Magister Scientiae (Biodiversity and Conservation Biology) / The oligonchoinean monogenean family Hexabothriidae Price, 1942 currently consists of approximately 60 valid species, representing 15 genera. Hexabothriids are gill parasites of chondrichthyan fishes (sharks, rays and chimaeras). Some hexabothriid species have been reported as problematic in public aquaria, directly responsible for host pathology and subsequent host mortalities. However, without information on specific hexabothriid species and their host associations, accurate captive management of hexabothriids in public aquaria is hindered. Hexabothriid taxonomy is in a state of confusion. The historic taxonomic restoration of the priority of Hexabothrium sees the beginning of the taxonomic uncertainty of the hexabothriids, and is continued into the present literature particularly among lower-level taxa in Hexabothriidae. In addition, there is currently no consensus for a single accepted morphometric protocol for the discrimination of hexabothriid taxa, which leads to unnecessary ambiguity of character variable nomenclature, measurement and interpretation. A call for stability in the nomenclature and morphometric discrimination of species is therefore proposed. A novel morphometric protocol is tested for the sclerotised haptoral armature, supported by the proteolytic digestion of structures for optimal representation. Character variables, subjected to univariate and multivariate analyses were systematically accepted or rejected based on their potential to discriminating species of Callorhynchocotyle Suriano and Incorvaia, 1986. The hexabothriid genera Callorhynchocotyle and Branchotenthes, represented by South African taxa, are reviewed, using these variables. Four Callorhynchocotyle species and 2 Branchotenthes species are redescribed with the inclusion of some new voucher specimens.

Magister Artium - MA / This thesis considers introspection and female consciousness in the novels Woman At Point Zero and Two Women In One by Nawal El Saadawi, an Egyptian writer and So Long A Letter and Scarlet Song by Mariama Bâ, a Senegalese writer. This study looks at how narrative technique impacts on questions of self and identity, subjective experience, coherence and transformation. The form of the novel is also highly significant because it shows the connection between form, individualism and consciousness of experience and this is important in understanding these questions of self and identity, subjective experience, coherence and transformation. It allows insight into the internal workings of the individual. The form of the novel is therefore particularly relevant because of the focus on the individual, subject and the consciousness of the individual. Pertinent to the discussion in this thesis is how narrative provides a creative space to enable the reflexive process and also how narrative contributes to the construction and understanding of the self and identity. The dynamic between narratology and novel form, on the one hand, the modes of confession and letter writing, on the other are considered both of which use first person narration.Confession as a genre of personal narrative enables the subject to move inward as part of the self reflection process which allows knowledge of the self. Letter writing a form of personal narrative plays an important role in the exploration of the self and identity.The novel in letter form forces the introspective process through the act of writing and the character reaches a realisation about events and experiences which have shaped her present consciousness. By contrast third person narration in Scarlet Song and Two Women In One foregrounds the social context which shapes the characters‟ sense of self and identity and worldview. The narrative which is rebellious and resistant in form,although quietly so, enables a “revolution” in the character‟s self- and world view.

Magister Artium - MA / In this thesis I focus on the ways I believe Jane Austen re-imagines the idea of the hero. In popular fiction of her time, such as Samuel Richardson’s Sir Charles Grandison (1753), what we had as a hero figure served as a male monitor, to guide and instruct the female heroine. The hero begins the novel fully formed, and therefore does not go through significant development through the course of the novel. In addition to Sir Charles Grandison, I read two popular novels of Austen’s time, Fanny Burney’s Cecilia and Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda. An examination of Burney’s construction of Delvile and Edgeworth’s construction of Clarence Hervey allows me to engage with popular conceptions of the ideal hero of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Burney and Edgeworth deviate from these ideals in order to accommodate conventions of the new Realist novel. I argue that Austen reimagines her male protagonist so that hero and heroine are well-matched and discuss, similarly, how Burney and Edgeworth create heroes as a complement to their heroines. Austen’s re-imagining of her male protagonist forms part of her contribution to the genre of the Realist novel. Austen suggests the complexity of her hero through metaphors of setting. I discuss the ways in which the descriptions of Pemberley act as a metaphor for Darcy’s character, and explore Austen’s adaptations of the picturesque as metaphors to further plot and character development. I offer a comparative reading of Darcy and Pemberley with Mr Bennet and Longbourn as suggestive in understanding the significance of setting for the heroine’s changing perceptions of the character of the hero. I explore Austen’s use of free indirect discourse and the epistolary mode in conveying “psychological or moral conflict” in relation to Captain Wentworth in Persuasion and Mr Knightley in Emma, offering some comparison to Darcy. This lends itself to a discussion on the ways in which Austen’s heroes may be read as a critique of the teachings of Lord Chesterfield’s Letters to His Son (1774). I conclude the thesis with a discussion of the ways in which Darcy has influenced the stereotype of the modern romance hero. Using two South African romance novels I suggest the ways in which the writers adapt conventions of writing heroes to cater for the new black South African middle class at which the novels are aimed. My reading of Jane Austen’s novels will highlight the significance of Austen’s work in contemporary writing, and will question present-day views that the writing of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries is not relevant to African literature.

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This dissertation examines representations of prostitution in male-authored French novels from the later nineteenth century. It proposes that prostitution has a map, and that realist and naturalist authors appropriate this cartography in the Second Empire and early Third Republic to make sense of a shifting and overhauled Paris perceived to resist mimetic literary inscription. Though always significant in realist and naturalist narrative, space is uniquely complicit in the novel of prostitution due to the contemporary policy of reglementarism, whose primary instrument was the mise en carte: an official registration that subjected prostitutes to moral and hygienic surveillance, but also “put them on the map,” classifying them according to their space of practice (such as the brothel or the boulevard). It is this spatial and conceptual taxonomy, I contend, that makes the prostitute a fulcrum for authorial mapping – for the assertion of mastery over both the prostitute and the city. The first chapter reads the inscription of the tolerated brothel in novels by Huysmans and Goncourt as the mark of a nostalgic longing for old Paris and a desire for stability in a resistant urban present. Analyzing the representation of the brasserie à femmes in lesser-known works by Tabarant and Barrès, Chapter Two posits that the brasserie prostitute fuels the desires of a generation of aspirational Rastignacs by selling stories alongside beer and sex, adopting a writerly role and troubling authorial mastery of the prostitute and the city. The mobilization of prostitutional metaphors in the Rougon-Macquart is the subject of the third chapter, which argues that Zola deploys the prostitute’s entropic force to dismantle the Paris of his predecessors, Balzac and Haussmann, and clear the ground for the construction of a proper city. The final chapter demonstrates that fin-de-siècle novelist Charles-Louis Philippe makes use of the clandestinity of street prostitution in order to locate a breed of urban mapping that is not contingent on mastery. By remapping the prostitute, the dissertation proposes a new model for understanding both the nineteenth-century novel of prostitution and the lived and represented experience of a Paris that Zola termed “le mauvais lieu de l’Europe.” / Romance Languages and Literatures

Gold(I)phosphines, nucleoside analogues, and azole derivatives have been identified as promising anticancer compounds. The clinical use of these individual compounds is, however, limited due to non-selectivity associated with adverse effects and developed resistance. This study investigated seven novel gold compounds that contain either a nucleoside analogue or an azole, bound via a gold nitrogen bond, which have been designed and synthesized by Dr. Horvath under the supervision of Prof. Raubenheimer from the University of Stellenbosch. The novel compounds are divided into purinecontaining/ nucleoside analogue compounds (UH 86.2, UH 75.1, UH 58.1, UH 145.1) and azole-containing compounds (UH 107.1, UH 126.1, UH 127.1). The anticancer effects of these novel compounds were compared with that of previously described anticancer compounds [Au(dppe)2]Cl and cisplatin. The octanol/water partition coefficients (PC) of the compounds were measured in order to determine whether a correlation between the lipophilicity of the structures and the cytotoxic potency and selectivity exists. This might provide further insight for structural alterations of the compounds in order to improve their anticancer activity. The results from octanol/water PC determinations, revealed that the purine-containing compounds (UH 86.2, UH 75.1, UH 58.1, and UH 145.1), as well as the azole-containing compound, UH 127.1, exhibited hydrophilic properties, while the azole-containing compounds, UH 107.1 and UH 126.1 are lipophilic. In contrast to results by Berners-Price et al. (1999), that reported a direct proportionality between lipophilicity and cytotoxicity, for the current study, involving HeLa cells, CoLo cells, normal resting and PHA stimulated lymphocytes, no correlation was observed. For the Jurkat cell line, however, an increase in lipophilicity for the series of compounds studied was accompanied by an increase in cytotoxicity. The reason for the exception is not yet fully understood. The in vitro tumour specificity of each compound was established with cytotoxicity assays on various cancer cell lines and normal cell cultures. The cancer cell lines included human cervical cancer (HeLa) cells, human colon cancer (CoLo) cells, and human lymphocytic leukaemia (Jurkat) cells. The normal cell cultures included human resting lymphocytes and human phytohemaglutin (PHA) stimulated lymphocytes. From this data, the four most promising novel compounds were identified. Additional tests were performed by adding these four compounds to cancer cells including human breast cancer (MCF-7) cells, and cisplatin sensitive and resistant human ovarian cancer (A2780 and A2780cis) cells as well as normal chicken embryo fibroblasts. The tumour specificity of each compound was determined from the results obtained via the cytotoxicity assays. The compound is more selective the higher the tumour specificity. Cisplatin exhibited the highest tumour specificity, and [Au(dppe)2]Cl, the lowest. The two most promising novelcompounds were identified as UH 126.1 and UH 127.1, which was evidenced by their high tumour specificities. Further experiments were conducted with these two azolecontaining compounds by using Jurkat cells. The possible mechanism by which the novel compounds induce cytotoxicity was investigated with flow cytometric analysis. The effects of the compounds on the cell death pathway, the mitochondrial membrane potential and the cell cycle were determined. These results indicated that the novel compounds, UH 126.1 and UH 127.1 initiate the apoptotic cell death pathway rather than the necrotic cell death pathway. According to results, UH 126.1 and UH 127.1 influenced the status of the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) non-selectively and only at high concentrations. Although involvement of mitochondria in the mechanism of action cannot be excluded, results indicated that it is most likely not the primary target. After investigating the effects of the two novel azole-containing compounds on the cell cycle in Jurkat cells, it was detected that these compounds induce cell accumulation in the G1 phase of the cell cycle. It was concluded that UH 126.1 and UH 127.1 might interfere with the cell cycle indirectly, possibly by inhibition of cyclin-dependent kinases and/or other enzymes necessary for DNA replication. In an acute in vivo toxicity test during this study, results revealed drug induced adverse effects (such as significant weight loss, piloerection and diarrhoea), in the mice that received 3 and 6ìmol/kg of both UH 126.1 and UH 127.1. Evidence also revealed signs of nephrotoxicity and epatotoxicity. Due to minimal adverse effects observed in the groups that received UH 126.1 and UH 127.1 at the concentration of 1,5ìmol/kg, this is the suggested maximum tolerated dose (MTD) for these compounds. Further dose-range studies with UH 126.1 and UH 127.1 are, however, needed in order to evaluate clinicalefficacy. Copyright / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Pharmacology / unrestricted

FACILITY 47 is a psychological horror novel set in Germany just after the end of World War II. The novel is written in a naturalistic style that seeks to ground paranormal genre elements in a believable world. The story follows a group of Americans, led by Michael Powell, as they seek out and become trapped within an abandoned Nazi research facility in the Harz Mountains that contains a very dangerous secret; an unknown force capable of controlling people’s actions and forcing them to destroy themselves. FACILITY 47 focuses on a character driven by greed, moral outrage at dubious American postwar policy, and a desire to create a world for himself where he is in control. In the end of the novel, Michael learns that the obsessive quest for control can have catastrophic consequences, but this discovery is made too late to save himself or his friends from the mysterious power inside the facility.

FRAGILE SAINTS is a magical realist novel set in contemporary Peru. Elsa is struggling with her recent divorce and childhood memories of her family’s silk-producing farm haunt her, so when Elsa’s dying grandmother requests to see her, she visits Peru. There, Elsa learns she has inherited a country house, near the old family hacienda, which is haunted by a dark secret. Elsa is intrigued with the house, its caretakers, and her new lover Gustavo, yet she encounters disturbing ghostly visitors. The novel is written primarily from Elsa’s point of view, as she discovers her purpose, but an omniscient narrator is employed as well, taking the reader into the family’s past. Like Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and Isabel Allende’s “The House of the Spirits,” FRAGILE SAINTS uses magical realism to create a family saga where ancestral mishaps and the natural world influence the present day characters, making them vulnerable and yet also indomitable.

VISITATIONS, a novel, explores themes of haunting and desire in New York City, in two time periods. The modern-day action focuses on Alan Philips whose wife, Beth, has recently died. His efforts to resume a normal life are sabotaged by what he comes to believe is her ghost. In the parallel story, in 1924, Oliver Nathan Blackburn, a pulp writer, in the midst of a breakdown writes a story that may play a role in Beth’s death. VISITATIONS presents Alan and Oliver’s perspectives in third person narration, so that the reader is both close to and may question the subjectivity of their perceptions. The book employs a black-comic tone for the contemporary period and a more formal one for Oliver’s sections.

Spinal muscle atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disease which is characterized by the loss of α motor neurons from the anterior horn of the spinal cord, resulting in progressive muscle atrophy. The loss of functional Survival motor neuron (SMN) protein due to mutations or deletion in the SMN1 gene is the cause of SMA. A potential treatment strategy for SMA is to upregulate levels of the SMN protein originating from the copy gene SMN2 which can compensate in part for the absence of the functional SMN1 gene. I have shown a novel therapeutic strategy for SMA treatment through the activation of the p38 pathway by the bacterial antibiotic anisomycin which stabilizes and increases SMN mRNA levels in vitro. Activation of the p38 pathway by anisomycin leads to cytoplasmic accumulation of HuR protein which binds to the 3’UTR of SMN transcript resulting in increased SMN levels. This opens up a novel potential therapeutic strategy for SMA. I have also identified and demonstrated a significant induction of SMN protein levels in vitro and in vivo upon treatment with FDA approved drug celecoxib, which also activates the p38 pathway. Celecoxib mitigates disease severity along with increasing the lifespan of SMA mice. Sodium valproate, trichostatin A and aclarubicin, all agents which effectively enhance SMN2 expression, have been recently shown to activate STAT5 in SMA-like mouse embryonic fibroblasts and human SMN2-transfected NSC34 cells. Given that prolactin is also known to activate the STAT5 signalling pathway, can cross blood brain barrier and is FDA approved, we elected to assess its impact on SMN levels. In this manner, I have demonstrated a significant induction in SMN mRNA and protein levels in neuronal NT2 and MN-1 cells upon treatment with prolactin. I have also demonstrated that activation of the STAT5 pathway by prolactin is necessary for this transcriptional upregulation of the SMN gene. I have found that prolactin treatment induces SMN expression in brain and spinal cord samples and that it ameliorates the disease phenotype, improving motor neuron function and increasing survival in the SMA mouse model. Presently there is no cure for SMA. This study will help in the identification and characterization of potential therapeutic compounds for the treatment of SMA.