An exploratory study of the relationship between the physical environment of schools and pupil behaviour.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DX185711 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

A triangulation study of the use of traditional medicine and prescribed antischistosomal medicine in communities with high prevalence schistsomiasis infections: perspectives from traditional healers, patients and healthcare workers.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Schistosomes are parasitic worms found in tropical and sub-tropical fresh waters. An estimated 4.5 million South Africans, mainly in settings of rural poverty, are in need of treatment for urogenital schistosomiasis. Women with schistosomiasis are exposed to HIV infection prevalent in African countries. Praziquantel is the treatment used in the mainstream healthcare system to manage schistosomiasis. Although conventional treatment is available, traditional medicine (TM) has been reported to be used for schistosomiasis. This study evaluated the prevalence of the use of traditional medicine and prescribed antischistosomal medicines in communities having high prevalence schistosomiasis infection in ILembe District, KwaZulu-Natal and established whether the unavailability of prescribed antischistosomal medicines led to the use of traditional medicine. Methods Methods This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study using a questionnaire. An exploratory mixed-method approach through interviews was conducted from December 2017 to April 2018 in the ILembe District, KwaZulu-Natal. In addition, a review of medical chart records of patients with schistosomiasis was further carried out to triangulate the information from interviews. Qualitative data were coded and analyzed using thematic analysis while descriptive statistics including frequency and percentage were used for quantitative data, categorical data were presented as tables. Chi-squared tests were performed for the association between continuous variables. A p-value ≤ 0.05 was estimated as statistically significant. Results A protocol mapping evidence of the concurrent use of TM and antischistosomal treatment was drafted. It anticipated findings on identified gaps in the current literature on this topic and provided direction for future research. After mapping for evidence, face-to-face interviews were conducted in phase 1 of this study among 22 traditional health practitioners (THPs) who diagnosed and managed schistosomiasis symptoms based on their knowledge and experiences using plants either alone or in combination with other plants. Senecio serratuloides (Asteraceae) and Hypoxis hemerocallidea (Hypoxidaceae) were prominently used in the study area by THPs for the management schistosomiasis. THPs provided services to individuals who did not want to be treated in the mainstream health care system for schistosomiasis. Following the interviews with THPs, 124 healthcare workers (HCWs) were interviewed with the majority of them (114/124; 91.9%) reporting that Praziquantel was readily available in healthcare facilities. However, most of HCWs (76/124; 61.3%) did not know whether patients seen by them used concurrently TM and Praziquantel for schistosomiasis. No significant relationship between the availability of Praziquantel and the concurrent use of TM by patients for schistosomiasis (X2 = 3.042, p = 0.551) was found. Patients seen by THPs (20) were also interviewed in the same phase 1. They reported that they used TM only for schistosomiasis. Patients attending outpatient departments were also interviewed in this phase. More than half of them (8/15, 53.3%) crossed from TM to the mainstream healthcare system, but they did not disclose their use of TM to HCWs. After the interviews in phase 1, a medical chart review was conducted in phase 2 of the study to analyse the concurrent use of traditional medicine with conventional medicine for schistosomiasis. None of the medical chart records analyzed; documented the concurrent use of TM and Praziquantel. Conclusion TM played a key role in the management of schistosomiasis in the study area. HCWs indicated that although Praziquantel was readily available and free in public sector healthcare facilities, patients used TM for schistosomiasis. HCWs reported not to be aware of whether patients used concurrently TM and Praziquantel for the treatment of schistosomiasis. Further investigations are needed to establish the reasons for use, potential benefits or risks of the concurrent use of modern and traditional medicine for schistosomiasis. Biological studies on TM used for schistosomiasis in the study area are warranted to confirm the pharmacological properties and active compounds of medicinal plants used by THPs for schistosomiasis.Abstract also available in isiZulu in pdf

The Current State of Fake News in the D.R. Congo and Socials Impacts

In the media industry, the propagation of fake news is becoming a booming topic and challenge. On social media, website and written press the spread of this is so fast to keep track of confusing reader on what is fake and also causing damage in different sector of life [1] in response, social media platforms have announced actions to limit the spread of false content. Rapid speed of fake news poses an increasing risk to society2019;s worldwide to counter this more need to done. The lack of digital literacy may play a big role in spread of fake news in the DRC were less than 20% have access to internet never less access to social media is also low few how have access don2019;t have computer literacy skills to distinguish and decide what to share. With growing number for the last decade, the challenge will be more complicated with a population estimated to 80 million in 2017, if 75% will be able to access social media platform in 2030 the problem will far great than what it is now

Sulphide textures and compositions associated with the hydrothermal/magmatic system of the Twangiza gold deposit (South Kivu, DRC)

Twangiza mine is a gold deposit situated in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The rock types at the Twangiza Mine consist of black shale, including carbonaceous mudstone and thin intercalated layers of siltstone, and feldspar-rich granitoid intrusive sills, referred to as albitite, folded into a major antiformal structure. The gold mineralization at the mine is commonly found associated with sulphides. The sulphide textures and compositions of mineralized and unmineralized samples of black shales, albitite sills and hydrothermal veins in the mine are considered for the understanding of the spatial association of gold with sulphides and gold mineralization history of the mine. The sulphides within the Twangiza mine consist of pyrite, arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and rare cobaltite. The primary pyrite texture occurs in unmineralized black shale and is interpreted to be diagenetic. It consists of fine-grained anhedral pyrite crystals aggregating into spherical nodules and formed in replacement of organic material during the diagenesis process. The secondary pyrite textures resulted from the hydrothermal fluids activity and include (i) aggregates of annealed anhedral crystals into sulphide-rich lenses; (ii) elongated anhedral pyrite in the form of short stringers; (iii) fine-grained subhedral to euhedral pyrite randomly distributed within the rock matrix; (iv) euhedral zoned pyrite crystals occurring within veins; (v) aggregations of fine-grained anhedral pyrite, locally distributed in the matrix; (vi) abundant dissemination of fine-grained subhedral to anhedral pyrite crystals within the vein selvedge in the host rock; (vii) and coarse-grained massive pyrite bodies. The pyrite major elemental composition does not vary significantly in the different textures and sample types. The Fe content ranges from 44.57 to 46.40 wt. %, and the S content ranges from 53.75 to 55.25 wt. %. Pyrite from mineralized black shale and hydrothermal veins contains relatively higher concentrations of As (~ 1 wt. %) than pyrite from other sample types. The arsenopyrite commonly occurs as fine-grained anhedral crystals as inclusions within pyrite, medium-grained crystal intergrowing with pyrite and/or as coarse-grained massive arsenopyrite bodies in the massive sulphide veins. The arsenopyrite composition is uniform in all textural and sample type with Fe content ranging from 33.44 to 35.20 wt. %, S content ranging from 21.13 to 22.55 wt. % and As content ranging from 42.20 to 43.97 wt. %. In mineralized black shale and unmineralized black shale, the arsenopyrite shows, however, minor concentrations of Ni with 0.39 and 0.70 wt. % respectively. The pyrrhotite occurs as fine-grained anhedral patchy crystals randomly distributed within the rock matrix of unmineralized black shale and unmineralized granitoid, and / or as inclusions within pyrite in mineralized granitoid. The pyrrhotite shows a uniform composition in all samples and textural types, though minor concentrations of Ni (2.06 wt. %) content are reported in unmineralized granitoid. Chalcopyrite occurs as fine-grained crystals in inclusions within pyrite; and cobaltite occurs as rare fine-grained anhedral crystals occasionally disseminated in the albitite sill matrix. The chalcopyrite composition does not vary considerably in all sample and textural types, and cobaltite shows minor concentrations of Ni (4.55 wt. %) and Fe (3.45 wt. %). Native gold grains are commonly found associated with the secondary pyrite texture especially within the sulphide-rich lenses and in the massive sulphide veins, and are almost pure with ~97 wt. %. A Na-rich hydrothermal fluid from low-grade metamorphism associated with the E-W compressive tectonic event, which caused formation of the antiform structure which control the mineralization in the deposit area, led to the albitization of the deposit rocks and specially the alteration of the granitic assemblage to form albitite, and the deposition of aggregates of fine-grained anhedral crystals and growth and annealing of pyrite in sulphide-rich lenses. Afterward, the CO2-rich hydrothermal fluids influx circulated through reactivated structures, including quartz veins, and led to the precipitation of dolomite, ankerite, siderite and magnesite. They also led to the precipitation of pyrite of secondary textures as well as arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite and formation of pyrrhotite from the desulphurization of early pyrite. The CO2-rich hydrothermal fluids probably leached gold and other trace elements such as As, Co, etc. from the sedimentary host rocks and deposited them into suitable traps, such as the sulphide-rich lenses and massive sulphide bodies, preferably within the hinge zone of anticline axis constituting a hydrothermal fluid pathway

Modeling Stellar Parameters for High Resolution Late-M and Early-L Dwarf SDSS/APOGEE Spectra

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV has measured high resolution (R~22,500), near-infrared (1.51-1.70 µm) spectra for nearly 100,000 stars within the Milky Way Galxy [1]. While the APOGEE experiment was originally designed to research Galactic structure by targeting bright stellar populations in the disk, we have focused attention on the lesser-studied subset of faint and low-temperature late-M and early-L dwarfs, with the objective of characterizing their chemical abundances. Using spectral sythesis routines from the Starfish package [2], we report preliminary determinations of Teff, logg, and [Fe/H] for a small sample of spectra using PHOENIX models [3]. We also compare these PHOENIX fits to low-resolution data from the SpeX Prism Library [4] fitted by BT-Settl models

A Self-consistent Model for Brown Dwarf Populations

We present a self-consistent model of the Milky Way to reproduce the observed distributions (spectral type, absolute J-band magnitude, effective temperature) and total velocity dispersion of brown dwarfs. For our model, we adopt parametric forms for the star formation history and initial-mass function, published evolutionary models, and theoretical age–velocity relations. Using standard Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods, we derive a power-law index of the initial-mass function of α = −0.71 ± 0.11, which is an improvement over previous studies. We consider a gamma-function form for the star formation history, though we find that this complex model is only slightly favored over a declining exponential. We find that a velocity variance that linearly increases with age and has an initial value of km s−1 best reproduces the total velocity dispersions. Given the similarities to main-sequence stars, this suggests brown dwarfs likely form via similar processes, but we recognize that the sizable uncertainties on σ0 preclude firm conclusions. To further refine these conclusions, we suggest that wide-field infrared imaging or low-resolution spectroscopic surveys, such as with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope or Euclid, could provide large samples of brown dwarfs with robust spectral types that could probe the thickness of the thin disk. In this way, the number counts and population demographics could probe the same physical processes as with the kinematic measurements, however may provide larger samples and be subject to different selection biases

Prevention of HIV infection among adolescents and young people in South Kivu: challenges and prospectives

Background : It’s worldwide established that interventions to combat HIV are being carried out, but most of them target adults and leave out adolescents and young people, who constitute one of the most exposed sections of the population.Methods : A cross-sectional and qualitative study on prevention of HIV among adolescent and young people conducted from 15 and 30 June 2019 in seven health zones of South Kivu in the democratic republic of Congo. All interviews and focus groups were transcribed in full, the obtained corpus; a thematic manual analysis was carried out.Results : Several stakeholders are involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS among adolescents and young people, in spite, available services are not sufficiently accessible to adolescents and young people due to many constraints: political, organisational, legal, economic-financial, socio-cultural and religious. Prevention services for adolescents and young people are, according to them, inadequate, insufficient and not user-friendly.Conclusions: Stakeholders should use findings of this study as a basis for reflection for the implementation of more effective interventions for adolescents and young people to reverse the current trend of the HIV epidemic in South Kivu province