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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The influence of cell phone users' relationship intentions on expectations and perceptions of service recovery

With the first-time cell phone user market quickly shrinking, it is becoming increasingly important for South African cell phone network providers to retain customers by building long-term relationships with them and consistently offering quality service. Despite cell phone network providers' best intentions, service failures do occur. Not all customers want to build relationships with cell phone network providers, and therefore it is important to consider the influence of customers' relationship intentions within a service failure and recovery setting. The purpose of the study was to determine the influence of relationship intention on expectations and perceptions of two service recovery scenarios within the cell phone industry. Non-probability convenience sampling was used to collect data from 605 cell phone users residing in Gauteng. Results indicate that as respondents' relationship intentions increase, so do their expectations that their cell phone network providers should take service recovery action. It was also found that respondents with high and moderate relationship intentions perceived service recovery strategies of their cell phone network providers including an acknowledgement, apology, explanation and rectification of the problem more favourable, compared to a service recovery strategy only rectifying the problem, than those respondents with low relationship intentions