Critical factors influencing visitor attendance at a literary arts festival in Stellenbosch.

The Stellenbosch University Word Festival (SUWF) is the largest literary arts festival in South Africa. At the Festival, the word in context is celebrated in as many art forms as possible. Since its establishment in 2000 it has shown a significant increase in popularity and visitor attendance, but thus far, little is known about the key factors affecting visitor attendance. This paper seeks to identify the factors that motivate festival visitors to attend SUWF. Initial analysis identified six constructs for studying the interrelationships among different variables. The constructs that had the most effect on visitors’ experience included: 1) basic festival attributes such as value for money, venue spacing and adequate infrastructure; 2) the internal festival experience, such as variety in programme content, convenient event setting and adequate safety and security; and 3) the external festival experience, including sufficient support services and amenities, excellent customer service, and the experience of appropriate advertising media to attract visitors. The constructs which most influenced visitor satisfaction and reflected the level of service at the festival were 4) details of infrastructure, convenience of access, and food and beverage services; 5) the internal festival experience, including technology (electronic ticketing and payment), the experience of culture and arts, and designated smoking areas; 6) the external festival experience, which extended to general ambiance, hygiene and traffic. The above factors appear to be those that ensure sustainability, give SUWF a competitive advantage over other arts festivals in South Africa and globally, and encourage the development of similar festivals

The Iowa Homemaker vol.7, no.6

The Place of the Child by Anna E. Richardson, page 1 Liver for My Hotspur by Jeanette Beyer McCay, page 2 Christmas Problems for the Home Economics Class by Marcia E. Turner, page 3 Taking the Drudgery Out of Ironing Day by Edith Carse, page 4 Home Life in Uruguay by Frances Thomas, page 5 Girls’ 4-H Page, page 6 Looking Ahead in the State Association by Vera L. Mintle, page 8 Do We Need Help in Household Buying? by Frances A. Sims, page 10 Who’s There and Where by Dr. Lillian B. Storms, page 1

Assessing the impact of observations on ocean forecasts and reanalyses: Part 2, Regional applications

The value of global (e.g., altimetry, satellite sea-surface temperature, Argo) and regional (e.g., radars, gliders, instrumented mammals, airborne profiles, biogeochemical) observation-types for monitoring the mesoscale ocean circulation and biogeochemistry is demonstrated using a suite of global and regional prediction systems and remotely-sensed data. A range of techniques is used to demonstrate the value of different observation-types to regional systems and the benefit of high- resolution and adaptive sampling for monitoring the mesoscale circulation. The techniques include Observing System Experiments, Observing System Simulation Experiments, adjoint sensitivities, representer matrix spectrum, observation footprints, information content and spectral analysis. It is shown that local errors in global and basin-scale systems can be significantly reduced when assimilating observations from regional observing systems

SCUBA divers as oceanographic samplers: The potential of dive computers to augment aquatic temperature monitoring

Monitoring temperature of aquatic waters is of great importance, with modelled, satellite and in-situ data providing invaluable insights into long-term environmental change. However, there is often a lack of depth-resolved temperature measurements. Recreational dive computers routinely record temperature and depth, so could provide an alternate and highly novel source of oceanographic information to fill this data gap. In this study, a citizen science approach was used to obtain over 7,000 scuba diver temperature profiles. The accuracy, offset and lag of temperature records was assessed by comparing dive computers with scientific conductivity-temperature-depth instruments and existing surface temperature data. Our results show that, with processing, dive computers can provide a useful and novel tool with which to augment existing monitoring systems all over the globe, but especially in under-sampled or highly changeable coastal environments

Visualisation to enhance biomechanical tuning of ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs) in stroke: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

There are a number of gaps in the evidence base for the use of ankle-foot orthoses for stroke patients. Three dimensional motion analysis offers an ideal method for objectively obtaining biomechanical gait data from stroke patients, however there are a number of major barriers to its use in routine clinical practice. One significant problem is the way in which the biomechanical data generated by these systems is presented. Through the careful design of bespoke biomechanical visualisation software it may be possible to present such data in novel ways to improve clinical decision making, track progress and increase patient understanding in the context of ankle-foot orthosis tuning

Probiotics, prematurity and neurodevelopment: Follow-up of a randomised trial

Objective: To determine the impact of one probiotics combination on the neurodevelopment of very preterm children at 2–5 years corrected gestational age (CA). Design: Follow-up study of survivors of a double-blinded, placebo-controlled, randomised trial of probiotic effects on late-onset sepsis in very preterm infants that found reduced necrotising enterocolitis. Setting: 10 tertiary perinatal centres in Australia and New Zealand. Patients: 1099 very preterm infants born <32 weeks’ gestation and weighing <1500 g. Intervention: Probiotics (Bifidobacterium infantis, Streptococcus thermophilus and Bifidobacterium lactis) or placebo administered from birth until discharge home or term CA, whichever came sooner. Main outcome measures: Major neurodevelopmental impairment comprised any of moderate/severe cerebral palsy (Gross Motor Function Classification System score 2–5), motor impairment (Bayley-III Motor Composite Scale <–2SD or Movement Assessment Battery for Children <15th centile if ≫42 months’ CA), cognitive impairment (Bayley-III Composite Cognitive or Language Scales <–2SD or Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence Full Scale Intelligence Quotient <–2SD if ≫42 months’ CA), blindness or deafness. Results: Outcome data were available for 735 (67%) participants, with 71 deaths and 664/1028 survivors assessed at a mean age of 30 months. Survival free of major neurodevelopmental impairment was comparable between groups (probiotics 281 (75.3%) vs placebo 271 (74.9%); relative risk 1.01 (95% CI 0.93 to 1.09)). Rates of deafness were lower in probiotic-treated children (0.6% vs 3.4%). Conclusion: Administration of the probiotics combination Bifidobacterium infantis, Streptococcus thermophilus and Bifidobacterium lactis to very preterm babies from soon after birth until discharge home or term CA did not adversely affect neurodevelopment or behaviour in early childhood

Improvisation and Transformation: Yes to the Mess

The field of organizational change has chiefly been studied from a teleological perspective. Most models of change emphasize action that is rational and goal oriented. What often gets overlooked and under theorized is the continuous, iterative nature of organizational life, the unplanned and serendipitous actions by and between people that lead to new discoveries and innovation. Recent research on organizational improvisation seeks to explore this area. In this chapter we will address two questions – what is the experience of improvisation and what are the conditions that support improvisation to flourish in organizations? In the first part of this paper, we look at the phenomenology of improvisation, the actual lived experience of those who improvise in the face of the unknown or in the midst of chaotic conditions. We will explore the strategies that some professional improvisers employ to deliberately create the improvisatory moment. We will then look at the dynamics of organizational life and explore the cultural beliefs, organizational structures, and leadership practices that support improvisation. We will draw primarily upon the model from Barrett (2012) that focuses on the how the nature of jazz improvisation and the factors that support improvisation can be transferred to leadership activities. This falls in the tradition of others who draw upon arts-based metaphors, including jazz music and theatrical improvisation, to suggest insights for leadership and ways of organizing. Since this is a book devoted to individual transformation as well as organizational transformation, we will also touch on the topic of how improvisation is a developmental project and explore the potential for improvisation to lead to personal transformation. We will attempt to move back and forth between both themes – organizational and personal transformation. Ultimately the two topics are not separate. Any significant organizational transformation begins with an improvisation. And any meaningful improvisatory move by a person is potentially a moment of self-discovery and an identity-shaping event

River histories : A thematic review

Peer reviewe

Moving primary physical education forward:start at the beginning

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal Title on publication date, available online: doi 10.1080/03004279.2016.1155072This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Education 3-13: International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education on 07/03/2016, available online: DOI: 10.1080/03004279.2016.1155072This paper presents selected findings from a questionnaire completed by 509 primary school teachers in Scotland. Drawing on policy enactment theory, the paper focusses on teachers’ personal experiences of physical education and perceptions of the importance of physical education in their schools. More than half (56%) reported that physical education was either ‘very important’ or ‘important’, while almost 40% perceived it to be of ‘limited’ or ‘very limited importance’. ‘Staff’, ‘time’ and ‘subject status’ were the main themes they drew on to explain their responses. Our findings highlight the diverse nature of the physical education professional cultures in Scottish primary schools. From this, we propose that future initiatives to support change in primary physical education should, as a starting point, acknowledge these diverse professional cultures and move beyond the simplistic one-size-fits-all change projects that have been shown to have limited impact on practice.This research was conducted as part of the Scottish Primary Physical Education Project, funded by the Scottish Government