An investigation of the forces within the tibiae at typical blast loading rates : with different boots

Includes bibliographical references.Anti-Vehicular Landmines (AVLs), underbelly Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) or side-attack IEDs are some of the major threats to military vehicles and their occupants (Ramasamy et al., 2011). The lower extremities of the occupants are very prone to injury, mostly caused by underbelly detonation of AVLs or IEDs due to their spatial proximity to the rapidly deforming floor of a vehicle in response to the threat mechanism. Lower limb surrogate legs, such as a Hybrid III or Military Lower Extremity (MiL-Lx) legs, are used to quantify the impulse loading on the lower extremities when subjected to the forces of the rapidly deforming floor. These surrogate legs are also used in laboratories for simulated blast loading tests and scaled field tests to evaluate protection measures for the lower extremities. In this study, the responses of the HIII and MiL-Lx surrogate legs were evaluated at several blast loading conditions using the Modified Lower Limb Impactor. The impact tests were conducted using a lower limb impactor with the leg mounted vertically and attached to the knee of the Anthropomorphic Test Device (ATD). The MiL-Lx leg is a recently developed surrogate which has limited evaluation across the loading conditions. This work evaluated the MiL-Lx leg across a range of velocities from 2.7 – 10.2 m/s. The study also included the evaluation of the response of the surrogate legs when fitted with two different types of combat boot. The current study shows that the response of the MiL-Lx leg compares satisfactorily with a previous study of a simulated blast at 7.2 m/s and the Post Mortem Human Subject (PMHS) corridors conducted at Wayne State University (WSU), Michigan, U.S.A. The MiL-Lx leg force-time trajectories from both the lower and upper tibia load cell were found to have distinct features that can be related to the impactor dynamics. This observation implies that the response of the legs can be used to deduce the dynamics of the impactor or deforming floor. The MiL-Lx leg results measured by the lower tibia load cell shows that the combat boots mitigate the peak tibia force and delay the time to peak force. However, the results from the upper tibia load cell show that the boots did not reduce high-severity force, but only the delays the time-to-peak force. The upper tibia load cell did not show any potential mitigation capability of the combat boots. The HIII leg force-time trajectories from both the lower and upper load cells showed a similar bell shape and duration but different magnitudes. Both the lower and upper tibia load cells of the HIII leg showed that the combat boots had mitigation capabilities. This is the first time that the lower tibia response of the MiL-Lx leg has been tested and analysed at a range of loading conditions. This has resulted in better understanding of the response of the MiL-Lx leg and will ultimately lead to better protection measures of the lower extremities

An analysis of teachers' experiences in Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement implementation in intermediate and senior phase primary schools : Vhembe district

This thesis explored teachers’ experiences in curriculum implementation in primary schools in the Vhembe district. Curriculum implementation prompts thinking and learning of new things in the teachers’ day-to-day workplace. Primary school teachers are pillars of strength in contributing to the children’s future success. The thesis presents a contribution to the knowledge of curriculum implementation at the school level through a case study and a qualitative research approach as it aimed to comprehend and describe teachers’ practices and experiences on the implementation of the curriculum, which is a social phenomenon that includes ideas, thoughts, and actions. The thesis takes an appropriate starting point in arguing that curriculum implementation prompts thinking and learning of new things in the teachers’ day-to-day workplace. The context of the argument is primary school teachers’ lived experiences in South Africa in the face of curriculum change. The researcher critically argues that South Africa is amongst many countries that experienced curriculum challenges and resorted to change and one of the changes was in the form of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) which signalled a shift in teaching approaches. In this new way of teaching, teachers seem lost and therefore apply traditional teaching methods. Teachers are expected to apply curriculum changes and develop new skills through qualification improvement, but it is questionable whether the challenges that the teachers themselves recognise as important are taken into cognisance. The researcher elaborated eight recommendations in relation to the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement. Some of the recommendations are summarily as that education curriculum advisors from the Limpopo Department of Education be appointed to visit all schools to aid and assess the implementation. It is also recommended that the Department of Basic Education must retrain all primary school teachers for a week during school vacation. These recommendations are of paramount importance and the Limpopo Department of Education should consider them as a priority. As the government can intervene by funding the implementation of the CAPS in the training and reskilling of teachers.Curriculum and Instructional StudiesPh. D. (Curriculum and Instructional Studies

An ERP system implementation framework for management accountants in the water industry

Organisations are seeking for an opportunity to reduce costs while they increase service delivery to their customers. In order to remain in business, companies must have proper strategies in place to reduce costs while they still deliver the same standard of service. In order to remain competitive, companies have implemented Information Communication Technology (ICT). The implementation of ICT was done to assist organisations to improve efficiency in their production processes. To achieve these objectives, companies implemented Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Some companies that have implemented an ERP system, however, are faced with the challenge of not fully realising the full benefits of implementing the ERP system. The Water Industry is faced with a challenge of ensuring that it manages the water value chain effectively through the use of an ERP system. The industry is also experiencing difficult times in ensuring that the business is run in a sustainable manner to manage the infrastructure assets. This has resulted in the importance of internal reporting within the Water Industry to assist management to monitor performance and take informed decisions. The implementation of an ERP system has affected all the roles in the Water Industry, especially the role of management accountants who are involved with internal reporting. Management accountants are experiencing challenges during and after the implementation of an ERP system, especially with the effective and efficient reporting of information. This study investigated the challenges that management accountants encountered after the implementation of an ERP system in the Water Industry in South Africa. The research consists of a preliminary study to identify challenges that management accountants encounter during and after the implementation of ERP system in the Water Industry. A literature review on the role of management accountants combined with the ERP system applications and framework are investigated and an ERP system implementation framework for the Water Industry is proposed. The proposed framework is evaluated and recommendations are made to those involved with the water industry that are considering upgrading or implementing an ERP system

Teachers' experiences of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement implementation in foundation phase primary schools : Nzhelele East Circuit

This research investigated issues teachers face Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) implementation at Foundation Phase primary schools in Nzhelele East Circuit. Curriculum implementation promotes thinking and learning of new things in the teachers’ day to day working environment. Foundation Phase teachers are pillars contributing to the children’s success in future. If children become passive, this passiveness will be reflected in the following stages, namely developmental and progressive stages, through the school system. Republic of South Africa transcended many stage of changes in all different sectors of society since the inception of the new democratic government in April 1994. The curriculum change was done in order to address the concerns, cited by teachers in different schools. Those four concerns were: “complaints about the implementation of the National Curriculum Statement (NCS), teachers who were overburdened with administration, different interpretations of the curriculum requirements, and poor performance of learners”. In this mini dissertation, the researcher found that implementation the CAPS by teachers is a risk-taking exercise, because teachers were not trained well. The curriculum advisors responsible for training them were not having depth of knowledge of Foundation Phase. The curriculum advisors are there as a result of secondment. The teachers were devoid of capacity of knowledge, values and skills towards the implementation of the CAPS. Some teachers were not having time to improve their qualifications as they were still having Junior Primary Teachers Diploma (JPTD). In presenting this argument, the theoretical framework, constructivism learning theory, was particularly suitable within the area of education in curriculum implementation. Constructivism learning theory refers “to the idea that learners construct knowledge for themselves; each learner individually (and socially) constructs meaning as he or she learns”. The objectives of the study were:- to explore the way in which Foundation Phase teachers experience the execution of their tasks in the implementation of the CAPS; to establish how the resources are used through in the implementation of the CAPS; to determine the type of assistance by School Management Teams (SMTs) in the implementation of the CAPS; and to investigate how Foundation Phase teachers’ understanding and assessment of the CAPS influence their teaching practices of curriculum implementation. This study used a qualitative approach, and the methods used included a focus group interview with foundation phase teachers, individual interviews with heads of departments (HoDs) and school principals (SP), observation, document analysis of the CAPS in Nzhelele East Circuit. This study revealed the teachers’ frustrations and unease regarding curriculum change, assessment, previous policies, and workload, knowledge on the CAPS documents, and training and resources. This research should encourage the Limpopo Education Department to take heed of the responses of the teachers at the sampled schools, as this can easily be rectified through the intervention of the Department by funding the training of teachers in implementing the CAPS. The recommendations should be considered well in the correct implementation of the CAPS. It is also recommended that education specialists from the provincial government be appointed to visit schools in order to assist and evaluate the implementation of curriculum. It is also recommended that the DBE must make a re-training to all Foundation Phase teachers for a week during school vacation. The challenges that are facing the CAPS can be minimal if the recommendations could be adhered to.Curriculum and Instructional StudiesM. Ed. (Curriculum and Instructional Studies

An assessment of two evanescent field biosensors in the development of an immunoassay for tuberculosis

Accurate diagnosis of active tuberculosis is required to improve treatment, reduce transmission of the disease and control the emergence of drug resistance. A rapid and reliable test would make a considerable contribution to the management of the TB epidemic, especially in HIV-burdened and resource-poor countries where access to diagnostic laboratories are limited. Surrogate marker antibody detection to mycobacterial lipid cell wall antigens gave promising results, in particular with cord factor. The specific advantage of using mycolic acids as lipid antigens in comparison to protein antigens is that mycolic acid is a CD1 restricted antigen with the ability to induce proliferation of CD4/CD8 double negative T-cells, which may explain the sustained antibody production in AIDS patients. Traditional end-point assays to detect anti-MA antibodies showed an unacceptable number of false positive and negative test results. Here a much improved biosensor method (the MARTI-assay, i.e. Mycolic acid Antibody Real-Time Inhibition assay) was developed to detect antibodies to mycolic acid in patient sera as surrogate markers of active tuberculosis. The test was assessed on an IAsys optical biosensor and gave an accuracy of 82%. The technology was transferred to an SPR (ESPRIT) biosensor to economise and simplify the assay. Mycolic acid containing liposomes were immobilized on the SPR gold surface pre-coated with octadecanethiol. The following parameters were optimized on the ESPRIT biosensor to enable reliable TB diagnosis: effect of degassed buffer, saponin blocking, first exposure to serum at low concentration and second exposure to antigen inhibited serum at high concentration. The IAsys biosensor system has a weakness in the double channel cuvette system, in which the channels often do not give matching results, while being ten times more expensive than the gold discs provided for the ESPRIT biosensor. The ESPRIT biosensor is provided with an adjustable laser setting to compensate for differences in the channel readings as well as an automated fluidic system that reduces variance from one sample to the next. First indications are that the test can also be used for prognosis of TB during treatment. It is hoped that the ESPRIT biosensor will improve the accuracy of the test to more than 90%. If the MARTI-assay technology could be made amenable for high throughput screening, it may provide the solution to the serodiagnosis of tuberculosis and monitoring of progress during TB treatment both in adult and children, thereby reducing the spread of TB within the communities.Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009.Biochemistryunrestricte

The identification of factors associated with stress among primary school teachers in Soshanguve.

Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2003.The purpose of this study was to identify some of the factors associated with stress among primary school teachers in Soshanguve. The three main objectives were: • To identify factors associated with stress among primary school teachers in the township. • To identify signs and symptoms of stress among primary school teachers in the township. • To compare stress experienced by male and female primary school teachers in the township. Questionnaires were administered to a sample of 63 black teachers in the Soshanguve township, which is located north (but near) Pretoria. Statistical analyses revealed the following factors that were identified as major sources of stress: • Inadequate salaries • Lack of parental support • Lack of promotion • Learner ill-discipline • Too many learners in school. The majority of respondents also indicated that they were experiencing some symptoms of stress and above 80% of the respondents stated that they were experiencing muscular aches, worries, headaches, anger, anxiety, depression, frustration, poor concentration and powerlessness. Also, it was found that gender has nothing to do with any source of stress. The researcher has therefore recommended that the Department of Education should establish help care centers where teachers would be enlightened on some techniques on how to handle stress

The Integration of Climate Change Issues on Local Government Planning Processes of South Africa

The establishment of Local Sphere of Government in South Africa was seen as a paramount step towards ensuring successful service delivery to the poor communities in the rural areas. Planning for service delivery at a local sphere is important to integrate and include the communities through participation. In recent years, climate change emerged as one of the greatest challenge to deal with in the entire universe. Its short and long term impacts are viewed as devastating particularly to the poor communities in developing countries. Issues such as floods, drought and unprecedented weather conditions which are sometimes disastrous and associated with climate change are seen to have a huge impact to the processes of delivering services such as water and electricity. Concurrently, economic activities and livelihoods which forms financial base for local economic development of a specific local areas are also affected. This article argues that, poor communities will continue to be vulnerable victims of climate change if measures to address its effect are not strategically placed in the Integrated Development Planning (IDP) processes of local government. The purpose of this article is to provide a critical discussion on the impact of climate change on service delivery; environmental risks, hazards and service delivery; challenges faced in planning for service delivery in local government and the importance of integrating climate change issues in the IDP processes. The article concludes that in order to strategically deal with the effects of climate change on service delivery, the former should be integrated in all aspects of IDP in order to establish measure to eliminate its devastating impacts. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p94

Isolation and characterization of antimicrobial compounds from Funtumia africana (Apocynaceae) leaf extracts

Medicinal plants have played an important role in drug discovery, with many pharmaceutical products originating from plants. Isolation and characterization of antibacterial compounds is still relevant today because of continuing development of resistance of bacteria to antibiotics. The aim of the study was to evaluate the antibacterial activity of leaf extracts of nine tree species (Acalypha sonderiana, Androstachys johnsonii, Dracaena mannii, Drypetes natalensis, Funtumia africana, Necepsia casteneifolia, Oncinotus tenuiloba, Turraea floribunda, and Xylia torreana) selected from the Phytomedicine Programme Database based on good antimicrobial activities. The next step was to select the most active plant species and to isolate and characterize the antibacterial compounds. A serial microplate dilution method was used to determine the minimal inhibitory concentration and bioautography was used to determine the number of antibacterial compounds in the extract and their Rf values. Four nosocomial infection pathogens (Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus) were used as test organisms. Extracts of all the plant species were active with average MIC values ranging from 0.13 to 2.0 mg/ml against the four bacteria. MIC values as low as 0.08 mg/ml was obtained with F. africana and O. tenuiloba extracts against S. aureus. In bioautography seven of the nine leaf extracts had activity with clear zones of inhibition on bioautograms against the red background. F. africana was active against all four bacteria while O. tenuiloba had selective activity against P. aeruginosa with clear bands on the bioautogram. F. africana was chosen for further investigation because (a) it had good antibacterial activity against the four tested bacteria with MIC value as low as 0.08 mg/ml, (b) there were several active compounds against all the tested bacteria based on bioautography, (c) it is common in nature, and (d) as far as our literature survey could ascertain there was no published information on the antimicrobial activity of this plant species. The bulk powdered leaves of F. africana were extracted with acetone. The acetone extract was fractionated into five fractions (hexane, chloroform, butanol, H2O and 30% H2O in methanol) using solvent-solvent fractionation, to group the phytochemicals based on their polarity. Hexane and chloroform fractions were the most active with MIC values as low as 0.02 mg/ml for the chloroform fraction. One of the traditional uses of F. africana is to treat burns. As a result, the crude extract and its five fractions were also tested for anti-inflammatory activity using both the COX-1 and COX-2 assays. The crude extract and the hexane and chloroform fraction had moderate activity against both cyclooxygenase 1 and 2. The chloroform fraction was more active than the crude extract (59.7 ± 1.4%)with an inhibition of 68.2 ± 6.6%. Because there was no activity in the aqueous extracts and traditional healers usually use water as extractant, the pain relief experiences traditionally must be due to another anti-inflammatory mechanism. One antibacterial compound was isolated from the hexane fraction using column chromatography with silica gel as the stationary phase and a hexane ethyl acetate gradient as the mobile phase from low to high polarity. The isolated compound was identified as methyl ursolate using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry. Methyl ursolate has been isolated from a number of plant species. However, this is the first report on the isolation from Funtumia genus and the first report of its antimicrobial activity. Previous phytochemical investigation from the stem bark of F. africana led to the isolation of steroidal alkaloids of the conanine group. Methyl ursolate had a low activity with MIC values of >250 μg/ml against the four tested bacteria, but had better activity against five fungal (Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neomeforms, Fusarium oxysporum, Penicillium janthinellium, and Rhizoctonia solani) species with an MIC value of 63 μg/ml against F. oxysporum. The chloroform fraction had excellent activity with an MIC of 20 μg/ml and may be developed to become a useful complex drug. The more than one hundred fold lower activity of the isolated methyl ursolate compared to the activity of the chloroform fraction from which it was isolated, provides strong evidence of synergism. This may be good model system for studying synergism in antimicrobial preparations.Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2010.Paraclinical Sciencesunrestricte

The perceptions of midwives regarding audit and feedback on the use of the partogram at Vhembe District of Limpopo Province, South Africa

Background: Audit and feedback is regarded as the cornerstone of clinical teaching to guarantee good practice and to correct poor performance. Feedback given to health professionals assists in narrowing the gap between the actual and the desired information. The findings of the research study on perceptions of midwives on audit and feedback highlighted aspects that needed improvement to address challenges on the use and documentation of the partogram. Objectives: The objectives of this article were to explore and describe the perceptions of midwives on auditing of the partogram by health professionals and to explore and describe the perceptions of midwives on the feedback that was given after audit was done. Method: A qualitative, exploratory and descriptive study was conducted to answer the two research objectives. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 17 midwives who were working in the labour wards of three hospitals. Eight steps of qualitative data analysis as indicated by Tesch were used to analyse the data. Results: The findings revealed that auditing and feedback is sometimes done by midwives themselves, midwives’ managers and district managers. Audit is done monthly or on a daily basis and sometimes inconsistently because of shortage of staff. Challenges indicated were lack of knowledge on the use of the partogram and lack of encouragement and praise when documentation was done correctly and that emphasis was mostly placed on negative aspects. Conclusion: The findings revealed that auditing and feedback and in-service education is done at the three hospitals, although challenges such as inconsistency in auditing because of shortage of staff, lack of knowledge on partogram use and on principles of giving feedback were highlighted

Intrapartum clinical guideline for monitoring and managing a woman during labour

This research study explored and described a partogram as a clinical practice guideline for monitoring and managing women during labour at Vhembe District of Limpopo province. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual design was used in order to achieve the study objectives. Purposive sampling was carried out to select three hospitals in order to obtain comprehensive data from the district. The research study was conducted in three phases. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 midwives who were selected conveniently from the three hospitals. Document study was also conducted on 24 partograms that were conveniently selected from the three hospitals on the days that interviews were conducted, using a self-designed checklist. Tesch’s eight steps of qualitative data analysis were used to analyse the data, and simple, descriptive statistics using frequencies were used to analyse the data obtained from the document study. Four themes that emerged from the data are: benefits of implementing the partogram, challenges experienced, attitudes of staff and evaluation on how the guideline is being implemented in the wards, including giving feedback. These aspects were indicated as pivotal in the implementation of the guideline in monitoring a woman during labour. The findings on document study revealed gaps in recording, mostly on aspects that needed frequent observations and on aspects in which resources that needed to be used in monitoring were lacking. The strategies to improve the implementation of a guideline were developed based on the research findings, sent to one of the hospitals for review and comments were included in the discussions. It is recommended that in-service training on the implementation of the partogram be conducted regularly for midwives. Hospital management and supervisors need to provide support, enough staff and equipment in order to enable midwives to use the partogramHealth StudiesD. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies