edge by an alignment constraint (ALIGNL-PSTEM) that requires the left edge of a Prosodic Stem to align with the left edge of an onset-full syllable. We argue that resyllabification and glide epenthesis in ciNsenga are blocked when V2 is MacroStem-initial because ALIGN (ROOTVERB, L,σ,L) outranks ONSET and ALIGNL-PSTEM. Crucially, this article demonstrates that whilst vowel hiatus resolution is categorical in chiShona, it is domain-specific in ciNsenga.Keywords: CiNsenga, ChiShona, hiatus resolution, Optimality Theory, resyllabificatio

Using critical pedagogy in English education: Disjunctures between pre-service teachers’ preparation and opportunities for implementation

English education in South Africa has a long-standing relationship with Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy theory. In many universities offering qualifications in education, critical pedagogy features prominently in curricula for pre-service teachers of English. These teacher students are prepared with the knowledge and skills that critical pedagogy offers to be able to teach English effectively in their classrooms upon graduation. Yet, there are multiple constraints in the school system that impede the implementation of critical pedagogy in the English classroom. These constraints range from employment shortage to lack of incentives for teachers. As a result, it becomes evident that there is a disparity between teacher preparation to teach English in critical ways and teacher opportunity to actually do so. In this article, we explore this disparity between teacher preparation and opportunity to apply critical pedagogy in the English classroom, and on the basis of that we conceptualise learning to teach as a blend of adaptive and adoptive teaching in the real-world context

Cryptosporidiosis In Harare, Zimbabwe

A CAJM medical article.Objective: To determine the prevalence of Cryptosporidiumparvum in diarrhoeal patients. Design: This was a laboratory-based cross sectional study on cryptosporidiosis in diarrhoeal patients. Setting: Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, College of Health Sciences in Harare, Zimbabwe. Subjects: People of all ages with diarrhoea presenting at primary level health centres in Harare. Main Outcome Measures: Patient’s age, laboratory results. Results: Cryptosporidium parvum was the commonest enteric pathogen and was detected in 5.8% of the 500 diarrhoeal patients of all ages followed by Shigella species (3.8%) and Salmonella species (2.0%). The highest detection rate of C.parvum oocysts was observed in children less than five years old (11.2%) followed by children between six and 10 years old (6.3%) and then the 31 to 40 year age group (5.9%). Conclusions: Cryptosporidiosis affects people of all ages in Harare but is more common in children, particularly those under five years. The Cparvum oocysts should be looked for routinely in diarrhoeal stool specimens particularly those from children less than five years since C.parvum may be one of the causative agents of diarrhoea in this age group

Changes in pain catastrophizing predict later changes in fibromyalgia clinical and experimental pain report: cross-lagged panel analyses of dispositional and situational catastrophizing

Introduction: Fibromyalgia (FM), characterized by wide-spread diffuse pain and sensory abnormalities, is associated with elevated indices of distress and pain-related catastrophizing compared to both pain-free samples and those with chronic pain conditions. Catastrophizing is a pervasive negative mental set, and is a strong predictor of negative pain-related outcomes such as clinical pain intensity, and physical disability. Situational catastrophizing, measured in the context of experimentally-induced pain, is strongly related to enhanced pain sensitivity, a core aspect of the pathophysiology of fibromyalgia. However, little is known regarding the temporal course of the association between catastrophizing and pain-related "outcomes". Most studies involve only static assessments of pain and catastrophizing at a single time point, which provides little insight into the direction of the observed associations. We sought to investigate the temporal relationships between catastrophizing and indices of both clinical pain (substudy 1) and experimentally-induced pain (substudy 2) in a larger randomized controlled longitudinal trial. Methods: Fifty-seven patients with FM completed catastrophizing, depression, and pain questionnaires as well as laboratory cold pressor pain testing at baseline, post-intervention and three month follow-up during a lifestyle physical activity study. Cross-lagged panel analyses were used to address these temporal relationships. Results: In substudy 1, analyses revealed that pre-to-post changes in dispositional catastrophizing ratings prospectively accounted for unique variance in subsequent post-to-follow-up changes in clinical pain ratings (p = 0.005), while pre-to-post changes in pain ratings did not account for unique variance in post-to-follow-up changes in catastrophizing ratings. An identical pattern was observed experimentally in substudy 2, with pre-to-post changes in situational catastrophizing ratings prospectively accounting for unique variance in subsequent post-to-follow-up changes in experimental pain ratings (p = 0.014), while pre-to-post changes in pain ratings did not account for unique variance in post-to-follow-up changes in catastrophizing ratings. Specifically, initial alterations in catastrophizing were associated with subsequent alterations in clinical and experimentally induced pain. Controlling for levels of depression did not affect the results. Conclusions: These findings provide empirical evidence that catastrophizing processes might precede and contribute to subsequent alterations in the pain experience for FM patients. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov: NCT00383084

Detecting Subtle Shifts: Comparing SME Performance Drivers Pre and During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), especially those in the South African tourism sector, were significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Many experienced a decline in performance due to decreased consumer demand resulting from travel restrictions. Understanding these enterprises’ performance pre and post the pandemic will provide insights into how enterprise development practitioners and policy makers could best respond to crises such as this. The study harnessed the Resource-Based View theory to unveil subtle shifts in SMEs’ performance drivers due to the impact of the pandemic. This is important as pre-Covid-19, tourism SMEs with sufficient resources and capabilities were likely to enjoy a competitive advantage and better performance than those lacking such. However, the pandemic disrupted many of these resources and capabilities as travel restrictions and decreased demand made it difficult for SMEs to maintain their customer base or invest in new markets. The Difference in Difference (DID) technique was employed due to its ability to isolate the impact of the pandemic on firm performance by comparing pre- and post-Covid-19 features. As expected, the results showed that the pandemic negatively impacted South African tourism SMEs. This was evident in decreased total asset value, sales volumes, revenue and the number of product offerings. Surprisingly, it was found that having a business plan in place negatively impacted performance before Covid-19. However, post-pandemic, business planning was a crucial positive driver of SME performance. Company age negatively impacted performance post the pandemic, indicating organisational rigidities among tourism SMEs during crises. Despite being home to the popular Garden Route, the Western Cape province suffered more negative effects than other provinces. Lastly, entrepreneur experience and business incubation positively impacted SME performance during the pandemic. Based on these findings, it is recommended that key stakeholders take the evolving performance drivers in the SME sector into account in order to craft support measures that lead to increased, sustainable business performance