Pretoria

This article established how a mixed language spoken as a lingua franca by black residents of Tshwane, known as Sepitori, influenced learners who studied Setswana as a home language at three high schools in GaRankuwa, Mabopane and Soshanguve; all these three townships are located north of Pretoria’s central business district. Data were gathered from 90 learners (30 from each school) and six Setswana educators from the same schools. Learners wrote an essay in Setswana on an interesting and contemporary topic ‘free education for all university students’, while educators were interviewed individually. Data analysis showed that Sepitori significantly influenced the written output of learners. Some educators were adamant that it was unreasonable to wish away Sepitori in Setswana classrooms because learners and many educators (regardless of the subjects they taught) ordinarily spoke Sepitori at the three townships be it at school or at home.

“Fresh Ideas for the Future: Symposium on the NPT Nuclear Disarmament, Non-proliferation, and Energy.” Managing the Atom Project, Harvard John F Kennedy School of Government, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Cambridge, MA, USA, April 30, 2015.

In April 2015, the Project on Managing the Atom joined the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, The Netherlands government, and the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs convened nuclear nonproliferation experts from around the world at the United Nations to participate in a symposium on the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).

The symposium aimed to accomplish two goals. The first was to present and discuss cutting-edge scholarly research on issues with which delegates to the 2015 NPT Review Conference must grapple. The intent was to facilitate sound decision-making at the Review Conference by offering creative but practical conceptual innovations, critical analysis, and empirical evidence drawn from academic research.

The second major purpose was to expose early-career academic researchers to the review process, where they would have an opportunity to share their research findings and interact with practitioners.

For more information, please access http://www.belfercenter.org/publication/fresh-ideas-future-symposium-npt-nuclear-disarmament-non-proliferation-and-energy

An overly ambitious architectural proposal was developed during the winter of 1879-1880 for the replacement of the Stock Exchange building on the most important public square in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Amsterdam’s Dam Square. It was intended to change the face of the Dutch capital, but never went beyond being the dream of an obscure architect. But only a few years later, the same architect would shape another capital, 11 000 kilometres further south, where the inhabitants of a small 20-odd year old frontier town were embroiled in a war of independence which pitted back-veld farmers against the greatest world power of the time. The underdog won the day and during a brief interlude dreams of a Boer arcadia were ignited in what became the short-lived resurrected South African Republic (ZAR). These events echoed as far away as far-away Netherlands and found fruitful soil there in aspirations for a second Golden Republic, inspired by the Dutch Republic in its 17th-century Golden Age, far removed from the intrigues, conflicts and aggressions of late 19th Century Europe. This is a story of those dreams and their architectural residue.

Introduction: Enterobacteriaceae are pathogens associated with health care and community associated infections. The development of carbapenem resistance in Enterobacteriaceae is major concern worldwide due to lack of treatment options leading to mortality. The high prevalence of carbapenemase genes on mobile genetic elements (MGEs) such as integrons, plasmids and transposons promotes the spread of antimicrobial resistance and play an important role in dissemination of carbapenemase genes by horizontal gene transfer inter- and intra-species. There is a strong association between class 1 integron and multidrug resistance in Enterobacteriaceae. In South Africa, there is limited information about the prevalence of integrons and their association to drug resistance, particularly carbapenem resistance.
Material and Methods: Hundred presumptive CRE isolates were obtained from NHLS Laboratory, Tshwane Academic Division and selected using random systemic sampling. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was done by disc diffusion using a 10 μg ertapenem disc on Mueller Hinton agar. Overnight culture in Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) was used for the extraction of genomic DNA. Multiplex PCR was used for the detection of 3 locally common carbapenemase genes (blaOXA-48, blaNDM-1, and blaVIM-2) and integrase genes (intI1 and intI2) which determine an integron class.
Results and Discussion: Reduced susceptibility could be presumptively confirmed in 64% of the CRE isolates. Thirty percent of the isolates were resistant and 34% showed an intermediate resistance to ertapenem. Carbapenemase genes were detected in 64% of the isolates, the predominant genotype was the blaOXA-48, which was detected in 36% of the isolates. The second predominant genotype is blaNDM-1, which was detected in 27% of the isolates. The blaVIM-2 was only detected in two isolates. Class 1 integron was detected in 70% of all the selected CRE isolates, and it was the most prevalent in this study. Class 2 integron was detected in 17 isolates, and of these, 16 were combination of class 1 and class 2 integron which were detected in P. rettgeri (n = 14) and E. cloacae (n = 2).
Conclusion: The high prevalence of integron class 1 and class 2 in this study shows a potential for dissemination of antimicrobial resistance among clinical isolates.