Faculty of Natural Sciences
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Welcome to the scholarship of the Faculty of Natural Sciences.
The Faculty is developing a reputation as an important centre of research in South Africa. It equips graduates with solid academic and research skills and gives them the ability to succeed in the market place.
Electronic theses and dissertations are available in the Electronic Theses and Dissertations Repository .
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Times Higher Education creates a top 15 table for Africa’s academies ahead of the inaugural THE Africa Universities Summit on 30-31 July
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Recent Submissions
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Antimycobacterial activity and molecular docking of methanolic extracts and compounds of marine fungi from Saldanha and False Bays, South Africa
(Elsevier, 2022)The number and diversity of drugs in the tuberculosis (TB) drug development process has increased over the years, yet the attrition rate remains very high, signaling the need for continued research in drug discovery. In ... -
Development of Unsupported Ru and Ni Based Oxides with Enhanced Performance for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Acidic Media
(Springer, 2023)The high cost of catalyst materials suitable for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWE) is still a major hurdle that needs overcoming before commercial PEMWE can ... -
Strategies for malaria vaccination during the Covid-19 pandemic in African countries
(World Health Organization, 2022)Since October 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the use of RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine for children in areas of moderate to high transmission of Plasmodium falciparum in Africa.1 The vaccine ... -
Face-to-face versus online-based lectures: A COVID-19 induced study on assessments
(Frontiers in Education, 2022)The students were found to be resilient in adapting to things and learning, online presentations, and computer-based assessments. No gender-based difference or advantage to adjusting to newly introduced blended learning ... -
ALMA lensing cluster survey: Hubble space telescope and spitzer photometry of 33 lensed fields built with CHArGE
(IOP Publishing, 2022)We present a set of multiwavelength mosaics and photometric catalogs in the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) lensing cluster survey fields. The catalogs were built by the reprocessing of archival data ... -
Proteomics analysis of the p.G849D variant in neurexin 2 alpha may reveal insight into Parkinson’s disease pathobiology
(Frontiers, 2022)Parkinson’s disease (PD), the fastest-growing neurological disorder globally, has a complex etiology. A previous study by our group identified the p.G849D variant in neurexin 2 (NRXN2), encoding the synaptic protein, ... -
Attenuation of hyperglycemia-associated dyslipidemic, oxidative, cognitive, and inflammatory crises via modulation of neuronal ChEs/NF-κB/COX-2/NOx, and hepatorenal functional deficits by the Tridax procumbens extract
(Elsevier, 2023)Tridax procumbens (cotton buttons) is a flowering plant with a medicinal reputation for treating infections, wounds, diabetes, and liver and kidney diseases. The present research was conducted to evaluate the possible ... -
Polyaniline entrapped water-dispersible 3mpa-znse quantum dots and their application for the development of an enzymatic electrochemical nanobiosensor for the detection of 17β-estradiol, an endocrine-disrupting compound
(SpringerLink, 2023)17β-estradiol is used as a growth and fertility stimulant in the agronomic sector to induce fertility and manipulate reproductive characteristics in animals. However, unintended or unregulated distribution and exposure to ... -
Green nanotechnology as an innovative drug delivery approach for typha capensis and naringenin—new class of phytochemical embedded biocompatible gold nanoparticles in prostate cancer therap
(Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology, 2022)Naringenin, a flavone with a growing body of evidence as an anti-cancer agent, is found in Typha capensis, an indigenous South African plant commonly used in traditional medicine. However, despite favourable in vitro ... -
Water deficit-induced changes in phenolic acid content in maize leaves is associated with altered expression of cinnamate 4-hydroxylase and p-coumaric acid 3-hydroxylase
(MDPI, 2023)The amino acid phenylalanine is a precursor to phenolic acids that constitute the lignin biosynthetic pathway. Although there is evidence of a role of some phenolic acids in plant responses to pathogens and salinity, ... -
Critical appraisal of clinical guidelines for prevention and management of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity
(Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice, 2022)Objective: Doxorubicin is a valuable chemotherapeutic drug; however, it is associated with a high risk of cardiotoxicity. Several institutions and organizations have developed guidelines for risk factor assessment, monitoring, ... -
A taxonomic revision of chamaecrista (caesalpinioideae, cassieae, cassiinae) in Southern Africa
(American Society of Plant Taxonomists, 2022)The southern African species of Chamaecrista were all treated under Cassia in Gordon-Gray’s treatment for the Flora of Southern Africa. However, given the subsequent generic recircumscriptions in the subtribe Cassiinae, ... -
A label-free gold nanoparticles-based optical aptasensor for the detection of retinol binding protein 4
(MDPI, 2022)Retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) has been implicated in insulin resistance in rodents and humans with obesity and T2DM, making it a potential biomarker for the early diagnosis of T2DM. However, diagnostic tools for ... -
How open data and interdisciplinary collaboration improve our understanding of space weather: A risk and resiliency perspective
(Frontiers Media, 2022)Space weather refers to conditions around a star, like our Sun, and its interplanetary space that may affect space- and ground-based assets as well as human life. Space weather can manifest as many different phenomena, often ... -
On the exact constants in one-sided maximal inequalitiesfor Bessel processes
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2023)In this paper, we establish a one-sided maximal moment inequalitywith exact constants for Bessel processes. As a consequence, weobtain an exact constant in the Burkholder-Gundy inequality. Theproof of our main result is ... -
Cosmological constraints from the power spectrum and bispectrum of 21cm intensity maps
(IOP Publishing, 2022)The 21cm emission of neutral hydrogen is a potential probe of the matter distribution in the Universe after reionisation. Cosmological surveys of this line intensity will be conducted in the coming years by the SKAO and ... -
Setting the baseline for the modelling of Kesterite solar cells: The case study of tandem application
(Elsevier, 2023)The Kesterite solar cells research landscape is at a crossroad and despite a much improved understanding of the limitations of this class of materials, the current performance deficit contrasts with the several other thin ... -
Preservation of shortening velocity and power output in single muscle fibres from patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies
(Springer, 2022)Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs) are autoimmune disorders of skeletal muscle causing weakness and disability. Utilizing single fibre contractility studies, we have previously shown that contractility is affected ... -
Coulomb excitation of 102 Ru with 12 C and 16 O
(American Physical Society, 2022)The Coulomb excitation of 102Ru was performed with beams of 12C and 16O ions. The beam particles scattered at forward angles were momentum analyzed with a magnetic spectrograph. The resolution achieved enabled the ... -
Hierarchical Bayesian geostatistics for C stock prediction in disturbed plantation forest in Zimbabwe
(Ecological Informatics, 2022)We develop and present a novel Bayesian hierarchical geostatistical model for the prediction of plantation forest carbon stock (C stock) in the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe using multispectral Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 ...
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