Effectiveness of a nurse facilitated cognitive group intervention among mild to moderately-depressed-women in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Objective: The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of a nurse-facilitated-cognitive-group (NFCG) intervention as an adjunct to antidepressant medication, in mild to moderately, depressed women.Method: This was a quasi-experimental, nonequivalent, control group design study. A sample of 30 consenting participants was selected from an urban, community psychiatric clinic, and the participants were randomly allocated to the control and the intervention groups. The effectiveness of the intervention was measured using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Results: After six weeks of implementation of the NFCG intervention, therewas a decrease in the BDI scores of the intervention group, and an  increase in the BDI scores in the control group (CG) – but the difference in scores was not significant (Student’s t-test=1.076, p=0.291). After 12 weeks of the group intervention, the BDI scores for the intervention group, showed a considerable reduction in their levels of depression, whilst the participants of the control group had a further increase in their scores. There was a statistically significant difference between the groups, with respect to the BDI scores (p<0.001). The Friedman test indicated that the mean BDI scores, were statistically significant (p<0.001) within the  intervention group, meaning that the BDI scores improved, at the end of the intervention for all the participants. Analysis of the BDI scores, using the Friedman test, showed that there was no improvement in the control group (p=0.597).Conclusion: The NFCG intervention, as an adjunct to antidepressant medication, contributed to a reduction in depressive symptoms.Keywords: Psychiatric nursing; Psychotherapy, Group; Cognitive Behavior Therapy; South Afric

Toward a hip hop pedagogy of discomfort

In this article, we offer philosophical reflections on our participation in a hip hop network and seminar series, UK HipHopEd, where British hip hop artists, activists and educators meet to deliberate over the politics of their work. We analyse this dialogic cultural space with reference to Megan Boler’s notion of a “pedagogy of discomfort”. We argue that the productive tension of the seminars owes much to the diversity of the participants. We discuss how these participants, despite a common interest in hip hop, may have to bridge epistemological and ontological divides in order to understand and accept each other. We examine how dialogue can founder on intransigence and dogmatism when discomfort becomes too difficult to tolerate. We conclude that these reflexive encounters can, however, cultivate a willingness to “stay with” discomfort. This, we insist, opens up new educational and activist horizons within and beyond UK HipHopEd, which are alive to transformative encounters

On the move alobe (OMA): a practical tool for case management of uncaccompanied migrant children in southern Africa

This practitioners’ guidebook and On the Move Alone (OMA) Tool is intended to serve as the official guide for SADC member states in the development of their National Action Plans. These plans are set to be aligned to the new Regional Strategic Plan to Address Mixed and Irregular Migration, which was accepted by all member states at the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) 2016. The guidelines set forth in this document aim to complement the agreed standard on Case Management (Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, 2012), and to provide a step-by-step, concrete and localised guidance to ‘frontline officials’ that are confronted with the support and safe management of unaccompanied children in the Southern African region

Critical transformation in higher education: Ethical reflections on #

Protest movements such as the #MustFall currently dominate the South African higher education landscape. This article focuses on such protest movements, paying particular attention to protests against gender-based violations at some universities, commonly referred to as #RapeMustFall, as an exemplar of the gender injustices and inequities that persist. We argue that debates and policies about gender-based violations at universities cannot and should not be overshadowed by deficient grand narratives informed by patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism. To frame this argument, we critically review the current status quo from a gender mainstreaming policy-making perspective. We then argue the merits of an ethical perspective to transformation in higher education. Critical transformation in higher education requires not only epistemological change and access, but should be a fundamentally ethical pursuit

Feature Selection of Post-Graduation Income of College Students in the United States

This study investigated the most important attributes of the 6-year post-graduation income of college graduates who used financial aid during their time at college in the United States. The latest data released by the United States Department of Education was used. Specifically, 1,429 cohorts of graduates from three years (2001, 2003, and 2005) were included in the data analysis. Three attribute selection methods, including filter methods, forward selection, and Genetic Algorithm, were applied to the attribute selection from 30 relevant attributes. Five groups of machine learning algorithms were applied to the dataset for classification using the best selected attribute subsets. Based on our findings, we discuss the role of neighborhood professional degree attainment, parental income, SAT scores, and family college education in post-graduation incomes and the implications for social stratification.Comment: 14 pages, 6 tables, 3 figure

State-space average modelling of converters with parasitics and storage-time modulation

The State-Space Averaging approach to modelling switching converter power stages is used to extend the analytical descriptions of the buck, boost, buck-boost, and Cuk converters to included the effects of all parasitic resistances and transistor storage-time modulation. The analysis reveals for the first time a new and unexpected term in the line to ouput response of the Cuk converter. The new term contains a right half-plane zero produced by the energy transfer capacitance in combination with the duty-ratio-weighted sum of the on-resistances of the transistor and diode plus a non-dissipative ac resistance term due to transistor storage-time modulation. The conventional circuit model of the converter is modified to include the effects of the new term. The improved model permits an eas physical interpretation of the new zero, which has been observed only the in Cuk converter. An extended analysis of storage-time modulation in bipolar transistor switches shows that the ac small-signal performance of a switching converter is highly dependent on the nature of the base drive. It is demonstrated that storage-time modulation in conjunction with a proportional base drive can produce instability in switching converters, even open-loop. The results of these analyses are verified experimentally and their impacts on practical converters are discussed

The horizontal application of the South African Bill of Rights.

Thesis (LL.M.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1998.The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 200 of 1993 which operated as the interim constitution of the Republic introduced a new legal order predicated on constitutionalism and constitutional supremacy. Within it was entrenched a justiciable Bill of Rights that guaranteed the enforcement and protection of the fundamental rights of the individuals of the state. Notionally and traditionally bills of rights have been conceived as a mechanism for the protection and enforcement of fundamental human rights against the state, the abuse of state authority and sate power. Such an application has been typified as the vertical application of the bill of rights . During the drafting process of the Interim Constitution, the Technical Committees commissioned by the Multi-Party Negotiating Process for that purpose were preoccupied with the question as to whether the South African Bill of Rights should apply in the private sphere between private persons acting inter se; such an application being typified as the horizontal application. The result was an ambiguous text. The question of whether the Bill of Rights was indeed capable of a horizontal application was intensely debated before the Constitutional Court of South Africa in Du Plessis And Others v De Klerk And Another 1996 (3) SA 850. And in an equally intense judgment the majority of the Court concluded that the Bill of Rights was not in general capable of a direct horizontal application. Although influenced by a strenuous textual analysis, there were other considerations too that influenced the Court's decision. One of the most important of these was that the operation of a bill of rights in the private sphere would be contrary to the notion of a constitutional state and that it would make the law vague and uncertain. However, the very same Constitutional Court a few months later in In Re: Certification of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, 1996 (10) BCLR 1253 (CC) certified that Section 8 (2) of Chapter 3 unequivocally provided for the horizontal application of the Bill of Rights. This dissertation examines the paradigms within which the Bill of Rights operates horizontally and analyzes the apprehensions expressed in Du Plessis v De Klerk within the context of these paradigms