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Revolution of South African public procurement in the Industry 4.0 era.
Get PDFJournal Article. North-West University Business School, Faculty of Economic and Management Science, North-West University, MahikengBackground
Public procurement in South Africa is challenged by conventional methods that pave the way for human interference resulting in fraud and corruption, delays, unaccountability and poor performance of the value chain in the procurement process.
Objectives
This study aimed to investigate the Industry 4.0 capabilities for public procurement improvement. To address the challenges presented by the traditional manual procurement systems, the study embarked on a transformative journey by identifying the prospects and benefits of Industry 4.0 technologies in public procurement in South Africa, and the significance and application thereof.
Method
The study followed a six-step qualitative research methodology of content and thematic analysis which facilitated an understanding of the procurement process in South Africa and how it can be automated using Industry 4.0 technologies.
Results
The study revealed that Industry 4.0 technologies are crucial as they present digitalisation opportunities through platforms such as e-design, e-inform, e-sourcing, e-evaluation and e-contract. The platform will improve the process, encourage legislation compliance and achieve its goals as outlined in the constitution and Public Finance Management Act of 1996.
Conclusion
Implementing digital procurement will assist the government in achieving its policy requirements of value for money, open and effective competition, ethics and fair dealings, accountability and reporting, and equity. The technologies represent a strategic response to the challenges facing public procurement.
Contribution
The study contributed to the body of knowledge by presenting the prospects and benefits of Industry 4.0 technologies. In addition, it highlighted the significance and application to the South African public sector
Factors Determining Intention to Use Contraception Among Sexually Active Women in South Africa: A Multilevel Modelling Approach
Get PDFJournal Article, Department of Population Studies and Demography, North-West University, Mahikeng Campus, Potchefstroom,Background: At least six in 10 women use contraception in South Africa. Although there is considerable contraceptive use, there is a need to understand the factors associated with intention to use contraception later among sexually active women who are not using contraception. Women’s intention to use contraception is the best predictor of contraceptive use because it usually translates into actual contraceptive use. This study aimed to investigate the multilevel factors determining intention to use contraception among sexually active women in South Africa.
Methods: We used cross-sectional secondary data from the 2016 South Africa Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS). This
study used a sample of 1684 women who were not using contraception at the time of the survey. The data were analysed using
descriptive statistics and multilevel (random effect) logistic regression.
Results: Overall, the prevalence of sexually active women’s intention to use contraception was (40.7%, 95% CI: 37.3–44.2) in South Africa. We found that age, marital status, population group, parity, ideal number of children, desire to delay childbearing, exposure to family planning messages/advice, place of residence, and province were associated with intention to use contraception. Moreover, the odds of women’s intention to use contraception were lower among women aged 40–49 years (AOR: 0.13, 95% CI: 0.07–0.23), women who had no exposure to family planning messages/advice (AOR: 0.68, 95% CI: 0.52–0.88), and women from the Free State province (AOR: 0.49, 95% CI: 0.26–0.95).
Conclusion: The results showed that age, population group, parity, ideal number of children, desire to delay childbearing, exposure to family planning messages/advice, and province were key predictors of women’s intention to use contraception. The findings suggest the need for targeted education initiatives about contraception, particularly among older women. There is also a need to involve community leaders and the local media in sexual and reproductive health campaigns
Performance of Cloud Computing Resources Allocations SGLA Model Compared to ARIMA
Get PDFNorth-West University Vanderbijlpark, South AfricaSolutions for cloud computing are growing in popularity as a means for
businesses to streamline operations, save expenses and increase
productivity. The benefit of cloud services is that they let customers access
on-demand apps and services from a shared pool of programmable
computer resources and store data offsite. Cloud computing resource
allocation requires sophisticated tools and methodologies for optimal
utilization. These problems include load balancing, efficient resource
management and compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. The
majority of businesses are switching to cloud services and advising their
customers to use internet services. However, effective resource allocation is
critical for improving performance and lowering costs in this area. Due to
unpredictable network traffic in cloud computing, resource allocation is
challenging, which causes customers to complain about application timeouts,
delayed system times and higher bandwidth use during peak hours. This
entails allocating resources to various users and programs, such as memory,
processing power, storage, and network bandwidth. In this regard, this study
compares the performance ensemble method, which is stepwise Gaussian
Linear Autoregressive (SGLA), and the individual method which is
autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA). The Matlab tool is used
for simulation and evaluation of the results. The results show SGLA
prediction accuracy increased to an average of 98.9%, and ARIMA prediction
showed an accuracy of 75.5%. In this regard, the ensemble method
performed better than individual methods using the same datasets. The
study recommends the ensemble method for the prediction and allocation of
resources in cloud computing
A Detailed Survey of the Parallel Mean Free Path of Solar Energetic Particle Protons and Electrons
Get PDFArticle, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (Centre for Space Research (CSR)--Northwest University, Potchefstroom CampusIn this work, more than a dozen solar energetic particle (SEP) events are identified where the source region is magnetically well connected to at least one spacecraft at 1 au. The observed intensity–time profiles, for all available proton and electron energy channels, are compared to results computed using a numerical one-dimensional SEP transport model in order to derive the parallel mean free paths (pMFPs) as a function of energy (or rigidity) at 1 au. These inversion results are then compared to theoretical estimates of the pMFP, using observed turbulence quantities with observationally motivated variations as input. For protons, a very good comparison between inversion and theoretical results is obtained. It is shown that the observed inter-event variations in the inversion pMFP values can be explained by natural variations in the background turbulence values. For electrons, there is relatively good agreement with pMFPs derived assuming the damping model of dynamical turbulence, although the theoretical values are extremely sensitive to the details of the turbulence dissipation range, which themselves display a high level of variation
Multiple urinary peptides are associated with hypertension: a link to molecular pathophysiology
Get PDFJournal Article, Hypertension in Africa Research Team (HART), Faculty of Health Sciences, iMRC Research Unit for Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease, North-West University, Potchefstroom,Objectives:
Hypertension is a common condition worldwide; however, its underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. This study aimed to identify urinary peptides associated with hypertension to further explore the relevant molecular pathophysiology.
Methods:
Peptidome data from 2876 individuals without end-organ damage were retrieved from the Human Urinary Proteome Database, belonging to general population (discovery) or type 2 diabetic (validation) cohorts. Participants were divided based on systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) into hypertensive (SBP ≥140 mmHg and/or DBP ≥90 mmHg) and normotensive (SBP <120 mmHg and DBP <80 mmHg, without antihypertensive treatment) groups. Differences in peptide abundance between the two groups were confirmed using an external cohort (n = 420) of participants without end-organ damage, matched for age, BMI, eGFR, sex, and the presence of diabetes. Furthermore, the association of the peptides with BP as a continuous variable was investigated. The findings were compared with peptide biomarkers of chronic diseases and bioinformatic analyses were conducted to highlight the underlying molecular mechanisms.
Results:
Between hypertensive and normotensive individuals, 96 (mostly COL1A1 and COL3A1) peptides were found to be significantly different in both the discovery (adjusted) and validation (nominal significance) cohorts, with consistent regulation. Of these, 83 were consistently regulated in the matched cohort. A weak, yet significant, association between their abundance and standardized BP was also observed.
Conclusion:
Hypertension is associated with an altered urinary peptide profile with evident differential regulation of collagen-derived peptides. Peptides related to vascular calcification and sodium regulation were also affected. Whether these modifications reflect the pathophysiology of hypertension and/or early subclinical organ damage requires further investigation
HIV‑1 Vif protein sequence variations in South African people living with HIV and their influence on Vif‑APOBEC3G interaction
Get PDFArticle, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (Human Metabolomics)--Northwest University, Potchefstroom CampusPurpose Despite extensive research, HIV-1 remains a global epidemic with variations in pathogenesis across regions and subtypes. The Viral Infectivity Factor (Vif) protein, which neutralizes the host protein APOBEC3G, has been implicated in differences in clinical outcomes among people living with HIV (PLHIV). Most studies on Vif sequence diversity have focused on subtype B, leaving gaps in understanding Vif variations in HIV-1C regions like South Africa. This study aimed to identify and compare Vif sequence diversity in a cohort of 51 South African PLHIV and other HIV-1C prevalent regions.
Methods Sanger sequencing was used for Vif analysis in the cohort, and additional sequences were obtained from the Los Alamos database. Molecular modeling and docking techniques were employed to study the influence of subtype specific variants on Vif-APOBEC3G binding affinity.
Results The findings showed distinct genetic variations between Vif sequences from India and Uganda, while South African sequences had wider distribution and closer relatedness to both. Specific amino acid substitutions in Vif were associated with geographic groups. Molecular modeling and docking analyses consistently identified specific residues (ARGR19, LYS26, TYR30, TYR44, and TRP79) as primary contributors to intermolecular contacts between Vif and APOBEC3G, essential for their interaction. The Indian Vif variant exhibited the highest predicted binding affinity to APOBEC3G among the studied groups.
Conclusions These results provide insights into Vif sequence diversity in HIV-1C prevalent regions and shed light on differential pathogenesis observed in different geographical areas. The identified Vif amino acid residues warrant further investigation for their diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic potential
Structural analysis and gasification reactivity of chars derived from the slow pyrolysis of extruded coal fines and recycled plastic
Get PDFJournal Article. Centre of Excellence in Carbon-Based Fuels, North-West University, Potchefstroom CampusThe evolution of char resulting from the co-pyrolysis of recycled plastic and discard fine coal, along with the impact of varying plastic additions on the characteristics of the formed char and its subsequent gasification reactivity, remains unexplored. In this study, extrudates were produced using discarded South African Highveld coal fines, combined with either recycled low-density polyethylene (LDPE) or polypropylene (PP), respectively, and charred under a nitrogen atmosphere at three different temperatures (520, 720, and 920 °C). Co-gasification of plastic and coal provides an opportunity to reduce two waste streams simultaneously. The characteristics of the chars produced from the coal fines were compared to those produced from the extrudates formulated at varying plastic content (10, 25 and 50 %wt), using petrographic carbon form analysis, surface area and porosity analysis, as well as XRD carbon crystallite analysis. Thermal fragmentation was observed to degrade the integrity of the extrudates when the plastic content exceeded 10 %, therefore, the chars produced at 920 °C were pulverized (75–150 μm) before undergoing CO2 gasification at 800, 825 and 850 °C in the chemical-controlled regime. Carbon crystalline analyses showed that the chars were more ordered with an increase in plastic content. However, even with the more ordered structure, the gasification reactivity increased similarly with an increase in plastic content for both the extrudate derived chars containing LDPE and PP. Petrographic carbon form analysis showed an increase in crack and pore formation with an increase in plastic addition during all stages of the chars’ evolution as the pyrolysis temperature increased. The VRM time factor showed a positive linear correlation with an increase in BET surface area, especially for the LDPE derived chars (R2 > 0.7720). Therefore, the observed reactivity increase with an increase in plastic content can be correlated to an increase in surface area. Results allude to the possibility of increasing gasification rates in Industrial gasifiers while reducing both coal and plastic waste. Further work should be conducted to minimise the thermal fragmentation propensity of the plastic-containing fine coal bound extrudates to make the extrudates suitable for fixed bed gasification
Transformative Transparent Hybrid Deep Learning Framework for Accurate Cataract Detection
No full textJournal Article, Department of Computer Science, North-West University, MafikengThis paper presents a transformative explainable convolutional neural network (CNN) framework for cataract detection, utilizing a hybrid deep learning model combining Siamese networks with VGG16. By leveraging a learning rate scheduler and Grad-CAM (Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping) for explainability, the proposed model not only achieves high accuracy in identifying cataract-infected images but also provides interpretable visual explanations of its predictions. Performance evaluation metrics such as accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score demonstrate the model’s robustness, with a perfect accuracy of 100%. Grad-CAM visualizations highlight the key image regions—primarily around the iris and pupil—that contribute most to the model’s decision-making, making the system more transparent for clinical use. Additionally, novel statistical analysis methods, including saliency map evaluation metrics like AUC (Area Under the Curve) and the Pointing Game, were employed to quantify the quality of the model’s explanations. These metrics enhance the interpretability of the model and support its practical applicability in medical image analysis. This approach advances the integration of deep learning with explainable AI, offering a robust, accurate, and interpretable solution for cataract detection with the potential for broader adoption in ocular disease diagnosis and medical decision support systems
The experiences of secondary caregivers of children diagnosed with intellectual disabilities
Get PDFJournal Article, Faculty of Health Sciences, Quality In Nursing and Midwifery (NuMiQ)-- Potchefstroom CampusSecondary caregivers of children diagnosed with intellectual disabilities in Gauteng have experiences of caring for children diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. The experiences needed to be explored. The study aims to explore and describe the experiences of secondary caregivers of children diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. The study was conducted in Gauteng province, South Africa. Three Municipalities of Gauteng were covered. A qualitative-exploratory-descriptive and contextual research design was adopted, using a non-probability purposive sampling technique to select participants. Data were collected using semi-structured individual interviews. Twenty participants were interviewed. Data analysis was done, using Content data analysis and ATLAS. it. Findings were verified with an independent co-coder. Challenges of caring and unmet needs of secondary caregivers were identified. Challenges found are lack of training on intellectual disability, lack of resources, staff shortage, emotional trauma, lack of parents’ support, victimisation and threats, lack of communication by management and staff exploitation, leading to financial struggle. Identified unmet needs are the need for training, the need for adequate resources, the need for staff increases, the need for parents’ involvement in caring, the need for improvement in communication by managers, the need for emotional support and the need for salaries increase, incentives and Performance Management Development System (PMDS). The study provided insight to what secondary caregivers are going through when caring for children diagnosed with intellectual disabilities, and what needs should be addressed for secondary caregivers
Condescension or collaboration? Local peoples perspectives on the incorporation of indigenous knowledge in tourism development, Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe.
Get PDFJournal Article, Tourism Research in Economics, Environs & Society, North-West University Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, Potchefstroom,The incorporation of indigenous knowledge in development projects has been promoted worldwide as a way of preserving the knowledge of indigenous people. Yet, there is a dearth of research on the perspectives of indigenous people on the incorporation of indigenous knowledge in tourism development. This study examines the potential of tourism incorporating indigenous knowledge systems in the rural communities of Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe. In-depth interviews were conducted with 43 local people in the four districts of the case study area as well as 22 key informants from different government departments involved with community-based tourism development in the country to enrich the data. Other qualitative research methods, including observations and informal conversations, were also used to collect data. Data was analysed through a six-phase thematic analysis. Based on the results of this study, it is concluded that tourism development does incorporate indigenous knowledge systems in rural communities of Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe. The results indicate that traditional leaders are recognised while local traditions and protocols are followed, and sacred sites are respected. Recommendations are given and areas for future research are suggested.
L'incorporation des connaissances autochtones dans les projets de développement a été encouragée dans le monde entier comme un moyen de préserver les connaissances des peuples autochtones. Pourtant, il y a peu de recherche sur les perspectives des peuples autochtones en ce qui concerne l'intégration des connaissances autochtones dans le développement du tourisme. Cette étude examine le potentiel du tourisme intégrant les systèmes de connaissances autochtones dans les communautés rurales de la province de Manicaland, au Zimbabwe. Des entretiens approfondis ont été menés avec 43 habitants des quatre districts de la zone d'étude de cas, ainsi qu'avec 22 informateurs clés de différents départements gouvernementaux impliqués dans le développement du tourisme communautaire dans le pays afin d'enrichir les données. D'autres méthodes de recherche qualitative, notamment des observations et des conversations informelles, ont également été utilisées pour collecter des données. Les données ont été analysées au moyen d'une analyse thématique en six phases. Il découle des résultats de cette étude que le développement du tourisme intègre les systèmes de connaissances autochtones dans les communautés rurales de la province de Manicaland, au Zimbabwe. Les résultats indiquent que les chefs traditionnels sont reconnus tandis que les traditions et protocoles locaux sont suivis et que les sites sacrés sont respectés. Des recommandations sont données et des domaines de recherche future sont suggéré