An Analysis of Specialist Surgeons and their Practices

A purposive sample of South African doctors provided data for the analysis of revenues, costs and earnings associated with specialist surgical medicine. Empirical analysis of the data, based on both nonparametric and parametric regression, finds that practice revenues increase by, on average, between R690 and R1050 per new patient, while costs increase by between R690 and 750 per patient. The total number of surgeries performed is not a consistently significant predictor of revenues, although it is a consistently cubic determinant of costs. In terms of total earnings, the total number of patients tends to decrease earnings, while the number of new patients increases earnings. Due to the low response rate in the survey, there is a a need to conduct further research into this topic, to provide better information to both specialists and the South African Department of Health, which sets pay packages for public sector health workers.

Dialects of design education: Exploring an appropriate approach to contemporary interiors in historical buildings.

Due to economic adversities brought on by the global recession, rapid urbanisation of the developing world and the need for sustainable design, a pressing need has arisen to incorporate appropriate and meaningful contemporary interiors in historical buildings. Initial informants of this study identified a need for interior design students to develop awareness and suitable skills to design such regenerating contemporary interiors and that interior design curricula include these critical-analytical skills. This paper provides a conceptual framework that hopes to assist students to achieve the desired coherence contemporary interiors owe their historical environments through the design of multisensory environments. This will be done by exploring the notions of small narratives, neo-plasticism, stratification and detailing. By probing how these principles may be found in two case studies, Castelvecchio in Verona and Museum van de Caab outside Cape Town, this study hopes to indicate how multisensory environments may be analysed and designed.N/

Igniting imagination through darkness: discovering fear and fantasy through shadows, silence and the invisible.

Darkness invites imagination. On the one hand, it creates intimacy. It has been observed by many artforms that we feel the need to close off our vision during intense emotional experiences, during dreaming, listening to music, or caressing our loved ones. Shadows can be seen to do this for us, as they dim vision and entice unconscious peripheral vision and tactile fantasy. On the other hand, darkness entices fear. A person, who is afraid of the dark, writes Finnish architect Palasmaa, has no factual reason to fear darkness as such; he is afraid of his own imagination. Darkness, or the lack of light, is also often accompanied by silence and has the ominous ability to render the visible invisible. To probe the experience of darkness, this paper will refer to the philosophical position of phenomenology. In this regard, darkness is seen as a phenomenon that is experienced through our bodily senses. The phenomenology of darkness will be investigated be making reference to the way we project ourselves onto architectural spaces, also known as ‘mimesis of the body’. Furthermore, it will be investigated how our perceptions, memories and imaginings of past experiences influence such projections. This paper hopes to show how the relation between imagination, our mental faculty that forms images of external concepts not present to the senses, and darkness, can be understood by interpreting spatial narratives of architectural interiors. A selection of evocative interiors will be interpreted in terms of three factors that contribute to the phenomenology of darkness: shadows, silence, and the invisible. By doing so, this paper hopes to indicate how darkness has strong existential expressions that can be incorporated into spatial narratives in architectural interiors.N/

The effect of HIV and antiretroviral therapy on chromosomal radiosensitivity

Introduction: Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) has led to an improvement in survival of HIV infected individuals. Some of them will develop cancer during the course of their infection and will require radiation therapy. HIV positive cancer patients have presented with adverse side effects of radiotherapy and elevated chromosomal radiosensitivity. This study investigated if ART has an influence on chromosomal radiosensitivity of HIV positive individuals. Methods and Materials: Blood samples from 60 HIV positive individuals were in vitro exposed to doses of X-rays of 0, 2 and 4Gy and chromosomal radiosensitivity was assessed with the micronucleus assay. The micronucleus assay was also performed on lymphocytes of a group of non HIV-infected health care workers taking prophylactic post-exposure ART to measure the effect of these ART drugs on chromosomal radiosensitivity without HIV as a confounding factor. Results: All HIV patients (those on ART and without ART) had significantly higher radiation induced Micronuclei (MN) than healthy controls. The MN yields increased in the HIV patients taking ART compared to HIV patients not on treatment. The evaluation of chromosomal radiosensitivity of health care workers on ART revealed no effects of ART. Conclusions: HIV positive individuals show an increased chromosomal radiosensitivity. Antiretroviral treatment given to HIV positive individuals can lead to enhanced chromosomal radiosensitivity and therefore impose higher risks for radiotherapy side effects in these patients

A framework for acquiring the resources vital for the start-up of a business in South Africa:an African Immigrant’s Perspective

Using a triangulation of three methods, we devise a framework for the acquisition of the resources vital for the start-up of a business in South Africa. Against the backdrop of the fact that numerous challenges prohibit African immigrants from starting a business, let alone growing the business, we set out to investigate how those who succeed acquired the necessary resources. Within the quantitative paradigm, the survey questionnaire was used to collect and analyze the data. To compliment the quantitative approach, personal interviews and focus groups were utilised as the methods within the qualitative approach paradigm. The research revealed that an African immigrant entrepreneur is most likely to be a male between the ages of 19 and 41 who has been forced to immigrate by political circumstances. Once in South Africa, limited job opportunities forced these immigrants into starting-up a business. In order of importance, financial, informational, human and physical, resources were identified as being critical for the start-up a business. With respect to the acquisition of resources, African immigrant entrepreneurs unwillingly made use of personal savings to finance their businesses during the start-up phase of the business. Financial resource played a double role in that it determined the main sources of physical resources used. From a human resource perspective, African immigrant entrepreneurs preferred employing South Africans during the start-up phase of the business, and the reverse was true during the growth phase. To a limited extent family labour was involved at both the start-up as well as the operation phases of the business; with formal education and prior experience playing an indirect role as far as the human resources mixed were concerned. In terms of information, African immigrant entrepreneurs made use of two primary sources of information namely; their ethnic networks and friends from somewhere else.South Africa, African immigrants, business start-up resources, SMMEs,framework, self employment

Sustainable ARTiculation: Adapting significant interiors to contemporary art galleries.

Historical interiors can certainly be seen as repositories for cultural sustainability. They have diachronic aesthetic value and provide us with cultural identity. Their physical materials and methods of construction offer us a connection to the past. These interiors and their functions often become obsolete and require new functions more suited to our modern-day society. Historical interiors commonly get converted into contemporary art exhibition venues. The re-programming of historical interiors helps to keep these places relevant. It becomes a sustainable alternative to desertion or demolition, and ruination. However, in many cases old interiors are adapted to contemporary white box galleries, which compromise their internal meaning and significance. Heritage legislation offers protection in this regard. However, these guidelines are vague and do not offer concrete methods on the responsive adaptation of historical interiors into contemporary exhibition spaces. To address this concern, additional methods for responsive adaptation are highlighted and investigated in this paper. This will be done by making reference to various art installations at the bi-annual Venice Bienalle. Through these cases we hope to provide insight to interior designer by showcasing the practical implementation of culturally sustainable approaches to historical interior conversions.N/

Chromosomal radiosensitivity of human immunodeficiency virus positive/negative cervical cancer patients in South Africa

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer amongst South African women and is the leading cause of cancer-associated mortality in this region. Several international studies on radiation-induced DNA damage in lymphocytes of cervical cancer patients have remained inconclusive. Despite the high incidence of cervical cancer in South Africa, and the extensive use of radiotherapy to treat it, the chromosomal radiosensitivity of South African cervical cancer patients has not been studied to date. Since a high number of these patients are human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive, the effect of HIV infection on chromosomal radiosensitivity was also investigated. Blood samples from 35 cervical cancer patients (20 HIV-negative and 15 HIV-positive) and 20 healthy controls were exposed to X-rays at doses of 6 MV of 2 and 4 Gy in vitro. Chromosomal radiosensitivity was assessed using the micronucleus (MN) assay. MN scores were obtained using the Metafer 4 platform, an automated microscopic system. Three scoring methods of the MNScore module of Metafer were applied and compared. Cervical cancer patients had higher MN values than healthy controls, with HIV-positive patients having the highest MN values. Differences between groups were significant when using a scoring method that corrects for false positive and false negative MN. The present study suggested increased chromosomal radiosensitivity in HIV-positive South African cervical cancer patients

Accepting change as part of organisational life : does this resonate with high-change organisations in South Africa?

This article proposes a new concept, co-change-orientated communication (co-COC), which encapsulates the daily social and communication processes of organisational members in making sense of change from a critical strategic communication perspective. Guided by an evolutionary approach to concept development, this article aims to quantitatively measure the pragmatic relevance of identified attributes and antecedents of co-COC to the development of a fully-fledged concept at six high change South African organisations. An exploratory factor analysis confirmed that co-COC is attributed by meaningful dialogue, employee engagement, collaboration and co-creation and the encouragement of dissent. It is bottom-up in nature and enabled by the antecedents of organisational agility, leadership agility, a change-able culture and stakeholder engagement. co-COC further extends theoretical development on the need for change communication approaches that support ongoing organisational change and has potential to assist communication professionals to recognise the need and pragmatic relevance of contemporary developments in strategic communication. The various antecedents and attributes of co-COC could also provide organisations with guidance on the implementation of change-orientated communication approaches in support of ongoing organisational change.Communication Scienc