Gender-specific HIV policies and programmes at South African workplaces

The purpose of this article is to explore how legislation and common law can be creatively interpreted in the light of the Constitution, soft law and international law so as to create legal duties on the part of employers to implement gender-specific policies and practices in the fight against HIV/AIDS, thereby helping to achieve equality and dignity. However, it is acknowledged that the law, even if imaginatively interpreted in the interests of equality and dignity, cannot alone bring about these ideals. Sexual, cultural and economic transformation can only be achieved in the light of a profound understanding of the fundamental causes of gender inequality so that pro- active strategies to eliminate them can be devised and implemented. Fundamental rights such as the right to equality and the right to dignity can form the foundational basis upon which to ground these strategies and programmes. This foundation must serve as a premise for a society where altered roles related to gender can be learned by society in general. Since commonly accepted expectations with regard to male and female behaviour are of prime importance in the spread of HIV/Aids, changes in these accepted gender roles is where the potential for the elimination of the spread of HIV/AIDS lies

the enforcement of socio-economic rights

In recent years the South African legislature has made a very bold attempt to improve the socio-economic conditions of citizens. Amongst others, the Social Assistance Act 59 of 1992 provides for monthly payments to citizens under certain prescribed conditions. In situations where other legislation does not provide a remedy for those unable to care for themselves the Constitution provides for justiciable socio-economic rights. Unfortunately legislative rights alone have proved insufficient and all too frequently the constitutional values and aspirations of human dignity and equality have had a ‘hollow ring’. The most obvious reason for this failure of delivery on the part of the government is of course a shortage of financial resources. Another reason has been a simple disregard for the terms of legislation and court orders by organs of the state and state employees. The authors are of the view that in order to avoid such a dire result, the courts, given their broadly framed constitutional powers, should be adventurous in crafting means to ensure that their orders are properly implemented and adhered to. This article explores the role that courts can play in ensuring proper implementation of both the terms of social security legislation as well as the implementation of court orders with reference to well-fare judgments in the Eastern-Cape

Resilient Design for Outdoor Sports Infrastructure

Cities, and with them the criticalities and opportunities that characterize urban contexts, are one of the main challenges in the transition toward environmental and social sustainability today. Within the contemporary debate dominated by reflec- tions on the effects of climate change, the culture of design is increasingly oriented to measure itself against the concept of resilience: the limitation of land consumption, together with the technological, functional and energetic reorganization of areas and buildings, is the path taken by design to make the built environment adaptable to the changes taking place, so as to promote development, equity and social inclusion. Public space, defined as a system of open urban spaces, is assuming an increasingly important role in urban and environmental regeneration processes. At the same time, the topic of sport and the public infrastructure of cities for practicing physical activity is an increasingly important factor for urban and social quality, requiring strategies capable of redefining places and the way they are used in line with objectives of envi- ronmental quality and collective well-being. The picture that emerges from studies and research on the European and Italian panorama of sport infrastructures highlights interesting and innovative trends that show, also in this sector, an increasing focus on the themes of urban, architectural and social resilience. On the basis of this premise, the contribution aims to analyze the recent evolution of the design of public space in relation to sports practices as an area where resilience policies are applied

A Link Between Plant Stress and Hydrodynamics? Indications From a Freshwater Macrophyte

Live plants are increasingly used in hydraulic laboratories to investigate flow-vegetation interactions. In such experiments, they are often exposed to stressful handling and storage that can cause strong physiological responses and modifications in plant biomechanics. Little is known about the potential effect of these impacts on the performance of plants during hydraulic experiments. In this multidisciplinary study with a freshwater macrophyte (Potamogeton natans) we assess whether the duration and the conditions in which plants are stored in a laboratory prior to testing can impact plant stress, biomechanics and hydrodynamics, and quantify this impact. Plant stress was evaluated using chlorophyll fluorescence analysis (and the maximum quantum yield of photosystem II as specific indicator). Plant hydrodynamics were assessed using the drag coefficient calculated from drag force measurements at two flow scenarios. The results show that different plant handling/storage procedures can have a significant impact on plant hydrodynamics even within a short time frame, with a variation of the mean drag coefficient of approximately 30% across groups, which is comparable to the variation found across different species of freshwater macrophytes in previous studies. Plants with the highest level of stress were also characterized by the lowest drag coefficient across the groups considered, suggesting a potential link between plant stress and hydrodynamics

Mathematical circus clown tricks

The Mathematical Circus project was created in 2011 by the LUDUS association with the main goal of promoting the interest and motivation for learning mathematics. The Mathematical Circus team performs mathematical magic shows where complementary skills are merged to produce a high intervention capacity within a wide geographical range in Portugal. Some tricks are performed by a mathematical clown, a unique character in the circus world, who brings together the usual foolish characteristics of a clown and the rigorous mathematical knowledge. In this paper we will describe and explain some of the tricks of the Mathematical Circus repertoire involving the clown.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Lyapunov Control on Quantum Open System in Decoherence-free Subspaces

A scheme to drive and manipulate a finite-dimensional quantum system in the decoherence-free subspaces(DFS) by Lyapunov control is proposed. Control fields are established by Lyapunov function. This proposal can drive the open quantum system into the DFS and manipulate it to any desired eigenstate of the free Hamiltonian. An example which consists of a four-level system with three long-lived states driven by two lasers is presented to exemplify the scheme. We have performed numerical simulations for the dynamics of the four-level system, which show that the scheme works good.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

The Enforcement of Socio-Economic Rights

In recent years the South African legislature has made a very bold attempt to improve the socio-economic conditions of citizens. Amongst others, the Social Assistance Act 59 of 1992 provides for monthly payments to citizens under certain prescribed conditions. In situations where other legislation does not provide a remedy for those unable to care for themselves the Constitution provides for justiciable socio-economic rights. Unfortunately legislative rights alone have proved insufficient and all too frequently the constitutional values and aspirations of human dignity and equality have had a ‘hollow ring’. The most obvious reason for this failure of delivery on the part of the government is of course a shortage of financial resources.  Another reason has been a simple disregard for the terms of legislation and court orders by organs of the state and state employees.  The authors are of the view that in order to avoid such a dire result, the courts, given their broadly framed constitutional powers, should be adventurous in crafting means to ensure that their orders are properly implemented and adhered to. This article explores the role that courts can play in ensuring proper implementation of both the terms of social security legislation as well as the implementation of court orders with reference to well-fare judgments in the Eastern-Cape.     &nbsp

Optical mapping of neuronal activity during seizures in zebrafish

Mapping neuronal activity during the onset and propagation of epileptic seizures can provide a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying this pathology and improve our approaches to the development of new drugs. Recently, zebrafish has become an important model for studying epilepsy both in basic research and in drug discovery. Here, we employed a transgenic line with pan-neuronal expression of the genetically-encoded calcium indicator GCaMP6s to measure neuronal activity in zebrafish larvae during seizures induced by pentylenetretrazole (PTZ). With this approach, we mapped neuronal activity in different areas of the larval brain, demonstrating the high sensitivity of this method to different levels of alteration, as induced by increasing PTZ concentrations, and the rescuing effect of an anti-epileptic drug. We also present simultaneous measurements of brain and locomotor activity, as well as a high-throughput assay, demonstrating that GCaMP measurements can complement behavioural assays for the detection of subclinical epileptic seizures, thus enabling future investigations on human hypomorphic mutations and more effective drug screening methods. Notably, the methodology described here can be easily applied to the study of many human neuropathologies modelled in zebrafish, allowing a simple and yet detailed investigation of brain activity alterations associated with the pathological phenotype

The Unemployment Insurance Bill : a relic of the past?

No abstract available.http://www.journals.co.za/content/journalam2016Mercantile La

A Link Between Plant Stress and Hydrodynamics? Indications From a Freshwater Macrophyte

Live plants are increasingly used in hydraulic laboratories to investigate flow-vegetation interactions. In such experiments, they are often exposed to stressful handling and storage that can cause strong physiological responses and modifications in plant biomechanics. Little is known about the potential effect of these impacts on the performance of plants during hydraulic experiments. In this multidisciplinary study with a freshwater macrophyte (Potamogeton natans) we assess whether the duration and the conditions in which plants are stored in a laboratory prior to testing can impact plant stress, biomechanics and hydrodynamics, and quantify this impact. Plant stress was evaluated using chlorophyll fluorescence analysis (and the maximum quantum yield of photosystem II as specific indicator). Plant hydrodynamics were assessed using the drag coefficient calculated from drag force measurements at two flow scenarios. The results show that different plant handling/storage procedures can have a significant impact on plant hydrodynamics even within a short time frame, with a variation of the mean drag coefficient of approximately 30% across groups, which is comparable to the variation found across different species of freshwater macrophytes in previous studies. Plants with the highest level of stress were also characterized by the lowest drag coefficient across the groups considered, suggesting a potential link between plant stress and hydrodynamics