STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY

A co-culture bioreactor is provided and comprises at least two chambers, each configured to house a distinct cell type in a shared culture medium and each having an inlet and an outlet for the shared culture medium. A selectively permeable membrane is associated with each of the at least two chambers and in fluid communication with the outlet of one chamber and an inlet of one or more other chambers. Each of the selectively permeable membranes is individually configured to prevent permeation of cells from the chamber it is associated with into the one or more other chambers whilst allowing culture medium and selected biomolecules to permeate therethrough. A pump is associated with each of the at least two chambers and is configured to circulate culture medium through the selectively permeable membrane and between the at least two chambers.

A polymer system for forming a hydrogel and a male contraceptive method of reversibly occluding a vas deferens with the hydrogel are provided. The polymer system comprises a water-soluble and at least partially thiolated poly(styrene-co-maleic acid) polymer and a water-soluble cross-linking agent with suitable reactive functional groups at its ends which are configured to crosslink to the thiol groups of the thiolated poly(styrene-co-maleic acid) polymer, when aqueous solutions of the at least partially thiolated poly(styrene-co-maleic acid) polymer and cross-linking agent are combined to form the hydrogel in use. The hydrogel includes dynamic covalent bonds which can be broken with an appropriate solution to dissolve the hydrogel in situ.

A system and apparatus implementing linear error correction using linear error correcting codes and associated linear error correcting codes are provided. The apparatus includes a receiver for receiving a sequence of symbols via a channel, the sequence of symbols having been encoded at a source using a linear error correcting code. The apparatus includes a decoder for decoding the received sequence of symbols and outputting a decoded sequence of symbols. The decoder is configured based on a multivariate message-based graph representation of the linear error correcting code.

Terpolymers comprising optionally at least partially substituted styrene repeat units, N-alkylmaleimide repeat units and repeat units selected from the group consisting of maleic anhydride repeat units, maleic acid repeat units or maleic anhydride derivative repeat units and having a narrow molecular weight distribution are provided. The terpolymers may be used to solubilize lipid bilayers to form lipid nanodiscs and isolate membrane proteins.

A method of detecting inflammation in a subject is provided. The method comprises determining a quantity of amyloid present in fibrin(ogen) protein in a blood sample obtained from the subject, and assigning a level of inflammation in the subject based on the quantity of fibrin(ogen) amyloid determined. A method of determining an effect of a therapeutic treatment on a subject by comparing a pre-treatment level of inflammation with a post-treatment level is further provided.

The present invention is directed to a yeast strain, or strains, secreting a full suite, or any subset of that full suite, of enzymes to hydrolyze corn starch, corn fiber, lignocellulose, (including enzymes that hydrolyze linkages in cellulose, hemicellulose, and between lignin and carbohydrates) and to utilize pentose sugars (xylose and arabinose). The invention is also directed to the set of proteins that are well expressed in yeast for each category of enzymatic activity. The resulting strain, or strains can be used to hydrolyze starch and cellulose simultaneously. The resulting strain, or strains can be also metabolically engineered to produce less glycerol and uptake acetate. The resulting strain, or strains can also be used to produce ethanol from granular starch without liquefaction. The resulting strain, or strains, can be further used to reduce the amount of external enzyme needed to hydrolyze a biomass feedstock during an Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SSF) process, or to increase the yield of ethanol during SSF at current saccharolytic enzyme loadings. In addition, multiple enzymes of the present invention can be co-expressed in cells of the invention to provide synergistic digestive action on biomass feedstock. In some aspects, host cells expressing different heterologous saccharolytic enzymes can also be co-cultured together and used to produce ethanol from biomass feedstock.

A method for measuring autophagosome flux is provided. The autophagosome pool size in a single cell is quantified, where the pool size is the total number of autophagosomes in the cell. Fusion between the autophagosomes and lysosomes in the cell is then inhibited. The autophagosome pool size is quantified over one or more time points after fusion has been inhibited, and the autophagosome flux is calculated as the initial rate of change of the autophagosome pool size at the time point after fusion has been inhibited. The method can be used to determine basal autophagosome flux, whether a cell is diseased or dysfunctional, or to diagnose a subject with a disease, disorder or dysfunction. The transition time, the time required to clear an autophagosome pool, can also be derived from the autophagosome flux. A molecule can also be characterized according to its ability to modulate autophagosome flux in a cell.

A system and computer-implemented method for machine learning modelling of user interface interaction are provided. The method includes training a collection of machine learning algorithms using training data to discriminate between users with and without a neurological condition by identifying patterns in a feature set which are indicative of the presence or absence of the condition and labelling the feature set accordingly. The collection of machine learning algorithms includes a locally deep support vector machine-based algorithm and a consensus algorithm. The training includes: receiving, from a mobile communication device, a payload including recorded data points; compiling at least a subset of the recorded data points into a feature set; and learning from the compiled feature set by reference to a provided pre-labelled feature set labelled with a condition of a user who caused generation of data points from which the pre-labelled feature set is compiled.

Disclosed herein is a dissection station for a cadaver. The station includes a tray having an arrangement of ventilation openings which allow a passage of fluid from the tray and an elongate form configured to support the cadaver. The station further includes an elongate bath disposed below the tray and configured to support the tray; a drainage system including a drainage outflow from the bath; and a gas extraction system including an exhaust duct from the bath. Further disclosed herein is an installation of a dissection station which is configured to force gas from a ceiling gas insertion mechanism toward the tray and through the ventilation arrangement to the bath and from the bath through an exhaust duct extension.

The invention provides a method for depolymerising a phenolic polymer, the method comprising reacting the phenolic polymer with dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO) and a hydrogen halide. The phenolic polymer may be selected from the group consisting of lignin and derivatives thereof. The hydrogen halide may be HBr. The quantity of hydrogen halide per gram of phenolic polymer may be from 30 mmoles to 70 mmoles. The quantity of DMSO per gram of phenolic polymer may be from 0.1 mole to 1 mole. The reaction may be performed at a temperature of from 100 to 120° C. The reaction may be carried out for between 10 h and 14 h. The product of the reaction may comprise vanillin.