ABSTRACT Leptospirosis is an emerging zoonotic infectious disease that affects humans and animals worldwide as it causes febrile illness in humans. The disease has been reported in a number of human-livestock-wildlife interfaces of Northern and Eastern Tanzania. Very little is known of many zoonotic disease conditions in the research naive areas of Western and Southern Tanzania. This study aimed at detecting the prevalence of Leptospira species among agro-pastoralists at the human-animal int...
ABSTRACT We have studied the variability of Cosmic rays flux during solar quiet days at mid and high latitudes. By using the five (5) quietest days for each month, the monthly mean diurnal variation of cosmic ray anisotropy have been derived for the period 1981-2007, which covers part of cycles 21, 22 and 23. These quiet days are days during which the sun is relatively magnetically quiet, leading to less anisotropic behavior in the diurnal flux of cosmic rays measured on the earth’s surfac...
The increasing advancement in technology is creating new opportunities that can be incorporated in learning especially in institutions of higher learning. Majority of stakeholders in the institutions of higher learning, preferably the lecturers and students possess smartphones and computers as well as active social media accounts. The increased usage of social media coupled with the necessity to interact with people all over other would is posing a challenge to integrate social media into lea...
ABSTRACT Palladium-catalysed Suziki-Miyaura cross-coupling (SMC) reactions of 6-chloro-5H benzo[a]phenothiazin-5-one, 11-amino-6-chloro-9-thio-5H-naphtho[2,1-b]pyrimido[5,4-e][1,4] oxazin-5-one and 6-chloro-5H-naphtho[2,1-b]pyrido[2,3-e][1,4]oxazin-5-one with phenylboronic acid and 3-nitophenylboronic acid were thoroughly investigated. The above intermediates were prepared by the reactions of 2-aminothiophenol, 4,5-diamino-6-hydroxylpyrimidine-2-thiol and 2- aminpyridin-3-ol respectively wi...
ABSTRACT Yoghurts were produced by blending reconstituted powdered cow milk (100 g of powdered cow milk (CM) : 0.5 litres of water) with 25 % and 50 % coconut milk (CCM) and a control (100 % cow milk) before fermentation. After fermentation for 16 h at room temperature, the yoghurts were subjected to two heat treatments (thermization) namely, 75 0C thermization and 80 0C thermization and a control (unthermized). The proximate, physicochemical, vitamin and microbiological quality of yoghurt s...
Abstract A new approach for image processing, dubbed SOM-QE, that exploits the quantization error (QE) from self-organizing maps (SOM) is proposed in this thesis. SOM produce low-dimensional discrete representations of high-dimensional input data. QE is determined from the results of the unsupervised learning process of SOM and the input data. SOM-QE from a time-series of images can be used as an indicator of changes in the time series. To set-up SOM, a map size, the neighbourhood distance, ...
ABSTRACT In the tropics, malaria has become the most alarming public health problem, hence the need for a mosquito repellent, a personal protection against the vector. The concern about the deleterious effects associated with synthetic chemicals like N, N-diethy-3-methylbenzamide (DEET) has elicited the interest to explore plant materials as source of natural repellent for mosquito control. The aim of this study was to formulate and evaluate herbal mosquito repellent cream based on solid lip...
EXTENDED ABSTRACT There is high degree of rice diversity in Tanzania. Increased human population pressure and activities has caused the population of wild rice to disappear at alarming rate. NPGRC collected over 125 accessions of rice landraces and 7 wild relatives for conservation and sustainable utilization in improvement programs, but no morphological or genetic diversity study that have been done to support any future collections. An investigation was conducted to determine the extent o...
Abstract This study is a contribution to the understanding of the depositional environment and reservoir architecture of the “JI Field”, Niger Delta Nigeria. The main objective was to integrate sequence stratigraphy and petrophysical evaluation in characterizing the reservoirs encountered in the wells. Well logs from six wells (JI01, JI02, JI03, JI09, JI10 and JI12-ST), biostratigraphic data from two wells (JI01 and JI02) and 3D seismic volume were analyzed to understand the reservoirs c...
Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are used in a variety of devices ranging from watches to solar home systems, as status indicators or communicative tools. They are typically designed to produce light in different colors andintensities. However, the communicative output varies across devices of similar or different functions. This variation and the sense that there is a wide array of expressions that can be employed, makes it hard for users of the devices to deduce the feedback easily. This rese...
ABSTRACT There is a growing industrial demand for peptones of non-animal origin owing to legislations as well as outbreak of animal-associated diseases. Microbiological growth media developed from legumes as sources of protein hydrolysates are limited. It is, therefore, the aim of this study, to produce comparatively standard protein hydrolysates from Prosopis africanaseed that can be used as peptone for microbial culture in place of animal peptone. Prosopis africana seeds (2.5kg) were purch...
ABSTRACT The study was designed to formulate sorghum-soybean composite supplementary foods and investigate the effect of extrusion on nutritional value and tannin content. The products were extruded and analysed for nutritional value, tannin content, urease activity, sensory and anti-oxidant activity. Results showed that, the extruded composite products had good nutritional value and conformed to the requirements for supplementary foods for older infants and young children. Nutritional compo...
ABSTRACT Increased frequency, severity and duration of drought events in arid and semi-arid regions (ASALs) of Kenyan increase scarcity in water and pastures that support livestock assets. This destabilizes the livelihood base dependent on livestock assets. Use of seasonal climate forecasts (SCFs) can provide early warning of the drought events and inform actions to reduce vulnerability of pastoral households to drought effects. This study assessed trends and severity of drought events, their...
ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to characterize stroke lesions and normal brain tissue in computed tomography (CT) images of Nigerian patients using statistical texture descriptors, and to identify the class of texture descriptor that is most suitable for computer-aided diagnosis of stroke. Non-contrast CT images of 164 stroke patients were obtained in contiguous slices from the base of the skull to the vertex from two private radiodiagnostic centres. Initially, two experienced radiologis...