The aim of this study was to focus on tertiary students' perceptions of career education which they received at secondary school level. It will try to determine the extent to which the role of the guidance teacher is known and also determine whether guidance as an auxiliary service is considered helpful by students. The,:sample consists of 92 male and female respondents drawn from the university and the technikon in Pietermaritzburg. The measuring instrument used is the questionnaire constructed by Skuy et al (1985) revised by Haffajee (1991) but included a number of questions were devised by the author to address the needs of her study. As a number of the questions in the questionnaire were constructed by the author, it was realised when analyzing the questionnaire that questions on parental influence were not included. Therefore, the results of this study must be interpreted with caution. The results of this study indicate that students received inadequate exposure to career guidance at school. This is linked to the fact that most of the guidance teachers themselves did not have adequate training in guidance and career guidance. The guidance periods were also used for examination subjects and also used by students as self-study or free periods. It is also indicated that most students changed their secondary school choice because the career assistance received at school was not adequate. Visits to tertiary institutions by pupils were " found helpful as it helps one in career decision-making. The results of this study indicate that guidance and career guidance should be enforced at school as this will help students to make responsible career choices. If career guidance is made compulsory at school, students will realize that uninformed career decisions made can be costly in time and in money. The results of this study also suggest that friends and guidance teachers are considered to be the most important helping agents in relation to career choice. The parents are found to have had little influence on their childrens' career choices in this study.1t is also indicated in the results of this study that environmental influences affected the respondents career knowledge. Since some limitations of this study were found, these results must be interpreted with caution and one should be cautious in applying them to a wider population. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg.

This thesis describes the fuzzy logic based control system for an automated guided vehicle ( AGV ) designed to navigate from one position and orientation to another while avoiding obstacles. A vehicle with an onboard computer system and a beacon based location system has been used to provide experimental confirmation of the methods proposed during this research. A simulation package has been written and used to test control techniques designed for the vehicle. A series of navigation rules based upon the vehicle's current position relative to its goal produce a fuzzy fit vector, the entries in which represent the relative importance of sets defined over all the possible output steering angles. This fuzzy fit vector is operated on by a new technique called rule spreading which ensures that all possible outputs have some activation. An obstacle avoidance controller operates from information about obstacles near to the vehicle. A method has been devised for generating obstacle avoidance sets depending on the size, shape and steering mechanism of a vehicle to enable their definition to accurately reflect the geometry and dynamic performance of the vehicle. Using a set of inhibitive rules the obstacle avoidance system compiles a mask vector which indicates the potential for a collision if each one of the possible output sets is chosen. The fuzzy fit vector is multiplied with the mask vector to produce a combined fit vector representing the relative importance of the output sets considering the demands of both navigation and obstacle avoidance. This is operated on by a newly developed windowing technique which prevents any conflicts produced by this combination leading to an undesirable output. The final fit vector is then defuzzified to give a demand steering angle for the vehicle. A separate fuzzy controller produces a demand velocity. In tests carried out in simulation and on the research vehicle it has been shown that the control system provides a successful guidance and obstacle avoidance scheme for an automated vehicle.

Objectives: This study was designed to address whether or not the level (high or low) of Streptococcus mutans in the saliva of preschool children can be used as an indicator of caries risk. Material and Methods: Levels of Streptococcus mutans was assessed in saliva of 100 preschool children, before and approximately 6-months after receiving a health promotion intervention known as anticipatory guidance. The S. mutans bacterial level was assessed using an immunoassay system (Saliva-Check MUTANS) based on monoclonal antibody technology. Bacterial counts were determined at baseline as well as at a six month recall examination. Obtained data was analyzed using SPSS 20.0 for Windows to report frequencies and to look for trends and associations between the dependent and independent variables. Bivariate analysis (ANOVA, Chi Square/Fishers/McNemar exact test) was used to identify associations between variables. Results: The main finding of this study was that higher levels of Streptococcus mutans were associated with higher caries prevalence at baseline, and caries incidence at follow-up. Furthermore following anticipatory guidance, the levels of Streptococcus mutans were reduced at the subsequent follow-up examination, approaching but not reaching statistical significance, and caries incidence was significantly lower in subjects demonstrating low Streptococcus mutans levels. Conclusions: Results from this study have shown that anticipatory guidance, offered to caregivers and children at an initial examination, led to a statistically non-significant reduction in the proportion of children with high Streptococcus mutans levels upon recall six mothers later. Children with low Streptococcus mutans levels were also less likely to develop new dental caries. These findings suggest that Streptococcus Mutans counts could be used to assess caries risk and encourages clinicians to provide anticipatory guidance to their patients to help avoid the development of new caries.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

This study investigated teachers' perceptions of subjects and career choices of male and female students in relation to gender in six selected schools in Botswana. The study aims to raise awareness about a number of aspects that need to be considered in order to produce plans leading to the achievement of gender equality in education. Such perceptions needs to be investigated because students' choices of certain subjects, careers and academic performance are to some extent determined by teachers' perceptions of gender based opportunities. A total of 36 respondents, (males n=16 and females n=20) participated in this study. To carry out this study, the design Used was a survey and data was collected using questionnaires in sampled schools. In presenting data, percentages were used to determine what teachers perceive to be the chances of success of male and female students. Graphs, tables and figures were also used in the presentation and analysis of data. The results show that the school system plays a significant role in creating and maintaining gender differences. It was found that teachers recommended scientific and technical related subjects and occupations to male students while humanities and domestic related subjects are recommended to female students. Gender biased teaching style and textbooks were found to be the main influential factors in teachers' perceptions. Most of the respondents were generally not satisfied with the teacher training on .gender issues. The goal of better serving the students does not entail neglecting or suppressing the other gender. By putting boys and girls on equal 'plain' the gender stereotypes may be counteracted and eliminated, so education may begin to be more gender balanced. Most importantly boys and girls must be equipped with skills that will help them pursue their potential regardless of their gender. / Thesis (M.Ed. (Guidance and Counselling) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2005

During neural development, each neuron sends an axon out from its cell body. Extending axons are guided by interactions between environmental factors and axonal receptors for these factors. It has been suggested that certain proteins of the immunoglobulin-like superfamily are among the molecules involved in axon guidance. In particular, TAG-1, Ll and NrCAM have previously been implicated in the guidance of dorsal spinal commissural axons at the ventral midline region known as the floor plate. To establish whether these molecules have such roles in mice, the dorsal spinal axons of TAG-1, L1 or NrCAM mutant mouse embryos were traced. There were no significant differences between the results from mutant embryos and their wild type counterparts. This indicated that these three proteins are individually not essential for the normal development of mouse dorsal spinal projections. However, results from TAG-MLI double mutant embryos suggested that TAG- I and LI might affect the ability of commissural axons to extend out of the floor plate. Analysis of ephrin B3 mutant embryos indicated that ephrin B3 might also be important for floor plate exit. As the TAG-1 null mutation includes a lacZ construct, this reporter gene was used to further investigate the roles of TAG-1. Its expression was used to determine distribution of TAG-1 gene activity in the developing mouse nervous system. As the pattern of reporter expression was found to be comparable with that of TAG-1 protein, the TAG-1 null allele was used as a marker for TAG-1-expressing cells in mutant embryos. Most of the structures that normally express TAG-1 seemed to be unaffected by an absence of the protein. However, the hypoglossal nerve was significantly less likely to extend towards the tongue in TAG-1 null homozygous embryos than in heterozygotes. This suggested that TAG-1 might be important for the guidance of hypoglossal axons.

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