Evaluation of the knowledge and correct use of meterd dose inhalers by health care professionals and medical students in Gauteng

A research report submitted to the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in fulfilment for the requirements of the degree of Master of Medicine, 2016.Background Uncontrolled asthma and chronic obstructive airway disease (COPD) is a frequent cause of emergency department visits and hospital admissions. Poor metered dose inhaler (MDI) technique is likely a major contributory cause. Objectives This study evaluated study participants' knowledge of MDI technique, and their compliance in checking and demonstrating MDI use, to patients on inhaled therapy. Methods A questionnaire was administered to doctors, nurses, and final year medical students at Helen Joseph Hospital and Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in the Departments of Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine and Pulmonology. Participants' use of a placebo MDI was also evaluated by a scoring system. Results The total sample of 195 participants comprised 130 (67%) females and 65 (33%) males. Of these, 133 (68%) were qualified medical staff, and 62 were final year medical students. Only 32 (16%) had adequate MDI technique. Over 50% of participants did not demonstrate MDI technique to patients, or check their patients' technique. Conclusion Health care professionals (HCPs) and final year medical students have poor knowledge of inhaler technique and are ill-prepared to teach patients. Also of concern is that the majority do not routinely demonstrate or observe patients’ inhaler technique.MT201

Is the Revitalisation of Smallholder Irrigation Schemes (RESIS) programme in South Africa a viable option for smallholder irrigation development?

Smallholder irrigation in South Africa comprises only 3% of the irrigated area. Despite this relatively small area share, Limpopo Province is using the development of smallholder irrigation as a way of developing rural areas and correcting historical imbalances. Unlike the smallholder irrigation developed in most African countries, which focuses mainly on food security through subsistence production, Limpopo Province aims to develop commercial smallholder irrigation. Plots in this model are not fragmented. Initially the farmers are paired with a strategic partner knowledgeable about both the operation of irrigation and the crops grown. After 3 years the strategic partner transfers all ownership to farmers. We use gross margin analysis from one production cycle to assess the financial viability of this model. We conclude that there is potential for the model to be financially viable if farmers can get access to cash flow support in the form of credit which they can pay off at the end of a production cycle. This could be an innovative way of smallholder agricultural water management and of transforming poor subsistence farmers to commercial producers and thereby correcting historical imbalances.Keywords: smallhoder irrigation, financial viability, gross margin, South Afric

HOW MUCH MIGHT IS RIGHT? Application of Section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act

In 1998 the South African parliament voted on the issue of the use of force when effecting an arrest, in order to bring standards of practice in line with the rest of the democratic world. Four years later the law still has not been signed by the state president, largely due to protests by the ministers of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and Safety and Security. The issue has been before the Constitutional Court and in May 2002, this court did what the executive was afraid to do, striking down parts of the Section and clarifying “reasonable force”. But the court ruling still did not go as far as the legislation in protecting citizens

The lexicographic treatment of the demonstrative copulative in Sesotho sa Leboa — an exercise in multiple cross-referencing

In this research article an in-depth investigation is presented of the lexicographic treatment of the demonstrative copulative (DC) in Sesotho sa Leboa. This one case study serves as an example to illustrate the so-called 'paradigmatic lemmatisation' of closed-class words in the African languages. The need for such an approach follows a discussion, in Sections 1 and 2 respectively, of the present and missing directions in African-language metalexicography. A theoretical conspectus of the DC in Sesotho sa Leboa is then offered in Section 3, while Section 4 examines the treatment of the DC in the four existing desktop dictionaries for this language. The outcomes from the two latter sections are then used in Section 5, which analyses the problems of and options for a sound lexicographic treatment of the DC in bilingual and monolingual dictionaries. The next two sections proceed with a review of the practical implementation of the DC lemmatisation suggestions in PyaSsaL, i.e. the Pukuntšutlhaloši ya Sesotho sa Leboa 'Explanatory Sesotho sa Leboa Dictionary' — with Section 6 focussing on the hardcopy and Section 7 on the online version. In the process, the very first fully monolingual African-language dictionary on the Internet is introduced. Section 8, finally, concludes briefly. Keywords: lexicography, paradigmatic lemmatisation, african languages, sesotho sa leboa (northern sotho, sepedi), demonstrative copulative, cross-referencing, corpus, monolingual dictionary, bilingual dictionar

Epiki: Sengwalo sa Sepedi go hlokometšwe diponagalo tša Leduleputswa (1953) le Sebilwane (1961)

Serudu (1989) and Groenewald (1993) are literary theorists who have attempted to indicate the structure of Sepedi epic narrative. However, in their definitions of the concepts epic narrative, praise poetry, narrative poetry and heroic poetry they differ from each other. They differ from each other in their definitions of the concepts epic narrative, praise poetry, narrative poetry and heroic poetry. Serudu, in his argument, asserts that epic poetry and epic narrative are synonymous, while Groenewald argues that, although they are related to each other, they are not synonyms, because epic narrative focuses on (a) life or the world, as a whole; and (b) the style which is elevated; while heroic poetry focuses on ordinary people/life and their ordinary problems in a certain environment wherein characters, events and milieu play a significant role. The first problem that the discussed theorists reveal is directed at the two concepts: epic poetry and narrative poetry, this is because they imply that epic poetry and narrative poetry are synonymous. Epic poetry is a concept that explains a poem that praises heroism or size; in other words, the important differentiation with this kind of poem is to reveal heroism and size in the person or thing that is being praised. This means that this concept does not differ from that of the praise poem. When Serudu (1992/3:62) explains a praise poem, he stresses that the importance of the events of a praise poem is to reveal ‘heroism or size of the hero that is being praised’. The second problem is that Serudu states that epic poetry is narrative poetry, However, Groenewald (1993:62) does not agree with this statement, he argues that epic poetry and narrative poetry are almost the same but they are not synonymous. What Groenewald argues is that if one is not careful, the two concepts can be confused as one thing when they are analysed, which is not true. Seidler (1959:524-5) supports this, by explaining that epic narrative is aimed at life in general and comes from the poets themselves. Epic narrative is in relation to fantasy. That is why it can be said that its characters are mainly people and ancestors. Its events are in relation to people and to the ancestors.Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017.African LanguagesPhDUnrestricte

Impact evaluation as a reform mechanism, to assess performance of Gauteng’s metropolitan municipalities in delivering basic services : a case of Millennium Development Goals

Metropolitan municipalities in Gauteng Province of South Africa are responsible for more than nine million inhabitants. This implies that they are the largest providers of municipal services to the inhabitants of the Gauteng Province. The research focused on only the services identified as basic to society. This was done to establish the extent to which the three metropolitan municipalities viz. Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg meet the Millennium Development Goals. The research focused on the delivery of services to informal settlements to determine how the respective municipalities identified the need for services and how they provided the services to a rather unknown number of inhabitants in the selected settlements. A sample was used in each municipality to guide the researcher in determining the impact of the services in relation to the Millenium Development Goals. The article discusses the essence and importance of programme performance information as reform mechanism in metropolitan municipalities in the South African context, Millennium Development Goals [MDGs] and the provision of basic services by the South African government since 2003 – 2013. The approach adopted in this article, is to use Impact Evaluation (IE) – which is a process used to conduct evaluations and provide publication of results in Gauteng’s metropolitan municipalities (Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg and Tshwane). For a scientific and balanced output – various sources of information will be consulted, results analysed and compared to calibrate a view and formulate an opinion on how metropolitan municipalities in Gauteng are performing in terms of the provision of basic services.am2016School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA

Pterocarpus angolensis crude extracts induce the expression of collagen Type II in articular cartilage in vitro

Background: Pterocarpus angolensis (P. angolensis) is a large deciduous tree native to Sub-Saharan Africa. This tree has traditionally been used to treat malaria, gonorrhoea, inflammation and wounds. The use of P. angolensis for tissue engineering has not been explored. This study investigated the potential of the bark and root water extracts of P. angolensis to induce the expression of collagen type II protein in the articular chondrocytes.Materials and Methods: Surface and middle zone chondrocytes, as well as explants, were stimulated with crude root and bark plant extracts at different concentrations. After 96 hours of stimulation,  microscopic observation, XCELLigence assay and collagen type II ELISA, histology and  immunohistochemistry assays were done.Results and Conclusion: Results showed no significant difference in the cell index between the controls and chondrocytes that had been treated with the plant extracts at concentrations of 15 and 30 μg/ml. A significant increase in the expression of collagen type II protein by the chondrocytes was observed and found to be optimal at a concentration of 30 μg/ml. There was an increase in the production of  proteoglycans. However, the plant extracts at a concentration of 50 μg/ml induced apoptosis in the  middle zone chondrocytes. These results show the potential of P. angolensis extracts in chondrocyte tissue regeneration. This potential could be exploited in the treatment of osteoarthritis.Keywords: P. angolensis, medical plants, chondrocytes, collagen type II, arthriti

RNP and Lewis RNP for all 14 natural tensor norms of Grothendieck

We classify all 14 natural tensor norms of Grothendieck according to the possession of the lack of the Radon-Nikodym property (RNP) and the Lewis Radon-Nikodym property.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tqma20nf201

Poverty and Disease Burden: Reflection on the Rural Community Health Services of the ‘Natives’ in the Former Northern Transvaal of South Africa, 1930s–1980s

The twentieth-century period in South Africa was characterised by social-, political- and economic disparity between blacks and whites. Poor socio-economic conditions of blacks resulted in subjection to tuberculosis and other poverty-related diseases. This study explores rural exposure to diseases due to segregationist and subsequent state of racial disparity in all spheres of live. Focus is particularly thrown at incidents of malaria and tuberculosis in the rural communities of the Transvaal. This study also considers efforts forged by government in an attempt to abate and arrest the spread of these and other epidemics through rudimentary health services. The study relies on the use of published sources, archival materials and data collected through interviews. It is the position of this study that the escalated incidence of these diseases had immense impact on the lives of the rural than urban population. Other related pandemics, such as HIV-AIDS and COVID-19 will be explored. Lastly, the study will argue that evidence of ill health and death caused associated with these diseases irrespective of invented vaccines and other related medications