Umkhuseli Innovation and Research Management

Operative intervention for deep burn injury confers a survival advantage compared to healing by secondary intention and dressings alone. Mortality benefits from early surgery may not extend to resource-restricted environments. There are major deficiencies in the delivery of advanced burn care in low-resource settings. This study aimed to compare two different operative approaches in the same setting for deep burn injury. We conducted a prospective, observational study at Grey's Hospital in Pietermaritzburg. The first system applied a triage strategy to ensure priority patients received early excision, while the second system provided no excision and performed skin grafting only once spontaneous eschar separation had occurred. The primary outcome was mortality. The Priority System included 191 admissions with 158 operative admissions. The Conservative System included 199 admissions with 174 operative admissions. The groups were similar in age, total body surface area and sex. Mortality was higher in the Priority versus Conservative System (10.8% vs. 4.6%, p=0.039), with significantly higher acute kidney injury and ICU admission rates but lower sepsis rates. The time from injury to first surgery, and injury to discharge were significantly longer in the Conservative System. In a single, low-resource institution, spontaneous eschar separation and delayed skin grafting improved mortality outcomes compared to a triage system providing early excision and subsequent grafting for a group of high-risk patients. Conservative surgical approaches should be considered where resource restrictions prevent early excision and simultaneous closure. Early excision without immediate closure does not provide mortality benefit.

Transport affordability defined as the share of household income devoted to transport expenditure is a key dimension of urban equity and social inclusion, particularly in contexts characterised by spatial inequality and income disparities. This study examines provincial variation in public transport affordability across South Africa using a hierarchical Bayesian regression framework applied to province–year data from 2015 to 2022 (n = 72). Affordability is operationalised as a transport cost burden, with higher values indicating a greater proportion of household income spent on transport, and is modelled as a function of household income, trip frequency, household population, and total provincial employment, with province-level random intercepts capturing unobserved regional heterogeneity. The results indicate that household income is negatively associated with transport cost burden, suggesting that provinces with higher average income devote a smaller share of income to transport and therefore experience better affordability. In contrast, household population and aggregate provincial employment are positively associated with transport cost burden, reflecting higher overall mobility and commuting demands in larger and more economically active provinces rather than improved affordability. Trip frequency shows no statistically meaningful association with affordability once household composition and income capacity are accounted for. After accounting for observed characteristics, between-province variation is limited, indicating that affordability dynamics are broadly similar across provinces over the study period. Methodologically, the hierarchical Bayesian framework enables partial pooling across provinces and supports probabilistic inference through credible intervals, thereby improving the stability of estimates in a small-sample multilevel context. While the analysis is associational rather than causal, the findings provide policy-relevant evidence for monitoring transport affordability, including benchmarking the prevalence of affordability burdens relative to the commonly used 10% threshold.

ABSTRACT Uganda is home to remarkable biodiversity, supports diverse ecosystems ranging from glacier‐topped mountains, tropical rain forests, to semi‐arid systems, has a well‐established and effective protected areas system, and benefits substantially from nature tourism. However, Uganda will face significant challenges if it is to maintain these riches. For example, the country's population is growing rapidly and is expected to surpass 100 million by 2050, more than 80% of households depend directly on natural resources for their livelihoods, and agricultural land has expanded by about 1% per year. Furthermore, Uganda is one of the world's most climate‐vulnerable countries, and flooding and droughts are predicted to become much more common. Such changes will increase demands on natural resources, including those in protected areas. Uganda's government is aware of these challenges and has become a regional leader in environmental policy by taking a proactive approach. However, Uganda is struggling to educate its citizens and build the capacity for effective protection. Here we evaluate Uganda's conservation status and the threats to biodiversity from societal and climate change. We consider the current capacity and institutional infrastructure available to conserve the country's biodiversity, focusing on training and research, policy implementation and capacity in the field. Despite major challenges, clear pathways to a bright future are available.

The Health Professions Council of South Africa recognises forensic radiography as an aspect of the diagnostic radiographer's scope of practice. In contrast, the International Association of Forensic Radiographers asserts that forensic imaging should be voluntary and undertaken only by radiographers who have received formal training in the field. This study aimed to explore diagnostic radiographers' understanding, experiences, and attitudes towards forensic radiography as encountered in their daily practice. A purposive sampling method was employed to recruit radiographers who were knowledgeable about forensic radiography through their daily practice. Participants were required to have performed forensic radiographic imaging on both living and deceased individuals and to have practised in either the public or private clinical sectors. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 consenting diagnostic radiographers via the online platform Microsoft Teams. Thematic analysis was performed using an inductive approach. Four distinct themes emerged; Learning and understanding forensic radiography; Practicing forensic radiography; Emotional and psychological responses; Attitudes and motivation. Findings highlighted the complex and emotionally demanding nature of this domain, which intersects clinical and legal responsibilities. Variability in knowledge and preparedness was evident, influenced by limited undergraduate exposure, informal on-the-job learning, and inconsistent institutional support. While many radiographers valued contributing to justice, others reported apprehension and emotional distress, especially when imaging deceased individuals. These findings underscore the need for structured education, standardised forensic protocols, and psychological support to prepare radiographers for the complexities of forensic imaging. Formalised postgraduate training and maintaining voluntary participation are critical to building professional competence and resilience in this demanding field.

Ontology learning from unstructured text has become a critical task for knowledge-driven applications in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. While significant advances have been made in the automatic extraction of concepts and relations using neural and Transformer-based models, the generation of formal Description Logic axioms required for constructing logically consistent and computationally tractable ontologies remains largely underexplored. This paper puts forward a novel pipeline for automated axiom generation through schema mapping. Our paper introduces three key innovations: a deterministic mapping framework that guarantees logical consistency (unlike stochastic Large Language Models); guaranteed formal consistency verified by OWL reasoners (unaddressed by prior statistical methods); and a transparent, scalable bridge from neural extractions to symbolic logic, eliminating manual post-processing. Technically, the pipeline builds upon the outputs of a Transformer-based fusion model for joint concept and relation extraction. We then map lexical relational phrases to formal ontological properties through a lemmatization-based schema alignment step. Entity typing and hierarchical induction are then employed to infer class structures, as well as domain and range constraints. Using RDFLib and structured data processing, we transform the extracted triples into both assertional (ABox) and terminological (TBox) axioms expressed in Description Logic. Experimental evaluation on benchmark datasets (Conll04 and NYT) demonstrates the efficacy of the approach, with expert validation showing high acceptance rates (>95%) and reasoners confirming zero inconsistencies. The pipeline thus establishes a reliable, scalable foundation for automated ontology learning, advancing the field from extraction to formally verifiable knowledge base construction.

Flowers that present their anthers and stigma in close proximity can achieve precise animal-mediated pollen transfer, but risk self-pollination. One evolutionary solution is reciprocal herkogamy. Reciprocity of anther and style positions among different plants (i.e., a genetic dimorphism) is common in distylous plants, but very rare in enantiostylous plants. We investigated the pollination and reproductive system of the enantiostylous Caribbean plant Cubanicula xanthorrhizos (Haemodoraceae). We assessed stylar orientation of flowers and conducted controlled pollination experiments. We used videography of flower visitors and pollen load analysis to determine the pollination mechanism. We also measured floral morphology, pollen production, spectral reflectance, and volatile emissions. Cubanicula xanthorrhizos exhibits dimorphic enantiostyly with c. 50:50 left- to right-styled morphs. Plants are self-compatible, but pollinator dependent for seed production. Intra- and intermorph crosses are equally fertile. The nectarless flowers are pollinated by female carpenter bees (Xylocopa cubaecola) that collect pollen, often by sonication, from two centrally positioned yellow feeding anthers. An inconspicuous deflected pollinating anther deposits pollen on the side of the bee thorax, which contacts the stigma of the mirror-image morph. A yellow-orange "guide" on the white tepals appears to be a visual attractant. Flowers emit methoxy benzenoid volatiles that may also attract bees. Reciprocity of the style with a single pollinating stamen in C. xanthorrhizos appears to promote intermorph pollen export via "safe sites" on pollen-collecting bees. This novel case of dimorphic enantiostyly contributes to understanding of the evolution of floral polymorphisms.

Sometime in 2016, the South African Journal of Higher Education, on pages 73‒93 published a very incisive and noteworthy article by Jane Castle and Moyra Keane, both of the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. The article was intended “to inspire academic staff developers and research managers to initiate and support strategies to help academics write more and better, and to take pleasure in writing” (p. 1). In implementing this aim the two authors turned a critical eye to writing development strategies extant in the literature for supporting and promoting academic writing. In carefully reading through their analysis and criticisms of the benefits and drawbacks of each of those strategies, it became clear that despite the importance attached to them, the need for proposing more viable strategies still exits since none of the current approaches was deemed a masterful solution to the challenge of promoting academic paper writing. What was missing in that list is the failure to recognize and adopt the published lecture model as a cost effective didactic strategy for promoting the art and science of academic paper writing among emerging academics and research managers in universities in Africa and the wider world. This article is an attempt to contribute to this need.

Nonpharmaceutical interventions, implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, affected the transmission of other respiratory pathogens. Systematically collected respiratory illness surveillance data and consistent case definitions were used to describe changes in influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-associated outpatient visits and hospitalisations in South Africa during the first 3 years of the COVID-19 pandemic relative to a pre-COVID-19 pandemic period (2017-2019). In 2020, influenza circulation almost ceased. In 2021 an out-of-season circulation was observed with a return to prepandemic timing, albeit with a higher peak in 2022. During the pandemic period, influenza-associated influenza-like illness (ILI) was more common in those aged ≥ 5 years compared to < 6 months. Patients with influenza-associated severe respiratory illness (SRI) were less likely to be ≥ 45 years versus < 6 months and less likely to be admitted to ICU (aOR 0.2, 95% CI 0.04-0.8). RSV circulation declined at the start of the pandemic, with an out-of-season spring resurgence in 2020 followed by a return to prepandemic timing in 2021 and a higher peak in 2022. During the pandemic, compared to the prepandemic period, patients with RSV-associated SRI were more likely to be aged 1-4 years (aOR 1.5, 95% CI 1.2-1.8) versus < 6 months and less likely to be admitted to ICU (aOR 0.5, 95% CI 0.3-0.8). We report low levels of influenza circulation and out-of-season RSV circulation in 2020 with changes in the age distribution of cases and risk of ICU admission. Return to prepandemic timing was earlier for RSV, with higher seasonal peaks for influenza-associated ILI and RSV-associated SRI in 2022.