Documentation: Motivation and training or automation

The road blocks and mental blocks in areas where automation is not taking care of basic documentation problems are discussed. Original project documentation, documentation for project maintenance, and comparison of preliminary and final documentation are described. The use of flow charts is also mentioned

Variable-Number-of-Tandem-Repeats Analysis of Genetic Diversity in Pasteuria ramosa

Variable-number-of-tandem-repeats (VNTR) markers are increasingly being used in population genetic studies of bacteria. They were recently developed for Pasteuria ramosa, an endobacterium that infects Daphnia species. In the present study, we genotyped P. ramosa in 18 infected hosts from the United Kingdom, Belgium, and two lakes in the United States using seven VNTR markers. Two Daphnia species were collected: D. magna and D. dentifera. Six loci showed length polymorphism, with as many as five alleles identified for a single locus. Similarity coefficient calculations showed that the extent of genetic variation between pairs of isolates within populations differed according to the population, but it was always less than the genetic distances among populations. Analysis of the genetic distances performed using principal component analysis revealed strong clustering by location of origin, but not by host Daphnia species. Our study demonstrated that the VNTR markers available for P. ramosa are informative in revealing genetic differences within and among populations and may therefore become an important tool for providing detailed analysis of population genetics and epidemiolog

Quality Education And The Impact Of Public And Independent Schools Writing The National Senior Certificate

A new education curriculum for a new democratic dispensation was welcomed and unavoidable in South Africa after the first democratic election in 1994. The main reason for this radical change within education was that policymakers needed to move away from the apartheid curriculum with all its attendant political baggage and address the laudable outcomes of skills, knowledge and values for purposes of achieving social justice, equality and development. Within this curriculum, the South African Schools’ Act (Act 84 of 1996) recognises two broad categories of schools – public and independent schools. All public schools follow the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) and independent schools have the freedom to choose which curriculum and which examination body they want their learners to write, as long as the examining body is recognised by Umalusi. This article will reflect on the quality of education provided in schools by analysing the roles and impact of public and independent schools writing the National Senior Certificate in South Africa.  It is important, in this context, to provide a historical overview of the background of examination bodies that have impacted on the South African school system.  It is also deemed necessary to reflect on and discuss the public and independent school sector by focussing on factors influencing the logistical orientation of these sectors as well as reflecting on indicators influencing the Grade 12 examination. After analysing these factors and reflecting on issues that influence quality education in South Africa, recommendations will be made in an effort to contribute to the improvement of the standard of education in South Africa

Present-Day Dillemas And Challenges Of The South African Tertiary System

The Education White Paper 3 on Higher Education aimed to transform the higher education system. Change within tertiary education included adjusting the size and shape of institutions, the meaning of autonomy and accountability, the nature of higher education, the character of student demographic distribution, management and governance, roles of student politics, models of delivery, the notion of higher education in terms of the relationship between free trade and public good, programme changes and the nature of the academic workplace. At this stage, transformation in higher education is leaping outwards to fulfil the criteria set by international competitiveness and related efficiency criteria that can be attributed to globalisation pressures and to deeper factors inherent in the nature of higher education, especially in terms of its resistance to change and modernization. In this regard, the tertiary higher education system in South Africa is faced with many multi-dimensional challenges that need to be addressed in this article. This includes stating whether Grade 12 results as the outcome of this exit point at school level are, internationally speaking, a reasonable predictor of first-year academic success at university. In South Africa, there is no benchmarking of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination; therefore, first-year students have difficulty in adapting to the university environment as they find themselves devoid of indispensable bases for the pursuit of their studies and the weakness of the level of education given at school level in a large number of instances. Furthermore, five universities were placed under administration in the 2011-2012 period because of appallingly poor levels of management, which adds extra layers of suspicion to the notion of the impact of higher education in South Africa. Many other challenges are facing the South African tertiary education system, which will be analysed and recommendations arrived at that will attempt to contribute to an enhancement of tertiary education in South Africa

Restructuring And Mergers Of The South African Post-Apartheid Tertiary System (1994-2011): A Critical Analysis

Socio-economic and vocational needs of communities, governments and individuals change over the years and these discourses served as a compass for restructuring of higher institutions in South Africa from 1994. Before 1994, the claim to legitimacy for government policies in higher education rested on meeting primarily the interests of the white minority. From 1996 onwards, the newly established government considered education a major vehicle of societal transformation. The main objective had been to focus on reducing inequality and fostering internationalisation. Therefore, the rationale for the restructuring of South African universities included a shift from science systems to global science networks. Various challenges are associated with restructuring and include access, diversity, equity and equality. Thus, the restructuring and mergers between former technikons and traditional universities were probably the most difficult to achieve in terms of establishing a common academic platform, as transitional conditions also had to be taken into account and had a twin logic: It was not only the legacy of apartheid that had to be overcome but the incorporation of South Africa into the globalised world was equally important as globalisation transforms the economic, political, social and environmental dimensions of countries and their place in the world. Initially, the post-apartheid higher education transformation started with the founding policy document on higher education, the Report of the National Commission on Higher Education and this report laid the foundation for the 1997 Education White Paper 3 on Higher Education in which a transformed higher education system is described. Restructuring and mergers also had a far-reaching impact, positive and negative, on the various tertiary institutions. This article also reflects on the impact of restructuring and mergers of higher education and reaches the conclusion that higher education faces many more challenges than initially anticipated prior to transformation

Community structure and intertidal zonation of the macrobenthos on a macrotidal, ultra-dissipative sandy beach: summer-winter comparison

Community structure and intertidal zonation of the macrobenthos on a macrotidal, ultra-dissipative beach were studied. On the beach of De Panne, Belgium, six transects perpendicular to the waterline (each with five stations) were sampled in September 1995 (summer) and March 1996 (winter). The 30 stations were distributed across the continuum from mean high water spring to mean low water spring in order to sample the macrobenthos at different levels of elevation. The 39 species found had total densities up to 5,500 ind m-2 in summer and 1,400 ind m-2 in winter. The highest densities were found in the spionid polychaetes Scolelepis squamata and Spio filicornis, the nephtyid polychaete Nephtys cirrosa, the cirolanid isopod Eurydice pulchra, and the haustorid amphipods Bathyporeia spp. Based on species composition, specific densities, and biomass, two species associations were defined: a relatively species-poor, high intertidal species association, dominated by S. squamata and with an average density of 1,413 ind m-2 and biomass of 808 mg AFDW m-2 (summer); and a relatively species-rich, low intertidal species association, dominated by N. cirrosa, and with an average density of 104 ind m-2 and biomass of 162 mg AFDW m-2 in summer. For both seasons, the high intertidal species association was restricted in its intertidal distribution between the mean tidal and the mean high-water spring level, whereas the low intertidal species association was found from the mean tidal level to the subtidal. The latter showed good affinities with the subtidal N. cirrosa species association, occurring just offshore of De Panne beach, confirming the existence of a relationship between the low intertidal and subtidal macrobenthic species associations. Summer-winter comparison revealed a strong decrease in densities and biomass in the high intertidal zone during winter. Habitat continuity of the low intertidal zone with the subtidal allows subtidal organisms to repopulate the low intertidal zone

Comprehensive geriatric assessment in perioperative care: a protocol for a systematic review and qualitative synthesis

INTRODUCTION: Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) is an intervention that has been deployed in the perioperative setting with the aim to improve outcomes for older patients admitted to hospital. Older patients undergoing surgery are more likely to have postoperative complications, a longer hospital stay and be discharged to a care facility. Despite the increasing application of this intervention within surgical services, the evidence for CGA remains limited in this group. The aim of this systematic review is to describe CGA as in intervention applied to surgical populations in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) as well as the outcomes assessed. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A systematic search of RCTs of CGA in surgery will be run in Embase, Medline, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) and Cochrane library. Further articles will be identified from reference lists in relevant studies found in the search. A narrative synthesis will be undertaken outlining specialties included, detailed descriptions of the intervention and outcomes. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: No ethical approval is required. The results of this review will be published and used as the basis of work to optimise this intervention for future trials in surgical populations. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: This review is registered with PROSPERO CRD42020221797