Inequalities in public Further Education and Training colleges in South Africa.

This report investigates the implementation of the Further Education and Training (FET) College Act of 2006 whether it achieved the founding purpose of promoting quality education and expansion of equal opportunities for South Africa. The study followed a qualitative comparative case study in which two campuses of one college were examined. Data was collected through interviews, observation and documentary analysis. The study was based on the views expressed by the college management, lecturers, and students who are the role players in the Public Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges in South Africa. Interviews were conducted to college management, lecturers and students of Centurion and Odi Campuses of Tshwane South College with the intention of determining if the students at this college were exposed to equal and quality opportunities for teaching and learning. Data from documents such as students results, staff establishment, budget, were analysed with the purpose of profiling the students and staff at Tshwane South College. Participant observation of physical facilities and usage of these facilities was done with the aim to verify the developments aimed at improving both campuses. The fundamental principles shaping the FET College Act of 2006 are quality education and equalisation of teaching and learning opportunities. The study shows that the implementation of the FET College Act of 2006 has been to a lesser degree a success in so far as number of factors is concerned. A case in point is that there is increasing evidence that the gap that existed when it comes to job opportunities has diminished leaving more blacks, particularly women in senior positions when it comes to management and administration of the FET Colleges in South Africa. Notwithstanding the elementary changes brought by the FET College Act, the fundamental principle that is central to education and training being the quality education and equalisation of learning and teaching opportunities is still a challenge 15 years later into the democratic rule in South Africa. There is evidence of poor infrastructure, shortage of basic learning materials and poor results due to poor quality of education and training. The overall findings of this study suggest that the FET College Act of 2006 has significantly contributed to delivery of inferior quality education and it has further widened a gap between the ‘have and the have not’s’. The study therefore recommends the government to review the current policy and it calls for students of public policy to persuade a study on the impact that the FET College Act of 2006 had on the education of the ‘African child’

lHuman cytotoxic T lymphocytes with reduced sensitivity to Fas-induced apoptosis

Effector-memory T cells expressing Fas (Apo-1/CD95) are switched to an apoptotic program by cross-linking with Fas-ligand (FasL). Consequently, tumors that express FasL can induce apoptosis of infiltrating Fas-positive T lymphocytes and subdue any antitumor host immune response. Since Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated tumors such as Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) express FasL, we determined whether EBV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (EBV-CTLs) could be modified to resist this evasion strategy. We show that long-term down-modulation of Fas can be achieved in EBV-CTLs by transduction with small interfering RNA (siRNA) encoded in a retrovirus. Modified T cells resisted Fas/FasL-mediated apoptosis compared with control cells and showed minimal cleavage of the caspase3 substrate poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) protein after Fas engagement. Prolonged Fas stimulation selected a uniformly Fas(low) and FasL resistant population. Removal of responsiveness to this single death signal had no other discernible effects on EBV-CTLs. In particular, it did not lead to their autonomous growth since the modified EBV-CTLs remained polyclonal, and their survival and proliferation retained dependence on antigen-specific stimulation and on the presence of other physiologic growth signals. EBV-CTLs with knocked down Fas should have a selective functional and survival advantage over unmodified EBV-CTLs in the presence of tumors expressing FasL and may be of value for adoptive cellular therapy. (c) 2005 by The American Society of Hematology

Implementación de turismo comunitario como alternativa de desarrollo socioeconómico en las comunidades San Jacinto de Chinambí – Chinambí y San Patricio, parroquia Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño del cantón Mira - provincia del Carchi

El Ecuador es considerado un país pluricultural, multiétnico y mega diverso, es así que el cantón Mira al ser parte integral de este gran país, también hace prevalecer estos calificativos dándose a conocer como un cantón con grandes riquezas naturales y culturales que se manifiestan en la majestuosidad de su flora, fauna, agua, suelo y demás recursos naturales distribuidos en sus cuatro zonas climáticas conjugándose con habitantes mestizos, negros e indígenas awa; todos en conjunto constituyen un gran potencial para incursionar en el tema de turismo comunitario como verdadera alternativa de desarrollo local para la población cantonal. En el plan de desarrollo parroquial y cantonal, el turismo figura como una de las prioridades que requieren de atención e inversión urgente. Cabe mencionar que esta prioridad local encaja con el Plan Estratégico de Desarrollo del Turismo del Ecuador – PLANDETUR 2020 y su programa específico denominado “Desarrollo y Fortalecimiento del Turismo Comunitario y Patrimonio Cultural para el Turismo del Ecuador”. La parroquia Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño es la más grande en extensión territorial a nivel del cantón Mira y se conforma por riquezas naturales de ríos transparentes que drenan sus aguas a través de montañas y riveras de exuberante vegetación y variada fauna propia del lugar que es manejada y conservada por sus pobladores. Para las comunidades de San Jacinto de Chinambí, Chinambí, San Patricio y en general para la parroquia Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño, el turismo comunitario es visto como uno de los ejes promisorios para desarrollarse social, económica y ambientalmente en forma armónica y sustentable. La zona de intervención directa del presente proyecto es la microcuenca del Río Chinambí, pues esta unidad territorial encierra una serie de encantos naturales y culturales que se conjugan perfectamente para crear un producto turístico comunitario de calidad. Hasta ahora la carencia de recursos económicos, políticas, estrategias de desarrollo y apoyo local, regional y nacional, no han brindado las facilidades necesarias y suficientes para que estas poblaciones interesadas en la implementación de emprendimientos turísticos comunitarios puedan concretar sus proyectos y aspiraciones de desarrollo basadas en el turismo, siendo este un nicho de oportunidades que se encuentra poco aprovechado a nivel local y que a nivel de Ecuador y del mundo existe una demanda que va en constante aumento. El proyecto vislumbra actividades concentradas en cuatro ámbitos de acción, estos tienen que ver primeramente con la identificación y diseño estratégico de una ruta turística, consecutivamente la implementación de infraestructuras turísticas y un adecuado equipamiento de las mismas, un rol importante juega la promoción y comercialización del producto “turismo comunitario”, finalmente la capacitación y organización como eje transversal en todos los momentos del proyecto

Flow-Based Single Cell Deposition for High-Throughput Screening of Protein Libraries

The identification and engineering of proteins having refined or novel characteristics is an important area of research in many scientific fields. Protein modelling has enabled the rational design of unique proteins, but high-throughput screening of large libraries is still required to identify proteins with potentially valuable properties. Here we report on the development and evaluation of a novel fluorescent activated cell sorting based screening platform. Single bacterial cells, expressing a protein library to be screened, are electronically sorted and deposited onto plates containing solid nutrient growth media in a dense matrix format of between 44 and 195 colonies/cm2. We show that this matrix format is readily applicable to machine interrogation (<30 seconds per plate) and subsequent bioinformatic analysis (~60 seconds per plate) thus enabling the high-throughput screening of the protein library. We evaluate this platform and show that bacteria containing a bioluminescent protein can be spectrally analysed using an optical imager, and a rare clone (0.5% population) can successfully be identified, picked and further characterised. To further enhance this screening platform, we have developed a prototype electronic sort stream multiplexer, that when integrated into a commercial flow cytometric sorter, increases the rate of colony deposition by 89.2% to 24 colonies per second. We believe that the screening platform described here is potentially the foundation of a new generation of high-throughput screening technologies for proteins

Long Cycles in a Perturbed Mean Field Model of a Boson Gas

In this paper we give a precise mathematical formulation of the relation between Bose condensation and long cycles and prove its validity for the perturbed mean field model of a Bose gas. We decompose the total density $\rho=\rho_{{\rm short}}+\rho_{{\rm long}}$ into the number density of particles belonging to cycles of finite length ($\rho_{{\rm short}}$) and to infinitely long cycles ($\rho_{{\rm long}}$) in the thermodynamic limit. For this model we prove that when there is Bose condensation, $\rho_{{\rm long}}$ is different from zero and identical to the condensate density. This is achieved through an application of the theory of large deviations. We discuss the possible equivalence of $\rho_{{\rm long}}\neq 0$ with off-diagonal long range order and winding paths that occur in the path integral representation of the Bose gas.Comment: 10 page

The application of theory of constrain (TOC) in an organisation to resolve problems and to boost productivity

The theory of constraints (TOC) identifies constraints which are otherwise labelled as waste by lean. It isolates these constraints and provide resources in order to buffer and/or eliminate them completely. Its underlying premise is that organisations can be measured and controlled by variation on three measures which are throughput, operational expense and inventory. TOC challenges managers to rethink some of their fundamental assumptions about how to achieve the goals of their organizations, what they consider productive actions, and about the real purpose of cost management in order to maximize throughput through sales. It is about understanding bottlenecks to a process and better managing these bottlenecks to create an efficient process. The paper identifies inputs that are causing constraints. It explains the methodology to isolates them and how and when to apply TOC in minimising their impact. In order to prove this, a research was carried out in the Bakwena mine in South Africa where TOC was used to resolve recurring problems. The end results has shown that when problem area are isolated, conditions observed, resources allocated at the problem area and action taken to address problems immediately, positive results can be achieved

Supply Chain Information Management and Service Delivery in Public Health Sector Organizations: A Case Study on National Medical Stores of Uganda

AbstractThis paper describes the relationship between supply chain information management and service delivery efficiency in public health sector organizations. The three specific objectives of this paper are to: examine the relationship between supply chain information processing and service delivery; assess the relationship between supply chain information storage and service delivery; and lastly, to evaluate the relationship between supply chain information flow and service delivery. The researcher employed a positivist approach using a descriptive, case study and correlational designs. Using a researchers made five point Likert scale questionnaire, data was collected from a sample of 148 respondents. Of these, 56 respondents were from the National Medical Stores (NMS), while 92 were from supplementary sources (Mulago Hospital and Kisenyi Health Centre IV). Data was analyzed using means, and the Pearson Linear Correlation Coefficient. Findings revealed that, supply chain information management was at an average mean of 3.97, interpreted as high, while service delivery management was at an average mean of 2.94, interpreted as moderate. Correlation results on the other hand, indicated a positive and significant relationship between supply chain information management and service delivery of r-value 76% and Sig. value of 0.002. In light of this, the researcher therefore, concluded that supply chain information management positively contributes to service delivery, and that NMS should continue investing in the management of information within its supply chain process if it is to maximize services delivery