Central oxygen pipeline failure

Anaesthetic and critical care staff play a governing role in the comprehension of a hospital’s oxygen delivery system and associated contingency plans for internal disaster management. Therefore, staff must be thoroughly prepared and properly trained to support an institution-wide emergency response in the event of central oxygen pipeline failure.Keywords: oxygen, pipeline, failure, anaesthesia, hospita

Academic literacy and the development of inference skills at secondary school level

Learners are required to cope with increasingly complex texts at school, as they need to be able to cope effectively with the demands of progressively more advanced academic discourse types. This article reports on a small-scale case study that was conducted to establish the academic literacy levels of five Grade 10 learner cohorts. We stress the importance of the development of academic literacy at school level, and then discuss the results of an academic literacy test. The test results provided useful diagnostic information and pointed out that learners were severely lacking in their inferencemaking skills. We discuss inference types and suggest a number of practical strategies that can be followed to develop learners’ inference skills at secondary school level.Keywords: academic literacy, academic language, inference skills, diagnostic assessment, inference types, inferencemaking strategies

Host specificity and speciation of Mycosphaerella and Teratosphaeria species associated with leaf spots of Proteaceae

Species of Mycosphaerella and Teratosphaeria represent important foliicolous pathogens of Proteaceae. Presently approximately 40 members of these genera (incl. anamorphs) have been recorded from Proteaceae, though the majority are not known from culture, and have never been subjected to DNA sequence analysis. During the course of this study, epitypes were designated for several important species, namely Batcheloromyces leucadendri, B. proteae, Catenulostroma macowanii, Mycosphaerella marksii, Teratosphaeria bellula, T. jonkershoekensis, T. parva, and T. proteae-arboreae. Several species were also newly described, namely Batcheloromyces sedgefieldii, Catenulostroma wingfieldii, Dissoconium proteae, Teratosphaeria persoonii, T. knoxdavesii, and T. marasasii. Although accepted as being highly host specific, some species were shown to have wider host ranges, such as M. communis (Eucalyptus, Protea), M. konae (Leucospermum, Eucalyptus), M. marksii (Eucalyptus, Leucadendron), T. associata (Eucalyptus, Protea), and T. parva (Eucalyptus, Protea), which in most cases were found to co-occur with other species of Mycosphaerella or Teratosphaeria on Proteaceae. Furthermore, earlier records of T. jonkershoekensis on Proteaceae in Australia were shown to be representative of two recently described species, T. associata and T. maxii. A phenomenon of underdeveloped, or micro-ascospores was also newly observed in asci of T. maculiformis and T. proteae-arboreae. The exact purpose of asci with two distinct types of ascospores remains to be clarified, as both types were observed to germinate on agar

Introduction

This chapter provides an introduction to the volume on conflicts over natural resources in the Global South and situates the various contributions made. The authors note that such conflicts frequently involve poor, mainly rural people who are struggling to maintain access to the resources on which they depend for a living. The volume is concerned mainly with conceptual approaches to the issue of conflict. Given the diversity of conflict and cooperation dynamics and their relation with natural resources, the authors argue that general causal theories are problematic. Rather than aiming for grand explanations, the volume therefore is aimed to realise what Merton (1949) has termed ‘middle-range theory’

The Use of Silver Phenyl Benzyl Phosphate for the Synthesis of Monophenyl Esters of Phosphatidic Acids

Hessel, Morton, Todd, and Verkade have shown that dibenzyl esters of a-glycerophosphatidic acids I (D = acyl group), when shaken at room temperature in an ethanolic medium with hydrogen under slightly more than atmospheric pressure in the presence of a palladium/ active carbon catalyst according to Verkade, Cohen, and Vroege are smoothly hydrogenolyzed; 2 moles of hydrogen per mole of ester are rapidly absorbed, resulting in the formation of the corresponding phosphatidic acids and toluene

The Use of Silver Phenyl Benzyl Phosphate for the Synthesis of Monophenyl Esters of Phosphatidic Acids

Hessel, Morton, Todd, and Verkade have shown that dibenzyl esters of a-glycerophosphatidic acids I (D = acyl group), when shaken at room temperature in an ethanolic medium with hydrogen under slightly more than atmospheric pressure in the presence of a palladium/ active carbon catalyst according to Verkade, Cohen, and Vroege are smoothly hydrogenolyzed; 2 moles of hydrogen per mole of ester are rapidly absorbed, resulting in the formation of the corresponding phosphatidic acids and toluene

Burnout and work engagement of South African blue-collar workers: The development of a new scale

Research in South Africa on work-related well-being (specifically burnout and work engagement) has focused mainly on white-collar workers. Although blue-collar workers form a major part of the South African work force, no valid and reliable instruments exist to measure burnout and work engagement of blue-collar workers. The objectives of this study were (1) to develop a work-related well-being scale that measures burnout and work engagement of blue-collar workers; (2) to test the newly developed items using Rasch analysis; and (3) to test the factorial validity and reliability of the new scale. A cross-sectional survey design was used in a convenience sample of blue-collar workers in different industries in South Africa (N=2769). Following scale development procedures, a scale was developed to measure burnout (exhaustion and cynicism) and work engagement(vigour and dedication). Using Rasch analyses, two items were eliminated, resulting in an 18-item instrument. Five items were retained to measure exhaustion, five items to measure cynicism, four items to measure vigour and four items to measure dedication. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that a twofactor model with two higher-order factors – burnout (consisting of exhaustion and cynicism) and work engagement (consisting of vigour and dedication) – fit the data best. All the scales were reliable

The superority of Tacrine as a supplement to Suxamethonium

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Susceptibility of Grapevine Sucker and Green Shoot Wounds to Trunk Disease Pathogens

Grapevine trunk disease fungi infect vines through openings, primarily pruning wounds. The main objective of this study was to understand the role of sucker wounds and wounds made by the removal of green shoots from the stems of potted grapevines as potential points of infection for grapevine trunk disease pathogens. Six wine and four table grape vineyards of different ages were sampled in differentproduction areas in the Western Cape grape region of South Africa. Isolations were made from 161 sucker wounds, and fungal pathogens were identified using morphology and DNA sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacers (ITS1 and ITS2) and the 5.8S ribosomal RNA gene, the translation elongation factor 1alpha or the partial β-tubulin gene. The results show that 62% of the sucker wounds were infected by trunk disease pathogens, including Diaporthe ampelina, Diplodia seriata, Phaeomoniella chlamydospora, Phaeoacremonium minimum, Eutypella microtheca, Cryptovalsa ampelina and Neofusicoccum australe.  Diaporthe ampelina was the most common, followed by D. seriata and P. chlamydospora, in both the wine and table grape sucker wounds. Under glasshouse conditions, wounds made by the removal of young green shoots on one-year-old potted grapevine plants were inoculated with spore suspensions of D. ampelina, E. lata, N. parvum, P. minimum and P. chlamydospora. After four months, all the inoculated pathogens could be re-isolated. This study shows that grapevine sucker and green shoot wounds are susceptible to different grapevine trunk disease pathogens and may therefore play a role in the epidemiology of trunk diseases

Evolution of the chemical composition of Sn thin films heated during x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

High-vacuum XPS have been used to analyse the surface modification of a 3 nm-thick Sn thin film on Si (100) before and after annealing up to 450 °C. Increasing the XPS stage temperature led to a reduction in the amount of surface Sn and increasing amounts of O and Si. High-resolution XPS scans revealed the presence of mostly pure Sn and SnO2 for the as-deposited Sn thin film. Increasing the XPS stage temperature to > 232 °C led to the conversion of SnO2 to SnO and an enhancing pure Sn signal. The Si2p and SiO2 peaks become prominent at temperatures > 350 °C, which in combination with scanning electron microscope images, signals the dewetting of the Sn film and subsequent exposure of the underlying Si (100) substrate. XPS depth profiles revealed the presence of a pure Sn metallic core encapsulated by a Sn-oxide shell. Electron microscope images shows a densely packed particulate surface features for the as-deposited Sn thin film. However, these particulate regions increase in size and are more isolated at XPS stage temperatures > 350 °C.National Metrology Institute of South Africa and the National Research Foundation (GUN: 93212, 92520, 103621)