Die immunologie van HIV

Some characteristics of HIV, a retrovirus which is the causative agent of AIDS, and the immune system, are discussed in this paper to help one understand the mechanism and development of this devastating viral infection. The conclusion of this paper is that a suitable vaccine or drug, if and whenever it becomes available, is not the answer to this fatal disease. The only solution is to be found in educating the youth to implement Scriptural values in their life styles

A deep learning approach to diabetic blood glucose prediction

We consider the question of 30-minute prediction of blood glucose levels measured by continuous glucose monitoring devices, using clinical data. While most studies of this nature deal with one patient at a time, we take a certain percentage of patients in the data set as training data, and test on the remainder of the patients; i.e., the machine need not re-calibrate on the new patients in the data set. We demonstrate how deep learning can outperform shallow networks in this example. One novelty is to demonstrate how a parsimonious deep representation can be constructed using domain knowledge

A near-infrared study of the star forming region RCW 34

We report the results of a near-infrared imaging study of a $7.8 \times 7.8$ arcmin$^2$ region centered on the 6.7 GHz methanol maser associated with the RCW 34 star forming region using the 1.4m IRSF telescope at Sutherland. A total of 1283 objects were detected simultaneously in J, H, and K for an exposure time of 10800 seconds. The J-H, H-K two-colour diagram revealed a strong concentration of more than 700 objects with colours similar to what is expected of reddened classical T Tauri stars. The distribution of the objects on the K {\it vs} J-K colour-magnitude diagram is also suggestive that a significant fraction of the 1283 objects is lower mass pre-main sequence stars. We also present the luminosity function for the subset of about 700 pre-main sequence stars and show that it suggests ongoing star formation activity for about $10^7$ years. An examination of the spatial distribution of the pre-main sequence stars shows that the fainter (older) part of the population is more dispersed over the observed region and the brighter (younger) subset is more concentrated around the position of the O8.5V star. This suggests that the physical effects of the O8.5V star and the two early B-type stars on the remainder of the cloud out of which they formed, could have played a role in the onset of the more recent episode of star formation in RCW 34.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa

Academic biliteracies: Multilingual repertoires in higher education

© 2017 David M. Palfreyman, Christa van der Walt and the authors of individual chapters. All rights reserved. Research on academic literacy within higher education has focused almost exclusively on the development of academic literacy in English. This book is unique in showing how students use other languages when they engage with written academic content - whether in reading, discussing or writing - and how increasingly multilingual higher education campuses open up the possibility for students to exploit their multilingual repertoires in and around reading/writing for academic purposes. Chapters range from cases of informal student use of different written languages, to pedagogical, institutional and disciplinary strategies leveraging multilingual resources to develop biliteracy. They are ordered according to two dominant themes. The first includes accounts of diverse multilingual contexts where biliteracy practices emerge in response to the demands of academic reading and writing. The second theme focuses on more deliberate attempts to teach biliteracy or to teach in a way that supports biliteracy. The collection will be of interest to researchers, higher education practitioners and students of multilingual higher education and academic literacy

International comparisons of Foundation Phase number domain mathematics knowledge and practice standards

Poor mathematics performance in schools is both a national and an international concern. Teachers ought to be equipped with relevant subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge as one way to address this problem. However, no mathematics knowledge and practice standards have as yet been defined for the preparation of Foundation Phase student teachers in South Africa. To make recommendations for the drafting of such standards for final year Foundation Phase teachers, we compared different policy documents. We performed a document analysis on policy documents from South Africa, The Netherlands, Australia and North Carolina (United States of America), all of which addressed the number domain in mathematics. Our findings indicate that knowledge standards ought to include subject matter knowledge, while practice standards require pedagogical content knowledge, noting that neither of these are fulfilled in the education system in South Africa at present.Key words: foundation phase; knowledge and practice standards; mathematical knowledge; number domain; pedagogical content knowledge; policy documents; subject matter knowledg

Forensic entomology: relevant to legal dispute resolution?

Forensic entomology is the study of insects and other arthropods associated with certain suspected criminal events, for the purpose of uncovering information useful to a legal investigation. This contribution considers the relevance of this biological science to the judicial process.We conclude that although the inherent nature of the science and a lack of expertise and resources hamper its integration into the legal system, its value and general acceptance is consistently recognized in other jurisdictions. Although forensic entomology evidence has to date been accepted in only one South African case, it has been utilized in numerous criminal investigations in this country. Also, various initiatives have been launched to increase its utilization and improve the reliability of its results. If these endeavours prove to be successful, forensic entomology could become increasingly relevant to legal dispute resolution

Suid-Afrika se volhoubaarheid in die lig van wêreldbeelde: Prakties-teologiese perspektiewe

Sustainability in South Africa in the light of worldviews: Practical theological perspectives. According to the index of Fund for Peace (FFP) regarding the sustainability of different countries, the situation in South Africa is unfavourable due to phenomena such as a growing demographic pressure on natural resources and unequal distribution of wealth. This condition can be attributed to a greater or lesser extent to the way in which South Africa is governed by the ruling party. The researchers investigate whether this unsustainable situation could possibly be connected to the worldview(s) of the ruling party. The concept worldview is briefly described and analysed in the context of the composition and development of the ruling political party. After that, some connections between worldview and sustainability are examined. The article concludes by exploring the way in which Christians who want to obey God’s Word in all aspects of their lives, should think about sustainability and about what they could do to improve the situation in South Africa. The central theoretical argument of this article is that a reformational worldview can provide a framework for people to evaluate and change, if necessary, their thinking, decisions and behaviour in order to promote sustainability in South Africa to the benefit of all her citizens