Magical Realism: a Narrative of Celebration or Disillusionment? South African literature in the transition period

This article discusses the emergence of magical realism as a narrative form that was embraced by a number of South African writers in the times of transition and became increasingly attuned to express South African writing sensibility of the period. It argues that, straddling realist and postmodern narrative strands, by reconciling the realism's faithfulness to the socio-political context and the postmodern devotion to formal experimentation, syncretism and meta-fiction, magical realism simultaneously relies heavily on African oral traditions, and in doing so, it not only constitutes a point of confluence of black and white writing of the apartheid era, but it also epitomises reconciliation of Eurocentric Western rationalism and African tradition. While discussing magic realism in relation to the post-apartheid novels of André Brink and Zakes Mda, this article points towards the possible origins of the proliferation of South African texts embracing this narrative mode in the period directly following the demise of apartheid, as well as the possible reasons behind the gradual abandonment of magical realist strategy in post-millennial South African fiction. Thus, South African magical realist texts will be positioned at the intersection between literature of celebration and literature of disillusionment, emerging out of the short-lived coexistence of the two literary trends in South African literary history

Addressing A Missing Link In Higher Education On-line Content Development: Toward A Tripartite Collaborative Model

Although more than a dozen methods for developing and offering courses through distance education have been utilized over the years, the offering of on-line courses through the “World Wide Web” is still in its infancy. The number of failures in managing such on-line offerings calls for substantial research to explore why some programs are successful while others fail.  A few years ago, dozens of business schools in the US were trying to position themselves in what was promised to be a lucrative market for on-line education and training.  While some institutions have successfully established internet-based programs, many others have scrapped their on-line projects.  Many reasons account for these failures.  Among these are misinterpretations of the market, problems faced by traditional schools, start-up costs, choice of development/delivery model and faculty skepticism.  While all these reasons have a great impact on the results of the first decade of on-line education experience, this paper focuses on what seems to be the major factor: finding the right on-line model.  The paper suggests that an on-line higher education model based on a partnership between the institution, the content experts and the e-learning technology providers is the most functional.  This model helps each partner clearly determine an appropriate role, increasing the likelihood of a successful outcome

Time interval measurement module implemented in SoC FPGA device

We presents the design and test results of a picosecond-precision time interval measurement module, integrated as a System-on-Chip in an FPGA device. Implementing a complete measurement instrument of a high precision in one chip with the processing unit gives an opportunity to cut down the size of the final product and to lower its cost. Such approach challenges the constructor with several design issues, like reduction of voltage noise, propagating through power lines common for the instrument and processing unit, or establishing buses efficient enough to transport mass measurement data. The general concept of the system, design hierarchy, detailed hardware and software  solutions are presented in this article. Also, system test results are depicted with comparison to traditional ways of building a measurement instrument

Challenging the view that lack of fibre causes childhood constipation

Objectives: To assess evidence supporting the view that ‘low fibre causes childhood constipation’. Design: Triangulation integrated three approaches: a systematic review NICE guideline CG99 examining effectiveness of increasing fibre; a cohort study, Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), to assess if constipation (or hard stools) can precede fibre intake at weaning; and a literature search for twin studies to calculate heredity. Setting: CG99 examined the literature regarding the effectiveness of increasing fibre. ALSPAC asked parents about: hard stools at 4 weeks, 6 months and 2.5 years and constipation at age 4–10 years, as well as fibre intake at 2 years. Twin studies and data from ALSPAC were pooled to calculate concordance of constipation comparing monozygotic and dizygous twin pairs. Participants: CG99 reported six randomised controlled trials (RCTs). ALSPAC hard stool data from 6796 children at 4 weeks, 9828 at 6 months and 9452 at 2.5 years plus constipation data on 8401 at 4–10 years were compared with fibre intake at 2 years. Twin studies had 338 and 93 twin pairs and ALSPAC added a further 45. Results: Increasing fibre did not effectively treat constipation. Hard stools at 4 weeks predated fibre and at 6 months predicted lower fibre intake at 2 years (p=0.003). Heredity explained 59% of constipation. Conclusions: RCTs indicate that increasing fibre is not an effective treatment for constipation in children. Hard stools can precede and predict later fibre intake. Genetic inheritance explains most childhood constipation. Extended treatment with stool softeners may improve fibre intake and limit long-term damaging sequelae of constipation

Career motivation and career change : a new perspective

Looks at a sample of former managers and professionals, most of whom were in the process of finding new work

Trajectories of urinary incontinence in childhood and bladder and bowel symptoms in adolescence:prospective cohort study

OBJECTIVES: To identify different patterns (trajectories) of childhood urinary incontinence and examine which patterns are associated with bladder and bowel symptoms in adolescence. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: General community. PARTICIPANTS: The starting sample included 8751 children (4507 men and 4244 women) with parent-reported data on frequency of bedwetting and daytime wetting for at least three of five time points (4½, 5½, 6½, 7½ and 9½ years—hereafter referred to as 4–9 years). Study children provided data on a range of bladder and bowel symptoms at age 14 (data available for 5899 participants). OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-reported bladder and bowel symptoms at 14 years including daytime wetting, bedwetting, nocturia, urgency, frequent urination, low voided volume, voiding postponement, passing hard stools and low stool frequency. RESULTS: We extracted 5 trajectories of urinary incontinence from 4 to 9 years using longitudinal latent class analysis: (1) normative development of daytime and night-time bladder control (63.0% of the sample), (2) delayed attainment of bladder control (8.6%), (3) bedwetting alone (no daytime wetting) (15.6%), (4) daytime wetting alone (no bedwetting) (5.8%) and (5) persistent wetting (bedwetting with daytime wetting to age 9) (7.0%). The persistent wetting class generally showed the strongest associations with the adolescent bladder and bowel symptoms: OR for bedwetting at 14 years=23.5, 95% CI (15.1 to 36.5), daytime wetting (6.98 (4.50 to 10.8)), nocturia (2.39 (1.79 to 3.20)), urgency (2.10 (1.44 to 3.07)) and passing hard stools (2.64 (1.63 to 4.27)) (reference category=normative development). The association with adolescent bedwetting was weaker for children with bedwetting alone (3.69 (2.21 to 6.17)). CONCLUSIONS: Trajectories of childhood urinary incontinence are differentially associated with adolescent bladder and bowel symptoms. Children exhibiting persistent bedwetting with daytime wetting had the poorest outcomes in adolescence

The development and validation of the CARe Burn Scale: Child Form: a parent-proxy-reported outcome measure assessing quality of life for children aged 8 years and under living with a burn injury

Purpose: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) identify patient needs and therapeutic progress. This paper outlines the development and validation of the CARe Burn Scale: Child Form, a parent-proxy-reported outcome measure that assesses quality of life in children aged 8 and under living with a burn injury. Methods: A literature review and interviews with 12 parents of children with a burn and seven health professionals informed the development of a conceptual framework and draft PROM. Cognitive debriefing interviews with 18 parents and eight health professionals provided feedback to ascertain content validity, and 311 parents took part in field testing. Rasch and traditional psychometric analyses were conducted to create a shortened version. Further psychometric analyses with 133 parents tested the shortened CARe Burn Scale in relation to other parent-proxy measures. Results: The final conceptual framework included 5 domains: Social and Emotional Difficulties, Social and Emotional Well-Being, Wound/Scar Discomfort, Wound/Scar Treatment and Physical Abilities. Two scales fulfilled Rasch and traditional psychometric analyses, providing evidence of construct validity, acceptability, and reliability. Three scales did not fulfil the Rasch criteria and were retained as checklists. Compared to other parent-proxy measures, individual CARe Burn Scales correlated moderately with similar constructs and had low correlations with dissimilar constructs, indicating evidence of criterion validity (concurrent and discriminant). Conclusions: The CARe Burn Scale: Child Form can be used to measure children’s quality of life after having a burn injury which can inform rehabilitation and surgical decision-making