Quantity and significance of wild meat off-take by a rural community in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

When compared to tropical forest zones in west and central Africa, off-take of wild meat from savannah and grassland biomes by local rural communities has not been well assessed. This case study of wild meat collection activities within a rural community in the Mount Frere region of the Eastern Cape (South Africa) uses last-catch records derived from 50 wild meat gatherers to calculate average off-take of taxa, species and fresh mass of wild meat per collection event. When per-event off take is overlaid onto household hunting frequency data, annual off-take would be 268.6 kg km−2 yr−1 or 3 kg person−1 yr−1 presuming constant off-take over an annual period. Monetary value of off-take would be South African R 307 (US$ 39) per household annually. For some species, off-take weight per km2 shows similar values to data from tropical forest zones, but high human population densities tend to dilute off-takes to less nutritionally significant amounts at the per person scale. However, unlike many tropical zones, none of the species harvested can be considered high-priority conservation species. Even densely populated and heavily harvested communal lands appear to offer high wild meat off-takes from low conservation priority species

"Poof! a'm heppily saving the Lord...": multimodality and evaluative discourses in male toilet graffiti at the University of the Western Cape

This paper explores the use of punctuation, capitalisation, linguistic forms and images in the construction of evaluative discourses in male toilet graffiti at the University of the Western Cape. Of particular interest is how male students use these devises in the discursive construction of the appraisal resource of Attitude, Graduation and Evaluation. Using over 150 tokens of graffiti, the paper uses a multimodal approach employing notions of resemiotisation and remediation to show how taboo language, font size, images and sketches are repurposed to aid the evaluation of the 'self' and the 'other' in toilet graffiti. The paper shows that through utilising multimodal texts, graffiti writers are able to reformulate and situate novel meanings in contexts; and in terms of appraisal, the verbal and non-verbal semiotic material are strategically combined to engender novel evaluations

Oral literature in South Africa: 20 years on

I offer a retrospective on the field of orality and performance studies in South Africa from the perspective of 2016, assessing what has been achieved, what may have happened inadvertently or worryingly, what some of the significant implications have been, what remain challenges, and how we may think of, or rethink, orality and performance studies in a present and future that are changing at almost inconceivable pace.DHE

Micro-connectomics: probing the organization of neuronal networks at the cellular scale.

Defining the organizational principles of neuronal networks at the cellular scale, or micro-connectomics, is a key challenge of modern neuroscience. In this Review, we focus on graph theoretical parameters of micro-connectome topology, often informed by economical principles that conceptually originated with Ramón y Cajal's conservation laws. First, we summarize results from studies in intact small organisms and in samples from larger nervous systems. We then evaluate the evidence for an economical trade-off between biological cost and functional value in the organization of neuronal networks. Various results suggest that many aspects of neuronal network organization are indeed the outcome of competition between these two fundamental selection pressures.This work was supported by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.This is the author accepted manuscript. It is currently under an indefinite embargo pending publication by the Nature Publishing Group

The outcome of solid tumors occuring in the neonatal period

Sixty-six solid neoplasms occurring in neonates treated at the Red Cross Childrens Hospital over a 34-year period (1957-1991) were reviewed and recalled for long-term follow-up (mean 10.4 years). Associated congenital abnormalities were rare, but chromosomal abnormalities were detected in 3 patients, one of which was familial. Teratomatous germ-cell tumours predominated, followed by neuroblastomas and soft-tissue tumours; 23 had malignant morphologic appearances and 43 were morphologically non-malignant. Seventy-nine per cent presented within the 1st week of life, 41% of these within the first 24 h. Although most sacrococcygeal teratomatous germ-cell tumours were benign, malignancy was present in 2 patients (1 of these presented during the 1st week of life). A further 11 sacrococcygeal teratomas were found on light microscopy to include immature elements and had unpredictable clinical behaviour; 2 of these later metastasized despite adequate surgical clearance. All 4 patients with mesoblastic nephromas and 1 with a neonatal Wilm's tumour survived. In addition, 6 of the 10 patients with a neuroblastoma survived long-term. One of 3 patients with a rhabdomyosarcoma survived as well as 1 of 2 with a hepatoblastoma. Congenital fibrosarcomas, although morphologically aggressive, had an excellent outcome. Surgical excision was performed in all cases, and overall patient survival on long-term follow-up was 66% (44 patients). These survivors included 10 (41%) of those with malignant tumours and 24 (84%) with potentially malignant tumours. Metastatic spread or secondary tumours were shown to occur at variable stages, and early, frequent, and regular fellow-up is recommended. Complications of extensive surgery resulted in 3 temporary and 2 long-term problems. Other adverse effects of therapy were observed in survivors of chemo- or radiation therapy, where poor growth was noted in 9 (82%), behavioural disturbances in 3 (27%), and intellectual impairment in 4 (36%).Articl

Structure-activity relationships in 4-aminoquinoline antiplasmodials. The role of the group at the 7-position

Antiplasmodial activities versus the chloroquine sensitive D10 strain of Plasmodium falciparum of a series of N(1),N(1)-diethyl-N(2)-(4-quinolinyl)-1,2-ethanediamines with 11 different substituents at the 7-position on the quinoline ring have been investigated in vitro. Electron-withdrawing groups at the 7-position have been shown to lower the pK(a) of both the quinoline ring nitrogen atom and the tertiary amino nitrogen in the alkyl side chain. The quinoline nitrogen pK(a) ranges from 6.28 in the nitro derivative to 8.36 in the amino derivative, while the tertiary amino nitrogen has a pK(a) ranging between 7.65 in the trifluoromethyl derivative and 10.02 in the amino derivative. Calculation suggests that the resulting pH trapping of these compounds in the parasite food vacuole ranges between about 7% of that observed in chloroquine for the NO(2) derivative and 97% in the amino derivative. A direct proportionality between antiplasmodial activity normalized for pH trapping and beta-hematin inhibitory activity was observed. Activity could not be correlated with any other observed physical parameter. The beta-hematin inhibitory activity of these derivatives appears to correlate with both the hematin-quinoline association constant and the electron-withdrawing capacity of the group at the 7-position (Hammett constant). For the compounds under investigation, the hematin association constant is in turn influenced by the lipophilicity of the group at the 7-position