Wastewater reuse, reclamation and recycling may provide beneficial strategies to manage limited water resources. However, insufficient treatment of municipal wastewater poses potential risk to environmental and public health regarding incidences of viral pathogens. The reduction of pathogenic microorganisms is essential to minimize human health risk associated with the reuse of wastewater. The United States Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing the use of coliphages as a potential indicator organism of fecal contamination in recreational waters. Coliphages are viruses than infect enteric coliform bacteria, and are consistently present in domestic wastewaters. They are similar in size and shape to human enteric viruses, and are more resistant to removal by disinfection than enteric bacteria. As such, they have long been proposed as indicators of fecal pollution. However, traditional bacterial indicators (i.e. Escherichia coli) are not reliable indicators for viral pathogens. Monitoring viral pathogens and utilizing the most sufficient wastewater treatment technologies are necessary to minimize public health risk associated with exposure. It is therefore of interest to better understand the removal of coliphages by sewage treatment processes.

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master's Degree in Technology: Homoeopathy, Durban Institute of Technology, 2003. / The purpose of this randomised double blind study was to evaluate the efficacy of the homoeopathic complex (Cantharis vesicatoria 12CH, Equisetum hyemale 12CH, Sarsaparilla 12CH, Delphinium staphysagria 12CH, Uva ursi 12CH) in the treatment of nocturnal enuresis with regard to the number of wet nights per week. It focused on children between the ages offive and eighteen, residing at children's homes in the greater Durban area. It was hypothesised that the homoeopathic medication would reduce the weekly incidences of bed wetting and thus provide a, safe, viable and effective alternative to existing treatment options. / M

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master's Diploma in Technology in the Department of Homoeopathy at Technikon Natal, 1994. / The object of the present research trial was to evaluate the efficacy of a single homoeopathic medication, Cholesterinum, in the ninth atcenuation (9CH) in the treatment of hypercholesterolaemia. Special attention was paid to its effect on total choles~erol (TC) levels and the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol/ low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C/LDL-C) ratio. / M

No description available.

This research has primarily been concerned with the study of the kinetics, design and operation of completely mixed aerated lagoons. Throughout the experimental research laboratory-size completely mixed aerated lagoons, composite synthetic substrate and mixed biological culture were used.

Hypertrophic scars are painful and unsightly scars frequently resulting from dermal trauma and characterised by excessive collagen. The application of silicone gel sheeting is an effective treatment for these scars. Proton Induced X-Ray Emission, Elastic (Non-Rutherford) Backscattering and Instrumental Neutron Activation were used to determine the compositional changes in the silicone gel sheeting and the skin resulting from contact of the gel with scarred and unscarred skin, and found that although in vitro tests on split skin and in vivo tests using unscarred tissue causes the skin to absorb Si (an essential constituent of collagen) from the silicone gel sheeting; in vivo tests on hypertrophic scar and control tissue show the reverse: silicone gel sheeting absorbs Si from hypertrophic scars against the concentration gradient. It is believed that this is an important factor in the success of the treatment of hypertrophic scars by silicone gel sheeting. The major, minor and trace element composition was determined for a total of 35 skin samples including breast, abdominal and hypertrophic scar tissue, comparing dermis and epidermis for these samples. Some split skin samples were also included. The hypertrophic scar tissue is characterised by enhanced Si content, with 3wt% compared with an average of 2wt% for the unscarred tissue. A pilot clinical trial was then conducted on 20 unscarred volunteers as controls over a week, and 9 volunteers with hypertrophic scars (clinical gel) over a three month period with silicone gel sheeting nominally used according to a strict protocol. Two subjects did not complete the trial, and there was evidence of non-compliance for at least three others. However, without excluding any data, we have observed a significant increase (10+/-1%) in Si content of the silicone gel sheeting in contact with hypertrophic scar over the controls. Significant composition differences between the dermis and the epidermis were observed as expected. Differences between the composition of scarred and unscarred tissue were not large. Significant increases in the average elemental composition were seen between the clinical gel compared to the unused gel for the elements: Cl, K, Ca, Fe and Ag providing further evidence that the gel absorbs elements from the scar tissue.

This dissertation reports on an investigation into relationships between human embryo, oocyte and follicular features and the developmental potential of the associated IVF embryos on transfer. An improved understanding could yield insights into biological factors influencing the development process. Besides, identifying the features associated with a good developmental potential could assist embryologists in an informed selection of the 'best' embryos for transfer. Previous studies with the same broad goal have suffered from a number of limitations. The present study attempts to overcome some of these by using the technique of 'decision tree' analysis developed in Machine Learning in Computer Science. The technique analyses data related to a sufficient number of specific examples in a group and discovers the general combinations of features characterising the group, presenting results in an easily comprehensible form. The feasibility of using the technique was first explored in a pilot study. The patterns of features characterising the 'good' embryos that resulted in triplet pregnancies on 3 embryo transfer or high hCG secretion in vitro and the 'bad' embryos that did not progress to the blastocyst stage on in vitro culture were identified. Given the promising nature of the results, a larger study, which forms the core of the dissertation, was conducted. Data included 53 features relating to the follicle, oocyte and embryo for batches of 3 embryos transferred that resulted in either a Take home baby (TH) outcome or a negative pregnancy test (NTH). The relationship between the 53 features and the 'TH' or 'NTH' developmental potential was investigated. The results identify, amongst others, two features related to the follicular stage of development as being important determinants of the TH potential, thereby confirming that developmental potential of an embryo is determined as early as the stage of the unfertilised oocyte. The embryo grading used by embryologists in the Oxford IVF Unit was identified as important, providing for the first time an unbiased corroboration of the selection process used in the Unit. The results refine the selection criteria and suggest two additional features, namely, follicular fluid volume and rate of cleavage as being worthy of further investigation, with the latter feature being indicated as the main component of the embryo grade characterising batches that resulted in a TH outcome. The relative unimportance of a number of features recorded in the patient notes but showing no relationship to development too is identified. The method of analysis used here could have wide-ranging applicability to a number of areas within IVF. A demonstration of this is provided in this dissertation in an area of growing importance, namely, the identification of blastocysts of different quality. The main study reported here can be extended to incorporate maternal and sperm features. Results obtained could form the basis for assisting embryologists in the selection of embryos with the 'best' developmental potential, with the possibility of an increase in IVF success rates.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic, inflammatory disease, which predominantly affects multiple joints. RA is characterized by swollen joints and peri-articular bone erosion. Conventional RA treatments have shown to reduce inflammation and slow down bone erosion, but repair of bone erosion is limited. Additionally, failure to repair for bone erosion in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is caused by inadequate osteoblast-mediated bone formation resulting from focal inflammatory environment. Hence, there is immediate need to facilitate greater insight and develop a new therapeutic strategy to aid osteoblast -mediated repair of bone loss in RA. CKIP-1 is an intracellular inhibitor, that can negatively regulate osteoblast lineage cells differentiation and activity. CKIP-1 levels were found to be aberrantly over expressed in bone specimens from RA patients and arthritis mice, which was associated with reduced bone formation and increased disease severity. By genetic approach, overexpressed CKIP-1 in osteoblast exacerbated bone erosion and articular inflammation in CIA mice, whereas deficiency of CKIP-1 in osteoblast alleviates bone erosion in CIA mice. By pharmacological approach, RNA interference-based silencing of osteoblastic CKIP-1 led to bone formation-mediated reparative process at erosive site and reduced articular inflammation in arthritis induced mice. To extend above findings to a more relevant species that more closely resemble humans, we aimed to investigate the role of osteoblastic Casein kinase-2 interacting protein-1 (CKIP-1) in failure to repair bone erosion in non-human primate (NHP) arthritis model in this study. We found that CKIP-1 mRNA expression in osteoblasts of arthritic NHP was significantly suppressed by CKIP-1 siRNA treatment. Moreover, silencing of CKIP-1 in osteoblast of arthritis monkey improved clinical signs such as reduction in arthritis score, joint swelling and increase in body weight. Similarly, suppression of osteoblastic CKIP-1 resulted in better organized bony and articular structure with, fewer bone erosion sites as observed in x ray and micro CT images. Moreover, we found increase in bone mass, bone formation parameters such as BFR/BS and MAR and histological examination revealed attenuation of peri articular bone erosion and intraarticular inflammation in CKIP-1 siRNA treated arthritis monkeys. Taken together, these data strongly suggest that highly expressed osteoblastic CKIP-1 plays an important role in failure to repair articular bone erosion by inhibiting bone formation in RA. Targeting osteoblastic CKIP-1 could serve as a new therapeutic strategy by bone repair augmentation in RA.

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree in Technology: Homoeopathy at Durban Institute of Technology, 2003. / The purpose of this double blind randomised study is to evaluate the efficacy of homoeopathic simillimum versus high doses of vitamin C in the treatment of Influenza Type Syndrome in terms of subjective symptoms assessed by the patient, and objective clinical signs assessed by the researcher / M

2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG), a non-metabolizable glucose analog, is currently being used in clinical trials to determine its efficacy in augmenting radiotherapy and chemotherapy of various cancers. It is thought to kill cancer cells by inducing glucose deprivation state. However, 2DG only inhibits glycolysis by 15-40%, not sufficient to simulate glucose deprivation. Further, 2-flour-deoxy-D-glucose (2FDG), which is a more potent inhibitor of glycolysis than 2DG, is less effective than 2DG in killing cancer cells. These observations suggest that glucose deprivation is not the mechanism by which 2DG kills cancer cells. On the other hand, it has been shown that treatment of cancer cells with 2DG leads to increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, indicating that cytotoxic effect of 2DG is due to increase ROS. Our lab previously found that inhibition of aldose reductase (AR) activity attenuated 2DG-induced ROS in cardiomyocytes (Tang, et al., 2010). We therefore propose that 2DG-induced ROS increase in cancer cells is a consequence of the depletion of GSH in the process of reduction of 2DG by AR and/or by a related aldose reductase-like enzyme (ARL). These two enzymes are often overexpressed in cancer cells. This proposed project is to test our hypothesis that the cytotoxicity of 2DG is due to the depletion of GSH as a consequence of the reduction of 2DG by AR or ARL. We found that HepG2, SKOV3, HCT116 and CaCo2 cells were sensitive to 2DG, and these cells over-express AR and/or ARL proteins. However, HT29 cells and SW480 cells, which were not sensitive to 2DG, had low level of AR and ARL proteins, indicating that there is a close relationship between sensitivity to 2DG toxicity and the level of AR/ARL in these cells. Further, when AR/ARL activity were inhibited in HepG2, SKOV3, HCT116 and CaCo2 cells by AR/ARL inhibitors fidarestat or tolrestat, the cells were protected against 2DG cytotoxicity. Tolrestat or fidarestat significantly restored the drop of GSH levels in 2DG sensitive cancer cells induced by 2DG. On the other hand, MG-132 and bortezomib, which increased the expression of AR/ARL in HT29 and SW480 cells, made HT29 and SW480 cells more sensitive to 2DG. These experiments confirmed our hypothesis that 2DG toxicity in cancer cells was due to oxidative stress induced by AR/ARL. 2DG is not an efficient substrate for AR/ARL enzymes and it is not very efficient in killing cancer cells. Based on our hypothesis, better AR/ARL substrates should be more toxic to cancer cells that overexpress AR/ARL than 2DG. The cytotoxic effects of glyceraldehyde and diacetyl, which were better substrates for AR/ARL than 2DG, were tested. Both glyceraldehyde and diacetyl were more efficient in killing cancer cells that over-express AR and/or ARL (HepG2, SKOV3, HCT116 and CaCo2) than cancer cells with low levels of AR and ARL proteins (HT29 and SW480). Glyceraldehyde and diacetyl were more efficient in lowering the GSH level in cancer cells that over-express AR and/or ARL. In order to further develop glyceraldehyde and diacetyl as anti-cancer drugs, animal studies were carried out to determine their anti-cancer effects. Both glyceraldehyde and diacetyl significantly inhibited the tumor growth in nude mice tumor xenograft model. In conclusion, this thesis proposed and proved that 2DG kills cancer cells by lowering intracellular GSH levels as a consequence of its reduction by AR/ARL activities, rather than by inhibition of glycolysis. This novel mechanism predicts that better substrates for AR/ARL than 2DG would be more effective in killing cancer cells than 2DG. This was confirmed by using glyceraldehyde and diacetyl. We believe that this would lead to the development of more efficient anti-cancer drugs.