Tailoring IT Education for Effective IT Professionals in a Third World Setting

Small group learning combined with innovative teaching methods were introduced at tertiary level to teach computer-related subjects. Teams were constituted according to Belbin’s theory of effective team building. A study conducted over two years showed that certain qualities needed in the IT field were lacking in these students

Geological factors that influence the evaluation and exploitation of Canadian copper-zinc massive sulphide-, and Japanese polymetallic (kuroko) deposits

Volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits are important sources of base metals throughout the world. The Canadian Cu-Zn-(Au, Ag) deposits of Archaean age occur in greenstone terrains within the Canadian Shield. These deposits are closely associated with volcanic vents developed along zones of rifting within mobile belts. The vents are manifested by coarse felsic pyroclastics and/or rhyolitic domes. The Japanese Pb-Zn-Cu-Ba(Ag) deposits, generally known as Kuroko deposits, are of Miocene age, and although also associated with volcanic vents, are developed above zones of subduction. Mineralization in volcanogenic deposits is a result of submarine exhalation of metalliferous hydrothermal solutions derived from fractionation of predominantly calc-alkaline magmas. The deposits are characterized by certain geological features that result from the interaction of specific physical and chemical conditions during deposition. Primary features include massive and stringer sulphide bodies, alteration zones, mineralogical and metal zoning, and certain depositional textures and structures. These features are commonly modified by subsequent metamorphism and deformation which impart secondary ore textures and affect metal distribution and shape. The disparity in age between Canadian and Japanese deposits allows the entire spectrum of geological features to be studied; from the completely unaltered to the high deformed and recrystallized. The characteristic geological features are the prime factors which control the metal distribution and concentration, and the size and shape of the deposits, thereby influencing the viability of the respective ore bodies. A knowledge of these factors and the physico-chemical parameters which control them are thus fundamental in the "understanding" of these deposits. They ultimately control the geological interpretations and predictions made during ore body delineation, ore reserve estimation, mining and ore beneficiation

Smartphone security awareness, perceptions and practices:a Welsh higher education case study

Higher Education students are purported to be heavy users of technology; specifically smartphones, which represent the “Internet of Things” (IoT). These have revolutionized every sector of public and personal lives, and also revolutionised teaching and learning within Higher Education, providing students a 21st century learning experience. The way students engage with each other, with institutions of higher learning, and with their own learning, has changed dramatically. The smartphone is used to assist with all areas of their lives; however, a plethora of security issues accompanies its use. Cybersecurity perceptions are said to inform security practices and precautionary-related behaviours. If perceptions are skewed, the necessary security behaviours might be inadequate. The main objective of this quantitative study was to investigate the level of smartphone security awareness of Higher Education students undertaking a Business degree at a Welsh University during the 2016-17 and 2018-19 academic years. Understanding whether students have acquired prior cybersecurity knowledge through formal means was key to understanding whether there was a link between security education, security awareness, smartphone security behaviours, perceptions and practices.This research therefore aimed to investigate:1) The level of smartphone security awareness depicted in the attitudes, behaviours, knowledge and competences of these university students;2) Any gender differences in terms of attitudes, behaviours, knowledge and competences regarding smartphone security awareness;3) The importance of cybersecurity awareness training.Participants in this study were largely male, with half of the participants having undertaken a prior information communication technology related type courses. Almost all participants recognised that there were security related issues with social networking and location based applications. The majority of participants did not deploy measures to prevent viruses, this being the case for significantly more females. More than half of the participants used some mechanisms to protect their data. However, significantly more of the 2018-19 participant group compared to the 2016-17 participant group indicated that they did not do this. Moreover, a large proportion of the participants were unaware of the liability linked to the use of social media and the related rules applicable. This study suggests that students who received some formal information communication technology training prior to university entry were more aware of the security risks and their behaviours reflect this. Despite this, the level of smartphone security awareness is not as high as it should be which is in keeping with other research findings. This study suggests that as technology and digital literacy gain further importance, smartphone security literacy training should not be left to chance. . It is clear that education and training should occur early in the education life cycle, and should be a lifelong learning activity

Profiling COVID-19 Genetic Research: A Data-Driven Study Utilizing Intelligent Bibliometrics

The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes an ongoing worldwide threat to human society and has caused massive impacts on global public health, the economy and the political landscape. The key to gaining control of the disease lies in understanding the genetics of SARS-CoV-2 and the disease spectrum that follows infection. This study leverages traditional and intelligent bibliometric methods to conduct a multi-dimensional analysis on 5,632 COVID-19 genetic research papers, revealing that 1) the key players include research institutions from the United States, China, Britain and Canada; 2) research topics predominantly focus on virus infection mechanisms, virus testing, gene expression related to the immune reactions and patient clinical manifestation; 3) studies originated from the comparison of SARS-CoV-2 to previous human coronaviruses, following which research directions diverge into the analysis of virus molecular structure and genetics, the human immune response, vaccine development and gene expression related to immune responses; and 4) genes that are frequently highlighted include ACE2, IL6, TMPRSS2, and TNF. Emerging genes to the COVID-19 consist of FURIN, CXCL10, OAS1, OAS2, OAS3, and ISG15. This study demonstrates that our suite of novel bibliometric tools could help biomedical researchers follow this rapidly growing field and provide substantial evidence for policymakers' decision-making on science policy and public health administration

The Sequence of the Human Genome

A 2.91-billion base pair (bp) consensus sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome was generated by the whole-genome shotgun sequencing method. The 14.8-billion bp DNA sequence was generated over 9 months from 27,271,853 high-quality sequence reads (5.11-fold coverage of the genome) from both ends of plasmid clones made from the DNA of five individuals. Two assembly strategies—a whole-genome assembly and a regional chromosome assembly—were used, each combining sequence data from Celera and the publicly funded genome effort. The public data were shredded into 550-bp segments to create a 2.9-fold coverage of those genome regions that had been sequenced, without including biases inherent in the cloning and assembly procedure used by the publicly funded group. This brought the effective cov- erage in the assemblies to eightfold, reducing the number and size of gaps in the final assembly over what would be obtained with 5.11-fold coverage. The two assembly strategies yielded very similar results that largely agree with independent mapping data. The assemblies effectively cover the euchromatic regions of the human chromosomes. More than 90% of the genome is in scaffold assemblies of 100,000 bp or more, and 25% of the genome is in scaffolds of 10 million bp or larger. Analysis of the genome sequence revealed 26,588 protein-encoding transcripts for which there was strong corroborating evidence and an additiona

Origin, diversification, and classification of the Australasian genus dracophyllum (richeeae, ericaceae)

The genus Dracophyllum Labill. (Ericaceae) has a fragmented distribution in Australasia, but reaches the greatest level of species richness and morphological diversity in New Zealand. We investigated evolutionary processes that contribute to this disparity in species richness by comparing DNA sequences from members of Dracophyllum, its close relatives Richea Labill. and Sphenotoma R. Br. ex Sweet (together constituting tribe Richeeae Crayn & Quinn), along with more distant relatives in the Ericaceae. We created complementary data sets for the chloroplast-encoded genes matK and rbcL. Parsimony, Bayesian, and maximum likelihood analyses were conducted to assess the robustness of our phylogenetic inferences. The results were largely congruent and, when analyzed in combination, provided greater resolution. In our analyses, tribe Richeeae formed a monophyletic group that diverged during the Eocene (at least 33.3 million years ago [Ma]) with a crown radiation during the Early Miocene (at least 16.5 Ma) that resulted in two disjunct lineages. This date corresponds roughly to the onset of aridification in central Australia. The southern Western Australian genus Sphenotoma formed an isolated evolutionary lineage, while Dracophyllum and Richea together formed a second lineage restricted to eastern Australia, Lord Howe Island, New Caledonia, and New Zealand. The relationships of the Tasmanian endemic, D. milliganii Hook. f., remain an enigma. It was ambiguously placed as sister to Sphenotoma or to the Dracophyllum Richea elude. We recovered two distinct lineages, traditionally recognized as Richea sect. Cystanthe (R. Br.) Benth. and Richea sect. Dracophylloides Benth., which were nested within Dracophyllum. The Lord Howe Island endemic, D. fitzgeraldii F. Muell., emerged as sister to an eastern Australian clade of Dracophyllum. Our evidence suggests that the New Caledonian and New Zealand species of Dracophyllum dispersed from Australia; we document two independent episodes of long-distance dispersal in the Late Miocene to Early Pliocene. Low levels of sequence divergence suggest a rapid and recent species radiation in these two island archipelagos largely within the last three to six million years. This radiation accompanied Pliocene uplift of the New Zealand Southern Alps and episodes of glaciation during the Pleistocene. Because Dracophyllum is paraphyletic and Richea is polyphyletic, the taxonomic circumscription of these genera requires revision

Gamma-rays from millisecond pulsars in Globular Clusters

Globular clusters (GCs) with their ages of the order of several billion years contain many final products of evolution of stars such as: neutron stars, white dwarfs and probably also black holes. These compact objects can be at present responsible for the acceleration of particles to relativistic energies. Therefore, gamma-ray emission is expected from GCs as a result of radiation processes occurring either in the inner magnetosperes of millisecond pulsars or in the vicinity of accreting neutron stars and white dwarfs or as a result of interaction of particles leaving the compact objects with the strong radiation field within the GC. Recently, GeV gamma-ray emission has been detected from several GCs by the new satellite observatory Fermi. Also Cherenkov telescopes reported interesting upper limits at the TeV energies which start to constrain the content of GCs. We review the results of these gamma-ray observations in the context of recent scenarios for their origin.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, will be published in Astrophysics and Space Science Series (Springer), eds. N. Rea and D.F. Torre

COVID-19 vaccines – less obfuscation, more transparency and action

Letter by Venter et al. on editorial  by Schoub (Dial down the rhetoric over COVID-19 vaccines. S Afr Med J 2021;111(6):522-523. https://doi.org/10.7196/SAMJ.2021.v111i6.15740)