The Potchefstroom Fire Protection Association (FPA) has an important role in preventing and managing veld fires in the Tlokwe Local Municipality’s rural environment. The FPA works closely with several governmental stakeholders, but these stakeholders do not view the FPA as having high levels of organisational legitimacy. A lack of organisational legitimacy hinders the FPA in obtaining its organisa

BACKGROUND: Pseudocereals are nutrient-rich grains with high mineral content but also phytate content. Phytate is a mineral absorption inhibitor. The study's aim was to evaluate phytate degradation during spontaneous fermentation and during Lactobacillus plantarum 299v® fermentation of quinoa, canihua, and amaranth grains and flours. It also aimed to evaluate the accessibility of iron, zinc, and c

I den här studien används extremvärdesanalys för att beräkna våguppspolning och årlig dynerosion med 10, 50, och 100 års återkomsttid. Frekvensanalysen baseras på en 40 år lång tidsserie med simulerad dynerosion och våguppspolning från Ängelholms strand i Skälderviken. Med SMB-metoden beräknas vågor ute till havs som sedan transformeras till kustnära vågor i vågmodellen SWAN. Våguppspolningen berä

Two-way communication and strong relationships between government and affected communities are necessary to enhance the latter’s resilience to disaster risks. The Tlokwe City Council (TCC) in the North-West province, South Africa, is facing a dolomite and sinkhole disaster risk that threatens the safety of several residential areas, including informal settlements. A dolomite disaster riskreduction

The eFundi learning management system as communication and relationship building instrument. Learning management systems (LMSs) are used by universities to support learning and teaching. Two-way communication and strong relationships can contribute to successful learning, however, LMSs are not generally viewed as an instrument to facilitate just that in an e-learning environment. The perceptions o

Strong organisation-stakeholder relationships contribute to the former attaining its goals. This is also the case with blood services, such as the South African National Blood Service (SANBS). Blood services are dependent on people donating blood to unknown recipients, without remuneration. This paper reports the approach of the SANBS to relationship management with its donors, as well as the perc

Clostridial neurotoxins, including tetanus and botulinum neurotoxins, generally target vertebrates. We show here that this family of toxins has a much broader host spectrum, by identifying PMP1, a clostridial-like neurotoxin that selectively targets anopheline mosquitoes. Isolation of PMP1 from Paraclostridium bifermentans strains collected in anopheline endemic areas on two continents indicates i

Employees are a crucial stakeholder group for organisations since they determinethe degree to which they achieve their goals. It is therefore necessary to build strong relationships with the workforce to encourage employee engagement, which implies that employees’ individual goals are aligned to those of the organisation. To build strong relationships, internal communication should be managed stra

Methanol has unique properties as a fuel, and partially premixed combustion has promising results with high engine efficiency and low emissions. Low load studies with methanol partially premixed combustion are scarce, and the effect of intake temperature on low load methanol partially premixed combustion still remains an intriguing question. This study aims to investigate the effect of intake temp

Neural crest cells are a critical source of many cell types of the vertebrate body. However, as a stem cell population they are peculiar because of the transient nature of their stem cell niche; soon after the multipotent neural crest cells are specified in the neuroepithelium, they become mesenchymal cells that migrate into various destinations in early embryos. These rapid in vivo changes during

Humans are continuously exposed to chemicals with suspected or proven endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Risk management of EDCs presents a major unmet challenge because the available data for adverse health effects are generated by examining one compound at a time, whereas real-life exposures are to mixtures of chemicals. In this work, we integrate epidemiological and experimental evidence to

Disentangling the contributions of different processes that influence plant recruitment, such as competition and seed dispersal, is important given the increased human-mediated changes in tropical forest ecosystems. Previous studies have shown that seedling communities in an Afrotropical rainforest in southeastern Nigeria are strongly affected by the loss of important seed-dispersing primates, inc

AIM: Epidural analgesia reduces the surgical stress response. However, its effect on pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the genesis of inflammation following major abdominal surgery remains unclear. Our main objective was to elucidate whether perioperative epidural analgesia prevents the inflammatory response following colorectal cancer surgery.METHODS: Ninety-six patients scheduled for open

The proinflammatory mediator leukotriene D(4) (LTD(4)) binds to the seven-transmembrane receptor CYSLT(1). Although this leukotriene plays an important biological role, its intracellular signaling pathways are only partly known. In previous experiments, we found that LTD(4) induced tyrosine phosphorylation and translocation of phospholipase (PLC)-gamma1 to a plasma membrane fraction in a human epi