• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.4865-4869
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• 2013

Background: The objectives of this present study were to assess the awareness of cervical cancer and its risk factors among female undergraduates in South Africa, and to determine the their level of acceptability of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in March 2013 among 440 full time undergraduate female students. Results: Of those students who never had sex (n=163), 96 (58.9%) had ever heard of cervical cancer and only 12 students (12.5%) knew that HPV causes cervical cancer. More than a third (35.4%) of the students correctly said that sexual intercourse before age of 18 years is a risk factor for cervical cancer and 55.2% of the students knew about the Pap smear test which is used for screening cervical cancer. The majority (77.3%) were willing to accept HPV vaccination. Results revealed that students who knew about the Pap smear test, and were aware that having multiple sex partners, sexual intercourse before the age of 18 years, smoking and having contracted any STDs are risk factors for cervical cancer were more likely to accept HPV vaccination compared to other groups. Conclusions: The general knowledge of South African female university students about cervical cancer is not sufficient but they have positive attitudes toward getting vaccinated with the HPV vaccine.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.4903-4906
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• 2013

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine proportional rates of cervical precancerous lesions and cancer, and associations with socio-demographic variables, HIV status, and CD4 cell count. Materials and Methods: A retrospective comparative study was conducted targeting the medical records of all women over age 18 that were diagnosed histologically through colposcopy with cervical precancerous lesions and cancer from 1 December 2011 to 30 November 2012. Results: A total of 313 patient records were used for data analysis. The average age was 39.1 (SD=2.04) years. More than a third (37.1%) of the patients had CIN III or cervical cancer. There was a significant association between age, CD4 cell count, HIV status, and cervical lesions (p<0.05). Age was found to be an influential predictor of cervical lesions (OR=0.67, 95%CI: 0.46-0.98). Conclusions: There exists an association between age and cervical lesions, with presentation of cervical precancerous lesions and cervical cancer at a younger age among HIV reactive patients. The National Guidelines should be brought in line with the National HIV Counseling and Testing Policy to offer Pap smears to all sexually active women that test HIV reactive during routine HIV Testing.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.87-109
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• 2012

A substantial part of South Africa is subject to more than one strong wind source. The effect of that on extreme winds is that higher quantiles are usually estimated with a mixed strong wind climate estimation method, compared to the traditional Gumbel approach based on a single population. The differences in the estimated quantiles between the two methods depend on the values of the Gumbel distribution parameters for the different strong wind mechanisms involved. Cluster analysis of the distribution parameters provides a characterization of the effect of the relative differences in their values, and therefore the dominance of the different strong wind mechanisms. For gusts, cold fronts tend to dominate over the coastal and high-lying areas, while other mechanisms, especially thunderstorms, are dominant over the lower-lying areas in the interior. For the hourly mean wind speeds cold fronts are dominant in the south-west, south and east of the country. On the West Coast the ridging of the Atlantic Ocean high-pressure system dominate in the south, while the presence of a deep trough or coastal low pressure system is the main strong wind mechanism in the north. In the central interior cold fronts tend to share their influence almost equally with other synoptic-scale mechanisms.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.188-195
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• 2019

Background: Mine workers in South Africa face challenges relating to poor health and safety, including fatigue risks, and poor socioeconomic and living conditions. Fatigue results in impaired mental and physical performance. The aim of this study was to assess contributors to fatigue of mine workers in South Africa. Methods: Data collection took place at four gold mines and one platinum mine in South Africa. A total of 21 focus groups were held with individuals in management, union representatives, and mine workers, and 564 questionnaires were completed by mine workers to gather information about fatigue and potential contributors to fatigue at these mines. Results: Qualitatively (through focus groups), fatigue was attributed to extended working hours, harsh working conditions, high workloads, production pressure, and resource constraints, along with aspects relating to demographic and socioeconomic factors, living conditions, lifestyle, health, and wellness. Greater fatigue was significantly associated with younger age, indebtedness, a lack of exercise, poor nutrition, less sleep, increased alcohol use, poor self-reported health, more sick leave, higher stress, and lower job satisfaction. Conclusion: The aim of the study was achieved; numerous work-, sociodemographic-, lifestyle-, and wellness-related factors were linked to fatigue in the participating mine workers. Contributors to fatigue should be addressed to improve health, safety, and sustainability in the industry.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.89-99
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• 2018

Objectives : To compare the degree of achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) among 39 developing countries in Africa and to investigate the correlation between health care financing and the UHC index. Methods : For data, 14 UHC indexes were used in 2015 supplied by the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, this study used a 10% of threshold point corresponding to the catastrophic health expenditures and a 25% of threshold points as a health care financing index. Results : It was found that there were significant difference among Least Low Developed Countries (LLDCs), Other Low Income Countries (Other LICs), Lower Middle Income Countiies (LMICs), Upper Middle Income Countires (UMICs) to compare the average value by nation on the UHC index. This study showed that the UHC index of LLDCs was lowest, but the average value was higher as it moved towards LMICs and UMICs. In addition, it was found that there was an average value difference among the groups like LLDCs, Other LICs, LMICs and UMICs. As a result of comparison, it was found that the spending of household health expenditure increased as LLDCs moved towards UMICs when the burden of household health expenditure was 25%. Conclusions : This study aimed to compare the UHC indexes of African nations and to investigate the correlation between the degree of spending of total expenditure on health and burden of household health expenditure and UHC, and its effect.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.15-29
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• 2020

Purpose: Due to an ever more interconnected global commercial environment, the role of SMEs from emerging markets has attracted considerable attention in business literature of late. Reinforced by strategic management theory, this study builds on aspects such as entrepreneurial orientation and dynamic capabilities to construct and test a framework that focuses on exploring their associations with export performance. Research design, data and methodology: To contribute further towards a deeper understanding of these markets, the current study empirically tests a model using data collected from 225 exporting firms located throughout South Africa. Results: The results from the data analysis show that entrepreneurial orientation contributes significantly towards improving the performance of South African SMEs. Additionally, this study integrates three dynamic capabilities in the strategy-performance relationship to test their interacting effects on the correlation between entrepreneurial orientation and export performance. Further findings advocate support for relationship-based capabilities playing a moderating role between entrepreneurial orientation and the exporting performance of small and medium firms emanating from emerging markets. Conclusions: Findings provide substance to the argument that entrepreneurship, as a strategy-making process, leads to export performance in emerging nations. Especially, this study provides several suggestions as to how small and medium-sized organizations can develop their exporting performance based on the research findings.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2021

Purpose: This study extends previous empirical work on the threshold effects of institutions on the relationship between infrastructure and economic growth. It does so by using three sub-indices of institutions as the threshold variable in place of aggregate index. This is with a view to determining the roles of the sub-indices in the nexus between infrastructure and economic growth. Research design, data and methodology: The analysis is based on a dynamic panel threshold regression model using a panel data set comprising 41 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa over the sample period of 1996-2015. Data are obtained from Ogbaro (2019). Results: The study finds that infrastructure exerts significant positive effects on economic growth below and above the threshold values of the three sub-indices, with higher effects above the threshold values. Results also show that on average, the Sub-Saharan African countries are not able to satisfy any of the threshold conditions, which accounts for their poor growth experience. Conclusion: The study concludes that countries with weak institutions do not benefit maximally from infrastructure development policies. The paper, therefore, recommends that countries in Sub-Saharan Africa need to focus on improving their institutional patterns if they are to reap the optimum benefits from their infrastructure development efforts.

• Asia Pacific Journal of Business Review
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.19-44
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• 2021

Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) is receiving increased investments in the energy sector under the belt and road initiative (BRI) project since its inception in 2013. SSA has a worse energy efficiency ratio coupled with deficient electricity access, through analysis showed varied impacts on the SSA countries due to the BRI initiative. This study dilves into the influencing factors for Energy Efficiency (EE) in 38 SSA countries, applying the probit and logit approach for 2000-2018. The Multiple-regression model shows significant results of some variables such as foreign direct investment, gross domestic product, and port infrastructure quality being significant on EE under BRI initiative countries. However, the logit and probit models produce similar results and the marginal effect for the entire variable, except energy imports that do not likely impact EE. Furthermore, the interaction of quality of port infrastructure and foreign direct investment variables produces significant results, highlighting the increased investments SSA receives under the BRI initiative in the energy and transport sectors. The model Percent correctly predicted (PCP) value was about 84%, indicating it correctly classified the variables and about 16% not classified. The study recommends EE performance standards should be incorporated on energy projects in SSA to ensure that these projects are energy efficient and decouple SSA's energy demand from economic growth. The research proffers suggestions for policy regarding the BRI initiative in SSA and the implications on sustainable energy and building a community with a shared future.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.93-112
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• 2019

Purpose - First, this study contextually examines the governance codes of South Africa and South Korea. Second, it analyzes board features of South African (JSE) Mainboard and South Korean (KRX) KOSPI-listed companies. Design/methodology - This review is qualitative and uses data from the annual reports of the selected markets' companies, respective exchanges' official web sites and corporate governance-related web sites in order to examine the corporate governance practices in the two markets. In addition, Nvivo is employed in analyzing the content of the corporate governance codes of the selected countries. Findings - Our analysis indicates that the corporate governance codes of the two countries are evolving to keep up with the international trend of principles-based approach. The composition of the board of directors (BODs) of non-financial companies of both South Africa and South Korea shows no significant variation between the companies with regards to the executive (inside) and nonexecutive (outside) directors. On the contrary, there is a significant variation between South African and South Korean listed companies with respect to diversity. Originality/value - While previous studies are centered on the impact of governance codes on performance, this study intends to contextually evaluate the codes and features of South Africa and South Korea listed companies. This is essential and timely for regulators and policy makers given the importance of corporate governance features such as board independence and diversity in recent times.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.476-483
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• 2022

The novel coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on society and everyday life. The pandemic imposed a global shutdown leading to many challenges such as the suspension of academic programs at universities. The result of this suspension contributed to the rapid overnight migration of educational activities from traditional face-to-face learning to a virtual environment which until then was unfamiliar to both instructors and students. This study identified the experiences faced by built environment higher education instructors in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa during this sudden switch to online teaching and learning. This pilot study employed a quantitative research approach to survey instructor experiences on online teaching and learning during a global pandemic. The data was computed and analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data collected. The study sample comprised of 20 higher education instructors in the region of the KwaZulu Natal province in South Africa. Findings from the study revealed that instructors faced adaptive challenges with rapidly having to redesign and remodel the mode of academic course delivery and assessments to suit an online platform. Additionally, instructors observed that students faced technological challenges such as connectivity and navigating the online learning management system platforms. The challenges identified by instructors and students can be effectively transformed to opportunities for future learning under the 'new normal'.