The Effects of Alkaline Pretreatment on Agricultural Biomasses (Corn Cob and Sweet Sorghum Bagasse) and Their Hydrolysis by a Termite-Derived Enzyme Cocktail:
- Authors: Mafa, Mpho S , Malgas, Samkelo , Bhattacharya, Abhishek , Rashamuse, Konanani , Pletschke, Brett I
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/160273 , vital:40430 , https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10081211
- Description: Sweet sorghum bagasse (SSB) and corncob (CC) have been identified as promising feedstocks for the production of second-generation biofuels and other value-added chemicals. In this study, lime (Ca(OH)2) and NaOH pretreatment efficacy for decreasing recalcitrance from SSB and CC was investigated, and subsequently, the pretreated biomass was subjected to the hydrolytic action of an in-house formulated holocellulolytic enzyme cocktail (HEC-H). Compositional analysis revealed that SSB contained 29.34% lignin, 17.75% cellulose and 16.28% hemicellulose, while CC consisted of 22.51% lignin, 23.58% cellulose and 33.34% hemicellulose. Alkaline pretreatment was more effective in pretreating CC biomass compared to the SSB biomass.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Use of a non-hepatic cell line highlights limitations associated with cell-based assessment of metabolically induced toxicity:
- Authors: Weyers, Carli , Dingle, Laura M K , Wilhelmi, Brendan S , Edkins, Adrienne L , Veale, Clinton G L
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/160290 , vital:40431 , DOI: 10.1080/01480545.2019.1585869
- Description: Metabolically induced drug-toxicity is a major cause of drug failure late in drug optimization phases. Accordingly, in vitro metabolic profiling of compounds is being introduced at earlier stages of the drug discovery pipeline. An increasingly common method to obtain these profiles is through overexpression of key CYP450 metabolic enzymes in immortalized liver cells, to generate competent hepatocyte surrogates. Enhanced cytotoxicity is presumed to be due to toxic metabolite production via the overexpressed enzyme. However, metabolically induced toxicity is a complex multi-parameter phenomenon and the potential background contribution to metabolism arising from the use of liver cells which endogenously express CYP450 isoforms is consistently overlooked. In this study, we sought to reduce the potential background interference by applying this methodology in kidney-derived HEK293 cells which lack endogenous CYP450 expression.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Comparative study of skipjack tuna Katsuwonus pelamis (Scombridae) fishery stocks from the South Atlantic and western Indian oceans
- Authors: Dahlet, Lol I , Downey-Breedt, Nicola , Arce, Gabriel , Sauer, Warwick H H , Gasalla, Maria A
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/123988 , vital:35523 , https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.04804.22C
- Description: Temporal and spatial fluctuations in the abundance of oceanic pelagic populations spread geographically around the globe are common (Cushing 1975). The causes of these fluctuations may be exogenous (environmental or anthropogenic) or endogenous to the organism (e.g. ontogenetic drivers) (Ricker 1954). This scenario applies to some tuna stocks, including the skipjack tuna, Katsuwonus pelamis (Linnaeus, 1758), known as bonito-listrado in Brazil, katunkel, or ocean bonito in South Africa, and godhaa (bigger) or kadumas (smaller) skipjack in the Maldives. The skipjack belongs to the family Scombridae and inhabits tropical and subtropical areas of the globe. On average, 85% of skipjack catch occurs in waters warmer than 24°C (Fonteneau 2003). This resource is of particular importance, accounting for 57% of the global industrial tuna catch in 2016, and is mainly processed by the canning industry. Skipjack catches totaled 2.79 million t in 2016 (ISSF 2018), and currently 8.5% of worldwide catches are made by the pole-and line fleet. In Brazil and the Maldives, the resource is well-known. Catches in Brazil were seen to increase until 2014, while in the Maldives, 2006 marked the beginning of a strong and unsettling decline that continued until recent years. Off South Africa, skipjack catches are 1000 to 10000 times lower than those from Brazil and the Maldives, and the highest catches were recorded in 2012.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Cosmolocal orientations: trickster spatialization and the politics of cultural bargaining in Zambia
- Authors: Simbao, Ruth K
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146044 , vital:38490 , DOI 10.1080/19301944.2018.1532379
- Description: The spatialization of Africa is fraught, and places within Africa tend to be stereotyped by geographies of morality and simplistic rural/urban divides. Focusing on the spatial, cultural, and political bargaining of contemporary chiefs and cultural festivals in 21st-century Zambia, this article delinks cosmopolitanism and Afropolitanism from the city and associated attitudes of urbanity. Positioning place as a trickster character, it argues for a nuanced understanding of time-space imaginaries that refuses to bind people and identities to closed-down notions of place. In this article I propose the term cosmolocal, suggesting that the cosmolocal is an outward-engaging orientation that understands place as a profoundly discursive and situational process and that has the potential to exist anywhere. Many contemporary chiefs in Zambia embrace cosmolocalism, enabling them to escape the limitations of being viewed merely as custodians of culture who are limited to the space of the village framed historically as the warehouse of culture.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Deeper knowledge of shallow waters: reviewing the invertebrate fauna of southern African temporary wetlands
- Authors: Bird, Matthew S , Mlambo, Musa C , Wasserman, Ryan J , Dalu, Tatenda , Holland, Alexandra J , Day, Jenny A , Villet, Martin H , Bilton, David T , Barber-James, Helen M , Brendonck, Luc
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140784 , vital:37918 , DOI: 10.1007/s10750-018-3772-z
- Description: Temporary lentic wetlands are becoming increasingly recognised for their collective role in contributing to biodiversity at the landscape scale. In southern Africa, a region with a high density of such wetlands, information characterising the fauna of these systems is disparate and often obscurely published. Here we provide a collation and synthesis of published research on the aquatic invertebrate fauna inhabiting temporary lentic wetlands of the region. We expose the poor taxonomic knowledge of most groups, which makes it difficult to comment on patterns of richness and endemism.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Environmental niche patterns of native and non-native fishes within an invaded African river system
- Authors: Kadye, Wilbert T , Booth, Anthony J
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124407 , vital:35605 , https://doi.10.1111/jfb.13988
- Description: To test ecological niche theory, this study investigated the spatial patterns and the environmental niches of native and non-native fishes within the invaded Great Fish River system, South Africa. For the native fishes, there were contrasting environmental niche breadths that varied from being small to being large and overlapped for most species, except minnows that were restricted to headwater tributaries. In addition, there was high niche overlap in habitat association among fishes with similar distribution. It was therefore inferred that habitat filtering-driven spatial organization was important in explaining native species distribution patterns. In comparison, most non-native fishes were found to have broad environmental niches and these fishes showed high tolerance to environmental conditions, which generally supported the niche opportunity hypothesis. The proliferation of multiple non-native fishes in the mainstem section suggest that they form a functional assemblage that is probably facilitated by the anthropogenic modification of flow regimes through inter-basin water transfer. Based on the distribution patterns observed in the study, it was inferred that there was a likelihood of negative interactions between native and nonnative fishes. Such effects are likely to be exacerbated by altered flow regime that was likely to have negative implications for native ichthyofauna.
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- Date Issued: 2019
Governance mapping: a framework for assessing the adaptive capacity of marine resource governance to environmental change
- Authors: Dutra, Leo X C , Sporne, Ilva , Haward, Marcus , Aswani, Shankar , Cochrane, Kevern L , Frusher, Stewart , Gasalla, Maria A , Gianesella, Sônia M F , Grant, Tanith , Hobday, Alistair J , Jennings, Sarah M , Plagányi, Éva , Pecl, Gretta T , Salim, Shyam S , Sauer, Warwick H H , Taboada, Manuela B , Van Putten, Ingrid E
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145336 , vital:38429 , DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2018.12.011
- Description: Marine social-ecological systems are influenced by the way humans interact with their environment, and external forces, which change and re-shape the environment. In many regions, exploitation of marine resources and climate change are two of the primary drivers shifting the abundance and distribution of marine living resources, with negative effects on marine-dependent communities. Governance systems determine ‘who’ makes decisions, ‘what’ are their powers and responsibilities, and ‘how’ they are exercised. Understanding the connections between the actors comprising governance systems and influences between governance and the environment is therefore critical to support successful transitions to novel forms of governance required to deal with environmental changes. The paper provides an analytical framework with a practical example from Vanuatu, for mapping and assessment of the governance system providing for management of coral reef fish resources. The framework enables a rapid analysis of governance systems to identify factors that can encourage, or hinder, the adaptation of communities to changes in abundance or availability of marine resources.
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- Date Issued: 2019
Identification of Novel Potential Inhibitors of Pteridine Reductase 1 in Trypanosoma brucei via Computational Structure-Based Approaches and in Vitro Inhibition Assays
- Authors: Kimuda, Magambo Phillip , Laming, Dustin , Hoppe, Heinrich C , Tastan Bishop, Özlem
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124675 , vital:35647 , https://doi:10.3390/molecules24010142
- Description: Pteridine reductase 1 (PTR1) is a trypanosomatid multifunctional enzyme that provides a mechanism for escape of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) inhibition. This is because PTR1 can reduce pterins and folates. Trypanosomes require folates and pterins for survival and are unable to synthesize them de novo. Currently there are no anti-folate based Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) chemotherapeutics in use. Thus, successful dual inhibition of Trypanosoma brucei dihydrofolate reductase (TbDHFR) and Trypanosoma brucei pteridine reductase 1 (TbPTR1) has implications in the exploitation of anti-folates. We carried out molecular docking of a ligand library of 5742 compounds against TbPTR1 and identified 18 compounds showing promising binding modes. The protein-ligand complexes were subjected to molecular dynamics to characterize their molecular interactions and energetics, followed by in vitro testing. In this study, we identified five compounds which showed low micromolar Trypanosome growth inhibition in in vitro experiments that might be acting by inhibition of TbPTR1. Compounds RUBi004, RUBi007, RUBi014, and RUBi018 displayed moderate to strong antagonism (mutual reduction in potency) when used in combination with the known TbDHFR inhibitor, WR99210. This gave an indication that the compounds might inhibit both TbPTR1 and TbDHFR. RUBi016 showed an additive effect in the isobologram assay. Overall, our results provide a basis for scaffold optimization for further studies in the development of HAT anti-folates.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Rethinking ICT4D Impact Assessments: reflections from the Siyakhula Living Lab in South Africa
- Authors: Mthoko, Hafeni , Khene, Caroline
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , conference paper
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/105286 , vital:32495 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11235-6_4
- Description: The approach to outcome and impact assessments of ICTD has often relied solely on identifying project effects in relation to project baseline data; however, such an approach limits the potential learning that could be occurring throughout a project’s lifecycle. Impact assessments should be conducted in a comprehensive manner, taking into account the evaluation data that has been captured from the initiation of the project through to its implementation, and beyond. This study sought to reflect on the implementation of an impact assessment framework that is based on a comprehensive approach to evaluation. The framework was implemented in the Siyakhula Living Lab to assess for its outcomes and impacts on the community. A pragmatic approach was applied through a reflective process, to assess the utility of the framework within this context. Semi-structured interviews with project stakeholders were conducted to further gain insight into the comprehensive approach to conducting impact assessments. It was found that a comprehensive approach to assessing impacts provided a meaningful way to understand the effects of the ICTD initiative, and provided an overview of project areas that required improvement. However, it was found that the proposed assessment framework required a customisation component in order to modify it to better suit the project context. The way in which future impact assessments are conducted can draw on the lessons gained from following a more comprehensive approach to evaluation, and thus improve learning over time.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2019
Rethinking the dialectics of rural and urban in African art and scholarship:
- Authors: Siegenthaler, Fiona , Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C , Siegert, Nadine
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146022 , vital:38488 , DOI: 10.1080/19301944.2018.1538856
- Description: This issue of Critical Interventions is dedicated to rethinking the dialectics of the rural and the urban in African art and scholarship. Inspired by the general theme of the European Conference of African Studies (ECAS/AEGIS) in Basel (June 28 to July 1, 2017), Urban Africa – Urban Africans: New Encounters of the Rural and the Urban, the guest editors of this issue hosted two panels on the relationship of urban-based artists and their interest in rural topographies, aesthetics, and cultural practices.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
The Art of Life in South Africa by Daniel Magaziner: a review
- Authors: Ijisakin, Eyitayo Tolulope
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146101 , vital:38495 , https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/702008
- Description: In The Art of Life in South Africa, Daniel Magaziner examines the history of art education under apartheid in South Africa. The book focuses on Ndaleni, an art school for black South Africans, and considers the travails and triumphs of its artists and their teachers under white supremacy. At Ndaleni, students and teachers were bound together in learning “the art of life”; due to lack of funds, they improvised materials for artistic production. While the school existed, between the 1950s and 1980s, about 1,000 students graduated; about 2,000 could not be admitted due to constraints of space. This shows how Ndaleni appealed to many black South Africans as one of the few places they could develop their art. According to the Bantu Education Act of 1953 (p. 3), the purpose of the school was to preserve white supremacy, the segregation between African and European education—what Oguibe (2004) refers to as “Play me the other.” The book is organized into seven chapters, with a prologue, an epilogue, and endnotes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
‘Yummy or crummy?': the multisensory components of medicines-taking among HIV-positive youth
- Authors: Hodes, Rebecca , Vale, Beth , Toska, Elona , Cluver, Lucie , Dowse, Roslind , Ashorn, Mikael
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/156663 , vital:40036 , DOI: 10.1080/17441692.2018.1504103
- Description: The global rollout of Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) has revealed an urgent need to understand the medicines-taking practices of HIV-positive adolescents. In the last decade, the literature on the social determinants of health has broadened the evidence-base on ART adherence. Interdisciplinary studies have expanded conceptions of medicines-taking beyond clinical or health systems frameworks, recognising the importance of socio-structural conditions and of patients’ beliefs and experiences. Participatory research techniques which foreground the perspectives of adolescents provide greater insights still into their adherence. This article explores the use of participatory methods within a broader study on the social determinants of ART adherence among HIV-positive adolescents in South Africa. We describe how participatory methods were incorporated into this study (n = 1,059 in the quantitative baseline). We focus on an exercise, ‘Yummy or crummy?’, that explored the multisensory dimensions of medicines-taking, including their colour, smell, shape, and delivery mechanism. We describe two principal findings: first, adolescents’ preference for greater understanding of the chemical workings of medicines, manifested in their preferences for colour, taste and shape of medicines; and second, the vital relationship between sensory preferences and the social imperatives of discretion and confidentiality regarding HIV-status.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Exploring and implementing Open Linked Data record creation on the Rhodes Digital Commons
- Authors: Van der Walt, Wynand
- Date: 2018-07-04
- Subjects: Linked data , Academic libraries -- Automation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , conference materials
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/65066 , vital:28661
- Description: Presentation at the NeDICC Meeting, held on the 4th of July 2018 at the CSIR, Pretoria. The purpose of the presentation was to inform the NeDICC community members of preliminary investigations into Linked Data and the potential impact on the Rhodes Digital Commons (Rhodes' Institutional Repository).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018-07-04
"Our Voice of Africa": it is less than our voice without a woman's voice
- Authors: Tumusiime, Amanda
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145687 , vital:38458 , https://0-muse.jhu.edu.wam.seals.ac.za/article/695397/pdf
- Description: In her poem Our Voice (Chipasula and Chipasula 1995: 166–67) Noémia de Sousa (1926–2002) speaks about “our voice of Africa” as that voice that is liberative; that voice which opens “up new ways” and “lights up remorse … and burns glimmers of hope in the dark souls of desperate people” who cry out for emancipation from “slavery.” That voice which creates new possibilities by awakening a “cyclone of knowledge.” That voice which can persistently and effectively represent the aspirations of “millions of voices that shout, shout and shout!” for freedom and self-actualization.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
"Post-Truth,”“Alternative Facts” and “Fakenomics"
- Authors: Keeton, Gavin R
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/477887 , vital:78133 , https://doi.org/10.1111/saje.12181
- Description: South African companies are accused of hoarding profits to accumulate large amounts of “idle” cash, as well as of being the perpetrators of massive illegal capital flight. This paper argues that much of the claimed corporate cash is either offshore or belongs to banks. It reminds that bank deposits increase when companies borrow, not when they retain profits. It shows, too, that measures of massive capital flight actually reflect data errors. Exaggerating, through faulty methodology the extent to which companies have cash or may be involved in illegal capital flight is unhelpful. It exacerbates already‐fraught government‐business relations, and complicates the search for solutions to South Africa's economic problems.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
'We pledge to improve the health of our entire community'
- Authors: Grant, Carolyn , Nawal, Dipty , Guntur, Sai Mala , Kumar, Manish , Chaudhuri, Indrajit , Galavotti, Christine , Mahapatra, Tanmay , Ranjan, Kunal , Kumar, Gangesh , Mohanty, Sunil , Alam, Mohammed Aftab , Das, Aritra , Jiwani, Safia
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/281179 , vital:55699 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203265"
- Description: Background: Motivation is critical to health worker performance and work quality. In Bihar, India, frontline health workers provide essential health services for the state’s poorest citizens. Yet, there is a shortfall of motivated and skilled providers and a lack of coordination between two cadres of frontline health workers and their supervisors. CARE India developed an approach aimed at improving health workers’ performance by shifting work culture and strengthening teamwork and motivation. The intervention—“Team-Based Goals and Incentives”—supported health workers to work as teams towards collective goals and rewarded success with public recognition and non-financial incentives. Methods: Thirty months after initiating the intervention, 885 health workers and 98 supervisors completed an interviewer-administered questionnaire in 38 intervention and 38 control health sub-centers in one district. The questionnaire included measures of social cohesion, teamwork attitudes, self-efficacy, job satisfaction, teamwork behaviors, equitable service delivery, taking initiative, and supervisory support. We conducted bivariate analyses to examine the impact of the intervention on these psychosocial and behavioral outcomes. Results: Results show statistically significant differences across several measures between intervention and control frontline health workers, including improved teamwork (mean = 8.8 vs. 7.3), empowerment (8.5 vs. 7.4), job satisfaction (7.1 vs. 5.99) and equitable service delivery (6.7 vs. 4.99). While fewer significant differences were found for supervisors, they reported improved teamwork (8.4 vs. 5.3), and frontline health workers reported improved fulfillment of supervisory duties by their supervisors (8.9 vs. 7.6). Both frontline health workers and supervisors found public recognition and enhanced teamwork more motivating than the non-financial incentives. Conclusions: The Team-Based Goals and Incentives model reinforces intrinsic motivation and supports improvements in the teamwork, motivation, and performance of health workers. It offers an approach to practitioners and governments for improving the work environment in a resource-constrained setting and where there are multiple cadres of health workers.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
0 Representation of South African "tribal" culture in soap operas : a content and audience analysis of the series Generations : The Legacy
- Authors: Onyenankeya, Oluwayemisi Mary
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Television criticism Mass media and culture Mass media--Social aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , Communication
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/15430 , vital:40407
- Description: Commercial media entertainment offerings in South Africa especially mainstream soap operas, are progressively infusing dominant social values and ideas which are alien to South African tribal societies. In most of the commodified television drama series, people who hold tight to traditional beliefs and values are often characterised as traditionalists, while those who have imbibed the western defined dicta and ideology of modernity are seen as progressives. This study therefore, sought to ascertain how South African tribal language, traditional institutions, values, social norms and ancestral beliefs are portrayed through the television drama, Generations: The Legacy and what the viewers think about those constructions and the implication for cultural identity. The mixed methods approach was employed involving the administration of questionnaire to 350 participants selected through random sampling and a content analysis of 20 episodes of Generations: The Legacy. The findings suggest that Generations: The Legacy tends to portray South African tribal culture negatively (p-value > 0.05). More than half of the respondents (52percent) strongly believe such negative portrayals may erode the cultural identity of black South Africans, 68.6% were of the opinion that Generations: The Legacy gives preference to western culture as against South African tribal culture. The findings further showed that the African values and traditions represented in Generations: The Legacy do not significantly reflect the South African tribal tradition and values (p-value > 0.05). In the few occasions that African traditional values are represented Generations: The Legacy, they tend to be portrayed as old fashioned (p-value > 0.05), and inferior and backward (p-value > 0.05). In addition, the findings indicate that Generations: The Legacy is a vehicle for promoting dominant culture. Nearly, 59percent of the respondents stated that watching Generations: The Legacy affect the way they view South African tribal culture, while 59.1percent indicated that watching Generations: The Legacy has somehow affected their perception of their own cultural identity. In all, participants rated the representation of South African tribal culture as poor. The study concludes that while South African tribal culture is increasingly finding expression on mainstream soap opera, tribal South African values and beliefs are often depicted as old-fashioned, and inimical to modernisation, and individual’s freedom.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
A baseline survey of channel geomorphology with particular reference to the effects of sediment characteristics on ecosystem health in the Tsitsa River, Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Huchzermeyer, Nicholaus Heinrich
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Fluvial geomorphology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Stream health -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , River sediments -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Watershed management -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Dams -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Tsitsa River (South Africa) , Ntabelanga Dam (South Africa)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/58056 , vital:27040
- Description: Fluvial systems are dynamic systems in which variables in a catchment and river channel affect the morphology of river reaches. South African rivers are increasingly being exposed to stresses from a combination of factors, one of the most prevalent being the impacts of damming rivers which result in varying downstream sediment fluxes and flow regimes. The sediment load combined with flow characteristics for respective river channels provides the physical habitat for aquatic ecosystems. The damming of the Tsitsa River, through the construction of the Ntabelanga Dam, will change the overall downstream geomorphology. This creates an opportunity for research in the preconstruction window. The current condition of the Tsitsa River was monitored by completing a baseline survey of the channel geomorphology with specific reference to the influence of sediment on river habitats and ecosystem health. Five sites were established in variable reaches of the Tsitsa River, with Site 1 located above the proposed Ntabelanga Dam inundation and Sites 2-5 below the proposed dam wall. Each site included a range of features that can be monitored for their response to the dam. Physical variables, water quality and biota were monitored seasonally to note changes in habitat quality. A baseline survey of the present geomorphology and associated instream habitats of the selected reaches was set up by conducting cross-sectional surveys of channel topography, water slope surveys, discharge measurements and visual and quantitative assessments of substrate. Level loggers were installed at each site to collect continuous data on variations in depth and temperature. Monitoring surveys, in terms of fine sediment accumulation, were conducted to characterise dynamic habitat arrangements and macroinvertebrate community composition. A taxa related physical habitat score for the Tsitsa River was created. The relationship between water quality, physical and ecological characteristics of the Tsitsa River will aid further research in the area as well as create a better understanding of the influence of sediment on river habitats and ecosystem health. Monitoring sites can be used to monitor the impact of catchment-wide rehabilitation on river health prior to the dam being built. After dam construction, the top site above the dam inundation can still be used as a point to monitor the impact of catchment rehabilitation on ecosystem health in terms of fine sediment accumulation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
A best practice guideline for a healthy work environment for professional nurses working in the South African Military Health Service
- Authors: Mabona, Jean Fezeka Madi
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Nurses -- Employment -- South Africa , Medicine, Military -- South Africa South Africa -- National Defence Force -- Medical care , Work environment -- National Defence Force -- Medical care
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DCur
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/30811 , vital:31146
- Description: Governments, internationally and nationally, are becoming aware of the importance of healthy work environments within their health departments, environments that are caring and supportive to health professionals. This awareness is brought about by the mounting evidence that healthy work environments are critical to recruiting and retaining health professionals. On the other hand, unhealthy work environments can contribute to medical errors, ineffective delivery of care, and conflict and stress among health professionals in the clinical setting and faculty shortage that can compromise academic excellence in the academic setting. The professional nurses working in the South African Military Health Service (SAMHS), a branch of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) could experience the military environment as unhealthy because it is rigid and controlled. The hierarchical rank structure could deprive them of their autonomy as the decision-making powers are directly proportional to the rank. Stressful conditions could be experienced when these professional nurses are taken away from the well equipped hospital environment to the deployment areas away from home. There was, however, no evidence found on the work environment of professional nurses in the SAMHS during literature review. The aim of the study is therefore to explore and describe the experiences of professional nurses working in the SAMHS and their understanding of a healthy work environment and the scope and nature of a best practice guideline, then to integrate the evidence generated to the evidence emanating from the critical appraisal of the existing best practice guidelines from other health settings in order to develop a best practice guideline for a healthy work environment for nurses in the SAMHS. The study adopted a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design. The research study was made up of three phases. In Phase 1, semi-structured interviews were conducted with professional nurses to collect information on their experiences of working in the SAMHS and their understanding of evidence-based best practice guidelines. The interviews were transcribed by an independent transcriptionist and data analyzed using the eight steps of data analysis as suggested by Tesch. Themes were identified and grouped together to form new categories. The process of coding was supported by an independent coder. Lincoln and Guba’s model of Page | vii trustworthiness consisting of credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability was used to ensure the validity of the study. An integrative literature review was conducted where the existing evidence-based best practice guidelines for healthy work environment for nurses were searched for, appraised, had data extracted and were synthesized in Phase 2. In Phase 3, evidence generated in Phase 1 and Phase 2 was triangulated, forming recommendations that were utilized to develop a best practice draft guideline for a healthy work environment for professional nurses working in the SAMHS. The draft guideline was sent to five expert reviewers for their comments and recommendations. These were considered in the development of the final guideline. The final guideline consists of several recommendations in four themes: the need for effective leadership to create an empowering environment; effective communication amongst members of the health team; a culture that supports team work, and; the need for an environment that promotes professional autonomy. Further recommendations were made to address factors that impact negatively on enhancement of a healthy work environment. The guideline is intended for use by SAMHS’ leadership, at Levels 2, the strategic level, Level 3, the formation level and Level 4, the unit level (hospitals, sickbays and clinics and nursing college) and all professional nurses working in all the military health institutions of the SAMHS, including the military clinics, sickbays and hospitals irrespective of positions. However, the guideline may also be adapted by nursing institutions outside the military such as public and private hospitals and clinics where they find it applicable. Results
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- Date Issued: 2018
A best practice guideline for clinical teaching at a public college of nursing
- Authors: Gcawu, Sybil Nyameka
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Nursing -- Study and teaching , Clinical medicine Medicine -- Study and teaching
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DCur
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/30194 , vital:30860
- Description: Clinical teaching is a critical component of the education and training of undergraduate nursing students. It determines the level of clinical competence that nursing students achieve during their studies. It should be informed by current best practice evidence available in the nursing care literature (Emanuel, Day, Diegnan & Prys-Muller, 2011:21-22). Clinical teaching is centred around provision of patient care in clinical practice. It takes place through an interaction between the nurse educator and the nursing students. During this process nursing students are moulded so they can demonstrate minimum competency in order to be registered by the regulatory body. Nursing students learn to become competent nurses in the clinical learning environment (Baxter 2006; Nash, 2007 in Franklin, 2013:35). In South Africa nurse educators are required to be fully responsible for clinical teaching through the use of appropriate teaching approaches and learning facilitation techniques (RSA DoH, 2013:91). The overall purpose of the current research study was to explore and describe the current clinical teaching practices of nurse educators; to search, appraise, extract and synthesise literature related to clinical teaching in nursing; and to develop A Best Practice Guideline for Clinical Teaching at a Public College of Nursing in the Eastern Cape Province. This had to be realized in three phases. In Phase One a quantitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual study was conducted. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the nurse educators involved in clinical teaching within the Diploma in Nursing (General, Community, Psychiatric) and Midwifery programme. The data analysed was used as the basis of Phase Two—namely, an integrative literature review of evidence pertaining to the clinical teaching practices of nurse educators doing clinical teaching within the undergraduate programmes. The evidence from Phases One and Two was used to develop a draft Best Practice Guideline. The draft guideline was reviewed by a group of expert reviewers and their suggestions were incorporated in the final guideline. Ethical considerations were maintained throughout the research study. The rigour of the research process was ensured by cognitive testing of the questionnaire, and by critical appraisal of the literature accessed from an integrative literature review. The v authenticity of critical appraisal was ensured by having the critical appraisal done by the researcher and an independent reviewer.
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- Date Issued: 2018