Testing chemical markers on granivorous birds
- Authors: Steele, G R , Whittington-Jones, Craig A , Craig, Adrian J F K
- Date: 1999
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6936 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011957
- Description: We tested two substances (oxytetracycline and rhodamine B) that can be added to food or water of free-living birds, and serve as markers in their plumage for later identification. Oxytetracycline produced no detectable changes in the plumage of red bishops or redbilled queleas. Rhodamine B fed to captive birds produced fluorescence in the wing feathers when viewed under ultraviolet light. This fluorescence lasted for at least 14 weeks, and was retained until feathers were moulted. Rhodamine B may thus be useful in identifying birds using a specific feeding site, and for studies of moult and feather growth.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1999
Bioequivalence testing of topical dermatological formulations, the gap between science and legislation
- Authors: Schwarb, Fabian P , Smith, Eric W , Haigh, John M , Surber, Christian
- Date: 1998
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6341 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006608
- Description: Bioavailability concerns for topical dermatological products are complex and it is especially difficult to determine the bioequivalence of similar topical formulations. Since only small amounts of drug dispersed in an appropriate vehicle are applied to the skin, the amount of drug that actually reaches the systemic circulation is often too small to be easily quantified. Additionally, it can be argued that the relevance of any serum/plasma concentration-time curve of a topical agent is questionable, since the curve reflects the amount of drug after the active moiety has left the site of action. For some topical drugs e.g., topical corticosteroids, it is possible to perform a pharmacodynamic bioassay to obtain acceptable bioequivalence data. In this case, the intensity of the side effect of blanching (vasoconstriction) in the skin caused by topical corticosteroids can be measured. The response is directly proportional to the clinical efficacy, and the skin blanching assay has proved to be a reliable procedure for the determination of topical corticosteroid bioavailability. Recently, we had sight of the results of a topical bioequivalence study, which was conducted for the registration of a new generic corticosteroid cream formulation. In this trial the new formulation was compared to two equivalent product from the local market and bioequivalence was demonstrated by the investigators for all three products. These results were examined with interest as the respective reference products have been used repeatedly as standard formulations in our laboratory. However, one of these reference formulations has consistently shown superior bioavailability in our trials, but was not demonstrated to be superior in the study results examined. In the present publication an overview of topical bioequivalence testing in general is given and the difficulties occurring in practice, for topical corticosteroid formulations in particular, are demonstrated.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
Chromametry: measuring precision of diurnal and local variation of human forearm skin colour
- Authors: Schwarb, Fabian P , Smith, Eric W , Haigh, John M , Surber, Christian
- Date: 1998
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6343 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006610
- Description: Chromameters are compact portable instruments used for the assessment of surface colour based on the tristimulus analysis of a reflected xenon light pulse, and have been used for the quantification of erythema in the study of irritant dermatitis, and corticosteroid-induced skin blanching in the vasoconstriction assay. The variability and the reproducibility of chromameter results were investigated since it is known that the location and application force of the measuring head on the skin and the orthostatic maneuver of the arms influence the colour measurement. Furthermore the diurnal variation and the homogeneity of forearm skin colour were investigated.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
Comparison of visual CR-200 and CR-300 chromameter data obtained from the corticosteroid-induced skin-blanching assay
- Authors: Schwarb, Fabian P , Smith, Eric W , Haigh, John M , Surber, Christian
- Date: 1998
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper , text
- Identifier: vital:6344 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006611
- Description: In a recent Guidance document the American FDA recommended the use of a chromameterrather thanthe human eye for the assessment of the pharmacodynamic blanching response produced after topical application of corticosteroids. The purpose of this study was to investigate the appropriateness of the human eye and two types of chromameter for the estimation of skin blanching.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
COSATU press statement on new competition legislation
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: May 1998
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/109742 , vital:33185
- Description: COSATU rejects with contempt business complaints about the new competition legislation. Business complains that the legislation will too easily trigger the breaking up of large business entities, which abuse their dominance. Business's rejection of a role for ministerial discretion in the regulation of mergers, reveal both an unrepentant arrogance about South Africa's past and a marked misunderstanding of the challenges which our economy faces in the present and future. Throughout the negotiations at NEDLAC, COSATU has argued in line with the commitment made in the Reconstruction and Development Programme that government needs to introduce "strict anti-trust legislation". Competition policy should be informed by the need to break up apartheid era monopolies and concentrations, built up during a time of systematic exclusion and race privilege. COSATU's view is that given this background one of the explicit objectives of the legislation should be the regulation and erosion of inherited corporate power. COSATU supports the fact that the legislation provides for the forced breaking up of conglomerates that abuse their dominant position, for example through charging excessive prices or through limiting output, production or technological development. In fact, we have proposed in the NEDLAC process that these provisions should be strengthened so that in the event of an abuse of dominance forced divestiture should apply unless it is a firm's first offence and there is another appropriate remedy provided for in the Act. Another key issue for COSATU is that, given South Africa's unemployment crisis and as we approach the Presidential Job Summit, it would be important for policy consistency that the proposed competition legislation should include mechanisms to minimise and avoid job losses. In the regulation of mergers by the competition authorities and in the practice of the Minister's discretion in the public interest review the minimisation and avoidance of job loss must be prioritised.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: May 1998
Precision of tristimulus chromameter results from corticosteroid-induced skin blanching
- Authors: Smith, Eric W , Haigh, John M
- Date: 1998
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6342 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006609
- Description: The human skin blanching (vasoconstriction) assay has been in use for 3 decades as a tool for the assessment of the release of corticosteroids from topical dosage forms. Application of corticosteroids produces a whitening (blanching) of the skin, the intensity of which is directly related to the clinical efficacyof the formulation. Assessment of the intensity of the induced blanching has classically been, and continues to be, pe1fonned by visual grading, a method which has been criticised because of the subjectivenature of the assessment Recently there has been considerablediscussion in the literature regarding the use of the chromameter as an objective instrumental method of monitoring corticosteroid induced skin blanching for bioequivalence assessment purposes. The FDA has released a Guidance document recommending the use of the chromameter for this purpose. The chromameter measures colour in teims of three indices: the L-scale (light-dark), the a-scale (red-green) and the b-scale (yellow-blue).Any colour can be expressedabsolutelyin terms of these three values.The Guidance protocol suggests the use of only the a-scale values in quantifying the blanching response after correction of the data which includes subtraction of baseline and unmedicated site values. One of the unresolved issues in the FDA Guidance document is this method of data manipulation suggested since the instrument should be capable of assigning an absolute colour value to each site during the vasoconstriction period. The purpose of this study was to manipulate the instrumental data from a typical blanching study in a number of ways to investigate the appropriatenessof these suggested procedures.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
Statement on employment Equity Bill and the Apartheid Wage gap
- Authors: COSATU
- Date: Aug 1998
- Subjects: COSATU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/109791 , vital:33189
- Description: The Portfolio Committee on Labour considered amendments to the Employment Equity Bill which were tabled in parliament by the Department of Labour today. Amongst these were amendments in response to COSATU's proposals for closing the apartheid wage gap. COSATU has serious reservations, however, about the tabled amendments on this issue, and believes that the amendments proposed today by the ANC should be supported as they address these defects. Finalisation of the clauses relating to the wage gap has been postponed to next week, when the Bill will be voted on by the Committee. COSATU has consistently maintained the view, both in our submissions to the committee last month, and at NEDLAC, that the Employment Equity Bill must address the issue of the apartheid wage gap, if it is to have meaning for the millions of ordinary workers, who are the worst victims of apartheid discrimination, and who will not be able to reach the upper echelons of the workforce, despite the affirmative action provisions of the legislation. We have supported the philosophy of the legislation that employment equity must benefit everybody, and not just an elite few. We have taken the view that the legislation must address the critical legacy of massive income inequalities, which was a deliberate policy under apartheid, in order to make this philosophical approach a reality, and that in this respect the Draft Bill was seriously defective. We proposed a series of concrete amendments to remedy this defect, within the broad philosophical approach and architecture of the Bill. We also proposed an integrated strategy to address these differentials, which combines measures in the Employment Equity legislation with other legislation and processes. A number of organisations have supported us in this view. Further a concept document tabled by the Department of Labour in the parliamentary committee broadly endorsed this approach.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: Aug 1998
The requirements for accurate analysis of pharmaceutical research at South African Universities
- Authors: Haigh, John M , Smith, Eric W
- Date: 1998
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6367 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006067
- Description: International Pharmaceutical Abstracts is a valuable database for pharmaceutical research, although the multisiciplinary nature of this field implies that the database should only be the starting point of a search. This database is totally inappropriate for comparing outputs of individual pharmacy teaching institutions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
The use of supersaturated solutions for the percutaneous delivery of rooperol tetra-acetate
- Authors: Pefile, S C , Haigh, John M , Smith, Eric W
- Date: 1998
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper , text
- Identifier: vital:6340 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006537
- Description: A major problem encountered in the transdermal delivery of drugs is the effectiveness of the barrier system imposed by the stratum corneum.To overcome tbe resistance of the skin to the ingress of exogenous chemicals, numerous innovative techniques requiring complex delivery systems have been studied. Many of these systems attempt to alter the barrier potential by the use of enhancer technology. Supersaturation, on the other hand, is a simple and economical technique which is not intended to modify the physical structure or the chemical composition of the stratum corneum, yet may effectively deliver a markedly greater mass of drug to the skin than that achieved by the use of conventional, saturated solutions. Supersaturated systems make use of the elevated thermodynamic activity of the permeant in the delivery vehicle, which results in higher flux rates across the contacting membrane by increasing the concentration gradient. The present study investigated the potential for using supersaturation techniques to transdermally deliver rooperol tetra-acetate (RTA), a lipophilic, cytotoxic agent with potential for use in the treatment of solar keratosis. The diffusion characteristics of the drug from a 60% propylene glycol/water supersaturated solution across silicone membrane and full thickness rat skin were studied using Franz diffusion cells. A comparison was made of the drug diffusion rates from a saturated system and from supersaturated systems prepared with and without an antinucleating agent.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
Bells and bellfounders of the Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Lewis, Colin A
- Date: 1997
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6179 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012372 , http://www.ringingworld.co.uk
- Description: [From Introduction] Although there is only one ring of bells in the whole of the Eastern Cape almost every church, and many chapels, have one or more bells. No systematic study of these bells had yet been made, but cursory examination suggests that many British founders exported bells to that area in the late 19th century and in the 20th century. American founders of steel bells also peddled their wares with considerable success. The Irish bell founder: Matthew O'Byrne sold at least five bells to clients in the Eastern Cape, the largest of which weighed 16 cwts. In the 1950s the Swiss founder, Ruetschi, of Aarau, cast at least four beautiful bells that are now in the Transkei. , Colin Lewis was Professor of Geography at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa from 1989 until his retirement at the end of 2007. In 1990, with the strong support of the incumbent Vice-Chancellor, Dr Derek Henderson, he instigated the Certificate in Change Ringing (Church Bell Ringing) in the Rhodes University Department of Music and Musicology - the first such course to be offered in Africa. Since that date he has lectured in the basic theory, and taught the practice of change ringing. He is the Ringing Master of the Cathedral of St Michael and St George, Grahamstown, South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1997
A consequence of nectar feeding?
- Authors: Craig, Adrian J F K , Hulley, Patrick E
- Date: 1996
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/465245 , vital:76586 , https://sora.unm.edu/node/52068
- Description: Cape White-eyes (Zosterops pallidus) frequently feed on nectar during early winter. This feeding can leave feathers on the forehead matted with nectar and pollen. At least some individuals then shed these feathers, at a time when the annual complete molt has already been terminated. It is suggested that such localized replacement of fouled plumage may occur regularly both in white-eyes and in other short-billed nectar-feeder.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1996
Profile on CWIU
- Authors: Chemical Workers Industrial Union (CWIU)
- Date: 1996
- Subjects: CWIU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/170170 , vital:41864
- Description: Chemical Workers Industrial Union (GW1U) CW1U wus launched in November 1074 following a wuvo of strikes by workers in Durban, who wero demanding bettor wages. During those dark yours when repression wus at its highest peak, workers hud no hade unions to assist them. In chemical, transport, textile and .paper industries, workers formed trade unions to take their struggle forward. They also formed a tight .federation, the Trade Union Advisory and Co-ordinating Committee (TUACC). At its launch in 1974, CWIU was concentrated in Durban and had just under 1 000 members. In July 1980, a branch was opened in the "old” Transvaal. In building a national union, CWIU merged with Glass and Allied Workers Union (Gawu) in 1982. In the interim, other branches where launched throughout the country, though it was easy task with security cops keeping surveillance on every movement of union officials. To build a stronger united worker-front, CWIU took quantum leap when it merged again with Plastics and Allied Workers Union in 1986.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1996
The use of wood ash for the protection of stored cowpea seed (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) against Bruchidae (Coleoptera)
- Authors: Katanga Apuuli, J , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 1996
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6864 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011196
- Description: Dry wood-ash has been reported to provide effective, cheap and safe control of several pests of stored seeds by providing mechanical protection, especially if it is thoroughly mixed with the seed. Mixtures of seed and either clays, ash, talc, or sand are among the earliest recommendations for controlling bruchids in beans (Metcalf 1917; Headlee 1924; Subramanian 1935; Deay & Amos 1936; Lever 1941). Such use of ash has been reported on subsistence farms in Uganda (Davies 1970). However, little is known of the actual ratios of ash and beans needed for effective protection, or of the mechanism of protection. These issues motivated this investigation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1996
A Shakespeare bibliography of periodical publications in South Africa in 1994
- Authors: Blight, Cecilia
- Date: 1995
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/457430 , vital:75637 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/AJA1011582X_173
- Description: A Shakespeare Bibliography of Periodical Publications inSouth Mrica in 1999 and 2000.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1995
Merger of NEHAWU and SAMWU
- Authors: NEHAWU, SAMWU
- Date: Aug 1995
- Subjects: NEHAWU, SAMWU
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/110526 , vital:33291
- Description: On 9 to 13 August 1995,NEHAWU and SAMWU will be coming together to launch a new public service union in COSATU. The new union will be organising all workers who work for government — at national, provincial and local levels as well as parastatals. It will also be Organising all workers that serve the people of our country — in private and public clinics, old age homes and schools.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: Aug 1995
The effects of elevated and ambient temperature conditions on dilutions of fluocinolone acetonide ointment assessed using the human skin-blanching assay
- Authors: Haigh, John M , Smith, Eric W
- Date: 1995
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6380 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006298
- Description: Topical corticosteroid formulations have been in use now for some 30 years and many methods are available for the in vivo assessment of these preparations. Of all the assays described in the literature, the one first advocated by McKenzie and Stoughton, the so-called vasoconstrictor assay, is one of the most reliable if performed by experienced researchers using - the optimised methodology. Topical application of corticosteroids produces a whitening (blanching) of the skin, the intensity of which is directly proportional to the clinical efficacy of the formulation. Assessment of the degree of blanching produced is therefore of use in determining the rate and extent of corticosteroid release' from the semi-solid base through the stratum corneum. Since it is the degree of blanching which is measured, we prefer to call this test the human skin blanching assay. Some of the main advantages of this assay technique are that normal healthy skin is used therefore persons with dermatological complaints are not compromised, it is not painful for the volunteers, it is non-invasive and several formulations can be evaluated simultaneously. Most commercially available topical corticosteroid preparations have been formulated in such a way as to provide optimum release of the active ingredient from the base through the stratum corneum. Despite this fact, many practitioners often prescribe dilutions of topical corticosteroid formulations, presumably in an effort to reduce the unwanted side effects. This could be problematic; dilution with an incompatible base could destroy the delivery environment thus considerably reducing the efficacy of the formulation. The method of dilution could also play a role in the suitability of the final preparation. The objective of this work was to determine the effects of two different dilutions of fluocinolone ointment at both ambient and elevated temperature on the blanching produced by the dilutions and, by inference, the relative clinical efficacies of these dilutions compared to the full strength product.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1995
Lesego Rampolokeng, Robert Herold, Ike Muila, Isabella Mothadinyane. Performance: Gluepot Bar, Grahamstown. July 1994. Book Review
- Authors: Klopper, Dirk
- Date: 1994
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/460808 , vital:76037 , https://journals.co.za/doi/epdf/10.10520/AJA00284459_157
- Description: New Coin is one of South Africa's most established and influential poetry journals. It publishes poetry, and poetry-related reviews, commentary and interviews. New Coin places a particular emphasis on evolving forms and experimental use of the English language in poetry in the South African context. In this sense it has traced the most exciting trends and currents in contemporary poetry in South Africa for a decade of more. The journal is published twice a year in June and December by the Institute for the Study of English in Africa (ISEA), Rhodes University.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1994
Winter Solstice
- Authors: Wylie, Dan
- Date: 1994
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/460516 , vital:75944 , https://journals.co.za/doi/epdf/10.10520/AJA00284459_156
- Description: New Coin is one of South Africa's most established and influential poetry journals. It publishes poetry, and poetry-related reviews, commentary and interviews. New Coin places a particular emphasis on evolving forms and experimental use of the English language in poetry in the South African context. In this sense it has traced the most exciting trends and currents in contemporary poetry in South Africa for a decade of more. The journal is published twice a year in June and December by the Institute for the Study of English in Africa (ISEA), Rhodes University.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1994