The CSIR’s Dr Marten Gründlingh, who manages the data centre, says: “Marine information is key to a better understanding of issues such as climate change, weather and the impact of humans on the sea – including marine effluent, oil spills, shipping, mineral exploration and fishing. With increasing pressures on our marine environment, oceanographic data are essential to governments and other decision-makers.”

SADCO stores, retrieves and manipulates multidisciplinary marine information from the areas around southern Africa. Data are mostly collected from research vessels, vessels-of-opportunity, moored instruments or floating buoys. Much of this information is entered into global numerical models, such as those used for weather forecasting, to allow some prediction of climate events and trends, and even tracking of oil spills.

“Oceanographic data are costly,” says Gründlingh. “Considering the cost of a research vessel and the number of vertical profiles that can be collected per day, profiles cost about R10 000 each – SADCO has more than 250 000 such profiles and other data available. The centre is fully computerised, with some data sets going back to 1670!”

SADCO, which celebrates 20 years of existence this year, forms part of a global network of ocean data centres. These are all part of the UN’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, which was established 50 years ago.

“Southern Africa has a long coastline, with thousands of kilometres to the nearest continents in an easterly, southerly and westerly direction. It is exposed to the weather generated over the vast Southern Ocean, where the highest waves in the world have been observed. When these ocean conditions reach the coast of South Africa, they impact on our beaches and affect ports and shipping. The Agulhas Current, flowing southwards along the east coast, is the domain of so-called giant waves, created through interaction between storm waves and the Current. Many vessels have been severely damaged and lost because of this phenomenon,” notes Gründlingh.

“We believe the realisation of the importance and vulnerability of the sea starts at a young age. By making data and information about the oceans available to the public, and especially to schools, it could engender the sense of scientific investigation,” says Gründlingh.

SADCO is funded by a consortium comprising the CSIR, the Department of Environmental Affairs, the SA Navy, the South African Environmental Observation Network of the National Research Foundation and the Namibian Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources.

Gründlingh believes data management requires a long-term commitment – “Only in this way can we ensure that valuable data will remain viable for generations to come. By using this information responsibly, we can harmonise our existence with the sustainable involvement of the oceans.”

SADCO can be accessed at http://sadco.csir.co.za

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The new LECO Pegasus 4 GCxGC-TOFMS (comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatograph combined with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer) has been commissioned at UP’s Separation Science Laboratory in the Department of Chemistry to gain better insight into the influence of trace components in synthetic diesel, and the application of such fuels in engines, turbines, and other devices.

The acquisition of this expensive equipment was made possible by financial support from Sasol Technology through joint research interest in the chemistry that underpins the physical properties of diesel fuels. The ability to obtain such chemical insight has only become feasible through the extreme analytical power of the GCxGC-TOFMS instrument, allowing for the identification and classification of literally thousands of compounds.

The initiative forms part of Sasol’s University collaboration initiative, a long term programme that supports the core objectives of world-class teaching and research capacity in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at selected South African Universities. This programme was initiated a few years ago and is already successfully established, using the framework of a hub-and-spoke collaboration philosophy, at several SA Universities.

Although primarily designed to protect Sasol’s competitive advantage of doing R&D in SA, this programme will have significant spin-offs benefiting South Africa in general. An important area related to Sasol’s fuels and lubricants research, is the rheological (study of the flow of substances under various conditions) and physical behavior of its synthetic fuels. The LECO Pegasus 4 GCxGC-TOFMS will enable scientists to make much more detailed analyses of how the more than 100 compounds that make up synthetic diesel fuel contribute to the likes of performance, viscosity, and lubricity of these fuels. This area of research is known as tribology.

With the rapid changes in engine technologies globally, it is important to fully characterize the composition of these fuels in order to exploit their unique benefits. Such academic expertise in South Africa exists at the University of Pretoria’s Department of Chemical Engineering under the leadership of Professor Philip de Vaal.

In-depth chemical characterization of fuels and lubricants is absolutely essential in understanding their rheological behavior. Analytical chemistry support (separation science), under the leadership of Professor Egmont Rohwer, is therefore another vital pillar in the sustainability of this programme. The support of this research area at UP hence involves both the disciplines of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry.

The ability to identify specific chemical compounds in extremely complicated mixtures will also help the University of Pretoria in other non-petrochemical research fields, including air and water pollution, forensic toxicology, and aroma analysis. In all these areas the LECO GCxGC-TOFMS will be used in combination with other unique analytical instrumentation and techniques developed at the UP Separation Science laboratories.

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The Network for the Coordination and Advancement of Sub-Saharan Africa-EU Science and Technology Cooperation (CAAST-Net) will take place at the Hilton Hotel in Durban on 17 May.

CAAST-Net is a five-year initiative, financed by the European Union, with the purpose of improving the quantity and quality of science and technology (S&T) cooperation between the two regions in areas of mutual interest and for mutual benefit.

Speakers will include delegates from the DST, the African Union Commission, the European Commission, the NEPAD Office for Science and Technology, the SADC Secretariat and UNESCO, among others.

Topics to be discussed range from the status of current bi-regional S&T cooperation, to the EU’s new S&T cooperation projects with Africa, worth €63 million, in the areas of health, the environment and food security research.

The meeting’s programme can be downloaded from the CAAST-Net website (http://www.caast-net.org, “Annual Assembly III”).

About CAAST-Net

CAAST-Net was formed against the background of a global consensus that capacity in science and technology is an essential pre-requisite to economic competitiveness, sustainable development and poverty reduction.

In support of its goal, the network has a range of activity clusters aimed at supporting and informing existing Europe-Africa S&T policy dialogue and cooperation processes.

Activities include the identification and prioritisation of research areas and topics of mutual interest and benefit, thereby harnessing cooperation to address specific problems faced locally and regionally within Africa, as well as common problems of a global nature.

Subject areas of current interest for cooperation between Europe and Africa include energy research, information and communication technologies, the social sciences and humanities, health and transport, among others.

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Reliable and efficient disinfection of cleanrooms

Cleanroom disinfection is a routine procedure in industries dependent on microbiologically clean areas for production and R&D. This would include companies in the pharmaceutical, biotech, cosmetic, and other microbiology industries.

Surface disinfection is an integral part of this process, with a diverse range of techniques being used. Standard techniques used include:

• Wiping disinfection
• Fogging
• Thermal processes
• Gassing and UV light.

The techniques favoured by different

companies can be internally elected, based on effort and efficiency, or externally imposed, by regulatory bodies.

Regulatory standards for microbiological cleanliness set requirements for regular, certified bio-decontamination of specific areas. A company may have one or several areas that require regular disinfection in order to provide a microbiologically clean environment.

The use of a dry fog system based on hydrogen peroxide and peracetic acid offers a reliable, highly effective (6 logreduction) and environmental friendly solution.

What is Dry Fog?

As its name indicates, Dry Fog is a biocide aerosol which is released into the air’ Small super-lightweight dry fog particlesdistribute evenly across a large area.

Dry fog is defined as an aerosol particle which is less then 10µm big. It is also referred to as ‘Ultra Fine Atomization’.

The dry fog system generates aerosols of the size of 7.5µm. Due to the light-weight drifting nature of the particle, top, side and bottom surfaces will be covered.

What is the advantage?

Comprehensive bio-decontamination: Dry fog disperses better then wet fog. This leads to considerably more surface contact and even difficult to reach surfaces will be decontaminated.

Portability: The Dry Fog is easy to assemble

Safety: As a ‘dry’ material, there is less chance of reaction to electronic components that with traditional wet-fog products. There is no need to cover or to remove electronic components.

Durability: The aerosol particles do not collapse and bind when coming into contact with other particles or the target surface. As a result there is little or no condensation, resulting in a larger surface area being evenly covered.

The Minncare Dry Fog system

The Minncare dry fog system consists of a dry fog machine and a biocide. The biocide is a stable mixture of hydrogen peroxide and peracetic acid, to which water is added. The dry fog machine relies on 5 bar (or higher) compressed and clean air or a nitrogen connection.

After fogging a cleanroom, the residuals that can remain are oxygen and acetic acid.

Procedure

With all four nozzles operating it is possible to disinfect up to 1000 m³ from one point. Several inter-connecting rooms can even be decontaminated from just one position. The biocide will be diluted with either de-ionised water or water for injection. The dilution factor depends on the relative humidity and room temperature.

The HVAC needs to be off during the fogging phase otherwise the fog can’t disperse evenly.

The optimal relative humidity should be prior to fogging less then 60% and during the fogging phase it shouldn’t exceed 80 –85%. Best sporicidal activity is between 70% – 80%. The dry fog systems allows to disinfectant rooms from 20m³ to 1,000m³.

The mini Dry Fog is for smaller environments useful like laminar flows, biohazard cabinets from 1m³ to 20m³.

In the example was a 6log reduction in spore B. Stearothermophylus ATCC 7953 achieved.

What about residuals?
In a worst case scenario the maximum of acetic acid would be <0,00002ml per m².

Whilst some pharmaceutical companies still use formaldehyde which is very toxic and highly corrosive compared to Minncare, which is biodegradable.

Budget and Environmentally friendly

Compared to normal surface disinfection, DryFog has a huge cost saving potential. For 1 m³ of room only 1,5 ml of concentrate

is required. If one combines it with reduced downtime and high efficiency it offers a reliable solution.

That’s why it is good to hear that the Department of Science & Technology is committing R2m in funding to the National Zoological Gardens over the next three years:

The National Zoological Gardens’ (NZG) Centre for Conservation Science will be the main beneficiary of the R2million that the DST has committed to the NZG over the next three years. The funds, that are essential to the NZG’s activities, will be channelled to the NZG via the National
Research Foundation (NRF).

The newly-built two-storey Centre for Conservation Science building has laboratory space, offices, a library and a computer training room and is designed to allow public access.

The Centre also has a functional unit with wards, isolation area, a
clinic, operating theatre, pharmacy, radiology equipment and a necropsy room.

“The general public visiting the NZG will be encouraged to walk through the Centre and view the researchers work. This will enable the NZG to contribute to the mandate of creating an awareness of science and promoting careers in science,” said Minister Naledi Pandor when she visited the NZG in Pretoria on 7 April 2010.

She added that the Zoo participates in science awareness and education activities focused on supporting the Life Sciences and Environmental Education curriculum.

Every year about 200 000 learners visit the Zoo, 700 educators attend Life Science Education workshops, and 150 youth are supported through the ZooClub. The Zoo’s outreach vehicles reach over 5 000 learners during visits to schools.

A dozen learnerships in nature guiding are completed and lately a dozen DST interns have been allocated to work at the zoo. On an annual basis the NZG supports undergraduate students to undertake projects for their
degrees and to assist the zoo:

In 2004 the NZG was transferred to the DST and declared a National Research Facility under the NRF. The Minister encouraged the Zoo’s staff to cherish the opportunity to work at a national research facility which is rated as one of the world’s top 10.

NZG Director Dr Clifford Nxomani said that the support of the DST and NRF would help the NZG grow to its full potential as a national research facility.

To increase sales productivity, Oracle CRM On Demand Release 17 introduces usability enhancements and a newly redesigned user interface that enables sales teams to resize it to their preference, quickly navigate to relevant information with the new Head-Up Display, better manage lists, and customise field labels in Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant.

Oracle CRM On Demand Release 17 maximises pipeline management with automated time-based workflows to manage sales, marketing, service and channels, while enabling accelerated time-to-value and accurate and timely updates.

Oracle CRM On Demand helps reduce administration time through automated migration and data loader tools, including Oracle Migration Tool On Demand to migrate customisations from one environment to another and the Oracle Data Loader On Demand to create, update and delete massive data volumes.

Extended Partner Relationship Management functionality in Oracle CRM On Demand Release 17 facilitates further partner success with new support of partner-delegated administration and analytics for deal registration, funding, pipeline and more.

Oracle CRM On Demand Release 17 provides additional language support for Brazilian Portuguese and Norwegian, in addition to the 18 currently supported languages and multi-currency capabilities that improve user efficiency and information quality with the ability to work in a native language.

Oracle CRM On Demand Life Sciences Edition delivers unique capabilities for rapid sales presentations plus simplified sample management and reporting. As a result, pharmaceutical companies can make every interaction count, reduce costs, increase distribution, and deploy everywhere. The Oracle CRM On Demand Life Sciences Edition offline client is both sales representative and customer facing.

“When debating a new CRM system or an upgrade, the core question asked in many organisations today simply comes down to this: ‘When will we see the payback?’” said Robert P. Mahowald, Vice President, IDC. “While the business value of CRM is undeniable, when it’s deployed as a software-as-a-service offering customers see quick value for their investment, and built-in predictability. A hosted CRM service that provides proven sales team productivity, analytics and out-of-the-box, industry-ready applications, will have most users supplying the answer to their own question: ‘right now.’”

Oracle continues to innovate and provide customers with the best value and the most powerful and complete, best-of-breed CRM on demand service,” said Oracle President Charles Phillips. “The new Oracle CRM On Demand Release 17 will help customers gain more actionable insight, increase sales productivity and achieve cost-savings, and showcases how Oracle solves organisations’ essential requirements to advance business opportunities and results.”

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The workshop’s objectives are:
· To establish and sustain fully functioning networks/associations/forums of African women in S&T at national, regional and continental level;

· To raise awareness so that more women appreciate the value and benefit of S&T, and apply it to their daily lives;

· To advocate and lobby for more women in decision and policy-making bodies and positions with regard to S&T; and

· To recommend a work plan for short and long-term regional programmes for women in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), in line with existing STI projects (as stipulated in the SADC Protocol for Science, Technology and Innovation).

The hosting of the workshop follows decisions taken at the African Union and SADC meetings during which the African heads of state acknowledged the significance of the role that science and technology plays in Africa’s development.

Who can participate:
Officials from the ministries of science and technology in the SADC Region who coordinate women in science programmes, non-governmental and international organisations, academia and industry involved in women in science and technology programmes and projects. Regional experts and organisations involved in the area of women in science are encouraged to participate in the workshop.

How to participate
The SADC Science, Technology and Innovation Desk (in Gaborone Botswana) will send formal invitations for member states to designate officials to attend the workshop. The Department of Science and Technology will send invitations to South African stakeholders.

Venue
Southern Sun Elangeni Hotel,
63 Snell Parade,
Durban

For more information contact:
Ms Phumelele Magubane +27 12 843 6385 phumelele.magubane@dst.gov.za or

Ms Sikhonzile Nxumalo at
+27 12 843 6392
sikhonzile.nxumalo@dst.gov.za

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