Verstedeliking in die Kaapstadse Metropolitaanse gebied

Cape Town has been sharply explored lately because of a variety of urban problems. It is therefore the purpose of this article to provide certain basic background information regarding the growth trends of the city. As the oldest urban settlement in South Africa, in 1652, Cape Town had a modest rise to the southern tip of Africa, with the role of shipping provider for ships on the strategic trade route between Europe and the Far East. Initially, the settlement had a strong agricultural character, combined with a military function for the protection of hostile indigenous inhabitants. The location of the fort or castle thus determined the historical core of what the city would grow over time. As other towns have emerged in the surrounding area, Cape Town has also become an administrative 58tel over time from which the. Holland58 and British rulers have exercised control over their sphere of influence. Large scale growth has not been discussed right now. Thus, by 1800, Cape Town had a population of only ± 17,000 people. However, in order to meet the needs of its own inhabitants and surrounding villages, the trade function has already become stronger. It was only after 1900 that the harbor function actually gave real momentum to Cape Town's growth. Of course, this feature was present since Cape Town, but first became a growth stimulus for the opening of the interior through mining and rail networks.*This article is written in Afrikaans

Ruimtelike afbakening van streeksdiensteraadgebiede: Hoe raak dit metropool en platteland

Ineffective administration of local authori­ties is a major problem in the metropolitan areas. Individual municipalities, which should function as part of an integrated whole, operate as independent units. This leads to inadequate financial control, higher costs, unco-ordinated decision­making and fragmented supply of services. In an attempt to address these problems the Regional Services Councils Act of 1985 was introduced. Within this legisla­tion provision is made for a greater degree of co-operation and linking of manage­ment structures. However, the success of this venture depends largely on how these RSC areas are spatially defined. Especial­ly, the towns surrounding metropolitan areas are uncertain about their position. This article, therefore, aims to give an overview as to the meaning and implica­tions that the spatial delimitation criteria to such areas will hold for the RSC-con­cept in general. With these criteria in mind, a hypothetical solution to this problem, as it pertains to Cape Town and the sur­rounding rural settlements, will be offered.*This article is written in Afrikaans

Identifisering van 'n metropolitaanse streek: Ruimtelike interaksie tussen Kaapstad en sy soomgebied

The modern metro­polis is confronted by a variety of problems, prominent among which is inefficient management resulting from organizational fragmentation. With more than 50 local authorities operating independently within the jurisdiction of the Western Cape Regional Services Council, this is an acute local problem. Any artificial spatial delimitation of the Cape Town metropolis which fails to take cognisance of patterns of human behaviour and functional interaction constitutes a futile exercise. This study demarcates a metropolitan region for Cape Town and its periphery using internationally established criteria, as well as a locally developed model. The results show that local interaction patterns and international norms were not taken into account sufficiently in the delimitation of both the Western Cape RSC and the official Guide Plan area for the Cape Town metropolis.*This article is written in Afrikaans.&nbsp

RETIREMENT VILLAGES AND RELATED CARE SERVICES: PERCEPTIONS, PREFERENCES AND NEEDS OF ELDERLY CONSUMERS AND PROVIDERS IN CAPE TOWN

This article describes the findings of a study in the Cape Metropolitan Area and its fringe districts of the perceptions, preferences and needs of elderly persons and the views of housing providers for the elderly regarding retirement housing and related care services. Interviews were conducted with 228 sampled elderly persons in neighbourhoods with a high concentration of the elderly and in selected retirement villages in the study area. The views of experts on retirement housing and role players in the field of elderly care were elicited separately. The basic preferences of the elderly can be summarized as: renting residential units instead of buying them; no luxuries such as therapy services; safety considerations incorporated in the design of the interior of the units; being able to use their own furniture in the units; primary health care offered; availability of recreational facilities; good corporate management; and accessibility to essential general services (in terms of the location of the village). These findings are considered for consumers in different cultural and socio-economic groups and are also compared with the views of developers, housing providers and other role players. It is contended that - given the Government’s new policy on housing and care for the elderly - the findings may assist the providers of retirement housing and related care services to understand the diversity of needs of the South African mature retirement market and to provide facilities and services accordingly

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Genetic and Structural Basis for Selection of a Ubiquitous T Cell Receptor Deployed in Epstein-Barr Virus Infection

Despite the ∼1018 αβ T cell receptor (TCR) structures that can be randomly manufactured by the human thymus, some surface more frequently than others. The pinnacles of this distortion are public TCRs, which exhibit amino acid-identical structures across different individuals. Public TCRs are thought to result from both recombinatorial bias and antigen-driven selection, but the mechanisms that underlie inter-individual TCR sharing are still largely theoretical. To examine this phenomenon at the atomic level, we solved the co-complex structure of one of the most widespread and numerically frequent public TCRs in the human population. The archetypal AS01 public TCR recognizes an immunodominant BMLF1 peptide, derived from the ubiquitous Epstein-Barr virus, bound to HLA-A*0201. The AS01 TCR was observed to dock in a diagonal fashion, grasping the solvent exposed peptide crest with two sets of complementarity-determining region (CDR) loops, and was fastened to the peptide and HLA-A*0201 platform with residue sets found only within TCR genes biased in the public response. Computer simulations of a random V(D)J recombination process demonstrated that both TCRα and TCRβ amino acid sequences could be manufactured easily, thereby explaining the prevalence of this receptor across different individuals. Interestingly, the AS01 TCR was encoded largely by germline DNA, indicating that the TCR loci already comprise gene segments that specifically recognize this ancient pathogen. Such pattern recognition receptor-like traits within the αβ TCR system further blur the boundaries between the adaptive and innate immune systems

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits—almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Effect of sitagliptin on cardiovascular outcomes in type 2 diabetes

BACKGROUND: Data are lacking on the long-term effect on cardiovascular events of adding sitagliptin, a dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitor, to usual care in patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. METHODS: In this randomized, double-blind study, we assigned 14,671 patients to add either sitagliptin or placebo to their existing therapy. Open-label use of antihyperglycemic therapy was encouraged as required, aimed at reaching individually appropriate glycemic targets in all patients. To determine whether sitagliptin was noninferior to placebo, we used a relative risk of 1.3 as the marginal upper boundary. The primary cardiovascular outcome was a composite of cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for unstable angina. RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 3.0 years, there was a small difference in glycated hemoglobin levels (least-squares mean difference for sitagliptin vs. placebo, -0.29 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.32 to -0.27). Overall, the primary outcome occurred in 839 patients in the sitagliptin group (11.4%; 4.06 per 100 person-years) and 851 patients in the placebo group (11.6%; 4.17 per 100 person-years). Sitagliptin was noninferior to placebo for the primary composite cardiovascular outcome (hazard ratio, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.88 to 1.09; P<0.001). Rates of hospitalization for heart failure did not differ between the two groups (hazard ratio, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.20; P = 0.98). There were no significant between-group differences in rates of acute pancreatitis (P = 0.07) or pancreatic cancer (P = 0.32). CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with type 2 diabetes and established cardiovascular disease, adding sitagliptin to usual care did not appear to increase the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events, hospitalization for heart failure, or other adverse events

AusTraits, a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora

We introduce the AusTraits database - a compilation of values of plant traits for taxa in the Australian flora (hereafter AusTraits). AusTraits synthesises data on 448 traits across 28,640 taxa from field campaigns, published literature, taxonomic monographs, and individual taxon descriptions. Traits vary in scope from physiological measures of performance (e.g. photosynthetic gas exchange, water-use efficiency) to morphological attributes (e.g. leaf area, seed mass, plant height) which link to aspects of ecological variation. AusTraits contains curated and harmonised individual- and species-level measurements coupled to, where available, contextual information on site properties and experimental conditions. This article provides information on version 3.0.2 of AusTraits which contains data for 997,808 trait-by-taxon combinations. We envision AusTraits as an ongoing collaborative initiative for easily archiving and sharing trait data, which also provides a template for other national or regional initiatives globally to fill persistent gaps in trait knowledge

The Linguistic Atlas of South Africa: Mapping diversity in space and time

Please help us populate SUNScholar with the post print version of this article. It can be e-mailed to: [email protected] En WysbegeerteGeografie En Omgewingstudi