The Fc Orth(SA) final examination. How effective is the written component?

Background: To determine the pass rate of the final exit examination of the College of Orthopaedic Surgeons of South Africa [FC Orth(SA)] and to assess the correlation between the written component with the clinical and oral component. Methods: Results of candidates who participated in the FC Orth(SA) final examination during a 12-year period from March 2005 through to November 2016 were assessed retrospectively. Pass rates and component averages were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Spearman's rho test was used to determine the correlation between the components. Results: A total of 399 candidates made 541 attempts at the written component of the examination; 71.5% of attempts were successful and 387 candidates were invited to the clinical and oral component, of which 341 (88%) candidates were certified. The second-attempt pass rate for those candidates who wrote the written component again was 42%. The average annual increase in the number of certified candidates was 8.5%. The overall certifying rate increased by 1.5% for this period. Invited candidates who scored less than 54% for the written component were at significant risk of failing the clinical and oral component. The written component showed weak correlation with the clinical and oral component (r=O.48). Conclusion: While the written component was found to be an effective gatekeeper, as evidenced by a high eventual certifying rate, the results of this component of the FCOrth(SA) final examination did not correlate strongly with the performance in the clinical and oral component. This finding confirms the value of the written component as part of a comprehensive assessment for the quality of orthopaedic surgeons

Isothermal oxidation kinetics of industrial South African chromite concentrates in air

DATA AVAILABILITY : Data will be made available on request.The oxidation of chromite pellets prior to smelting in a submerged arc furnace is key to ensuring that maximum benefit can be derived in the subsequent smelting step. Oxidized pellet feed material reduces operating costs by increasing energy and reductant efficiency, as well as increasing chrome recoveries. There is significant compositional variance in chromites used in South African chromite smelting operations due to the different seams from which the materials are mined. The impact of these variances on the extent and rate of oxidation of chromite ores has not been studied before, and it was the impetus for this study. A detailed kinetic study was carried out on three different types of chromite ores, originating from different commercially mined seams in South Africa, specifically the UG2, LG6 and MG seams. Thermogravimetric analysis was performed on these samples in air at temperatures ranging from 873 to 1473 K, which was used as input to the kinetic analysis. The proposed mechanism of chromite oxidation was found to occur in two stages: initially by random nucleation and growth of a sesquioxide phase, followed by a three-dimensional diffusion-controlled mechanism. The activation energy for oxidation was found to be similar for UG2 and LG6 ore, but higher for MG at all tested temperatures. The effect of chromite composition, temperature, and time on the extent of oxidation (α) was further quantified and captured in a single regression equation, confirming that time and temperature increase the extent and rate of oxidation. The Ti content was found to be directly correlated with higher values of α for a given time and temperature. The regression equation partially resembles the functional form of the diffusivity equation for cations in chromite found in the literature. It was also found that the distribution between Cr and Al impedes oxidation, with higher Cr content resulting in lower values of α for a given time and temperature.Samancor Chrome.https://www.elsevier.com/locate/minenghj2024Materials Science and Metallurgical EngineeringSDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructur

Excessive nitrogen fertilization is a limitation to herbage yield and nitrogen use efficiency of dairy pastures in South Africa

CITATION: Phohlo, M. P., Swanepoel, P. A. & Hinck, S. 2022. Excessive nitrogen fertilization is a limitation to herbage yield and nitrogen use efficiency of dairy pastures in South Africa. Sustainability, 14(7), 4322, doi:10.3390/su14074322.The original publication is available at https://www.mdpi.comPublication of this article was funded by the Stellenbosch University Open Access FundThe response of crop yields to fertilizers is a long-standing topic of agricultural production. Currently, in dairy-pasture systems, nitrogen (N) fertilizer is used as a management tool that is said to be directly proportional to pasture yield. We evaluated a large dataset consisting of data from 153 fields over five years to examine the effects of N fertilization on pasture yield and nitrogen use efficiency in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Fertilizer application rates were grouped into three treatments viz., 350 kg N ha−1 , and herbage yield response over the years was analyzed with mixed models. There were no differences found between treatments for total annual herbage yield over the years. High N fertilizer rates did not translate to a higher herbage yield of pastures. The N rate had a weak but significant negative correlation with the total annual yield and only accounted for 6% of the yield variation. The N use efficiency of pastures improved with reduced N application rates. Pasture yield varies through different seasons. Spring and summer account for the highest yield, coinciding with warm and moist conditions favorable for N mineralization in the soil. Farmers need to consider the time of the year and plan their monthly or seasonal fertilizer application accordingly to account for peak N mineralization rates.https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/7/4322Publisher's versio

Hearing aid experiences of adult hearing aid owners during and after fitting : a systematic review of qualitative studies

There has been an increasing number of qualitative studies exploring the experiences and perceptions of adult hearing aid owners throughout their hearing aid journey. As these studies and reported experiences vary greatly, a systematic review was conducted to identify and synthesize the key concepts in adult hearing aid owners’ experiences during and after fitting. A systematic search of three electronic databases was conducted, yielding 443 results. Articles were evaluated for inclusion based on pre-determined eligibility criteria, including conventional, smartphone-connected, and direct-to-consumer hearing devices. Twenty-five studies met the inclusion criteria. The quality of the included articles was evaluated using the Rating of Qualitative Research scale. Guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) and the Synthesis Without Meta-Analysis (SWiM) were followed. A narrative synthesis was conducted, and studies were grouped into three main domains, namely experiences of owners related to a) hearing aid adoption and fitting (n = 3), b) hearing aid use (n = 20), and c) hearing aid sub-optimal use (n = 25). Hearing aid owners mainly reported on how their attitude towards hearing aids affected experiences during the fitting stage. Improved psychosocial functioning was the most prevalent perceived benefit of hearing aid use. Owners described sub-optimal use in terms of hearing device-related and non-device-related concepts. The COM-B (capability, opportunity, motivation-behavior) model is used to discuss specific service-delivery, hearing-device, and hearing-aid-owner related concepts and clinical implications, including behavior change techniques to enhance understanding of the concepts that hearing aid owners perceive as essential to improve hearing aid experiences.Supplementary Table 1. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA 2020) statement (Page et al., 2021).Supplementary Table 2. Synthesis Without Meta-analysis (SWiM) reporting guideline (Campbell et al., 2020) as an extension to PRISMA.Supplementary Table 3. Synthesized concepts about experiences related to hearing aid adoption and fitting (domain 1). Here and in later supplementary tables, density indicates the number of studies that reported on the concept.Supplementary Table 4. Synthesized concepts about experiences related to hearing aid use: getting used to hearing aids (sub-domain 2a).Supplementary Table 5. Synthesized concepts about experiences related to hearing aid use: benefits associated with hearing aid use (sub-domain 2b).Supplementary Table 6. Synthesized concepts about experiences related to hearing aid use: facilitators of hearing aid use (sub-domain 2c).Supplementary Table 7. Synthesized concepts about experiences related to hearing aid sub-optimal use: device-related challenges (sub-domain 3a).Supplementary Table 8. Synthesized concepts about experiences related to hearing aid sub-optimal use: non-device-related challenges (sub-domain 3b).Supplementary Table 9. Quality assessment scores for the included studies by means of the Rating of Qualitative Research scale.Sonova, AGhttp://journals.sagepub.com/home/tiahj2022Speech-Language Pathology and Audiolog

How to improve audiology services : the patient perspective

Hearing aids are a common management option in audiological rehabilitation, but hearing aid use remains low, as only 17% of people who need the devices use them. This is particularly concerning with nearly 2.5 billion people estimated to have some degree of hearing loss by 2050, and of whom at least 30% will require rehabilitation services. Hearing loss treatment is increasingly indicating pervasive positive effects extending beyond only improving hearing to enhancing a person’s well-being—whether cognitive, socio-emotional, or physical—such as protecting from or slowing down cognitive decline, lowering the risk of depression, and ultimately improving quality of life.http://journals.lww.com/thehearingjournal/pages/default.aspxhj2023Speech-Language Pathology and Audiolog

The oxidation behavior of a selection of South African chromites

Please read abstract in the article.Samancor Chrome.https://link.springer.com/journal/116632023-09-28hj2023Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineerin

Referral Criteria for Preschool Hearing Screening in Resource-Constrained Settings: A Comparison of Protocols.

Purpose This study aimed to describe and compare the performance of two screening protocols used for preschool hearing screening in resource-constrained settings. Method Secondary data analysis was done to determine the performance of two protocols implemented during a preschool hearing screening program using mobile health technology in South Africa. Pure-tone audiometry screening at 25 dB HL for 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz in each ear was used by both protocols. The fail criterion for the first protocol (2,147 children screened) constituted a no-response on one or more frequencies in either ear. The second protocol required two or more no-responses (5,782 children). Multivariate logistic regression models were used to investigate associations between outcomes and protocol, age, gender, and duration. Results Fail rates for the one-frequency fail protocol was 8.7% (n = 186) and 4.3% (n = 250) for the two-frequency fail protocol. Children screened with the two-frequency fail protocol were 52.9% less likely to fail (p < .001; OR = 0.471; 95% confidence interval [0.385, 0.575]). Gender (p = .251) and age (p = .570) had no significant effect on screening outcome. A percentage of cases screened (44.7%) exceeded permissible noise levels in at least one ear at 1000 Hz across both protocols. True- and false-positive cases did not differ significantly between protocols. Protocol type (p = .204), gender (p = .314), and age (p = .982) did not affect the odds of being a true-positive result. Average screening time was 72.8 s (78.66 SD) and 64.9 s (55.78 SD) for the one-frequency and two-frequency fail protocols, respectively. Conclusions A two-frequency fail criterion and immediate rescreen of failed frequencies significantly reduced referral rate for follow-up services that are often overburdened in resourced-constrained settings. Future protocol adaptations can also consider increasing the screening levels at 1000 Hz to minimize the influence of environmental noise

Prevalence and characteristics of hearing and vision loss in preschool children from low income South African communities: results of a screening program of 10,390 children.

BACKGROUND: The majority of children with sensory impairments live in low- and middle-income countries. More studies of hearing and vision impairment prevalence are needed, in order to generate more accurate estimates of trends in sensory impairments. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence and describe the characteristics of hearing and vision loss among preschool children (4-7 years) in an underserved South African community following community-based mobile health (mHealth) supported hearing and vision services. METHODS: A screening program of sensory impairments was undertaken of children attending preschools in the communities of Khayelitsha and Mitchell's Plain, Cape Town, from September 2017 until June 2019. Hearing and vision screening were done by trained community health workers using mHealth technology. Children who failed hearing and vision screening were seen for follow-up assessments at their preschools. Follow-up assessments were conducted using smartphones that host point-of-care validated and calibrated hearing and vision testing applications (hearTest app, hearX Group, South Africa and PeekAcuity app, Peek Vision, United Kingdom). Descriptive statistical analysis and logistic regression analysis were conducted after extracting data from a secure cloud-based server (mHealth Studio, hearX Group) to Microsoft Excel (2016). RESULTS: A total of 10,390 children were screened at 298 preschools over 22 months. Of the children screened, 5.6 and 4.4% of children failed hearing and vision screening respectively. Community-based follow-up hearing tests were done at the preschools on 88.5% (514) of children of whom 240 children (54.2% female) presented with hearing loss. A preschool-based follow-up vision test was done on 400 children (88.1%). A total of 232 children (46.1% female) had a vision impairment, and a further 32 children passed the test but had obvious signs of ocular morbidity. Logistic regression analysis found that age was a significant predictor of vision loss (p < 0.05), but not for hearing loss (p = 0.06). Gender was not a significant predictor of hearing (p = 0.22) or vision loss (p = 0.20). CONCLUSIONS: Hearing loss is prevalent in at least 22 per 1000 and vision loss in at least 23 per 1000 preschool children in an underserved South African community. Timely identification of sensory losses can be facilitated through community-based hearing and vision services supported by mHealth technology

Real-life and real-time hearing aid experiences : insights from self-initiated ecological momentary assessments and natural language analysis

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because of the mobile application’s data privacy notice. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to [email protected] : Smartphone technology can provide an effective means to bring real-life and (near-)real-time feedback from hearing aid wearers into the clinic. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) encourages listeners to report on their experiences during or shortly after they take place in order to minimize recall bias, e.g., guided by surveys in a mobile application. Allowing listeners to describe experiences in their own words, further, ensures that answers are independent of predefined jargon or of how survey questions are formulated. Through these means, one can obtain ecologically valid sets of data, for instance during a hearing aid trial, which can support clinicians to assess the needs of their clients, provide directions for fine-tuning, and counselling. At a larger scale, such datasets would facilitate training of machine learning algorithms that could help hearing technology to anticipate user needs. METHODS : In this retrospective, exploratory analysis of a clinical data set, we performed a cluster analysis on 8,793 open-text statements, which were collected through self-initiated EMAs, provided by 2,301 hearing aid wearers as part of their hearing care. Our aim was to explore how listeners describe their daily life experiences with hearing technology in (near-)real-time, in their own words, by identifying emerging themes in the reports. We also explored whether identified themes correlated with the nature of the experiences, i.e., selfreported satisfaction ratings indicating a positive or negative experience. RESULTS : Results showed that close to 60% of listeners’ reports related to speech intelligibility in challenging situations and sound quality dimensions, and tended to be valued as positive experiences. In comparison, close to 40% of reports related to hearing aid management, and tended to be valued as negative experiences. DISCUSSION : This first report of open-text statements, collected through selfinitiated EMAs as part of clinical practice, shows that, while EMA can come with a participant burden, at least a subsample of motivated hearing aid wearers could use these novel tools to provide feedback to inform more responsive, personalized, and family-centered hearing care.The NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre.https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/digital-healtham2024Speech-Language Pathology and AudiologySDG-03:Good heatlh and well-bein

Hearing and vision screening for preschool children using mobile technology, South Africa.

OBJECTIVE: To implement and evaluate a community-based hearing and vision screening programme for preschool children in the Western Cape, South Africa, supported by mobile health technology (mHealth) and delivered by community health workers (CHWs). METHODS: We trained four CHWs to provide dual sensory screening in preschool centres of Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain during September 2017-December 2018. CHWs screened children aged 4-7 years using mHealth software applications on smartphones. We used logistic regression analysis to evaluate the association between screening results and age, sex and test duration, and, for hearing, excessive background noise levels. RESULTS: CHWs screened 94.4% (8023/10?362) of eligible children at 271 centres at a cost of 5.63 United States dollars per child. The number of children who failed an initial hearing and visual test was 435 (5.4%) and 170 (2.1%), respectively. Hearing test failure was associated with longer test times (odds ratio, OR: 1.022; 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.021-1.024) and excessive background noise levels at 1 kilohertz (kHz) (e.g. OR for left ear: 1.688; 95% CI: 1.198-2.377). Visual screening failure was associated with longer test duration (OR: 1.003; 95% CI: 1.002-1.005) and younger age (OR: 0.629; 95% CI: 0.520-0.761). Of the total screened, 111 (1.4%) children were diagnosed with a hearing and/or visual impairment. CONCLUSION: mHealth-supported CHW-delivered hearing and vision screening in preschool centres provided a low-cost, acceptable and accessible service, contributing to lower referral numbers to resource-constrained public health institutions