University of South Africa

About: University of South Africa is a education organization based out in Pretoria, South Africa. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Population. The organization has 8478 authors who have published 19960 publications receiving 237688 citations. The organization is also known as: Unisa.

Virtual reality training applications for the mining industry

Abstract: Virtual reality is a rapidly growing technology which utilises the ever-increasing power of computers to simulate real-world and imaginary environments and situations with a high degree of realism and interactiveness.Safety in the South African mining industry is a vital issue. On average, one worker dies every working day, and about 16 are injured in mine-related accidents. Inadequate or insufficient training is often cited as a root cause for many mining fatalities. However, training outside the direct working environment provides only limited real-life opportunities and may fail to make a significant impact within the tense working environment itself. Virtual reality-based training tools can, by contrast, provide simulated exposure to real-world working conditions without the associated risks.This paper discusses contextual requirements and constraints for virtual reality application development, applied to safety training in mines. The results of the contextual analysis were applied to the design and development of several prototypes of VR training systems. The paper also reports on how realism can be enhanced in simulation training systems.

In Defence of Ubuntu

Abstract: The article defends ubuntu against the assault by Enslin and Horsthemke (Comp Educ 40(4):545–558, 2004). It challenges claims that the Africanist/Afrocentrist project, in which the philosophy of ubuntu is central, faces numerous problems, involves substantial political, moral, epistemological and educational errors, and should therefore not be the basis for education for democratic citizenship in the South African context. The article finds coincidence between some of the values implicit in ubuntu and some of the values that are enshrined in the constitution of South Africa and that on that basis argues that ubuntu has the potential to serve as a moral theory and a public policy. The educational upshot of this article’s argument is that South Africa’s educational policy framework not only places a high premium on ubuntu, which it conceives as human dignity, but it also requires the schooling system to promote ubuntu-oriented attributes and dispositions among the learners. The article finds similarities between ubuntu and bildung, whose key advocates, among others was German scholar and intellectual Wilhelm von Humboldt. It argues that it would be ethnocentric, and indeed silly to suggest that the ubuntu ethic of caring and sharing is uniquely African when some of the values which it seeks to promote can also be traced in various Eurasian philosophies.

Revisiting concepts of thermal physiology: Predicting responses of mammals to climate change.

Abstract: The accuracy of predictive models (also known as mechanistic or causal models) of animal responses to climate change depends on properly incorporating the principles of heat transfer and thermoregulation into those models. Regrettably, proper incorporation of these principles is not always evident. We have revisited the relevant principles of thermal physiology and analysed how they have been applied in predictive models of large mammals, which are particularly vulnerable, to climate change. We considered dry heat exchange, evaporative heat transfer, the thermoneutral zone and homeothermy, and we examined the roles of size and shape in the thermal physiology of large mammals. We report on the following misconceptions in influential predictive models: underestimation of the role of radiant heat transfer, misassignment of the role and misunderstanding of the sustainability of evaporative cooling, misinterpretation of the thermoneutral zone as a zone of thermal tolerance or as a zone of sustainable energetics, confusion of upper critical temperature and critical thermal maximum, overestimation of the metabolic energy cost of evaporative cooling, failure to appreciate that the current advantages of size and shape will become disadvantageous as climate change advances, misassumptions about skin temperature and, lastly, misconceptions about the relationship between body core temperature and its variability with body mass in large mammals. Not all misconceptions invalidate the models, but we believe that preventing inappropriate assumptions from propagating will improve model accuracy, especially as models progress beyond their current typically static format to include genetic and epigenetic adaptation that can result in phenotypic plasticity.

Synthesis and characterization of ZnO–CuO nanocomposites powder by modified perfume spray pyrolysis method and its antimicrobial investigation

Abstract: Pure ZnO, ZnO–CuO nanocomposites can be synthesized by using a modified perfume spray pyrolysis method (MSP). The crystallite size of the nanoparticles (NPs) has been observed by X-ray diffraction pattern and is nearly 36 nm. Morphological studies have been analyzed by using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) and its elemental analysis was reported by Elemental X-ray Analysis (EDX); these studies confirmed that ZnO and CuO have hexagonal structure and monoclinic structure respectively. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectra revealed that the presence of functional frequencies of ZnO and CuO were observed at 443 and 616 cm−1. The average bandgap value at 3.25 eV using UV–vis spectra for the entitled composite has described a blue shift that has been observed here. The antibacterial study against both gram positive and negative bacteria has been studied by the disc diffusion method. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first report on ZnO–CuO nanocomposite synthesized by a modified perfume spray pyrolysis method.