Behavioural ecology of the Redbilled Woodhoopoe Phoeniculus purpureus in South Africa

Includes bibliographies.A study was made of two Redbilled (Green) Woodhoopoe Phoeniculus purpureus populations spanning an eight year period (1981-1988) and 258 'flock-years', in the eastern Cape Province of South Mrica. The main objectives of the study were to investigate (1) why woodhoopoes live in groups; (2) why nonbreeders do not breed; and, (3) why nonbreeders provision young that are not their own? Ecological and demographic data were gathered in addition to detailed behavioural observations of 54 woodhoopoe flocks. The following experimental manipulations were performed: (1) breeders were removed from flocks to (a) monitor dispersal patterns and restructuring of flocks; and, (b) observe behavioural reactions by remaining birds; (2) cavity availability was (a) decreased, to enable quantification of availability; and, (b) increased, by addition of nest/roost boxes to an area which supported no permanent woodhoopoe territories; and, (3) stimuli, associated with the food provisioning response of adult birds, were manipulated to investigate the evolutionary basis of allofeeding behaviour Variability in social and reproductive behaviour reflects environmental selection pressures, in the form of roost-cavity availability, with a reduction in cavity availability leading to increased group size. The group-territorial social system and high level of inbreeding of Redbilled Woodhoopoes have evolved primarily in response to environmental constraints on dispersal, rather than by particular benefits that arise from group living. Therefore, the habitat-saturation hypothesis best explains group living of woodhoopoes. Behavioural dominance hierarchies ensure that dominance relationships are well-defined among potential competitors (for breeding status), and thereby minimize disruption to flock cohesion upon the death (or removal) of a breeder. If competition for a breeding vacancy arose at the time of the breeder's death, the resultant delay in occupancy of the breeding vacancy would increase the likelihood of competition from unrelated birds. The establishment of such hierarchies is therefore adaptive in the context of the direct component of kin selection. The presence of nonbreeding helpers do not increase fledgling success, breeding frequency, survivorship (of any age, sex or social class), or number of breeder-offspring produced. Because no unambiguous indirect fitness benefits could be shown to result from helping behaviour (specifically allofeeding), I propose that the unselected (misdirected parental care) hypothesis is a viable alternative to the 'functional hypotheses.' This hypothesis is supported by observations/manipulations of misdirected food provisioning by both breeders and helpers

Exploring perceived sources of conflict among educators in three Eastern Cape schools

Conflict is part of organisations and manifests between people in various contexts, including in schools. The purpose of this exploratory intrinsic qualitative interpretive case study was to explore the causes of conflict among teachers in three primary schools residing in previously disadvantaged social contexts, as previous studies have not explored these perceived causes among primary school teachers and neither have these studies been able to frame the causes by means of a conceptual nor Bourdieuan lens. Exploring conflict as tensions are important as it has the potential to result in dysfunctional conflict that negatively impact on the teachers, learners and learning. Purposive sampling was used and fifty-nine educators participated from three primary schools in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Qualitative data was gathered using semi-structured individual interviews, focus group interviews and an open-ended questionnaire. The six categories of the conflict cube of Bradshaw were used to indicate the six main themes, namely relationship conflicts, value conflicts, data conflicts, structural conflicts, interest conflicts and needs-based conflict. The categories associated with each of the main themes are presented as sub-sets by utilising the categorisation properties of a conflict cube. A Bourdieuan lens has also been utilised to interpret the data. The findings suggest that principals, School Management Teams (SMTs) and educators have to be made aware what causes conflict within the field to enable all role players to be more cognisant of these issues in order to become more proactive in their day-to-day interactions within the school context. It is proposed the visual participatory methodologies are explored as tools to assist with the drafting of policies

Gautrain Station, Hatfield

Station buildings across the world have always been the epiphany of efficiency with the coldness associated with this building type. With the Gautrain Station, Hatfield, Pretoria, the efficiency of the machine is effectively combined with the humanity of nature - the abundance of the South African natural world is allowed to bleed into all spaces normally seen as the exclusive domain of steel and concrete.Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2003.Architectureunrestricte

The influence of soil particle surfaces and soil porosity on the biodegradation of key refuse leachate organic molecules.

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1995.Many studies have been undertaken to determine the effects of soil and soil properties on migrating metal pollutants. Organic pollutants, however, in addition to their interactions with soil components , are also susceptible to degradation (catabolism) by microorganisms. Soil-microorganism-pollutant interactions have, traditionally, been studied in soil columns (microcosms). One of the shortcomings of column and in situ studies is that the identity and specific effect(s) of the soil component(s) affecting or influencing attenuation are not known and cannot readily be determined. Attenuation effects of the soil components are, therefore, difficult to interpret. ("Attenuation" in this context is the combined effects of both soil adsorption and microbial catabolism). Attenuation studies often only consider the physical conditions such as aeration, permeability, flow rate, temperature, etc. This approach assumes the soil to be a homogeneous matrix with no specific physico-chemical properties attributable to different components within the matrix. Soil physical factors suspected of influencing pollutant attenuation could be misleading without consideration of the physico-chemical interactions between soil components, microorganisms and pollutants. Adhesion of pollutants and microorganisms seems to be most important in this regard. The initial phase of this study was undertaken to examine the effects of three different soil materials on attenuation of key landfill leachate molecules. Examination of the effects of soil surface type on attenuation focused on adsorption / desorption of the pollutant molecules and microorganisms. These experiments sought to investigate the physico-chemical effects of soil, microorganism, pollutant interactions and were done as batch slurry experiments as well as in soil columns. Two soil horizons from the Inanda soil form (humic A and red apedal B) and the topsoil (vertic A) from a Rensburg soil form were used. The Inanda topsoil had a high organic matter content and both the topsoil and subsoil had a kaolinitic clay mineralogy; the Rensburg topsoil clay mineralogy was predominantly smectitic with a relatively low organic matter content. From the batch experiments, the adsorption of a hydrophobic molecule (naphthalene) and a heavy metal (cadmium) were found to be influenced to a significant extent by soil characteristics. Adsorption of naphthalene was due to the soil organic matter (SOM) content whereas cadmium adsorption was due to the cation exchange capacity (CEC) of the soil. Soil characteristics did not seem to have a significant influence on the adsorption of a water soluble compound such as phenol at the concentrations used. Attenuation of naphthalene was found to be affected by adsorption of the pollutant molecule (related to SOM) as well as the CEC of the soil. The attenuation of hydrophobic molecules can possibly be ascribed to the influence of CEC on the microbial population responsible for attenuation. This would seem to indicate interaction between the soil surfaces and the catabolizing microbial population. Desorption of the pollutant (and possibly also of the microbial population) was achieved by the addition of acetonitrile and methanol both of which reduced the polarity of the water. These solvents were also found to be toxic to the catabolizing microbial population at high concentrations. The toxicity thresholds of both solvents for catabolizing microorganisms differed significantly between soil- (> 15 %, v/v) and soil free (< 5 %, v/v) treatments. This discrepancy cannot be accounted for by adsorption and is ascribed to physico-chemical interaction between microorganisms and the soil surfaces. This interaction probably affords protection from, otherwise, toxic concentrations of solvents or metals. The important effects of soil surfaces on attenuation processes were thought to be due to the strong adsorption of naphthalene. Surface attachment of microorganisms was, however, also inferred from results obtained with phenol. This seemed to indicate that microbial attachment to soil surfaces was an important aspect in attenuation and did not occur only because of pollutant adsorption. Soil column experiments were made with both naphthalene and phenol. The naphthalene, which was adsorbed to the soil, did not leach from the columns to any appreciable extent. This was despite the addition of acetonitrile to some columns. This was probably due to greater microbial catabolism caused by desorption and, subsequent, increased soluble concentrations of the molecule. After extraction from the soil at the end of the experiment it was clear that the sterile controls held much higher concentrations of naphthalene than the experimental columns. The soil type and treatments showed little difference in the naphthalen concentration extracted from the soil columns. This did not reflect the differences found between soil materials in the batch experiments and was probably due to the masking effect of the soil physical factors on attenuation processes. Unlike naphthalene, phenol, because of its high solubility, was detected in the column leachates at relatively high concentrations. The phenol concentrations were much higher for the Inanda subsoil (approximately 4 mM) than the Inanda topsoil (approximately 2 mM) and Rensburg topsoil (< 1 mM). The Rensburg topsoil produced the lowest phenol concentrations in the leachate and this can probably be ascribed to the larger quantity of micropores in this soil. Thus, it seems that the soil physical features had a pronounced influence on attenuation. Whether this effect was directly on the studied molecule or indirectly, because of the effects on the microbial population, is not known. Inoculation of the columns with a phenol catabolizing population had only a slight increased effect on leachate phenol concentrations from all columns. This increased effect was, however, only prolonged in the case of the Inanda subsoil. The flow rate through the columns affected leachate phenol concentration which was lower with a slower flow rate and, thus, longer retention time. From the column experiments soil physical parameters were suspected of influencing, and possibly overriding, the soil surface effects on microbial activity (capacity to catabolize a organic molecule of interest). Soil porosity, as caused by different soil materials, was suspected of being the most important soil physical parameter influencing microbial activity. To investigate the potential effect of soil porosity, relatively homogeneous porous media i.e. chromatography packing material and acid washed sand were used. These materials had more defined and distinct porosities and were considered to be suitable for investigating the fundamental influence of porosity on microbial activity. Saturated continuous flow columns were used and three types of packing configurations were tested: chromatography packing (CHROM) material (porous particles); acid washed sand (non-porous) (AWS); and a 1: 1 (w/w) mixture of chromatography packing and acid washed sand (MIX). Only a single water soluble molecule, phenol, was used in this phase of the investigation. Bacterial filtration ("filtration" as a component of "attenuation'') was found to be highest for the CHROM and lowest for the AWS materials. This difference in microbial retention affected the phenol catabolism in response to increased column dilution rates. The CHROM and MIX materials had distinctly different porosities than that of the AWS, due to the internal porosity of the chromatography packing. This greater pore size distribution in the MIX and CHROM packing materials created pores with different effective pore dilution rates within the microcosms at similar overall flow rates. The greater pore size distribution in the MIX and CHROM packing materials facilitated pore colonization since some pores did not participate, or conduct, mass flow as occurred in macropores. This led to different microcolonization effects in the macro- vs micropores. Since the MIX and CHROM packing materials had more micropore colonization sites these packing materials showed a greater range of substrate affinities (i.e. Ks values) for the phenol substrate. The extent to which micropore colonization occurred could be detected by the effect it had on phenol breakthrough curves. In the MIX and CHROM materials, microbial colonization caused blocking of micropores with a subsequent effect on the phenol breakthrough curves. The AWS material, however, which had a low inherent microporosity, showed microbially induced microporosity probably due to biofilm development. The fact that the MIX and CHROM packing materials facilitated micropore colonization was also responsible for the greater resistance to, and the recovery from , potentially inhibitory cadmium concentrations. This effect was also apparent in the presence of acetonitrile, although this effect was not identical to that observed with cadmium. Finally, column pressure build up as a function of pore clogging was determined and was found to occur in the order AWS > MIX > CHROM. This was most likely due to fewer potential liquid flow paths with a higher blocking potential in the AWS. Extrapolation of the fundamentals of the above findings led to the conclusion that soil surface- and soil porosity effects are extremely important factors in determining the behavior of soils as bioreactors

The management and governance conundrum in South African public schools: principals’ perspectives

The introduction of school governing bodies (hereinafter SGBs) changed the roles and functions of principals dramatically when this new approach to school governance and professional management (referred to as a participatory decision-making approach) was activated when the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 (hereinafter SASA) was implemented in January 1997. Consequently, the principal is no longer the only decision-maker in the school. The principal as the protagonist in school management and governance (implementing SGB policy) is the role-player most affected by the introduction of the participatory decision-making approach. In this article, we discuss principals’ perspectives regarding the shared participatory decision-making approach and the effects thereof on the relationship between the principal and the SGB. In this regard, it is important to note that the perceptions the two parties have of each other are established by the SGB’s encroachment on the professional management functions of the principal and vice versa. The research findings concluded that the relationship between the principal and the SGB is often a relationship characterised by tension, no trust and irrational actions by the SGB. The relationship is further influenced by the functionality or lack of functionality of SGBs as well as prevailing socio-economic conditions and SGB members’ levels of literacy. On the other hand, principals who do not adapt to participatory decision-making, and who still implement an assertive autocratic management approach, also contribute to a turbulent relationship

Razvoj in validacija Instrumenta za merjenje učinkovitosti mentorstva na pedagoški praksi

In the context of improving the quality of teacher education, the focus of the present work was to adapt the Mentoring for Effective Primary Science Teaching instrument to become more universal and have the potential to be used beyond the elementary science mentoring context. The adapted instrument was renamed the Mentoring for Effective Teaching Practicum Instrument. The new, validated instrument enables the assessment of trainee teachers’ perceived experiences with their mentors during their two-week annual teaching practicum at elementary and high schools. In the first phase, the original 34-item Mentoring for Effective Primary Science Teaching instrument was expanded to 62 items with the addition of new items and items from the previous works. All items were rephrased to refer to contexts beyond primary science teaching. Based on responses on an expanded instrument received from 105 pre-service teachers, of whom 94 were females in their fourth year of study (approx. age 22–23 years), the instrument was reviewed and shortened to 36 items classified into six dimensions: personal attributes, system requirements, pedagogical knowledge, modelling, feedback, and Information and Communication Technology due to outcomes of Principal Component and Confirmatory Factor analyses. All six dimensions of the revised instrument are unidimensional, with Cronbach alphas above 0.8 and factor loadings of items above 0.6. Such an instrument could be used in follow-up studies and to improve learning outcomes of teaching practice. As such, specific and general recommendations for the mentee, mentors, university lecturers, and other stakeholders could be derived from the findings to encourage reflection and offer suggestions for the future. (DIPF/Orig.

Alternative marketing options for small-scale farmers in the wake of changing agri-food supply chains in South Africa

With South Africa’s urban population approaching 60%, supermarkets and fast food chains have become important players in the South African food system. These large players in the food sector have systematically modified their procurement practices especially with regard to fresh fruit and vegetables and are now circumventing spot markets in favour of sourcing via in-house sourcing companies who mainly procure from preferred supplier producers. This paper draws extensively from a global research programme which seeks to highlight the market changes that potentially contribute to continued exclusion of the small producers from mass consumer markets. This paper illustrates, through a series of case studies, how integration of small-scale farmers into the urban retail market can be facilitated and how the challenges posed by the changing food system could possibly be overcome. The case studies illustrate various initiatives through which small-scale farmers and agribusinesses can be integrated into mainstream agri-food systems and may be used as models for an innovative approach to include small-scale farmers while still maintaining profitable business operations. They highlight the need for a multi actor approach for the successful participation of smallholder farmers in order to allow them to join the supply chain at any point within the channel.Marketing, Agribusiness,

Financial management in fee-paying public schools in South Africa : how responsible is the school governing body?

The South African Schools Act, No. 84 of 1996, stipulates how schools should manage and involve stakeholders in financial management. The literature suggests that stakeholders at non-fee-paying schools in the township and rural areas do not play a dominant role in their schools’ financial management decision-making processes, which is contrary to the dictates of the South African Schools Act. However, in the study on which this article is based, we focused on the financial management decision-making processes in fee-paying public schools. We followed a qualitative research approach with a multiple case study design. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and document analysis, and were analysed thematically. The findings reveal that members of school governing bodies in Quintile 5 fee-paying public primary schools were educated professionals who, as required by the South African Schools Act, exerted a strong influence on the financial management responsibilities in their schools.http://www.sajournalofeducation.co.zahj2024Education Management and Policy StudiesSDG-04:Quality Educatio

Supply chain risks and smallholder fresh produce farmers in the Gauteng province of South Africa

A survey of 52 smallholder fresh produce farmers was conducted in the Gauteng province of South Africa to grasp how risk and its management affect the mainstreaming of smallholder farmers into formal, high-value markets. The study employed a supply chain analysis approach, which focused on the functions and risks that occur along the fresh produce chain. The results highlight the risks that impede the participation of smallholder farmers in formal, high-value chains. At the production level, risk is prominent from input procurement through to the post-harvest stage of the chains. At the retail and consumption level, risks are linked to the adherence to quality and quantity standards, including prescribed packaging, grading, labelling and traceability and transport requirements. As a result of these risks across the formal chain, smallholder farmers often resort to distributing their products in low-value informal markets. The consequence is that smallholder farmers tend to remain trapped in poverty, in part, because of their risk appetites and their ability to bear risk. 8Further research is required in the areas pertaining to smallholder farmers’ risk appetite and risk-bearing ability and mechanisms to deal with the particular risks in the value chain that impede their all-round ability to escape the “smallholder dilemma”.http://www.unisa.ac.za/default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=22335am2016Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Developmen

The management and governance conundrum in South African public schools : principals perspectives

The introduction of school governing bodies (hereinafter SGBs) changed the roles and functions of principals dramatically when this new approach to school governance and professional management (referred to as a participatory decision-making approach) was activated when the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 (hereinafter SASA) was implemented in January 1997. Consequently, the principal is no longer the only decision-maker in the school. The principal as the protagonist in school management and governance (implementing SGB policy) is the role-player most affected by the introduction of the participatory decision-making approach. In this article, we discuss principals’ perspectives regarding the shared participatory decision-making approach and the effects thereof on the relationship between the principal and the SGB. In this regard, it is important to note that the perceptions the two parties have of each other are established by the SGB’s encroachment on the professional management functions of the principal and vice versa. The research findings concluded that the relationship between the principal and the SGB is often a relationship characterised by tension, no trust and irrational actions by the SGB. The relationship is further influenced by the functionality or lack of functionality of SGBs as well as prevailing socio-economic conditions and SGB members’ levels of literacy. On the other hand, principals who do not adapt to participatory decision-making, and who still implement an assertive autocratic management approach, also contribute to a turbulent relationship.http://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/pieam2023Education Management and Policy Studie