Judo in schools in South Africa:A judoka’s perspective

Elite sport systems comprise the phases of an athlete’s progression from school to international level, as incorporated in the Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model. The model includes elements such as talent identification and development, scientific support, training facilities and coach development. However, varying degrees of implementation are accounted for by contextual differences. Judo is a popular Olympic sport that is practised in schools in South Africa, mostly as an extracurricular activity. The aim of this paper is to describe the perceptions of judoka in South Africa, of their school judo programmes, in the context of an elite judo system. The study utilised a self structured questionnaire and a purposive random sample of 26 judoka participated in this study. Results indicate that constrained school judo programmes exist in South Africa. The programmes would benefit from a national competition league for schools that establishes partnerships with external service and facility providers, to enhance access to scientific support such as psychology, bio-kinetics, physiotherapy, and training facilities. This would contribute to a comprehensive database, informed by monitoring and evaluation of talented athletes and would embed the programme within the framework of LTAD to establish age and developmentally appropriate participation opportunities. Unique talent identification and development approaches could also create opportunities for strategic competitive advantage. Results reinforce existing literature on long-term scientific approaches to the development of athletes and Judo South Africa’s existing LTAD manual, combined with the presence of judo in numerous schools across the country, provide a platform for practical implementation of recommendations in this study

Design to reliability shielded vertical interconnection applied to microwave Chip Scale Packaging

This paper presents the electrical design, measurement and reliability ests of a shielded vertical interconnection dedicated to microwave solder-mount packages. Electromagnetic simulations show very good results up to 20 GHz. Test samples have been designed and manufactured. Electrical results are in accordance with the simulations with insertion loss lower than 0.1 dB up to 20 GHz for the proposed interconnection. Reliability tests of present no degradation of the after 500 thermal cycles in the [-55°C, +125°C] temperature range

A Bayesian approach for inferring the dynamics of partially observed endemic infectious diseases from space-time-genetic data

We describe a statistical framework for reconstructing the sequence of transmission events between observed cases of an endemic infectious disease using genetic, temporal and spatial information. Previous approaches to reconstructing transmission trees have assumed all infections in the study area originated from a single introduction and that a large fraction of cases were observed. There are as yet no approaches appropriate for endemic situations in which a disease is already well established in a host population and in which there may be multiple origins of infection, or that can enumerate unobserved infections missing from the sample. Our proposed framework addresses these shortcomings, enabling reconstruction of partially observed transmission trees and estimating the number of cases missing from the sample. Analyses of simulated datasets show the method to be accurate in identifying direct transmissions, while introductions and transmissions via one or more unsampled intermediate cases could be identified at high to moderate levels of case detection. When applied to partial genome sequences of rabies virus sampled from an endemic region of South Africa, our method reveals several distinct transmission cycles with little contact between them, and direct transmission over long distances suggesting significant anthropogenic influence in the movement of infected dogs

Le souk au milieu des tombes

La Cité des Morts au Caire est un cimetière musulman habité depuis des siècles. Reliée au reste de l’agglomération par la continuité de l’urbanisation et les réseaux de transport, mais en situation de marge du fait de sa fonction première et du statut social de ses habitants, elle n’en reste pas moins un véritable quartier de la capitale égyptienne. Tous les vendredis, la nécropole Sud est investie par un des plus grands marchés de la ville. Il attire des populations souvent défavorisées venant de toute l’agglomération. Les vendeurs s’approprient les espaces funéraires à différentes échelles, de la rue à la tombe, les détournant de leur fonction initiale. Sa localisation au cœur de la Cité des Morts inscrit enfin ce marché dans un système de représentations complexe oscillant entre fascination et crainte, intérêt et relégation sociale. Il dépasse son statut d’événement ponctuel hebdo­madaire et marque l’espace de façon quasi permanente, de nombreuses traces persistant en semaine. Des gradients dans l’occupation de l’espace peuvent être décelés en fonction du type de marchandises proposées. Le souk semble alors prendre le dessus sur l’espace funéraire : il se superpose et s’impose tant dans les repré­sentations que dans les pratiques, et renforce ainsi l’hybridité de la nécropole.The City of the Dead in Cairo is a Muslim cemetery which has been inhab­ited for centuries. Being both connected to the rest of the agglomeration by the continued urbanization and the transport networks and considered as a marginal area because of its original function and the social status of its inhabit­ants, it remains a real district of the Egyptian capital-city. Every Friday, the Southern necropolis is occupied by one of Cairo’s biggest market. It attracts disadvantaged people from all the agglomeration. The funeral spaces are appropriated at various scales – from the street to the tomb – and diverted from their original function by the sellers. Finally, because of its localization in the heart of the City of the Dead, this market is part of a complex system of representations oscillating between fascination and fear, interest and social relegation. It exceeds its status of a punc­tual weekly event and puts its mark on the space in a near-permanent way. De­pending on the type of merchandises different gradients of space occupation can be seen. The souk seems to impose itself both in the representations and in practices, and thus reinforces the hybridity of the necropolis

Climate change mitigation strategies and its effect on economic change

Scientists started to study the relationship between changing weather patterns and the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other harmful gasses. They soon discovered compelling evidence that CO2 concentration and other gases have been increasing and it was causing temperatures to increase in certain areas on the earth, which disturb historic weather patterns. Climate change has become a very popular field of study in the modern science. Europe first introduced measures to reduce carbon emissions but it was the Kyoto in 1997 where global leaders were asked to participate in a joint protocol to reduce greenhouse gases. South Africa responded to climate change challenges in 2008 with the Long term Mitigation Scenarios (LTMS). The Integrated Resource Plan for electricity to 2030 was developed from the LTMS scenarios and after some major amendments it was accepted and promulgated by Government and has recently been included in the National Development Plan to 2030 (NDP). There are concerns about the achievability of some of the objectives listed in the NDP and this study explored the IRP2010 as the proposed strategy to meet energy demand and reduce emissions. The purpose for this study was to answer this question: Is there an optimum climate change mitigation strategy for South Africa and how can the effect thereof be simulated on economic growth? Through primary and secondary research during the study it was possible to define some 32 categories of energy producing assets that are commercially active or nearly market-ready. The characteristics of the various assets and the relevant fuel are defined in mathematical equations. It was found that the three portfolios that matched the 450TWh electricity requirement would perform substantially better than the NDP portfolio in terms of cost and similar on emissions with marginally fewer employment opportunities created. The proposed electricity strategy in this study was 390TWh and 33.5 Million tonnes of oil consumption by 2030. This strategy was substantially more affordable than the 450TWh strategy. Trends in the Supply and Use tables since 1993 were studied and then forecasted to 2030 to determine consumption levels on electricity and liquid fuel into the future. It was found that electricity demand is seriously overestimated and South Africa would end up with large excess capacity in electricity infrastructures if the NDP energy strategy (IRP2010) is implemented. It is concluded that the NDP energy strategy to 2030 is based on an incorrect electricity demand forecast. It would lead to excessive investment in an electricity infrastructure. Government has confirmed that part of the new infrastructure would be nuclear. It is also found that NDP has not clearly supported nuclear as part of the strategy. Nuclear is partly the reason why the capital requirement of the NDP portfolio is so much higher than the other portfolios. It is the conclusion of this study that South Africa do not need to invest in a nuclear build programme as the electricity demand would be adequately covered by adding the new Medupi and Kusile power stations, Ingula pump storage scheme, some wind and solar renewables, electricity from cogeneration, biogas, biomass, small hydro and imported hydro from neighbour countries. To invest in electricity capacity to generate 450TWh annually by 2030 would result in excessive energy cost, GDP growth could be up to 1% lower due to underperforming capital investments in the electricity infrastructure and higher energy cost would lead to a decline in global competitiveness