Latest news with #UniversityofKwaZulu-Natal
New Indian Express
6 days ago
- Science
- New Indian Express
Role of Computational Fluid Dynamics in making of missile systems highlighted in Andhra
VIJAYAWADA: The first International Conference on Computational Science and Mathematical Modelling (ICSMM) was organised by the Department of Mathematics at VIT-AP University in collaboration with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, on Friday. Addressing participants of the two-day event, the Director of Computational & Fluid Dynamics at the Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL)-Hyderabad, P K Sinha, highlighted the role of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in the design and development of state-of-the-art missile systems and technologies required for the deterrence and defence of the country. He explained that CFDs enable engineers to analyse and optimise aerodynamic performance, structural integrity and overall system effectiveness through advanced high performance computer simulations. Academic leader of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Prof. Fortune Massamba, joined the event virtually as the guest of honour. VIT-AP Vice-Chancellor Prof. SV Kota Reddy emphasised the contribution of mathematical modelling and CFDs in numerous real-life applications and utilities. He also presented VIT-AP's efforts to promote industrypartnership and plans on academic and research fronts to contribute to the national missions on Quantum Technologies and Green Hydrogen in line with the Vision 2047.
Hans India
6 days ago
- Science
- Hans India
VIT-AP organises meet on computational science
Amaravati: Firstinternational conference on Computational Science and Mathematical Modelling has been organised by the Department of Mathematics at VIT-AP University in collaboration with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. PK Sinha, Director of Computational & Fluid Dynamics at the Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad who was the chief guest, highlighted the critical role of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in the design and development of state-of-the-art missile systems and technologies required for the deterrence and defence of the country. He explained that CFDs enable engineers to analyse and optimise aerodynamic performance, structural integrity and overall system effectiveness through advanced high performance computer simulations. The insights into aerodynamic parameters such as lift, drag, stability and the response of the missile control surfaces are essential for trajectory accuracy and target precision. Additionally, CFD is instrumental in evaluating thermal loads and structural stresses, thereby informing design refinements that improve performance and safety. Academic leader of University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Prof Fortune Massamba, joined the event virtually as guest of honour. Vice-Chancellor of VIT-AP Prof SV Kota Reddy emphasised the contribution of mathematical modelling and CFDs in numerous real-life applications and utilities. He also presented VIT-AP's dedicated efforts for promoting industry partnership and plans on academic and research fronts to contribute to the national missions on Quantum Technologies and Green Hydrogen in line with AP Government's Swarnandhra vision 2047. Dean of School of Advanced Sciences Prof S Srinivas extended a warm welcome to all attendees of the conference, setting a gracious tone for the event and wished for vibrant knowledge sharing sessions and new collaborations until 19 July 2025. Conference convener, Dr Prashanth Maroju elaborated on the vision and objectives of ICSMM-2025. Dr Sukanta Nayak proposed a vote of thanks for the inaugural ceremony.
Daily Maverick
10-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Maverick
How frontline workers in KZN are helping fight the mental health crisis
South Africa does not have enough psychologists and psychiatrists to meet the mental health needs of everyone in the country. One solution is to train community healthcare workers to provide basic mental health support. Spotlight explores how one such task-sharing project is being scaled up in KwaZulu-Natal. It's a Wednesday morning in the Amajuba district near Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal. Anna, a community healthcare worker, enters a government-subsidised house for her routine visit to the family living there. Anna is familiar with the households she visits and is aware that things are not going well in this home. She knows that one woman in particular is struggling with her mental health and may have depression. In addition to her basic healthcare training, Anna's been trained to use a special guide that helps families better understand mental health and detect when someone might need extra support or care. This is the hypothetical example given by Professor Inge Petersen, director of the Centre for Research in Health Systems at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Anna may have been made up to illustrate a point, but the guide, called the Community Mental Health Education and Detection (CMED) tool, is real and has been adopted by the KwaZulu-Natal health department and is being used in the province. The initiative is part of a growing trend where different health tasks are shared among a wider range of trained workers, not just doctors or specialists. This task-sharing idea is that, since South Africa has far too few psychologists and psychiatrists to meet the needs of everyone in the country, other types of healthcare workers can share the load. Though community healthcare workers aren't qualified to prescribe scheduled medicines or treat serious mental health issues, they can provide some support and refer more complicated cases to others. 'It's no secret that our health services are under enormous strain,' says Professor Dan Stein, head of the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town. 'Given the resources, in psychiatry, we largely focus on serious mental disorders, and we're not able to address fully the common mental disorders — depression, anxiety and substance use disorders.' Even though reliable data on mental health in South Africa is sparse, available data suggest that the burden is substantial. A landmark epidemiological survey published in 2009 — the first large-scale population-based study of common mental disorders in South Africa — found that around one in six people had a mental health disorder in the preceding 12 months. Around three in 10 of the more than 4,300 people surveyed had at some point in their lives had a mental health disorder, and it was estimated that close to half of all people would experience one. In a more recent survey published in 2022, one in four people reported symptoms of moderate or severe depression, and around 18% reported symptoms of anxiety. In a study published in 2019, researchers estimated that less than 10% of people in South Africa were receiving the mental health services they needed. They found that in the public sector, there were 0.31 psychiatrists and 0.97 psychologists per 100,000 people, though there were large variations between provinces and between urban and rural areas. The researchers found that about 4.6% of the state's health spending goes to mental health, with around 86% of that spent on inpatient care. Green, orange, or red Returning to our hypothetical example in Amajuba, Anna greets the members of the household. In the room is Ma Mkhize, who lost her daughter recently. Apart from still grieving, she's very stressed about how she will support her daughter's three children. Ma Mkhize's sister and two young adult male family members are also present. 'While talking to the family, Anna likens mental health to a thermometer with a green, an orange and a red zone,' says Petersen. 'Anna explains that when people are in the green zone mentally, they're healthy; in the orange zone, they feel a bit stressed; and in the red zone, everything's becoming too much. Doing her best to normalise mental health conditions, she explains how people shift along this emotional health 'thermometer'.' Anna would then have read the story of Nontobeko — a woman whose husband lost his job three months ago, and who is constantly worrying about how she'll feed her children, is always tired, has a low appetite and struggles to sleep. 'Once she's read the story about Nontobeko, Anna asks the family if the story reminds them of someone in the household. If they say yes, she uses an algorithm developed to describe the symptoms, to determine whether Ma Mkhize should be further screened for depression at the local clinic,' says Petersen. The next step One of the keys to this approach is that community healthcare workers like Anna can provide support up to a certain level. It might be that no referral is needed and that support from someone like Anna is enough to help someone through a difficult period. But in Ma Mkhize's case, Anna has to refer. At the clinic, Ma Mkhize would see an enrolled nurse, who, besides checking her vital signs, like her blood pressure, also does a more in-depth mental health screening. The next step for Ma Mkhize would be to attend a consultation with a professional nurse at the clinic who assesses her for depression, using Adult Primary Care guidelines that include mental health conditions. 'If she's diagnosed as having a mental health condition, she will be referred to a psychological counsellor at the nearest community health centre for counselling; and/or to a primary healthcare doctor on the doctor's next visit to the clinic; or to a district hospital if symptoms are severe,' says Petersen. 'Layering mental health into the system' Signs are that the government, at least in KwaZulu-Natal, is buying into the idea of this type of task-sharing. 'Task-sharing assists us as a province with early detection and management of common mental health conditions,' says Dr Nikiwe Hongo, mental health director in the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health. 'Early interventions are then provided to avoid catastrophic manifestations much later. We have employed mid-level registered psychological counsellors within primary healthcare facilities to assist with this. It helps avoid unnecessary referrals to higher levels of care, with few specialist resources available. We continue to roll out capacity building for early detection by household community health workers and intensive screening and assessment by nurses at the clinic level.' These programmes are the culmination of much previous work. For the past seven years, Petersen and her colleagues have been working closely with the provincial health department to increase access to mental health services for adults by integrating mental health into primary care. 'Together with the department, we have developed and refined the way we are layering mental health into the system along the care cascade. Innovations have been introduced along the patient pathway, so that mental health is part of every contact a person might have with the healthcare system,' she says. 'Task-sharing as a policy is strongly supported by the World Health Organization, and South Africa has adopted it into our national policy framework and action plan, but the implementation has been a challenge,' says Petersen. She explains that while it's challenging to provide exact numbers of healthcare workers trained in KwaZulu-Natal, since trainers are equipped to train others within their own districts, the available figures suggest that several hundred have already been reached. The initiative has expanded beyond KwaZulu-Natal, with healthcare workers in one district in Limpopo and another in the Northern Cape currently undergoing training. 'A huge dilemma' Dr Ingrid Daniels, the CEO of Cape Mental Health and a past president of the World Federation for Mental Health, agreed that the gap between need and resources in mental health services was dire. 'A huge dilemma South Africa faces is the fact that social determinants such as poverty, unemployment and gender-based violence exacerbate mental health problems. 'This is further complicated by substance use, which is highly prevalent, contributing to the burden of disease. On one hand, we have an increasing prevalence of mental health issues among our population, and on the other, government-funded, state-run mental health services for 84% of our population which are under-resourced and often working among communities in dire circumstances,' she says. Daniels says a burning question is how South Africa's mental health services can be transformed to make them more accessible. 'Task-sharing is one of the best evidence-based interventions that have been very successful. It's successful because we have a serious human resource shortage for mental health in South Africa. On top of that, we have insufficient social workers, as well as insufficient psychiatrists. 'We're not going to narrow the treatment gap any time soon within the next decade or two, so task-sharing is critical because basically … you are providing the necessary knowledge and education to a community health worker,' she says. Ultimately, in the context of scarce mental health resources, Petersen says, 'Integrating mental health into existing health services provided by general healthcare workers through task-sharing is the only viable solution to closing the mental health treatment gap.' While all the experts Spotlight interviewed for this article seemed to agree with that view, the details of how to go about implementing the 'solution' are less clear-cut. It is in helping map this out that the work in KwaZulu-Natal is taking the field forward. DM
The Citizen
08-07-2025
- Science
- The Citizen
PhD ecologist shares bird insights in Phalaborwa
LIMPOPO – With a bird book in hand before he could even speak, Dr Rion Lerm's journey from curious infant to internationally respected bird ecologist is as remarkable as the wildlife he studies. On Friday, June 6, that journey came full circle as he returned to the region where it all began, delivering an inspiring and insightful presentation at the Phalaborwa Conservation evenings held at the Coffee Lounge. The event, hosted by the Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation in collaboration with the SA Hunters and Game Conservation Association, Mopani branch, drew a crowd of conservationists and nature lovers eager to learn from one of South Africa's leading voices in avian ecology. Lerm, a technician and ecologist with the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, captivated the audience with his lifelong journey through the world of birds, a passion that began before he could even walk. His story took flight in the early 1990s during family visits to the Kruger National Park, where, at just nine months old, a bird field guide was placed in his tiny hands. While others admired lions and elephants, young Lerm, nicknamed 'Tokka' by family, was mesmerised by the feathered inhabitants of the bushveld. This early spark ignited a deep and enduring love for birds, leading him to outshine seasoned birders at identification courses during his school years, and even portray his winged subjects through watercolour paintings. His skills earned him recognition among seasoned ornithologists. As his academic journey unfolded, so did his scientific curiosity. Lerm's BTech Honours degree at Tshwane University of Technology introduced him to ecological research, focussing on bird communities along elevation gradients in the Lebombo mountains bordering South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique. A formative gap year followed, where he worked alongside leading international ecologists to investigate bird physiology and behaviour. His master's research took him into the vast semi-arid landscapes of the Kalahari, where he explored how land-use changes affect bird diversity. This year, Lerm earned his PhD through the University of KwaZulu-Natal, producing critical research on bird diversity in and around the Kruger National Park, including how birds respond to environmental extremes such as drought and seasonal shifts. These findings, which offer valuable insights for Sanparks and savanna conservation efforts across the continent, have gained widespread attention in both academic and public platforms. His work underscores the importance of birds as indicators of environmental change and the need for adaptive management in protected areas. Lerm emphasised the growing role of technology in ecological research and called on citizens to contribute to scientific knowledge through platforms like the South African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP2), African Bird Atlas Project (ABAP), eBird, and iNaturalist. 'I am looking forward to continuing my ecological work, focusing not only on birds but also on other biota, using emerging technologies and software developments to better understand and protect our natural world,' said Lerm. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
Scroll.in
05-07-2025
- General
- Scroll.in
Feya Faku (1962-2025): South African jazz trumpeter who made the expressive ballad his trademark
Lex Futshane, the South African bass player in the 1992 student band NU Jazz Connection, was the first to tell me that the great South African jazz trumpeter Feya Faku had died while touring Switzerland on June 23. He was born on June 6, 1962 and was just 63 years old. Within a day of Feya's passing, my wife Catherine Brubeck and I had heard from every member of the student band that I'd helped form, except the late Lulu Gontsana of course. They expressed great sadness and praised not just his playing but also the man himself. Play The trumpeter, flugelhorn player, composer and teacher was born in Emaxambeni in a black residential township called New Brighton in Port Elizabeth (today Gqeberha). He would be inspired by members of a significant jazz community there as a teenager and formalised his training at the then University of Natal (later University of KwaZulu-Natal). He'd go on to become one of the distinctive trumpeters locally and on the international jazz scene. But a lot has already been written about Feya's career (check out Gwen Ansell's obituary), his recordings, a timeline of musical associates and collaborative projects. So here I feel free to write from the heart and recall certain times we shared with Feya. Student years Feya was one of a talented cohort of students from New Brighton, who came to Durban in the 1980s to study jazz at the University of Natal, where I was teaching. The great South African saxophonist Zim Ngqawana, also from New Brighton, was the first to arrive. One day Zim requested a meeting in my office, and I surmised he needed help with something. Instead, he told me that there was a trumpet player back home who 'deserves the same chance as I have'. This was also true for Lex Futshane and drummer Lulu Gontsana. They all came and suddenly Durban was a better place to study jazz. They brought jazz knowledge and multi-cultural influences with them, expanding the landscape of South African jazz despite the injustices of apartheid. They were not yet registered students entitled to campus housing so, for a while, all four stayed in an annexe to our house. When we sold the house, we all moved into a very large flat near Albert Park in Durban. During apartheid, Africans were not allowed to live in designated white areas, so we were the official renters. When Catherine and I moved out, they simply continued to live there with a lease in our name. Early success After the success of the Jazzanians, our first student band to travel overseas, we formed another flagship group. The NU Jazz Connection would perform at the annual International Association for Jazz Education conference in Miami and other places in the US and then later at a youth festival in Germany. The music label B&W (later MELT 2000) recorded the band while they were there. The album African Tributes featured Feya, Lex and Lulu, plus Sazi Dlamini (guitar), S'thembiso Ntuli (tenor sax), Mark Kilian (piano and keyboards) and US music professor Chris Merz (alto and soprano). Feya's moving rendition of the South African classic Ntyilo, Ntyilo foreshadows the expressive, ballad style that became his trademark. Everyone in the NU Jazz Connection except Lulu, who died in 2005, was available for the 2023 launch of Playing the Changes: Jazz at an African University and On the Road, the book Catherine and I wrote about our years in Durban. This was the last time we were with Feya. Thirty years after African Tributes, the band still sounded great. I am so grateful for this wonderful memory. Gentle maestro On our various tours, for example to the US, Germany, Peru and Mozambique, Feya was cooperative and professional. He was extremely sensitive and empathetic and connected with people just by quietly being himself. Musically speaking, think of the great US trumpeters like Chet Baker or classic Miles Davis, vulnerable, subtly melancholic, understated yet agile. That's what I used to say. However, listening to recent recordings made during his residencies at the Bird's Eye Club in Basel with Swiss musicians, his compositions and instrumental voice seemed more energetic, with old and new influences crystalised into a strongly personal style. Contact with Feya, although frequent, was somewhat random. A special moment for me was going into Dizzy's Jazz Club in New York to check out the technical set up for my upcoming gig and, unexpectedly, meeting Feya there. He was just finishing up a run with South African saxophonist McCoy Mrubata. Later, he went through a bad patch, contracting Bell's palsy, a sudden weakness of the facial muscles. For a trumpet player, this would be like a pianist with broken fingers. He moved back from Johannesburg to New Brighton, where he had support in his community and from family. Play Fortunately for him and his growing audience, he recovered and began touring again, often as a single soloist joining various international musicians. According to those who were working with him on tour in Switzerland, he died peacefully in his sleep. It is some relief and a blessing that Feya left us in such a gentle manner.
