Research Articles (UWC Library)

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    Investigation of variants within the COL27A1 and TNC genes and achilles tendinopathy in two populations
    (Wiley, 2012) Saunders, Colleen J; Van der Merwe, Lize; Posthumus, Michael; Cook, Jill; Handley, Christopher; Collins, Malcolm; Alison, September V
    The TNC gene has previously been associated with Achilles tendinopathy (AT) in a South African population. The aims of this study were (i) to investigate the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms within the TNC gene, and the additional candidate gene, COL27A1, with AT in two populations, and (ii) to identify if there is a risk haplotype for AT in both populations. Three hundred and thirty nine healthy control participants (CON) and 179 participants clinically diagnosed with AT (TEN) from South Africa and Australia, were genotyped for variants: rs4143245, rs1249744, rs753085, rs946053 (COL27A1) and rs13321, rs2104772, rs1330363 (TNC). Haplotypes were inferred using the genotype data. The rs2104772 (p ¼ 0.017) and rs1330363 (p ¼ 0.020) variants within TNC showed a significant allele association with AT. The GCA haplotype (rs946053-rs13321-rs2104772) occurred significantly more frequently in TEN participants compared to CON (27% vs. 18%; p ¼ 0.019). This study further implicates the genomic region containing the TNC and COL27A1 genes in influencing risk of AT, and maps the potential risk allele to a genetic interval flanked by rs946053 and rs2104772. This region may have functional effects on the transcription, structure and properties of tenascin-C and the alpha-1 chain of type XXVII collagen.
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    Decoding information literacy ways of thinking in student learning: influencing pedagogic methods
    (South African Journals of Higher Education, 2020) Mohamed, Shehaamah
    University students often experience hidden challenges in various courses across all levels of their academic careers. These difficulties often serve to deter student learning and academic progress which may end in high student failure rates. In some instances, this may be attributed to tacit assumptions that academic teachers make about their learners when preparing lesson plans, course content and learning assessments. It is often mistakenly assumed that students already possess the necessary information literacy ways of thinking to overcome bottlenecks within their respective disciplines. To this end, the Teaching and Learning Librarian at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) Library, collaborated with an academic teacher to decode specific disciplinary difficulties and to subsequently enhance the required information literacy knowledge practices in student learning. Using a qualitative research approach, this study reports on how an Economics and Management Science (EMS) lecturer and the librarian used the Decoding the Disciplines Paradigm (DtD) to identify and deconstruct troublesome concepts in the Business and Finance module. The DtD model provides a clearly delineated, seven-step process for identifying and analysing disciplinary challenges and provides guidelines for designing instructional, motivational and assessment strategies that support deep learning.
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    A critical praxis in the information literacy education classroom using the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education
    (Springer Nature, 2019) Mohamed, Shehaamah
    The University of the Western Cape Library uses the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education to introduce an alternative, nuanced approach to information literacy training by transforming librarians’ teaching praxis. The Framework presents a new perspective on teaching and learning and is built around six frames, each consisting of a threshold concept which is central to information literacy. To this end, the Library coordinated the Information Literacy Programme for the University’s Library and Information Science Department. By using a qualitative approach, this case study describes the integration of the Framework in the Information Literacy Education module to teach prospective librarians to internalise the core concepts of the Framework. The paper discusses how the Framework was operationalised to enhance students’ critical thinking through the application of formative and summative assessments and a number of student artifacts.
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    Using the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy to foster teaching and learning partnerships
    (SUN, 2017) Fullard, Allison
    The Association of College and Research Libraries' (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education presents scope for deepening the conversations and achieving more productive collaborations between lecturers and librarians. These transactions are significant for the ongoing efforts to create and maintain a sustainable programme for information literacy within higher learning. It is suggested that librarians and lecturers might use the Framework as a kind of heuristic resource to bring to the surface or make visible the processes and practices in knowledge making that may be tacit or unintelligible for students. Based on a series of interviews with lecturers across different disciplines, this paper explores the synergy between the conceptual frames of the Framework and the lecturers' strategies to bring about the kinds of literacies that are valued as generic graduate attributes needed in the twenty-first century.
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    African Higher Education Research Online (AHERO): A disciplinary open archive
    (2009-10-14T08:44:54Z) Mohamed, Shehaamah; Fullard, Allison
    African Higher Education Research Online (AHERO) is an international disciplinary repository for research texts that focus on the practice and development of higher education in Africa. Distributed researchers upload their documents to AHERO through a semi-automated process. Launched in January 2007, AHERO now holds 435 full text research texts relating to African higher education. The paper will outline the project’s objectives and present the results of findings emerging from the two year experience of liaison with researchers and publishers as we attempted to recruit papers for the disciplinary archive.
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    South African responses to Open Access publishing: A survey of the research community
    (Library & Information Association of South Africa, 2007) Fullard, Allison;
    Open access publishing offers wide benefits to the scholarly community and may also afford relief to financially embattled academic libraries. The progress of the open access model rests upon the acceptance and validation of open access journals and open archives or institutional repositories by the academic mainstream, particularly by publishing researchers. To what extent are the key actors in the South African research system aware of the advantages of open access? This article reports on the findings of a recent survey undertaken to assess the current awareness, concerns and depth of support for open access amongst local researchers, research managers and policy makers in South Africa. The study focuses on issues of quality, article or author charges and the established academic reward system. It concludes that within the prevailing framework, there is little prospect that academics would choose to publish within open access journals. Recommendations for advocacy by the library community are proposed.