Die Praktiese SY Van Die Prediking

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End-to-End QoS Support for a Medical Grid Service Infrastructure

Quality of Service support is an important prerequisite for the adoption of Grid technologies for medical applications. The GEMSS Grid infrastructure addressed this issue by offering end-to-end QoS in the form of explicit timeliness guarantees for compute-intensive medical simulation services. Within GEMSS, parallel applications installed on clusters or other HPC hardware may be exposed as QoS-aware Grid services for which clients may dynamically negotiate QoS constraints with respect to response time and price using Service Level Agreements. The GEMSS infrastructure and middleware is based on standard Web services technology and relies on a reservation based approach to QoS coupled with application specific performance models. In this paper we present an overview of the GEMSS infrastructure, describe the available QoS and security mechanisms, and demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods with a Grid-enabled medical imaging service

Including a learner with physical disabilities: stressful for teachers?

Learners with physical disabilities have been entering mainstream schools for some years now. Whereas early research on inclusive education necessitated a strong focus on the needs of the learners, there has also been a recent interest in the role of the teachers in inclusive education. By adopting constructivism as the paradigm for inquiry a study was undertaken to establish the stress factors for teachers who have to include a learner with a physical disability in their mainstream classes. The rationale for the study is threefold: i) Learners with physical disabilities are entering mainstream schools increasingly, ii) it is often assumed that inclusive education is too stressful for teachers to cope with, and iii) related research has shown that increased contact with individuals with disabilities has a positive effect on attitudes towards individuals with disabilities. In accordance with the dialectical methodology of constructivism, the Teacher Stress and Coping Questionnaire and in-depth interviews were utilised to establish the stress factors and the extent of the stress factors that may be present. The aim of the constructivist inquiry process is to promote understanding and reconstruction. In this article the quantitative results indicate overall low or non-existent levels of stress in teachers who have to include a learner with a physical disability, and the results therefore contribute to our understanding of this situation. The qualitative results reconstruct the meanings that these teachers attach to the inclusion of a learner with a physical disability and reveal some albeit limited concerns about the communication processes between parents and teachers and a perceived lack of pre-service training

Stress and coping skills of teachers with a learner with Down's syndrome in inclusive classrooms

Against the background of the recent move towards inclusion in South Africa, ten mainstream primary school teachers with a learner with Down's syndrome in their classrooms took part in a research programme which aims to identify stressors for teachers in an inclusive educational approach and coping skills employed to ameliorate the negative effect of these stressors. Teachers' knowledge, attitudes, stressors and coping skills were qualitatively analysed with the help of semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire. Preliminary findings indicate that stressors experienced and coping skills vary. The variation appears to be related not only to their perceived professional and personal ability to handle the needs of the learners but also to external factors such as collaboration with support groups and parents. (South African Journal of Education: 2001 21(4): 256-259

Animal-assisted pedagogy:human-animal bond, developmental benefits and practical considerations

Abstract. In recent years, animal-assisted pedagogy (AAP) has gained more attention both in the media and in the educational field. Some schools and libraries have seemed to include animals as a common support in the learning process. This has sparked interest also in educational research, and thus the effects of animals as a part of education have been studied more closely. For this reason, we aim to provide insight to AAP with a literature review that explores this topic from the points of view of human-animal bond, the developmental benefits, and the practical considerations related to it. In addition, we aspire to challenge our own views of AAP and discuss how it might be brought into practice. Based on our research, the human-animal bond is a mutually beneficial relationship that takes place between a human and an animal. Its significance in society and the multitude of benefits it offers, provide a good foundation from which to view AAP. Implementing AAP positively affects the social and emotional competences and motivation of students by the support of the comfort of the animal’s presence, which enables positive experiences and interactions. The animals help to create a safe space that allows the students to feel more confident and secure, and as a result the motivation of learning increases. However, it appears that applying AAP to practice is quite challenging due to the amount of limitations and consideration of bringing an animal into a working environment. For example, allergies, fears and lack of resources may dictate whether it is possible for an educator to practice AAP

Metabolic changes in the lungs after ischaemia

CITATION: Engelbrecht, F. M., Edwards, I. J. & De Beer, D. P. 1980. Metabolic changes in the lungs after ischaemia. South African Medical Journal, 58:409-413.The original publication is available at http://www.samj.org.zaThe effects of variable periods of ischaemia on the isolated lungs of rats and rabbits, stored for up to 6 hours at 4°C, 21°C and 37°C under standardized conditions, were investigated in vitro in terms of oxygen consumption, the rate of 1-14C-leucine incorporation into soluble proteins, and 1-14C-palmitate incorporation into total phospholipids and lipid fractions. The endogenous oxygen uptake of rat lung slices in an air phase, from tissues stored at 4°C and 21°C under ischaemic conditions for 6 hours and at 37°C for 4 hours, was significantly different from the control values. The oxygen uptake of lungs from animals anaesthetized with pentobarbitone prior to exsanguination and stored for only 2 hours at 37°C differed significantly from control values. Judged by the rate of incorporation of radiolabelled leucine into soluble proteins and that of palmitate into total lipids and phospholipids of lungs after storage for increasing periods at 4°C and 37°C, significant differences were already found after 1 1/2 hours. From this observation it would appear that these parameters are very sensitive indicators for assessing irreversible lung damage due to ischaemia.Publisher’s versio

Numerical Evidence of Luttinger and Fermi Liquid Behaviour in the 2D Hubbard Model

The two dimensional Hubbard model with a single spin-up electron interacting with a finite density of spin-down electrons is studied using the quantum Monte Carlotechnique, a new conjugate gradient method for the evaluation of the Edwards wavefunction ansatz, and the standard second order perturbation theory. We performed simulations up to 242 sites at $U/t=4$ reaching the zero temperature properties with no ``fermion sign problem'' and found a surprisingly good accuracy of the Edwards wavefunction ansatz at low density or low doping. The conjugate gradient method was then applied to system up to 1922 sites and infinite $U$ for the Edwards state. Fermi liquid theory seems to remain stable in 2D for all cases studied with the exception of the half filling case where a ``Luttinger like behavior'' survives in the Hubbard model , yielding a vanishing quasiparticle weight in the thermodynamic limit.Comment: 10 pages + 4 pictures, RevTex, SISSA 121/93/CM/M

Tracking the dynamics of power sources and sinks during the martensitic transformation of a Cu-Al-Ni single crystal

We have tracked the dynamics of the martensitic transformation in a Cu-Al-Ni single crystal by means of acoustic emission and infrared imaging techniques. A Fourier equation-based post-processing of temperature maps has enabled us to reveal the inhomogeneous and discontinuous character of heat power sources and sinks during the transiton. A good correlation between the dynamics of thermal and mechanical energy release has been evidenced. It has also been shown that the merging of martensitic interfaces results in an enhanced heat absorptio

Deaf, Dumb, and Chatting Robots, Enabling Distributed Computation and Fault-Tolerance Among Stigmergic Robot

We investigate ways for the exchange of information (explicit communication) among deaf and dumb mobile robots scattered in the plane. We introduce the use of movement-signals (analogously to flight signals and bees waggle) as a mean to transfer messages, enabling the use of distributed algorithms among the robots. We propose one-to-one deterministic movement protocols that implement explicit communication. We first present protocols for synchronous robots. We begin with a very simple coding protocol for two robots. Based on on this protocol, we provide one-to-one communication for any system of n \geq 2 robots equipped with observable IDs that agree on a common direction (sense of direction). We then propose two solutions enabling one-to-one communication among anonymous robots. Since the robots are devoid of observable IDs, both protocols build recognition mechanisms using the (weak) capabilities offered to the robots. The first protocol assumes that the robots agree on a common direction and a common handedness (chirality), while the second protocol assumes chirality only. Next, we show how the movements of robots can provide implicit acknowledgments in asynchronous systems. We use this result to design asynchronous one-to-one communication with two robots only. Finally, we combine this solution with the schemes developed in synchronous settings to fit the general case of asynchronous one-to-one communication among any number of robots. Our protocols enable the use of distributing algorithms based on message exchanges among swarms of Stigmergic robots. Furthermore, they provides robots equipped with means of communication to overcome faults of their communication device

The Diversity of Poisonous Plant Patches in the Arid Rangelands of Namaqualand, South Africa

The Namaqualand region in South Africa is part of the richest arid biodiversity hotspot in the world. Plant distribution and diversity here are impacted by various biophysical and anthropogenic factors. In these landscapes, poisonous plant patches, which pose serious threats to livestock, are widespread but their contribution to the regions biodiversity are not fully understood. This study assessed their plant diversity and compared its matrix. This study was conducted in the semi-arid to arid Steinkopf pastoral area located in Namaqualand where livestock is still herded daily. Twenty-five paired sites were selected based on the dominance of poisonous plants within the genera Tylecodon, Euphorbia and Adromischus. Within these sites, the number and abundance of different plant species were recorded and categorised into different plant functional types. Results showed a significant difference in Shannon Wiener plant diversity where poisonous plant patches displayed a greater diversity compared to sites sampled in the matrix. We interpret these findings as a consequence of herding in the region, where herders do not allow their animals to graze on or near poisonous plant patches. As such, palatable plants, which are absent or low in abundance in the surrounding landscape have a refuge where they can survive and set seed. This study provides evidence that the ethnobotanical knowledge of herders and palette of livestock are also major contributors to the spatial distribution and diversity of plant species in the arid biodiversity hotspot