An evaluation of the Sekhukhuneland Development Programme 1998-2002 :|bthe lessons and recommendations from a labour-intensive construction-training programme in Sekhukhuneland, South Africa

This MSc (Eng) Investigational Project Report entails the evaluation of the Sekhukhuneland Development Programme (SDP). The SDP is a joint initiative of the Donaldson Trust and the Research Centre for Employment Creation in Construction (WORK). Its objective is: to increase the use of labour-intensive methods in the rehabilitation and maintenance of rural roads and other infrastructure in order to contribute to employment generation, skills development, provision of infrastructure and poverty alleviation. In order to achieve this objective an “Association not for gain” called LITE (Labour Intensive Training and Engineering) was formed; the Donaldson Trust provided the finance, and the expertise was provided by The Research Centre (WORK) but with additional support by Employment Intensive Engineering Consultants (EIEC). As the contracting organisation evolved from nothing into the training and engineering company LITE, the number of employees rose from none to fourteen. The University of the Witwatersrand provided a number of students to the project site at Mohlaletse in Sekhukhuneland where they provided voluntary assistance as part of their studies. Many of these students were from the University of Twente in the Netherlands, and it was largely due to their commitment that the project enjoyed such healthy growth. Considering the meagre resources this growth was a remarkable achievement, and it was made possible, not only through the efforts of the students, but also through the acceptance and support of the community. This support included providing accommodation for both students and site management. With a minimum of resources local community members were trained and employed by the SDP over a prolonged period of three years. The SDP evolved into a new programme, the Mohlaletse Youth Service Programme (MYSP), funded by the Umsobomvu Youth Fund. Of the R1.700.000 donated to the SDP, R1.690.000 was used during the evaluated period. Of this sum approximately 50% was spent directly within the Mohlaletse and Monametse community. The SDP consisted out of three main phases. The organisation evolved during the first two phases from no organisation into LITE Section 21, an organisation that could deal with training and engineering based on a strong labour-intensive focus. During the Pilot Phase the programme focused on establishing contact with the community and proving that labouriii intensive construction method could work. The next phase was the Training Phase where the necessary team leaders were trained to perform a variety of construction techniques. These techniques range from drainage structure to roads and buildings. The last phase is the Construction Phase during which the construction went ahead as planned using fully trained team leaders from the local community. The total setting of the SDP was as follows: SDP Phases SDP Periods Organisation SDP Projects - Pilot Phase: Period 1999H None Period Projects Period 2000A Point-of-Fact (Pty) Ltd Period Projects - Training Phase: Period 2001A Period Projects Mohlaletse Money-Cant-Buy Section 21 Period Projects Monametse Period 2001H Period Projects Mohlaletse LITE - Section 21 Period Projects Monametse Period Project Compound - Construction Phase: Period 2002H Period Projects Mohlaletse Period Projects Monametse Period Project LITE-House and LITE-School The main reason for the success has been the substantial involvement of the local Mohlaletse community and the acceptance of the Site Management within the Community. Within the constraints of the programme definition and objectives, the SDP has been a success to its sponsors and beneficiaries. Major problems were encountered within the fields of Labour-Intensive Construction Methods and the Project Management Areas of Knowledge. These should be taken into consideration when a new Constructing-Training Programme is started in future

CO-ACTIVE LIFE COACHING AS AN INTERVENTION FOR OBESITY AMONG FEMALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Purpose: To assess the impact of Co-active life coaching on obese female university students’ body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), functional health status, and self-esteem, and conjointly to identify the coaching skills and primary agenda topics that facilitate life coaching’s efficacy as an intervention for obesity. Methods: A multiple-baseline single-subject research design was utilized with five full- time female undergraduate students with BMI £ 30kg/m . Two Certified Professional Coactive Coaches (CPCCs) provided an average of nine, 35-minute, one-on-one sessions with participants. Measures included BMI, WC, the previously validated Short-Form 36 (SF-36) Health Survey, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Visual inspection was used to analyze changes in BMI and WC. Effect sizes were calculated for the SF-36 and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and were interpreted using Cohen’s (1988) rule. Statistical interpretations were supplemented with qualitative information from post-intervention interviews to determine whether a clinically significant difference was achieved. Inductive content analysis was conducted on the pre- and post-intervention interview transcripts and on 50% of each participant’s coaching session transcripts. Results\u27. Visual inspection revealed no change in BMI for three, a decrease for one, and a slight increase for one participant. WC decreased for three participants and remained stable for two. A moderate to large increase in self-esteem (Cohen’s d= 0. 79) was found. Qualitatively, two participants spoke specifically of having improved self-esteem at the end of the intervention. A substantial increase in overall health status (Cohen’s d = 0. 90; mental health dimension d= 0.74; physical health dimension d = 0.88) was found. Qualitatively, one participant spoke specifically of having an enhanced overall health in status at the end of the intervention. During their post-intervention interviews, all five participants spoke of experiencing improved self-acceptance. Collectively, the effect sizes and qualitative statements indicate clinically significant changes (i.e., improvements) in participants’ self-esteem, and their physical, mental, and total (overall) health statuses upon completion of the intervention. All participants’ primary agenda topics related to achieving enhanced self-acceptance and an improved relationship with themselves. For all participants, powerful questions was the skill used most frequently by the coaches, and among those participants for whom a reduction in BMI and/or WC was achieved, acknowledgement was the skill used most often. Conclusions\u27. Coaching was associated with a trend towards a decrease in WC, and with clinically significant increases in participants’ self-esteem, and in their mental, physical, and overall health statuses. The predominant coaching skills and primary agenda topics revealed in this study will allow for a future in-depth comparison of similar help by talking techniques

Прямі іноземні інвестиції: світові тенденції та структурний розподіл в економіці України

Досліджено проблему розподілу глобальних потоків прямих іноземних інвестицій у розрізі різних регіонів світу, а також країн із різним рівнем розвитку: розвинутих, з економікою, що розвивається, чи перехідною; визначено ключові особливості інвестиційної політики країн в умовах рецесійних явищ економік світу; виконано аналіз структурного співвідношення вхідних потоків прямих іноземних інвестицій в економіку України. Ключові слова: іноземні інвестиції, перехідна економіка, інвестиційна політика, економіка України.Исследована проблема распределения глобальних потоков прямых иностранных инвестиций в разрезе различных регионов мира, а также стран с разным уровнем развития: развитых, с развивающейся или переходной экономикой; определены ключевые особенности инвестиционной политики стран в условиях рецессионных явлений экономик мира; проведен анализ структурного соотношения входных потоков прямых иностранных инвестиций в экономику Украины. Ключевые слова: иностранные инвестиции, переходная экономика, инвестиционная политика, экономика Украины.In the conditions of modern economy enterprises run into high changeability of environment, in particular, with a necessity in good time to adapt the tax plans. Enormous volumes of information that must be analyzed in the process of the tax planning require the presence of the modern informative providing that allows both facilitating the drafting of tax plans and carrying out their correction. It stipulates actuality of researches in the field of development of the informative providing of the operative tax planning at enterprises. The aim of the article is the development of chart of the informative providing of the operative tax planning at an enterprise. In the article the informative providing of the operative tax planning is offered at an enterprise. The informative providing is the complex of associate instruments that provide the stages of the operative tax planning. It allows promoting efficiency of functioning of the Ukrainian enterprises. The development of the offered informative providing can be in terms of methods and mechanisms of its practical realization. Keywords: informative providing, tax planning, operative planning, taxes of enterprises

Chorioallantoic membrane assay as model for angiogenesis in tissue engineering : focus on stem cells

Tissue engineering aims to structurally and functionally regenerate damaged tissues, which requires the formation of new blood vessels that supply oxygen and nutrients by the process of angiogenesis. Stem cells are a promising tool in regenerative medicine due to their combined differentiation and paracrine angiogenic capacities. The study of their proangiogenic properties and associated potential for tissue regeneration requires complex in vivo models comprising all steps of the angiogenic process. The highly vascularized extraembryonic chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) of fertilized chicken eggs offers a simple, easy accessible, and cheap angiogenic screening tool compared to other animal models. Although the CAM assay was initially primarily performed for evaluation of tumor growth and metastasis, stem cell studies using this model are increasing. In this review, a detailed summary of angiogenic observations of different mesenchymal, cardiac, and endothelial stem cell types and derivatives in the CAM model is presented. Moreover, we focus on the variation in experimental setup, including the benefits and limitations of in ovo and ex ovo protocols, diverse biological and synthetic scaffolds, imaging techniques, and outcome measures of neovascularization. Finally, advantages and disadvantages of the CAM assay as a model for angiogenesis in tissue engineering in comparison with alternative in vivo animal models are described

Enhancing Summarization Performance through Transformer-Based Prompt Engineering in Automated Medical Reporting

Customized medical prompts enable Large Language Models (LLM) to effectively address medical dialogue summarization. The process of medical reporting is often time-consuming for healthcare professionals. Implementing medical dialogue summarization techniques presents a viable solution to alleviate this time constraint by generating automated medical reports. The effectiveness of LLMs in this process is significantly influenced by the formulation of the prompt, which plays a crucial role in determining the quality and relevance of the generated reports. In this research, we used a combination of two distinct prompting strategies, known as shot prompting and pattern prompting to enhance the performance of automated medical reporting. The evaluation of the automated medical reports is carried out using the ROUGE score and a human evaluation with the help of an expert panel. The two-shot prompting approach in combination with scope and domain context outperforms other methods and achieves the highest score when compared to the human reference set by a general practitioner. However, the automated reports are approximately twice as long as the human references, due to the addition of both redundant and relevant statements that are added to the report.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, to be presented at HEALTHINF 2024, author contributions: research conducted and written by Daphne van Zandvoort and Laura Wiersema, research suggested and used software created by Tom Huibers, data provided and feedback provided by Sandra van Dulmen, supervision and feedback provided by Sjaak Brinkkempe

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OBJECTIVES: Movement in the magnetic fields around MRI systems showed acute negative effects on concentration, memory, visuo-spatial orientation and postural body sway. A crucial role of the vestibular system has been hypothesised. We aimed to gain more insight whether subjects with a relatively (un)sensitive vestibular system performed differently on cognitive tasks when (moving) in a the static magnetic field of an MRI scanner.\n\nMETHOD: In a double blind randomised cross over experiment 36 healthy volunteers underwent several cognitive tasks in 4 experimental sessions. Two were exposure conditions near a 7 Tesla (T) MRI system with personal exposure of 1.0 T. In one of these conditions additional time-varying magnetic fields of 2.4 T/s were induced by making standardised head movements. Of the two sham conditions (0 T) one was with and the other without such head movements. Vestibular sensitivity of each subject was assessed by the rotary chair test, the caloric reflex test and self-reported sensitivity to motion sickness.\n\nRESULTS: Linear mixed models are currently in progress to test cognitive performance in a magnetic field for subjects with a low, normal and high sensitive vestibular organ. Preliminary results seem to suggest some differential cognitive effects of magnetic field exposure according to relative vestibular sensitivity. Further results will be presented at the conference.\n\nCONCLUSIONS: These findings are important to better understand a possible working mechanism evoking these cognitive effects. Moreover, these finding can form a basis for the design of relevant protective and precautionary control measures for employees working close to an MRI system

Концепция соотношения сознательного и стихийного В.И. Ленина: опыт оценки

В статье представлен опыт оценки концепции соотношения сознательного и стихийного В.И. Ленина. Его структуру определяет последовательность решения задач, которая обеспечивает установление достижений и недостатков концепции соотношения сознательного и стихийного В.И.Ленина в истолковании этого соотношения. Сначала выделяются компоненты, образующие структуру теории соотношения сознательного и стихийного; затем выясняется, каким образом они раскрываются в концепции В.И. Ленина; после этого указываются критерии, по которым могут оцениваться философские концепции, определенным образом истолковывающие соотношение сознательного и стихийного; в соответствии с установленными критериями дается оценка как концепции соотношения сознательного и стихийного В.И. Ленина в целом, так и ее отдельным компонентам. В заключение делаются выводы о тех отношениях, в которых рассмотренная концепция В.И. Ленина может быть оценена позитивно и негативно.In the article the experience of estimation of conception of the alignment of conscious and elemental of V.I. Lenin is presented. Experience's structure is determined by the sequence of decision of tasks, which provides establishment of the achievements and lacks of the conception of the alignment of conscious and elemental of V.I. Lenin in the interpretation of this alignment. The components which form the structure of the theory of alignment of conscious and elemental are designated at first; then it appears, how they are being revealed in V.I. Lenin's conception; after this the criteria on which philosophical conceptions can be estimated are indicated, definitely interpreting the alignment of conscious and elemental; in accordance with the established criteria the estimation is given both of conception of alignment conscious and elemental of V.I. Lenin as a whole, and of its separate components. Inferences about those relations in which the considered conception of V.I. Lenin can be appraised positively and negatively are drawn in conclusion