TUT DIGITAL OPEN REPOSITORY
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Item Evaluation of match-running distances covered by soccer players during the UEFA EURO 2016.(The South African Sports Medicine Association, 2019-08-01)Background: Despite a substantial body of literature on match-running distances covered by soccer players in domestic leagues, there appears to be limited information on the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Euro competitions. Objective: The aim of this study was to analyse the match-running distances covered by soccer players during the UEFA Euro 2016. Methods: A multiple-camera tracking system (InStat Ltd) was used to analyse 228 observations of soccer players who played 15 full matches during the tournament. The outfield players were categorised according to the following playing positions: central defenders (CDs), n=58; wide defenders (WDs), n=45; central midfielders (CMs), n=53, wide midfielders (WMs), n=38; and attackers (ATs), n=34. Data were reported as means with 95% confidence intervals (CI). A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was undertaken to examine the significant differences among players based on playing positions. Results: The results indicated that the overall total distance covered by players was 10 350 m, ranging from 8 446 m to 12 982 m. ATs covered the longest distance in high-speed running (872 m; 95% CI = 813–931), while CDs covered the shortest distance (542 m; 95% CI = 503–581). A statistically significant difference was observed in high-speed running among players (F (4 223) = 36.92, P=0.001). Conclusion: The findings of this study provide soccer scientists and coaches with important information to design and implement training sessions in order to elucidate the physical demands of players in view of successful team performance.Item The nexus between consumer confidence and business failure: An emperical analyisis of the South African manufacturing sector.(Tshwane University of Technology, 2024-03-13)Background: The 21st century is shaped by increasing market competition and business failures. Studies show that the survival rate of local start-up businesses in South Africa is low by global standards. Research aim: This study aimed to determine the effect of consumer confidence on business failure. The motivation for this study is South Africa’s persistently low established business prevalence rate that paints a bleak picture of sectors such as manufacturing, which has huge potential to contribute meaningfully to job creation, economic growth, and more equal income distribution. Methodology: This study was conducted following the attribution theory and behavioural finance theory. The study employed descriptive and econometric analyses to determine the effects of the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) as explanations for business failure in the manufacturing sector in post-apartheid South Africa. Research limitations: The scope of this study narrowly focused on the manufacturing sector only. This study considered the CCI as the main factor of analysis; however, most of the challenges that a business will face may not be foreseeable as some will be completely unpredictable. Originality/value: Measuring the CCI and its impact on the performance of manufacturing and other sectors is not well documented. This study is unique in exploring the nexus between the CCI and insolvencies and liquidations in the manufacturing sector in South Africa using longitudinal data. Findings: The higher the measures of the CCI, the lower the number of compulsory and voluntary liquidations and insolvencies in the South African manufacturing sector, holding other factors constant. Similarly, manufacturing utilisation of production capacity in the South African manufacturing sector negatively affects the number of compulsory and voluntary liquidations and insolvencies. With regard to age and income groups considered, this study found that different age groups have different effects on the number of liquidations and insolvencies. There is no single age group that dominantly affects liquidations and insolvencies as a proxy for business failure. The same findings hold true for the three income groups analysed in this study. In the case of compulsory liquidations and insolvencies, all the income groups significantly affected the dependent variable. In contrast, none of the three income groups significantly affected the number of voluntary liquidations and insolvencies.Item Evaluating the feasibility of South Africa’s approach to just transitions.(Tshwane University of Technology, 2024-07-26)Since the dawn of democracy in 1994, South Africa's democratic government has been on a drive to foster economic growth, development and transformation (RSA, 2019). However, the prospect to attain these ideals has remained elusive as the country has been unable to substantively dismantle the triple threats of poverty, inequality and unemployment as evinced by high Gini Coefficient metric which casts South Africa as one of the most unequal societies in the world. The Gini coefficient is a metric which quantifies the amount of inequality that exists in a population, where zero (0) stands for equality and one (1) represents extreme inequality (OECD, 2017). South Africa recorded Gini Coefficients of 0.67 in 2006 and 0.65 in 2015 (Stas SA, 2020).Item A hybrid structural interaction matrix approach to prioritise process wastes generated in a manufacturing organisation(Springer, 2022-10-05)The productivity of a manufacturing organisation is limited by myriads of process wastes generated in this organisation. In light of this, the aim of this study is to prioritise various process wastes generated in a manufacturing organisation. In order to achieve this, on the one hand, a Hybrid Structural Interaction Matrix (HSIM), which is premised on the theory of subordination via systems thinking was deployed to carry out the process wastes pairwise ranking and weighting analysis. On the other hand, the Pareto Chart, was thereafter deployed to ascertain the vital few process wastes contributing to productivity loss experienced in a manufacturing organisation. A case study of the process wastes generated in an Electronic-Product Manufacturing organisation was used to validate the process wastes prioritisation model developed in this study. The result of the HSIM prioritisation analysis revealed that the intensity rating scores of the process wastes; overproduction, excess inventory, defect, motion, transport, waiting and over-processing limiting the productivity of an organisation are 7.53, 4.59, 6.06, 1.65, 3.12, 0.18 and 9 respectively. The result of the validation exercise revealed that transport, excess inventory and defects are the core process wastes that limit the productivity of an Electronic-Product Manufacturing organisation considered in this study. With this approach, operations managers of a manufacturing organisation would obviously reduce errors in the rating of process wastes, which is vital towards achieving continuous productivity improvement and sustainable manufacturing.Item Chemical characterization and toxicity evaluation of fungal pigments for potential application in food, phamarceutical and agricultural industries(Elsevier B.V., 2023-03-31)Concerns associated with the use of synthetic colourants backs the demand for natural colourants. Thus, the current study aimed at characterizing crude fungal pigments produced by Penicillium multicolour, P. canescens, Talaromyces verruculosus, Fusarium solani and P. herquie. This included their antioxidant and antimicrobial properties together with acute toxicity evaluation on zebrafish embryos. The identification of pigment compounds was achieved through MS and IR data. The study demonstrated a substantial radical scavenging activity of extracts ranging from 65.49 to 74.46%, close to that of ascorbic acid (89.21%). Penicillium canescens and F. solani exhibited a strong antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli and Enterococcus aerogenes and Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus at MIC values ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 mg/mL. However, some levels of toxicity were observed for all extracts at a concentration range of 3–5 mg/mL. Pigment by P. multicolour, T. verruculosus and F. solani were tentatively identified through IR and MS data as sclerotiorin (yellow), rubropunctamine (red) and bostrycoidin (red). In conclusion, the study demonstrates a market potential of filamentous fungi pigments due to their antioxidant, antimicrobial activities, and prominent colours. Although there are some toxicity concerns, further tests must be done using molecular docking, albino mice and cell linings.
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