Optimalisering van die omskakeling van matrieksimbole vir universiteitstoelatingsvereistes

Optimalisation of the conversion of matriculation symbols for university admission purposes The results demonstrate the potential benefits of taking symbols in individual matriculation subjects into account when predicting university performance. After the internal consistency of the matriculation symbol point totals (MSTs) of three different intakes of first-year students was improved by means of the Elliott-Strenta procedure, this explained a greater percentage (increases of between 0.91% and 3.33%) of the variance of the mean first-year university percentage mark (MPM). For a group of students with the same five matriculation subjects, the incremental gain in criterion variance explained varied between 7.46% and 9.84% when the regression coefficients obtained in a multiple regression were used. Moreover, if the coefficients obtained in this manner were used to weight the matriculation symbol points of subsequent years, the MST-MPM correlations rose similarly. For black students, increases of between 0.94% and 8.48% in explained criterion variance were obtained when the number of standard and lower grade subjects and the number of subjects taken from subject groups D, E and F were also included in a multiple regression equation. The implications of these findings for admissions research, following the introduction of the proposed Further Education and Training Certificate, are pointed out. (South African Journal of Education: 2003 23 (1): 45-51

The characterization of a novel C-type lectin-like receptor, CLEC9A

Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-161)

A critical analysis of men's constructions of paying for sex: doing gender, doing race in the interview context

Men from all walks of life pay for sex in various contexts every day, yet we know very little about the ways in which men make meaning of their paid sexual encounters, particularly in South Africa, where sex work is both illegal and highly stigmatised. South Africa's apartheid and colonial past, as well as contemporary concerns about HIV/AIDS, further complicates and impacts on the social meanings of sex work. This study explores the ways in which men make meaning of paying for sex, and how they negotiate their client identities in relation to their various intersecting social identities, such as their gender, sexuality, race, and class. Indepth interviews were conducted with 43 men who identified as clients of sex workers, through face-to-face, Skype video call or instant messenger interviews. This study is designed to contribute methodologically to knowledge on cross-gender interviews. It employs a critical and intersectional form of reflexivity to the analysis of its particular interview-participant dynamic, where a woman researcher interviewed men about their sexualities. I argue that men's motivations for participating in these interviews - such as gaining a sense of libidinal excitement or thrill, the desire to confess their engagement in a sexual taboo, the assumption that the interview encounter was transactional, to engage in a power struggle, and the desire to have their emotional needs met - also provided insights into both what motivates men to pay for sex and how they relate to sex workers. The study highlights the importance of employing an intersectional approach to understanding men's constructions of paying for sex. It argues that, in order to manage the stigma that is associated with paying for sex, men drew on dominant racist discourses, tropes stemming from the colonial era, about the black body as dirty and diseased and the white body as respectable and clean, to negotiate desirable client identities. Moreover, it argues that men valued the client-sex worker encounter as a "safe space" where sex workers, whom they constructed as their experienced teachers, would teach them the sexual skills that they (felt they) needed to better approximate idealised versions of masculinity outside of the paid encounter. However, for some men, paid sex was not only a place where dominant discourses of gender and sexuality were reproduced; it was also a safe space where they could secretly explore and experiment with their sexuality, highlighting how paid sexual encounters might offer opportunities for resisting and queering the strict boundaries of normative heterosexuality. Finally, based on the overall findings of this study, I put forward suggestions for legislative approaches to sex work that respond specifically to the South African context and address the stigma attached to sex work

Towards harm reduction programmes with sex worker clients in South Africa

This report explores possible harm reduction approaches to a sex worker client intervention in the South African context. It considers the current evidence base on client interventions globally and sets out key recommendations for an effective client intervention programme. Drawing on this framework and recommendations, the report concludes with an example of a curriculum which could be used as a possible approach to a client intervention plus an educational booklet targeted at sex worker client

“There’s Massive Pressure to Please Her”: On the Discursive Production of Men’s Desire to Pay for Sex

This article presents a discursive analysis of 43 men’s narratives about paying for sex, collected using a combination of online and traditional face-to-face interview methods. It argues that the societal pressures placed on men to “perform” sexually help to produce conditions that make paying for sex desirable. Paying for sex provided men with a “safe” space where they felt exempt from expectations to display sexual experience, skill, and stamina. Moreover, men valued paid sexual encounters with experienced sex workers as spaces where they could acquire sexual experience and skills to better approximate idealised versions of heteronormative male sexuality. The article explores the emotional aspects tied up in men’s desires to pay for sex and attends to the question of power within the paid sexual encounter, shedding light on the complexities, nuances and multiplicities within client-sex worker relationships. In conclusion, this paper discusses the value of addressing the broader social structures, sites such as media, online spaces, and medical industries, where heteronormative discourses on male sexual “performance” continue to be reproduced and maintained

Environmentally friendly corrosion resistant coatings as alternatives for cadmium and chromium in the aerospace industry

European REACh regulations are aimed at the complete removal of the toxic and carcinogenic cadmium and hexavalent chromium coatings currently being employed for corrosion protection of ultra-high strength steel and other aviation components. A powdered aluminium alloy containing 12 mass % manganese, applied with atmospheric plasma spraying, were tested as a possible alternative to cadmium electroplating. Complemented with the development of a permanganate-vanadate based conversion coating as an alternative to the Cr(VI) based treatment. The plasma sprayed AlMn12 alloy had very good electrochemical properties and medium term corrosion resistance, but did not pass the bend adhesion test. The Mn-V conversion coating showed much promise, as it performed similar/better than a commercial Cr(III)-Zr coating in short and medium term corrosion tests. Further additional tests and process refinement are still required, but the Mn-V coating clearly has significant potential as a possible future alternative to chromate conversion coating.Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2017.National Research Foundation (NRF)German Ministry of Economics and EnergyMaterials Science and Metallurgical EngineeringMEng (Metallurgy)Unrestricte

Discussing the fundamental principles inherent to effective systems of caregiving leave

Achieving a healthy work-family life balance is becoming increasingly difficult and is generally dependent on a combination of factors. Such factors include the nature and intensity of work engaged in, available legislative or employer provided leave and time-off for caregiving (family) responsibilities, and organisational and home support towards carrying out caregiving duties. A largely female focussed approach towards available caregiving leave must also be addressed. A truly effective system of caregiving leave should be sensitive towards a number of issues, most notably: job security and availability, and sufficiency and practicality of available caregiving leave. With the aforesaid as background, the aim of this contribution is to highlight those fundamental or core principles arguably inherent to any effective system of caregiving leave

Slums of Hope::Sanitising silences within township tour reviews

In a context of rapidly increasing urbanisation and deepening global inequalities, slum tourism has thrived. This paper presents a discursive analysis of tourists’ online reviews of two township tours in Cape Town, South Africa. We investigate how, and to what ends, tourists collectively construct townships as places of hope on TripAdvisor; we question how these reviews feed into broader narratives of urban poverty in the global south. We show how tourists draw on both neoliberal and colonial discourses to construct townships as places of hope–vibrant cultural spaces, rich in non-material assets, inhabited by happy, hard-working residents. We show that by producing slums as productive cultural spaces, tourists are able to resist the stigma associated with slum tourism and position themselves as ethical, enlightened and morally superior tourists. We argue that neoliberal and colonial discourses operate together to produce sanitised representations of townships that both obscure inequalities between poor residents and wealthy tourists from the global north and depoliticise issues like poor infrastructure in townships. In discussing the broader implications of the study, we highlight the importance of producing nuanced representations of townships that acknowledge residents’ assets and excellence, while also foregrounding how they live within the oppressive constraints inherent in enduring systems of inequality