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AMBER force field parameters for the Zn (II) ions of the tunneling-fold enzymes GTP cyclohydrolase I and 6-pyruvoyl tetrahydropterin synthase:

  • Authors: Khairallah, Afrah , Tastan Bishop, Özlem , Moses, Vuyani
  • Date: 2020
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/163068 , vital:41009 , DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2020.1796800
  • Description: The folate biosynthesis pathway is an essential pathway for cell growth and survival. Folate derivatives serve as a source of the one-carbon units in several intracellular metabolic reactions. Rapidly dividing cells rely heavily on the availability of folate derivatives for their proliferation. As a result, drugs targeting this pathway have shown to be effective against tumor cells and pathogens, but drug resistance against the available antifolate drugs emerged quickly. Therefore, there is a need to develop new treatment strategies and identify alternative metabolic targets. The two de novo folate biosynthesis pathway enzymes, GTP cyclohydrolase I (GCH1) and 6-pyruvoyl tetrahydropterin synthase (PTPS), can provide an alternative strategy to overcome the drug resistance that emerged in the two primary targeted enzymes dihydrofolate reductase and dihydropteroate synthase.
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  • Date Issued: 2020

Creating learning and action space in South Africa’s post-apartheid land redistribution program:

  • Authors: Kepe, Thembela , Hall, Ruth
  • Date: 2020
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/163842 , vital:41075 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1177/1476750317705966
  • Description: This paper uses the case of South Africa’s latest land redistribution strategy known as the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy, to explore whether, and how, research can have direct and positive impacts on beneficiaries of land reform. The study is situated within the practice of action research: to explore how it can generate knowledge that can be shared back and forth between stakeholders, as well as how it may ignite changes that the participants desire.
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  • Date Issued: 2020

Determining the unbinding events and conserved motions associated with the pyrazinamide release due to resistance mutations of Mycobacterium tuberculosis pyrazinamidase:

  • Authors: Sheik Amamuddy, Olivier , Musyoka, Thommas M , Boateng, Rita A , Zabo, Sophakama , Tastan Bishop, Özlem
  • Date: 2020
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/148869 , vital:38781 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csbj.2020.05.0099
  • Description: Pyrazinamide (PZA) is the only first-line antitubercular drug active against latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). It is activated to pyrazinoic acid by the pncA-encoded pyrazinamidase enzyme (PZase). Despite the emergence of PZA drug resistance, the underlying mechanisms of resistance remain unclear. This study investigated part of these mechanisms by modelling a PZA-bound wild type and 82 mutant PZase structures before applying molecular dynamics (MD) with an accurate Fe2+ cofactor coordination geometry.
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  • Date Issued: 2020

Electricity use behaviour in a high-income neighbourhood in Johannesburg, South Africa:

  • Authors: Williams, Stephanie P , Thondhlana, Gladman , Kua, Harn W
  • Date: 2020
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/149725 , vital:38878 , https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114571
  • Description: Worldwide, households’ consumption of electricity contributes to a substantial proportion of total national energy demand. Thus, the residential sector is a major entity in efforts to define and achieve global sustainability goals. Understanding electricity use behaviour and factors underlying behaviour is critical for designing behaviour change interventions, particularly in contexts characterised by fast-growing economies, burgeoning number of high-income households, and consumption growth. However, relative to developed economies, very little is known on this subject in South Africa. Using structured questionnaires, this study examines electricity use behaviour among high-income households in Johannesburg, South Africa.
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  • Date Issued: 2020

Foraging wild food in urban spaces: The contribution of wild foods to urban dietary diversity in South Africa

  • Authors: Garekae, Hesekia , Shackleton, Charlie M
  • Date: 2020
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/176368 , vital:42688 , https://doi.org/10.3390/su12020678
  • Description: Globally, approximately one billion people benefit from contributions of wild foods to their food security and dietary diversity. Wild foods are known to be important in rural communities in terms of food and micronutrient provision, diversifying diets, reducing vulnerability to non-communicable diseases and overall health. However, the potential contribution of wild foods towards food security and dietary diversity in urban food systems has been largely overlooked. This study examined the contribution of wild foods to household dietary diversity in two towns in South Africa, based on a survey of 137 households.
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  • Date Issued: 2020

STIP1/HOP regulates the actin cytoskeleton through interactions with actin and changes in actin-binding proteins cofilin and profilin:

  • Authors: Beckley, Samantha Joy , Hunter, Morgan C , Kituyi, Sarah N , Wingate, Ianthe , Chakraborty, Abantika , Schwarz, Kelly , Makhubu, Matodzi P , Rousseau, Robert P , Ruck, Duncan K , de la Mare, Jo-Anne , Blatch, Gregory L , Edkins, Adrienne L
  • Date: 2020
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/165373 , vital:41238 , https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21093152
  • Description: Cell migration plays a vital role in both health and disease. It is driven by reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton, which is regulated by actin-binding proteins cofilin and profilin. Stress-inducible phosphoprotein 1 (STIP1) is a well-described co-chaperone of the Hsp90 chaperone system, and our findings identify a potential regulatory role of STIP1 in actin dynamics. We show that STIP1 can be isolated in complex with actin and Hsp90 from HEK293T cells and directly interacts with actin in vitro via the C-terminal TPR2AB-DP2 domain of STIP1, potentially due to a region spanning two putative actin-binding motifs. We found that STIP1 could stimulate the in vitro ATPase activity of actin, suggesting a potential role in the modulation of F-actin formation. Interestingly, while STIP1 depletion in HEK293T cells had no major effect on total actin levels, it led to increased nuclear accumulation of actin, disorganization of F-actin structures, and an increase and decrease in cofilin and profilin levels, respectively. This study suggests that STIP1 regulates the cytoskeleton by interacting with actin, or via regulating the ratio of proteins known to affect actin dynamics.
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  • Date Issued: 2020

The small pelagic fishery of the Pemba Channel, Tanzania: what we know and what we need to know for management under climate change

Transitions from rural contexts to and through higher education in South Africa: negotiating misrecognition

  • Authors: Mgqwashu, Emmanuel M , Timmis, Sue , de Wet, Thea , Madondo, Nkosinathi Emmanuel
  • Date: 2020
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/148435 , vital:38739 , DOI:10.1080/03057925.2020.1763165
  • Description: This paper reports on an international collaborative study that investigated how students from rural contexts negotiate the transition to university, and how prior cultural and educational experiences influence their higher education trajectories. A qualitative, participatory methodology was adopted, centred on co-researcher narratives, digital artefacts and discussions. Findings demonstrate how family and community, including religious, study, and self-help groups, influenced their transitions into higher education and journey through university and to their identities, agency and sense of belonging. The paper argues that university practices, values and norms need to acknowledge and incorporate all students’ prior experiences and histories and recognise their powerful contribution in working towards a decolonial higher education.
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  • Date Issued: 2020

Food taboos and cultural beliefs influence food choice and dietary preferences among pregnant women in the eastern cape, South Africa

  • Authors: Chakona, Gamuchirai , Shackleton, Charlie M
  • Date: 2019
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/177444 , vital:42822 , https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11112668
  • Description: A well-nourished and healthy population is a central tenet of sustainable development. In South Africa, cultural beliefs and food taboos followed by some pregnant women influence their food consumption, which impacts the health of mothers and children during pregnancy and immediately afterwards. We documented food taboos and beliefs amongst pregnant isiXhosa women from five communities in the Kat River Valley, South Africa. A mixed-methods approach was used, which was comprised of questionnaire interviews with 224 women and nine focus group discussions with 94 participants.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Narrating Whales in Southern Africa

  • Authors: Wylie, Dan
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/458117 , vital:75717 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-173420664c
  • Description: Though the whaling stations on the South African coast are now closed, whaling in the southern oceans, both ‘illegal’ and ‘scientific’, continues to be a matter of controversy. Exploitation clashes in complex ways with whale-watching as a touristic activity, now a major drawcard to South Africa’s coastline. It appears no thorough survey of the history and sociology of whaling has yet been written, nor of the progression of those emotional investments in the presence of whales that drive animal rights programmes and tourism alike. Such literature on whales as exists in southern Africa throws interesting sidelights on this presence. This article explores the issues through such literary works as Douglas Livingstone’s poetry and the fictions of Laurens Van Der Post, Zakes Mda, Lyall Watson and Mia Couto.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Action for increasing energy-saving behaviour in student residences at Rhodes University, South Africa

  • Authors: Ancha, Angel , Bulunga, Lindelwa , Thondhlana, Gladman
  • Date: 2018
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67801 , vital:29146 , https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-07-2017-0107
  • Description: Publisher version , Purpose: In response to increasing energy demand and financial constraints to invest in green infrastructure, behaviour change energy-saving interventions are increasingly being considered as a tool for encouraging pro-environmental behaviour in campus residences. This paper aims to report on a pilot programme aimed at reducing energy consumption via behaviour change interventions, variably applied in residences at Rhodes University, South Africa. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected via structured questionnaires, energy consumption records and post-intervention programme focus group discussions. Findings: Participant residences that received a mix of different interventions in the forms of pamphlets, face-to-face discussions, incentives and feedback recorded more energy reductions of up to 9 per cent than residences that received a single or no intervention. In post-experiment discussions, students cited personal, institutional and structural barriers to pro-environmental energy-use behaviour. Practical implications: Overall, the results of this study suggest that information provision of energy-saving tips combined with regular feedback and incentives can result in energy-use reductions in university residences, which may yield environmental and economic benefits for universities, but addressing barriers to pro-environmental behaviour might maximise the results. Originality/value: Given the lack of literature on energy conservation in the global South universities, this study provides the basis for discussing the potential for using behavioural interventions in universities for stirring pathways towards sustainability.
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  • Date Issued: 2018

Global trends of local ecological knowledge and future implications

  • Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Lemahieu, Anne , Sauer, Warwick H H
  • Date: 2018
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/70504 , vital:29668 , https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195440
  • Description: Local and indigenous knowledge is being transformed globally, particularly being eroded when pertaining to ecology. In many parts of the world, rural and indigenous communities are facing tremendous cultural, economic and environmental changes, which contribute to weaken their local knowledge base. In the face of profound and ongoing environmental changes, both cultural and biological diversity are likely to be severely impacted as well as local resilience capacities from this loss. In this global literature review, we analyse the drivers of various types of local and indigenous ecological knowledge transformation and assess the directionality of the reported change. Results of this analysis show a global impoverishment of local and indigenous knowledge with 77% of papers reporting the loss of knowledge driven by globalization, modernization, and market integration. The recording of this loss, however, is not symmetrical, with losses being recorded more strongly in medicinal and ethnobotanical knowledge. Persistence of knowledge (15% of the studies) occurred in studies where traditional practices were being maintained consiously and where hybrid knowledge was being produced as a resut of certain types of incentives created by economic development. This review provides some insights into local and indigenous ecological knowledge change, its causes and implications, and recommends venues for the development of replicable and comparative research. The larger implication of these results is that because of the interconnection between cultural and biological diversity, the loss of local and indigenous knowledge is likely to critically threaten effective conservation of biodiversity, particularly in community-based conservation local efforts.
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  • Date Issued: 2018

“Having it all”?’: ”?:(re) examining conspicuous consumption and pernicious masculinities in South African chick-lit

  • Authors: Spencer, Lynda G
  • Date: 2018
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/138798 , vital:37673 , https://0-hdl.handle.net.wam.seals.ac.za/10520/EJC-13f7e3010
  • Description: A number of South African women writers have taken up chick-lit as a form of writing that enables them to reflect on the experiences of the modern woman in post-apartheid South Africa. The protagonists portrayed in chick-lit narratives occupy ambiguous positions: they may have benefitted from feminist politics, which has opened new possibilities for them; however, underlying this emancipation is an implicit collusion with patriarchy. Chick-lit refuses to offer a clear-cut construct of women’s lives; instead, it suggests a problematic terrain that is inherently ambiguous and contradictory, simultaneously empowering and oppressing women. It depicts a realistic world where contemporary women critique patriarchy and attempt to break free of its stranglehold by finding new methods of self-realisation. In this article, I argue that as a genre chick-lit offers a space of recognition and reflection for women who share a similar world view and emotional knowledge that stems from a common historical experience.
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  • Date Issued: 2018

"The man can use that power", "she got courage" and "inimba": discursive resources in counsellors' talk of intimate partner violence: implications for practice

  • Authors: Fleischack, Anne , Macleod, Catriona I , Böhmke, Werner
  • Date: 2017
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67498 , vital:29103 , http://dx.doi.org/10.15270/52-2-550
  • Description: Publisher version , Given the high rate of intimate partner violence (IPV), understanding how counsellors talk about IPV and their interventions is important. The authors conducted narrative interviews with eight counsellors from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working with IPV. Using narrative-discursive methodology, this qualitative study paid attention to the discursive resources that the participants drew upon. Two broad clusters of discursive resources and one contradictory (‘nurturing femininity’) discourse emerged. The first cluster engenders a sense of helplessness in the face of overwhelming power relations; the second enables the counsellors to foresee positive outcomes for their counselling. Implications for counselling include emphasising enabling discourses, highlighting multiplicities of gender, and wider-scale interventions.
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  • Date Issued: 2017

African transnationalism in China: at the interface of local, transnational, bilateral and multilateral responses

  • Authors: Bischoff, Paul, 1954-
  • Date: 2017
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/161522 , vital:40635 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1177/0021909615623809
  • Description: The growing presence of a diversifying group of Africans in China raises broader issues of their status and permanence. The politics associated with African transnationalism in China are evident in Chinese and African government responses and the transnational African voice. This article looks at facets of an African transnational presence and some key responses at a local, international and transnational level to suggest an evolving state of Sino-African relations in which African multilateralism and the transnational African actor play a greater part.
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  • Date Issued: 2017

Assessing the status of biological control as a management tool for suppression of invasive alien plants in South Africa

  • Authors: Zachariades, Costas , Paterson, Iain D , Strathie, Lorraine W , Hill, Martin P , van Wilgen, Brian W
  • Date: 2017
  • Language: English
  • Type: article , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59762 , vital:27646 , https://doi.org/10.4102/abc.v47i2.2142
  • Description: Biological control of invasive alien plant (IAP) species is the use of introduced, highly selective natural enemies (usually herbivorous arthropods or pathogens) to control plants. It has been used in 130 countries as a valuable tool for the control of IAP species, with a total of over 550 biological control agents having been released (Winston et al. 2014). The benefits of biological control to natural ecosystems are significant (Van Driesch et al. 2010), with some specific examples of threatened indigenous species being protected by the action of biological control agents (Barton et al. 2007; Meyer, Fourdrigniez & Taputuarai 2011). Detailed analyses of programmes on biological control of IAPs have also clearly indicated that the risks of non-target effects from biological control agents are minimal (Fowler, Syrett & Hill 2000; Funasaki et al. 1988; Moran & Hoffmann 2015; Paynter et al. 2004; Pemberton 2000; Suckling & Sforza 2014). Less than 1% of all the agents released have a negative impact on non-target plant populations, and those that do could have been predicted to do so, and would not be released today (Suckling & Sforza 2014).
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  • Date Issued: 2017

Efficiency of wastewater treatment by a mixture of sludge and microalgae

  • Authors: Khaldi, H , Maatoug, Mhamed , Dube, Cyril S , Ncube, M , Tandlich, Roman , Heilmeier, Hermann , Laubscher, Richard K , Dellal, A
  • Date: 2017
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76161 , vital:30515 , http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jfas.v9i3.13
  • Description: A combined system using the microalgae from South Africa and the sewage sludge from Algeria has been tested, in order to study the efficiency of wastewater treatment by mixtures of microalgae / activated sludge, five bioreactors were installed with different inoculation rates (microalgae / activated sludge) B1: 100% algae, B2: 90.90%: 9.1%, B3: 83.33%: 16.67%, B4: 50%: 50% and B5: 16.67: 83.33. The best removal percentages were measured as: 76.36% for PO4-P, 94.90% for NO3-N, 90.42% for NH4-N and 65.73% for COD, in the combined system. Except in the case of COD, there were highly significant effects of different inoculations rates on yield. The best results are those of the bioreactor B5. These results suggest that the nutrients in the wastewater can be effectively eliminated by co-cultivation of micro-algae with bacteria (activated sludge).
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  • Date Issued: 2017

How has trade between South Africa and China evolved over the past decade?

  • Authors: Mutambara, Tsitsi E
  • Date: 2017
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/477809 , vital:78126 , https://doi.org/10.1080/19186444.2017.1326721
  • Description: China is now South Africa’s significant trading partner, so it is important to examine how the resulting trade benefits compare with those from South Africa’s long standing traditional trading partners. South Africa’s trade with its long standing traditional partners and with China is examined by analysing the factor intensities of goods traded; trade intensity with each country; ease of market access of its products; and intra-industry trade opportunities. Results show that South Africa continues to benefit more from trade with its long standing trading partners than it does with China. Trade with China merely provides South Africa a market mainly for non-fuel primary commodities, while the traditional trading partners provide markets for both low value and high value added products and opportunities for intra-industry trade. This is essential for innovation and technology spillovers both of which are essential to help South Africa to develop its manufacturing base further.
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  • Date Issued: 2017

IsiXhosa dictionaries, language learning and intercultural communication

  • Authors: Nkomo, Dion
  • Date: 2017
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book chapter
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/468283 , vital:77039 , ISBN 9781776140275 , https://muse.jhu.edu/book/52741
  • Description: To date, there has been no published textbook which takes into account changing sociolinguistic dynamics that have influenced South African society. Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication breaks new ground in this arena. Its scope ranges from macro-sociolinguistic questions pertaining to language policies and their implementation (or non-implementation), to micro-sociolinguistic observations of actual language-use in verbal interaction, mainly in multilingual contexts of Higher Education (HE). There is a gradual move for the study of language and culture to be taught in the context of (professional) disciplines in which they would be used, such as Journalism and African languages, Education and African languages, etc. The book caters for this growing market. Because of its multilingual nature, it caters to English and Afrikaans language speakers, as well as the Sotho and Nguni language groups. It brings together various inter-linked disciplines such as Sociolinguistics and Applied Language Studies, Media Studies and Journalism, History and Education, Social and Natural Sciences, Law, Human Language Technology, Music, Intercultural Communication and Literary Studies. The unique cross-cutting disciplinary features of the book will make it a must-have for twenty-first century South African students and scholars and those interested in applied language issues.
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  • Date Issued: 2017

Secrets, lies and redemption:

  • Authors: Boshoff, Priscilla A , Prinsloo, Jeanne
  • Date: 2017
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143381 , vital:38241 , DOI: 10.1080/00020184.2017.1285671
  • Description: Confession is a central disciplining technology deployed in the second series of Intersexions, a popular South African TV series that seeks to change sexual and social behaviours that contribute to the risk of HIV infection. The article considers the ‘edu’ part of this edutainment programme, specifically with the nature of the lessons and with the form of ‘disciplining’ the narratives presuppose for gendered and sexual subjects. Central to this critical and constructivist exploration of the gender relationships that are validated and expurgated are Foucault’s notions of discourse and confession as a technology of self. We argue that the series presents a range of different gendered and sexual subjectivities but implicitly endorses a modern subjectivity and transformation at the level of the individual.
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  • Date Issued: 2017
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