Exploiting the contradictions: the life story of Ndae Makume

Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop: The Making of Class, 9-14 February, 198

Crisis and catharsis in the development of capitalism in South African agriculture

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented October 1984The image of the countryside in South African historiography has changed significantly in recent years. Earlier writers like C.W. de Kiewiet and W.M. MacMillan stressed the backwardness arid stagnation of the South African countryside. … More recent writers, faced with very changed circumstances, have stressed, firstly, the initial success of black tenant commercial production; and secondly the vigour and strength of white agriculture, the rapidity of its development under the auspices of a modern, industrial state, and the "brutality of the suppression of the once prosperous "black rural economy. … This paper, then, is concerned on one level to examine the complex relationship between state action on the one hand, and social reality on the other, in the transformation of the countryside in early industrial South Africa. The specific focus of this paper in this respect in on the 1913 Natives Land Act, the most closely studied law in South Africa's history and historiography. The study focuses on the white-settled rural hinterland of the Witwatersrand, the industrial hub of southern Africa, incorporating the northern and eastern Orange Free State and the southernmost districts of the Transvaal

The dynamics of rural accumulation in South Africa: Comparative and historical perspectives

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 18 March, 1985The view that the opening up of Africa by metropolitan capitalism, more particularly during the period of direct colonial rule, was bound to lead through evolutionary stages to economic development and modernisation, has long since fallen into scholarly disrepute. In the atmosphere of radical pessimism that has pervaded academic perspectives on Africa since independence, an altogether more sceptical view of the beneficence of Africa's integration into imperial economies has prevailed. But as is so often the case in scholarly debate, thesis and antithesis occupy the same battle-ground, and both tend to view the world through similar lenses (1). What modernisation and underdevelopment theories have in common is the assumption of a single universal dynamic in the making of the modern world

The Vogar Fissure Swarm, Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland: Aseismic Kinematics of an Oblique Rift Zone

Exposure of the Mid-Atlantic ridge in Iceland offers a unique place to study hotspot-ridge interactions along an oblique rift zone. The Reykjanes Peninsula is a left lateral shear zone characterized by a series of NE striking en echelon fissure swarms oblique to the rift axis, and N-S trending dextral strike slip faults. This study focuses on the Vogar fissure swarm in southwest Iceland, in order to better constrain the mode of deformation within it. Movement of the faults and fissures that make up the fissure swarm is thought to either be related to seismic events along the ridge, or occur aseismically due to dike injections during eruptive episodes. GPS measurements and field based mapping were employed to examine a 7x3 km cross section of the fissure swarm in order to constrain its kinematics. The faults tend to terminate at the contact of a historical fissure lava and an ~12,000 year old shield lava. Cooling properties of the historical lava flow and overflown pre-existing faults were concluded to contribute to its present day structure. The faults’ termination at the historical lava supports the theory that movement along the faults occurs primarily aseismically during eruptive episodes. With this assumption a hypothetical cross section was created of the Vogar fissure swarm extending to the base of the crust, relating the normal faults at the surface to dikes at depth. The continued activity along the Reykjanes Peninsula suggests that it is still a very active spreading center, making it important to constrain the types of deformation that characterize it

Passengers from India and the United States Have Differential Opinions about Autonomous Auto-Pilots for Commercial Flights

There has been much previous research on cultural differences between the United States and India, as well as some research on consumer attitudes towards auto-pilots in commercial airlines. However, to date, there has been no research that examines how passengers from different countries feel about auto-pilots and remote-controlled (RC) pilots in commercial aircraft, or how they feel about their co-workers or children flying in these situations. The current study manipulates both the type of pilot (human pilot, auto-pilot, and RC pilot) and the passenger (participant, child of participant, or work colleague) and examines three different dependent variables (comfort level, trust and willingness to fly). The results are straightforward. All participants were more negative about the auto-pilot and RC pilot compared to the human pilot. All participants were more negative about themselves or their children flying compared to their colleagues. Indians were less extreme in their views compared to Americans. Finally, the implications of this research are discussed

Metagenomic analysis of planktonic microbial consortia from a non-tidal urban-impacted segment of James River

Knowledge of the diversity and ecological function of the microbial consortia of James River in Virginia, USA, is essential to developing a more complete understanding of the ecology of this model river system. Metagenomic analysis of James River\u27s planktonic microbial community was performed for the first time using an unamplified genomic library and a 16S rDNA amplicon library prepared and sequenced by Ion PGM and MiSeq, respectively. From the 0.46-Gb WGS library (GenBank:SRR1146621; MG-RAST:4532156.3), 4 × 10 6 reads revealed \u3e3 × 10 6 genes, 240 families of prokaryotes, and 155 families of eukaryotes. From the 0.68-Gb 16S library (GenBank:SRR2124995; MG-RAST:4631271.3; EMB:2184), 4 × 10 6 reads revealed 259 families of eubacteria. Results of the WGS and 16S analyses were highly consistent and indicated that more than half of the bacterial sequences were Proteobacteria, predominantly Comamonadaceae. The most numerous genera in this group were Acidovorax (including iron oxidizers, nitrotolulene degraders, and plant pathogens), which accounted for 10 % of assigned bacterial reads.Polaromonas were another 6 % of all bacterial reads, with many assignments to groups capable of degrading polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Albidiferax (iron reducers) and Variovorax(biodegraders of a variety of natural biogenic compounds as well as anthropogenic contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and endocrine disruptors) each accounted for an additional 3 % of bacterial reads. Comparison of these data to other publically-available aquatic metagenomes revealed that this stretch of James River is highly similar to the upper Mississippi River, and that these river systems are more similar to aquaculture and sludge ecosystems than they are to lakes or to a pristine section of the upper Amazon River. Taken together, these analyses exposed previously unknown aspects of microbial biodiversity, documented the ecological responses of microbes to urban effects, and revealed the noteworthy presence of 22 human-pathogenic bacterial genera (e.g., Enterobacteriaceae, pathogenic Pseudomonadaceae, and ‘Vibrionales\u27) and 6 pathogenic eukaryotic genera (e.g., Trypanosomatidae and Vahlkampfiidae). This information about pathogen diversity may be used to promote human epidemiological studies, enhance existing water quality monitoring efforts, and increase awareness of the possible health risks associated with recreational use of James River

Metagenomic analysis of planktonic microbial consortia from a non-tidal urban-impacted segment of James River

Knowledge of the diversity and ecological function of the microbial consortia of James River in Virginia, USA, is essential to developing a more complete understanding of the ecology of this model river system. Metagenomic analysis of James River\u27s planktonic microbial community was performed for the first time using an unamplified genomic library and a 16S rDNA amplicon library prepared and sequenced by Ion PGM and MiSeq, respectively. From the 0.46-Gb WGS library (GenBank:SRR1146621; MG-RAST:4532156.3), 4 × 106 reads revealed \u3e3 × 106 genes, 240 families of prokaryotes, and 155 families of eukaryotes. From the 0.68-Gb 16S library (GenBank:SRR2124995; MG-RAST:4631271.3; EMB:2184), 4 × 106 reads revealed 259 families of eubacteria. Results of the WGS and 16S analyses were highly consistent and indicated that more than half of the bacterial sequences were Proteobacteria, predominantly Comamonadaceae. The most numerous genera in this group were Acidovorax (including iron oxidizers, nitrotolulene degraders, and plant pathogens), which accounted for 10 % of assigned bacterial reads. Polaromonas were another 6 % of all bacterial reads, with many assignments to groups capable of degrading polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Albidiferax (iron reducers) and Variovorax (biodegraders of a variety of natural biogenic compounds as well as anthropogenic contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and endocrine disruptors) each accounted for an additional 3 % of bacterial reads. Comparison of these data to other publically-available aquatic metagenomes revealed that this stretch of James River is highly similar to the upper Mississippi River, and that these river systems are more similar to aquaculture and sludge ecosystems than they are to lakes or to a pristine section of the upper Amazon River. Taken together, these analyses exposed previously unknown aspects of microbial biodiversity, documented the ecological responses of microbes to urban effects, and revealed the noteworthy presence of 22 human-pathogenic bacterial genera (e.g., Enterobacteriaceae, pathogenic Pseudomonadaceae, and ‘Vibrionales\u27) and 6 pathogenic eukaryotic genera (e.g., Trypanosomatidae and Vahlkampfiidae). This information about pathogen diversity may be used to promote human epidemiological studies, enhance existing water quality monitoring efforts, and increase awareness of the possible health risks associated with recreational use of James River

Using smartphones to reduce research burden in a neurodegenerative population and assessing participant adherence: A randomized clinical trial and two observational studies

BACKGROUND: Smartphone studies provide an opportunity to collect frequent data at a low burden on participants. Therefore, smartphones may enable data collection from people with progressive neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at high frequencies for a long duration. However, the progressive decline in patients\u27 cognitive and functional abilities could also hamper the feasibility of collecting patient-reported outcomes, audio recordings, and location data in the long term. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to investigate the completeness of survey data, audio recordings, and passively collected location data from 3 smartphone-based studies of people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. METHODS: We analyzed data completeness in three studies: 2 observational cohort studies (study 1: N=22; duration=12 weeks and study 2: N=49; duration=52 weeks) and 1 clinical trial (study 3: N=49; duration=20 weeks). In these studies, participants were asked to complete weekly surveys; weekly audio recordings; and in the background, the app collected sensor data, including location data. For each of the three studies and each of the three data streams, we estimated time-to-discontinuation using the Kaplan-Meier method. We identified predictors of app discontinuation using Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. We quantified data completeness for both early dropouts and participants who remained engaged for longer. RESULTS: Time-to-discontinuation was shortest in the year-long observational study and longest in the clinical trial. After 3 months in the study, most participants still completed surveys and audio recordings: 77% (17/22) in study 1, 59% (29/49) in study 2, and 96% (22/23) in study 3. After 3 months, passively collected location data were collected for 95% (21/22), 86% (42/49), and 100% (23/23) of the participants. The Cox regression did not provide evidence that demographic characteristics or disease severity at baseline were associated with attrition, although it was somewhat underpowered. The mean data completeness was the highest for passively collected location data. For most participants, data completeness declined over time; mean data completeness was typically lower in the month before participants dropped out. Moreover, data completeness was lower for people who dropped out in the first study month (very few data points) compared with participants who adhered long term (data completeness fluctuating around 75%). CONCLUSIONS: These three studies successfully collected smartphone data longitudinally from a neurodegenerative population. Despite patients\u27 progressive physical and cognitive decline, time-to-discontinuation was higher than in typical smartphone studies. Our study provides an important benchmark for participant engagement in a neurodegenerative population. To increase data completeness, collecting passive data (such as location data) and identifying participants who are likely to adhere during the initial phase of a study can be useful. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03168711; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03168711

'Hail England old England my country & home': Englishness and the Local in John Clare’s Writings

This article rethinks John Clare's connection to place, as well as the concepts of ‘place’ and ‘the local’ themselves. It argues that the localism of his work was enabled by potential alienation and displacement and was connected to a sense of wider national community. Clare's writings attempt to think of England in two related ways: as a political community brought together at times of threat, and as a community of taste brought together by a way of apprehending the natural world. His early patriotic verse is often strained and unconvincing, but poems such as ‘The Flitting’ present an idea of ‘native poesy’ that embodies the local and the national through careful description of the natural world. However, this idea was itself mediated through metropolitan attempts to reclaim the customs and literature of ‘merry England’. Thus Clare's localism and nationalism are shown to be ambivalent and uncanny