Onderwys in Afrika: Ontwikkeling of onderontwikkeling?

In this article the author first looks at the expectations held for education as a key to the development for under-developed African countries. The high correlation that is to be found between formal education and economic growth in Western countries has led to the fact that formal education has been regarded as the solution for the economic, political and cultural problems of Africa. After more than two decades, in the course of which formal education has been much touted, the problems supposed to have been solved by formal education are becoming worse

Infant formulas & New protein sources

Infant formulas & New protein sources . STLOpenday

The ethical infrastructure of legal practice in larger law firms: values, policy and behaviour

The article examines the impact of the cultures and organisational structures of large law firms on individual lawyers' ethics. The paper suggests that large law firms in Australia should consciously design and implement 'ethical infrastructures' to both counteract pressures for misbehaviour and positively promote ethical behaviour and discussion. The paper goes on to explain what implementing ethical infrastructures in law firms could and should mean by reference to what Australian law firms are already doing and US innovations in this area. Finally, the paper warns that the 'ethical infrastructure' of a firm should not be seen merely as the formal ethics policies explicitly enunciated by management. Formal and legalistic ethical infrastructures that fail to support or encourage the development of individual lawyers' awareness oftheir own ethical values and ethical judgment in practice will be useless

Perspectives of teachers regarding the use of the reading period and school libraries in selected schools in the Northern Cape

CITATION: Newman, L. & Le Cordeur, M. 2014. Opvoeders se perspektiewe rakende die gebruik van die leesperiode en skoolbiblioteke in geselekteerde skole in die Noord-Kaap. Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, 54(4):805-819.The original publication is available at http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_issuetoc&pid=0041-475120140004&lng=en&nrm=isoAFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Alhoewel lees 'n noodsaaklike vaardigheid is, dui navorsing daarop dat leesprobleme ernstige afmetings aanneem in Suid-Afrika. Om die leesvermoens van leerders te verbeter, het die Noord-Kaapse Onderwysdepartement (NKOD) . verpligte leesperiode ingestel om lees tot sy reg te laat kom. Hierdie artikel beskryf die studie wat ondersoek instel na die gebruik van die leesperiode en die skoolbiblioteek. Daar is van die navorsingshipotese uitgegaan dat opvoeders leerders nie genoeg blootstelling aan lees gee nie en dus nie ’n leeskultuur by leerders kweek nie omdat hulle die leesperiode en die biblioteek as hulpbron ignoreer. Data is versamel by twee geselekteerde hoërskole in die Namakwa-distrik met behulp van vraelyste en fokusgroeponderhoude met die graad 8- en 9-opvoeders. Die studie bevestig die navorsingsvraag dat die leesperiode nie geïmplementeer word nie en dat die skoolbiblioteek as ʼn bron vir die bevordering van die geletterdheidsvlakke van die leerders, onderbenut word.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Reading is one of the cornerstones of learning. Research shows an escalating concern about the reading ability of South African learners. In an attempt to improve the literacy levels of learners, the Northern Cape Department of Education instructed schools to implement a daily reading period of 30 minutes. Schools are required to indicate the reading period on the timetable and reading must be formally instructed. The purpose of this study was to determine the perspectives of teachers on the use of the reading period and school libraries. It was hypothesised, first, that teachers do not expose learners sufficiently to reading. Secondly, teachers do not create a reading culture or foster a positive attitude towards reading, because they ignore the reading period and do not make use of the library as a resource. A mixed-method approach was followed utilising both quantitative and qualitative research designs to obtain data. The study consisted of a literature review supported by an empirical study. The empirical study was conducted at two high schools in the Namaqua district. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire which was completed by 16 Grade 8 and 9 teachers. Focus group interviews were also conducted with the participating teachers. An analysis of the empirical data showed that, although the reading period is not implemented at either of the two schools, the majority of the teachers are aware of the reading period. However, teachers indicated that they did not receive any guidance or support from the Education Department to assist learners with reading problems. The study showed that many schools do not have a school library and where schools do have a library it seems, from the responses of the teachers, that the library resources are old and insufficient. Hence learners are not exposed to the library to assist them with curriculum assignments. The study confirmed the research hypothesis that the reading period is not being implemented and that the school library is not being used by the teachers to enhance the literacy levels and academic performance of the learners.Publishers' Versio

β-Lactoglobulin-linoleate complexes: In vitro digestion and the role of protein in fatty acids uptake

peer-reviewedThe dairy protein β-lactoglobulin (BLG) is known to bind fatty acids such as the salt of the essential longchain fatty acid linoleic acid (cis,cis-9,12-octadecadienoic acid, n-6, 18:2). The aim of the current study was to investigate how bovine BLG-linoleate complexes, of various stoichiometry, affect the enzymatic digestion of BLG and the intracellular transport of linoleate into enterocyte-like monolayers. Duodenal and gastric digestions of the complexes indicated that BLG was hydrolyzed more rapidly when complexed with linoleate. Digested as well as undigested BLG-linoleate complexes reduced intracellular linoleate transport as compared with free linoleate. To investigate whether enteroendocrine cells perceive linoleate differently when part of a complex, the ability of linoleate to increase production or secretion of the enteroendocrine satiety hormone, cholecystokinin, was measured. Cholecystokinin mRNA levels were different when linoleate was presented to the cells alone or as part of a protein complex. In conclusion, understanding interactions between linoleate and BLG could help to formulate foods with targeted fatty acid bioaccessibility and, therefore, aid in the development of food matrices with optimal bioactive efficacyS. Le Maux is currently supported by a Teagasc Walsh Fellowship and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (FIRM project 08/RD/TMFRC/650). We also acknowledge funding from IRCSET-Ulysses Travel Grant

Healthcare use for diarrhoea and dysentery in actual and hypothetical cases, Nha Trang, Viet Nam.

To better understand healthcare use for diarrhoea and dysentery in Nha Trang, Viet Nam, qualitative interviews with community residents and dysentery case studies were conducted. Findings were supplemented by a quantitative survey which asked respondents which healthcare provider their household members would use for diarrhoea or dysentery. A clear pattern of healthcare-seeking behaviours among 433 respondents emerged. More than half of the respondents self-treated initially. Medication for initial treatment was purchased from a pharmacy or with medication stored at home. Traditional home treatments were also widely used. If no improvement occurred or the symptoms were perceived to be severe, individuals would visit a healthcare facility. Private medical practitioners are playing a steadily increasing role in the Vietnamese healthcare system. Less than a quarter of diarrhoea patients initially used government healthcare providers at commune health centres, polyclinics, and hospitals, which are the only sources of data for routine public-health statistics. Given these healthcare-use patterns, reported rates could significantly underestimate the real disease burden of dysentery and diarrhoea

Explicit height estimates for CM curves of genus 2

In this paper we make explicit the constants of Habegger and Pazuki's work from 2017 on bounding the discriminant of cyclic Galois CM fields corresponding to genus 2 curves with CM by them and potentially good reduction outside a predefined set of primes. We also simplify some of the arguments

Process Design for the Production of Ethylene from Ethanol

This project considers using ethanol dehydration as a means to mass-produce ethylene. 2.3MM tonnes of a 95% ethanol / 5% water feed will be converted into 1MM tonnes of 99.96% pure ethylene per year using a series of adiabatic, fixed-bed catalytic reactors operating at 750°F and 600psi. The catalyst is gamma-alumina in the form of 1cm diameter spherical pellets. After the dehydration process, the product will be purified using two flash separation units, an adsorption unit with zeolite 13X sorbent, and finally a cryogenic distillation unit. The plant will be located in São Paulo, Brazil. Because ethanol production in Brazil is seasonal, the plant will operate only 280 days per year at a very high capacity. This includes 30 days worth of on-site feed storage. After conducting an analysis of the sensitivity of the plant’s Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return to ethylene and ethanol prices, it was determined that while profitability is not attainable in the current market (which prices ethanol at $0.34/lb and ethylene at$0.60/lb), profitability is attainable should ethylene prices rise to $0.64/lb and ethanol prices fall to$0.305/lb