https://journals.unza.zm/index.php/JONAS/issue/feed 2022-12-11T08:13:11+00:00 Levy Siaminwe jonas@unza.zm Open Journal Systems <br>Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences JONAS is a refereed journal open to journal article publication in the fields of engineering, mines, physics, chemistry and biological Sciences as well as allied natural and applied sciences. It is quarterly Journal.<br> https://journals.unza.zm/index.php/JONAS/article/view/391 2022-12-11T07:50:38+00:00 Henry Sichingabula sichingabula@unza.zm Moses Chisola sichingabula@unza.zm Manoah Muchanga sichingabula@unza.zm Happy Sikazwe sichingabula@unza.zm Innocent Chomba sichingabula@unza.zm Wilson Phiri wilsonphirik@gmail.com

Small reservoirs in arid and semi-arid areas help rural communities to cope with prolonged dry spells. More recently, the construction and operation of small reservoirs has resulted in upstream versus downstream water use conflicts in some river basins. In this regard, bathymetric information could be used as a tool to monitor the available surface water, and minimize or prevent water conflicts. The challenge is that it is difficult to survey a large number of reservoirs using the traditional sounding methods. Despite the availability of new methods of conducting bathymetric surveys, their utilization in Africa is still low, particularly for depth measurements of small reservoirs. This paper presents modern bathymetric survey and analysis techniques applied for quantifying the capacities of small reservoirs, using the case of the Kaleya River Basin in southern Zambia. The objectives of the survey were to: i) create a database of reservoir storage capacities; and ii) introduce an efficient modern approach of monitoring small reservoir storage capacities. A remote controlled Coden hydrographic survey boat equipped with a SONAR device mounted with Trimble OmniSTAR VBS providing DGPS was used to capture and record hydrographic (xyz) data with greater accuracy. Data analysis was done using Surfer 13 Golden software to produce ten contoured bathymetric maps of surveyed reservoirs. From this information, the reservoir capacities were computed, thus providing information on water stored in reservoirs in the basin. It is concluded that the quantification of storage capacity of small reservoirs using SONAR and GIS provides a quicker and cost effective way of obtaining accurate bathymetric data. Such data is important in resolving water use conflicts in river basins and for decision-making in the context of multiple water uses, climate change and or variability.

2022-12-11T07:03:56+00:00 ##submission.copyrightStatement## https://journals.unza.zm/index.php/JONAS/article/view/483 2022-12-11T07:50:43+00:00 Marsheal Fisonga fieldmarsheal@unza.zm Elvis Korir ekorir@gmail.com Patrick Chipola pchipola@gmail.com Victor Mutambo vmutambo@unza.zm

In this study, the geotechnical characterization of alisol soils of Eastern Province in Chief-Mutenguleni area was investigated. The Zambian agricultural soil classification was used as the foundation to investigate the behaviour of active clay minerals for alisols soils from the study area. The X-XRD Rietveld analysis depicted the presences of vermiculite, montmorillonite and Ferrum related minerals which are typical of alisols soils. The grain size analysis, Atterberg limits, Califonia bearing ratio (CBR), direct shear test, undrained unconsolidated triaxial test, and consolidation Oedometer were carried out. The CBR test also showed potential swelling and shrinkage behaviour of the investigated alisols soils. Based on the Casagrande plasticity chart the alisol soils from Chief Mutenguleni in Eastern province can be classified as soil with low and high plasticity based on the soil horizon or presence of termite mould in the study area.

2022-12-11T07:10:57+00:00 ##submission.copyrightStatement## https://journals.unza.zm/index.php/JONAS/article/view/524 2022-12-11T07:50:46+00:00 Katongo Kangwa katongok@gmail.com Victor Mutambo vmutambo@unza.zm

Mining of copper and gold at Kansanshi is done in the Main and North West pits using hydraulic excavators and a mining fleet of haul trucks. In the recent past, there has been reduced truck deployment, increased truck and shovel waiting time, reduced production and reduced grade/quality of ore delivered to crushers. Therefore, there is need to improve productivity and optimise operations in mining, loading and hauling. This paper focuses on the use of High Precision Mining (HPM) through use of Wenco’s dispatching algorithm to achieve the best utilisation of all mining equipment and maximise production. The study involved establishing the precise bucket positioning, production rates, cycle times and monitoring the material type and quality /grade of ore delivered to the crushers. This was done by using BenchManager which relies on the motion of the Global positioning System (GPS) antenna scribing an arc as the excavator is rotated to determine the equipment’s centre of rotation by placing the bucket with the teeth flat on the ground (anywhere) and taking the rover and measuring left and right tooth on the outside of the teeth and taking note of the coordinates, first eastings then northings and lastly the elevation. With the tolerance of X=0.5m, Y=0.5m and Z=0.5m, it was noted that the events of a bucket mining out of the assigned polygon were reduced to about 50cm in distance from 34% to 15% and from 10% to 8% in terms of mismatches. The use of precision mining has led to reduced mining cost of about 10.3$/BCM, improved fleet/production reporting, high grade of the material delivered to the crushers of about 75% from the previous 65%. These results indicate that there is a strong business case for implementation of a Wenco fleet monitoring and dispatch system at the mine

2022-12-11T07:18:28+00:00 ##submission.copyrightStatement## https://journals.unza.zm/index.php/JONAS/article/view/743 2022-12-11T07:50:52+00:00 James Nyirenda jamesn7414@gmail.com

Third world countries suffer from supply of substandard therapeutic drugs and due to lack of robust quality testing facilities, many of these drugs find themselves in the dispensaries and various outlets for over the counter purchase. In order to ensure quality, simple yet informative tests are available and one of them is high performance thin layer chromatography. High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) coupled with image acquisition by TLC software application on a smart phone and analysis by freeware Digitally enhanced Thin Layer Chromatography (DeTLC) respectively was performed using the minilab protocols for assessing quality of drugs dispensed at the University of Zambia clinic as well as drugs randomly bought from different pharmacies around Lusaka, Zambia. The quality of drugs was assessed by comparing retardation factors with standards and approximate percent active ingredient amounts were compared using the maximal K intensities derived by the DeTLC software for image analysis. Normalizing the spots to the 100% spot, mean values with respective standard deviations were : atenelol (85.6±0.5), ciprofloxacin (95.6±1.1), ketoconazole (78.2±1.1), mebendazole (95.5±1.1), nevirapine (96.7±1.1), penicillin v (100.5±1.1), quinine (92.9±1.1), rifampicin (99.3±0.7) and isoniazid (72.0±4.1). All the drugs tested were within the acceptable range of concentrations of the active pharmaceutical ingredient ( 0 to 5.3% Rf error). Thus, the simple robust HPTLC method coupled with simple to use digital imaging software provides a quick means to check on quality of the drugs dispensed.

2022-12-11T07:23:28+00:00 ##submission.copyrightStatement##