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Adaptive realities : effects of merging physical and virtual entities
No full textIn the worlds of virtual reality, whole objects and bodies are created in an immaterial manner from lines, ratios and light pixels. When objects are created in this form they can easily be manipulated, edited, multiplied and deleted. In addition, technological advances in virtual reality development result in an increased merging of physical and virtual elements, creating spaces of mixed reality. This leads to interesting consequences where the physical environment and body, in a similar vein to the virtual, also becomes increasingly easier to manipulate, distort and change. Mixed realities thus enhance possibilities of a world of constantly changing landscapes and adjustable, interchangeable bodies.
The notions of virtual and real coincide within this thesis, reflecting on a new version of reality that is overlapped and ever-present in its mixing of virtual and physical. These concepts are explored within my exhibition Immaterial - a creation of simulated nature encompassing a mix of natural and artificial, tangible and intangible. Within the exhibition space, I have created a scene of mixed reality, by merging elements of both a virtual and physical forest. This generates a magical space of new experiences that comes to life through the manipulated, edited, morphed and re-awakened bodies of trees
Financial Management III : FIM30P1
No full textExamination on Financial Management III: FIM 30P1, June 201
Design, development and evaluation of novel lead compounds as HIV-1 enzyme inhibitors
No full textThis project has been concerned with the application of the Baylis-Hillman methodology to the
synthesis of medicinally important diketo acid analogues (cinnamate ester-AZT conjugates and
3-hydroxy ester-AZT conjugates) as dual-action HIV-1 IN/RT inhibitors; and on exploratory
studies in the preparation of 3-(amidomethyl)-(1H)-2-quinolones as PR inhibitors; and (1H)-2-
quinolone-AZT conjugates as dual action IN/RT inhibitors. A series of Baylis-Hillman adducts
has been prepared, typically in moderate to excellent yield, by reacting 2-nitrobenzaldehyde with
methyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate and methyl vinyl ketone in the presence of 1,4-
diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO). Subsequently, various transformations that include
conjugate addition of primary and secondary amines to the α,ß-unsaturated moiety to obtain 2-
(aminomethyl)-3-hydroxy-3-(2-nitrophenyl)propanoate derivatives, effective SN2´ substitution of
the BH ß-hydroxy by a Vilsmeier-Haack in situ-generated chloride to afford Baylis-Hillman
allyl chlorides, iron in acetic acid-catalyzed cyclisation to 3-acetoxymethyl-(1H)-2-quinolone
derivatives were achieved.
Thus, using the Baylis-Hillman methodology, two nuanced classes of diketo acid analogues were
constructed. These involved conjugating appropriate propargylamine derivatives with AZT using
the „click‟ reaction. In an exploratory study, the quinolone derivative, precisely 3-acetoxymethyl-
(1H)-quinol-2-one, was transformed into 3-hydroxymethyl-(1H)-quinol-2-one using potassium
carbonate in a mixture of methanol and water (1:1). Following successful hydrolysis, the
resulting alcohol was transformed to the corresponding chloride, 3-chloromethyl-(1H)-quinol-2-
one, using thionyl chloride. Subsequent nucleophilic substitution afforded 3-(aminomethyl)-
(1H)-2-quinolone derivatives which were subsequently transformed to 3-(amidomethyl)-(1H)-2-
quinolones; and 3-[(propargylamino)-methyl]-(1H)-quinol-2-one as precursors to quinolone-
AZT derivatives. All compounds were characterized by NMR, IR, and where appropriate, high
resolution M
Sediment connectivity in the upper Thina Catchment, Eastern Cape, South Africa
No full text[Portion of abstract]: Sediment dynamics are influenced by transformed landscape connectivity in catchments worldwide. The upper Thina catchment, an important high rainfall resource in the northern Eastern Cape, South Africa, is an example of where ongoing subsistence farming on communal land has led to overgrazing and trampling that has initiated large erosive features (e.g. gullies) and river incision. The formation of gullies led to increased hillslope-channel connectivity and the resultant river incision decreased the channel-valley fill connectivity. These two changes in connectivity led to increased sediment export from the catchment that has various down-stream ecological and socio-economic impacts. This study investigates how the change in hillslope-channel and channel-valley fill connectivity has altered the sediment dynamics in the Vuvu catchment, a headwater tributary of the Thina River.
A combination of methods were used to assess the changes in hillslope-channel and channel-valley fill connectivity. High resolution aerial images were used to map source features, such as fields, gullies, sheet erosion, landslides, roads and livestock tracks. Topographic and geological characteristics of the source features were extracted using a Geographic Information System. Furthermore, hillslope-channel pathways, such as the natural drainage network, continuous gullies, discontinuous gullies, roads and livestock tracks were mapped and analysed in terms of topographic and geological characteristics. Historic aerial images were assessed to calculate the date the larger gullies began forming. Recent aerial photos and cross sectional surveys of the valley fill were combined to map the various sediment sinks.
Particle size and organic content were analysed for flood bench cores and terrace samples. The chronology of the flood benches was determined using unsupported Pb-210 and Cs-137 dating, and determined for the terraces using Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating. Quantitative and qualitative sediment tracing approaches, using mineral magnetic properties, were used to trace the origin of suspended sediment (collected during flood events), sediment stored in the flood benches and sediment stored in the terraces. Hydrological monitoring was used to assess the potential to store sediment on flood benches along the valley fill through flood bench inundation frequency. Hydrological and hydraulic modelling extended the measured inundation frequencies to a 73 year period and other cross sections along the valley fill. Furthermore, a future scenario of an increased vegetation cover and reduced hillslope-channel connectivity was assessed in terms of channel-valley fill inundation frequency
Water resources availability in the Caledon River basin : past, present and future
No full textThe Caledon River Basin is located on one of the most water-scarce region on the African
continent. The water resources of the Caledon River Basin play a pivotal role in socio-economic
activities in both Lesotho and South Africa but the basin experiences recurrent severe droughts
and frequent water shortages. The Caledon River is mostly used for commercial and
subsistence agriculture, industrial and domestic supply. The resources are also important
beyond the basin’s boundaries as the water is transferred to the nearby Modder River. The
Caledon River is also a significant tributary to the Orange-Senqu Basin, which is shared by five
southern African countries. However, the water resources in the basin are under continuous
threat as a result of rapidly growing population, economic growth as well as changing climate,
amongst others. It is therefore important that the hydrological regime and water resources of
the basin are thoroughly evaluated and assessed so that they can be sustainably managed
and utilised for maximum economic benefits.
Climate change has been identified by the international community as one of the most
prominent threats to peace, food security and livelihood and southern Africa as among the most
vulnerable regions of the world. Water resources are perceived as a natural resource which
will be affected the most by the changing climate conditions. Global warming is expected to
bring more severe, prolonged droughts and exacerbate water shortages in this region. The
current study is mainly focused on investigating the impacts of climate change on the water
resources of the Caledon River Basin.
The main objectives of the current study included assessing the past and current hydrological
characteristics of the Caledon River Basin under current state of the physical environment,
observed climate conditions and estimated water use; detecting any changes in the future
rainfall and evaporative demands relative to present conditions and evaluating the impacts of
climate on the basin’s hydrological regime and water resources availability for the future climate
scenario, 2046-2065. To achieve these objectives the study used observed hydrological,
meteorological data sets and the basin’s physical characteristics to establish parameters of the
Pitman and WEAP hydrological models. Hydrological modelling is an integral part of
hydrological investigations and evaluations. The various sources of uncertainties in the outputs
of the climate and hydrological models were identified and quantified, as an integral part of the
whole exercise. The 2-step approach of the uncertainty version of the model was used to
estimate a range of parameters yielding behavioural natural flow ensembles. This approach
uses the regional and local hydrological signals to constrain the model parameter ranges. The
estimated parameters were also employed to guide the calibration process of the Water
Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) model. The two models incorporated the estimated water
uses within the basin to establish the present day flow simulations and they were found to
sufficiently simulate the present day flows, as compared to the observed flows. There is an
indication therefore, that WEAP can be successfully applied in other regions for hydrological
investigations.
Possible changes in future climate regime of the basin were evaluated by analysing
downscaled temperature and rainfall outputs from a set of 9 climate models. The predictions
are based on the A2 greenhouse gases emission scenario which assumes a continuous
increase in emission rates. While the climate models agree that temperature, and hence,
evapotranspiration will increase in the future, they demonstrate significant disagreement on
whether rainfall will decrease or increase and by how much. The disagreement of the GCMs
on projected future rainfall constitutes a major uncertainty in the prediction of water resources
availability of the basin. This is to the extent that according to 7 out of 9 climate models used,
the stream flow in four sub-basins (D21E, D22B, D23D and D23F) in the Caledon River Basin
is projected to decrease below the present day flows, while two models (IPSL and MIUB)
consistently project enhanced water resource availability in the basin in the future.
The differences in the GCM projections highlight the margin of uncertainty involved predicting
the future status of water resources in the basin. Such uncertainty should not be ignored and
these results can be useful in aiding decision-makers to develop policies that are robust and
that encompass all possibilities. In an attempt to reduce the known uncertainties, the study
recommends upgrading of the hydrological monitoring network within the Caledon River Basin
to facilitate improved hydrological evaluation and management. It also suggests the use of
updated climate change data from the newest generation climate models, as well as integrating
the findings of the current research into water resources decision making process
Supervisor’s tale : supervisors’ experiences in a changing environment
No full textThe environment in which higher education institutions operate is changing, and these changes are impacting on all aspects of higher education, including postgraduate levels. Changes wrought by globalisation, heralded by rapid advances in technology have inaugurated a new era in which there are long term consequences for higher education. The shift towards more quantitative and measurable "outputs" signifies a fundamental change in the educational ethos in institutions. Effectiveness is now judged primarily on numbers of graduates and publications rather than on other aspects. The drive is to produce a highly educated population, especially through increasing postgraduates who can drive national innovation and improve national economies. This affects academics in a range of ways, not least in the ways in which they engage in teaching, what they are willing to do and how they do it. Such changes influence the kinds of research done, the structures and funding which support research, and thus naturally shapes the kinds of postgraduate programmes and teaching that occurs.
This study, situated in the field of Higher Education Studies, adopting a critical realist stance and drawing on the social theory of Margaret Archer and the concepts of expert and novice, explores the experiences of postgraduate supervisors from one South African institution across a range of disciplines. Individual experiences at the level of the Empirical and embodied in practice at the level of the Actual allow for the identification of possible mechanisms at the level of the Real which structure the sector. The research design then allows for an exploration across mezzo, macro and micro levels. Individuals outline their own particular situations, identifying a number of elements which enabled or constrained them and how, in exercising their agency, they develop their strategies for supervision drawing on a range of different resources that they identify and that may be available to them. Student characteristics, discipline status and placement, funding, and the emergent policy environment are all identified as influencing their practice. In some instances supervisors recognise the broader influences on the system that involve them in their undertaking, noting the international trends. Through their narratives and the discourses they engage a number of contradictions that have developed in the system with growing neo-liberal trends and vocationalism highlighting tensions between academic freedom and autonomy, and demands for productivity, efficiency and compliance, and between an educational focus and a training bias in particular along with others. Especially notable is how this contributes to the current ideologies
surrounding knowledge and knowledge production. Their individual interests and concerns, and emergent academic identities as they take shape over time, also modifies the process and how individual supervisors influence their own environments in agentic moves becomes apparent. Whilst often individuals highlight the lack of support especially in the early phases of supervision, the emergent policy-constrained environment is also seen as curtailing possibilities and especially in limiting the possibilities for the exercise of agency. Whilst the study has some limitations in the range and number of respondents nevertheless the data provided rich evidence of how individual supervisors are affected, and how they respond in varied conditions. What is highlighted through these experiences are ways pressures are increasing for both supervisors and students and changing how they engage. Concerns in particular are raised about the growing functional and instrumental nature of the process with an emphasis on the effects on the kinds of researchers being developed and the knowledge that is therefore being produced. As costs increase for academics through the environments developed and with the varied roles they take on so they become more selective and reluctant to expand the role.
This research has provided insights into ideas, beliefs and values relating to the postgraduate sector and to the process of postgraduate supervision and how it occurs. This includes the structures and cultural conditions that enable or constrain practitioners as they develop in the role in this particular institution. It has explored some of the ways that mechanisms at international, national and institutional levels shape the role and practices of supervisors. The effects of mechanisms are in no way a given or simply understood. In this way the research may contribute to more emancipatory knowledge which could be used in planning and deciding on emergent policies and practices which might create a more supportive and creative postgraduate environment
Re-imagining the nation
No full textThis thesis examines young people’s constructions of nationhood in Mauritius. In 2008, the
Mauritian government instituted a Truth and Justice Commission (TJC), set up to investigate the
consequences of slavery and indentured labour. Through the Truth and Justice Commission, the
Mauritian government indicated its desire to achieve social justice and national unity. Drawing on
developments in studies of national identification practices in the 21st Century, this thesis
addresses the question of young Mauritian’s locally and globally informed identification practices
and asks how their unofficial narratives of nationhood challenge, or divert, or relate to official
state narratives of nationhood. The basis of the study emerges from data collected from 132
participants during fieldwork in multiple fieldsites from May to September 2010 as well as
research on Mauritian youth on-line from 2011-2014. The advent of the TJC offers an ideal
moment to evaluate the dynamics of post-colonial nation-building and nationhood in a selfstyled
multi-cultural state.
Nationhood, does not exist apriori to the constructions of narratives of the nation, thus the
stories told about the nation, imagine the nation into being. By situating the Truth and Justice
Commission and other official state narratives alongside young people’s narratives, I argue that
contemporary narratives of nationhood in Mauritius represent an intergenerational struggle to
define the meaning of the past in the present and consequently outline the future. Reflecting on
the ideas and socio-economic and political processes that induce national consciousness, I argue
that young people’s narratives of everyday lived experiences are vital for an interpretation of how
nationhood is produced in everyday life. The cultural projects of young people – often rendered
as liminal or marginal – offer a critical vantage point from where to read constructions of
nationhood. Far from being growing pains or childish games, young people’s identity making
practices are what Sherry B. Ortner has called “serious games.” This research suggests that
official state government narratives of multicultural nationhood in Mauritius narrowly define
national identification along communal loyalties, overlooking the dynamism of interculturality
and transnationalism in daily practice on the island. Although communalism and rigid colonial
interpretations of ethnicity attempt to police and limit the possibilities of alternative modes of
being in Mauritius, young people’s identification practices question, challenge, and threaten to
disrupt official discourses of ethnic identification in Mauritius
Scholarly investigations of young peoples’ lived experiences of nationhood extend theoretical
and methodological frames for the study of nationalized subjects and deepen the understanding
of the construction of national consciousness. The construction of nationhood always involves
narratives of some sort – scholarship on this area has usually focused on official state narratives
from social theorists, state governments, and state elites. I argue for the importance of
considering subjectivity and lived experience in conceptions of nationhood. In contemporary
post-colonial societies, young people are the numerical majority, however, their voices are
seldom represented in theories and narratives of nationhood. Whilst young people may appear
in state policies (especially education) and official narratives about the future of the nation, their
creative imagining and reimagining of narratives of selfhood is often ignored. I examine how
young people increasingly are aware of their transnational connections, through participation in
transnational youth cultures, and they are consequently increasingly multi-lingual and
multicultural. Fixed notions of ethnic identification and discourses of trauma are not at the
forefront of young people’s identification of selfhood, rather their ability to take advantage of
their multiply situated identification processes allows them new means to evade and transform
these narratives. Their identification of selfhood is characterised by a greater degree of dynamism
than previous generations had access to, and thus they do not only identify themselves through
officially sanctioned national forms of identification. Loyalty to nationhood is thus less
predictable, and young people represent a potential threat to the continuation of older forms of
nationhood. While official narratives of nationhood may manipulate ethnic and racial cleavages
to secure old loyalties, not all young people are persuaded by these notion
The trophic ecology of the endangered endemic Barau's Petrel (Pterodroma baraui) from Reunion Island, south-western Indian Ocean
No full textRéunion is the only tropical island that supports two endemic gadfly petrels. Population modelling has indicated that the current threats to the Barau’s Petrel (Pterodroma baraui) may drive it to extinction; this fate is almost definite for the Mascarene Petrel (Pseudobulweria aterrima). Management interventions have therefore been implemented, but conservation potential is handicapped since virtually nothing is known about the former species’ at-sea biology. Thus, following numerous recommendations, this study aimed to combine stomach content, stable isotope, and fatty acid analyses so to provide new information on the at-sea ecology of Barau’s Petrel. Breeding colonies were repeatedly visited over the same season and samples gathered from adults, fledglings, and downy chicks. Stomach contents consisted mostly of accumulated cephalopod beaks whereas structures from fishes, molluscs, arthropods, and crustaceans were less frequently encountered. Fatty acid profiles of blood varied greatly among individuals and the lowincidences of monounsaturated and n-3 fatty acids discounted fish as an important dietary component. δ¹⁵N of blood indicated a niche between the fourth and fifth trophic levels, which proposes that these birds scavenge to a greater degree than other sympatric seabirds and suggests that adults are also reliant on their endogenous reserves during breeding. δ¹³C values confirmed the migratory behaviour of adults since birds returning from the non-breeding grounds were enriched relative to individuals sampled through the breeding period. Significant intra-breeding season variations in δ13C were also observed, which matched this species’ patterns of habitat use as have recently described. These results collectively indicate an opportunistic behaviour, which implies some degree of resilience against shifts in prey availability/accessibility, and suggest that this species’ reproduction isdependent on distant foraging areas. This breeding strategy is synonymous with great vulnerability as over-investing into a single breeding episode may jeopardize future survival and fecundity. Thus, in light of environmental conditions that are becoming increasingly more susceptible to dramatic changes, the birds could rather be prioritising adult survival, over reproductive output. Further work is obviously necessary and should benefit from databases of fatty acid profiles and isotope signatures of potential prey species