The University of Zambia Journals
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Uranium exposure-associated health complications and their environmental-exposure pathways: A baseline survey among residents near uranium mining sites in Siavonga, Zambia
Get PDFBackground: Uranium (U), a naturally occurring actinide may exhibit radio-toxic or chemo-toxic health effects in exposed populations. Increased cases of environmental uranium pollution have recently gained attention owing to its potential threats to human health and adverse effects on animals and aquatic life. Among the toxicological effects known to arise from environmental exposure to U in humans include neurotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, pulmonary toxicity, reproductive toxicity and bone toxicity. Anecdotal evidence indicating that residents of communities in the vicinity of U-mining sites in Siavonga, Zambia, were experiencing some health complications associated with U exposure have been recorded. Therefore, the current study was conducted with the aim of assessing the associations between specific U exposure-associated health complications, and the potential environmental exposure pathways among residents in the vicinity of the U mining sites in Siavonga, Zambia.
Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study design was used. A total of 698 study participants who met the study’s inclusion criteria were randomly included in the study. Pre-tested interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaires were used for data collection, The collected data was thereafter statistically analysed using a binary logistic regression through SPSS (v 20).
Results: The current study results are suggesting that one’s place of residence and the location of drinking water sources had an effect (p1.2 among the general populations, >1.6 among pregnant women and >2.014 among children compared to the residents of the non-mining area communities. Conclusions: The findings of the study revealed that the residents of the U-mining area were exposed to high U levels. Therefore, awareness programs targeting local communities should be initiated to sensitise them on the means and ways of limiting and avoiding exposure to U.
Keywords: Uranium exposure; Children; Maternal-related; Health complications; Zambi
Approaches and conceptions of learning among physiotherapy students in the University of Ghana
Get PDFBackground: Approaches and conceptions of learning are important descriptors of learning. Deep, strategic, and surface approaches are the three different approaches adopted by students. The approaches and conceptions of learning of physiotherapy students in Ghana appears to be unknown. The study aimed at determining the study approaches and conceptions of learning among physiotherapy students.
Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 101 physiotherapy students who were purposively recruited from levels 100 to 400. Approaches to learning were assessed using the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory (ASSIST) and conceptions of learning were measured using the Conceptions of Learning Inventory (CLI) which identified six conceptions of learning. Spearman’s correlation was used to test association between the approaches and conceptions of learning of the participants.
Results: Of the 101 participants, 21 (20.8%), 29 (24%), 37 (30.6%) and 14 (11.6%) were first, second, third- and fourth-year students. A statistically significant difference existed between the strategic and deep approaches (p-value = 0.000), as well as, deep and the surface approaches (p-value= 0.004) of the participants. No significant relationship existed between the approaches of learning and conceptions of learning of the participants. However, deep approach was directly correlated with the conception of seeing learning as a duty only (Rho = 0.02).
Conclusion: Majority of physiotherapy students at University of Ghana adopt strategic approach to learning and conceived learning as remembering, using and understanding materials being learnt in class. The conceptions of learning did not have any influence on the learning approaches of most students.
Keywords: Learning approaches, conceptions of learning, learning styles, study approac
IMPACT OF POOR SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT (PSWM) ALONG THE NAJAFGARH DRAIN ON WATER, SANITATION, AND HYGIENE (WASH) STATUS AROUND GURU TEG BAHADUR (GTB) NAGAR
Get PDFThe study from which this article developed assessed how poor solid waste management (PSWM) along the Najafgarh drain affected the WASH situation near GTB Nagar. Mixed research methods were used in the study. Simple random sampling, convenience sampling, and purposive sampling were all used to identify 101 participants. Data was gathered using questionnaires, schedules, and observations before being analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics. Household SWG and residents’ ignorance of SWM practices have all contributed to poor open dumping of solid waste along the Najafgarh drain. The study revealed a statistically significant relationship between the solid waste disposal site and the PSWM along the Najafgarh drain, which is associated with outbreaks of WASH-related diseases, with X2 of 1.172 greater than C of 0.455 and a P-value of 0.01 with X2
of 33.066 greater than C2 of 9.21. Municipal authorities should, therefore, provide public sanitation, civic education on SWM techniques, and epidemiology of WASH-related diseases
Zango: Zambia Journal of Contemporary Issues Volume 35
Get PDFZango: Zambia Journal of Contemporary Issues Volume 3
BEYOND THROBBING DRUMS AND PIERCING FLUTES: BUDIMA ORAL PERFORMANCES AND THE CULTURAL RESILIENCE OF THE ZAMBEZI VALLEY TONGA
Get PDFThis article focuses on the Zambezi Valley Tonga’s utilisation of budima to narrativise their search of unity, solidarity and cultural identity following dislocation. Budima is a musical ensemble for the Valley Tonga both in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Sadly, budima is slowly losing its place because young members have sided with Eurocentrically gowned, Christian inspired modernity. The article explores social dynamics that give budima the cultural resilience amid vicious cultural forces. It analyses challenges encountered by relocated communities, adjustments they made and relationships they established with upland communities. Through the selected songs, the article demonstrates that there is more than throbbing drums and piercing flutes in budima performances. Using the Appraisal and Afrocentricity theories, the article engages the performance-centred approach to examine attitudes and beliefs that the Valley Tonga attach to the symbiotic relationship between the living and transitioned kin
MATERIAL NARRATION OF NOSTALGIA AND MODALITY IN THE LYRICS OF SAGA’S KUMUNZI KUBOTU
Get PDFConflating the theoretical ‘givings’ of modality, semiotics and memory studies, the article attempts to gain insights into how material narration of affect, nostalgia and subjunctivity are constructed and transacted in song. In scholarly works that focus on the interplay between linguistics and musicology, rarely do notions of affect, especially the ones attuned to nostalgia and modality, feature in the discussion. This article assumes that the lyrical affordances in most Zambian compositions discursively unravel high level cognitive regimes of which affect, nostalgia and modality are central. This treatment uses song as its discursive and analytical material, in which nostalgia, affect and modality are seen as recursive memory and linguistic regimes in the unfolding of the artist’s monologue of the sum total of self, and the double articulation of the ‘subjective self’ and ‘objective other,’ both of which are potentiated by the reimaging of self, while playing ‘the plural’ in the ‘concealment of the subjective self’ through the use of the plural ‘basa kumunzi nkubotu’ in Saga’s Kumunzi Kubotu
Coping With Racism: An Analysis of Defence Mechanisms Employed by Lubinda in Dominic Mulaisho's The Tongue of the Dumb
Get PDFSensitive as racism may be, it has continued to be a problematic reality, a thematic issue and a subject of scholarly discourse. Racism negatively impacts societies and individuals. Thus, the attention and need for relentless efforts in addressing, ameliorating, combating, eradicating and mitigating it. This paper concerns itself with representations and experiences of Racism in Dominic Mulaisho’s The Tongue of the Dumb. Using the Defence Mechanism Theory of Psychoanalysis, it investigates the defence mechanisms employed by a prominent character, Lubinda, to cope with racism. Further, the study explores the role and significance of defence mechanisms in coping with racism. The research was qualitative. Data was collected by textual analysis of the selected novel and analysed thematically. The findings of the study show that affiliation, humour, identification with the aggressor, sublimation, passive aggression and sublimation were utilised by the character. The usefulness and protectiveness of defence mechanisms is observable and it is rendered prudent to be acquainted with these mechanisms as stressful situations and unpleasant experiences are inevitable
Assessing the Impacts of Land Use Land Cover Change In Mutama Bweengwa Catchment of Southern Province, Zambia
Get PDFClimate change and land use land cover directly impact the alteration of hydrological cycles, making water more unpredictable and increasing the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts. However, proper planning of adaptation and mitigation options is hampered by inadequate up-to-date information on land use/Land cover in many catchments and sub-catchments of Zambia and other developing countries. This study assessed the land use change in the Mutama Bweengwa River Catchment of Southern Zambia. The objective of the study was to investigate land use land cover changes (LULCC) in the Mutama Bweengwa Catchment in the Southern Province of Zambia from 2000 to 2021. The data used for the study were satellite images of the area downloaded from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Specifically, the Landsat images were from path 172/row 71 and path 172/row 72 for the period 2000, 2007, 2014 and 2021. The methods used included data identification and acquisition, image pre-processing, image processing, accuracy assessment, validation and presentation. Image pre-processing was used to correct distortions during image acquisition. The techniques used were: image enhancement for extracting useful information, which involved carrying out band combination and brightness and contrast adjustment when conducting the mosaicking process using ERDAS imagine 2014. Supervised classification based on the maximum likelihood algorithm in ERDAS Imagine was employed to generate the land use land cover classification and later exported in ArcMap 10.7.1 for map creation. The image classification was based on six different LULC classes, which were: water body, build-up/settlement, forest, cultivated land-rainfed/bare land, cultivated land-irrigated, and grasslands. Preliminary results of this study have shown a decrease in the classes of water bodies and forest areas by 0.34% and 55.5%, respectively, over the 21-year period. The accuracy of the resultant land use/land cover maps was evaluated with the kappa statistic and error matrix. The preliminary results have also shown an increase in the land use land cover class categories of cultivated land-irrigated, grassland, cultivated land-rain fed/bare land and built up/settlements by 0.13%, 46.7%, 14.6%and 8.4%, respectively. In conclusion, the supervised classification of the Landsat images indicated pronounced land cover changes over the 21-year period. Although this provides preliminary conclusions, it indicates that immediate actions should be taken to protect the sub-catchment from further loss of land cover by strengthening the regulatory framework. Further work on the project is expected to bring out some of the factors that have contributed to this change
Evaluation of Processing Methods for Increased Utilization of Velvet Beans (Mucuna pruriens) as an Alternative Protein Supplement in Diets for Lactating Crossbred Dairy Cows Maintained on Smallholder Farms in Zambia
No full textThis study aimed at evaluating the processing methods of velvet beans (Mucuna pruriens) as a protein supplement in concentrates for cross-bred dairy cows on smallholder farms in Zambia. The beans were harvested by pulling entire plants after drying in the field and divided into three portions; (i) whole crop consisting of vines, pods and grains; (ii) unshelled pods only; and (iii) grain only. Each portion was ground to pass through a 2mm screen before using it to make concentrate for the feeding trial. Prior to the preparation of rations, samples from each portion were collected for the determination of nutrient composition. Each ration was fed to a group of cross-breed milking cows maintained on a farm to monitor performance. Chemical composition analysis showed that shelled grains had more nutrients than the pods and vines. Milking cows readily accepted all the prepared rations and maintained constant milk production throughout the study period. None of the animals on the trial exhibited any sign of ill-health. This showed that velvet beans could be fed to milking cows by incorporating ground pods with other ingredients without adversely affecting animal health or milk production
Cytopathology of Extragenital Transmissible Venereal Tumour in a Dog in Lusaka, Zambia
Get PDFTransmissible Venereal Tumour (TVT), a round cell tumour probably originating from genetic alteration of canine histiocytes, is a horizontally and sexually transmitted disease that affects dogs and other canids. There is no published report on extragenital TVT among dogs in Zambia. The present case reports the cytopathology and haemato-biochemistry of an extragenital TVT, without primary genital involvement in a 4-year-old male dog in Lusaka, Zambia. There were a total of 18 cutaneous immobile nodules ranging in size from 25 to 57 mm on the dorsal and ventral aspects of the body, and no ulceration or bleeding was observed. Haemato-biochemistry revealed anaemia, thrombocytopaenia, hyperproteinaemia, increased blood creatinine and urea nitrogen. Based on cytology, TVT of the lymphoid subtype was diagnosed, ruling out suspicion of cutaneous lymphoma or histiocytoma. Definitive diagnosis was easily based on physical examination and cytological findings of typical TVT cells in exfoliated cells through FNAC, which is a rapid, reliable, efficient, cost-favourable and more conclusive hastening intervention than waiting for histopathology. Our findings emphasise the need to consider TVT on the differential diagnosis list for masses in extragenital sites in dogs from geographic regions where TVT is prevalent