Reassessing the Significance of Firearms in Central Africa: The Case of North-Western Zambia to the 1920s

Based on a close examination of European travelogues and the evidence produced in the wake of the formulation of colonial gun policies, this article contends that the significance of firearms in Central Africa in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has been unduly played down in the existing literature. The first substantive section of the article charts the movement of the gun frontier in nineteenth-century north-western Zambia. It foregrounds the new technology’s economic and military applications, the means through which north-western Zambians overcame some at least of its limitations, and the plurality of innovative social roles that they attributed to it. Successive sections centre on the pervasiveness of gun-running in the early twentieth century and the implementation and profound social consequences of gun control laws

Family Learning Culture Assessment: Development of metrics of the collective epistemic orientations and achievement motivations in diverse families

The family, in educational psychology research, is unidimensional. It is either a covariate, a tool for school agenda or narrowly defined by a single person, usually the mother and her college educational attainment. These diminutions of family hamper efforts to fully understand critical contextual factors that impact student learning, like family. Inspired by Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and Family Communication Practices (FCP), Family Learning Culture Theory (FLCT) emerged as the conceptual framework for a exploratory research project, which interviewed three middle-class family representatives, of high school students in two school districts in a Southeastern city in the United States. Aggregate findings, from that preliminary study reveal that family expectations towards learning, school and knowledge, is shaped academic success is a multi-membered, cultural dynamic which extends beyond households and bloodlines. This study also found that over time, family is less directive and more consultative in its support for children’s personal fulfillment and goal attainment, which may not include college. The results of this study informed the development of the Family Learning Culture Assessment, which combines interdisciplinary, reliability-tested, metrics along with new dimensions unearthed during the qualitative study, to understand emergent family typologies in school-based settings. This research and the resulting assessment have implications for removing deficit-based binaries, like engaged or disengaged, and replacing them with more nuanced descriptive typologies, reflective of families as complete cultural entities. The possibilities for targeted support or intervention are as varied as the typologies themselves.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1138/thumbnail.jp

Promoting Food Security During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Community Resilience and Adaptation in Limpopo Province, South Africa

Postponed access: the file will be accessible after 2022-06-02The COVID-19 pandemic represents one of the most significant challenges to global public health in the 21st Century. The apparent socio-economic impact of COVID-19, and associated restrictions aimed at preventing transmission, has led many Health Promotion practitioners to hypothesise an emergent food crisis within low-income communities - deemed vulnerable to exogenous shocks. Yet communities are not homogenous; vulnerability is a spectrum mitigated by the availability of community-level resources, or protective factors. As such, this study adopts the theoretical approach of Community Resilience to explore the dynamic socio-ecological phenomenon of COVID-19 related food insecurity across low-income rural communities in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Food insecurity is conceptually derived from the FAO’s ‘Four Pillars’ definition of food security. Key objectives were to: (1) Explore current stressors of COVID-19 related food insecurity; (2) Explore the existence of community-level protective factors that maintain food security within Limpopo Province. This study followed a qualitative phenomenological approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine rural community members in Mopani District (Limpopo) and relevant members of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). This study found that despite Limpopo being historically one of the most food-secure provinces in South Africa, COVID-19 has undermined local food systems and exacerbated existing vulnerabilities causing food insecurity. Traditional coping strategies have been limited by COVID-19 restrictions but informal sector activity, natural capital, social capital and community competencies were found to act as important community-level protective factors that promoted food security. However, low economic development caused by historical racial inequality has bred resource inequities that fundamentally eroded resilience capacity. Although many protective factors exist that could and should be promoted within Health Promotion interventions are identified, the wider developmental pursuit of eradicating poverty remains key.Master's ThesisGLODE33

A pilot study of the profile of injuries that presented to the student chiropractic sports council at the Pick 'n Pay 94.7 cycle challenge from 2002 to 2004

Very little information exists about the acute presentation of overuse injuries specific to cycling. Although there are studies, mainly in the form of surveys, that do detail the incidence and prevalence of overuse injuries in cyclists or triathletes, they all take place weeks or even months after events or focus on a 1 year injury history. (Weiss 1985, Korkia et al. 1994, Wilber 1995, Manninen and Kallinen 1996 and Salai et al. 1999) The aim of this study was to describe the historical data obtained when patients presented to the Student Chiropractic Sports Council at the Pick ‘n Pay 94.7 Cycle Challenge from the years 2002 to 2004. The focus of the study was on the profile of injuries with which patients presented. This was a descriptive study of historical data obtained by students treating at the Pick ‘n Pay 94.7 Cycle Challenge from the year 2002 to 2004. The data was acquired in the form of SOAP (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan) notes held by the Student Chiropractic Sports Council. The results of this study showed that the most common location of complaints were the anterior and posterior thigh. Musculotendinous strains were by far the most predominant injury with the hamstring being involved more commonly (33.8%) than any other muscle. Overall 72.8% of patients were diagnosed with musculotendinous strains. Further, the results also showed that 55.8% of patients complained of eck or back pain and 59.7% were diagnosed with cervical facet joint, thoracic facet joint, lumbar facet joint or sacroiliac joint dysfunction.Dr. S. Wilcox Dr M. Moodle

Fuels from tyres by pyrolysis in molten salts

The current annual arisings of used car/van tyres in the U.K. has been found to be around 25m (188,000 tonnes). After the established reuse industries have taken their requirements this leaves 13.5m (102,000 tonnes) waste tyres; a quantity that can no longer be satisfactorily tipped. Laboratory scale experiments have shown that tyre can be pyrolised, using a molten carbonate system as the reaction medium, at rates corresponding to 14.9-42.7 g tyre/min. per litre of melt over the range 475 and 650°C. The product yields by weight of tyre input between the same temperatures are: hydrocarbon oil 23-36 wt. %, hydrocarbon gas 7- 18 wt. %, carbonaceous char 35-40 wt. %, steel 16.7 wt. % and inorganics 5.4 wt. %. The oil and gas evolve from the reactor and can easily be collected by conventional means. The steel and inorganics remain in the reactor although on the commercial scale it is proposed that they would be removed by physical and chemical methods respectively. The char was found to pose considerable handling problems and so a method was devised by which it could be gasified in the reactor. This was best achieved by passing air at a less than stoichiometric rate which gave a gaseous product rich in carbon monoxide. In addition this action provides heat for the system as a whole. The rates at 675-9000C were in the range corresponding to 5.6- 14.89 char/min. per litre of melt. A process flow chart has been proposed for a continuous operation based on these systems. Data from theoretical and experimental studies has enabled economic evaluations of several commercial scales to be carried out. These have shown that 4,000 and 10,000 t/yr operations show a DCF rate of return around 30% while a 50,000 t/yr operation shows 60% which would be attractive to an experienced scrap operator

Shipwreck and salvage in the tropics: the case of HMS Thetis, 1830–1854

In 1830, the British frigate HMS Thetis was wrecked at Cabo Frio, on the Brazilian coast. A British naval force was subsequently despatched to undertake a major salvage operation which lasted for well over a year. The substantial textual and visual archive associated with the case of the Thetis raises wider questions about the entanglement of naval, scientific, artistic, financial and legal concerns in an age of British maritime expansion. If the loss of such a ship brought into question the capacity of the British to act at a distance, it also provided an opportunity to mend and strengthen the networks of power and knowledge. The sources of error exposed by the disaster were to be subject to investigation by numerous authorities, including hydrographers keen to refine their charts and sailing directions and Fellows of the Royal Society seeking to advance the claims of science, as well as the Admiralty itself, in the judicial setting of a court martial. We focus here especially on narratives of the wreck and the salvage of the Thetis, and the significance of their repeated tellings of the story after the event; and on the evidential and representational status of the visual images of the scene in sketches, maps, charts, diagrams, engravings and paintings

Palladium-Catalyzed Carbon-Carbon Bond-Forming Reactions with Unactivated Alkyl Electrophiles

I. Cross-Coupling Reactions with Alkyl Electrophiles An overview of the application of alkyl electrophiles in cross-coupling reactions is presented, highlighting the importance of this reactivity and challenges associated therein. Recent advances in alkyl cross-coupling are discussed, from both a process development and mechanistic perspective, to describe the current state of the field. Advances in hybrid organometallic-radical reactivity are also considered, with particular focus on its application in alkyl cross-coupling and perspective on mechanistic analysis. II. Palladium-Catalyzed Ring-Forming Aromatic C-H Alkylation A palladium-catalyzed, intramolecular aromatic C-H alkylation with unactivated alkyl halides is described. This process is successful with both iodides and bromides, including those with β-hydrogen atoms present. It also tolerates both electron-rich and electron-poor aromatic rings, as well as heteroaromatic substrates. The mild, palladium-catalyzed approach displays compatibility with a diverse range of functional groups, including those which are base- or nucleophile-sensitive. A mechanistic investigation is also presented, suggesting the presence of radical intermediates. III. A Versatile, Palladium-Catalyzed Approach to Alkene-Alkyl Halide Coupling A method for the palladium-catalyzed coupling of alkyl halides with alkenes is presented. Reaction conditions determine whether the end product retains the alkyl halide moiety in an atom-transfer radical cyclization (ATRC) reaction, or if the alkene component is restored, affecting a formal Heck-type transformation. The manifold is capable of performing both transformations with unactivated alkyl bromides and a variety of terminal, di- and tri-substituted alkenes under argon atmosphere. It also enables formation of both 5- and 6-membered rings. A mechanistic investigation of this reaction is presented, which suggests the operation of a catalytic, hybrid organometallic-radical process.Doctor of Philosoph