UPSpace
Institutional Repository
Faculty Research Collections
UP Research Output Collections
Featured
Recent Submissions
Unseen threats in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems : nanoparticle persistence, transport and toxicity in natural environments
(Elsevier, 2025-08-15) Nthunya, Lebea N.; Mosai, Alseno Kagiso; Lopez-Maldonado, Eduardo Alberto; Bopape, Mokgadi; Dhibar, Subhendu; Nuapia, Yannick; Ajiboye, Timothy O.; Buledi, Jamil A.; Solangi, Amber R.; Sherazi, Syed Tufail H.; Ndungu, Patrick N.; Mahlangu, Oranso T.; Mamba, Bhekie Brilliance; alseno.mosai@up.ac.za
Although nanoparticles (NPs) are increasingly used in various industries, their uncontrolled environmental release presents a potential risk to water bodies, vegetation and human health. Although previous review studies evaluated the toxicity and bioaccumulation of NPs, their long-term ecological impacts and transport dynamics in aquatic and terrestrial systems remain unexplored. The current review examined the mechanistic bioaccumulation, transport and environmental persistence of NPs, highlighting the need for concurrent risk assessment, regulation and management strategies. The multifaceted nature of nanotechnology necessitates a balanced approach considering both the benefits of NPs and their potential environmental and health risks, requiring comprehensive risk assessment and management strategies. The complexities of NPs risk assessment, emphasizing the unique properties of NPs influencing their toxicity and environmental behavior are critically addressed. Strategies to mitigate NPs’ environmental impact include advanced monitoring techniques, regulatory frameworks tailored to NPs’ unique properties, promotion of green nanotechnology practices, and NP remediation technologies. Given the complexity and uncertainty surrounding NPs, integration of regulatory, technological, and research-based strategies is imperative. This involves detailed NPs characterization techniques providing basic data for environmental fate prediction models and understanding of biologically relevant risk assessment models to safeguard our environment and public health. In this study, the recent advances in NPs persistence, environmental transport modelling and toxicity mechanisms are uniquely integrated, providing a framework to ecological risk assessment and regulatory approaches.
Vitamins are retained in fortified whole-grain maize meal when stored under tropical conditions when optimal storage practices are used
(Wiley, 2025-09) Taylor, J.R.N. (John Reginald Nuttall); Graaff, Tilana; David, Johnes; Kamau, David; Joshi, Darshana; Byinshi, Benjamin; Erasmus, Corinda; Milani, Peiman; De Kock, Henrietta Letitia; john.taylor@up.ac.za
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES : To ensure provision of essential micronutrients to at‐risk maize‐consuming populations, their stability in stored fortified whole‐grain maize meal (FWGMM) is essential. Vitamin stability in commercial FWGMM was studied over 6 months under two real‐world tropical conditions (overall average 25.3°C, 53.5% relative humidity (RH) and 19.4°C, 66.5% RH) in grain stores. The maize was pre‐dried before milling and optimal storage practices were employed.
FINDINGS : No loss in Vitamin A (retinol palmitate), B1 and B2 (total and endogenous) occurred, contrary to other fortified maize meal storage studies without pre‐drying and/or using suboptimal storage practices. Alternative treatments to maize pre-drying were investigated in an accelerated storage study at 40°C, 65% RH using similar storage practices. There was no loss in Vitamins B1 and B2 (total and endogenous) with any treatment including the not pre‐dried maize control.
CONCLUSIONS : The vitamin stability in FWGMM during storage is attributable primarily to the use of a polyethylene inner liner in the sacks which largely prevented moisture ingress and to storage in semidarkness which prevented vitamin photodegradation. Maize pre‐drying provides additional assurance against moisture‐induced degradation.
SIGNIFICANCE AND NOVELTY : These simple practices can help provide the full benefit of micronutrient‐fortified WGMM to consumers.
Understanding amapiano and the South African city through the music videos of Big Flexa and Bhebha
(Routledge, 2024) Oloruntoba, Albert Olatunde; albert.oloruntoba@up.ac.za
This article explores the impact of the new South African music and dance sub-genre, amapiano, on contemporary South African youth culture, and how this contributes to the ways in which youth practice (re)define the understandings of youth and urbanities in parts of South Africa over the past decade. I analyse two selected amapiano music videos, Big Flexa (2021) by Costa Titch and Bhebha (2023) by Myztro, Mellow & Sleazy, QuayR Musiq, Matuteboy, ShaunMusiQ & Ftears and Xduppy posted on YouTube, exploring their representations of urbanities, South African youth and amapiano culture, and what I conceptualise as cyber-hinterlands in this article. By analysing these themes, the article addresses a range of key cultural and socio-political concerns that represent predominant interests of amapiano makers, consumers, fans and remixers. Recent scholarship on African urbanities has highlighted the porousness of neat rural-urban divides and brought the study of the rural “hinterland” more closely into considerations of African citiness. This article argues for recognising the digital media landscape, largely non-existent during the eras of earlier genres like jazz, kwaito and others, as a cyber-hinterland, akin to the supposed rural “other,” where amapiano youth culture flourishes and profoundly shapes youths’ understanding and experience of urban spaces in South Africa.
Harare muJoni : musicking, placemaking and everyday citizenship of Zimbabwean immigrants in Johannesburg, South Africa
(Routledge, 2024) Mutero, Innocent Tinashe
The mass and social media coverage of Zimbabwean immigrants in South Africa highlights the urgent need to address the xenophobic crisis. There appears to be a deliberate muting of ordinary Zimbabwean immigrants’ voices in the narrativisation of Johannesburg. This paper foregrounds Zimbabwean migration experiences not solely defined by abjection. Drawing on in-depth interviews and participant observation at music shows and social gatherings, it examines how Zimbabweans employ music-mediated practices to claim belonging and inclusion in the city. Findings reveal that immigrants use music to mediate sociality, build communities, and resist cultural erasure. Their musicking and placemaking practices, often enacted publicly, assert identity amid xenophobic threats while challenging dominant narratives of invisibility and crisis. These practices generate bonding and bridging social capital, strengthening resilience, visibility, and urban participation. The paper concludes that Zimbabwean immigrants’ experiences reveal richer dimensions of sociality and community-making than currently acknowledged in media discourse or academic literature.
Circular mobilities and health care seeking practices for perceived malaria illness among Nairobi residents in Kenya
(Routledge, 2024) Nyabundi, Agnetta Adiedo; agnetta.nyabundi@up.ac.za
The flow of individuals between rural and urban spaces and vice versa has impacted the health of individuals. Nairobi, for instance, is a malaria low-risk area, yet studies report high malaria incidence rates in the city. Could this phenomenon be as a result of circular migration? Studies show that Nairobi’s health facility utilisation rates are relatively high. Yet, observations indicate a high malaria incidence rate and that individuals seek other appropriate treatments, prompting this paper to show how experiences of perceived malaria shape individuals’ healthcare-seeking practices in malaria low-risk areas of Nairobi. This article employs the concept of medical diversity that Krause, Alex & Parkin put forth. Medical diversity implies the mutual borrowing of ideas, practices and styles among the different therapeutic practices adopted by patients in search of a cure. Through narratives and secondary data from blogs, experiences and healthcare-seeking behaviour for perceived malaria in Nairobi were captured. This study found that perceived malaria experiences were based on the wealth of knowledge individuals had received orally through time. The medical knowledge received produced and established diversity in health care seeking. Individuals thus sought appropriate care, not alternative forms of care.