Experiences of LNU Neophyte Teachers: Cues for a Viable Mentoring Program

The usefulness of teachers’ mentoring program cannot be underestimated. Some universities and colleges in the Philippines have been implementing this kind of program with different approaches, content, and scope. The extent of mentoring programs to improve teaching careers has been studied here and abroad. Results remain inconclusive. This case study with a phenomenological peg has explored the lived experiences of neophyte teachers through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. Their experiences in the first years of teaching were characterized by uncertainties, anxieties, struggles, and difficulties emanating from their lack of expertise on various aspects related to teaching practice, lack of knowledge about the culture and context of the university in which they were teaching, and lack of knowledge about the learners. With these specific inadequacies identified and the novice teachers’ implicit desire to be mentored, cues for a viable neophyte teacher’s mentoring program are drawn in the context of a teacher-training university

Demographics and presenting clinical features of childhood systemic lupus erythematosus

Objectives: To review the presentation and characteristics of children with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).Methods: The records of children with sufficient American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for SLE treated by the renal units of the Johannesburg and Chris Hani Baragwanath hospitals, and the arthritis clinic of the Johannesburg Hospital between January 1974 and March 2000 were reviewed. The clinical presentation, age distribution and race were examined.Results: A total of 36 children met the criteria. There were 26 girls and 10 boys, with a mean age of 11.5 and 10.2 years respectively. The male-to-female ratio was 1:2.6 overall, with a ratio of 1:1.2 under 10 years and 1:4 over 10 years. There were 15 white, 2 Indian and 5 coloured patients. The 14 black patients all presented after 1986. Rashes were found to be the commonest clinical feature present at the time of diagnosis, followed by polyarthritis and renal pathology. Constitutional symptoms were common, as were generalised lymphadenopathy and hepatosplenomegaly, while neurological, pulmonary and cardiac signs and symptoms were less common. Renal disease was present in 58% of patients on presentation.Conclusion: There is a diverse array of presenting features in childhood SLE. There has been increased recognition of the disease in young black South Africans since 1986.Journal of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes of South Africa Vol. 10(2) 2005: 64-6

A model of interacting Navier-Stokes singularities

We introduce a model of interacting singularities of Navier-Stokes, named pin\,cons. They follow a Hamiltonian dynamics, obtained by the condition that the velocity field around these singularities obeys locally Navier-Stokes equations. This model can be seen of a generalization of the vorton model of Novikov, that was derived for the Euler equations. When immersed in a regular field, the pin\,cons are further transported and sheared by the regular field, while applying a stress onto the regular field, that becomes dominant at a scale that is smaller than the Kolmogorov length. We apply this model to compute the motion of a dipole of pin\,cons. When the initial relative orientation of the dipole is inside the interval (0, pi/2), a dipole made of pin\,con of same intensity exhibits a transient collapse stage, following a scaling with dipole radius tending to 0 like (tc - t) power 0.63. For long time, the dynamics of the dipole is however repulsive, with both components running away from each other to infinity.Comment: 24 pages 13 figure

Optical interferometer in space

The present design concepts for a Laser Gravitational Wave Observatory in Space are described. Laser heterodyne distance measurements are made between test masses located in three spacecraft separated by roughly 10(exp 6) km. The major technology issues are: the reduction of spurious acceleration noise for the test masses to below 2 x 10(exp -15) cm/sq sec/Hz(0.5) from 10(exp -5) to 10(exp -3) Hz; and the measurement of changes in the difference of the antenna arm lengths to 5 x 10(exp -11) cm/Hz(0.5) from 10(exp -3) to 1 Hz with high reliability. The science objectives are: to measure discrete sinusoidal gravitational wave signals from individual sources with periods of 1 second to 1 day; to measure the stochastic background due to unresolved binaries; and to search for gravitational wave pulses with periods longer than 1 sec from possible exotic sources such as gravitational collapse of very massive objects

Deck-Mounted Steel Post Barrier System

An existing mountable safety barrier system, previously crash tested successfully on a wood bridge deck, was evaluated for use on a fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) bridge deck. In an attempt to avoid expensive full-scale crash testing, components of the existing system were evaluated using worst case conditions on two dynamic bogie crash tests and a series of computer simulations using nonlinear finite-element analysis. Simulation results closely approximated the physical results, with both displaying similar deformation, damage, and force levels. Both testing and simulation demonstrated that the barrier should function sufficiently if used on the FRP deck system. Further, the development of an accurate model makes it possible to evaluate the potential success of the existing system for use on other bridge decks. As an example, a more rigid bridge deck, similar to reinforced concrete, was evaluated. Results showed that due to the stiffer deck, more of the impact energy must be absorbed by the posts and attachment hardware, resulting in significantly more deformation than when used on the flexible FRP deck