21838 research outputs found
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Voornaamwoorde
No full textHierdie hulpbron verduidelik kortliks die woordsoort "voornaamwoorde"Afrikaans and Theory of Literatur
Sputter-Deposited Binder-Free Nanopyramidal Cr/γ-Mo2N TFEs for High-Performance Supercapacitors
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Due to their outstanding power density, long cycle life and low cost, supercapacitors have gained much interest. As for supercapacitor electrodes, molybdenum nitrides show promising potential. Molybdenum nitrides, however, are mainly prepared as nanopowders via a chemical route and require binders for the manufacture of electrodes. Such electrodes can impair the performance of supercapacitors. Herein, binder-free chromium (Cr)-doped molybdenum nitride (Mo2N) TFEs having different Cr concentrations are prepared via a reactive co-sputtering technique. The Cr-doped Mo2N films prepared have a cubic phase structure of γ-Mo2N with a minor shift in the (111) plane. While un-doped Mo2N films exhibit a spherical morphology, Cr-doped Mo2N films demonstrate a clear pyramid-like surface morphology. The developed Cr-doped Mo2N films contain 0–7.9 at.% of Cr in Mo2N lattice. A supercapacitor using a Cr-doped Mo2N electrode having the highest concentration of Cr reveals maximum areal capacity of 2780 mC/cm2, which is much higher than that of an un-doped Mo2N electrode (110 mC/cm2). Furthermore, the Cr-doped Mo2N electrode demonstrates excellent cycling stability, achieving ~ 94.6% capacity retention for about 2000 cycles. The reactive co-sputtering proves to be a suitable technique for fabrication of binder-free TFEs for high-performance energy storage device applications.
Graphical Abstrac
Assistive technologies as an ODeL strategy in promoting support for students with disabilities
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Students studying in the higher education system face multiple challenges, such as meeting the minimum requirements for enrolling in a programme, securing tuition fees and adapting to new teaching and learning styles, whilst also coping with minimal support. The challenges are more profound for students with disabilities (SWDs) who must progress and emerge triumphantly as graduates, despite their unique and special needs. OBJECTIVE: By relating the personal experiences of SWDs, this article examines the different types of support they need as they commence their studies in higher education institutions, as well as throughout their journeys. METHODS: The study adopted a qualitative multiple case study research design in which the approaches of public and private high schools in handling SWDs were compared with the experiences of SWDs at a higher education open distance e-learning institution. RESULTS: The findings revealed that the use and availability of assistive technology devices were more pronounced at the school level than at the ODeL institution. The SWDs expressed their frustrations and reported more struggles with their studies at the ODeL institution than they had experienced at school level. CONCLUSION: The SWDs in the study provided some potential improvements that could be implemented by ODeL institutions in addressing their needs and in providing support, whilst also emulating the best practices implemented at high school level.Adult Basic Education (ABET
Setting a policy design evaluation framework: Indigent Policy
No full textThe purpose of this article is to propose a policy design evaluation framework. The methodology is based on a conceptual analysis and is supported by a qualitative research design in which Indigent Policy design serves as the unit of analysis. An Indigent Policy design framework, should comprise the following critical phases: agenda setting; policy formulation and adoption; policy implementation; and policy evaluation, feedback and review.
The study revealed that policy design is the process of finding some form of intervention to confront a problem. Municipalities need to develop and adopt indigent policies to ensure that the indigent population can have access to the package of services included in the government’s free basic services programme. It was also found that without sufficient capacity, implementers of the Indigent Policy will not be able to render quality service delivery. Moreover, fundamental human values must be sought through the policy design processes, particularly when targeting the benefits of the policy. A municipality’s Indigent Policy must further be integrated with the political and economic environment and other relevant policies of the municipality. Strong stakeholder and role-player involvement and regular monitoring and evaluation of results are critical elements for effective Indigent Policy design.
The main weakness of the proposed framework is that it only focused on policy design and content evaluation while neglecting policy implementation and impact evaluation. This shortcoming can be mitigated through empirical research. Suggestions for further research are therefore included.Public Administration and Managemen
Court interpreting : the effect of omission, code-switching, and self-generated utterances on interpreter performance
No full textThis study examines court interpreting from a sociolinguistic point of view. It seeks to understand how interpreters use language in a courtroom involving Tshivenda and English. Court interpreters are viewed to be active and using language choice to cement their new role rather than being conduits. This study uses the participation framework and the agency and role theory as the springboard of this research. Its focus is on studying three sociolinguistic focus areas namely omission, code-switching and self- generated utterances. These focus areas are manifested in a variety of ways, such as explanations, repetitions and responses to questions, to mention a few, and seek to understand their effects on interpreter performance. I argue that court interpreters have started shifting away from being mere conduits and are using language to influence the proceedings in courts, which is signified by several omissions, code-switching and self-generated utterances that are prevalent during communication events.
This is an exploratory and heuristic qualitative research which uses both quantitative and qualitative approach in data analysis. It is exploratory because it is intended to investigate human behaviour in the form of language and heuristic since it allows the researcher to discover knowledge by himself. Primarily, the study was conducted in the Thohoyandou High Court, but also proceeded to the Thohoyandou and Vuwani Magistrates’ Courts to ensure the validity of the study.
Data were gathered ethnographically by attending court cases where interpreters working from Tshivenda to English and vice versa are involved. Permission to be present and writing was sought and granted by the authorities involved. Using extra-linguistic knowledge of interpreting, the researcher also recorded observed interpreter behaviour to complete spoken speech.
Using conversation analysis and tools of analysis, such as the SPEAKING acronym data were interpreted based on the frequency of the occurrences of the three sociolinguistic aspects in question, their types and possible causes. For example, in omission or code-switching, it could be about different interpreters committed and the possible causes. The study concluded that court interpreters were not mere conduits, but were active participants in court proceedings, adding, clarifying, omitting and choosing a language to shape discourse. All 10 court cases produced evidence that interpreters omit, code-switch and generate statements not uttered by the speakers. While most of them were voluntary pickings, some were, albeit few, due to constraints. Omissions seemed to dominate, followed by self-generated utterances, while code-switching was the lowest preferred tool of involvement.
The findings were consistent with the springboard of this research and also presented some findings that were never anticipated.D. Litt. et Phil. (Translation Studies)Linguistics and Modern Language
Sociodemographic determinants of knowledge, attitude and practices of Ghanaian nurses towards persons living with HIV and AIDS in Kumasi
Get PDFIntroduction: Despite increasing knowledge, and awareness on HIV/AIDS, Countries and health institutions are
still struggling to deal with the issues of stigma and discrimination towards patients living with HIV and AIDS
amongst its staff. An investigation into other potential determinants/influences of nurses’ knowledge, attitudes,
and practices towards HIV/AIDS such as sociodemographic factors is therefore necessary
Methods: The study used correlational cross- sectional design. A total of 247 participants from five selected health
facilities were recruited through a simple random sampling. Chi-square analysis and Spearman’s rank correlation
were used to measure the level of association between the sociodemographic variables and knowledge, attitude
and practices. Mean scores were calculated for knowledge, attitude and practices.
Results: The study reported a significant correlation between nurses’ knowledge and professional rank, year of
work experience, in-service training, age, and their practice [(r = 0.216; p = 0.002), (r = 0.278; p = 0.0001),
(r = 0.174; p = 0.010), (r = 0.173; r = 0.011), and (r = 0.176; p = 0.011)] respectively. Also, a significant
correlation was observed between practice and age of the nurses (r = 0.151, p = 0.030). The attitude was
positively associated with knowledge, professional rank, educational level, work experience, and age but
negatively associated with practice and in-service training however there was no statistically significant
correlation.
Conclusion and recommendation: Nurses’ knowledge, attitude and practice was directly correlated with their
sociodemographic characteristics which suggests that policies and interventions aimed at improving nurses’
knowledge, attitudes and practices should take into account their sociodemographic characteristics.College of Human Science
Some variable selection and regularization methodological approaches in quantile regression with applications
Get PDFThe importance of robust variable selection and regularization as solutions to the collinearity influential
high leverage points’ adverse effects in a quantile regression (QR) setting cannot be overemphasized,
just as the diagnostic tools that identify these high leverage points. In the literature,
researchers have dealt with variable selection and regularization quite extensively for penalized
QR that generalizes the well-known least absolute deviation (LAD) procedure to all quantile levels.
Unlike the least squares (LS) procedures, which are unreliable when deviations from the Gaussian
assumptions (outliers) exist, the QR procedure is robust to Y-space outliers. Although QR is
robust to response variable outliers, it is vulnerable to predictor space data aberrations (high leverage
points and collinearity adverse effects), which may alter the eigen-structure of the predictor
matrix. Therefore, in the literature, it is recommended that the problems of collinearity and high
leverage points be dealt with simultaneously. In this thesis, we propose applying the ridge regression
procedure (RIDGE), LASSO, elastic net (E-NET), adaptive LASSO, and adaptive elastic net
(AE-NET) penalties to weighted QR (WQR) to mitigate the effects of collinearity and collinearity
influential points in the QR setting. The new procedures are the penalized WQR procedures
i.e., the RIDGE penalizedWQR (WQR-RIDGE), the LASSO penalizedWQR (WQR-LASSO), the
E-NET penalized WQR (WQR-E-NET) and the adaptive penalized QR procedures (the adaptive
LASSO penalized QR (QR-ALASSO) and adaptive E-NET penalized QR (QR-AE-NET procedures
and their weighted versions). The penalized WQR procedures are based on the computationally
intensive high-breakdown minimum covariance determinant (MCD) determined weights and the
adaptive penalized QR procedures are based on the RIDGE penalized WQR (WQR-RIDGE) estimator
based adaptive weights. Under regularity conditions, the adaptive penalized procedures
satisfy oracle properties. Although adaptive weights are commonly based on the RIDGE regression
(RR) estimator in the LS setting when regressors are collinear, this estimator may be plausible for the symmetrical distributions at the ℓ1-estimator (RQ at τ = 0.50) rather than at extreme quantile
levels. We carried out simulations and applications to well-known data sets from the literature
to assess the finite sample performance of these procedures in variable selection and regularization
due to the robust weighting formulation and adaptive weighting construction. In the collinearityenhancing
point scenario under the t-distribution, the WQR penalized versions outperformed the
unweighted procedures with respect to average shrunken zero coefficients and correctly fitted models.
Under the Gaussian and t-distributions, at predictor matrices with collinearity-reducing points,
the weighted regularized procedures dominate the prediction performance (WQR-LASSO forms
best). In the collinearity-inducing and collinearity-reducing points scenarios under the Gaussian
distribution, the adaptive penalized procedures outperformed the non-adaptive versions in prediction.
Under the t-distribution, a similar performance pattern is depicted as in the Gaussian scenario,
although the performance of all models is adversely affected by outliers. Under the t-distribution,
the QR-ALASSO andWQR-ALASSO procedures performed better in their respective categories.Ph. D. (Statistics)Statistic
A school management system interoperability maturity (SMSIM) model for schools in South Africa
Get PDFThis qualitative study applied the exploratory Delphi expert reviews as a strategy through the
research onion of Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2016) to explore School Management
Systems (SMS) and how they can be improved through interoperability. The study followed
the research methodology as outlined in chapter 5 to conceptualize the School Management
Systems Interoperability Maturity (SMSIM) model that provides guidelines for achieving the
next level of interoperability in SMS. To conceptualize the model, literature findings, a
combination of Organisational Interoperability Maturity Model (OIM) and Information
Systems Interoperability Maturity Model (ISIMM), and experts with over 10 years of
experience in various fields participated in the study. Hermeneutics and thematic analysis were
used to analyze and interpret the data. After the Delphi expert review results (in two iterations),
it was evident that nothing had to be changed or adjusted from the conceptual literature model
therefore, the model that emanated from literature was the final model of the study.M. Sc. (Computing)School of Computin
Determinants of tourism development: Empirical evidence from three developing countries
Get PDFIn this study, the key determinants of tourism development in three study countries – South Africa, Brazil and Vietnam – have been examined for the period from 1995 to 2018. Despite the growing empirical literature on the determinants of tourism development from a number of countries, these countries have remained understudied. The study uses two proxies, namely: tourism revenue (TR) and the number of international tourist arrivals (TA), to measure the level of tourism development. Using the ARDL bounds-testing approach, the findings of the study have shown that the determinants of tourism development differ from country to country and over time. In addition, the study shows that the determinants depend on the proxy used to measure the level of tourism development. Overall, the study found that the positive drivers of tourism in these countries are tourist disposable income, financial development, trade openness and political stability, while the negative drivers include exchange rate, price level and carbon emissions.Communication Scienc
Empirical examination of relationship between venture capital financing and profitability of portfolio companies in Uganda
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In recent times, venture capital (VC) financing has evolved as an alternative feasible funding model for young innovative companies. Existing studies focus on whether VC enhances profitability. While helpful, this body of work does not address a critical question: whether VC firms are more profitable than non-VC firms. The co-existence of both VC and non VC firms in Africa provides an opportunity to address this question. Accordingly, this paper sought to extend the understanding of the relationship between VC financing and the profitability of portfolio companies in Uganda, a rapidly growing VC market. We utilised a mixed methods approach, which involved quantitative data collected from 68 key VC stakeholders, and qualitative data collected from 16 semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The results confirm the superior performance of VC-financed enterprises when compared to non-VC-financed enterprises. The study makes a vital contribution by offering a diversified framework for enterprise success. The framework will assist VC firms in evaluating and customising funding programmes that can propel early-stage firms’ success in Uganda, and in similar emerging economies. Secondly, our results contribute to extant knowledge about recent developments in Uganda’s VC industry and how it influences the profitability trends of SMEs, also in similar emerging economies