GPS analysis of a team competing at a national Under 18 field hockey tournament

The purpose of this study was to utilise global-positioning system (GPS) technology to quantify the running demands of national Under 18 field hockey players competing in a regional field hockey tournament. Ten male players (mean ± SD; age 17.2 ± 0.4 years; stature 178.1 ± 5.2 cm; body mass 78.8 ± 8.8 kg) wore GPS units while competing in six matches over seven days at the 2018 New Zealand national under 18 field hockey tournament. GPS enabled the measurement of total distance (TD), low-speed activity (LSA; 0 -14.9 km/hr), and high-speed running (HSR; ≥ 15 km/hr) distances. Differences in running demands (TD, LSA, HSR) between positions were assessed using effect size and percent difference ± 90% confidence intervals. Midfielders covered the most TD and LSA per game and strikers the most HSR during the 6 matches. There were “very large” differences between strikers and midfielders for TD and LSA, strikers and defenders for LSA and HSR, and defenders and midfielders for LSA. These results suggest that these playing positions are sufficiently different to warrant specialised position-specific conditioning training leading into a field hockey tournament

GPS analysis of a team competing in a national under 18 field hockey tournament

The purpose of this study was to utilise global-positioning system (GPS) technology to quantify the running demands of national under 18 field hockey players competing in a regional field hockey tournament. Ten male field hockey players (mean ± SD; age 17.2 ± 0.4 years; stature 178.1 ± 5.2 cm; body mass 78.8 ± 8.8 kg) playing in different positional groups as strikers, midfielders and defenders wore GPS units while competing in six matches over seven days at an under 18 national field hockey tournament. GPS enabled the measurement of total distance (TD), low-speed activity (LSA; 0 -14.9 km/hr), and high-speed running (HSR; ≥ 15 km/hr) distances in addition to distances over five velocity bands (≤ 5.9km.h-1; 6 – 10km.h-1; 10.1 – 14.9km.h-1; 15 – 24.6km.h-1; and ≥ 24.7km.h-1). Midfielders covered significantly higher TD and the highest LSA when compared to other positional groups. Strikers covered significantly higher HSR and the lowest LSA out of all positional groups. These results suggest that these playing positions are sufficiently different to warrant specialised position-specific conditioning training leading into a field hockey tournament. Therefore, training schedules, substitutions and intra-match recovery should be tailored by position, taking into account the needs of the individual players

In-house mentoring and school leadership : perceptions of well-performing primary school principals

Published ArticleA growing scholarship links good leadership with in-house mentoring. This article looks at how well-performing school leaders benefitted from the inhouse mentoring they received. The author reports on a qualitative investigation based on in-depth individual interviews with six primary school leaders from Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Northwest Provence who were purposefully selected based on their receiving a national award for excellence in leadership. These awards were made by the Department of Basic Education in the category 'Excellence in primary school leadership'. The findings show that in-house mentoring benefitted participants holistically through behavioural, knowledge and skills acquisition. Behavioural acquisition included being humble and empathetic towards constructive work performance. Knowledge and skills acquisition related to sustaining the standard of teaching of core subjects, relying on committee input in a relational leadership approach and ensuring a dedicated teacher corps and positive parent involvement. The findings contribute to the discourse on inhouse mentoring for improved school leadership practice

Gedagtes oor die opleiding van die Wiskunde-onderwyser

Dit is algemeen bekend dat daar in ons land ’n tekort aan onderwysers beers en die Wiskunde is een van die vakke waarin die tekort die sterkste gevoel word. Waar daar deur allerlei instansies pogings aangewend word om hierdie probleem op te los, is dit miskien goed om ’n keer te besin oor wat die opleiding van die Wiskunde-onderwyser behoort te wees. In hierdie besinning moet ons aandag gee aan twee sake, nl. wat sou ons beskou as die ideale opleiding en, indien dit nie nou bereikbaar is nie, wat sou dan minstens ’n voldoende opleiding wees

Vegetation trends following fire in the Roggeveld, Mountain Renosterveld, South Africa

AbstractThe Mountain Renosterveld vegetation of the Roggeveld is an escarpment type renosterveld showing strong karroid affinities. Fire plays an important role as a landscape scale disturbance that shapes plant communities in this vegetation type, however, post-fire succession has never before been documented for renosterveld vegetation. A study was therefore conducted in the northern Roggeveld to improve our understanding of the recovery of the vegetation following fire. The natural vegetation recovery was analysed using line transect data accumulated at five different sites over a ten year period. This paper reports on the post-fire vegetation trends with respect to changes in species composition, species richness, life form composition and life form richness. Vegetation cover began to re-establish within the first nine months following the fire, and remained at a high level from years 3 to 10. At the first survey the species richness varied from 13 to 17 species, with the highest species richness (14 to 31 species) generally encountered at each transect after three years. The highest Shannon index values were generally found within the first three years and the lowest Shannon index values were found in years 9 and 10. In all cases the Principal Co-ordinate Analysis ordinations of the species composition data indicated a clear separation in the species composition between the first two years (years 1 and 2) following the fire and the remaining years (year 3 to 10). This study also supports the ‘initial floristic composition’ model of Egler (1954) in that all or the majority of species encountered during the succession were already present at the beginning of the recovery phase and there was a rapid re-establishment of the initial plant community

Are students being coerced into HIV testing? Ethical considerations related to offering incentives for HIV counselling and testing at tertiary institutions in South Africa

A social marketing strategy, including substantial prizes, was used to promote HIV testing at 17 institutions of higher learning in South Africa. Over 20 000 students with a mean age of 19 years were counselled and tested for HIV. The majority were being tested for the first time. Afterwards they signed a public pledge: ‘We, the class of 2010, pledge to know our status, to stop HIV/AIDS stigma and to contribute to the struggle against HIV/AIDS.’ The students’ opinion of the campaign was surveyed and they were found to be overwhelmingly in favour of it. The issue of whether the prizes unduly influenced the students’ participation is investigated and an approach to resolving ethical dilemmas is presented. The potential of incentives to undermine ‘moral sentiments’ is reviewed

Left Dislocation and its translation in some Germanic languages

In terms of the theoretical framework of an influential recent model of Bible translation, Left Dislocation (=LD) can be regarded as a “communicate clue” that translators must try to interpretively resemble in their target text translation. This exploratory study investigates how twenty translations (fifteen English, three Afrikaans, one German, and one Dutch) have interpretively resembled (or not) nine prototypical constructions, and one less prototypical one, from the book of Genesis. It has been found that, firstly, translations on the formal equivalent pole tend to interpretively resemble LD constructions. If the LD tends to be very prototypical, this tendency is displayed even by some translations towards the functional equivalent pole. Secondly, even in the case of prototypical instances, translations on the functional equivalent pole, however, tend not to interpretively resemble the construction. In these cases, it could be argued that they are not serving the very goal that they as a rule want to accomplish—that is, to provide readers with a translation that is easy to read and process. Thirdly, the structure of English, Afrikaans and Dutch—in contrast to German—often appears to require a construal that does not formally reflect the pronominal resumption of the LD constituent in the matrix clause. Fronting the LD constituent is often used, and sometimes a pause after the fronted (i.e. then dislocated) constituent is signaled by means of a comma or a dash. These findings concur with those of some of the other papers in this volume. Resumption, for example, is not always the primary distinctive feature of a LD construction; a tonal pause between the LD and its matrix clause may also suffice. There are also historical explanations as to why some of the functions of fronting and LD constructions overlap.Keywords: Left Dislocation, Information Structure, Translation Theory, Bible Translation, Biblical Hebre

Obesity in South Africa: Challenges for government and health professionals

OBJECTIVES: To review data on the prevalence, causes and health consequences of obesity in South Africa and propose interventions to prevent and treat obesity and related outcomes. METHODS: Data from existing literature were reviewed with an emphasis on changing eating and activity patterns, cultural factors, perceptions and beliefs, urbanisation and globalisation. Results of studies on the health consequences of obesity in South Africans are also reviewed. RESULTS: Shifts in dietary intakes and activity patterns to higher fat intakes and lower physical activity are contributing to a higher prevalence of obesity. Few overweight black women view themselves as overweight, and some associate thinness with HIV/AIDS. Glucose and lipid toxicity, associated with insulin resistance, play roles in the pathogenesis of the co-morbid diseases of obesity. Elevated free fatty acids in the black population predispose obese black patients to type 2 diabetes. CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS: Obesity prevention and treatment should be based on education, behaviour change, political support, intersectoral collaboration and community participation, local actions, wide inclusion of the population, adequately resourced programmes, infiltration of existing initiatives, evidence-based planning, and proper monitoring and evaluation. Interventions should have the following components: reasonable weight goals, healthful eating, physical activity and behavioural change. Genes and mutations affecting susceptibility to the development of co-morbidities of obesity and vulnerable periods of life for the development of obesity should be prioritised. Prevention should be managed in community services, identification of high-risk patients in primary healthcare services and treatment of co-morbid diseases in hospital services

An Instrument to Assess Neonatal Chest Image Quality

Published ArticleDepending on their condition, most neonates in a neonatal intensive care unit require multiple diagnostic imaging examinations. Therefore, radiographers who perform these diagnostic imaging examinations should use optimal imaging techniques, to limit radiation dose and to ensure optimal image quality. The study wished to determine if radiographers were producing consistent optimal chest images and limiting radiation doses for neonates in a neonatal intensive care unit. A descriptive quantitative study was done by utilising a checklist compiled from literature to evaluate 450 neonatal chest images. Evaluation of the images indicates that radiographers seem unable to adhere to radiation control regulations. The authors propose including the checklist as part of a radiation safety improvement process, as it proved to be an assessment tool for identifying areas in image quality that require improvement