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1.
J Emerg Manag ; 22(7): 101-112, 2024.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38573733

RESUMEN

The monthly search volumes for drought were extracted from Google® for South Africa using the Keywordsevery-where.com plugin from January 2004 until June 2022. To identify the potential qualitative drivers for such public interest the following data extracted by the plugin were investigated and analysed: the drought-related keywords, the long-tail keywords similar to drought, and the "people also searched for category" from the South African users. The Google Trends monthly score was extracted for South Africa and the Eastern Cape Province, and specific local municipalities/towns/cities in the province. The aim was to assess the relative significance of the drought interest in comparison to public interest in other search terms. The results of the Kruskal-Wallis analyses of variance by ranks showed that there was a statistically significant difference between individual values of the monthly search volumes for drought in South Africa, as a function of time of data extraction (5 percent level of significance; p-value ≤ 4.7 × 10-14). The monthly search volumes increased with time, which is based on the results of the Mann-Kendall test at a 5 percent level of significance (p-value ≤ 0.0092). Analyses of the Google Trends scores indicate that the relative interest in drought in South Africa and the Eastern Cape Province increased with time between January 2004 and June 2022 (the Mann-Kendall test at a 5 percent level of significance; p-value = 0.0011). The population's searches for drought were relatively low when compared to other search terms on Google. Drought adaptation of the South African community could be considered a driver of the Google searches for drought, but it is a marginal topic compared to other topics in Google searches. It might be necessary to increase this significance by investigating the "Google-search patterns for droughts" in the areas of Tshikaro, Mafusini, Cofimvaba, and Nxotsheni in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.


Asunto(s)
Sequías , Humanos , Sudáfrica , Ciudades
3.
J Emerg Manag ; 21(8): 97-117, 2023.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37878385

RESUMEN

Makana Local Municipality is located in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The area is water-scarce and has been undergoing aridification in recent years, ie, there has been a 7-year long drought. At the same time, there has been a breakdown in provision of municipal services, such as drinking water, to the population since at least 2008. Mi-crobial water quality has been a result of this, and monitoring has been a challenge. Given the drought and the prob-lems with drinking water delivery, it was necessary to conduct this study to investigate the microbial quality of alterna-tive water resources that the Makana population can use during the municipal water outage. The microbial water quality of alternative sources of drinking water in the Makana Local Municipality was examined using the H2S test kit and enumeration of the fecal coliforms. Storage of the collected water was examined for potential factors influencing the microbial water quality of the alternative sources of drinking water. The costs of the water provision from the most suitable alternative sources of potable water were calculated. There was a general correlation between the H2S test kit results and the fecal coliform concentrations, with the latter values ranging from <0 to 23 ± 7 colony-forming units/100 mL. The bottled water from two retail outlets was provided the best alternative source of potable/drinking water, which is microbially safe, for the Makana population. If the consumption of the drinking water from an alternative source takes place within 24 hours of collection, then the Fairview spring could also be used as a source of drinking water for Maka-na residents. The total cost per 1 L of drinking water from alternative sources was estimated to be from 1.51 to 5.81 ZAR. Therefore, the maximum cost of daily provision of drinking water from alternative sources would account for a maximum of 0.88 percent of the monthly household expenditure in the middle-to-high-income household. However, the daily costs of such provision of drinking water would account for a maximum of 8.11 percent of the monthly household expenditure in the low-income household. Provision of the drinking water from the alternative sources would have a minor impact of the monthly ex-penditure in the middle-to-high-income households. However, it is likely that the low-income households would not be able to sustain their water supply from alternative sources for longer than 24 hours, during a municipal outage in the drinking water supply.

4.
J Emerg Manag ; 21(8): 21-26, 2023.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37878381

RESUMEN

Online tools such as Google Trends and search volume trackers provide potential low-cost methods to evaluate the interest of the public in the current topics once a disaster strikes. A low-cost plugin is available commercially to extract the public interest data from Google and it is tested in this letter to the editor. The plugin was used to assess the time trends in the South African public's interest in working from home which became a relevant topic during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Results of the data extraction and analysis are presented and potential applications in emergency management are proposed.

5.
J Emerg Manag ; 21(8): 177-200, 2023.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37878390

RESUMEN

The existence of wildfires has been present since before humans, eventually, humans learned to control it. Today, fire is used for light, warmth, hunting, gathering, agriculture, energy, and so on. Fire has led to the evolution of flora and fauna of the world and the development of human society. Fire is both a natural and manmade disaster that causes a significant threat to life, property in residential, urban, rural areas, as well as industrial areas and the environment. Im-pacts of fire can be social, economic, and environmental, such as demolishing wildlife habitat, watershed and water supply damages, damage to property such as public recreation facilities, trails, campgrounds, and signs that affect tourists, destruction of timber, degraded air quality, and smoke-related illnesses. Fires when not controlled become disasters that should be addressed. This is done through disaster management, which can be summarized through the disaster management cycle that includes mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Disaster management of fire should be carried out in accordance with the Disaster Management Act, the Fire Brigade Service Act, the National Veld and Forest Fire Act, and the National Building Regulations and Building Standards Act. Fire in South Africa is a usual occurrence. The National Disaster Management Center recorded that in 2016/17, over 17,000 fires occurred, de-stroying almost 5,900 dwellings, resulting in the death of 142 people. Fires greatly affect informal settlements as well as other hazards that are poorly built and overcrowded, therefore are vulnerable.

6.
J Emerg Manag ; 21(8): 145-162, 2023.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37878388

RESUMEN

The aim of this article is to carry a bioethical and a limited policy analysis on the progression and aftermath of the 2017-2018 listeriosis epidemic or disaster in South Africa. This links the context of the listeriosis epidemic/disaster to the overall public health systems, disaster medicine, and ethics in South Africa, with specific focus on standards of public service and private stakeholder conduct in the country. The public service angle is unpacked in terms the policy framework relevant to ethics and public health/disaster management. In addition, the process and ethical implications of the management, as well as the role of the various stakeholders, in the 2017-2018 listeriosis epidemic/disaster in South Africa are analyzed and reflected upon. Results of the current study indicate that actions of the public health officials and biomedical scientists, who investigated the listeriosis epidemic/disaster as public servants, were executed in line with the code of conduct of the public service in South Africa. The relevant public service legislation and ethical norms of the public service in South Africa were also adhered to. A slightly different approach was discovered in the conduct of the ready-to-eat (RTE) meat producer that had owned the factory, which was identified as the source of the listeriosis epidemic/disaster. The narrative of online resources indicates that there were many negative outcomes of the 2017-2018 listeriosis epidemic/-disaster in South Africa. Those were stories about negative outcomes of the epidemic that impacted individuals, who were listeriosis sufferers. Their voices and their stories' representation provide an important resource of data on the impacts on the complex disasters on the South African population. Novel approaches are proposed to address the challenges identified along the public-private goods continuum and approaches to food production and access to sources of dietary protein in South Africa.

7.
J Emerg Manag ; 21(8): 119-131, 2023.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37878386

RESUMEN

There has existed a need to increase the resilience of the drinking water supply in Makana Local Municipality in the scope of the 2018-2019 drought and the municipal water supply outages. A combination of the know-how and mandates of local government and the private water-retail sector could provide solutions. In order to achieve successful imple-mentation, the authors present here tools from the disaster risk management legislation in South Africa for operational-ization of this public-private partnership. These are tools based on Chapter 5, part 1, paragraphs 42 (1d) and Chapter 5, part 2, section/paragraph 47 (1a) i-iv of the Disaster Management Act no. 57 of 2002. Regulations for the recruitment and participation of volunteers in disaster risk management should be applied through the establishment of the volun-teer units and the component for drinking water provision. The use of volunteer units with the engagement of the private sector would provide additional tools for the implementation of the preparedness and mitigation measures for drinking water provision in Makana Local Municipality. Local solutions for increasing the resilience of drinking water provision are available and identified based on the modeling work of a container solution. Potential implementation of that con-tainer solution for increasing resilience of drinking water provision would require an investment of 6.81-13.00 percent of the 2017-2019 annual budget of Makana Local Municipality. At any given time in 2018, the probability of the emergency treatment activation would be about 33.4 percent in Makana Local Municipality. An example of the ad hoc management about the provision of borehole water from 2019 indicates that planning is critical to success of the increased resilience initiatives. Onsite storage of water during the constant supply might be necessary to ensure treatment and drinking water provision.

9.
Am J Disaster Med ; 15(2): 113-128, 2020.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32804391

RESUMEN

During the 2017-2018 listeriosis outbreak in South Africa (SA), the total number of cases reached 1,060. In this study, the disaster management response to the 2017-2018 South Africa listeriosis outbreak is analyzed. The hazard was in part the contamination of a brand of a ready-to-eat (RTE) "polony" with a strain of Listeria monocytogenes ST6. The initial phase of the 2017-2018 listeriosis outbreak was characterized by a rapid increase in the number of detected human cases. The listeriosis outbreak was officially proclaimed in December 2017, resulting in listeriosis being added to the list of notifiable diseases in SA. The delay between onset and proclamation was a result of the difficulty in identifica-tion of the actual number of cases of listeriosis in the country. The response to the disaster included the coordination of the National Department of Health, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), businesses/producers of the contaminated brand of RTE products, and the public. Some of these activities led to the removal of the contami-nated products from the retail sector in March 2018, resulting in a decrease in the number of cases found in SA. In re-sponse to the outbreak, the National Department of Health formed a multisector incidence response team and imple-mented the Emergency Response Plan. Impacts of future listeriosis outbreaks could be mitigated by the adoption of international listeriosis guidelines such as the WHO/FAO and FDA. Practical steps in this context should include setting a limit of L. monocytogenes in RTE products. WHO/FAO and FDA listeriosis policies which are described "zero toler-ance" where a limit of < 100 L. monocytogenes cells/g at the moment of consumption is acceptable can be adopted. Additional resources must be provided for research into infectious doses and the various routes of human exposure.


Asunto(s)
Brotes de Enfermedades/prevención & control , Guías como Asunto , Legislación como Asunto , Listeria monocytogenes , Listeriosis/epidemiología , Formulación de Políticas , Desastres , Notificación de Enfermedades , Microbiología de Alimentos , Humanos , Listeriosis/diagnóstico , Sudáfrica
10.
S Afr J Infect Dis ; 35(1): 134, 2020.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34604377

RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a major threat to global public health, can be addressed using a managed care approach. This includes timely analysis of antibiotic consumption and procurement data to drive evidence-based policies and practices in healthcare facilities. 'ABC analysis' presents an opportunity for this. METHODS: ABC analysis data for a comprehensive Primary Health Care (PHC) clinic in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa was obtained from the Provincial Department of Health for 01 April 2015 to 31 March 2018. Procured antibiotics were analysed on the quantities purchased, total cost, route of administration and spectrum of activity. Antibiotic categorization was also carried out according to the World Health Organization Model List of Essential Medicines (WHO EML) 2017. RESULTS: Antibiotics made up approximately 7% of the total annual pharmaceutical expenditure. A total of 31, 35 and 34 antibiotics were procured in the first, second and third years, respectively. The most procured antibiotics were: (1) isoniazid, (2) flucloxacillin, (3) azithromycin, (4) a combination of rifampicin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol and (5) amoxicillin. Overall, 55%, 2% and 15% of antibiotics accounted for the 'Access', 'Watch' and 'Access and Watch' categories, respectively, of the WHO EML. No 'Reserve' antibiotics were procured. The remaining 28% were antituberculosis medicines. Altogether, 89%, 8% and 3% of the antibiotics were respectively administered orally, systemically, and topically. A total of 58% were broad-spectrum and 42% were narrow-spectrum antibiotics. CONCLUSION: Oral antibiotics in the 'Access' category presented favourable usage of antibiotics. Decreasing the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics requires consideration.

11.
Bioorg Med Chem Lett ; 29(13): 1572-1575, 2019 07 01.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31080006

RESUMEN

A series of novel, substituted 2-chloro-3-[(thiazol-2-yl)amino]-1,4-naphthoquinones have been prepared and shown to exhibit promising concentration-dependent activity against human SH-SY5Y cells, Plasmodium falciparum, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and P. aeruginosa. Substituent effects on observed bioactivity have been explored; the para-fluorophenyl derivative 3d exhibited activity across the range of the bioassays employed, indicating the potential of the 2-chloro-3-[(4-arylthiazol-2-yl)amino]-1,4-naphthoquinone scaffold in the development of novel, broad spectrum therapeutics.


Asunto(s)
Naftoquinonas/síntesis química , Humanos , Estructura Molecular , Relación Estructura-Actividad
12.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-29723970

RESUMEN

Although many developing countries use harvested rainwater (HRW) for drinking and other household purposes, its quality is seldom monitored. Continuous assessment of the microbial quality of HRW would ensure the safety of users of such water. The current study investigated the prevalence of pathogenic Escherichia coli strains and their antimicrobial resistance patterns in HRW tanks in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Rainwater samples were collected weekly between June and September 2016 from 11 tanks in various areas of the province. Enumeration of E. coli was performed using the Colilert®18/Quanti-Tray® 2000 method. E. coli isolates were obtained and screened for their virulence potentials using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and subsequently tested for antibiotic resistance using the disc-diffusion method against 11 antibiotics. The pathotype most detected was the neonatal meningitis E. coli (NMEC) (ibeA 28%) while pathotype enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) was not detected. The highest resistance of the E. coli isolates was observed against Cephalothin (76%). All tested pathotypes were susceptible to Gentamicin, and 52% demonstrated multiple-antibiotic resistance (MAR). The results of the current study are of public health concern since the use of untreated harvested rainwater for potable purposes may pose a risk of transmission of pathogenic and antimicrobial-resistant E. coli.


Asunto(s)
Farmacorresistencia Bacteriana/genética , Escherichia coli/efectos de los fármacos , Escherichia coli/aislamiento & purificación , Lluvia , Reacción en Cadena de la Polimerasa , Salud Pública , Sudáfrica , Virulencia
13.
Molecules ; 23(3)2018 Mar 05.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-29510542

RESUMEN

Honey is the natural sweet substance produced by honeybee from nectar or honeydew, exhibiting several nutritional and health benefits. It contains a complex mixture of compounds in different proportions, with sugars being the main component. The physicochemical characteristics of ten honeys were evaluated; represented by five, three, and two from South Africa, Slovakia, and Zambia, respectively. The range of values for the pH (3.75-4.38), electrical conductivity (99-659 µS/cm), and moisture content (14.2-17.7%) are within the recommended limits for quality honeys. ¹H-NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) profiling of the honeys in D2O was determined, and the data were analysed by chemometrics. This method is fast, reproducible, and sample pre-treatment is not necessary. The ¹H-NMR fingerprints of various chemical shift regions showed similarity or dissimilarity across geographical origins that are useful for identification, detection of adulteration, and quality control. The principal component analysis PCA and partial linear square discriminant analysis PLS-DA of the ¹H-NMR profiles successively categorises the honeys into two chemically related groups. The R² values are higher than the corresponding Q² values for all samples, confirming the reliability of the model. Honeys in the same cluster contain similar metabolites and belong to the same botanic or floral origin.


Asunto(s)
Miel/análisis , Azúcares/aislamiento & purificación , Agua/análisis , Animales , Abejas/fisiología , Análisis Discriminante , Conductividad Eléctrica , Miel/clasificación , Humanos , Concentración de Iones de Hidrógeno , Análisis de Componente Principal , Reproducibilidad de los Resultados , Eslovaquia , Sudáfrica , Azúcares/clasificación , Zambia
14.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int ; 24(15): 13650-13658, 2017 May.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28397116

RESUMEN

The use of treated grey water (GW) for home gardens, peri-urban agriculture and landscaping is becoming popular in many water stressed countries such as Oman. This study aims to investigate the treatment efficacy, health and chemical concerns, cost-benefits and maintenance protocol of a GW treatment system as well as the effect of irrigation with GW on crop yield. Therefore, a decentralized homemade GW treatment system was installed in a newly constructed house in Muscat, Oman and studied over a 2-year period. The treated GW was found to be suitable for irrigation as per Omani standards. GW when mixed with kitchen effluent substituted the use of nutrient supplements for plants and did not show any harmful chemical or biological contamination. The capital cost of the system was around US $980, and the annual operating cost was US $78 with annual income and savings from the system being around US $572 indicating a payback period of nearly 2 years. It was found that the system required simple but regular maintenance particularly cleaning of the top layer of the filter. It can be concluded from this study that such a GW system should be technically, economically and environmentally feasible in Oman. Also, wider acceptance by the general public to the idea of GW reuse will help in mitigating the water shortage problem of the country to some extent.


Asunto(s)
Eliminación de Residuos Líquidos , Agua , Jardines , Humanos , Omán , Purificación del Agua
15.
Mol Pharm ; 11(10): 3577-95, 2014 Oct 06.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-25179490

RESUMEN

Solvation of drugs in the core (C) and headgroup (H) strata of phospholipid bilayers affects their physiological transport rates and accumulation. These characteristics, especially a complete drug distribution profile across the bilayer strata, are tedious to obtain experimentally, to the point that even simplified preferred locations are only available for a few dozen compounds. Recently, we showed that the partition coefficient (P) values in the system of hydrated diacetyl phosphatidylcholine (DAcPC) and n-hexadecane (C16), as surrogates of the H- and C-strata of the bilayer composed of the most abundant mammalian phospholipid, PC, agree well with the preferred bilayer location of compounds. High P values are typical for lipophiles accumulating in the core, and low P values are characteristic of cephalophiles preferring the headgroups. This simple pattern does not hold for most compounds, which usually have more even distribution and may also accumulate at the H/C interface. To model complete distribution, the correlates of solvation energies are needed for each drug state in the bilayer: (1) for the H-stratum it is the DAcPC/W P value, calculated as the ratio of the C16/W and C16/DAcPC (W for water) P values; (2) for the C-stratum, the C16/W P value; (3) for the H/C interface, the P values for all plausible molecular poses are characterized using the fragment DAcPC/W and C16/W solvation parameters for the parts of the molecule embedded in the H- and C-strata, respectively. The correlates, each scaled by two Collander coefficients, were used in a nonlinear, mass-balance based model of intrabilayer distribution, which was applied to the easily measurable overall P values of compounds in the DMPC (M = myristoyl) bilayers and monolayers as the dependent variables. The calibrated model for 107 neutral compounds explains 94% of experimental variance, achieves similar cross-validation levels, and agrees well with the nontrivial, experimentally determined bilayer locations for 27 compounds. The resulting structure-based prediction system for intrabilayer distribution will facilitate more realistic modeling of passive transport and drug interactions with those integral membrane proteins, which have the binding sites located in the bilayer, such as some enzymes, influx and efflux transporters, and receptors. If only overall bilayer accumulation is of interest, the 1-octanol/W P values suffice to model the studied set.


Asunto(s)
Membrana Dobles de Lípidos/química , Fosfolípidos/química , Alcanos/química , Interacciones Hidrofóbicas e Hidrofílicas , Fosfatidilcolinas/química
16.
Int J Environ Res Public Health ; 11(5): 5020-48, 2014 May 09.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-24821385

RESUMEN

Renewed focus on the sorption of hydrophobic organic chemicals (HOCs) onto mineral surfaces and soil components is required due to the increased and wider range of organic pollutants being released into the environment. This mini-review examines the possibility of the contribution and mechanism of HOC sorption onto clay mineral sorbents such as kaolinite, and soil organic matter and the possible role of both in the prevention of environmental contamination by HOCs. Literature data indicates that certain siloxane surfaces can be hydrophobic. Therefore soils can retain HOCs even at low soil organic levels and the extent will depend on the structure of the pollutant and the type and concentration of clay minerals in the sorbent. Clay minerals are wettable by nonpolar solvents and so sorption of HOCs onto them from aqueous and non-aqueous solutions is possible. This is important for two reasons: firstly, the movement and remediation of soil environments will be a function of the concentration and type of clay minerals in the soil. Secondly, low-cost sorbents such as kaolinite and expandable clays can be added to soils or contaminated environments as temporary retention barriers for HOCs. Inorganic cations sorbed onto the kaolinite have a strong influence on the rate and extent of sorption of hydrophobic organic pollutants onto kaolinite. Structural sorbate classes that can be retained by the kaolinite matrix are limited by hydrogen bonding between hydroxyl groups of the octahedral alumosilicate sheet and the tetrahedral sheet with silicon. Soil organic carbon plays a key role in the sorption of HOCs onto soils, but the extent will be strongly affected by the structure of the organic soil matter and the presence of soot. Structural characterisation of soil organic matter in a particular soil should be conducted during a particular contamination event. Contamination by mining extractants and antibiotics will require renewed focus on the use of the QSAR approaches in the context of the sorption of HOCs onto clay minerals from aqueous and non-aqueous solutions.


Asunto(s)
Silicatos de Aluminio/química , Compuestos Orgánicos/química , Contaminantes del Suelo/química , Suelo/química , Adsorción , Interacciones Hidrofóbicas e Hidrofílicas , Caolín/química
17.
Mol Pharm ; 10(10): 3684-96, 2013 Oct 07.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-23964749

RESUMEN

The knowledge of drug concentrations in bilayer headgroups, core, and at the interface between them is a prerequisite for quantitative modeling of drug interactions with many membrane-bound transporters, metabolizing enzymes and receptors, which have the binding sites located in the bilayer. This knowledge also helps understand the rates of trans-bilayer transport because balanced interactions of drugs with the bilayer strata lead to high rates, while excessive affinities for any stratum cause a slowdown. Experimental determination of bilayer location is so tedious and costly that the data are only available for some fifty compounds. To extrapolate these valuable results to more compounds at a higher throughput, surrogate phases have been used to obtain correlates of the drug affinities for individual strata. We introduced a novel system, consisting of a diacetyl phosphatidylcholine (DAcPC) solution with the water content of the fluid bilayer as the headgroup surrogate and n-hexadecane (C16) representing the core. The C16/DAcPC partition coefficients were measured for 113 selected compounds, containing structural fragments that are frequently occurring in approved drugs. The data were deconvoluted into the ClogP-based fragment solvation characteristics and processed using a solvatochromic correlation. Increased H-bond donor ability and excess molar refractivity of compounds promote solvation in the DAcPC phase as compared to bulk water, contrary to H-bond acceptor ability, dipolarity/polarizability, and volume. The results show that aromates have more balanced distribution in bilayer strata, and thus faster trans-bilayer transport, than similar alkanes. This observation is in accordance with the frequent occurrence of aromatic rings in approved drugs and with the role of rigidity of drug molecules in promoting intestinal absorption. Bilayer locations, predicted using the C16/DAcPC system, are in excellent agreement with available experimental data, in contrast to other surrogate systems.


Asunto(s)
Fosfatidilcolinas/química , Alcanos/química , Membrana Dobles de Lípidos/química , Modelos Teóricos , Fosfolípidos/química
18.
Int J Environ Res Public Health ; 9(8): 2669-93, 2012 08.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-23066390

RESUMEN

Infrastructural problems force South African households to supplement their drinking water consumption from water resources of inadequate microbial quality. Microbial water quality monitoring is currently based on the Colilert®18 system which leads to rapidly available results. Using Escherichia coli as the indicator microorganism limits the influence of environmental sources on the reported results. The current system allows for understanding of long-term trends of microbial surface water quality and the related public health risks. However, rates of false positive for the Colilert®18-derived concentrations have been reported to range from 7.4% to 36.4%. At the same time, rates of false negative results vary from 3.5% to 12.5%; and the Colilert medium has been reported to provide for cultivation of only 56.8% of relevant strains. Identification of unknown sources of faecal contamination is not currently feasible. Based on literature review, calibration of the antibiotic-resistance spectra of Escherichia coli or the bifidobacterial tracking ratio should be investigated locally for potential implementation into the existing monitoring system. The current system could be too costly to implement in certain areas of South Africa where the modified H(2)S strip test might be used as a surrogate for the Colilert®18.


Asunto(s)
Agua Dulce/microbiología , Microbiología del Agua , Monitoreo del Ambiente , Sudáfrica , Calidad del Agua , Abastecimiento de Agua/legislación & jurisprudencia
19.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-21337247

RESUMEN

The mechanism of biphenyl biodegradation by Pseudomonas stutzeri was studied. Growth curves on biphenyl were measured, along with dissolution kinetics of biphenyl and production of biosurfactants by the bacterium. Biphenyl was supplied as pure crystals (the crystal biphenyl), adsorbed to Chromosorb G (the Chromosorb G biphenyl) or XAD-4 particles (the XAD-4 biphenyl). No lag phase was observed on the crystal biphenyl, while this period lasted 3.5-6.0 hours on the Chromosorb G biphenyl. The linear specific growth rates (LSGRs) ranged from 2.00 × 10(-4) to 293 × 10(-4) dry weight grams/L/h (d.w.g/L/h) on these two substrates. The LSGR values were directly proportional to the interfacial area between the solid substrate and the microbial suspension. The XAD-4 biphenyl was not bioavailable to the bacterium. The zero-order rates of dissolution ranged from 2.3 × 10(-5)to 8.0 × 10(-4) g/L/h on the crystal biphenyl and the Chromosorb G biphenyl. No biosurfactant production was observed on any biphenyl substrate. Growth curves, results of dissolution measurements and the scanning electron microscope (SEM) images indicate that Pseudomonas stutzeri takes up biphenyl from the aqueous phase as well as the solid phase of the crystal and the Chromosorb G biphenyl. The mechanism of uptake depends on the initial biphenyl concentration and the particle diameter of the biphenyl substrate.


Asunto(s)
Compuestos de Bifenilo/metabolismo , Pseudomonas stutzeri/metabolismo , Contaminantes del Suelo/metabolismo , Absorción , Biodegradación Ambiental , Compuestos de Bifenilo/química , Cinética , Microscopía Electrónica de Rastreo , Pseudomonas stutzeri/crecimiento & desarrollo
20.
J Biomol Screen ; 12(2): 186-202, 2007 Mar.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-17218665

RESUMEN

Characterization of interactions with phospholipids is an integral part of the in vitro profiling of drug candidates because of the roles the interactions play in tissue accumulation and passive diffusion. Currently used test systems may inadequately emulate the bilayer core solvation properties (immobilized artificial membranes [IAM]), suffer from potentially slow transport of some chemicals (liposomes in free or immobilized forms), and require a tedious separation (if used for free liposomes). Here the authors introduce a well-defined system overcoming these drawbacks: nonporous octadecylsilica particles coated with a self-assembled phospholipid monolayer. The coating mimics the structure of the headgroup region, as well as the thickness and properties of the hydrocarbon core, more closely than IAM. The monolayer has a similar transition temperature pattern as the corresponding bilayer. The particles can be separated by filtration or a mild centrifugation. The partitioning equilibria of 81 tested chemicals were dissected into the headgroup and core contributions, the latter using the alkane/water partition coefficients. The deconvolution allowed a successful prediction of the bilayer/water partition coefficients with the standard deviation of 0.26 log units. The plate-friendly assay is suitable for high-throughput profiling of drug candidates without sacrificing the quality of analysis or details of the drug-phospholipid interactions.


Asunto(s)
Membranas Artificiales , Preparaciones Farmacéuticas/metabolismo , Fosfolípidos/farmacocinética , Adsorción , Alquilación , Rastreo Diferencial de Calorimetría , Interacciones Hidrofóbicas e Hidrofílicas , Cinética , Liposomas/química , Espectroscopía de Resonancia Magnética , Microesferas , Modelos Químicos , Fosfolípidos/química , Solubilidad , Agua/química
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