Molecular diagnosis of medical viruses.

The diagnosis of infectious diseases has been revolutionized by the development of molecular techniques, foremost with the applications of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The achievable high sensitivity and ease with which the method can be used to detect any known genetic sequence have led to its wide application in the life sciences. More recently, real-time PCR assays have provided additional major contributions, with the inclusion of an additional fluorescent probe detection system resulting in an increase in sensitivity over conventional PCR, the ability to confirm the amplification product and to quantitate the target concentration. Further, nucleotide sequence analysis of the amplification products has facilitated epidemiological studies of infectious disease outbreaks, and the monitoring of treatment outcomes for infections, in particular with viruses which mutate at high frequency. This review discusses the applications of qualitative and quantitative real-time PCR, nested PCR, multiplex PCR, nucleotide sequence analysis of amplified products and quality assurance with nucleic acid testing (NAT) in diagnostic laboratories

Addressing non-motorised transport movement along and across railway lines in the city of Cape Town

Paper presented at the 33rd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 7-10 July 2014 "Leading Transport into the Future", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.There are numerous reasons why pedestrians choose to cross railway tracks in South Africa and in Cape Town in particular. Whilst this behavior generally forms part of their desire line and is often part of their journey, the crossing of railway lines is illegal and unsafe and is causing a significant amount of injuries and fatalities within the rail network in the City. Such incidents occurring along railway lines cause a great disruption to the railway operational service with a resultant negative effect on the economic growth of the City. In this paper, an investigation into the Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) movements along and across all railway lines, within the jurisdictional area of the City of Cape Town, has been undertaken using innovative video-based techniques and assessed using GIS-mapping methods. The investigation identified several “hotspot” locations where various types of recommendations and/or intervention strategies are urgently needed to enhance public (pedestrian) safety and ensure uninterrupted train service. Intervention strategies proposed have been drawn from international best practice tailored to suit the unique South African pedestrian culture. The paper highlights the “Nomzamo rail crossing” as a special case study as it demonstrates the failure of town planning processes to consider the impacts of locating developments next to railway lines. The Nomzamo case study is an example of a large-scale, low-income urban development that has been allowed to develop alongside a rail line without due consideration of NMT desire lines that have materialised across the rail line. Currently, approx. 3,000 pedestrians cross the railway line at the Nomzamo location in the 2½-hour morning peak period, which include scholars and cyclists.This paper was transferred from the original CD ROM created for this conference. The material was published using Adobe Acrobat 10.1.0 Technology. The original CD ROM was produced by CE Projects cc. Postal Address: PO Box 560 Irene 0062 South Africa. Tel.: +27 12 667 2074 Fax: +27 12 667 2766 E-mail: [email protected]