ABSTRACT Polyethylene (PE) bags have become the most widely used plastic commodity due to the fact that they are light and have good barrier properties against water and water – borne organisms. The energy requirements for their production as compared to other materials are much lower and the effluents emitted during manufacture of PE compared to paper bags (from trees) are much lower. They are however non-biodegradable and hence are one of the top environmental pollutants. Environment fri...
ABSTRACT Six samples were generated by mixing the flours (AYB+ maize composite) with graded levels of defatted coconut flour (100:0, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40, 50:50), sugar, salt, sorghum malt extract and water. Breakfast cereals were produced by roasting (280°C) -a dry heat treatment process to gelatinize and semi-dextrinize the starch in order to generate dry ready to eat products from blends of African yam bean (Sphenostylis stenocarpa), maize (Zea mays) and defatted coconut (Cocos nuc...
ABSTRACT Pesticides have been used intensively in tomato growing activities for pests and fungal control. However, health concerns have been reported as a result of pesticides use. This study was conducted to assess pesticides application practices and residues levels in harvested tomatoes grown in Kilolo District. Seventy-one farmers (about 12%) were interviewed using structured interview schedules and 40 (about 6.8%) tomato samples were taken from 40 farmers for laboratory analysis. Data ...
ABSTRACT Flours were produced from unripe plantain fruit, okara, and Detarium microcarpum and analysed for selected properties. Plantain flours were supplemented with 5% levels of Detarium microcarpum and okara flours as dietary fiber sources and the effect on blood glucose and serum cholesterol levels of albino rats evaluated using bioassay. Plantain flour showed the highest (p
ABSTRACT Despite the intensification in malaria control interventions, malaria still remains a major public health problem in malaria-endemic settings. Asymptomatic infections that largely remain undetected act as a reservoir of transmission jeopardizing the current control efforts. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of asymptomatic malaria infection, anaemia and submicroscopic parasitaemia in individuals of Korogwe District, a malaria-endemic setting in north-eastern Tanz...
ABSTRACT An increasing number of women worldwide are using some form of contraceptive drugs for family planning including combined oral contraceptives (COC). However, the use of COC has been associated with some adverse effects such as anemia and impaired energy metabolism in some users. A cross-sectional study was, therefore, carried out to investigate the effect of vitamin B6 supplementation on plasma glucose tolerance, hemoglobin levels and body weight using experimental mice model. Forty...
ABSTRACT Mosquito-borne viruses cause emerging and re-emerging infections affecting humans and animals. These diseases present themselves mainly with fever. The present study aimed at determining socio-demographic and clinical characteristics among febrile patients, and detection of selected mosquito-borne viruses circulating in Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus. Using a hospital-based cross-sectional descriptive study design, in total 400 febrile patients were recruited after consenting into...
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...