Quest for space : Rhodes University Library odyssey 1904-2010

The completion in 2010 of the magnificent new and expanded Rhodes University Library, billed as Rhodes' most intelligent building, seems an appropriate time to trace its history and reflect on the events that led to this much-needed facility and the enormous amount of planning, canvassing, pleading, persuasion and fundraising that brought it to fruition. It is the nature of libraries to devour space. Collections grow exponentially, creating a voracious and insatiable appetite for more and more places in which to store them. In addition, as users’ needs change over time, there is an ongoing demand for working areas which are versatile, able to accommodate modern paradigms of teaching and learning which now necessitate group study areas with computer access, yet which remain inviting and attractive to a broad range of students and researchers who wish simply to find a congenial space to study. The ongoing shortage of space, and the need to accommodate evolving patterns of use, common to most academic libraries, fuelled the engine which drove the Rhodes Library on its circuitous journey from humble lodgings in a single room in the old Drostdy Building more than a hundred years ago, to its final destination in the imposing position it occupies today. A constant refrain was to be money – or more aptly, the lack of it

Geometric analysis of stent grafts to anticipate complications after endovascular aortic aneurysm repair

Endovascular treatment for elimination of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) can be applied if sufficient contact surface (apposition) between the endoprosthesis and the aortic wall can be achieved (proximal sealing zone). An AAA distal to the renal arteries can be treated with endovascular aortic repair (EVAR). An AAA involving branching arteries from the aorta can be treated with fenestrated EVAR (FEVAR). During FEVAR, a personalized endoprosthesis with openings (fenestrations) is used in which balloon-expandable covered stents (BECS) are placed to provide blood flow to the branching arteries. EVAR and FEVAR are associated with lower 30-day mortality than open surgical repair, but the reintervention rate is higher after endovascular repair compared to open surgical repair. After endovascular treatment, patients undergo lifelong monitoring with imaging to detect complications. The most common indication for reintervention after EVAR is type 1a endoleak caused by failure of the proximal sealing zone. The most frequent indications for reintervention after FEVAR are BECS related endoleaks, renal or visceral artery occlusion and stenosis. Determination of the proximal sealing zone and geometric analysis of BECS on standard CTA scans using CTA applied software is a valuable tool after endovascular treatment. Parameters such as the length of the proximal sealing zone and the effective oversizing of the endoprosthesis in the aortic neck provide information about the success of the endovascular treatment and further monitoring of the patient. The ability to assess the 3D geometry of a BECS-related complication contributes to targeted reintervention

Geometric analysis of stent grafts to anticipate complications after endovascular aortic aneurysm repair

Endovascular treatment for elimination of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) can be applied if sufficient contact surface (apposition) between the endoprosthesis and the aortic wall can be achieved (proximal sealing zone). An AAA distal to the renal arteries can be treated with endovascular aortic repair (EVAR). An AAA involving branching arteries from the aorta can be treated with fenestrated EVAR (FEVAR). During FEVAR, a personalized endoprosthesis with openings (fenestrations) is used in which balloon-expandable covered stents (BECS) are placed to provide blood flow to the branching arteries. EVAR and FEVAR are associated with lower 30-day mortality than open surgical repair, but the reintervention rate is higher after endovascular repair compared to open surgical repair. After endovascular treatment, patients undergo lifelong monitoring with imaging to detect complications. The most common indication for reintervention after EVAR is type 1a endoleak caused by failure of the proximal sealing zone. The most frequent indications for reintervention after FEVAR are BECS related endoleaks, renal or visceral artery occlusion and stenosis. Determination of the proximal sealing zone and geometric analysis of BECS on standard CTA scans using CTA applied software is a valuable tool after endovascular treatment. Parameters such as the length of the proximal sealing zone and the effective oversizing of the endoprosthesis in the aortic neck provide information about the success of the endovascular treatment and further monitoring of the patient. The ability to assess the 3D geometry of a BECS-related complication contributes to targeted reintervention

Street photography

ThesisStreet photography can be defmed as a practice of soliciting subjects for impromptu portraits done on the street. The photographer trying to document the social portrait without being noticed by their subjects - people going about their business unaware of the photographer's presence, candid pictures of everyday life. Street photography is a kind of photography that tells us something crucial about the nature - human nature, life in the level we understand it. The combination of the instrument, a camera and the subject - the street, yields a type of picture that is idiosyncratic to photography in a way formal portraits, landscapes and other forms are not. While experimentations were made possible by photography - those performed by Eadweard James Muybridge and Etienne-lules Marey or events documented in photojournalism may yield more information, but Street photographers use the capacity for information more imaginatively. They think about tbis attribute of photography more profoundly than anyone else. There are two sides to street photography - a paradox to which the photographers are very sensitive. On the one hand, they try to get as many shots that they can get of a rapidly moving and changing subject, allowing them to strive for the one singular image - perfect in composition. On the other hand, they might make purposely open-ended, unbalanced pictures that can't stand alone and need to be played ofT on another, in groups, or runs in books. There are more technical details to this kind of photography. Motion blur can be used to the photographer's advantage. It can be a way to express energy on the street. A blurry picture of a fussy child, or a woozy picture of an old wotnaIl, can convey the 'feeling' of the image. The tradition of street photography is a diffuse, fragmented, intermittent one. But it is a tradition nonetheless - a succession of influences and inheritances. There are certain picrures, such as Paul Strand's Blind Woman of 1916 that everybody who took up street photography thereafter appear to have seen and been affected by it. This essay covers the history of portraits, which I believe was the fIrst step towards the basic street photography. What started as an image taken for e.g. sentimental keepsakes and historical recording developed into a search of the human's inner being ... captured on fIlm. The proille on Henri Cartier-Bresson serves as an example of a photographer that took picture of the 'moment of truth' and not out of routine

Domain walls inside localised orientifolds

The equations of motion of toroidal orientifold compactifications with fluxes are in one-to-one correspondence with gauged supergravity if the orientifold (and D-brane) sources are smeared over the compact space. This smeared limit is identical to the approximation that ignores warping. It is therefore relevant to compare quantities obtained from the gauged supergravity with the true 10d solution with localised sources. In this paper we find the correspondence between BPS domain walls in gauged SUGRA and 10D SUGRA with localised sources. Our model is the simplest orientifold with fluxes we are aware of: an O6/D6 compactification on T^3/Z_2 in massive IIA with H_3-flux. The BPS domain walls correspond to a O6/D6/NS5/D8 bound state. Our analysis reveals that the domain wall energy computed in gauged SUGRA is unaffected by the localisation of the O6/D6 sources.Comment: 26 pages, 1 figur

Promoting students’ sexual and reproductive health in peer-led programmes at two South African universities: Emergent tensions and dilemmas

Sexual and reproductive health programmes with students in higher education in South Africa, are a neglected area of intervention. We report on piloting the peer-facilitated Auntie Stella intervention material at two South African universities. This participatory methodology encourages critical thinking by opening discussion on managing relationships, sexual decision-making, gender-based violence and risk-safety. The format involves various cards featuring a letter, a facilitated discussion, an answer-response and action points. Six focus groups of participants were facilitated by postgraduate students over four months. Using thematic analysis four tensions were identified in the student discussions: HIV awareness was in tension with relationship practices; awareness of risk was in tension with denial of vulnerability; awareness of individuals’ rights was in tension with claims on these rights; and HIV knowledge was in tension with HIV stigma. The Auntie Stella material has the potential to open up discursive spaces amongst students, and to develop agency in sexual decision-making

Evaluation of the level of compliance of Veterinary medicine package inserts with Regulatory authority guidelines

Magister Scientiae (Medical Bioscience) - MSc(MBS)Background: Veterinary medicines play an imperative role in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of animal diseases. Many veterinary stock remedies in South Africa are available to the public without the intervention or supervision of a veterinarian or healthcare worker. Therefore, the accompanying package insert with product information and directions for use is central in promoting the safe and effective use of stock remedies. Information such as the dosage, warnings, precautions and storage instructions are essential to assist the user in their treatment decision-making. While local regulatory authority guidelines prescribe and control the minimum information that should be available in the package insert or product label, it is questioned whether the information contained in package inserts of products on the market complies with these regulatory requirements. Methodology: Using simple random sampling of veterinary stock remedies, 159 package inserts or product labels from various animal health companies were selected and evaluated against the prescribed labelling guidelines of the local regulatory authority responsible for the registration and control of stock remedies. The contents of each package insert or label in the sample were assessed for the presence of the prescribed information statements and were accordingly classified as non-compliant, partially compliant or compliant. Results: Among the 159 package inserts, 48 were for antimicrobials, 49 for ectoparasiticides, 44 for anthelmintics and the remaining 18 for endectocides. It was observed that none of the package inserts met all of the criteria and that the package inserts were inadequate in many aspects. The average percentage of compliance was 69.43%, with a range of 36.21% to 87.93%. Conclusion: The study indicated that many package inserts do not fully comply with the prescribed regulatory guidelines and that information related to the safe and appropriate use of stock remedies is insufficient

'Astride a dangerous dividing line': Preschool teachers' talk about childhood sexuality

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych)The focus of this thesis is preschool teachers' talk about childhood sexualities. A literature review of empiricist, psychoanalytic, feminist, social constructionist and post-structural approaches to childhood sexuality suggests that it is a marginalized research topic. Moreover, emphasis tends to fall on the problems associated with childhood sexuality, rather than regarding it as part of everyday life. In this study, I facilitated a focus group discussion with eight preschool teachers. The complexities of analyzing a text produced by participants with multiple identities are acknowledged: The discussion was hinged around vignettes and questions about childhood sexuality, and was transcribed into a written text. Using discourse analysis, I explore some of the 'taken-for-granted' assumptions about childhood sexuality, within 15 extracts from the text. I argue that multiple, paradoxical constructions of childhood sexuality position children 'astride a dangerous dividing line', which can be read on many levels. This unstable positioning both creates and is created by multiple discourses of 'taking charge'. The discourses of 'taking charge' impel preschool teachers to police 'dangerously' sexual children and protect 'innocent' children from corruption. These discourses are gendered: girl children are constructed as more vulnerable to corruption; boy children tend to be constructed with 'sexdrives' needing to be tamed; and adult women are constructed as the monitors of childhood sexuality. Furthermore, silences or taboos about childhood sexuality are integral to these discourses. Although there are hints of childhood agency, I suggest that the teachers themselves have limited access to or use for feminist and other liberatory discourses. More subtle resistance may be evident in many examples of laughter in the text. While this is project situated on the margins of psychology, by virtue of its subject, epistemology and methodology, I conclude by discussing various limitations