Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive global health crisis. Because the crisis requires large-scale behaviour change and places significant psychological burdens on individuals, insights from the social and behavioural sciences can be used to help align human behavior with the recommendations of epidemiologists and public health experts. Here we discuss evidence from a selection of research topics relevant to pandemics, including work on navigating threats, social and cultural influences on behaviour, science communication, moral decision-making, leadership, and stress and coping. In each section, we note the nature and quality of prior research, including uncertainty and unsettled issues. We identify several insights for effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and also highlight important gaps researchers should move quickly to fill in the coming weeks and months

Managing an incorporation at departmental level in the higher education sector: Discourse as a strategic resource

Receiving institutions (RIs) in the HE sector in South Africa are incorporating designated institutions, and new post-incorporation departments within these institutions are required to function as well-aligned and unified entities. The author reports on a specific academic manager's efforts in such a department at the University of the Free State. The head initiated joint materials design, which, he believed, would promote the sought-after unity among staff. An objection, often raised by staff at the incorporated institution (II), was that the receiving institution had `perpetrated a hostile take-over'. The case study shows how the head applied Hardy and Palmer's 1998 model, which entails a discursive approach to cycles of activity, performativity and connectivity. The author reports how staff members' `non-responses' were taken as cues for initiating new cycles. Retrievable evidence of receiving institution and incorporated institution staff's compliance, he argues, may serve as a resource for all stakeholders who may want to generate mutuallysupportive or contending narratives about departmental management processes. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 19 (2) 2006: pp.201-21

Developing reading in a first-year academic literacy course

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Pursuing a constructivist approach to mentoring in the higher education sector

In this article we argue that Kelly’s construct psychology (Kelly 1955; 1966/2003) provides a useful framework for mentoring in the Higher Education sector in South Africa. Kelly’s notion of constructive alternativism prompts practitioners to adopt a questioning attitude to life in HE; newly appointed academic staff members and their mentors have to be open to new experiences and new constructions of meaning, engaging in a reciprocal relationship typically prompting participants consciously topursue critical reflection, innovation and transformative learning.We recorded and analysed discursive exchanges (± 130 pages of transcriptions) from two mentor-mentee relationships at the primary author’s institution. We used Kelly’s theory to identify and interrogate a range of work-related constructs. In addition, we applied Hardy, Palmer and Phillips’s discourse-based management model to monitor the outputs of our mentoring. We used Herrmann’s principles of learning styleflexibility as an additional awareness-raising tool to promote a holistic approach to the scholarship of mentoring (Herrmann 1996). We conclude the article with suggestions for mentoring in the HE sector

Genetic relationships among lamb survival, birth coat score, birth weight and 42-day body weight in a South African fine wool Merino stud

Please help us populate SUNScholar with the post print version of this article. It can be e-mailed to: [email protected] Wetenskapp

Synchronization of oestrus in sheep: Use of different doses of progestagen outside the normal breeding season

No Abstract

Corona treated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surfaces studied by the slow positron beam technique

NatuurwetenskappeInstituut Vir PolimeerwetenskapPlease help us populate SUNScholar with the post print version of this article. It can be e-mailed to: [email protected]

Biological Invasions in South Africa: an overview

South Africa has much to offer as a location for the study of biological invasions. It is an ecologically diverse country comprised of nine distinct terrestrial biomes, four recognised marine ecoregions, and two sub-Antarctic Islands. The country has a rich and chequered socio-political history, and a similarly varied history of species introductions. There has been a long tradition of large-scale conservation in the country, and efforts to manage and regulate invasions began in the nineteenth century, with some notable successes, but many setbacks. With the advent of democracy in the early 1990s, South Africa established large alien species control programmes to meet the dual demands of poverty alleviation and conservation, and has since pioneered regulatory approaches to address invasions. In terms of research, South Africa has played an important role in the development of invasion science globally. It continues to have one of the most active communities anywhere in the world, with strengths in theoretical and applied invasion science, and world-leading expertise in specific sub-disciplines (e.g. the classical biological control of invasive plants). In this introductory chapter to the book “Biological Invasions in South Africa”, we highlight key events that have affected biological invasions, their management, and the research conducted over the past two centuries. In so doing, we build on earlier reviews—from a national situational review of the state of knowledge in 1986, culminating most recently with a comprehensive report on the status of biological invasions and their management at a national level in 2018. Our book comprises 31 chapters (including this one), divided into seven parts that examine where we have come from, where we are, how we got here, why the issue is important, what we are doing about it, what we have learnt, and where we may be headed. The book lists over 1400 alien species that have established outside of captivity or cultivation. These species cost the country at least US$1 billion per year (~ZAR 15 billion), and threaten South Africa’s unique biodiversity. The introduction and spread of alien species, the impacts that they have had, the benefits that they have brought, and the attempts to manage them have provided many opportunities for research. Documenting what we have learned from this unplanned experiment is a primary goal of this book. We hope this book will allow readers to better understand biological invasions in South Africa, and thereby assist them in responding to the challenge of addressing the problem

Intra-individual differences in the effect of endurance vs. Resistance training on vascular function: a cross-over study.

We used a within-subject, cross-over design study to compare the impact of 4-weeks' resistance (RT) versus endurance (END) training on vascular function. We subsequently explored the association of intra-individual effects of RT versus END on vascular function with a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the NOS3 gene. Thirty-five healthy males (21±2 years old) were genotyped for the NOS3 rs2070744 SNP and completed both training modalities. Participants completed 12 sessions over a 4-week period, either RT (leg-extension) or END (cycling) training in a randomised, balanced cross-over design with a 3 week washout period. Participants performed peak oxygen uptake (peak V ˙ O2 ) and leg-extension single-repetition maximum (1-RM) testing, and vascular function assessment using flow-mediated dilation (FMD) on 3 separated days pre/post training. Peak V ˙ O2 increased after END (P<0.001), while 1-RM increased after RT (P<0.001). FMD improved after 4-weeks' training (time-effect: P=0.006), with no difference between exercise modalities (interaction-effect: P=0.92). No relation was found between individual changes (delta, pre-post) in FMD to both types of training (R2 =0.06, P=0.14). Intra-individual changes in FMD following END and RT were associated with the NOS3 SNP, with TT homozygotes significantly favouring only END (P=0.016) and TC/CC tending to favour RT only (P=0.056). Although both training modes improved vascular function, significant intra-individual variation in the adaptation of FMD was found. The association with NOS3 genotype suggests a genetic predisposition to FMD adapting to a specific mode of chronic exercise. This study therefore provides novel evidence for personalised exercise training to optimise vascular health