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Supervision experiences of social auxiliary workers in the John Toalo Gaetsewe District, Northern Cape
Full text linkAbstract: The work experiences of and the resources and supports available to social auxiliary workers (SAWs) has received little research attention despite the role of SAWs in supporting social workers in day-to-day activities. This research focuses specifically on the supervision experiences of SAWs in the John Taolo Gaetsewe (JTG) district of the Northern Cape. Supervision, the process of support, training and guidance, is mandated and an essential practice requirement. There is however limited research of this process in South Africa (SA) and no research on the experiences of SAW in the JTG district. This study contributes to this under-researched area of study, highlighting the supervision experiences of SAWs in the JTG district and provides recommendations on supervision practices within the discipline of social work (SW). This qualitative study utilised an exploratory and descriptive research design. Data collection was in the form of semi-structured interviews with a sample size of six SAWs. Data was thematically analysed in line with Tesch’s (1992) steps of analysis. Key concepts from the ecological systems model (Bronfenbrenner, 1989) were used to interpret findings. Four key themes emerged from this research, namely the experiences of working as SAWs in the JTG District, the nature of supervision received, supervision limitations and the training that is required to provide effective supportive services. The findings reflected a balance of positive and negative experiences of SAWs working with supervision. Participants revealed positive sentiments in being part of community-building initiatives and utilising cyber (online) or group supervision to overcome challenges they experienced in the field. Participants also revealed irregular supervision, limited structural resources, inconvenient cyber supervision and low staff retention as factors that hampered the rendering of services. A key concern was that there was non-adherence to the supervision policy and practice as stipulated by the profession’s statutory body. Recommendations from this study include the need for relevant training in SAW fieldwork, training on the use of technology to enhance SAWs administrative skills, access to resources, employment of additional staff to ensure equal distribution of workload and the need for regular supervision. Key words: social auxiliary workers, supervision, resources, SACSSP.M.Phil. (Social Policy and Development
Exploring the state of journalistic practices in the age of Social Media in Zimbabwe : an ethnographic study of three newsrooms
Full text linkAbstract: Social media has become pervasive in the Zimbabwean society. In light of this state of affairs, this study interrogated the incorporation of social media into journalistic practices that make the news cycle at two media organisations in Zimbabwe. These are the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), a public broadcaster, and Alpha Media Holdings (AMH), a privately owned print media organisation. The study further analysed how this incorporation is changing journalistic practices that include news sourcing, ‘manufacturing’, packaging, distribution and consumption at these organisations. The study was necessitated by the fact that research on how social media has been incorporated in Zimbabwean newsrooms is still lacking. The study was underpinned by a sociological perspective of journalism that was supported by the Habermasian public sphere, the political economy and the agenda setting theories of the media. Using ethnographic research approaches that deployed observation, face to face interviews and WhatsApp digital ethnography, the researcher carried out empirical observations and interviews with forty five (45) journalists and editors at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and at Alpha Media Holdings (AMH), over a three-month period. A thematic analysis method was employed to interpret the research findings. The findings showed that social media has been incorporated at ZBC and AMH, and that this is changing these newsrooms in a number of ways at different levels. It found out that social media is changing the newsrooms by bringing speed, convenience, convergence and multiskilling in the way journalists do their work, and by transforming the roles of journalists as producers of news and audiences as receivers of news. The work of journalists has also become a twenty-four hour cycle with the advent of social media. The institutions themselves, journalistic routines of news production, news distribution and consumption have all been changed at the two institutions where journalists can now point to huge differences between the way they used to manufacture news in the past and what they are now doing. Another change that was established in the study was the issue of conversations that are taking place between journalists and their audiences, and although the study insinuated that these have the potential for healthy democratic dialogues, journalists who were interviewed pointed out that so far and at present, some of these conversations have been toxic. The study also revealed that the social media platforms themselves are becoming powerful in the dimensions of news distribution and monetisation in a new relationship that is gradually making news organisations dependent on them. The study also showed that these changes have implications for the ethics of news reporting since today’s news production is now a quick process that may circumvent the traditional gatekeeping methods that guarantee a quality news product. As part of ongoing work that seeks to understand how changing technological tools impact the field of journalism practice, the findings of this study fill the gap regarding scholarship exploring how social media has become part and parcel of the Zimbabwean newsrooms.D.Litt. et Phil. (Journalism
Development of a predictive approach for the modelling of vehicular traffic flow at road intersections
Full text linkPh.D.Abstract: This doctoral research critically and comprehensively addresses the issue of traffic congestion at signalized road intersections by developing a predictive approach using traffic flow variables obtained from seven roadsites within the South Africa Road network. These roadsites are all interconnected to the N1 Allandale interchange, one of the busiest road networks in Africa. Traffic congestion is an important aspect of the road transportation system, and it plays a significant role in determining the traffic flow of vehicles at road intersections. Over the past century, there has been a dramatic increase in traffic congestion in developed and developing countries. Several models have been used to explain where, when, and how vehicles move through a network of road intersections. Recent developments have seen classical models adopted on major road interchanges and intersections to address traffic congestion. However, far little attention has been paid to developing soft computing techniques in modelling traffic flow at signalized road intersections. Another important research question this research investigates is a need to determine which traffic flow parameters in traffic datasets can be used to understand the traffic flow patterns needed to develop a model capable of predicting traffic flow at signalized road intersections. In this research, soft computing techniques such as ANN-PSO, ANFIS, and ANN models were developed for modelling vehicular traffic flow at a signalized road intersection using the vehicular speed of each category of vehicles on the road, traffic density, time, and traffic volume as input and output variables. Four hundred and thirty-four traffic datasets were obtained from the Allandale interchange (the N1 route in South Africa). The traffic data were collected from seven road intersections connecting to the N1 road network using inductive loop detectors, video cameras, and GPS-controlled equipment. The results obtained from this research has shown that the application of the ANN model on each of the seven (7) roadsites produced a testing performance of 0.99975, 0.99169, 0.99686, 0.99767, 0.99974, 0.99780, and 0.99629, the ANFIS model results show a testing performance of 0.9370, 0.9952, 0.9790, 0.9987, 0.9826, 0.9940 and 0.99140, and the ANN-PSO, which is a hybrid model as the ANFIS model has a testing performance of 0.98220, 0.98940,0.99460, 0.99770, 0.99710, 0.99300 and 0.99140. These results suggest that the approaches proposed in this study could be used to predict and analyse traffic flow with a relatively high level of accuracy. This research shows that the soft computing tech...niques developed in this research can model vehicular traffic flow at each roa
Judging whistleblowers : the moral foundations of the duty of Good Faith in South Africa
Full text linkAbstract: This dissertation seeks to understand whether the language used in the dismissal of a South African whistleblower suggests that moral intuitions, as conceived of by Moral Foundations Theory (MFT), influenced the adjudicator’s decision-making. It will consider the Protected Disclosures Act, 2000 and general labour law, as well as legal theory on the standard of ‘good faith’ to test the assertion that the dismissal was wrong in law. It will show that the claims of MFT, when applied to adjudication, echo the claims of American legal realism. This is that hard case adjudication is essentially subjective. It will set out MFT’s conception of moral thought as arising from mental structures bequeathed to humans by evolution. It will suggest that these same mental structures swiftly and unconsciously dispose of moral questions that arise in certain types of litigation, with adjudicators providing legally acceptable, ex post facto justifications afterwards. Theory aside, this dissertation will fashion a method and borrow tools from discourse analysis and literary theory to test for the distorting effect of moral intuition on the legal decision to dismiss the whistleblower. It will provide an intensive analysis and coding of the specific dismissal ruling with these tools. It concludes with remarks on how advocacy of whistleblowers may be improved using MFT’s conceptual framework. Keywords: whistleblower, law, good faith, moral intuition, Moral Foundations Theory, discourse analysis.M.A. (Sociology
Retrospective data analysis to investigate disinfectant use compliance in the University of Johannesburg chiropractic clinic
Full text linkAbstract: Background: With the onset of a global pandemic in 2020, substantial emphasis has been placed on cleaning and disinfection in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This research was performed in order to assess disinfectant use compliance in the University of Johannesburg Chiropractic clinic (UJCC). Aim: The aims of this study were to determine if the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns affected the disinfectant use and the number of patients that visited the UJCC and to explain the possible factors that could have affected each of these variables. Method: This study was a descriptive, longitudinal study using retrospective data analysis. Data was collected daily by the primary researcher for a 10- month period. Daily disinfectant usage and the number of patients treated in each room of the UJCC was recorded. This data was then sorted and analysed in order to identify trends. Results: Data was collected for 172 days. A positive correlation was noted between disinfectant use and the number of patients treated at the UJCC. South Africa’s implementation of various lockdown levels affected how disinfectant was used and affected the number of patients that visited the UJCC. Student interns that worked in the UJCC from July 2020- June 2021 did follow the hygiene protocol implemented in the UJCC. Conclusion: Disinfectant use compliance in the UJCC is sufficient. Student interns used the disinfectant provided efficiently during this research period, although an overuse of disinfectant is also noted. Various lockdown levels affected how the disinfectant was used but also affected the number of patients that visited the UJCC.M.Tech. (Chiropractic
DNA barcoding and phytochemical analysis in quality control of herbal medicine : a case study of Devil’s Claw (Harpagophytum spp) AND Buchu (Agathosma spp)
Full text linkAbstract: The formulation of any herbal product starts with the raw plant material supply chain where it is crucial to have an in-depth understanding of the molecular and chemical composition and discrepancies in the plant material to ensure a standardized, effective, and reliable consumer product. The issue of plant substitution is noteworthy in the two genera under investigation: Harpagophytum spp (Devil’s claw) and Agathosma spp (Buchu). Currently, the preferred species for Devil’s claw herbal products is H. procumbens, which is often substituted with H. zeyheri. Similarly, the preferred species in Buchu herbal products is A. betulina, which is commonly substituted with A. crenulata. In both instances, species share some taxonomic similarities but are not chemically equivalent. The practice of species substitution may reduce the quality of the therapeutic effect and pose risks to the consumer. Considering the popularity of both Harpagophytum spp and Agathosma spp as indigenous herbal drugs, the study aimed to establish whether molecular techniques (DNA barcoding) could be used to authenticate these herbal products. Quality assessment concerns associated with Devil’s claw and Buchu were addressed in a two-pronged approach. Firstly, separate Reference DNA Barcode Library (RDBL) were generated for Harpagophytum spp and Agathosma spp using a variety of plastid regions (matK, trnL-F, and ycf1) and expertly identified material of known provenance. Respective commercial herbal products allegedly containing H. procumbens or A. betulina were then purchased online from various health outlets, which were then analysed for their authenticity. Secondly, phytochemical analysis was used to identify the biological markers, present in the respective genera...Ph.D. (Botany
Experiences of student nurses regarding caring by the clinical facilitators at an academic hospital
Full text linkM.Cur. (Nursing Education)Abstract: Caring is known to be the core concept of the nursing profession. Student nurses are expected to demonstrate caring in the clinical learning environment, while caring for the patients. For the student nurses to practise and demonstrate caring, they need to observe it from the clinical facilitators. Student nurses are allocated a clinical facilitator, who will be responsible and accountable for their teaching and learning in the clinical learning environment. Clinical facilitators have the pivotal responsibility to demonstrate a learning environment that is caring to student nurses. Student nurses learn by seeing or experiencing what their clinical facilitators are demonstrating. When the student nurses emulate caring, this can be beneficial to patients as they will be nursed by caring student nurses that are in the process of becoming professional nurses. Student nurses need to acquire this caring attribute while they are still training in order to be able to render caring, quality nursing care. A caring clinical learning environment influences student nurses to demonstrate caring. Student nurses reported that there was a lack of support, they were made to feel unwelcome by the clinical facilitators, poor performance of skills was experienced in the wards and there was poor communication between clinical facilitators and nursing unit staff. Therefore, that affected their motivation for caring. The research aims were to gain an understanding of experiences of student nurses regarding caring by the clinical facilitators with a view to develop recommendations to support them at an academic hospital. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was used. Data was collected through an in-depth focus group and phenomenological interviews that focused on the research question: “What are your experiences of caring regarding the clinical facilitators?”. The researcher interviewed 22 participants, who were second year student nurses, and two themes emerged from the study findings. Themes were identified as follows: when student nurses experienced caring, it motivated them to be better nurses and succeed in their studies; also, student nurses experienced initial effective caring, but caring diminished as they progressed to second year..
Impact of the Covid-19 lockdown and economic downturn on the chiropractic profession in Gauteng
Full text linkAbstract: Background: As of 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation declared the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) a global pandemic. Since then, the disease spread worldwide resulting in millions of deaths. With no way to directly combat the virus, countries employed drastic measures to prevent the transmission of the virus. The most widely used form of prevention worldwide has been nationwide lockdowns. These lockdowns, in the majority of cases, halted the economy in an effort to limit the movement and contact between these populations. Like the rest of the world, South Africa followed suit and initiated their lockdown on 23 March 2020 which is still currently active to this present day of 15 September 2021. The economic impacts have been felt far and wide within the country. There is currently no research to explore whether the COVID-19 lockdown had a negative economic effect on the chiropractic profession in Gauteng, South Africa Aim: The aim of this study was to explore whether the COVID-19 lockdown in South Africa had any economic impact on the chiropractic profession in the Gauteng Province, as well as to quantify any economic effect that the lockdown may have had on the profession Method: This was a cross sectional, quantitative and explorative study which utilised an online self - administered survey which the registered chiropractors in Gauteng accessed via email through a link. The survey underwent a pilot study prior to distribution. This survey was the first of its kind, therefore it was compiled by the researchers, supervisor, and statistician, with the exception of three questions which were adapted from other studies. With the relevant permissions from the Allied Health Professions council of South Africa (AHPCSA) and the Chiropractic Association Of South Africa (CASA), these organisations agreed to distribute the survey to all registered chiropractors within the Gauteng province of South Africa. Procedure: An email containing an information letter was distributed via AHPCSA and CASA to all registered chiropractors in Gauteng, South Africa. If the chiropractor chose to partake in the study, he/she was instructed to click on a link provided in the information letter which then redirected them to a Question Pro-hosted website to answer the survey anonymously. Results: Data was obtained to determine whether chiropractors in Gauteng experienced decreased numbers in patient utilization of chiropractic services rendered, whether there was a decrease in average gross monthly income during the lockdown when compared to before the lockdown. Additionally, if income losses were experienced by participants, did they acquire financial aid, and/or resort to methods to reduce business costs. The response rate for this study was 30.76% (n=76) of registered chiropractors in...M.Tech. (Chiropractic
The prevalence of low back pain in competitive dressage riders
Full text linkM.Tech. (Chiropractic)Abstract: Background The research problem has been identified due to the lack of research in the literature regarding t he prevalence of low back pain (LBP) in competitive dressage riders in South Africa. Additionally, there being insufficient research identifying the riding-related risk factors that may precipitate LBP amongst dressage riders. Aim The aim of this study was to determine the point and lifetime prevalence of lower back pain in competitive dressage riders in South Africa. The secondary aim was to identify the possible riding-related risk factors that may precipitate dressage rider to LBP. Research methodology A cross-sectional, exploratory, quantitative study was done by means of an online questionnaire. The sample consisted of 100 competitive dressage riders competing at Preliminary level and higher. The participants were recruited randomly at South African Equestrian Federation (SAEF) registered shows. The participants were between the ages 18 and 66 years old with 96:4 female to male ratio. Frequencies and descriptive statistics were done on each question, as well as cross tabulations to test for associations between variables or differences between riding practices and experiences with regards to LBP. Results and discussion One hundred dressage riders completed the questionnaire (100% response rate) of which 96 were female and 4 were male. Of the sample, 71% reported the point prevalent LBP and 56% reported lifetime prevalent LBP. Of the risk factors identified and discussed; years of experience and hours trained a week were associated with the likelihood of experiencing LBP. Conclusion and recommendations An analysis of the data collected by the questionnaire illustrates that there is a point and lifetime prevalence for LBP amongst competitive dressage riders in South Africa
Reductive aminocarbonylation of aryl halides with nitroarenes
Full text linkAbstract: The presence of the amide functional group in several important compounds, with various application has led to the development of various methods in accessing these amides. Traditional amidation protocols rely on the use carboxylic acids and a suitable amine as coupling partners in the presence of an activating agent. These activating agents are often of large molecular weight and used in excess amounts, thus, generating large quantities of undesired by-products. As a result, the amide coupling reaction has been identified as one of the key areas for green chemistry research and development. Various protocols have been developed to access the amide bond from different functional groups including esters, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, nitriles and other existing amides with suitable coupling substrates. One approach that has recently gained attraction is the use of nitroarenes arylamine surrogates, thus, enabling an access to amides in a step-economic pathway. Nitroarenes, are cheaper than their amine analogues, they are also stable and are useful for late-stage organic transformations. Furthermore, they have been demonstrated as suitable coupling partners in reductive aminocarbonylation reaction with acyl donors such as carboxylic acids, esters, aldehydes, and carbon monoxide to mention a few. However, the substrate scope has not been fully explored, thus, there is an opportunity to broaden the scope. Herein, we expand on the versatility of this amide synthesis procedure by exploring a palladium metal-catalyzed reductive aminocarbonylation of aryl halides with nitroarenes. Reaction optimization studies included the investigation of parameters such as solvent options, reaction temperature, base, palladium and ligand catalysts, as well as reduction additives. The optimized model reaction afforded the desired product yield up to 92%. Substrate scope studies revealed that the reaction afforded products from low to appreciable yields with a wide variety of nitroarenes, aryl bromides and iodides. Activation of aryl chlorides proved to be a challenge under the developed reaction conditions and will need further optimization...M.Sc. (Chemistry
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