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Development, implementation and evaluation of a cognitive behavioural therapy based programme for the management of anxiety symptoms in South African children with visual impairments
No full textAnxiety is the most common psychological problem reported by children and adolescents.
Anxiety is even more common in children with visual impairments. If anxiety symptoms
occur and are left untreated, this may result in negative consequences. Promising is that
Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) interventions have proven successful in treating
childhood anxiety. However, most existing CBT-based anxiety intervention programmes are
not suitable for use with children with visual impairments, as their content (i.e., cartoons,
colouring-in pictures, workbook and visual-based activities) are not very accessible to this
specific population.
Therefore, the present study was motivated by the dearth of research on this topic and
the study aimed to develop, implement and evaluate a specifically tailored anxiety
intervention programme which could be used with South African children who have visual
impairments.
A randomised wait-list control group design with pre-, post- and follow-up
intervention measures was employed. The final sample of 52 assenting children (aged 9-13)
with varying degrees of visual impairment from two special schools in the Western Cape
were delivered the anxiety intervention (PAM programme). Participants were randomly
allocated to either an immediate intervention group (IIG) (n = 27) or a delayed intervention
group (DIG) (n = 25) at each of the two schools. Participants were followed over a course of
ten months during which participants’ anxiety symptoms were assessed quantitatively at four
time points (T1-T4). All children were administered a short biographical questionnaire and
two anxiety measures including the 30-item Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale
(RCADS-30) and the Penn State Worry Questionnaire for Children (PSWQ-C). The
administration of these measures was adapted according to the participant’s degree of visual
impairment. Qualitative data pertaining to the accessibility and feasibility of the PAM
programme were also gathered.
In terms of the main outcome measure, contrary to what was expected, initial
statistical results indicated that the PAM programme did not bring about a significant
reduction in symptoms of anxiety within the sample of children with visual impairments.
More specifically, anxiety scores on the RCADS-30 and PSWQ-C yielded non-significant
outcomes throughout, as neither significant between-group nor within-group effects were
noted for the IIG (n = 27) or DIG (n = 25) at any of the four times of testing (T1-T4).
Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za
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However, although desired intervention effects were not obtained, the programme showed
promise in terms of preventive effects, as no participant who reported sub-clinical symptoms
of anxiety at T1 had moved to within the clinical range at T4. Thus, although this was not
statistically determined, it seems that exposure to the PAM programme prevented an increase
in anxiety symptoms. The qualitative data revealed that both participants (N = 52) and
research facilitators (n = 3) deemed the accessibility of the PAM programme to be
acceptable. It appears that it was feasible to deliver the PAM programme at the two special
schools. However, good infrastructure, discipline, organisation and routine play an important
role to make the implementation of the programme much easier. In conclusion, a critical
review of the present study and recommendations for future research are provided.National Research Foundatio
Ab-initio investigation of the antimony-vacancy complex and related defects in germanium
No full textRecent advances in computational technology and algorithms have made it feasible to accurately model the electronic structures of solids by means of density functional theory. The development of hybrid functionals have improved the accuracy of band gap calculations and made it possible to make qualitative predictions regarding the charge transition energy levels of defects in semiconductors.
The Sb-V defect (also known as the E-center) in germanium is a well-known defect, which have been the subject of many experimental and some theoretical studies. It has been found to have interesting annealing properties and the aim of this study is to investigate the electronic properties of the Sb-V defect theoretically. The vacancy defect in germanium (VGe), the antimony substitutional (SbGe) defect in germanium and the defect complex (Sb-V) arising from the combination of these two defects is explored in great detail and how they interact in proximity to one another is presented here. In addition, this work can be seen as a test for the effectiveness of the technique to model defects in semiconductors correctly.
The E-center defect was investigated using the HSE06 hybrid functional as implemented in the VASP code. A positive binding energy of 1.5 eV, 1.02 eV and 0.88 eV was found for the first, second and third nearest neighbor configurations respectively, between the Sb and the vacancy was predicted. No metastability was detected and the nearest-neighbor configuration had the lowest energy for all charge states. Four transition levels in the band gap were predicted, with energy level relative to the valence band maximum, lying at 0.52 eV (-2/-1), 0.40 eV (-1/0), 0.44 eV (0/+1) and 0.02 eV (+1/+2). The two mid-gap levels (-1/0) and (0/+1) had negative-U ordering with U= -0.04 eV.
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These findings were consistent with the current experimental model of the Sb-V complex in germanium whereby no metastability has been observed experimentally. The energy level of the (-2/-1) corresponded well with the experimental DLTS level in n-type material at 0.37 eV, though the correspondence for the other levels was not as good. Experimentally, no negative-U behavior was observed, but the predicted negative-U behavior was rather small and no deliberate experiments have been performed to investigate the presence of negative-U behavior in the Sb-V complex.National Research Foundatio
The role of agricultural cooperatives in poverty reduction : a case study of selected cooperatives in the four local municipalities of Vhembe district municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa
No full textPoverty and unemployment are the main problems facing many people in the Vhembe
District Municipality. Due to these main problems, most people turn into farming as a tool to
reduce poverty, ensure food security and create employment in their rural communities.
Because of high production and marketing costs, farmers often find it difficult to pool their
resources together in order to raise farm income and substantially improve their living
conditions. In order to deal with this problem, farmers form cooperatives to pool their
resources for increased agricultural productivity, employment creation and poverty reduction.
The study assessed the role of agricultural cooperatives in poverty reduction within the rural
communities of the Vhembe District Municipality. The research study was a combination of
both qualitative and quantitative research method. There are 70 agricultural cooperatives
producing field crops and vegetables in Vhembe District. A clustered random sample of the 4
Local Municipalities within Vhembe District Municipality was employed. It involved the
selection of 9 cooperatives from Thulamela, 3 cooperatives each from Makhado and Mutale
respectively and 1 cooperative from Musina. Relevant data was collected from both primary
and secondary sources. Descriptive and Binary logistic regression modelling was used to
analyse data.
The study revealed that socio-economic characteristics of respondents have an impact on
the role agricultural cooperatives play in reducing poverty. The study further showed that
agricultural cooperatives play a significant role in reducing poverty and ensuring food
security to members’ households. The respondents showed a positive response in the
effectiveness of cooperatives in poverty reduction. The study also showed that cooperatives
have a significant role in creating employment opportunities. Cooperatives were also faced
with various challenges which hinder their success in poverty reduction. Some of the
challenges include; market access, lack of funding, conflicts within cooperatives and high
electricity costs. The study concludes by recommending different strategies which will
enhance the success of cooperatives in poverty reduction. Further studies concentrating on
poverty reduction, food security and employment creation need to be carried-out which will
help cooperatives respondents to eradicate poverty in their households and communities.National Research Foundatio
Emerging researchers business unit GMSA
No full textThe Grants Management and Systems Administration (GMSA) Directorate hosted its 7th annual Research Administrators Workshop (RAW) from 4 to 6 October 2016 in Polokwane. The workshop aimed to bring together key stakeholders from universities and science councils across South Africa, including international delegates, to share experiences and best practices in research administration and management
The role of the DA in research institutions national facilities and science councils: what do national facilities think
No full textThe Grants Management and Systems Administration (GMSA) Directorate hosted its 7th annual Research Administrators Workshop (RAW) from 4 to 6 October 2016 in Polokwane. The workshop aimed to bring together key stakeholders from universities and science councils across South Africa, including international delegates, to share experiences and best practices in research administration and management
An assessment of selected algorithms for generating failure deterministic finite automata
No full textA Failure Deterministic Finite Automaton (FDFA) o ers a deterministic and a compact representation of an automaton that is used by various algorithms to solve pattern matching problems e ciently. An abstract, concept lattice based algorithm called the DFA - Homomorphic Algorithm (DHA) was proposed to convert a deterministic nite automata (DFA) into an FDFA. The abstract DHA has several nondeterministic choices. The DHA is tuned into four decisive and specialized variants that may potentially remove the optimal possible number of symbol transitions from the DFA while adding failure transitions. The resulting specialized FDFA are: MaxIntent FDFA, MinExtent FDFA, MaxIntent-MaxExtent FDFA and MaxArcReduncdancy FDFA. Furthermore, two output based investigations are conducted whereby two speci c types of DFA-to-FDFA algorithms are compared with DHA variants. Firstly, the well-known Aho-Corasick algorithm, and its DFA is converted into DHA FDFA variants. Empirical and comparative results show that when heuristics for DHA variants are suitably chosen, the minimality attained by the Aho-Corasick algorithm in its output FDFAs can be closely approximated by DHA FDFAs. Secondly, testing DHA FDFAs in the general case whereby random DFAs and language equivalent FDFAs are carefully constructed. The random DFAs are converted into DHA FDFA types and the random FDFAs are compared with DHA FDFAs. A published non concept lattice based algorithm producing an FDFA called D2FA is also shown to perform well in all experiments. In the general context DHA performed well though not as good as the D2FA algorithm. As a by-product of general case FDFA tests, an algorithm for generating random FDFAs and a language equivalent DFAs was proposed.National Research Foundatio
A best practice e-learning environment for software training
No full text288 p.National Research Foundatio
Ways of doing: Restorative practices, governmentality, and provider conduct in post-apartheid health care
No full textIn this article, we consider the conduct of post-apartheid health care in a policy context directed toward entrenching democracy, ensuring treatment-adherent patients, and creating a healthy populace actively responsible for their own health. We ask how tuberculosis treatment, antiretroviral therapy, and maternal services are delivered within South Africa’s health system, an institutional site of colonial and apartheid injustice, and democratic reform. Using Foucauldian and post-Foucauldian notions of govern mentality, we explore provider ways of doing to, for, and with patients in three health sub districts. Although restorative provider engagements are expected in policy, older authoritarian and paternalistic norms persist in practice. These challenge and reshape, even ‘undo’ democratic assertions of citizenship, while producing compliant, self-responsible patients. Alongside the need to address pervasive structural barriers to health care, a restorative approach requires community participation, provider accountability, and a health system that does with providers as much as providers who do with patients.National Research Foundation (South Africa