Towards an Understanding the Outcomes of Housing Privatisation in South Africa

Housing privatisation is commonly understood in political economic terms. The proponents of privatisation argue that the provision of ownership enables households to have security of tenure, which in turn leads to increased housing investment, the development of a secondary housing market and a source of income for the local authority by means of land tax. On the other hand, critics of housing privatisation suggest that such processes lead to landlordism and an increased dependence on mortgage finance. This paper uses historical methodology to trace the historical lack of secure tenure for urban black South Africans. The data consists of 395 structured questionnaires conducted in the case study area of Mangaung, the former black township of Bloemfontein. The results suggest that housing privatisation processes in South Africa cannot be viewed only through a political economic lens.     

Investigation of micro-milling process parameters for surface roughness and milling depth

The main objective of this study is to investigate the micro-milling performance of the AISI H13 with different process parameters namely laser power, scan speed, frequency, and fill spacing using 30W fiber laser marking machine and to find the optimal operation conditions for minimum surface roughness and maximum milling depth. The 108 different combinations occurred with the interaction of each level of the parameters used in this study. Therefore, the main contribution of this paper to the related literature is that it produces new evidence regarding the effects of the multi-scan times on both surface roughness and milling depth. The experimental results are showed that 0.03?mm of fill spacing, the highest scan speed (800?mm/s), lowest frequency (20?kHz), and laser power (60%) produced better surface roughness, which is 1.75???m. The deeper cavity on the geometry is obtained under the experimental combination as 200?mm/s of scan speed, 0.02?mm of fill spacing, 60% of laser power, and 40?kHz of frequency, which is 195???m. The regression analysis was used to develop a mathematical model and determine the effect of process parameters on the surface roughness and milling depth. The results of subsequent tests verifies regression models.     

Effect of Welding Parameters on the Microstructure and Strength of Friction Stir Weld Joints in Twin Roll Cast EN AW Al-Mn1Cu Plates

Twin roll cast EN AW Al-Mn1Cu plates were butt welded with the friction stir welding process which employed a non-consumable tool, tilted by 1.5° and 3° with respect to the plate normal, rotated in a clockwise direction at 400 and 800 rpm, while traversing at a fixed rate of 80 mm/min along the weld line. Microstructural observations and microhardness tests were performed on sections perpendicular to the tool traverse direction. Tensile tests were carried out at room temperature on samples cut perpendicular to the weld line. The ultimate tensile strength of the welded EN AW Al-Mn1Cu plates improved with increasing tool rotation speed and decreasing tool tilt angle. This marked improvement in ultimate tensile strength is attributed to the increase in the heat input owing to an increased frictional heat generation. There appears to be a perfect correlation between the ultimate tensile strength and the size of the weld zone. The fracture surfaces of the base plate and the welded plates are distinctly different. The former is dominated by dimples typical of ductile fractures. A vast majority of the intermetallic particles inside the weld zones are too small to generate dimples during a tensile test. The fracture surface of the welded plates is thus characterized by occasional dimples that are elongated in the same direction suggesting a tensile tearing mechanism.     

Characterization of fatty acid profile by FFFS

The purpose of the study was to assess potential application of front face fluorescence spectroscopy as a rapid and non-destructive technique to discriminate between fats of animal and plant origin based on their fatty acid profiles, and to predict concentration of fatty acids from fluorescence spectra. Vitamin E emission spectra (300–500 nm) of butterfat and vegetable oil samples were recorded with excitation wavelength set at 295 nm. Fatty acid composition of the samples was determined by gas chromatography. Principal component analysis and partial least squares regression analysis were applied to the gas chromatography and fluorescence spectroscopy data. The butter-fats and vegetable oils were discriminated based on the total saturated and unsaturated fatty acids respectively. Tocopherols and tocotrienols accounted for the variability among various oils. A good prediction model was established with R ² = 0.745–0.992 for saturated fatty acids. The unsaturated fatty acids were characterized by low coefficients of determination (R ² < 0.339). The fatty acid profiles predicted from fluorescence spectra did not show significant difference to those determined by gas chromatography used as references. A good association was established between the two data tables. The study demonstrated great potential of front face fluorescence spectroscopy to rapidly discriminate between fats of animal and plant origin, and predict their saturated fatty acids composition, which could in turn be used for detection of milk fat adulteration with vegetable oil.     

Comparison of different irrigation activation techniques on smear layer removal: An in vitro study

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of different irrigation activation techniques on smear layer removal. About 80 single‐rooted human maxillary central teeth were decoronated to a standardized length.The samples were prepared by using ProTaper system to size F4 and divided into eight equal groups (n = 10) according to the final irrigation activation technique; distilled water was used as an irrigant in Group 1. The other groups were treated with 2.5% NaOCl and 17% EDTA, respectively. Conventional syringe irrigation (CSI) was used in Group 2. Irrigation solutions were activated using passive ultrasonic irrigation (PUI, Group 3), EndoVac apical negative pressure (ANP, Group 4), diode laser (Group 5), Nd:YAG laser (Group 6), Er:YAG laser (Group 7), and Er:YAG laser using with photon‐induced photoacoustic streaming (PIPS?, Group 8). Teeth were split longitudinally and subjected to scanning electron microscope (SEM). PIPS showed the best removal of smear layer when compared with PUI, ANP, Nd:YAG, and Er:YAG, but the difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Smear layer scores obtained with PIPS technique were statistically significant different from those of obtained with control, CSI and diode laser groups (P < 0.05). All experimental irrigation techniques except ANP and diode laser removed smear layer more effectively at the coronal and middle levels compared to the apical level (P < 0.05). Irrigation activated/delivered techniques except diode laser have a positive effect on removing of smear layer. Microsc. Res. Tech. 78:230–239, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Fingerprinting of South African ordinary Portland cements, cement blends and mortars for identification purposes — Discrimination with starplots and PCA

This investigation is an attempt to analyse some of the current commercial cements and cement blends in South Africa and mortars produced from them (1:3 mixtures of cementitious material with different sands) for a suite of minor and trace elements that will provide a unique fingerprint of the final product. It was found in both the case of the OPC and the blended cements that a suite of such elements can be successfully employed to uniquely characterise the materials. The contribution of such a fingerprint is that it can provide valuable information in the case of a forensic analysis for discrimination purposes.     

Friction stir welding of twin-roll cast EN AW 3003 plates

Twin-roll cast EN AW 3003 plates were butt-welded with friction stir welding and their structural features were identified. Sound welds were obtained in twin-roll cast EN AW 3003 plates at tool rotation speeds higher than 500 rpm. The ultimate tensile strength of the welded plates was 134 ± 3 MPa, comparable to the ultimate tensile strength of the original plate, at 146 MPa. The stirring action of the pin fractured the interdendritic network and coarse eutectic cells, replacing the dendritic features of the base plate with a uniform dispersion of very fine intermetallic particles across the stir zone. The thermal and mechanical cycles introduced during FSW relaxed the supersaturation of the cast plate, leading to the precipitation of intermetallic particles. This precipitation activity produced a particle population gradient that peaks inside the stir zone and dictates the etching response across the plate section. The material in direct contact with the rotating pin is severely deformed and is exposed to frictional heating and inevitably undergoes dynamic recrystallization. The very fine grain structure thus obtained suffers abnormal grain growth when annealed at high temperatures due to the effective pinning of the grain boundaries by the fine particles.     

Enhanced biosorption of nickel(II) ions by silica-gel-immobilized waste biomass: biosorption characteristics in batch and dynamic flow mode

Batch and dynamic flow biosorption studies were carried out using the waste biomass entrapped in silica-gel matrix for the removal of nickel(II) ions from synthetic solutions and real wastewater. Batch biosorption conditions were examined with respect to initial pH, S/L ratio, contact time, and initial nickel ion concentration. Zeta potential measurements showed that immobilized biosorbent was negatively charged in the pH range of 3.0-8.0. The immobilized biomass was found to possess relatively high biosorption capacity (98.01 mg g(-1)), and biosorption equilibrium was established in a short time of operation (5 min). The equilibrium data were followed by Langmuir, Freundlich, and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm models. Scanning electron microscope analysis was used to screen the changes on the surface structure of the waste biomass after immobilization and nickel(II) biosorption. Sorbent-sorbate interactions were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The applicability of sorbent system was investigated in a continuous mode, and column studies were performed under different flow rate, column size, and biosorbent dosage. Also, the proposed sorbent system was successfully used to remove the nickel ions from industrial wastewater in dynamic flow treatment mode. The results showed that silica-immobilized waste biomass was a low-cost promising sorbent for sequester of nickel(II) ions from synthetic and real wastewater.     

A 2D analysis of surface roughness for prediction of boiling incipience

Surface roughness is well known to affect the initiation of boiling. Analysis of cavities on surfaces with a wide range of RMS roughness is carried out. Five aluminium surfaces, from polished (0.062 μm) to very rough (12.53 μm), are studied. The statistical cavity distribution obtained from 2D cross-sectional profile is discussed. The results obtained show that the cavity distribution on the surface is homogeneous. Moreover, small cavities enclosed in bigger cavities are observed to be the major independent nucleation sites.