Social Media Usage: A Comparison of Public Relations/Journalism and Marketing/Management Students

Research indicates that students use social media for more social reasons than professional reasons. To test the assumptions in the literature, this study examined key disciplines having a professional connection to undergraduate studies. The findings focus on the key social media platforms utilized in professions as presently used by students

Investigating the reasons for the high failure rate in the subject mathematics as part of the national certificate (NCV) at Port Elizabeth College

Over the past years the FET Colleges sector has been plagued by high failure rates in mathematics and science as part of the National Curriculum (Vocational) course. This study sought to investigate the possible reasons for the high failure rates in NCV mathematics at Iqhayiya Campus of PE College. The purpose of the research was to elicit these possible reasons from students who currently are doing the NCV mathematics course at the Iqhayiya Campus. This study follows a mixed method design using both quantitative and qualitative results. Quantitative data were gathered by means of questionnaires submitted to students doing NCV mathematics at the Iqhayiya Campus. A Likert scale was used to evaluate the questionnaires. The qualitative data for this study was collected through researcher questions in focus group interviews. The study concludes with recommendations to the management of PE College, the Department of Higher Education and all relevant role players

From venomous snakebites to anomalous spirits (in three easy steps)

I came to Oxford as an undergraduate in Human Sciences. This was where I first encountered social anthropology and its power as a method of comparative and reflexive critique. But I was also taught to think about humans as simultaneously cultural and biological organisms. In my second year I spent the summer researching snakebites in a missionary hospital in Ecuador. It was this experience that led me to apply for the MPhil in Medical Anthropology, which I undertook from 2005 to 2007. Here I was introduced to some of the philosophical and practical ways in which humans are bisected between the biological and the cultural, and I was encouraged to look for ways of putting things back together using the critical approaches of medical anthropology and phenomenology. This is what I have been trying to do in my MPhil and DPhil theses, inspired by the holistic vision that underlies both Human Sciences and Medical Anthropology at Oxford

Dolley Madison, wife of James Madison, letter to President Andrew Jackson about the death of her husband, founding father and former President James Madison. Dated September 2, 1836.

The notes penciled in the margins of the manuscript (apparently written by Allen C. Clark) indicate that this is the final draft of this letter to Andrew Jackson upon the death of her husband.https://digitalcommons.wofford.edu/littlejohnmss/1187/thumbnail.jp

Transformative innovation in peri-urban Asia

This paper draws on two case studies from India and China to discuss how and why rapidly urbanizing contexts are particularly challenging for transformative innovation but are also critical sustainability frontiers and learning environments. We argue that lack of understanding and policy engagement with peri-urbanization in its current form is leading to increasing exclusion and unrealized potential to support multiple sustainable urban development goals. Peri-urbanization is often characterized by the neoliberal reordering of space and a co-option of environmental agendas by powerful urban elites. Changing land-use, resource extraction, pollution and livelihood transitions drive rapid changes in interactions between socio-technical and social-ecological systems, and produce complex feedbacks across the rural–urban continuum. These contexts also present characteristic governance challenges as a result of jurisdictional ambiguity, transitioning formal and informal institutional arrangements, heterogeneous and sometimes transient communities, shifts in decision making to distant authorities and the rapid growth of informal market-based arrangements with little incentive for environmental management. These unique features of peri-urbanization may reinforce a lack of inclusion and hinder experimentation, but they can also present valuable opportunities for transformative innovation. This innovation is unlikely to follow the lines of niche management and upscaling but rather should take advantage of peri-urban dynamics. There are possibilities to build new alliances in order to renegotiate governance structures across the rural–urban continuum, to reframe urban sustainability debates and to reconfigure socio-technical and social-ecological systems interactions

150th Anniversary, Town of Raymond, Maine, 1803-1953

A brief history of the town of Raymond, Maine. Cover title = History of the Town of Raymond

Persistent Organic Pollutants and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Addressing causality with repeated measurements using novel study designs

Background: Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are chemicals that have negative impacts on the environment and biota and have been investigated as possible risk factors for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). Other well-established risk factors for T2DM, for example, obesity, increased lipids, and age have been reported to influence human POP concentrations. Previous studies have reported positive associations between single POP measurement and prevalent and incident T2DM, although causality has not been established. Longitudinal studies with repeated pre-diagnostic POP measurements, which may help in addressing causality, are lacking. Aims: This thesis aimed to investigate if the different classes of POPs (perfluoroalkyl acids [PFAAs], polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs], organochlorine pesticides [OCPs], and polybrominated diphenyl ethers [PBDEs]) are causal factors of T2DM using repeated POP measurements from the same individuals. We also assessed if T2DM status influences the body burden of POPs. Methods: We used questionnaire data and blood samples from two different population-based studies. The Norwegian Women and Cancer study was used to investigate PFAAs-T2DM associations and time trends in PFAAs (2001-2005/06) with two repeated measurements. The Tromsø study was used to study the associations between PCBs, OCPs, PBDEs, and T2DM, and time trends (1986-2016) in cases and controls using three to five repeated POP measurements per individual. Results: Among the PCBs and OCPs, only cis-heptachlor epoxide showed strong pre- and post-diagnostic associations. Further, PCBs and OCPs declined slower in cases compared to controls. PFAAs and PBDEs showed similar time trends in cases and controls, and these POPs were not associated with T2DM before or after diagnosis. Conclusion: The results from this thesis do not support POPs being causal factors of T2DM but suggest that T2DM-related physiological changes may cause retention of certain POPs already years before T2DM diagnosis leading to higher concentrations in prospective cases, and thus, positive associations with T2DM status

Framework for a learning management system at a university of technology with a weak information technology maturity system

In the past, adoption of the learning management system (LMS) has been voluntary with a limited amount of training at the micro level within a particular university of technology.  From discussions with academic staff it emerged that across the entire institution approximately 10-15% of academic staff used a particular LMS with only about 5% actively engaged. As the particular university progresses its broader plans for teaching and learning enhanced by technology, the LMS will become increasingly important as a tool to help realise the university’s goals. The aim of the article is to gain a clear understanding of the potential barriers and obstacles encountered when implementing an LMS at a macro and meso level where the information technology system is weak. The article includes a discussion on a framework in support of the development of the LMS at a macro and meso level within a university of technology