Freedom of religion of children in private schools

This article argues against the interpretation that the right to establish private schools includes the right to require religious conformity from non-adherent learners by way of a waiver of their religious freedom. Despite the importance of respecting the rights of religious communities to protect and preserve their faith in private schools, it is submitted that this right cannot be exercised without regard for the religious freedom, dignity and best interests of non-adherent children. As a result, it is submitted that the waiver of the freedom of religion of non-adherent children is not consistent with the values which South African society reveres and, therefore, cannot be enforced. This article suggests that there is a way for the rights of private schools and the rights of the non-adherent child to co-exist in harmony through the application of the reasonable accommodation principle in private schools

Designing Heterotopic Transversal Equitable Foundations for Open Knowledge: Access, Freedom & e/Quality

Following on the publications based on Smit’s 2017 International Open Access lecture (cf. Smit & Chetty 2018a; and 2018b), we capture some aspects from his 2018 presentation, in this article. It further develops his exploration of the significance of Michel Foucault’s triad, subject – communication – knowledge-power production in the digital paradigm, or e-episteme, in terms of knowledge-power networks (KPNs). For this, the article has two main parts. Firstly, it provides a theoretical framework for the empirical interpretation of the 2018 international topic for the Open Access week, seminally, incorporating the no-tions of the ‘heterotopic’ and ‘transversal’. Secondly, in South Africa’s ascendant history into openness, as a free country, it provides a sample of three significant events in our affirmative genealogy, or genealogies, of freedom. These are, access to the full participation in, or ‘contribution’ to, world civilization, or world information-, data-, or knowledge-power, or science-power productions, á la Anton Lembede; freedom as founded in the Universal Declaration of Hu-man Rights (UDHR); and equity/ equality/ e/Quality, as founded in ‘The Free-dom Charter’. As such, the advocacy for access, freedom, and equality in South Africa’s affirmative genealogy of freedom, are three of the seminal elements, and historical empirical events, for South Africa’s entry into its free democratic dispensation, in 1994. The presentation was dedicated to the international celebration of the seventieth year of the founding of the UDHR, in 1948

23/ 25 Years of Alternation, and the African Digital Humanities: Capacity, Communication, and Knowledge-Power1

This article condenses the presentation by Prof J.A. Smit, as the International Open Access keynote lecture, of 23 October 2017. It forms the first of a double-barrel article that seeks to open up some research possibilities with regard to the subject and knowledge-power2. Drawing on Foucault, it firstly provides a theoretical framework that may assist in assessing the significance of Alternation, followed by a positioning of the questions Foucault raised through his nearly twenty years of research on this matter, in the digital, or electronic age, specifically with regard to the African Digital Humanities. It then briefly reflects on some of the founding ideas and provides a sample of the historical events in the history of Alternation (1994 – 1996), followed, by positioning it in the international dynamics of the digital age, and the move from Humanities Computing in Alternation, to the Digital Humanities. The fifth focus, and as part of the Conclusion, briefly reflects on Berners-Lee’s pioneering vision, as well as the most basic definition of the Digital Humanities, which provides a broad framework of both the past and future research of Alternation

The African Digital Humanities (ADH) and Alternation on OJS (2018 - ): Innovation, Pan-African Collaboration, and Trans-Continental Integration1

This article is a continuation of a condensing of the presentation by Prof J.A. Smit, as the Open Access keynote lecture, of 23 October 2017. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s relational explication of the subjective embodied capacity – subjective embodied communication – subjective embodied knowledge-power production triad (cf. Smit & Chetty 2018: 8 – 30), it first explicates its theoretical framework, in terms of the triad’s ‘external instruments’. This is followed by a systematic exposition of this framework in terms of the opportunities that the African Digital Humanities (ADH) face as at 23 October 2017. From within the institutional framework of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the article briefly expounds the possibilities that are opened up for the ADH on the Online Journal Management Systems (OJS). This is further done in terms of the conceptualisations of the e-Humanities, or the future of the e-Human in Africa, as we can, at this stage, comparatively, and analogically envision this complex process, as it is happening at the moment, and as it will doubtlessly further expand into a rapidly changing, and high-speed future

Further Observations on Epithelialization of Small Wounds

Linear incisions were made on the back skin of rabbits and 3H-thymidine was injected intravenously during various stages of epithelialization of the wounds. Biopsy specimens were taken 30 minutes and one to three days after injection of the tracer. In the migrating epithelium, the nuclei of basally located cells were labeled thirty minutes after the introduction of 3H-thymidine. The cells located at higher levels did not incorporate the tracer. One or two days later, labeled nuclei also appeared in the upper layers. After wound closure, nuclei were labeled in the basal layer of the epithelium 30 minutes after the introduction of 3H-thymidine. One day later, labeled nuclei appeared in both basal and suprabasal layers, and after three days the nuclei of parakeratotic surface cells were also labeled. These observations indicate that the cells which emigrate from the epidermis divide and differentiate while they move over the wound surface. Thus, mitosis and differentiation are not incompatible with migration as it has been postulated by previous workers. It is concluded that both mitotic and differentiating cells participate in formation of a protective cover over skin wounds

Incident HIV during pregnancy and early postpartum period: a population-based cohort study in a rural area in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

BACKGROUND: The evidence on the effect of pregnancy on acquiring HIV is conflicting, with studies reporting both higher and lower HIV acquisition risk during pregnancy when prolonged antiretroviral therapy was accessible. The aim of this study was to assess the pregnancy effect on HIV acquisition where antiretroviral therapy was widely available in a high HIV prevalence setting. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study nested within a population-based surveillance to determine HIV incidence in HIV-uninfected women from 15 to 49 years from 2010 through 2015 in rural KwaZulu-Natal. HIV incidence per 100 person-years according to pregnancy status (not pregnant, pregnant, to eight weeks postpartum) were measured in 5260 HIV-uninfected women. Hazard ratios (HR) were estimated by Cox proportional hazards regression with pregnancy included as a time varying variable. RESULTS: Overall, pregnancy HIV incidence was 4.5 per 100 person-years (95% CI 3.4-5.8), higher than non-pregnancy (4.0; 95% CI 3.7-4.3) and postpartum incidences (4.2 per 100 person-years; 95% CI 2.3-7.6). However, adjusting for age, and demographic factors, pregnant women had a lower risk of acquiring HIV (HR 0.4; 95% CI 0.2-0.9, P = 0.032) than non-pregnant women; there were no differences between postpartum and non-pregnant women (HR 1.2; 95% CI 0.4-3.2; P = 0.744). In models adjusting for the interaction of age and gravidity, pregnant women under 25 years with two or more pregnancies had a 2.3 times greater risk of acquiring HIV than their older counterparts (95% CI 1.3-4.3; P = 0.008). CONCLUSIONS: Pregnancy had a protective effect on HIV acquisition. Elevated HIV incidence in younger women appeared to be driven by those with higher gravidity. The sexual and biological factors in younger women should be explored further in order to design appropriate HIV prevention interventions

A versatile characterization of poly(N-isopropylacrylamideco- N,N'-methylene-bis-acrylamide) hydrogels for composition, mechanical strength, and rheology

Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-N,N"-methylene-bisacrylamide) (P(NIPAAm-co-MBA)) hydrogels were prepared in water using redox initiator. The copolymer composition at high conversion (> 95%) was determined indirectly by HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) analysis of the leaching water and directly by solid state 13C CP MAS NMR (cross polarization magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance) spectroscopy of the dried gels, and was found to be close to that of the feed. The effect of cross-linker (MBA) content in the copolymer was investigated in the concentration range of 1.1–9.1 mol% (R:90–10; R = mol NIPAAm/mol MBA) on the rheological behaviour and mechanical strength of the hydrogels. Both storage and loss modulus decreased with decreasing cross-linker content as revealed by dynamic rheometry. Gels R70 and R90 with very low cross-linker content (1.2–1.5 mol% MBA) have a very loose network structure, which is significantly different from those with higher cross-linker content manifesting in higher difference in storage modulus. The temperature dependence of the damping factor served the most accurate determination of the volume phase transition temperature, which was not affected by the cross-link density in the investigated range of MBA concentration. Gel R10 with highest cross-linker content (9.1 mol% MBA) behaves anomalously due to heterogeneity and the hindered conformation of the side chains of PNIPAAm

Relationship of serum adiponectin and resistin to glucose intolerance and fat topography in south-Asians

Objectives South-Asians have lower adiponectin levels compared to Caucasians. It was not clear however, if this intrinsic feature is related to aspects of glucose metabolism. This study aims to determine the relationship between body fat distribution and adipocytokine in South-Asian subjects by measuring serum adipocytokines, adiposity, insulinemia, and glucose tolerance levels. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 150 South-Asians (80 males, 70 females) were included, 60 had NGT (Control group, Age 51.33 ± 11.5, BMI 27 ± 2.3), 60 had IGT (Age 57.7 ± 12.5, BMI 27.2 ± 2.7), 30 had type 2 DM (Age 49.5 ± 10.9, BMI 28 ± 1.7). Measures of adiposity, adipocytokines and other metabolic parameters were determined. Parameters were measured using the following: a) Plasma glucose by glucose oxidase method b) CRP by immunoturbidimetric method (Roche/Hitachi analyser) c) insulin by Medgenix INS-ELISA immunoenzymetric assay by Biosource (Belgium) d) Leptin, Adiponectin by radioimmunoassay kits by Linco Research (St. Charles MO) e) Resistin by immunoassay kits by Phoenix Pharmaceuticals INC (530 Harbor Boulevard, Belmont CA 94002, USA). Results Adiponectin concentrations were highest in NGT, decreased in IGT and lowest in DMT2, (both p < 0.01). Leptin was significantly higher in DMT2 than IGT and NGT p = 0.02 and 0.04 respectively. There was a significant positive relationships between log adiponectin and 2-hr insulin values, p = 0.028 and history of hypertensions and a ischemic heart disease p = 0.008 with R = 0.65. There was a significant inverse correlation between log adiponectin and resistin, p < 0.01. Conclusion Resistin levels had an inverse correlation with adiponectin levels, indicating an inverse relationship between pro-inflammatory cytokines and adiponectin. Adiponectin levels were related to glucose tolerance

Pyle metaphyseal dysplasia in an African child: Case report and review of the literature

Pyle disease (OMIM 265900), also known as metaphyseal dysplasia, is a rare autosomal recessive disorder with no known gene mutation. We report a case of Pyle disease in a 7-year-old African boy of mixed ancestry who presented with finger and wrist fractures following minor trauma. The radiological findings revealed abnormally broad metaphyses of the tubular bones, known as Erlenmeyer-flask bone deformity, and mild cranial sclerosis, both hallmarks of the condition. We report the first case in a patient with African ancestry, which could help in the gene discovery of this rare autosomal recessive skeletal dysplasia with unknown mutations.DHE