The inner craniodental anatomy of the Papio specimen U.W. 88-886 from the Early Pleistocene site of Malapa, Gauteng, South Africa

Cercopithecoids represent an essential component of the Plio-Pleistocene faunal assemblage. However, despite the abundance of the cercopithecoid fossil remains in African Plio-Pleistocene deposits, the chronological and geographic contexts from which the modern baboons (i.e. Papio hamadryas ssp.) emerged are still debated. The recently discovered Papio (hamadryas) angusticeps specimen (U.W. 88-886) from the Australopithecus sediba-bearing site of Malapa, Gauteng, South Africa, may represent the first modern baboon occurrence in the fossil record. Given the implication of U.W. 88-886 for the understanding of the papionin evolutionary history and the potential of internal craniodental structures for exploring evolutionary trends in fossil monkey taxa, we use X-ray microtomography to investigate the inner craniodental anatomy of this critical specimen. Our goal is to provide additional evidence to examine the origins of modern baboons. In particular,we explore (i) the tissue proportions and the dentine topographic distribution in dental roots and (ii) the endocranial organization. Consistent with the previous description and metrical analyses of its external cranial morphology, U.W. 88-886 shares internal craniodental anatomy similarities with Plio-Pleistocene and modern Papio, supporting its attribution to Papio (hamadryas) angusticeps. Interestingly, average dentine thickness and distribution in U.W. 88-886 fit more closely to the extinct Papio condition, while the sulcal pattern and relative dentine thickness are more like the extant Papio states. Besides providing additional evidence for characterizing South African fossil papionins, our study sheds new light on the polarity of inner craniodental features in the papionin lineage.Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST) Occitanie Region and the French Ministry of Higher Education and ResearchJNC201

Hominin tracks in southern Africa: a review and an approach to identification

Three Late Pleistocene hominin tracksites have been reported from coastal aelioanites in South Africa. Two have been dated to 124 ka and 117 ka , and the third is inferred to be 90 ka. There are no other globally reported sites for probable Homo sapiens tracks older than 46 ka. Given this documented record, a search for further hominin tracksites in southern Africa may well yield additional positive results. However, this is a field that demands scientific rigour, as false positive tracksites (pseudotracks) may occur. Criteria have been developed for the identification of fossil vertebrate tracks and hominin tracks, but these are specific neither to southern Africa nor to aeolianites.An important caveat is that the tracks of shod humans would not fulfil these criteria. Preservation of tracks varies with facies and is known to be suboptimal in aeolianites. An analysis of the tracks from the three documented South African sites, along with pseudotracks and tracks of questionable provenance, allows for the proposal and development of guidelines for fossil hominin track identification that are of specific relevance to southern Africa. Such guidelines have broader implications for understanding the constraints that track preservation and substrate have on identifying diagnostic morphological features.Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST)JNC201

A new genus of Protasteridae (Ophiuridea) from the Lower Devonian Bokkeveld Group of South Africa

Gamiroaster tempestatis, a new genus and species of Palaeozoic ophiuroid, is described from four specimens identified in the Lower DevonianVoorstehoek Formation (Ceres Subgroup, Bokkeveld Group) of SouthAfrica. This ophiuroid belongs the family Protaseridae, a Middle–Late Ordovician taxon that continued into the late Palaeozoic. This new ophiuroid forms part of a much wider fauna of the Malvinokaffric Realm, a biogeographical termused to denote the cool- to cold-water, high-latitude endemic, benthic marine, Devonian faunas of southwestern Gondwana, which also includes the invertebrate fossil assemblages of the Argentine Precordillera and the Fox Bay Formation of the Falkland Islands. The specimens were collected from an obrution deposit excavated on Karbonaatjies farm, ~145 km northeast of Cape Town in theWestern Cape. The excavated rock samples contain >700 articulated specimens of Gamiroaster tempestatis that are closely associated with two types of less common mitrate stylophorans. Silicone casts and high-resolution three-dimensional digital models obtained via micro-CT scanning of these mould fossils provided detailed morphological proxies for this taxonomic description.DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, Palaeosciences (CoE-Pal)JNC201

Survey and interviews from A responsive e-learning system for the challenges facing health sciences education

Data Description The data presented is from a survey that investigated the usage of information and communication technologies (ICT) for eLearning amongst the 2017 medical student population at Wits. Methods The methodology was a descriptive, cross-sectional, online and paper-based survey. It was distributed to a convenience sample of medical students at Wits. The survey was generated using REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) software. The target population was stratified by points in the curriculum in which there is a change due to the teaching and learning methodology being used or the addition of new students into the class. 1 First year (entry year; n=255) 2 Third year (when graduate entrants join the school leavers in the Graduate Entry Medical Programme (GEMP); n=350) 3 Sixth year (final year; n=319) medical students. Process A pilot study with 19 student volunteers was conducted starting in May 2017. Volunteers were recruited by students from MBBCh 5. Following the pilot study, the questionnaire was edited to reduce the length, enhance clarity and to ensure readability across a range of devices. The final survey consisted of seven sections: 1. information and consent (1 question), 2. demographic data (4 questions), 3. year of study (2 questions), 4. device ownership and 5. usage to support learning (12 questions), 6. access to and reliability of the internet connection (5 questions), 7. usage of the learning management system (2 questions), 8. BYOD (6 questions). In Section 4, students were also asked to place themselves on a 100-point scale bound by opposite terms designed to measure their attitude and disposition and attitude to technology as developed and validated in the ECAR study. Lower numbers indicate certain characteristics about disposition to use technology (reluctant user, late adopter, critic, technophobe) and attitudes towards technology usage (useless, burdensome, distraction), while higher numbers indicate more positive dispositions (enthusiast, supporter, early adopter, technophile) and attitudes (useful, beneficial, enhancement) towards ICT.NL201

Towards an integrative framework of leadership development in the South African banking industry

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)The thesis is a qualitative, multi-site case study of leadership development within the South African retail banking sector. It responds to the call for qualitative research to explore and give voice to the South African and other developing contexts within the predominantly Western-centric literature. It poses questions on the day-to-day organisational and lived realities of leadership and its development within this context. It is an enquiry of the forms and realities of aligning, designing and integrating leadership development, which leads to deliberation on the possibility of integrative frameworks. This follows from the thesis drawing together the reviews of the state of leadership and leadership development and how the thematic of alignment and integration is approached therein and within the human resource, management and organisational literature. Through this it develops an argument that the mainstream assumptions and programme-based approach to leadership development, including the remedial attempts to address this, do not provide the space to theoretically and empirically attend to, and engage with, the realities, complexities, contingencies and contestations at the individual, team, organisational, sector, national and global levels. The thesis explores this within the South African retail banking sector. This is done through qualitative interviews on, and thematic analysis of, the various mandates, purposes, funding and ways of configuring and managing leadership development within the banks’ Leadership Development Centres and the Banking Sector Education and Training Authority’s (BankSeta) International Executive Development Programme (IEDP) which is hosted at a local Business School. The thesis explores how leadership development is formalised, shaped, configured and managed as a function, purpose, programme and developmental process within the above sites, and how these are navigated, negotiated, enacted and embodied over time by the various stakeholders. It draws out the thematic of layered journeys; that is, the evolving and ongoing organisational, programmatic, pedagogic, personal and individualised journeys within the banks, BankSeta and the Business School. The journeys illustrate how leadership development evolves, opens up and differentiates over time at the different sites and levels as well as foregrounds the realities, complexities, contingencies and contestations therein. Through these journeys one appreciates the varied forms, perspectives, basis, sites, agency and spaces for designing and integrating leadership development and how these evolve, including how the standardisation, tailoring and customisation evolves. The deliberate, emergent, contingent and relational nature of designing and integrating, and the journey’s thematic, point to the limits of the mainstream assumptions and programme-based approach to leadership development. The thesis suggests a critical theoretical stance as an alternative as it provides space to critically attend to, engage with, and undertake the journey, task and process of aligning, designing, integrating and managing leadership development. It proposes ways to locate this task and process within the integrative theoretical models of leadership and the fields of instructional design, curriculum design and design of artefacts as well as the literature on the evolving human resources function, the identity work therein, and on space and place. It then suggests an organising model that can serve both as a guide for developing an open, modular platform and an analytical framework. In this way, the thesis contributes to the question and task of integrative frameworks of leadership development. Keywords: context, post-Apartheid, banking, leadership, leadership development, alignment, design, customisation, integration, pedagogy, journey, programme, function, centre, modular, platformGR201

Mongoose Manor: Herpestidae remains from the Early Pleistocene Cooper’s D locality in the Cradle of Humankind, Gauteng, South Africa

Mongooses (Herpestidae) are an important component of African ecosystems, and a common constituent of southern African fossil assemblages. Despite this, mongoose fossils from the Cradle of Humankind, Gauteng, South Africa, have received relatively little interest. This paper presents the diverse mongoose craniodental assemblage from the early Pleistocene fossil locality Cooper’s D. A total of 29 mongoose specimens from five genera were identified at Cooper’s, including numerous first appearances in the Cradle or in South Africa. The exceptional mongoose assemblage at Cooper’s likely reflects the effects of an unknown taphonomic process, although mongooses follow other carnivore groups in the Cradle in displaying an apparent preference for the southern part of the Cradle. This investigation shows the value of mongooses as palaeoecological indicators and supports previous interpretations of the environment at Cooper’s as grassland with a strong woody component near a permanent water source.Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST); DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, Palaeosciences (CoE-Pal); the South African National Research Foundation; and the University of the Witwatersrand Postgraduate Merit Award.JNC201

Histological evidence of trauma in tusks of southern African dicynodonts

Dicynodonts were a clade of globally-distributed therapsids known for their abundance in the fossil record and for surviving the Permo-Triassic mass extinction. The group had distinctive dental adaptations including a beak and, in many species, paired maxillary tusks. The function of these tusks has long been of interest, yet remains poorly understood.We report here on two instances of unusual morphology in tusk dentine from specimens of: 1) Lystrosaurus from the Karoo Basin of South Africa and, 2) an unidentified dicynodontoid from the Luangwa Basin of Zambia. In both, the cross-sectional shape of the tusk root is lobed and infolded, which histological features suggest is a result of abnormal dentine deposition. We infer that this abnormal morphology is likely the consequence of trauma given its reparative nature and structural similarities to trauma-related morphologies reported in the tusks of modern elephants. This study demonstrates that histological sampling of dicynodont tusks can shed light on the biology of this important clade of therapsids.National Geographic Exploration Grant NGS-158R-18 National Science Foundation PLR-1341304 National Science Foundation DEB-1701383 Palaeontological Scientific TrustJNC201

Dataset : metadata extration tables of femacide reported in News Media

The dataset covers 2012 to 2013 of publically searchable databases usingSouth Africa has a femicide rate that is six times the world average. Over 2,500 women aged 14 years or older are murdered every year, the majority of these women killed by an intimate partner. Despite the prevalence of femicide, less than 20% of these murders are ever reported in South African news media. Studies on news-media coverage of femicide reveal a subjective and obscure process of media selection and exclusion, which contribute to an archive of crime reporting that is not reflective of actual crime rates and which actively distort the nature and frequency of certain types of crime. This influences public perceptions and fear of violent crime, including notions of who is a suspect and who is most at risk. This study uses mixed-method approaches to document and analyse the content and extent of commercial news media coverage of femicides that took place in South Africa during the 2012/2013 crime reporting year, through an original media database listing 408 femicide victims associated with 5,778 press articles. Victim and incident information is compared with epidemiological and statistical data, including mortuary-based studies and police crime statistics. Media data is explored through various media effects models, including a mixedmethods framing analysis, and is also examined by title, and by language. These analyses reveal how media constructs and depicts particular notions of gender, violence, race, and crime in South Africa.Governing Intimacies projectninA201

Research Data Collection in Challenging Environments: Barriers to Studying the Performance of Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Constituency Information Centres (PCICs)

This article describes and analyses data collection challenges encountered in the course of research into the performance of Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Constituency Information Centres (PCICs). During collection of data on the work of PCICs in various constituencies across the country, many of them rural, the following challenges were encountered: low response rates; unreliable road access; unsuitable physical locations of PCICs, including politicised locations; political and legal restrictions; time management and financial challenges; and religious and cultural barriers. The article concludes that researchers planning data collection in developing-world environments must be cognizant of the particular challenges these environments may pose, while at the same time contending with challenges that all researchers, in both developed and developing worlds, face, such as the need ensure strong connections with people based in the local environments in which data collection is to take place.CA201

Determining predictors of mortality in HIV positive people in South Africa, 2003 to 2009: a mixed methods approach incorporating unobserved variables

A thesis submitted to the School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Of Doctor of Philosophy. 02 April 2018.Background The largest proportion of HIV-infected people resides in Southern Africa. In South Africa, the government has taken the lead in the provision of free HIV treatment with a high coverage rate. Provision of free antiretroviral treatment has led to a decline in mortality rates and an increase in life expectancy. However, a significant number of people with HIV continue to die despite the availability of free treatment. A large proportion of studies have concentrated on using quantitative methods of analysis. Very few have used mixed methods that combine quantitative time-to-event frailty models and qualitative methods in assessing risk factors for mortality in HIV-infected individuals. However, use of such mixed methods approach could provide insights that may lead to an improvement in patient care and management. Aim To determine mortality risk factors in HIV-infected people through incorporating unobserved variables using a mixed methods approach in which quantitative findings are explained by the qualitative. Methods To critically review statistical methods used for assessing risk factors for mortality in HIV-infected people between the years 2002 and 2011. We conducted a literature review on the design of studies, how data were analysed and whether suitable statistical methods were utilised in assessing mortality risk factors in HIV-infected people in the period 2002-2011. Only publications written in English and listed in Pubmed/Medline were considered. In this review, papers using time-to-event techniques were regarded as appropriate. Data were split into two equal periods allowing for the comparison of the statistical methods over time. To compare the different time-to-event methods, we ran 1,000 simulations of parametric clustered data using parameters derived from an HIV study that was conducted in South Africa by the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU). Data for 5, 10 and 20 clusters of size 50 and 100 were simulated. Survival and censoring times were derived from a Weibull distribution. The minimum of survival and censoring times was taken as the study time. Using the simulated data, we compared the following time-to-event methods: Cox proportional hazards regression, shared Gamma frailty with Weibull and exponential baseline hazards (frequentist models), and the Bayesian integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA) with Weibull baseline hazard. Parameter estimates, standard errors and their fit statistics were averaged over 1,000 simulations. Similarly, means and standard deviations from INLA were averaged (over the 1,000 simulations). Frequentist models were compared using the -2 loglikelihood fit statistics while all the four models were compared using the mean square error (MSE). Additionally, we simulated semiparametric clustered frailty models (using gamma and log-normal frailties) including INLA, h-likelihood, penalized likelihood and penalised partial likelihood estimations. Parameter estimates and their standard errors were presented graphically and compared using the MSE. To assess mortality risk factors in HIV-infected people in South Africa in different settings, factors associated with mortality in HIV-infected people were assessed by INLA survival frailty model using cohort data of HIV-infected people from South Africa. Two thirds were from Soweto (urban) and the rest from Mpumalanga (rural). Findings were evaluated by site. Mixed methods were used to evaluate risk factors for mortality by combining the best fitting model applied to retrospective data and qualitative analysis on prospective data. In order to explain the unobserved frailty modelling results, we conducted a qualitative study that enrolled 20 participants who had confirmed knowing a person that had died as a result of HIV. Participants were recruited from the Zazi VCT in PHRU and were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. The aim of the qualitative study was to attempt to explain the unobserved factors influencing mortality in HIV-infected individuals using perceived reasons for death given by the participants. These were later used to complement the potential reasons for death as identified in the frailty modelling (quantitative) results. Results In the critical review, 189 studies met the inclusion criteria that included prospective (69%) and retrospective (30%) studies. Of the 189 studies, 91 were published in the period 2002-2006 and 98 in 2007-2011. Cox regression analysis with frailty was used in only 7 studies (~4%); of which 6 were published between the years 2007- 2011. The simulation study showed that the shared frailty models performed better than Cox-PH. Within the shared frailty models, the Gamma frailty model with a Weibull baseline performed better than the Gamma frailty model with an exponential baseline. The MSE showed that in general, the Bayesian INLA had better results. In the semiparametric simulations, results were similar but INLA had a slightly better fit with consistently lower MSE values relative to both gamma and log-normal frailty models. The random effects estimate for INLA, whose method is slightly different, had lower MSE values consistently relative to the other methods. In the HIV cohort study, 6,690 participants were enrolled with majority being female (78%) and most participants residing in an urban area (67%). Rural participants were older (36 years; IQR: 31-44) and with a higher mortality rate (11/100 person years). Among those residing in rural areas, HAART treatment for between six and twelve months (HR: 0.2, 95% CI: 0.1-0.4) and more than 12 months (HR: 0.1, 95% CI: 0.1- 0.2) was protective relative to not being on treatment. Being on HAART treatment for greater than twelve months was protective in the urban participants (HR: 0.35, 95%CI: 0.27-0.46). Significant heterogeneity, assessed by frailty variance, was high in rural participants and lower in the urban. Since the frailty modelling results suggested that the unobserved variables had a significant effect on mortality in HIV-infected individuals, a qualitative study was conducted to explore the potential causes of death. In the qualitative study, participants perceived that mortality in HIV-infected individuals may have been influenced by engagement in risky sexual behaviour such as multiple sexual partnerships, negative attitude by healthcare workers towards HIV-infected people, believing in the healing power of religion, traditional medicine, food security and social support structure. Conclusions The study found that Cox proportional hazards regression with frailty is not commonly used in research on mortality in HIV-infected individuals as it is used in other fields of health research. Additionally, use of the more complex semiparametric frailty models was even lower in this population. From simulations, we found that frailty survival models provided a better fit in modelling mortality due to their ability to account for unobserved variables especially the Bayesian INLA. As the unobserved variables are complex to explain using only quantitative modelling techniques, qualitative analysis of perceived causes of death was explored. Unobserved variables affecting mortality were explored through qualitative analysis of perceived reasons provided by bereaved participants. This mixed methods approach optimised data by using a quantitative approach followed by a qualitative one that complemented each other. Use of optimal methods in assessing morbidity and mortality in HIV-infected patients may improve patient care and management in South Africa and other countries. Key words: HIV, Mortality, Rural, Urban, unmeasured variables, HAART, FrailtyLG201