SOME THOUGHTS ON THE CLASSICAL ALLUSIONS IN THE WORK OF MBZIMUNYA

I ftrst met Prof. P J Conradie in 1960 when I was a ftrst year Latin student at the University of Stellenbosch, and he was a young lecturer teaching the course on Catullus. In my Honours year he taught me Tacitus, and when I later did Greek it was he who introduced me to the dramatists. In 1970 I was privileged to become a colleague and the next year attended the party organised in his honour by Prof. van Rensburg, to mark Dr. Conradie's appointment as Professor. For the last three years he has been External Examiner at the University of Zimbabwe where I now teach, so in the course of 35 years I have been associated with Prof. Conradie in various capacities. I welcome the opportunity to join his many students and colleagues in paying tribute to him, for his scholarship and for the great influence he has had on the teaching of Classics in Southern Africa

THE COURTAULD COLLECTION AS A TEACIDNG TOOL

Although western civilization has its roots in Classical antiquity, much of the Greek and Roman world is strange to us. This is particularly true in Southern Africa where we do not have the Romance languages, nor the physical remains - roads, bridges, aqueducts, villas, often still in the process of being excavated - surrounding us and therefore do not experience the same continuity of history as our European or British colleagues. It is also difficult to visualize the material culture. Photos help, but do not convey a sense of scale, or texture. Real understanding often depends on a hands-on experience, or at least a look at the original

Vertex-Coloring with Star-Defects

Defective coloring is a variant of traditional vertex-coloring, according to which adjacent vertices are allowed to have the same color, as long as the monochromatic components induced by the corresponding edges have a certain structure. Due to its important applications, as for example in the bipartisation of graphs, this type of coloring has been extensively studied, mainly with respect to the size, degree, and acyclicity of the monochromatic components. In this paper we focus on defective colorings in which the monochromatic components are acyclic and have small diameter, namely, they form stars. For outerplanar graphs, we give a linear-time algorithm to decide if such a defective coloring exists with two colors and, in the positive case, to construct one. Also, we prove that an outerpath (i.e., an outerplanar graph whose weak-dual is a path) always admits such a two-coloring. Finally, we present NP-completeness results for non-planar and planar graphs of bounded degree for the cases of two and three colors

Sharing for science: High-resolution trophic interactions revealed rapidly by social media

Discrete, ephemeral natural phenomena with low spatial or temporal predictability are incredibly challenging to study systematically. In ecology, species interactions, which constitute the functional backbone of ecological communities, can be notoriously difficult to characterise especially when taxa are inconspicuous and the interactions of interest (e.g., trophic events) occur infrequently, rapidly, or variably in space and time. Overcoming such issues has historically required significant time and resource investment to collect sufficient data, precluding the answering of many ecological and evolutionary questions. Here, we show the utility of social media for rapidly collecting observations of ephemeral ecological phenomena with low spatial and temporal predictability by using a Facebook group dedicated to collecting predation events involving reptiles and amphibians in sub-Saharan Africa. We collected over 1900 independent feeding observations using Facebook from 2015 to 2019 involving 83 families of predators and 129 families of prey. Feeding events by snakes were particularly well-represented with close to 1,100 feeding observations recorded

Boom or bust? Embedding entrepreneurship in education in Australia

© 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the status of entrepreneurship education (EE) in Australia, replicating and expanding a similar study in 2015. The aim is to review neoteric global best practice EE initiatives, enabling the examination and embedding of EE offerings and initiatives at all 40 higher education institutions (HEIs) in Australia. Design/methodology/approach: The authors introduce a review of prominent and recent global EE scholarship, enabling an iterative and emergent inquiry perspective aligned to inductive and nascent multi-method empirical research associated with theoretical underpinnings of symbolic and substantive management theory. Findings: This paper highlights the sparse and inconsistent distribution of EE programs and initiatives across all 40 Australian HEIs, particularly against the backdrop of rapidly expanding start-up and entrepreneurship ecosystems. Furthermore, outcomes provide best practice EE initiatives, which included staff mobility and transferability of skills. HEIs in Australia are experiencing a moderate EE boom, albeit marginally down on global EE transformation initiatives. Research limitations/implications: Limitation of the data is subject to availability and accuracy of online documents and material resources, although implications have been mitigated using multi-method research design. Practical implications: The findings provide critical grounding for researchers, practitioners and HEIs wishing to enhance EE within ever-expanding entrepreneurship ecosystems. Originality/value: This study is the first multi-methods inquiry into the status of EE in Australia, consisting of quantitative, qualitative and algorithmic methods

Effects of postnatal environmental tobacco smoke on non-nutritive swallowing-breathing coordination in newborn lambs

While prenatal environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure is a well-known risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome, the effect of postnatal ETS exposure is less clear. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of postnatal ETS exposure on non-nutritive swallowing (NNS) and NNS-breathing coordination, which are crucial to prevent aspiration related-cardiorespiratory events. Eighteen newborn lambs (6 per group) were randomly exposed to either 10 cigarettes/day, 20 cigarettes/day or room air for 15 days. Lambs were instrumented for recording states of alertness, swallowing, electrocardiogram and breathing; recordings were performed in non-sedated lambs at the end of ETS exposure. Urinary cotinine/creatinine ratio confirmed relevant real-life exposure. Postnatal ETS exposure had no effect on NNS frequency but tended to decrease inspiratory NNS (p=0.07) during quiet sleep. No effect on respiratory or heart rate (p>0.6), apnea index (p=0.2) or sleep states (p=0.3) was observed. In conclusion, postnatal ETS exposure in lambs had only mild effects on NNS-breathing coordination

Recent advances in understanding hypertension development in sub-Saharan Africa

Consistent reports indicate that hypertension is a particularly common finding in black populations. Hypertension occurs at younger ages and is often more severe in terms of blood pressure levels and organ damage than in whites, resulting in a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease and mortality. This review provides an outline of recent advances in the pathophysiological understanding of blood pressure elevation and the consequences thereof in black populations in Africa. This is set against the backdrop of populations undergoing demanding and rapid demographic transition, where infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus predominates, and where under and over-nutrition coexist. Collectively, recent findings from Africa illustrate an increased lifetime risk to hypertension from foetal life onwards. From young ages black populations display early endothelial dysfunction, increased vascular tone and reactivity, microvascular structural adaptions, as well as increased aortic stiffness resulting in elevated central and brachial blood pressures during the day and night, when compared to whites. Together with knowledge on the contributions of sympathetic activation and abnormal renal sodium handling, these pathophysiological adaptations result in subclinical and clinical organ damage at younger ages. This overall enhanced understanding on the determinants of blood pressure elevation in blacks encourages (a) novel approaches to assess and manage hypertension in Africa better, (b) further scientific discovery to develop more effective prevention and treatment strategies, and (c) policymakers and health advocates to collectively contribute in creating health-promoting environments in Africa

Can computed tomographic angiography accurately exclude digestive tract injury after penetrating cervical trauma?

CITATION: Maritz, J. P. B., Bagadia, A. & Lubbe, J. A. 2020. Can computed tomographic angiography accurately exclude digestive tract injury after penetrating cervical trauma? South African Journal of Surgery, 58(4):192-198, doi:10.17159/2078-5151/2020/v58n4a3159.The original publication is available at: http://www.scielo.org.zaABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Multislice computed tomographic angiography (MCTA) has become the method of choice to screen for arterial injury in penetrating cervical trauma (PCT). There is, however, limited knowledge on its accuracy in terms of digestive tract injury (DTI). Currently, our unit liberally employs both computed tomographic angiography (CTA) and contrast swallow for platysma breaching penetrating neck injuries. This study aimed to determine the accuracy of specific computed tomography findings in the diagnosis of DTI after PCT. METHODS: This was a retrospective review of all consecutive patients with PCT who had undergone MCTA that presented at a single, tertiary, high-volume trauma centre from January 2013 until December 2015. Blinded radiological review of 140 MCTA investigations (33 in the injury group and 107 in the control group) was performed in order to calculate the diagnostic accuracy of trajectory, air, and conventional MCTA signs in the diagnosis of DTI after PCT. RESULTS: Over the study period, 906 patients presenting with PCT had undergone MCTA and a total of 33 patients (3.6%) had confirmed DTI on aggregate gold standard of diagnosis. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of MCTA for detecting DTI was 100%, 65.4%, 47.1%, and 100%, respectively. No injuries were missed on MCTA. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that DTI can be safely excluded by means of careful assessment of specific signs on CTA in patients presenting after PCT, obviating the need for further investigation.Publisher's versio