Progress towards eliminating iodine deficiency in South Africa

Before the introduction of salt iodisation in 1954, South Africa was one of the many countries of the world with a lack of iodine in most of its territory and hence there was a need for a salt iodisation programme. The understanding of the iodine situation in South Africa, the basics of iodine nutrition and progress toward eliminating iodine deficiency internationally and in South Africa are reviewed in this paper. Voluntary salt iodisation in the country at 10¿20 ppm introduced in 1954 failed to eliminate endemic goitre and iodine deficiency. In contrast, considerable progress has been achieved in South Africa in eliminating iodine deficiency by introducing mandatory iodisation of table salt at 40¿60 ppm in 1995. A 1998 survey showed that optimal iodine nutrition was achieved nationally and in seven of the nine provinces, with more than adequate iodine intake in two provinces. At that time, 86.4% of households used iodised salt and 62.4% used adequately iodised salt that contained more than 15 ppm of iodine, with low coverage rates

Die Kaapse kerk en die Voortrekkers

Terwyl in 1938 die Groot Trek besonder prominent na vore kom as gevolg van die verskillende eeufeeste en ook die groot eeufees wat D.V. 16 Desember a.s. gehou staan te word, kan dit sy nut hê as ons ’n oomblik stil staan by die houding van die Kaapse Kerk teenoor die Voortrekkers

Die Roeping tot die Amp van Predikant

’n Onderwerp soos hierdie kan begrypelikerwys uit verskillonde oogpuntcbenader word. Dit kan bv. uit dogmatiese of eksegetiese hoek besien word; maar hier wil ons dit benader vanuit kerkregtelike aspek

Die regering van die kerk volgens Calvyn

As ons die beginsels wat Calvyn aangedui het vir die regering van die kerk wil nagaan, moet ons noodsaaklik navraag doen na sy kerkbegrip. Gelukkig is dit in hierdie geval nie nodig nie, want net in die vorige uitgawe van Koers het ’n artikel verskyn oor „Die wese van die kerk volgens Calvyn”. In noue aansluiting daarby kan ons dus direk aandag skenk aan sy beginsels vir kerkregering

Die geskiedenis van die P.U. vir C.H.O. (tot Inkorporasie).

Die geskiedenis van die P.U. vir C.H.O. sit onlosmaaklik vas aan Teologiese Skool van die Gereformeerde Kerk in Suid-Afrika, want die gedagte van die stigters van die skool was nooit gerig slegs op die voorbereidingvan predikante nie, maar van die begin af ook op die wetenskaplike vorming

Effect of the rate and duration of forced air cooling on the quality of Imperial apricots and Pioneer and Songold plums

The original publication is available at http://www.actahort.org/books/682/682_218.htmGel breakdown (GB) and overripeness (OR) remain the biggest internal Problems with Prunus armeniaca L. ‘Imperial’, which makes the biggest contribution to the total volume of apricots exported from South Africa per annum. Prunus salicina L. ‘Pioneer’, an early season South African plum cultivar, ripens quickly on and off the tree which results in rejections for soft fruit at packing and on arrival overseas. ‘Songold’, a yellow, midseason plum cultivar tends to develop GB and OR during cold-storage in some seasons, which renders the fruit inedible and results in high rejection rates. Prompt cooling and good temperature management are essential to lower the rate of physiological deterioration of stone fruit. In some commercial depots in South Africa, forced air cooling (FAC) of stone fruit can take as long as 48 to 72 h, depending on the type of packaging. Consequently, the objective of this study was to determine the effect of the rate and duration of FAC on the fruit quality of different stone fruit cultivars. Fruit was subjected to the following FAC rates at a delivery air temperature of -1.0°C to a pulp temperature of 0°C for 6 h, 12 h, 24 h stepwise cooling and 48 h stepwise cooling for the apricot, and 12 h, 24 h, 48 h stepwise cooling, and 72 h stepwise cooling for the two plum cultivars. The fruit was evaluated after cold-storage and a simulated shelf-life period. The trial was conducted in two consecutive seasons. ‘Imperial’ apricots had the best internal quality after 6 h of FAC, ‘Pioneer’ plums were not affected by FAC rate or duration, and ‘Songold’ plums had the best internal quality when FAC was applied for 12 h and longer. These results on plums demonstrate that cultivar differences must be considered when drawing up handling protocols for stone fruit, as a blanket recommendation may lead to the induction of quality defects

East salt sparingly - sprinkle, don\u27t shake!

The salt-blood pressure hypothesis states that an excessive salt intake leads to an increase in blood pressure in genetically susceptible persons and, if high intake is maintained long term, ultimately leads to sustained hypertension. It is estimated that about 3.3 million South Africans (12.6% and 16.3% of adult men and women, respectively) are hypertensive. However, not all subjects within a particular population respond equally to exposure to high-salt diets. Methods to identify those who are \u27salt sensitive\u27 remain in the research domain; therefore a population approach to the restriction of dietary salt intake is warranted. The message to \u27eat salt sparingly\u27 will not interfere with the current nutritional and legal requirements regarding iodation of table salt. A salt intake as low as 5 g per day would provide an adequate amount of iodine, provided the salt is sufficiently iodated. Dietary factors other than sodium which have been shown to influence blood pressure include potassium, magnesium, calcium and alcohol. The \u27Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension\u27 (DASH) randomised controlled trial found that subjects fed a diet rich in fruit and vegetables for 8 weeks significantly reduced both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, compared with subjects on a typical American control diet. A \u27combination\u27 diet, rich in fruit, vegetables and low-fat dairy products, and with a reduced saturated and total fat intake, resulted in an even greater reduction in blood pressure. Translated into a practical diet, this information suggests a daily diet that includes large amounts of fruit and vegetables, a moderate intake of low-fat dairy products, lean meat and chicken, and a prudent alcohol intake. Salt should be used sparingly, if at all, at the table and in the preparation of meals, and the intake of processed foods high in salt should be limited. This would result in a reduction in intake from an average of around 9 g salt to about 6 g salt per day, which is the current USA recommendation. These blood pressure-related recommendations incorporate many of the various foodbased dietary guidelines, emphasising that the recommendations are congruent and mutually substantiative

Knowledge of iodine nutrition in the South African adult population

OBJECTIVES: To determine the level of knowledge regarding iodine nutrition and its relationship with socio-economic status in the South African population. DESIGN: A cross-sectional population survey collecting questionnaire information on knowledge of iodine nutrition and sociodemographic variables in a multistage, stratified, cluster study sample, representative of the adult South African population. SETTING: Home visits and personal interviews in the language of the respondent. SUBJECTS: Data were collected from one adult in each of the selected 2164 households, and the participation rate was 98%. RESULTS: Only 15.4% of respondents correctly identified iodised salt as the primary dietary source of iodine, 16.2% knew the thyroid gland needs iodine for its functioning, and a mere 3.9% considered brain damage, and 0.8% considered cretinism, as the most important health consequence of iodine deficiency. Compared with respondents from high socio-economic households, respondents from low socio-economic households were considerably less informed about aspects of iodine nutrition covered in this study. CONCLUSIONS: The knowledge level of iodine nutrition is low among South Africans, particularly among the low socio-economic groups. These data suggest that the international emphasis on brain damage resulting from iodine deficiency has not been conveyed successfully to the consumer level in this country

Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3.

Grapevine leafroll disease (GLD) is one of the most important grapevine viral diseases affecting grapevines worldwide. The impact on vine health, crop yield, and quality is difficult to assess due to a high number of variables, but significant economic losses are consistently reported over the lifespan of a vineyard if intervention strategies are not implemented. Several viruses from the family Closteroviridae are associated with GLD. However, Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3 (GLRaV-3), the type species for the genus Ampelovirus, is regarded as the most important causative agent. Here we provide a general overview on various aspects of GLRaV-3, with an emphasis on the latest advances in the characterization of the genome. The full genome of several isolates have recently been sequenced and annotated, revealing the existence of several genetic variants. The classification of these variants, based on their genome sequence, will be discussed and a guideline is presented to facilitate future comparative studies. The characterization of sgRNAs produced during the infection cycle of GLRaV-3 has given some insight into the replication strategy and the putative functionality of the ORFs. The latest nucleotide sequence based molecular diagnostic techniques were shown to be more sensitive than conventional serological assays and although ELISA is not as sensitive it remains valuable for high-throughput screening and complementary to molecular diagnostics. The application of next-generation sequencing is proving to be a valuable tool to study the complexity of viral infection as well as plant pathogen interaction. Next-generation sequencing data can provide information regarding disease complexes, variants of viral species, and abundance of particular viruses. This information can be used to develop more accurate diagnostic assays. Reliable virus screening in support of robust grapevine certification programs remains the cornerstone of GLD management

Inner bounds for the extreme zeros of 3F2 hypergeometric polynomials

Zeilberger’s celebrated algorithm finds pure recurrence relations (w. r. t. a single variable) for hypergeometric sums automatically. However, in the theory of orthogonal polynomials and special functions, contiguous relations w. r. t. several variables exist in abundance. We modify Zeilberger’s algorithm to generate unknown contiguous relations that are necessary to obtain inner bounds for the extreme zeros of orthogonal polynomial sequences with 3F2 hypergeometric representations. Using this method, we improve previously obtained upper bounds for the smallest and lower bounds for the largest zeros of the Hahn polynomials and we identify inner bounds for the extreme zeros of the Continuous Hahn and Continuous Dual Hahn polynomials. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the quality of the new bounds. Without the use of computer algebra such results are not accessible. We expect our algorithm to be useful to compute useful and new contiguous relations for other hypergeometric functions.The first author would like to thank Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and TWAS for rewarding an AGNES Grant for Junior Researchers 2014, as well as TWAS and DFG for sponsoring a research visit at the Institute of Mathematics of the University of Kassel in 2016 (reference KO 1122/12-1). The second author would like to thank TWAS and DFG for sponsoring a research visit at the Institute of Mathematics of the University of Kassel in 2015 (reference 3240278140).http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gitr202018-09-30hb2017Mathematics and Applied Mathematic