In order to minimize duplication, consolidate resources and strengthen industry representation to government, the South African Avocado Growers Association (SAAGA), South African Litchi Growers Association (SALGA), South African Macadamia Growers Association (SAMAC) and the South African Mango Growers Association (SAMGA); amalgamated under an umbrella organization called Subtrop. This study focuses on the pre and post effect the amalgamation had on Extension services to the abovementioned organizations. The effect was measured by conducting a survey. The survey measured both Subtrop member and relevant Subtrop staff responses. The survey used two questionnaire types, one for Subtrop members and one for Subtrop extension advisors. The questionnaires were designed to complement the SPPS V19.0® statistical package. The questionnaires were completed at group interview sessions. A total of 127 farmer respondents, divided in two groups, namely 90 farmer respondents and 37 opinion leader respondents participated in the external survey. The internal survey comprised of six Subtrop extension advisor respondents. Farmer and opinion leader respondents, (hereafter called respondents), provided their perceptions and rated the extension services of the technical department of Subtrop. Results showed that the respondents used the Extension services for on farm advice and group based Extension services like study groups. The Subtrop Extension services received a higher rating after the Subtrop amalgamation than before the amalgamation. Subtrop extension advisor responses showed a need for training and coaching, as well as some reconciliation with respect to the increase in work load afforded by the amalgamation. Pre-amalgamation extension advisors served one commodity, while post amalgamation extension advisors now serve four commodities. The respondents indicated their satisfaction with the organizing of study groups. They also indicated that the study groups met their needs. Although the respondents understood the value of intercommunication and participation, the study showed that the minority realized the need to take ownership of study groups. All the extension advisors indicated that organizing study groups was the single activity that used most of their time. The Subtrop study groups were rated higher after the Subtrop amalgamation than before. The Subtrop newsletters were rated higher after the Subtrop amalgamation. The respondents indicated the newsletters as valuable and therefore proved newsletters as an appropriate extension communication tool. The Subtrop websites were indicated as somewhat valuable. Most respondents indicated a lack of awareness of the websites, indicating a need to promote the websites better. Although very few respondents completed the marketing related services section of the survey, those that completed this section were all aware of this service. The following recommendations emerged: For extension advisors: <ul> <li> The development of a curriculum of Subtrop commodities for training purposes;</li> <li> Regular technical and soft-skill training;</li> <li> The development of a mentorship program; and</li> <li> For new extension advisors an orientation program which includes the above mentioned.</li> </ul> To improve the Extension service outputs: programmed extension and the implementation of area committees. Additional focus on communication and exit interviews. For farmer members: <ul> <li> Study group management needs to be improved, combine newsletters, improve awareness of research and promote websites and market services.</li> <li> Further: develop an extension policy, maximize area committee involvement and regular member feedback surveys.</li></ul> / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted

Twitter are a new source of information for data mining techniques. Messages posted through Twitter provide a major information source to gauge public sentiment on topics ranging from politics to fashion trends. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Twitter tweets to discern the opinions of users regarding Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). We examine the effectiveness of several classifiers, Multinomial Naïve Bayes, Bernoulli Naïve Bayes, Logistic Regression and Linear Support Vector Classifier (SVC) in identifying a positive, negative or neutral category on a tweet corpus. Additionally, we use three datasets in this experiment to examine which dataset has the best score. Comparing the classifiers, we discovered that GMO_NDSU has the highest score in each classifier of my experiment among three datasets, and Linear SVC had the highest consistent accuracy by using bigrams as feature extraction and Term Frequency, Chi Square as feature selection.

[pt] Esta dissertação analisa de que forma a imprensa e a opinião pública foram abordadas nos escritos de Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. A proposta do trabalho é mostrar qual foi o papel das publicações periódicas dentro de um cenário de fortes disputas políticas e longos confrontos civis que marcaram o território argentino na primeira metade do século XIX. O argumento principal é destacar de que forma a imprensa interferiu nos acontecimentos da Região do Prata durante o governo Juan Manoel Rosas e no momento posterior a sua queda, após a Batalha de Caseros. Dentro desse cenário, a pesquisa enfatizou como os jornais se constituíram numa ferramenta para o progresso e a civilização, ideais tão proclamados por Sarmiento. Para a realização da pesquisa, foram analisados diversos artigos do autor sobre o tema e os textos Cartas Quillotanas e Las Ciento y Una, que compõem uma das polêmicas mais famosas do período travada por Sarmiento e Juan Bautista Alberdi, outro grande intelectual da Geração Romântica Argentina de 1837. / [en] This dissertation examines how the press and the public opinion were highlighted in the writings of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. The purpose of this study is to show what was the role of journal in a scene of long civil confronts that marked the territory of Argentina in the first half of the nineteenth century. The main argument is to mark how the media interfered in the affairs of La Plata Region during the administration of Juan Manoel Rosas and the time after his fall, subsequent of the Battle of Caseros. In this scenario, the research also highlights how newspaper became an instrument for progress and civilization, ideals proclaimed by Sarmiento. To perform this study, we analyzed several articles of the author and other texts like Cartas Quillotanas and Las Ciento y Una, that represented one of the most famous controversies of the period fought by Sarmiento and Juan Bautista Alberdi, another great intellectual of generation romantic argentine of 1837.

Intergenerational influence is the transmission of information and beliefs from one family generation to the next. Intergenerational influence is at work whenever older generation seek advice from younger generation, or vice versa. The study investigated the influence of young opinion leaders on older generation regarding mobile internet usage.The study followed a convenience research design. A total of 597 online questionnaires were sent to Nedbank Group Technology employees aged over 44 via email. A total of 66 complete, complete, usable, online questionnaires were completed. The key finding was that young opinion leaders are likely to positively influence older generation regarding mobile internet usage. The finding is consistent with previous studies. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

This dissertation explores how journalists in the United States and Germany have been addressing declining levels of trust and attacks on their credibility. I comparatively examine how journalists interpret the trust crisis, and consequently, the strategies they have developed for addressing it. This study is based on multi-site ethnography: I interviewed 87 journalists, conducted observations in 15 local and national newsrooms, and examined metajournalism from the United States and Germany. Findings show that U.S. and German journalists interpret declining trust and anti-media sentiments differently: U.S. journalists believe they stem from information gaps and lacking media literacy, while German journalists believe they reflect a sense of alienation. And so, in their efforts to gain credibility, U.S. journalists focus on increasing transparency and showcasing their professionalism, while German journalists focus on increasing reciprocity and showing that they listen to criticism from outside the profession. As this dissertation shows, both U.S. and German news media are thoroughly professionalized, but their different relationships to their audiences and communities shape different perceptions on — and strategies for — trust building.

Wind energy is quickly becoming a critical technology for providing Americans with renewable energy, and rapid construction of wind facilities may have impacts on both wildlife and human communities. Understanding both the social and ecological issues related to wind energy development could provide a framework for effectively meeting human energy needs while conserving species biodiversity. In this research I looked at two aspects of wind energy development: public attitudes toward wind energy development and wind facility impacts on local bat populations. These papers present aspects of wind energy development that have been the subject of increasing study. This preliminary research is intended to demonstrate the responsibility we have to making well-informed decisions as we continue to expand wind energy development. Additionally, I hope to generate interest in interdisciplinary study as a means to broaden the scope of research by making use of the diverse tools available within different disciplines.

Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic disease with severe manifestations in HIV-positive human patients. In 1978 the overall sero-prevalence of toxoplasmosis in human patients in South Africa was found to be 20%. Toxoplasmosis in immunocompromised patients is known to be a cause of sometimes fatal complications, such as encephalomyelitis and ocular lesions. According to the literature, mutton infected with the cysts of Toxoplasma gondii is an important route of transmission to humans who ingest under-cooked meat, or eat with unwashed hands after working with meat. There is no data on the sero-prevalence in sheep in South Africa, although this is available for most other countries, including Zimbabwe. The aim of this study was to estimate the sero-prevalence of T.gondii in sheep in South Africa and to discuss the zoonotic aspects related to the prevalence of toxoplasmosis in humans. Three-stage cluster sampling was done where five different provinces randomly chosen from all the provinces in South Africa were the primary units: Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Eastern Cape and Western Cape. Two sheep abattoirs and one rural location per province, selected randomly from a list supplied by the provincial Departments of Agriculture, were the secondary units. A total of 677 serum samples from these sheep were tested for IgG using the Indirect Fluorescent Antibody (IFA) test (Diagnostic&Technical Services CC, Randburg, South Africa) and the commercial Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent-Assay (ELISA) kit. Informal interviews were conducted with doctors (n=5), doctors regarded as experts (n=17) were selected for an expert opinion survey and National Laboratories (n=3) supplied data on human serum tested for toxoplasmosis in different provinces. The sero-prevalence in sheep, per province, was found to be: Gauteng 6%, Eastern Cape 7.8%, Western Cape 6%, KwaZulu-Natal 6.3% and Free State 2.7% when tested with the IFA test. The results obtained with the ELISA test were: Gauteng 6%, Eastern Cape 5.4%, Western Cape 4%, KwaZulu-Natal 3.6% and Free State 2.7%. Overall prevalences of 5.6% (IFA) and 4.3% (ELISA) were obtained. From the results it appears that toxoplasmosis in sheep has a lower sero-prevalence in South Africa than in other countries. Zimbabwe has an average sero-prevalence in sheep of 67.9%, there is a 80% sero-prevalence in sheep in France and 20-30% in different states in the USA. There was no significant difference between the levels in rural and commercial sheep at the 95% confidence level in South Africa, although there was a significantly higher prevalence in intensively farmed sheep in contrast to those farmed extensively. The informal interviews with the medical doctors indicated that they do not consider toxoplasmosis as an important disease. In contrast to these findings, the experts regard toxoplasmosis as a significant disease and the data obtained from the National Laboratories substantiated this opinion. The seroprevalence in humans was found to be between 14 and 32 % in the three provinces from which data were obtained. It can be concluded that the lower sero-prevalence of toxoplasmosis in sheep in South Africa, as compared with international levels, was probably due to more extensive methods of sheep farming and the relatively low rainfall in southern Africa. It must be noted, however, that comparison of sero- prevalence in different countries is made difficult by the many different tests and end-titres used in both humans and animals. Standardisation is recommended. The presence of toxoplasmosis in sheep in South Africa should be considered as significant because in this country we have a high consumption of mutton. Medical practitioners underestimate the importance of toxoplasmosis in humans. It was recommended that a pamphlet for education of veterinarians, doctors, health workers and patients be produced to increase the knowledge and understanding of this disease and its prevention in South Africa. / Dissertation (MSc (Veterinary Science))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Paraclinical Sciences / MSc / unrestricted

The purpose of this article was to determine opinions on the use of abstinence only versus comprehensive sex education by registered voters in South Carolina. A cross-sectional, random-digit dial sample was utilized. Approximately 81% of respondents indicated support for sex education that emphasizes abstinence but also teaches about the benefits and importance of using contraceptives to prevent pregnancy and/or sexually transmitted diseases. Results suggest that registered voters in South Carolina support teaching a comprehensive approach to sex education and favor a variety of sex education topics, regardless of political ideology, religion, or parental status.

The contested backlash phenomenon assumes that changes to the status quo in favor of minorities will be met with resistance and resentment from majority groups. However, previous research has yielded ambiguous results. This has resulted in a continuous confusion regarding if, when and how backlashes occur. This thesis will attempt to enhance the understanding of this phenomenon through the use of a survey experiment. The experiment tests whether it is possible to detect a backlash in public opinion through the use of a treatment text. The text presents a fictive Supreme Court decision that approves outdoor broadcasting of the Islamic call to prayer in the US. The experiment tests whether this will create an increase in resentment directed towards Muslim Americans. The experiment tests a number of hypotheses regarding when and where backlash might occur and could not find any support of the backlash hypothesis. The results instead indicated that the treatment induced a decrease in the level of resentment reported by the respondents. These unexpected results have a number of possible explanations, ranging from social desirability bias to the possibility of a legitimizing effect stemming from the treatment. The findings are in line with a growing number of researches that have failed to statistically find any proof of the backlash theory.

The way our electricity is generated is in a period of rapid change; in the United States and many other countries the system is becoming less reliant on coal based power systems, while natural gas and solar and wind power are becoming more and more important. Technological advances have made solar and wind power more efficient and increasingly cost-effective. While these changes to the electrical system come with great benefits, such as less pollution, these technologies are not free of impacts. The electrical system is inseparable from our modern lifestyle, and because the system is so large this transition will affect society in many ways. This dissertation analyzes one aspect of the social side of these changes in the electrical system by asking, what does the public think about renewable energy? In particular we examined how political beliefs, community differences, and residential distance from wind turbines might influence attitudes about renewable energy. We find that political belief is an important factor in predicting levels of support for renewable energy, with conservatives less likely to prefer renewable energy and liberals more supportive of its development. We also find distinct differences in how residents of particular communities tend to react to renewable energy and local wind power development. In addition, we find that living closer to wind turbines is not a good way to predict attitudes about wind energy. These results should help policy makers and developers to make better decisions about how and where we build utility-scale solar and wind electric power facilities by taking into consideration the nuances of personal and political beliefs as well as community differences.