1,720,956 research outputs found
Investigation of a financial model for small and medium sized contractors in South Africa
Get PDFM. Tech.The financing needs of contractors, especially emerging contractors, need to be explored. In the case of the Small, Medium and Micro-Enterprises (SMMEs’) within the contracting sector, a type of “finance-PLUS” arrangement, which sees the lender, or an intermediary, offer additional support services to emerging enterprises, would be worth exploring. There are various perspectives and opinions on the format and context of the contribution. One of these perspectives embraces the obstacles involved in the entrepreneurial process hindering contribution and economic catalisation. This study follows a focused approach towards the investigation of a financial model for small, medium sized contractors in South Africa. Interviews were conducted and questioners were sent out to different constructors who have been successful in the business for more than five years and also contractors who are currently straggling and trying to survive and grow. Conclusions will be drawn from the analysis and recommendations will be made for further study and curriculum revision, if necessary. All types of businesses need capital before and after they start operating as well as for expansion purpose. The problem is people who have been listed on credit bureaus have their records count against them when they apply for a loan. A key factor mitigating against increased investment in the SMMEs’ sector is the structure of the financial sector. The findings of the study point to the fact that conventional financing mechanisms do not allow for cost-effective provision of finance to large numbers of entrepreneurs seeking small quantities of finance. Effects of poverty and lack of assets mean that many people do not have the collateral needed to access finance. The study also found that although there are different initiatives that are in place to assist small and medium size contractors the typical problems and challenges are still existing. The scopes of this study only focused on small, medium and micro-enterprise in the built environment (specifically the construction industry). In addition, the study focuses on the different financial programmes that are currently in place. An overarching concern is that previously disadvantaged individuals do not have adequate access to credit offered by formal financial institutions and therefore are forced to seek relatively expensive (and often inadequate) amounts of credit from alternative financial sources
Men's experiences and perceptions of HIV testing services in Gugulethu Township, Cape Town
Get PDFSouth Africa continues to have the highest number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world. HIV testing remains vital in the prevention and management efforts of the pandemic. Despite the efforts by the government, and local and international organizations to prevent the spread of HIV in men, HIV testing uptake in men continues to remain significantly low in the sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa. Several factors, including experiences and perceptions of HIV testing services contribute to a low uptake and men's willingness to use HIV testing services in South Africa. This mini-dissertation explores men's experiences and perceptions of HIV testing services from a qualitative perspective. This mini-dissertation is divided in the following three parts. A research protocol (Part A) focuses on understanding men's experiences and perceptions of HIV testing in Gugulethu Township, Cape Town. A literature review (Part B) identifies literature on HIV testing in South Africa, gender norms and their impact on HIV testing uptake, men's perceptions of HIV testing, confidentiality issues, perceived benefits of HIV testing, and gaps in current literature. Lastly, a qualitative journal "ready" manuscript (Part C) focuses on men's experiences and perceptions of HIV testing services in Gugulethu Township, Cape Town. Desirably, this mini-dissertation will inform health interventions that are specific to men's health needs while also aiming to focus on health policies that are inclusive of men. This study will in part address the core issues men encounter when testing for HIV in Gugulethu Township
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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