A comparative study of wild yam starch from Dioscorea schimperiana

A JASSA comparative study of wild yam starch.Starch was extracted from the tubers of Dioscorea schimperiana and the following physicochemical properties were determined: viscosity, gelation temperature, solubility, water-binding capacity, grain size and refractive index. Elemental, phosphorus, protein, amylase, oil and ash contents were also determined. The analyses results of the above parameters were compared to those of the starch derived from Dioscorea dumetorum which had been the subject of an earlier investigation

Whose language is it anyway? Students’ sense of belonging and role of English for Higher Education in the multilingual, South African context

The current decolonial commitments in Higher Education necessitate a need to deepen our understanding of the relationship between English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) and students’ sense of belonging, their identity, and epistemological access. This article investigates how EMI influences students’ personal and academic identities as well as their sense of belonging to the higher education space. Using student focus groups, this study is exploratory in nature and informed by the voices of undergraduate and postgraduate Humanities students at a South African university in the Free State. The responses were mixed, but there was general consensus that although English does have a place in higher education and can contribute to their sense of belonging, it also has an adverse effect on their identity; the use of indigenous languages provides them with greater epistemological access. A differentiated approach to multilingualism is a possible way forward

Facing the stranger in the mirror: Staged complicities in recent South African performances

The staging of complicity has developed into one of the most prevalent trends in recent South Africa theatre. The audience may become aware of their own complicity in injustice, or complicity may feature as a subject to be explored in the play. I will argue that one can identify three broadly defined performance modalities which shape current engagements with complicity. These modalities are identified by the adjectives, 'thick' (as in densely layered, complex, deep), 'reflective' (as in reflecting upon as well as revealing), and 'hard' (in the sense of direct, uncompromising, difficult to penetrate). Rather than signifying distinct categories, these terms are attributed to a cluster of performance dynamics.DHE

Chronic Serratiaodorifera Infra-vesical, Extra-peritoneal Pelvic Abscess: an Unexpected Finding in a Healthy 18 year Old Girl

Background: Serratiaodorifera (S. odorifera), a rare nosocomial human pathogen, is responsible for a few cases and outbreaks of sepsis in very sick hospitalized patients.Case Report: We report the case of an 18 year old healthy female patient with a chronic, deep, extra-peritoneal pelvic infection by S. odorifera in a Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) endemic region. She had no  constitutional symptoms. In the Serratia genus, Serratiamarcescens is the most pathogenic, infecting virtually all human organ systems, where-as S. odoriferararely infects healthy patients. Our patient presented with chronicmild pelvic pain. Radiological evaluation revealed a cystic mass lesion of 80mm diameter which was thought to be an ovarian cyst. The mass could not be found at laparotomy. Repeat radiological evaluation revealed that the mass was extra-peritoneal with very thick walls. It was located para-vaginally, below and in front of the urinary bladder. Laparoscopic exploration nine months after laparotomy revealed an abscess with 200ml of pus. She was treated with antibiotics. Anaerobic culture yielded a profuse growth of S.odorifera. Histopathological tissue review confirmed a chronic suppurative abscess. We believe this was a community acquired S.  odorifera infection affecting an otherwise healthy patient. The patient was discharged home well eight days later.Key words: chronic pelvic abscess, community acquired, HIV infection, immunodeficiency, Serratiaodorifer

Quantifying the azimuthal plasmaspheric density structure and dynamics inferred from IMAGE EUV

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95221/1/jgra22185.pd

Numerical study of nonlinear heat transfer from a wavy surface to a high permeability medium with pseudo-spectral and smoothed particle methods

Motivated by petro-chemical geological systems, we consider the natural convection boundary layer flow from a vertical isothermal wavy surface adjacent to a saturated non-Darcian high permeability porous medium. High permeability is considered to represent geologically sparsely packed porous media. Both Darcian drag and Forchheimer inertial drag terms are included in the velocity boundary layer equation. A high permeability medium is considered. We employ a sinusoidal relation for the wavy surface. Using a set of transformations, the momentum and heat conservation equations are converted from an (x, y) coordinate system to an (x,η) dimensionless system. The two-point boundary value problem is then solved numerically with a pseudo-spectral method based on combining the Bellman–Kalaba quasi linearization method with the Chebyschev spectral collocation technique (SQLM). The SQLM computations are demonstrated to achieve excellent correlation with smoothed particle hydrodynamic (SPH) Lagrangian solutions. We study the effect of Darcy number (Da), Forchheimer number (Fs), amplitude wavelength (A) and Prandtl number (Pr) on the velocity and temperature distributions in the regime. Local Nusselt number is also computed for selected cases. The study finds important applications in petroleum engineering and also energy systems exploiting porous media and undulating (wavy) surface geometry. The SQLM algorithm is shown to be exceptionally robust and achieves fast convergence and excellent accuracy in nonlinear heat transfer simulations

Recent emergence and worldwide spread of the red tomato spider mite, [i]Tetranychus evansi[/i]: genetic variation and multiple cryptic invasions

Publication Inra prise en compte dans l'analyse bibliométrique des publications scientifiques mondiales sur les Fruits, les Légumes et la Pomme de terre. Période 2000-2012. http://prodinra.inra.fr/record/256699Plant biosecurity is increasingly challenged by emerging crop pests. The spider mite Tetranychus evansi has recently emerged as a new threat to solanaceous crops in Africa and the Mediterranean basin, with invasions characterized by a high reproductive output and an ability to withstand a wide range of temperatures. Mitochondrial (868 bp of COI) and nuclear (1,137 bp of ITS) loci were analyzed in T. evansi samples spanning the current geographical distribution to study the earliest stages of the invasive process. The two sets of markers separate the samples into two main clades that are only present together in South America and Southern Europe. The highest COI diversity was found in South America, consistent with the hypothesis of a South American origin of T. evansi. Among the invaded areas, the Mediterranean region displayed a high level of genetic diversity similar to that present in South America, that is likely the result of multiple colonization events. The invasions of Africa and Asia by T. evansi are characterized by a low genetic variation associated with distinct introductions. Genetic data demonstrate two different patterns of invasions: (1) populations in the Mediterranean basin that are a result of multiple cryptic introductions and (2) emerging invasions of Africa and Asia, each likely the result of propagules from one or limited sources. The recent invasions of T. evansi illustrate not only the importance of human activities in the spread of agricultural pests, but also the limits of international quarantine procedures, particularly for cryptic invasion

Mycobacterium tuberculosis causing tuberculous lymphadenitis in Maputo, Mozambique

BACKGROUND: The zoonosis bovine tuberculosis (TB) is known to be responsible for a considerable proportion of extrapulmonary TB. In Mozambique, bovine TB is a recognised problem in cattle, but little has been done to evaluate how Mycobacterium bovis has contributed to human TB. We here explore the public health risk for bovine TB in Maputo, by characterizing the isolates from tuberculous lymphadenitis (TBLN) cases, a common manifestation of bovine TB in humans, in the Pathology Service of Maputo Central Hospital, in Mozambique, during one year. RESULTS: Among 110 patients suspected of having TBLN, 49 had a positive culture result. Of those, 48 (98 %) were positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and one for nontuberculous mycobacteria. Of the 45 isolates analysed by spoligotyping and Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Unit - Variable Number Tandem Repeat (MIRU-VNTR), all were M. tuberculosis. No M. bovis was found. Cervical TBLN, corresponding to 39 (86.7 %) cases, was the main cause of TBLN and 66.7 % of those where from HIV positive patients. We found that TBLN in Maputo was caused by a variety of M. tuberculosis strains. The most prevalent lineage was the EAI (n?=?19; 43.2 %). Particular common spoligotypes were SIT 48 (EAI1_SOM sublineage), SIT 42 (LAM 9), SIT 1 (Beijing) and SIT53 (T1), similar to findings among pulmonary cases. CONCLUSIONS: M. tuberculosis was the main etiological agent of TBLN in Maputo. M. tuberculosis genotypes were similar to the ones causing pulmonary TB, suggesting that in Maputo, cases of TBLN arise from the same source as pulmonary TB, rather than from an external zoonotic source. Further research is needed on other forms of extrapulmonary TB and in rural areas where there is high prevalence of bovine TB in cattle, to evaluate the risk of transmission of M. bovis from cattle to humans.Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency / Department for Research Cooperation (Sida/SAREC) through Eduardo Mondlane University and Karolinska Institutet Research and Training (KIRT) collaboratio