In South Africa part of the cultural and religious beliefs of the African people is the use of traditional remedies to treat diseases. These remedies are obtained from medicinal plants (Steenkamp, 2003). One of the most frequently traded plants in the Eastern Cape is Hypoxis, commonly known as Afrika patat, or African potato. South African traditional healers instruct patients to brew the fresh Hypoxis corm as a tea and then ingest it (Steenkamp, 2006a). This prompted an investigation into the digestive stability of a traditionally prepared Hypoxis extract. The H. sobolifera extracts were digested using a simulated gastric/small intestinal digestion and their biological activity determined. The hot water H. sobolifera extract before digestion only showed cytotoxic activity against cancer cell lines at very high concentrations which are not likely to be achieved under normal ingestion circumstances. In Chang liver cells on the other hand, chronic exposure to the hot water H. sobolifera extract increased glucose uptake in amounts similar to that of metformin. On the negative side, the glucose utilization stimulation was lost due to the simulated digestion process. The significant inhibition of AGEs by hot water H. sobolifera extract (IC50 of 6.3 Ig/ml) is a very encouraging result as treatment in the management of diabetes. This activity was only slightly reduced by the in vitro digestion process. Also observed was enzyme inhibition activity by traditionally prepared H. sobolifera, with ∝-amylase being inhibited (IC50 of approximately 250 Ig/ml) and therefore preventing or limiting starch breakdown. From the DPPH results it was clear that H. sobolifera, even when digested, is a potent anti-oxidant (IC50 of 134.4 Ig/ml when undigested compared to 162.9 when digested with β-glucosidase added to stomach digestive step). HPLC and TLC experiments revealed that rooperol which has previously been thought to be the compound responsible for the anti-oxidant activity in Hypoxis extracts, was absent from the traditional extract of H. sobolifera and therefore cannot be the sole compound exhibiting anti-oxidant activity; other compounds such as phenolics may be contributing. The phenolic and flavonoid content results revealed very highconcentrations of these compounds in the traditionally prepared H. sobolifera extract. These compounds may therefore play major roles in all of the biological activities observed from treatment with Hypoxis spp. The ROS results yielded interesting and promising results. Using standard or traditionally prepared H. sobolifera extracts, activation of differentiated U937 cells with PMA was greatly enhanced by cotreatment with the extracts, while extracts on their own did not cause significant activation. Future studies should investigate this property of the extracts as a promising immune boosterThe HPLC results showed that hypoxoside was undetectable in the hot water traditional extract and the TLC anti-oxidant experiment proved that rooperol is not present in the hot water traditional extract after treatment with β-glucosidase. This indicates that neither one of the Hypoxis compounds previously believed to be responsible for the biological activities observed are present in the extract when prepared the traditional way. Therefore, the biological activities observed in this study can be attributed to other phytochemical compounds.

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As a metropolitan area expands, fringe areas are influenced by the growing number of people and urban functions. Agricultural and vacant areas are converted into residential, industrial, commercial and institutional sites. In recent years a greater concern has arisen over the manner in which land is converted and the effects of such conversion upon an agricultural region. This study describes and analyses the land use pattern of one such region, Richmond, British Columbia, for the years 1930, 1949 and 1958. The land use data is represented cartographically and statistically. Changes which occurred during the intervening years and after 1958 are noted and reasons for them either explained or suggested, depending upon the availability of information. The major emphasis is on the effect of increasing urban expansion upon the character of the agricultural land use pattern, and upon Richmond's role as an agricultural and suburban area within the Greater Vancouver region. Since the 1958 analysis is based upon a detailed land use survey conducted by the author, more specific information is given on the character of land use than for any other period. Regional differences in field crops, amounts of agriculture per section and problems resulting from wastage of land in subdivisions are examples of the factors considered in the thesis. The effect of the past haphazard manner of urban development, especially residential, has created a jumbled land use pattern with large, unproductive or unused areas. Little consideration has been given to the consequences of this increased sporadic urbanization upon agriculture and the municipality. In the future an ever-growing population in the Greater Vancouver area will create further demands for more urban land in the fringe areas, such as Richmond. Sound planning will be needed to ensure a more orderly and less wasteful development of the region's valuable land resources. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

The intent of this research is to demonstrate the effectiveness of hypnosis as a treatment for school refusal. The research design is a single-case study employing an A-B Follow-up format. The 10 year old male subject completed measures of personality (The Children's Personality Questionnaire), self-concept (The Piers-Harris Children's Self-concept Scale), identified stressors, and anxiety. The baseline period was two weeks and therapy lasted four weeks. Follow-up data was collected on the same measures ten months later. All post-therapy results indicate change in a more adaptive direction. The subject showed increased self-concept, lessened anxiety, greater ability to cope and he returned to school with little or no of the previous psychosomatic complaints evident. The follow-up results show that the subject has maintained his gains. Hypnosis is seen as an effective, fast method of treatment for school refusal, a syndrome which needs to be dealt with quickly since consequences can be severe for the child. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This thesis develops an approach to integrated resources management for hydro-electric energy development and an application of the method to an established single purpose project. Traditionally hydroelectric projects in British Columbia have been orientated towards the single purpose of energy generation. Yet as demands for water-based recreation rise, hydro-electric reservoirs become increasingly valuable for other uses, as has been demonstrated by multi-purpose projects in the United States. Thus, improved planning and management of reservoirs is necessary to achieve an increased level of resource use and environmental quality. It is suggested in this thesis that an analysis of land-use capabilities (biogeophysical) is a logical initial phase in determining the limitations for recreational use at reservoirs. It is further postulated that the use of a methodology which integrates land-use capabilities of the reservoir ecosystem with recreation-user requirements for selected recreational activities will minimize their environmental impact. Such a framework is based on the ecological principle that all land has the inherent capacity to generate different levels of biological production under various combinations of circumstances. Furthermore, based on these combinations of circumstances, the land and water may be classified into distinct landtypes for recreational use. Such a classification was developed and applied in a case study to Hayward Lake (a Run-of-the-River Reservoir) located near the coast of southwestern British Columbia. The results demonstrated clearly that the five landtypes (probably genera 1izable to other reservoirs) were identifiable, and that within these divisions, varying degrees of capability for recreation existed. Within the Reservoir ecosystem, five land-based and water-based landtypes are distinguished. These are the division of the water surface into: 1) the Open Water Zone, and 2) the Littoral Zone, and the division of the land into 1) the Beach Zone, 2) the Foreshore Zone (often preceded by a Subforeshore Zone), and 3) the Upland Zone. These zones may be further classified for selected recreational activities on the basis of various biogeophysica1 attribute values: e.g., soil textures, slope, water temperature, surface currents, exposure to sun and wind, etc. The preliminary analysis also indicated that five additional components for integrated reservoir management were necessary, namely: sedimentation control, reservoir clearance, regulated water flows, on-water zoning, and proper design standards. These were discussed briefly in the concluding chapter. In the final analysis, it is suggested that the classification framework should be expanded to assess not only the recreation capabilities of the reservoir (which forms one component of integrated management) but also the total uses of the water resource (based on capability, suitability, and feasibility) for the maximum benefit of society. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

This thesis investigates the problems involved in determining the appropriate use of agricultural land in its relation to regional planning. For the purpose of this investigation, the West Pasaman Development Plan has been chosen as a case study. The Development Plan for West Pasaman was drawn up by the Institute for Development Research--IDR, a consulting firm from West Germany, in 1975. The study team proposed five crucial projects to be developed within a ten year period (1975-1985). Two of these five projects, i.e., a new main road and an oil palm smallholder scheme were given priority. The priority for the oil palm smallholder project was based upon conventional economic criteria. Two important aspects were ignored. First, the physical characteristics of the site, including water resources, were not assessed, and secondly the needs of the existing population were not considered. In this thesis, three factors, the physical characteristics of the site, the social aspects of the population and economic feasibility were chosen as the criteria to determine the appropriate use of the agricultural land. The area of investigation is made up of two parts. The first part of 13,000 hectares is government land which, at present, is underutilized. The second part, consisting of 11,000 hectares, is private and communal land run by smallholders. The study team's report failed to account for the existing land use of this 11,000 hectares and therefore it is on this area, of land that the investigation has concentrated. It is found that the land being studied is physically suitable for rice cultivation. Oil palm cultivation does not appeal to the farmers in the study area because they are unwilling to move into new cultivation practices as they feel safer growing rice and other crops with which they are familiar. It seems an irrigation project is the most desirable government project for the study area. This would appear to confirm Indonesian national goals, which emphasize self-sufficiency in food production. If the available water resources of the study area (the Batang Tongar River) could be fully utilized, it is found by using economic data on returns per hectare per year, that double cropping rice with new high yielding varieties would yield a higher return to the farmers than oil palm. Thus, it is concluded that wet rice agriculture (double cropping) would be a more effective use of the 11,000 hectare area than oil palm. The thesis emphasizes that the physical characteristics of the site and the social aspects must be considered in determining the appropriate use of agricultural land in addition to the economic criteria. The thesis concludes with the discussion of the methodological limitations of the study and makes a plea for regional planners to utilize some of the new ideas of "development from below" and integrated regional development / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Ph.D. (Chemistry) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Former Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude once made the ambitious claim that one million public sector workers would own and run the services they provide by 2015. It never happened, but there are still approximately 110 Public Service Mutuals (PSMs) in England. Yet whilst mutuality permeates the discourse of this policy, mutualism in PSMs, as both ethos and practice, is under-theorised and under-researched. This thesis addresses these gaps using a critical realist approach. Drawing on a review of literature on mutuality and co-operation, mutualism in PSMs is conceptualised as interrelated cultural and structural emergent properties, comprising mutual ideas, relations and practices. These are applied in an empirical research project to explore the mutual in PSMs. A large N survey of healthcare providers was followed by in-depth comparative case studies of an NHS Foundation Trust and two PSMs. Using a critical realist framework, mutual structures and generative mechanisms, together with agent (employee) interaction with them, were investigated. The findings revealed that organisational mutual practices of ownership, shared benefit, voice and transparency can cause the emergence of the mutual relations of trust, co-operation and reciprocity when allied to a common purpose. In turn, the causal powers of these mutual relations strengthen organisational mutual practices. However, this does not occur quickly or automatically and the corporate agency of managers and staff, coalescing around joint projects, is necessary for the mutual in Public Service Mutuals to emerge and thrive.

Maltreatment experienced in childhood or adolescence is a known risk factor for later problem alcohol and/or other drug (AOD) use (Bailey & McCloskey, 2005; Shin, Edwards, Heeren, 2009). A growing body of empirical work has found significant associations between adolescent girls’ AOD use and maltreatment experiences. However, questions remain as to how this relation unfolds with African-American and Hispanic adolescent girls. Guided by four relational models that have been proposed in the literature, this study examined the links between maltreatment, trauma symptoms, and alcohol and/or other drug (AOD) problems in a sample of 170 African-American and Hispanic adolescent girls who were participants in a school-based AOD use intervention. Results of this study revealed that maltreatment experiences (physical and emotional abuse) were positively related to trauma symptoms, which were positively related to AOD problem severity, alcohol abuse, alcohol dependency, drug abuse, and drug dependency. Perceived discrimination moderated this relation between sexual abuse and trauma symptoms, such that more perceived discrimination resulted in a stronger effect of sexual abuse on trauma symptoms. Ethnic identity moderated the relation between sexual abuse and AOD problem severity, such that ethnic identity demonstrated protective properties in the relation between sexual abuse and AOD problem severity. My research adds to extant knowledge on the relation between maltreatment and AOD use in adolescent girls and suggests the importance of developing interventions targeting maltreatment and AOD use concurrently.

No description available.