UWCScholar

This repository serves as a digital archive for the preservation of research outputs from the University of the Western Cape

Communities in UWCScholar

Select a community to browse its collections.

Now showing 1 - 5 of 11

Recent Submissions

Ouma Geelmeid ke kx’u ǁxaǁxa Nǀuu
(CALDi, University of Cape Town, 2016) Shah, Sheena; Brenzinger, Matthias
Three sisters living near Upington in the Northern Cape province of South Africa are the last fluent speakers of Nǀuu. Linguists from the Centre for African Language Diversity (CALDi) at UCT produced an illustrated 160 page trilingual Nǀuu-Afrikaans-English reader in collaboration with community members to support revitalisation efforts of this highly endangered language. The hard copies of the reader are used in the Nǀuu language classes conducted by Ouma Geelmeid, the youngest of the three Nǀuu-speaking sisters. The reader features twelve thematic areas with phrases and sentences derived from everyday conversations, as well as games, prayers and songs taught by Ouma Geelmeid. Core cultural terms and basic vocabulary used in the Nǀuu language classes have been compiled in Nǀuu-Afrikaans-English and Afrikaans-Nǀuu-English glossaries. In addition, new Nǀuu language data is available to a wider audience, both academics and other interested parties, through the electronic online copy of the reader. This language data will be of particular interest to scholars working in a number of subfields of linguistics, including typology, historical linguistics and language contact studies.
Electrochemical performance of V2O5//f-CNT asymmetric flexible device for supercapacitor application
(Springer, 2025) Mishra, Ajay Kumar; Bulla, Mamta; Kumar, Vinay
The advancement of flexible supercapacitors has been constrained by the inherent difficulty of fabricating flexible electrodes. In this work, the V2O5 nanostructures were synthesized at different temperatures (120–200 °C) via hydrothermal treatment, followed by calcination, resulting in materials with high porosity and optimized electrochemical properties. The fabricated electrode (synthesized V2O5 at 180 °C) shows a maximum capacitance (178.5 F g⁻1 at 1 A g⁻1 current density) compared to other prepared samples 1 in a 1.0 M Na2SO4 aqueous electrolyte. For practical applications, V2O5 nanostructures were integrated with f-CNTs to fabricate the V2O5//f-CNT asymmetric supercapacitor device, achieving a specific capacitance of 104.4 F g⁻1 at 1 A g⁻1 within a 1.6 V voltage window, signifying improved charge storage capabilities. The device achieved an energy density of 37.12 Wh kg⁻1 and a power density of 800 W kg⁻1 at 1 A g⁻1. The synergistic integration of Faradaic reactions from V₂O₅ with the EDL capacitance of f-CNTs enabled the device to retain 91.2% of its capacitance after 2000 GCD cycles, with enhanced performance sustained up to 5000 cycles. Furthermore, the device demonstrated remarkable flexibility, losing only 4.3% of its capacitance when bent at a 90° angle, underscoring its potential as a high-performance energy storage solution. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025.
A century later: discovery of a second Podospongia species offshore from the Table Mountain National Park MPA, South Africa
(Cambridge University Press, 2026) Samaai, Toufiek
A new sponge species (Demospongiae: Poecilosclerida: Podospongiidae) is described offshore from the Cape of Good Hope, on the southern edge of the Table Mountain National Park marine protected area. Podospongia capensis sp. nov. is compared to Podospongia natalensis, described by Kirkpatrick (1903) from the east coast of South Africa, as well as to all other Podospongia species described to date. The new species differs from P. natalensis in having a shorter, thicker stalk, lacking anisostrongyles as megascleres, and possessing a second category of large symmetrical aciculospinorhabds microcleres that are present in P. natalensis. Additionally, P. natalensis has larger oxeas and styles than those found in P. capensis sp. nov. Furthermore, the two species are geographically separated, with P. natalensis described from the Natal ecoregion, while P. capensis sp. nov. is described from the Southern Benguela ecoregion. The new species primarily differs from other congeners in external morphology and size of the oxeas and styles.
Luminescence and electroanalytical properties of carbon quantum dots in the context of immunosensor design
(John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2025) Louw, Clementine Juliat; Baker, Priscilla G L; Alemu, Yemataw Addis
Electroanalytical techniques are powerful tools in biological sensing because of their sensitivity and versatility. In recent decades, great attention has been given to the fabrication of electroactive nanomaterial-based biosensors. In this context, carbon quantum dots (CQDs) have received special attention and have been used to develop many sensors because of their remarkable advantages such as high photostability, high solubility and stability in water, biocompatibility, high photoluminescence emission intensities, and simple methods of synthesis. Since they are very small in size, they have high surface area to volume ratios which in turn can allow good catalytic activities of the working electrodes in electrochemical reactions. Being motivated by these advantages, in this work we prepared two types of carbon quantum dots (CQD-COOH and CQD-NH2) and used them to modify screen printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs) for detection of Troponin I (cTnI). These carbon quantum dot – modified SPCE immunosensors have offered promising results for the determination of cTnI with a limit of detection 62 pg/mL and 171 pg/mL, respectively. This simple approach to sensor design further offers valuable insights into the construction of paper based printed electrodes modified with new carbon-based nanomaterials as immunosensors for detection of other biomarkers of various diseases. © 2025 The Authors. ChemElectroChem published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.
Names of public memory spaces as sites of coloniality, cultural erasure, and downscaling in linguistic landscapes of Northern Zambia
(Routledge, 2025) Simungala, Gabriel; Banda, Felix
This article problematises the names of two spaces of public memory in northern Zambia (South-Central Africa), the Moto Moto Museum and the Kalambo Falls Heritage Site, to illustrate the unequal power dynamics in place. It argues that both names are rooted in coloniality, perpetuating the erasure and downscaling of local historical voices and narratives. Moto Moto upscales the legacy of White religious figures while erasing the contribution of indigenous actors. Similarly, Kalambo reflects colonial control through the normalisation of mispronounced African words, stripping them of their original meaning and diminishing local cultural heritage. The article concludes with an exploration of how names of spaces of public memory in the linguistic landscape may carry a colonial heritage that surreptitiously reinforces the dominance of colonial narratives while diminishing local historical narratives and voices, resulting in the distortion of history and the sentiments of local people. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.