Assessment of potential anti-cancer stem cell activity of marine algal compounds using an in vitro mammosphere assay:
- de la Mare, Jo-Anne, Sterrenberg, Jason N, Sukhthankar, Mugdha G, Chiwakata, Maynard T, Beukes, Denzil R, Blatch, Gregory L, Edkins, Adrienne L
- Authors: de la Mare, Jo-Anne , Sterrenberg, Jason N , Sukhthankar, Mugdha G , Chiwakata, Maynard T , Beukes, Denzil R , Blatch, Gregory L , Edkins, Adrienne L
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/165184 , vital:41216 , DOI: 10.1186/1475-2867-13-39
- Description: The cancer stem cell (CSC) theory proposes that tumours arise from and are sustained by a subpopulation of cells with both cancer and stem cell properties. One of the key hallmarks of CSCs is the ability to grow anchorage-independently under serum-free culture conditions resulting in the formation of tumourspheres. It has further been reported that these cells are resistant to traditional chemotherapeutic agents.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: de la Mare, Jo-Anne , Sterrenberg, Jason N , Sukhthankar, Mugdha G , Chiwakata, Maynard T , Beukes, Denzil R , Blatch, Gregory L , Edkins, Adrienne L
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/165184 , vital:41216 , DOI: 10.1186/1475-2867-13-39
- Description: The cancer stem cell (CSC) theory proposes that tumours arise from and are sustained by a subpopulation of cells with both cancer and stem cell properties. One of the key hallmarks of CSCs is the ability to grow anchorage-independently under serum-free culture conditions resulting in the formation of tumourspheres. It has further been reported that these cells are resistant to traditional chemotherapeutic agents.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Beyond the threshold: explorations of liminality in literature. A book review
- Authors: Dass, Minesh
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142520 , vital:38087 , DOI: 10.1080/10131752.2013.783395
- Description: Beyond the Threshold: Explorations of Liminality in Literature, an edited collection of essays, is the culmination of research project on liminality done under the title “Poetics of boundaries and Hybridity”. This venture was undertaken in what is now known as the Research Unit Languages and Literature in the South African Context at North-West University. Some of the articles were initially presented at a conference on “Hybridity, Liminality and Boundaries” which was held in Potchefstroom from 30 June to 2 July 2005. Furthermore, shorter versions of some chapters have already been published in a special edition of Literator (Vol. 27. 1).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Dass, Minesh
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142520 , vital:38087 , DOI: 10.1080/10131752.2013.783395
- Description: Beyond the Threshold: Explorations of Liminality in Literature, an edited collection of essays, is the culmination of research project on liminality done under the title “Poetics of boundaries and Hybridity”. This venture was undertaken in what is now known as the Research Unit Languages and Literature in the South African Context at North-West University. Some of the articles were initially presented at a conference on “Hybridity, Liminality and Boundaries” which was held in Potchefstroom from 30 June to 2 July 2005. Furthermore, shorter versions of some chapters have already been published in a special edition of Literator (Vol. 27. 1).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Consistencies far beyond chance: an analysis of learner preconceptions of reflective symmetry
- Mhlolo, Michael K, Schäfer, Marc
- Authors: Mhlolo, Michael K , Schäfer, Marc
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141139 , vital:37947 , DOI: 10.15700/saje.v33n2a686
- Description: This article reports on regularities observed in learners’ preconceptions of reflective symmetry. Literature suggests that the very existence of such regularities indicates a gap between what learners know and what they need to know. Such a gap inhibits further understanding and application, and hence needed to be investigated. A total of 235 Grade 11 learners, from 13 high schools that participate in the First Rand Foundation-funded Mathematics Education project in the Eastern Cape, responded to a task on reflective symmetry. Our framework for analysing the responses was based on the taxonomy of structure of the observed learning outcome. The results indicated that 85% of learner responses reflect a motion understanding of reflections, where learners considered geometric figures as physical motions on top of the plane. While this understanding is useful in some cases, it is not an essential aspect of mapping understanding, which is critical for application in function notations and other analytical geometry contexts. We suggest that if this gap is to be closed, learners need to construct these reflections physically so that they may think of reflections beyond motion.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Mhlolo, Michael K , Schäfer, Marc
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141139 , vital:37947 , DOI: 10.15700/saje.v33n2a686
- Description: This article reports on regularities observed in learners’ preconceptions of reflective symmetry. Literature suggests that the very existence of such regularities indicates a gap between what learners know and what they need to know. Such a gap inhibits further understanding and application, and hence needed to be investigated. A total of 235 Grade 11 learners, from 13 high schools that participate in the First Rand Foundation-funded Mathematics Education project in the Eastern Cape, responded to a task on reflective symmetry. Our framework for analysing the responses was based on the taxonomy of structure of the observed learning outcome. The results indicated that 85% of learner responses reflect a motion understanding of reflections, where learners considered geometric figures as physical motions on top of the plane. While this understanding is useful in some cases, it is not an essential aspect of mapping understanding, which is critical for application in function notations and other analytical geometry contexts. We suggest that if this gap is to be closed, learners need to construct these reflections physically so that they may think of reflections beyond motion.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Inkcubeko Nendalo: a bio-cultural diversity schools education project in South Africa and its implications for inclusive Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Sustainability.
- Cocks, Michelle L, Alexander, Jamie K, Dold, Anthony P
- Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Alexander, Jamie K , Dold, Anthony P
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141187 , vital:37951 , DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475232
- Description: South Africa is currently the world’s third most biodiverse country, with one of the highest concentrations of threatened biodiversity in the world. Emerging research reveals the increasing pressure on this biodiversity with many wild resources continuing to be utilised for livelihood purposes even within urban environments. The Rio conventions, particularly the CBD, call for an integrated approach to conservation that incorporates local environmental knowledge and practices. In a bid to market itself as globally competitive, South Africa’s Curriculum 2005 (C 2005) is primarily focused on Western-based scientific knowledge, which sidelines the contribution of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) and ignores the holistic nature of indigenous worldviews. The Inkcubeko Nendalo programme is designed to revitalise cultural identity, showing children the value of local indigenous knowledge and cultural environmental values.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Alexander, Jamie K , Dold, Anthony P
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141187 , vital:37951 , DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475232
- Description: South Africa is currently the world’s third most biodiverse country, with one of the highest concentrations of threatened biodiversity in the world. Emerging research reveals the increasing pressure on this biodiversity with many wild resources continuing to be utilised for livelihood purposes even within urban environments. The Rio conventions, particularly the CBD, call for an integrated approach to conservation that incorporates local environmental knowledge and practices. In a bid to market itself as globally competitive, South Africa’s Curriculum 2005 (C 2005) is primarily focused on Western-based scientific knowledge, which sidelines the contribution of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) and ignores the holistic nature of indigenous worldviews. The Inkcubeko Nendalo programme is designed to revitalise cultural identity, showing children the value of local indigenous knowledge and cultural environmental values.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Perceptions of fortune and misfortune in older South African households: social assistance and the ‘Good Life’
- Moller, Valerie, Radloff, Sarah E
- Authors: Moller, Valerie , Radloff, Sarah E
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67165 , vital:29043 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0026-8
- Description: publisher version , It is commonly assumed that better living standards will boost subjective well-being. The post-apartheid South African government subscribes to this idea; its social policies aim to provide ‘a better life for all’. Since the coming of democracy in 1994, the state has built over 3 million houses and supplied electricity and clean water to poor households. By 2009, an estimated 43 % of households were beneficiaries of social grants. The question is whether this investment in services and social assistance translates into higher well-being of citizens. It is argued that older people’s experience of positive change in their life circumstances can be taken as a litmus test of progress in society. The paper reports results of a sample survey conducted in 2009 that inquired into the living circumstances and well-being of 1,000 older low-income households in two provinces linked by a labour migration route. Older households were defined as ones with a member 55 years and older. The sample was drawn among three approximately equal-sized subgroups: Rural black households in the former ‘homelands’ of the Eastern Cape Province, and black and coloured households in Cape Town in the Western Cape Province. The majority of the households in the survey had been interviewed in an earlier survey conducted in late 2002. Both material and non-material changes had occurred in the household situation over the 6-year period between 2002 and 2009. Access to housing and infrastructure had improved but financial difficulties and debts continued to plague many of the surveyed households. Rural black households appeared to be worst off among the three categories of older households with the lowest level of living; coloured households best situated with the highest level of living. Urban black households, many of whom were immigrants to Cape Town, appeared to have experienced the greatest fluctuations in their material circumstances between 2002 and 2009 and a mix of fortune and misfortune. Results indicated that social grants, which provided a modicum of financial security and peace of mind, made the crucial difference between fortune and misfortune for vulnerable households. Securing a social pension and other grants appeared to be the main route to good fortune for the rural households in the study. Households in Cape Town required wage income in addition to grant income to get by in the city. This mix of income sources diluted urban households’ dependence on social assistance. Regression model results suggest that income and financial security play a significantly more important role in boosting the well-being of low-income older households than access to services. Pooling of income, a common practice in pensioner households, contributed significantly to household satisfaction.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Moller, Valerie , Radloff, Sarah E
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67165 , vital:29043 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0026-8
- Description: publisher version , It is commonly assumed that better living standards will boost subjective well-being. The post-apartheid South African government subscribes to this idea; its social policies aim to provide ‘a better life for all’. Since the coming of democracy in 1994, the state has built over 3 million houses and supplied electricity and clean water to poor households. By 2009, an estimated 43 % of households were beneficiaries of social grants. The question is whether this investment in services and social assistance translates into higher well-being of citizens. It is argued that older people’s experience of positive change in their life circumstances can be taken as a litmus test of progress in society. The paper reports results of a sample survey conducted in 2009 that inquired into the living circumstances and well-being of 1,000 older low-income households in two provinces linked by a labour migration route. Older households were defined as ones with a member 55 years and older. The sample was drawn among three approximately equal-sized subgroups: Rural black households in the former ‘homelands’ of the Eastern Cape Province, and black and coloured households in Cape Town in the Western Cape Province. The majority of the households in the survey had been interviewed in an earlier survey conducted in late 2002. Both material and non-material changes had occurred in the household situation over the 6-year period between 2002 and 2009. Access to housing and infrastructure had improved but financial difficulties and debts continued to plague many of the surveyed households. Rural black households appeared to be worst off among the three categories of older households with the lowest level of living; coloured households best situated with the highest level of living. Urban black households, many of whom were immigrants to Cape Town, appeared to have experienced the greatest fluctuations in their material circumstances between 2002 and 2009 and a mix of fortune and misfortune. Results indicated that social grants, which provided a modicum of financial security and peace of mind, made the crucial difference between fortune and misfortune for vulnerable households. Securing a social pension and other grants appeared to be the main route to good fortune for the rural households in the study. Households in Cape Town required wage income in addition to grant income to get by in the city. This mix of income sources diluted urban households’ dependence on social assistance. Regression model results suggest that income and financial security play a significantly more important role in boosting the well-being of low-income older households than access to services. Pooling of income, a common practice in pensioner households, contributed significantly to household satisfaction.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2013
Versions of hospitality in recent writing on the fiction of JM Coetzee:
- Authors: Marais, Mike
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144039 , vital:38305 , DOI: 10.4314/eia.v40i1.8
- Description: In one of the interviews in Summertime, Martin, a former colleague, claims that he and the deceased John Coetzee felt their "presence" in South Africa "was legal but illegitimate," that it "was grounded in a crime, namely colonial conquest," which rendered them "sojourners, temporary residents, and to that extent without a home, without a homeland" (209-10). With this statement in mind, Maria J. Lopez argues that a sense of unbelonging underlies J. M. Coetzee's entire oeuvre, including the Australian fiction, and forms a kind of "imaginative and intellectual masterplot" (xii). ). It is this "narrative" that she traces in her monograph, starting with the early fiction and concluding with chapters on the fictionalised autobiographies and Australian fiction.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Marais, Mike
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144039 , vital:38305 , DOI: 10.4314/eia.v40i1.8
- Description: In one of the interviews in Summertime, Martin, a former colleague, claims that he and the deceased John Coetzee felt their "presence" in South Africa "was legal but illegitimate," that it "was grounded in a crime, namely colonial conquest," which rendered them "sojourners, temporary residents, and to that extent without a home, without a homeland" (209-10). With this statement in mind, Maria J. Lopez argues that a sense of unbelonging underlies J. M. Coetzee's entire oeuvre, including the Australian fiction, and forms a kind of "imaginative and intellectual masterplot" (xii). ). It is this "narrative" that she traces in her monograph, starting with the early fiction and concluding with chapters on the fictionalised autobiographies and Australian fiction.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Of science and small things: recollections of the past twenty(-)odd years
- Authors: Botha, J. R
- Subjects: Nanoscience , Nanotechnology , f-sa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Lectures
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/20867 , vital:29409
- Description: I will start, therefore, with an overview of achievements in a “new” field of endeavour, a science of small things, popularly called nanoscience, and its spin-off called nanotechnology. I will present a brief history, look at the approaches that have been followed by scientists and engineers to develop and understand small things, and summarise some of the benefits to society in terms of new materials and processes, energy storage and generation, electronics, environmental applications, medicine and transportation. Since our own research focuses on the development on semiconductors, I will conclude the scientific part of the presentation by considering the contribution of semiconductors to the development of nanotechnology and highlight a few examples from our own research during the past two decades on the development of nano-scale semiconductor structures, like nanorods, quantum wells and superlattices.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Botha, J. R
- Subjects: Nanoscience , Nanotechnology , f-sa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Lectures
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/20867 , vital:29409
- Description: I will start, therefore, with an overview of achievements in a “new” field of endeavour, a science of small things, popularly called nanoscience, and its spin-off called nanotechnology. I will present a brief history, look at the approaches that have been followed by scientists and engineers to develop and understand small things, and summarise some of the benefits to society in terms of new materials and processes, energy storage and generation, electronics, environmental applications, medicine and transportation. Since our own research focuses on the development on semiconductors, I will conclude the scientific part of the presentation by considering the contribution of semiconductors to the development of nanotechnology and highlight a few examples from our own research during the past two decades on the development of nano-scale semiconductor structures, like nanorods, quantum wells and superlattices.
- Full Text:
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