Development and validation of the Science Teacher Inventory of Needs for Limpopo province (STIN-LP)

No Abstract.South African journal of Education Vol. 25(4) 2005: 273-27

Influence of low-tannin sorghum on performance and bone morphometrics of male Ross 308 broilers aged 1 - 42 days

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of low tannin sorghum as a maize replacement on the performance and bone morphometrics of Ross 308 broiler chickens. A total of 250 one-day-old broiler chickens were allotted to a complete randomized design with five treatments replicated five times. Birds were offered varying sorghum levels as maize replacement at 0% (control), 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, formulated to be isonutritive and isoenergetic. The condensed tannin and total phenolic contents of the sorghum were analysed. Bodyweight and feed intake were measured weekly to calculate feed conversion ratio (FCR), and mortality was recorded as it occurred. Digestibility measurements were done when the chickens were between 15 and 21 days and between 35 and 42 days old. At ages 21 and 42 days, two chickens per pen were slaughtered to determine bone characteristics. A digital calliper was used to measure the length and diameter of the bones, and an electronic scale was used to determine the weight of the bones. Ash, calcium and phosphorus concentrations of the bones were determined. The Seedor and robusticity indices of the tibia were also calculated. The general linear model procedure of Statistical Analysis Software was used to analyse the data. At 1 - 21 days old bodyweight was higher for birds fed a level of 50% sorghum than those that were offered the control diet. Replacing maize with sorghum improved the metabolizable energy (ME) of broiler chickens aged 42 days. Bodyweight and FCR of birds fed diets with 50%, 75% and 100% sorghum were higher and better, respectively, than those on diets with 25% and 0% sorghum at 22 - 42 days old. Bone morphometries of chickens aged 1 - 21 days and 22 - 42 days were not affected by replacing maize with sorghum. Thus, maize can be replaced by a low tannin white sorghum without causing adverse effects on chickens.Keywords: minerals, tibia bone, Seedor and robusticity indice

Assessment of Follow-Up Care Received by Patients with Hypertension at Primary Health Care Facilities in Tshwane District of Gauteng Province, South Africa

To extend the life expectancy of all South Africans to at least 70 years by 2030, hypertension follow-up care needs to be strengthened so that patients do not develop complications while in care. The aim of this study was to evaluate the follow-up care received by patients with hypertension at primary health care (PHC) facilities in Tshwane district. The study setting was ten PHC facilities in the aforesaid district. Quantitative, descriptive and retrospective methods were adopted, and simple random sampling was used to select ten PHC facilities from which ten files were conveniently sampled. Data were captured in Microsoft Excel 2010 and exported to IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 21 in which data coding, outlier detection, missing value analysis and statistical data analysis were performed. In line with the study aim, frequency tables in SPSS were used to produce frequency statistics, and the chi-square test was used to test for the presence of association between compliance by nurses to clinical guidelines and categories of attributes, and further determine if there was a significant difference between adherence and non-adherence. The study found a significant proportion (93.4%) of non-adherence to hypertension guidelines among consulting nurses at selected PHC facilities

Development and validation of the Science Teacher Inventory of Needs for Limpopo Province (STIN-LP)

The development and validation of an instrument for establishing the perceived INSET needs of teachers of Mathematics, Physical Science, and Biology in Limpopo province, South Africa, and their pertinent demographic details are described. The instrument was modified from the Science Teacher Inventory of Needs (STIN-3) developed by previous workers. STIN-3 was adapted for use in the educational context of Limpopo province in collaboration with important stakeholders in Mathematics, Physical Science, and Biology education at the provincial and national level. The stakeholders commented on the appropriateness or otherwise of items, suggested additional items, and assessed the clarity of items and instructions for completing the questionnaire. An English Second Language expert inspected the instrument to make its language demands appropriate for the target audience. The resulting Science Teacher Inventory of Needs for Limpopo Province (STIN-LP) was pilot-tested on 132 teachers in the subjects and modified accordingly. The final STIN-LP has good alignment with the Norms and Standards for Educators and consists of 95 items: 47 items describing INSET needs in 7 different categories, 26 demographic items, 14 items describing teachers' problems, and 8 items assessing the frequency of use of particular teaching strategies

Insects’ production, consumption, policy, and sustainability : what have we learned from the indigenous knowledge systems?

Edible insects can be produced sustainably, with less environmental impact than other forms of livestock. Globally, over 2000 edible insect species have been reported and are regarded as a great source of nutrition, both as food and feed. Over the years, rural people have used indigenous knowledge to either store or process such insects. However, such valuable knowledge, if not properly recorded and documented, can easily be lost. Thus, there is a need to strike a balance between the use of indigenous and scientific knowledge to produce and process these delicacies. In addition, such indigenous knowledge is vital for preserving biodiversity, since insects are good indicators of climate change as it influences their development, reproduction, and survival. Therefore, successful and sustainable solutions may lie in bringing back indigenous knowledge systems.https://www.mdpi.com/journal/insectsam2022Zoology and Entomolog

Serum and cerebrospinal fluid host proteins indicate stroke in children with tuberculous meningitis

Introduction Stroke is a common complication in children with tuberculous meningitis (TBM). Host proteins may give us insight into the mechanisms of stroke in TBM and serve as biomarkers for detection of stroke, however, they have not been widely explored. In this study, we compared the concentrations of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum proteins between children who had TBM-related stroke and children with TBM without stroke. Methods We collected CSF and serum from 47 children consecutively admitted to the Tygerberg Academic Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa between November 2016, and November 2017, on suspicion of having TBM. A multiplex platform was used to measure the concentrations of 69 host proteins in CSF and serum from all study participants. Results After classification of study participants, 23 (48.9%) out of the 47 study participants were diagnosed with TBM, of which 14 (60.9%) demonstrated radiological arterial ischemic infarction. The levels of lipocalin-2, sRAGE, IP-10/ CXCL10, sVCAM-1, MMP-1, and PDGF-AA in CSF samples and the levels of D-dimer, ADAMTS13, SAA, ferritin, MCP-1/ CCL2, GDF-15 and IL-13 in serum samples were statistically different between children who had TBM-related stroke and children with TBM without stroke. After correcting for multiple testing, only the levels of sVCAM-1, MMP-1, sRAGE, and IP-10/ CXCL10 in CSF were statistically different between the two groups. CSF and serum protein biosignatures indicated stroke in children diagnosed with TBM with up to 100% sensitivity and 88.9% specificity. Conclusion Serum and CSF proteins may serve as biomarkers for identifying individuals with stroke amongst children diagnosed with TBM at admission and may guide us to understand the biology of stroke in TBM. This was a pilot study, and thus further investigations in larger studies are needed

Prospective evaluation of host biomarkers other than interferon gamma in QuantiFERON Plus supernatants as candidates for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in symptomatic individuals

CITATION: Manngo, P. M. et al. 2019. Prospective evaluation of host biomarkers other than interferon gamma in QuantiFERON Plus supernatants as candidates for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in symptomatic individuals. Journal of Infection, 79(3):228-235, doi:10.1016/j.jinf.2019.07.007.The original publication is available at https://www.journalofinfection.comBackground: There is an urgent need for new tools for the diagnosis of TB. We evaluated the usefulness recently described host biomarkers in supernatants from the newest generation of the QuantiFERON test (QuantiFERON Plus) as tools for the diagnosis of active TB. Methods: We recruited individuals presenting at primary health care clinics in Cape Town, South Africa with symptoms requiring investigation for TB disease, prior to the establishment of a clinical diagnosis. Participants were later classified as TB or other respiratory diseases (ORD) based on the results of clinical and laboratory tests. Using a multiplex platform, we evaluated the concentrations of 37 host biomarkers in QuantiFERON Plus supernatants from study participants as tools for the diagnosis of TB. Results: Out of 120 study participants, 35(29.2%) were diagnosed with active TB, 69(57.5%) with ORD whereas 16(13.3%) were excluded. 14(11.6%) of the study participants were HIV infected. Although individ- ual host markers showed potential as diagnostic candidates, the main finding of the study was the identi- fication of a six-marker biosignature in unstimulated supernatants (Apo-ACIII, CXCL1, CXCL9, CCL8, CCL-1, CD56) which diagnosed TB with sensitivity and specificity of 73.9%(95% CI; 51.6–87.8) and 87.6%(95% CI; 77.2–94.5), respectively, after leave-one-out cross validation. Combinations between TB-antigen specific biomarkers also showed potential (sensitivity of 77.3% and specificity of 69.2%, respectively), with multi- ple biomarkers being significantly different between TB patients, Quantiferon Plus Positive and Quantif- eron Plus negative individuals with ORD, regardless of HIV status. Conclusions: Biomarkers detected in QuantiFERON Plus supernatants may contribute to adjunctive diag- nosis of TB.EDCTP , grant no: DRIA2014-311National Research FoundationICIDR (grant no: 5U01IA115619)Publisher's versio

Evaluation of host biomarkers for early diagnosis of tuberculosis disease in children

Thesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2018.Background: The diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) remains a challenge in children. There is an urgent need for new tools for early diagnosis of TB disease in children Objectives: To evaluate the usefulness of a previously described 3-marker cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biosignature (VEGF, IL-13 and cathelicidin LL-37) and other CSF biomarkers for diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis (TBM), and evaluate the utility of a previously identified adult 7-marker serum protein biosignature (CRP, IFN-γ, IP-10, CFH, Apo-AI, SAA and transthyretin) and other blood biomarkers for diagnosis of pulmonary TB (PTB) and TBM in children. Methods: CSF and serum samples were collected from children with suspected meningitis, whereas serum samples were collected from children with suspected PTB for investigation of biomarkers for the diagnosis of childhood TBM and PTB, respectively. Children in the TBM project were enrolled at the Tygerberg Academic Hospital, whereas those in the PTB study were enrolled at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. Children were classified as TBM or no-TBM and PTB or no-PTB, using combination of clinical, radiological and laboratory findings. Using a multiplex platform, the concentrations of 69 host biomarkers were evaluated in CSF and serum samples from children in the TBM study whereas 40 host markers were evaluated in serum samples from children in the PTB study. The diagnostic accuracies of individual biomarkers were assessed by receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curve, whereas the General Discriminant Analysis (GDA) was used to assess the accuracies of combinations between different host biomarkers. Results: Of the 69 host biomarkers evaluated in CSF and serum samples from children in the TBM study, multiple individual host biomarkers showed potential as diagnostic candidates for TBM as ascertained by area under the ROC curve (AUC). The previously described 3-marker CSF biosignature was validated in the project. However, refinement of the biosignature by substitution of IL-13 and cathelicidin LL-37 with two new proteins (MPO and IFN-γ) resulted in a new biosignature with improved accuracy (AUC of 0.97). Furthermore, we identified a 4- marker CSF biosignature (sICAM-1, MPO, CXCL8 and IFN-γ), which also diagnosed TBM with AUC of 0.97. The adult 7-marker serum biosignature, modified by the replacement of transthyretin with NCAM1, diagnosed TBM with AUC of 0.80. However, a childhood TBM-specific serum biosignature (adipsin, Aβ42 and IL-10) diagnosed TBM with AUC of 0.84. The adult signature performed with an AUC of 0.79 in children with PTB, showing no significant difference in the diagnosis of childhood PTB or TBM. However, novel childhood PTB-specific biosignatures performed better than the adult 7-marker signature. Conclusion: The adult 7-marker signature showed potential in the diagnosis of both PTB and TBM in children recruited from a high TB incidence area. We validated a previously established 3- marker CSF biosignature, but a refined signature showed much improved accuracy. The biosignatures identified in this thesis hold potential for development of new diagnostic tools for PTB and TBM in children for possible use at the point-of-care. Our findings require further validation in larger and multi-site studies.Agtergrond: Die diagnose van tuberkulose (TB) by kinders bly ‘n uitdaginig. Daar is ‘n dringende behoefte aan nuwe toestelle vir die vroeë diagnose van TB-siekte by kinders. Doelwitte: Om die doeltreffendheid van ‘n voorheen beskryfde 3-merker serebrospinale vloeistof (CSF) bioprofiel (VEGF, IL-13 and cathelicidin LL-37) en ander CSF biomerkers vir die diagnose van tuberkulose meningitis (TBM) te evalueer, asook die bruikbaarheid van ‘n voorheen geïndetifiseerde volwasse 7-merker serumproteïn bioprofiel (CRP, IFN-γ, IP-10, CFH, ApoAI, SAA en transthyretin) en ander bloedbiomerkers te evalueer vir die diagnose van pulmonale TB (PTB) en TBM by kinders. Metodes: CSF- en serummonsters is verkry van kinders wat vermoedelik meningitis het, terwyl serummonsters van kinders met vermeende PTB verkry is om die biomerkers se vermoëns om kindertyd TBM and PTB, onderskeidelik, te diagnoseer te ondersoek. Die kinders in die TBM-projek is ingeskryf by die Tygerberg Akademiese Hospitaal, terwyl dié wat aan die PTB studie deelgeneem het by die Rooikruis Oorlogsgedenkhospitaal in Kaapstad ingeskryf is. Die kinders is geklassifiseer as TBM of nie-TBM, en PTB of nie-PTB deur gebruik te maak van ‘n kombinasie van kliniese-, radiologiese-, en laboratoriumbevindings. ‘n Multipleks-platform is benut om die konsentrasies van 69 gasheerbiomerkers in CSF- en serummonsters van kinders in die TBM-studie en 40 gasheerbiomerkers in serummonsters van die kinders in die PTB-studie, onderskeidelik, te evalueer. Die diagnostiese akkuraatheid van individuele biomerkers is met die ontvanger-operateur-eienskappe (ROC) kurwe geassesseer, terwyl die Algemene Diskriminant Analise (GDA) gebruik is om die akkuraatheid van kombinasies tussen verskillende gasheerbiomerkers te bepaal. Resultate: Van die 69 gasheerbiomerkers wat in die CSF- en serummonsters van kinders in die TBMstudie geëvalueer is, het verskeie individuele gasheerbiomerkers potensiaal getoon as diagnostiese kandidate vir TBM, soos vasgestel deur die area onder die ROC-kurwe (AUC). Validasie van die voorheen beskryfde 3-merker CSF bioprofiel is in die projek uitgevoer. Verfyning van die bioprofiel deur die vervanging van IL-13 en cathekicidin LL-37 met twee nuwe proteïene (MPO en IFN-γ), het gelei tot ‘n nuwe bioprofiel met verbeterde akkuraatheid (AUC van 0.97). Daarbenewens, is daar ‘n 4-merker CSF-bioprofiel geïdentifiseer (sICAM-1, MPO, CXCL8 en IFN-γ) wat ook TBM met ‘n AUC van 0.97 gediagnoseer het. Die volwasse 7-merker serum bioprofiel, gewysig deur die vervanging van transthyretin met NCAM1, het TBM met ‘n AUC van 0.80 gediagnoseer. ‘n TBM-spesifieke serum bioprofiel (adipsin, Aβ42 en IL-10) het egter TBM met ‘n AUC van 0.84 gediagnoseer. Die volwasse teken het ‘n AUC van 0.79 in kinders met PTB opgelewer en dus geen beduidende verskil tussen die diagnose van kindertyd PTB of TBM getoon nie. Daarteenoor, het nuwe kindertyd PTB-spesifieke bioprofiele beter gevaar as die volwasse 7-merker profiel. Afsluiting: Die volwasse 7-merker profiel het potensiaal getoon om beide PTB en TBM by kinders afkomkstig van hoë TB-voorkomsgebiede te diagnoseer. ‘n Voorheen beskryfde 3-merkerCSF-bioprofiel is bevestig, maar ‘n verfynde profiel het heelwat verbeterde akkuraatheid getoon. Die bioprofiel wat in hierdie proefskrif geïdentifiseer is, het die potensiaal om gebruik te word om nuwe diagnostiese intrumente te ontwikkel vir punt-van-sorg gebruik by PTB en TBM in kinders. Die bevindings verg egter verdere validasie in groter en multi-setel studies.Master

Assessment of follow-up care received by patients with hypertension at primary health care facilities in Tshwane district of Gauteng Province, South Africa

Text in EnglishIntroduction. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the follow-up care received by patients with hypertension at Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities in Tshwane District of Gauteng Province, South Africa. Method. A quantitative, descriptive and retrospective design methods were adopted, and a simple random sampling technique was used where ten PHC facilities were selected. Ten files from each selected PHC facility were then conveniently sampled from which data were collected using a checklist. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Results were divided into adherence and non-adherent attributes. Adherent: Blood pressure measurement were recorded at (100%), pulse rate (96%), Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) (70%), Cholesterol (66%) and evaluation of whether the patient had oedema or not was done at (64%). Non-adherence: Where patients were not assessed adequately: Patients not assessed for dyspnoea (99%), Raised Jugular venous pressure (99%), Apex beat (100%) and basal crepitations (83%). Number of pillows used (100%) to check development of Nocturnal Paroxysmal Dyspnoea, which is a reliable sign of left ventricular failure. Cyanosis (72%), clubbing (72%), history of chest pains (100%), body mass index (BMI) (82%), waist circumference (100%), blood glucose (77%), urine test and eye test in the past 12 months were (68%) and (100%) not recorded respectively. Adherence as well as side effects to prescribed medication were (100%) unrecorded. On lifestyle modification, smoking (90%), alcohol use (91%), exercise (99%), salt and fat reduction (100%) unrecorded. Conclusion. The study found a significant percentage (93.4%) of non-adherence to Hypertension Guidelines by consulting nurses at selected PHC facilities.Health StudiesM.A. (Nursing Science

A phylogenetic study of South African species of Rhynchosia (Phaseoleae, Fabaceae)

M.Sc. (Botany)Rhynchosia is a genus within the tribe Phaseoleae, a group of papilionoid legumes that are economically important both for human and animal consumption because of their high protein content. The genus is pantropically distributed and comprises ca. 230 species. South African species were last studied by Baker in 1923. He identified five sections based on their morphological structures. No molecular studies have been carried out on the species to support the taxonomic classification. A systematic study of the relationship within the species was undertaken using five markers; matK, rbcL, trnH-psbA, rpl32-trnL and Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) as well as morphological characters, to investigate phylogenetic relationships in the genus Rhynchosia. Results obtained from a combined analysis produced four clades, two of which (clade three and four) received strong support from Bayesian Inference analyses, two of which received low BI support and therefore referred to as groups. Sections Chrysoscias, Polytropia, Arcyphyllum and Cyanospermum are embedded within a paraphyletic type section Rhynchosia. The results further suggest that sections Polytropia and Chrysoscias, which possess a high density of glands on the leaves, are very closely related forming a clade with species from section Rhynchosia. The morphologically distinct species R. monophylla came out as sister to all four clades