The factor structure of the Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey across a sample of client service employees

The negative consequences of burnout in the client service environment point to the importance of further research into the manner in which the unique challenges faced by client service employees translate into the development of burnout. Research into the nature of burnout in the client service environment is, however, hampered due to the paucity of appropriate measures of burnout specifi c to this environment. To overcome this challenge, the application of the Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) for use among client service employees is proposed. Previous studies that have applied the MBI-HSS to occupations outside the human service profession have, however, reported signifi cant threats to the factor structure of the original instrument, suggesting that the three-factor model is not consistent across occupations. The aim of this study was therefore to explore the factor structure of the MBI-HSS when applied to a sample of client service professions. A convenience sample was used, and 100 client service employees, representing three client service organisations, participated in the study. The results of the study do not support the existence of three distinct burnout components when applying the MBIHSS to a sample of client service employees. While the measures of emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment performed well in this sample, the results cast doubt on the meaningfulness of the depersonalisation indicators in the client service context.Key words: burnout, emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, personal accomplishment, client servic

Cross sections of proton-induced reactions on 152Gd, 155Gd and 159Tb with emphasis on the production of selected Tb radionuclides

Cross sections are presented for various Dy, Tb and Gd radionuclides produced in the proton bombardment of 159Tb as well as for the reactions 152Gd(p,4n)149Tb and 155Gd(p,4n)152Tb up to 66 MeV. The experimental excitation functions are compared with theoretical predictions by means of the geometrydependent hybrid (GDH) model as implemented in the code ALICE/ASH, as well as with values from the TENDL-2012 library and previous literature experimental data, where available. Physical yields have been derived for the production of some of the medically important radioterbiums, namely 149Tb (radionuclide therapy), 152Tb (PET) and 155Tb (SPECT). The indirect production of high-purity 155Tb via the decay of its precursor 155Dy is reported. The possibility of a large-scale production facility based on a commercial 70 MeV cyclotron is also discussed

Breach of confidentiality and the duty to warn in medical law: Examples from clinical psychiatry

This article addresses various factors involved in the tension that may arise between breach of confidentiality on the one hand, and dereliction of the duty to warn, on the other, in the context of medical law. Per illustration, examples from clinical psychiatric practice, in which the sharing of personal information is especially relevant, are featured. In sum, a practitioner must be reasonable in negotiating the proverbial tightrope: if he or she reveals too much, liability can arise, and, if he or she reveals too little, liability can arise. In medical law, the standard of reasonableness is measured with reference to “the reasonable practitioner”. Weighing up various factors (discussed herein), the reasonable practitioner takes confidentiality as the point of departure; only if there is a compelling reason to override confidentiality, will it afford legal justification to the practitioner

Suid-afrikaanse musiekwoordeboek/south african music dictionary.

Reino Ottermann en / and Maria Smit, Hoofredakteurs / Chief editors, bygestaan deur / assisted by Izak Grové, Winfried Lüdemann, Hein-rich van der Mescht en / and Caroline van Niekerk. Suid-Afrikaanse Musiekwoordeboek/South African Music Dictionary. Tweede, hersiene en vermeerderde uitgawe/Second, revised and enlarged edition. 2000, 296 pp. ISBN 1-86890-019-3. Kaapstad/Cape Town: Pharos. Prys/Price: R69.95

Organisational commitment and responses to planned organisational change: An exploratory study

Previous research has identified organisational commitment as apre-requisite to the successful implementation of organisationalchange. Change managers rely on the commitment of employeeswhen implementing organisational change, but organisationalcommitment may decrease in response to the change. Thisappeared to be the case when a South African telecommunicationsorganisation embarked on an organisational change initiative in2008. The commencement of the change was followed by largescaleemployee resignations, suggesting a possible decline inorganisational commitment as a result of the change. Organisationalchange is complex and is accompanied by cognitive, affectiveand behavioural responses from employees, but little researchhas been conducted to show how these responses are related toorganisational commitment. This study attempts to address thisgap by exploring whether levels of organisational commitment arerelated to employee attitudes towards change, and whether theseattitudes are related to the manner in which employees perceive thechange process. Data were collected from 113 employees through anelectronic survey. The findings indicate that affective and normativecommitment are positively associated with change readiness,personal and organisational valence. Change readiness, personaland organisational valence are, in turn, positively associated withemployee perceptions of change communication and training

Die effek van multimedia leer- en onderrigsteunmateriaal op leesvaardighede van grondslagfaseleerders

The Department of Education, educators, parents and various stakeholders are concerned about the poor reading skills of learners in South African schools. Various national and international studies reveal shockingly low levels of reading proficiency among South African learners. The Department of Education has launched various investigations to establish why the levels of reading proficiencies are so poor. The National Reading Strategy was one of the responses to address their concerns. In order to address this issue effectively, it is imperative that the effective teaching of reading should commence in the Foundation Phase, where the basis for more advanced skills should be established. The purpose of this study was to establish whether the development and implementation of multimedia learning and teaching support material (LTSM) by means of a digital book disc (DBD) would contribute to effective facilitation of reading skills. The results of this study indicate that the integration of the DBD, as a form of multimedia LTSM, effectively supports the facilitation of reading skills.Keywords: Multimedia learning, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Early Childhood Education, Foundation Phase, DVD, teaching, learning, reading skillsArticle text in Afrikaan

AN ADAPTED INTERVENTION RESEARCH MODEL: SUGGESTIONS FOR RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

The various existing models of intervention research all have advantages and disadvantages.Postgraduate students, and especially doctoral students in Social Work, have on many occasionsexpressed their dilemma in choosing a specific model of research for intervention procedures.Therefore, many have used the intervention research model or the developmental research andutilisation model, while others have adapted these models to suit their specific researchendeavours. After making a careful study of these two models, an adapted intervention researchmodel will be suggested for use in studies of a combined research and practice nature

From research to policy in chronic disease prevention: mandatory salt reduction in South Africa

Abstract of a poster that presented at 20th International Congress of Nutrition, Granada, Spain, September 15-20, 2013

Neutron activation as an independent indicator of expected total yield in the production of 82Sr and 68Ge with 66 MeV protons

Introduction A method based on neutron activation is being developed to assist in resolving discrepancies between the expected yield and actual yield of radionuclides produced with the vertical-beam target station (VBTS) at iThemba LABS. The VBTS is routinely employed for multi-Ci batch productions of the radionuclide pairs 22Na/68Ga and 82Sr/68Ga using standardized natMg/natGa and natRb/natGa tandem targets, respectively [1]. The metal-clad target discs are bombarded with a primary beam of 66 MeV protons at an intensity of nominally 250 µA. The encapsulation materials are either Nb (for Mg and Ga) or stainless steel (for Rb) which serve to contain the molten target materials during bombardment and act as a barrier to the high-velocity cooling water which surrounds the targets in a 4π geometry. The natRb/natGa targets are typically bombarded according to a two-week cycle while natMg/natGa targets are bombarded on an ad-hoc basis, depending on a somewhat unpredictable 22Na demand. A too-large deviation between expected yield and actual yield has at times plagued this programme. These deviations can manifest both as an apparent loss or an apparent gain (relative to the expected yield) by up to about 15% in either direction. The resulting uncertainty of up to 30% (in the worst case) from one production batch to another can be costly and is unacceptable in a large-scale production regimen. This phenomenon is believed to be brought about by two types of problems: (1) Production losses, e.g. during the radio-chemical separation process or incomplete recovery of activated target material during the decapsulation step. (2) Incorrect values obtained for the accumulated proton charge. A problem of type (1) will always result in a loss of yield. A problem of type (2) can manifest as an apparent loss or gain. In an effort to get a handle on this second type of problem, neutron activation of suitable material samples, embedded in a target holder, is being investigated as an independent indicator of the total yield. For this purpose, samples of Co, Mn, Ni and Zn were activated during production runs and Co was found to be the most appropriate. Preliminary results will be presented after first discussing why the determination of the accumulated pro-ton charge is a problem with the VBTS. Materials and Methods The VBTS consists of a central region in which a target holder is located during bombardment as well as two half-cylindrical radiation shields which completely surround the target. The shields can be moved away from the central region on dedicated rails, e.g. when repairs or maintenance is required. FIGURE 1 shows the VBTS with the shields moved to the “open” position. As some components of the station are located below the vault floor, with the target position near floor level, it proved difficult to electrically isolate the VBTS as was done for the two horizontal-beam target stations at iThemba LABS [1]. The VBTS does not act as a Faraday cup like the other target stations. Instead, the beam current and accumulated charge is measured by means of a calibrated capacitive probe [1,2]. There appears to be a variation in the response of the capacitive probe, sensitive to the beam microstructure, in particular a dependence on the beam packet length. This problem is not yet fully resolved. FIGURE 2 (a) shows the beamstop of a VBTS target holder with several Co samples mounted on the outside as well as one each of Ni, Mn and Zn. The samples are small “tablets” with a 10 mm diameter and 1 mm thickness. The reactions of interest are 59Co(n,γ)60Co, 59Co(n,3n)57Co, nat-Ni(n,X)60Co, natNi(n,X)57Co, natZn(n,X)65Zn and 55Mn(n,2n)54Mn. The relevant half-lives are 60Co(5.271 a), 57Co(271.8 d), 65Zn(244.3 d) and 54Mn(312.2 d). The half-life should be long compared to the two-week cycle in order to reduce the dependence on the exact beam history, which is very fragmented over any production period. In this respect, 60Co is considered to be particularly attractive as its long half-life of more than 5 years leads to a negligible effect by the beam history. Note that the tandem targets, shown in FIGURE 2 (b), are mounted just upstream of the beamstop – in fact, the targets and beamstop form a single unit before being fitted into the target holder. At the end of bombardment, all samples were assayed for their characteristic γ-emissions using standard off-line γ-ray spectrometry with an HPGe detector connected to a Genie 2000 MCA. Calculations of the neutron fluence density in the central sample volume on the beamstop were also performed using the Monte Carlo radiation transport code MCNPX. For these calculations, the entire VBTS, a Rb/Ga target and the vault walls were included in the model. Results and Conclusion All samples activated significantly – copious amounts of 60Co were detected in the Co discs after a two-week run. The neutron fluence density for the case of a 250 µA, 66 MeV proton beam on a natRb/natGa tandem target is shown in FIGURE 3. The dominance of low-energy neutrons is evident, which is in part due to the large amount of paraffin-wax shielding material in close proximity to the target. While reactions such as the (n,2n) and (n,3n) would be sensitive to the more energetic part of the neutron spectrum, the (n,γ) capture reaction benefits from the large low-energy component. This explains the copious amounts of 60Co formed. It was therefore decided to only retain the central Co sample for subsequent bombardments, as shown in FIGURE 4. The first results are shown in TABLE 1. The accumulated charge as obtained from the capacitive probe (Q), the specific 60Co activity (A) at the end of bombardment (EOB), and their ratio (A/Q) are presented in the table, together with the deviation of individual ratios relative to their average for the case of the Mg/Ga tandem tar-gets only. Note that all samples were counted until the statistical uncertainties were negligible. Any systematic uncertainties are ignored at this stage as they are considered to remain the same from one batch production to another. For the sake of argument, the average value of the ratio is taken as the expected value. A positive deviation of the A/Q value is then indicative of a too-small value of the accumulated charge obtained from the capacitive probe, leading to a corresponding overproduction. Likewise, a negative value is indicative of a too-large value of the accumulated charge, leading to a corresponding underproduction. It is certainly true that the data in TABLE 1 are currently very limited. It is envisaged, however, that with time the growing database of values will assist in reducing the uncertainty in determining the accumulated charge and reduce the discrepancies between predicted and actual yields significantly. TABLE 1 illuminates the underlying problem satisfactorily. The four Mg/Ga tandem target bombardments, on identical targetry, were performed successively. The neutron activation correlates well the with actual yields, pointing directly to the current integration as the main source of error. The method already proves to be useful. An indication of an over or underprediction can be obtained prior to the target processing by recovering and measuring the Co disc. This in-formation can be used to make a decision concerning the present batch production and/or the subsequent one. One can either add beam to the present production target and/or in-crease/reduce the total beam on the subsequent production target to compensate for an expected overproduction or shortfall. In conclusion, we would like to stress that the capacitive probes show great promise and that better understanding and/or possibly some development of their signal processing algorithm may improve their ability to measure the accumulated charge to the desired accuracy. Segmented capacitive probes used at iThemba LABS and elsewhere for beam position measurement [1,3] are not affected by beam microstructure as only the ratios of the signal strengths on the different sectors are important. In this case, changes in response affect all sec-tors equally and the ratios are unaffected

Psilocaulon absimile N.E.Br. as a stock poison. I. Determination of oxalic, malic, tartaric acids, etc

In the course of his investigations into mortality among Angora goats in the Willowmore district of the Cape Province, Steyn strongly suspected a plant, Psilocaulon sp., of being the cause. The plant from the farm was toxic for rabbits, but when grown at Onderstepoort, where the soil conditions are very different, it was non-toxic. The plant contained considerable quantities of oxalic acid, with smaller amounts of malic and tartaric acids, as well as a toxic principle to be described in a later paper and to which the authors attributed the deaths of the goats in the field. The authors discuss the interrelations between the organic acids and their physiological function in plants and conclude with a discussion on the toxicology of oxalic acid and the oxalates.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.mn201