Theory and practice of the quintile ranking of schools in South Africa: A financial management perspective

Equitable funding of public schools to reduce the disparities in education inherited by the post-apartheid government of South Africa in 1994 has become a priority. The Amended National Norms and Standards for School Funding (ANNSSF) required the ranking of schools into one of five quintiles of which Quintile 1 represents the poorest schools and Quintile 5 the most affluent. This amendment determines that schools serving impoverished communities should receive more funding. However, challenges exist regarding the implementation of the system, as well as the calculation base for maintenance allocation. In this study we used semi-structured interviews to collect data from 24 respondents from urban and township schools in Gauteng. Participants were selected by means of purposive sampling. Permission to conduct the research was obtained from the Gauteng Department of Education, the university’s Ethics Committee and the school governing bodies. We handled financial information from schools with utmost confidentiality. We identified themes from interview transcriptions and we analysed schools’ financial statements. The main findings relate to inaccuracies in quintile ranking, which result in inadequate and unfair school funding, which impact on schools’ maintenance and learning and teaching. It is recommended that a more holistic approach should be followed to achieve equity in education.Keywords: disparity; education funding; no-fee schools; poverty score; quintile ranking; school fee exemption formul

Movement of grain to control stored-product insects and mites

Des grains entreposés furent brassés à l'aide d'une vis sans fin ou d'un transporteur pneumatique pour déterminer les effets d'un tel procédé dans la lutte contre les insectes et les acariens. Au cours d'un essai pilote, on a utilisé neuf cellules métalliques soudées contenant chacune 322 kg de blé (Triticum aestivum). Dans trois cellules, on a déplacé le grain au moyen d'une vis sans fin : on a constaté un taux de mortalité de 89 % des insectes adultes pour les triboliums rouges de la farine (Tribolium castaneum) et de 94% des insectes adultes pour le cucujide roux (Cryptolestes ferrugineus). Le taux de mortalité des larves, mesuré en plaçant des échantillons de céréales dans les entonnoirs Berlese, était de 100%. Le déplacement pneumatique des céréales dans trois cellules a résulté en un taux de mortalité de 100% (espèces d'insectes et stades de maturité confondus), que l'on a mesuré à l'aide d'une sonde à grain et de pièges à insectes. Sur le terrain, on a procédé à des essais dans des cellules en bois contenant du blé et du maïs (Zea mays) infestés. Le contenu des cellules a été chargé dans un camion par un transporteur pneumatique, puis transvidé à la main dans les cellules métalliques soudées. On a effectué un test parallèle sur du blé et du maïs en utilisant une vis à tarière pour déplacer les céréales. Dans le cas du blé, le déplacement pneumatique a tué 100 % des acariens (Aeroglyphus robustus), des T. castaneum adultes et larves et des C. ferrugineus adultes. Le taux de mortalité des larves de C. ferrugineus et des psocoptères était respectivement de 79 % et de 83 %. Le déplacement du blé à la vis sans fin a tué 98 % des acariens, et respectivement 84 et 70 % des adultes et des larves chez T. castaneum, et 14 et 0 % chez C. ferrugineus. Le déplacement pneumatique du maïs a détruit 97 % des T. castaneum adultes, 73% des C. ferrugineus adultes et 100% des Cartodere constricta. Le déplacement du maïs à la vis sans fin a donné une mortalité des insectes inférieure à celle obtenue avec le déplacement pneumatique. Le déplacement pneumatique des céréales, en particulier du blé, est un moyen physique efficace de lutter contre les espèces communes d'insectes infestant les produits entreposés.The movement of stored grain by auger or pneumatic conveyor was evaluated for control of stored-product insects and mites. In a pilot scale test using nine welded steel bins each holding 322 kg of wheat (Triticum aestivum), movement of grain using an auger in three bins caused 89% mortality of red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum adults and 94% mortality of rusty grain beetle, Cryptolestes ferrugineus adults. Larval mortality of both species, based on grain samples placed in Berlese funnels, was 100%. Pneumatic conveyance of grain in three bins caused 100% mortality of all stages of both insects based on grain samples and grain-probe insect traps. In field tests, infested wooden bins of wheat and corn (Zea mays) were moved by pneumatic conveyor to a truck and then hand-poured into welded steel bins. A parallel test on wheat and corn was done using a screw auger to move the grain. Pneumatic wheat movement killed 100% of mites (Aeroglyphus robustus), T. castaneum adults and larvae, and C. ferrugineus adults. Mortality of C. ferrugineus larvae and psocids was 79% and 83%, respectively. Augering wheat killed 98% of mites, 84% T. castaneum adults, 70% T. castaneum larvae, 14% C. ferrugineus adults, and 0% C. ferrugineus larvae. Pneumatic movement of corn killed 97% T. castaneum adults, 72% C. ferrugineus adults and 100% of the fungus beetle Cartodere constricta. Augering corn had less effects than pneumatic movement on insect mortality. Pneumatic conveyance of grain, especially wheat, offers an effective physical control for common stored-product insects

A simulated study of implicit feedback models

In this paper we report on a study of implicit feedback models for unobtrusively tracking the information needs of searchers. Such models use relevance information gathered from searcher interaction and can be a potential substitute for explicit relevance feedback. We introduce a variety of implicit feedback models designed to enhance an Information Retrieval (IR) system's representation of searchers' information needs. To benchmark their performance we use a simulation-centric evaluation methodology that measures how well each model learns relevance and improves search effectiveness. The results show that a heuristic-based binary voting model and one based on Jeffrey's rule of conditioning [5] outperform the other models under investigation

Kinesiology of a Baseball Swing

The purpose of this analysis is to provide feedback of optimal swing analytics that will produce maximal force and the best results in a sport setting.https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/exercise-science-research-proposal-posters/1030/thumbnail.jp

The Need for American Ethnic Studies at Predominantly White Institutions (I): African American and Native American Studies

This session will provide a straightforward account of what ethnic studies is and the current state of ethnic studies

Estimating extreme flood events:Assumptions, uncertainty and error

Hydrological extremes are amongst the most devastating forms of natural disasters both in terms of lives lost and socio-economic impacts. There is consequently an imperative to robustly estimate the frequency and magnitude of hydrological extremes. Traditionally, engineers have employed purely statistical approaches to the estimation of flood risk. For example, for an observed hydrological timeseries, each annual maximum flood is extracted and a frequency distribution is fit to these data. The fitted distribution is then extrapolated to provide an estimate of the required design risk (i.e. the 1 % Annual Exceedance Probability – AEP). Such traditional approaches are overly simplistic in that risk is implicitly assumed to be static, in other words, that climatological processes are assumed to be randomly distributed in time. In this study, flood risk estimates are evaluated with regards to traditional statistical approaches as well as Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)/El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) conditional estimates for a flood-prone catchment in eastern Australia. A paleo-reconstruction of pre-instrumental PDO/ENSO occurrence is then employed to estimate uncertainty associated with the estimation of the 1 % AEP flood. The results indicate a significant underestimation of the uncertainty associated with extreme flood events when employing the traditional engineering estimates

Renormalon Singularities of the QCD Vacuum Polarization Function to Leading Order in 1/Nf1/N_{f}

We explicitly determine the residues and orders of all the ultra-violet (UV) and infra-red (IR) renormalon poles in the Borel plane for the QCD vacuum polarization function (Adler D-function), to leading order in an expansion in the number of quark flavours, $N_{f}$. The singularity structure is precisely as anticipated on general grounds. In particular, the leading IR renormalon is absent, in agreement with operator product expansion ideas. There is a curious and unexplained symmetry between the third and higher UV and IR renormalon residues. We are able to sum up separately UV and IR contributions to obtain closed form results involving $\zeta$-functions. We argue that the leading UV renormalon should have a more complicated structure than conventionally assumed. The disappearance of IR renormalons in flavour-saturated SU($N$) QCD is shown to occur for $N=3,6$ or 9.Comment: 22 pages of LaTeX, revisions to this paper are mainly typographica

Northern hemisphere stationary waves in a changing climate

AbstractPurpose of ReviewStationary waves are planetary-scale longitudinal variations in the time-averaged atmospheric circulation.Here, we consider the projected response of Northern Hemisphere stationary waves to climate change in winter and summer. Wediscuss how the response varies across different metrics, identify robust responses, and review proposed mechanisms.Recent FindingsClimate models project shifts in the prevailing wind patterns, with corresponding impacts on regional precip-itation, temperature, and extreme events. Recent work has improved our understanding of the links between stationary waves andregional climate and identified robust stationary wave responses to climate change, which include an increased zonal lengthscalein winter, a poleward shift of the wintertime circulation over the Pacific, a weakening of monsoonal circulations, and an overallweakening of stationary wave circulations, particularly their divergent component and quasi-stationary disturbances.SummaryNumerous factors influence Northern Hemisphere stationary waves, and mechanistic theories exist for only a fewaspects of the stationary wave response to climate change. Idealized studies have proven useful for understanding the climateresponses of particular atmospheric circulation features and should be a continued focus of future research.R.C.J.W. received funding from the TamakiFoundation, NSF (Grant AGS-1929775), and NASA (GrantNNX17AH56G). R.H.W. received funding from the European UnionHorizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the MarieSkłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 797961. XJL received fundingfrom the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation pro-gramme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No.754433.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Validating and Identifying KPIs in ATP/WTA hard court tennis match play (2019-2023) using the PWOL method.

The study provided further validity for the use of the PWOL (percentage of matches which the winner outscored the loser) method within elite hard-court tennis. Over half of the ATP/WTA competitive calendar (January-March and August-November) is played on hard courts so is an important progression. Data from 810 men’s and 586 women’s hard court matches across Grand Slams and ATP/WTA World Tours (i.e., Masters, 500s and 250s) between 2019 and 2023 was used for analysis. PWOL was validated alongside two traditionally used statistical methods (paired t-test, point-biserial correlation). Very high agreement between all approaches was shown using Spearman’s correlation analysis for both men and women (> 0.97). The study further identified the indicators most related to winning performance, identifying baseline points won, first serve points won, points won of 0-4 rally length and Winners:UE Ratio to be most strongly associated with success; while forced errors were most associated with losing. Ball three indicators lacked association with match outcome, suggesting any major focus training ‘one-two punches’ on serve should be approached with caution. PWOL has proven to be a valid method for assessing success in elite hard-court tennis (offering potential for wider sports application) to ultimately aid coach decision-making

Density Matrix Renormalisation Group Approach to the Massive Schwinger Model

The massive Schwinger model is studied, using a density matrix renormalisation group approach to the staggered lattice Hamiltonian version of the model. Lattice sizes up to 256 sites are calculated, and the estimates in the continuum limit are almost two orders of magnitude more accurate than previous calculations. Coleman's picture of `half-asymptotic' particles at background field theta = pi is confirmed. The predicted phase transition at finite fermion mass (m/g) is accurately located, and demonstrated to belong in the 2D Ising universality class.Comment: 38 pages, 18 figures, submitted to PR