282 research outputs found
Fintech and the platformed motorcycle: speculating on ordinary mobility economies in urban Africa
No full textPlatform Politics and Silicon Savannahs: Fintech and the platformed motorcycle: speculating on ordinary mobility economies in urban Africa
No full textDespite the economic challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, venture capital (VC) investments in African startups have remained resilient, surpassing $5 billion in 2021 and experiencing a staggering 264% growth compared to the previous year. Notably, more than 60% of these investments were directed towards fintech companies.
The surge in fintech investments in Africa is driven by several factors that make the continent an attractive market. Africa still has a large unbanked population, presenting an opportunity for financial services that offer alternatives to traditional banking methods. The rise of mobile money and cryptocurrencies has brought accessible financial solutions to individuals and informal businesses without access to traditional banking systems. Furthermore, Africa has emerged as a significant market for cryptocurrency trading, providing alternative options in volatile monetary climates and facilitating cross-border transactions.
The report draws on empirical research in three case-study cities – Cape Town (South Africa), Kigali (Rwanda), and Nairobi (Kenya) – to showcase some important trends at the interface of fintech and the platformisation of motorcycle economies in urban Africa.
It builds on the insight that fintech is not ‘just’ facilitated by digital platforms, but it deploys the same business logics of intermediation and, in doing so, is often part of platformisation itself (Langley and Leyshon, 2021). More specifically, the report shows the importance of the financial-inclusion thrust in linking fintech to two-wheel paratransit, as well as the multiple ways in which digital platforms create new financial pathways in rapport to the physical commodity of the motorcycle; the crucial importance of payment gateways as infrastructures of additional data-driven financial innovation; the promises of risk-management through data and the pilot-based experimental practices through which these promises are given effect; and linkages to the decarbonisation of mobility systems in African cities.
For each of these points, the report highlights key policy implications that will require careful attention by researchers, regulators, and private actors in the field
IoT characterisation and emulation system for electric water heaters
No full textFortuin, L. 2025. IoT Characterisation and Emulation system for
Electric Water Heaters. Unpublished masters thesis. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University [online]. Available: https://scholar.sun.ac.za/items/5daf430e-7c7a-4434-af3c-623941d8602dThesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2025.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The global focus on energy-saving means is driven by both environmental concerns, and the economic benefits of reducing energy consumption. South Africa, facing its own energy crisis since 2007, has been under pressure to manage the increasing electricity demand, which exceeds Eskom’s power supply capacity. This crisis is combined with the country’s reliance on coal, a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. The South African residential sector accounts for a large portion of electricity usage during peak demand times, with electric water heaters (EWHs) also consuming a large portion of a South African household’s energy. EWHs, particularly in South African households, are energy-intensive appliances that are prone to significant losses, making them suitable for energy management improvements. Maximising the energy efficiency of EWHs while maintaining user satisfaction requires a thorough understanding of their energy usage and thermal behavior. However, the absence of sufficient data collection tools hinders the optimisation. Collecting data on the power consumption and thermal stratification, under controlled conditions, will offer the insights needed to improve efficiency, reduce household energy consumption, and alleviate pressure on the electric grid. This thesis is aimed at developing an IoT solution that is able to characterise an EWH. This will be achieved by gathering the data required to fully understand and maximise the energy efficiency of an EWH. Once the solution has been developed, it is tested, to ensure it is capable of gathering all the data that is needed. The study successfully developed the IoT solution that is able to characterise an EWH. Results show all the data that was captured by the system, which shows the functionality of the final system.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Geen opsomming beskikbaar.Master
Fintech ‘frontiers’ and the platformed motorcycle: Emergent infrastructures of value creation in African cities
No full textConcerned with financialized extraction, the exploitation of precarious workers and racialized violence, critical scholars call for greater attention to the coloniality of financial technology (fintech) expansion in Africa. In this article, we echo the utility in foregrounding coloniality, but argue that it should be read as one among multiple, specific, and entangled ways in which fintech is creating new forms of value in the context of Africa’s urbanization. To make this case, we focus on the nexus between platforms, motorcycle taxis and fintech. In three different African cities, we observe how fintech maps onto the impulses and desires of the private sector and the state alike to use fintech to enact various forms of value creation. In Nairobi, the motorcycle has become the testbed of assetization experiments that seek to create data-rich and less fuel-dependent economies; in Kigali, the state-led and platform-enabled standardization of motorcycle services intends to create fiscal, planning, and regulatory values; and in Cape Town, legacy supermarket chains enroll motorcycles and fintech offerings to algorithmically integrate urban economies of laborand retail. Tracing these processes illuminates the different rationalities, ingenuities, and technological entanglements that, beyond the endurance of coloniality, shape Africa’s fintech moment
The reception of W. Somerset Maugham's works
No full textTese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão.Este trabalho objetiva estudar a posição do romancista inglês W. Somerset Maugham na literatura contemporânea de seu país. Se por um lado Maugham nunca foi definitivamente rotulado como um simples escritor de best-sellers, por outro lado nunca lhe foi atribuído o status de grande escritor. Ele se mantém numa espécie de posição ambígua na literatura inglesa. Reforçando essa situação há ainda o fato de que alguns de seus romances, embora tenham sido tão populares, na época de seu lançamento, quanto os modernos best-sellers têm experimentado uma duração que não é usual nesse tipo de literatura. Ao analisar a recepção crítica de seis de seus romances, um de cada fase de sua carreira literária, baseado em alguns princípios da estética da recepção de Hans Robert Jauss, nós identificamos os elementos que foram especialmente relevantes na definição do status literário de Maugham. Além disso, conforme ainda é previsto na teoria de Jauss, nós também apontamos algumas mudanças de interesse nos estudos literários que indicam um ressurgimento e possivelmente uma reavaliação da obra de Maugham no futuro
Liza Donnelly
No full textLiza Donnelly is a writer and award-winning cartoonist and the author/editor of 18 books. Her latest book, Women On Men, was a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. She is the creator of a new digital visual reporting/editorial cartooning called live-drawing. She was the first cartoonist to be granted access on location to live draw the Academy Awards; she has also live drawn the Grammys, Tonys, the 2016 Democratic Convention and more
ORIGINAL ARTICLE Determination of heavy metals in Liza abu from Karkheh and Bahmanshir Rivers in Khoozestan from Iran
No full textAskary Sary, A., Velayatzadeh, M., Beheshti, M.: Determination of heavy metals in Liza abu from Karkheh and Bahmanshir Rivers in Khoozestan from Iran ABSTRACT Liza abu is a species of the Mugilidae family from rivers in Khoozestan Province of Iran. The present study was carried out to investigate contamination of heavy metals (Hg, Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn, Fe and Mn) in gill, liver and muscle in Liza abu from Karkheh and Bahmanshir rivers in Khoozestan, Iran, in winter 2010. Heavy metal levels in fish samples were analyzed by Perkin Elmer 4100 atomic absorption. The results show that the highest Hg, Cd, Pb, Cu, Mn, Zn and Fe concentrations in fish samples were 29.66, 518.66, 1057.66, 369.33, 696 µg/Kg/dw, 10.62, 13.26 mgKg -1 dw. The highest and lowest concentration of heavy metals in tissues was done gill and muscle of Liza abu. Also, concentrations of heavy metals (mean±SD) in muscle, liver and gill of Liza abu from Bahmanshir river were higher than in Liza abu from Karkheh river (P<0.05), except for concentration of Fe that in Liza abu from Karkheh river were higher than in Liza abu from Bahmanshir river (P<0.05). The mean estimated concentrations for Cd, Hg, Cu and Zn in the present study were lower the International Standards for these metals as declare by the World Health Organization (WHO), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but Pb higher than FAO and FDA
Liza Donnelly to open workshop, Rita Davenport joins keynoter line-up
No full textAward-winning New Yorker Magazine cartoonist and author Liza Donnelly will open the 2018 Erma Bombeck Writers\u27 Workshop on Thursday, April 5, replacing Craig Ferguson, who has a scheduling conflict. The hilarious Rita Davenport, award-winning TV host, bestselling author, inspirational humorist and entrepreneur, has graciously stepped forward to serve as keynoter for the Friday, April 6, dinner
Reader and Writer: Poor Liza (1792) by Nikolay Karamzin and Notes from Underground (1864) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
No full textThe article analyses the image of homo legens in Poor Liza by Nikolay Karamzin and Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The novelist considers Karamzin’s short story as a part of the process of the knowledge of the human being in the 19th century. In contrast to positivist philosophical knowledge, which, according to Dostoevsky, simplifies the phenomenon of the person, the writer, with the help of Karamzin’s artistic discoveries in the short story Poor Liza, creates the image of the Underground Man as a person who both reads and writes. Typologically, the encounter of the dreamer with a girl in Notes from Underground repeats the situation in Poor Liza. Erast dreams of an idyll and “invents” his future life with Liza according to the laws of the genre, while the peasant woman, unlike the reading hero, understands that dreams cannot be realized. In Dostoevsky’s novella the situation is more complicated. Following literary models, the Underground Man creates two stories in an idyllic and anti-idyllic key, in order to manipulate the soul of another person and to affirm himself. At first, Liza does not believe the words of the visitor or the possibility of leaving the brothel. The Underground Man prefaces his stories with two biblical quotations: “the image and likeness of God” and “lay down your life for the sake of friends.” He introduces the sacred as a means of manipulation of the heroine’s feelings. Having identified these quotations, Liza sincerely believes in the possibility of leaving the brothel and offers her love to the dreamer, which the author sees as an opportunity for him to come out of “the underground.” The hero cannot accept this chance. By creating the image of homo legens in Notes from Underground Dostoevsky shows that a chaotic and blind adherence to literary genres, situations, and gestures together with the manipulation of both literary and sacred texts places man in a position of insoluble conflict with “living life.
PENGARUH PENETAPAN HARGA JUAL TERHADAP PENJUALAN PADA PT. LIZA CHRISTINA GARMENT INDUSTRY
No full textThe Influence of Selling Price Pricing On Sales At PT. Liza Christina Garment Industry. This study aims to determine: (1) the influence of selling price determination on sales at PT. Liza Christina Garment Industry. Variables used in this study are selling price (X) and sales (Y). Sample used in this research is report of production cost from year 2012-2014 counted 36 sample. The analysis used is Multiple Linear Regression Analysis. The analysis used to see the extent to which the data influence partially or simultaneously, the test results partially states that thitung> ttable (68.860> 2.034), means H0 rejected Ha accepted. While the test results simultaneously state that Fcount> Ftable (2320,740> 3,28), means Ha accepted H0 rejected, which means simultaneously Cost of Production and Sales Price significantly influence Sales at PT. Liza Christina Garment Industry. Based on the results of the analysis shows that the variable cost of production and selling prices have an influence on sales of 99.2%, and the rest of 0.8% influenced from factors not examined in this study by the author. Keywords: Cost of Production, Selling Price, and Sale
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