Human well-being and animal welfare: Is there an ethical link to be implemented from the COVID-19 pandemic into the practice of emergency management?

Through the definition of risk management and its interpretation in multidimensional protection of humans and animals in emergencies and during disasters, in this article, the authors focus on the ethical links between human well-being and animal welfare in emergency and disaster risk management. Coronavirus disease 2019 and its impact on animal welfare are used to consistently demonstrate the link between human well-being and animal welfare. Examples of international legal and ethical norms are provided to demonstrate the need for protecting humans and animals in emergencies and disasters, such as the proposed Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare.

A tool for the assessment of the risk drivers and public perception of WASH in South Africa.

Unlabelled: Temporal trend analysis of the Google-search volumes and terms related to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in South Africa was performed using a computer plugin between January 2004 and June 2022. This study was conducted as WASH has played an important role in the containment of the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and it is also one of the most effective and easiest-to-deploy tools in decreasing risk from infectious diseases. For the WASH-related terms, the monthly search volumes ranged from the minimum average of 480 for pit latrines to the maximum of 30236 for diarrhea or diarrhoea for the studied period.

Disaster risk from diarrhoeal diseases and WASH in South Africa and Botswana in MDG time.

Unlabelled: South Africa and Botswana are middle-income countries in the southern part of the African continent. They are also the two of the most developed countries in the region, where socio-economic situation is better than in many other parts of the African continent. The progression of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in these two countries can be seen as the setting stage for the disaster risk management understanding in the African region in the 21st century.

Rapid assessment of public interest in drought and its likely drivers in South Africa.

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.

Fire disaster management in South Africa: Look at statistics and impacts.

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.

Roles of public service and private stakeholders in the 2017-2018 listeriosis epidemic in South Africa: An ethical conjecture.

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.

Potential solutions for increasing resilience of the drinking water supply through the public-private partnership in a South African municipality.

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.

Storage conditions, microbial quality, and transport costs of drinking water from alternative sources in a South African municipality.

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.

Use of low-cost online tools to estimate the public's interest in the changing conditions of their existence under the conditions during COVID-19, as a model for the emergency information assessment.

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.

Antibiotic procurement and ABC analysis for a comprehensive primary health care clinic in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa.

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.

Legislation and policy analysis on management of listeriosis epidemic disaster in South Africa.

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.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of 2-chloro-3-[(thiazol-2-yl)amino]-1,4-naphthoquinones.

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.

Antibiotic-Resistant Pathogenic Escherichia Coli Isolated from Rooftop Rainwater-Harvesting Tanks in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

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 strains and their antimicrobial resistance patterns in HRW tanks in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

¹H-NMR Profiling and Chemometric Analysis of Selected Honeys from South Africa, Zambia, and Slovakia.

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.

Extended use of grey water for irrigating home gardens in an arid environment.

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.

Structure-based prediction of drug distribution across the headgroup and core strata of a phospholipid bilayer using surrogate phases.

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.

Sorption of hydrophobic organic compounds on natural sorbents and organoclays from aqueous and non-aqueous solutions: a mini-review.

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.

Structural determinants of drug partitioning in surrogates of phosphatidylcholine bilayer strata.

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.

Microbial monitoring of surface water in South Africa: an overview.

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.

Biodegradation mechanism of biphenyl by a strain of Pseudomonas stutzeri.

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).

Drug-membrane interactions studied in phospholipid monolayers adsorbed on nonporous alkylated microspheres.

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.

Partitioning of organic compounds in phases imitating the headgroup and core regions of phospholipid bilayers.

Solvation free energies of drugs, peptides, and other small molecules in the core and headgroup regions of phospholipid bilayers determine their conformations, accumulation, and transport properties. The transfer free energy includes the energy terms for the formation of a cavity for the solute, the interactions of the solute with phospholipids, electrostatic interactions of the solute with the membrane, and dipole potentials and entropy terms. The interaction energies with phospholipids can be estimated by correlating the partitioning in surrogate solvent systems and in the bilayer.