ABSTRACT Tick borne diseases have severe consequences on the health of millions of cattle worldwide and cause serious economic losses. Synthetic drugs have been effective acaricideshowever they are expensive, show side effects and develop resistance.This has generated interest in the use ofplant based acaricides, which however seem to offer a reliable, cheap and cost effective methods. In this research, the acaricidal activityof Acokanthera schimperi secondarymetabolites againstRipicephalus....
Missing observations is a common occurrence in data collection. To solve this problem, researchers have developed missing value imputation techniques for some linear and nonlinear time series models with normal and stable innovations using estimating function criterion. This criterion does not take into consideration the distribution of the innovation sequence of the time series model. Therefore the aim of this study was to develop explicit optimal linear estimators of missing values for seve...
ABSTRACT Intestinal helminth infections with parasites such as Ascaris lumbricoides, Necator americanus, Ancylostoma duodenale and Trichuris trichiura, during pregnancy are associated with adverse outcomes including, poor nutritional status, growth, low birth weight and perinatal mortality. They present major public health problem in developing countries, but the prevalence, intensity and predisposing factors are not adequately documented in many areas of Kenya. The purpose of this study was...
Road traffic accidents have been a major cause of deaths in Kenya. The effort by Kenya police to enforce traffic laws has done little to salvage the situation. Although there has been other remedies towards curbing road accidents such as; improvements in vehicle design and licensing to skill the situation calls for further solution particularly targeting driver behavior since careless driving has been identified as a major cause of road accidents. The research provides a solution by designing...
ABSTRACT This study explores the use of lactic acid bacteria from fresh salad vegetables to inhibit fungal growth. The antifungal assay was done using the agar well diffusion method as reported by Schillinger and Lucke (1989). The largest zone of inhibition (25mm) was recorded by the antagonistic activity of the isolate identified to Lactobacillus plantarum against Candida albicans ATCC 90029. No activity was recorded against Candida parapsilosis ATCC 22019, C. valida UCH 1508, C. pseudotrop...
Water and Sewerage service providers in Kenya have encountered challenges in proficient collection of water billing data from customer’s meters. This necessitates the need to implement a proper data collection mechanism that can be implemented remotely, effortlessly, and accurately. Recent advances in telemetry now provide reliable water meter data. However no water utility has implemented a technology based, remote data collection strategy. A Zigbee WPAN-to-WAN solution for water meter dat...
Abstract Large area estimation has been mostly accomplished using Geoadditive Models (GM) which combines the ideas of Geostatistics and additive models. The GM relaxes the classical assumptions of traditional parametric model by simultaneously incorporating linear and nonlinear, nonparametric effects of covariates, nonlinear interactions and spatial effects into a Geoadditive predictor. In the past, estimation of GM has been based on large area as a result of insufficient information in sma...
In this work, the antimicrobial properties of fresh Buchholzia Coriacea (wonderful kola) and its extracts was investigated. The proximate composition of the fresh kola was also determined. B. coriacea was dried, milled and extracted using two different solvents of varying polarity: hexane and methanol. The effect of the fresh kola, hexane and methanol extracts was tested on some food borne pathogens. This was evaluated by measuring the zone of inhibition on nutrient agar for bacteria and malt...
ABSTRACT This study involved isolation of compounds from the plant Monanthotaxis littoralis, screening and evaluating the activity of the compounds against mycotoxigenic fungi isolated from maize collected from LVB and structure elucidation of the bioactive compounds. The non volatile secondary metabolites were extracted from the plant using methanol. The methanol extract was suspended in water and extracted with ethyl acetate. Hydro-distillation was used in the extraction of essential oils....
Abstract The effects of adding different concentrations of Aframomum danielli (powder and ethanoic extracts) on nutritional, physico-chemical and densory properties of wheat flour bread were examined. Using alveograph and consistograph, the physical properties of the dough-water absorption capacity, tenacity, extensibility, strength of flour and peak time were evaluated
ABSTRACT In Africa, 80% of the population use traditional medicinal plants to treat common ailments like malaria, headache and pneumonia. This is due to the high cost of conventional drugs from developed countries. Examples of these medicinal plants include Gardenia volkensii and Meyna tetraphylla that are both used by the Pokots in Kenya to treat a variety of ailments including antimicrobial diseases. The aim of this project was to test for the antimicrobial activity of the crude extracts a...
ABSTRACT Zoonoses are infectious diseases that can be transmitted (in some instances, by a vector) from animals to humans or from humans to animals (the latter is sometimes called reverse zoonosis or anthroponosis). Among these are Babesia spp., Borrelia spp., Rickettsia spp., Ehrlichia spp., Bartonella spp., Anaplasma spp., Francisella tularensis, Coxiella burnetii and certain encephalitis virus that are transmitted by ticks. Of the 1415 pathogens known to affect humans, 61% are zoonotic. T...
ABSTRACT Lightning-Induced Voltages (LIV) affect all electrical conductors and could damage electronic circuits and gadgets even without applied voltage. Several factors, including electrical power line configuration, can affect the magnitude of the lightning-induced voltages. Previous research paid less attention to the effect of line configuration on lightning-induced voltages on overhead power lines and other lines in the tropical environment. The effect of line configuration of electrica...
ABSTRACT Natural Organic Matter (NOM) fractions in rocks, sediments and soils are known to have good sorptive potentials for frequently occurring Hydrophobic Organic Contaminants (HOCs) such as phenanthrene. Despite widespread occurrence of organic matter-rich rocks, sediments and soils in Nigeria, there is limited information on the sorptive potentials of their NOM fractions for HOCs which may be useful in remediation and clean-up design. This study is aimed at investigating the sorption of...
This study sought to assess the existing state of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment in Kenya, to improve on the methods of disposal, recycling, and facilitation of a circular economy by households through the use of ICT. The study was driven by the following objectives on how they influence a circular e-waste economy; sociodemographic factors, consumer behaviour, level of access to information and ICT infrastructure. The target population for the study was households within Nairobi Co...