Browsing by Author "Carries, Stanley."

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Entrepreneurship at Further Education and Training Colleges in Durban: a demand side perspective.
(2014) Carries, Stanley.; Cassim, Shahida Banu.
Entrepreneurship has long been considered an important factor in stimulating economic growth and in reducing unemployment. The youth, in particular, constitute the largest portion of the South African population, making them the most vulnerable to unemployment. Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges have received considerable government interest as a platform to empower young people to become economically active. The aim of this study, therefore, was to ascertain whether young people at Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges in the Durban area had any intentions towards entrepreneurship. Consequently, the study investigated FET College students’ perceptions and attitudes towards entrepreneurship. In so doing, students’ awareness of the existence of entrepreneurial initiatives at their colleges was also assessed. In order to achieve this, a quantitative research approach was used. FET College students in the Durban area were selected as the population of interest. This comprised of 3 FET Colleges with a joint population size of 29 200 students. A total of 670 students participated. Data was collected by means of a structured questionnaire. All 670 questionnaires that were administered were returned. The study found that overall FET College students had positive perceptions and attitudes towards entrepreneurship. Students also demonstrated high levels of self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention. The majority of students who had self-employed parents indicated that in light of this they would like to start their own businesses. However, parent and family entrepreneurial background did not have any influence on collective students’ decisions to start their own businesses. Neither did gender nor age demonstrate any significant influence on student perceptions of, and intentions towards, entrepreneurship. This study highlighted the need to invest in efforts to heighten entrepreneurial awareness at FET Colleges. It is recommended that FET Colleges respond to students’ demands for entrepreneurship-related initiatives, to expand current entrepreneurship offerings and to extend their offerings to all College students. The study was not without its challenges. Significant limitations encountered included student strikes and logistical challenges.
Sequence analysis of an HIV-1 subtype C acutely infected cohort from Durban, South Africa.
(2018) Carries, Stanley.; Gordon, Michelle Lucille.
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a global public health concern. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS estimated that 36.9 million people were infected with HIV globally at the end of 2017. Almost 20% of these resided in South Africa, making this the highest global HIV burden held by any one country. It is thus important that HIV infection be detected early as this may have important implications in the control of the pandemic. The early recognition of acute HIV infection could present early treatment options that could alter the natural history of the disease, or even eliminate infection. Detecting acute infection early could also provide a unique opportunity to understand HIV transmission and pathogenesis, including early host-virus interactions. In the present study, blood samples were collected from 18-23 year old HIV-1 subtype C acutely infected women from Umlazi Township in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, that had participated in a study called Females Rising through Education, Support and Health (FRESH). Eleven blood samples from this cohort, collected within 24 hours of onset of plasma viremia, were used for this study. The aim of the present research was to identify sites within pol that were experiencing positive selective pressure and the likely implications of these mutations on viral functional domains and host cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes. The study also sort to observe the loss of drug resistant mutations (DRM) in the viral sequences of participants who had multiple timepoints and to correlate mutation loss to structural changes. Datamonkey and Phylogenetic Analysis by Maximum Likelihood (PAML) were used to detect positively selected sites. Putative functional domains were detected using Prosite and CTL epitopes were identified using the Los Alamos Molecular Immunology Database. Ancestral reconstruction was performed using PAML and Bayesian Evolutionary Analysis by Sampling Trees (BEAST) was used to calculate the time to the most recent common ancestor. Altogether 16 unique positively selected sites were identified in this cohort. Putative functional domains were highly conserved in protease, while positive mutations in reverse transcriptase resulted in either a loss of functional domains in conserved regions or in the gain of functional sites in non-conserved regions. Owing to the important role that protease plays in viral maturation and infectivity, mutations within these conserved regions could possibly lead to defective viral particles with reduced viral infectivity. The K103N in reverse transcriptase, observed in one participant, was the only DRM inherited from its common ancestor. The major limitation of this study was the small sample size.