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IntroductionEffective supply chain management (SCM) of point-of-care (POC) tests for diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) requires active participation from diverse stakeholders, government entities, and regulatory bodies. The responsibility for overseeing various aspects of POC tests, including procurement, quality assurance, storage, inventory management, distribution, and human resource capacity, lies with national, provincial, and local levels of government. This study aimed to collaboratively develop an innovative approach to enhance SCM for SARS-CoV-2 POC diagnostic services in resource-limited settings, using the Mopani District in Limpopo province, South Africa, as a case study.MethodsKey stakeholders were invited to participate in an online workshop using purposive sampling. The study employed the nominal group technique (NGT) for data collection, which consisted of two phases. Phase 1 focused on identifying barriers in the supply chain of COVID-19 rapid tests, while phase 2 aimed to devise strategies to overcome the priority barriers identified in phase 1. Participants used a Likert scale of 1–5 to rank barriers and strategies, and an overall ranking score was calculated for each. The participants were provided with the results of the ranking exercise for their feedback.ResultsEleven key stakeholders from national (n = 1), provincial (n = 4), and local government (n = 2) levels, research entities (n = 3), and non-governmental organizations (n = 1) took part in the study. Participants identified significant barriers in the supply chain, such as the availability of testing kits, unknown demand, information on SCM during a pandemic, methods of controlling stock, and procurement processes. Strategies suggested by key stakeholders included monitoring stock levels and optimizing stock visibility systems to improve test availability, enhancing information visibility and consistent data updates to address unknown demand and improve SCM during a pandemic, employing data capturing and digitization for effective stock control, and implementing demand planning and standardized procurement processes at the national level to enhance stock procurement.DiscussionThe successful collaboration with key stakeholders, facilitated by the NGT, resulted in the co-creation of a novel approach to enhance SCM for COVID-19 diagnostic services in resource-limited settings. This study holds the potential to support the provision of COVID-19 diagnostic services in such settings. A recommended follow-up study would assess the feasibility of implementing this approach.

This article focuses on understanding the role played by African spirituality in the provision of kinship care in the South African context. African traditional spirituality was found to be an important factor underpinning kinship care and its provision, especially in rural African communities. The study was conducted using a qualitative research methodology. Twenty-one (21) participants, who were kinship caregivers, were recruited using purposive non-probability sampling methods. The study found that African spirituality helped them to preserve both their cultural and personal identity. Furthermore, through African spirituality, children and youth in kinship care receive psychosocial support and experienced a positive upbringing through their kinship caregivers and tribal community. African kinship caregivers were found to offer kinship care as a spiritual duty to help children and youth who need care and protection in the absence of their birth parents.

Challenging heteronormative spaces has been identified as one of the key difficulties facing the issue of destabilisation of deeply entrenched gendered and sexual practices and spaces within institutional contexts. In a university context, that includes a hegemonic masculine student residence culture; this may be even more challenging and disrupting to how one mediates social and academic space. Challenging includes awareness of how one may be able to challenge, as well as moments when one is not able to challenge. Strategies of resistance may be adopted that further reinforce gay male students' participation in academic space. Through qualitative analysis of a group of gay male students living in residence at a South African university, we explore these students' movement through different spaces on campus within the residences. Using performative theory and the concept of hegemonic masculinity, the findings highlight sexuality's intersection with other identities both in the experience of and resistance to victimisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the Sound Etudes, Ghenadie Ciobanu created a new category of the musical etude genre, related to the field of chamber music, which reflects the processes that occur in the sphere of the "musical genre" in contemporary art. The Sound Etude’s name in itself indicates a new vision of how to exploit the source of musicalsound. Each of the five Sound Etudes tends to reflect artistic, aesthetic, stylistic and technical phenomena specific to contemporary music. At the same time, they are united by a fundamental idea — the fusion of man with nature and universe, as well as the attempt of grasping the purpose of man in this world and the universe.

Time series are presented for the Class II methanol maser source G12.89+0.49, which has been monitored for nine years at the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory. The 12.2 and 6.7 GHz methanol masers were seen to exhibit rapid, correlated variations on time-scales of less than a month. Daily monitoring has revealed that the variations have a periodic component with a period of 29.5 d. The period seems to be stable over the 110 cycles spanned by the time series. There are variations from cycle to cycle, with the peak of the flare occurring anywhere within an 11 d window, but the minima occur at the same phase of the cycle. Time delays of up to 5.7 d are seen between spectral features at 6.7 GHz and a delay of 1.1 d is seen between the dominant 12.2 GHz spectral feature and its 6.7 GHz counterpart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory, quantitative study investigated the prevalence rate of patients with co-occurring substance-related and psychiatric disorders (CODs) at a private rehabilitation centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. Details of the case histories of the clients were collected, coded and analysed using Statistical Analysis System (SAS). The results indicated that 57.1% of 419 clients had one or more co-occurring psychiatric disorder, along with a substance-related disorder. Of the 239 with a COD, 155 had a mood disorder, 40 had an anxiety disorder, 39 had ADHD, 35 had an eating disorder, eight had a conduct disorder and five had schizophrenia. Statistically significant relationships were found for ADHD with cannabis-related disorders and polysubstance dependence; anxiety-related disorders with alcohol-related disorders; and mood disorders with cocaine-related disorders, possibly substance-induced disorders and substance-induced disorders. These results showed that a large group of patients admitted at the centre had one or more COD and this made the treatment more complex. The results of this study suggest the need to develop specialized treatment programmes for patients with CODs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]