The impact of the South African old age pension on the educational attainment of children

Includes bibliographical references.The South African old age pension is the largest cash transfer in the country and its reach extends far beyond the intended beneficiaries, having a significant impact on other household members. Given the prevalence of three and skip generational households in the country the effect that the pension has on children co-residing with pensioners is significant. While the improvement in health status of children is well documented, the impact on educational attainment is less so. Using 2008 NIDS data this study exploits the age eligibility criteria of the pension to determine what effect the pension has on the educational attainment of co-resident children. The results indicate a strong gender dimension in the impact of the pension, with reference to both the recipient as well as the child

Examining land reform in South Africa: evidence from survey data

Land and land reform have long been contentious and highly charged topics in South Africa, with land performing the dual functions of redress for the past and development for the future. This research explores both these aspects of land, with the focus being on the impact of land receipt on household welfare and food insecurity, and social preferences for fairness and redistribution more generally. One of the main aims is to contribute to the land reform debate by providing previously-lacking quantitative evidence on the aggregate welfare outcomes of land redistribution, as well as the extent of social preferences for redistribution in the land restitution framework. In exploring these issues, the welfare outcomes of land are first explored using the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) data and unconditional quantile regression analysis. The focus is then narrowed to the food insecurity impact of land receipt, beginning with a methodological chapter outlining the development of a new food insecurity index applying the Alkire-Foster method of multidimensional poverty measurement (2009; 2011). This is followed by the presentation and discussion of food insecurity profiles of land beneficiary and non-beneficiary households. The new index is also used as an outcome measure in exploring the determinants of household food insecurity. These two sections again use the NIDS data. The final section shifts the emphasis from the economic welfare benefits of land redistribution to notions of fairness and social justice encapsulated by land restitution. A behavioural laboratory experiment is used to investigate social preferences for fairness, and the factors that influence redistributive inclinations, by exploring the relative weights placed on fairness considerations and self-interest, as well as the fairness ideal. The findings indicate that beneficiaries do not use the land received for productive purposes, a possible explanation for the limited economic welfare impacts of land reform that are observed. Despite this limited developmental impact, the laboratory experiment makes it clear that land reform plays an important role in addressing other needs and wants in society, particularly in respect of preferences for fairness and addressing historical injustices

How does motion impact visual attention and learning?

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of motion on visual attention when engaged in an educational multimedia presentation. Participants will be presented with a sequence of images illustrating lightning formation. Some participants will be shown static images, while others will be given images that contain motion, such as arrows moving across the computer screen. In addition to motion, descriptions of lightning formation will be presented in text or auditory format. When auditory stimuli are implemented, they will mimic the text presented on the images. Following the presentation, participants will be assessed on their knowledge of lightning formation gained from the presentation, as well as their prior knowledge of meteorology. While participants view the presentation, we will track their eye movements and analyze characteristics of viewing behavior such as: fixation sequences, duration, and locations within and between regions of interest. Using the information we gain from this study, we are interested in exploring how information presented in educational multimedia presentations impacts learner’s viewing behaviors and subsequent knowledge. It is hypothesized that the addition of motion will be beneficial to learning when presented with auditory information, but will hinder learning when images include text. Eye movement data will demonstrate that participants trying to read text and follow motion cues will exhibit shorter fixation times and more transitions between regions of interest. Conclusions drawn from this study will aim to improve instructional methods for complex topics

p53 directly regulates the glycosidase FUCA1 to promote chemotherapy-induced cell death

p53 is a central factor in tumor suppression as exemplified by its frequent loss in human cancer. p53 exerts its tumor suppressive effects in multiple ways, but the ability to invoke the eradication of damaged cells by programmed cell death is considered a key factor. The ways in which p53 promotes cell death can involve direct activation or engagement of the cell death machinery, or can be via indirect mechanisms, for example though regulation of ER stress and autophagy. We present here another level of control in p53-mediated tumor suppression by showing that p53 activates the glycosidase, FUCA1, a modulator of N-linked glycosylation. We show that p53 transcriptionally activates FUCA1 and that p53 modulates fucosidase activity via FUCA1 up-regulation. Importantly, we also report that chemotherapeutic drugs induce FUCA1 and fucosidase activity in a p53-dependent manner. In this context, while we found that over-expression of FUCA1 does not induce cell death, RNAi-mediated knockdown of endogenous FUCA1 significantly attenuates p53-dependent, chemotherapy-induced apoptotic death. In summary, these findings add an additional component to p53s tumor suppressive response and highlight another mechanism by which the tumor suppressor controls programmed cell death that could potentially be exploited for cancer therapy

A multidimensional positive definite remapping for Lagrangian solutions of the Noh problem

A remapping based on the multidimensional positive definite advection transport algorithm (MPDATA), implemented for ALE methods, is used to model the Noh problem. Typical solutions in the Lagrangian reference frame contain heating errors which arise during the simulation of a shock reflection originating at a wall. The paper shows that the inherent properties of MPDATA can be exploited in the remapping to reduce wall heating errors. The resulting increase in accuracy and symmetry of solutions is demonstrated

Potential uses of AI for perioperative nursing handoffs: A qualitative study

OBJECTIVE: Situational awareness and anticipatory guidance for nurses receiving a patient after surgery are keys to patient safety. Little work has defined the role of artificial intelligence (AI) to support these functions during nursing handoff communication or patient assessment. We used interviews to better understand how AI could work in this context. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eleven nurses participated in semistructured interviews. Mixed inductive-deductive thematic analysis was used to extract major themes and subthemes around roles for AI supporting postoperative nursing. RESULTS: Five themes were generated from the interviews: (1) nurse understanding of patient condition guides care decisions, (2) handoffs are important to nurse situational awareness, but multiple barriers reduce their effectiveness, (3) AI may address barriers to handoff effectiveness, (4) AI may augment nurse care decision making and team communication outside of handoff, and (5) user experience in the electronic health record and information overload are likely barriers to using AI. Important subthemes included that AI-identified problems would be discussed at handoff and team communications, that AI-estimated elevated risks would trigger patient re-evaluation, and that AI-identified important data may be a valuable addition to nursing assessment. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Most research on postoperative handoff communication relies on structured checklists. Our results suggest that properly designed AI tools might facilitate postoperative handoff communication for nurses by identifying specific elevated risks faced by a patient, triggering discussion on those topics. Limitations include a single center, many participants lacking of applied experience with AI, and limited participation rate

A comprehensive examination of the evidence for whole of diet patterns in Parkinson\u27s disease: A scoping review

Both motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD), a progressive neurological condition, have broad-ranging impacts on nutritional intake and dietary behaviour. Historically studies focused on individual dietary components, but evidence demonstrating ameliorative outcomes with whole-of-diet patterns such as Mediterranean and Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) is emerging. These diets provide plenty of antioxidant rich fruits, vegetables, nuts, wholegrains and healthy fats. Paradoxically, the ketogenic diet, high fat and very low carbohydrate, is also proving to be beneficial. Within the PD community, it is well advertised that nutritional intake is associated with disease progression and symptom severity but understandably, the messaging is inconsistent. With projected prevalence estimated to rise to 1.6 million by 2037, more data regarding the impact of whole-of-diet patterns is needed to develop diet-behaviour change programmes and provide clear advice for PD management. Objectives and Methods: Objectives of this scoping review of both peer-reviewed academic and grey literatures are to determine the current evidence-based consensus for best dietary practice in PD and to ascertain whether the grey literature aligns. Results and Discussion: The consensus from the academic literature was that a MeDi/MIND whole of diet pattern (fresh fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, omega-3 fish and olive oil) is the best practice for improving PD outcomes. Support for the KD is emerging, but further research is needed to determine long-term effects. Encouragingly, the grey literature mostly aligned but nutrition advice was rarely forefront. The importance of nutrition needs greater emphasis in the grey literature, with positive messaging on dietary approaches for management of day-to-day symptoms

Using Photo-Elicitation to Explore Place Attachment in a Remote Setting

People are often attracted to unique natural environments, but what makes them continually return to these locations, especially when considerable time and effort are required to get there? This paper discusses the methods and findings of a research project aimed at identifying and exploring how visitors develop an attachment to the remote Ningaloo Marine Park in north-western Australia. This Marine Park attracts a high percentage of repeat visitors (55%) and in order to determine the complex aspects contributing to this attachment, photo-elicitation was employed. Photo-elicitation is a qualitative technique where participants are asked to take photographs relating to the concept under study, and these are then used as triggers for underlying memories and feelings during a subsequent interview. For this study, participants were provided with digital cameras to take photographs of why they like visiting the Ningaloo Reef and what it was that made them return. Given this remote location and the inability to get photographs developed in reasonable timeframes, digital cameras were used instead of the disposable cameras more commonly used in this type of study. After a few days, the cameras were returned, and photographs uploaded on the researcher’s laptop computer with interviews conducted while viewing the photographs. Over a period of four weeks, during the peak visitor period, 30 participants took over 200 photographs and provided over 15 hours of interview recordings. Key aspects contributing to place attachment included the beauty of the physical environment, reef and marine based activities, social bonding with family and friends and enjoying a challenging though rewarding experience. By using a technique familiar to people on holidays, i.e. taking photographs, a method was invoked that people could engage with easily without the research impinging on their holiday experienc

Exoplanet atmospheres with EChO: spectral retrievals using EChOSim

We demonstrate the effectiveness of the Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory mission concept for constraining the atmospheric properties of hot and warm gas giants and super Earths. Synthetic primary and secondary transit spectra for a range of planets are passed through EChOSim (Waldmann & Pascale 2014) to obtain the expected level of noise for different observational scenarios; these are then used as inputs for the NEMESIS atmospheric retrieval code and the retrieved atmospheric properties (temperature structure, composition and cloud properties) compared with the known input values, following the method of Barstow et al. (2013a). To correctly retrieve the temperature structure and composition of the atmosphere to within 2 {\sigma}, we find that we require: a single transit or eclipse of a hot Jupiter orbiting a sun-like (G2) star at 35 pc to constrain the terminator and dayside atmospheres; 20 transits or eclipses of a warm Jupiter orbiting a similar star; 10 transits/eclipses of a hot Neptune orbiting an M dwarf at 6 pc; and 30 transits or eclipses of a GJ1214b-like planet.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures, 1 table. Accepted by Experimental Astronomy. The final publication will shortly be available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10686-014-9397-