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Shopstewards summit - Notice and Agenda

- SACCAWU

Authors: SACCAWU
Date: Oct 2007
Subjects: SACCAWU
Language: English
Type: text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/137723 , vital:37553
Description: Comrades National Office Bearers of SACCAWU, other leadership of the Union at various level, the Wits Regional leadership of SACCAWU, the Shoprite Checkers NSSC NOBs, Officials, esteemed guests and delegates to this Summit, a substructure to the NSSC, I bring you warm and revolutionary greetings on behalf of the Shoprite Checkers NOBs and the entire NSSC and the entire SACCAWU membership. We are indeed honoured that you have all, particularly the SACCAWU NOBs, Officials and Guests, went to great length and sacrifices to ensure that you form part of this historic Summit. It is historic in that it is the only meeting of national competence convened in the year the NSSC turns twenty. Lest we forget, the Shoprite Council was launched in 1987, and has over the years relaunched to match the developments that were taking place within the company as it was growing its brands. Without your presence, we have no doubt that our debates would be poorer, leading to decisions that might in the long run prove inappropriate. You are once more welcome and assured that you are free to participate in the deliberations over the next few days. The Council have seen various onslaughts through the years and survived the iron-fisted resolve of the brutal apartheid regime and the capitalist system in its changing forms. It is the experiences of the time that has moulded numerous Shopstewards to an extent of understanding the necessity of participating within the Union and Federation structures. It is no coincidence that today, this Council has many of its Shopstewards in the CEC of the Union. It is of course worthless to have numbers in such structures if we do not play a positive and constructive role in shaping the direction of the Union. We can only do so if we are really grounded on the traditions of the mass democratic movement and the national democratic revolution.
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Date Issued: Oct 2007

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Written medicines information for South African HIV/AIDS patients: does it enhance understanding of co-trimoxazole therapy?

- Mansoor, Leila E, Dowse, Roslind

Authors: Mansoor, Leila E , Dowse, Roslind
Date: 2007
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/156860 , vital:40059 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1093/her/cyl039
Description: Written information to promote patient education is being increasingly recognized as an integral part of quality health care. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of distributing a patient information leaflet (PIL) on knowledge acquisition and recall. Two different PILs were designed for co-trimoxazole tablets: a simple, shorter PIL that incorporated pictograms and text and a text-only PIL that was longer and more complex. Human immunodeficiency virus-positive participants on chronic co-trimoxazole therapy were enrolled from five local primary health care clinics in Grahamstown, South Africa, and were randomly allocated to a Control Group (no PIL), Group A (text-only PIL) or Group B (simple PIL with pictograms).
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Date Issued: 2007

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An investigation into electronic-source plagiarism in a first-year essay assignment

- Ellery, Karen

Authors: Ellery, Karen
Date: 2008
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/70114 , vital:29621 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930701772788
Description: Since the emergence of the electronic era, plagiarism has become an increasingly prevalent problem at tertiary institutions. This study investigated the role electronic sources of information played in influencing plagiarism in an essay assignment in a first-year geography module at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Despite explicit instruction in tutorials on academic writing, referencing and plagiarism, a quarter of students still plagiarised in their essay, with the majority having done so off the Internet. A survey questionnaire and interviews revealed that not only did the school writing experience prepare students poorly for academic writing discourses, but also highlighted that student ignorance with regard to acknowledgement of electronic sources, a pervasive perception of difference between electronic and print sources, as well as the availability of the copy-and-paste facility which reinforces the product view of writing, all contributed towards electronic-source plagiarism. Active instructional engagement with electronic-source material, and open dialogue on ownership of knowledge as well as on moral and ethical issues with students, are recommended as strategies to overcome such plagiarism.
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Date Issued: 2008

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First steps in the development of a water temperature model framework for refining the ecological Reserve in South African rivers

- Rivers-Moore, N A, Hughes, Denis A, Mantel, Sukhmani K, Hill, Trevor R

Authors: Rivers-Moore, N A , Hughes, Denis A , Mantel, Sukhmani K , Hill, Trevor R
Date: 2008-10-05
Language: English
Type: text , Article
Identifier: vital:7092 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012425
Description: Ecological Reserve determination for rivers in South Africa presently does not include a water temperature component, in spite of its importance in determining species distribution patterns. To achieve this requires an understanding of how lotic thermographs from South African rivers differ from northern hemisphere rivers, to avoid mismanaging rivers based on incorrect regional assumptions. Hourly water temperatures from 20 sites in four river systems, representing a range of latitudes, altitudes and stream orders, were assessed using a range of metrics. These data were analysed using principal component analyses and multiple linear regressions to understand what variables a water temperature model for use in ecoregions within South Africa should include. While temperature data are generally lacking in low- and higher-order South African rivers, data suggest that South African rivers are warmer than northern hemisphere rivers. Water temperatures could be grouped into cool, warm and intermediate types. Based on temperature time series analyses, this paper argues that a suitable water-temperature model for use in ecological Reserve determinations should be dynamic, include flow and air temperature variables, and be adaptive through a heat exchange coefficient term. The inclusion of water temperature in the determination and management of river ecological Reserves would allow for more holistic application of the National Water Act's ecological management provisions. Water temperature guidelines added to the ecological Reserve could be integrated into heuristic aquatic monitoring programmes within priority areas identified in regional conservation plans.
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Date Issued: 2008-10-05

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'Come back when you are 65, Sir': discrimination in respect of access to social assistance for the elderly

- Krüger, Rósaan

Authors: Krüger, Rósaan
Date: 2009
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71119 , vital:29786 , http://www.ldd.org.za/images/stories/Ready_for_publication/V10-2_Come_back_65.pdf
Description: Messrs Roberts, Whitebooi, Casling and Visagie are four elderly gentlemen who live in poverty in Gelvandale, Port Elizabeth. At the end of 2005 they wished to apply for social assistance from the State. At the time of their applications, the men were over the age of 60, but none of them had attained the age of 65. Had they been female, they would have qualified for social assistance in the form of old age pensions at the age of 60. 'These pensions would not have made them rich, but would have enabled them to sustain themselves.
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Date Issued: 2009

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'Here's to you, Mrs Robinson' : peculiarities and paragraph 29 in determining the treatment of domestic partnerships

- Kruuse, Helen

Authors: Kruuse, Helen
Date: 2009
Language: English
Type: Article , text
Identifier: vital:26388 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/54083
Description: There is always need of persons not only to discover new truths, and point out when what were once truths are true no longer, but also to commence new practices, and set the example of more enlightened conduct. The law is one of the important architects of social norms. At times, it can be a tool to solve problems, eradicate inequalities, and advance the rights of the disadvantaged. At other times, the law is an anchor and a constraint upon social and ideological advances. With regards to equality and non-traditional partnerships, it seems that law falls into this latter category.
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Date Issued: 2009

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Conceptualising the more knowledgeable other within a multi-directional ZPD:

- Graven, Mellony

Authors: Graven, Mellony
Date: 2009
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69519 , vital:29545 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-017-9768-1
Description: From a Marxian/Vygotskian perspective, learning is social in origin and it happens in the presence of others that are more knowledgeable. Extending this view to the learning of mathematics, such learning also becomes inseparable from the presence of others (people and artefacts). Researchers over decades have studied different interactions to see how such learning with others occurs, what is the role of the (more knowledgeable) other, and if at all this role alternates between the participants. In this paper, we looked at a 5-year-old’s (Lila) interaction with her mother (Mellony) and a television remote control as Lila attempted to count in threes using the three by three physical layout of the numbered buttons 1–9 on the remote control. We specifically looked at the emergence of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) as Lila’s attention was caught by the properties of the remote control and by her mother’s questions. We also pay attention to how the role of the more knowledgeable other alternates among the participants. Our findings suggest that Lila, at times, used resources provided by the physical properties of the remote control and sometimes, used resources provided by Mellony to think about the task of counting in threes. In Lila’s interaction, we interpreted a multi-directional ZPD as the role of the more knowledgeable other alternated between Mellony, Lila and the remote control.
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Date Issued: 2009

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Creating a virtual classroom: evaluating the use of online discussion forums to increase teaching and learning activities

- Bezuidenhout, L Peta

Authors: Bezuidenhout, L Peta
Date: 2009
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: Conference paper
Identifier: vital:6070 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004635
Description: In teaching large classes, the educationally beneficial informal interaction between students and between lecturer and students is generally reduced, while effective use of both students’ and lecturer’s time is often a challenge. During student consultations, especially over the already stressful test and examination periods, many of the questions asked by the students are the same or similar. The lecturer needs to respond to each query by providing the same detailed explanation for the problem, resulting in ineffective use of time for the lecturer, while students waste time waiting for an appointment, or more often, simply don’t bother to follow up on any queries they may have. Having a social presence is important for students’ cognitive development, but in a large class posing questions or interrogating issues during a lecture appears to be challenging for many students. It is often not easy for students to initiate discussions or establish relationships with peers or the lecturer due to feelings of vulnerability and due to the size and impersonal atmosphere of the lecture theatre. This paper deals with the introduction of online discussion forums in an introductory accounting course and the benefits and problems experienced by the students, tutors and lecturer as a result thereof. Feedback received from these participants is discussed. The introduction and use of these forums resulted in a virtual classroom being created, where significantly more teaching and learning activities took place, to the benefit of all participants. Participation could have been peripheral -in the form of simply reading discussions; or active – through posting questions, or responding to questions.
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Date Issued: 2009

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Editorial: environmental-education research in the year of COP 15

- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Kronlid, David O

Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Kronlid, David O
Date: 2009
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67356 , vital:29080 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122784
Description: publisher version , Introduction: This year there has literally been a cacophony surrounding the implications of climate change, as the world geared up for the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) in Copenhagen, where it was expected that the largest ever gathering of world leaders would sign binding agreements to reduce carbon emissions to keep global temperatures from rising by more than 2⁰C. As we make the final contributions to the refinement of this editorial, late in December 2009, it is concerning to note that this did not happen, that civil society voices were marginalised at the COP 15 and that there has been little progress on a socially just and ecologically sound global climate change deal. The stark reality remains that developing countries – southern African countries in particular – remain most vulnerable to the risks associated with global climate change. Havnevik (2007) stated a while ago that: The ways in which poverty, consumption and climate change are addressed, tend to blur historical, structural and power features underlying global inequalities. This makes possible the focus on market forces, such as carbon trading, to resolve the problems. However, these market solutions will not suffice, and may only delay a real solution, which will then have to be developed in a situation of more acute global social injustice and possibly deeper conflicts … Issues related to inequality, energy and climate are of a global character: there is no longer one solution for the South and one for the North. (18,19) So where does the current state of climate change and the political failures surrounding responses to climate change leave education research in developing and developed nations? What are the implications for environmental education researchers in southern Africa and elsewhere? These are some of the questions pondered in this edition of the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education (SAJEE). As one of us (Kronlid) reflects in a Think Piece in this journal: ‘the world is one and many and … the complexities associated with climate change means that we have a shared global systematic problem manifested in a myriad different concrete ways in people’s everyday life throughout the globe. We need many different kinds and modes of climate change education research’ (Kronlid, this edition).
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Date Issued: 2009

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Hydrology, sediment transport dynamics and geomorphology of a variable flow river : the Mfolozi River, South Africa

- Grenfell, Suzanne E, Ellery, William F N

Authors: Grenfell, Suzanne E , Ellery, William F N
Date: 2009
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6632 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006826
Description: The co-efficient of variation for inter-annual streamflow of the Mfolozi River is extremely high at 79%. An analysis of flow frequency indicated that streamflow is skewed towards low-flow values, with a number of extremely large flood events occurring as outliers on the histogram. Streamflow variability in the Mfolozi River may be linked to multiple factors including a large catchment size, a seasonal climate of a dry winter and wet summer, evergreen vegetation in the catchment, variable precipitation and the occurrence of regionally pervasive climatic oscillations. This research aimed to address how streamflow variability impacted upon sediment transport and thus, geomorphology. It was found that sediment transport variability occurred at the intra-and inter-annual scale. Analysis of mean monthly sediment concentration and discharge showed a hysteresis effect, such that sediment concentration peaked prior to discharge in the early wet season. During the late wet season, peak discharges often had unexpectedly low sediment concentrations. Furthermore, data suggested the existence of long-term hysteresis that may be related to decadal-scale climatic oscillations that alter sediment availability and stream capacity, resulting in discharge peaking in 2000 and sediment concentration in 2005. However, more data are required to confirm this relationship. Variability in streamflow appears to share a causal relationship with sediment transport variability, as both are linked to variation in precipitation and the resultant impacts on vegetation growth and evapotranspiration rates. The variability of streamflow and sediment transport has implications for stream and floodplain geomorphology, and the hydrology of variable rivers should be considered when interpreting their geomorphology.
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Date Issued: 2009

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Rapid method for the quantitative determination of efavirenz in human plasma

- Kanfer, Isadore, Mogatle, Seloi

Authors: Kanfer, Isadore , Mogatle, Seloi
Date: 2009
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6388 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006309
Description: A pharmacokinetic interaction study between efavirenz (EFV), a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor used in the treatment of HIV-1 infection, and an African traditional medicine, African potato in human subjects was undertaken. This necessitated the development and validation of a quantitative method for the analysis of EFV in plasma. A simple mobile phase consisting of 0.1 M formic acid, acetonitrile and methanol (43:52:5) was pumped at a low flow rate of 0.3 ml/min through a reverse phase Phenomenex® Luna C18 (2) (5 μm, 150 mm × 2.0 mm i.d.) column maintained at 40 °C. Diclofenac sodium was used as an internal standard (IS) and EFV and IS were monitored at 247 nm and 275 nm, respectively. A simple and rapid sample preparation involved the addition of mobile phase to 100 μl of plasma to precipitate plasma proteins followed by direct injection of 10 μl of supernatant onto the column. The procedures were validated according to international standards with good reproducibility and linear response (r = 0.9990). The intra- and inter-day accuracies were between 12.3 and 17.7% at the LLOQ and between −5.8 and 9.1% for the QC samples. The intra- and inter-day precision of EFV determinations were 5.1 or less and 7.2% RSD or less, respectively across the entire QC concentration range. Mean recovery based on high, medium and low quality control standards ranged between 92.7 and 94.1% with %RSD values better than 3%. Plasma samples were evaluated for short-term (ambient temperature for 6 h) and long-term (−10 ± 2 °C for 60 days) storage conditions and were found to be stable. The method described is cost-effective and has the necessary accuracy and precision for the rapid quantitative determination of EFV in human plasma.
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Date Issued: 2009

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SDF-1 and PDGF enhance αvβ5-mediated ERK activation and adhesion-independent growth of human pre-B cell lines:

- Acharya, Mridu, Edkins, Adrienne L, Ozanne, B, Cushley, W

Authors: Acharya, Mridu , Edkins, Adrienne L , Ozanne, B , Cushley, W
Date: 2009
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/165044 , vital:41204 , DOI: 10.1038/leu.2009.126
Description: CD23 acts through the αvβ5 integrin to promote growth of human pre-B cell lines in an adhesion-independent manner. αvβ5 is expressed on normal B-cell precursors in the bone marrow. Soluble CD23 (sCD23), short CD23-derived peptides containing the arg-lys-cys (RKC) motif recognized by αvβ5 and anti-αvβ5 monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) all sustain growth of pre-B cell lines. The chemokine stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) regulates key processes during B-cell development. SDF-1 enhanced the growth-sustaining effect driven by ligation of αvβ5 with anti-αvβ5 MAb 15F-11, sCD23 or CD23-derived RKC-containing peptides. This effect was restricted to B-cell precursors and was specific to SDF-1.
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Date Issued: 2009

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Sigtuna Think Piece 8: Piecing together conceptual framings for climate change education research in southern African contexts

- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila

Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
Date: 2009
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67378 , vital:29082 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122808
Description: publisher version , This think piece considers a range of theoretical and conceptual tools that may assist with the emergence of a research agenda for climate change in education. It considers the conditions that are created by climate change in and for southern African contexts, and then deliberates which contextually related theoretical tools may be useful to frame research questions for climate change education. I consider the educational research implications of adaptation practices, reflexive justice and agency, reflexivity and capability, noting that a climate change education research agenda, not different to a wider reflexive environmental education research agenda dealing with transformative praxis in southern Africa, is essentially a sociologically and historically emergent ‘researching with’ agenda, and is in effect a social learning process. In putting together these conceptual framings for a climate change research agenda in southern Africa, I am interested in exploring how participatory social learning research may strengthen agency and reflexivity (development of capabilities) in response to socio-ecological conditions.
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Date Issued: 2009

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A comparison of two sampling methods for surveying mammalian herbivore impacts on beetle communities in the canopy of Acacia drepanolobium in Kenya

- Kuria, K S, Villet, Martin H, Palmer, T, Stanton, M

Authors: Kuria, K S , Villet, Martin H , Palmer, T , Stanton, M
Date: 2010
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6860 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011150
Description: Even though several methods are used to sample and monitor canopy arthropods, there are no studies to indicate which of these methods is more effective.We compared the efficacy of the beating and canopy fogging methods in collecting beetles that inhabit Acacia drepanolobium (Harms) tree canopies at Mpala Research Centre in Laikipia district, Kenya. These trees grow naturally on the black cotton soils of the Laikipia ecosystem, accounting for more than 98%of the overstorey at the study site, and are important for local cattle and wildlife production. The ultimate objective of this study was to determine the effect of differential grazing and browsing pressure from large mammalian herbivores on the beetle communities of A. drepanolobium. Seven hundred and twenty trees 1.0–2.5 m tall were sampled using each method, making a total of 1440 trees. Sampling using the two methods was done concurrently and repeated quarterly over a period of 14 months. In total, 4320 individuals were collected, 1456 by beating and 2864 by fogging. The methods jointly yielded beetle specimens from 13 families and 55 morphospecies. Fogging collected significantly more beetle morphospecies than beating, and there was a significant interaction effect between method and sampling date. We found that numerically Anthicidae and Curculionidae responded positively to the presence of cattle.We also found that Anthicidae sp. A and Myllocerus sp. A numbers significantly increased in plots where livestock were grazed.
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Date Issued: 2010

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