Students’ perceptions of writing : evidence from undergraduate economics in South Africa

Abstract: Thinking and writing economics can be an extremely daunting and difficult task, especially for undergraduate students. Few opportunities exist for students to apply their knowledge and write critically in the economics discourse, especially in their undergraduate years of study. With this in mind, the Nedbank and Old Mutual Budget Speech Essay Competition was launched in 1972 with the aim of encouraging young students to participate in important national economic debates. The competition is open to full time and part time undergraduate and postgraduate students from South Africa and SADC countries. A university department at a large residential university in the Gauteng province has instituted a system to encourage students to write the essay in small and regular intervals throughout the first semester of the year. Students are also provided with writing support outside of the classroom and a number of motivational talks are held to encourage students’ participation and academic engagement. Despite the department’s efforts, many undergraduate economics students choose not to participate in the competition. The aim of this study is to analyse students’ perceptions of writing in order to understand why participation in the writing competition is so low. The study begins by exploring the literature related to the writing process, university writing and writing like an economist. Thereafter, the study briefly explains the model used to encourage writing among undergraduate economics students. Subsequently, the study’s methodology is described and a univariate analysis is applied to survey data from the 2018 cohort of second and third year economics students. Results suggest that students struggle to synthesise large volumes of literature to form their own economic views. Furthermore, students seem to struggle with time management of essay writing amidst their busy academic timetables. The study provides some useful information on how the department could adapt its writing model to assist students to better manage the writing process and subsequently, encourage more meaningful academic engagement and greater competition participation

Design of a medium access protocol and scheduling algorithm for multimedia traffic over a DVB-RCS satellite link using a cross-layer approach.

Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.Satellite networks provide an alternative to terrestrial networks where cost and lack of infrastructure are driving parameters. For a satellite network to be cost effective one needs to be able to increase the efficiency of the network: this is accomplished by focusing on the parameters that affect the performance of the system and improving on them where possible. The factors affecting the network performance include the capacity, the propagation delay, the protocol used, and the channel error rate, among others. There are various ways to implement a satellite network depending on the satellite orbit, the architecture used, the access technique used, the radio interfaces used, etc. This thesis work describes the chosen satellite standard, Digital Video Broadcasting – Return Channel via Satellite (DVB-RCS) and the associated Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols. Two protocols were designed and investigated under ideal channel conditions, these being the Combined Free/Demand Assigned Multiple Access with Piggy Backing – Packet Dropping (CF/DAMA-PB-PD) protocol; and the Combined Free/Demand Assigned Multiple Access with Piggy Backing – Prioritised Earliest Deadline First (CF/DAMA-PB-PEDF) protocol, both derived from the Combined Free/Demand Assigned Multiple Access with Piggy Backing (CF/DAMA-PB) protocol. The multimedia traffic models for voice, video and web classes are described, validated through simulations and presented; these provide the heterogeneous vi traffic required for evaluating the performance of the satellite system implemented and the designed protocols. Under the multimedia traffic, CF/DAMA-PB-PD was shown to excel in average packet delay reduction while reducing the overall system throughput. The CF/DAMA-PB-PEDF does not contribute to an improvement over the CF/DAMA-PB-PD protocol. The effects of a non-ideal channel on the CF/DAMA-PB-PD protocol was investigated and presented along with the design of three MAC protocols that take the channel characteristics into account to improve on the system performance. The cross-layer interactions, more specifically the interaction between the physical and data–link layers, were used, investigated and presented. The channel state information in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was used to improve the system performance. The five protocols evaluated under non-ideal channel conditions were the CF/DAMA-PB, CF/DAMA-PB-PD, CF/DAMA-PB-BSNRF, CF/DAMA-PB-DD and the CF/DAMA-PB-BSNRF+DD. The best overall performance, both in average packet delay while maintaining good QoS levels and throughput was shown to be that of the CF/DAMA-PB-DD protocol

Self-employment through ride-hailing : drivers’ experiences in Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract: Orientation: Ride-hailing services have gained popularity in South Africa because of their ability to provide a reliable alternative to traditional modes of transport. However, little is known about ride-hailing drivers. Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the ride-hailing drivers’ job satisfaction levels and the challenges they experienced. Motivation for the study: This study was motivated by the lack of scholarly information on the experiences of drivers involved in ride-hailing in the context of South Africa. Research design, approach and method: This study adopted a pragmatic approach through a mixed-method, survey-based design. Fifty-three ride-hailing drivers were randomly interviewed in Johannesburg, South Africa, using a pre-designed and piloted questionnaire. Data were analysed using methods of descriptive interpretation and inductive thematic analysis. Main findings: A descriptive statistical analysis showed that most ride-hailing drivers provide the service to earn their primary income. Furthermore, a thematic analysis found that ridehailing drivers felt unsafe providing these services because of the violence they experienced from minibus taxi operators in the region..

Increasing deceased organ donor numbers in Johannesburg, South Africa: 18-month results of the Wits Transplant Procurement Model

In 2016, deceased-donor organ procurement at Wits Transplant, based at Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa (SA), was in a state of crisis. As it is the largest-volume solid-organ transplant unit in SA, and as we aspire to provide transplant services of an international standard, the time to address our procurement practice had come. The number of deceased donors consented through our centre was very low, and we needed a radical change to improve our performance. This article describes the Wits Transplant Procurement Model – the result of our work to improve procurement at our centre. The model has two core phases, one to increase referrals and the other to improve our consent rates. Within these phases there are several initiatives. To improve referrals, the threefold approach of procurement management, acknowledgement and resource utilisation was developed. In order to ‘convert’ referrals into consents, we established the Wits Transplant ‘Family Approach to Consent for Transplant Strategy’ (FACTS). Since initiation of the Wits Transplant Procurement Model, both our referral numbers from targeted hospitals and our conversion rates have increased. Referrals from targeted hospitals increased by 54% (from 31 to 57). Our consent rate increased from 25% (n=6) to 73% (n=35) after the initiation of Wits Transplant FACTS. We hope that other transplant centres in SA and further afield in the region will find this article helpful, and to this end we have created a handbook on the Wits Transplant Procurement Model that is freely available for download (http://www.dgmc.co.za/docs/Wits-Transplant-Procurement-Handbook.pdf)

Using the fluorescent properties of STO-609 as a tool to assist structure-function analyses of recombinant CaMKK2

Calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase kinase 2 (CaMKK2) has been implicated in the regulation of metabolic activity in cancer and immune cells, and affects whole-body metabolism by regulating ghrelinsignalling in the hypothalamus. This has led to efforts to develop specific CaMKK2 inhibitors, and STO- 609 is the standardly used CaMKK2 inhibitor to date. We have developed a novel fluorescence-based assay by exploiting the intrinsic fluorescence properties of STO-609. Here, we report an in vitro binding constant of KD ~17 nM between STO-609 and purified CaMKK2 or CaMKK2:Calmodulin complex. Whereas high concentrations of ATP were able to displace STO-609 from the kinase, GTP was unable to achieve this confirming the specificity of this association. Recent structural studies on the kinase domain of CaMKK2 had implicated a number of amino acids involved in the binding of STO-609. Our fluorescent assay enabled us to confirm that Phe267 is critically important for this association since mutation of this residue to a glycine abolished the binding of STO-609. An ATP replacement assay, as well as the mutation of the ‘gatekeeper’ amino acid Phe267Gly, confirmed the specificity of the assay and once more confirmed the strong binding of STO-609 to the kinase. In further characterising the purified kinase and kinasecalmodulin complex we identified a number of phosphorylation sites some of which corroborated previously reported CaMKK2 phosphorylation and some of which, particularly in the activation segment, were novel phosphorylation events. In conclusion, the intrinsic fluorescent properties of STO-609 provide a great opportunity to utilise this drug to label the ATP-binding pocket and probe the impact of mutations and other regulatory modifications and interactions on the pocket. It is however clear that the number of phosphorylation sites on CaMKK2 will pose a challenge in studying the impact of phosphorylation on the pocket unless the field can develop approaches to control the spectrum of modifications that occur during recombinant protein expression in Escherichia coli.</p