The compliance of South African public companies with IFRS 13 in relation to biological assets

M.Com. (International Accounting)Abstract: This study assesses the compliance of South African JSE-listed companies holding biological assets with the disclosure requirements of IFRS 13, Fair Value Measurement. The financial statements of nineteen selected JSE-listed companies with material holdings of biological assets were analysed. These financial statements were for the first reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2015, because IFRS 13 was applicable to reporting periods from 1 January 2013 and the amendments to IAS 41 relating to bearer biological assets are applicable to reporting periods from 1 January 2016. This research therefore examines the period between when IFRS 13 first became applicable and before the IAS 41 amendments became applicable. The accounting policy notes to the financial statements of each company were analysed to determine whether they indicated that a particular company had applied IFRS 13 to the valuation of its biological assets, and the biological assets note was analysed to determine whether the valuation technique used by each company for the valuation of its biological assets complied with IFRS 13..

The spirit world awareness in the New Testament - A missiological challenge

The idea of power concepts and power encounters is not strange to biblical revelation as it is often assumed. This impact of the invisible world onto the material world does not seem to have imposed a problem to the early readers of the New Testament. The spirit world of the New Testament, which is amazingly akin to the African situation (or Third World), needs our theological appreciation for the modern day Church to be in a position to effectively carry its missiological function in the world, especially in Africa

Assessing modified chitosan wound dressings to enhance wound healing in the porcine model

Dressings enhancing wound healing can improve the outcome of wounds where tissue replacement is required, like for burns and ulcers. Treatment of these wounds is complex due to their depth and excessive tissue loss. Replacement of the lost tissue and delivery of growth factors could enhance healing and reduce scarring. The natural biomaterial; chitosan is reported to bind growth factors, with reduced wound healing times when used in dressings. This study aimed to modify chitosan into a wound dressing filler that would optimise growth factor delivery to full-thickness wounds and overall reduce healing times with minimum scarring. Lipophilic modified chitosan was chemically synthesised by addition of different percentages (10%, 20%, and 34%) of lauric acid residues into three lauroyl chitosan (LCs) derivatives (LCs10, LCs20, LCs34). Lauric acid was the fatty acid of choice due to its superior antimicrobial properties among the saturated fatty acids.1 The loading densities selected were based on commonly used concentration ranges as found in literature. The three derivatives were then characterised using Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Thereafter, swelling tests and water drop shape analysis followed to assess the physical characteristics of the derivatives. Cytotoxicity/proliferation assays using primary fibroblasts and sulphorhodamine-B for cell enumeration were performed followed by a preliminary skin sensitivity test. The acid phophatase assay was used to measure platelet adhesion while the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) measured the release profile of platelet derived growth factor AB (PDGF-AB) over 24 hr. These assays assisted with determining which derivative had the optimum lauric acid loading density for wound healing. After determining the derivative with the optimum loading density, porcine collagen was extracted from skin and added to the selected LCs derivative at the ratio 1:4 to make a wound filler paste that would increase cellular ingrowth. Wound healing studies using LCs10 enriched with collagen fibres (Co/LCs10) alone and with platelet-rich plasma (Co/LCs10/PRP) as dressing material were performed using the porcine full skin thickness wound healing protocol. Finally, histological analysis of the cellular events taking place in the wounds at different stages of healing were done using the Haematoxylin and Eosin and the Masson’s Trichrome stains. Evidently, the FT-IR and NMR, displayed successful modification of chitosan with the lauric acid side chains with a visible aliphatic group in both spectra. Comparison of the LCs derivatives to the underivatized chitosan using the drop shape analysis, showed increased contact angles with increased hydrophobicity. It appeared that as the molar concentration of lauric acid increased, the contact angle also increased. In the swelling tests, LCs34 had the highest swelling capacity. Results from the in vitro assays showed that hydrophobic modification of chitosan reduced the adhesion capacity of platelets to chitosan as the lauric acid density on the underivatized chitosan increased. Cytotoxicity assays indicated that neither LCs nor chitosan were toxic to primary fibroblast cells, with the LCs34 significantly (43%) promoting fibroblast proliferation compared to the control. A preliminary skin sensitivity test comparing LCs34 to chitosan showed that LCs34 was compatible with human skin. From the ELISA study the LCs10 sample exhibited a sustained release of growth factors over 24 hr compared to both chitosan and collagen. Consequently, the LCs10 derivative was then selected for further analysis and for final analysis in the wound study. Sixteen full-thickness skin wounds were thereafter made along the dorsum of each of four pigs with two treatments and a control (Jelonet®) randomly applied as dressing material: Co/LCs10, Co/LCs10/PRP and the Jelonet® treatment. The differences in wound healing were observed with biopsies taken at 3-day intervals over 21 days. By the 12th day, all wounds had completely healed with little scarring. The Co/LCs10/PRP dressing significantly induced haemostasis, wound contraction and accelerated wound closure and healing from the wound bed. Results from histological examinations demonstrated advanced granulation tissue formation, collagen deposition and epithelialisation in the wounds treated with Co/LCs10/PRP. This study therefore revealed that hydrophobically modified chitosan at 10% loading density provided a wound dressing material that allowed sustained growth factor release. The Co/LCs10/PRP dressing also demonstrated that it was an improved wound dressing due to acceleration of wound healing, promotion of fibroblast proliferation with increased collagen deposition and minimal scarring. These materials may significantly reduce healing times of full-thickness wounds and should be studied further in in vivo models.Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020.National Research Foundation of South AfricaPharmacologyPhD (Pharmacology)Unrestricte

Spirits in the first-century Jewish world, Luke-Acts and in the African context: an analysis

In many African traditional societies, the felt needs of people are usually met by the services of the shaman or other traditional medicine specialists. These needs vary and they could include the need for protection against witchcraft and evil spirits. Another need in Africa is for physical and psychical health. These needs are felt by many Africans inside and outside ecclesiastical structures. Despite centuries of western influence and teaching by missionaries, these felt needs have not gone away. The sensitivity to the spirit world and its impact on the human and material word still remains a firm belief in the African socio-spiritual reality. In its missiological responsibilities in the past and now, the church in Africa continues to display a theological deficiency in addressing this vacuum in African spirituality. Consequently, many African Christians are trapped in the dual, two-tier or split-level Christianity. This shows itself in times of existential crises in which many committed and respectable African Christians revert to traditional religious practices as a means of meeting their spiritual needs, due to the church’s inability to do so. This observed lack of traditional Christian theology and its irrelevancy to African life, has left many African Christians in a dilemma. It is this lacuna in Christian theology and practice that the researcher seeks to address in this study. By analysing documents on spirits in the first-century Jewish world and the two-volume work of Luke-Acts, the researcher endeavours to show the relevance and possible appropriation of the New Testament message to African spiritual realities. This is based on the understanding that the world of the first-century Jews and other communities in the Mediterranean region at the time, has more in common with Africans than the extremely naturalistic, rationalistic and abstract-oriented worldview of the early western missionaries who initially brought the gospel to Africa. Central to the researcher’s thesis, is the argument that, if early Christians, as exemplified by the Lucan audience, could respond to the fears, problems and realities of the spirit world by using God-ordained, spiritual and biblically acceptable means and not magical ways, African Christians, too, who find themselves in similar situations, can do the same. The contention in this study is that the rediscovery of the aspect of the spirit world of the New Testament message will go a long way towards resolving the problem of split-level Christianity in Africa. This task remains a theological imperative for New Testament scholarship in order for the church to present a holistic message to the masses of Africa and to demonstrate how the immanence of the Christian God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, relates to the daily needs of spirit-sensitive Africans – a message that Luke tried so hard to convey to his readers in the first century.Thesis (PhD (New Testament Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2006.New Testament Studiesunrestricte

The role and impact of sound labour relations management on the success of football business in South Africa

M.B.A.Many talented football players had their football career rather cut short or marred by long term of inactiveness, in this country due to their unbecoming behaviour or because of a fall out with the coach. These incidences have been widely reported. Not only do the players lose out under these circumstances but the whole football community as in the club itself, the spectators, the sponsors, the football union, journalists, persons very close to the errant player and the country at large, are compromised as inappropriate ways of managing the situation are exercised. Punitive measures are generally preferred over corrective ones. This undesired state of affairs persisting, as it looks more likely that it will, it will continue to haunt the football industry indefinitely unless appropriate intervention happens. The tonic could be the belated assistance of an astute and empowered labour relations manager in the strategic employee relations of the PSL clubs in general. The absence of guiding regulations and policy framework within which labour relations operations are carried out, gives way to allsorts of inhibitive practices resulting from sentiment-derived decisions. Think about it, where policies lack sentiments rule. Too many roles are generally unfairly entrusted to football coaches. Many football coaching literature and manuals either generate or affirm this notion. Coaches voluntarily take functions that are beyond their capacity. Not all coaches have the skills to motivate players. Those who have such a plus are few. Unfortunately this category of coaches may be thin in other critical aspects of coaching and in employee assistance as well as employee wellness side of things. Irrespective of the relatively high budget needed to accommodate the package of the LRM, the rewards are greater. Going for it is damn worth it, folks