Hand rearing infants has always carried a greater mortality rate than breast feeding despite the development of safe preserving techniques for milk: stool bacterial culture revealed two distinctive florae, fermentatitive, with a predominance of lactobacilli in breast fed infants and putrefactive, with a predominance of coliform bacteria in artificially fed infants. This difference was suggested to be the basis for the difference in the incidence of gastroenteritis. An artificial milk inducing a breast milk stool flora would, thus, reduce the incidence of gastroenteritis in artificially fed infants. The buffer capacity of milk was claimed to determine stool buffer capacity, which then encouraged growth of specific bacterial populations. However, an artificial milk with identical buffer capacity to breast milk returned disparate bacterial results. The hypothesis examined in this study was that buffer capacity of infant milk modifies stool flora. Breast milk and three artificial milks were studied. The artificial milks differed either in buffer capacity or in composition of major dietary components. Biochemical analyses were performed on milk, stool and stool water obtained by ultracentrifugation. Buffer capacity in milk was related to protein content. No biochemical differences were detected in stool water from each group, however whole stool buffer capacity was considerably greater in the group fed high buffer capacity milk than in the other three groups. No difference was detected in total bacterial numbers cultured, the types of organisms, nor individual species numbers. Thus the presently available highly modified artificial milks may determine stool buffer capacity, but do not induce a gut flora distinct from breast feeding. Thus the continuing increased incidence of gastroenteritis in artificially fed infants can no longer be related to differences.

In recent years, a significant change in the pharmacist’s scope of practice is the expansion of prescriptive authority (PA). In Saskatchewan, pharmacists adopted an interdependent prescribing model to support interprofessional collaboration, public safety though the optimal use of drug therapy, and the optimization of pharmacy competencies. In acquiring this new prescriptive authority, the community pharmacist also assumes new responsibilities and obligations, as well as transforming their relationships with patients and physicians. The purpose of this research is to assess rates of adoption by pharmacists of PA (Level 1 and Minor Ailments Prescribing) within community pharmacy practice in Saskatchewan. To gain a better understanding of how pharmacists are responding to new and evolving models of practice, this study proposes to measure their experiences with PA services and how it is affected by aspects of their professional practice. To investigate the study’s research questions, a cross-sectional study using a mail-in questionnaire with an online option was initiated. All registered community pharmacists in Saskatchewan (998) were asked to participate in the study. Of the 998 distributed questionnaires, 501 were returned back by the respondents yielding a response rate of 51.3 percent. The results disclose that a vast majority of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they were confident in their ability to provide Level 1 (94%) and Minor Ailment (75%) prescribing. Respondents indicated that 74.2 percent of the time they actually provide Level 1 (L1) prescribing services to their patients and slightly more than half (52.5%) of the time provided Minor Ailment (MA) prescribing services. The majority of respondents (81.4 %) indicated that on average it took twenty minutes or less to provide MA prescribing service to their patients. Most pharmacist respondents strongly supported the statement that the pharmacies they worked at consistently provided Prescriptive Authority services (L1- 90% Strongly Agreed or Agreed, MA- 52.9% Strongly Agreed or Agreed) and that they get full support from managers (L1- 95.6% Strongly Agreed or Agreed, MA- 88% Strongly Agreed or Agreed) for their involvement in PA services. Respondents indicated some concern regarding the limited knowledge of patients on what pharmacists can do for them as a prescriber. In terms of overall relationships with patients, respondents indicated that patients were satisfied with the services pharmacists provide as a prescriber. Respondents reported that they had a good relationship with physicians. However, they did express concerns about their limited interactions with physicians as MA prescribers. Respondents generally reported supportive environments and positive interactions with patients and physicians. However, while expressing confidence in their ability to provide all prescriptive authority services, Level 1 services that supported traditional dispensing services were generally more consistently provided, supported, and perceived as being valued by patients and physicians compared to Minor Ailment Prescribing. The results also support the notion that pharmacists are highly confident to provide PA services to the patients and their relationships with the patients and physician improved day by day. Nevertheless, there is little evidence to suggest that patient’s level of knowledge about pharmacist’s new role; pharmacist’s interaction with physicians and physicians’ knowledge on PA have affected the provision of Prescriptive Authority services.

This research utilised mixed methodology to gain insight into community pharmacists’ adoption of medicines and services related to two key innovative policy interventions aimed at enhanced minor ailment management; namely the ongoing legal status reclassification of medicines; and the introduction of the Scottish Minor Ailment Service. Prompted by the lack of qualitative and large scale quantitative evaluation from the pharmacists’ perspective, the aim was to investigate pharmacists’ adoption of these innovations. Data were generated to evaluate the process related aspects of innovation adoption from community pharmacists’ perspectives; and to identify and quantify key factors associated with the adoption of these innovations, thereby considering the wider relevance to new community pharmacy services. A range of methods was used including: formal systematic review of peer reviewed published literature on factors associated with innovation adoption following methods recommended by the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at the University of York; extensive review of policy documents of all the devolved UK Governments; qualitative focus groups and interviews with 20 community pharmacists from four Scottish Health Boards; and lastly a cross sectional survey of the pharmacists responsible for nonprescription medicines from all Scottish community pharmacies (N=1138). The theoretical framework of diffusion of innovations was adopted to design the quantitative research instrument and interpret the data. Rigour was enhanced by consideration of aspects of validity and reliability at all stages. The highest standards of research governance and ethics were applied throughout the study. Qualitative interviews provided insight into the process related aspects of innovation adoption. Where current changes were embraced reluctantly by many who deemed the pace as fast and furious, others were keen to contribute to developments taking place within pharmacy and were eager to play a more proactive role in leading and introducing change to the public. Regardless of practice setting and ownership model, the merits of each innovation appeared to be considered at the individual practitioner level. Hence an organisational level decision to implement an innovation did not necessarily translate to adoption at the individual practitioner level. Using descriptive, bivariate and multivariate quantitative models informed by the results of the qualitative interviews and systematic review of the literature, the quantitative study showed pharmacists’ perceived attributes of innovations (such as benefits to their professional role development and patients); and patient demand and use of services had the highest association with whether or how far innovations were adopted. Issues such as differences in availability of resources were less able to explain differing level of innovation adoption by the pharmacist respondents. These findings suggest that as innovations around minor ailment management have not yet required reorientation of existing services, the issue of how pharmacists’ perceive the characteristics of the innovations such as: potential for financial benefits to pharmacy, professional role development and patients; is key to predicting whether future innovations of a similar nature will be successfully adopted by pharmacists.

The thesis is based on a multi disciplinary study involving both particulars regarding military history and certain psychological theories. In order to be able to discuss the psychological experiences of Boers during the guerrilla phase of the Anglo-Boer War, the first chapters of the thesis strive to provide the required background. Firstly an overview of the initial conventional phase of the war is furnished, followed by a discussion of certain psychological issues relevant to stress and methods of coping with stress. Subsequently, guerrilla warfare as a global concern is examined. A number of important events during the transitional stage, in other words, the period between conventional warfare and total guerrilla warfare, are considered followed by the regional details concerning the Boers’ plans for guerrilla warfare. These details include the ecological features, the socio-economic issues of that time and military information about the regions illustrating the dissimilarity and variety involved. In the chapters that follow the focus is concentrated on the psychological impact of the guerrilla war on the Boers. The wide range of stressors (factors inducing stress) are arranged according to certain topics: stress caused by military situations; stress caused by the loss of infrastructure in the republics; stress caused by environmental factors; stress arising from daily hardships; stress caused by anguish and finally stressors prompted by an individuals disposition. Then the psychological theories regarding an individual’s resistance resources (or general resistance resources ─ GRRs) and the means of using these resources to cope with stress are applied to the actual circumstances that the Boers were faced with. This discourse is arranged according to material resources, motivational issues and intrapersonal resources. Subsequently the complete guerrilla warfare phase is considered, the accent being placed on the psychological effect that the Boers’ strategies, as well as the British counter strategies, had on the republican forces. The phase is subdivided into four stages according to the course of the war, while still furnishing an overall account of the guerrilla phase ─ ranging from the initial successes on Boer side, the gradual decline in Boer initiatives to the final months, when the few successful encounters that the Boers launched, came too late to change matters. In the final chapter the impact of the guerrilla warfare on a selected group of Boers is examined in the form of case studies. The group includes President M.T. Steyn, whose health failed him in the end and Generals C.R. de Wet and J.C. Smuts, where their positive conduct is considered from a psychological perspective. The result of the continuous pressure on the young Commandant G.J. Scheepers is examined and the stress related experiences of Chief Field Cornet H.S. van der Walt, Burghers P.J. du Toit and R.W. Schikkerling are analysed. / Thesis (DPhil(History))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Jurisprudence / unrestricted

PhD (Botany) / Department of Botany / Ethnobotanical information still needs documentation as this will assist in the preservation of information for future generation. It becomes most important, particularly when considering the neglected ethnic subgroups. From fourteen villages in the Ehlanzeni district; elders, community adults and youth were selected by means of snow balling technique and a semi-structured questionnaire was used to interview them. Data was analysed by calculating the use value of selected plant species on common ailments. Hundred and forty-eight plants were observed as being utilized by Mapulana as food (fruits and African leafy vegetables), fuelwood, medicine and the making of utensils. The majority of the recorded plant species (54%) were native while 46% were naturalized. The majority of plants (37%) were utilized as medicine only, while food contributed only 19 percent usage, followed by medicine (13%), fuelwood (4%) and utensils (1%). A total of hundred and six plant species were identified as medicine treating 50 different ailments. Roots and leaves were the highly preferred plant and herb parts collected. The results showed that Sclerocarya birrea subsp. caffra (use value of 0.86) was reported as being used in four different ways; seconded by Cucurbita maxima (use value of 0.58) with two different uses. Numerous medicinal uses were observed from Aloe zebrina (use value 0.38) and Aloe marlothii (use value 0.29). Ailments with Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) were gonorrhea (1.80), stomach cleansing (1.40), chicken and cow diseases (1.19), bad luck (0.88), flu (0.84), and diarrhea (0.80). There were, in addition, many ailments with low ICF known by the elders and few community adults proving that the elderly are custodians of indigenous knowledge. Twenty-six line transects of 100m x 10m in size were constructed in determining the population structure of Peltophorum africanum Sond. in Bolla-Tau village. A total of 256 individuals were recorded from the transects. Data was analyzed using IBM Statistical Product and Service solutions (SPSS) statistics version 25 and Microsoft Excel 2013 version. The population structure of P. africanum was found to be bell-shaped. Logarithmic analysis, along with generalized log analysis depicts, that there was significance difference between the plant height and stem circumference. Resprouts of P. africanum individuals were only 18% and a majority of individuals (82%) were harvested. The study revealed that 43.84% of P. africanum individuals had traces of crown damage, as compared to individuals with healthy crowns (35.9%). The rest of the individuals had either light or moderate crown-health status. / NRF

The purposes of this study are: a) to understand the treatments compliance behavior of the patient with chronic disease at the behavioral level, particularly, the relationship between treatments compliance behavior and normative beliefs; b) develop a behavioral model of patient's treatments compliance behavior that could be used for predicting, combating, treating, tracking and controlling the treatments compliance behavior of the patients with chronic disease. Seventy-two patients from senior daycare centers in the Dallas area, who suffer or had suffered from at least, one chronic disease, participated in the study. Data gathering was conducted using paper-based questionnaire. The most significant finding of this study is the relationship between normative beliefs and the treatments compliance behavior of the patient with chronic disease. Normative beliefs were found to have significant impact on the treatments compliance intent and behavior of the patients with chronic disease. Another important finding showed that side-effects of prescribed treatments have little or no influence on the treatments compliance behavior of the patient with chronic disease. A relationship between the effectiveness of medicine, particularly, predictive medicine, and treatments compliance behavior was established. The design of the study was intended to provide coverages for a set of constructs that may be the interacting units in the environment of any chronic disease treatments decision. It depicts relational, information communications links between the constructs. The Imhonde model of treatments compliance behavior was designed to include cultural norms and other beliefs that are significant for real-time human ailments decisions behaviors. It is recommended that further studies may include the use of a larger population of participants from diverse cultures and localities in multiple states and countries, with the object of finding the differences that culture and local environments may have on the normative leaning for treatments compliance behavioral decisions in chronic disease cases.