DRUG ABUSE AND ITS ACADEMIC IMPLICATIONS AMONG STUDENTS AT THREE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN MUTASA CENTRAL AREA OF MUTASA DISTRICT

This project explored the occurrence of drug abuse and its academic implications to students at three secondary schools in Mutasa Central area in Mutasa District. The study used the mixed method research design which combines qualitative and quantitative approaches in one study to answer research questions. The study population for this research comprised 48 secondary school teachers, 3 school heads and 150 students. Random sampling was employed to select the sample for classes within each form. Simple random sampling was used to select 8 senior school prefects for focus group discussions. School heads were selected for the study through purposive sampling for interviews. The main findings were that teachers did not teach anything about drug use during lessons as they concentrated on their subject content. They had some experience in dealing with drug problems in the schools. The main reasons why students took drugs was influence of peer pressure and lack of models at home. The most common drugs taken by students were tobacco and beer obtained from friends and road side markets. Schools experienced conflicts between teachers and students and students performed poorly in examinations as a result of drug abuse in schools. The main recommendations were made were that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education must formalize and support establishment of vibrant guidance and counselling system in schools and school administrators must establish vibrant guidance and counselling departments which effected individual and peer counselling. Teachers should incorporate drug education in the teaching-learning of other subjects and schools should invite guest speakers to address students on danger of drug abuse

SUBSURFACE FLOW CONSTRUCTED WETLAND SYSTEM VEGETATED WITH PHRAGMITES KARKA IN THE TREATMENT OF DYE-RICH WASTEWATER

Some major parts of tropical Africa, especially in West Africa are nowadays grappling with the problem of degradation of the quality of fresh water by the introduction of effluents containing dyes from textile industries. In this study a low cost and economical method of treating dye-rich effluent using locally available macrophyte was investigated. The pilot Constructed Wetland (CW) consists of 1200 × 1000 × 1000 mm plastic tanks, filled with 500 mm deep 10-15 mm size granite overlaid with 150 mm thick sand (Cu = 1.15 and Cc = 6.8) substrate. The substrates had an hydraulic conductivity of 0.002 m/s. The pilot CW was planted with Phragmites Karka Retz. at 200 mm c/c to provide a high density bed. Irrigation was done intermittently at 6 days retention period with 0.05 m3 indigo dye rich wastewater from the local tie and dye textile industries and plant growth monitored. Physico-chemical parameters, Cr, Pb, Cu, Zn and Fe removal were also evaluated. The study revealed a 24 % growth rate reduction in the plants irrigated with indigo dye-rich wastewater. Reduction of TDS (50 %), TSS (66 %), EC (46 %) were also observed and the heavy metals evaluated showed an uptake of 64 %, 68 %, 78 %, 58 %, and 68 % for Cr, Pb, Zn, Cu, and Fe respectively by the CW. Phragmites karka as a macrophyte in Constructed Wetland was found to be efficient in dye-rich wastewater treatment.     &nbsp

Chemical Composition and Quality Characteristics of Wheat Bread Supplemented with Leafy Vegetable Powders

The study investigated the effect of supplementation of the leaf powders of Telfairia occidentalis, Amaranthus viridis, and Solanum macrocarpon on the chemical composition and the quality characteristics of wheat bread. The bread samples were supplemented with each of the vegetable leaf powders at 1%, 2%, and 3% during preparation. The bread samples were assayed for proximate composition, mineral composition, physical, sensory, and antioxidant properties using standard methods. The addition of vegetable powders significantly increased the protein (9.50 to 13.93%), fibre (1.81 to 4.00%), ash (1.05 to 2.38%), and fat (1.27 to 2.00%). Supplementation with vegetable powder however significantly decreased (p<0.05) the carbohydrate and moisture contents. Significant (p<0.05) increases were recorded for all evaluated minerals as the level of vegetable powder increased. Supplementation with vegetable powder caused significant decrease in total phenolic content, percentage DPPH inhibition, metal chelating ability, ferric reducing antioxidant power, and total antioxidant capacity. Sensory results showed that there was significant decrease in sensory qualities with increasing supplementation. This therefore suggests that bread supplemented with vegetable powder could have more market penetration if awareness is highly created

NEXT-CRAB-0: A High Pressure Gaseous Xenon Time Projection Chamber with a Direct VUV Camera Based Readout

The search for neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) remains one of the most compelling experimental avenues for the discovery in the neutrino sector. Electroluminescent gas-phase time projection chambers are well suited to $0\nu\beta\beta$ searches due to their intrinsically precise energy resolution and topological event identification capabilities. Scalability to ton- and multi-ton masses requires readout of large-area electroluminescent regions with fine spatial resolution, low radiogenic backgrounds, and a scalable data acquisition system. This paper presents a detector prototype that records event topology in an electroluminescent xenon gas TPC via VUV image-intensified cameras. This enables an extendable readout of large tracking planes with commercial devices that reside almost entirely outside of the active medium.Following further development in intermediate scale demonstrators, this technique may represent a novel and enlargeable method for topological event imaging in $0\nu\beta\beta$.Comment: 32 Pages, 22 figure

Community member perceptions of influences on teenage pregnancies

This exploratory qualitative study aimed to provide insight into the factors contributing to the high prevalence rate of teenage pregnancy in South African communities. Focus group were conducted with 193 community members (females = 44.6%; adults = 50.8%, teenagers/youth = 44.0%) and followed by thematic content analysis to interpret the data. Several overarching themes regarding the increasingly common occurrence of teenage pregnancy emerged from the data. These included: the increased acceptability of teenage pregnancy to families and communities for economic and material gain; the influence of social pressure; and the lack of sexual knowledge and provision of sex education. Community members perceived teenage pregnancy as an increasingly common occurrence in their communities. Community members perceived teenage pregnancy to be driven by multiple factors and to require holistic interventions at the individual, family and community level.

PLS visualization using biplots: an application to team effectiveness

Based on a factorization provided by the Partial Least Square (PLS) methodology, the construction of a biplot for both exploratory and predictive purposes was shown to visually identify patterns among response and explanatory variables in the same graph. An application on a team effectiveness research, collected from 82 teams from 57 Portuguese companies and their respective leaders, containing two effectiveness criteria (team performance and the quality of the group experience as response variables), was considered and interpretation of the biplot was analyzed in detail. Team effectiveness was considered as the result of the role played by thirteen variables: team trust (two dimensions), team psychological capital (four dimensions), collective behavior, transformational leadership, intragroup conflict (two dimensions), team psychological safety, and team cohesion (two dimensions). Results revealed that the biplot approach proposed was able to capture the most critical variables for the model and correctly assigned the signals and the strength of the regression coefficients. Regarding the response variable team performance, the most significant variables to the model were team efficacy, team optimism, and team psychological safety. Concerning the response variable quality of the group experience, intragroup conflict, team-trust, and team cohesion emerged as the most relevant predictors. Overall, the results found are convergent with the literature on team effectiveness.publishe