33074 research outputs found
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Investigating communication of findings in Environmental Impact Assessment and developing a research agenda for improvement
Get PDFJournal Article,Faculty of Ntural and Agricultural t- shirt, North--West UniversityEnvironmental Impact Assessment (EIA) aims to embed consideration of the significance of predicted environmental consequences (the findings) of proposed developments into approval decision making. Achieving this aim relies on adequate communication of the findings of the EIA to the stakeholders, especially the decision makers responsible for the approval decision. However, the naïve assumption that this communication of findings can be effectively achieved through the publication of a written report pervades legislation worldwide, despite decades of evidence to the contrary. As a first step towards improving such communication, this research identifies the contingent conditions associated with effectively transferring EIA findings from an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to decision makers and other stakeholders based upon literature review. The transmission of meaning is found to be the major theme underpinning good communication, subdivided into discourse, readability, and legitimacy. Based on a clearer understanding of the limitations associated with an EIS as a communication medium, and acknowledging there are likely to be better mechanisms for transferring the meaning of the findings of an EIA to decision makers and other stakeholders, a pragmatic research agenda is outlined. This includes some initial suggestions of other research fields (like semiotics and social psychology), or technologies (like AI) that may provide learning and improvement opportunities
Design of a Data Management System for Pharmaceutical Stock Management at Public Primary Healthcare Clinics in the Northwest Province, South Africa
Get PDFConference Contribution, Faculty of Engineering, Unit for Energy and Technology Systems-- Potchefstroom CampusThe vast majority of South Africans depend on public government-funded healthcare. Public healthcare services in South Africa face many challenges related to amongst others, waiting time, inadequate resources and funding constraints. Furthermore, the availability of the correct pharmaceutical stock at primary healthcare clinics is often problematic with excessive amounts of stock reaching its expiry date at these clinics. This research focuses on four primary healthcare clinics in the Potchefstroom area in South Africa that are supplied with pharmaceuticals by the Tlokwe sub-district distribution pharmacy. We find that pharmaceutical supplies at these clinics are often out-of-stock or expired due to a multitude of factors including the absence of a data management system. In order to solve this problem, we present a data management system for pharmaceutical stock at a primary healthcare clinic that does not require extensive software or hardware layout and is also easy to use for healthcare practitioners. The solution is designed based on industrial engineering principles that critically analyze the system requirements to ensure that the solution is suitable for the unique primary healthcare clinic environment. Our research further elaborates on the additional factors that influence pharmaceutical stock mismanagement at primary healthcare clinics. Finally, we provide results on a pilot run of the implementation of our solution which paves the way for further implementation at other primary healthcare clinics
Private label brands vs national brands: new battle fronts and future competition
Get PDFNorth-West
University, Mahikeng, South AfricaThe rising phenomenon of private label brands across the globe has given grocery
retailers new areas for competition and growth. As a result, this has spiralled competition
between private label brands (PLBs) and national brands (NBs). With the grocery retail
space undergoing various transitions over the years, the battleground between private
label brands and national brands has also seen new trajectories. The purpose was to
review earlier and current competition and identify future battle fronts between the
two brands. To do this, a systematic literature review (SLR) of existing research between
PLBs and NBs was undertaken. Studies from 2010 to 2022 were systematically reviewed
to identify past, current, and future battle fronts to have emerged. In reviewing
literature, a PRISMA flow chart structure, which details the searching, screening,
including, and excluding of studies, was used. It was found that past competitive areas
were largely price-quality schema. Currently, NBs continue with their higher pricing, to
sustain their brand equity. On the other hand, grocery retailers continue to strategically
position and reposition PLBs. In future, the study proposes strategic areas for
consideration, product line expansion, newer pricing strategies, investments in both
online and offline store formats, and strategic collaboration between both brands.
Moreover, future areas of research were proposed
Built to last? The long‑term impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial attitude
Get PDFJournal Article, North-West University, PotchefstroomA high rate of youth unemployment is one of the toughest problems facing African countries and which threatens the attainment of the sustainable development goals. Entrepreneurship education interventions are thought to be helpful in creating entrepreneurs whose activity will ultimately help to reduce the burden of youth unemployment. However, do such interventions work consistently in the long term? Drawing upon the theory of planned behaviour and a new typology of impacts, we tackle this question in the context of a long-standing entrepreneurship education intervention in Nigeria. We use pooled cross-sectional data from a sample of over 12,000 Nigerian undergraduates and apply an instrumental variable approach in a difference-in-differences (DiD) regression framework to obtain intention-to-treat estimates, thereby avoiding overoptimistic estimates of impact. The results show that despite a strong positive instantaneous impact, the longer the policy has been in place, the weaker its effect. In real life, it means that the policy is unable to continue to generate the desired impact of increased interest in entrepreneurship among repeated student cohorts, all else being equal. We suggest ways to overcome the inconsistency of impact and drive long-term social change; these include differentiating entrepreneurship curriculum to match students’ pre-course profiles. Overall, our study provides the first long-term impact evaluation of an entrepreneurship education intervention in a developing country context. Thus, we advance the policy debate on how to design and implement effective entrepreneurship education interventions that can foster youth entrepreneurship and employment.This work was produced within a project funded by the Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income Countries (PEDL) programme, a joint initiative of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and the Department for International Development (DFID) [ERG #3155]. Part of the data used in the paper emanated from two separate surveys designed and implemented by the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), Nigeria: i) the project, Technological Entrepreneurial Attitude in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions (Policy Research Project No. 2519/S.1/C.3/05/2637) funded by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (FMST), and ii) the project, Technological Entrepreneurial Attitudinal Status in the Nigerian Tertiary Institutions funded by the World Bank under the Science and Technology Post-Basic (STEP-B) Programme
The effect of varying levels of corticated marama bean (Tylosema esculentum) meal on growth performance, apparent retention of feed components, and physiological and meat quality parameters in Jumbo quail.
Get PDFArticle, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (Animal Sciences)--Northwest University, Mahikeng Campushis study evaluated the effect of varying levels of corticated marama bean (Tylosema esculentum) meal (CMBM) on growth performance, apparent retention (AR) of feed components, and physiological and meat quality responses in Jumbo quail. Five isocaloric and isoproteic diets were formulated to contain 0 (T1), 51.25 (T2), 67.49 (T3), 83.74 (T4), and 99.98 g/kg (T5) of CMBM. A total of 385, one-week-old quail chicks (26.7 ± 2.16 g live-weight) were placed in cages (11 birds/cage) based on body weight. The diets were allocated to cages in a completely randomised design to give 7 replicate cages per diet. Feed intake (FI), body weight gain (BWG), gain-to-feed ratio (G:F), as well as AR of feed components were measured. The birds were slaughtered at day 35 for measurements of blood indices, organs weight, carcass and meat quality attributes. Feeding increasing levels of CMBM reduced FI (P = 0.005) linearly in week 2 but had no effect on FI in weeks 3–5. Similarly, linear reductions (P < 0.0001) were observed for average weekly BWG and G:F in weeks 2 and 3. A positive linear effect (P = 0.033) and a negative cubic effect (P = 0.048) for AR of neutral detergent fibre and organic matter were recorded as CMBM levels increased, respectively. However, varying responses (P < 0.05) were observed for AR of essential amino acids (methionine, lysine, threonine, etc.). Serum lipase, neutrophils, eosinophils, monocytes, and basophils linearly increased (P < 0.05) with dietary CMBM levels. Significant cubic or quartic effects (P < 0.05) were recorded for serum glucose, albumin, white blood cells, neutrophils,
monocytes, basophils, and platelets. There were negative linear effects (P < 0.05) for final body weight, carcass yield, and breast meat drip loss. However, linear increases were recorded for gizzard, proventriculus, small intestine, and large intestine weights as dietary CMBM levels increased. In conclusion, the inclusion of CMBM up to 99.98 g/kg in Jumbo quail diets compromised growth performance, physiological responses, slaughter weights and carcass yield of Jumbo quail
The Impact of Social Media on Job Recruitment and Selection Process in South Africa
Get PDFJournal Article, Department of Information Systems , North-West UniversityThe social media platform has changed how organisations carry out the job recruitment and selection process. This study aimed to determine the impact of social media on job recruiting in the South African banking sector. The study involved quantitative research methodology, and data collection was done through a closed-ended online questionnaire to explore the research aim, especially in the banking sector in South Africa. The study revealed that there is limited knowledge about the use of social media in job recruitment exercises. Itwas also found that social media assists organisations and individuals in engaging
in job recruitment processes. The study concluded that social media is helpful for employers (organisations) to post, search and recruit job candidates while job candidates use it for job searching and recruitment. In the future, companies, recruitment agencies, and job seekers should put more effort into the application of social media in job recruitment processes
Factors Determining Intention to Use ContraceptionAmong Sexually Active Women in South Africa: A MultilevelModelling Approach
Get PDFJournal Article, Facuylty of Humanities, North--West University-Mahikeng CampusBackground: At least six in 10 women use contraception in South Africa. Although there is considerable contraceptive use, there isa need to understand the factors associated with intention to use contraception later among sexually active women who are notusing contraception. Women’s intention to use contraception is the best predictor of contraceptive use because it usually translatesinto actual contraceptive use. This study aimed to investigate the multilevel factors determining intention to use contraceptionamong sexually active women in South Africa.Methods: We used cross-sectional secondary data from the 2016 South Africa Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS). Thisstudy used a sample of 1684 women who were not using contraception at the time of the survey. The data were analysed usingdescriptive statistics and multilevel (random effect) logistic regression.Results: Overall, the prevalence of sexually active women’s intention to use contraception was (40.7%, 95% CI: 37.3–44.2) in SouthAfrica. We found that age, marital status, population group, parity, ideal number of children, desire to delay childbearing, exposureto family planning messages/advice, place of residence, and province were associated with intention to use contraception.Moreover, the odds of women’s intention to use contraception were lower among women aged 40–49 years (AOR: 0.13,95% CI: 0.07–0.23), women who had no exposure to family planning messages/advice (AOR: 0.68, 95% CI: 0.52–0.88), and womenfrom the Free State province (AOR: 0.49, 95% CI: 0.26–0.95).Conclusion: The results showed that age, population group, parity, ideal number of children, desire to delay childbearing, exposureto family planning messages/advice, and province were key predictors of women’s intention to use contraception. The findingssuggest the need for targeted education initiatives about contraception, particularly among older women. There is also a need toinvolve community leaders and the local media in sexual and reproductive health campaign
The Relation between Justification and Identity as Key to Evaluate the Radical New Perspective on Paul
Get PDFJournal Article, Faculty of Theology, Unit for Reformational Theology and Dev of the SA Society-- Potchefstroom CampusAccording to prevalent approaches to the Pauline corpus, the concepts of justification and salvation are often interpreted as constituting a believer's legal and salvific status before God in distinction from such a person's ethnic identity. In the so-called Radical New Perspective on Paul, Judaean believers in Christ are envisioned to keep their nomistic identity in distinction from gentile believers, which is then differentiated from their legal and salvific status before God. In this contribution, the relation between justification and identity is defined more closely in order to evaluate the tendency to distinguish between justification/salvation and identity. This is done especially by analysing texts in the Pauline corpus in which the concepts of justification, salvation and identity overlap
Performance enhancement of parabolic dish solar cookers using thermal energy storage
Get PDFDoctor of Philosophy in Physics, North-West University, MafikengThe performance enhancement of a parabolic dish solar cooker using thermal energy storage (TES) is evaluated. A detailed literature review of solar parabolic cookers with thermal energy storage for off-sunshine cooking is presented. Both parabolic trough and parabolic dish solar cookers are included in the review. The review concludes that most studies are on the experimental evaluation of parabolic dish solar cookers with limited numerical studies done. The review also suggests that other crucial factors, such as the choice of sensible or latent heat storage materials, environmental impact, different foods to be cooked, and social acceptance should also be investigated. Cooking experiments are conducted during solar and storage cooking periods with two identical solar cooking storage pots. Sunflower oil is used as the sensible heat storage material in one storage pot, while erythritol is used as a phase change material in the other pot. The two pots are enclosed in insulated wonderbag slow cookers to assess their thermal performance during non-sunny periods. The sunflower oil storage cooking pot shows faster cooking times (1.8-5.0 h) and higher maximum storage temperatures (124-145 oC) compared to the erythritol storage cooking pot (3.8-6.6 h; 118-140 oC) during solar cooking periods. The heat utilisation efficiencies of the erythritol pot (4.8-14.3 %) are greater than those of the sunflower pot (3.7-6.0 %) during storage off-sunshine cooking periods. A comparative experimental study on the effect of different cooking loads for two solar cooking pots incorporated with different thermal energy storage (TES) materials is presented. Five different loads are utilized in the cooking experiments (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 kg) using water and sunflower oil as the heating fluids. The effect of the load on the storage and heat utilisation efficiencies is investigated. When utilizing water as the test load, the erythritol pot shows slightly greater heat utilization efficiencies (13-49 %) compared the sunflower oil pot (17-46 %). When sunflower oil is used as the cooking fluid, the sunflower oil pot shows greater heat utilisation efficiencies (9.4-28 %) compared to the erythritol pot (9.2-19 %). A thermal model of a solar cooking pot is developed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for sunflower oil as the storage medium. The model shows good agreement with experimental results, and the variances between the model and experimental results are attributed to solar flux fluctuations in the experiments. Natural convection is the primary heat transfer mechanism in the TES system at first, creating a rather flat temperature profile. After 4 hours, the cooking pot attains a constant state temperature of 405.8 K, which is adequate to cook a variety of foods and vegetables. A combined solar cooker with a sunflower oil storage tank (dual-purpose) is preliminary experimentally investigated during charging and discharging processes using 1.0 L of water. During the charging cycle, water is heated up to around 75 oC in a cooking pot with storage tank temperatures attaining temperatures above 100 oC. During discharging, the heat transfer was poor with the heated water only achieving temperatures just above 40 oC. Experimental charging energy and exergy thermal performance parameters of the dual-purpose solar cooking and TES system are also evaluated. Four different charging flowrates (2, 3, 4 and 5 ml/s) are used in the experimental charging tests. The average charging energy rate and the charging efficiency generally increases with an increase in the flowrate except for the highest flowrate (5 ml/s), due to lower average direct solar radiation conditions during the experimental test with the highest flowrate. Detailed energy and exergy thermal performance evaluations of the dual-purpose solar cooking and TES system during charging and discharging cycles are presented. The effects of the flowrate (2, 3, 4 and 5 ml/s) and load (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 kg) are investigated using sunflower oil and water as the heating loads. Charging results show that increasing the charging flowrate enhanced the average energy and exergy rates, as well as their related efficiencies. Water outperformed sunflower oil in terms of average charging energy and exergy efficiency. The average charging energy and exergy rates for water, as well as their related efficiencies, declined slightly as the mass load increased. The average charging energy, exergy rates, and efficiencies for sunflower oil decreased significantly as the mass increased, and sunflower oil showed lower values when compared to water. For the discharging results, the correlations between the energy and exergy thermal performance parameters with respect to flowrate and heating load are not well defined for both heating loads, possibly due to different initial storage tank temperatures at the start of discharging, and an inefficient discharging process that needs to be optimized in the near future
Social well being profiles: Associations with trust in managers and colleagues, job satisfaction, and intention to leave
Get PDFNorth-West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Afric