Browsing by Faculty "Unknown"
Now showing 1 - 20 of 90
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- ItemOpen AccessAnalysis of practical Surgical experience and Case Reports, Part III(1980) Rousseau, Theodore Emile
- ItemOpen AccessAuxiliary liver allotransplantation : a human feasibility study and an evaluation of a new technique in the pig.(1978) Crosier, James Herbert
- ItemOpen AccessBayesian participatory-based decision analysis : an evolutionary, adaptive formalism for integrated analysis of complex challenges to social-ecological system sustainability(2010) Peter, Camaren; April, Kurt; Potgieter, AnetThis dissertation responds to the need for integration between researchers and decision-makers who are dealing with complex social-ecological system sustainability and decision-making challenges. To this end, we propose a new approach, called Bayesian Participatory-based Decision Analysis (BPDA), which makes use of graphical causal maps and Bayesian networks to facilitate integration at the appropriate scales and levels of descriptions. The BPDA approach is not a predictive approach, but rather, caters for a wide range of future scenarios in anticipation of the need to adapt to unforeseeable changes as they occur. We argue that the graphical causal models and Bayesian networks constitute an evolutionary, adaptive formalism for integrating research and decision-making for sustainable development. The approach was implemented in a number of different interdisciplinary case studies that were concerned with social-ecological system scale challenges and problems, culminating in a study where the approach was implemented with decision-makers in Government. This dissertation introduces the BPDA approach, and shows how the approach helps identify critical cross-scale and cross-sector linkages and sensitivities, and addresses critical requirements for understanding system resilience and adaptive capacity.
- ItemOpen AccessBeta-lactam antibiotic resistance in enterobacter cloacae isolated from Groot Schuur Hospital inpatients(1991) Saunders, Geoffrey Lance
- ItemOpen AccessBusiness modelling for inclusive financial services: How to enhance access to financial services for marginalised youth(2015) Musarurwa, Hillary Jephat; Mlambo, ChipoThe aim of this research was to develop a business model that will enhance the access to financial services by marginalised youth. In order to develop such a relevant business model it was necessary to understand the needs and challenges being faced by targeted clients in using and accessing formal financial services. Accessing such services will help them build assets in the long term, smooth cashflow and make savings as they transition from childhood to adulthood. Currently there are a number of barriers compounding financial exclusion and thus increasing the inequality gap. The study applied design thinking and systems thinking tools to undertake business model innovation and come out with a plausible alternative financial services model for youth and immigrants in Zimbabwe and South Africa respectively. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were applied to unpack the financial services needs of youth and how they are currently accessing service. An ethnographic approach as well as snowballing were applied in order to get to the respondents. Covert observations were done at a construction site in a bid to collect the immigrants' silent narrative of how they got to South Africa and are surviving from day to day. The research discovered that Zimbabwean youth residing in Zimbabwe and those who have migrated to South Africa are financially excluded yet they need financial services. It also discovered that there are business models being applied globally and in South Africa that are aimed at closing the financial exclusion gap. The study concluded that it is possible to have a business model that aims at serving youth, more so immigrants in South Africa, and provide them with low cost products that have a social impact on their livelihoods
- ItemOpen Access
- ItemOpen Access
- ItemOpen Access
- ItemOpen Access
- ItemOpen AccessCompact fluorecent lamps in an international context(1997) Clark, Alix
- ItemOpen AccessCost benefit analysis of energy efficiency in low-cost housing(1999) Winkler, Harald; Fecher, Randall Spalding; Tyani, Lwazikazi; Matibe, Khorommbi
- ItemOpen AccessDa Erlebnis der menschlichen Verlassenheit bei Wolfgang Borchert(1951) Hermenau, Hille
- ItemOpen AccessDeath due to anaesthesia : its incidence and some associated factors.(1966) Harrison, Gaisford Gerald
- ItemOpen AccessDoes Pairs trading work on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange?(2015) Appelbaum, MatthewIn this study it was examined whether Pairs trading is a potentially profitable trading strategy on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Pairs trading is a quantitative based trading strategy, in which shares are paired up based on a historic price relationship and traded accordingly, in a contrarian manner, when they diverge from said historical relationship. The essence of Pairs trading is to take advantage of perceived market inefficiencies, which is a direct contradiction of the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (even in its weak form). This study tested Pairs trading on both an unrestricted (any two shares can be paired), as well as a sector-restricted (only pairs within the RESI and the FINDI sectors could be paired), sample of shares (the JSE Top80 - based on market capitalization). Furthermore, a number of different signals (which are based on standard deviations) to open and close pairs were tested, on both the unrestricted and sector-restricted samples. The aim of using different samples of shares, as well as different trading signals, was to determine whether or not different strategies could serve to bolster the performance of a Pairs trading strategy.
- ItemOpen Access
- ItemOpen AccessElectrification planning: An international review(1995) Davis, Mark
- ItemOpen AccessEnergy usage by farmworker households on commercial farms in South Africa(1993/08/00) Hofmeyr, Ilne-Mari
- ItemOpen AccessEvaluation of a common method of convulsion therapy in Bantu schizophrenics(1955) De Wet, Jacobus Stephanus du Toit
- ItemOpen AccessThe evolution and dynamics of stocks on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange and their implications for equity investment management(2015) Chimanga, Artwell Shingirai; Mlambo, Chipo[No subject] This thesis explores the dynamics of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange returns to understand how they impact stock prices. The introductory chapter renders a brief overview of financial markets in general and the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) in particular. The second chapter employs the fractal analysis technique, a method for estimating the Hurst exponent, to examine the JSE indices. The results suggest that the JSE is fractal in nature, implying a long-term predictability property. The results also indicate a logical system of variation of the Hurst exponent by firm size, market characteristics and sector grouping. The third chapter investigates the economic and political events that affect different market sectors and how they are implicated in the structural dynamics of the JSE. It provides some insights into the degree of sensitivity of different market sectors to positive and negative news. The findings demonstrate transient episodes of nonlinearity that can be attributed to economic events and the state of the market. Chapter 4 looks at the evolution of risk measurement and the distribution of returns on the JSE. There is evidence of fat tails and that the Student t-distribution is a better fit for the JSE returns than the Normal distribution. The Gaussian based Value-at-Risk model also proved to be an ineffective risk measurement tool under high market volatility. In Chapter 5 simulations are used to investigate how different agent interactions affect market dynamics. The results show that it is possible for traders to switch between trading strategies and this evolutionary switching of strategies is dependent on the state of the market. Chapter 6 shows the extent to which endogeneity affects price formation. To explore this relationship, the Poisson Hawkes model, which combines exogenous influences with self-excited dynamics, is employed. Evidence suggests that the level of endogeneity has been increasing rapidly over the past decade. This implies that there is an increasing influence of internal dynamics on price formation. The findings also demonstrate that market crashes are caused by endogenous dynamics and exogenous shocks merely act as catalysts. Chapter 7 presents the hybrid adaptive intelligent model for financial time series prediction. Given evidence of non-linearity, heterogeneous agents and the fractal nature of the JSE market, neural networks, fuzzy logic and fractal theory are combined, to obtain a hybrid adaptive intelligent model. The proposed system outperformed traditional models.