79 research outputs found

    Question-answer sequences between doctors and patients in a South African HIV/AIDS day clinic

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    ‘What’s the problem? I am happy that you are my customer!’ African immigrant women’s emotional labour and resilience in a multilingual workplace

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    Recent research on multilingualism and emotions in the immigrant context indicates that negative emotions such as anxiety related to monolingual or cultural norms may prevail in immigrants’ daily lives. Immigrants may respond to negative emotions with avoidance, for instance by avoiding using the language that makes them anxious. This study further examines emotion-related concepts of immigrant experience in a setting rarely researched: a highly multilingual workplace in Cape Town, South Africa. It focuses on immigrants’ emotional lived experiences, emotional labour, and coping strategies such as avoidance or resilience. We report on semi-structured interviews with four African immigrant women working as shop assistants in a China Town shopping centre in the Western Cape. Noting the diversity of experiences in emotional reactions and coping, findings reveal that negative emotions African immigrant women experience are associated more with threatened life chances, than with non-standard speech forms. Although reported experiences imply a significant burden of emotional labour, these African immigrant women do not get caught in negative emotions and avoidance; rather, they demonstrate emotional resilience and active coping strategies (e.g. positive emotions, humour, gratitude) that allow them to manage conflict and negativity

    An Iterative Least-Squares Method for the Hyperbolic Monge-Amp\`ere Equation with Transport Boundary Condition

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    A least-squares method for solving the hyperbolic Monge-Amp\`ere equation with transport boundary condition is introduced. The method relies on an iterative procedure for the gradient of the solution, the so-called mapping. By formulating error functionals for the interior domain, the boundary, both separately and as linear combination, three minimization problems are solved iteratively to compute the mapping. After convergence, a fourth minimization problem, to compute the solution of the Monge-Amp\`ere equation, is solved. The approach is based on a least-squares method for the elliptic Monge-Amp\`ere equation by Prins et al., and is improved upon by the addition of analytical solutions for the minimization on the interior domain and by the introduction of two new boundary methods. Lastly, the iterative method is tested on a variety of examples. It is shown that, when the iterative method converges, second-order global convergence as function of the spatial discretization is obtained.Comment: 30 pages, 24 figure

    Accuracy of magnetic resonance studies in the detection of chondral and labral lesions in femoroacetabular impingement : systematic review and meta-analysis

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    Background: Several types of Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are commonly used in imaging of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), however till now there are no clear protocols and recommendations for each type. The aim of this meta-analysis is to detect the accuracy of conventional magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI), direct magnetic resonance arthrography (dMRA) and indirect magnetic resonance arthrography (iMRA) in the diagnosis of chondral and labral lesions in femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). Methods: A literature search was finalized on the 17th of May 2016 to collect all studies identifying the accuracy of cMRI, dMRA and iMRA in diagnosing chondral and labral lesions associated with FAI using surgical results (arthroscopic or open) as a reference test. Pooled sensitivity and specificity with 95% confidence intervals using a random-effects meta-analysis for MRI, dMRA and iMRA were calculated also area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) was retrieved whenever possible where AUC is equivocal to diagnostic accuracy. Results: The search yielded 192 publications which were reviewed according inclusion and exclusion criteria then 21 studies fulfilled the eligibility criteria for the qualitative analysis with a total number of 828 cases, lastly 12 studies were included in the quantitative meta-analysis. Meta-analysis showed that as regard labral lesions the pooled sensitivity, specificity and AUC for cMRI were 0.864, 0.833 and 0.88 and for dMRA were 0.91, 0.58 and 0.92. While in chondral lesions the pooled sensitivity, specificity and AUC for cMRI were 0.76, 0.72 and 0.75 and for dMRA were 0.75, 0.79 and 0.83, while for iMRA were sensitivity of 0.722 and specificity of 0.917. Conclusions: The present meta-analysis showed that the diagnostic test accuracy was superior for dMRA when compared with cMRI for detection of labral and chondral lesions. The diagnostic test accuracy was superior for labral lesions when compared with chondral lesions in both cMRI and dMRA. Promising results are obtained concerning iMRA but further studies still needed to fully assess its diagnostic accuracy

    Shared decision making and the practice of community translation in presenting a pre-final Afrikaans for the Western Cape Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) questionnaire: a proposal for improved translation and cross-cultural adaptation

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    Background Translation and cross cultural adaptation of patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) involves a step referred to as harmonisation, following forward and backward translation of the measure. This article proposes the introduction of methods not previously included in the process of harmonisation. The aim of the study was to introduce shared decision making (SDM) and the practice of community translation (CT) during the harmonisation of the Afrikaans for the Western Cape version of the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) questionnaire, a PROM that measures symptoms and activity and participation in persons with upper limb conditions. Methods A broader approach to harmonisation is proposed by incorporating CT and SDM in addition to existing methods toward harmonisation. Participants (n = 8) involved in the harmonisation meeting included the principal investigator, a linguistic expert, occupational therapists with knowledge of the target population, context and the DASH questionnaire and members of the target population with and without upper limb conditions. A partnership was formed with the participants (a principle of SDM) and the principles of non-parallel CT and the CT approach were applied during harmonisation. Employing CT principles ensures that the norm for the translation is set by the population the translation is intended for. Results Forward and backward translation of the DASH questionnaire presented a version of the measure in the target language for consideration during harmonisation. There were however a significant number of conceptually problematic items on the version presented at the meeting. Only seven items (7 of 30) remained unchanged. Conclusion SDM and CT was used during the harmonisation of the Afrikaans for the Western Cape DASH questionnaire. Both these practices could have relevance in the translation and cross-cultural adaptation of PROMs where the translation is intended for persons from low socio-economic backgrounds and low levels of education

    Borrelia burgdorferi EbfC defines a newly-identified, widespread family of bacterial DNA-binding proteins

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    The Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, encodes a novel type of DNA-binding protein named EbfC. Orthologs of EbfC are encoded by a wide range of bacterial species, so characterization of the borrelial protein has implications that span the eubacterial kingdom. The present work defines the DNA sequence required for high-affinity binding by EbfC to be the 4 bp broken palindrome GTnAC, where ‘n’ can be any nucleotide. Two high-affinity EbfC-binding sites are located immediately 5′ of B. burgdorferi erp transcriptional promoters, and binding of EbfC was found to alter the conformation of erp promoter DNA. Consensus EbfC-binding sites are abundantly distributed throughout the B. burgdorferi genome, occurring approximately once every 1 kb. These and other features of EbfC suggest that this small protein and its orthologs may represent a distinctive type of bacterial nucleoid-associated protein. EbfC was shown to bind DNA as a homodimer, and site-directed mutagenesis studies indicated that EbfC and its orthologs appear to bind DNA via a novel α-helical ‘tweezer’-like structure

    Critical discourse analysis as an analytic tool in considering selected, prominent features of TRC testimonies

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    Please help us populate SUNScholar with the post print version of this article. It can be e-mailed to: [email protected] En WysbegeerteAlgemene Taalwetenska
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