Towards SDG 15.3: The biome context as the appropriate degradation monitoring dimension
- Xoxo, Sinetemba, Mantel, Sukhmani K, de Vos, Alta, Mahlaba, Bawinile, le Maître, David, Tanner, Jane L
- Authors: Xoxo, Sinetemba , Mantel, Sukhmani K , de Vos, Alta , Mahlaba, Bawinile , le Maître, David , Tanner, Jane L
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/415961 , vital:71304 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.07.008"
- Description: Accurate and reliable estimation of terrestrial ecosystem degradation is critical to meeting the challenge of reversing land degradation. Remote sensing data (especially land productivity dynamics) is commonly used to estimate land degradation, and this study uses the TRENDS.EARTH toolbox for the period covering 2000–2018, demonstrating the benefit of tracking the degradation process (SDG 15.3.1) at a biophysical unit. Contributing to the country’s SDG 15.3.1 monitoring, anthropogenic degradation was estimated based on RESTREND land productivity, biome-specific land cover trends, and soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. Underlying degradation was evaluated by reclassifying a 28-year national land cover change dataset to match the UNCCD land cover legend. Analysis results indicate that land productivity changes (especially in stable grasslands, afforested, and cropland areas) mainly influenced the degradation status of the biome (19.9% degraded and 25.6% improvement). Global datasets also suggest that land cover and SOC had a minimal contribution (more than 2%) to anthropogenic degradation dynamics in the biome between 2000 and 2018. The GIS analysis showed that long-term, the major contributors to the biome’s underlying 9% anthropogenic degradation were woody proliferation into the Grassland Biome, urban expansion, and wetland drainage.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Xoxo, Sinetemba , Mantel, Sukhmani K , de Vos, Alta , Mahlaba, Bawinile , le Maître, David , Tanner, Jane L
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/415961 , vital:71304 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.07.008"
- Description: Accurate and reliable estimation of terrestrial ecosystem degradation is critical to meeting the challenge of reversing land degradation. Remote sensing data (especially land productivity dynamics) is commonly used to estimate land degradation, and this study uses the TRENDS.EARTH toolbox for the period covering 2000–2018, demonstrating the benefit of tracking the degradation process (SDG 15.3.1) at a biophysical unit. Contributing to the country’s SDG 15.3.1 monitoring, anthropogenic degradation was estimated based on RESTREND land productivity, biome-specific land cover trends, and soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. Underlying degradation was evaluated by reclassifying a 28-year national land cover change dataset to match the UNCCD land cover legend. Analysis results indicate that land productivity changes (especially in stable grasslands, afforested, and cropland areas) mainly influenced the degradation status of the biome (19.9% degraded and 25.6% improvement). Global datasets also suggest that land cover and SOC had a minimal contribution (more than 2%) to anthropogenic degradation dynamics in the biome between 2000 and 2018. The GIS analysis showed that long-term, the major contributors to the biome’s underlying 9% anthropogenic degradation were woody proliferation into the Grassland Biome, urban expansion, and wetland drainage.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures: Intersecting dynamics of food, water, livelihoods and education in the COVID-19 pandemic
- Velempini, Kgosietsile, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Kulundu, Injairu, Maqwelane, Lwanda, James, Anna, Mphepo, Gibson, Dyantyi, Phila, Kunkwenza, Esthery
- Authors: Velempini, Kgosietsile , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Kulundu, Injairu , Maqwelane, Lwanda , James, Anna , Mphepo, Gibson , Dyantyi, Phila , Kunkwenza, Esthery
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/389903 , vital:68494 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/211392"
- Description: Since 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges to but also highlighted the urgent need for transforming education for sustainable futures. The purpose of this article is to share insights gained from a southern African study on intersecting influences of water, food, livelihoods and education, and what they mean for Education for Sustainable Development going forward. The interest is to learn from this study in ways that can inform transformation of education for sustainable futures in southern Africa going forward. The study involved a number of early career researchers in SADC countries, and was conducted via an online approach during the early days of the pandemic. It followed a qualitative research design, employed document analysis, interviews and questionnaires, and drew on a systems perspective to inform analysis. The findings are as relevant today as they were in the pandemic, and point to the importance of giving attention to intersecting issues that affect education. The study highlights six transformative praxis pathways for transforming education for sustainable futures.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Velempini, Kgosietsile , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Kulundu, Injairu , Maqwelane, Lwanda , James, Anna , Mphepo, Gibson , Dyantyi, Phila , Kunkwenza, Esthery
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/389903 , vital:68494 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/211392"
- Description: Since 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges to but also highlighted the urgent need for transforming education for sustainable futures. The purpose of this article is to share insights gained from a southern African study on intersecting influences of water, food, livelihoods and education, and what they mean for Education for Sustainable Development going forward. The interest is to learn from this study in ways that can inform transformation of education for sustainable futures in southern Africa going forward. The study involved a number of early career researchers in SADC countries, and was conducted via an online approach during the early days of the pandemic. It followed a qualitative research design, employed document analysis, interviews and questionnaires, and drew on a systems perspective to inform analysis. The findings are as relevant today as they were in the pandemic, and point to the importance of giving attention to intersecting issues that affect education. The study highlights six transformative praxis pathways for transforming education for sustainable futures.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Traumatic Imagination in Traditional Stories of Gender-Based Violence
- Ahmad, Ayesha, Ahmad, Lida, Andrabi, Shazana, Ben Salem, Lobna, Hughes, Peter, Mannell, Jenevieve, Paphitis, Sharli A, Senyurek, Gamze
- Authors: Ahmad, Ayesha , Ahmad, Lida , Andrabi, Shazana , Ben Salem, Lobna , Hughes, Peter , Mannell, Jenevieve , Paphitis, Sharli A , Senyurek, Gamze
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426548 , vital:72362 , xlink:href="https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/traumatic-imagination-traditional-stories-gender-based-violence/2022-06"
- Description: Traumatic imagination includes creative processes in which traumatic memories are transformed into narratives of suffering. This article emphasizes the importance of storytelling in victims’ mental health and offers a literary perspective on how some women’s experiences of suffering can be expressed in the telling of traditional stories, which confer some protection from stigma to individual women in Turkish and Afghan societies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Ahmad, Ayesha , Ahmad, Lida , Andrabi, Shazana , Ben Salem, Lobna , Hughes, Peter , Mannell, Jenevieve , Paphitis, Sharli A , Senyurek, Gamze
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426548 , vital:72362 , xlink:href="https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/traumatic-imagination-traditional-stories-gender-based-violence/2022-06"
- Description: Traumatic imagination includes creative processes in which traumatic memories are transformed into narratives of suffering. This article emphasizes the importance of storytelling in victims’ mental health and offers a literary perspective on how some women’s experiences of suffering can be expressed in the telling of traditional stories, which confer some protection from stigma to individual women in Turkish and Afghan societies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Trees stocks in domestic gardens and willingness to participate in tree planting initiatives in low-cost housing areas of the Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Gwedla, Nanamhla, Shackleton, Charlie, Olvitt, Lausanne L
- Authors: Gwedla, Nanamhla , Shackleton, Charlie , Olvitt, Lausanne L
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/372825 , vital:66626 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2022.127484"
- Description: Increasing human populations and rapid urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa have prompted the development and maintenance of urban green infrastructure, including urban trees for sustainability, human wellbeing, liveability and climate resilience. However, there are still insufficient amounts and large inequities in the distribution of trees between and within towns and cities of the Global North and South. In South Africa, urban green space planning and planting are encoded in several policies at national level. However, these policies are rarely translated into specific guides, standards or actions, and consequently disparities in urban trees and green space distribution persist. This study assessed the prevalence of urban trees in domestic gardens in low-cost housing areas (LCHAs) of eight small to medium-sized towns in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa and examined residents’ perceptions in this regard. This was done via surveys with 800 households in old and recently developed LCHAs. The results revealed that most households (52 %) had at least one tree in their yard, with more households in the older neighbourhoods (60 %) reporting having trees than in the newer ones (44 %). Most of the trees (66 %) had been deliberately planted as opposed to natural regeneration. Experience of formal urban tree planting programs was low, but 75 % of residents expressed willingness to participate in the future, preferably in tree planting and maintenance. Urban green spaces and trees cannot be an afterthought in the development of sustainable human settlements, and municipal plans should reflect tangible commitments in this regard. Meeting goals for greener LCHAs requires the involvement of local residents, and for municipal authorities to be receptive to the wishes of residents and willingness to green their residential areas.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Gwedla, Nanamhla , Shackleton, Charlie , Olvitt, Lausanne L
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/372825 , vital:66626 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2022.127484"
- Description: Increasing human populations and rapid urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa have prompted the development and maintenance of urban green infrastructure, including urban trees for sustainability, human wellbeing, liveability and climate resilience. However, there are still insufficient amounts and large inequities in the distribution of trees between and within towns and cities of the Global North and South. In South Africa, urban green space planning and planting are encoded in several policies at national level. However, these policies are rarely translated into specific guides, standards or actions, and consequently disparities in urban trees and green space distribution persist. This study assessed the prevalence of urban trees in domestic gardens in low-cost housing areas (LCHAs) of eight small to medium-sized towns in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa and examined residents’ perceptions in this regard. This was done via surveys with 800 households in old and recently developed LCHAs. The results revealed that most households (52 %) had at least one tree in their yard, with more households in the older neighbourhoods (60 %) reporting having trees than in the newer ones (44 %). Most of the trees (66 %) had been deliberately planted as opposed to natural regeneration. Experience of formal urban tree planting programs was low, but 75 % of residents expressed willingness to participate in the future, preferably in tree planting and maintenance. Urban green spaces and trees cannot be an afterthought in the development of sustainable human settlements, and municipal plans should reflect tangible commitments in this regard. Meeting goals for greener LCHAs requires the involvement of local residents, and for municipal authorities to be receptive to the wishes of residents and willingness to green their residential areas.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Ubuntu among the ‘born frees’: Exploring the transmission of social values through community engagement in South Africa
- Willmore, Stephanie B, Day, Randal, Maistry, Savathrie M
- Authors: Willmore, Stephanie B , Day, Randal , Maistry, Savathrie M
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426564 , vital:72363 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00208728221086151"
- Description: Ubuntu was recently adopted as the first theme for the 2020–2030 global agenda for social work, and yet little research is available to explore how it is transmitted and implemented in communities. The authors present findings of a qualitative study conducted in an academic setting in South Africa, where the transmission of Ubuntu was discussed among 30 young adult ‘born frees’. Students seemed to embrace principles of Ubuntu as a whole; however, economic, social and cultural strains are documented as obstacles to its pragmatic application. Implications of community engagement through service learning as a means of strengthening Ubuntu are discussed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Willmore, Stephanie B , Day, Randal , Maistry, Savathrie M
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426564 , vital:72363 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00208728221086151"
- Description: Ubuntu was recently adopted as the first theme for the 2020–2030 global agenda for social work, and yet little research is available to explore how it is transmitted and implemented in communities. The authors present findings of a qualitative study conducted in an academic setting in South Africa, where the transmission of Ubuntu was discussed among 30 young adult ‘born frees’. Students seemed to embrace principles of Ubuntu as a whole; however, economic, social and cultural strains are documented as obstacles to its pragmatic application. Implications of community engagement through service learning as a means of strengthening Ubuntu are discussed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Ultrasensitive detection of prostate-specific antigen using glucose-encapsulated nanoliposomes anti-PSA polyclonal antibody as detection nanobioprobes
- Mwanza, Daniel, Mfamela, Nololo, Adeniyi, Omotayo, Nyokong, Tebello, Mashazi, Philani N
- Authors: Mwanza, Daniel , Mfamela, Nololo , Adeniyi, Omotayo , Nyokong, Tebello , Mashazi, Philani N
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/300268 , vital:57911 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2022.123483"
- Description: In this work, the preparation of glucose encapsulating nanoliposomes was achieved using two different lipid formulations, labelled as F1 and F2. Both formulations contained phosphatidylcholine (PC), oleylamido-4-butanoic acid (OABA) and in addition, F1 had cholesterol (CHO) while F2 contained cholesteroyl hemisussinate (CHEMS). These formulations were studied for their pH sensitivity and controlled release of encapsulated glucose for indirect detection of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) using sandwich immunoassay. As a signal generator, encapsulated glucose in nanoliposomes was quantified directly using the personal glucose meter (PGM) and colorimetrically using peroxidase property of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) enzyme and Pd|PdO as nanozymes. Controlled release of the encapsulated glucose was achieved using the pH effect or Triton-X 100 as a surfactant to destabilize the liposomal structure. The F2 formulation showed maximum controlled release at acidic phosphate buffer saline (PBS, pH 5.0). The concentration of encapsulated glucose was found to be high in F2 formulation and these were applied for the indirect detection of PSA. The limit of detection (LOD) values for PSA were found to be 53 fg mL−1, 64 fg mL−1 and 10 fg mL−1 when HRP, Pd|PdO and PGM were respectively used. The detection signal was linear over a wide concentration range for PSA including the clinical range of 4–10 ng mL−1. The HRP system showed low LOD value when compared with Pd|PdO nanozymes. PGM system gave lowest LOD values owing to the sensitivity of the system towards glucose. Pd|PdO nanozyme system showed good stability over a wide temperature up to 80 °C. PGM system required less reaction time (2 min), low reagents and results were readily generated in digital format.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Mwanza, Daniel , Mfamela, Nololo , Adeniyi, Omotayo , Nyokong, Tebello , Mashazi, Philani N
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/300268 , vital:57911 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2022.123483"
- Description: In this work, the preparation of glucose encapsulating nanoliposomes was achieved using two different lipid formulations, labelled as F1 and F2. Both formulations contained phosphatidylcholine (PC), oleylamido-4-butanoic acid (OABA) and in addition, F1 had cholesterol (CHO) while F2 contained cholesteroyl hemisussinate (CHEMS). These formulations were studied for their pH sensitivity and controlled release of encapsulated glucose for indirect detection of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) using sandwich immunoassay. As a signal generator, encapsulated glucose in nanoliposomes was quantified directly using the personal glucose meter (PGM) and colorimetrically using peroxidase property of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) enzyme and Pd|PdO as nanozymes. Controlled release of the encapsulated glucose was achieved using the pH effect or Triton-X 100 as a surfactant to destabilize the liposomal structure. The F2 formulation showed maximum controlled release at acidic phosphate buffer saline (PBS, pH 5.0). The concentration of encapsulated glucose was found to be high in F2 formulation and these were applied for the indirect detection of PSA. The limit of detection (LOD) values for PSA were found to be 53 fg mL−1, 64 fg mL−1 and 10 fg mL−1 when HRP, Pd|PdO and PGM were respectively used. The detection signal was linear over a wide concentration range for PSA including the clinical range of 4–10 ng mL−1. The HRP system showed low LOD value when compared with Pd|PdO nanozymes. PGM system gave lowest LOD values owing to the sensitivity of the system towards glucose. Pd|PdO nanozyme system showed good stability over a wide temperature up to 80 °C. PGM system required less reaction time (2 min), low reagents and results were readily generated in digital format.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Uncertainty or Indeterminacy? Reconfiguring Curriculum through Agential Realism
- Authors: Bozalek, Vivienne
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426982 , vital:72406 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/11507"
- Description: Understanding how indeterminacy is different from uncertainty is crucial to posthumanism and has major implications for reconfiguring curriculum. Uncertainty has to do with epistemology, about not knowing whether a state of affairs is or is not; for instance, one would not know whether something is here or there, now or then. Indeterminacy, however, is ontological and eschews the idea of individually existing determinate entities, proposing instead phenomenain-their-becoming and a radically open relating of the world. Karen Barad, a feminist queer theorist, uses Niels Bohr’s quantum physics to show how atoms possess an inherent indeterminism or lack of identity in space and time. Indeterminacy is thus an un/doing of identity that unsettles the very foundations of being and non-being. Furthermore, neither space nor time are predetermined givens, but come into being intra-actively through the emergence of phenomena. This article shows how an understanding of space/time indeterminacy is important for thinking otherwise in curriculum studies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Bozalek, Vivienne
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426982 , vital:72406 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/11507"
- Description: Understanding how indeterminacy is different from uncertainty is crucial to posthumanism and has major implications for reconfiguring curriculum. Uncertainty has to do with epistemology, about not knowing whether a state of affairs is or is not; for instance, one would not know whether something is here or there, now or then. Indeterminacy, however, is ontological and eschews the idea of individually existing determinate entities, proposing instead phenomenain-their-becoming and a radically open relating of the world. Karen Barad, a feminist queer theorist, uses Niels Bohr’s quantum physics to show how atoms possess an inherent indeterminism or lack of identity in space and time. Indeterminacy is thus an un/doing of identity that unsettles the very foundations of being and non-being. Furthermore, neither space nor time are predetermined givens, but come into being intra-actively through the emergence of phenomena. This article shows how an understanding of space/time indeterminacy is important for thinking otherwise in curriculum studies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Understanding rural–urban transitions in the Global South through peri-urban turbulence
- Hutchings, Paul, Willcock, Simon, Lynch, Kenneth, Bundhoo, Dilshaad, Brewer, Tim, Cooper, Sarah, Keech, Daniel, Mekala, Sneha, Mishra, Prajna P, Parker, Alison, Shackleton, Charlie M, Venkatesh, Kongala, Vicario, Dolores R, Welivita, Indunee
- Authors: Hutchings, Paul , Willcock, Simon , Lynch, Kenneth , Bundhoo, Dilshaad , Brewer, Tim , Cooper, Sarah , Keech, Daniel , Mekala, Sneha , Mishra, Prajna P , Parker, Alison , Shackleton, Charlie M , Venkatesh, Kongala , Vicario, Dolores R , Welivita, Indunee
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/401368 , vital:69729 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00920-w"
- Description: Much previous research has problematized the use of a binary urban–rural distinction to describe human settlement patterns in and around cities. Peri-urban zones, on the edge of urban settlements, are important both in the sheer magnitude of human population and in terms of being home to vulnerable populations with high rates of poverty. This Perspective presents a framework that conceptualizes rural–urban transition through the prism of shifts in natural, engineered and institutional infrastructure to explain the processes of rapid change and the dip in service provision often found in peri-urban areas in the Global South. We draw on examples related to the provision of water and sanitation to illustrate the theory and discuss its implications for future research on the peri-urban. A research agenda is set out that emphasizes the importance of studying early warning signs of service dips using systems theory concepts such as flickering and critical slowing down. Through such approaches, research can better predict and explain what we call peri-urban turbulence and inform the development of mitigation strategies to reduce the vulnerabilities that peri-urban residents too often face during periods of rural–urban transition.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Hutchings, Paul , Willcock, Simon , Lynch, Kenneth , Bundhoo, Dilshaad , Brewer, Tim , Cooper, Sarah , Keech, Daniel , Mekala, Sneha , Mishra, Prajna P , Parker, Alison , Shackleton, Charlie M , Venkatesh, Kongala , Vicario, Dolores R , Welivita, Indunee
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/401368 , vital:69729 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00920-w"
- Description: Much previous research has problematized the use of a binary urban–rural distinction to describe human settlement patterns in and around cities. Peri-urban zones, on the edge of urban settlements, are important both in the sheer magnitude of human population and in terms of being home to vulnerable populations with high rates of poverty. This Perspective presents a framework that conceptualizes rural–urban transition through the prism of shifts in natural, engineered and institutional infrastructure to explain the processes of rapid change and the dip in service provision often found in peri-urban areas in the Global South. We draw on examples related to the provision of water and sanitation to illustrate the theory and discuss its implications for future research on the peri-urban. A research agenda is set out that emphasizes the importance of studying early warning signs of service dips using systems theory concepts such as flickering and critical slowing down. Through such approaches, research can better predict and explain what we call peri-urban turbulence and inform the development of mitigation strategies to reduce the vulnerabilities that peri-urban residents too often face during periods of rural–urban transition.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Validity of categories related to gender identity in ICD-11 and DSM-5 among transgender individuals who seek gender-affirming medical procedures
- Robles, Rebeca, Keeley, Jared W, Vega-Ramírez, H, Cruz-Islas, Jeremy, Rodríguez-Pérez, Victor, Sharan, Pratap, Purnima, Shivani, Rao, Ravindra, Rodrigues-Lobato, María I, Soll, Bianca, Askevis-Leherpeux, Françoise, Roelandt, Jean-Luc, Campbell, Megan, Grobler, Gerhard, Stein, Dan H, Khoury, Brigitte, El Khoury, Joseph, Fresán, Ana, Medina-Mora, María, Reed, Geoffrey M
- Authors: Robles, Rebeca , Keeley, Jared W , Vega-Ramírez, H , Cruz-Islas, Jeremy , Rodríguez-Pérez, Victor , Sharan, Pratap , Purnima, Shivani , Rao, Ravindra , Rodrigues-Lobato, María I , Soll, Bianca , Askevis-Leherpeux, Françoise , Roelandt, Jean-Luc , Campbell, Megan , Grobler, Gerhard , Stein, Dan H , Khoury, Brigitte , El Khoury, Joseph , Fresán, Ana , Medina-Mora, María , Reed, Geoffrey M
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/302589 , vital:58210 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2021.100281"
- Description: Background/Objective: The most recent versions of the two main mental disorders classifications—the World Health Organization's ICD-11 and the American Psychiatric Association's DSM–5—differ substantially in their diagnostic categories related to transgender identity. ICD-11 gender incongruence (GI), in contrast to DSM-5 gender dysphoria (GD), is explicitly not a mental disorder; neither distress nor dysfunction is a required feature. The objective was compared ICD-11 and DSM-5 diagnostic requirements in terms of their sensitivity, specificity, discriminability and ability to predict the use of gender-affirming medical procedures. Method: A total of 649 of transgender adults in six countries completed a retrospective structured interview. Results: Using ROC analysis, sensitivity of the diagnostic requirements was equivalent for both systems, but ICD-11 showed greater specificity than DSM-5. Regression analyses indicated that history of hormones and/or surgery was predicted by variables that are an intrinsic aspect of GI/GD more than by distress and dysfunction. IRT analyses showed that the ICD-11 diagnostic formulation was more parsimonious and contained more information about caseness than the DSM-5 model. Conclusions: This study supports the ICD-11 position that GI/GD is not a mental disorder; additional diagnostic requirements of distress and/or dysfunction in DSM-5 reduce the predictive power of the diagnostic model.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Robles, Rebeca , Keeley, Jared W , Vega-Ramírez, H , Cruz-Islas, Jeremy , Rodríguez-Pérez, Victor , Sharan, Pratap , Purnima, Shivani , Rao, Ravindra , Rodrigues-Lobato, María I , Soll, Bianca , Askevis-Leherpeux, Françoise , Roelandt, Jean-Luc , Campbell, Megan , Grobler, Gerhard , Stein, Dan H , Khoury, Brigitte , El Khoury, Joseph , Fresán, Ana , Medina-Mora, María , Reed, Geoffrey M
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/302589 , vital:58210 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2021.100281"
- Description: Background/Objective: The most recent versions of the two main mental disorders classifications—the World Health Organization's ICD-11 and the American Psychiatric Association's DSM–5—differ substantially in their diagnostic categories related to transgender identity. ICD-11 gender incongruence (GI), in contrast to DSM-5 gender dysphoria (GD), is explicitly not a mental disorder; neither distress nor dysfunction is a required feature. The objective was compared ICD-11 and DSM-5 diagnostic requirements in terms of their sensitivity, specificity, discriminability and ability to predict the use of gender-affirming medical procedures. Method: A total of 649 of transgender adults in six countries completed a retrospective structured interview. Results: Using ROC analysis, sensitivity of the diagnostic requirements was equivalent for both systems, but ICD-11 showed greater specificity than DSM-5. Regression analyses indicated that history of hormones and/or surgery was predicted by variables that are an intrinsic aspect of GI/GD more than by distress and dysfunction. IRT analyses showed that the ICD-11 diagnostic formulation was more parsimonious and contained more information about caseness than the DSM-5 model. Conclusions: This study supports the ICD-11 position that GI/GD is not a mental disorder; additional diagnostic requirements of distress and/or dysfunction in DSM-5 reduce the predictive power of the diagnostic model.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
What’s in a conference theme?: Some reflections on critical realist research and its emergence in Africa over a period of 20+ years
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/370739 , vital:66372 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2023.2146923"
- Description: In keeping with the 2021 IACR Conference theme (Re) Envisaging Emancipatory Research, Science and Practice, this paper reviews over fifty instances of critical realist research in Africa which have sought to establish emancipatory research praxis by using critical realism to underlabour a range of applied studies in a diversity of disciplines and countries. The initiators of this research have been drawn to critical realism for several reasons, most notably its return to ontology, its interest in transformed, transformative praxis, and its potential for addressing knowledge and experiences exclusions. The paper ends with a reflection on ‘What's in a Conference Theme', returning to the earlier 2012 IACR conference hosted in Africa, and the 2021 conference’s focus on emancipatory research. It argues both for the deepening of conversations between critical realism and Africana Critical Theory; and for the grounding of these conversations in the voices and power of the people in our communities
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/370739 , vital:66372 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2023.2146923"
- Description: In keeping with the 2021 IACR Conference theme (Re) Envisaging Emancipatory Research, Science and Practice, this paper reviews over fifty instances of critical realist research in Africa which have sought to establish emancipatory research praxis by using critical realism to underlabour a range of applied studies in a diversity of disciplines and countries. The initiators of this research have been drawn to critical realism for several reasons, most notably its return to ontology, its interest in transformed, transformative praxis, and its potential for addressing knowledge and experiences exclusions. The paper ends with a reflection on ‘What's in a Conference Theme', returning to the earlier 2012 IACR conference hosted in Africa, and the 2021 conference’s focus on emancipatory research. It argues both for the deepening of conversations between critical realism and Africana Critical Theory; and for the grounding of these conversations in the voices and power of the people in our communities
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Whose Sense of Place? Catering for Residents and Tourists from an Open-Access Protected Area in South Africa
- Rouillard, Tessa, Deponselle, Keagan, Bezerra, Joana C
- Authors: Rouillard, Tessa , Deponselle, Keagan , Bezerra, Joana C
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426584 , vital:72366 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su142315525"
- Description: In addition to providing benefits to people, protected areas are valued in ways that go beyond the tangible. A sense of place, and the collection of values, feelings, and meanings associated with a place, can illuminate people-place relationships. Understanding how people relate to a place is essential in acquiring support for protected areas. This research investigates tourists’ and residents’ sense of place in Knysna, an open-access section of the Garden Route National Park, South Africa. Data was collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The sense of place was characterised using five variables: physical, cultural, social, dependent, and ideological. Although ‘physical’ was the dominant variable for both tourists and residents, the ‘ideological’ for residents and the ‘cultural’ for tourists came second, highlighting the importance of safe places and recreational activities, respectively. The physical environment influences sense of place, and the importance of protected areas to stakeholders offers an opportunity for management to engage with the public.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Rouillard, Tessa , Deponselle, Keagan , Bezerra, Joana C
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426584 , vital:72366 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su142315525"
- Description: In addition to providing benefits to people, protected areas are valued in ways that go beyond the tangible. A sense of place, and the collection of values, feelings, and meanings associated with a place, can illuminate people-place relationships. Understanding how people relate to a place is essential in acquiring support for protected areas. This research investigates tourists’ and residents’ sense of place in Knysna, an open-access section of the Garden Route National Park, South Africa. Data was collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The sense of place was characterised using five variables: physical, cultural, social, dependent, and ideological. Although ‘physical’ was the dominant variable for both tourists and residents, the ‘ideological’ for residents and the ‘cultural’ for tourists came second, highlighting the importance of safe places and recreational activities, respectively. The physical environment influences sense of place, and the importance of protected areas to stakeholders offers an opportunity for management to engage with the public.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Wild swimming methodologies for decolonial feminist justice-to-come scholarship
- Shefer, Tamara, Bozalek, Vivienne
- Authors: Shefer, Tamara , Bozalek, Vivienne
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426996 , vital:72407 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/014177892110693"
- Description: This article thinks with oceans and swimming, in dialogue with decolonial feminist materialist approaches and other current novel methodologies which foreground embodiment and relational ontologies, in order to consider the conceptual potential of such diffractions for the project of alternative scholarly practices. We focus on swimming in the sea as one form of wild methodology and Slow scholarship that draws on hauntology to think about the possibilities of such methodologies for troubling normative academic practices directed at different ways of being and becoming. Located in the (post-)apartheid space of South African higher education, which continues to follow and reinstate colonial, patriarchal and neoliberal capitalist logics, we ask questions about the silences around material histories of subjugation and violence that are embedded in the institution and the lives of those who enter these spaces. Propositions are made about how a swimming methodology may inspire a consciousness and engagement with intersectional gender hauntings that permeate the material, curricula, relational and affective spaces of academia as part of disrupting and reimagining the university as a space of/for justice and flourishing. We explore the ways in which embodied, affective methodologies in or near the ocean/s may be deployed to subvert and reconfigure, to make and stay with trouble. We therefore propose sea swimming as a powerful way of thinking with the sea in productive and creative ways for scholarship towards a justice-to-come, to open up new imaginaries of scholarship that make a difference.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Shefer, Tamara , Bozalek, Vivienne
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426996 , vital:72407 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/014177892110693"
- Description: This article thinks with oceans and swimming, in dialogue with decolonial feminist materialist approaches and other current novel methodologies which foreground embodiment and relational ontologies, in order to consider the conceptual potential of such diffractions for the project of alternative scholarly practices. We focus on swimming in the sea as one form of wild methodology and Slow scholarship that draws on hauntology to think about the possibilities of such methodologies for troubling normative academic practices directed at different ways of being and becoming. Located in the (post-)apartheid space of South African higher education, which continues to follow and reinstate colonial, patriarchal and neoliberal capitalist logics, we ask questions about the silences around material histories of subjugation and violence that are embedded in the institution and the lives of those who enter these spaces. Propositions are made about how a swimming methodology may inspire a consciousness and engagement with intersectional gender hauntings that permeate the material, curricula, relational and affective spaces of academia as part of disrupting and reimagining the university as a space of/for justice and flourishing. We explore the ways in which embodied, affective methodologies in or near the ocean/s may be deployed to subvert and reconfigure, to make and stay with trouble. We therefore propose sea swimming as a powerful way of thinking with the sea in productive and creative ways for scholarship towards a justice-to-come, to open up new imaginaries of scholarship that make a difference.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Working in poverty: Informal employment of household gardeners in Eastern Cape towns, South Africa
- King, A, Shackleton, Charlie M
- Authors: King, A , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/401398 , vital:69731 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835X.2021.1940867"
- Description: In South Africa there has been relatively little consideration of the informal employment offered to domestic household workers and gardeners. Here we report on the number and profile of gardeners employed by private households and the wage and satisfaction rates in 12 towns of the Eastern Cape. Over 98% of the informal gardeners were male, middle-aged and with limited formal schooling. Approximately 58% of middle and upper income households employed a gardener, at a mean daily rate of R112.20 in 2019. This equated to 13 170 gardeners earning a total wage bill of R139 million p.a. across the 12 towns, which scales up to 0.7–1 million informal gardeners nationally earning approximately R10–14 billion per year. However, daily remuneration was insufficient to cover basic needs, and slightly more than half of the gardeners would prefer a different job, indicating the survivalist nature of the sector.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: King, A , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/401398 , vital:69731 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835X.2021.1940867"
- Description: In South Africa there has been relatively little consideration of the informal employment offered to domestic household workers and gardeners. Here we report on the number and profile of gardeners employed by private households and the wage and satisfaction rates in 12 towns of the Eastern Cape. Over 98% of the informal gardeners were male, middle-aged and with limited formal schooling. Approximately 58% of middle and upper income households employed a gardener, at a mean daily rate of R112.20 in 2019. This equated to 13 170 gardeners earning a total wage bill of R139 million p.a. across the 12 towns, which scales up to 0.7–1 million informal gardeners nationally earning approximately R10–14 billion per year. However, daily remuneration was insufficient to cover basic needs, and slightly more than half of the gardeners would prefer a different job, indicating the survivalist nature of the sector.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
“Eye on the big prize!”: Iconizing the Democratic Alliance in the Daily Sun
- Siebörger, Ian, Adendorff, Ralph D
- Authors: Siebörger, Ian , Adendorff, Ralph D
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/385324 , vital:68007 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/splp/article/view/253996"
- Description: This article gives a snapshot view of how Mmusi Maimane’s rise to leadership in the Democratic Alliance (DA) in 2015 was reported on in the Daily Sun, South Africa’s biggest-selling national daily newspaper (South African Audience Research Foundation, 2016). Through analysis of a Daily Sun news article exemplifying trends in the positioning of the DA in the tabloid over the first half of 2015, the present study demonstrates how Maimane tried to align the DA around a new iconography (Tann 2010, 2013), centred on the values of “freedom”, “fairness” and “opportunity”. Moreover, the present study also shows how this purported transformation in the DA was treated with scepticism by the news article’s author, who iconizes the DA as incapable of transformation and effective governance. Fine-grained complementary Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) analyses were conducted on this news article. The LCT analysis shows how multiple voices in the news article create conflicting binary constellations, axiologically charged through various linguistic resources, including intertextual references. The analysis, using SFL’s Appraisal system (Martin and White 2005), shows how iconization is accomplished in the news article through evaluative language, coupled with intertextual references, grammatical metaphor andtechnicality to produce syndromes of meaning in the news article. Such iconization works, in this case, to reproduce an attitude of cynicism toward party politics in post-apartheid South Africa. This cynicism foreshadows Maimane’s ultimate lack of success in transforming the discourses of the DA.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Siebörger, Ian , Adendorff, Ralph D
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/385324 , vital:68007 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/splp/article/view/253996"
- Description: This article gives a snapshot view of how Mmusi Maimane’s rise to leadership in the Democratic Alliance (DA) in 2015 was reported on in the Daily Sun, South Africa’s biggest-selling national daily newspaper (South African Audience Research Foundation, 2016). Through analysis of a Daily Sun news article exemplifying trends in the positioning of the DA in the tabloid over the first half of 2015, the present study demonstrates how Maimane tried to align the DA around a new iconography (Tann 2010, 2013), centred on the values of “freedom”, “fairness” and “opportunity”. Moreover, the present study also shows how this purported transformation in the DA was treated with scepticism by the news article’s author, who iconizes the DA as incapable of transformation and effective governance. Fine-grained complementary Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) analyses were conducted on this news article. The LCT analysis shows how multiple voices in the news article create conflicting binary constellations, axiologically charged through various linguistic resources, including intertextual references. The analysis, using SFL’s Appraisal system (Martin and White 2005), shows how iconization is accomplished in the news article through evaluative language, coupled with intertextual references, grammatical metaphor andtechnicality to produce syndromes of meaning in the news article. Such iconization works, in this case, to reproduce an attitude of cynicism toward party politics in post-apartheid South Africa. This cynicism foreshadows Maimane’s ultimate lack of success in transforming the discourses of the DA.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
“If I don’t take my treatment, I will die and who will take care of my child?”: An investigation into an inclusive community-led approach to addressing the barriers to HIV treatment adherence by postpartum women living with HIV
- Authors: Pepper, Katy
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426441 , vital:72353 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271294"
- Description: Initiatives to support adherence to HIV treatment in South Africa are often centred on service delivery thereby avoiding key challenges to adherence: stigma and poverty. In contrast, this study aims to demonstrate the strength of an inclusive research and programme approach to improving the lives of people living with HIV and simultaneously ARV adherence.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Pepper, Katy
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426441 , vital:72353 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271294"
- Description: Initiatives to support adherence to HIV treatment in South Africa are often centred on service delivery thereby avoiding key challenges to adherence: stigma and poverty. In contrast, this study aims to demonstrate the strength of an inclusive research and programme approach to improving the lives of people living with HIV and simultaneously ARV adherence.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
5-Fu inclusion complex capped gold nanoparticles for breast cancer therapy
- Lakkakula, Jaya R, Krause, Rui W M, Divakaran, Deepika, Barage, Sagar, Srivastava, Rohit
- Authors: Lakkakula, Jaya R , Krause, Rui W M , Divakaran, Deepika , Barage, Sagar , Srivastava, Rohit
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/191713 , vital:45150 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2021.117262"
- Description: We have attempted to prolong the circulation time and increase the solubility of 5-Fluorouracil by complexing it with cyclodextrin and then further conjugating onto the gold nanoparticle to form 5Fu ICAu. The 1H NMR and molecular docking studies suggested that 5-Fu was included within the 2HP-β-CD cavity and H-5 proton probably serves as the binding site for stabilization of the inclusion complex. The 5Fu-ICAu showed higher cell inhibition rate when studied on MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines due to the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect by allowing the selective accumulation of nanoparticles at tumor site. This unique system can serve as a novel nanocarrier for delivery of hydrophobic drugs.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
- Authors: Lakkakula, Jaya R , Krause, Rui W M , Divakaran, Deepika , Barage, Sagar , Srivastava, Rohit
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/191713 , vital:45150 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2021.117262"
- Description: We have attempted to prolong the circulation time and increase the solubility of 5-Fluorouracil by complexing it with cyclodextrin and then further conjugating onto the gold nanoparticle to form 5Fu ICAu. The 1H NMR and molecular docking studies suggested that 5-Fu was included within the 2HP-β-CD cavity and H-5 proton probably serves as the binding site for stabilization of the inclusion complex. The 5Fu-ICAu showed higher cell inhibition rate when studied on MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines due to the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect by allowing the selective accumulation of nanoparticles at tumor site. This unique system can serve as a novel nanocarrier for delivery of hydrophobic drugs.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
A decade of biological control of Parthenium hysterophorus L.(Asteraceae) in South Africa reviewed: introduction of insect agents and their status
- Strathie, L W, Cowie, Blair W, McConnachie, Andrew J, Chidawanyika, Frank, Musedeli, Jufter N, Sambo, SMC, Magoso, EX, Gareeb, M
- Authors: Strathie, L W , Cowie, Blair W , McConnachie, Andrew J , Chidawanyika, Frank , Musedeli, Jufter N , Sambo, SMC , Magoso, EX , Gareeb, M
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/416795 , vital:71386 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-ento_v29_n3_a11"
- Description: The annual herb, Parthenium hysterophorus L. (Asteraceae: Heliantheae) is a severe terrestrial invader globally. Infestations reduce crop yield, limit available grazing, hinder conservation efforts, and affect human and animal health in Africa, Asia and Australia, and on associated islands. Due to the impact and threat of further invasion of P. hysterophorus, a biological control (biocontrol) programme was initiated in 2003 in South Africa. This review discusses the research and implementation activities undertaken on the insect agents from 2011 to 2020. During this period, the stem-boring weevil Listronotus setosipennis Hustache (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), leaf-feeding beetle Zygogramma bicolorata Pallister (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and seed-feeding weevil Smicronyx lutulentus Dietz (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), were found to be host specific and approved for release. Releases of mass-reared insect agents have been concentrated particularly in north-eastern South Africa, where P. hysterophorus infestations are most prolific. Post-release monitoring studies indicated localised establishment and impact of L. setosipennis and S. lutulentus. Listronotus setosipennis persisted through severe drought conditions, and although it disperses slowly, larval feeding is structurally damaging. Establishment of S. lutulentus is improving, reducing seed production where it is established. Zygogramma bicolorata resulted in defoliation at a few sites, but establishment has been poor and the beetle has been absent since 2019. Although a combination of fungal and insect agents were demonstrated to reduce P. hysterophorus, additional natural enemies could improve control. Consequently, the stem-galling moth Epiblema strenuana Walker (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) and root-crown boring moth Carmenta sp. nr. ithacae (Beutenmüller) (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) remain under evaluation. The management of P. hysterophorus in South Africa has been guided by the development of a national strategy, which incorporates multiple management methods, including biocontrol. International collaborations have intensified as a growing number of countries begin to utilize biocontrol to manage P. hysterophorus. Despite the progress towards biocontrol of P. hysterophorus during this period, increased utilisation of approved agents and the introduction of additional agents are necessary to achieve greater control.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
- Authors: Strathie, L W , Cowie, Blair W , McConnachie, Andrew J , Chidawanyika, Frank , Musedeli, Jufter N , Sambo, SMC , Magoso, EX , Gareeb, M
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/416795 , vital:71386 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-ento_v29_n3_a11"
- Description: The annual herb, Parthenium hysterophorus L. (Asteraceae: Heliantheae) is a severe terrestrial invader globally. Infestations reduce crop yield, limit available grazing, hinder conservation efforts, and affect human and animal health in Africa, Asia and Australia, and on associated islands. Due to the impact and threat of further invasion of P. hysterophorus, a biological control (biocontrol) programme was initiated in 2003 in South Africa. This review discusses the research and implementation activities undertaken on the insect agents from 2011 to 2020. During this period, the stem-boring weevil Listronotus setosipennis Hustache (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), leaf-feeding beetle Zygogramma bicolorata Pallister (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and seed-feeding weevil Smicronyx lutulentus Dietz (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), were found to be host specific and approved for release. Releases of mass-reared insect agents have been concentrated particularly in north-eastern South Africa, where P. hysterophorus infestations are most prolific. Post-release monitoring studies indicated localised establishment and impact of L. setosipennis and S. lutulentus. Listronotus setosipennis persisted through severe drought conditions, and although it disperses slowly, larval feeding is structurally damaging. Establishment of S. lutulentus is improving, reducing seed production where it is established. Zygogramma bicolorata resulted in defoliation at a few sites, but establishment has been poor and the beetle has been absent since 2019. Although a combination of fungal and insect agents were demonstrated to reduce P. hysterophorus, additional natural enemies could improve control. Consequently, the stem-galling moth Epiblema strenuana Walker (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) and root-crown boring moth Carmenta sp. nr. ithacae (Beutenmüller) (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) remain under evaluation. The management of P. hysterophorus in South Africa has been guided by the development of a national strategy, which incorporates multiple management methods, including biocontrol. International collaborations have intensified as a growing number of countries begin to utilize biocontrol to manage P. hysterophorus. Despite the progress towards biocontrol of P. hysterophorus during this period, increased utilisation of approved agents and the introduction of additional agents are necessary to achieve greater control.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
A heavy-atom-free π-extended N-confused porphyrin as a photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy
- Babu, Balaji, Mack, John, Nyokong, Tebello
- Authors: Babu, Balaji , Mack, John , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185909 , vital:44447 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1039/d1nj00112d"
- Description: The synthesis and characterization of a novel 1,3-diethyl-2-thiobarbituric-acid-substituted N-confused porphyrin (NCP-TB) is reported, along with a study of its photodynamic activity against MCF-7 cells using 530 (110 mW cm−2) and 660 nm (280 mW cm−2) Thorlabs light-emitting diodes for 30 min. The singlet oxygen quantum yield for NCP-TB is 0.38 compared to 0.23 for the parent unsubstituted N-confused porphyrin (NCP) due to the presence of a sulfur atom. NCP-TB exhibits enhanced PDT activity compared to NCP at both wavelengths. A significantly lower IC50 value of 5.2 μM was obtained at 530 nm (14.7 μM at 660 nm) despite a smaller light dose, due to a large red shift of the intense B band into the green region of the spectrum. 2′,7′-Dichlorofluorescein diacetate (DCFDA) assays demonstrate that there is intracellular generation of reactive oxygen species upon exposure to light.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
- Authors: Babu, Balaji , Mack, John , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185909 , vital:44447 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1039/d1nj00112d"
- Description: The synthesis and characterization of a novel 1,3-diethyl-2-thiobarbituric-acid-substituted N-confused porphyrin (NCP-TB) is reported, along with a study of its photodynamic activity against MCF-7 cells using 530 (110 mW cm−2) and 660 nm (280 mW cm−2) Thorlabs light-emitting diodes for 30 min. The singlet oxygen quantum yield for NCP-TB is 0.38 compared to 0.23 for the parent unsubstituted N-confused porphyrin (NCP) due to the presence of a sulfur atom. NCP-TB exhibits enhanced PDT activity compared to NCP at both wavelengths. A significantly lower IC50 value of 5.2 μM was obtained at 530 nm (14.7 μM at 660 nm) despite a smaller light dose, due to a large red shift of the intense B band into the green region of the spectrum. 2′,7′-Dichlorofluorescein diacetate (DCFDA) assays demonstrate that there is intracellular generation of reactive oxygen species upon exposure to light.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
A review of the biocontrol programmes against aquatic weeds in South Africa
- Coetzee, Julie A, Bownes, Angela, Martin, Grant D, Miller, Benjamin E, Smith, Rosalie, Weyl, Philip S R, Hill, Martin P
- Authors: Coetzee, Julie A , Bownes, Angela , Martin, Grant D , Miller, Benjamin E , Smith, Rosalie , Weyl, Philip S R , Hill, Martin P
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/406965 , vital:70326 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-ento_v29_n3_a18"
- Description: Biological control (biocontrol) against invasive macrophytes is one of the longest standing programmes in South Africa, initiated in the 1970s against water hyacinth, Pontederia crassipes Mart. (Pontederiaceae). Since then, 15 agent species (13 insects, one mite and one pathogen) have been released against six weeds, most of which are floating macrophytes, with excellent levels of success. The release of the water hyacinth planthopper Megamelus scutellaris Berg (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) in particular, has improved biocontrol prospects for water hyacinth since 2018. In the last decade, however, a new suite of submerged and rooted emergent invasive macrophytes has been targeted. The first release against a submerged macrophyte in South Africa, and the first release against Brazilian waterweed, Egeria densa Planch. (Hydrocharitaceae), anywhere in the world, was achieved with the release of a leafmining fly, Hydrellia egeriae Rodrigues-Júnior, Mathis and Hauser (Diptera: Ephydridae). Yellow flag, Iris pseudacorus L. (Iridaceae) and Mexican waterlily, Nymphaea mexicana Zucc. (Nymphaeaceae), have also been targeted for biocontrol for the first time worldwide, and are in the early stages of agent development. Post-release evaluations, long term monitoring and controlled experiments have highlighted the need for a more holistic approach to managing aquatic invasive plants in South Africa, whose presence is largely driven by eutrophication, resulting in regime shifts between floating and submerged invaded states.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
- Authors: Coetzee, Julie A , Bownes, Angela , Martin, Grant D , Miller, Benjamin E , Smith, Rosalie , Weyl, Philip S R , Hill, Martin P
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/406965 , vital:70326 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-ento_v29_n3_a18"
- Description: Biological control (biocontrol) against invasive macrophytes is one of the longest standing programmes in South Africa, initiated in the 1970s against water hyacinth, Pontederia crassipes Mart. (Pontederiaceae). Since then, 15 agent species (13 insects, one mite and one pathogen) have been released against six weeds, most of which are floating macrophytes, with excellent levels of success. The release of the water hyacinth planthopper Megamelus scutellaris Berg (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) in particular, has improved biocontrol prospects for water hyacinth since 2018. In the last decade, however, a new suite of submerged and rooted emergent invasive macrophytes has been targeted. The first release against a submerged macrophyte in South Africa, and the first release against Brazilian waterweed, Egeria densa Planch. (Hydrocharitaceae), anywhere in the world, was achieved with the release of a leafmining fly, Hydrellia egeriae Rodrigues-Júnior, Mathis and Hauser (Diptera: Ephydridae). Yellow flag, Iris pseudacorus L. (Iridaceae) and Mexican waterlily, Nymphaea mexicana Zucc. (Nymphaeaceae), have also been targeted for biocontrol for the first time worldwide, and are in the early stages of agent development. Post-release evaluations, long term monitoring and controlled experiments have highlighted the need for a more holistic approach to managing aquatic invasive plants in South Africa, whose presence is largely driven by eutrophication, resulting in regime shifts between floating and submerged invaded states.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Adaptation and validation of a computerized neurocognitive battery in the Xhosa of South Africa
- Cobb, Scott J, Moore, Tyler M, Stein, Dan J, Pretorius, Adele, Zingela, Zukiswa, Nagdee, Mohammed, Ngqengelele, Linda, Campbell, Megan, Sibeko, Goodman, King, Mary C, McClellan, Jon M, Port, Allison M, Jackson, Chad, Ruparel, Kosha, Susser, Ezra, Gur, Ruben C
- Authors: Cobb, Scott J , Moore, Tyler M , Stein, Dan J , Pretorius, Adele , Zingela, Zukiswa , Nagdee, Mohammed , Ngqengelele, Linda , Campbell, Megan , Sibeko, Goodman , King, Mary C , McClellan, Jon M , Port, Allison M , Jackson, Chad , Ruparel, Kosha , Susser, Ezra , Gur, Ruben C
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/302439 , vital:58196 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1037/neu0000742"
- Description: Objective: Large-scale studies have revolutionized biomedical research, and neurocognitive tests can help elucidate the biological basis of neuropsychiatric diseases. However, studies have predominantly been conducted in Western settings. We describe the development and validation of a computerized battery (PennCNB) with the Xhosa population of South Africa. Method: Individuals with schizophrenia (n = 525) and a normative comparison group (n = 744) were balanced on age, sex, education, and region. Participants provided blood samples, were assessed psychiatrically, and were administered a PennCNB translation to isiXhosa, including measures of executive functions, episodic memory, complex cognition, social cognition, and sensorimotor speed. Feasibility was examined with test completion rates and input from administrators, and psychometric structural validity and associations with clinical and demographic characteristics were examined. Results: Tests were well tolerated by participants, as >87% had one (or fewer) test missing. Results suggested a similar factor structure to prior PennCNB studies in Western contexts, and expected age and sex effects were apparent. Furthermore, a similar profile of schizophrenia was observed, with neurocognitive deficits most pronounced for executive functions, especially attention, as well as memory, social cognition, and motor speed relative to complex cognition and sensorimotor speed. Conclusions: Results support the feasibility of implementing a culturally adapted computerized neurocognitive battery in sub-Saharan African settings and provide evidence supporting the concurrent validity of the translated instrument. Thus, the PennCNB is implementable on a large scale in non-Western contexts, shows expected factor structure, and can detect cognitive deficits associated with neuropsychiatric disorders. Obtaining valid measures of cognition by nonspecialized proctors is especially suitable in resource-limited settings, where traditional testing is prohibitive. Future work should establish normative standards, test–retest reliability, and sensitivity to treatment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
- Authors: Cobb, Scott J , Moore, Tyler M , Stein, Dan J , Pretorius, Adele , Zingela, Zukiswa , Nagdee, Mohammed , Ngqengelele, Linda , Campbell, Megan , Sibeko, Goodman , King, Mary C , McClellan, Jon M , Port, Allison M , Jackson, Chad , Ruparel, Kosha , Susser, Ezra , Gur, Ruben C
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/302439 , vital:58196 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1037/neu0000742"
- Description: Objective: Large-scale studies have revolutionized biomedical research, and neurocognitive tests can help elucidate the biological basis of neuropsychiatric diseases. However, studies have predominantly been conducted in Western settings. We describe the development and validation of a computerized battery (PennCNB) with the Xhosa population of South Africa. Method: Individuals with schizophrenia (n = 525) and a normative comparison group (n = 744) were balanced on age, sex, education, and region. Participants provided blood samples, were assessed psychiatrically, and were administered a PennCNB translation to isiXhosa, including measures of executive functions, episodic memory, complex cognition, social cognition, and sensorimotor speed. Feasibility was examined with test completion rates and input from administrators, and psychometric structural validity and associations with clinical and demographic characteristics were examined. Results: Tests were well tolerated by participants, as >87% had one (or fewer) test missing. Results suggested a similar factor structure to prior PennCNB studies in Western contexts, and expected age and sex effects were apparent. Furthermore, a similar profile of schizophrenia was observed, with neurocognitive deficits most pronounced for executive functions, especially attention, as well as memory, social cognition, and motor speed relative to complex cognition and sensorimotor speed. Conclusions: Results support the feasibility of implementing a culturally adapted computerized neurocognitive battery in sub-Saharan African settings and provide evidence supporting the concurrent validity of the translated instrument. Thus, the PennCNB is implementable on a large scale in non-Western contexts, shows expected factor structure, and can detect cognitive deficits associated with neuropsychiatric disorders. Obtaining valid measures of cognition by nonspecialized proctors is especially suitable in resource-limited settings, where traditional testing is prohibitive. Future work should establish normative standards, test–retest reliability, and sensitivity to treatment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021