Teacher as learner: a personal reflection on a short course for South African university educators

Higher education is understood to play a critical role in ongoing processes of social transformation in post-apartheid South Africa through the production of graduates who are critical and engaged citizens. A key challenge is that institutions of higher education are themselves implicated in reproducing the very hierarchies they hope to transform. In this paper, I reflect critically on my experiences of a course aimed at transforming teaching through transforming teachers. In this paper, I foreground my own positionality as a white female educator as I draw on feminist theorising to reflect on my experiences as a learner in the Community, Self and Identity course. I suggest that we need to teach in ways that are more cognisant of the complexities of the constraints on personal freedom in the past if we are to contribute to the development of social justice in the future.IS

Micro-Raman study of crichtonite group minerals enclosed into mantle garnet

We report the first comprehensive micro-Raman study of crichtonite group minerals (CGM) as inclusions in pyropic garnet grains from peridotite and pyroxenite mantle xenoliths of the Yakutian kimberlites as well as in garnet xenocrysts from the Aldan shield lamprophyres (Russia). The CGM form (i) morphologically oriented needles, lamellae, and short prisms and (ii) optically unoriented subhedral to euhedral grains, either single or intergrown with other minerals. We considered common mantle-derived CGM species (like loveringite, lindsleyite, and their analogues), with Ca, Ba, or Sr dominating in the dodecahedral A site and Zr or Fe in the octahedral B site. The Raman bands at the region of 600–830 cm−1 are indicative of CGM and their crystal-chemical distinction, although the intensity and shape of the bands appear to be dependent on laser beam power and wavelength. The factor-group analysis based on the loveringite crystal structure showed the octahedral and tetrahedral cation groups with 18f and 6c Wyckoff positions, namely, dominantly TiO6 and to a lower extent CrO6, MgO4, and FeO4 groups, to be the major contributors to the Raman spectral features. The ionic groups with dodecahedral (M0) and octahedral (M1) coordination are inactive for Raman scattering while active in infrared absorption. A number of observed Raman modes in the CGM spectra are several times lower than that predicted by the factor group analysis. The noticed broadening of modes in the CGM Raman spectra may result from a combining of bands at the narrow frequency shift regions. Solid solution behavior, luminescence, and partial metamictization of the CGM may exert additional influence on the Raman band shape. The Raman spectral features showed CGM to be accurately identified and distinguished from other Ti-, Fe-, Cr-, and Zr-containing oxides (e.g., ilmenite or those of spinel and magnetoplumbite groups) occurring as accessory mantle minerals. © 2020 The Authors. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy published by John Wiley & Sons LtdRussian Science Foundation, RSF: 18‐77‐10062Council on grants of the President of the Russian FederationThis study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Grant 18‐77‐10062). The equipment of the Ural Center for Shared Use «Modern Nanotechnology», Ural Federal University, and the Analytical Center for Multi‐elemental and Isotope Research, IGM, was used. Sampling was supported by the Russian Federation state assignment project of IGM. We are grateful to Nikolai V. Sobolev for Samples O‐173, O‐39, and O‐264. Vladimir N. Korolyuk, Elena N. Nigmatulina (IGM), and Allan Patchen (UT) are highly appreciated for the help with EMP analyses. We express our sincere thanks to F. Nestola and an anonymous reviewer for their thorough reviews and helpful suggestions, and to C. Marshall for regardful editorial handling of the manuscript on every stage of its revision

Multistage and transmission-blocking targeted antimalarials discovered from the open-source MMV Pandemic Response Box

Chemical matter is needed to target the divergent biology associated with the different life cycle stages of Plasmodium. Here, we report the parallel de novo screening of the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) Pandemic Response Box against Plasmodium asexual and liver stage parasites, stage IV/V gametocytes, gametes, oocysts and as endectocides. Unique chemotypes were identified with both multistage activity or stage-specific activity, including structurally diverse gametocyte-targeted compounds with potent transmission-blocking activity, such as the JmjC inhibitor ML324 and the antitubercular clinical candidate SQ109. Mechanistic investigations prove that ML324 prevents histone demethylation, resulting in aberrant gene expression and death in gametocytes. Moreover, the selection of parasites resistant to SQ109 implicates the druggable V-type H+-ATPase for the reduced sensitivity. Our data therefore provides an expansive dataset of compounds that could be redirected for antimalarial development and also point towards proteins that can be targeted in multiple parasite life cycle stages.Supplementary Data 1: Data of the supra-hexagonal plot in Figure 2ASupplementary Data 2: Complete dataset of all MMV PRB compounds’ activity on Plasmodium life cycle stagesSupplementary Data 3: Full SMFA dataset to support Figure 5CSupplementary Data 4: Transcriptome analysis of MMV1580488 (ML324) treated parasites to support Figure 6C.The Medicines for Malaria Venture and South African Technology Innovation Agency (TIA). This project was in part supported by the South African Medical Research Council with funds received from the South African Department of Science and Innovation, in partnership with the Medicines for Malaria Venture; and the DST/NRF South African Research Chairs Initiative Grant; and CSIR Parliamentary Grant funding as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Australian NHMRC (APP1072217).http://www.nature.com/ncommshj2021BiochemistryGeneticsMicrobiology and Plant PathologyUP Centre for Sustainable Malaria Control (UP CSMC

Public Faith and the Politics of Faith: A Review Essay

A symposium entitled In the Presence of Faith: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Southern African Studies of Religion was held in Johannesburg from 24 to 26 February 2010.1 This review essay outlines our rationale for the symposium, highlights its most pressing debates, and introduces the papers included in this special edition of the Journal for the Study of Religion, an edition entitled Public Faith and the Politics of Faith

A laterally extensive geochemical discontinuity in the subcontinental Gondwana Lithosphere

Cox et al. (1967) first delineated the existence of two major geochemical provinces in the Karoo basalts of southern Africa. Tholeiitic basalts in Zimbabwe are highly enriched in incompatible trace elements and constitute the "northern province". In contrast, basalts from Lesotho and from the southern segment of the Lebombo monocline have lower or “normal” abundances of these elements and were regarded as a "southern province'. Recent work has established that this change in composition takes place relatively rapidly in the Central Lebombo