The extent of non-compliant plumbing components used in South Africa

High quality plumbing components are essential to ensure the efficient and safe supply of water, and minimise water losses in buildings. South African legislation requires that all plumbing components installed comply with certain standards set by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS). Water Services Authorities are responsible for enforcing this legislation, and are allowed to set their own additional requirements for plumbing components. This study investigated the extent of non-compliant plumbing components used in South Africa through a number of methods, and concludes that compliance is roughly 50%. This points to a large problem and has dire consequences for the future of effective water use and water leakage in South Africa. A worrying finding is that the level of non-compliance seems to be particularly large in low-cost housing developments. The main reasons for the low levels of compliance are a lack of enforcement at local government level and the fact that legislation does not prohibit the import and sale of non-compliant components. The paper makes a number of recommendations for improving the situatio

Towards Redesigning the Agricultural extension service in South Africa: Views and proposals of smallholder farmers in the Estern Cape

The public extension service in the Eastern Cape Province is in vital need of revitalization if it is to transform the unproductive smallholder-agriculture sector into a more commercially-orientated sector. The research used a Logical Framework Analysis (LFA) enquiry to determine the problems smallholder farmers face as well as the causes and effects of their problems. The research participants stated that the main problem was ineffective farmer development. This was caused by, among others, poor farming systems and, lack of training, finances and support. This led to, among others, dependency, crime, unemployment and poverty. The participants said that they would like to become commercially productive. This would require, among others, access to training, finances and support, and improved farming systems. This would lead to reductions in crime, unemployment and poverty as well as them becoming independent and productive farmers. The smallholder farmers would not be able to solve these problems on their own, even with the help of an extensionist. These problems require input from multiple role players of the agricultural environment, as they need to be addressed from within a systems context. A platform would need to be created where all of the role players can interact in finding solutions.S.Afr. Tydskr. Landbouvoorl./S. Afr. J. Agric. Ext., Vol. 39 Nr 2, 2011: 47 – 5

Towards designing a new agricultural extension service for the Eastern Cape Province: A perception analysis

South Africa is in the process of rectifying the social injustices of the past and building a new future towards “equitable access and participation” in the agricultural sector (DoA, 2001) through the transference of farmland to emergingblack farmers and communities. This new class of farmers needs an effective extension service to help them become commercial farmers. However, agricultural extension is generally viewed to be ineffective. Thus, there is also a need for a revised extension model for, in this case, the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Eight factors were identified and were included in this study. The eight factors, viz.· Personal characteristics of extension workers;· Community cooperation and networks;· Training of extension workers;· Leadership and mentoring ability;· Financial support;· Institutional support (technical and skills);· Communication; and· Staffing.This paper is aimed at discussing the identified factors, related to organizational and human capital development, that are essential for effective extension and will propose the basis and design framework of an extension model discussed in a later paper. Researchers who are currently undergoing an academic programme/training at the University of the Free State and extension officers were interviewed via questionnaires in order to determine their perceived importance of the identified factors.The results revealed their perceptions regarding those eight identified factors and also their misconceptions relating to these factors, such as communication being the seventh most important factor. By developing these eight factors that require either human capital development or organizational development, the extension organization and its officers will begin in rectifying the identified problem. This study will ultimately lead to the subsequent development of an extension model for theEastern Cape

Exploratory assessment of left ventricular strain-volume loops in severe aortic valve diseases.

Objectives The purpose of this study was to examine left ventricular (LV) strain (ԑ)-volume loops to provide novel insight into the haemodynamic cardiac consequences of aortic valve stenosis (AS) and aortic valve regurgitation (AR). Methods 27 participants were retrospectively recruited: AR (n = 7), AS (n = 10) and controls (n = 10). Standard transthoracic echocardiography was utilised to obtain apical 4 chamber images to construct ԑ-volume relationships were assessed by: Early systolic ԑ (ԑ_ES), slope of ԑ-volume relation during systole (Sslope), End-systolic peak ԑ (peak ԑ), Diastolic uncoupling (systolic ԑ-diastolic ԑ at same volume) during early diastole (UNCOUP_ED) and late diastole (UNCOUP_LD). ROC-curves were used to determine the ability to detect impaired LV function. Results Whilst LV ejection fraction was comparable between groups, longitudinal peak ԑ was similarly reduced compared to controls. In contrast, ԑ_ES and Sslope were lower in both pathologies compared to controls (P  0.05) to distinguish AS vs Controls, AR vs Controls and AS vs AR, respectively. Conclusions Temporal changes in ԑ-volume characteristics provide novel insight into the haemodynamic cardiac impact of AS and AR. Contrary to traditional measures (i.e. ejection fraction, peak ԑ), these novel measures successfully distinguish between the haemodynamic cardiac impact of AS and AR. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Social learning in otters

The use of information provided by others to tackle life's challenges is widespread, but should not be employed indiscriminately if it is to be adaptive. Evidence is accumulating that animals are indeed selective and adopt ‘social learning strategies’. However, studies have generally focused on fish, bird and primate species. Here we extend research on social learning strategies to a taxonomic group that has been neglected until now: otters (subfamily Lutrinae). We collected social association data on captive groups of two gregarious species: smooth-coated otters (Lutrogale perspicillata), known to hunt fish cooperatively in the wild, and Asian short-clawed otters (Aonyx cinereus), which feed individually on prey requiring extractive foraging behaviours. We then presented otter groups with a series of novel foraging tasks, and inferred social transmission of task solutions with network-based diffusion analysis. We show that smooth-coated otters can socially learn how to exploit novel food sources and may adopt a ‘copy when young’ strategy. We found no evidence for social learning in the Asian short-clawed otters. Otters are thus a promising model system for comparative research into social learning strategies, while conservation reintroduction programmes may benefit from facilitating the social transmission of survival skills in these vulnerable specie

Impact of prolonged walking exercise on cardiac structure and function in cardiac patients versus healthy controls.

BACKGROUND AND DESIGN: Previous studies have demonstrated that endurance exercise can cause an acute transient decrease in cardiac function in healthy subjects. Whether this also occurs in cardiac patients is unknown. We investigated the impact of prolonged single day and three-day walking exercise on cardiac function and cardiac biomarkers between cardiac patients and healthy controls in an observational study. METHODS: We recruited 10 cardiac patients (nine males, one female, 68 ± 5 years) and 10 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects (nine males, one female, 68 ± 4 years) to perform 30 or 40 km of walking exercise per day for three consecutive days. Cardiac function was examined using echocardiography and cardiac biomarkers (cardiac troponin and B-type natriuretic peptide) with blood samples. Data were collected before walking and directly after walking on day 1 and day 3. RESULTS: Post-exercise early systolic tissue contraction velocity of the left ventricle (p = 0.005) and global longitudinal left ventricle strain (P = 0.026) were increased in both groups compared with baseline. Post-exercise right ventricle peak early diastolic tissue filling velocity and systolic blood pressure/left ventricle end-systolic volume ratio decreased in both groups (p = 0.043 and p = 0.028, respectively). Post-exercise cardiac troponin levels increased (p = 0.045) but did not differ across groups (p = 0.60), whereas B-type natriuretic peptide levels did not change (p = 0.43). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that stable cardiac patients are capable of performing three days of prolonged walking exercise without clinically significant acute overall deterioration in cardiac function or more pronounced increase in cardiac biomarkers compared with healthy controls