The relationship between the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and document delivery service at an open distance learning institution

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the document delivery service (DDS) at an open distance learning institution (ODL). A quantitative survey was conducted using a convenience sample (N=107) of the students registered in the Master’s programme with the College of Education (CEDU) at the University of South Africa (UNISA). Pearson’s correlational analysis was used to determine the students’ perceptions of the relationship between the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the DDS at an ODL institution. The results indicated a negative relationship between computer literacy and communication channels. Furthermore, the results indicated that information literacy skills positively and significantly predict the means of access to the Internet and library skills training predict access to information. The findings of this study show a need for future research in exploring the association between the use of ICTs and document delivery services. In order to rectify the challenge in an ODL institution, it is suggested that ODL institutions should ensure that both librarians and students possess the required skills and competencies. It is recommended that future research takes into consideration the limitations of this study.Information ScienceM. Inf

Economic and demographic trends of municipalities in South Africa: An application of Zipf’s rule

There are vast differences among South African local municipalities, with a limited number of large municipalities (both in terms of population size and economic activity) and a seemingly disproportionate number of intermediate-sized and small municipalities. No clear systematic national approach has yet been adopted to assess the distribution of core variables at municipal level in South Africa. Zipf’s rule, which postulates a consistent regularity in the size and rank of cities, is applied to disaggregate the performance of South African local municipalities in terms of three variables (population, Gross Value Added and municipal income) within the overall national settlement pattern. The results indicate that the Zipf rank size rule distribution is applicable to municipal level population data in South Africa, but less so for Gross Value Added and municipal income. The position and relative changes of municipalities along the Zipf curve between 2001 and 2011 also provide plausible indications of potential future trajectories of the three variables classified according to the dominant settlement typology within each municipality. The results also emphasise the significant conceptual limitations when using only legally defined administrative municipal boundaries for analysis purposes without also considering economically functional boundaries.&nbsp

The indications of leukodepleting blood or blood products, and the importance of using bedside blood-product filters during neonatal transfusion

Transfusion therapy remains one of the most commonly used regimens to treat critically ill neonates. Neonatal intensive care professional nurses have a responsibility to ensure that the procedure is as effective, and as safe, as possible. This article aims to provide neonatal intensive care professional nurses with knowledge of the effects of leukodepletion of blood or blood products, the various available bedside blood-product filters, and the role played by the filter pore size in preventing transfusion related reactions in neonates.http://www.pntonline.co.za/index.php/PN

Clinical decision making of neonatal intensive care professional nurses regarding the employment of bedside blood product filters during neonatal blood transfusion

A lack of information is identified on the ability of professional nurses working in a neonatal intensive care unit to make competent clinical decisions pertaining to the employment of bedside blood product filters during neonatal transfusion. In addition, a lack of complete guidelines existed to aid professional nurses in instances where they are faced with such a decision. A descriptive survey was conducted to determine and describe the knowledge professional nurses working in neonatal intensive care unit have regarding the employment of bedside blood product filters during the transfusion of a neonate with blood or blood products, as well as their ability to make competent clinical decisions in the regard. A questionnaire was designed, which was validated by experts in neonatal intensive care nursing and blood transfusion. The questionnaires were distributed to 10 nominated public and private hospitals with neonatal intensive care units in Gauteng, South Africa, for completion. Participants were self-nominated; they participated in the study of their own free will. Neither the participants’ nor the hospitals’ names were revealed at any stage. Numbers were used to identify the questionnaires. 120 questionnaires were completed and were analysed using descriptive statistics. In the following step, the results obtained from the questionnaires together with literature were used to recommend guidelines for neonatal transfusion utilisation by professional nurses working in neonatal intensive care units. The recommended guidelines were divided into two categories: General guidelines and Specific blood products guidelines. Validity and reliability was enhanced by using staff from ten neonatal intensive care units from the private and public health care sector in Gauteng, South Africa; obtaining a sufficient sample size (n=120); involvement of experts in the field of neonatal nursing science and blood transfusion, as well as a statistician from the University of Pretoria; and verification of results with literature. Ethical principles were adhered to: confidentiality was maintained as no names of any of the hospitals or the participants were disclosed. All information regarding the study was provided to the relevant parties and the participants voluntarily signed an informed consent form. Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the selected hospitals’ management. Approval to conduct the study was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Health Science, University of Pretoria. There were no known risks involved in the study. Recommendations were made for more research on the same topic to be conducted and their outcomes be compared to the results yielded by this study and research to be conducted to related topics. The findings of this study were meant to improve the clinical practice of nursing in neonatal intensive care units. It was therefore recommended that these guidelines be implemented by neonatal intensive care units, training institutions and the South African Blood Transfusion Services. AFRIKAANS : Die navorser het ’n intensiewe oorsig van die bestaande literatuur rakende die kliniese besluitneming van professionele verpleegkundiges in neonatale intensiewe sorgeenhede gedoen. Dit het duidelik uit dié navorsingsoorsig geblyk dat daar baie min gedoen is om die vermoëns vas te stel van professionele verpleegkundiges wat in die neonatale intensiewe sorgeenheid werk met betrekking tot kliniese besluitneming wat die aanwending van bloedprodukfilters tydens neonatale transfusie betref. Aanvullend het die oorsig onthul dat daar geen volledige riglyne bestaan, of voorsien word, vir professionele verpleegkundiges in gevalle waar hul met so ’n besluit gekonfronteer word. Die studie is in twee fases gedoen. In Fase een is ’n vraelys ontwerp gebaseer op konsepte en temas uit die literatuur geїdentifiseer, waarna dit gevalideer is deur kundiges. Die vraelyste is uitgegee aan 10 genomineerde privaat- en publieke hospitale met neonatale inesiewe sorgeenhede in Gauteng vir voltooiing. Die voltooide vraelyste is gesorteer en geanaliseer. Deelnemers is self-genomineerd; die navorser het hulle toegelaat om self te besluit of hulle wou deelneem aan die studie of nie. Deelnemers en hospitale se name is op geen stadium bekend gemaak nie. Nommers is gebruik om die vraelyste te identifiseer. In Fase twee is die uitslae van die vraelyste gebruik om riglyne te ontwerp om gebruik te word in neonatale intensiewe sorgeenhede deur professionele verpleegkundiges vir neonatale transfusie. Riglyne vir neonatale transfusie is geformuleer volgens die uitkoms van die vraelyste in kombinasie sowel as die oorsig van die reeds bestaande literatuur deur middel van induktiewe en deduktiewe beredenering. Aangesien professionele verpleegkundiges kennis moet dra van algemene riglyne om spesifieke riglyne te kan toepas, is die riglyne in twee kategorieë verdeel: Algemene riglyne en Spesifieke bloedprodukte riglyne. Deur hierdie studie in twee verskillende omgewings, naamlik privaat- en publieke instansies te doen, en 10 eenhede van een area (Gauteng) in Suid- Afrika daarby te betrek, sowel as om ’n relatief groot steekproef te gebruik, is die oordraagbaarheid van die uitkoms van die studie na ander streke verhoog. Die navorser het aanbeveel dat verdere studies oor dieselfde onderwerp gedoen word, en die uitkomste daarvan vergelyk word met die resultaat van hierdie studie. Die uitkoms die studie sal dan meer oordraagbaar wees na ander streke in Suid-Afrika. Die uitgebreide literatuuroorsig, die betrokkenheid van kundiges en die navorser se eie ondervinding en kennis in die neonatale intensiewe sorgverpleegkunde, het bygedra tot die vertrouenswaardigheid van die studie. Kundiges op die gebied van neonatale verpleegkunde en bloedtransfusie was betrokke, sowel as ’n biostatistikus verbonde aan die Universiteit van Pretoria. Etiese beginsels is gevolg. Die navorser was nie bewus van, en is ook nie gekonfronteer met enige etiese dilemmas of probleme tydens die studie nie. Konfidensialiteit is deurgaans gehandhaaf in die studie deurdat geen name van die deelnemers of hospitale genoem is nie. Alle inligting met betrekking tot die studie is aan die relevante partye verstrek en die deelnemers het almal uit eie vrye wil ’n ingeligte toestemmingsvorm onderteken. Toestemming om die studie te doen is ook verkry van die genomineerde hospitale se bestuur. Toestemming om die studie te doen is verkry van die Etiese Komittee van die Fakulteit van Gesondheidswetenskappe, Universiteit van Pretoria. Daar was geen risiko’s betrokke aan die studie nie, slegs voordele, aangesien die doel van die studie was om die professionele verpleegkundiges in die neonatale intensiewe sorgeenhede behulpsaam te wees met besluitneming rakende die gebruik van bloedprodukfilters tydens transfusie van bloed of bloedprodukte aan ’n neonaat. Die bevindings van die studie is bedoel om die kliniese praktyk van verpleging in neonatale intensiewe sorgeenhede te verbeter. Gevolglik word ’n aanbeveling gemaak dat hierdie riglyne geïmplimenteer word in neonatale intensiewe sorgeenhede, opleidingsinstansies sowel as die Suid-Afrikaanse Bloedoortappingsdiens.Dissertation (MCur)--University of Pretoria, 2011.Nursing Scienceunrestricte

Municipal solid waste management in the city of Polokwane Municipality : assessment of the current status, problems and challenges

M.Sc. (Environmental Management)Abstract: Municipal solid waste management involves all the functions of direct waste generation, storage, collection, source separation, processing, transport, treatment, recovery and disposal to landfill in a manner that it will not be harmful to the environment. Management of municipal solid waste is a complex problem, mainly because of the constantly increasing amount of waste and its resultant financial implications. Municipalities are responsible for waste management in cities, and they are experiencing challenges in order to provide an efficient and effective waste management service. The aim of this study was to generate an overview of the current state of municipal solid waste management and challenges related to its management thereof in the City of Polokwane Municipality. Ninety questionnaires were administered randomly to selected residential areas of Flora Park, Nirvana and the Seshego Township where in each residential area 30 questionnaires were administered. Interviews were also conducted with key municipal official regarding their role, waste management practices as well as the waste minimisation initiatives in the municipality. The findings of the study revealed that solid waste management in the City of Polokwane Municipality only involves collection from households, and transportation of waste to the landfill for disposal. This simply means that source separation, recovery, and re-use are not part of the management system. This situation is the result of challenges that the municipality is facing which include insufficient funding, ineffective implementation of legislation and policies coupled with lack of cooperation with the community, which result in illegal dumping. The study concluded that there is much to be done in relation to proper waste management in the City of Polokwane because implementation of the municipal solid waste management is inadequate. It was therefore recommended that the municipality should work in collaboration with business and the community in order to address the challenges they are facing

Health shocks, medical insurance and household vulnerability: Evidence from South Africa.

BACKGROUND:South Africa has a dual system of healthcare model differentiated across socio-economic lines. While on the one hand there exists high quality private facilities that is expensive and accessible to the minority, on the other is the free but stretched and over-crowded public healthcare that the rest of the population relies on. Accessing private facilities requires private medical insurance or requires coping strategies that can lead to household vulnerability. OBJECTIVE:The objective of this study is to analyse the relationship between health shocks and household vulnerability in the South African context of high poverty and low medical insurance penetration rate. DATA:The study employs data from waves three to five of South Africa's nationally representative National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) conducted between the period 2012-2017 in approximately two-year intervals. METHODS:Using food expenditure shock as an indicator for vulnerability, the study utilises a range of econometric techniques from panel logit regression to quasi-experimental design based difference in difference regressions to assess the association between health shocks, medical insurance and household vulnerability. FINDINGS:The main finding of the study is that a significant proportion of households in the upper income quintile utilise private healthcare even when not covered by private medical insurance. This preference for private over public health facilities make them vulnerable to health shocks as they cope by sacrificing food consumption to incur additional health expenditure. In contrast, lower income households that are unable to access the high-cost private healthcare tend to rely on the strained public healthcare system. They are not able to use their constrained food expenditure as a coping strategy for private or out-of-pocket medical expenses because their food consumption is already at a bare minimum. CONCLUSION:The results confirm that access to quality healthcare is a privilege in South Africa, available only to the minority of the population. The study paints a grim picture of household vulnerability in South Africa and underlines the need for a National Health Insurance that would enable universal access to quality healthcare in the country

The indiginisation of customary law : creating an indingenous legal pluralism

In the advent of the current dispensation, South Africa’s Constitution elucidates that customary law is in parallel with common law under section 39 of the Constitution,1 in light to this contention, the study begs to claim that this is only superficial.2 The constitutional advancement of customary law has been delayed in terms of legislative and judicial reform and development, and the legislature is inattentive with respect to remedying the inadequate position customary law is placed in. Instead, the legislature has been replacing customary law considered ‘non-transformative and undeveloped’, with common law to promptly deal with customary disputes.3 The insufficiency of the development and reform of customary law allows the judiciary and the legislature to limit the development of customary law as a whole in terms of its application and interpretation. It is highly significant to engage with the need to ascertain indigenous people's human rights in South Africa, by paving the way and ensuring due regard to their legal regimes.4 Even at the advent of the codified version of customary law; there are still ambiguities and misunderstandings that exist within the official customary law.5 Engaging in the creation of indigenous legal pluralism in questioning whether customary law can exist as a separate pluralism within the South African state law pluralism, it is both bold and daunting. If an argument cannot be successfully made, the question left to ask by the study is, can customary exist successfully, undistorted and purposefully within the current dispensation? Can the courts and the legislature ensure its constant development and codification, especially giving due regard to living customary law and the customs that exist concurrently? There are foreign and international legal improvements and ways in which some states seek to enforce indigenous people's rights to self-determination and enforcing their legal regimes to recognise and apply their laws in solving their prevailing customary disputes.6 A comparative analysis is essential to assess the longstanding argument that will be made in the study. It is of great significance to consider not only national law in terms of seeking advancement and legislative reform of South Africa’s indigenous pluralism. Additionally, comparatively studying the legal status of foreign customary law that will be used in the study to shed light on how to create such deep indigenous pluralism. Not only considering foreign law but also the current reform of intellectual property law and environmental law; which seeks to recognise the indigenous people's rights for the protection of their indigenous knowledge and resources, respectively. The study would like to engage such legislative reform in order to answer the daunting question of the creation of deep indigenous legal pluralism to ascertain indigenous people's legal regimes and the hegemonic realism of their customary law.Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2019.Private LawLLMUnrestricte

Economic and demographic performance of municipalities in South Africa : an application of Zipf's rule

CITATION: Morudu, H. & Du Plessis, D. 2013. Economic and demographic performance of municipalities in South Africa : an application of Zipf's rule. Town and Regional Planning, 63:24-36.The original publication is available at http://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/trpThere are vast differences among South African local municipalities, with a limited number of large municipalities (both in terms of population size and economic activity) and a seemingly disproportionate number of intermediate-sized and small municipalities. No clear systematic national approach has yet been adopted to assess the distribution of core variables at municipal level in South Africa. Zipf’s rule, which postulates a consistent regularity in the size and rank of cities, is applied to disaggregate the performance of South African local municipalities in terms of three variables (population, Gross Value Added and municipal income) within the overall national settlement pattern. The results indicate that the Zipf rank size rule distribution is applicable to municipal level population data in South Africa, but less so for Gross Value Added and municipal income. The position and relative changes of municipalities along the Zipf curve between 2001 and 2011 also provide plausible indications of potential future trajectories of the three variables classified according to the dominant settlement typology within each municipality. The results also emphasise the significant conceptual limitations when using only legally defined administrative municipal boundaries for analysis purposes without also considering economically functional boundaries.http://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/trp/article/view/530Publisher's versio

The indigenisation of customary law : creating an indigenous legal pluralism within the South African dispensation : possible or not?

The article examines the possibility of creating an indigenous legal pluralism within the South African context. Due to the historical and current marginalisation of customary law, can customary law be developed, reformed and codified? Furthermore, can the legal regimes and human rights of indigenous people of South Africa be ascertained? The article renegades the historical marginalisation of customary law due to colonialism and apartheid; where indigenous people’s legal regimes were placed subordinate to common law. The article further implores the current status of indigenous law nationally and internationally. The article seeks to advance the argument based on legislative and judicial analysis, that customary law is still marginalised under the current constitutional dispensation. The international call and new recognition of customary law are commendable; the article seeks to review whether South Africa is keeping up or not to the international directives embedded within declarations and conventions they are a signatory to. The article will further comparatively analyse foreign countries that have managed to do what South Africa is struggling to achieve with regard to the recognition, development, application, and reform of customary law.http://www.dejure.up.ac.zaam2022Private La

First-principles study of binary austenitic Ni-Cu alloys

The backbone of the Monel alloys is built on the Ni-Cu system. As a result of their inherent properties such as high strength, toughness and excellent corrosion resistance, these alloys are widely used in marine, chemical and oil industries. A major setback of Ni-Cu alloys in application is the unsatisfactory wear performance. One way to get a grip around this issue is by understanding their fundamental properties. Thus, in order to lay a foundation for future materials development, this study employs first-principles approach to predict structural and mechanical properties of binary Ni-Cu austenitic alloys