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Pharmaco-chemical investigation of Erythrina caffra: extracts, isolated compounds and their biological activities
Get PDFIn this study, secondary metabolites isolated from Erythrina caffra, a medicinal plant indigenous to South Africa, were investigated. E. caffra is well-known for its healing properties and it is traditionally used for treating bacterial infections like tuberculosis (TB), abscesses, tooth aches and ear infections. Its extracts have also been used to treat cancer. Though many studies have been done on this plant, most of them tended to focus solely on the isolated compounds. In the present study however, extracts, fractions and isolated compounds from E. caffra were evaluated for their anticancer, anti-oxidant, anti-enzymatic, antibacterial and cytotoxicity. The methanol crude extract (B1) from the stem bark of E. caffra was used to extract alkaloidic fractions (B2 and B3) using ethyl acetate and n-butanol respectively, a third fraction (B4) was also extracted using ethyl acetate this fraction was called a neutral fraction. The neutral fraction (B4) was fractionated and through a sequence of column chromatography three active secondary metabolites were isolated. The isolated compounds included Lupeol (1), stigmasterol (2) and 5,7-Dihydroxy-4'-methoxy-3',5'-diprenylflavanone (3). These isolated compounds were characterized and identified using spectroscopic techniques including IR, NMR and high-resolution Mass Spectrometry. Using the cell line HCC-70, isolated from a primary ductal carcinoma, in vitro anticancer assays were carried out on the crude extract from the bark, fractions, isolated compounds and an unseparated mixture of two compounds. These samples were also evaluated for their anti-oxidant, anti-enzymatic, antibacterial and cytotoxicity activities. The crude extract inhibited the cell viability by over 30% and had no effect on the HeLa cells at concentrations of 20μM. Abyssinone V’ 4-methyl-ether (3) and the mixture of stigmasterol (2) and an unidentified compound exhibited potent anticancer activity against the HCC-70 cell line with IC50 of 18.05μM and 9.04μM respectively. Antibacterial assays were also carried out on the crude extracts, fractions and concoctions made from the fractions with the best activity combined with the ones that performed poorly. The concoctions were prepared as two separate series (S and N series). The crude extract inhibited more than 80% of the Staphylococcus aureus cells at a concentration of 20μM with only minimal damage to the HeLa cells. In the concoctions however, the N series managed to inhibit over 96% of the S. aureus while exhibiting no cytotoxicity towards HeLa cells. The extract and its fractions also showed good anti-oxidant activities. Molecular docking of these compounds was done on the Human estrogen receptor (PDB ID:3ERT) and Abyssinone V’ 4-methyl-ether (3) showed the best docking score of -6.6 Kcal/mol, for the simulation against Epidermal growth factor receptor (PDB ID: 1M17) Stigmasterol (2) showed the best docking score of -3.8 Kcal/mol. In silico docking on 3ERT and 1M17 were done to test the binding affinity of the isolated compounds to the proteins which are well known to be overexpressed in some types of cancer. Flavonoids isolated from Erythrina species have been reported to possess good antiplasmodial activity. However, due to the minute amounts isolated in the present study in-vitro assays could not be carried out. Nevertheless, in-silico assays were conducted on the most prominent protozoal parasite which causes malaria in the majority of African countries. In-silico simulations were done against Plasmodium falciparum protein (PDB ID: 7KJH), of the tested compounds Abyssinone V’ 4-methyl-ether (3) was found possess the best docking score of -4.4 Kcal/mol. The molecular docking of 7KJH was done to assess the inhibitory potential of the isolated compounds on protozoal parasites. Pharmacokinetic properties of the isolated compounds were also assessed in silico to assist in evaluating the drug likeness of these compounds. The compounds showed a percent human oral absorption of 100% except for Abyssinone V’ 4-methyl-ether (3), which showed 93.83%, this indicates a remarkable oral bioavailability. Stigamsterol (2) exhibited a Caco-2 cell permeability (QPPCaco) greater than 500 which indicates outstanding results for good intestinal absorption. The compounds also displayed a blood-brain partition co-efficient (QPlogBB) ranging from -1.433 to 0.128 suggesting they will have less potential to cross the blood-brain barrier, thus reducing any CNS related toxicity. Molecular networking of the crude extracts and the fractions was done through GNPS which allowed the identification of known compounds including one isolated in the present study, Abyssinone V’ 4-methyl-ether (3). Possible derivatives that have not been isolated from this plant before were also putatively identified.Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, Chemistry, 202
The career development processes of senior black female academics in a historically disadvantaged institution in South Africa
No full textOrientation The literature has shown that females are marginalised and under-represented more specifically in South Africa where females have been facing triple challenges. The issues of gender race and social class are factors which have hindered their career development. However as times change the development of Black females has been prioritised. This has led to calls for more empirical focus in understanding the career development processes especially of Black females. From this practitioner managerial and policymaker ramifications can be made. Research purpose To investigate the career development processes of senior Black female academics and further explain how they navigate the barriers concerning their careers. Motivation for the study The increasing need for career related research has prompted the need for more female career development studies in South Africa. Moreover calls have been made to better understand the career development process of female academics. This sample occupies an important space not just in terms of redress but also paving the future of the South African knowledge production space. Research approach design and method The study utilised an interpretivist qualitative research philosophy and approach. The study was exploratory in nature and relied on semi structured interviews with 20 senior Black female academics working at a Historically Disadvantaged Institution in South Africa. Narrative analysis using the three levels of meaning making was used to analyse the data. The first level was used to get a good understanding of participants accounts of career development processes for senior Black female academics in an HDI. The second level of meaning was used to identify and categorise codes and themes that emanated from the lived experiences of the participants interviewed. The final level of meaning enabled the researcher to use the themes that were generated and to extract direct quotes from the participants stories. Main findings Three main findings emerged from the study. First intersectionality archetypes were found to be continued barriers to the career development of the senior Black female academics. Second the study found the interacting nexus between serendipity premeditated events and the taking of opportunities in assisting the career development of senior Black female academics. Finally in addressing the challenges experienced as part of their career development the role of direct and indirect agentic power was at play in addressing barriers. Practical managerial implications The findings of this study may assist career counsellors to identify the challenges which are being faced by senior Black female academics during their career development such as racial discrimination gender bias and social class. This information can be useful during the career path to ensure awareness of the growing issues of intersectional complexities surrounding working senior Black female academics. Moreover managers who occupy managerial positions in higher education institutions can use the findings to create a conducive environment for the progression of senior Black female academics. The managerial implication can be in form of financial assistance mentoring as well as other operational support. The findings of this study can also assist the policy development of the higher education institution focusing on senior Black female academic advancement. The policy should be oriented in such a way that it addresses the challenges of future Black females pursuing an academic career. Contribution value add This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge of career development related studies. While most South African career related research focused on challenges this study contributes to finding interrelated factors that work as complexities and aim at also showing the strategies on how to overcome interconnected barriers of Black females in South Africa.Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 202
The trophic position and isotopic niche of a cryptogenic tube-building polychaete in a protected clear-water estuarine bay
Get PDFThe Knysna Estuary is a large, clear-water embayment and one of the most important estuaries for conservation in southern Africa. The estuary is detritus-dominated and the benthic food webs have low diversities of carnivores, which may make the estuary vulnerable to invasions through the empty niche hypothesis. In the last two decades, the Knysna Estuary has experienced an increase in the population of the cryptogenic and apparently omnivorous estuarine moonshine worm (Diopatra aciculata). Our goal was to describe the trophic role of D. aciculata. We measured carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in all the common macrophytes and macroinvertebrates across four seasons to 1) establish the isotopic landscapes of three disparate sites within the Knysna Estuary where D. aciculata occurs, 2) establish whether the trophic level of D. aciculata matches those of other common macroinvertebrates, and 3) establish whether the isotopic niche of D. aciculata overlaps with those of syntopic macroinvertebrates. Communities at the different sites differed in food web width, most likely due to differences in primary producer diversity. Our findings suggested that D. aciculata is a facultative carnivore, and some sub-populations are sustained primarily by animal tissues. Isotopic niche overlap analysis showed that direct competition with other common macroinvertebrate consumers is doubtful and D. aciculata occupies a unique niche within the estuary
An exploration into how Grade 3 Foundation Phase teachers implement differentiated instructional practices in their mathematics classrooms
Get PDFToday’s teaching space is more diverse than before. As a result, differentiated instruction is considered helpful in supporting learner diversity. This teaching approach considers socio-cultural, multiple intelligences, and learning styles also termed learning preferences of learners. It is against this view that I wanted to investigate the implementation of differentiated instruction teaching practices in the Foundation Phase. This study explored differentiated teaching strategies and procedures in mathematics teaching, and I observed four Grade 3 teachers. The theoretical framework underlying this study was the theory of practice architectures. This study is located within an interpretivist paradigm within which I employed a case study research design. The collection of the data sets was through observations and semi-structured interviews. For an analysis of observations, I used a deductive approach. On the other hand, for the semi-structured interviews, I use an inductive approach to discover patterns and themes that I applied during the data analysis process. The validation process was done by giving interview transcripts and a summary of discussions to respondents to verify their responses and check for any misinterpretations. Rich data sets were analysed concerning the research questions, which were as follows: What are the current differentiated instruction teaching practices used by Grade 3 Mathematics teachers? How can the teachers’ differentiated instruction teaching practices be understood in terms of doings, sayings and relatings? How are differentiated instruction teaching practices made visible through the lens of the Theory of Practice Architecture? The findings from the study revealed that the use of learners’ everyday language influences their understanding of mathematics terminology. The study discovered that learners were more comfortable using English to make sense of mathematics terms instead of using isiXhosa, the Language of Learning and Teaching in the Foundation Phase. Additionally, linking learning to learners’ everyday English language enabled them to learn mathematics terms in a relaxed and non-threatening situation, while isiXhosa seemed to constrain learning. Further, the findings revealed that teachers were unclear about differentiated instruction. That was evident when they did not know the elements of differentiated instruction. Thus, the study recommends that teachers need to be supported through workshops to enable them to enact differentiated instruction in their teaching.Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Secondary and Post-School Education, 202
Sense of Community: Perceptions of "Inter-Intra" Collaborations in an Academic Environment through the Lenses of Botho Principles and the Field of industrial Psychology
Get PDFIn the current study, I explored the concept of collaboration from Botho principles and the industrial psychology perspective in the specific higher learning institution. Using a qualitative approach, 13 participants performing academic and nonacademic roles formed part of the study. Overall, the participants experience regarding collaboration in an academic environment are reported to be in the form of shared goals, sense of unity, diversity, and solution-driven teams. Further participants experience in relation to collaboration is African culture [Botho principles]. The latter were perceived   contributors to collaboration within departments (intra); and few barriers to collaboration were discovered, such as criteria, lack of shared leadership, lack of collaboration champions or ambassadors. The concept of Botho is defined as a social contract of mutual respect, humanity, and responsibility that members have with one another often referred to as bringing in humanity onto a set environment. Although there are commonalities between Botho and Ubuntu, they however have dissimilarities and are underpinned by different cultures and traditions. Ubuntu is seen often used by a slogan, "I am because you are". Botho is Setswana or Sesotho concept while Ubuntu forms part of Nguni languages.  I then further conceptualize collaboration through the lens of industrial psychology from the results and offer future research recommendations in the current paper
Abortion Services and Reproductive Justice in Rural South Africa
No full textDespite progressive legislation, abortion service implementa-tion and access in South Africa’s rural areas is challenging and directly affects low-income communities. This book urges an intervention for safe and accessible abortion services that does not compromise costs or confidentiality within a repara-tive reproductive justice framework. South Africa’s progressive abortion legislation was hailed as transformative in terms of reproductive health and rights. Despite this promise, many challenges persist resulting in a lack of services, especially in rural areas where distances and transport costs are a factor
Gender and Culture Shock at University: Perspectives of First-Year Male Students From a Public University in South Africa
No full textThe chapter seeks to embark on a qualitative study with first-year male students from a public university in South Africa to understand their adjustment and adapting to university life due to challenges with gender and sexuality matters that they face. The authors is mostly interested in male students as they are the usual perpetrators of gender and sexuality offences in universities. With this chapter, the author wants to understand the experiences of these students as they transition from one world (their hometowns) to another (university campuses). Of interest in this study is that some of the students at this university come from previously disadvantaged backgrounds: villages, townships, and farmsteads. Some of them have gone through traditional rites of passage such as initiation schools; others come from patriarchal backgrounds and heteronormative backgrounds
Directive counselling undermines “safe” abortion
No full textSexual and Reproductive Justice: From the Margins to the Centre offers new insights and perspectives on sexual and reproductive justice. The thought-provoking and diverse contributions in this volume — which range from indigenous approaches to sexual violence to gender-affirming primary and mental healthcare — extend sexual and reproductive justice scholarship, and spark critical questions, novel thinking, and ongoing dialogue in this field
An examination of the use and value of support systems for people living with HIV/AIDS in Makhanda
Get PDFThrough the experiences of five people, this study asks how support systems develop, are used and are valued for those faced with the everyday challenges of living with HIV. Additional evidence is found in accounts from those identified as essential sources of support. These are primarily friends, sometimes family. This perspective is rounded out by insights gathered from those working in local organisations and in the analysis of services offered by the state. The three women and two men at the centre of this study live in Makhanda in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) is characterised by extremes of poverty and wealth, reflected in low employment, expanding informal and low-income settlement areas but also in a high level of community activism and access to resources. Each of the five tested positive for HIV variously between 1998 and 2008. These years were pivotal in the development of the local and national epidemic. The rapid expansion of infection rates, contestation over forms of and access to treatment, followed by emphasis of a biomedical response, in equal measure bracket and cut across their experiences. To this point, research is less concerned with what individual experiences say about living through the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Preoccupations lie more generally with macro- or micro-level factors, with behaviour change, managing risk and so public health – not the processes linking individual circumstances and choices to opportunities and outcomes described by individual, community and structural, socio-economic contexts. Personal accounts and observations of a developing, community-based, local response to an unfolding epidemic are therefore considered against the analysis of available medical and nonmedical resources. This enables identification and investigation of social processes operating between proximal and distal conditions, determining possibilities for access to support. The focus of this study thus falls to the interrelations of structure, agency and action. It contributes to an empirical and theoretical understanding of what “support” is, what “coping” means and what unfolds where diagnosis with HIV disrupts and challenges existing ways of coping and forms of support. The accounts gathered for this study offer an “insider” perspective, focused on what follows from testing positive to identifying what resources hold significance. Connections between individual, community and society, through psycho-social, local and macro-level processes are explored. Along with the empirical study of individual accounts, the thesis offers a theoretical framework that uses a grounded-theory approach in conjunction with the tools of narrative analysis. These are critically adapted from a sociology of illness studies. Ideas of risk and response, of material and social capital, of the nature of HIV/AIDS as an experience that is inclusive of both chronic, everyday challenge and critical, life-threatening crisis disrupting a sense of time, biography and self, are brought together in the analysis. In this way the understanding of what support means, how it develops and is used (systematically or not), and of the links operating between structural and social conditions, individual agency and action, can be developed. What the thesis finds is that, beyond the medical system of hospitals and clinics, there is surprisingly little use of available resources. There is thus an absence of any systematic support for those faced with the physical, psychological, social and material impacts of HIV/AIDS. Given the nature of personal circumstances, embedded as they are within local conditions that reflect structural constraints of the broader economy and society, this should not be surprising. A system of support exists in only the most limited definition. Against this, what is novel in these findings is the role that psycho-social processes play in negotiating these conditions and how this works, determining what unfolds. A key finding is that it is more through chance than choice that people do find conventional forms of support. The reasons for this have to do not only with limitations to state and institutional capacity, but also with the impact on individuals of perceptions of themselves shaped by the impact of the epidemic and also the past. The result is that under the burden of HIV/AIDS, in the context of extreme inequalities and the absence of an adequate response from the state, already invisible individuals who do not “count” run the risk of becoming doubly invisible. It is through a process of personal adaptation in which shifts in identity and a sense of self are key that they must find their own way. This involves re-conceptualisations of identity, a sense of self and place in the world. The focus on five people and the community in which they live is a limit to the scope of study Yet it is this focus which allows for a new understanding of the social processes involved, and so the links operating between individuals and society. This is of significance beyond the study of HIV/AIDS alone, contributing to the broader sociological project of understanding what it means to “be human”.Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 202
Development of an evidence-based framework for the prevention and management of musculoskeletal disorders in South Africa
Get PDFBackground: Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) are multi-causal soft tissue disorders that result in disability, discomfort, and pain. MSDs are prevalent in 21.5% of the world’s population and carry a great financial and personal burden to individuals, businesses and countries alike. The multi-casual nature of MSDs has resulted in a vast amount of literature being published on how to prevent and manage the disorders, to the extent that navigating through the literature to find effective and context-specific interventions has become time-consuming and difficult. This is the case in South Africa, where ergonomists have no guide or framework to navigate MSD literature, and context-specific literature is limited. Aims: This study aimed to assist ergonomists in South Africa navigate the MSD literature to identify and select appropriate MSD prevention and management interventions. To do so, three objectives of the study were identified: 1. Review MSD literature to identify effective MSD prevention and management interventions. 2. Create a framework to act as a guide for ergonomists to navigate MSD prevention and management studies. 3. To verify the suitability of the framework in the South African context. To achieve these objectives, the study took a two-phased approach. Phase 1: A scoping review of MSD literature was conducted to identify effective MSD prevention and management approaches. Sixteen (n=16) prevention strategies and fourteen (n=14) management strategies were identified. The information from the review was analysed and grouped into five hierarchical levels of interventions (“Law”, “Organisational Policies”, “Management Systems”, Workplace Interventions”, and “Individual”). This information, along with a conceptual model created for the navigation of the literature, was used to create a draft framework for musculoskeletal disorder prevention and management. It was concluded that although there were many effective MSD interventions, there was a lack of South African-specific literature. Phase 2: Interviews with five certified ergonomists working in the South African context were conducted to verify the framework’s suitability for a South African working environment. The interviews identified two MSD prevention and three MSD management themes as effective in South Africa. Both prevention themes (“training and education” and “workplace interventions”) were also mentioned to be part of the stakeholders’ ideal MSD prevention programme, further reinforcing their usefulness. The use of “workplace interventions” was also identified to be effective in MSD management, alongside interventions at the management level and the use of alternative tools and equipment. However, the lack of managerial buy-in was identified as a barrier to MSD prevention. Stakeholders also highlighted that job specification and work hardening was an MSD strategy missing from the framework that was effective in South Africa's MSD management. The use of surveillance practices was found to be ineffective in South Africa, with lots of resistance towards it from workers. Conclusion: The framework presented in Phase 1 identified many effective MSD interventions; however, only a few were found to be applicable to the South African working context during Phase 2. Future research should focus on identifying the success of different MSD interventions in South Africa with participation from the ergonomists involved in the implementation to create an even more suitable guide that matches the South African ergonomist’s needs.Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, Human Kinetics and Ergonomics, 202