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Maluti-a-Phofung (MAP) municipal area is currently experiencing high unemployment and poverty rates. The structural weaknesses and problems of the economy of MAP local municipality highlight the importance and urgency of Local Economic Development (LED) in MAP. This paper reports the results of a study carried out to investigate constraints in the growth of multipliers around local shopping centres in the area south of Phuthaditjhaba, Maluti-a-Phofung. The methodology involved field observations, the administration of interviews to a random sample of ten households in the vicinity of each of the eight shopping centres and another sample of five business units at each centre. The results were analyzed using Pearson's correlation in order to test three hypotheses based on business structure, location and multipliers. The findings indicate that these shopping centres are not able to meet the diverse shopping needs of the community and patronage levels are extremely low. This has serious implications for these centres in generating economic growth multipliers in the local community.

As the Navy moves to the all-electric warship, superconducting materials will play a key enabling role. High temperature superconducting (HTS) motors and generators will enable extended range, high-efficiency, high-power density naval propulsion, and compact generators for weapons and ship systems. Compact mobile HTS generators also may provide portable/mobile power for littoral and expeditionary operation, naval air, and homeland security. The "second generation" high-temperature superconductors (2G-HTS) based on yttrium-bariumcopper- oxide (YBCO) "coated conductor" architectures are undergoing a processing technology breakthrough that will lead to large-scale manufacture by 2008. NRL is working with manufacturers to address key issues in the processing and performance of these conductors during this fast-paced stage of technology development. In particular, 2G-HTS process development is accelerated by fundamental understanding of the materials microstructures gained at NRL. Key goals include reduction of AC losses in the HTS motors and generators, as well as novel inductor designs for power electronics. Ensuring superior fatigue properties of the HTS materials compatible with the lifecycle of naval machinery is a key objective., Published in NRL Review, Materials Science and Technology, 2006.

Amorphous alloys of (Fe(1-x)Mn(x)) (73.5) Si(13.5)B(9) Nb(3)Cu(1), where chi = 0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, were prepared by vacuum melt-spinning. Anneals performed at or above the crystallization temperature led to the formation of a nanostructure where the primary phase is a body centered cubic or DO(3) FeSi phase embedded within an intergranular amorphous phase. The saturation induction of the chi = 0.05 alloy is 1.19 T, slightly lower than the parent alloy. Prolonged thermal aging led to an enhancement in the soft magnetic properties. This change occurs at soak times near 6000 s and corresponds to a decrease in the anisotropy and coercivity, and an increase in the remanent magnetization. EXAFS studies suggest that the Mn partitions during crystallization and thermal aging to the grain boundary regions may play an important role in enhancing the exchange coupling of the aged samples by increasing the Curie temperature of the amorphous intergranular phase., Published in IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, v37 n4 p2264-2267, July 2001.