D.Phil.
The government’s educational reforms since 1994 have focused on access, equity, redress, quality, efficiency and democracy. Redressing historical imbalances and achieving equity are central ...policy components in attempts to restructure South African education. This aspiration is demonstrated in many education policies, such as the post-provisioning norms, rationalisation and redeployment of educators and non-teaching staff, management of school fees, the functioning of governing bodies and the National Norms and Standards for School Funding policy, and acceptable interventions. While inequalities in resource allocation from the state have been removed, inequalities persist for a number of reasons, including the inability of parents to pay fees, the unavailability of qualified educators in some schools, and unfavourable learner-educator ratios, especially in black schools and public schools in general. This research was conducted in an effort to investigate the implications of the National Norms and Standards for School Funding policy on equity in public schools in the Tshwane West District of the Gauteng Province. A quantitative research methodology was used to elicit the perceptions of educators and School Management Teams with regard to the implications of the NNSSF policy on equity in public schools. Based on the three first order factors derived from the first analytic procedure, namely, effective financial management, the management of equity issues and access to educational resources, substantial government subventions to the education system was undertaken. However, the implementation of the National Norms and Standards for School Funding policy has not been fully realised because inequalities based on race, class and gender still persist not only in the education system, but in the South African society as a whole.
Blended learning technology integration by teachers can be influenced by a number of factors and is not simply a matter of following the dictate of an administrator or supervisor. A lack of knowledge ...exists as to what extent a high school teacher’s perception of blended learning influences his or her implementation decision. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of high school teachers regarding their decision to implement blended learning pedagogy in their classroom. Social cognitive theory and the technology acceptance model were used as the conceptual framework for this study. The key research questions were used to examine the perceived ease of use and the perceived usefulness of technology and their effect on the decision to implement blended learning pedagogy. Participants were 11 teachers with access to blended learning pedagogy from 4 different school sites. Data sources were semistructured interviews. Data were analyzed using a multistage, open coding approach, identifying themes of positive and negative influencers of perceptions of blended learning pedagogy. Results indicated that teachers have a high regard for classroom technology use and recognize the potential value of blended learning with the ability to individualize instruction as the strongest positive aspect. The results also indicated that the key negative influences on perception were lack of professional development and technology resource support, i.e., Internet availability and computer access. This study creates positive social change by providing all high school education stakeholders knowledge of the influencers of teacher perceptions of blended learning to address potentially negative influences, increase the likelihood of classroom adoption, and reduce wasted resources.
Mechanosensitive A beta-fibers (n = 29) and nociceptive A delta- (n = 6) and C-fibers (n = 10) of the rat sciatic nerve were superfused with lidocaine (LID, 0.1-1.4 mM) in vivo. The LID to abolish ...single electrically stimulated impulses (tonic blockade) in axons was 0.2 to 0.8 mM for A beta-, 0.1 to 0.6 mM for A delta- and 0.1 to 1.4 mM for C-fibers. Within each of the fiber groups there was no dependence of blocking LID on conduction velocity; slower fibers were no more susceptible than faster ones. Mean blocking concentrations differed between groups, with C-fibers having an IC50 = 0.80 +/- 0.32 mM (+/- S.E.), significantly higher (P < .05, ANOVA) than A beta-fibers (IC50 = 0.41 +/- 0.15 mM) and A delta-fibers (IC50 = 0.32 +/- 0.18 mM). The LID causing 50% impulse failure in A beta-fibers during a 200-Hz, 10-stimulus train (phasic blockade) ranged from 0.2 mM to 0.7 mM; the mean IC50 equaled 0.28 mM (n = 17). Stimulation of nociceptive A delta-fibers (n = 4) and C-fibers (n = 5) at 5 or 10 Hz for 10 pulses produced no phasic block at LIDs (0.1-0.5 mM) below those required for tonic blockade. Uptake of 14C-lidocaine by the nerve, measured in vivo under conditions identical with those for electrophysiology, showed that: a) little drug was in the segments of nerve beyond the superfusion chamber, b) lidocaine was uniformly distributed in the nerve within the chamber, c) the intraneural lidocaine content was identical with that in nerves equilibrated in vitro. The results show a lack of monotonic dependence of sensitivity to local anesthetic on fiber diameter, but do suggest that mean susceptibility to nerve block by lidocaine differs for fibers grouped by, and perhaps according to, function.
Sensory information can both impair and enhance low-level visual feature processing, and this can be significantly modulated depending on whether this information matches the visual sensory modality. ...Emotionally significant visual and auditory stimuli can have opposing effects on attention. While task-irrelevant emotionally salient visual stimuli can often impair task attention, task-irrelevant emotionally salient auditory stimuli have been shown to enhance aspects of attention. To date, no study has directly compared how emotionally salient information presented to different sensory modalities can affect low-level vision. Using Gabor patches of differing contrasts to measure the threshold of visual perception, we hypothesized that emotionally salient visual stimuli would impair low-level vision, while emotionally salient auditory stimuli would enhance low-level vision. We found that sensory modulation may be dependant on matched sensory domain presentation, as visual emotional stimuli impaired lowlevel vision, but emotional auditory stimuli did not affect low-level vision.
Abstract only
Trekkers ascending Mt. Kilimanjaro (5896 m) with only 4 sleep nights above 2500 m experience a high incidence (~75%) of acute mountain sickness (AMS) and only ~60% success reaching the ...summit (Karinen, 2008). This study determined the effect of adding 2 sleep nights of altitude exposure at 4040 to 4681 m on arterial oxygen saturation (SaO
2
), AMS prevalence, and summit success ascending Mt. Kilimanjaro. Over 4 days participants ascended to 4642 m (4
th
night), descended to 4040 m for one night and ascended to 4681 m (6
th
night) prior to summiting on day 7. Resting and sleeping SaO
2
by pulse oximetry, and prevalence of AMS using the Environmental Symptoms Questionnaire were assessed in 24 low‐altitude residents each morning and evening on the 4
th
and 6
th
days. From the 4
th
to the 6
th
day, evening resting & sleep SaO
2
improved (p<0.001) from (81±5 and 78±5%) to (84±4 and 81±4%) while AMS prevalence fell from 13 to 4%. All participants successfully reached the summit on the afternoon of day 7. These results show that adding 2 days to the ascent increased SaO
2
, decreased AMS and greatly improved summit success. Funding: USAMRMC. Authors’ views; not official U.S. Army or DoD policy.
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At high altitude, exercise‐induced arterial desaturation decreases regional cerebral oxygenation (rO
2
Hb). Erythropoietin (EPO) potentiates endothelium‐mediated dilation of isolated, ...perfused rat middle cerebral arteries. To determine if EPO administration in humans mitigated the decreased cerebral rO
2
Hb during exercise within the first 3 h at 4500 m eight healthy male lowlanders received a subcutaneous injection of either EPO (600 IU/Kg) or a placebo (PLA) (0.9% NaCl) ~12 hr prior to ascent in a hypobaric chamber in a double‐blind, cross‐over study. We measured frontal lobe rO
2
Hb by NIRS, arterial saturation (SaO
2
) by pulse oximetry, and PetO
2
and PetCO
2
by metabolic cart during rest and 50 W cycling. At 4500 m, serum EPO levels were (mean ± SD) 6 ± 2 and 720 ± 273 mU/ml for PLA and EPO trials, respectively. From rest‐to‐ exercise SaO
2
decreased similarly in both trials (PLA: −6 ± 4 and EPO: −8 ± 4%), but rSO
2
declined less in EPO (PLA: −2.12 ± 1.93 and EPO: −1.47 ± 2.40 μM, p=0.027), while rest and exercise PetO
2
and PetCO
2
were similar for both trials.
Conclusion
since PO
2
and PCO
2
were constant and not likely changing cerebral vasomotor activity, the smaller exercise‐induced decline in rO
2
Hb following EPO administration supports the hypothesis that increasing circulating EPO potentiates dilation of cerebral blood vessels at high altitude. Funding: USAMRMC. Authors’ views; not official U.S. Army or DoD policy.
A randomized, open, long-term, repeated-dose comparison of an anti-inflammatory drug and two opioid regimens in 36 patients with back pain.
To examine the long-term safety and efficacy of chronic ...opioid therapy in a randomized trial of patients with back pain.
All participants underwent a 4-week washout period of no opioid medication before being randomly assigned to one of three treatment regimens for 16 weeks: 1) naproxen only, 2) set-dose oxycodone, or 3) titrated-dose oxycodone and sustained-release morphine sulfate. All patients then were assigned to a titrated dose of opioids for 16 weeks and then gradually tapered off their medication for 12 weeks. Finally, all participants were monitored for a 1-month posttreatment washout period. Each patient was called once a week for a report on pain, activity, mood, medication, hours awake, and adverse effects and was monitored carefully for signs of abuse and noncompliance.
Weekly reports during the experimental phase showed the titrated-dose group to have less pain (P < 0.001) and less emotional distress (P < 0.001) than the other two groups. Both opioid groups were significantly different from the naproxen-only group. During the titration phase, patients also reported significantly less pain and improved mood. Few differences were found in activity or hours asleep, or between average pretreatment and posttreatment phone-interview and questionnaire variables. No adverse events occurred, and only one participant showed signs of abuse behavior.
The results suggest that opioid therapy has a positive effect on pain and mood but little effect on activity and sleep. Opioid therapy for chronic back pain was used without significant risk of abuse. However, tapered-off opioid treatment is palliative and without long-term benefit.
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