On Africana/Islamica existential thought: Don Mattera and the question of transcendence

Although a figure of many interests, Don Mattera remains one of the least studied figures in South African scholarship. This study combines two primary concerns. The first revolves around an imperative for a comprehensive study of Don Mattera. Linked to the first concern is the second, which is the challenge to find a method and a theoretical approach to read Mattera. In addition to being a poet of note, writer and journalist, Mattera is also known as a resilient activist and one of the critical voices in the Black Consciousness Movement of South Africa. Yet, the little that is written on him is either limited to his role in youth gangs, even though he eschewed the life of gangsterism as far back as the mid-1950s, or studied within the context of black South African writing in English. Hence, he is relegated to what is termed 'literature of protest’. There is to date hardly any substantive writing on Mattera and his attachment to Islam despite the fact that he encountered Islam in the 1970s and considers his conversion (to Islam) one of the most significant milestones in his life. The interest expressed in Don Mattera in this study, therefore, is not limited to Mattera the poet and writer only; it also looks at Mattera as a black Muslim subject. The decision to read Mattera in this extended sense presented a theoretical challenge and informed the second concern and problem addressed in this study. Given Mattera’s complexity and range of interests, the question of which method and theoretical approach is ideal for a comprehensive reading of him remained a challenge. In the end, after considering several disciplinary and methodological options, black/Africana existential thought and philosophy as a method and theoretical anchor was selected. This is because black/Africana existential thought and philosophy understood as 'an intertextually embedded discursive practice’ facilitates a comprehensive reading and study on Don Mattera. Informed by a critical engagement with the data of this study, which consists of Mattera’s poetry, fiction and public discourse where Mattera is read alongside Malcolm X, the perceived proclivity of black/Africana existential thought (and philosophy) to privilege a hermeneutic of struggle proved inadequate. The hypothesis presented in this study is that inasmuch as Mattera has been read through the lenses of struggle and protest, such a reading, and by inference, hermeneutic, fosters epistemic closure. For not only does it fail to earnestly consider categories such as Islam as a critical discursive concern within black/Africana existential thought and philosophy, it also, entrenches fossilised notions of black subjectivity and sense of self and being. As a reversal to the hermeneutic of struggle, this dissertation posits an alternative reading in a hermeneutic of transcendence. A hermeneutic of transcendence is attentive to Mattera’s complex sense of self, identity and subjectivity that extends beyond his literary output. Transcendence as used in this study connotes a double meaning that captures both the Sartrean sense of intersubjective transcendence, as well as Levinasian sense of transcendence as a gesture towards the beyond and metaphysical. I argue that a hermeneutic of transcendence provides a better reading of Don Mattera than the hermeneutic of struggle and protest

Continuing Professional Development and Farm Business Performance

Economic and social pressures are transforming farm businesses and the structure of the agricultural industry, consequently it is presumed that farm management skills are under intense pressure. This creates a need for effective interaction between knowledge management and the actions taken by farm decision makers. However a definition of “successful farm business performance” is not easy to find and this, combined with literature that deals with managerial tasks in isolation, does not provide a clear picture for the farm manager pursuing self development. Farm businesses vary considerably in their attributes and resource base and the plethora of measurable factors mean that the manager needs to be able to identify what to measure and why on his own farm. In the UK it appears that most of the measures used in farming do not take into account the customer or human factors alluded to in other industries. Development of the skills and abilities of the decision makers to utilise techniques, interpret measures and relate them to their own business needs is increasingly important. The preliminary investigations described in this paper indicate that farmers and farm managers are aware of business management techniques but do not appear to integrate them fully into their own businesses.Farm Management, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Plasmonic Devices in the Terahertz and Optical Frequency Domains

We are living in an age where the evolution of semiconductor devices and components is contingent upon their miniaturization and seamless integration with the rest of the circuitry. Unfortunately, it is anticipated that electronic systems will soon approach the theoretical design limits of size and bandwidth, and it poses to be a serious concern for the development of high-speed information technologies. Replacement of electronic pulses that act as communication signals with electromagnetic surface waves offers a very promising solution, particularly in terms of device miniaturization and the heart of this optimism are the plasmonic waves arising due to collective electron oscillations at the surface of a conductor. Surface plasmon polaritons propagating along a metal-dielectric interface at optical frequencies have lately been a subject of immense research interest, mainly due to their reduced wavelength at least by an order of magnitude. Hence, miniaturized wave devices can be created at optical frequencies. Terahertz plasma waves, on the other hand, exist in infinitesimally thin plasma regions formed inside a transistor substrate, and are observed at much lower frequencies in the far-infrared regime. Due to essentially a two-dimensional nature of the plasma region, a much higher wavelength reduction factor that can exceed well beyond 100 is achievable. Furthermore, the boundary conditions due to the transistor terminals along with electric biasing create unstable resonance conditions that eventually lead to radiation in the terahertz frequency range. Such phenomena provide bright prospects for creating highly miniaturized terahertz devices. A reliable and efficient electromagnetic (EM) analysis for multilayer geome tries has gained further significance due to the emergence of plasmonic structures in the optical as well as terahertz frequency domains. In this regard, integral equation (IE) techniques are ideally suited due to their efficient handling of mutilayer structures. Although the presence of thin layers poses a challenge to any EM analysis technique, here the procedure is simplified due to the infinitesimally thin nature of the plasma region, which can be analyzed as a conducting sheet, with the same current flowing on either side of the sheet. Essential to any IE technique is an efficient and systematic formulation of Green functions (GFs) and their subsequent computation. In this dissertation, a transmission-line network based approach is adopted to derive spectral domain GFs for an infinitesimally thin sheet in a layered medium. The associated spatial domain counterparts are then computed through the Sommerfeld integrals (SIs). The extraordinary electromagnetic properties of plasmonic devices are demonstrated by a presentation of the properties of plasmonic antennas and a super-resolution imaging scheme which is able to resolve objects separated only by a few nanometers

Custom ('Urf) as a marginal discourse in the formulation of Islamic law : myth or reality? : with special reference to Ibn 'Abidin's discourse on 'Urf

Bibliography: leaves 84-87.This dissertation primari Iy focuses on the problem of custom or 'urf and its treatment as a marginal source in Muslim legal theory or

Evaluating tools to support a new practical classification of diabetes: excellent control may represent misdiagnosis and omission from disease registers is associated with worse control.

To conduct a service evaluation of usability and utility on-line clinical audit tools developed as part of a UK Classification of Diabetes project to improve the categorisation and ultimately management of diabetes

Structural and electronic properties of oxygen defective and Se-doped p-type BiVO⁠4(001) thin film for the applications of photocatalysis

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.There is another record in ORE for this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/36011Monoclinic BiVO4 is being used as a photocatalyst due to its stability, cost-effectiveness, ease of synthesis, and narrow band gap. Although, the valence band maximum, VBM (∼−6.80 eV vs vacuum) of BiVO4 is well below the redox potential of water but having less positive conduction band minimum, CBM (−4.56 eV vs vacuum), responsible for its low efficiency. We have carried out a comprehensive periodic density functional theory (DFT) simulations for the pristine, Oxygen defective (Ov) and Se doped BiVO4, to engineer not only its CB edge position but the overall photocatalytic and charge carrier properties. Our theoretical method has nicely reproduced the experimental data of pristine BiVO4, which encouraged us to elaborate further its Ov and Se-doped characteristics. It is found that both the Ov (1% Oxygen vacancy) and Se-doped BiVO4 (1–2% Se) have ideal band edges, band gaps, and small effective masses of electrons and holes, responsible for high photocatalytic activities. Moreover, Se-doped BiVO4 behave as p-type semiconductor. Finally, the photocatalytic water-splitting behaviour of the selected surfaces were counterchecked with water interaction, where the strong water adsorption energy of about ∼−38 to −50 kcal/mol, confirms and predicts their higher efficiencies compared to that of parent BiVO4.The financial support was provided by Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, UK (EPSRC) under the research grant No EP/P510956/1

Structural and electronic properties of oxygen defective and Se-doped p-type BiVO⁠4(001) thin film for the applications of photocatalysis

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.There is another record in ORE fro this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/30528Monoclinic BiVO4 is being used as a photocatalyst due to its stability, cost-effectiveness, ease of synthesis, and narrow band gap. Although, the valence band maximum, VBM (∼−6.80 eV vs vacuum) of BiVO4 is well below the redox potential of water but having less positive conduction band minimum, CBM (−4.56 eV vs vacuum), responsible for its low efficiency. We have carried out a comprehensive periodic density functional theory (DFT) simulations for the pristine, Oxygen defective (Ov) and Se doped BiVO4, to engineer not only its CB edge position but the overall photocatalytic and charge carrier properties. Our theoretical method has nicely reproduced the experimental data of pristine BiVO4, which encouraged us to elaborate further its Ov and Se-doped characteristics. It is found that both the Ov (1% Oxygen vacancy) and Se-doped BiVO4 (1–2% Se) have ideal band edges, band gaps, and small effective masses of electrons and holes, responsible for high photocatalytic activities. Moreover, Se-doped BiVO4 behave as p-type semiconductor. Finally, the photocatalytic water-splitting behaviour of the selected surfaces were counterchecked with water interaction, where the strong water adsorption energy of about ∼−38 to −50 kcal/mol, confirms and predicts their higher efficiencies compared to that of parent BiVO4.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

Post-16 Curriculum and Qualifications Reform in England and Scotland: lessons from home international comparisons

In this article we compare Curriculum 2000 and Higher Still, recent reforms of post-16 education in England and Scotland respectively. We draw on current and earlier research on the unification of academic and vocational learning in England, Scotland and other European countries in order to suggest areas for mutual learning to inform future curriculum and qualifications reform north and south of the Border. We highlight five of these - the conduct of the policy process, issues of progression, assessment, approaches to vocational education and key/core skills. In our conclusion we speculate on the possibility of either convergence or divergence of the English and Scottish upper secondary education systems as both evolve

Gap opening in the zeroth Landau level in gapped graphene: Pseudo-Zeeman splitting in an angular magnetic field

We present a theoretical study of gap opening in the zeroth Landau level in gapped graphene as a result of pseudo-Zeeman interaction. The applied magnetic field couples with the valley pseudospin degree of freedom of the charge carriers leading to the pseudo-Zeeman interaction. To investigate its role in transport at the Charge Neutrality Point (CNP), we study the integer quantum Hall effect (QHE) in gapped graphene in an angular magnetic field in the presence of pseudo-Zeeman interaction. Analytical expressions are derived for the Hall conductivity using Kubo-Greenwood formula. We also determine the longitudinal conductivity for elastic impurity scattering in the first Born approximation. We show that pseudo-Zeeman splitting leads to a minimum in the collisional conductivity at high magnetic fields and a zero plateau in the Hall conductivity. Evidence for activated transport at CNP is found from the temperature dependence of the collisional conductivity.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, Accepted in J. Phys. Condensed matte

Sequence comparison and phylogenetic analysis of core gene of hepatitis C virus from Pakistani population

In Pakistan, more than 10 million people are living with hepatitis C virus (HCV) with high morbidity and mortality. The aims of the present study are to report HCV core gene sequences from Pakistani population and perform their sequence comparison/phylogenetic analysis. The core gene of HCV has been cloned from six different patients and sequences submitted at the National Center of Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Nucleotides and deduced amino acid sequence comparison of six isolates was performed with each other and with two HCV genotype 3a type examples reported from Japan. Phylogenetic tree of HCV core sequences was constructed using CLC software. Nucleotides sequence comparison showed that our sequences have 94 to 96% homology with NZL1 strain and 90 to 93%homology with HCV-K3A/650 strain. Deduced amino acid sequence comparison showed that our sequences have 92 to 98% homology with NZL1 strain and 88 to 94% homology with HCV-K3A/650 strain.Phylogenetic analysis suggests that our sequences are clustered with sequences reported from Japan. This is the first phylogenetic analysis of HCV core gene from Pakistani population. Our sequences and sequences from Japan are grouped into same cluster in the phylogenetic tree. Sequence comparison and phylogenetic analysis showed that our isolates have high homology with Japanese isolates