The effect of altitude and slope on the spatial patterning of burglary

Physical geography is significant for crime, and its presence or absence, yet no studies have investigated the relationship between crime and certain broader features of physical geography such as altitude, and slope. In this study I attempt to fill this gap by using OLS and geographically weighted regression to gauge the effect of altitude and slope on burglary patterns in Tshwane, South Africa. In the analysis I found considerable evidence that residing at a greater altitude reduces your risk of burglary victimization, although residing on steeper slopes had no effect. In the discussion I argue that the underlying relief and terrain on which neighborhoods are built should form an essential 'physical' component of the environmental backcloth that surrounds offenders and influences their spatial decision making processes

God Is Amor: Biblical Teachings for House and Home, Translated from Spanish to English

I have transcribed and translated (from Spanish to English) a series of five video sermons by Pastor Homero Salazar to aid him in broadening his evangelistic efforts. While transcription requires structural fluency and a discerning ear, translation demands extensive conceptual consideration. Translators must weigh the tone, formality, intention, and implications of the original message and relay these concepts through linguistic equivalents in an alternate language. Some of the most interesting challenges of this project arose from changing the media from a dialogue-like video to a document for publication, requiring considerable pragmatic adjustments

Design and Development of a Tele-operated Surgical Simulation Environment

With the introduction of robots into laparoscopic surgery, surgeons have difficulties in selecting the placement of the incisions required to insert the robots instruments into the body and also determine which patients are suitable for robotically assisted surgery. Poor selection of these two items mentioned above can result in a conversion to a more invasive form of surgery during the procedure. This work introduces the design and development of a surgical simulation environment to assist in the research for optimal incision placement and patient selection. The simulator allows importing any serial link robot that was designed in a computer aided modelling package. With minimal added information, the imported robot can be controlled using a multi-degree of freedom user input device. The simulator allows for importing patient geometries along with the robot to allow for the simulation of surgical procedures. A Jacobian transpose algorithm was added onto the simulator in a modular format to control the simulated robots, as well as to allow for other control systems to be created and implemented. Experiments were performed to determine the effects of patient geometry models on rendering speeds. The control system could control the tested robots with a maximum lag time of 15 ms between moving the input device and the simulated robot moving to the correct desired position. The simulator makes importing and controlling robots a simple and intuitive matter, without putting a large restriction on the type of robots to be simulated. The simulator also allows for importing models of a patient, to make real world analysis of a patient possible. Further improvements on the presented simulator include the addition of collision detection and more testing on the control system for stability and response over a larger range of robots

A psycho-educational model for the facilitation of the mental health of families where a child is diagnosed with autism

Ph.D. (Educational Psychology)Please refer to full text to view abstrac

Vaginal microbial diversity of the genital tract of South African adolescent females

Young, reproductive-aged women are at highest risk of acquiring human-immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The Women's Initiative in Sexual Health (WISH) study was designed to investigate potential biological reasons for this high risk in HIV negative, South African adolescent females. Little is known about the 'normal' microbiome of this population. As such, the aim of this substudy was to quantify specific bacterial species (L. crispatus, L. jensenii, L. gasseri, L. iners, G. vaginalis and P. bivia) by quantitative real time PCR (qPCR) from adolescent female lateral vaginal wall swabs, and to assess associations between the quantities of these bacteria and bacterial vaginosis (BV) status, inflammation levels, age, hormonal contraceptive usage, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Samples were collected from 143 participant adolescent females in total, aged between 16 and 22 years of age, with a median of 18 years of age, from the Masiphumelele Youth Clinic in Cape Town, South Africa. Bacterial DNA was extracted from lateral vaginal wall swabs using the MoBio Powersoil® DNA Isolation Kit after enzymatic digestion. Positive bacterial reference strains were cultured in MRS buffer and Schwedler's broth, after which the DNA was extracted using the Qiagen Blood and Tissue DNA Maxi Extraction Kit. The quality and concentration of the DNA was confirmed using Qubit technology. The positive control DNA was amplified with PCR using species specific primers and the product run on an agarose gel to confirm primer specificity. The positive control DNA was serially diluted from 106 to 10-2 copies/μL to form a standard curve for absolute quantification through qPCR. Multiple steps were taken in order to optimize the qPCR experiments in terms of protocols, initial denaturation and annealing temperatures, cycle length and number, primers, and serial dilutions of the positive control DNA. The optimization for the P. bivia qPCR protocol presented the most issues, with the final quantification results being unreliable and requiring further work. Once the qPCR conditions were optimized for each bacterium; all samples, non-template control and standards were run in triplicate to quantify the number of bacterial copies per ng of DNA for each participant. The average of the three values were used as the final quantities and then used for downstream analyses. The bacterium L. crispatus, L. jensenii and L. gasseri, had median readings of 3.957 copies/ng, 1.568 copies/ng, and 17.58 copies/ng, respectively, with increased L. iners (2807 copies/ng) and G. vaginalis (8540 copies/ng). BV negative participants had increased levels of L. crispatus (p=0.0004, p=0.0002) and L. gasseri (p=0.0016, p<0.0001) in comparison to both BV intermediate and BV positive participants. L. jensenii (p<0.0001) and L. iners (p=0.0461) readings were increased in BV negative participants compared with BV positive and BV intermediate participants, respectively. BV positive participants had increased levels of G. vaginalis in comparison with both BV intermediate (p=0.0059) and BV negative (p<0.0001) adolescents. The 47 immunological factors, assessed via luminex, were categorized into high and low genital inflammation based on the unsupervised analysis by partitioning around medoids (PAM) using an R package 'cluster' with a k-value of 2. The inflammation-low group had increased levels of L. crispatus (p=0.0005), L. gasseri (p=0.033) and L. jensenii (p=0.0046) in comparison to the genital inflammation-high group. In participants with two viral STIs (Herpes Simplex Virus 2 and Human Papilloma Virus), there were increased copies/ng of G. vaginalis in comparison with participants with none (p=0.0098) or one viral STI (p=0.0324). Participants with high-risk HPV subtypes had significantly higher copy numbers of L. crispatus in comparison to the participants with low risk HPV subtypes (p=0.0181). Further, the only association demonstrated between the qPCR-based bacterial levels and the hormonal contraceptive prescribed was indicated by L. jensenii (ANOVA p=0.0222), possibly due to the low copy number readings. In conclusion, BV status, low levels of genital inflammation and the presence of two viral STIs indicate an association with bacterial copy numbers reported in this study, with increased median levels of L. iners and G. vaginalis across all adolescent participants compared to the other reported bacterial copy numbers. This indicates a possible alternate 'normal' microbiota profile of the FGT in adolescents in Masiphumelele

A comparison between different ways to assess demands-abilities fit in higher education: Empirical results and recommendations for research practice

Researchers studying person-environment fit can choose between various measurement approaches. Even though these measures are distinctly different, they often get used interchangeably, which makes interpreting the results of person-environment fit studies difficult. In the present article, we contrast the most commonly used measurement approaches for person-environment fit in higher education and compare them in terms of explained variance. We obtained data on the fit as well as subjective and objective study-related outcomes of N = 595 university students. We analyzed the fit between the demands of the study program and the abilities of the student, using the algebraic, squared and absolute difference score, response surface analysis (RSA), and direct fit as measurement approaches. Our results indicate that RSA explains the most variance for objective outcomes, and that direct fit explains the most variance for subjective outcomes. We hope that this contribution will help researchers distinguish the different measurement approaches of demands-abilities fit (and ultimately person-environment fit) and use them accordingly

The spatial relationship between tuberculosis and alcohol outlets in the township of Mamelodi, South Africa

Background: The availability of alcohol in society is known to increase the risk of a range of negative health outcomes. Objectives: The aim of this research is to determine if there is a spatial association between tuberculosis and alcohol outlets in Mamelodi, South Africa. We also aim to examine whether the socio-economic characteristics of the neighbourhood in which an alcohol outlet was located was related to the magnitude of tuberculosis in the immediate vicinity of the alcohol outlet. Methods: Location quotient analysis is used to compare the extent of tuberculosis within a series of buffer intervals (100m, 200m, 300m) immediately surrounding alcohol outlets with tuberculosis across the township of Mamelodi as a whole. Results: The density of tuberculosis around alcohol outlets in Mamelodi at all buffer distances was found to be substantially higher than across the township as a whole. These findings indicate that the risk of tuberculosis in Mamelodi is higher around alcohol outlets. Alcohol outlets located in more deprived areas of Mamelodi were significantly associated with higher density of tuberculosis relative to alcohol outlets located in more affluent neighbourhoods. Conclusion: Despite alcohol outlets forming an integral part of the urban landscape in townships in South Africa, they may facilitate the transmission of tuberculosis. Keywords: Tuberculosis and alcohol outlets; Mamelodi; South Africa

Young women's memories of their experiences in adolescent relationships : a qualitative study

Democratic Government in South Africa has brought with it changes in ideology and policy as well as a focus on a new area of concern. It has recognised the importance of young people. In May 1995 the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Youth at Risk (IMC) was established to re-organise the Child and Youth Care system in order increase its effectivity in coping with vulnerable youths. The IMC proposed a new framework for understanding and working with youth based on the principle of the Sioux parenting practices, called the Circle of Courage. Traditionally, helping professionals such as social workers use western theories, such as Erikson's Psychosocial Stage theory, to understand adolescents. Both of these theories and philosophies were not developed in South Africa and there is, therefore, cause for concern as to their relevance to the diverse and unique circumstances of this country. In this qualitative study, five young South African women attending a tertiary institution were asked to tell the stories of their adolescence with specific reference to their boy/girl relationships and factors influencing these relationships. The data was gathered in one or two semi-structured interviews. Data was analysed using Miles and Huberman's (1994) broad model using data reduction (through coding), data display (with the use of two context charts and a thematic conceptual matrix)and verification and conclusion drawing (through finding synergies and contrasts between the data and the two theories). This analysis was conducted with two specific aims. The first aim was to provide a thick description of one of the women's stories to show the complexity and diversity of her experience. Secondly, synergies and contrasts were sought between the women's stories and the two theories: Erikson's stage theory and the Circle of Courage. The analysis showed strong evidence that aspects from both these theories existed in the data and that to some degree both were relevant to the experiences of these five women