This study aims to explore and describe the experiences of significant others during the coming out process of two lesbian individuals. The study gathered more detail regarding how various individuals experience the coming out process in the hope of contributing to the theoretical base of literature concerning lesbian studies in South Africa. The literature review provides a survey of the coming out process as well as a discussion regarding significant others (family and friends). Some factors and experiences involved in the coming out process are also discussed. The qualitative case study is approached from the interpretive paradigm and systems theory was utilised as a theoretical framework throughout the study. Data was generated primarily through unstructured interactive/in-depth interviews and secondarily through stories, field texts, photographs and a research diary. Six individuals participated in the research study, the two lesbian individuals and four significant others as identified by them - two mothers, a father and a close friend. The data analysis led to both commonalities in experiences and unique experiences identified by participants. The results of the study indicated that some form of suspicion or awareness was present in the significant others before the act of disclosure; emotional reactions from involved participants can be placed in a continuum ranging from positive to negative and the act of disclosure was viewed and experienced as both a crisis and as progressive by different participants. Various factors could influence the experience of the coming out process for significant others as well as the reactions to the act of disclosure. However more research is needed to investigate what these factors might be. Participants also mentioned various stages towards acceptance (individuals fall in a continuum and can move forward and backward). Both common and unique experiences were present and can assist others in understanding the coming out process from different perspectives. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

In this dissertation, I report on the design, implementation, and evaluation of my intervention for the revision of physics in a mainstream public secondary school in Singapore. This intervention was conducted over a one-year period, and involved students who were taking their GCE 'O' level physics examination after immersion in the intervention, which was conducted as part of their regular physics revision curriculum. Based on sociocultural theory, the intervention changed the practice of how physics revision was conducted in a particular secondary physics classroom. The intervention consisted of a computer-mediated collaborative problem-solving (CMCPS) component and a teacher-led prescriptive tutoring (PT) component. The CMCPS portion of the intervention required the students to follow basic 'ground rules' for computer-mediated problem-solving of physics questions with other students, while the PT portion saw the teacher prescriptively addressing students' misconceptions, misunderstandings, and other problem-solving difficulties as captured by the discussion logs during the CMCPS session. The intervention was evaluated in two stages. First, a small-scale (pilot) study which utilised a control group (CG)/alternate intervention group (AG)/experimental group (XG) with pre- and post-test research design was conducted in order to evaluate whether the intervention was effective in promoting improved learning outcomes of a small group of students. Given the success of the pilot study, a main study involving the entire class of students was conducted. This main study was evaluated by comparing the cohort's actual GCE 'O' level physics results with their expected grades (as given by the Singapore Ministry of Education based on the students' primary school's results). Also, the students' 'O' level physics results were compared with the average physics results obtained by previous cohorts. The quantitative data indicated that the intervention for physics revision appears to be effective in helping the entire class of students revise physics concepts, resulting in improved test scores, while the qualitative data indicated that the students' interest in physics had increased over time. The physics teacher also reflected that the intervention had provided her with much deeper insights into her students' mental models.

Police officers have one of the most stressful jobs in existence. However, information pertaining to stress management programs is limited, especially within a Canadian context. Furthermore, little is known about the processes through which officers construct their perceptions of stress and stress management since the literature has mainly focused on enumerating the frequency of existing stressors. The present study addresses these limitations by conducting a content analysis of 24 in-depth interviews with officers from a law enforcement agency in Ontario. By drawing on symbolic interactionism, the present study concludes that police officers gravitate toward the “me” or the socialized aspect of the self (Goffman, 1969) when constructing their perceptions of stress and stress management in order to protect their image and avoid stigmatization. Policy implications based on these findings are presented at the end of the study, along with directions for future research.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Few studies of shallow water marine nematodes have been conducted around South Africa, and none from the west coast. Here, I analyse the composition of nematode communities from six stations along a 3 km transect in Saldanha Bay during both summer and winter, in order to describe the communities present and to explore the effects of sediment composition and heavy and trace metal concentrations on community structure. In order to put the local data into a global context, these data are analysed together with some consolidated data from elsewhere and patterns of richness and composition (at the level of genus and species) examined The transect in Saldanha Bay extended from below a mussel raft at one end into the bay, and six cores (35.7mm diameter) were collected at each station. All nematodes were counted and 100 randomly identified from each core. A total of 136 nominal species, 117 genera and 36 families were identified from both summer and winter stations. Nematode abundance was highest at stations under the mussel raft, which were characterized by high mud content and high concentrations of trace and heavy metals: diversity was comparatively low and the assemblage was dominated by a few, non-selective deposit feeders (especially Sabatieria). Abundance decreased, but diversity increased, with an increase in distance from the mussel raft, which was coupled with an increase in the particle size of sediments and a significant reduction in metal concentrations. There were three dominant (Comesomatidae, Desmodoridae and Linhomoeidae, present in 96%, 85% and 83% of samples, respectively) and four subdominant families (Chromadoridae, Microlaimidae and Xyalidae, all in 79% of samples) that were largely responsible for determining the community structure across the bay. Multivariate analysis of the data using PRIMER indicated that copper was the single variable that best accounted for the structure of the communities (70.1%), and the best 2-variable combinations were copper and organic nitrogen (70.3%), followed by copper, organic nitrogen and mean grain size (69.7%). Abundance was higher at all stations in winter than summer, and the results of the PERMANOVA test on station and season indicated that the variation in between Station- Season accounted for 27% of the differences in community structure. Although these results should be treated with caution owing to limited temporal sampling, they are similar to those obtained elsewhere in the world and indicate that nematodes can be used to study anthropogenic impacts in a local context. Despite the fact that Saldanha Bay has been subjected to industrial activities for more than thirty years, estimates of species richness for Saldanha Bay were surprisingly high: S= 136; ICE = 150; CFE= 173. As too were estimates of generic richness (S= 117; ICE = 131; CFE= 149), which were the fourth most rich of those global sites compared from similar depths. Incorporation of these data into a global dataset revealed an absence of any clear latitudinal pattern in the distribution of richness (genera or families), and there was no obvious geographic structure to global communities, based on the available data. These results suggest that genera and families are poor proxies for species (at the evolutionary level, but not at the ecological level) and they support the idea that everything is everywhere. Comments on ways that nematode research can be advanced in South Africa are made.

In this qualitative study excessive weight gain in men is placed in the context of a life course trajectory with its characteristic stages. A combination of symbolic interactionism and life course perspectives was deemed appropriate for studying obesity as their basic assumptions complement each other to create a holistic view of the phenomenon. Both the life course and symbolic interactionism perspectives stress the interaction between individuals and their social environment, an observation particularly evident when viewed as a micro-level experience. The chosen approach emphasises the social creation of meanings about life transitions and individual development. The obese man cannot be seen as an isolated unit as, like all people, he is a social being forming part of a network of relationships. Theoretically those with whom he is socialising can be classified as significant others, general others and reference group others. It is their influence that is important in his personal development and experience of the self. While the symbolic interactionism perspective accentuates the development of the self in interaction with others, the life course perspective gives clarity on the way the individual handles transition experiences in order to regain balance after a time of disequilibrium resulting from different trajectories. The theory of cognitive appraisal used in this study enhanced understanding of the obese man‟s passion for food, and the emotion of joy experienced when busy with food-related activities. Cognitive appraisal takes place in each situation when the obese man needs to make a decision or take action in terms of food and life style behaviour. The strategy of enquiry for this research followed a phenomenological and qualitative approach. The unit of analysis was a white man who was obese. The inclusion criteria for the sample were: being older than 21; and complying with the acknowledged criterion for obesity of having a BMI greater than 30kg/m². A purposive sampling technique was employed with each of the 14 participants being interviewed on more than one occasion. Participants were expected to, and were able to describe their experiences of being obese retrospectively. The researcher made almost exclusive use of lengthy, individual, in-depth, unstructured interviews. Three themes emerged from the data namely the meaning of food, the sadness of obesity and coping with obesity. The findings from this study show that, as a social object, the obese man‟s eating habits and the meaning that food has for him are influenced by, and learnt from others such as his family during childhood and adolescence, and his married partner and work colleagues in young adulthood. Essentially, indulgence in eating is for the anticipated pleasure it brings. Thus several factors like marriage, friends and career influence the food trajectory of the obese man. The obese man‟s food trajectories affect his weight trajectory and have a negative impact on his experience of self. His overweight body gives rise to distressing physical constraints and causes emotional experiences of sadness. He is unable to make peace with his obese state and needs to consciously address the situation. Coping strategies used by the obese participants were critical in their handling of their obesity. In the process of self-appraisal they needed confirmation that they could handle the problem so that it did not influence the way they experienced their physical and inner selves. Regardless of all the coping strategies adopted, the participants were not totally able to handle their plight. It actually got worse and impacted extremely negatively on their well-being. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / gm2014 / Consumer Science / unrestricted

The pursuit of sustainability and the preservation of natural resources in consumers’ product choice and –consumption is a worldwide concern. This research therefore focused on the relevance and inter relationship of various motivational factors in contributing to consumers’ pro-environmental intent to purchase eco-friendly appliances in the local context. Since pro-environmental intent does not inexorably lead to environmentally significant choice behaviour, the study also investigated consumers’ prioritization of environmentally related product features in the pre-purchase evaluation and selection of major household appliances. The perspective of those with increased spending power as well as access to a wide variety of products in major urban areas (e.g. Tshwane) was of specific interest. A store intercept method with a non-probability purposive sampling approach was used to recruit respondents in stores while they were in the process of acquiring appliances. A structured questionnaire was administered in face-to-face interviews. A total of 667 questionnaires were collected, of which 648 were used for structural equation modelling and conjoint analyses. Based on the construct associations specified in a structural equation model, an awareness of environmental consequences related to product choice and consumption emerged as an indirect determinant of pro-environmental intent and represents an important precondition for the formation of subjective norms and moral attitudes. A strong and statistically significant relationship between subjective norms and moral attitudes underscore the importance of a social group’s standards in the formation of an individual’s own moral norms and attitudes. In relation to perceived behavioural control, subjective norms may fulfill an informative role when consumers are less confident in their own ability to comprehensively evaluate and select a washing machine with eco-friendly attributes. A combination of moral norms, attitudes and anticipated feelings of guilt significantly contributed to respondents’ pro-environmental intent, and even though they seemed somewhat less convinced about how easy it is to choose eco-friendly appliances, their intentions to buy such appliances consistently reflect a pro-environmental inclination. Using Sawtooth conjoint software, trade-off tasks were compiled to determine the relative importance of environmentally related attributes in relation to other conventional features in consumers’ pre-purchase evaluation and selection of washing machines. Aggregate results reveal that consumers across various age, income and educational levels prioritise brand and price, despite the long-term financial and environmental repurcussions of product features that impact on the use of natural resources. Based on a cluster analysis, four consumer segments were identified that differ in terms of preference structures. Overall, respondents rely on price and brand associations to guide their decision-making due to their inability and inexperience to objectively assess the environmental attributes of a product, which then ultimately contradicts their observed pro-environmental intent. From a practical point of view, the findings substantiate the development of tailored intervention strategies to facilitate informed decision-making and deliberation of consequences that extend beyond the initial selection of a particular product option. Strategies that emphasize the financial benefits of environmentally related features that span over the entire life cycle of the appliance might prove influential in promoting pro-environmental choices. From a theoretical perspective, the research expands an existing body of knowledge by establishing insight about consumers’ behaviour in a Third-World emerging context. In addition, it provides evidence regarding the application of existing theory and methods to explain the inconsistency between consumers’ assumed pro-environmental intent and their actual observed choices in the execution of a more complex, expensive and significant act of acquiring major household appliances. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Consumer Science / PhD / Unrestricted

Recently the National Reading Panel concluded that systematic and direct instruction in phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension that is informed by ongoing assessments of student progress results in positive student achievement (NICHHD, 2002). For students with moderate to severe disabilities and students with autism, reading instruction has historically focused on functional sight words. Unfortunately, very little research exists that has examined how the literacy achievement of students with moderate to severe disabilities can be impacted by a more comprehensive, data-driven instructional model. A special education program that serves students with moderate to severe disabilities and students with autism sought to improve reading instruction and literacy outcomes for these students and began the Educational and Life Skills (ELS) Literacy Initiative during the 2005-2006 school year. The purpose of the literacy initiative was to improve teacher skill and confidence in teaching reading, increase the alignment of literacy instruction with the identified best practices, improve the quality of the instructional planning process, and improve student outcomes in the area of literacy. The literacy initiative provided teachers with extensive curricular resources and professional development opportunities in order to achieve the desired outcomes. This study is an evaluation of the ELS Literacy Initiative. More specifically, the goals of this study were to (a) examine how the literacy initiative was being implemented, (b) determine to what extent the anticipated short-term and intermediate outcomes of the initiative were being realized, and (c) determine the next steps in implementation of the literacy initiative. To answer the evaluation questions, a mix of qualitative and quantitative data were collected, including teacher and parent surveys, teacher focus group interviews, and student outcome data. Overall, the outcomes of the ELS Literacy Initiative have been positive, with teachers feeling more confident and supported, instruction being more aligned with best practices, and students having made gains in their literacy skills. However, particular areas of improvement, such as the instructional planning process and curricular resources, should be addressed to meet the needs of students who are nonverbal. A set of recommendations regarding the next steps in the implementation of the ELS Literacy Initiative is included.

Background: Fourteen thousand (14, 000) people fell ill with Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) or Rifampicin-Resistant (RR) Tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa (SA) in 2019. Aminoglycosides, which are commonly used anti-tuberculosis drugs in the treatment for RR/MDR-TB patients, are associated with ototoxicity (cochlear or vestibular). Aminoglycoside-induced cochleotoxicity is characterised by permanent, bilateral, highfrequency (HF) sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). The impact of hearing loss (HL) due to aminoglycoside-induced cochleotoxicity can influence a patient's communication, psychological, physical functioning and overall well-being negatively and lead to a reduced quality of life (QoL). To reduce the risk of aminoglycoside-induced cochleotoxicity, patients' hearing thresholds are monitored (i.e., cochleotoxicity monitoring) when they are being treated with cochleotoxic aminoglycosides. Cochleotoxicity monitoring is performed to detect a significant threshold shift (STS) early and prevent further deterioration of hearing thresholds and avoid hearing loss which may end up affecting frequencies that are important for speech perception. When a STS or hearing loss is detected during cochleotoxicity monitoring, there are various intervention strategies that can be implemented by the treating medical personnel to avoid further deterioration of patient's hearing thresholds. These strategies may include discontinuing the aminoglycoside, changing the aminoglycoside to a less cochleotoxic alternative in the regimen or changing the frequency of administration of the aminoglycoside. This study, therefore, aimed to determine the effectiveness of different strategies used when a STS in hearing occurred during cochleotoxicity monitoring to prevent further deterioration in hearing thresholds. Methodology: A descriptive prospective repeated-measures design was used in this study. Patients who underwent RR/MDR-TB treatment with Kanamycin, a cochleotoxic aminoglycoside, at Brooklyn Chest Tuberculosis Hospital (BCH) between June to December 2016 were recruited to participate in the study. Only patients (n= 69) with normal hearing thresholds (i.e., pure tone average (PTA) at 500 Hz, 1 kHz and 2 kHz ≤ 25 dB HL) at baseline and age 18 – 55 years were included. Patients who were receiving two aminoglycosides, were retreatment patients or had active middle ear (ME) pathology were excluded from this study. Participants were sampled via a purposive sampling strategy. All audiological testing was performed in a sound-treated booth and participants underwent the following types of assessment; baseline, periodic monitoring, and diagnostic assessment (when indicated). The following tests were performed at baseline: case history, otoscopy (OT), tympanometry (TYMP), conventional pure tone audiometry (cPTA) including air conduction (AC) and bone conduction (BC), and ultra-high frequency audiometry (UHFA). Follow-up monitoring assessment occurred monthly if there was no significant change in hearing thresholds, and biweekly if an STS was detected. The ASHA criteria were used to determine STS. The degree of hearing loss was described as mild, moderate, moderately-severe, severe or profound and the type of hearing loss was either conductive, sensorineural, or mixed. Both descriptive and inferential (Chi-squared, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis) statistical tests were used for data analysis. Results: A total of sixty-nine (69) patients who were undergoing treatment for RR/MDR-TB were recruited to participate in this study. Five participants dropped out of the study due to various reasons, therefore, leaving 64 participants in the study. There was 38 males and 26 females. The median age was 31 [range; 18 - 55] years old. An aminoglycoside-induced cochleotoxicity incidence of 90.6% (58/64) was found in this study. There were no statistically significant associations between the occurrence of STS and age (p = 0.487), sex (p = 0.329) and HIV status (p = 0.764). Three types of intervention strategies were used when a participant experienced an STS: (i) discontinue Kanamycin (Strategy A), (ii) modify the frequency of Kanamycin administration (Strategy B), (iii) and leave the regimen unchanged, i.e., no intervention (Strategy C). A smaller proportion of participants, 12 out of 33, experienced further deterioration of hearing thresholds after intervention strategy A (discontinue Kanamycin) was used, when compared to participants who underwent intervention strategies B and C, but the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.056). Conclusion: This study found a high incidence of cochleotoxicity among patients receiving Kanamycin treatment for RR/MDR-TB. The results showed that discontinuing Kanamycin led to fewer participants developing further deterioration of hearing thresholds, although not statistically significant. There were no statistically significant associations between the occurrence of STS and age, sex, and HIV status. This study had some limitations; only cochlear hearing loss was investigated, participants were not followed up beyond six months, and genetic testing was not performed. Nonetheless, this study revealed that fewer participants had further significant threshold shifts after discontinuing Kanamycin, and for those patients who still receive regimens containing aminoglycosides, these findings are relevant.

The emergence and progression of the digital economy has distorted the core principles of international taxation. Foreign multinational companies now have the ability to fundamentally operate in market jurisdictions without having a ―physical presence‖. This poses a various challenges to the current international tax regimes because it enables businesses to have a ―significant economic presence‖ without a taxable nexus. Therefore, it becomes extremely difficult to ―ring-fence‖ the digital economy. The Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has attempted to address these challenges in Action 1 of its Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) Plan report entitled ―Addressing the Tax Challenges of the Digital Economy - Action 1: 2015 Report‖. Action 1 recommended a few proposals to address the challenges presented in taxing the digital economy, but they were not agreed upon. In the absence of a consensus on the proposals in Action 1, especially from a direct tax perspective, a number of countries began to explore unilateral measures in order to protect their tax base. South Africa is referred to as the ―getaway to Africa‖ and considering South Africa‘s importance in the global economy, it is imperative to ascertain South Africa‘s approach to taxing the digital economy. This study will assess South Africa‘s approach to taxing the digital economy within the international tax spectrum. This assessment will be based on a review of the unilateral approaches taken by other jurisdictions, to determine whether South Africa has taken the correct stance in not taking direct tax measures so far, as well as to assess whether there is anything else South Africa can do to protect its tax base as it awaits global consensus on the taxation of the digital economy. The observations of this study discovered that the unilateral measures taken by the various countries have caused retaliations by trade partners, impractical implementation issues and has created greater uncertainty. This study affirms that South Africa‘s subtle approach to taxing the digital economy was correct and that the expansion of its current source taxation rules should be considered in order to protect the South African tax base whilst a ―global consensus‖ on taxing the digital economy is still to be reached. / Mini Dissertation (MPhil (International Taxation))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / pt2021 / Taxation / MPhil (International Taxation) / Unrestricted

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have reported numerous associations between risk variants and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, these associations do not necessarily indicate a causal relationship. If the risk variants can be demonstrated to be biologically functional, the possibility of a causal relationship would be increased. In this article, we reviewed all of the published GWASs to extract the genome-wide significant (p < 5×10−8) and replicated associations between risk variants and AD or AD-biomarkers. The regulatory effects of these risk variants on the expression of a novel class of non-coding RNAs (piRNAs) and protein-coding RNAs (mRNAs), the alteration of proteins caused by these variants, the associations between AD and these variants in our own sample, the expression of piRNAs, mRNAs and proteins in human brains targeted by these variants, the expression correlations between the risk genes and APOE, the pathways and networks that the risk genes belonged to, and the possible long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) that might regulate the risk genes were analyzed, to investigate the potential biological functions of the risk variants and explore the potential mechanisms underlying the SNP-AD associations. We found replicated and significant associations for AD or AD-biomarkers, surprisingly, only at 17 SNPs located in 11 genes/snRNAs/LncRNAs in eight genomic regions. Most of these 17 SNPs enriched some AD-related pathways or networks, and were potentially functional in regulating piRNAs and mRNAs; some SNPs were associated with AD in our sample, and some SNPs altered protein structures. Most of the protein-coding genes regulated by the risk SNPs were expressed in human brain and correlated with APOE expression. We conclude that these variants were most robust risk markers for AD, and their contributions to AD risk was likely to be causal. As expected, APOE and the lipoprotein metabolism pathway possess the highest weight among these contributions.