Brain arteriovenous malformations presenting with haemorrhage

Includes bibliographical references

The Question of Genre Classification in the Drama Series “Ubizo: The Calling (2007)”

The paper argues that the South African television series, Ubizo: The Calling (d/Krijay Govender, 2007) blends elements of psychological thrillers, horrors as well as the gothic genre. The relationship of these subgenres is discussed in this paper in the context of the African spiritual practice of divine calling that is narrated by the series. The paper concludes that genre classification in this series is left unclear, whether it is horror or psychological thriller as suggested by its producers. For most parts of the series, horror conventions can be identified from the way the characters are set to the types of props and iconographies, as well as the set design and shot sizes of most scenes. Towards the end of the series, however, it changes focus thematically to fit a category that cannot be confined to one genre type. The effort of this research is to present concerns about the way in which some African spiritual practices are likened to sorcery due to the obsession with madness and ghosts. I used Indigenous Knowledge Systems together with genre analysis to arrive at my findings which were important in shedding light to the fact that some genres become less effective when they have been ideologically moved to other cultures. Upon on embarking on this research, I wanted to arrive at the certainty that western borrowed genres were bastardising African practices using foreign jargon and visuality to depict African spirituality. Indeed, the research was constructed in a manner that it simply wanted to confirm something that I, the author desperately wanted to believe. However, my own work has challenged me to acknowledge that these two can coexist

Emotional Intelligence as a Moderator in the Relationship between Occupational Stress and Organizational Citizenship Behavior among Nigerian Graduate Employees

The study investigated emotional intelligence as a moderator in the relationship between occupational stress and organizational citizenship behavior among graduate employees in Nigeria. The purpose of the study was in twofold: firstly, to empirically examine the relationship between occupational stress and organizational citizenship behavior. Secondly, to empirically investigate if emotional intelligence would moderate the relationship between occupational stress and organizational citizenship behavior. The study was conducted to demonstrate whether the presence of emotional intelligence could result in a better level of employee performance, even as employees experience a certain level of occupational stress. In view of the above, the study has contributed to the formation of a new model of psychological intervention for occupational stress and organizational citizenship behavior. The study adopted the positivist explanatory cross-sectional (survey) research design to systematically sample opinions of 1,532 male and female graduate employees across. The various sectors of the Nigerian economy, using a structured and validated questionnaire and version 20 of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), two hypotheses were stated and analyzed using Pearson Correlation Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis while the percentage, mean, standard deviation and the frequency of the biographical and occupational data were also determined by the descriptive statistics. The results showed that there was a weak positive relationship between occupational stress and organizational citizenship behavior. Emotional intelligence significantly moderated the relationship between occupational stress and organizational citizenship behavior. Human resource managers should develop emotional intelligence in employees in order to increase the level of organizational performance, and reduce the negative impact of occupational stress. This could be achieved through training and seminar participation. Recommendations of the study could assist in training and developing effective manpower capacity towards improving the economy of the nation

Evaluation of the Components of Psychological Capital and Organizational Citizenship Behavior among Nigerian Graduate Employees

In consideration of implications of organizational citizenship behavior, it is quite necessary for scholars and human resource management practitioners, to urgently investigate the correlates of psychological capital dimensions and the dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior. The purpose of the study was twofold. Firstly, to examines the relationship between psychological capital and organizational citizenship behavior. Secondly, to investigate the relationships between the dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior and psychological capital. The study is important, because its outcomes would help the corporate world, governments and human resource managers to avert the problem of underperformance among employees by improving psychological capital and organizational citizenship behavior. The study adopted the positivist explanatory cross-sectional (survey) research design to systematically sample opinions of 1,532 male and female graduate employees across the various sectors of the Nigerian economy, using a structured and validated questionnaire, and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The results of the statistical analysis of data showed that there was a significant positive relationship between psychological capital and organizational citizenship behavior, r = 0.588, p<0.01. The results also showed that altruism, conscientiousness and civic virtue dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior are significantly positively interrelated to hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy dimensions of psychological capital. The study suggested that human resource managers should develop psychological capital in employees in order to increase the level of organizational performance. Recommendations of the study could assist in training and developing effective manpower capacity towards improving the economy of the nation.&nbsp

The potential significance of refugia in safeguarding Non-Timber Forest products under Harvesting

Many rural households living in and adjacent to forests in South Africa harvest a variety of NonTimber Forest Products (NTFPs) such as wild fruits, fibre, fuelwood, seeds, medicine and bush meat for domestic use, sale and maintaining cultural values. To promote the continued availability of these NTFPs it is important that NTFPs are well maintained and that harvest offtake is sustainable, because if it is not, then the important livelihood function that they fulfil will be jeopardized over time. The role of refugia in conserving pockets of threatened species from overharvesting has rarely been considered. Building on Shackleton et al. (2015), six applications of the concept are considered: size refugia, spatial refugia, cultural/spiritual refugia and physical/habitat refugia. I examined the prevalence and type of refugia for NTFPs at three coastal sites in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. This was done via several community focus group discussions at each site. Here I report on the role of refugia in offering some safeguard to NTFPs by assessing harvested and non-harvested sites of refugia as well as individual plant species by measuring population density, harvest damage and size class profile. Respondents from the focus group discussions perceived a general decline in the abundance of common, widely used species over the past five decades. Decreasing rainfall and distant farming activities was reported consistently by the majority of the respondents. The most common form of refugia was spatial refugia, followed by cultural/spiritual refugia and physical/habitat refugia. Only six species were identified to be in refugia, namely Cyperus congestus, Cyperus textillis, Millettia grandis, Olea europaea subsp. africana, Phoenix reclinata, and Ptaeroxylon obliquum. Population inventories revealed that regeneration and population densities of some NTFP species in the non-refuge site were adversely affected by harvesting. Populations in refuge sites generally had the largest size classes indicating a regeneration potential but likely to impact regeneration over time if pressures are maintained. Therefore, if refuge sites keep larger individuals, NTFP populations can be maintained. Few studies have critically analyzed the concept of refugia in relation to how NTFPs can be safeguarded and the practical implication of the refuge concept needs to be considered in conservation and strategies and population models

The role of renewable energy projects in solving South Africa’s energy crisis

Renewable energy has played a critical role in improving the economy of South Africa as well as the lives of the citizens. There have been a lot of advantages in using renewable energy such as increased access to electricity, job creation and increased investment. This research project sought to give insight into the effectiveness of renewable energy projects in resolving the nation’s power crises. The research problem was motivated by the power outages that took place in South Africa for close to half a decade between 2010 and 2015. The introduction of renewable energy versus nuclear energy caused wide-spread debates in the business, political and social sectors inter alias. The renewable energy sector started off as a controversial issue across South Africa, with a lot of critics regarding it as an expensive trial and era method of tackling the energy crisis. The researcher purposed to explore on the role of renewable energy projects in solving South Africa’s energy crisis. The specific objectives of the research were to investigate and evaluate how the renewable energy projects contribute to improving the energy supply; to examine the effectiveness of the renewable energy projects in improving the energy supply; and to provide a critical appraisal of the constraints faced renewable energy projects in improving the energy supply in South Africa. The role of renewable energy projects in solving South Africa’s energy crisis is a controversial issue inviting many debates within the realm of scholarship pertaining to energy development. Thus literature was reviewed to give an understanding of the realities associated with the energy status in South Africa at present in order to have an in-depth understanding of the concerns, which need to be dealt with if renewable energy is to play a vital role in the alleviation of the plight of South Africa’s energy crisis. The literature review was part of the secondary data, therefore, the focus thereof led to the adoption of an interpretive stance as the favoured research methodology. A content analysis in case study approach was therefore, used to describe the role of renewable energy projects in solving South Africa’s energy crisis. The research focused on two main renewable energy sources wind and solar energy respectively. The results show that wind energy dominates the RE sector with 3342.59MW of electricity which accounts for approximately 53% of the total production. Solar energy in its various forms accounts for approximately 46% of the total production. Biomass, small hydro and land fill gas account for less than 2% of the total production. The research showed that wind and solar energy are the main renewable energy sources that combat the energy crisis in South Africa. The researcher concluded that there no longer exists a crisis in the South African energy sector. Secondly the researcher concluded that RE has significantly contributed to the energy mix, thereby playing a crucial role in the aversion of the afore-mentioned crisis. Thirdly, the researcher concluded that while the RE sector is growing at an impressive rate, coal will remain the cheapest and dominant source of energy in the foreseeable future of South Africa up to 2050 and possibly beyond

Role of Psychological Capital in Effective Management of Work-stress among Tertiary Institutions' Staff in Nigeria

 Work-stress is synonymous to occupational stress. It is a common form of strain that is usually experienced by employees, in the course of performing their official duties and responsibilities. In the contemporary world of work, including the Nigerian work environment, work-stress is identified as a ‘corporate epidemic’. Its symptoms are mostly observed physically, psychologically and socially in the lives of affected employees, while the negative effect of occupational stress is specifically, measured on employee performance and organizational effectiveness. It is for the above-described nature and effect of work-stress that this study examined the role of psychological capital in effective management of work-stress among the staff of tertiary institutions in Nigeria. It adopted the explanatory survey research design, purposive and convenience sampling techniques in sampling a total number of 202 (male = 116, 57.4% and female = 86, 42.6%) academic and administrative staff of five (5) public and private tertiary institutions, in the western region of Nigeria, who served as participants in the study. All participants were Nigerians English speakers. Research participation eligibility was strictly based on the current enlistment of employees on the pay-roll of the institutions as at the time of the study. A structured validated questionnaire was used as an instrument. Hypotheses were stated and analyzed based on the data collected. Results revealed that the four psychological capital states jointly influenced work-stress management F(4,197) = 8.375; R2= 0.128; p<.05; resilience (β=0.145; t=1.983; p<.05) and optimism (β=0.294; t=3.756; p<.05) independently influenced workstress management; optimism (r=.224, P(.001)<.01), resilience (r=.350, P(.000)<.01) and hope (r=.247,P(.000)<.01) significantly correlated with work-stress management. The study concluded that psychological capital is one of the important factors that effectively helps in managing work-stress, and suggested that the management of institutions or organizations should sensitize employees on the importance of psychological capital in effective management of work-stress through seminars, trainings and conferences

Extraction, sequencing and bioinformatics analysis of DNA from dried blood spots.

Master of Science in Biological and Conservational Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2016.The Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies has a demographic surveillance site 200km north of Durban at the Umkhanyakude district. In this setting, blood samples are routinely collected and used for the diagnosis of HIV infection. In this setting and in many settings in Africa, samples are normally collected and stored on filter paper as dried blood spots (DBS) as those are easy to transport and store. DNA can be isolated/extracted from DBS and used for viral and/or host genomic analysis. The aim of this work was to extract DNA from DBS of sufficient quality and yield that could be used for subsequent analysis. Specifically, we aimed to perform host HLA genotyping from DBS as HLA type has an impact on HIV-1 replication levels. Dried blood spots were prepared from anonymous samples that are commonly used for the validation of new laboratory methods at the Africa Centre Virology Laboratory in Durban. The QIAamp DNA Mini Kit method was optimised to isolate DNA from DBS. DNA levels were quantified using the Qubit 2.0 Fluorometer (Qubit Assay). Polymerase chain reactions (PCR) were used to amplify the HLA Class 1A, 1B and 1C loci and the PCR products were purified using the Pure Link Purification Kit (Invitrogen Life Technologies). Sanger sequencing techniques were used to genotype the HLA‟s PCR products. AssignTM ATF Softwere v1.5 was used to detect HLA allele variations in the consensus sequences produced through Sanger sequencing. The DNA yield that could be extracted from the DBS was low. This was most probably due to the low quantity of blood that can be stored in one DBS. Despite the relatively low DNA yields sequencing of the target gene (HLA Class 1A, 1B and 1C) was successful using Sanger Sequencing and variations in the majority of the HLA alleles were detected. This MSc study shows that it is possible to sequence HLA loci directly from DBS

The attitudes and perceptions of health care professionals to alternatives to blood transfusion : a case with Jehovah's Witnesses patients in a critical care setting.

Thesis (M.N.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2004.Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the attitudes and perceptions of health care professionals to alternatives to blood transfusion for Jehovah's Witnesses patients in a critical care setting. Methodology: Quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to explore the attitudes and perceptions of health care professional to alternatives to blood transfusion, in a critical care setting. The study was conducted in four largest hospitals in the Durban Metropolitan area, of which two were public and two private. A questionnaire was used as tool for collecting data. Space was provided to accommodate comments from the respondents in the questionnaire. Analysis of findings was done quantitatively by using a computer programme called SPSS (Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences), version 11.5. Themes that emerged from the participant's responses were classified under categories in the conceptual framework and analysed qualitatively. Findings: Most of the respondents had mixed feelings about using alternatives to blood transfusion. The study revealed, however, that although alternatives to blood transfusions were commonly used in a critical care setting, some of the respondents did not know about the different types of alternatives available. Furthermore, it was evident from the respondent's comments that most of them had a positive attitude to people who refused blood transfusion and preferred alternatives. Research into suitable alternatives to blood transfusion was encouraged by most of the respondents. However, transfusion transmitted diseases emerged as a current concern over and above the religious concerns. Recommendations for the future were made for the health care professionals working in critical care setting, nurse educators and nursing management