Academic’s PhD a first for SA

Posted on February 28, 2018 by Ilse Fredericks Kennedij

A CPUT academic has become the first person in South Africa to earn a PhD in Forensic Medicine and his work is helping to improve the forensic accountability with which emergency care providers respond to victims of gender-based violence.

A personal tragedy in 1995 inspired Dr Navindhra Naidoo, acting Head of the Emergency Medical Sciences Department, to pursue his field of research.

“My 19-year-old sister was murdered by an ex-boyfriend. I was still studying to be a paramedic at the time and realised that there was nothing in my curriculum that prepared me for that. It didn’t prepare us for screening, detecting or preventing these horrible things from happening.”

Naidoo said his key topic focused on gender-based violence, in particular domestic violence, and sought to understand emergency care workers’ “current and potential response” to gender-based violence.

“What we found is that the current responses are deficient. It’s not that the rescuers don’t want to help. There’s a lot of ambivalence largely because there isn’t a sufficient referral system so the practitioners are not guided on where patients need to go and what kind of services might be available.”

Through a cohort design, he first looked at thousands of archived medical records and found that the detection rate of domestic violence or related kinds of gender-based violence, including cases of rape, was 5.1 patient contacts per 1000 female patients presenting to the Emergency Medical Services. A nine-fold increase in detection following the evidence-informed screening training and implementation translated to the detection of 47,9/1000 emergency care patients, with no adverse events. These rates are unprecedented for South African emergency care and support screening-policy implementation. The difference in domestic violence detection, quantifies the extent of the practice gap, with an alarming missed case detection of 42,8 per 1000 patients (females, 14 years plus).

In consultation with Stanford University, Naidoo developed a curriculum for the sensitisation of health workers and this was implemented in the Western Cape Emergency Medical Services.

The Health Professions Council of SA has since adopted the screening protocol.

“So about 70 000 practitioners are now ethically obligated by the HSPCA to routinely ask the question about the presence of violence in someone’s life and then to do a risk/safety assessment and provide the necessary support they might need,” says Naidoo. His work has also served, at the HPCSA, to position gender based violence as a social determinant of health.

“What we are doing is using emergency workers as sentinels. No other person in the health service actually walks into someone’s bedroom, where the abuse occurs, to treat them in an emergency. The screening helps us to ask victims about the presence of violence and screen for risk, for example, whether there’s the presence of a firearm. When there is risk they can then advise the victim appropriately and enhance both public safety and practitioner responsivity.”

Making telescope control rooms user-friendly

Posted on December 6, 2017 by Guest writer

The stars are an incredible source of information. Their patterns indicate when seeds should be sown or crops harvested. Their movements tell us that the seasons are changing.

But it’s not just amateur enthusiasts or farmers with no scientific training who watch the stars. Technology has redefined the professional field of astronomy. Pioneering telescope designs have allowed professional astronomers to unravel ever more complex questions about the universe and its mysteries.

These complicated telescopes require extremely complex control rooms. A control room is usually located in the same building as the telescope, though it is separate from the actual telescope. It tends to feature multiple computers, each with at least one screen, a mouse and a keyboard; radio monitors; weather instrument displays; comfortable chairs; a bathroom and sometimes a small kitchen. This is where the telescope operator and one or more astronomers will spend their days (and, given the nature of their work, nights too).

Research I conducted at the South African Large Telescope (SALT) illustrates just how hard it is to make increasingly complex telescope control rooms user-friendly.

SALT is located on a remote plateau with a high altitude and dark unpolluted skies, not far from the town of Sutherland in the Karoo. During the late 1980s, astronomers in South Africa found it increasingly difficult to keep up with the international astronomy community because the largest South African Astronomical Observatory telescope was only 1.9m.

Then some South African stakeholders had the unique opportunity to review the completed Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) at the McDonald Observatory in Texas. This lead to the construction of the SALT: a larger, revised version of the HET with an 11m primary mirror. It’s been fully operational since 2011.

What I discovered during my research was that there are two different professional communities involved with SALT – and neither understands the other’s needs. Engineers developed the hardware that makes the SALT control room tick. They also provide ongoing maintenance. But the research emerging from that control room is conducted by astronomers. While the control room is very technically functional, the astronomers find it complex and counter-intuitive to their needs.

These insights confirm why the role of technical infrastructure and its impact on work flow require coherent design approaches. Designers develop intelligent adaptive systems that take users’ expectations into account, support individual differences and capture the users’ intent. There are entire companies dedicated to control room design – but very little research about how design can be applied to telescopes’ control rooms.

A new approach

My research aimed to improve the SALT control room’s usability. These sorts of practical interventions are important. We need to understand how people interact with the new technologies entering human work spaces so that efficient and productive control rooms can be designed.

The project had two sections. The first was a design ethnographic study. I wanted to observe work flows and talk to astronomers to understand their concerns and problems. This meant spending approximately 300 hours in the SALT control room.

After many hours observing and speaking with different astronomers and telescope operators in the control room, I identified some common complaints. The astronomers found it difficult to manage the use of multiple screens and input devices like keyboards and mouses. This set up made technical sense to the engineers, but resulted in a confusing, cluttered work area for the astronomers.

I explored different ways to address the problem. First, we combined all the elements into single units (so one monitor, keyboard and mouse per work station). Some people really liked this approach and found it worked for them. Others struggled to adapt.

I then tried a really simple approach: I colour coordinated each computer screen, mouse and keyboard with self-adhesive vinyl. This helped the astronomer to quickly identify which computer they were working on; before, they often grabbed the incorrect keyboard or mouse or tried to work across computer screens that were not connected.

Everyone was very happy with the results, and told me the colour coordination had dramatically reduced their frustration and actually improved productivity in the control room.

I made a few other small changes in consultation with the astronomers. We improved the telescope’s notification system, which is the software used to give the user an audio alert when it has completed a procedure. Some of the astronomers found it annoying and wanted the option to mute it in favour of an alternate notification method.

We also mounted computer screens on adjustable brackets so that users of different heights could set the monitor to their liking. This helped improve posture, which also contributed to productivity and satisfaction at work.

Happier work spaces

Much of what I did was rather intuitive and simple. But the result, in the long term, is an improved work space. It was also driven by the astronomers and that contributes to their sense of owning and enjoying the space they occupy every day.

Control rooms – whether they’re linked to nuclear power plants, air traffic centres or telescopes – are the interfaces of technology and human decision making. They work best when those working in them don’t have to worry about what’s happening on their desks and can focus on their work – and, in the case of the SALT astronomers, keep searching the stars for secrets.

Christopher Justin Hendrickse is a lecturer in Product/Industrial Design at Cape Peninsula University of Technology. The article first appeared in The Conversation.

Researcher recognized for constant high quality outputs

Posted on December 6, 2017 by Kwanele Butana

Prof Learnmore Kambizi, a senior lecturer in the Horticultural Sciences Department, was recently recognized for his consistent outstanding research and awarded a C3 rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF). The NRF rating system is a key driver in the foundation’s aim to build a globally competitive science system in South Africa and the ratings are allocated based on a researcher’s recent research outputs and impact as perceived by international peer reviewers. The CPUT Bulletin sat down with Kambizi to discuss this latest development in his professional journey.

What is your area of research?

My research area of interest is Ethnobotany , specifically medicinal plant research. Ethnobotany refers to the study of plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local culture and people.

Why the interest in this area?

I am a botanist and one of the key areas that I like is Plant Physiology, under which synthesis of active compounds fall. These are used for many purposes but more specifically their application in herbal medicine and their importance in providing primary healthcare to Africans in the advent of high prices of modern drugs. Sustainable utilisation and conservation of these medicinal plants form the thrust of my research because it is vital that our communities continue to enjoy the usage of these highly valuable plants without fearing that they would be threatened, endangered or face extinction.

What does this new NRF rating mean to you professionally?

This new rating to me clearly demonstrates that I am not static in terms of research since the last time I was rated, and it encourages me to publish high quality outputs in high impact journals/outlets. As I conduct my research, I am also supervising PhD and Masters’ students thereby imparting cutting-edge skills to the next generation of researchers. Since the evaluation is made by local and international peers, this rating has identified me to be counted among the leaders in my field of expertise and has given me recognition for constantly producing high quality research outputs. Moreover, it opens more avenues for possible collaboration at national and international levels besides creating opportunities to attract external funds which are quite beneficial to CPUT.

What does this rating mean to you personally?

It influences my professional growth as I contribute positively to the society around me. Furthermore, it demonstrates that I have the much-needed support from my university without which this rating would have been unachievable.

How does the recognition from the NRF drive the research agenda at an institution like CPUT?

The recognition from NRF puts CPUT on the map because this rating is used as a valuable tool for benchmarking the quality of our researchers against the best in the world. The more rated researchers we have at CPUT the better. Surely it encourages our designated authority that as a university, we are not only focused on teaching and community service, but that we also take research seriously for the benefit our society.

Academic receives first NRF rating

Posted on December 6, 2017 by Kwanele Butana

CPUT has recently welcomed Dr Sjirk Geerts, a lecturer in Conservation and Marine Sciences, to its family of over 30 rated researchers.

Several South African universities use the outcomes of the National Research Foundation evaluation and rating process to position themselves as research-intensive institutions, while others provide incentives for their staff members to acquire and maintain a rating and give special recognition to top-rated researchers.

Geerts recently became a Y1-rated researcher and he spoke to CPUT Bulletin about this achievement.

What is your area of research?

My research focus for many years has been human impacts on bird pollinated systems. Human impacts included increased fire frequencies, alien invasive plants species and habitat fragmentation.

I am fascinated by the complex interactions among ecosystem entities. Human impacts on ecosystems call for a better understanding of the resilience of ecosystem functions in the face of rapid environmental changes. The study of spatial interactions between plants and animals, particularly pollination, is therefore important.

One of the main impacts on ecosystems in Cape Fynbos are alien-invasive plant species. Other than trying to understand the ecological processes enabling alien species to invade, I am also focused on the best management of emerging alien-invasive plant species.

Why the interest in this area?

My love and enthusiasm for the natural world developed in my childhood and culminated in my PhD in Ecology.

What does this NRF rating mean to you professionally?

This is a first rating. I aimed for the Y1-rating and got it, now I have six years to build an international footprint by publishing in high impact international journals. The social impact of my work is also important and the Iingcungcu Sunbird Restoration Project in collaboration with Stellenbosch University, SA National Biodiversity Institute and the City of Cape Town (http://academic.sun.ac.za/botzoo/iingcungcu/index.htm) needs more funding.

What does this improved NRF rating mean to you personally?

I am excited about the recognition and the rating will, hopefully, result in continued research funding. I would like to thank Stellenbosch University’s Prof Anton Pauw, who was my PhD supervisor, for the bulk of the work in my research was done with him. I am also grateful to Prof Joseph Kioko, his former head of department at CPUT for his support.

Cereals and legumes can sustain Africa’s food needs

Posted on October 30, 2017 by Kwanele Butana

Despite being under-utilized and under-researched, with adequate support dry land cereals and grain legumes can substitute major crops such as wheat and maize.

The solution to Africa’s problem of providing a good financial reward to farmers for their produce is in the surplus production of cereals and legumes, which are processed and marketed aggressively both inside and outside the continent,” said Prof Victoria Jideani.

Jideani, a full professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology, was delivering an Inaugural Professorial Lecture on the Bellville Campus.

“Dry land cereals and grain legumes are climate-smart foods and are good for consumers, farmers and the planet as they diversify farming systems and help smallholding farmers adapt to climate change,” she added.

“They are indigenous plants with traditional uses and cultural links with local people; important for the livelihoods and nutrition of the local people, especially in tropical and sub-tropical countries.”

She discussed a range of climate-smart foods grown in South Africa, including cereals and legumes, which can solve Africa’s food and nutrition insecurities.

She added that the work of her research group aims to add value to legumes and grains.

Her research into BGN has yielded two patents: 1) a process for the production of BGN milk (BGNM) and BGN probiotic yoghurt and (2) BamFibre, a natural, gluten-, lactose- and cholesterol-free fibre, which also assists with detoxification.

Prof Marshall Sheldon, Acting DVC: Research, Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, said this was a proud moment for Jideani and the Faculty of Applied Sciences.

Sheldon added that events of this nature are held to celebrate the welcoming of new full professors to the community of distinguished scholars.

She explained that becoming a senior member of the academic community should not be taken lightly as it comes with responsibilities.

Mechanical engineers doing it for themselves

Posted on September 8, 2017 by Abigail Calata

Technicians and research leaders in the department of Mechanical Engineering have become the first in CPUT to successfully convert a milling machine into a friction stir welding machine.

Named Nkunzimalanga, (meaning surprise) the friction stir welding machine is used to join two similar or dissimilar metal plates without introducing a spark, as is the norm with conventional welding methods. Friction stir welding is a greener, cleaner and safer way to join metals like aluminium, which could melt when subjected to more traditional welding techniques.

CPUT has become one of the few institutions in the country to own this kind of machine. All the components of the welding machine were designed and developed in its department of Mechanical Engineering and developing everything in-house helped bring the costs of the machine down.

The idea of friction stir welding was introduced by Dr Kadephi Mjali at the beginning of 2017 when he joined CPUT from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria. Mjali shared the idea with Dr Velaphi Msomi, lecturer and researcher in the Mechanical Engineering Department, hoping that the Department would help develop this niche area of research.

After consulting the literature, Msomi came upon the idea of converting a milling machine, which normally shreds metals, into a friction stir welding machine. This idea was then discussed with researcher and senior workshop technician, Vuyani Moni, for implementation. “Converting a milling machine into a friction stir welding machine would reduce the running costs of this research in the institution,” says Msomi.

Workshop technician Zukile Cobotwana, an expert in tool-making, made the stirring pin, while his colleagues, Moni and Malwande Masekwana, got to work on making the clamping fixture, which holds the plates being welded together in place. The pin and clamping fixture were then fixed to a milling machine, which rotates the stirring pin. The friction between the rotating pin and the metal plates generates the heat required to weld the aluminium plates together.

A couple of M. Eng students in the department are currently doing their research work on friction stir welding using different aluminium alloy plates. Msomi explains that aluminium is increasingly being used in both the automotive and aviation industries, “Aluminium is light, yet strong, so what we’re trying to find out is whether the welding of different alloys makes for stronger or weaker joints. If a stronger joint develops as a result, then that material can be used in the making of engineering components,” he adds.

Design research gets outing on dedicated website

Posted on September 8, 2017 by Abigail Calata

A website that serves as a one-stop shop for all things related to a CPUT design research project at was the logical next step in efforts to promote the university’s direction in the research niche of design for sustainability.

The website is the brainchild of the project coordinators, Dr Alettia Chisin and Prof Håkan Edeholdt, and is being managed by Corbin Raymond, a final-year Master’s student. It follows Raymond’s involvement in a three-phase design research project centred on design strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change.

The C-SAN-Futures (climate – South Africa and Norway – Futures) project sees not only CPUT collaborating with the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO), but also the NRF partnering with its Norwegian counterpart, the Research Council of Norway.

The website will contain information on the project phases and their different objectives. Users will also be directed to the project manifesto, design outputs and biographies of the various project participants. Published works and presentations that came about as a result of the project will also be showcased on the website.

It is aimed at students as well as academic staff doing research on the topic.

The project launched in 2014, when design students headed out to communities in the West Coast and Namibia to record their experiences of climate change. The aim was to devise design solutions to some of the challenges these communities encountered.

The second leg saw researchers joining the AfrikaBurn event, where Fiscilla the fish was burnt in order to draw attention to the importance of conserving water. Finally the “global-south” and “global-north” project participants gathered at the equator in Kenya with the aim to find sustainable solutions through “ProtoHype” and anticipating plausible sustainable designed futures through prototyping.

The outcomes of these different phases were articles, videos documenting researchers’ activities and presentations at international conferences.

Access to all these aspects of the research will be available on the website.

Bird diversity reduced by alien plants

Posted on September 8, 2017 by Kwanele Butana

A new study reveals that invasion by alien plants of areas between land and a river or stream negatively affects bird groupings and their important services such as seed dispersal and pollination.

Conducted jointly by Conservation and Marine Sciences lecturer, Dr Sjirk Geerts, and MTech student, Joy Mangachena, the new study explored the effects of river red gum trees on bird groupings. Brought to South Africa from Australia, river red gum has high economic value as a forestry species and is important for the beekeeping industry as a source of pollen and nectar in the dry season, but also has profound effects on biodiversity.

Their findings were recently published in the Journal of Ecological Research.

The study shows that 635 birds from 42 species occurred in near-pristine sites, while sites invaded by river red gum trees had a lower diversity with 507 birds from 26 species.

“Although alien trees are beneficial to a few generalist species (birds with a varied diet), important specialist species (birds with a limited diet) are lost,” says Joy.

Their study also found that frugivores (fruit-eating birds) showed reduced species richness and abundance. Frugivores perform an important role of seed dispersal in the ecosystem when they go about consuming fleshy-fruits.

A reduction in their numbers translates into a decrease of seed dispersal incidences and therefore affects the perpetuation of some native plants.

The study also showed that nectarivores (birds eating sugar-rich nectar) were entirely lost, thereby disrupting pollination which is a critical ecosystem service.

Nectar-feeding birds are important in moving pollen from the male parts to the female parts of flowers, a service they carry out when collecting nectar from flowers.

An absence of this group of birds would have a negative effect in the populations of many fynbos plants that rely on them.

Also contrary to the popular notion and anecdotal reports, the study confirms that alien trees have no impact on raptors.

“This study justifies the current clearing of invasive alien plants through government-funded programmes,” she says, “but also highlights the importance of post-clearing studies to guide restoration activities.”

Joy hopes that findings from studies such as this one may change how people view and have even come to accept the occurrence of invasive alien trees in our environment.

Read the complete paper here.

Indigenous fruits are good for you

Posted on August 4, 2017 by Candes Keating

Freely available indigenous fruits are a good resource for boosting your daily antioxidant intake.

This is according to researchers Daniela Kucich and Merrill Wicht, who recently conducted a study to determine if local indigenous fruits could provide an alternative source of antioxidants.

In the paper “South African indigenous fruits – Underutilized resource for boosting daily antioxidant intake among local indigent populations?” the researchers, who are based in the Department of Chemistry, argue that a large portion of the population live below the poverty line and are unable to consume the required amount of seven portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

“Advice on the importance of consuming a healthy, and at the same time affordable diet needs to be provided by suggesting alternatives among indigenous plants that are nutritionally superior to “exotic” fruits,” states the researchers.

As part of their study Kucich and Wicht focused on ten indigenous South African fruits, which included the wild plum, wild olive, colpoon, christmas berry, crossberry, waterberry, tortoise berry, bietou, num-num and the sour fig. The study saw them evaluate the antioxidant activity of the indigenous fruits and compare it with the popular Northern hemisphere blueberry and cranberry controls.

The study found that by introducing servings of as little as 25 g of wild plum, waterberry, num num or sour fig into the diet, the daily antioxidant intake can be boosted to within an acceptable range to support health. With wild plum giving the highest Antioxidant Potency Composite index, blueberry and cranberry ranked 4^th and 8^th, respectively.

The study found that all the indigenous fruits are being used by communities for various purposes, such as treatment of ailments or for the production of beverages. Others, such as the sour fig which ranked 12^th in the study, is sold in open markets as dried figs or used for the production of jam.

“As the results show, freely available indigenous fruits that have been traditionally used by rural peoples in South Africa have relatively high levels of antioxidant capacity and, therefore, constitute an untapped resource that deserves to be promoted more extensively in the community by health educators,” says Kucich and Wicht.

“As affordable, yet nutritionally superior alternatives to the relatively expensive “exotic” fruits, these could help in diversifying monotonous diets.”

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