Testing a model of global citizenship in higher education institutions in the SADC region

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) equip the labour force with the necessary skills and knowledge to engage effectively as global citizens. The aim of this study was to test the Reysen and Katzarska-Miller (2013) model of global citizenship identity in the context of HEIs in the SADC region. This study approaches global citizenship from a social identity perspective in which identification as a global citizen is at the center. Identification as a global citizen is theorised to follow a Normative Environment and Global Awareness as antecedents. In turn global citizen identification (GCI) produces six prosocial outcomes. This model proposes nine domains of Global Citizenship including two antecedents, an identification as a global citizen and six prosocial outcomes. Participants included 242 students and staff from universities across seven countries participating in the UNESCO #OpenUpYourThinking Researchers Challenge. Participants completed an online version of the Global Citizenship Scale. In this study, the antecedents and outcomes of GC were all positively and significantly correlated demonstrating a linear relationship between all domains. The results provided empirical support for this model in the context of HEIs in the SADC region. GCI was significantly predicted by normative environment and global awareness. In turn, GCI significantly predicted the six prosocial outcomes. Indirect prediction effects between normative environment, global awareness and GCI significantly predicted the six prosocial outcomes

Correlating ELISA values with growth and yield components of GFLV infected grapevines

Research NoteGrowth and yield components of Cabernet Sauvignon on AXR#1 rootstock infected with grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV) were determined and compared to enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) values. Negative correlations were found between ELISA values and berry weights, cluster weights, and crop yield. No correlations were found between ELISA values and pruning weights or berry numbers. The nature of the correlations suggest that virus titer is not the only factor which influences symptom expression in GFLV infected grapevines

The profile of occupational stress in a sample of health profession academics at a historically disadvantaged university in South Africa

Background: Higher education is a high stress occupation or environment. Academics in health professions are engaged in professional training that adds clinical or profession-specific competencies to general academic and research outcomes. Academics in health professions assume many roles and must remain current in the practise of their professions that increases stress. Studies on occupational stress amongst health professions academics are lacking in the South African context.Objectives: To assess occupational stress in a sample of Health profession academics at a Historically Disadvantaged Institution (HDI).Methods: An online survey was conducted with a randomly selected sample of 51 permanent academics. The response rate was 55% after incentives and reminders. Instruments included a demographic questionnaire, Assessing emotions scale and the Sources of Work Stress Inventory. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression were used to analyse the data. Instruments were reliable with this sample. Ethics clearance was obtained (Reg. No.: 15/4/42) and all ethics principles were upheld.Results: The sample was mostly female and the composition was consistent with the profiles of the faculty, health professions and HDIs. Small effects were reported for associations between demographics, EI and Occupational stress. Mixed results were reported for predictive relationships. EI and level of education were predictive of certain sources of occupational stress.Conclusion:  Transformations and the work environment contributed to academics experiencing occupational stress. The historical apartheid legacies still manifest in patterned ways along gender, race and professional status in the occupational stress academics experience. Health professionals constitute a legitimate subgroup that impacts the experience and management of occupational stress. EI is an important factor to consider in the experience and management of occupational stress

Mass production of volume phase holographic gratings for the VIRUS spectrograph array

The Visible Integral-field Replicable Unit Spectrograph (VIRUS) is a baseline array of 150 copies of a simple, fiber-fed integral field spectrograph that will be deployed on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET). VIRUS is the first optical astronomical instrument to be replicated on an industrial scale, and represents a relatively inexpensive solution for carrying out large-area spectroscopic surveys, such as the HET Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). Each spectrograph contains a volume phase holographic (VPH) grating with a 138 mm diameter clear aperture as its dispersing element. The instrument utilizes the grating in first-order for 350-550 nm. Including witness samples, a suite of 170 VPH gratings has been mass produced for VIRUS. Here, we present the design of the VIRUS VPH gratings and a discussion of their mass production. We additionally present the design and functionality of a custom apparatus that has been used to rapidly test the first-order diffraction efficiency of the gratings for various discrete wavelengths within the VIRUS spectral range. This device has been used to perform both in-situ tests to monitor the effects of adjustments to the production prescription as well as to carry out the final acceptance tests of the gratings' diffraction efficiency. Finally, we present the as-built performance results for the entire suite of VPH gratings.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables. To be published in Proc. SPIE, 2014, "Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation", 9151-53. The work presented in this article follows from arXiv:1207:448

The Approach to Ergodicity in Monte Carlo Simulations

The approach to the ergodic limit in Monte Carlo simulations is studied using both analytic and numerical methods. With the help of a stochastic model, a metric is defined that enables the examination of a simulation in both the ergodic and non-ergodic regimes. In the non-ergodic regime, the model implies how the simulation is expected to approach ergodic behavior analytically, and the analytically inferred decay law of the metric allows the monitoring of the onset of ergodic behavior. The metric is related to previously defined measures developed for molecular dynamics simulations, and the metric enables the comparison of the relative efficiencies of different Monte Carlo schemes. Applications to Lennard-Jones 13-particle clusters are shown to match the model for Metropolis, J-walking and parallel tempering based approaches. The relative efficiencies of these three Monte Carlo approaches are compared, and the decay law is shown to be useful in determining needed high temperature parameters in parallel tempering and J-walking studies of atomic clusters.Comment: 17 Pages, 7 Figure

New experimental techniques with the split Hopkinson pressure bar

The split Hopkinson pressure bar or Kolsky bar has provided for many years a technique for performing compression tests at strain rates approaching 10/sup 4/ s/sup -1/. At these strain rates, the small dimensions possible in a compression test specimen give an advantage over a dynamic tensile test by allowing the stress within the specimen to equilibrate within the shortest possible time. The maximum strain rates possible with this technique are limited by stress wave propagation in the elastic pressure bars as well as in the deforming specimen. This subject is reviewed in this paper, and it is emphasized that a slowly rising excitation is preferred to one that rises steeply. Experimental techniques for pulse shaping and a numerical procedure for correcting the raw data for wave dispersion in the pressure bars are presented. For tests at elevated temperature a bar mover apparatus has been developed which effectively brings the cold pressure bars into contact with the specimen, which is heated with a specially designed furnace, shortly before the pressure wave arrives. This procedure has been used successfully in tests at temperatures as high as 1000/sup 0/C

Inherent-Structure Dynamics and Diffusion in Liquids

The self-diffusion constant D is expressed in terms of transitions among the local minima of the potential (inherent structure, IS) and their correlations. The formulae are evaluated and tested against simulation in the supercooled, unit-density Lennard-Jones liquid. The approximation of uncorrelated IS-transition (IST) vectors, D_{0}, greatly exceeds D in the upper temperature range, but merges with simulation at reduced T ~ 0.50. Since uncorrelated IST are associated with a hopping mechanism, the condition D ~ D_{0} provides a new way to identify the crossover to hopping. The results suggest that theories of diffusion in deeply supercooled liquids may be based on weakly correlated IST.Comment: submitted to PR

The Potential Energy Landscape and Mechanisms of Diffusion in Liquids

The mechanism of diffusion in supercooled liquids is investigated from the potential energy landscape point of view, with emphasis on the crossover from high- to low-T dynamics. Molecular dynamics simulations with a time dependent mapping to the associated local mininum or inherent structure (IS) are performed on unit-density Lennard-Jones (LJ). New dynamical quantities introduced include r2_{is}(t), the mean-square displacement (MSD) within a basin of attraction of an IS, R2(t), the MSD of the IS itself, and g_{loc}(t) the mean waiting time in a cooperative region. At intermediate T, r2_{is}(t) posesses an interval of linear t-dependence allowing calculation of an intrabasin diffusion constant D_{is}. Near T_{c} diffusion is intrabasin dominated with D = D_{is}. Below T_{c} the local waiting time tau_{loc} exceeds the time, tau_{pl}, needed for the system to explore the basin, indicating the action of barriers. The distinction between motion among the IS below T_{c} and saddle, or border dynamics above T_{c} is discussed.Comment: submitted to pr