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Psychosocial Support For Learners In Child And Youth Headed Households In The Context Of Parental Labour Migration: Exploring Stakeholder Based Support In Zimbabwe And South Africa
Get PDFThesisDue to globalisation, economic and political factors there is a growing number of learners in parent-child separation configurations in Zimbabwean and South African schools. This statistic is mainly driven by parental labour migration, which is a survival strategy in the face of prevailing socio-economic conditions in the two countries. The outcome is of fluid family arrangements and a unique form of parent-child separation that invariably affect the well-being and educational proficiency of such learners. In that regard, this study endeavours to explore a psychosocial support framework to enhance coping as well as provide protection, support and empowerment for left-behind learners in child and youth headed households (CYHH). The goal is to develop a conducive milieu to ensure that labour migration becomes a sustainable strategy for both the migrating parents and the children left behind in CYHH. This is measured by improved well-being and sustainable learning for the learners left-behind learners. To achieve that end, the study used an eclectic approach in developing a conceptual framework. Reference was made to the ecological theory, the Asset-based approach and aspects from positive psychology to underpin the conceptual framework.
This study is qualitative and adopted a phenomenological case study design so that subjective experiences of the learners left in CYHH inform the proposed support framework. Two secondary schools, one in the Midlands province of Zimbabwe and the other in the Free State province of South Africa were purposively selected for the study. Fourteen left-behind learners in CYHH arrangements, six education and six community personnel informed the study through narrative interviews, focus group discussions, observations, open ended questionnaires and information sharing sessions. The above mentioned participants constitute the stakeholders that informed the study. Collected data was transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed using codes and categories.
Findings from the study provide valuable lens for teachers, education and community stakeholders to better understand the psychosocial barriers associated with left-behind learners in CYHH. Left-behind learners are said not to possess the requisite social, behavioural and emotional competencies to compete favourably within the education system of both Zimbabwe and South Africa. The study recommends support, protection and empowerment for learners in CYHH through the utilisation of their ecological resources and inherent assets to facilitate constructive and sustainable learning in schools. The study concluded that support built through the utilisation of the learners’ innate assets and ecological resources is superior and more sustainable in terms of improving coping strategies, learning experiences and the well-being of learners in CYHH following parental labour migration. The social milieu was revealed as a moderator of resilience which is an important resource in improving the well-being of left-behind learners
The Influence Of Job Characteristics On The Motivation Of Millennial Hospitality Employees
Get PDFDissertationIncreased digitalisation has not only transformed the world of work, but also impacted numerous organisational factors such as organisational structure and culture, and job satisfaction and motivation. Various industries, none so than the hospitality industry, must continuously search for and implement new ways of operating to meet both employee and customer expectations. Customers in the hospitality industry are increasingly expecting exceptional service and convenient processes.
The hospitality industry is characterised by numerous challenges, for example, long working hours, often poor compensation and a lack of job flexibility, all of which make the retention of staff a major issue in this labour-intensive industry. As millennials currently constitute more than 50% of the global employment rate they can be regarded as the future leaders of business and industry. It is thus paramount to retain millennial hospitality employees. To address this challenge, the study investigated the influence of job characteristics on the motivation of millennial hospitality employees.
A structured questionnaire was administered through QuestionPro and 96 millennial hospitality employees responded to the survey questions. Due to the nation-wide impact of Covid-19, snowball sampling was used as a way of attracting and reaching out to respondents. The questionnaire included two sections: (1) items measuring job characteristics, based on the job characteristics model of Oldham and Hackman; and (2) items measuring motivation, based on Hertzberg’s two-factor theory.
Partial least squares structured equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the relationship between the variables of job characteristics and motivation. The results revealed significant positive relationships between skills variety, task significance, and feedback towards motivation. However, no significant relationships were found between autonomy and task identity towards motivation. Due to the labour-intensive nature of the industry the study proposes that prospective employees including hospitality management students need to have realistic expectations about working in this industry. Areas of further research and limitations of the study are also indicated
Nostalgia As A Design Strategy In A Facebook Campaign To Revitalise A South African Baking Tradition
Get PDFIn general, contemporary Afrikaner women are no longer in the position to spend a lot of time preparing food. They are tasked with managing every day challenges such as work, family and financial responsibilities and the subsequent impact these responsibilities have on activities seemingly of lesser priority, such as the act of baking. This has resulted in the decline of mother-daughter culinary interaction as a form of intergenerational knowledge sharing and the potential loss of the art of Afrikaner baking. In an attempt to address the speculative decline and loss the researcher, as part of the Afrikaner community and as Graphic Designer, aimed to design a nostalgia-driven visual campaign framework that that could be used to re-introduce traditional Afrikaner baking traditions by using imagery that, based on the data, contains nostalgic triggers to elicit a positive response from the viewer.
The study followed a qualitative research approach that was made up out of three stages. Stage 1 involved reviewing existing literature on Afrikaner food-related traditions as well as that on nostalgia seeing as a thorough understanding thereof was necessary in order to proceed onto stage 2. Stage 2 involved the gathering of data by developing a closed Facebook page consisting of willing participants. Participants were engaged by asking nostalgia and food-related questions (pertaining in particular to baked goods and the contexts of their making and consumption) based on knowledge gained from the existing literature gathered during stage one. During stage 3 the participant responses were analysed and used in conjunction with the researcher’s knowledge, personal experience (as baker and Graphic Designer) and fondness regarding traditional Afrikaner baking in developing framework consisting of nostalgia-based visual/verbal designs. The researcher made use of triangulation as each of the above mentioned stages interacted and affected the other during the process that led to the envisioned research output – a visual campaign framework.
The findings from the research indicate the overwhelming presence of sense of community or cultural nostalgia dynamics, which, in turn drove the design decisions, based on themes of motherliness and support, common and shared goals, and strong connections to nature and heritage. From a visual design point of view, the findings suggest strong use of earthy (and political) colour, encompassing or enclosing line usage, and perhaps most surprisingly, the use of a traditional, non-baking image of the everyday doily. The doily became a metaphor for interconnectedness, community of women and the act of baking
Vegetation Cover Dynamics And The Environmental Threats To Biodiversity Conservation In Free State National Botanical Garden, South Africa
Get PDFThesisThe conservation gardens under South African Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) preserve biodiversity areas with unique and threatened vegetation types including national priority Critical Biodiversity Areas (CBA’s). The mandate of SANBI is to champion the exploration, conservation, appreciation, and enjoyment of South Africa’s exceptionally rich biodiversity for all people. Since the SANBI mandate emphasises sustainable biodiversity conservation, however, there were no studies that have quantitatively appraised the biodiversity conservation value and natural phenomena dynamics over time for different SANBI conservation gardens. This study determined the dynamics of the vegetation cover over a 30-year period (1987-2017) and potential environmental drivers of change in Free State National Botanical Garden (FSNBG). The FSNBG is located in the broader southern African grassland biome that is under huge conservation threats in South Africa. The FSNBG preserved national priority for biodiversity conservation (CBA1) in South Africa: the “Bloemfontein Karroid Shrubland”. The study applied the remote sensing technology and Geographical Information System (GIS) imagery to analyse the spatial vegetation cover changes that occurred over 30-years using 10 year’s intervals.
Overall study results show that vegetation cover of the study area significantly increased (in term of woody biomass) over the 30 year period, partly attributed to the combination of factors, which include severe droughts and the rise of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. In addition, it was possible that absence of the biophysical disturbance such as fire and browsers in the natural vegetation to suppressed wood species has encourage encroachment of woody cover species. Using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) approach, the vegetation of FNSBG was divided into four categories, namely: Dense vegetation, Moderate vegetation, Sparse vegetation and open soil. Overall, the sparse vegetation cover significantly decreased over time (R2 = - 0.29). Similarly, the moderate vegetation cover increased by 25.1 ha while dense vegetation also increased by 8.6 ha. However, the bare soil cover was found to be relatively consistent over the 30-year period.
Since the use of the remote sensing and GIS imagery could not clearly validate the current ecological status of CBA1 vegetation type, the manual field sampling approach was used looking into documenting the typical plant species provided by Mucina and Rutherford (2006); and measuring the vegetation cover. Vegetation cover of CBA1 was relatively high (i.e., 79.6 ± 15.9%); and this was above the minimum threshold of 60% habitat intactness reported to represent the habitat functionality that is normal although overall integrity is reduced. The existence of CBA1 vegetation type was supported by a record of 27 plant species out of 77 species documented as typical in the key descriptions provided by Mucina and Rutherford (2006). Major conservation threats entailed of 27 invasive alien plant species, human settlement encroachment have reduced the ecological buffer zone of FSNBG by 18% (119.07 ha) in the past 18 year; and 10 pests and pathogens that were interspersed in different vegetation patches of the study site. The observed changes suggested a need for regular vegetation monitoring of CBA1 vegetation type to manage the prevailing conservation threats that could have impact to ecological integrity.
Animal-plant mutualisms are important for the maintenance of both animal and plant population since both participating partners’ benefit. The phenology of seed dispersal is critical to the successful recruitment of species since dispersed seeds require conducive conditions for germination. Having noted the increasing bush encroachment in FSNBG in the past 30 years, the study also investigated the seed dispersal phenology and the potential influencing factors for the encroaching tree/shrub species of FSNBG focusing on biotic interaction of flesh fruits resource foraged by birds as study model. During fieldwork sampling for the seed deposited by birds in the 17 roosting sites, I collected a total of 22 161 seeds belonging to 14 native and non-native tree/shrub species. It was found that black and red fruits were more preferred by birds since most of the dispersed tree/shrub species had those colours and attracted 22 resident and colonial migratory frugivorous birds. I found that 80% of the bird-ingested and dispersed seeds of many tree/shrub species were collected between March and July. Two species: Ehreta rigida and Searsia lancea, displayed relatively short fruiting peak times between August and December when other fruits were scarce. Whereas the observed two fruiting patterns could reduce the competition for seed dispersal services between two groups of tree/shrub species, the resident and wintering birds are also likely to benefit substance in food resources. In addition, it was found that frugivorous birds adapt to localised foraging patterns and to limited fruit diversity. It was concluded that the highly preferred tree/shrub species are likely drivers of the reported bush encroachment in FSNBG.
Frugivorous birds disperse seed away from parent plant to new microsites that have relatively lower competition for the resources, and ingested seeds get scarified during feeding on fruits and ingestion by birds. Therefore, the study also investigated whether bird-dispersed seeds benefit from improved germination after their passage through the bird’s gut and the potential impact of seed density on competition at the microsites. On the germination trail results of bird-ingested seeds versus manual depulped seeds, Ziziphus mucronata displayed the highest germination rate of all trees/shrubs yet frugivorous birds did not improve its seed germination. However, only S. lancea seeds had significantly high seed germination after passage through the avian digestive tract. The test experiments for seed competition during germination at the microsite showed that only Z. mucronata and Olea europaea subsp. africana displayed significant positive performance with increasing seed density. The study concluded that the tree/shrubs species with high germination could account for the observed bush encroachment in FSNBG. It was recommended that adaptive conservation management plan of FSNBG should include monitoring and prioritised bush encroachment control of those species
An Integrative Review Of Fourteen Self-Directed Learning Models
Get PDFJournal ArticleSDL is criticised for its lack of a theoretical basis and applicability across contexts. Over time, various
conceptual models have been advanced to illustrate the core concepts of SDL. It is not clear whether
these various models are comparable. Therefore, it was necessary to evaluate these different models
in terms of their conceptual constructs and applicability across contexts. This process was carried out
in the current study by conducting an integrative review of fourteen models related to SDL and
synthesising the key constructs into a revised model. Ten of these models refer specifically to the
application of SDL in teaching contexts and were analysed further. The study found a fundamental
relationship between these models and proposes an integrated model based on eight mutually
exclusive constructs. This integrated model may aid scholars by providing a set of core constructs to
develop the factors and variables of a theoretical SDL model
Development Of An Improved Wood’S Alloy End-Frame Casting Unit For Electron Field Shaping In Radiotherapy
Get PDFJournal ArticleAs the second leading cause of death, cancer is a harsh reality. Skin cancer is one of the most
prevalent cancers in South Africa and is commonly treated using electron radiation in radiotherapy.
The applied radiation field needs to be shaped to the size of the cancer-affected area on the patient.
This can be achieved through end-frames that fit into applicators that attach to the treatment unit. The
end-frames are produced by casting Wood’s alloy into commercially available jigs. However,
producing these end-frames presents various shortcomings such as lack of dimensional accuracy, the
inconsistent density of the castings and the high cost of the jigs. The aim of this study was to develop
a Wood’s alloy casting unit that can be made available to local oncology departments to produce endframes
that are superior to what can be produced through commercial jigs. This paper describes the
development and manufacturing of the new casting equipment and experiments performed to
evaluate end-frames produced. Results showed that end-frames cast in the newly developed casting
equipment are dimensionally more accurate, have consistent high density, and can be produced in a
shorter time
Practical Implementation Of Hybrid Energy Systems For Small Loads In Rural South Africa
Get PDFDissertationHybrid renewable energy systems (HRESs), are alternative off-grid methods of generating power to remote rural areas, where power lines are not economically viable. Most of the research studies on renewable hybrid systems or microgrids (MGs) in South Africa, focus mainly on the optimal sizing and optimal control of different systems, by making use of renewable energy simulation softwares, however, there is a lack of research carried out on the implementation of these hybrid systems in real time.
The aim is to develop a real time control method for an isolated hybrid system submitted to a variable load, as well as resources. The first step towards achieving this aim, was to critically review available published research works, to describe recent developments in improving the optimum operating concept of microgrid controllers for stand-alone or grid-connected systems. Secondly, to investigate any real-time implementation established by either hierarchical or distributed control. Then to, analyze their reliability and functionality in practical set up of the controller, in managing power in the system to the variable load.
The study provided a brief overview of microgrid prototype systems, microgrid controls, operating modes and multi-DER microgrid types built into a hybrid system, which introduces a number of strategies or techniques for managing remote rural application prototypes in an isolated or grid-connected system. However, hierarchical control was found to be more appropriate for large microgrids with multiple types of distributed energy resources (DERs), compared to distributed control, particularly when combined with energy storage systems (ESSs), in isolated mode.
The rising of hybrid system controllers in real-time renewable energy for the optimum energy management system (EMS), required the design of a real-time controller to operate the entire system in real time. Increasing popularity of renewable energy (RE) has a control strategy that determined the overall efficiency of the hybrid system (HS), although the energy management system of these systems is particularly complex to be managed.
The study's main contribution is to investigate the feasible controller and, later, to present an advanced control strategy for managing and controlling the flow of hybrid renewable energy with a diesel generator (DG) and battery (BT) as a backup in a rural application of SA. EMS would be implemented, using a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) in MATLAB / SIMULINK. This study analysed input and output variables for the design of a controller, with a set of rules and a three-dimension (3D) surface. Simulation results of related studies with different objectives were analysed, with the aim of sussing out an appropriate controller for the current study.
Arduino Mega was used for coding and uploaded to the implementation of practical implementation of the study. The system operated successfully by supplying the load. This study finally answered the question of the feasibility of the controller in real-time applications
Optimal Energy Management Of Hybrid Systems Connected To Hvac And Water Heating Systems In Healthcare Institutions
Get PDFThesisHealthcare institutions consume large amounts of energy, ranking the second highest energy intensive building in the commercial sector. This has further been exacerbated by the COVID 19 global pandemic, as healthcare facilities worldwide demand more energy with the substantial increases in patient occupancy. Within developed countries, the energy consumption of healthcare institutions may account for up to 18% of the overall energy usage, in commercial sectors. Within developing countries, such as South Africa, the energy consumption of healthcare institutions is observed to be a close second to the food service sector. Energy consumption of healthcare institutions per bed, typically range from 43 - 92kWh per day. The high energy consumption of these buildings may be attributable to energy intensive systems, that are required to operate at full scale, 24 hours a day. In retrospect, energy intensive equipment, operating continuously or during peak energy periods, result in exceedingly high energy costs, particularly when the consumer is subjected to time-based electricity pricing and maximum demand charges.
The major energy intensive processes that may have their energy efficiency significantly improved, were identified to be heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) and water heating (WH) processes. The combined energy usage of HVAC and water heating processes may account for approximately 50% of the total energy consumption in the majority of modern healthcare facilities in South Africa. These systems are critical to patient health and may be classified as non-deferrable loads. Accordingly, demand side management techniques are difficult to implement without additional equipment. This renders the scheduling of loads to the lower-cost regions of the Time-of-Use (ToU) tariff, while constantly meeting load requirements, a formidable task. Additionally, the balance between the maximum demand charge and ToU tariff has to be maintained, in order to effectively minimize energy costs.
Generally, to improve the potential for demand side management and energy efficiency of these processes, various methods exist. These include the implementation of energy storage systems, equipment retro fitment/replacement and the application of effective control approaches. Within the majority of private and a few public hospitals, the energy efficiency of existing equipment leaves little room for improvement. However, the decision to commission additional equipment such, as renewables and energy storage systems, is usually made with caution. The economic feasibility of these systems, at the time of the study, particularly the payback period, appears to be just beyond the acceptable threshold for adequate justification.
Consequently, introducing renewable energy systems and energy storage schemes, may reduce energy usage and associated costs, while the application of optimal control techniques may improve the feasibility of such costly implementations. Additional feasibility improvements may include waste thermal energy recovery from processes such as HVAC systems and is transferred to water heating equipment so that energy savings may further be increased.
Effectively applied energy management schemes, using advanced optimization techniques, remain imperative for operational cost minimization. Therefore, in this study, various methods for improving the energy efficiency of HVAC and water heating systems are identified and applied to a large-scale hospital building as a case study. These methods include the implementation of renewable energy technologies with energy storage, equipment retro fitment and the application of optimization strategies. The objective is to minimize energy usage and associated costs, with respect to the ToU tariff and maximum demand charges.
A dual axis PV tracking system and energy storage scheme, with optimal control was proposed, to supply HVAC, water heating systems and other equipment. A model was developed to represent the operation of this hybrid energy scheme.
A second model of a multifarious water heating system, with a total of 57 electric storage tank water heaters (ESTWHs), connected to an HVAC energy recovery system was established. The operation of this multifarious water heating system was simulated to represent the operation of the system. In this case, the simultaneous operation of the various ESTWHs was avoided to lower the risks of incurring unnecessary maximum demand penalties.
Optimal control algorithms were developed, for both models, to minimize energy costs, based on the ToU tariff and maximum demand charges. SCIP (Solving Constraint Integer Problems) in the MATLAB OPTI-Toolbox was used to solve the optimal control problems. In hindsight, the feasibility of implementing the proposed dual axis PV tracking system with energy storage, supplying mainly HVAC and water heating loads, has been evaluated and discussed. According to the study, if the proposed system were to be installed, the system would break-even within 9.3 years, with lifecycle cost savings of 24.5% over a 20 year period. Applying optimal control to this proposed system, will potentially decrease the break-even point to 7.5 years and increase cost savings by up to 34.5%.
Additionally, the study with a focus on HVAC and water heating processes, with waste heat recovery, revealed that, with the implementation of a multifunctional chiller (MFC), the project should break-even in 7.4 years, with project lifetime energy cost savings of up to 22.02%. The application of the proposed optimal control approach, resulted in a potential break-even point of 5.3 years, with maximum potential savings of 68.23%, achievable over a 20 year life cycle.
These results further indicated that, with the application of optimal operation control algorithms, the feasibility of high investment energy efficiency activities may be improved significantly. This, in turn, serves as a greater incentive for building energy managers to implement these “deep energy retrofit” projects as to better align with international policies to stabilize global greenhouse gas concentrations
Online Monitoring Of Laser-Based Powder Bed Fusion By Acoustic Emission
Get PDFThesisMetal additive manufacturing (AM) has seen great advances in capabilities and the technology has matured to the point where industries, such as aerospace, are readily implementing it for production. The main concern remains qualification and quality control. Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is one of the more popular AM technologies which, as the name suggests, uses a laser to melt and solidify a powder in such a way as to create a three-dimensional part. The part is built in a layer-wise fashion, stacking each layer on top of the previous layer.
The quality of the part being built is dependent on the quality of the previous layer as it forms the foundation. The advantage of the layer-wise process is that it also makes online monitoring of the building process a viable option. Monitoring the process can allow for very tight control and thus improve the quality or notify the operator that the component has defects and, therefore, is not fit for service.
Current commercial online monitoring systems are mostly in the form of some sort of imaging or temperature monitoring system. These have the ability to monitor any defects in the powder delivery and laser scanning (melt pool). The size and shape of single tracks ultimately determine the quality of the parts, as it is the building block of the LPBF process. All the different process parameters interplay with each other and operate within a process window. The powder layer should be carefully controlled because the input energy from the laser is set and any change in material volume/powder thickness will change the resulting track’s shape.
This study investigates whether gas-borne acoustic emission (AE) signal can be used for online monitoring during LPBF. The amazing amount of information that can be interpreted through listening has been proved for manufacturing processes such as laser welding and monitoring of components in service, such as electrical generators.
The experiments were carried out on a commercial machine, EOS M 280, with Ti6Al4V ELI alloy. The influence of the machine noise, microphone and scanning position is investigated, and the signal filtered accordingly. Defects due to changes in process parameters are shown, and more specifically, laser power, scanning speed and powder layer thickness. The AE is correlated to the resulting single track shape. Each combination of sets of process parameters produces a specific sound. The sound pressure level and frequency of AE signal are clearly correlated to defects in single tracks that are supported by physical cross-sectioning.
The information about the characteristics of LPBF and its AE is used to develop two possible methods which can detect a defective layer thickness. The algorithm compares the test signal to signals from optimal parameters and parameters which produce defects. The signals are run through a series of processing steps and the results are then correlated to each other. It is shown that the proposed algorithm can detect a defective layer with high accuracy
Inhibitory effect of essential oils against oral pathogens affecting titanium-based dental implants
Get PDFThesis (Master: Health Science: Environmental Health)--Central University of TechnologyPeriodontal diseases, that can lead to tooth damage, affect more than half of the adult population globally. Such diseases are mainly caused by bacterial infection that contaminates the surface of the teeth. Oral illnesses are introduced by bacterial contamination in oral cavities and these bacteria incendiary responses that will continue unless the source of contamination is eliminated through dental treatment. The development of dental caries involves Gram-positive bacteria producing acids as a byproduct of the metabolism of fermentable carbohydrates, such as Streptococcus mutans, Lactobacillus spp and Actinomyces. The food we eat can be infested with oral pathogens that can cause tooth damage and rehabilitation generally requires the insertion of implant material. Biomaterials utilised for implant manufacturing are not themselves antibacterial agents, thus their surfaces need to be coated with antimicrobial agents to prevent bacterial colonisation of the implant surface. Titanium and its alloys are the most frequently used dental implant materials to replace a missing tooth and have been used for a long time. The most preferred are pure titanium (cpTi) and Ti6Al4V, which give clinical success rates of up to 99% over a period of 10 years. Both these biometals are biocompatible and are capable of undergoing osseointegration. Titanium alloys are widely used in medical applications because they demonstrate excellent biocompatibility and good mechanical properties, such as less elastic modulus than stainless steel or CoCr alloys. However, although titanium alloys are good biomaterials, they can fail due to microbial colonization on the surface of the implant which causes infections and thus their surfaces must be modified to prevent implant infections. The current research focused on using natural products, particularly plantderived essential oils, to combat bacteria that colonise dental implants and later cause implant failure. The literature has revealed that natural products such as essential oils are promising antimicrobial agents. Rising knowledge about the emergence of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms has encouraged researchers to search for new antimicrobial agents that are more effective this background that the current study investigated the antibacterial activity of five commercially available plant-derived essential oils, namely Lavandula latifolia (lavender oil), Syzygium aromaticum (clove bud), Salvia officinalis (sage), Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume (cinnamon) and Mentha piperita (peppermint). These essential oils were tested against three resistant pathogens, namely Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutans and Escherichia coli. The chemical components of the essential oils were analysed using gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GC-MS) and the main components of the essential oils were found to be terpenes and phenols. The antimicrobial activity of the essential oils was additionally investigated using agar diffusion bioassay from five essential oils. Of these, Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume showed the highest antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, whereas Salvia officinalis showed the highest antimicrobial activity against Streptococcus mutans. The minimum concentrations at which the essential oils inhibited bacterial growth were investigated using microdilution essay. Structural changes caused by the essential oils were evaluated using a scanning electron microscope and alterations such as damaged cell walls, holes in the bacterial cells, irregularity in size and some ruptured cells were observed. After scanning electron microscopy had been performed, Ti6Al4V (ELI) experimental dental implants (which are used to replace a missing tooth) were additively manufactured (3D printing) using EOS M280 direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) manufacturing technology. A subset of the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process was also employed. Next, the antimicrobial activity of the essential oils was investigated on the surface of the titanium implant materials. The essential oils were used to modify the surface of titanium implant materials to inhibit the growth of bacteria on their surfaces. The findings suggest that antimicrobial agents such as essential oils need to be considered as potential antimicrobials in the future because of their effective mechanism of action against bacterial cells. For instance, it was found that Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume and Salvia officinalis essential oils penetrated the bacterial cell wall and gained entrance into the cell, thus causing disruption to the entire bacterial cell. Essential oils thus have the potential to be used as antimicrobial agents against Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutans and Escherichia coli. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results also showed radical structural alterations such as leakage of bacteria cell contents, cells becoming pleomorphic, irregularity in cell size and the rupturing of some cells when treated with Salvia officinalis and Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume essential oils at their minimum inhibition concentrations. The bioassay results showed that Lavendula officianalis, Mentha piperita, Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume and Salvia officinalis essential oils can act as effective antimicrobial agents against Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutans and Escherichia coli. It is noteworthy that Salvia officinalis and Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume essential oils showed the most significant inhibitory effects on oral pathogens in the present work