Faculty of Natural Sciences: Recent submissions
Now showing items 1761-1780 of 2644
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Predictive classifier models built from natural products with antimalarial bioactivity using machine learning approach
(Public Library of Science, 2018)In view of the vast number of natural products with potential antiplasmodial bioactivity and cost of conducting antiplasmodial bioactivity assays, it may be judicious to learn from previous antiplasmodial bioassays and ... -
Conservation status and threats for African reptiles
(Elsevier, 2016)The assimilation of information on taxonomy, distribution, basic ecology and conservation status of Africa's reptiles lags far behind that for most other continents. Many regions of mainland Africa are rarely surveyed, ... -
An ambusher’s arsenal: chemical crypsis in the puff adder (Bitis arietans)
(The Royal Society, 2015)Ambush foragers use a hunting strategy that places them at risk of predation by both visual and olfaction-oriented predators. Resulting selective pressures have driven the evolution of impressive visual crypsis in many ... -
Scale-dependent orientation in movement paths: a case study of an African viper
(Wiley, 2016)Decisions relating to the orientation of movement by animals and how this translates into movement patterns can occur at multiple spatial scales simultaneously, but this interaction is poorly understood for many groups of ... -
Identifying global priorities for the conservation of vipers
(Elsevier, 2016)Vipers are among the most misunderstood and persecuted animals. They occupy most terrestrial ecosystems around the world, often at high population densities. However, certain aspects of their biology (e.g., low fecundity ... -
Diet and feeding in the Cape Cobra, Naja nivea
(Taylor & Francis, 2017)It is widely reported that African cobras (genus Naja) are generalist predators, but examination of formal literature yields relatively little evidence of this for most species. Here, we review the diet of cape cobras (Naja ... -
Snake body size frequency distributions are robust to the description of novel species
(Ecological Society of America, 2016)The accurate interpretation of body size frequency distributions (BSFDs) has important implications for understanding large-scale ecological and evolutionary patterns because they are shaped by ecological and evolutionary ... -
Smoking‐induced genetic and epigenetic alterations in infertile men
(Wiley, 2018)Male fertility rates have shown a progressive decrease in both developing and industrialised countries in the past 50 years. Clinical and epidemiological studies have demonstrated controversial results about the harmful ... -
First ground-based observations of sprites over southern Africa
(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2018)Sprites are the optical signatures of electrical discharges in the mesosphere triggered by large lightning strikes associated with thunderstorms. Since their discovery in the late 1980s, sprites have been observed ... -
Adapting the yeast consolidated bioprocessing paradigm for biorefineries
(Green Wave Publishing of Canada, 2018)Despite decades long development, no natural or engineered organism has been isolated that can produce commodity products at the rates and yields required by industry via direct microbial conversion. However, new genomic ... -
Reactive oxygen species and male reproductive hormones
(BMC, 2018)Reports of the increasing incidence of male infertility paired with decreasing semen quality have triggered studies on the effects of lifestyle and environmental factors on the male reproductive potential. There are ... -
Quantitative assessment of heavy metal effects on sperm function using computer‐aided sperm analysis and cytotoxicity assays
(Wiley, 2018)One known environmental risk factor impacting on human reproduction is heavy metal pollution. Although some metals (e.g., Cu, Se and Zn) have protective effects on the male reproductive system in low doses, heavy metals ... -
Hyphenated LC-ICP-MS/ESI-MS identification of halogenated metabolites in South African marine ascidian extracts
(The South African Chemical Institute, 2018)Extracts of 13 species of marine ascidian collected in Algoa Bay were analyzed by LC-ICP-MS/ESI-MS. This technique allows parallel analysis of the molecular species and the presence of certain elements. The LC-ICP-MS/ESI-MS ... -
Leisure athletes at risk of medical complications: outcomes of pre-participation screening among 15,778 endurance runners - SAFER VII
(Taylor & Francis, 2018)OBJECTIVE: International guidelines for pre-participation screening of masters/leisure athletes to identify those that require medical assessment exist, but have not been implemented in mass-community based sports events. ... -
Comparative phylogeography of parasitic Laelaps mites contribute new insights into the specialist-generalist variation hypothesis (SGVH)
(BMC, 2018)BACKGROUND: The specialist-generalist variation hypothesis (SGVH) in parasites suggests that, due to patchiness in habitat (host availability), specialist species will show more subdivided population structure when compared ... -
Chlorine oxidation of VOCs at a semi-rural site in Beijing: significant chlorine liberation from ClNO2 and subsequent gas- and particle-phase Cl–VOC production
(European Geosciences Union (EGU), 2018)Nitryl chloride (ClNO2) accumulation at night acts as a significant reservoir for active chlorine and impacts the following day’s photochemistry when the chlorine atom is liberated at sunrise. Here, we report simultaneous ... -
Reactive oxygen species and male reproductive hormones
(BMC, 2018)Reports of the increasing incidence of male infertility paired with decreasing semen quality have triggered studies on the effects of lifestyle and environmental factors on the male reproductive potential. There are ... -
The observed galaxy bispectrum from single-field inflation in the squeezed limit
(IOP Publishing, 2018)Using the consistency relation in Fourier space, we derive the observed galaxy bispectrum from single- eld in ation in the squeezed limit, in which one of the three modes has a wavelength much longer than the other two. ... -
The Galactic halo pulsar population
(Oxford University Press, 2018)Most population studies of pulsars have hitherto focused on the disc of the Galaxy, the Galactic centre, globular clusters, and nearby galaxies. It is expected that pulsars, by virtue of their natal kicks, are also to ... -
Predicting the neutral hydrogen content of galaxies from optical data using machine learning
(Oxford University Press, 2018)We develop a machine learning-based framework to predict the Hi content of galaxies using more straightforwardly observable quantities such as optical photometry and environmental parameters. We train the algorithm on z ...