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Green crowdsourcing mobile applications provide an appropriate supply chain coordination mechanism for deliveries, harnessing benefits for people, profits and the environment. Despite the benefits, the risks and challenges associated with green crowdsourcing undermine the social, economic and sustainability benefits of last mile logistics. We undertook an exploration of the risks of using the green crowdsourcing Dilivari mobile application (App) innovation in South Africa. The study used an exploratory research case study research design. The study included 54 respondents with rich, in-depth knowledge, 49 participants for focus group discussions (FGDs) and five key informant interviews. Our study established security, legal, human and connectivity risks associated with this app. We focused on the risks and challenges in the literature including critical emergent risks in a developing country context, compatibility of technology, load shedding, mobile penetration, and data costs. Furthermore, we highlighted the security risks posed by theft, robberies and terrorism.

Effective interventions and treatments for complex diseases have been implemented globally, however, coverage in Africa has been comparatively lower due to lack of capacity, clinical applicability and knowledge on the genetic contribution to disease and treatment. Currently, there is a scarcity of genetic data on African populations, which have enormous genetic diversity. Pharmacogenomics studies have the potential to revolutionise treatment of diseases, therefore, African populations are likely to benefit from these approaches to identify likely responders, reduce adverse side effects and optimise drug dosing. This review discusses clinical pharmacogenetics studies conducted in African populations, focusing on studies that examined drug response in complex diseases relevant to healthcare. Several pharmacogenetics associations have emerged from African studies, as have gaps in knowledge.

There is now a critical need for development of full-scale practical application of fermentation technologies for energy generation (e.g. hydrogen production) that would be dependent on carbon neutral fuels such as biomass or wastewaters containing organic materials. Thermophilic fermentative biohydrogen production was studied in the anaerobic fluidized bed reactor (AFBR) operated at 65ºC with sucrose as a substrate. Theoretically, the maximum hydrogen yield (HY) is 4 mol H2.mol-1 glucose when glucose is completely metabolized to acetate, H2 and CO2. But somehow, under most bioreactor design and operation conditions the maximum possible hydrogen yield (HY) has generally been observed not to exceed or reach 70-100% of the maximum theoretical hydrogen yield. In this study the application of external work in the form of high temperatures, high dilution rates and high rates of de-gassed effluent recycling were investigated as a means to overcome the thermodynamic constrains preventing the simultaneous achievement of high hydrogen yield (HY) and hydrogen productivity (HP) in an AFBR reactor. Bacterial granulation was successfully induced under a thermophilic temperature of 65 ºC within a period ranging from 7 to 14 days. The bacterial granules consisted of a multispecies bacterial consortium comprised of thermophilic clostridial and enterobacter species. At a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 1.67 h and effluent recycle rate of 3.5 L min-1 , hydrogen production rate (HPR) of 32.7 L H2/h and hydrogen yield (HY) of 3.91 mol H2/ mol glucose were achieved. The design and operation of our bench scale AFBR system has also resulted in HYs greater than 4 mol H2/mol glucose. The maximum substrate conversion efficiency was 95%. However, it was noted that at very low HRTs (< 1h) the bioreactor substrate conversion efficiency dropped to 55%. This work demonstrated that the application of external work to a bioreactor in the form of high temperatures, high dilution rates and high rates of de-gassed effluent recycling could be used to overcome the thermodynamic constraints preventing the simultaneous achievement of high HYs and high HPs.