Commonwealth Education Partnerships

The advent of South Africa's first democratic government in 1994 signalled the beginning of significant policy changes in education, including a notable emphasis on distance education. Distance Education was identified as a key mechanism for facilitating access, participation and redress, especially in higher education. Distance education plays a significant role in South Africa, particularly in teacher and higher education. It affords access to a large and diverse student population, of both mature students and school leavers, whose education needs might otherwise go unmet. For example, in 2004 there were over 265,000 higher education students studying though distance education in South Africa. These constituted some 36% of all higher education students in the country. Most, but increasingly not all, of these students were studying part-time. About 80% were over 23 years of age, more than half were women, and 76% were black. In this article, I will give a brief overview of the current provision of distance education in South Africa, describe the current policy context and identify some of the central issues in the field. I will conclude with outlining the approach South Africa has taken in addressing quality assurance of distance higher education. Overview of provision Higher education By far the most significant distance education provision in South Africa has been in the public higher education field with the key provider being the dedicated distance education institution, the University of South Africa (Unisa), established in 1946 as the first dedicated correspondence university in the world. As a result of the incorporation over several years of the various dedicated distance teacher education institutions, and the merger in 2004 with Technikon Southern Africa, Unisa is now the only dedicated distance education public provider in higher education. Unisa has thus become a comprehensive higher education institution, offering diplomas and the full range of degrees across general, vocational and professional fields. In 2004, it enrolled 205,000 students, including some 10,000 students from the rest of Africa. Since most of these students were studying part-time, this enrolment translates into 101,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) students. Eight other higher education institutions enrol a further 29,000 FTEs in distance education. Together, distance education FTE students constitute 26% of all higher education FTE students. As might be expected, in 2004 the majority of these students were registered in the Humanities and Social Sciences (59%), with 29% in Business and Management Sciences and 11% in Science, Engineering and Technology. Within the Humanities, a good proportion of students were enrolled in Education. Indeed Education students, with over 29,000 FTE students, made up 22% of FTE distance education enrolment, and exceeded the number of FTE students studying Education through 'contact' modes. Whereas institutional student success rates for 'contact' education ranged between 66 and 90%, with a mean of 75%, for distance education this rate ranged between 50 and 84% with a mean of 60%. Given that the vast majority of distance education students are working, this lower success rate is to be expected. There is however some evidence from studies of the throughput of different cohorts of students, that only a small proportion of distance education students in three year qualifications actually completes its qualifications. Nevertheless, distance education's share of the national total of graduates in 2004 was 32% of diplomas, 20% of Bachelor's degrees, 12% of Master's degrees and 9% of Doctorate degrees. In 2004, in the different fields, distance programmes produced 58% of all graduates in the field of Education, 21% in Business and Management, 17% in Humanities and Social Sciences and 6% in Science and Technology. By 2003, there was little provision of distance education by private providers: largely in the fields of Theology and Management. This had not always been the case. In the mid nineties, a number of private providers had entered into partnerships with public institutions to offer large-scale distance education programmes, usually in teacher education. A number of reports of the poor quality of such programmes, and closer scrutiny by the Department of Education, led to the withdrawal of private provision in most cases

The effect of COVID rehabilitation for ongoing symptoms Post HOSPitalisation with COVID-19 (PHOSP-R):protocol for a randomised parallel group controlled trial on behalf of the PHOSP consortium

Introduction Many adults hospitalised with COVID-19 have persistent symptoms such as fatigue, breathlessness and brain fog that limit day-to-day activities. These symptoms can last over 2 years. Whilst there is limited controlled studies on interventions that can support those with ongoing symptoms, there has been some promise in rehabilitation interventions in improving function and symptoms either using face-to-face or digital methods, but evidence remains limited and these studies often lack a control group. Methods and analysis This is a nested single-blind, parallel group, randomised control trial with embedded qualitative evaluation comparing rehabilitation (face-to-face or digital) to usual care and conducted within the PHOSP-COVID study. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of rehabilitation interventions on exercise capacity, quality of life and symptoms such as breathlessness and fatigue. The primary outcome is the Incremental Shuttle Walking Test following the eight week intervention phase. Secondary outcomes include measures of function, strength and subjective assessment of symptoms. Blood inflammatory markers and muscle biopsies are an exploratory outcome. The interventions last eight weeks and combine symptom-titrated exercise therapy, symptom management and education delivered either in a face-to-face setting or through a digital platform (www.yourcovidrecovery.nhs.uk). The proposed sample size is 159 participants, and data will be intention-to-treat analyses comparing rehabilitation (face-to-face or digital) to usual care. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval was gained as part of the PHOSP-COVID study by Yorkshire and the Humber Leeds West Research NHS Ethics Committee, and the study was prospectively registered on the ISRCTN trial registry (ISRCTN13293865). Results will be disseminated to stakeholders, including patients and members of the public, and published in appropriate journals. Article summary Strengths and limitations of this study • This protocol utilises two interventions to support those with ongoing symptoms of COVID-19 • This is a two-centre parallel-group randomised controlled trial • The protocol has been supported by patient and public involvement groups who identified treatments of symptoms and activity limitation as a top priorit

Analyzing Glacier Surface Motion Using LiDAR Data

Understanding glacier motion is key to understanding how glaciers are growing, shrinking, and responding to changing environmental conditions. In situ observations are often difficult to collect and offer an analysis of glacier surface motion only at a few discrete points. Using light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data collected from surveys over six glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica, particle image velocimetry (PIV) was applied to temporally-spaced point clouds to detect and measure surface motion. The type and distribution of surface features, surface roughness, and spatial and temporal resolution of the data were all found to be important factors, which limited the use of PIV to four of the original six glaciers. The PIV results were found to be in good agreement with other, widely accepted, measurement techniques, including manual tracking and GPS, and offered a comprehensive distribution of velocity data points across glacier surfaces. For three glaciers in Taylor Valley, Antarctica, average velocities ranged from 0.8–2.1 m/year. For one glacier in Greenland, the average velocity was 22.1 m/day (8067 m/year)

Teleconnections and Interannual Transitions as Observed in African Vegetation: 2015–2017

El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) teleconnections present a hemispheric dipole pattern in both rainfall and vegetation between eastern and southern Africa. We analyze precipitation and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) departures during the 2015–2017 ENSO cycle; with one of the strongest warm events (El Niño) on record followed by a short and weak cold event (La Niña). Typically, southern (eastern) Africa is associated with dry (wet) conditions during El Niño, and wet (dry) conditions during La Niña. In general, the temporal and spatial evolution of vegetation responses show the expected dipole pattern during the 2015–2016 El Niño and following 2016–2017 La Niña. However, in 2015–2016 the eastern African impacts were displaced to the west and south of the canonical pattern. Composites of seasonal vegetation anomalies highlight the magnitude and position of impacts. Further investigation through empirical orthogonal teleconnections and spatial correlation analysis confirms the similar, but opposite, teleconnection impacts in eastern and southern Africa. The diametrically opposed patterns have particular implications for agricultural production and the availability of fodder and forage, especially in the pastoral communities of the two regions

AAV2/8 anti-angiogenic gene therapy using single-chain antibodies inhibits murine choroidal neovascularization

While anti-angiogenic therapies for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are effective for many patients, they require multiple injections, are expensive and prone to complications. Gene therapy could be an elegant solution for this problem by providing a long-term source of anti-angiogenic proteins after a single administration. Another potential issue with current therapeutic proteins containing a fragment crystallizable (Fc) domain (such as whole antibodies like bevacizumab) is the induction of an unwanted immune response. In wet AMD a low level of inflammation is already present, so to avoid exacerbation of disease by the therapeutic protein, we propose single-chain fragment variable antibodies (scFv, which lack the Fc domain) as a safer alternative. To investigate the feasibility of this, anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) blocking antibodies in two formats were produced and tested in vitro and in vivo. The scFv transgene was then cloned into an adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector.A therapeutic effect in a mouse model of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) was demonstrated with antibodies in both scFv and immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) formats (p<0.04). Importantly, the scFv anti-VEGF antibody expressed from an AAV vector also had a significant beneficial effect (p=0.02), providing valuable preclinical data for future translation to the clinic

Surgery versus conservative care for persistent sciatica lasting 4 to 12 months

© 2020 Massachussetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. BACKGROUND The treatment of chronic sciatica caused by herniation of a lumbar disk has not been well studied in comparison with acute disk herniation. Data are needed on whether diskectomy or a conservative approach is better for sciatica that has persisted for several months. METHODS In a single-center trial, we randomly assigned patients with sciatica that had lasted for 4 to 12 months and lumbar disk herniation at the L4-L5 or L5-S1 level in a 1:1 ratio to undergo microdiskectomy or to receive 6 months of standardized nonoperative care followed by surgery if needed. Surgery was performed by spine surgeons who used conventional microdiskectomy techniques. The primary outcome was the intensity of leg pain on a visual analogue scale (ranging from 0 to 10, with higher scores indicating more severe pain) at 6 months after enrollment. Secondary outcomes were the score on the Oswestry Disability Index, back and leg pain, and quality-of-life scores at 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year. RESULTS From 2010 through 2016, a total of 790 patients were screened; of those patients, 128 were enrolled, with 64 in each group. Among the patients assigned to undergo surgery, the median time from randomization to surgery was 3.1 weeks; of the 64 patients in the nonsurgical group, 22 (34%) crossed over to undergo surgery at a median of 11 months after enrollment. At baseline, the mean score for legpain intensity was 7.7 in the surgical group and 8.0 in the nonsurgical group. The primary outcome of the leg-pain intensity score at 6 months was 2.8 in the surgical group and 5.2 in the nonsurgical group (adjusted mean difference, 2.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.4 to 3.4; P\u3c0.001). Secondary outcomes including the score on the Owestry Disability Index and pain at 12 months were in the same direction as the primary outcome. Nine patients had adverse events associated with surgery, and one patient underwent repeat surgery for recurrent disk herniation. CONCLUSIONS In this single-center trial involving patients with sciatica lasting more than 4 months and caused by lumbar disk herniation, microdiskectomy was superior to nonsurgical care with respect to pain intensity at 6 months of follow-up

Bacillus anthracis Spore Surface Protein BclA Mediates Complement Factor H Binding to Spores and Promotes Spore Persistence

Spores of Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax, are known to persist in the host lungs for prolonged periods of time, however the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrated that BclA, a major surface protein of B. anthracis spores, mediated direct binding of complement factor H (CFH) to spores. The surface bound CFH retained its regulatory cofactor activity resulting in C3 degradation and inhibition of downstream complement activation. By comparing results from wild type C57BL/6 mice and complement deficient mice, we further showed that BclA significantly contributed to spore persistence in the mouse lungs and dampened antibody responses to spores in a complement C3-dependent manner. In addition, prior exposure to BclA deletion spores (ΔbclA) provided significant protection against lethal challenges by B. anthracis, whereas the isogenic parent spores did not, indicating that BclA may also impair protective immunity. These results describe for the first time an immune inhibition mechanism of B. anthracis mediated by BclA and CFH that promotes spore persistence in vivo. The findings also suggested an important role of complement in persistent infections and thus have broad implications