South African landscape painting, 1848-2008 : a handbook for teachers

My dissertation looks at South African landscape painting with the requirements of high school art teachers in mind. It has been written in consultation with Professor Michael Godby, at the University of Cape Town, the curator of the landscape exhibition, to be held at the Old Town House in Cape Town from 9 June to 11 September 2010. The handbook is designed to be distributed to educators at the Ibhabhathane Project Workshop organised to coincide with the exhibition. This is a teaching resource for Visual Culture Studies for Grades 10 to 12. It focuses on an analysis of artists in the school curriculum who have engaged with the genre in diverse and interesting ways

Promotion and female PDHPE teachers in the NSW DET

The purpose of this research is to investigate career and promotional opportunities of female teachers of personal development, health and physical education (PDHPE) in the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education and Training (DET). This research firstly established that there was a disparity between promotion positions for women and men in the NSW DET and that this disparity was significant. Secondly the research clearly identified a number of barriers to promotion women in PDHPE in the NSW DET. In 1979 a report published by the NSW Anti Discrimination Board predicted that by 1990 there would be no women principals in secondary schools, even considering the arrival of anti discrimination legislation. Whilst this is not the case it does however indicate a legitimate claim for concern in relation to promotion and women in NSW secondary schools. The participants in this study were male and female teachers whose background was in the key learning area (KLA) of PDHPE in NSW DET secondary schools, district offices, curriculum directorate, state offices and board of studies. PDHPE itself is an area which may be considered to be marginalised and therefore women in this area have factors to contend with that are peculiar to this KLA. The data collection and analysis drew largely on quantitative methods and also involved open questions which allowed for some supporting qualitative information. The main tool of data collection was a comprehensive questionnaire. Archival data was also collected from the NSW DET and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), and information and data from the literature and other research were also used. The main type of analysis involved percentage comparisons and chi square and qualitative analysis involving identifying themes and trends which supported the quantitative information. The study found that there was a significant difference between the number of male and female PDHPE teachers in promotion positions within the NSW DET. A number of predisposing factors of women who had gained promotion was identified including that they were less likely to see child care, child rearing and family duties as an issue for them and less likely to be the primary carers of children. They were predominantly permanent full time workers, less likely to believe they had the same chances for promotion as men, less likely to be married than m e n and more likely to gain promotion at a younger age than men. By investigating this area, recommendations have been made in relation to ways and means of breaking down the barriers to promotion for w o m e n in teaching generally, and more specifically for those women who teach in the marginalised KLA of PDHPE. This research, while being specific to the NSW DET, may in fact be useful for other educational bodies, in other states, and in other countries, as there is likely to be common ground amongst institutions and systems

Catchment Scale Modelling of Water Quality and Quantity

Appropriately constructed pollutant export models can help set management priorities for catchments, identify critical pollutant source areas, and are important tools for developing and evaluating economically viable ways of minimising surface water pollution.¶ This thesis presents a comparison, an evaluation and an integration of models for predicting the export of environmental pollutants, in particular sediment, through river systems. A review of the capabilities and limitations of current water quality modelling approaches is made. Several water quality and quantity modelling approaches are applied and evaluated in the catchment of the upper Murrumbidgee River.¶ ..

A critical review of South Africa’s carbon tax policy paper: recommendations for the implementation of an offset mechanism

The South African government has emphasised the need for ‘developing country’ solutions to climate change that simultaneously pursue GHG reductions and socioeconomic development. To encourage the transition to a low-carbon economy the National Treasury has proposed a carbon tax and offset mechanism to be introduced in 2015. The practical delivery of the offset scheme remains uncertain. This paper investigates which features and governance structure would be desirable for such a mechanism in South Africa. Primary research is conducted into the South African voluntary carbon registry; Credible Carbon. The questions asked by this paper are: Should firms be allowed to offset emissions? What is the ideal way to implement offsets in South Africa? This paper concludes that Credible Carbon provides a good model for carbon trading that can be scaled up to meet demand under the new regulations. However, government needs to ensure that projects continue to deliver acceptable social benefits and that carbon auditors are well-trained and accountable

Explicit motor sequence learning with the paretic arm after stroke

PURPOSE: Motor sequence learning is important for stroke recovery, but experimental tasks require dexterous movements, which are impossible for people with upper limb impairment. This makes it difficult to draw conclusions about the impact of stroke on learning motor sequences. We aimed to test a paradigm requiring gross arm movements to determine whether stroke survivors with upper limb impairment were capable of learning a movement sequence as effectively as age-matched controls. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this case-control study, 12 stroke survivors (10-138 months post-stroke, mean age 64 years) attempted the task once using their affected arm. Ten healthy controls (mean 66 years) used their non-dominant arm. A sequence of 10 movements was repeated 25 times. The variables were: time from target illumination until the cursor left the central square (onset time; OT), accuracy (path length), and movement speed. RESULTS: OT reduced with training (p  0.1). We quantified learning as the OT difference between the end of training and a random sequence; this was smaller for stroke survivors than controls (p = 0.015). CONCLUSIONS: Stroke survivors can learn a movement sequence with their paretic arm, but demonstrate impairments in sequence specific learning. Implications for Rehabilitation Motor sequence learning is important for recovery of movement after stroke. Stroke survivors were found to be capable of learning a movement sequence with their paretic arm, supporting the concept of repetitive task training for recovery of movement. Stroke survivors showed impaired sequence specific learning in comparison with age-matched controls, indicating that they may need more repetitions of a sequence in order to re-learn movements. Further research is required into the effect of lesion location, time since stroke, hand dominance and gender on learning of motor sequences after stroke

Modelling erosion and sediment delivery from unsealed roads in southeast Australia

Unsealed roads and tracks are potentially significant sources of diffuse pollutants, particularly sediment. This paper describes the application and development of a road erosion and sediment transport model in the Moruya-Deua and Tuross River catchment

Common Ownership and Market Entry: Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry

Common ownership - where two firms are at least partially owned by the same investor - and its impact on product market outcomes has recently drawn a lot of attention from scholars and practitioners alike. Theoretical and empirical research suggests that common ownership can lead to higher prices. This paper focuses on implications for market entry. To estimate the effect of common ownership on entry decisions, we focus on the pharmaceutical industry. In particular, we consider the entry decisions of generic pharmaceutical firms into drug markets opened up by the end of regulatory protection in the US. We first provide a theoretical framework that shows that a higher level of common ownership between the brand firm (incumbent) and potential generic entrant reduces the generic's incentives to entry. We provide robust evidence for this prediction. The effect is large: a one-standard-deviation increase in common ownership decreases the probability of generic entry by 9-13%. We extend our basic theoretical framework and allow for multiple entrants. Our model shows that for sufficiently high levels of common ownership, the classical idea of entry decisions being strategic substitutes can be reversed into being strategic complements. Our empirical results provide some support for these predictions

Bump start needed: linking guidelines, policy and practice in promoting physical activity during and beyond pregnancy

First paragraph: There is compelling evidence that regular physical activity (PA) during pregnancy benefits both mother and baby.1 2 Notably, physical and psychological benefits are evident in the literature, such as marked reductions in the development of gestational diabetes and hypertensive disorders, alongside improvements in depressive symptoms and cardiorespiratory fitness.1 2 The evidence base has been reflected by recent policy initiatives, for example, in 2017 (relaunched in 2019), the UK‘s chief medical officers (CMOs) published PA guidelines for pregnant women, which made substantial strides in unifying and translating the evidence into recommendations.1 The CMO guidelines are aimed at supporting health professionals to provide consistent, evidence-based PA messages to women throughout pregnancy.1 Recently, the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity have updated their professional standards for working with antenatal and postnatal clients to align with these CMO guidelines.3 However, not all women have access to professionals with this level of expertise and training, potentially limiting the impact of the CMO guidelines