A SERVQUAL investigation into customer expectations and perceptions of service quality at DTA College Pietermaritzburg during 2010

Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.The marketisation of higher and further education institutions whereby education institutions adopt commercial practices to operate has led to increased competition in the education industry. Various sources of competitive advantage are being searched for aggressively by education institutions in the hope of securing customers and remaining competitive. Service quality has become one of the biggest sources of competitive advantage for higher and further education institutions as it enables the institutions to differentiate themselves from the competition. Development and Training for Adults (DTA) College in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa also faces similar challenges of the need to be competitive in an increasingly competitive environment. The study investigated the customers‟ perceptions and expectations of service quality at DTA College in Pietermaritzburg in order to identify and assess any existing service quality gaps. The SERVQUAL instrument which consists of 22 statements on perceptions and 22 on expectations of service quality was utilised to collect data for the research study at DTA College. A sample size of 58 was used and it was selected through stratified random sampling to maximise representativeness of the sample. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data. Statistical tools that include frequencies, meanscores and tabulations were utilised to present the data from findings. The Wilcoxon signed ranks test was also utilised to further analyse the significance of the gaps. The findings from the study indicated that, a negative service quality gap exists at DTA College. Reliability was the service quality dimension that had the widest gap which indicated that the respondents do not rely on the College as it does not deliver as per promise. Assurance was the service quality dimension which had the narrowest gaps. However, 3 of the 4 assurance gaps were significant according to statistical tests conducted which mean that DTA College has to pay attention to all the service quality dimensions regardless of the gaps being small. Frequent interaction between the college and the customers is recommended for DTA College as it provides the college with important information on customer expectations and perceptions. Continuous employee training to improve the existing skills is also recommended for the college‟s employees as it can have a good impact on meeting the customers‟ expectations of the service quality dimensions

Outcomes of secondary alveolar bone grafts in cleft patients

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Dentistry in the branch of Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery 31 May 2018.Aim The aim of this retrospective study was to determine the outcomes of secondary alveolar bone grafts (SABG) in cleft patients treated at the Wits Dental Hospital at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital. Objectives To record the demographic data of patients who had secondary alveolar bone grafts, and to assess the outcomes of SABG by evaluating clinical variables and the quantity of bone post SABG. Methods Records of 19 patients with a total of 23 clefts were examined to evaluate the amount of bone at the cleft site following secondary alveolar bone graft. Socio-demographic information was collected as well as the clinical variables of the type of graft used, canine eruption, keratinised tissue around teeth close to the cleft, and closure or persistence of any oronasal fistula. The amount of bone at the graft site was measured on CBCT images using the Chelsea scale. Comparisons of Chelsea scale scores and CBCT findings were carried out. SPSS ® 24 was used to analyse the data. All statistical tests were conducted at 5% significance level. Results Most (52%) patients were male, with 57% having left unilateral cleft. The majority of them received autogenous bone grafts from the chin. Most (65.2%) of the patients showed good clinical outcomes, whilst showing evidence of bone resorption in and around the graft site on CBCT images. Fifteen of the patients were considered to have partial alveolar graft resorption. Conclusion In the majority of patients, 3D CBCT images revealed bone resorption in areas that 2D images gave an impression of presence of bone. However, the majority of patients indicated good clinical outcomes despite the poor radiological findings.LG201

Raising children in the UK:The Screams of Zimbabwean migrant parents

Zimbabweans in the United Kingdom (UK) are currently a ‘silent subset’ of the broader migrant population, warranting further investigation into their experiences once settled in the UK. This study explored Zimbabwean migrant parents’ experiences of bearing and raising children in the UK and how they sustain their children’s health and wellbeing. The Silences Framework (TSF) offers a lens through which the Zimbabwean parents' experiences are made visible in this study. Hermeneutic phenomenology was employed as a research methodology from van Manen's perspective and data was collected through in-depth interviews with ten Zimbabwean parents settled in South Yorkshire, UK. Findings from this study show that parenting experiences in the UK are largely influenced by cultural background, religious beliefs and how the parents were raised. Parenting in a new culture requires parents to rely on an interdependent system of support. There is concern about the children's sense of belonging in the UK. Research findings help to increase knowledge on the Zimbabwean diaspora, add insight in the everyday life of migrant families and therefore influence policies, practices and future research. While some findings are specific to the Zimbabwean diaspora, others are concerns that migrant families have irrespective of place of origin

The Improved Model of the Method, Rights, and Resources (MRR) for the Evaluation of the EIA System: Revising the Sustainability Indicators

Measuring effectiveness of environmental impact assessment systems is central to the implementation of environmental impact assessment, considering the debate about relevance and usefulness of environmental impact assessment systems. Many models for evaluating environmental impact assessment system’s effectiveness have been developed. Difficulties in quantifying environmental impacts have restricted the effectiveness mostly to procedural effectiveness evaluation, though substantive effectiveness evaluation is better. The method, rights, and resources (MRR) model was initially developed to harness the indicator-based evaluation theory into the evaluation of environmental impact assessment system’s effectiveness. This chapter reviews the method, rights, and resources model and proffers some improvement. The method, rights, and resources model evaluates environmental impact assessment systems using indicators of compliance, participation, and capacity. The indicators incorporate both procedural and substantive approaches; hence, it attempts to present a more indicative measure of environmental impact assessment system’s effectiveness. The guiding idea in this chapter is that monitoring and evaluating environmental impact assessment systems should be embedded in the environmental impact assessment system itself as opposed to being concepts that are externally and subsequently applied on existing environmental impact assessment systems

CONVENTIONAL AND SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS: A COMPARATIVE BENEFIT AND COST ANALYSIS

The study examines conventional and sustainable buildings and whether there are significant differences between these two building types based on benefit and cost. The rationale for the examination is the general belief among stakeholders that although there is an increasing need to provide sustainable and affordable buildings for both housing and commercial purposes, buildings procured using sustainable construction initiatives are significantly more expensive than those constructed through conventional construction approach. The study adopted a quantitative research approach using semi-structured questionnaires involving a combination of both open and close-ended questions, in eliciting objective and subjective benefit and cost information on sustainable and conventional buildings from purposively selected construction industry stakeholders in South Africa. The study results indicate that there were perceived cost advantages in both conventional and sustainable buildings and that the cost difference between both sustainable and conventional buildings is less significant than perceived by construction stakeholders. This challenged previous ideas about a significant cost difference between both building types. The study thus concludes that since the cost difference between the two buildings is insignificant, the government should encourage sustainable building development through incentives and legislation because of its ecological advantage. The results of the study are of significance because it provides a business case to support the active development of sustainable buildings due to the insignificant difference in cost between sustainable and conventional buildings and the environmental benefits of sustainable buildings. However, the results are limited by the smallness of the sample size which is because stakeholders who have experience in the construction of both sustainable and conventional buildings are few and are not therefore generally distributed in the target population. A more extensive study, which includes other cities such as Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria which will confirm the findings of this research, is recommended

ALLOCATION SOLUTIONS FOR RECYCLED MUNICIPALWASTE AGGREGATES

Municipal waste presents major environmental and public health concerns. The disposal of municipalwaste has become a major worldwide environmental problem. Landfill sites are considered as environmentally questionable option and their capacity are decreasing rapidly. Nowadays, various processes have emerged to recycle the waste as synthetic fuel gas, heat source, polymers, fertilizers, and particulate solid residues. In this study, the possibility of recycling these particulate solids as aggregate in concrete was considered. The physical properties and size distribution of recycled aggregates were measured along with the effect of using these recycled aggregate on the compressivestrength of concrete. The resulting outcomes of these tests were compared with concrete sample prepared with conventional crushed stone as coarse aggregate and natural sand as fine aggregate materials. No doubt, recycled aggregates can be used as a replacement of natural course and fine aggregates, but there is need for further investigations about its effect on the concrete properties

A comparison of estimation methods for evaluating iron ore bodies

The estimation of iron (Fe) ore deposits presents a challenge in the mining industry, given the inter-relationship that may exist between the different variables and to preserve the relationship thereof. Samples are collected at many locations and for each of them analyses for several chemical components are made. For multivariate data it is observed that apart from the spatial correlations(namely using variograms and cross-variograms) amongst the variables, there is also a more or less strong relationship that may exist between the variables(statistical relationships that are expressed as scatterplots and correlations). Any estimation method utilised must be able to preserve the relationship that might exist between variables. The aim of this research was to compare two different estimation methods that could be used in iron ore deposits, with both primary and secondary variables sampled at the same locations. To compare the different estimation methods, a block model was created and four grade variables (%Fe, %SiO2, %Al2O3 and RD) were kriged into each block model, using two different estimation methods namely: · Ordinary Kriging(OK), · Ordinary Co-Kriging(OCK). The dataset used in this project comprises 21 drillholes which in turn have a total of 292 samples from block 9 of Kapstevel North, found at Kolomela Mine in the Northern Cape. This dataset is isotopic, given that 98% of the variables of interest, %Fe, %SiO2, %Al2O3 and RD, are present in all locations for most of the samples, if not all. Point Simulation at a very fine mesh was run and re-blocked to Block Simulation. Point Simulation was compared to the raw data to check for representativity and to satisfy the Conditional Simulation properties. Conditional Simulation properties are as follows: · Simulated grades must honour the raw data · Simulated grades must honour the histogram of the raw data · Simulated grades must honour the variograms of the raw data Point Simulation was re-blocked to Block Simulation for comparison with the blocked kriged estimates. Twenty Conditional Simulations were run in order to formulate ground truth to compare the kriged estimates with, but only five which adequately represented the input dataset was used in the study. The results thereof were compared and summarised thus looking at Pearson correlation coefficient between the kriged estimates and the ground truth, kriging variance, slope of regression for all two estimation methods. Results from the study have shown that OK and OCK perform equally when the primary and secondary variables are sampled at the same locations(isotopic) and have strong correlation; however the study has demonstrated the benefit of using Ordinary Co-kriging when dataset is partially heterotopic(opposite of isotopic)

Ion implantation into boron suboxide : formation of boron-rich structures and related phenomena

Ph.D., Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersand, 2012This thesis focuses on the boron suboxide B6O, a boron-rich super-hard ceramic material. With hardness values previously reported between 24 GPa and 45 GPa, B6O is one of the hardest known materials. Although first reports on boron suboxides date back as far as 1909 (Weintraub E., Transactions of the American Electrochemical Society, 16 (1909) 165), it is the B6O-based composites that have attracted considerable interest in recent years due to their enormous technological potential, especially as an alternative to polycrystalline diamond and polycrystalline cubic boron nitride for wear and abrasive applications. Investigations into the properties of B6O itself appear to have been neglected in favour of the improvement of densification and fracture toughness of the composites. The B6O samples used for the work reported in this work was hot-pressed was prepared under an argon environment at 1800 C and 50 MPa for 20 minutes followed metallographical preparation. The density of the hot-pressed compacts measured 2.44 g/cm3. The starting B6O powder material was supplied from the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems, Dresden. This thesis primarily seeks to generate and report as much practical data for polycrystalline B6O materials prepared by uniaxial hot-pressing as possible from a variety of characterization techniques. Firstly, the Raman spectra of hot-pressed B6O, which was until now poorly understood, was investigated using using a 514.5 nm green Ar+ laser excitation source. Secondly, the fundamental nature of some mechanical properties of hot-pressed B6O were investigated by means of Vickers and Berkovich indentation techniques. New approaches for data analysis, especially the investigations of the nanomechanical properties of hot-pressed B6O by Berkovich nanoindentation, were also suggested. Thirdly, the intrinsic hardness of hot-pressed B6O was investigated by means of a comprehensive inter-model comparison study. Fourthly, a combined experimental and simulation approach for determining mechanical properties of hot-pressed B6O by nanoindentation was also carried out, based on the outcomes of the study, the deformation response of the material under dynamic indentation was investigated at di erent stages using a custom developed finite element model. Finally, based on the preliminary ab initio density functional calculations of the structural properties of B6O conducted by Lowther showing that the presence of a high electronegativity interstitial in the B6O structure could enhance the strength of the bonding in B6O, fluorine ion implantation into B6O were conducted. The e ects to the structural and the nanomechanical properties of radiation damage induced by ion implantation was investigated. The possible formation of novel nanostructures in the ion-irradiated B6O matrix near-surface was also investigated. Results obtained from this study provides a vast amount of practical data for hot-pressed B6O materials as well as a number of novel analysis approaches for the extraction useful properties from the measured raw data. Firstly, using an automated background subtraction method, observable first- and second-order Raman spectra of B6O were obtained. A comparative analysis with previously reported spectra of other -rhombohedral boron-rich ceramic materials demonstrate a good agreement. Results also confirm the existence of highly resolved Raman modes measured at ambient conditions using a green Ar+ excitation source which is contrary to the conventional understanding. Secondly, results from the micro-indentation investigations indicate the measured microhardness exhibits indentation load dependence. A model inter-comparison study of indentation size e ects in the microhardness measurements of hot-pressed B6O is comprehensively discussed. Thirdly, the intrinsic hardness value of 30 GPa was deduced. Fourthly, a quantitative analysis approach was developed to simulate multi-cycling loading load-displacement curves from a single measured load-displacement nanoindentation curve. Based on the results, the nature of the indentation size e ect in the nanoindentation hardness as well as the intrinsic nanomechanical properties of hot-pressed B6O were established. Fifthly, a combined experimental and finite element method simulation approach for determining mechanical properties of hot-pressed B6O by nanoindentation was developed. Based on the outcomes of the combined experimental and simulation studies, the deformation response of the material under dynamic indentation was also investigated at di erent stages using a custom developed finite element model. Finally, results from the structural characterization of the ion implanted B6O material demonstrates the formation of novel nanostructures by means of the ion bombardment of B6O. In addition, the study presented here also seeks to investigate the e ects of the fluorine ion implantation on the near-surface nanomechanical properties of hot-pressed B6O. The principal conclusions that the study provide are both comprehensive practical data for B6O materials prepared by uniaxial hot-pressing. A number of properties, including the Raman spectra, the intrinsic hardness, and the radiation resistance and the e ects of radiation damage are reported in the thesis