Factors that determine the facilitation of stakeholders in environmental management – some philosophicalhistorical thoughts with the Merafong area as example

In essence, the article covers some fundamental principles of stakeholdership within a democratic process of environmental management. An effort is also made to point out several historical features of stakeholdership within the Wonderfonteinspruit (WFS) Catchment in the Merafong study area. Both these facets in the discussion accentuate stakeholdership as being primary participants (especially organisations that are government directed) and secondary participants (especially non-governmental organisations) in which both groups can reflect sufficient historical evidence in this economic environment to identify them as either the injurers, the injured or the participants/interested parties. To meaningfully conclude the discussion of stakeholdership in environmental management, some international and philosophical models and perspectives were also utilised to obtain a broader holistic perspective of a meaningful long-term stakeholder partnership. These applications, as reflected against a less fruitful awareness of the environmental practices in the past, can be applied efficiently in future stakeholder discussions regarding the WFS area as part of an approach featuring environmental justice and environmental remediation, compensation and monitoring

Reflexology versus reflexology and colour therapy combined for treating chronic sinusitis

Published ArticleAccording to Wills reflexology entails the division of the body into ten zones, concentrating on the pressure points on the feet, with each foot representing five zones (2006: Online). Colour therapy uses the vibrational frequencies of colour to restore the client's health. Colour zone therapy on the other hand, is a combination of reflexology and colour therapy. Zone refers to the working of key points on the feet, where colour refers to the assessment of the condition and treating it with the correct colour's frequency (Gimbel, 1993: 2-3). Reflexology uses a physical stimulus and colour therapy, emotional stimulus, thus colour zone therapy addresses both. In this study the researcher's objective was to investigate treatments with reflexology compared with treatments of colour zone therapy, by treating chronic sinusitis to explore the influence of colour on the outcome of reflexology treatments. Ten chronic sinusitis-suffering clients were treated with reflexology in a white cubicle. Another ten clients were treated with colour zone therapy (thus colour therapy as well as reflexology). They had indigo coloured paper in their hands. Results were obtained as case studies, with clients reporting how they felt before and after each treatment. Each client received five treatments. The results indicated that the reflexology clients did experience an improvement after the fourth treatment. By the fifth treatment three of the ten clients had discharged some mucus. However, clients treated with colour zone therapy showed results after the second treatment. At the fourth treatment, already seven of the ten colour zone therapy clients had discharged a large amount of mucus. This concludes that treating a condition with colour, in combination with another treatment provides better and quicker results

Religion as a Cross-cultural Determinant of Depression in Elderly Europeans: Results from the EURODEP Collaboration

Background. The protective effects of religion against late life depression may depend on the broader sociocultural environment. This paper examines whether the prevailing religious climate is related to cross-cultural differences of depression in elderly Europeans. Methods. Two approaches were employed, using data from the EURODEP collaboration. First, associations were studied between church-attendance, religious denomination and depression at the syndrome level for six EURODEP study centres (five countries, N = 8398). Secondly, ecological associations were computed by multi-level analysis between national estimates of religious climate, derived from the European Value Survey and depressive symptoms, for the pooled dataset of 13 EURODEP study centres (11 countries, N = 17739). Results. In the first study, depression rates were lower among regular church-attenders, most prominently among Roman Catholics. In the second study, fewer depressive symptoms were found among the female elderly in countries, generally Roman Catholic, with high rates of regular church-attendance. Higher levels of depressive symptoms were found among the male elderly in Protestant countries. Conclusions. Religious practice is associated with less depression in elderly Europeans, both on the individual and the national level. Religious practice, especially when it is embedded within a traditional value-orientation, may facilitate coping with adversity in later life

The von Hippel-Lindau gene is required to maintain renal proximal tubule and glomerulus integrity in zebrafish larvae

Background: von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease is characterized by the development of benign and malignant tumours in many organ systems, including renal cysts and clear cell renal cell carcinoma. It is not completely understood what underlies the development of renal pathology, and the use of murine Vhl models has been challenging due to limitations in disease conservation. We previously described a zebrafish model bearing inactivating mutations in the orthologue of the human VHL gene. Methods: We used histopathological and functional assays to investigate the pronephric and glomerular developmental defects in vhl mutant zebrafish, supported by human cell culture assays. Results: Here, we report that vhl is required to maintain pronephric tubule and glomerulus integrity in zebrafish embryos. vhl mutant glomeruli are enlarged, cxcr4a+ capillary loops are dilated and the Bowman space is widened. While we did not observe pronephric cysts, the cells of the proximal convoluted and anterior proximal straight tubule are enlarged, periodic acid schiff (PAS) and Oil Red O positive, and display a clear cytoplasm after hematoxylin and eosine staining. Ultrastructural analysis showed the vhl–/– tubule to accumulate large numbers of vesicles of variable size and electron density. Microinjection of the endocytic fluorescent marker AM1–43 in zebrafish embryos revealed an accumulation of endocytic vesicles in the vhl mutant pronephric tubule, which we can recapitulate in human cells lacking VHL. Conclusions: Our data indicates that vhl is required to maintain pronephric tubule and glomerulus integrity during zebrafish development, and suggests a role for VHL in endocytic vesicle trafficking

Mutations in LRRC50 Predispose Zebrafish and Humans to Seminomas

Seminoma is a subclass of human testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT), the most frequently observed cancer in young men with a rising incidence. Here we describe the identification of a novel gene predisposing specifically to seminoma formation in a vertebrate model organism. Zebrafish carrying a heterozygous nonsense mutation in Leucine-Rich Repeat Containing protein 50 (lrrc50 also called dnaaf1), associated previously with ciliary function, are found to be highly susceptible to the formation of seminomas. Genotyping of these zebrafish tumors shows loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of the wild-type lrrc50 allele in 44.4% of tumor samples, correlating with tumor progression. In humans we identified heterozygous germline LRRC50 mutations in two different pedigrees with a family history of seminomas, resulting in a nonsense Arg488* change and a missense Thr590Met change, which show reduced expression of the wild-type allele in seminomas. Zebrafish in vivo complementation studies indicate the Thr590Met to be a loss-of-function mutation. Moreover, we show that a pathogenic Gln307Glu change is significantly enriched in individuals with seminoma tumors (13% of our cohort). Together, our study introduces an animal model for seminoma and suggests LRRC50 to be a novel tumor suppressor implicated in human seminoma pathogenesis

Underlying molecular mechanisms of DIO2 susceptibility in symptomatic osteoarthritis

Objectives: To investigate how the genetic susceptibility gene DIO2 confers risk to osteoarthritis (OA) onset in humans and to explore whether counteracting the deleterious effect could contribute to novel therapeutic approaches. Methods: Epigenetically regulated expression of DIO2 was explored by assessing methylation of positional CpG-dinucleotides and the respective DIO2 expression in OA-affected and macroscopically preserved articular cartilage from end-stage OA patients. In a human in vitro chondrogenesis model, we measured the effects when thyroid signalling during culturing was either enhanced (excess T3 or lentiviral induced DIO2 overexpression) or decreased (iopanoic acid). Results: OA-related changes in methylation at a specific CpG dinucleotide upstream of DIO2 caused significant upregulation of its expression (ß=4.96; p=0.0016). This effect was enhanced and appeared driven specifically by DIO2 rs225014 risk allele carriers (ß=5.58, p=0.0006). During in vitro chondrogenesis, DIO2 overexpression resulted in a significant reduced capacity of chondrocytes to deposit extracellular matrix (ECM) components, concurrent with significant induction of ECM degrading enzymes (ADAMTS5, MMP13) and markers of mineralisation (ALPL, COL1A1). Given their concurrent and significant upregulation of expression, this process is likely mediated via HIF-2a/RUNX2 signalling. In contrast, we showed that inhibiting deiodinases during in vitro chondrogenesis contributed to prolonged cartilage homeostasis as reflected by significant increased deposition of ECM components and attenuated upregulation of matrix degrading enzymes. Conclusions: Our findings show how genetic variation at DIO2 could confer risk to OA and raised the possibility that counteracting thyroid signalling may be a novel therapeutic approach

The Lingering Environmental Impact of Repressive Governance: The Environmental Legacy of the Apartheid Era for the New South Africa

This article aims to explore the historical link between contemporary environmental problems and the environmental, economic and political policies of the apartheid government. The analysis draws on an examination of the detrimental environmental impacts of the apartheid era and how international isolation impacted on governmental environmental management in the country, before turning attention to the way in which the ANC government has managed the South African natural and human environments in the period after 1994. The article shows that despite many important new developments since 1994, that there are high levels of continuity between the environmental management practices of the old and the new regimes. This state of affairs negatively impacts on the ability of the ANC government to provide every South African citizen with the clean and safe environment guaranteed to all within the 1996 Bill of Rights.This article also appeared unchanged as a chapter in the following edited collection: Jan Oosthoek and Barry K. Gills (eds), _The Globalization of Environmental Crisis_ (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), pp. 109-120

Loss of Deacetylation Enzymes Hdac6 and Sirt2 Promotes Acetylation of Cytoplasmic Tubulin, but Suppresses Axonemal Acetylation in Zebrafish Cilia.

Cilia are evolutionarily highly conserved organelles with important functions in many organs. The extracellular component of the cilium protruding from the plasma membrane comprises an axoneme composed of microtubule doublets, arranged in a 9 + 0 conformation in primary cilia or 9 + 2 in motile cilia. These microtubules facilitate transport of intraflagellar cargoes along the axoneme. They also provide structural stability to the cilium, which may play an important role in sensory cilia, where signals are received from the movement of extracellular fluid. Post-translational modification of microtubules in cilia is a well-studied phenomenon, and acetylation on lysine 40 (K40) of alpha tubulin is prominent in cilia. It is believed that this modification contributes to the stabilization of cilia. Two classes of enzymes, histone acetyltransferases and histone deacetylases, mediate regulation of tubulin acetylation. Here we use a genetic approach, immunocytochemistry and behavioral tests to investigate the function of tubulin deacetylases in cilia in a zebrafish model. By mutating three histone deacetylase genes (Sirt2, Hdac6, and Hdac10), we identify an unforeseen role for Hdac6 and Sirt2 in cilia. As expected, mutation of these genes leads to increased acetylation of cytoplasmic tubulin, however, surprisingly it caused decreased tubulin acetylation in cilia in the developing eye, ear, brain and kidney. Cilia in the ear and eye showed elevated levels of mono-glycylated tubulin suggesting a compensatory mechanism. These changes did not affect the length or morphology of cilia, however, functional defects in balance was observed, suggesting that the level of tubulin acetylation may affect function of the cilium

Exposure to Moderate Air Pollution during Late Pregnancy and Cord Blood Cytokine Secretion in Healthy Neonates

Ambient air pollution can alter cytokine concentrations as shown in vitro and following short-term exposure to high air pollution levels in vivo. Exposure to pollution during late pregnancy has been shown to affect fetal lymphocytic immunophenotypes. However, effects of prenatal exposure to moderate levels of air pollutants on cytokine regulation in cord blood of healthy infants are unknown. In a birth cohort of 265 healthy term-born neonates, we assessed maternal exposure to particles with an aerodynamic diameter of 10 µm or less (PM₁₀), as well as to indoor air pollution during the last trimester, specifically the last 21, 14, 7, 3 and 1 days of pregnancy. As a proxy for traffic-related air pollution, we determined the distance of mothers' homes to major roads. We measured cytokine and chemokine levels (MCP-1, IL-6, IL-10, IL-1ß, TNF-α and GM-CSF) in cord blood serum using LUMINEX technology. Their association with pollution levels was assessed using regression analysis, adjusted for possible confounders. Mean (95%-CI) PM₁₀ exposure for the last 7 days of pregnancy was 18.3 (10.3-38.4 µg/m³). PM₁₀ exposure during the last 3 days of pregnancy was significantly associated with reduced IL-10 and during the last 3 months of pregnancy with increased IL-1ß levels in cord blood after adjustment for relevant confounders. Maternal smoking was associated with reduced IL-6 levels. For the other cytokines no association was found. Our results suggest that even naturally occurring prenatal exposure to moderate amounts of indoor and outdoor air pollution may lead to changes in cord blood cytokine levels in a population based cohort