ABSTRACT Use of contaminated water risks human lives hence should be treated to meet drinking water quality guidelines. The most applied technique is municipal water treatment technology (MWTT) though inaccessible in peri-urban/rural settings leading to use of untreated water like borehole waters. Desirable water treatment processes need to be developed for provision of portable water. Local materials such as Moringa oleifera seed, activated clay, activated charcoal and natural zeolite have b...
Abstract The impact of potentially toxic metals (PTM) on humans and other organisms depends on their concentration, toxicity and bioavailability, which in turn, depend in part on reactivity and solubility. The total concentrations of PTM do not determine the mobility, bioavailability and uptake by plants but the fraction of these metals in soils or sediments, hence the development of sequential extraction method which has been widely used for speciation or fractionation studies. The limitatio...
ABSTRACT Incidence of Salmonella resistance to various antibiotic agents, especially to the commonly available antibiotics in Kenya, is rising. Genetic elements such as Class 1 integrons have an important role in development and spread of resistance. In western Kenya, integron-mediated antibiotic resistance was reported in clinical Salmonella enteric serovars. However, no similar studies have been done to elucidate the role of class 1 integrons in fish isolates for multidrug resistant Salmone...
Background of Study Petroleum is a major source of energy in the world and Nigeria is one of the major oil producing countries. Petroleum production and operations are often accompanied with serious ecological problems. Oil exploitation, exploration, transportation, consumption, attendant spills and disposals are some of the ways in which oil pollutants get into aquatic and soil environments. This has become a major concern to governments, individuals, environmental activists and the communit...
ABSTRACT Green gram(Vigna radiataL.) has recently become an important crop in Kitui County because of its high economic returns and short growing season.The main objective of this study was therefore to develop a GIS-based Multi-criteria analysis for Green gram production in Kitui County using Geographic Information Sytem (GIS) based multi-criteria evaluation. Three main criteria were selected for analysis (soil, climate and topography) and 8 sub criteria (soil texture, soil dept...
ABSTRACT The discharge of coloured wastewaters into water-bodies has serious implications for the environmental and public health. Furthermore, the usual colour removal methods often result in aromatic amines which are toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic. Developing a method that can both decolourise azo dyes and degrade the corresponding aromatic amines formed is expedient. In this study, the ability of newly isolated indigenous bacteria to decolourise textile/non-textile azo dyes and degrade ...
ABSTRACT The school curriculum consists of formal, informal and non-formal dimensions. Formal dimension refers to official timetabled subjects such as Physics. Informal dimension is the school environment that influences a learner’s behaviour. Non-formal dimension refers to out of class activities such as field trips and science club activities. The common assumption is that participation in non-formal activities enhances perception and achievement in the formal curriculum. However, seconda...
ABSTRACT The Mwitika-Makongo research area occurs within the Neoproterozoic Mozambique metamorphic belt in Kenya and is located in Kitui East sub-county of Kitui County. The area is bounded by longitudes 38° 18'E and 38° 26'E and latitudes 1° 22'S and 1° 32'S. This area is easily accessed from the Nairobi-Thika-Kitui-Zombe road or the Nairobi –Machakos-Kitui-Zombe road. From previous geological works, it had been established that several mineral resources of economic potential like iron...
ABSTRACT Carcinoma of the cervix is the second most common cancer among women worldwide especially in the developing world. Due to severe reported cytotoxic tendenciesby anticancer drugs, newer therapies from natural products are desirable. This work therefore aims to partially purify pro-apoptotic agents from indigenous natural products and to investigate the mechanism of action of the selected plant fractions.Sixteen indigenous medicinal plants were collected from South West Nigeria. Plant...
ABSTRACT Taro (Colocasiae esculenta L. Schott) popularly known as ‘nduma’ is an aquatic plant grown for its edible leaves and corms. It is mainly cultivated in Western and Central Kenya but its production is constrained majorly by Phytophthora colocasiae, a taro leaf blight (TLB) disease. The disease causes destruction of leaf and corm. Knowledge pertaining to taro association with the disease incidence, severity, index, Rainfall, R.H, temperature, interrelationship between agronomic trai...
ABSTRACT Many studies have been done on fertility for many years. However, very little has been documented in the existing literature concerning modeling of fertility in the presence of interference, yet interference to fertility is a common phenomenon. In this study fertility data sets for Rwanda, Indonesia and Kenya were modeled before and after interference. The parameters of the model were estimated by the maximum likelihood estimation method. The model life table approach was used to det...
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ABSTRACT The Petroleum Industry has a huge potential for the pollution of the environment at every stage of its operation, hence the need to constantly fashion out new strategies for maintaining the sanctity of our environment. Fungi associated with diseased Irvingia gabonensis (Baill) seeds found in the open markets were suspected to possess the ability to degrade the hydrocarbon substances contained in these seeds. These fungi were isolated bimonthly from the diseased seeds of I.gabonensis...
Abstract Cryptosporidium, a protozoan parasite that causes gastrointestinal illness, is transmitted by ingestion of oocysts excreted in human or animal stools. Cryptosporidiosis presents with severe diarrhoea in HIV/AIDS patients and self-limiting in immunocompetent individuals. The parasite is yet to receive sufficient public health attention in Nigeria. This study was undertaken to investigate association of Cryptosporidium oocysts with other intestinal parasites in patients with gastrointe...
Abstract The aim of this study was to identify the occurrence of fungal contamination in different samples of corn (zea mayes) grains in Narok Town. A total of 30 samples were analyzed by direct plating method on a quarter strength potato dextrose agar and focusing on mycotoxigenic fungi.pure cultures of Aspergillus isolates were sub cultured and transferred onto differential media; malt extract agar, czapek yeast extract and czapek dox agar for species identification. The colony were purifie...