Does poverty cause terrorism?

Researcher:  Lulamile Mtebeni, University of the Witwatersrand, JohannesburgSupervisor: Prof. Rod Alence, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg This research analyses the assumption that the root cause of terrorism is poverty and other forms of socioeconomic deprivation. By analyzing all terrorist incidents between 1997 to 2020, this research sought to contribute

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Determinants of Age at First Marriage Among Women in South Africa

Researcher: Malahlane Komane, University of LimpopoSupervisor: Dr Alphonce Bere, University of Venda The study uses a recursive partitioning approach. To investigate the age at first marriage for women living in South Africa. There are well known methods of recursive partitioning which includes CART and random forest. The aim of

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Regression Model Using Organic Solar Cells Materials

Researcher:  Percival Shimange, University of the Witwatersrand, JohannesburgSupervisor: Dr R Maluta, University of Venda Our environment’s climate change has effects on energy consumption, generation, systems, and infrastructure. In the last decade, the demand for alternative energy conversion and storage devices has increased significantly.  This project uses organic solar

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Prediction of breast cancer using machine learning algorithms

Researcher:  Sedzani Ndou, University of VendaSupervisors:  Prof. O. Olugbenga Breast cancer is a deadly disease mostly in women’s health all over the world, as it is considered the second most deadly cancer after lung cancer.  To predict breast cancer we implement six different algorithms. We try to pick the

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Issuing of loans is associated with risks

Researcher:  Merriam Thoka, University of LimpopoSupervisor: Dr Hairong Bau, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Tree-based machine learning (ML) models are non-linear predictive models utilized today due to their accuracy and efficiency, but understanding their decisions has received very little attention.  Recently, banks are adopting ML to compute credit score

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Application of Machine Learning Algorithms for Rainfall Forecasting in KwaZulu Natal Province, South Africa

Researcher:  Jeremiah Ogunniyi, Sol Plaatje UniversitySupervisor:  Dr Ibidun Obagbuwa , Sol Plaatje University This study applied three machine learning algorithms namely Linear Regression (LR), Random Forest (RF), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) to predict precipitation in KwaZulu Natal Province, South Africa. The result shows that SVM had the best

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Climate Change and Agricultural Production in Developing Countries

Researcher:  Tshepiso Segone, University of the Witwatersrand, JohannesburgSupervisor:  Prof. Rod Alence, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Agricultural development in developing countries is essential for alleviating poverty. Compared to developing countries, the rate of agricultural development in developing countries is drastically delayed. Climate-related threats to agricultural production can disturb economic

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International Commitments and domestic enforcement against drugs

Researcher:  Raquel Baeta, University of the Witwatersrand, JohannesburgSupervisor:  Dr Oliver Westerwinter, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg State commitment to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, and the Convention against Illicit Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 influence domestic regulations and

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Evaluating banking customer churn Deep Learning model (Deep Neural Network) in terms of explainability

Researcher: Hlayisani Khoza, University of LimpopoSupervisor: Dr Hairong Bau, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg In the financial industry forecasting, client attrition is critical. The expense of hiring fresh clients is significantly greater than the expense of maintaining current clients. There are several Machine Learning (ML) models in use to

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