11613 research outputs found
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Architecture of a spatial concord: exploring the relationship between spatial mediums and narrative for a place-specific architecture in the setting of Bohlokong [Bethlehem]
No full textDissertation (M.Arch. (Architecture))--University of the Free State, 2022This dissertation delves into the relationship between architecture and narrative meaning the way a medium tells a story. Architecture being both a physical and spatial medium it presents a unique opportunity for the embodiment of narrative. The narrative in question is about an environment in relation to people and the phenomenology of belonging. The challenge is finding the appropriate mediator that can concisely tell the narrative about the phenomenon for its meaning to be understood and addressed through architectural means. The discovery of a medium or a narrator bears importance in two-fold. Firstly, a narrator provides access to information, i.e., a story that is representative of a community of people that actively preserve traditions and the significance that it has on their existence, therefore a narrator acts as a retail [relate or repeat (a story) in detail] for the discourse. Secondly, there is an art to storytelling that may import services to the dissertation, unlike the practice of investigation, which is journalistic in nature, storytelling presents a nuanced quality that involves us in understanding the magnitude of matters
Exploring EFAL teachers’ implementation of authentic assessment in selected Rammolutsi secondary schools
No full textDissertation (M.Ed.(Social Sciences and Language))--University of the Free State, 2022This study explored how EFAL teachers from Rammolutsi secondary schools in Fezile Dabi district employed authentic assessment. Purposive sampling was used in this qualitative case study of six EFAL teachers. Open-ended semi-structured interviews with six teachers were employed to generate data. Thematic analysis was undertaken to determine themes and subthemes. The findings reveal that EFAL secondary school teachers experience numerous problems when implementing authentic assessment due to a lack of guidelines. This study provided some insights into the preparations and use of authentic assessment as part of their teaching and learning process. Guided by the conceptual framework according to Hargreaves, Earl and Schimdt (2002), the study’s findings reveal that AA significantly increased teachers’ academic achievement and attitude toward educational measurement. Additionally, it is an approach that can serve to forge cooperation between theory and practice, which is a major problem in the field of teacher training in South Africa. Based on these findings, AA procedures can be integrated into teacher education as much as possible. Seminars, workshops, and courses can be organised to help teachers understand and use AA. Future research on it for other levels of education is possible. Future research could look into learners’ viewpoints to see how AA aids their learning. Studies on the effects of AA on various dependent variables are possible
Prosthetic re[member]ing: a museum and memorial park honoring the lived-experiences of the internees and guards held in the internment camps at Andalusia farm (Jan Kempdorp) during WWII
No full textDissertation (M.Arch. (Architecture))--University of the Free State, 2022Facing the inevitable waning of memory, the internment camp of WWII near Jan Kempdorp falls victim to its own temporality. The forgetting of these atrocities against humanity during war times facilitate the ruination of the sites that currently lay bare as the act of forgetting leads to the degradation that memory is inevitably subjected to. This dissertation aims to investigate how the lived experience of the prisoners held in these camps can be reconciled through a palimpsest of trace-d etchings augmented into a monumental present-scape honoring the fallen prisoners of war, irrespective of their allegiances but rather for their fragmented lived experience. It hopes to simultaneously re-dress the thresholds occupying the site and the neighboring communities, in the form of an internment-museum and public park space. Through the utilization of prosthetic memory instruments, the act of recollection and re-figuration of memories gathered in the captive’s experiences, as well as the engagement generated from the introduction of an introspective play-act, the dweller lends themselves to a form of devotion towards the memory, and the realm of architectural essence. The essence dwells within the realm of the corporeal, rarely visibly observed but constantly contained within a shell, ensnared and forced to the internment of the being it occupies. However, within the being lies a thought, a dedication to the imagination and the residual body that once was. The thought relies on the trace, and the acknowledgment to the existence of a previous architectural presence ensnared within the current. The intervention further seeks to create moments of interaction with the memories and the senses through interactive games played by children in modern society that found their origin in everyday life and war times, much like the games the soldiers would play as a past time to keep them occupied as the games allow for the essence and the presence of the imagined body to dwell in a synchronized realm . The thought is concretized as an interposed image of the presence, allowing for a brief moment of passage between the boundaries that separates fact and memory
A novel approach to determine the surface area of buckspoor spider webs and other irregular-shaped two-dimensional objects
No full textArising from the practical need to determine the surface area of the buckspoor spider webs of Seothyra schreineri, an approach for area determination was developed based on image processing. The method rendered results that were considered valid and reliable. Aside from the present application to determine the surface area of a spider web, this approach could potentially be used to accurately determine the area of any two-dimensional shape. For each web's photograph:
The boundary of the web was outlined.
Seeded region growing was used to segment the image into a web region and a background region.
The area of the web was determined as a pixel count, and then converted to mm2.Publisher's versio
High rates of biochar soil amendment cause increased incidences of neurotoxic and oxidative stress in Eisenia fetid (oligochaeta) exposed to glyphosate
No full textDespite several known beneficial attributes, biochar is suspected to cause harm to soil organisms when present in relatively high quantities in the soil. To determine the potential detrimental effects of biochar, for 96 h, we exposed the earthworm Eisenia fetida to 0, 2, 4 and 8 mg glyphosate (GLY) per kg in non-amended and biochar-amended soil at rates of 5, 10 and 15%. The results indicated that in non-amended soil, survival was significantly decreased in the highest GLY concentration. Although no median lethal concentration (LC50) could be computed due to the lack of sufficient mortality, in the absence of biochar, a lethal concentration 10% (LC10) of 5.540 mg/kg and a lethal concentration 20% (LC20) of 7.067 mg/kg were calculated. In the biochar-amended soil, no mortality occurred in the control and GLY treatments for all three biochar amendment rates. Biomass results showed significant biomass loss in the highest GLY treatment in the absence of biochar, with an effective concentration of 10% (EC10) of 5.23 mg/kg and an effective concentration of 20% (EC20) of 6.848 mg/kg. In the amended soil, overall, slight non-significant increases in biomass were recorded and no effective concentrations could be calculated due to the lack of significant biomass loss. The assessment of neurotoxicity via the activity of acetylcholine esterase (AChE) showed no change in AchE due to GLY in all the non-amended treatments. However, in the biochar-amended treatments, statistically high levels of AchE occurred (p < 0.05) even in the control (in the absence of GLY). The assessment of oxidative stress through catalase (CAT) activity, showed similar results with no significant effects of GLY alone on CAT activity, but rather dramatic increases in activity in the control and GLY treatments in the biochar-amended soil, with one significant increase in the 10% amended in 8 mg GLY/Kg (p < 0.05). Such significant increases in both AChE and CAT were only observed in soil amended with 10 and 15% biochar. Our findings show that although seemingly beneficial for whole body endpoints, biomarker responses indicate that a biochar amendment higher than 5% adds considerable additional stress to earthworms and should be avoided.Publisher's versio
Metabolic and proteomic responses of sorghum cell cultures to polyethylene glycol-induced osmotic stress
No full textClimate change, population growth, and the emerging water crisis are negatively affecting agricultural productivity and, thus, food security. Climate change results in drought, which is a major osmotic stress. Osmotic stress triggers the overproduction and accumulation of reactive oxygen species, which result in oxidative stress. Plants also respond to drought stress by using a wide range of biochemical and molecular mechanisms. Examples include osmotic adjustment, antioxidant defense systems, the production of phytohormones, and changes in gene and protein expression patterns. Most of the major cereal crops are drought sensitive. However, sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is well-adapted to survive under hot and dry conditions. Sorghum is thus a potentially good model system among cereals in drought stress response studies. The study aimed to evaluate sorghum cell cultures' metabolic and proteomic responses to polyethylene glycol (PEG)-6000- induced osmotic stress. The viability of the white sorghum cell cultures was monitored using the MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazolyl-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide) assay after the cells were treated with 10 and 20% PEG osmotic stress. The levels of 16 metabolites and a sugar was analysed using hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) for control and 10 and 20% PEG-treated white sorghum cell suspension cultures. After 72 hours of 10 and 20% PEG-induced osmotic stress treatments, total soluble proteins (TSP) were extracted, and quantified using the Bradford assay and separated using one-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (1D SDS-PAGE) to determine the quality of the extracts. An isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) analysis was conducted in the extracts followed by bioinformatics analysis of the positively identified osmotic stress-responsive proteins. The cell viability assays showed that both 10 and 20% PEG affected the metabolic activities of white sorghum cell cultures differently and, indeed, triggered osmotic stress, and the cell viability of the stressed samples declined relative to the control. In response to the imposed osmotic stress levels, the metabolic profiles showed a dramatic decline in six amino acids namely leucine (Leu), methionine (Met), phenylalanine (Phe), serine (Ser) threonine (Thr), and valine (Val). A total of 177 and 229 white sorghum cell-cultured total soluble proteins were identified for the 10 and 20% PEG treatment experiments, respectively. Of these identified proteins, 28 and 48 were responsive to the 10 and 20% PEG treatments, respectively. Additionally, the study identified responsive proteins such as germins, peroxidases, and histones as proteins of interest because they were either uniquely responsive to severe stress or commonly responsive to the imposed osmotic stress. The results obtained added to the knowledge that can be used in breeding programmes for the improvement of cereal crops that are susceptible to drought stress
The sustainability of new generation future commercial farmers in South Africa, a case study done in the North-West Province of South Africa
No full textEmerging farmers in South Africa face numerous challenges that hinder their ability to engage in environmentally-, economically-, and socially sustainable agricultural practices. While certain practices have been proven to lead to greater sustainability in farming, there is a shortage of literature on the extent to which emerging farmers in South Africa implement these practices. The study aimed to explore further the problems emerging farmers face in South Africa hampering their sustainability and to determine the extent to which they engage in mitigating practices. Furthermore, the study aimed to give actionable recommendations to emerging farmers on how they can increase their sustainability by obtaining inputs from industry experts and commercial farmers on how emerging farmers can become sustainable commercial farmers. In this study, the emerging farmers that progressed to become sustainable commercial farmers are referred to as New Generation Future Commercial Farmers (NGFCFs).
The study used a mixed-methods research approach, that included qualitative and quantitative research techniques. The quantitative component included, closed-ended questionnaires to determine factors that influence the sustainability of emerging farmers. These questionnaires were distributed to a group of New Generation Future Commercial Farmers and commercial farmers growing dry beans for the Zamukele and Schoeman Boerdery projects in the North-West Province of South Africa. The questionnaires comprised four sections measuring demographic and background information, economic-, environmental-, and social sustainability. Participants were asked to reply to the statements on a Likert scale of 1 to 5, where 1 meant strongly disagreed and 5 meant strongly agreed. An adapted Logical Framework Analysis (LFA) tool was used for the qualitative component to collect qualitative data from industry experts to determine what they believe is needed to improve emerging farmers’ economic-, environmental-, and social sustainability.
The study concluded that NGFCFs would be profitable, environmentally sound, and socially sustainable by applying sustainable agricultural principles. However, there are important sustainability issues NGFCFs need to address to improve their sustainability. The
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recommendations to improve their sustainability includes making use of contract farming options like off-take agreements, taking part in private and public partnerships, addressing the lack of not owning essential machinery and contractors not harvesting at the ideal time, taking out crop insurance, being proactive in their crop protection approach, addressing operational cost financing, making use of qualified people to advise on sustainable agricultural practices, discarding of empty crop protection containers correctly, following the instructions on crop protection containers, making use of conservation agriculture and precision agricultural techniques, having a succession plan in place, supporting other local businesses in their local community, improving their knowledge base on financial and business management, improving their knowledge of conservation tillage practices and soil fertility management, and attending farmers days and experimental plots on sustainable agricultural practices and technology.
A Model (NGFCFs Model) was developed to guide all role players on how to help emerging farmers progress to become sustainable commercial farmers, including the role agribusiness partners and government plays in this process. The NGFCFs Model will focus on emerging farmers (producers) growing row crops (produce) under an off-take agreement (agribusiness partner) and will also consider the government (policy maker and service provider). The NGFCFs Model is driven by the off-taker, providing an off-take agreement to a group of already successful emerging farmers growing row crops under the off-take agreement. The NGFCFs Model will help create sustainable NGFCFs, which is essential to achieve sustainable food production, according to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in August 2015 (United Nations, 2015). Sustainable food production by NGFCFs will be critical in supporting the needs of the present and future generations. Sustainable NGFCFs will also help the government achieve its National Development Plan for agriculture by playing an important role in rural economic development and natural resource management and contributing significantly to household food security and improved nutrition (National Planning Commission of South Africa (NDP), 2012)
The evaluation of organisational change management processes at the Land Administration Authority
No full textDissertation (MBA (Business Administration))--University of the Free State, 2022Organisational change management involves innovative strategies and a framework that are performed to regulate change. It helps to improve both organisational and individual effectiveness. Therefore, it is significant for organisations to manage any form of organisational change successfully. Managing a positive organisational change can increase employee morale and teamwork. It can help the organisation to increase productivity and quality of work. Any form of change, especially in the workplace, can be intimidating and frustrating for workers and subsequently lead to change resistance. This study focused on the development of the change management framework that will enable the Land Administration Authority (LAA) to implement change effectively and efficiently with minimum to no resistance at all. The literature review discusses models and frameworks that could be used for successful change management. It also looked at factors of the successful transition. The study sought to evaluate the organisational change management processes at the LAA. A qualitative research method was employed. To collect data, semi-structured interviews were conducted to find factors that lead to the unsuccessful change management processes at the LAA. Data was organised, presented and analysed through thematic analysis. The findings from the study can help the management to improve the organisational change management at the LAA. Results showed that there is no proper communication and information transmission. Inefficient communication can obstruct the whole change process. The recommendation is that the LAA must have in place a communication plan that outlines how the information will be disseminated and which modes will be used. A private organisation should be considered and future research should focus on several organisations in order to compare results of different samples
Communities facing disruption: A pastoral approach to issues of trauma and restoration
No full textThesis (Ph.D.(Practical and Missional Theology))--University of the Free State, 2022Trauma and disruption can turn life upside-down for individuals and communities, shaking all stability and bringing into question the core tenets of meaningful existence. As positive and transformative science, Practical Theology finds its scope and object in the lived realities of people in the concrete, local context, where it aims to bring about change and transformation, and restoration of hope and meaningful life. In contexts where life in communities has become permeated with persistent violence, disruption and trauma, the need for a collective response to issues of trauma and disruption becomes even more acute. Making use of qualitative research and a broadly narrative approach, this study on the one hand explored the potential of resistance, agency and hope in the narratives of people facing disruption, while on the other hand, it seeks to propose a framework for a congregational pastoral care ministry response to trauma and disruption. The argument presented in this thesis is that such an approach is first and foremost grounded in the confessional identity and calling of the church. Through the metaphor of “facing” the study sought to describe some of the impacts of trauma and disruption, while the metaphor also provided a guiding narrative for a conceptual response framework. Using principles from autoethnography, the study also dealt with issues of identity, positionality and the worldview of the practical theologian and minister as a significant member of the culture being studied, highlighting the need for personal transformation and ongoing professional re-orientation in service of the ministry of care to and with her/his community. The study is valuable in at least two ways. It firstly emphasises the call for the local church to an embodied and collective ministry of care in response to issues of trauma and disruption and suggests a framework for it. It also creates the space for reflection about the subjective presence of the minister/pastor in ministry and research, and how this subjective presence, through an autoethnographic and reflexive stance, can open up new possibilities for both the spiritual leader and the community. The thesis is presented as a set of five (5) interrelated articles, enfolded by an introductory and a concluding chapter. The cohesive introduction serves to clarify the broader scope and framework of the study as well as the structure of the thesis, while the conclusion summarizes the main findings of the study and reflects on the research process in the context of the research questions and aims, and my personal journey with this project