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Epidemiology of campus sexual assault among university women in Eswatini
No full textSexual assault on university campuses has attracted growing attention, but there is little data available on the scope of the problem in Southern Africa. We sought to measure the prevalence of campus sexual assault among female university students at the University of Eswatini and describe the experience of survivors using a mixed-methods study design. Women were randomly sampled from a list of all full-time female university students provided by the office of the registrar, and participants completed a brief behavioral survey in a private study office using a tablet with computer-assisted self-interview software. Women who indicated experiences of sexual violence during the survey were invited to self-identify themselves to study staff to participate in a follow-up qualitative interview. We measured sexual assault using the Sexual Experiences Survey-Short Form Version (SES-SFV). We found that women in University were over 6 times more likely to report forced or coerced sex in the previous 12 months than has been previously reported in the general population. Sixty percent of participants reported experiencing an attempted or completed sexual assault in their lifetime, and a total of 38% reported an assault in the past 12 months. The vast majority (93%) of assailants were known to their victim, and the majority (56%) of perpetrators were romantic partners. The majority of participants had never disclosed their assault, and victim blaming and stigma emerged as highly salient themes during in-depth qualitative interviews. Food insecurity, losing a parent before age 21, and hazardous drinking were all significantly associated with experiencing sexual assault in the previous 12 months, as was experiencing a previous assault before the age of 18. To our knowledge, this is the first generalizable study of campus sexual assault prevalence conducted in the Southern African region
Association between sexual violence and depression is mediated by perceived social support among female university students in the kingdom of Eswatini
No full textGender-based violence is a tool that primarily functions to maintain gendered power hierarchies. Manifestations of gender-based violence, sexual assault and street harassment have been shown to have significant effects on mental wellbeing in the global North, however there is little research centering the experiences and consequences of gendered harassment in the Africa region.MethodsWe analyzed a cross-sectional random sample of 372 women attending a major university in Eswatini in 2017 to measure the prevalence of street harassment among female university students and assess the relationship between experiences of sexual assault, sexualized street harassment, and mental health outcomes in this population.ResultsWe found that in the previous 12 months, women reported experiencing high levels of sexual assault (20%), street harassment (90%), and depression (38%). Lifetime sexual assault, past 12 months sexual assault, and street harassment were all significantly associated with symptoms of depression. We created a structural model to test hypothesized causal pathways between street harassment, previous experiences of sexual assault, and symptoms of depression, with social support as a potential mediator. We found that a history of sexual violence significantly mediated the association between street harassment and depression, and that social support mediated a large proportion of the association between both forms of gender-based violence and depression.ConclusionSexualized street harassment is associated with increased depressive symptomology for nearly all women, however the effects are especially pronounced for women who have previous experiences of sexual violence. Sexualized street harassment functions as a tool to maintain gendered power hierarchies by reminding women of ongoing threat of sexual violence even in public spaces. Social support and solidarity among women is a potentially important source of resiliency against the physical and mental harms of all forms of gender based violence
Developing a data lakehouse for a South African government-sector training authority : implementing quality control for incremental extract-load-transform pipelines in the ingestion layer
No full textThe Durban University of Technology is undertaking a project to develop a data lakehouse system for a South African government-sector training authority. This system is considered critical to enhance the monitoring and evaluation capabilities of the training authority and ensure service delivery. Ensuring the quality of data ingested into the lakehouse is critical, as poor data quality deteriorates the efficiency of the lakehouse solution. This chapter studies quality control for ingestion-layer pipelines to propose a data quality framework. Metrics considered for data quality were completeness, accuracy, integrity, correctness, and timeliness. The framework was evaluated by practically applying it to a sample semi-structured dataset to gauge its effectiveness. Recommendations for future work include expanded integration, such as incorporating data from more varied sources and implementing incremental data ingestion triggers.Copyright: 2024. IGI Global. Due to copyright restrictions, only the abstract is available. For access to the full text item, please consult the publisher's website. The definitive version of the work is published in: Machine learning and data science techniques for effective government service delivery. Hershey, Pa.: IGI Global, 157-184. doi:10.4018/978-1-6684-9716-6.ch00
A novel approach to Lyapunov eventual stability of Caputo fractional dynamic equations on time scale
No full textThis paper introduces a novel approach to the Lyapunov eventual stability of Caputo fractional
dynamic equations on time scales. By utilizing comparison principle, we develop eventual stability results
that simultaneously holds for discrete and continuous domains allowing for an in-depth study of systems
that exhibit both continuous and abrupt changes over time ensuring that the system behavior becomes
stable after a finite time, which is particularly useful in scenarios involving transient disturbances. We also
give an illustrative example to show the applicability of our method
Exploring the role of entrepreneurship education in boosting innovation among students : a case study of two KwaZulu-Natal universities
No full textThe South African unemployment rate currently is at 32.9%. The labour market is struggling to create opportunities and failing to counteract unemployment with relevant skills. The covid-19 pandemic resulted in more people losing jobs which then contributed to the increase in unemployment. There have been calls for the government to implement strategies that would reduce poverty which include developing innovative entrepreneurs at the tertiary level. The article therefore focused on how to expand entrepreneurship education in South African universities to strengthen the economy and create job opportunities in the country. The research paper utilised a mixed-method approach. The quantitative data was collected using questionnaires on postgraduate students, whereas the qualitative data was collected from academics. The findings were analysed using the latest version of SPSS. The sample was made up of 368 postgraduate students, 4 academic staff from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, 346 postgraduate students, and 4 academic staff from the University of Zululand. The findings revealed that expanding entrepreneurship education will stimulate entrepreneurial mindset and innovation in students. However, students argued that universities do not have adequate infrastructure and resources to support innovation and entrepreneurship education. On the other hand, academic staff believed that higher education must have an active role in introducing and promoting entrepreneurship education. The paper recommends entrepreneurship education must be introduced across all colleges, this was noted from the contribution made by academic staff and postgraduate students. This paper provides strategies for stakeholder engagement in encouraging entrepreneurship to curb the increasing unemployment rate in South Africa
Unlocking the potential of microalgae : cultivation in algae recycled effluent with domestic wastewater for enhancing biomass, bioenergy production and CO2 sequestration
No full textThe current study aimed to enhance microalgal biomass productivity by re-using microalgae supernatant obtained from an algae cultivation system. In addition, raw and final effluent from a domestic wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) were integrated with the recycled effluent (supernatant). In order to accomplish the aim, the performance of various dilutions of raw wastewater (RW), recycled effluent (RE) and wastewater final effluent (FE) was assessed for resource recovery and biomass production. The 10 different dilutions were 100RW, 25RW + 75RE, 50RW + 50RE, 75RW + 25RE, 100RE, 100FE, 25FE + 75RE, 50FE + 50RE, 75FE + 25RE and RW + RE + FE. Results showed that the maximum biomass production (1.59 g L−1) was observed in 75RW + 25RE followed by RW + RE + FE (1.13 g L−1) diluted wastewater and lowest in 100FE (0.53 g L−1). Similarly, the highest lipid content was in 75RW + 25RE (32.16 %) and lowest in BG11. The highest protein was obtained in BG11 (48.65 %) followed by 33.32 % in 75RW + 25RE. Furthermore, maximum CO2 fixation rate (0.19 gCO2 L−1 d−1), theoretical biochemical methane potential (471.54 mL CH4 g−1 VS) and high heating value (21.52 Kg J−1) were observed in 75RW + 25RE. These findings indicated that 75RW + 25RE is a suitable combination that could be used as a potential ratio to achieve optimum biomass production. This may be due to the presence of phytohormones within RE in combination with other nutrients from RW. Moreover, 75RW + 25RE showed high metabolites yield, high CO2 fixation rate, nutrient removal efficiency and high heating value. The mixture of RW and HE may be a sustainable and feasible strategy for acquiring fast microalgal growth while reducing dependency on nutrient and freshwater
Sound propagation in cigar-shaped Bose liquids in the Thomas-Fermi approximation : a comparative study between Gross-Pitaevskii and logarithmic models
No full textA comparative study is conducted of the propagation of sound pulses in elongated Bose liquids and Bose-Einstein condensates in Gross-Pitaevskii and logarithmic models, by means of the Thomas-Fermi approximation. It is demonstrated that in the linear regime the propagation of small density fluctuations is essentially one-dimensional in both models, in the direction perpendicular to the cross section of a liquid’s lump. Under these approximations, it is demonstrated that the speed of sound scales as a square root of particle density in the case of the Gross-Pitaevskii liquid/condensate, but it is constant in a case of the homogeneous logarithmic liquid
Investigation of oil drill cuttings as partial replacement of cements in concrete for low strength structures
No full textThis study investigates the use of oil drill cuttings (ODC) as partial replacement of Portland cement (PC) and cementitious materials in binary and ternary cement compositions. Concrete specimens were prepared incorporating 0, 5, 10 and 20% by mass of ODC replacements in Portland cement (PC) and 10% of the ODC replacement in specimens having ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) and pulverised fly ash (PFA) respectively. The fresh and hardened state properties of the concretes were studied. Results showed that use of ODC contributed improvements to the fresh concrete properties, while it also exhibited good comparisons of hardened concrete properties with the non-ODC containing concretes. Findings in the study support the use of ODC-containing concrete mixes for low strength structures such as foundation blinding and infilling materials, in structural fills applications requiring no future excavations. These combined the advantages of cost reduction in concrete production with utilization of the waste ODC materials, which is a considerable solution approach to the environmental problems being encountered in ODC wastes disposal
An ERP implementation case study in the South African retail sector
No full textThe enterprise resource planning (ERP) is an ever-growing software used globally and in all sectors of business to increase productivity and efficiency, however, the south African market does not show any symptoms that it needs such facilities as we tangle the whys and how’s on this case study. We use previous studies from the literatures that show an ever-thriving sector such as the South African retail can continue to thrive in the absence of ERP and remain relevant and the biggest market contributors as they have been for the past decades. We focus our sources from year 2020 to 2022 to further influence our case to openly clarify the question of the implementation of ERP system. Our studies settle the unanswered question of the implement ability of an ERP system in the retail sector by exploring both functioning and failed installations and how those were resolved, the effectiveness, efficiency and productivity in the absence and presence of ERP system in place in similar economies such as the South African retail sector, both in the past and present times. The south African retail sector has adopted expensive and difficult to maintain ERP systems, which has a drastic increased improvement in the productivity together with the risks of failure. Such risks were witnessed with Shoprite closing doors in Botswana, Nigeria, and Namibia, this has been proof in failure of expensive and fully paid enterprise resource planning that still failed in more than one country. Our solutions consist of methodology contributed an easy to implement solutions to the retail sectors and can be adapted for different purpose, the integration between large retailers and our system would save millions, time and resources
An ERP SAP implementation case study in South Africa small medium enterprise sectors
No full textThe use of technologies for enterprise resource planning (ERP) SAP has resulted in improvements to companies’ daily operations. This growth, however, has not been without its share of difficulties for the sector of small and medium businesses. First, the adoption and implementation of proprietary SAP ERP comes with a high expense for organizations, and second, it is problematic for organizations to guarantee that scalability is established owing to the dynamic shift in the SME sector. This indicates that the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector in South Africa is not making use of the widely accessible cost-effective open-source SAP ERP that is now on the market. The scope of the investigation was broadened to include gathering information on open-source alternatives. This indicates that the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector in South Africa is not making use of the widely accessible cost-effective open-source SAP ERP that is now on the market. The primary objective of the study was to assess the open-source ERP adoption trends of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Durban area. The purpose of this study was to investigate both the drivers and the impediments to the adoption of SAP ERP systems. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used in this study. The scope of the investigation was broadened to include gathering information on open-source alternatives. According to the findings of the study, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are aware of the advantages that may be gained by using ERP systems in their companies