16918 research outputs found
Sort by
Bush encroachment with climate change in protected and communal areas: a species distribution modelling approach
No full textSavanna rangelands have experienced widespread degradation due to bush encroachment, raising significant concerns among conservationists and rural communities. In the context of climate change, these ecosystem shifts are likely to intensify, especially in South Africa's semi-arid regions. Understanding the impacts of climate variability and change on species distribution within these rangelands is crucial for mitigating further ecosystem disruption. Environmental factors, along with climatic variables, can accelerate the process of bush encroachment, threatening both biodiversity and land use. Early identification of areas vulnerable to invasion is key to developing effective and cost-efficient management strategies. This study aims to model the distribution of invasive species across protected and communal landscapes under long-term climate change projections. A Random Forest (RF) model produced the highest accuracy metrics for Area under the curve (AUC) = 0.99 and True Skill Statistic (TSS)=0.97, while a MaxEnt model recorded the second highest AUC (0.98) and TSS (0.97). The results show a clear difference between the current and future scenarios of the spatial distribution in all the models. Applying a species distribution model (SDM) using both MaxEnt and RF produced a higher degree of prediction accuracy because RF is susceptible to overfitting training data while MaxEnt can produce predictable and complex results. Moreover, the overall predictions using the ensemble model demonstrated an increase in areas suitable for encroachment under RCP 8.5 but a decrease in the bush encroachment rate under RCP 2.6. These findings underscore the critical need for proactive management strategies to mitigate bush encroachment, particularly under high-emission scenarios, ensuring the sustainability of semi-arid savanna rangelands in the face of climate change
Principles to award learning achievements for lifelong learning in health using micro-credentials: an international Delphi study
No full textBackground: This research investigates micro-credentialing as an approach to recognise learning achievements in health. Establishing international standards can ensure consistency, promote equity, and enhance quality of recognition systems. Achieving stakeholder consensus on the key topic areas is an important precursor to lead to relevant topics from which to build appropriate standards. This research supports the efforts by UN agency representatives and experts in qualification systems, medical education, the health and care sector, regulation, and accreditation, to build foundations from which to launch normative work on the application of micro-credentials to award learning achievements for health and care workers. Methods: A modified Delphi study following methodological steps was conducted. From April to May 2021, a literature review investigated existing standards in continuing professional development and the use of micro-credentialing in health. Results from the review informed the initial draft of statements that were then refined through three iterative Delphi rounds between May to September 2021. The process culminated in a final workshop in March 2023. Results: A total of 53 participants completed the Delphi, with results analysed by researchers using qualitative analysis. Consensus was achieved on the core principles to recognise learning achievements. The expert panel agreed on the need for standards that are competency-based, and require evidence of learning indicating what a learner can do. There was also consensus that the characteristics of a valid digital award or micro-credential should be portable, standardised, secure, interoperable, stackable and verifiable. Conclusions: The growing body of literature on micro-credentialing highlights its potential as a method to recognise learning achievements. The interest in alternative pathways to award health practitioners, through short competency-based micro-learning opportunities, has spurred discussions on the practical application of micro-credentials. This research outlines the categories and principles for a proposed framework to implement micro-credentialing to recognise learning achievements within the health and care sector
Mpox and the ethics of outbreak management: lessons for future public health crises
No full textMpox, first identified in captive monkeys in 1958 and recognized in humans by 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was historically confined to sporadic zoonotic outbreaks in Central and West Africa. These outbreaks, often driven by rodent‐to‐human transmission in resource‐limited settings, reflect persistent systemic health disparities. In recent years, mpox has also been reported in high‐income countries (including the United States, United Kingdom and Europe), underscoring its global health implications beyond traditionally endemic regions. This article examines the mpox outbreak through the lens of public health ethics, evaluating how core ethical frameworks—justice (encompassing equitable vaccine distribution and addressing health inequities), solidarity and respect for rights (including intellectual property considerations)—shape outbreak management strategies. These strategies are ensuring equitable access to vaccines and therapeutics amid intellectual property barriers, combating stigma and misinformation through transparent risk communication and fostering international solidarity in coordinating responses. The analysis highlights how neglect of these principles exacerbates existing disparities and undermines the effectiveness of interventions. Integrating ethical principles into outbreak responses is critical for building public trust, accountability and community resilience. By distilling lessons from the mpox response, this article contributes to ongoing debates in public health ethics and outbreak preparedness, arguing that ethically grounded approaches are essential for fair and effective management of future public health crises
Behind the billions: policies, politics and power of the Global Financing Facility for women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health
No full textThe landscape of global health financing has shiftedprofoundly in recent years – with redirection of donor aid to national security spending, economic shocks from the
COVID-19 pandemic, and rising debt burdens – placing immense pressures on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to self-finance theirhealth systems . Sudden major donor cuts to global health amplify the need to transform health financing to more sustainable and equitable models that protect vulnerable populations, especially women, children,
and adolescents . Many LMICs, and notably those in sub-Saharan Africa, are off track or haveslowed down in progressing towards the Sustainable Development Goals targets for ending preventable maternal, neonatal and child deaths by 2030. This requires urgent action and increased investment. Concurrently, global health initiatives (GHIs), including the Global Financing Facility (GFF), are also beingreimagined to better support countries on their path towards Universal Health Coverage . The GFF launched in 2015 with a compelling mission:
to close financing gaps for women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health through smarter, more sustainable investments . Framed as a ‘country-led’
mechanism that could both mobilize and coordinate domestic and external financing, the GFF promised to move beyond traditional aid models by catalyzing
investment cases tailored to each country’s priorities. A decade since its inception, there remains relatively little peer-reviewed research about how the GFF operates in practice, how its promises of country leadership and catalytic financing are realized, and what lessons can be drawn for the future of global health financing
Feasibility and preliminary findings of a bacterial diversity study in periodontitis: a pilot investigation from the Western Cape
No full textIntroduction: Periodontitis is a significant health challenge caused by a complex interaction between bacterial infection, host immune response, and environmental factors, leading to tooth loss, bone loss, and potential associations with major systemic diseases and conditions. While the determinants of periodontitis have been extensively investigated in other populations, such studies are lacking in South Africa, which represents a high-risk population. Therefore, this study was conducted to characterize the subgingival bacterial biodiversity in the periodontal pockets of patients with periodontitis in a Western Cape population. Materials & methods: Pooled subgingival plaque samples were collected from the deepest pocket/crevices of five periodontitis cases and five controls using sterile paper points. Illumina MiSeq paired-end sequencing and QIIME2 software were employed for sequence filtration and analysis. Several alpha and beta-diversity metrics assessed biodiversity within-sample and population structure between different microbiota datasets, respectively. Statistical significance for alpha diversity was tested using the Kruskal–Wallis H test (p < 0.05), and beta diversity differences were evaluated using PERMANOVA. Data visualization, including beta diversity plots, was conducted with the Phyloseq package in R. Results: Beta-diversity measures revealed significant differences between periodontitis cases and controls (p-value = 0.04), whereas alpha-diversity was higher in cases, though without statistical significance (p-value ≥ 0.05). Cases group showed high relative abundance of Fusobacterium (16%), Porphyromonas (10%), and Treponema (9%), while the periodontally healthy controls were dominated by Streptococcus (20%), Fusobacterium (15%), and Veillonella (10%), with g_Streptococcus showing a significant difference (p-value = 0.008). Differential abundance analysis revealed distinct bacterial genera enriched in cases (Bulleidia, Peptoanaerobacter, Phocaeiola, W5053) and controls (Abiotrophia, Haemophilus, Lautropia, Rothia, Streptococcus). Sample-specific variations included higher levels of Porphyromonas (15%) in grade B and Fusobacterium (20%) in grade C. Conclusion: This exploratory study highlights distinct bacterial communities associated with periodontitis in a South African population. The findings emphasize the need for larger, population-based cohorts to validate these results and lay a foundation for future research into region-specific microbial profiles and their implications for personalized treatment strategies
Earth observation-based analysis of flood extent and impacts on land use and cover in the Cape Town Metropolitan Region, South Africa
No full textThis work leverages multi-source data spatial approach in mapping floods extents and their effect on key land use land cover in the Cape Town Metropolitan Region, for the 2023 period. Using the Google Earth Engine cloud computing platform, the study mapped flood extent through Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), and Sentinel 2- Multispectral Instrument (MSI) for landcover classification before and after a flood event. Landcover classification for the period before and after the flood occurrence were performed using the Random Forest (RF) algorithm. To assess the flood-affected categories, the pre-flood image was overlaid on the flood extent spatial layer. The research findings showed that the central and low-lying areas of the Metropolitan area were significantly affected by the floods. A total land area of about 2074 ha(ha) (84.30 %) was affected. Further results showed that floods mostly affected bare areas (32.64 % equivalent to 803.05 ha) and built-up (46.84 % equivalent to 1152.33 ha) areas. The affected built-up areas were mainly located in low-lying regions, near floodplains, and near water bodies. Overall, the findings of the study underscore the importance of spatially explicit techniques in flood mapping and informing early warning systems for disaster preparedness
Exodontia block course evaluation: a review of the learning outcomes, content, and assessment practices at a dental faculty in South Africa
No full textIntroduction: Regular curriculum renewal ensures relevant and responsive curricula. Skills development courses, such as for dental extraction procedures, require the same rigorous review, as this skill demands both technical proficiencies and a high level of cognition. In South Africa, the high burden of dental disease, in particular pain and sepsis, relies on competent graduate exodontia (tooth extraction) abilities. However, research on evidence-based instruction in this field is limited. This action research study emanated from the goal of enhancing the Exodontia Block Course by integrating a teaching and learning strategy proven to develop psychomotor skills. The first step in the broader research study involved evaluating the traditional course. This study thus aimed to evaluate a traditional exodontia block course, gaining insight into its curricular components prior to redesigning it. Materials and Methods: An interpretive qualitative study employed appreciative inquiry for data collection. A purposive sampling strategy was employed. Six focus group discussions were conducted with homogeneous groups of undergraduate dental students (n = 13), clinical teachers (n = 10), and dentist practitioners (n = 7). Audio recordings were transcribed, and data underwent coding and thematic analysis. Results: This paper presents the findings pertaining to three curricular elements, namely the objectives, content, and assessment. The larger study identified four main themes: integration of skills and knowledge, block course structure, challenges, and recommendations for improvement. The study found that overall the students were satisfied with the content presented in the course. Recommendations to improve the course, however, were to include the use of elevators as a learning outcome of the course and the inclusion of an additional practical assessment. Challenges associated with the course related to the duration of the course and the presentation of non-relevant content. The course content revealed discrepancies between the material covered and the intended learning outcomes, with students noting insufficient focus on elevator/luxator use in extractions. Concerns were raised about including non-exodontia content, including a call for standardised terminology and locally developed teaching materials. Assessment methods were largely well received, but issues emerged regarding unlimited assessment attempts potentially reducing student accountability. Suggestions included limiting assessment opportunities and incorporating OSCE formats for preclinical evaluation to enhance rigour and student learning. Conclusions: The evaluation highlighted the strengths of the course as well as areas requiring reflection and emendation. Whilst the course was adequate to meet its objectives, areas for redress included instrumentation adaptations such as the combined use of elevators and luxators in intra-alveolar (simple, or non-surgical) extractions. A call for standardised terminology, locally developed teaching materials, and a broader array of assessment types was recommended. Additionally, issues emerged regarding unlimited assessment attempts potentially reducing student accountability. The need for future initiatives that focus on developing a nationally standardised competency-based curriculum was also foregrounded. Follow-up research would be required to investigate the impact of the implementation of the revised course
Ferrocene-based hybrid drugs as potential anticancer and antibacterial therapeutic agents for incorporation into nanocarriers: in silico, in vitro, molecular docking evaluations
No full textCancer and bacterial cases are increasing. Hence, new drugs to treat these diseases are paramount. Ferrocene-based hybrid compounds were synthesizedas potential cancer and bacteria therapeutics. The synthesized compounds were characterized via FTIR, NMR, and LC-MS and evaluated against different cancer cells and bacterial strains. Moreover, computational studies of these compounds were conducted using several silico tools. Among the synthesized compounds, hybrid 10 was the most promising compound, displaying promising anticancer activity with IC50 values between 42.42 and 45.37 and 50.64 and 73.37 µg/mL against HeLa and CHO cancer cells, respectively, with a selective index greater than one on HeLa cancer cells. Compounds 22–26 displayed promising antibacterial activity with a MIC value of 7.8125 µg/mL against most bacterial strains in vitro. The in silico results revealed that this compound has strong binding affinities for 4qtb, 3eqm, and 2w3l cervical cancer proteins, exhibiting binding energies of −7.3, −8.7, and 7.4 kcal/mol, respectively. Furthermore, hybrid 10 showed promising pharmacokinetics and drug-like properties, including high GI absorption, moderate water solubility, favoring the oral administration route, nontoxicity, and is a P-gp substrate. The findings obtained in this study illustrate that hybrid compounds are potential therapeutics that need to be explored. The compounds also contained functionalities relevant for incorporating into nanocarriers to improve their biological activities further. Therefore, further studies are recommended for the most effective compounds to reinforce these findings
Monadic Aspects of the Ideal Lattice Functor on the Category of Distributive Lattices
No full textIt is known that the construction of the frame of ideals from a distributive lattice induces a monad whose algebras are precisely the frames and frame homomorphisms. Using the Fakir
construction of an idempotent approximation of a monad, we extend B. Jacobs’ results on lax idempotent monads and show that the sequence of monads and comonads generated by successive iterations of this ideal functor on its algebras and coalgebras do not strictly lead to a new category. We further extend this result and provide a new proof of the equivalence between distributive lattices and coherent frames by showing that when the first inductive step in the Fakir construction is the identity monad, then the ambient category is equivalent
to the category of free algebra
Coal fly ash and acid mine drainage-based fe-bea catalysts for the friedel–crafts alkylation of benzene
No full textCoal fly ash and acid mine drainage are significant environmental issues in South Africa, causing storage constraints and impacting water quality. This study explores the use of coal fly ash and acid mine drainage in preparing zeolite HBEA-supported Fe catalysts. The Na-BEA parent catalysts were synthesised hydrothermally using coal fly ash as a feedstock. The Fe was loaded upon the H-BEA form zeolite using liquid-phase ion exchange or wet impregnation, using Fe-rich acid mine drainage as the metal precursor. The ion-exchanged Fe-BEA catalysts exhibited excellent activity, with the highest selectivity achieved over the 25 AHW after 0.5 h on stream. The study also found that when impregnation was used to load Fe onto the zeolite support, other metals present in the AMD affected the overall activity, with Mn, Ca, Mg, and Na decreasing conversion and selectivity, while Ni had a promoting effect. This study demonstrates that green solid acid catalysts with high catalytic activity can be prepared using two waste materials, coal fly ash and acid mine drainage. To the best of our knowledge, we are reporting for the first time the use of acid mine drainage as a metal precursor in Fe-BEA catalyst preparation