Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf): Open Journal Systems
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Content validity of the modified Barthel Index for stroke patients in an African country
Get PDFBackground: The Barthel Index is considered the global gold standard for assessing performance in activities of daily living (ADL) tasks, but there has been little research undertaken on this outcome measure for a stroke population in a low to middle income country. The study aimed to determine the content validity of the modified Barthel Index (MBI) for assessing the ADL of stroke patients in an African country. Method: A mixed methods design using the nominal group technique was utilised. The study sample consisted of occupational therapists (n=11) and physiotherapists (n=4) with four or more years' experience working in the field of adult neurorehabilitation in South Africa. Each of the four focus groups analysed the content validity of the MBI using five questions based on the Table of Specifications methodology. Data analysis followed van Breda's steps to analysing multi-group nominal group technique to establish themes arising from each question and were presented according to final rank scores. Results: The findings highlighted aspects of content validity of the MBI related to language, clarity, content completeness and appropriateness that require revision. Conclusion: This study provides recommendations for the revision of the MBI to improve its content validity for the South African stroke population. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE • Methodology can be replicated in other multi-cultural and language countries. • Training on administration of the MBI can overcome barriers related to language and item clarity where English is ahealthcare worker's second language. • The MBI is currently most suited to environments with water and sanitation infrastructure. • A future study implementing recommendations for revision of the MBI for the African stroke populations is suggested
Entrepreneurial knowledge and skills from parents to their children: An occupational legacy strategy for family-owned businesses
No full textBackground: Transmission of entrepreneurial legacies in family-owned businesses has received increased attention. There is still uncertainty, however, whether families pass down the knowledge and skills onto their children. Aim: This study explored how families transmit entrepreneurial knowledge and skills as part of occupational legacy to their children. Methods: This narrative qualitative research was conducted with five families who owned business in the Western Cape and Mpumalanga Provinces. Twelve participants were selected through purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants using a face-face approach and telephone calls were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim then thematically analysed in a credible manner. Findings: Four themes captured the qualitative evidence of how the families transmit entrepreneurial knowledge and skills to the children consists of Theme 1: Parental family traditions; Theme 2: Inherited entrepreneurial knowledge and skills; Theme 3: Experiences of the entrepreneurial occupations; and Theme 4: We need to let go and let them carry on. Conclusion: Overall, this study indicates that through enacted togetherness, transitions and adaptations allowed families to engage in entrepreneurial occupations that facilitated inculcation of knowledge and skills needed for family-owned businesses. The social implication of this study is that families transmitted the legacy of social security of their communities. Implications for practice This study suggests that occupational therapists should consider the needs of older generations who are prone to imposter syndrome due to handing over their family-owned businesses to the younger generations. Greater efforts are needed to ensure that older and younger generations have mental and emotional capacity to deal with the psychological and environmental factors that can influence transmission of entrepreneurial legacies. Therefore, occupational therapists may design intervention strategies to facilitate transition, resilience, productivity and wellness
Exploring the Role of Indigenous Vegetables in Rural Livelihoods: Perceptions from the Ntuze Community
No full textAn increasing number of countries face growing food insecurity levels, severely impacting rural livelihoods. South Africa is no exception, mainly because it meets the worst forms of socio-economic issues: the triple challenge of poverty, the inequality gap, and non-inclusive economic growth. Influenced by a growing number of people in underprivileged communities who face food poverty, the researchers bring to the fore the value of wild indigenous vegetation, which is often neglected and perceived as food for the poor. To articulate this, data was collected from participants who utilise indigenous vegetables. Among the themes that were inductively identified were (i) household food security, (ii) the perceived medicinal benefits to improve their health conditions, and (iii) the source of income. The study proposes that promoting the production and utilisation of indigenous vegetables be considered an approach to raising awareness to dismantle the stigma around these foods and to further respond to the food insecurity crisis in underprivileged communities. There is an underappreciation of local varieties such as imifino yasendle (wild leafy vegetables) and stigmatisation of utilisation of these foods. This study re-imagines a renewed perception of indigenous vegetation in the quest to contribute to livelihood development and improve food security in underprivileged communities
Science communication: The link to enable enquiry-based learning in under-resourced schools
No full textImproving skills in STEM disciplines has been identified as essential in meeting South Africa’s economic growth targets. Despite this, learner uptake and completion rates within these subjects is currently well below international standards. We therefore examined key stages within the science education system to identify factors contributing to the low throughput in science education. We reviewed how national science policy changes have impacted the curriculum and teaching practices across different education establishments and socio-economic groups. We highlight that 80% of public schools have a lack of resources for practical learning, making it difficult for teachers to implement enquiry-based teaching methods. We explored strategies for effective engagement with science from the science communication literature and present recommendations to improve learner engagement with science in under-resourced school settings. Whilst education reform is needed at a national scale, we make a case for using science communication practices in science classes as a more immediate solution to generate greater interest and understanding, and encourage learners to pursue careers in science.Significance:
We examined key challenges in the science education and training pipeline in South Africa and recommend the use of science communication practices to design resources to enhance science teaching and learning in under-resourced schools.
Exploring ways of integrating informal learning tools into schools could be a simple approach to improve science teaching and learning in developing countries such as South Africa where infrastructural deficit poses a longer-term barrier to learning
Remote sensing monitoring of mangrove growth rate at selected planted sites in Mauritius
No full textMangroves are highly productive and rich ecosystems that thrive at the interface of land and sea. They provide a wide range of essential goods and services, contribute highly to coastal protection and the livelihood of coastal communities, and are also carbon-rich biomes contributing to carbon sequestration. Mangroves are primarily threatened by anthropogenic activities; a loss in biodiversity has been observed in the past years in many countries including Mauritius. Given their value to the ecosystem, it is important to have effective continuous monitoring of mangrove dynamics. We studied the rate of increase of canopy coverage of planted Rhizophora mucronata forests in two selected sites (Le Morne and Grande Rivière Noire) on a southern African island – Mauritius – using Google Earth Pro historical Landsat 7 and Landsat 8 images. Data were processed using ImageJ software. To our knowledge, this technique has not yet been applied for monitoring mangrove growth. The mangrove sites were classified into four zones based on water level and tidal variations. On average, the rate of increase of canopy coverage expressed by a coefficient ‘b’ at Le Morne (b = 1.901) was higher than that at Grande Rivière Noire (b = 1.823). The coefficient ‘b’ positively correlated with the zonations (r ~ 0.8). Higher ‘b’ values (2.319–2.886) were observed in Zone 1, where the substrate is always covered with water at low tide. The use of remote sensing data along with image processing analysis proved to be an effective tool to obtain relevant information, not only for mapping mangroves but also for monitoring the canopy growth rates of planted mangroves.Significance:
We describe a novel technique whereby remote sensing data are processed through image processing using ImageJ software, to effectively monitor planted mangrove canopy growth by pixel count.
This study highlights the successful application of the technique to obtain relevant information for mapping and monitoring the canopy growth rates of planted mangroves.
This technique can be further extended to identify potential areas for mangrove propagation worldwide based on tidal level variations
Lab-to-market guide for commercialisation of nanomaterials: A South African university perspective
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Does Mistaken Belief in Consent Constitute a Defence in South African Rape Cases?
No full textIn the 2020 case of Coko v S 2022 1 SACR 24 (ECG), the Eastern Cape High Court held that a person's mistaken belief in consent to penetrative sex could constitute a valid defence in law. In statutory provisions and jurisprudence, the absence of the victim's consent is fundamental in establishing a case of rape. This paper evaluates the decision, where it was held that when an appellant reasonably believes that the complainant/victim had consented to sex, this alone could be enough to acquit the appellant of the charge of rape.
Slow beauty: Refocusing Oliver Hermanus’s Skoonheid through a slow cinema lens
No full textOliver Hermanus’s Skoonheid is often read as a representation of South African queer realities and political progressiveness both during and since the dissolution of apartheid. Consequently, Hermanus’s contribution to the aesthetic of slowness in Skoonheid has gone largely unnoticed in the broader context of slow cinema. In this article, I examine how Hermanus, through the slow cinema conventions, urges the viewer to contemplate issues of crucial importance to human behaviour, thereby putting Skoonheid’s meditative qualities on display. Drawing on Ira Jaffe’s concept of expressive minimalism, Emre Çağlayan’s poetics of slow cinema, and Thomas Elsaesser’s observations on the virtues and demands of slow cinema, I analyse the narrative and aesthetic strategies deployed in Skoonheid within the purview of slow cinema and beyond a representation of queer sexuality. This analysis reveals that Skoonheid represents a mode of narrative-formal expressiveness distinct from, yet in dialogue with, slow cinema in its emphasis on contemplation. Principally, Hermanus finds a way to testify to some of the most urgent concerns in contemporary society through the film’s contemplative approach, which draws the viewer’s attention to the mystery and ambiguity of human experience. Skoonheid’s contemplative approach is informed by the film’s processes and experiences of alienation, incommunicability, and existentialism
Water quality characteristics of Vanderkloof Dam and its potential for rainbow trout farming
No full textVanderkloof Dam was periodically sampled between November 2014 and April 2016 for a range of water quality parameters to assess the potential for cage culture of rainbow trout, Oncorhyncus mykiss. The dam is strongly stratified in summer and autumn, although upper water column temperatures remain relatively cool, largely <25°C. The dam is considered oligotrophic, characterised by phosphorus limitation of primary production, particularly during summer. Light is strongly attenuated in the epilimnion and heterotrophic community metabolism is observed through much of the water column. Surface nutrients are depleted through the summer with phytoplankton assemblages dominated by the green algae, Oocystis lacustris, Desmodesmus bicaudatus and Coelastrum microporum. The water column turns over during the winter and the nearly isothermal impoundment approaches 11°C. Nutrients are re-introduced into surface waters following winter mixing coincident with an increase in diatoms. The preferred environmental window for rainbow trout becomes severely contracted during the summer in that epilimnion temperatures exceed 21°C and thermocline/hypolimnion oxygen concentrations fall below 3 mg‧L−1. The coincidence of relatively high pH >9.5 could exacerbate these physiological challenges. Hydrological conditions for fish farming are most suitable in the proximity of the dam wall as opposed to further upstream. Here the hypoxic conditions that develop in the thermocline/hypolimnion during summer and autumn are less pronounced, particularly towards the southern bank, where concentrations of total suspended solids are generally <10 mg‧L−1 and water clarity is more favourable for visual feeders such as fish. Although rainbow trout may survive the adverse conditions prevalent during the summer, growth is likely to be compromised and susceptibility to disease may increase