The potential of the University of the Free State QwaQwa campus to enable growth of the economy of QwaQwa

This article explores how universities can contribute to the economy of the area within which they are situated, focusing on the University of the Free State QwaQwa campus. This topic was investigated by analysing the local economy within which the QwaQwa campus is located, a spatial analysis of the campus itself, and interviews with local business owners. First, the article demonstrates how an analysis of the local economy could assist in aligning the university offerings with the dynamics of the local area. It specifically argues for a focus on agricultural and wider commerce-related course offerings. Secondly, an argument is made for leasing or developing the vacant land on campus for non-university-related functions such as middle-income housing or a low- to medium-fee private school. The purpose of such an initiative would be to cross-subsidize the development costs of expanding and improving the QwaQwa campus. Thirdly, through interviews with local business owners, various arguments are made for how the university could better engage with local businesses. These ranged from providing training, disseminating  research, increased procurement, and making space for local businesses on campus. Through these arguments, a narrative shows that part of being an engaged university is being aware of, and responding to the needs of the economy within which a campus is located

Establishing the causes of delays in Eskom construction projects

Abstract: The construction industry is notorious for project failure, which could be attributed to a multitude of reasons, which includes costs and time overrun. The generalized construction term for time overrun is referred to as delay. Delays in construction projects are caused by various aspects of project management and this research aims to determine the causes of de-lays in the South African construction industry, fo-cused around the constructions of Eskom capacity expansion projects. The motivation for conducting this study is to improve the knowledge of project man-agers and the project management society about the delays identified in the South African construction pro-jects. Top 20 common causes of delays were derived from the 38 delays found in the literature. The highest top 5 rated causes of delays were selected for discus-sion. The Project Management Body of knowledge ac-tivities were studied and selected with the aim of man-aging or resolving the identified delay causes

Pastoral care to people stricken by poverty

No abstract available.Dissertation (MA (Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2007.Practical Theologyunrestricte

Metabolomics and cell-based assay analysis of selected South African plants to determine anti-Rift Valley Fever Virus activity

Rift Valley Fever Virus (RVFV) is a mosquito-borne haemorrhagic fever virus affecting both humans and animals with severe morbidity and mortality. RVFV is an emerging virus that is endemic to Africa. However, it can infect a variety of mosquito species and therefore spread to other parts of the world. Despite the efforts made to reduce or curb the RVFV infection and other tropical diseases in recent years, the re-occurrence of the RVFV may devastate the world economically, bearing in mind the shortage of therapeutic agents. There is an urgent need for novel anti-RVFV chemotherapeutic agents that can circumvent the acquired diseases. Emergence of new viruses such as the currently tormenting Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which are challenging to control due to the mutative nature of the viral genome, highlights the importance for this type of research. The current study investigated the anti-RVFV, cytotoxicity, and radical scavenging activities of the 50 % aqueous-methanolic leaf extracts of twenty plant species pharmacologically proven to exhibit antiviral activities. The cytotoxicity assay was performed to determine the concentration range of extracts for the subsequent study of antiviral activity to be tested in the non-toxic range in Vero cells. A green monkey kidney (Vero) cell line was used to investigate the cytotoxicity of the extracts using the 3-[4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazol-yl]-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) cell viability method and all plant extracts tested exhibited lethal concentrations (LC50) values > 20 μg/mL which signifies that the extracts were relatively non-toxic. Determination of the anti-RVFV activity of the plant extracts was performed using the 50% tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50) assay of tenfold serial dilutions of the virus and extracts in Vero cells. The extracts were screened in quadruplicate in 96-well tissue culture plates. After seven days, the cytopathic effect (CPE) was analysed using a light microscope and the TCID50 was calculated. This study demonstrated promising anti-RVFV activity of eight extracts (Artemisia afra, Adansonia digitata, Euclea natalensis, Elaeodendron croceum, Elaeodendron transvaalensis, Elephantorrhiza elephantina, Helichrysum aureonitens, Sutherlandia frutescens) which exerted reduction of the viral load with TCID50 < 105. Radical scavenging activity of extracts was executed on 96 well plates utilizing the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS) scavenging assays. Furthermore, cell-based radical scavenging potential was done. The cell-permeant probe 2′,7′-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (H2DCF-DA) and Griess reagent assays were used to evaluate the effects of extracts on LPS-induced ROS and RNS production, respectively. The H2DCF-DA fluorescence intensity indicative of ROS production in images acquired using the Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope was observed. The EC50 values were calculated with non-linear regression analysis with a variable slope using GraphPad Prism software version 8.0 (GraphPad Software La Jolla, CA, USA). The results showed that the extracts quenched free radicals exhibiting an EC50 value range of 4.12–20.41 μg/mL and suppressed the level of pro-inflammatory mediators by 60–80 % in Vero cells. These plant extracts were shown to exhibit nontoxicity to Vero cells, but showed antiviral potency against RVFV. Moreover, extracts reduced the level of ROS which might contribute in preventing disease propagation via oxidative stress reduction. 1H-NMR-based metabolomics on samples from twenty medicinal plant species was conducted with consistent data processing and multivariate statistical analysis using MestReNova and SIMCA software, respectively. The principal component analysis (PCA), the orthogonal projections to latent structures- discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) and hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) plots were constructed to assess the distribution and discrimination of the samples. The variables on the far ends of the S-plot and variable importance in projection (VIP) score values > 1, were considered significant as potential biomarkers. Thorough monitoring of the performance of the model was performed using the explained variation (R2), predicted variation (Q2) coefficients, cross-validated prediction residuals (CV-ANOVA), p values 7 %. 1H-NMR spectral peaks were interpreted and annotated with the Human Metabolome Database (HMDB) and Chenomx software. Furthermore, extracts from eight plant species with potent antiviral activity were subjected to the UHPLC-qTOF-MS analysis to investigate possible metabolites responsible for the activity. The UHPLC-qTOF-MS instrument was operated in dual (positive and negative) electrospray ionisation (ESI) mode. Spectral data such as mass spectra, retention time (Rt) and ion fragments from the UPLC-qTOF-MS analysis was searched against several databases including Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG: http://www.genome.jp/kegg/), PubChem (https://pubchemblog.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/), Human Metabolome Database (HMDB: http://www.hmdb.ca/), NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) database, DNP (Dictionary of Natural Products: www.dnp.chemnetbase.com), MassBank (USA), mzCloud (Advanced Mass Spectral Database), and MAGMa (www.emetabolomics.org) for putative identification of metabolites. In addition, findings from the analysis were further compared to peer reviewed literature. A total of 61 putative metabolites in the samples were detected. However, of most importance is the annotation of two fatty acids, 13S-hydroxy-9Z,11E,15Z-octadecatrienoic acid and 13-hydroxy-9Z,11E-octadecadienoic acid detected in the negative ionisation mode which are present in all active samples. Our results suggest that these annotated metabolites of interest may be responsible for the antiviral activity observed. This study provided a scientific evaluation of the efficacy of medicinal plants against RVFV, provided possible avenues for mechanisms of action and demonstrated potential of using 1H-NMR-metabolomics in combination with UHPLC-qTOF-MS for rapid drug discovery.Agriculture, Animal HealthPh. D. (Agriculture

Antimicrobial constituents of Artemisia afra Jacq. ex Willd. against periodontal pathogens

The phytochemical investigation of an ethanol extract of Artemisia afra, led to the isolation of six known compounds, Acacetin (1) 12α,4α-dihydroxybishopsolicepolide (2), Scopoletin (3) α-amyrin (4), Phytol (5) and a pentacyclic tri-terpenoid Betulinic acid (6). The isolated compounds were evaluated for their anti-microbial activity against Gram positive (Actinomyces naeslundii, Actinomyces israelii and Streptococcus mutans), Gram negative bacteria (Privotella intermedia, Porphyromonus gingivalis and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans previously known as Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans) and Candida albicans. The crude extract of A. afra inhibited the growth of all tested microbial species at concentration range of 1.6 mg/ml to 25.0 mg/ml. The compounds 1-6 also showed activity range at 1.0 mg/ml to 0.25 mg/ml. Three best compounds which showed good activity were selected for further studies. Cytotoxicity of the extract and compounds was determined using the XTT (Sodium 3’-[1-(phenyl amino-carbonyl)-3,4-tetrazolium]-bis-[4-methoxy-6-nitro] benzene sulfonic acid hydrate) cell proliferation kit. The antioxidant activity of the extract and compounds was done using the DPPH scavenging method. The extract showed good antioxidant activity with an IC50 value of 22.2 μg/ml. Scopoletin had a strong transformation of the DPPH radical into its reduced form, with an IC50 value of 1.24 μg/ml which was significant to that of vitamin C (1.22 μg/ml). Acacetin and Betulinic acid exhibited a decreased scavenging activity with the IC50 of 2.39 and 2.42 _g/ml, respectively. The extract and compounds showed moderate toxicity on McCoy fibroblast cell line and the extract influenced the release of cytokine against Hep2 cells. Scopoletin was relatively non-toxic with an IC50 value of 132.5 μg/ml. Acacetin and betulinic acid also showed a smooth trend of non-toxic effects at lower concentrations and toxic at higher concentrations with IC50 values of 35.44 and 30.96 μg/ml. The obtained results in this confirmed the use of A. afra in the treatment of microbial infections.Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2012.Plant Scienceunrestricte

Smooth Transition GARCH Models in Forecasting Non-Linear Economic Time Series Data

The need to capture the heterogeneous and volatility nature of both financial and economic time series theory and modeling their behavior in practical work have stimulated interest in the empirical modeling of variances which forms the basis for this study. In the study we augmented GARCH models with smooth transition model by dropping the assumption of autoregression of the model; necessary theoretical frame work was derived and properties of the new model established and illustrated with foreign exchange rate data from Federal Republic of Nigeria (Naira), Great Britain (Pound), Botswana (Pula) and Japanese (Yen) against United States of America (Dollar). The smooth transition GARCH model is better than the classical GARCH model as there were reduction in the variances of the augmented model; this claim is confirmed by the empirical illustration with foreign exchange data. Within the group of smooth transition GARCH model, Logistic Smooth Transition is adjudged the best as it produced the least variance

Strigolactone analogues induce suicidal seed germination of Striga spp. in soil

Striga hermonthica and Striga asiatica are obligate root parasites that cause serious problems in the production of staple cereal crops in Africa. Because of the high levels of infestation, there is an urgent need to control these weeds. A potentially useful control option is depletion of the soil seed bank by suicidal germination, which involves germination of the seeds in the absence of host plants. Suicidal germination is often mentioned in the literature, but not considered realistic, because of the alleged untimely decomposition of the stimulants in the soil, despite the fact that some encouraging results were reported around 1980. The alleged instability has prevented active research in this direction for the past 20–25 years. Five newly designed synthetic germination stimulants were investigated as candidates for suicidal germination. An important issue is the persistence of these stimulants in soil. Packets with Striga spp. seeds were put in pots with soil and then treated with aqueous solutions of the stimulants. All five compounds induced germination under these conditions, with percentages varying between 18% and 98% depending on stimulant and species. There were no noticeable signs of decomposition of the stimulants. The best performing stimulant is derived from 1-tetralone. We conclude that synthetic strigolactones analogues have excellent prospects for use in combating parasitic weeds. Further testing will be needed to evaluate whether such prospects can be realised in the field

Conceptualising housing as a problem for poor people living with HIV/AIDS in Botswana: A case study of Gaborone

This study explores the housing related problems and constraints faced by poor people living with HIV/AIDS in Gaborone. The study concurrently examines the housing interventions provided by the different housing providers, particularly looking into the availability, accessibility and affordability of the housing-related services in the form suitable for PPLWHA. Housing is one of the largest unmet needs among the poor people living with HIV/AIDS in Gaborone although it is a basic need. The lack of sanitary and stable housing has been key in housing and HIV/AIDS debates around the world and has been attributed with profound effects on the management of HIV/AIDS among PPLWHA. The study hinges on critical realism theory and posits that the housing problems faced by PPLWHA are not an outcome of a single cause but of a web of interacting and interconnected, social, economic, political and environmental factors apparent in Botswana. A qualitative semi-structured strategy through in-depth interviews is used in this study to explore the following: firstly, the housing problems and constraints faced by PPLWHA as well as the strategies they adopt to respond to these problems. Secondly, to gain perspectives of lands and housing policy makers as well as personnel offering housing and housing related services who were interviewed to provide a picture of the implementation of policies, programs and services intended to respond to the housing for poor people. The major conclusion of the thesis is that poverty and HIV/AIDS are interconnected and primary in the everyday life of PPLWHA, and limit their opportunity to afford and access sanitary housing. Consequently they are limited to inhabit poor and unsanitary housing environments in informal housing markets which make it difficult for them to manage their health. The study argues that the housing problems faced by PPLWHA go beyond the observable conditions of poverty and HIV/AIDS. There are other underlying structural barriers, observable and non-observable, which contribute to the housing problems faced by PPLWHA. Firstly, the lack of sanitary and affordable housing, which incorporates the issue of housing finance which is suitable for those on a low income and the poor. Secondly, limited governmental support in the regulation and control of the informal housing market for low income people, thirdly the lack of collaboration of housing organisations aimed at housing the poor and vulnerable people in the country and fourthly the social structures such as cultural norms and traditional beliefs and gender inequalities which are interconnected with HIV/AIDS and poverty which exacerbate housing problems of PPLWHA. This study recommends that if Botswana is to tackle the spread and treatment of HI V and AIDS in society, the lack of adequate housing must be addressed as a barrier to effective HIV prevention, management and care. It is crucial to address the need for stable housing for people with HIV and AIDS