Podcasts about industrial research csir

Anton Nahman, Principal Researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), who led this landmark study on Marine plastic debris costing SA an estimate of R14.1 billion a year. Presenter John Maytham is an actor and author-turned-talk radio veteran and seasoned journalist. His show serves a round-up of local and international news coupled with the latest in business, sport, traffic and weather. The host’s eclectic interests mean the program often surprises the audience with intriguing book reviews and inspiring interviews profiling artists. A daily highlight is Rapid Fire, just after 5:30pm. CapeTalk fans call in, to stump the presenter with their general knowledge questions. Another firm favourite is the humorous Thursday crossing with award-winning journalist Rebecca Davis, called “Plan B”. Thank you for listening to a podcast from Afternoon Drive with John Maytham Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 15:00 and 18:00 (SA Time) to Afternoon Drive with John Maytham broadcast on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/BSFy4Cn or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/n8nWt4x Subscribe to the CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/sbvVZD5 Follow us on social media: CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lester Kiewit speaks to Dr Mathetha Mokonyama, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) transport systems and operations impact area manager. They discuss Minister Gwede Mantashe's assertion that he would like to see petrol and diesel cost just R14. One of the proposals is to remove the fuel levy from the price, but what effect would this have?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lester Kiewit speaks to Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) transport systems and operations impact area manager Dr Mathetha Mokonyama, about the soon to be tabled Fuel Price Intervention Plan, which government hopes will lower the cost of living. Dr Mokonyama discusses the options open to government.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As vote counting progresses and results begin to come in, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) are once again involved in the South African elections. Since forming a partnership in 1999, the SABC and CSIR have consistently delivered accurate and timely election results and predictions to television, radio, and digital audiences after each voting day. Sakina Kamwendo spoke to the CSIR's Dr Ndumiso Cingo and SABC News Specialist Researcher, Maswele Ralebona

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is using an election prediction model to predict results for the 2024 national and provincial elections. The CSIR says it uses data collected from previous elections to predict current results. For more on this Elvis Presslin spoke to Dr. Ndumiso Cingo, Strategic Partnerships Manager for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist. South Africa's Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), through the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has launched the first of three new government-led collaborative circular economy initiatives focusing on priority economic sectors that were identified by government in the science, technology and innovation (STI) 2022 to 2032 decadal plan. The first of the three initiatives, the South African Circular Minerals and Metals Initiative (SACMMI), was launched in Pretoria, on April 11. The other two, the South African Circular Agricultural Initiative (SACAI) and the South African Circular Manufacturing Initiative (SACMI), will follow. The mandate of these initiatives is to drive sector-specific circular economy STI to support the development of these sectors and to fast-track the uptake of circular interventions. "The circular economy is not a nice to have. It's also not an environmental agenda. It's a social and economic and an environmental imperative for every country as we face growing resource scarcity," DSI and CSIR circular innovation South Africa manager Professor Linda Godfrey explained. She revealed that the SACMMI was aimed at creating an opportunity to embed circular economy STI within the National System of Innovation (NSI), as well as to build local and international STI partnerships. Ultimately, the goal is to provide real benefits to the local mining sector. She noted that the DSI would publish calls for expressions of interest to host the SACAI and the SACMI, respectively. Godfrey emphasised that the circular economy was not about waste management, but rather about sustainable resource management in support of development. She said that a circular economy transition was an economic, social and environmental imperative for every country globally, and that South Africa's universities and science councils would be crucial to evidencing this transition. They would also play a central role in derisking circular economy solutions and developing new innovative circular economy solutions. "We look forward to collaborating with public- and private-sector partners, and driving impact through these new circular economy initiatives," she said. Godfrey said government recognised the circular economy as a new source of economic growth for a re-industrialised and modernised economy, with a strong role for STI. She explained that investment in STI for a circular economy would provide the means to unlock technology opportunities through technology development, localisation and adaptation. It would also help evidence decision-making in both the public and private sectors, and drive policy development and implementation. Such investment would also support businesses to derisk and scale interventions, thereby bringing academia closer to business, especially small to medium-sized enterprises. "The circular economy is not new to South Africa. We've been doing a lot of these things for many years. We just never called it circularity. We haven't yet achieved the scale for meaningful impact. How do we assist in fast-tracking the adoption and scaling of these interventions?" Godfrey said. "I honestly do believe that the circular economy provides an entirely different future or trajectory in terms of our growth as an African continent. With that comes the exciting opportunity for small businesses. I don't even think we've scratched the surface in terms of those opportunities for the continent," Godfrey said. Mandela Mining Precinct (MMP) executive director Julie Courtnage said the SACMMI provided an opportunity to build a national system of innovation and capability, to directly support industry and other sector stakeholders in the adoption and acceleration of circular practices and technologies. She noted that collaboration and partnerships would be instrumental to the success of this initiative. So far, the MMP and CSIR were fully o...

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) research group leader in cybersecurity Dr Zubeida Dawood noted on Tuesday that the use of disinformation poses a serious threat to the upcoming elections, by manipulating public opinion and potentially influencing the election outcome. Dawood was speaking during a CSIR media briefing on combatting fake news and misinformation during elections, where she said that it was crucial for voters to be vigilant and discerning in the face of potential manipulation. She noted that social media played a significant role in the rapid spread of disinformation, owing to its wide user reach and viral nature, urging strengthened cybersecurity measures in advanced technologies to detect manipulated content. She added that this could be possible through collaboration between government, technology companies, research institutes and universities, as well as resiliently working against disinformation. University of Pretoria Data Science for Social Impact research group's Professor Vukosi Marivate noted that there were major changes in access to social media data, saying policies and regulation needed to be available to allow researchers access to the data. He said social media and information dissemination was worth understanding and studying, particularly a need to study mis/disinformation on the African continent and understanding gaps in South Africa's current policy making. Meanwhile, with the country's elections relying heavily on secure digital infrastructure, Dawood noted that CSIR's Mzansi advanced cybersecurity learning factory could empower the country's Independent Electoral Commission's (IEC's) workers and officials by equipping them with training on how to prevent phishing attacks and malware infections that can manipulate election data. "…so building a skilled cybersecurity workforce is key, and the Mzansi advanced cybersecurity learning factory can cultivate a pool of cybersecurity professionals who can safeguard election systems against evolving threats," she said. HUMAN-CENTRIC FRAMEWORK She announced that the CSIR had developed a human-centric framework for detecting fake news, which she said would be available to the public soon. She said the framework was still in its research stages, noting that it was important for researchers to package it in a way that average South Africans could consume it. She highlighted that a human-centric framework fostered trust by engaging communities directly, encouraging dialogue and leveraging local knowledge to verify information. "…once we get the work published in our articles we are working on creating more public consumption, probably in a month or two it will be out there for the public," she explained. She highlighted that at the moment the framework was English-based, however, the CSIR was collaborating with colleagues from the University of Pretoria and University of Cape Town for natural language processing. Dawood noted that the organisation recognised that technological tools may lack cultural nuance but human judgment can interpret information for diverse cultural backgrounds, ensuring accuracy in identifying misinformation.

With the African mining indaba currently underway in Cape Town, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is looking at innovations that can help make the mining industry safer. SA's mining industry recorded a total of 55 fatalities during 2023, a 22% increase from the deaths in the previous year. Several mining incidents and fatalities have been reported, with the major one last year in November at the Impala Platinum mine killing 11 workers and leaving 75 injured. Now to help us on ways to avert mining incidents Elvis Presslin spoke to Riaan Bergh, Impact Area Manager at CSIR

My guest today is Dr Justina Onumah from Ghana. She is a Senior research scientist with expertise in the field of economics of innovation and development.  Currently working at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ghana. Justina is passionate about the science-policy interface.  She is a former Next Einstein Forum ambassador, mother, wife & mentor. In this episode, she talks about the root of her science, her passion for #STEM advocacy, and her current research interests. Tune in!Support the showFollow the show on:Twitter: @RootofscipodInstagram: @Rootofscipod YouTube: The Root Of The Science PodcastFacebook: The Root of The Science Podcast LinkedIn: The Root Of The Science PodcastWebsite

Statistics released by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) underlined how significantly loadshedding has intensified during 2022, which is the first year that the majority of the rotational cuts have been implemented at Stage 4, representing 4 000 MW of simultaneous cuts. It is also the first year since 2019 that Stage 6 loadshedding was implemented, and for far longer periods (nearly ten times longer) than was the case three years ago. The publication, released amid ongoing loadshedding by Eskom, shows that more rotational cuts were implemented in the three months from July to September than in any previous full year since the introduction of loadshedding by Eskom in 2007. It also confirms that there was more loadshedding in September alone than during 2020 as a whole. Produced by Warrick Pierce and Monique Le Roux, the publication shows that 5 761 GWh of energy had been shed by the end of September, and 1 949 hours disrupted. Loadshedding contributing the lion's share of the 4 315 GWh of demand-side response implemented during the nine-month period, with the balance arising from interruptible contracts. In 2021, previously South Africa's worst-ever year for loadshedding, 2 521 GWh of energy was shed and 1 169 hours disrupted. The intensification of loadshedding during the year led to the July 25 announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa of a series of interventions to address ongoing power cuts, including the establishment of a National Energy Crisis Committee (Necom). Three priority levers were identified to close the prevailing supply/demand gap, namely: improving the performance of Eskom's coal fleet; procuring additional capacity from the non-Eskom sources of supply and scaling up demand-side management. To support the stabilisation for the system Necom is also targeting the procurement of a further 2 295 MW during the coming 12 months, which could arise from ongoing and emergency procurement programmes, as well as imports from the region. Some 1 450 MW of demand reduction is being targeted through various interventions, including power alerts and other measures to change consumer behaviour. Recent market reform allowing embedded generation plant, initially below 100 MW in size, but eventually of any size, is expected to unlock further private supply, as is an Eskom initiative to lease grid-ready land parcels to independent power producers and generation investments by municipalities. Eskom, meanwhile, expects to add 2 200 MW over the coming year from interventions primarily at six coal stations, namely Tutuka, Kendal, Duvha, Majuba, Matla and Kusile. The maintenance effort will seek to decrease unplanned outages, which have contributed to the fall in the fleet energy availability factor (EAF), while commissioning the remaining new-build units, while addressing defects. The CSIR statistics confirmed that the EAF of the entire Eskom fleet continued to decline in 2022, with the average weekly EAF for the year to date having fallen to 59.1% from 61.7% in 2021 and 65% in 2020. The CSIR attributes the decline in the EAF largely to the increase in unplanned outages experienced by Eskom and also suggests that there has been a “flattening out” of the EAF during the year. The capacity factors of the coal and nuclear plants both fell to 52.4% during the first half of 2022, having been 55.7% and 53% respectively in the corresponding period of 2021. The statistics analyse by the CSIR cover all utility-scale generation technologies, including coal, nuclear, hydro, solar photovoltaics (PV), onshore wind, concentrated solar power (CSP), pumped storage and diesel-fuelled open cycle gas turbines. They show that during the first half of 2022, the total system demand was similar to the year before, but still 3 TWh (2.5%) below the pre-Covid lockdown levels of 2019. Coal continued to dominate the South African energy mix, meeting more than 80%, or 113 TWh, of the total system load. The contribution of wind, solar PV...

Guest:  Mogesh  Naidoo | Research Scientist  at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Wasanga is joined by Mogesh Naidoo, Research Scientist at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to talk about the City of Joburg reopening the vandalised air quality monitoring station to clean up the air we share and if that is good idea. The City of Joburg says it's making concerted efforts to stop polluters and cut emissions. The City's Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Station in Davidsonville, Roodepoort was reopened last week as part of efforts to create awareness about the air pollution problem in Johannesburg. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Heartiest Congratulations to Dr N. Kalaiselvi on her appointment as Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India's largest research organisation. This makes her the first woman director general of India's premier eight-decade-old research and development (R&D) organisation. Please listen in about Dr Kalaiselvi's journey of climbing the leadership ladder at CSIR, her work & passion for lithium battery technology, projects and her message to young girls & women who are interested to make their carrier in emerging technology research & development area. Brining her earlier address at IESA's ‘Women in Energy forum'; as the first woman director of the CSIR-CECRI, on this occassion. 

Even though government paved the way for municipalities to generate or procure their own electricity from independent power producers (IPPs) a little under two years ago, only 25% of them are equipped with either a basic or comprehensive small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) process, or are putting one in place. A further 25% of municipalities do not have the internal capacity to establish or manage these processes, but may come do so with some support, while the remaining 50% of municipalities are not in a state to handle any additional responsibility, owing to long-standing financial difficulty or mismanagement issues, Sustainable Energy Africa director Mark Borchers noted this week. He shared his insight on how large-scale embedded generation was being rolled out across local government during a webinar hosted by the Association of Municipal Electricity Utilities and the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers on August 23. He explained that while SSEG had been happening at municipalities for quite some time, and many had managed this reasonably well, bringing large energy users into the network was a “whole new movement” that needed understanding of legalities and required proper processes to be in place. Among the local government authorities that have successfully pulled off SSEG and larger-scale embedded generation is the City of Ekurhuleni, in Gauteng. The city's chief engineer, Hendrik Raedeni, said the metro had an embedded generation integration framework in place, as well as an IPP programme. Ekurhuleni comprises nine towns, each with an independent distribution grid. Through the city's IPP programme, which was launched in 2017, 47 IPPs have been appointed through a request for proposals process to supply electricity in the metro. The city has signed 90% of the required power purchase agreements (PPA) with these IPPs, with three IPPs busy with grid integration studies at the moment and ten having letters of intent to fund from investors in place. The estimated start of construction for some of the IPPs is December this year and January next year, while the first generation units from these projects will be online in 12 months' time. The city only accepted embedded IPPs with capacities of 5 MW and above, with no wheeling involved. Ekurhuleni does have a wheeling framework in place nonetheless, and believes it can present a new revenue stream opportunity for itself and other local government authorities. The 47 IPPs have total proposed capacity of 683 MW, of which 298 MW will comprise solar, 139 MW waste-to-energy and 195 MW gas. Raedeni said Ekurhuleni hoped to save just under R14-billion through this programme, which would have otherwise been paid to Eskom over 20 years. The programme helped to ensure more affordable energy for customers, avoided power losses as no long transmission lines were involved, created jobs and mitigated against climate change. To pull off a successful energy procurement programme, Raedeni suggested municipalities start with small but fundable projects, and ensure good credit ratings, since they aid PPA fundability, as does good payment records to Eskom. “Investors want risk to be shared and need to be assured government will pay its dues,” he stressed. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) principal researcher Warrick Pierce, meanwhile, emphasised that the electricity market was evolving and that municipalities' business models and planning processes should do the same. He highlighted that they could no longer remain dependent on one source of supply, nor remain a traditional bulk reseller of electricity. The CSIR has witnessed an evolution to more decentralised energy operations, with more regional and local municipal energy master plans arising. Pierce said Municipal Energy Master Plans (MEMPs) proved useful in balancing supply and demand, and were considered least cost options, if done well and based on long-term planning. The CSIR has, in collaboration with...

News about extreme weather events has become a monthly occurrence, highlighting the importance of embedding some measure of infrastructure and societal resilience in the evolving climate. Damage to the built and natural environments disrupts socioeconomic activity, but the general public, naturally, tends to focus on visibly dramatic and/or traumatic events, often ignoring the more understated impacts of climate change. For example, while most people know about the wildfires that affected Europe last month, far fewer are aware that France had trouble cooling some of its nuclear reactors because the record-breaking heatwave meant that the rivers were too warm. As reported by news agency Reuters on July 15, four of the nuclear power plants operated by Electricite de France had to impose production restrictions because of higher-than-expected water temperatures in and along the Rhône and Garonne rivers. Reuters also reported the potential of further impacts on electricity production, as “some coal-to-power stations also need cooling water from rivers”. Moreover, while drought can often invoke visions of queues at water tankers and failing crops, the impact on sewage infrastructure is rarely considered. During the launch of the book Towards the Blue-Green City: Building Urban Water Resilience in June, co-author and University of the Western Cape Institute for Water Studies' Professor Jenny Day noted that “less water flowing in sewers [means that] the sewers are more vulnerable to blockages and, therefore, to overflows”. Further, as people flush toilets less frequently to conserve water, the amount of sewage reaching wastewater treatment plants decreases, creating a “vicious cycle of failing wastewater treatment plants, [even] less water available, and less effluent, which could've perhaps been recycled”. Both examples illustrate that the effects of climate change can be much more subtle than physical destruction and, as international organisation the Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA) notes, the interconnected nature of infrastructure systems means that significant disruption in one aspect can “exert a significant human toll”. GCA CEO Patrick Verkooijen notes that “every corporation and individual is vulnerable to climate risk because they all depend, to some degree, on infrastructure. Ensuring that these infrastructure systems can operate under future climate scenarios is vital for us and our economies”. He adds that the cost of infrastructure damage will increase exponentially by 2050. Citing Ghana as an example, he notes that climate risk could lead to $3.9-billion worth of damage to the transport sector by 2050. This would, in addition to strangling the Ghanaian economy, risk cutting off 80% of the population from access to healthcare. The costs of extreme weather events are escalating. The floods experienced in KwaZulu-Natal earlier this year killed more than 400 people, immobilised business activity in parts of the province and caused considerable infrastructure damage, with Parliament's Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Flood Disaster Relief and Recovery estimating that repairs would cost at least R17-billion. It is, therefore, evident that infrastructure resilience is key to long-term sustainability because, as Deloitte Africa Climate and Sustainability leader Mark Victor notes, resilient systems improve the ability of a society to withstand shocks. Creating infrastructure resilience requires that local governments understand the current and future impact of climate change on the built and natural environment, and all the potential implications of climate risks. They should also model the risk impacts and use such models to create a comprehensive and strategic plan to help drive resilience, he explains. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) senior researcher Willemien van Niekerk notes that, while the CSIR and other entities have been collecting and interpreting data to assist government in developing climate-res...

As Eskom consults a range of experts to assess potential solutions for resolving the load-shedding crisis, independent energy analyst Clyde Mallinson has a proposal that he believes will end rotational power cuts in two years without creating stranded assets or increasing tariffs. The proposed solution is based on detailed modelling of the performance of the current system, which a new Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) report shows to be relying increasingly on rotational cuts of between 1 GW and 4 GW to balance supply and demand. In fact, the CSIR's latest statistical analysis shows that 2021 was the country's worst-ever for load-shedding, with an upper limit of 2 521 GWh shed, affecting 13% (1 169 hours) of the year. For the period to the end of May, there has already been 1 023 GWh of load-shedding, affecting 19% (677 hours) of the year to date and placing 2022 on a path to setting a new load-shedding record. To reverse this economically destructive trend in the shortest possible time, Mallinson is proposing that South Africa, through its large metropolitan councils and district municipalities, as well as through energy intensive clients, invests in a 6 GW/24 000 MWh battery storage fleet over a 24-month period, while accelerating a large-scale solar and wind programme in parallel. Such front-loading of battery storage would, Mallinson's model shows, halt load-shedding even in the absence of additional wind and solar, which would then have more construction time to ramp up to the scale required to free up space for coal-fleet maintenance and to cater for progressive coal decommissioning. Such an approach would also eliminate the need for gas-to-power capacity, including power ships, which run a growing stranded-asset risk as the economics of a solar-wind-storage (SWS) system continue to improve and as the world intensifies it efforts to exit fossil fuels. Mallinson's modelling shows that, notwithstanding its unreliability, the coal fleet is typically able to deliver 22 GW on most days, before ramping down after the evening peak. An analysis of a week in May this year shows that there was potential for the coal fleet to have delivered an additional 78 GWh of electricity if it was not being ramped up and down, but rather run more consistently. “During that week, there was more surplus energy under a steady state coal curve then what was required to be shed during load-shedding. “So, the question then, is why don't we run the coal at that steady-state speed?”, Mallinson asked during an interview with Engineering News. The answer is that there is no way currently to absorb that coal surplus other than by recharging the upper dams at the country's pumped-hydro schemes. Eskom is, however, only able to fill up or recharge the pumped storage at a maximum capacity of 2 700 MW, and normally does this during the night. On most days, Eskom uses the pumped storage in generation mode, and is not able to easily switch quickly between charge and generation mode. The pumped storage units typically generate at less than maximum capacity, as full capacity is held back to maintain a safe reserve margin in case of further coal unit breakdowns or a depletion of diesel stocks. “It's a big storage facility, yes, but it has a capacity constraint that can be best described as a large water bottle with a very thin neck.” The solution, using Mallinson's analogy, would be to create many smaller storage bottles with thick necks, which in the electricity industry would imply distributed short-duration battery storage facilities with a capacity large enough to absorb the surplus, as well as handle the short duration peaks. “We will then fill that short-duration storage with the surplus that we can generate if we run the coal fleet at a steady state and we will release the energy from that additional storage at peak times and eliminate load-shedding.” Should the coal fleet not be in a position to supply 22 000 GW, Mallinson believes ...

South Africa could be sitting on its next gold rush – green hydrogen With an an abundance of solar and wind resources in Saldanha Bay to supply large amounts of renewable energy, experts have urged that a green hydrogen economy be developed in the area as it reportedly had the potential to become a promising hydrogen fuel export hub. In a series of webinars by the Saldanha Bay Innovation Campus, where various panels of experts elaborated on the future of hydrogen fuel in the energy transition, Saldanha Bay was hailed as a prime location for the production of green hydrogen. To discuss the market opportunity and what needs to happen to unlock them Michael Avery is joined by Thomas Roos from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and author of an authoritative paper on powerfuels in SA; Katrina Abhold, Project Lead – Global Opportunities at the Global Maritime Forum (GMF) & Adinda Preller, SBIDZ Executive: Transaction & Investor Support

Researchers at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) briefed the media on Friday on some of the organisation's research, development and innovation (RDI) efforts aimed at addressing the HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis (TB) epidemics in South Africa. CSIR researcher Dr Advaita Singh shed light on an innovative plant-based, highly potent anti-HIV antibodies research initiative. “The CSIR's plant-based anti-HIV antibodies research is aimed at developing a cost-effective pre prophylaxis vaccine which will passively immunise against HIV/AIDS, pre and post exposure. This initiative was inspired by the desire to empower young girls and women to protect themselves against the virus as studies have indicated that women are theoretically, at higher risk of HIV acquisition,” said Singh. Working with the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), the CSIR is developing broadly neutralising antibodies against HIV-1, the most widespread human immunodeficiency virus, for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. CSIR scientists and their research partners were able to demonstrate the ability to engineer tobacco plants to produce unique glycosylation and rare sulfation post-translational modifications, a result that is not usually seen in plants. Glycosylation is a biochemical process during which a glycan – a large carbohydrate molecule – attaches to a protein, a lipid, or another organic molecule. The glycoengineered Nicotiana benthamiana (a relative of the tobacco plant) expressed two broadly neutralising antibodies named CAP256-VRC26 08 and CAP256-VRC26 09. These two antibodies were originally isolated by collaboration Aids research centre CAPRISA and the NICD from a South African HIV positive patient during a trial conducted by CAPRISA. The outcome showed that the antibodies from the CAP256 lineage were the most active, with high potency and broad specificity. “We still have a number of steps to get through, as the research process commonly requires, before this technology is available in the market, however, the CSIR and its partners intends on making it accessible to patients through an industry partner once it is ready,” added Singh. Another technology presented by the CSIR at the media briefing aims to provide rural areas with a diagnostic assay that will test for HIV and TB simultaneously using one device in the comfort of the patient's home. CSIR lab technician Kanyane Malatji provided insight into a multiplex HIV and TB point-of-care diagnostic test being developed for use in remote and rural areas. “The effective management of patients infected with HIV and TB is restricted by separate diagnoses. The situation is exacerbated in remote areas where patients must either travel long distances to reach a healthcare facility or wait a long time before obtaining their TB diagnostic results. Therefore, through our multiplex HIV and TB point-of-care diagnostic assay, we hope to mitigate these challenges with the objective of improving treatment outcomes for patients in rural areas,” said Malatji. The locally developed diagnostic test uses a solid surface that couples the HIV and TB antigens and makes use of a locally produced fluorescence detector. “The benefits of this technology are that it offers a cost-effective solution with a low turnaround time of approximately 2 hours. Additionally, no laboratory infrastructure is required, the device is easy to use and can be performed at point-of-care without highly trained personnel,” added Malatji. The CSIR's multiplex HIV and TB point-of-care diagnostic assay is funded by government and the plant-based anti-HIV antibodies research work is funded by the Department of Science and Innovation and the South African Medical Research Council.

Opportunities brought about by load shedding in SA is the focus for this edition of the Business Day Spotlight. Our host Mudiwa Gavaza is joined by Gladwin Malishe, deputy president for the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry; together with Clinton Carter-Brown, head of the energy centre at The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Topics of discussion include: impressions of the load shedding season that SA is in; opportunities brought on by the energy generation deficit; government policies needed to ensure that business can invest in provisioning energy services; the alternative power technologies available to people; and a look at how Eskom can be better placed to meet the country's energy needs?

In today's daily round-up of export, trade and commodity finance news, TXF's Max Thompson covers the latest stories and trends across the market: The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Meridian Economics, on behalf of German development bank KfW, have issued an RFI on potential green hydrogen projects in South Africa Glencore has announced that Tony Hayward will retire as chairman of the mining group and Kalidas Madhavpeddi will be appointed as the new chairman on 30 July Coriolis Technologies has joined Surecomp's Marketplace platform as an accredited member Like what you hear? Hit subscribe to stay up to date and for all the latest news online visit www.txfnews.com today.

As South Africans continue to experience load shedding due to the high winter demand for electricity and breakdowns at Eskom's power units, how much worse can load shedding get in the country? Bongani speaks to Dr Jarrad Wright, energy planner at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest today is Dr. Bathabile Ramalapa from South Africa. In this episode, we learn that at a young age her interest in science came from the realization that scientists are the source of innovation and develop products that solve problems faced by people. This fueled her desire to pursue a field in STEM and  Bathabile takes us through her academic journey.  In doing so, we find out how she went on to pursue a dual PhD in chemical science and pharmaceutical sciences where she spent 2years in Belgium and France respectively to complete this program. We then discuss how she managed to do this dual program and the perks of traveling across Europe in the process! Currently, she is a senior researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which focuses on the development of advanced drug delivery systems for drugs presenting low absorption, low bioavailability, toxicity and overall patient non-compliance specifically for diseases with a high burden in Africa. She tells us more about this research and its importance. Lastly, we discuss candidly why she's passionate about the representation of black women in STEM and loads more, tune in! @drbathabs on Twitter & Instagram, Bathabile Ramalapa on LinkedInRemember to review and rate the show!Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show (https://paypal.me/RootofSciPod?locale.x=en_US)

Six steps could be taken immediately by the South African government and the energy regulator to unlock more self-generation investment by residential, commercial, industrial, mining and agricultural consumers so as to minimise power shortages and reduce the threat of load-shedding, a newly released paper argues. Published by Meridian Economics and authored by Dr Grové Steyn and Celeste Renaud the briefing note argues that distributed generation projects represent the quickest response to the country’s power crisis, but that they are currently being stymied by “regulatory red tape”. The six reforms proposed in the paper, titled ‘Cutting Through Red Tape: A Shortcut to Solving South Africa’s Power Crisis’, include: defining generation for ‘own use’ in Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act (ERA) as any project where the electricity offtaker has an equity stake in the generation facility, and exempting these projects from market-access licensing, even if grid-connected and regardless of size; lifting the current licence-exemption threshold for all other grid-connected projects from 1 MW to at least 50 MW; simplifying and fast-tracking the registration of licence-exempt projects (between 100 kW and 50 MW) by setting up an online portal for the processing of applications and for providing a transparent record of projects being implemented; establishing an online process for the submission of relevant documents and approvals for generation licence applications for all projects greater than 50 MW, rather than requiring applicants to navigate the current process, which is geared towards large projects with complex contractual and fuel-supply agreements; requiring the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to publish a register of all licences issued on its website and add all new applications within a week of receipt, with status updates of licence awards and reasons for a licence refusal; and exempting battery storage projects from market-access registration or licensing, in recognition that the technology primarily provides grid services rather than generation. “These changes do not require new primary legislation and can be implemented within a few months by gazetting new regulations as allowed for in the ERA 4 of 2006 and streamlining rules and processes at Nersa,” the authors argue. Under recent concessions made by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe and confirmed by Nersa on October 30, all grid-connected self-generation projects above 1 MW supplying electricity for on-site consumption or with power wheeled through the grid have been granted Ministerial approval for deviation from the Integrated Resource Plan. However, these projects require a licence, with only projects below 1 MW in size currently eligible for registration. Nersa has also indicated that it is committed to processing licence applications “timeously”, with applicants for both licences and registrations having previously complained about the slow pace of the regulator’s approval processes. The potential role for self-generation to contribute to addressing the country’s prevailing supply/demand imbalance has also been highlighted in a recent publication produced by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), title ‘Setting up for the 2020s: Addressing South Africa’s electricity crisis and getting ready for the next decade . . . and now Covid-19’. In the paper, authored by Dr Jarrad Wright and Joanne Calitz, the CSIR outlines the case for “customer response at scale” as part of a three-step plan to reduce the immediate risk of load-shedding, which intensified to its worst-ever level in 2020, despite the initial collapse of demand that accompanied the hard, Level 5 and 4, Covid-19 lockdowns. The other two steps related to the procurement of 2 000 MW of capacity under the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, the bidding process for which is under way, and ...

Mining group Glencore has issued a pre-qualifying tender for companies interested in supplying ‘alternative green’ electricity and storage solutions to its chrome and vanadium operations in South Africa. In the tender notice, Glencore Alloys states that the generation facilities should have a capacity to produce between 10 MW and 20 MW of electricity, with storage capacity of 1 MWh to 2 MWh. These generators and storage assets would be located on site at Eastern Chrome Mines, Rhovan Vanadium and Western Chrome Mines and should produce zero- or low-carbon energy for use by the operations. Glencore is aiming to prequalify companies that can fund, supply, build, own and operate the energy assets and says that it will accept offers from independent power producers, in the form of power purchase agreements, as well as from companies offering turnkey engineering, procurement and construction management solutions. The tender has been issued following a commitment by South Africa’s struggling ferrochrome industry to develop 750 MW of self-generation over the coming 36 months as part of a broader trade-off response to government’s decision to consider the imposition of an export tax on chrome ore. South Africa currently exports 13.6-million tonnes of chrome ore yearly, from total production of 22.7-million tonnes. Its share of the global ferrochrome market has declined to 27% from 39% in 2009, largely because electricity tariffs charged to the industry have surged by 523% over the past ten years. The proposed tax, which is controversial, would seek to ensure that South Africa’s ferrochrome manufacturers had a price advantage relative to ferrochrome firms in other jurisdictions, including China, the main market for exported South African ore. The Glencore Alloys tender comes amid a concerted push by other South African miners and heavy industrial firms to implement self-generation projects as a way of mitigating the risk of load-shedding and improving tariff-path certainty. Analysis by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) indicates that 2020 has been the most intensive load-shedding year, with 1 734 GWh of rotational cuts having been implemented since January. The CSIR indicates that system inadequacy is likely to persist, largely because of a continuing decline in the performance of Eskom’s coal fleet, the energy availability factor of which fell to 66.9% in 2019, and has remained below the assumed 70% level during 2020. The science council is, thus, forecasting ongoing shortfalls over the coming few years and has indicated that ‘customer response at scale’, including though investing in self-generation, should be an immediate priority for reducing the risk of load-shedding. The Glencore Alloys tender also follows on from news that Bushveld Minerals is continuing to progress a hybrid minigrid project being developed at the Vametco vanadium mine, near Brits. The project comprises 3.5 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) generation and 4 MWh of vanadium redox flow battery storage. Bushveld has appointed Abengoa to manage the engineering, procurement and construction of the project. Glencore Alloys says the technology solutions are not confined to solar PV, wind generators and lithium batteries, reporting that it will consider other solutions “with a very low or zero carbon footprint”. The closing date for submissions is 12:00 on November 26.

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The long value chain of green hydrogen economy has the potential to create a multiplicity of jobs and open up the market for investment possibilities for the Southern African region into what is expected to become a multi-trillion-dollar global decarbonisation market. Forschungszentrum Jülich corporate development unit project manager Dr Solomon Nwabueze Agbo spoke to Mining Weekly from Germany in a Zoom interview on Tuesday, November 10. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) “It’s the right technology, it’s the right time and it’s important for us in Africa that we also join the rest of the world in this whole green hydrogen initiative, to help us to decarbonise our own energy sector, and also to key into the global trend of revolutionising the global energy market,” said Agbo, who is currently coordinating Southern Africa’s Green Hydrogen Atlas-Africa project. The Green Hydrogen Atlas-Africa project, to which the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research has allocated €5.7-million in funding, is placing Southern Africa on the road to contributing meaningfully to the global Sustainable Development Goals. It is taking place at a time when South Africa is drawing up a Hydrogen Roadmap for itself and South Africa’s University of Pretoria has begun training technical college graduates in hydrogen fuel cell systems, in partnership with Bambili Energy, the Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation and the Energy and Water Sector Education Training Authority. “The aim is to develop competent, capable and work-ready technicians for the deployment, installation and maintenance of hydrogen fuel cell systems in South Africa and beyond,” said University of Pretoria Professor Raj Naidoo on the university's hydrogen fuel cells training. Meanwhile, the Green Hydrogen Atlas-Africa is scheduled for completion by the end of next year at the latest, when it will become the starting point of a process of firming up Southern African’s renewable energy data and validating green hydrogen sweet spots. Green hydrogen has a zero-carbon footprint and is generated by using renewable energy to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. THE ROLE OF PLATINUM GROUP METALS The current global focus on green hydrogen as the next universal energy carrier has served to highlight the value of Southern Africa’s huge platinum group metals (PGMs) endowment, which goes hand-in-hand with the green hydrogen economy, both in terms of the PGM metals used in the electrolysers that produce green hydrogen, but also in terms of the platinum used in the hydrogen fuel cells that provide mobility, stationary power generation and heating in a very wide range of industrial, agricultural, commercial and residential applications. Nigerian-born Agbo emphasised the importance of international collaboration and government-private sector partnership in the development of the green hydrogen economy, which is very much larger than the local green electricity market, Thomas Roos, a senior Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) researcher, who has been leading CSIR work on green hydrogen export opportunities for South Africa, stated in the recent Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & the Green Economy feature in Engineering News & Mining Weekly. The German government is partnering African institutions in West Africa and Southern Africa to explore the potentials of generating green hydrogen in these regions on the understanding that the green hydrogen economy will be a sustainable part of the future of energy for Africa and Germany. “In this context, it is important to address the issue of generating hydrogen from a point of view of international collaboration because to generate green hydrogen, you need renewable energy and this requires collaboration with different partners across the globe where there are renewable sources,” said Agbo. “It is in this understanding that the German government is partnering ...

A senior researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) says a new mobile app has been developed that will bridge communication barriers between health-care providers and patients. The AwezaMed COVID-19 app was developed by the CSIR in collaboration with Aweza and comes at a time when innovative ideas are required to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new study, which outlines global best practices for just-transition journeys, includes ten lessons for South Africa to consider as the country prepares to navigate what it hopes will be a just transition, over the coming decades, from an electricity sector based on coal to one based increasingly on renewable energy. Published on September 23 by the RES4Africa Foundation, the study has been written in collaboration with South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and ERM. Presenting the findings during a webinar, ERM’s Annie Snyman said that South Africa’s just-transition journey would require an integrated, fit-for-purpose approach if the country was to have any chance of overcoming the challenges and optimising the opportunities. Snyman said the ten key lessons for South Africa that had emerged from the RES4Africa Foundation study, included: the need for leadership to play a key role in guiding the just transition; a requirement for comprehensive and proactive transition planning; the involvement of a broad spectrum of stakeholders from the outset; the crafting of an integrated policy framework for phasing-out coal; ensuring financial support from government; the creation of innovative and collaborative funding mechanisms and technical assistance to lighten the financial burden on government; the establishment of a mine-closure agency to assist with meeting the goals of the just transition; sound implementation to ensure employment growth in the clean-energy sector offsets job losses in the coal industry; the reskilling of affected workers, as well as other affected community members; and supportive market dynamics. Eskom just energy transition office head Mandy Rambharos said the utility accepted that the transition from coal to renewables was “inevitable” and that its current focus was on finding ways to cushion workers and communities from the socioeconomic shocks that could arise. Rambharos welcomed the recent Cabinet approval providing for the establishment of the Presidential Climate Change Coordinating Commission, which would be a key vehicle for directing the country’s just transition to a low-carbon economy and society by 2050. She concurred with the argument that collaboration and planning would be critical given the complex and multidimensional nature of the transition. Eskom was also assessing whether the just transition could be integrated into the solutions it was seeking to address its serious operational, emissions and financial problems, including it R480-billion debt burden. There was potential, for instance, to raising green finance for initiatives aimed at repowering and repurposing those coal stations scheduled for decommissioning over the coming decade. Units at Grootvlei, Komati, Camden and Hendrina had already been decommissioned and South Africa’s Integrated Resource Plan of 2019 (IRP2019) envisaged the decommissioning of more than 11 000 MW of coal by 2030, more than 5 000 MW of which would be shut by 2024. The CSIR’s Stanley Semelane noted that the domestic coal sector currently employed about 92 000 people directly and that there was potential, through planning and reskilling, to offset job losses in the coal sector with those arising in the renewables sector. The IRP2019 included large allocations for wind and solar photovoltaic, with more the 179 000 direct construction jobs to arise in the wind sector alone between 2020 and 2030. To achieve this, however, a premium may have to be paid to incentivise independent power producers to situate local wind and solar PV projects in Mpumalanga, where the wind and solar resources were less potent than that available in the Cape provinces. The premium paid could be offset, however, by the fact that much of the gird infrastructure required to evacuate power was already in place in Mpumalanga. Two of the three new Renewable Energy Development Zones, or REDZs, proposed for designatio...

South Africa could experience load shedding for the next two to three years if urgent steps are not taken to mitigate against energy shortages. This is according to research presented by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The CSIR says load shedding experienced in 2020 has already overtaken 2019 levels. The research group said that heavy load shedding will persist through to 2022, and worse yet, it will likely be three times worse than the load shedding experienced in 2019. We spoke to Dr Jarrad Wright from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) reported on Wednesday that load-shedding during 2020 had already surpassed that of 2019, which had hitherto been the country’s worst-ever year for load-shedding. In addition, it again warned that, absent urgent action, the risk of load-shedding would worsen and persist for at least two more years, but possibly to 2025. The CSIR released its latest load-shedding analysis as Eskom issued a fresh alert on August 12, warning that the system was severely constrained, owing to a combination of delays in returning five units to service and the breakdown of two additional units, at a time when unplanned maintenance stood at 11 000 MW and planned maintenance at 5 500 MW. A day earlier, CEO Andre de Ruyter told the Cape Town Press Club that the risk of load-shedding would persist deep into 2021. The CSIR analysis, compiled by Dr Jarrad Wright and Joanne Calitz, shows that load-shedding for the year to date stood at 1 383 GWh, or 661 hours of outages. The figure was already higher than the 1 352 GWh shed in 2019, which was regarded as the country’s most intensive year of load-shedding, with Eskom having taken the unprecedented step of declaring Stage 6, or 6 000 MW of cuts, on December 9. Load-shedding had re-emerged despite Eskom having performed opportunistic maintenance on its coal fleet in March and April, following a sharp slump in demand that coincided with South Africa’s Covid-19 lockdown. Wright told participants to a webinar hosted jointly by the CSIR and GreenCape that, during the country’s Level 5 lockdown, peak demand slumped to 27.4 GW against an expectation of 31.2 GW, while minimum demand fell precipitously to only 13.8 GW. Demand had since returned, along with the threat of load-shedding, with the rotational cuts instituted in July pushing it to levels higher than those experienced last year. Overall, the CSIR expects that residual electricity demand will reduce by 12 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2020, to about 209 TWh, relative to forecasted residual demand of 221 TWh for the year. The CSIR had also modelled the impact on security of supply in the “likely” scenario that both demand and the energy availability factor (EAF) of Eskom’s fleet remain below the assumptions used in the Integrated Resource Plan of 2019 (IRP 2019). Using a demand forecast of 267 TWh by 2025 as opposed to the 284 TWh assumed in the IRP 2019 and an EAF of 64% as opposed to the 75.5% assumed in the official plan, the analysis points to major capacity and severe energy shortages for the period to 2025. The capacity supply gap would range between 5 000 MW and 8 000 MW, while the yearly energy gap would be between 500 GWh in the outer years to as high as 4 500 GWh in 2022. Should such energy shortages arise, the yearly economic costs are estimated at between R60-billion and R120-billion, based on a cost of unserved energy of R87.50/kWh. Wright said that “critical decisions and actions” were required to address the risk, including: addressing the regulatory constraints to self-generation by businesses, municipalities and households; renegotiating the power purchase agreements with existing wind and solar farms to mop up any excess supply that is available; accelerating the implementation of the Risk Mitigation Power Purchase Programme (RMPPP); and implementing the IRP 2019. Enabling a “customer response at scale” by easing the regulations governing self-generation would have an “immediate impact” on reducing the risk of load-shedding, while projects associated with the RMPPP and procurements in line with the Ministerial determinations that have followed the publication of the IRP 2019 would only begin to have an impact in 2022 and 2023 respectively. It is understood that bid documentation associated with the RMPPP could be released within days and that the National Energy Regulator of South Africa has now concurred with the Ministerial determinations that wil...

Refilwe Moloto speaks to Anton Nahman of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) who headed a study looking at the environmental, social and economic impacts of carrier bags. Nahman, the CSIR's principal environmental economist, says reusable plastic bags are South Africa's best option.

On this podcast, Maanda Tshifularo interviewed Dr Thulani Dlamini. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). He joined the CSIR in 2005 as the head of the National Laser Centre and in 2008 he was appointed to the position of Group Executive for Research and Development (R&D), a […]

Hello Listener! Thank you for listening.  If you would like to support the podcast, and keep the lights on, you can support us whenever you use Amazon through the link below: It will not cost you anything extra, and I can not see who purchased what. Or you can become a Fluffle Supporter by donating through Patreon.com at the link below: Patreon/Hare of the Rabbit What's this Patreon? Patreon is an established online platform that allows fans to provide regular financial support to creators. Patreon was created by a musician who needed a easy way for fans to support his band. What do you need? Please support Hare of the Rabbit Podcast financially by becoming a Patron. Patrons agree to a regular contribution, starting at $1 per episode. Patreon.com takes a token amount as a small processing fee, but most of your money will go directly towards supporting the Hare of the Rabbit Podcast. You can change or stop your payments at any time. You can also support by donating through PayPal.com at the link below: Hare of the Rabbit PayPal Thank you for your support, Jeff Hittinger.   China is the home of this very recently developed breed, Chinese Angora's, or Chinese Coarse-wool Angoras as they are often called were created by crossing German ANgora, French Angora and White New Zealands during the late 1980's strictly for the commercial wool market. China is currently the number one supplier of raw angora fiber to the world. They developed the Chinese Angora, also known as the Coarse-Wool Angora in the late 1980’s by cross-breeding French and German Angoras with the White New Zealand rabbit. Chinese Angora is about 15% bristle fiber. Compare this to other Angora breeds that give at most 1.8% bristle fiber. The breed comes in Ruby-eyed White variety. The breed weighs about 9 to 9 3/4 lb (4.1 - 4.4 kg) https://www.raising-rabbits.com/angora-rabbit.html Now when we discuss Chinese Angora there is a video by PETA that is very difficult to watch. In the video we see the wool being yanked off, guard hairs included, in a manner that will ruin the coat for several cycles. It will damage the hair follicles and greatly reduce the quality and value of future harvests as new coats will grow in coarser and hairier. This scene suggests that the violent plucking at the beginning of the video and the shearing that followed took place on the same farm. Since commercial farmers generally don’t have mixed herds of molting and non-molting rabbits, we can also suppose that all the rabbits shown are non-molting German Angoras. The burning question is now unavoidable: Was the violent plucking of a non-molting rabbit in the opening sequence staged for the camera? It seems this would not be a normal practice on a commercial Angora farm. Basically, any farmer who treated his animals in such a way would not be in business long. In other words, rather than being “more lucrative”, it would only lose them money in the long run. However, I am not say the video was definitely staged. It is also conceivable that it showed a farm where everything was being done wrong. This could be a staged video of animal cruelty that is intended to fool the public into thinking these acts are standard practice in the fur industry, or a very poorly managed farm. https://www.truthaboutfur.com/blog/is-petas-angora-rabbit-video-staged/ Myxomatosis (sometimes shortened to "myxo" or "myxy") is a disease that affects rabbits, caused by the myxoma virus. It was first observed in Uruguay in laboratory rabbits in the late 19th century. It was introduced into Australia in 1950 in an attempt to control the rabbit population. Affected rabbits develop skin tumors, and in some cases blindness, followed by fatigue and fever; they usually die within 14 days of contracting the disease. Myxomatosis refers to an often fatal disease that affects domestic and wild rabbit populations. This disease is caused by the myxoma virus, a species of the poxvirus family. Several strains of this virus exist today. The virus is most commonly spread through insect bites, as the insect transmits the virus through its mouthparts after feeding from an infected animal. Transmittal methods can include fly bites, fur mite bites, mosquito bites, thorns, animal bedding, and food. The disease is spread by direct contact with an affected animal or by being bitten by fleas or mosquitoes that have fed on an infected rabbit. The myxomatosis virus does not replicate in these insect hosts, but can be physically carried by an insect's mouthparts, i.e. from an infected rabbit to another susceptible animal. Due to the potential of insect vector transmission, pet rabbits may be susceptible in enzootic areas and vaccination is highly recommended. The History of Myxomatosis Now this history is written by Professor of Microbiology, John Curtin of the School of Medical Research Myxomatosis constituted the major part of my personal research between 1952 and 1967. To put it in perspective, I (Professor of Microbiology, John Curtin School of Medical Research) will begin with a very brief outline of its history, which is covered in detail in Fenner and Fantini (1999). Myxomatosis was first recognized as a virus disease when it killed European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in Giuseppe Sanarelli's laboratory in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1896. In 1911, workers in the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro observed the disease in their laboratory rabbits and correctly classified the causative agent as a large virus. Henrique de Beaurepaire Aragão, working at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, showed that it could be transmitted mechanically by insect bite. In 1942, he showed that the reservoir host in Brazil was the local wild rabbit, Sylvilagus brasiliensis, in which the virus produced a localized nodule in the skin. Knowing that the European rabbit was a major pest animal in Australia, and impressed by the lethality of the disease in these rabbits , in 1919 Aragão wrote to the Australian government suggesting that it should be used here for rabbit control, but the quarantine authorities would not permit its importation. Effects of the disease In rabbits of the genus Sylvilagus (cottontail rabbits) living in the Americas, myxomatosis causes only localized skin tumors, but the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is more severely affected. At first, normally the disease is visible by lumps (myxomata) and puffiness around the head and genitals. It may progress to acute conjunctivitis and possibly blindness; however, this also may be the first visible symptom of the disease. The rabbits become listless, looses appetite, and develops a fever. Secondary bacterial infections occur in most cases, which cause pneumonia and purulent inflammation of the lungs. In cases where the rabbit has little or no resistance, death may take place rapidly, often in as little as 48 hours; most cases result in death within 14 days. Often the symptoms like blindness make the infected rabbit more vulnerable to predators. Effects on other organisms Rabbits helped keep vegetation in their environments short through grazing and short grasses are conducive to habitation by the butterfly, Plebejus argus. When the population of rabbits experienced a decline due to Myxomatosis, grass lengths increased, limiting the environments in which P. argus could live, thereby contributing to the decline of the butterfly population. Treatment In pet rabbits, myxomatosis can be misdiagnosed as pasteurellosis, a bacterial infection which can be treated with antibiotics. By contrast, there is no treatment for rabbits suffering from myxomatosis, other than palliative care to ease the suffering of individual animals, and the treatment of secondary and opportunistic infections, in the hopes the treated animal will survive. In practice, the owner is often urged to euthanize the animal to end its suffering. Use as a population control agent After its discovery in 1896 in imported rabbits in Uruguay, a relatively harmless strain of the disease spread quickly throughout the wild rabbit populations in South America. Australia In Australia, the virus was first field-tested for population control in 1938. A full-scale release was performed in 1950. Myxomatosis was introduced to Australia in 1950 to reduce pest rabbit numbers. The virus initially reduced the wild rabbit population by 95% but since then resistance to the virus has increased and less deadly strains of the virus have emerged. Pet rabbits do not possess any resistance to myxomatosis and mortality rates are between 96-100%. It was devastatingly effective, reducing the estimated rabbit population from 600 million to 100 million in two years. However, the rabbits remaining alive were those least affected by the disease. Genetic resistance to myxomatosis was observed soon after the first release, and descendants of the survivors acquired partial immunity in the first two decades. The idea was revived by Jean Macnamara, a Melbourne paediatrician who had worked with Macfarlane Burnet and thus had an interest in virus diseases. In 1934, she went on a world tour to investigate poliomyelitis, which was her main professional interest. In America, she visited the laboratory of Richard Shope, in the Princeton branch of the Rockefeller Institute. He was investigating a tumour in local cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus), which he showed was caused by a poxvirus related to myxoma virus. He called it fibroma virus. At the time there was an epizootic of myxomatosis in domestic European rabbits (O. cuniculus) in California, which was later found to have a different reservoir host (Sylvilagus bachmani). Shope found that fibroma virus would protect laboratory rabbits against myxomatosis. Learning of this fatal rabbit disease, Macnamara wrote to the Australian High Commissioner in London asking him to help her convince the Government to use the virus for rabbit control. Francis Noble Ratcliffe Born in Calcutta in 1904, Ratcliffe studied zoology at Oxford. In 1928, he came to the notice of the London representative of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and this led to his invitation to come to Australia as Sir David Rivett's ‘biological scout’, to study flying foxes and erosion in arid lands, as a result of which he produced a classic book, Flying Fox and Drifting Sand. He returned to Britain in 1932 as Lecturer in Zoology in Aberdeen, but was invited back to Australia as a scientific adviser to the CSIR Executive in 1935. In 1937, he was transferred to the Division of Economic Entomology to work on termites. In 1942, he joined the Australian Army and served with distinction as Assistant Director of Entomology. Since I was serving in New Guinea as a malariologist at that time, Professor of Microbiology, John Curtin saw quite a lot of him then. After demobilization he served briefly as assistant to the Chief of the Division of Entomology, but in 1948 he was appointed Officer-in-Charge of the newly created Wildlife Survey Section of CSIR. Initially he had to work on rabbit control, and after some disappointments succeeded in introducing myxomatosis. Study of this disease preoccupied the Section for several years, but later he was able to broaden studies of the biology of the rabbit and introduce biological studies of native animals as an important part of the work of the Section, which by then had been expanded to the Division of Wildlife and Ecology. He retired from CSIRO in 1969. He played a major role in setting up the Australian Conservation Foundation in 1964, and devoted a great deal of time to its expansion to become Australia's peak environmental non-government organization, until he had to retire for health reasons in 1970 (see Coman, 1998; Mackerras, 1971). The Chief Quarantine Officer was again very reluctant to allow its importation, but allowed scientists in CSIR (which was transformed into the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, CSIRO, in 1949), to test its species sensitivity against a wide range of domestic and native animals; they found that it infected only European rabbits. Several field trials were carried out, in dry inland areas, but the virus died out. Then came World War II, and in 1943 all investigations were stopped. With so many country boys in the army, rabbit control, such as it was, had been neglected throughout the period 1939 to 1945, and by 1946 rabbits had increased to unprecedented numbers. Jean Macnamara (now Dame Jean) wrote articles in the rural press highly critical of CSIR/CSIRO for not proceeding immediately to try myxomatosis for biological control of the pest. In 1948, a CSIR/CSIRO scientist, Francis Ratcliffe, was appointed Officer-in-Charge of the newly-established Wildlife Survey Section, but instead of studying the native fauna, Ian Clunies Ross, Chairman of the newly-formed CSIRO, insisted that he should first try out myxomatosis. Several field trials failed, but in the Christmas–New Year period of 1950–51 the disease escaped from one of the four trial sites in the Murray valley and spread all over the Murray-Darling basin, killing millions of rabbits. Resistance has been increasing slowly since the 1970s; the disease now kills about 50% of infected rabbits. In an attempt to increase that rate, a second virus (rabbit calicivirus) was introduced into the rabbit population in 1996. France Myxomatosis was introduced to France by the bacteriologist Dr. Paul Armand Delille, following his use of the virus to rid his private estate of rabbits in June 1952 (He inoculated two of the rabbits on his land). Within four months the virus had spread 50 km; Armand suspected this was due to poachers taking infected rabbits from his estate. By 1954, 90% of the wild rabbits in France were dead. The disease spread throughout Europe. Ireland Myxomatosis was deliberately introduced to Ireland by farmers in 1954. The skin of a diseased rabbit was sent by post from the United Kingdom and rubbed on healthy rabbits. Infected animals were transported around the country to hasten the spread of the disease. By 1955, myxomatosis had spread to every part of Ireland and, by the 1960s, the rabbit meat industry had collapsed. United Kingdom The disease reached the UK in 1953. The first outbreak in the UK to be officially confirmed was in Bough Beech, Kent in September 1953. It was encouraged in the UK as an effective rabbit bio-control measure; this was done by placing sick rabbits in burrows, though this is now illegal in the UK under a 1954 law. As a result, it is understood that more than 99% of rabbits in the UK were killed by the outbreak, although populations soon recovered. Myxomatosis in 1950s Britain. In 1953 myxomatosis, a viral disease of rabbits, broke out in Britain for the first time. It rapidly killed tens of millions of the animals from Kent to the Shetlands. Many farmers and foresters welcomed a disease that virtually eliminated a longstanding and serious agricultural pest. Others were horrified by the sight of thousands of dead and dying animals. With meat still rationed, consumers rued the loss of a cheap and nutritious foodstuff. Rough shooters deplored the loss of prey and hatters and furriers the unavailability of the fur on which their businesses depended. Rabbits also had champions within the 'establishment'; these included Winston Churchill who was personally influential in making deliberate transmission of the disease a criminal offence. The arrival in Britain of myxomatosis presented the authorities with difficult questions: should they try to contain it, spread it or do nothing; should they take advantage of rabbit depopulation and try to exterminate such a destructive animal? In the event the outbreak was allowed to run its course and rabbit extermination became government policy. New Zealand Myxomatosis was introduced in New Zealand in the early 1950s as a form of pathogenic control. Unlike in Australia, it failed to become established because of a lack of a suitable spreading organism. Myxomatosis in the US Myxomatosis cases in pet rabbits are periodically reported in the coastal areas of Oregon, California, and Baja California, Mexico, in the territory of the brush rabbit (Sylvilagus bachmani) who is a reservoir of this disease. Western Oregon 2016 Marion County, August 2016 Douglas County, July-August 2015 Polk County, June 2010 Western Oregon 2004 Linn & Benton counties, July 2003 Linn & Benton counties, July Northern California 2017 Monterey County/San Benito County, August (Aromas, reported by Dr. Hilary Stern at Animal Hospital of Soquel) 2017 Santa Clara County, June (Los Gatos, reported by guardian & Dr. Curt Nakamura Adobe Animal Hospital) 2017 Santa Barbara County, June, July, August, August 2016 San Luis Obispo, Sept 2016 Santa Cruz County, July & Sept 2016 Santa Barbara County, (reported by CDFA) June & July & August 2015 Monterey County, Sept 2015 Santa Cruz County 2014 Santa Cruz County, August 2013 Sonoma County, October (Sebastopol – reported by guardian & Dr. Pfann, Brandner Vet) 2012 Monterey County (reported by AFRP’s Rescue Rabbits Rock) Southern California 2010 San Gabriel Valley (near Los Angeles), July Baja California (Mexico) 1993 Ensenada, Sept-Oct Use of vaccine A vaccine is available for pet rabbits (ATCvet code: QI08AD02 (WHO)). The vaccine is not allowed to be used in Australia because the live virus in the vaccine has the potential to spread into the wild rabbit population which could result in wild rabbit immunity to myxomatosis. If this happened, there would be a dramatic increase in the number of wild rabbits in Australia, which would cause major damage to the environment and economic losses. Many pet rabbits in Australia continue to die from the disease due to their lack of immunity. There is at least one campaign to allow the vaccine for domestic pets. In the UK a live combination vaccine, Nobivac Myxo-RHD, made by MSD Animal Health, has become available since 2011. Its active ingredient is a live myxoma-vectored RHD virus strain 009 and it offers a duration of immunity of 1 year against both RHD and myxomatosis. There are two vaccinations against myxomatosis, however these are not available in Australia. Thus the only way to prevent infection is to protect your pet rabbits from biting insects such as fleas and mosquitoes. Put mosquito netting around your rabbit’s hutch even if indoors (this will help to prevent flystrike as well). If your rabbits are allowed to exercise outside avoid letting them out in the early morning or late afternoon when mosquitoes are more numerous. Please talk to your vet about flea prevention for rabbits. You can use Revolution (Selamectin) or Advantage (Imidocloprid) for flea prevention, but you must check first with your vet for dosages. Do not use Frontline (Fipronil) as this has been associated with severe adverse reactions in rabbits. Natural resistance The development of resistance to the disease has taken different courses. In Australia, the virus initially killed rabbits very quickly – about 4 days after infection. This gave little time for the infection to spread. However, a less virulent form of the virus then became prevalent there, which spread more effectively by being less lethal. In Europe, many rabbits are genetically resistant to the original virus that was spread. The survival rate of diseased rabbits has now increased to 35%, while in the 1950s it was near zero. Hares are not affected by myxomatosis, but can act as vectors. Symptoms and Types Incubation period is usually 1-3 days In the acute form, eyelid edema (swelling) usually develops first Perioral swelling and edema (the tissue of the mouth) Perineal swelling and edema (the outer area between the anus and vulva or scrotum) Cutaneous (skin) hemorrhage Lethargy Anorexia Dyspnea (difficult breathing) Seizures or other central nervous system (CNS) signs - excitement, opisthotonos (spasm of the back muscles) Death typically occurs within 1-2 weeks Wild/outdoor rabbits Cutaneous nodules at the site of transmission (insect bite, scratch) may be noticeable Young wild or feral rabbits may develop disease symptoms similar to pet rabbits Causes This disease is caused by the myxoma virus, a strain of leporipoxvirus. Outbreaks of it are more more likely when mosquitoes are numerous, in the summer and fall. Diagnosis Your veterinarian will perform a thorough physical exam on your rabbit, taking into account the background history of symptoms and possible incidents that might have led to this condition. A blood profile will be conducted, including a chemical blood profile, a complete blood count, and a urinalysis. One of the obvious symptoms that will help your doctor to make a diagnosis will be the presence of nodules on the skin surface. However, in cases that are very sudden (peracute), there may be no lesions. Subcutaneous ecchymoses, or purple, bruise-like spots on the skin due to the rupturing of blood vessels, are sometimes associated with myxoma virus. An internal exploration may find ecchymoses in serosal surfaces (lining) of the gastrointestinal tract as well. In many cases, there is hepatic necrosis (death of the liver tissue), splenomegaly (enlargement of the spleen), infarcts (death of tissue due to deprivation of blood supply), or hemorrhage in the lungs, trachea (windpipe), and thymus (gland near the base of the neck). Other findings include undifferentiated mesenchymal cells (the undetermined cells that are capable of transforming into many of the materials needed by the body (e.g., connective tissue, cartilage, blood), inflammatory cells, mucin (glycoproteins found in the mucous), and edema (swelling). If the rabbit is pregnant when it becomes infected, necrotizing lesions may be seen in fetal placentas. Treatment Due to the serious nature of this virus, most rabbits do not survive. Treatment is instead focused on making your rabbit as comfortable as possible. Take your rabbit to the vet immediately if you are concerned your rabbit might have Myxomatosis, and separate them from any other rabbits in your home. Your vet can determine whether your rabbit might instead have rabbit Syphilis, or an upper respiratory infection, or an eye infection, all of which are treatable conditions. If your pet rabbit does develop myxomatosis, your vet will advise the best course of action, which may be euthanasia. Treatment is rarely successful, even if commenced early in the infection and the course of disease is very painful and stressful. Thoroughly disinfect your rabbit hutch, water bottles and food bowls with household bleach, rinsing it off so that it cannot be ingested by any other rabbits. Bringing a new rabbit home is not recommended for at least four months after a case of myxomatosis as the virus is able to survive in the environment for some time. Why isn’t the vaccine in Europe/the UK available in the US? The Myxomatosis vaccine available in Europe and in the UK has not been approved by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) Center for Veterinary Biologics, so there is no vaccine available in the United States, and it is not legal to import the vaccine from other countries. How can I protect my rabbit from Myxomatosis? House your rabbits indoors with window screens. If you live in an area with reported Myxomatosis cases, treat your rabbits monthly with Revolution, to prevent fleas and fur mites. Revolution is a prescription medication, available through your veterinarian. Or, treat with over-the-counter Advantage, which provides protection from fleas (but not from mosquitoes or fur mites). Be sure to give your cats and dogs flea treatment, too. Don’t let your rabbit play outside if you live in an area with currently reported Myxomatosis cases. Rabbits live longer, healthier lives when indoors. Because myxomatosis is just one of many concerns facing rabbits who live outdoors, House Rabbit Society recommends indoor homes for rabbits as the primary preventative, along with adequate screening on doors and windows. For rabbits who must live or spend some of their time out of doors, protection against mosquitoes is next best bet, via protecting the rabbits’ play area with mosquito netting or some other barrier. Prevention Screening to keep out insects, flea control, and keeping your rabbits indoors are some of the most effective preventitve methods against the myxoma virus. If you are bringing new rabbits into the home or property, quarantine the new rabbits, and do not house wild rabbits with domestic pet rabbits. Vaccination with an attenuated myxoma virus vaccine may provide temporary protection, but it may not be available in your area. If you are able to gain access to the vaccine, be aware that it may cause atypical myomatosis (due to it having a small amount of the virus in the vaccine itself). http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p34751/html/ch06s03.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myxomatosis https://www.petmd.com/rabbit/conditions/viral/c_rb_myxomatosis http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Viral_diseases/Myxo/Myxo.htm https://rabbit.org/myxo/ www.daff.gov.au/animal-plant-health/animal/statement-chief-veterinary-officer-myxomatosis-vaccine http://kb.rspca.org.au/what-is-myxomatosis-and-how-do-i-protect-my-rabbit-from-it_73.html https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19069081 http://www.furandfeather.co.uk/untitled.pdf https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.42.12.1522 Why Lizards Can’t Sit http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2011/07/why_lizards_cant_sit.html An African-American Folktale Retold by S.E. Schlosser Back in the old days, Brer Lizard was an awful lot like Brer Frog, meaning he could sit upright like a dog. Things were like this for quite a spell. Then one day when they were walking down the road by their swamp, Brer Lizard, Brer Rabbit, and Brer Frog spotted some real nice pasture land with a great big pond that was on the far side of a great big fence. Ooo did that land look good. Looked like a great place for Brer Lizard to catch insects and other good food. And Brer Frog wanted a swim in that big ol’ pool.  Brer Rabbit wanted to lay in the pasture.  Brer Lizard, Brer Rabbit, and Brer Frog went right up to the fence, which got bigger and bigger as they approached. It kinda loomed over them, as big and tall as they were little and small. And the boards of that fence were mashed together real tight, and deep into the ground. It was too tall to hop over, and neither of them was much good at digging, so they couldn’t go under. That fence said Keep Out pretty clear, even though no one had put a sign on it. Well, Brer Lizard, Brer Rabbit, and Brer Frog sat beside that tall fence with their bottoms on the ground and their front ends propped up, ‘cause Brer Lizard could still sit upright then jest like a dog, and they tried to figure out how to get through the fence. Suddenly, Brer Frog saw a narrow crack, low to the ground. “I’m going ta squeeze through that crack over there,” he croaked. “Lawd, help me through!” And Brer Frog hopped over and pushed and squeezed and struggled and prayed his way through that tiny crack until he popped out on t’other side. “Come on Lizard,” Brer Frog called through the crack. “I’m a-comin’!” Brer Lizard called back. “I’m a-goin’ to squeeze through this here crack, Lawd willin’ or not!”   Brer Rabbit hopped off to the pasture, and rested in the sun. Brer Lizard scurried over to the crack in the fence and he pushed and squeezed and struggled and cursed. Suddenly, a rail fell down and mashed him flat! After that, Brer Lizard couldn’t sit upright no more. And he never did get through that fence to eat them insects, neither! http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2011/07/why_lizards_cant_sit.html Word of the week: Laxative © Copyrighted

Today, Melanie brings you another great interview from her time at Deep Learning Indaba in South Africa. She was joined by Yabebal Fantaye and Jessica Phalafala for an in-depth look at the deep learning research that’s going on in the continent. At the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, the aim is to gather together minds from all over Africa and the world to not only learn but to use their distinct perspectives to contribute to research that furthers the sciences. Our guests are both part of this initiative, using their specialized skills to expand the abilities of the group and stretch the boundaries of machine learning, mathematics, and other sciences. Yabebal elaborates on the importance of AIMS and Deep Learning Indaba, noting that the more people can connect with each other, the more confidence they will gain. Jessica points out how this research in Africa can do more than just advance science. By focusing on African problems and solutions, machine learning research can help increase the GDP and economic standards of a continent thought to be “behind”. Jessica Phalafala Jessica Phalafala is a PhD Applied Mathematics student at Stellenbosch University and currently affiliated with the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. In her mid-twenties, she finds herself with four qualifications all obtained with distinction, including a Master of Science in Pure Mathematics degree from the University of the Witwatersrand. Jessica is interested in using her functional analysis background together with a number of newly developed skills to contribute towards developing rigorous mathematical theory to support some existing deep learning methods and algorithms for her PhD research. Outside of research she takes great interest in fast-tracking the level of accessibility of higher education in South Africa as co-founder of the Sego Sa Lesedi Foundation, a platform created to inform underprivileged high school learners of career and funding opportunities in science as well as provide them with mentorship as they transition into undergraduate studies. Yabebal Fantaye Dr. Fantaye is an AIMS-ARETE Research Chair based in South Africa. His research is in applying artificial intelligence and advanced statistical methods to cosmological data sets in order to understand the nature of the universe and to satellite images of the Earth in order to find alternative ways to monitor African development progress. Dr. Fantaye is a fellow of the World Economic Forum Young Scientists community, and a fellow and a Chair of the Next Einstein Forum Community of Scientists. Cool things of the week A Kubernetes FAQ for the C-suite blog BigQuery and surrogate keys: a practical approach blog Adding custom intelligence to Gmail with serverless on GCP blog Announcing Cloud Tasks, a task queue service for App Engine flex and second generation runtimes blog Unity and DeepMind partner to advance AI research blog Interview African Institute for Mathematical Sciences site Provable approximation properties for deep neural networks research Next Einstein Initiative site Square Kilometer Array (SKA) site University of the Witwatersrand site Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) site South African National Space Agency (SANSA) site National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme (NASSP)site IndabaX site Coursera site Andrej Karpathy research Andrej Karpathy Blog blog Question of the week If I’m using the Cluster Autoscaler for Kubernetes (or GKE), how can I prevent it from removing specific nodes from the cluster when scaling down? How can I prevent Cluster Autoscaler from scaling down a particular node? github What types of pods can prevent CA from removing a node? github Where can you find us next? Mark will definitely be at Kubecon in December and will probably be at Unite L.A. this month. Melanie is speaking at Monktoberfest Oct 4th in Portland, Maine and will be at CAMLIS the following week.

This week we are bringing you a couple of interviews from last week’s Deep Learning Indaba conference. Dr. Vukosi Marivate, Andrea Bohmert and Yasin(i) Musa Ayami talk about the burgeoning machine learning community, research, companies and AI investment landscape in Africa. While Mark is at Google Cloud Next in Tokyo, Melanie is joined by special guest co-hosts Nyalleng Moorosi and Willie Brink. Vukosi and Yasin(i) share how Deep Learning Indaba is playing an important role to recognize and grow machine learning research and companies on the African continent. We also discuss Yasin(i)’s prototyped app, Tukuka, and how it won the Maathai Award which is given to individuals who are a positive force for change. Tukuka is being built to aid economically disadvantaged women in Zambia get access to financial resources that are currently unavailable. Andrea rounds up the interviews by giving us a VC perspective on the AI start-up landscape in Africa and how that compares to other parts of the world. As Nyalleng says at the end, AI is happening in Africa and has great potential for impact. Willie Brink Willie Brink is a senior lecturer of Applied Mathematics in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He teaches various courses in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, at all levels, and his research interests fall mainly in the broad fields of computer vision and machine learning. He has worked on multi-view geometry, visual odometry, recognition and tracking, probabilistic graphical models, as well as deep learning. Recent research directions include visual knowledge representation and reasoning. Willie is also one of the founders and organisers of the Deep Learning Indaba, an exciting initiative working to celebrate and strengthen machine learning and artificial intelligence research in Africa, and to promote diversity and transformation in these fields. Nyalleng Moorosi Nyalleng is a Software Engineer and Researcher with the Google AI team in Ghana. Before joining Google, Nyalleng was a senior Data Science researcher at South Africa’s national science lab, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), with the Modeling and Digital Sciences Unit. In her capacity at CSIR, she works on projects ranging from: rhino poaching prevention with park rangers, working with news outlets to understand social media sentiments, and searching for Biomarkers in African cancer proteomes. Before getting into ML research at CSIR, she was a computer science lecturer at Fort Hare University and a software engineer at Thomson Reuters. Moorosi is an active member of Women in Machine Learning, Black in Artificial Intelligence, and an organising member of the Deep Learning Indaba - a yearly workshop that gathers African researchers in one space to share ideas and grow machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities. Dr. Vukosi Marivate Dr. Vukosi Marivate holds a PhD in Computer Science (Rutgers University) and MSc & BSc in Electrical Engineering (Wits University). He has recently started at the University of Pretoria as the ABSA Chair of Data Science. Vukosi works on developing Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence methods to extract insights from data. A large part of his work over the last few years has been in the intersection of Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing (due to the abundance of text data and need to extract insights). As part of his vision for the ABSA Data Science chair, Vukosi is interested in Data Science for Social Impact, using local challenges as a springboard for research. In this area Vukosi has worked on projects in science, energy, public safety and utilities. Vukosi is an organizer of the Deep Learning Indaba, the largest Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence workshop on the African continent, aiming to strengthen African Machine Learning. He is passionate about developing young talent, supervising MSc and PhD students, and mentoring budding Data Scientists. Yasin(i) Musa Ayami Yasin(i) Musa Ayami is Team Lead at TsogoloTech and a certified Oracle Associate. Mr. Ayami recently graduated with a Master’s Degree in Information Technology at the prestigious Durban University of Technology (DUT) were his study mainly focused on Computer Vision and Machine Learning. Prior to him enrolling for his Master’s Degree, Mr Ayami served as an Intern Software Engineer at DUT’s App Factory where he also served as Team Lead before deciding to further his studies. He also worked as a Part-Time Student Instructor at the DUT. In 2017, he co-founded TsogoloTech. His vision has always been to leverage technology for social good. Andrea Bohmert Andrea Bohmert is a Co-Managing Partner at Knife Capital. Before joining Knife Capital, she was the Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa. Passionate about strategizing how to scale businesses and meeting the entrepreneurs responsible for creating them, she has been actively involved in numerous initiatives aiming to accelerate the African entrepreneurial ecosystem. What are you looking forward to this week? AlphaGo Movie site WiML: Women in Machine Learning site Deep Learning Indaba Poster Sessions site Neural Information Processing Systems site Interview Deep Learning Indaba site Deep Learning Indaba GitHub site Deep Learning Indaba Tutorials site Deep Learning Indaba 2018 Slides site Deep Learning Indaba 2017 Presentations videos Deep Learning Indaba X site Yasin(i) Musa Ayami on GitHub site and LinkedIn site Deep Learning Indaba Award Winners site and tweet Maathai Award site Xamarin site SuperPosition at The Deep Learning Indaba with Dr. Vukosi Marivate podcast Knife Capital site Investing in AI by Andrea Bohmert article 10 Defining Moments that shaped the 2016 SA startup ecosystem article Data Science Africa site International Data Week site Google Cloud Platform Credits award winners tweet Question of the week The co-hosts weigh in on our question of the week: What have you taken away from this week and will take forward? Where can you find us next? Mark and Melanie will be at Strangeloop. Willie will be teaching Machine Learning at Stellenbosch University this summer. Nyalleng will be at the Women in Machine Learning Workshop and the Neural Information Processing Systems Conference in Montreal in December.

INCOSE SA — The current draft version of South Africa's Integrated Resource Plan (IRP 2016 Draft) plans for a renewable energy share in domestic electricity production of 18% by 2030, 26% by 2040 and keeps that share constant at 26% until 2050. The plan limits the amount of renewables that can be built in any given year and therefore arrives at these relatively modest renewables shares until 2050. The CSIR conducted a study that lifts the renewables new-build constraints and re-optimises the power mix until 2050 from a pure least-cost perspective. The preliminary results of this unconstrained model outcome will be presented. The least cost scenario exhibits a large amount of solar PV and wind in the power system by 2050. With a much larger share of these two variable renewables (VRE) in the power system, the immediate next question is how to bring in the concept of sector coupling (electricity, transport and heat) in order to reduce total energy system cost even further (through the portfolio effect) and in order to de-carbonise and de-risk the transport sector (through reduced liquid fuel consumption and imports). The principal outline of such a fully integrated energy sector based on electricity as the new primary energy source will be outlined. About our speaker: Dr Tobias Bischof-Niemz is the Centre Manager: Energy at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria, where he leads the establishment of an integrated energy research centre and a growing team of scientists and engineers. Before joining the CSIR, he was with South Africa's electric utility Eskom in the Energy Planning Unit, where he was part of the team that developed the long-term power-capacity expansion plan (Integrated Resource Plan - IRP) for South Africa. Dr. Bischof-Niemz is member of the Ministerial Advisory Council on Energy (MACE) that advises Minister Joemat-Pettersson on long-term, strategic energy topics. Presentation Slides — PDF (8.5 MB)

INCOSE SA — The current draft version of South Africa's Integrated Resource Plan (IRP 2016 Draft) plans for a renewable energy share in domestic electricity production of 18% by 2030, 26% by 2040 and keeps that share constant at 26% until 2050. The plan limits the amount of renewables that can be built in any given year and therefore arrives at these relatively modest renewables shares until 2050. The CSIR conducted a study that lifts the renewables new-build constraints and re-optimises the power mix until 2050 from a pure least-cost perspective. The preliminary results of this unconstrained model outcome will be presented. The least cost scenario exhibits a large amount of solar PV and wind in the power system by 2050. With a much larger share of these two variable renewables (VRE) in the power system, the immediate next question is how to bring in the concept of sector coupling (electricity, transport and heat) in order to reduce total energy system cost even further (through the portfolio effect) and in order to de-carbonise and de-risk the transport sector (through reduced liquid fuel consumption and imports). The principal outline of such a fully integrated energy sector based on electricity as the new primary energy source will be outlined. About our speaker: Dr Tobias Bischof-Niemz is the Centre Manager: Energy at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria, where he leads the establishment of an integrated energy research centre and a growing team of scientists and engineers. Before joining the CSIR, he was with South Africa's electric utility Eskom in the Energy Planning Unit, where he was part of the team that developed the long-term power-capacity expansion plan (Integrated Resource Plan - IRP) for South Africa. Dr. Bischof-Niemz is member of the Ministerial Advisory Council on Energy (MACE) that advises Minister Joemat-Pettersson on long-term, strategic energy topics. Presentation Slides — PDF (8.5 MB)

INCOSE SA — Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) can be a powerful aid in effectively managing projects, but it is also easily misunderstood and misapplied. Issues to be considered include: why WBS must not be just a breakdown of work, essential principles in adopting WBS as a management tool, failsafe rules for constructing effective WBS, relationships to other structures useful in project/engineering management, e.g. Systems Breakdown Structure (SBS), Cost Breakdown Structure (CBS), Organisational Breakdown Structure (OBS), Specification Breakdown Structure (Specification Tree), application of WBS to costing, scheduling, definition, risk analysis, measurement, reporting, organisational design, and control. Alwyn Smit is a Principal Consultant with Project Performance International (PPI). He has a B.Eng. (Electr) degree from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and is registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) as a professional engineer. He has spent the bulk of his career working in the South African defence industry as systems engineer and project manager on technology intensive projects, most recently as principal systems engineer with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR). Alwyn is a founding member of the South African Chapter of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE SA) and an INCOSE Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP). He has served on the INCOSE SA management team in numerous roles including President. He is currently a co-opted member of the INCOSE SA Chapter Management Committee, a member of the Western Cape branch as well as an appointed INCOSE Ambassador. Alwyn is also a member of the System Dynamics Society and the International Institute of Business Analysis. Alwyn was a member of the South African Bureau of Standards Working Group SC-71C on Systems and Software Life Cycle Processes. He has also represented South Africa on the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC7 Working Group 7 (WG7) on Systems and Software Life Cycle Processes, developing the international systems engineering standard ISO/IEC 15288. Alwyn teaches postgraduate modules in Systems Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), Johannesburg. Since joining the PPI team, Alwyn has delivered public and on-site systems engineering related training in Australia, Europe, South America, South Africa and the USA. Presentation Slides — PDF (1.0 MB)

INCOSE SA — Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) can be a powerful aid in effectively managing projects, but it is also easily misunderstood and misapplied. Issues to be considered include: why WBS must not be just a breakdown of work, essential principles in adopting WBS as a management tool, failsafe rules for constructing effective WBS, relationships to other structures useful in project/engineering management, e.g. Systems Breakdown Structure (SBS), Cost Breakdown Structure (CBS), Organisational Breakdown Structure (OBS), Specification Breakdown Structure (Specification Tree), application of WBS to costing, scheduling, definition, risk analysis, measurement, reporting, organisational design, and control. Alwyn Smit is a Principal Consultant with Project Performance International (PPI). He has a B.Eng. (Electr) degree from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and is registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) as a professional engineer. He has spent the bulk of his career working in the South African defence industry as systems engineer and project manager on technology intensive projects, most recently as principal systems engineer with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR). Alwyn is a founding member of the South African Chapter of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE SA) and an INCOSE Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP). He has served on the INCOSE SA management team in numerous roles including President. He is currently a co-opted member of the INCOSE SA Chapter Management Committee, a member of the Western Cape branch as well as an appointed INCOSE Ambassador. Alwyn is also a member of the System Dynamics Society and the International Institute of Business Analysis. Alwyn was a member of the South African Bureau of Standards Working Group SC-71C on Systems and Software Life Cycle Processes. He has also represented South Africa on the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC7 Working Group 7 (WG7) on Systems and Software Life Cycle Processes, developing the international systems engineering standard ISO/IEC 15288. Alwyn teaches postgraduate modules in Systems Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), Johannesburg. Since joining the PPI team, Alwyn has delivered public and on-site systems engineering related training in Australia, Europe, South America, South Africa and the USA. Presentation Slides — PDF (1.0 MB)

This is a lively chat Andile Masuku had with Dr Vukosi Marivate, a Data Scientist and Senior Researcher at South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). They speak about the trend towards countries around the world passing laws that require the personal information of their citizens to be hosted on servers within their borders. We reached out to Vukosi after having some insightful engagement with him on Twitter last week; following our coverage of Russia blocking LinkedIn for flouting data security regulations.

Senegal is now the second African country after Tunisia to adopt an electronic currency. eCFA is equivalent in value to the country’s physical tender and will be available on all mobile money and e-wallet platforms. This development has led to e-money proponents speculating which African country might be next to adopt electronic money. Zimbabwe, perhaps? It’s popularly been argued that given the persistent economic troubles that have dogged the country, Zimbabwe might very well be the continent’s best use case for the adoption of virtual currency. But for the time being, Zimbabweans will have to be content with the country’s newest currency-- bond notes, which the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe started rolling out on Monday, December 28th, 2016. This week’s African Tech Round-up features a lively chat Andile Masuku had with Dr Vukosi Marivate, a Data Scientist and Senior Researcher at South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). They speak about the trend towards countries around the world passing laws that require the personal information of their citizens to be hosted on servers within their borders. We reached out to Vukosi after having some insightful engagement with him on Twitter last week; following our coverage of Russia blocking LinkedIn for flouting data security regulations. Music Credits: Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution

Millions of South Africans cast their votes in this year's municipal elections, we spoke to Dr. Ndumiso Cingo who is Innovation Manager at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on election predictions and what to expect from these elections...

It's May, and we're beginning the month by talking with Dr. Vukosi Marivate. Dr. Marivate is a data scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa. His work primarily deals with machine learning, so I had to ask one question -- how do machines learn? From there, Dr. Marivate walked me through a typical day, answered some great questions from our Slack community, and shared what people who are interested in data science should learn. We also talked about his early days growing up in South Africa and going to college there, as well as his time here in the United States at Rutgers studying for his Ph.D. Dr. Marivate shared a lot of really great advice that he's used to help him succeed, and I'm glad to get the opportunity to have him share it with you all! Dr. Vukosi Marivate's Website Dr. Vukosi Marivate on Twitter ====== Join our Slack AMA with WordPress consultant and developer Kronda Adair on Wednesday, May 4! Sign up for our Slack community here: http://revisionpath.herokuapp.com

Several provinces across the country are expected to experience hot, dry conditions during the festive season. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) warned last month that the current El Niño weather phenomenon would add to the damage being done by global warming. To elaborate further Sakina Kamwenso spoke to the CSIR Principal Researcher, Dr Francois Engelbrecht,