Kroniek van Perdepoort

Kroniek van Perdepoort is seker een van die waardigste bekroonde prosawerke in Afrikaans (CNA-prys, 1975, en Hertzogprys, 1976). As roman is dit van haas ewe groot omvang as Die groot gryse, en het dit 'n besonder ryk betekenislading en 'n interessante struktuur - 'n bewys van gerypte talent. By nadere ondersoek van enkele strukturele en tematiese as= pekte daarvan kom 'n verrassende veelkantigheid aan die lig

PerfWeb: How to Violate Web Privacy with Hardware Performance Events

The browser history reveals highly sensitive information about users, such as financial status, health conditions, or political views. Private browsing modes and anonymity networks are consequently important tools to preserve the privacy not only of regular users but in particular of whistleblowers and dissidents. Yet, in this work we show how a malicious application can infer opened websites from Google Chrome in Incognito mode and from Tor Browser by exploiting hardware performance events (HPEs). In particular, we analyze the browsers' microarchitectural footprint with the help of advanced Machine Learning techniques: k-th Nearest Neighbors, Decision Trees, Support Vector Machines, and in contrast to previous literature also Convolutional Neural Networks. We profile 40 different websites, 30 of the top Alexa sites and 10 whistleblowing portals, on two machines featuring an Intel and an ARM processor. By monitoring retired instructions, cache accesses, and bus cycles for at most 5 seconds, we manage to classify the selected websites with a success rate of up to 86.3%. The results show that hardware performance events can clearly undermine the privacy of web users. We therefore propose mitigation strategies that impede our attacks and still allow legitimate use of HPEs

Effect of human rotavirus vaccine on severe diarrhea in African infants.

BACKGROUND: Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe gastroenteritis among young children worldwide. Data are needed to assess the efficacy of the rotavirus vaccine in African children. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial in South Africa (3166 infants; 64.1% of the total) and Malawi (1773 infants; 35.9% of the total) to evaluate the efficacy of a live, oral rotavirus vaccine in preventing severe rotavirus gastroenteritis. Healthy infants were randomly assigned in a 1:1:1 ratio to receive two doses of vaccine (in addition to one dose of placebo) or three doses of vaccine--the pooled vaccine group--or three doses of placebo at 6, 10, and 14 weeks of age. Episodes of gastroenteritis caused by wild-type rotavirus during the first year of life were assessed through active follow-up surveillance and were graded with the use of the Vesikari scale. RESULTS: A total of 4939 infants were enrolled and randomly assigned to one of the three groups; 1647 infants received two doses of the vaccine, 1651 infants received three doses of the vaccine, and 1641 received placebo. Of the 4417 infants included in the per-protocol efficacy analysis, severe rotavirus gastroenteritis occurred in 4.9% of the infants in the placebo group and in 1.9% of those in the pooled vaccine group (vaccine efficacy, 61.2%; 95% confidence interval, 44.0 to 73.2). Vaccine efficacy was lower in Malawi than in South Africa (49.4% vs. 76.9%); however, the number of episodes of severe rotavirus gastroenteritis that were prevented was greater in Malawi than in South Africa (6.7 vs. 4.2 cases prevented per 100 infants vaccinated per year). Efficacy against all-cause severe gastroenteritis was 30.2%. At least one serious adverse event was reported in 9.7% of the infants in the pooled vaccine group and in 11.5% of the infants in the placebo group. CONCLUSIONS: Human rotavirus vaccine significantly reduced the incidence of severe rotavirus gastroenteritis among African infants during the first year of life. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00241644.

Candida albicans Hypha Formation and Mannan Masking of β-Glucan Inhibit Macrophage Phagosome Maturation

Received 28 August 2014 Accepted 28 October 2014 Published 2 December 2014 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Janet Willment, Aberdeen Fungal Group, University of Aberdeen, for kindly providing the soluble Dectin-1-Fc reporter. All microscopy was performed with the assistance of the University of Aberdeen Core Microscopy & Histology Facility, and we thank the IFCC for their assistance with flow cytometry. We thank the Wellcome Trust for funding (080088, 086827, 075470, 099215, 097377, and 101873). E.R.B. and A.J.P.B. are funded by the European Research Council (ERC-2009-AdG-249793), and J.L. is funded by a Medical Research Council Clinical Training Fellowship.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Diagnostic yield of fine needle aspiration biopsy in HIV-infected adults with suspected mycobacterial lymphadenitis

Background. Fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) has been shown to be the diagnostic procedure of choice for superficial lymphadenitis in tuberculosis endemic regions.Methods. We conducted a retrospective laboratory-based study to determine the bacteriological yield of clinically suspected mycobacterial tuberculous lymphadenitis following FNAB in adults, and specifically HIV-positive patients, to determine the need for the introduction of automated nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) such as the Xpert MTB/RIF assay as the initial diagnostic modality. Results. A diagnostic yield of 80% was achieved, significantly higher in HIV-positive v. HIV-negative patients (84% v. 52%, respectively; p<0.001). Conclusion. The results justify using automated NAATs such as the Xpert MTB/RIF assay as the initial diagnostic modality to expedite management in HIV-infected patients. 

Response to recharge variation of thin rainwater lenses and their mixing zone with underlying saline groundwater

In coastal zones with saline groundwater, fresh groundwater lenses may form due to infiltration of rain water. The thickness of both the lens and the mixing zone, determines fresh water availability for plant growth. Due to recharge variation, the thickness of the lens and the mixing zone are not constant, which may adversely affect agricultural and natural vegetation if saline water reaches the root zone during the growing season. In this paper, we study the response of thin lenses and their mixing zone to variation of recharge. The recharge is varied using sinusoids with a range of amplitudes and frequencies. We vary lens characteristics by varying the Rayleigh number and Mass flux ratio of saline and fresh water, as these dominantly influence the thickness of thin lenses and their mixing zone. Numerical results show a linear relation between the normalised lens volume and the main lens and recharge characteristics, enabling an empirical approximation of the variation of lens thickness. Increase of the recharge amplitude causes increase and the increase of recharge frequency causes a decrease in the variation of lens thickness. The average lens thickness is not significantly influenced by these variations in recharge, contrary to the mixing zone thickness. The mixing zone thickness is compared to that of a Fickian mixing regime. A simple relation between the travelled distance of the centre of the mixing zone position due to variations in recharge and the mixing zone thickness is shown to be valid for both a sinusoidal recharge variation and actual records of daily recharge data. Starting from a step response function, convolution can be used to determine the effect of variable recharge in time. For a sinusoidal curve, we can determine delay of lens movement compared to the recharge curve as well as the lens amplitude, derived from the convolution integral. Together the proposed equations provide us with a first order approximation of lens characteristics using basic lens and recharge parameters without the use of numerical models. This enables the assessment of the vulnerability of any thin fresh water lens on saline, upward seeping groundwater to salinity stress in the root zone

Academic and clinical preparation in speech-language pathology and audiology: a global training consortium

ABSTRACT: Purpose: To describe a research-based global\ud curriculum in speech-language pathology and audiology that\ud is part of a funded cross-linguistic consortium among 2 U.S.\ud and 2 Brazilian universities.\ud Method: The need for a global curriculum in speechlanguage\ud pathology and audiology is outlined, and different\ud funding sources are identified to support development of a\ud global curriculum. The U.S. Department of Education’s Fund\ud for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE), in\ud conjunction with the Brazilian Ministry of Education (Fundacao\ud Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel\ud Superior; CAPES), funded the establishment of a shared\ud research curriculum project, “Consortium for Promoting\ud Cross-Linguistic Understanding of Communication Disabilities\ud in Children” for East Tennessee State University and the University of Northern Iowa and 2 Brazilian universities\ud (Universidade Federal de Santa Maria and Universidade de\ud São Paulo-Baurú).\ud Results: The goals and objectives of the research-based\ud global curriculum are summarized, and a description of an\ud Internet-based course, “Different Languages, One World,” is\ud provided\ud Conclusion: Partnerships such as the FIPSE–CAPES consortium\ud provide a foundation for training future generations of\ud globally and research-prepared practitioners in speechlanguage\ud pathology and audiology.U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education P116M100014Brazilian Ministry of Education Fundacao Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior 094/1

A collaborative and evolving response to the needs of frontline workers, patients and families during the COVID-19 pandemic at Tygerberg Hospital, Western Cape Province, South Africa

The global devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its mental health impact is undeniable. The physical and psychological consequences are wide-ranging – affecting patients fighting the disease, frontline workers in the trenches with them, healthcare staff deployed in high-care settings, and families disconnected from their loved ones in their darkest hours. Within 6 weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak in South Africa, the Department of Psychiatry at Stellenbosch University established the TBH/SU COVID Resiliency Clinic to provide psychological support to frontline workers at Tygerberg Hospital. Identified barriers in healthcare workers accessing mental healthcare resulted in moving towards an on-site visibility to try to remove some of these barriers. This greater on-site presence enabled networking and building of relationships with frontline staff that over time highlighted other frontline needs, such as providing psychosocial and spiritual support to patients and their families. We share challenges, lessons learned and recommendations from two initiatives: the TBH/SU COVID-19 Resiliency Clinic, and an embedded COVID Care Team (CCT). We describe the establishment, roll-out and progress of the Clinic and the subsequent CCT

Post-traumatic stress disorder and exposure to violence among Venda and northern Sotho adolescents

In this study, two research questions were posed. In the first place, this study investigated the levels of exposure to violence among the adolescents as a total group (Venda- and Northern Sotho-speaking), as well as the exposure levels of the two ethnic groups. Opsomming Twee navorsingsvrae is in hierdie studie gestel. Eerstens het hierdie studie ondersoek ingestel na die vlakke van blootstelling aan geweld onder die groep adolessente as geheel (Venda- en Noord-Sotho-sprekers), asook na die blootstellingsvlakke van die twee etniese groepe. *Please note: This is a reduced version of the abstract. Please refer to PDF for full text