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<p>Despite remarkable strides being made in legislation in South Africa, the country still faces immense challenges which directly impact on the care and protection of its children. Many children are removed from their families and placed into alternative care because of high risk factors in the family and community. However, because of the socioeconomic<br /> situations of families, many of these children will not be able to return to their family. It is, therefore, essential that in the residential care programme, efforts are directed towards permanency planning for each child in order to ensure long term placement in a family. The host parent programme which has been introduced at Child and Youth Care Centres (CYCCs) acts as a precursor to foster-care placements. Following on this, host parents provide the child in need of care with opportunities to interact and form positive relationships with adult caregivers. This study has explored and described, by means of qualitative research, the experiences of host parents who accommodated children in need of care. Nine host parents were purposively selected from three participating CYCCs in Athlone, Cape Town. Data was collected by means of semi-structured individual interviews. The data was analysed according to the steps by Tesch in Creswell (2009). The findings suggest that host parents are instrumental to those children who cannot return to their natural families. The host parents&rsquo / interaction with the CYCC was both positive and negative at times. Recommendations and guidelines in order to develop and improve existing hosting programmes at CYCC&rsquo / s are provided.</p>

mPIP is a mouse homologue of human PIP/GCDFP-15 which is an established marker of both malignant and benign pathological conditions of the mammary gland. mPIP gene expression has been identified in both lacrimal and salivary glands of healthy mice and the mPIP protein has been detected in saliva. The mPIP protein has been found to bind oral bacteria, showing the highest affinity for streptococci, suggesting a potential function of mPIP in the non-immune host defense in the mouse oral cavity. Since the exact functions of mPIP are still unknown, we examined the roles of mPIP through both in vitro and in vivo studies, specifically to address the possible role of this protein in non-immune host response through modulating the oral flora. The in vitro studies were primarily focused on elucidation of the consequences of interaction between mPIP and oral bacteria, in particular to examine whether mPIP plays a role in bacterial aggregation. The in vivo studies addressed the roles of mPIP through the analysis of an mPIP knockout mouse model generated in our laboratory. Following confirmation of the null mutation, the delineating the phenotype of this model was pursued through morphopathological analysis as well as examination of the impact of the lack of mPIP on the mouse oral flora. The null mutation in the mPIP knockout mice was confirmed by both the gene and protein analysis. Histological analysis revealed lymphocytic proliferation in both the submaxillary and prostate glands of the mPIP knockout mice. In addition, both quantitative and composition differences in the oral flora of mPIP knockout mice were identified when compared with wild-type controls. Specifically, a higher proportion of the oral bacteria of mPIP knockout mice were found to belong to genus Streptococcus and certain genera were found to be absent from the oral cavity of these mice. The effect of knockout mouse saliva, which lacks mPIP, on the aggregation of oral bacteria was compared to wild-type mouse saliva. Our data suggests that mPIP contributes to saliva-induced bacterial aggregation. While oral flora has multiple functions, including protection against infection, mPIP might play a role in the non-innate host defense through modulating the resident oral flora in the mouse. The identification of lymphocytic proliferation in submaxillary and prostate glands of mPIP knockout mice suggests that mPIP might also interfere with lymphocyte activity, playing a possible immunomodulatory role.

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An experimental study of laboratory populations of the stored-products moth, Cadra cautella (Lepidoptera: Phycitidae) and its larval parasitoid, Venturia canescens (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) identified and quantified density- and age-dependent demographic characteristics of the host-parasitoid system. Host imago longevity and fecundity depended on larval weight at pupation. Observed effects of C. cautella larval competition for food on larval mortality, stage duration, and weight at pupation were successfully captured in a mathematical model. Host larval age significantly influenced inter-stage cannibalism and susceptibility to mortality resulting from parasitoid oviposition wounds. Both larval parasitoid developmental rates and adult parasitoid attack rates depended on host larval age. Long-term population experiments of host and host-parasitoid populations revealed that host populations fluctuated with a period slightly in excess of host generation time and that parasitoid populations were in synchrony with host populations.

American chestnut was once a crucial component of North American forests, but it was functionally eliminated by the introduction of the chestnut blight fungus. Chestnut is recently experiencing resurgence, but the introduced Asian chestnut gall wasp, a specialist herbivore, threatens chestnut recovery. I characterized this invasion and the interactions developing with host associates as the gall wasp spread in North America. Gall wasp dispersal is attributable to host plant distribution, effects of prevailing winds during adult insect emergence, and to topography. This knowledge may be useful to more accurately predict locations of future gall wasp infestations. Gall wasp invasiveness is also affected by its ability to modulate reproduction and reallocate nutritive resources for body maintenance and egg quality. The gall wasp can form galls of different shape and structure based on population levels and parasitism pressure, in order to optimize fitness. Simple, uni-lobed galls are formed when population pressure is low, and complex, multi-lobed galls are formed when gall wasp populations are high. A fungal plant pathogen, identified as Colletotrichum sp., infects galls and acts as an opportunistic entomopathogen, causing gall wasp mortality while sparing the parasitoid. A non-native torymid parasitic wasp has been deployed for biological control. Using a Y-olfactometer I demonstrated that a combination of olfactory and visual cues from chestnut galls and chestnut foliage is required for parasitoid adults to locate hosts. In addition, I evaluated interactions between the gall wasp and stem cankers on chestnut. Using potted Chinese chestnut seedlings with or without gall wasp or a native Nectria cankering pathogen, I found that the gall wasp has a negative impact on plant fitness, and a positive impact on fungal fitness. My work helps elucidate ecological mechanisms underlying the success of the exotic Asian chestnut gall wasp in North America, and adds to our knowledge base characterizing evolving ecological interactions between native and introduced species.

The primary objective of this study was to determine the role of the host community in the marketing of arts festivals with reference to the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. This goal was achieved firstly by analysing the relationship between the events industry and the community. Secondly, a literature study was conducted to explore the role of the community in tourism marketing. Thirdly, a survey was done to determine the perceptions of the community in terms of the marketing of the Festival as well as the social impact thereof. From previous studies it was found that the local community can be seen as a group of people of different gender, race, age and different race and social groups living together in a certain geographic area. The local community is the main suppliers of an event; they provide many of the businesses, public places and hospitality services used by tourists and visitors at an event. Staff, volunteers and many other resources come from the local community. The attitude of the local community towards the Festival is proven to be important. Positive attitudes are associated with economic and social benefits gained from the event. The attitude of the local community can influence their behaviour towards tourists as well as their message spread concerning the event, through word-of-mouth communication. They can influence the buying behaviour of tourists and visitors. Research was undertaking at Grahamstown National Arts Festival to determine the perceptions and attitudes of the local community towards the Festival and the marketing thereof. This was determined by means of a questionnaire as adopted from Fredline, Jago and Deery. It was distributed among the local community according to a stratified random sampling procedure. A total of 265 questionnaires were completed by residents. Firstly, the data was used to compile tables and graphs with a view to interpret the descriptive data: demographic information as well as perceptions and attitudes of the local community towards the Festival and the marketing thereof. It was found that the Festival has a positive impact on their personal lives as well as on the community as a whole. Positive and negative social impacts were identified, which indicates that the community are aware of the impacts: positive, including the range of things to do in Grahamstown has improved (80%), the number of people in the area has increased (80%) and there are more opportunities to meet new people (80%). The highest rated negative social impacts include the fact that the availability of parking has decreased (79%), that the public money spent on the Festival would be better spent on other things (43%) and that ordinary residents get no say in the planning and management of the Festival (50%). In terms of the marketing, the local community markets the Festival verbally by telling friends and family about it and also by attending the Festival themselves. However, the local community feel that they should be more involved in the planning and marketing of the Festival. Secondly, a factor analysis was performed with a view to synthesise the large amount of data concerning the perceptions and marketing of the Festival in smaller, more descriptive factors. These factors were used to determine the role of the community in the marketing of the Festival. The factor analysis yielded a 2-factor solution and the factors were labelled: Factor 1: Verbal marketing of the Festival; Factor 2: Action marketing of the Festival. Thirdly, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to explore the impact of the variables: age, gender, race, income, level of education, attitudes towards continuation of the Festival, attendance of the current festival, attendance of previous festivals, level of interest in the Festival, length of stay in Grahamstown, attitudes towards living in Grahamstown on the dimensions Verbal and Active marketing, as determined in the factor analysis. It was found that a medium effect exists between the middle-aged group and the older-age group on the Verbal marketing dimension. A medium effect also exists between the black and Asian respondents on the dimension Verbal marketing. There is a large effect between attendance of the Festival and Verbal marketing but a medium effect on the dimension Action marketing. A large effect was determined between avid fans and those that are not interested but attend occasionally, between avid fans and those who have no interest in the Festival, between those that are interested and attend some aspects of the Festival and those that are not interested but attend, those that are interested and attend and those that are not interested, on the Verbal marketing dimension. A medium effect was discovered between avid fans of the Festival and those that attended some of the aspects of the Festival, and those that are not interested but attend some aspects, and those that are not interested at all, on the Verbal marketing dimension. On the Verbal marketing dimension a medium effect was determined between the following: A medium effect was determined between avid fans of the Festival and those that attended some of the aspects of the Festival, avid fans and those that are not interested but attend occasionally, those that are interested and attend and those that are not interested, on the Action marketing dimension. This study contributes to the information that already exists concerning the role of the community in the marketing of arts festivals and on marketing communication research. / Thesis (M.Com. (Tourism))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.