Changing literacy outcomes in South Africa: Are home-school partnerships the missing link?

After many educational reforms over the past 2 decades, South Africa is still 1 of the lowest performing countries in terms of literacy outcomes. Despite an increased access to early childhood education programmes, more than half of Grade R learners will enter Grade 1 without the required skills to master reading. Clearly, systemic interventions are not working. Against this background, a family literacy programme was launched with the aim to improve home-school partnerships, build capacity for teachers to work with parents and to provide parents with the information and support they need to strengthen literacy learning in the home. The study reported on here was based on the theoretical framework of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory as well as Fullan’s theory of action as a theory of change. An action research design and qualitative techniques of data collection were used for programme implementation, but the study was planned and evaluated against Fullan’s theory of change. The Wordworks Home-School Partnerships programme was selected for implementation and  children’s component was designed to accommodate the young children of participating families. A multicultural, independent primary school situated in Pretoria, South Africa, was selected through a combination of purposeful and convenience sampling. Data were gathered from parents, children and teacher-facilitators during parallel sessions using multiple techniques and were analysed according to qualitative principles. The article concludes with a critical engagement between the anticipated findings of the study and the literature on theories of educational change to indicate how family literacy programmes can bring about improved literacy outcomes

Mechanism Underlying the Weight Loss and Complications of Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass. Review

Various bariatric surgical procedures are effective at improving health in patients with obesity associated co-morbidities, but the aim of this review is to specifically describe the mechanisms through which Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery enables weight loss for obese patients using observations from both human and animal studies. Perhaps most but not all clinicians would agree that the beneficial effects outweigh the harm of RYGB; however, the mechanisms for both the beneficial and deleterious (for example postprandial hypoglycaemia, vitamin deficiency and bone loss) effects are ill understood. The exaggerated release of the satiety gut hormones, such as GLP-1 and PYY, with their central and peripheral effects on food intake has given new insight into the physiological changes that happen after surgery. The initial enthusiasm after the discovery of the role of the gut hormones following RYGB may need to be tempered as the magnitude of the effects of these hormonal responses on weight loss may have been overestimated. The physiological changes after RYGB are unlikely to be due to a single hormone, or single mechanism, but most likely involve complex gut-brain signalling. Understanding the mechanisms involved with the beneficial and deleterious effects of RYGB will speed up the development of effective, cheaper and safer surgical and non-surgical treatments for obesity

The ecology, biogeography, history and future of two globally important weeds : Cardiospermum halicacabum Linn. and C. grandiflorum Sw.

Members of the balloon vine genus, Cardiospermum, have been extensively moved around the globe as medicinal and horticultural species, two of which are now widespread invasive species; C. grandiflorum and C. halicacabum. A third species, C. corindum, may also have significant invasion potential. However, in some regions the native status of these species is not clear, hampering management. For example, in South Africa it is unknown whether C. halicacabum and C. corindum are native, and this is a major constraint to on-going biological control programmes against invasive C. grandiflorum. We review the geography, biology and ecology of selected members of the genus with an emphasis on the two most widespread invaders, C. halicacabum and C. grandiflorum. Specifically, we use molecular data to reconstruct a phylogeny of the group in order to shed light on the native ranges of C. halicacabum and C. corindum in southern Africa. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that southern African accessions of these species are closely related to South American taxa indicating human-mediated introduction and/or natural long distance dispersal. Then, on a global scale we use species distribution modelling to predict potential suitable climate regions where these species are currently absent. Native range data were used to test the accuracy with which bioclimatic modelling can identify the known invasive ranges of these species. Results show that Cardiospermum species have potential to spread further in already invaded or introduced regions in Australia, Africa and Asia, underlining the importance of resolving taxonomic uncertainties for future management efforts. Bioclimatic modelling predicts Australia to have highly favourable environmental conditions for C. corindum and therefore vigilance against this species should be high. Species distribution modelling showed that native range data over fit predicted suitable ranges, and that factors other than climate influence establishment potential. This review opens the door to better understand the global biogeography of the genus Cardiospermum, with direct implications for management, while also highlighting gaps in current research

Creating a conceptual hydrological soil response map for the Stevenson Hamilton Research Supersite, Kruger National Park, South Africa

The soil water regime is a defining ecosystem service, directly influencing vegetation and animal distribution. Therefore the understanding of hydrological processes is a vital building block in managing natural ecosystems. Soils contain morphological indicators of the water flow paths and rates in the soil profile, which are expressed as ‘conceptual hydrological soil responses’ (CHSR’s). CHSR’s can greatly aid in the understanding of hydrology within a landscape and catchment. Therefore a soil map could improve hydrological assessments by providing both the position and area of CHSR’s. Conventional soil mapping is a tedious process, which limits the application of soil maps in hydrological studies. The use of a digital soil mapping (DSM) approach to soil mapping can speed up the mapping process and thereby extend soil map use in the field of hydrology. This research uses an expert-knowledge DSM approach to create a soil map for Stevenson Hamilton Research Supersite within the Kruger National Park, South Africa. One hundred and thirteen soil observations were made in the 4 001 ha area. Fifty-four of these observations were pre-determined by smart sampling and conditioned Latin hypercube sampling. These observations were used to determine soil distribution rules, from which the soil map was created in SoLIM. The map was validated by the remaining 59 observations. The soil map achieved an overall accuracy of 73%. The soil map units were converted to conceptual hydrological soil response units (CHSRUs), providing the size and position of the CHSRUs. Such input could potentially be used in hydrological modelling of the site.Keywords: Digital soil mapping, terrain analysis, ecosystem services, conceptual hydrological soil responses, SoLI

The Wide-field High-resolution Infrared TElescope (WHITE)

The Wide-field High-resolution Infrared TElescope (WHITE) will be dedicated in the first years of its life to carrying out a few (well focused in terms of science objectives and time) legacy surveys. WHITE would have an angular resolution of ~0.3'' homogeneous over ~0.7 sq. deg. in the wavelength range 1 - 5 um, which means that we will very efficiently use all the available observational time during night time and day time. Moreover, the deepest observations will be performed by summing up shorter individual frames. We will have a temporal information that can be used to study variable objects. The three key science objectives of WHITE are : 1) A complete survey of the Magellanic Clouds to make a complete census of young stellar objects in the clouds and in the bridge and to study their star formation history and the link with the Milky Way. The interaction of the two clouds with our Galaxy might the closest example of a minor merging event that could be the main driver of galaxy evolution in the last 5 Gyrs. 2) The building of the first sample of dusty supernovae at z<1.2 in the near infrared range (1-5 um) to constrain the equation of state from these obscured objects, study the formation of dust in galaxies and build the first high resolution sample of high redshift galaxies observed in their optical frame 3) A very wide weak lensing survey over that would allow to estimate the equation of state in a way that would favourably compete with space projects.Comment: Invited talk to the 2nd ARENA Conference : "The Astrophysical Science Cases at Dome C" Potsdam 17-21 September, 200

Nutritional status of HIV-infected adults on antiretroviral therapy and the impact of nutritional supplementation in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa

Objectives: The study aimed to describe the nutritional status and determine the impact of current nutrition intervention strategies on weightchanges in adult HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral (ARV) therapy.Design: A descriptive, prospective trial was performed.Setting: The investigation was conducted at ARV roll-out centres in Kimberley, Upington, Kuruman, Prieska and Springbok in the NorthernCape Province of South Africa.Subjects: Adult HIV-infected patients receiving ARV therapy were included in the study. Outcome measures: Each participants’s body mass index (BMI) was determined before and after a four-month intervention period ofnutritional supplementation with an instant, enriched maize product.Results: Data from 98 patients (mean age 39.7 years; standard deviation 8.9 years) were assessed. Prior to intervention, the median BMI was 20 kg/m2 (range 12.6–29.7 kg/m2); the patients from Kuruman had a greater incidence of underweight compared to the other towns, with a median BMI of 17.9 kg/m2. Of the 87 patients assessed during the final week, 49.4% experienced weight gain and 40.2% lost weight. Eighteen (20.7%) patients gained more than 5% of their baseline weight, which was significant. Only eight (9.2%) patients lost more than 5% of their baseline weight. Twenty-two patients who presented with a BMI 18.5 kg/m2 presented with no change in median weight.Conclusions: Nutritional supplementation, provided according to provincial policy and combined with ARVs, nutritionally benefitted about half of the patients in the ARV programme in the Northern Cape.Keywords: nutrition supplementation; HIV-infection; ARV; adults; nutritional statu