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M.Cur. / Who am I? What am I doing here? What is the purpose of life? What is real? Individuals are intent on trying to find an answer to their questions about life, yet many may find that they remain in a quagmire of confusion and vacillating inner torment. In their own lives many individuals deal with pain, guilt and death, each having their own share of suffering where they may either withdraw into their own world or attempt to take from it whatever bit of happiness and pleasure they can, which often leaves them with a feeling of emptiness, futility and despair. What is it aU for? What is life about? According to what Waltos and Waltos (2002:16) have termed "a conscious revolution", individuals have entered an age of responsibility and empowerment. In both human life and healthcare this translates to individuals being more willing to take charge of their lives as well as responsibility for their overall health. Frankl (1984:15) posits mental health and stability to be dependent upon an individual's ability to perceive meaning. This quest for meaning is one of the greatest challenges facing individuals, families and nations (Wong & Fry, 1998:406). At certain points in life, everyone has questioned what sustains their being and what makes life worth living. With a focus on the family, the researcher to this study noticed that the first crack in many famUy structures developed during pregnancy, birth and parenthood due to an inability of the parents to communicate their differing views and perspectives of their reality. Consequently, this resulted in self-expression becoming compromised and inhibited, resulting in inner confusion and turmoil. Parenthood also brings about personal challenges of coping and making meaning out of life circumstances. This breakdown in relationships impacts on individuals' and families' ability to develop and grow holistically, with consequent negative ripple effects on family dynamics and structure. Such discord and disharmony further cascades out to include community and the work environment.

The skeletal muscle is a dynamic tissue that has the ability to change and modify itself to fit the level of required activity; a phenomenon called muscle plasticity. Most studies of muscle plasticity are carried out in situ, a condition for which it is difficult to study and discern between the intrinsic properties of skeletal muscle, the myokines released by muscle fibers and the neurotrophic factors released by neurons innervating skeletal muscles that play various roles in the mechanisms of muscle plasticity. Another approach is to study the morphological and contractile properties of single adult muscle fibers under culture conditions for which one can fully control the level of activity and exogenous factors affecting muscle plasticity. However, the survival of single muscle fiber in culture is very low as most fibers degenerated or supercontracted within 5-7 days. The first objective of this study was to optimize fiber survival in culture. The application of chronic stimulation and beta-adrenergic agonists are two major factors that prevent muscle atrophy and loss of force in denervated muscles in situ. So, objective two was to determine if chronically stimulated single fibers in culture also improve fiber survival and contractile characteristic under culture conditions. The third objective was the same for salbutamol, a beta 2-adrenergic agonist. In regard to the optimization of fiber survival, the Minimum Essential Medium (MEM) was a better medium than Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM), changing 50% of the culture medium every two days also improved fiber survival compared to changing the medium every day. Interestingly, inhibiting the proliferation of satellite cells with AraC largely improved fiber survival when fibers were kept under resting conditions, but not when they were chronically stimulated. Finally, under conditions in which proliferation of satellite cells was inhibited, the use of a collagen/laminin mixture as adhering substrate to improve fiber adhesion to glass coverslip gave rise to a better fiber survival than Matrigel that contains not only collagen and laminin but several growth factors. The results suggest i) that when satellite cells (or fibroblasts) are allowed to proliferate they appear to contribute to the degeneration of fibers under resting conditions and ii) that the release of myokines by skeletal muscle fibers (or cytokines by other cells) likely play a role in fiber survival. Contrary to the situation in situ, neither the chronic stimulation nor salbutamol improved fiber survival and contractile characteristics of muscle fibers in culture suggesting that some important factors in culture are missing to allow chronic stimulation and salbutamol to reduce muscle atrophy and loss of force.

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Magister Theologiae - MTh / Long-standing ecumenical debates on the relationship between “Faith and Order” (what the church is) and “Life and Work” (what the church does) exist. Although these dimensions are inseparable, the emphasis is often placed on either the one or the other, such as either on Christian identity or on social responsibility. Similar tensions may be found in ecumenical discourse on “spirituality and society”, between “ecumenical vision” and “social transformation”, “Christianity and culture”, or “faith and science”.

The study investigates how the church in Zambia can effectively facilitate change toward reducing HIV-risky behaviour. The researcher posits that an intricate connection exists between HIV-risky behaviour and the socio-cultural context of majority people groups in Zambia. He further argues that much risky behaviour is imbedded in pervasive socio-cultural norms and traditions propelled by a worldview which essentially resists transformation. From an insider’s perspective the researcher will design a praxis model for transforming Zambian worldview facets with regard to HIV/AIDS predisposing behaviours in order to achieve enduring HIV risk reduction. The study reviews current literature on HIV behavioural change theories and models to understand where the theories have taken all the stakeholders, including theological praxis. The study will demonstrate the link between Zambian cultural worldviews and trends in sexual behaviour which, arguably, facilitates the proliferation of HIV risky behaviour. The study culminates in designing an evangelical theological praxis/model for transforming relevant cultural worldviews toward changing HIV risky behaviour in Zambia. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

The six classes of graphs resulting from the changing or unchanging of the domination number of a graph when a vertex is deleted, or an edge is deleted or added are considered. Each of these classes has been studied individually in the literature. We consider relationships among the classes, which are illustrated in a Venn diagram. We show that no subset of the Venn diagram is empty for arbitrary graphs, and prove that some of the subsets are empty for connected graphs. Our main result is a characterization of trees in each subset of the Venn diagram.

A set S of vertices in a graph G is a total dominating set if every vertex of G is adjacent to some vertex in S. The minimum cardinality of a total dominating set of G is the total domination number of G. A graph is total domination vertex removal stable if the removal of an arbitrary vertex leaves the total domination number unchanged. On the other hand, a graph is total domination vertex removal changing if the removal of an arbitrary vertex changes the total domination number. In this paper, we study total domination vertex removal changing and stable graphs.

Teacher attrition continues to impact public schools that seek to retain teachers in the classroom and meet rising enrollment rates. The recruitment of experienced career changing professionals into the educational workforce is a viable option to address teacher shortages. In addition, while the use of mentorship may support teacher retention and job satisfaction for novice teachers, inconsistencies in mentoring practices have limited the effectiveness of mentoring programs and support systems. The problem of limited research that examines the needs of career changing teachers (CCTs) and their initial mentoring experiences was addressed in this study. The social learning theory and Maslow's hierarchy of needs frameworks were used in this phenomenological study to explore perceptions of 15 novice CCTs from the middle or high school levels, who had completed 1 to 5 years of teaching service. The research questions focused on CCTs' perceptions of their mentoring experience, and the support they needed as novice teachers. Data collected from 2 rounds of semistructured interviews were analyzed with a multilevel coding approach to identify patterns and emergent themes. Emergent themes revealed CCTs' experiences and skills as viable teaching candidates, perceptions of their mentoring experiences, and support and retention needs. The findings revealed CCTs' desire for support in mentorship availability and quality, improvement in instructional pedagogy, and the promotion of emotional resiliency and job satisfaction. Recommendations point to the need for mentorship as ongoing practice, the personalization of mentorship programs, and the leveraging of professional development practices to provide mentoring support. The major implications for social change are the improvement of mentoring program design and the implementation for the development and retention of highly effective teachers to impact student achievement.

Thesis (M.Ed. (Educational Psychology))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Education, 1998.