Discursive contructions of threat and the implications for social identity in a sample of African foreigners living in Pietermaritzburg.

Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.Drawing on seventeen group interviews with African foreign nationals living in Pietermaritzburg, this thesis explores how a minority group talks about their experiences of threat and prejudice within the South African context. The main aim of this thesis is to provide a contextualised study of foreigners’ understanding and experiences of threat, by studying how threat operates in a disempowered minority group’s narratives and exploring the social identity work or outcomes that are so achieved. Since threat may constitute an important dimension of the intergroup relations between foreigners and citizens, attention is paid to how threat is employed in foreigners’ narratives of intergroup relations with South African citizens. The exploration of these constructions is important as this signifies a move away from understanding and studying threat in a purely quantitative way. This has meant that the rhetorical, action-oriented function of threat in narrative has been emphasised over the reduction of threat to a psychological state amenable to quantitative measurement. The study of participants’ constructions reveal how threat is put together in narrative and demonstrates that constructions of threat may fulfil an important function in informing foreigners’ constructions about what they can do as a disempowered minority group living in South Africa. Hence, this thesis argues for an alternate, more indepth, way of understanding and studying intergroup relations, threat and the social identity of a minority group in a specific social context. The study uses terms from Stephan and Stephan’s (2000) Integrated Threat Theory to orient this piece of work in this field, but differs from traditional studies that have employed the theory as it focuses on discursive construction and the implications for social identity. The findings are also linked to the various options available to minorities, as highlighted by Tajfel and Turner (1979). The study allows for the voices of a marginalised group to be heard and also shows how threat can be discursively worked up in narrative and how the social positions and strategies adopted by foreigners both constrain and are discursively constrained by narrated constructions and theories of threat and intergroup life

The effect of self-generated hypoxia on the expression of target genes coding for electron transport related products in mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.The work presented here aims at identifying whether the genes identified in the genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis that code for products involved in anaerobic metabolism are active or inactivated genes. The study consists of three distinct parts. In part one, serial dilutions of sputum of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) were grown on agar surface and in high columns of un-agitated broth. The highest dilution from which mycobacteria was grown was for all patients significantly higher in the broth cultures than on the plates suggesting the presence of anaerobically metabolizing mycobacteria in the lungs of patients with PTB. Part two of the study identified gene expression by measuring the concentration of transcripts for 5 genes involved in aerobic or anaerobic pathways. This was done over a period of 15 weeks using un-agitated broth cultures (the Wayne method). Undulating patterns of gene expression were found with the genes coding for anaerobic metabolic pathway components expressed at higher levels than those coding for aerobic pathway components while the cultures grew older. Part three aimed at measuring transcription products of the same set of genes directly in sputum specimens. Although quantitation at bacterial cell level in the sputum could not be achieved, expression of all genes was established with on average larger quantities of transcripts of genes coding for the anaerobic pathway components

Effect of the capsular material of cryptococcus neoformans on the interplay between Mmicroglial cells and Neutrophils.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Cryptococcal meningitis is an important opportunistic infection in immunocompromised patients. It has been well established that a distinguishing feature of this form of meningitis is a relatively low neutrophil count in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) compared to bacterial meningitis. There has been speculation and research undertaken previously to understand this phenomenon, however, little information is available in human studies. Furthermore, there is insufficient information on expression and function of Toll-like receptors (TLR) in the human central nervous system (CNS). The work presented here investigated the effect of the capsular material of a series of clinical isolates of Cryptococcus neoformans on neutrophil recruitment at the site of infection and determined whether downregulation occurs at the level of TLR expression. This was done in a multiple component study. Clinical information was collected from patients with cryptococcal meningitis and baseline blood and CSF investigations were performed, which included the quantification of neutrophils in CSF and blood specimens. The size of the Cryptococcus capsule was measured in each isolate and shed capsular material was quantified in individual CSF specimens. The extent of neutrophil chemotaxis inhibition by individual strains of C. neoformans was determined by using a Transwell migration assay. Toll-like receptor (TLR)2 and TLR4 gene expression induced by individual C. neoformans isolates in human microglial cells was quantified. The possible associations among these experiments were subsequently evaluated. As anticipated, a paucity of neutrophils in the CSF was observed. The cryptococcal capsule was larger in isolates of patients with lower CSF neutrophil counts. In addition, patients with lower CSF neutrophil counts shed more capsular material in the CSF. Chemotaxis inhibition occurred in close to 70% of tested isolates. The concentration of shed capsular material in this group was higher compared to the group with no chemotaxis inhibition. Patients presenting with fever had higher CSF neutrophil counts as well as elevated intracranial pressures. The majority of isolates expressed downregulation for TLR2 and TLR4 in microglial cells exposed to C. neoformans. CSF neutrophil counts were lower in this group. These findings imply that the capsular components of C. neoformans downregulated recruitment of neutrophils into the CSF. Downregulation of neutrophil recruitment was observed at the level of TLR expression

Queering the Cross-Cultural Imagination: (Trans)Subjectivity and Wilson Harris's The Palace of the Peacock

[À l'origine dans / Was originally part of : Thèses et mémoires - FAS - Département d'études anglaises]Ce mémoire comprend deux volets : une étude théorique et un texte de création littéraire. Dans un premier temps, il s’agir d’étudier le rôle du désir dans la démarche thématique et philosophique employée par l’écrivain Wilson Harris dans son roman The Palace of the Peacock. Ainsi démonterons-nous dans le premier chapitre que Harris se sert – de façon paradoxale – du désir empirique pour faire valoir les limites mêmes de celui-ci. Nous aborderons dans le deuxième chapitre le rapport problématique qu’entretient, chez Harris, la subjectivité féminine avec la subjectivité masculine. En particulier, nous examinerons la représentation de ce rapport sous la forme de métaphores ayant trait à l’environnement et à l’anatomie. Nous avancerons que le caractère problématique que revêt le rapport entre subjectivités féminine et masculine dans le roman est en quelque sorte nécessitée par l’écriture même de Harris. Dans le troisième chapitre, nous prendrons part aux débats sur la poétique qui animent la littérature contemporaine afin de situer notre propre élan vers la création littéraire. En même temps, nous entreprendrons une tentative de récupération de certains des concepts théoriques formulés par Harris, en lien avec notre propre poétique. S’ensuivra notre projet de création littéraire, intitulé HEROISM/EULOGIES, qui constitue le quatrième et dernier chapitre du mémoire. Ce texte, extrait d’un projet d’écriture créative plus vaste, trace les mouvements d’un certain nombre de sujets à travers une Amérique imaginée.This study contains two parts: a theoretical component and a literary text. The theoretical component discusses desire as a thematic and philosophical methodology in Wilson Harris’s The Palace of the Peacock. Chapter one argues that Harris paradoxically makes use of forms of empirical desire to demonstrate its epistemological limits. Chapter two discusses the problematic situation of female subjectivity in relation to male subjects, through environmental and anatomic metaphors, which Harris’s writing necessitates. Chapter three discusses contemporary poetics in order to situate my impetus for literary writing and attempts to salvage some of Harris’s theoretical concepts in dialogue with my own poetics. Chapter four contains the creative writing project, HEROISM/EULOGIES—an excerpt from a larger project—that charts the movement of various subjects across an imagined American landscape

Effects of group exercise on salivary biomarkers of mucosal immunity and hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis activation in older persons living in aged care facilities.

Master of Science in Biokinetics, Exercise & Leisure Sciences. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2015.Abstract available in PDF file

Aging and UTI: are Teenagers more prone?

Background: None of the studies have classified UTI in males and females based on the age factor. Therefore the present study compared the prevalence of UTI in various age groups of males and females.Methodology: Dipstick and microscopy urinalyses were carried out on 1569 consecutive urine samples of patients, and the results were statistically analyzed.Results: UTI in females was more often than males, excluding children (p=0.27) and adults (p=0.30), groups. When compared within females, UTI was more prevalent in teenagers and old groups (p<0.01). Pyuria was significantly higher in all age groups of females except children (p=0.21) in comparison to age-matched males. Both young females and males had a significantly low prevalence of glycosuria and proteinuria when compared within the same-sex groups. We discovered that there are 56% chances of having pyuria, 26% chances of proteinuria, and 11% chances of glycosuria and hematuria in UTI patients with negative predictive value of more than 90%. This study also showed that 21% of glycosuric patients were positive for proteinuria (glomerular disease), which showed increased chances of progression to glomerular disease in these patients. Conclusion: UTI within and in between males and females at different ages are significantly different. Teenagers and old groups are more prone to dvelop UTI. UTI negative patients have <10% chance of having glomerular disease, hematuria and pyuria.

Prevalence and trends of staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia in hospitalized patients in South Africa, 2010 to 2012: laboratory-based surveillance mapping of antimicrobial resistance and molecular epidemiology.

CAPRISA, 2015.Abstract available in pdf