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Preservice teachers in science education courses do not generally experience informal, authentic science education practices in their fieldwork. This study used the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning to frame a study that integrated informal science teaching experiences with a university teacher education science methods course. The results showed improvement in participant preservice teachers' ability to teach science content, their self-confidence in teaching science, and their ability to connect what they learned in their methods course in a real-life setting.

Black yeasts are polyextremotolerant fungi that contain high amounts of melanin in their cell wall and maintain a primar yeast form. These fungi grow in xeric, nutrient depletes environments which implies that they require highly flexible metabolisms and have been suggested to contain the ability to form lichen-like mutualisms with nearby algae and bacteria. However, the exact ecological niche and interactions between these fungi and their surrounding community are not well understood. We have isolated 2 novel black yeasts from the genus Exophiala that were recovered from dryland biological soil crusts. Despite notable differences in colony and cellular morphology, both fungi appear to be members of the same species, which has been named Exophiala viscosa (i.e. E. viscosa JF 03-3 Goopy and E. viscosa JF 03-4F Slimy). A combination of whole genome sequencing, phenotypic experiments, and melanin regulation experiments have been performed on these isolates to fully characterize these fungi and help decipher their fundamental niche within the biological soil crust consortium. Our results reveal that E. viscosa is capable of utilizing a wide variety of carbon and nitrogen sources potentially derived from symbiotic microbes, can withstand many forms of abiotic stresses, and excretes melanin which can potentially provide ultraviolet resistance to the biological soil crust community. Besides the identification of a novel species within the genus Exophiala, our study also provides new insight into the regulation of melanin production in polyextremotolerant fungi.

Orientation: Limited literature on onboarding during COVID-19 and the future of onboarding exists. Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the implementation of employee onboarding during COVID-19, as well as the future of onboarding within a South African municipality. Motivation for the study: This research was motivated by the difficulties encountered in conducting online employee onboarding during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the uncertain landscape of onboarding practices within a South African municipality. Research approach/design and method: The research employed a qualitative approach, conducting interviews with participants from a South African municipality. Thematic analysis was utilised to examine the data. Main findings: Several themes on onboarding during COVID-19 emerged from the study, including the use of videoconferencing tools, intranet system usage, and more. The main themes of future onboarding were intranet, improving onboarding processes, and face-to-face onboarding. Several interviewees showcased frustration with the implementation of video conferencing tools, and the impact of load shedding. Participants suggested that onboarding practices might evolve beyond the pandemic as technology implementation becomes more commonplace. Practical/managerial implications: Human resource professionals must be prepared for the future of employee onboarding, embracing the technological advancements that facilitate this process. Failure to keep abreast with new technology will hinder employee onboarding efforts, potentially impeding their ability to effectively integrate new employees. Contribution/value-add: This study shed light on the state of employee onboarding within a South African municipality, and can assist to improve the onboarding process and render it future fit.

Metagenomics is a technique for genome-wide profiling of microbiomes; this technique generates billions of DNA sequences called reads. Given the multiplication of metagenomic projects, computational tools are necessary to enable the efficient and accurate classification of metagenomic reads without needing to construct a reference database. The program DL-TODA presented here aims to classify metagenomic reads using a deep learning model trained on over 3000 bacterial species. A convolutional neural network architecture originally designed for computer vision was applied for the modeling of species-specific features. Using synthetic testing data simulated with 2454 genomes from 639 species, DL-TODA was shown to classify nearly 75% of the reads with high confidence. The classification accuracy of DL-TODA was over 0.98 at taxonomic ranks above the genus level, making it comparable with Kraken2 and Centrifuge, two state-of-the-art taxonomic classification tools. DL-TODA also achieved an accuracy of 0.97 at the species level, which is higher than 0.93 by Kraken2 and 0.85 by Centrifuge on the same test set. Application of DL-TODA to the human oral and cropland soil metagenomes further demonstrated its use in analyzing microbiomes from diverse environments. Compared to Centrifuge and Kraken2, DL-TODA predicted distinct relative abundance rankings and is less biased toward a single taxon.

Orientation: Understanding the relationship between ethical climate, work engagement and job satisfaction in the South African public sector. Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether there was a relationship between ethical climate, work engagement and job satisfaction in the South African public sector. Motivation for the study: Ethical climate, work engagement and job satisfaction have been studied in different contexts, yet it is not clear how these three variables relate to one another in the South African public sector. Research approach/design and method: A survey was conducted among a nonprobability convenience sample of 708 employees from a population of 17 676 employees. A quantitative research approach was applied, and correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis and structural equation modelling were used to analyse data. Main findings: The study established that there was a relationship between ethical climate, work engagement and job satisfaction. The findings further showed that work engagement and ethical climate predicted job satisfaction and that ethical climate partially mediated the relationship between work engagement and job satisfaction. Practical/managerial implications: This research endeavour has the potential to assist managers within the public sector of South Africa in comprehending the mediating and predictive implications of ethical climate and work engagement on job satisfaction. Contribution/value-add: The study may assist employees to understand and promote the importance of ethical climate, work engagement and job satisfaction and the impact of this unique relationship in the public sector context.

Orientation: This study is a response to the challenges faced by a rail, port and pipeline company in South Africa when managing succession planning, self-leadership and turnover intention. Research purpose: The study aimed to determine if succession planning was the mediating variable between self-leadership and turnover intention in a state-owned enterprise. Motivation for the study: The study’s findings may assist public entities in prioritising succession planning and self-leadership development initiatives. Research approach/design and method: The study adopted a quantitative approach and a cross-sectional survey research design within positivism. Data were gathered using a structured existing questionnaire that was distributed and the response rate was 78.67%. The reliability of the questionnaire was 09.222 which was an indication that the internal consistency was in order. Data were analysed by using correlation and multiple regression analysis. Main findings: The study found that self-leadership was a marginally significant predictor of turnover intention. A large proportion of the sample was drawn from respondents working in Johannesburg whose views might not correspond with those of employees from other areas. Practical/managerial implications: The findings of the study offer government policymakers the opportunity to develop policies that enhance self-leadership, promote succession planning, reduce the intention to leave among employees and incentivise the process. Contribution/value-add: The body of knowledge was expanded in the sense that succession planning was found to be the mediating variable in the relationship between self-leadership and turnover intention.

Extreme events, such as those caused by climate change, economic or geopolitical shocks, and pest or disease epidemics, threaten global food security. The complexity of causation, as well as the myriad ways that an event, or a sequence of events, creates cascading and systemic impacts, poses significant challenges to food systems research and policy alike. To identify priority food security risks and research opportunities, we asked experts from a range of fields and geographies to describe key threats to global food security over the next two decades and to suggest key research questions and gaps on this topic. Here, we present a prioritization of threats to global food security from extreme events, as well as emerging research questions that highlight the conceptual and practical challenges that exist in designing, adopting, and governing resilient food systems. We hope that these findings help in directing research funding and resources toward food system transformations needed to help society tackle major food system risks and food insecurity under extreme events.

Engineering education has long resulted in professional engineers with the required technical skills to meet the profession's needs. Yet in today's rapidly changing, globalised world, engineers will need more than technical competencies to meet the requirements of their professional work. Incorporating different literacies in engineering education might help with this shift. We introduce the idea of including critical reflective writing practice on the idea of being an engineer into engineering curricula. Our study explored how fourteen engineering graduate students were mentored on how to reflect critically on their professional identities through narrative writing. The students wrote the narratives while attending a pilot co-curricular Institute that focused on developing leadership, communication, and professional skill-building. We analysed the narrative writing produced by participants using the constant comparison method of analysis. Key findings show that: (1) narrative methodologies are valuable for tapping into the reflective non-technical, process aspects of the profession; and (2) critical reflective writing practice was challenging for participants and required comprehensive scaffolding. If scaffolded and embedded in engineering curricula, critical reflective writing practice could contribute significantly to a 21st century engineering identity.

Orientation: Findings on the relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and employee retention have been inconsistent. Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and employee retention among detectives in the South African Police Service (SAPS). Motivation for the study: There has been little, if any, research on the relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and employee retention among SAPS’s detectives and on job satisfaction as a mediating variable in this context. Research approach/design and method: A survey research design, as well as a cross-sectional research design within Positivism, was used in this study. The study followed a quantitative research method. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the data. Main findings: There was no significant evidence for job satisfaction as a mediator between organisational commitment and employee retention. The results indicated some positive relationships between job satisfaction and organisational commitment as well as between job satisfaction and employee retention. There was no positive relationship between organisational commitment and employee retention. Practical/managerial implications: Should the SAPS management not take note of the relationship that organisational commitment has with job satisfaction, it could harm the way detectives perceive their payment, supervision, co-workers, workload, and communication. Contribution/value-add: New nuances of the relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and employee retention were discovered.

Orientation: The workplace is changing at a rapid pace, and human resource (HR) professionals should become acquainted with the future of talent management to offer value to their organisations. Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of the future of talent management at the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality from a qualitative perspective. Motivation for the study: Human resource practitioners play a major role in the future of talent management at the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and those roles need to be explored. Research approach/design and method: The study used a qualitative research approach, involving in-depth interviews with 13 HR personnel and other relevant stakeholders at the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality. Thematic analysis was applied. Main findings: The following themes were identified and emerged from the study: training and development; retention management; and recruitment and selection. Practical/managerial implications: South African HR professionals should be prepared for the future of talent management. If these HR practitioners are not open to using technology, they may struggle to offer value to the organisation. Contribution/value-add: This study highlighted the importance of talent management for future work at the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and the limited scope of current talent management practices. It contributed to the development of a new theory in talent management, emphasised the significance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and identified future areas for research.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected the way that healthcare is delivered in the United States and has likewise affected the way that health professions education is taught. This article reports a case study of a cohort-based health professions education program that was forced to transition from a blended model to a fully virtual synchronous model and the effects of that transition on learners and educators. These courses are grounded in experiential learning, and the program overall aims to develop a community of practice that extends beyond program completion. The authors reflected on online observations as well as their own experiences in these courses. We argue learners were still able to move through Kolb's stages of experiential learning. Analysis also indicates that the transition and the unique stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic may have expanded and strengthened a burgeoning community of practice.

Preservice teachers in science education courses do not generally experience informal, authentic science education practices in their fieldwork. This study used the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning to frame a study that integrated informal science teaching experiences with a university teacher education science methods course. The results showed improvement in participant preservice teachers' ability to teach science content, their self-confidence in teaching science, and their ability to connect what they learned in their methods course in a real-life setting.

Blood-circulating devices such as oxygenators have offered life-saving opportunities for advanced cardiovascular and pulmonary failures. However, such systems are limited in the mimicking of the native vascular environment (architecture, mechanical forces, operating flow rates and scaffold compositions). Complications involving thrombosis considerably reduce their implementation time and require intensive anticoagulant treatment. Variations in the hemodynamic forces and fluid-mediated interactions between the different blood components determine the risk of thrombosis and are generally not taken sufficiently into consideration in the design of new blood-circulating devices. In this Review article, we examine the tools and investigations around hemodynamics employed in the development of artificial vascular devices, and especially with advanced microfluidics techniques. Firstly, the architecture of the human vascular system will be discussed, with regards to achieving physiological functions while maintaining antithrombotic conditions for the blood. The aim is to highlight that blood circulation in native vessels is a finely controlled balance between architecture, rheology and mechanical forces, altogether providing valuable biomimetics concepts. Later, we summarize the current numerical and experimental methodologies to assess the risk of thrombogenicity of flow patterns in blood circulating devices. We show that the leveraging of both local hemodynamic analysis and nature-inspired architectures can greatly contribute to the development of predictive models of device thrombogenicity. When integrated in the early phase of the design, such evaluation would pave the way for optimised blood circulating systems with effective thromboresistance performances, long-term implantation prospects and a reduced burden for patients.

Aim: As osteoblasts deposit a mineralized collagen network, a subpopulation of these cells differentiates into osteocytes. Biochemical and mechanical stimuli, particularly fluid shear stress (FSS), are thought to regulate this, but their relative influence remains unclear. Here, we assess both biochemical and mechanical stimuli on long-term bone formation and osteocytogenesis using the osteoblast-osteocyte cell line IDG-SW3. Methods: Due to the relative novelty and uncommon culture conditions of IDG-SW3 versus other osteoblast-lineage cell lines, effects of temperature and media formulation on matrix deposition and osteocytogenesis were initially characterized. Subsequently, the relative influence of biochemical (β-glycerophosphate (βGP) and ascorbic acid 2-phosphate (AA2P)) and mechanical stimulation on osteocytogenesis was compared, with intermittent application of low magnitude FSS generated by see-saw rocker. Results: βGP and AA2P supplementation were required for mineralization and osteocytogenesis, with 33°C cultures retaining a more osteoblastic phenotype and 37°C cultures undergoing significantly higher osteocytogenesis. βGP concentration positively correlated with calcium deposition, whilst AA2P stimulated alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and collagen deposition. We demonstrate that increasing βGP concentration also significantly enhances osteocytogenesis as quantified by the expression of green fluorescent protein linked to Dmp1. Intermittent FSS (~0.06 Pa) rocker had no effect on osteocytogenesis and matrix deposition. Conclusions: This work demonstrates the suitability and ease with which IDG-SW3 can be utilized in osteocytogenesis studies. IDG-SW3 mineralization was only mediated through biochemical stimuli with no detectable effect of low magnitude FSS. Osteocytogenesis of IDG-SW3 primarily occurred in mineralized areas, further demonstrating the role mineralization of the bone extracellular matrix has in osteocyte differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medicine today faces the combined challenge of an increasing number of untreatable diseases and fewer drugs reaching the clinic. While pharmaceutical companies have increased the number of drugs in early development and entering phase I of clinical trials, fewer actually successfully pass phase III and launch into the market. In fact, only 1 out of every 9 drugs entering phase I will launch. In vitro preclinical tests are used to predict earlier and better the potential of new drugs and thus avoid expensive clinical trial phases. The most recent developments favor 3D cell culture and human stem cell biology. These 3D humanized models known as organoids better mimic the 3D tissue architecture and physiological cell behavior of healthy and disease models, but face critical issues in production such as small-scale batches, greater costs (when compared to monolayer cultures) and reproducibility. To become the gold standard and most relevant biological model for drug discovery and development, organoid technology needs to integrate biological culture processes with advanced microtechnologies, such as microphysiological systems based on microfluidics technology. Microphysiological systems, known as organ-on-a-chip, mimic physiological conditions better than conventional cell culture models since they can emulate perfusion, mechanical and other parameters crucial for tissue and organ physiology. In addition, they reduce labor cost and human error by supporting automated operation and reduce reagent use in miniaturized culture systems. There is thus a clear advantage in combining organoid culture with microsystems for drug development. The main objective of this review is to address the recent advances in organoids and microphysiological systems highlighting crucial technologies for reaching a synergistic strategy, including bioprinting.

Purpose The International Consortium for Pooled Studies on Subsequent Malignancies after Childhood and Adolescent Cancer was established in 2018 to address gaps in knowledge of risk and risk factors for breast cancer subsequent to childhood/adolescent cancer by pooling individual patient data from seven cohorts. Initially, the pooled cohort will focus on three clinically relevant questions regarding treatment-related subsequent breast cancer risk in female survivors, which are the risk related to low-dose radiotherapy exposure to the chest, specific chemotherapy agents and attained age.Participants The consortium database includes pooled data on 21 892 female survivors from seven cohorts in North America and Europe with a primary cancer diagnosis at

Orientation: Employability development is needed to alleviate poverty in South Africa. This study sought to examine employability development, with specific reference to soft employability skills within a low-income community in Gauteng province of South Africa. Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the labour market intervention offered by a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Gauteng added value to learners with specific reference to soft skills (behavioural and psychosocial) needed to become employable. Motivation for the study: Soft employability skills are essential because they are highly demanded by employers today. It is not clear whether the learners from an NGO have obtained soft employability skills (behavioural and psychosocial) during the skills training intervention. Research approach/design and method: A qualitative constructivist approach was utilised. Using purposive sampling, 33 learners from an NGO participated in email interviews. The email interviews were analysed by using four steps prescribed by grounded theory researchers. Main findings: The study results highlight two themes that represent soft employability skills, namely, soft employability behavioural skills and soft employability psychosocial skills. Practical/managerial implications: The study provides government and NGOs with an understanding of soft employability skills valued by unemployed low-income workers. Contribution/value-add: This research contributes to literature by expanding the knowledge of soft employability behavioural skills and soft employability psychosocial skills. Forgiveness seems to be a new soft employability psychosocial skill, as it was not found in the theories and frameworks used in this article.

Orientation: Multinational corporations (MNCs) in Africa are facing leadership, effectiveness and cultural challenges. Research purpose: The purpose was to determine the relationship between transformational leadership, perceived organisational effectiveness and organisational culture from the perspective of a MNC in Africa. Motivation of the study: Transformational leadership, organisational culture and perceived organisational effectiveness have been studied in different contexts, yet it is not clear how these three variables relate to one another in a selected MNC in Africa. Research approach, design and method: A survey was conducted amongst a non-probability sample of 400 employees from a population of 1256 employees. A quantitative research approach was applied and structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. Main findings: The results indicated that organisational culture did not positively relate to transformational leadership; perceived organisational effectiveness positively related to organisational culture; perceived organisational effectiveness did not positively relate to transformational leadership; and organisational culture mediated perceived organisational effectiveness and transformational leadership. Practical and managerial implications: The research highlighted the important role of organisational culture in transformational leadership and overall perceived organisational effectiveness. Contribution or value add: This study found that the MNC should focus on organisational culture in order to improve transformational leadership and perceived organisational effectiveness. An academic contribution was the dynamic relationship between the three variables.