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09 February 2022 | Story Lacea Loader

After careful consideration and in consultation with various stakeholders, the management of the University of the Free State (UFS) today decided that the online registration period will be extended by one week until Friday 18 February 2022.

In line with this decision, classes will commence on Monday 21 February 2022, to give students enough time to register and prepare for their academic activities.

The university’s decision to extend the online registration period derives, among others, from logistical and external factors that contributed to students only being able to register from the week of 7 February 2022.

Channels available for students to contact the university during the registration period:

► Central contact centre: +27 51 401 9111 (if you want to speak to one of our agents)

Central contact centre booklet
► WhatsApp chatbot: +27 87 240 6370 (if students want to conduct an online chat conversation via text messages)

Registration assistance: System-based online registration assistance functionality through the UFS website

Comprehensive registration information is available at:   www.ufs.ac.za/register

Visit https://www.ufs.mobi/register and follow the checklist #StepbyStep 2022 online registration.

News Archive

Death may come in adorable little packages
2015-03-23

The main host of the Lassa virus is the Natal Mulimammate mouse.

Photo: Supplied

Postdoctoral researcher, Abdon Atangana, of the Institute for Groundwater Studies at the university recently published an article online about the Lassa Haemorrhagic fever in the Natural Computing Applications Forum. In addition to the terminal transmissible sickness recognised as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, there is another strain called Lassa haemorrhagic fever.

The disease is classified under the arenaviridae virus family. The first outbreaks of the disease were observed in Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Central African Republic. However, it was first described in 1969 in the town of Lassa, in Borno State, Nigeria.

The main host of the Lassa virus is the Natal Mulimammate mouse, an animal indigenous to most of Sub-Saharan Africa. The contamination in humans characteristically takes place through exposure to animal excrement through the respiratory or gastrointestinal tracts.

Mouthfuls of air containing tiny particle of infective material are understood to be the most noteworthy way of exposure. It is also possible to acquire the infection through broken skin or mucous membranes that are directly exposed to the infective material.

“The aim of my research was to propose a novel mathematical equation used to describe the spread of the illness amongst pregnant women in West Africa. To achieve this, I used my newly-proposed derivative with fractional order called beta-derivative. Since none of the commonly used integral transform could be used to derive the solution of the proposed model, I proposed a new integral transform called Atangana-Transform, and used it, together with some iterative technique, to derive the solution of the model.

“My numerical simulations show that the disease is as deadly amongst pregnant women as Ebola,” Abdon said.

Abdon’s research was submitted to one of Springer’s top-tier journals with an impact factor 1.78. The paper was accepted and published February 2015.

Read more about Abdon’s research.

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