Quantifying the energy needs of the transport sector for South Africa: a bottom-up model

Transport is a large consumer of energy in South Africa and vital for economic development. Currently the transport sector consumes 28% of final energy, the bulk of which, 97%, is in the form of liquid fuels. As the population grows and becomes wealthier, so the demand for passenger transport and private vehicles increases; similarly, rising GDP drives the demand for freight transport. Supply interruptions are costly to the economy and careful long‐term planning is required to ensure that there is sufficient infrastructure to support the efficient functioning and growth of the transport sector in the future

A genome-integrated massively parallel reporter assay reveals DNA sequence determinants of cis-regulatory activity in neural cells

Recent large-scale genomics efforts to characterize the cis-regulatory sequences that orchestrate genome-wide expression patterns have produced impressive catalogues of putative regulatory elements. Most of these sequences have not been functionally tested, and our limited understanding of the non-coding genome prevents us from predicting which sequences are bona fide cis-regulatory elements. Recently, massively parallel reporter assays (MPRAs) have been deployed to measure the activity of putative cis-regulatory sequences in several biological contexts, each with specific advantages and distinct limitations. We developed LV-MPRA, a novel lentiviral-based, massively parallel reporter gene assay, to study the function of genome-integrated regulatory elements in any mammalian cell type; thus, making it possible to apply MPRAs in more biologically relevant contexts. We measured the activity of 2,600 sequences in U87 glioblastoma cells and human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs) and explored how regulatory activity is encoded in DNA sequence. We demonstrate that LV-MPRA can be applied to estimate the effects of local DNA sequence and regional chromatin on regulatory activity. Our data reveal that primary DNA sequence features, such as GC content and dinucleotide composition, accurately distinguish sequences with high activity from sequences with low activity in a full chromosomal context, and may also function in combination with different transcription factor binding sites to determine cell type specificity. We conclude that LV-MPRA will be an important tool for identifying cis-regulatory elements and stimulating new understanding about how the non-coding genome encodes information

Measuring the rebound effect of energy efficiency initiatives for the future: A South African case study

The rebound effect is a phrase which was originally defined to refer to the extent to which energy efficiency improvements are lost due to subsequent behavioural changes. This report documents almost three years of research work that set out to quantify the rebound effect of energy efficiency initiatives in South Africa’s residential sector, and to explore ways of mitigating that effect using awareness and education. Society is in an era where energy commodities are characterised by constrained supply, increasing demand, and higher prices, and where the harmful social and environmental externalities resulting from the conversion of primary into useful energy can no longer be ignored. Part of the solution to the sustainable energy provision and consumption challenge has focused on the technology devices used to convert primary and secondary energy to useful energy that can be used for lighting, water heating, space heating and cooling (and a host of other end-uses). Given that all energy demand can ultimately be traced to the energy required for survival, a study of the residential sector is the natural place to begin

A life cycle assessment of e-books and printed books in South Africa

This paper presents the results of a study comparing the life cycle environmental impacts and cumulative energy demands of reading printed books (print system) with those of reading e-books from an Apple Air iPad (digital system), with a specific focus on production of books and use of both options in South Africa. The two systems were compared using the ReCiPe midpoint and cumulative energy demand methods. The findings, which are consistent with international findings, demonstrate that the print system has lower impacts than the digital system in the impact categories of freshwater eutrophication, freshwater ecotoxicity, marine ecotoxicity and metal depletion, whilst the digital system has lower impacts in the categories of climate change, ozone depletion, terrestrial acidification, marine eutrophication, human toxicity, photochemical oxidant formation, particulate matter formation, terrestrial ecotoxicity, ionising radiation, agricultural land occupation, urban land occupation, natural land transformation, water depletion and fossil depletion. The major processes contributing to energy demand and environmental impacts of the print system were paper production and printing. For the digital system the major contributing processes were the production of the iPad and e-book reading. Coal-based electricity and coal-miningrelated activities featured prominently in both systems, affecting environmental impacts and energy demand of products and services in South Africa. A change in the electricity mix to be less coal-intensive reduced the impacts of both systems. Finally, the products demonstrate that relatively few additional readers result in printed books becoming preferable to e-books in almost all impact categories, suggesting the need to consider housing print books in libraries to reduce their relative environmental impacts

Greenhouse gas emissions from shale gas and coal for electricity generation in South Africa

There is increased interest, both in South Africa and globally, in the use of shale gas for electricity and energy supply. The exploitation of shale gas is, however, not without controversy, because of the reported environmental impacts associated with its extraction. The focus of this article is on the greenhouse gas footprint of shale gas, which some literature suggests may be higher than what would have been expected as a consequence of the contribution of fugitive emissions during extraction, processing and transport. Based on some studies, it has been suggested that life-cycle emissions may be higher than those from coal-fired power. Here we review a number of studies and analyse the data to provide a view of the likely greenhouse gas emissions from producing electricity from shale gas, and compare these emissions to those of coal-fired power in South Africa. Consideration was given to critical assumptions that determine the relative performance of the two sources of feedstock for generating electricity - that is the global warming potential of methane and the extent of fugitive emissions. The present analysis suggests that a 100-year time horizon is appropriate in analysis related to climate change, over which period the relative contribution is lower than for shorter periods. The purpose is to limit temperature increase in the long term and the choice of metric should be appropriate. The analysis indicates that, regardless of the assumptions about fugitive emissions and the period over which global warming potential is assessed, shale gas has lower greenhouse gas emissions per MWh of electricity generated than coal. Depending on various factors, electricity from shale gas would have a specific emissions intensity between 0.3 tCO2/MWh and 0.6 tCO2/MWh, compared with about 1 tCO,/MWh for coal-fired electricity in South Africa

Work related musculoskeletal injuries sustained by Australian osteopaths: Qualitative analysis of effects on practitioner health, clinical practice, and patient care

Background: There is limited literature that explores the experiences of osteopaths injured while engaging in clinical practice. Evidence from other similar health professions has described the numerous effects of work-related musculoskeletal injuries (WRMI). Work-related musculoskeletal injury refers to trauma to joints, ligaments, muscles and tendons resulting from injury sustained while undertaking work duties. This research aimed to gain a contextualised understanding of the experiences of osteopaths who have sustained a work-related musculoskeletal injury while performing clinical practice. Method: This research used a descriptive qualitative design. Participants were recruited as part of a larger cross-sectional study. Thirteen Australian osteopaths who had sustained a work-related musculoskeletal injury consented to participate in semi-structured interviews during May and June 2016. Thematic analysis was used to elicit important themes from the interview transcripts that had been recorded and transcribed verbatim. The qualitative accounts provided by the participants were coded for the impacts of their injuries on work, home life and leisure activities. Results: The participants provided detailed, contextual information about their injuries, including the contributing factors and the experience of living with a WRMI. The findings indicate that injured osteopaths often continue working because of financial commitments and their dedication to patient care. The participants offered insights into the challenges they faced due to the injury and the management strategies they used to deal with the impact on their work and personal life. The injuries were mostly unreported, the burden being carried by the participants and their families. Conclusion: This is the first research that explores the experiences of osteopaths who have sustained a WRMI. We anticipate that this research will encourage a broad and constructive discussion within the profession of the issues associated with WRMIs, including risk minimisation and injury prevention. Further research is warranted to understand the relationship between osteopaths training in ergonomics and injury prevention. This would lead to the development of guidelines and educational curricula addressing safe work for osteopaths. © 2017 The Author(s)

Functional cis-regulatory modules encoded by mouse-specific endogenous retrovirus

Cis-regulatory modules contain multiple transcription factor (TF)-binding sites and integrate the effects of each TF to control gene expression in specific cellular contexts. Transposable elements (TEs) are uniquely equipped to deposit their regulatory sequences across a genome, which could also contain cis-regulatory modules that coordinate the control of multiple genes with the same regulatory logic. We provide the first evidence of mouse-specific TEs that encode a module of TF-binding sites in mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs). The majority (77%) of the individual TEs tested exhibited enhancer activity in mouse ESCs. By mutating individual TF-binding sites within the TE, we identified a module of TF-binding motifs that cooperatively enhanced gene expression. Interestingly, we also observed the same motif module in the in silico constructed ancestral TE that also acted cooperatively to enhance gene expression. Our results suggest that ancestral TE insertions might have brought in cis-regulatory modules into the mouse genome

A techno-economic study of energy efficiency technologies for supermarkets in South Africa

The food retail sector is energy intensive, consuming large amounts of electricity for refrigeration, air-conditioning and cooking. Retailers are aiming to reduce their electricity consumption in supermarkets and thus their carbon footprint using energy efficiency technologies. This paper reports on a techno-economic analysis of energy efficient technologies to recommend to the food retail sector for use in supermarkets. The targets and needs of food retail companies were surveyed and thereafter, the retailers were divided into three categories. Category 1 retailer had the highest targets for electricity and carbon reduction and was willing to take on more risk. Category 2 retailer had intermediate targets and would only use developed technologies, while category 3 retailer would only invest in developed technologies if they were proven to show significant long term saving with short pay back periods. The analysis showed that closed refrigerators had the highest electricity/carbon savings and the highest profit (NPV), followed by heat reclamation from refrigeration. Both these technologies were recommended for category 1 retailers. A combination of heat reclamation, energy efficient lights, fridge curtains, electronic controls for refrigerators and POS power management systems were recommended for category 3 retailers. A combination of the two recommendations was identified for category 2 retailers. Behavioural changes of all staff were identified as important for energy efficiency technologies to work at optimum levels