ABSTRACT The global prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased from 6.4% in 1980, 12% in 2008 to 39% in 2014. These statistics show rising prevalence of overweight among women of reproductive age in many regions including Sub-Sahara Africa. Studies indicate sub-optimal dietary intake, body dissatisfaction, less physical activity levels and increase of body weight at postpartum period as the main contributors. It is also emerging from research done mainly in western countries that Afr...
ABSTRACT Amoebiasis is a common life-threatening parasitic disease affecting 12% of the world population. It is the third leading cause of mortality due to parasitic infections worldwide, after malaria and schistosomiasis. It is estimated that about 500 million people are at risk of infection with amoebiasis yearly. In developed countries infection occurs among travelers, recent immigrants from endemic regions, homosexual males, immune-compromised persons and institutionalized individuals. In...
ABSTRACT Biomagnifications of toxic heavy metals to man through aquatic life occurs via industrial, runoff, agricultural, municipal and urban waste. Heavy metals such as lead (Pb), nickel (Ni) manganese (Mn) and cadmium (Cd) have World Health Organization (WHO) limits above which they are toxic. Some of the toxic effects include; reduced growth and development, cancer, damage to the nervous system, and in extreme cases death. Athi River,the second largest river in Kenya has its source in a de...
ABSTRACT During the last few decades analytical chemists and nutrition scientists have increasingly realized that total concentrations of chemical elements cannot give, in general, information about mobility, bioavailability, and the eventual impact of elements on biological organisms. Only the knowledge of the chemical species of the elements can provide an understanding of chemical and biochemical reactions, bioavailability, and subsequent paths of metabolism, thus leading to more informati...
Abstract Platonic solids are 3-dimensional regular, convex polyhedrons. Each of the faces are equidistant and equiangular to each other in any of the solids. They derive their name from the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato who wrote about them in his dialogue, the Timaeus as reported by Cornford (2014). The solids features have fascinated mathematicians for decades including the renown geometer, Euclid: In his Book XIII of the Elements, as rewrote by Heath et al. (1956), he successfully�...
Abstract The action of the symmetric group S5 on the cosets of its non-maximal subgroups is an aspect that seems to have received less attention for sometime. Most studies have infact looked on the action of symmetric group S5 on the cosets of its maximal subgroups leaving many properties about its action on non-maximal subgroups unknown. This project has therefore looked at the action of the symmetric group S5, on the cosets of some of its non-maximal subgroups. Namely; the cyclic grou...
ABSTRACT Salmonellosis is one of the most common and widely distributed group of enteric diseases in the world today. It causes high mortality and morbidity especially in developing countries. This study was aimed at identifying the factors that predispose people to salmonellosis. In addition the study was meant to isolate Salmonella, and determine its antimicrobial sensitivity and test the effectiveness of water treatment for the control of salmonellosis. To identify the predisposing factors...
ABSTRACT Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) is present in 36 sub-Saharan African countries. The disease is easier to treat in early stage than late stage when treatment with melarsoprol is responsible for significant fatality. Therefore there is need to develop a diagnostic test for early detection before progression of the disease into the late stage. Currently available tests have poor sensitivity. Thus highly sensitive methods are needed for the detection of the parasite in human blood. T...
ABSTRACT Medicinal plants have been used since time immemorial to treat and prevent human ailments. WHO indicates that up to 80% of the world’s population uses traditional medicine. Infections caused by bacteria and fungi have become a major health problem globally accounting for over 50,000 deaths every day. It is estimated that more than 70% of the pathogenic bacteria are resistant to at least one of the antibiotics commonly used to treat them. Conventional drugs are expensive and have s...
ABSTRACT Plastic materials, particularly polyethylene (PE) are the major source of environmental pollution. High density polyethylene (HDPE) is an essential industrial material in Kenya which is hard and non-biodegradable and hence persists in the environment for longer times. Wider application of HDPE in packaging and agriculture has raised serious issue of waste disposal and its pollution. In order to mitigate this, structural modification through blending with biopolymers is deemed to pro...
ABSTRACT Pollution of water bodies by heavy metals and biomass wastes is increasing as Kenya becomes industrialised. The conventional methods of cleaning wastewater are expensive. They include ion exchange, bio sorption, solvent extraction, precipitation among others. New and cheaper technologies are emerging that utilizes locally available biomass inform of activated carbon. The aim of this study was to determine the best carbonisation and activation conditions of temperature, time and phos...
ABSTRACT Soil is the natural basis for plants growth as it not only provides support, water and minerals, but also helps to aerate the roots for proper development. However, due to the ever-growing population, available land is becoming a challenge. Urbanization also leads to insufficient surface for food production, as the arable land is used for settlement. This has further been exacerbated by erratic climatic conditions. Due to such limitations, this has compelled other options to be cons...
ABSTRACT Proper management strategies for huge amounts of crop residue generated from agricultural farms need to be obtained. Composting is a good strategy in rice straw management. Traditional methods of composting rice straw are limited in timely production of good quality compost due to its recalcitrant nature. There is need to develop and formulate microbial starter cultures that are adapted to local climatic conditions to ensure efficiency in using microorganisms in composting. This st...
ABSTRACT The effect of inflation on the stock market has attracted many studies. Fisher theory postulates that the real rate of returns on common stocks do not depend on inflation, indicating that stocks should be independent of inflation. The studies have attempted to investigate how inflation affects the stock market and the studies have mainly used the aggregate stock market index. However, the use of aggregate indices may mislead on the actual performance of sector-specific indices. The ...
ABSTRACT Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are hazardous organic chemicals consisting of two or more aromatic rings. United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has identified 16 priority PAHs are carcinogenic and mutagenic. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that their levels not to exceed 50 ng/L in water. Nairobi city is the economic and industrial hub for Kenya with increasing industrialization and urbanization. This increase has led to water and air pollutio...