This study discusses access to information and communication technology (ICT) in the context of food security in Soshanguve, a slum area of The City of Tshwane, the administrative Capital of South ...Africa. City dwellers access food from retail outlets in a country where dispatching food is a lucrative business. Hence, food price increases pose challenges to urban households. The public broadcaster (i.e., South African Broadcasting Corporation, other private television stations (eTV, eNCA, and radio stations broadcast food marketing information through eleven official languages. Digital food marketing through cellular phone networks is also on the rise. ICT is a potential tool in the fight against food insecurity and hunger, since its use and range of application continue to grow at astonishing rates. Using questions contained in the USAID developed Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), questionnaires were administered to 300 randomly selected households in Soshanguve. Respondents were asked of their experiences of food insecurity (access) with a recall period of four weeks (30 days). Food secure households can utilise ICT tools in any manner to meet their food security needs. Our study finds that ICT access is positively associated with household food security. Transactional purchases of items on credit using cellular or landline telephony are, in particular, important in enhancing food security. Otherwise, households could beg for or borrow food from neighbours. Only the educated in Soshanguve purchase food items online by using computer access. Younger, single, educated, employed individuals mostly use ICT to advance the course of their food security.
Purpose:- This study examined information overload experiences of a group of individuals who are in the social media contact list of the researchers. This covers their perceptions, experiences and ...impact on their health. Design:- A survey of randomly selected individuals in the social media contact network of the researchers has been made. This has been done by administering a closed structured questionnaire which cover information ranging from demographic characteristics, time spent on ICT usage, to their experiences of information overload and the health effects of such experience. Findings:- Male respondents, who are largely unemployed are active ICT users, but are unable to use the irrelevant information received. Aged 31-35 and above, half of men and all women participants spend more than 5 hours per day on the internet. Male respondents suffer head ache, have eye-strains or are addicted to the internet and more significantly overloaded than women. They also suffer from unspecified ailments. Half of female participants are also active ICT users, and suffering from back pain. Other women suffer from multiple effects of eye-strain, internet addiction, and upper limb pain. Educated respondents with Honours qualifications all suffer from eye strain. Social implications:- Race is significant in explaining composite stress among blacks. This could be due to the demands placed on South African blacks to meet social commitments. Education also contributes to stress. Originality/value:- There are very few studies that have examined information overload in South Africa using the approach adopted in this study.
Purpose
This paper aims to understand social entrepreneurship (SE) business model design to create values whilst undertaking public service delivery within the complex environments of local ...governments in South Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
Face-to-face semi-structured interview was conducted with 15 purposively selected social entrepreneurs in Gauteng and Western Cape provinces. The interview guide consisted of main themes and follow-up questions. Themes included SEs’ general history, the social business model; challenges faced and how these were overcome; scaling and growth/survival strategies. These enabled the evaluation of SEs in terms of identifying key criteria of affordability, availability, awareness and acceptability, which SEs must achieve to operate successfully in low-income markets. Social enterprise owners/managers within the electricity distribution, water reticulation and waste management services sectors were surveyed.
Findings
Most respondents focus on building a network of trust with stakeholders, through communication mechanisms that emphasize high-frequency engagements. There is also a strong focus on design-thinking and customer-centric approaches that strengthen value creation. The value creation process used both product value and service value mechanisms and emphasized quality and excellence to provide stakeholder, as well as societal value, within their specific contexts.
Practical implications
This study builds upon other research that emphasizes SEs’ customer-centric approaches to strengthen value creation and on building a network of trust with multiple stakeholders. It contributes to emphasizing the business paradigm shift towards bringing social values to the business practice.
Social implications
Social good, but resource providers are demanding more concrete evidence to help them understand their impact (Struthers, 2013). This is because it is intrinsically difficult for many social organizations to document and communicate their impact in more than an anecdotal way. The research has contributed to the understanding of how SEs can provide evidence of value creation.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the understanding of how business models are designed to create value within the context of the overwhelming complexity of local government services in South Africa.
D.Ed.
The primary aim of this research was to develop an appropriate management framework to manage education-business partnerships and partnership projects by: determining to what extent ...education-business partnerships and partnership projects could best be managed at all levels of education especially at the school level; and developing an appropriate framework for managing education business partnerships and partnership projects. In order to achieve the general aim of the research project the following specific aims were investigated, namely to: describe and analyse what education-business partnerships are; describe the management of education-business partnerships and partnership projects as a component of education transformation; investigate a framework for managing education-business partnerships and partnership projects by reviewing the significant literature and examining the possibilities for the South African context; investigate empirically the perceptions and perspectives of business and education in respect of managing education-business partnerships and partnership projects; and devise an appropriate management framework for effective education-business partnerships and partnership projects, and the application of it in practice. The researcher has found that during his sojourn with the Mpumalanga Department of Education that there was no management framework in place to manage education-business partnerships and partnership projects. Neither in Mpumalanga Province nor in any other province are there best practices or benchmarks for managing partnerships. If there are then these are still very much in their infancy. In light of the above this research was conducted. Since 1994 the South African government has attempted to address the legacy of apartheid through a number of policy documents and legislation. Central to these policies and legislation have been the issues of redress, equity, quality and access to education. Similarly, the South African government and especially the education departments (national and provincial) are exploring new, effective and efficient forms of service delivery. These have given rise to new forms of social cooperation in the form of partnerships. In the case of education, partnerships are viewed as creative, innovative, productive and practical responses to the challenges faced by the South African education system. Government in general and education in particular realise, that service delivery is not the exclusive preserve of government alone but that there is a need to engage business and civil society organisations in partnership to address these challenges. In particular, government needs to create a sustainable environment for education-business partnerships to develop.
Bibliography: leaves 43-47.
The aim of this research report was an attempt to measure the impact of co-operative learning workshops on the academic achievement of 1st year Physics 110w ASPECT ...students from the ex- Department of Education and Training DET and Transkei TK schools in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Cape Town in 1995. At the time of doing the research for the investigation there were two concerns amongst the ASPECT staff at UCT. Firstly, how to address the issues of high failure rates and low retention of disadvantaged 1st year Engineering students, and low graduation rates. Secondly, what was the impact of the many innovative initiatives undertaken on the human resources that South Africa is thought to need in Engineering. The Engineering Faculty at UCT established the Academic Support Programme in Engineering at Cape Town ASPECT with the aim of addressing the needs of the increased number of black students from disadvantaged education and social backgrounds. The Physics 11Ow course was introduced into the ASPECT programme in 1995 and the academic support was given in the form of co-operative learning workshops.
Magister Artium - MA
This study is primarily a history of black political organisations and their attempts to organise farmworkers in the rural Western Cape;
(1912 1930) with special reference to the ...Boland. The attempts made by these organisations to organise farmworkers in the Boland;
between 19:2 1930 raises a number of important issues which will be addressed in this study. Firstly, there is the issue to what extent capitalist agriculture existed in this area before and during the period under observation. On a general level there is a question to what extent capitalist relations of production existed in the agricultural production in the Boland. This would clearly have an effect on organisations attempting to organise farmworkers as well as the nature and form farmworkers struggles would develop into. Secondly, it is clear that the attempts at organisation the ANC(WC) was more successful than the A.P.O. and the I.C.U. put together. This raises a whole series of issues concerning the nature and form of these organisations, for example the strategies and organisational methods that were used, the issues that were addressed and the discourse and ideology of the A.P.O., I.C.U. and ANC(WC). Lastly, an attempt is made at evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the three organisations under consideration with a view to draw important lessons from these struggles for the organising of farmworkers in the future.
The primary aim of this research was to develop an appropriate management framework to manage education-business partnerships and partnership projects by:determining to what extent education-business ...partnerships and partnership projects could best be managed at all levels of education especially at the school level; anddeveloping an appropriate framework for managing education business partnerships and partnership projects.In order to achieve the general aim of the research project the following specific aims were investigated, namely to:describe and analyse what education-business partnerships are;describe the management of education-business partnerships and partnership projects as a component of education transformation;investigate a framework for managing education-business partnerships and partnership projects by reviewing the significant literature and examining the possibilities for the South African context;investigate empirically the perceptions and perspectives of business and education in respect of managing education-business partnerships and partnership projects; anddevise an appropriate management framework for effective education-business partnerships and partnership projects, and the application of it in practice.The researcher has found that during his sojourn with the Mpumalanga Department of Education that there was no management framework in place to manage education-business partnerships and partnership projects. Neither in Mpumalanga Province nor in any other province are there best practices or benchmarks for managing partnerships. If there are then these are still very much in their infancy. In light of the above this research was conducted.Since 1994 the South African government has attempted to address the legacy of apartheid through a number of policy documents and legislation. Central to these policies and legislation have been the issues of redress, equity, quality and access to education. Similarly, the South African government and especially the education departments (national and provincial) are exploring new, effective and efficient forms of service delivery. These have given rise to new forms of social cooperation in the form of partnerships. In the case of education, partnerships are viewed as creative, innovative, productive and practical responses to the challenges faced by the South African education system. Government in general and education in particular realise, that service delivery is not the exclusive preserve of government alone but that there is a need to engage business and civil society organisations in partnership to address these challenges. In particular, government needs to create a sustainable environment for education-business partnerships to develop.While much has been written on the value and achievements of partnerships and partnership projects, few of them address the management process in terms of building and implementing partnerships and partnership projects.The partnership approach and the management thereof in South Africa is still quite new and the learning curve is steep — this research can only be seen as "work in progress". This research is of an exploratory nature, the most appropriate method of research therefore would be the qualitative method. Focus group interviews were utilised as a research method. The department officials, school principals and business representatives who participated in the focus group interviews have all been involved and have experience in education-business partnerships and partnership projects.
Infectious diseases have shaped the human population genetic structure, and genetic variation influences the susceptibility to many viral diseases. However, a variety of challenges have made the ...implementation of traditional human Genome-wide Association Studies (GWAS) approaches to study these infectious outcomes challenging. In contrast, mouse models of infectious diseases provide an experimental control and precision, which facilitates analyses and mechanistic studies of the role of genetic variation on infection. Here we use a genetic mapping cross between two distinct Collaborative Cross mouse strains with respect to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) disease outcomes. We find several loci control differential disease outcome for a variety of traits in the context of SARS-CoV infection. Importantly, we identify a locus on mouse chromosome 9 that shows conserved synteny with a human GWAS locus for SARS-CoV-2 severe disease. We follow-up and confirm a role for this locus, and identify two candidate genes,
and
, that both play a key role in regulating the severity of SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, and a distantly related bat sarbecovirus disease outcomes. As such we provide a template for using experimental mouse crosses to identify and characterize multitrait loci that regulate pathogenic infectious outcomes across species.
Host genetic variation is an important determinant that predicts disease outcomes following infection. In the setting of highly pathogenic coronavirus infections genetic determinants underlying host susceptibility and mortality remain unclear. To elucidate the role of host genetic variation on sarbecovirus pathogenesis and disease outcomes, we utilized the Collaborative Cross (CC) mouse genetic reference population as a model to identify susceptibility alleles to SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 infections. Our findings reveal that a multitrait loci found in chromosome 9 is an important regulator of sarbecovirus pathogenesis in mice. Within this locus, we identified and validated CCR9 and CXCR6 as important regulators of host disease outcomes. Specifically, both CCR9 and CXCR6 are protective against severe SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, and SARS-related HKU3 virus disease in mice. This chromosome 9 multitrait locus may be important to help identify genes that regulate coronavirus disease outcomes in humans.
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