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Nosiphiwe Ngqwala
Environmental Health and Biotechnology Research Group, Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Rhodes University, Makhanda 6139, South Africa

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Journal article
Published: 14 May 2021 in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
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Reliable prediction of water quality changes is a prerequisite for early water pollution control and is vital in environmental monitoring, ecosystem sustainability, and human health. This study uses Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique to develop the best model fits to predict water quality parameters by employing multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network and the radial basis function (RBF) neural network, using data collected from three district municipalities. Two input combination models, MLP-4-5-4 and MLP-4-9-4, were trained, verified, and tested for their predictive performance ability, and their physicochemical prediction accuracy was compared by using each model’s observed data with the predicted data. The MLP-4-5-4 model showed a better understanding of the data sets and water quality predictive ability giving an MSE of 39.06589 and a correlation coefficient (R2) of the observed and the predicted water quality of 0.989383 compared to the MLP-4-9-4 model (R2 = 0.993532, MSE = 39.03087). These results apply to natural water resources management in South Africa and similar catchment systems. The MLP-4-5-4 system can be scaled up for future water quality prediction of the Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTPs), groundwater, and surface water while raising awareness among the public and industry on future water quality.

ACS Style

Koketso Setshedi; Nhamo Mutingwende; Nosiphiwe Ngqwala. The Use of Artificial Neural Networks to Predict the Physicochemical Characteristics of Water Quality in Three District Municipalities, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2021, 18, 5248 .

AMA Style

Koketso Setshedi, Nhamo Mutingwende, Nosiphiwe Ngqwala. The Use of Artificial Neural Networks to Predict the Physicochemical Characteristics of Water Quality in Three District Municipalities, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021; 18 (10):5248.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Koketso Setshedi; Nhamo Mutingwende; Nosiphiwe Ngqwala. 2021. "The Use of Artificial Neural Networks to Predict the Physicochemical Characteristics of Water Quality in Three District Municipalities, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 10: 5248.

Review
Published: 29 July 2020 in South African Journal of Science
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The carbon footprint of pharmaceuticals through manufacturing, distribution, the incineration of unwanted pharmaceuticals as well as the packaging of pharmaceutical waste is an emerging and enormous challenge. Pharmaceuticals are major contributors to water pollution in aquatic environments that include surface water and groundwater. These pollutants arise not only from waste products but also from pharmaceutical products that have not been properly disposed of. The continuous exposure to unspecified sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics presents risks to humans and other animals. Due to their extensive use and incomplete elimination, antibiotics have been detected in various environmental waters. The persistence of antibiotics in the environment and chronic exposure of organisms to these chemical stressors has also proven to have ecotoxicological effects. The prevailing emergence of antimicrobial resistance amongst bacteria is an area of primary concern, especially with regard to the release of antibiotics into the environment. Resistance is the acquired ability of bacterial populations to render an antibiotic ineffective as a result of a change in bacterial DNA which occurs when bacteria are subjected to an antibiotic concentration that will not kill them. A sub-lethal concentration possibly exerts a selective pressure that can result in the development of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria. It is clear that there is a need for extensive research to improve regulations and guidance on pharmaceutical waste management, pharmaceutical take-back programmes and consumer awareness.

ACS Style

Nosiphiwe P. Ngqwala; Petros Muchesa. Occurrence of pharmaceuticals in aquatic environments: A review and potential impacts in South Africa. South African Journal of Science 2020, 116, 1 .

AMA Style

Nosiphiwe P. Ngqwala, Petros Muchesa. Occurrence of pharmaceuticals in aquatic environments: A review and potential impacts in South Africa. South African Journal of Science. 2020; 116 (7/8):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nosiphiwe P. Ngqwala; Petros Muchesa. 2020. "Occurrence of pharmaceuticals in aquatic environments: A review and potential impacts in South Africa." South African Journal of Science 116, no. 7/8: 1.

Journal article
Published: 07 June 2020 in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
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Pharmaceuticals are emerging contaminants in the aquatic environments. Their presence poses toxicological effects in humans and animals even at trace concentrations. This study investigated the presence of antibiotics, anti-epilepsy and anti-inflammatory drugs in river water of selected rivers in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used for screening of sulfamethoxazole and fluoroquinolones antibiotics. The samples were collected in upper-stream, middle-stream and lower-stream regions of the rivers and effluent of selected wastewater treatment plants. Pre-concentration of the samples was conducted using lyophilisation and extraction was conducted using solid phase extraction (SPE) on Waters Oasis hydrophilic-lipophilic-balanced cartridge. The percentage recovery after sample clean-up on SPE was 103% ± 6.9%. This was followed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. The detected analytes were sulfamethoxazole, erythromycin, clarithromycin and carbamazepine. Carbamazepine and erythromycin were detected in high concentrations ranging from 81.8 to 36,576.2 ng/L and 11.2 to 11,800 ng/L respectively, while clarithromycin and sulfamethoxazole were detected at moderate concentrations ranging from 4.8 to 3280.4 ng/L and 6.6 to 6968 ng/L, respectively. High concentrations of pharmaceuticals were detected on the lower-stream sites as compared to upper-stream sites.

ACS Style

Sesethu Vumazonke; Sandile Maswazi Khamanga; Nosiphiwe Ngqwala. Detection of Pharmaceutical Residues in Surface Waters of the Eastern Cape Province. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2020, 17, 4067 .

AMA Style

Sesethu Vumazonke, Sandile Maswazi Khamanga, Nosiphiwe Ngqwala. Detection of Pharmaceutical Residues in Surface Waters of the Eastern Cape Province. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17 (11):4067.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sesethu Vumazonke; Sandile Maswazi Khamanga; Nosiphiwe Ngqwala. 2020. "Detection of Pharmaceutical Residues in Surface Waters of the Eastern Cape Province." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 11: 4067.

Research article
Published: 09 March 2020 in Environmental Science and Pollution Research
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Endocrine-disrupting compounds are attracting attention worldwide because of their effects on living things in the environment. Ten endocrine disrupting compounds: 4-nonylphenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol, estrone, 17β-estradiol, bisphenol A, 4-tert-octylphenol, triclosan, atrazine, imidazole and 1,2,4-triazole were investigated in four rivers and wastewater treatment plants in this study. Rivers were sampled at upstream, midstream and downstream reaches, while the influent and effluent samples of wastewater were collected from treatment plants near the receiving rivers. Sample waters were freeze-dried followed by extraction of the organic content and purification by solid-phase extraction. Concentrations of the compounds in the samples were determined with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The instrument was operated in the positive electrospray ionization (ESI) mode. The results showed that these compounds are present in the samples with nonylphenol > dichlorophenol > bisphenol A > triclosan > octylphenol > imidazole > atrazine > triazole > estrone > estradiol. Nonylphenol has its highest concentration of 6.72 μg/L in King Williams Town wastewater influent and 2.55 μg/L in midstream Bloukrans River. Dichlorophenol has its highest concentration in Alice wastewater influent with 2.20 μg/L, while it was 0.737 μg/L in midstream Bloukrans River. Uitenhage wastewater effluent has bisphenol A concentration of 1.684 μg/L while it was 0.477 μg/L in the downstream samples of the Bloukrans River. Generally, the upstream samples of the rivers had lesser concentrations of the compounds. The wastewater treatment plants were not able to achieve total removal of the compounds in the wastewater while runoffs and wastes dump from the cities contributed to the concentrations of the compounds in the rivers.

ACS Style

Adebayo I. Farounbi; Nosiphiwe P. Ngqwala. Occurrence of selected endocrine disrupting compounds in the eastern cape province of South Africa. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 2020, 27, 17268 -17279.

AMA Style

Adebayo I. Farounbi, Nosiphiwe P. Ngqwala. Occurrence of selected endocrine disrupting compounds in the eastern cape province of South Africa. Environmental Science and Pollution Research. 2020; 27 (14):17268-17279.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Adebayo I. Farounbi; Nosiphiwe P. Ngqwala. 2020. "Occurrence of selected endocrine disrupting compounds in the eastern cape province of South Africa." Environmental Science and Pollution Research 27, no. 14: 17268-17279.

Journal article
Published: 07 February 2020 in Molecules
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Surface water is the recipient of pollutants from various sources, including improperly treated wastewater. Comprehensive knowledge of the composition of water is necessary to make it reusable in water-scarce environments. In this work, proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) was combined with multivariate analysis to study the metabolites in four rivers and four wastewater treatment plants releasing treated effluents into the rivers. 1H-NMR chemical shifts of the extracts in CDCl were acquired with Bruker 400. Chemical shifts of 1H-NMR in chlorinated alkanes, amino compounds and fluorinated hydrocarbons were common to samples of wastewater and lower reaches or the rivers. 1H-NMR chemical shifts of carbonyl compounds and alkyl phosphates were restricted to wastewater samples. Chemical shifts of phenolic compounds were associated with treated effluent samples. This study showed that the sources of these metabolites in the rivers were not only from improperly treated effluents but also from runoffs. Multivariate analyses showed that some of the freshwater samples were not of better quality than wastewater and treated effluents. Observations show the need for constant monitoring of rivers and effluent for the safety of the aquatic environment.

ACS Style

Adebayo I. Farounbi; Paul K. Mensah; Emmanuel O. Olawode; Nosiphiwe P. Ngqwala. 1H-NMR Determination of Organic Compounds in Municipal Wastewaters and the Receiving Surface Waters in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Molecules 2020, 25, 713 .

AMA Style

Adebayo I. Farounbi, Paul K. Mensah, Emmanuel O. Olawode, Nosiphiwe P. Ngqwala. 1H-NMR Determination of Organic Compounds in Municipal Wastewaters and the Receiving Surface Waters in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Molecules. 2020; 25 (3):713.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Adebayo I. Farounbi; Paul K. Mensah; Emmanuel O. Olawode; Nosiphiwe P. Ngqwala. 2020. "1H-NMR Determination of Organic Compounds in Municipal Wastewaters and the Receiving Surface Waters in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa." Molecules 25, no. 3: 713.

Journal article
Published: 01 April 2018 in Acta Educationis Generalis
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Introduction: South Africa is a member state of the “BRICS” bloc (BRICS2017.org, 2017) and the G20 group of the 20 nations/economic blocs, which between them account for the majority of the world’s trade and economic activity. It faces many developmental challenges which are mirrored in its higher education sector. In this article, the authors seek to provide an overview of the challenges that South African higher education faces in the achievement of the developmental goals of the country. The focus of this paper is a case study in WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) to improve context-specific responses that trains pharmacists on knowledge and skills. Methods: The study was performed as a combination of calculations and a literature review to obtain the background or current status of the higher education sector and developmental planning in South Africa. For this, data were extracted from the Statistics South Africa reports, relevant professional articles on South African higher education sector and results of postgraduate research. Workshop results which were obtained as a collaboration between a public and a private higher education institution and results of postgraduate research were used as the paradigm for transformation and decolonisation of the curriculum for a professional degree in South Africa. Results and discussion: Challenges exist in the South African tertiary education sector and the graduation rate currently stands at 65.1% of the target set by the National Development Plan. Around 58.1% of all students do not complete their university/post-secondary education, which could provide a partial explanation for the skills shortage in South Africa. Decolonisation and transformation of the tertiary education curriculum are major topics in the discourse on higher education in South Africa. The authors propose that one way to achieve this would be inclusion of research results and group activities in the area of water, sanitation and hygiene as a topic for possible and partial transformation of the Bachelor of Pharmacy curriculum. Conclusions: The current article summarises some of topics and challenges that drive the current discourse, developmental and curriculum debate in higher education in South Africa. Student access and through put at tertiary institutions need to be improved and the curriculum needs to be transformed.

ACS Style

Roman Tandlich; Nosiphiwe P. Ngqwala; Aileen Boshoff; Phindile Madikizela; C. Sunitha Srinivas; Desmond M. Pyle; Rene Oosthuizen. Challenges and Curriculum Transformation in the Higher Education Sector in South Africa: A Case Study in WASH to Improve the Training of Pharmacists. Acta Educationis Generalis 2018, 8, 3 -32.

AMA Style

Roman Tandlich, Nosiphiwe P. Ngqwala, Aileen Boshoff, Phindile Madikizela, C. Sunitha Srinivas, Desmond M. Pyle, Rene Oosthuizen. Challenges and Curriculum Transformation in the Higher Education Sector in South Africa: A Case Study in WASH to Improve the Training of Pharmacists. Acta Educationis Generalis. 2018; 8 (1):3-32.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Roman Tandlich; Nosiphiwe P. Ngqwala; Aileen Boshoff; Phindile Madikizela; C. Sunitha Srinivas; Desmond M. Pyle; Rene Oosthuizen. 2018. "Challenges and Curriculum Transformation in the Higher Education Sector in South Africa: A Case Study in WASH to Improve the Training of Pharmacists." Acta Educationis Generalis 8, no. 1: 3-32.

Journal article
Published: 29 November 2017 in Journal of Disaster Research
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South Africa is a country that is prone to droughts, earthquakes and other disasters. In this environment, non-governmental stakeholders often provide a substantial part of the relief in affected areas. Non-governmental stakeholders have the experience needed to address the various disaster management challenges currently facing South Africa. This is especially true in the context of local disasters. Therefore an attempt is made in this report to investigate the relevant legal framework, which allows for the formalization of the involvement of non-governmental stakeholders in official disaster management activities in South Africa. Parts of the basic disaster management legislation, i.e. the Disaster Management Act no. 57/2002, contain definitions and requirements for the establishment of the relevant multi-stakeholder crisis management platforms, i.e. the “disaster management advisory forums.” This legislation is analysed in relation to the Hyogo Framework for Action and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. Disaster management systems from two cities in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, i.e. Knysna and Cape Town, were identified as models for the potential practical execution of these multi-stakeholder platforms at the local government level. Importance of additional aspects of the legal framework, e.g. the role of traditional leaders, are also outlined.

ACS Style

Nosiphiwe P. Ngqwala; C. Sunitha Srinivas; Roman T; Desmond M. Pyle; Rene Oosthuizen; Lich. Participatory Multi-Stakeholder Platforms in Disaster Management in South Africa. Journal of Disaster Research 2017, 12, 1192 -1202.

AMA Style

Nosiphiwe P. Ngqwala, C. Sunitha Srinivas, Roman T, Desmond M. Pyle, Rene Oosthuizen, Lich. Participatory Multi-Stakeholder Platforms in Disaster Management in South Africa. Journal of Disaster Research. 2017; 12 (6):1192-1202.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nosiphiwe P. Ngqwala; C. Sunitha Srinivas; Roman T; Desmond M. Pyle; Rene Oosthuizen; Lich. 2017. "Participatory Multi-Stakeholder Platforms in Disaster Management in South Africa." Journal of Disaster Research 12, no. 6: 1192-1202.