ABSTRACT Plastic pollution has recently gained global concern due to the negative effect it presents on both the environment and human health. In the environment, plastics degrade yielding millions of micro- and nano-scale plastic particles. The microplastics have the ability to adsorb organic pollutants, heavy metals, and micro-organisms in either the aquatic or terrestrial environments. The microplastics size range and ubiquity in the environment provides an easy pathway into the food chain...
ABSTRACT Completely positive maps is an important eld due to its signicance, application and mathematics itself. While discussing the properties of the positive maps, researchers have questioned whether the properties of the positive maps also hold for completely positive maps. In chapter 1, we have started with a C-algebra A, generated on A other C-algebras and then investigated these forms of C-algebras. We investigated whether the properties of A such as self-adjointedness and completeness...
ABSTRACT Inflation is increasingly becoming an important parameter that determines financial performance of central banks worldwide. Although many empirical studies have used time series and vector auto regression models to analyze inflation, very few studies have relied on the predictive ability of the logistic model which has a more intuitive interpretation for key issues such as drivers of inflation. The primary concern for every country is growing expectations about inflation which has re...
ABSTRACT Despite more than a century of efforts to eradicate and control malaria, it still remains a major risk to public health and economies of countries in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Control of malaria has been based on eradication of the vector, mosquito, by use of pesticides. In order to reduce malaria incidence, some African countries are re-introducing the banned dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), however, organophosphates are known to have far more immediat...
Abstract. This study is a critical review of theoretical issues that underline the linear mixed effects (LME) and nonlinear mixed effects (NLME) models. These two areas are revisited under maximum likelihood and restricted maximum likelihood estimation frameworks. We also review methods of estimating parameters in both linear and nonlinear mixed effects models. In the case of LME, we consider different ways of developing the likelihood estimators, key among these methods are the “pseudo-dat...
ABSTRACT The prevalence of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency and sickle cell trait (SCT) may vary within very close localities in malaria endemic areas due to dynamics in malaria incidence and demographics. Immunoglobulin-G (IgG) antibodies against Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) circumsporozoite protein (CSP) and apical membrane antigen-1 (AMA1) confer protection against malaria. Both G6PD deficiency and SCT increase resistance to Pf malaria and it is not well understood if this...
ABSTRACT Mineral data shows several deposits of copper and titanium minerals in Kenya yet the country continues to import copper and titanium products. In some regions of Tharaka Nithi County, occurs ores that are known to contain both copper and titanium minerals. These minerals have never been earmarked for extraction mainly because the common methods known for extraction are expensive. In addition, the hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgical process used in copper extraction releases green...
ABSTRACT The use of cloud computing has been growing exponentially since its inception. Availability of the cloud, however, has been a problem for users and Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) alike; outages have been on the rise. This problem could be attributed to the fact that engineers building Availability Mechanisms (AMs) and those studying outage causes do not work collectively. The general objective of the study was to develop and evaluate an availability mechanism model for service outage...
ABSTRACT Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) is one of the most neglected and under-utilized African legume with the potential to alleviate food insecurity and poverty in the tropical semi-arid regions of Africa. The crop is reported to be drought tolerant and produce reasonable yields in poor soils. However key morphological and physiological attributes that confer drought tolerance to different landraces is not well established. The main objective of this study was to assess t...
ABSTRACT Cancer has become a key public health affliction worldwide. Recent studies have shown that genetic factors cause only 5–10% of all human cancers, while the rest are caused by lifestyle. Epidemiological and clinical studies have shown that chronic inflammatory diseases predispose individuals to various types of cancer. An estimated 20 % of all cancer related deaths globally arise from primary infections and inflammation. Current treatments for cancer include radiotherapy, chemothera...
ABSTRACT Significant advancement achieved in the chemoprophylaxis and chemotherapy of malaria has been pivotal for eventual reduction of malaria prevalence. However, a major setback has been the emergence of resistance to antimalarial drugs. Towards the goal of curbing emergence of resistance, artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT), is now adopted by many countries as the first-line treatment for malaria. The recently reported cases of resistance to ACT in South East Asia (SEA), have r...
ABSTRACT Finger millet is one of the most important cereal crops in Kenya. It is staple food rich in minerals and vitamins required for good health. Finger millet is a hardy crop compared to other cereals and it is for this reason that its currently being promoted in efforts to address food security. Western Kenya soils are acidic and soil acidity is a serious problem that affects crop productivity in the region. County governments of Kakamega, Bungoma, Vihiga, Busia and Trans-Nzoia are promo...
Abstract This study set out to examine and map the spatial variation of infant mortality in Kenya. We used data from Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) database to explore spatial variation. Generalized linear mixed inodel(GLMM) with Enumeration Areas (EA) specific random effects was used to assess the effects of geographical heterogeneity and other covariates. The model based Geostatistical methods were used to quantify the spatial variations of the observations using the variograms and fit...
ABSTRACT Banks play signicant roles in a country's economy. For this reason many studies have been done on the management and general organization of banks. One such area is on queue management. It is common practice to see long queues of customers waiting to be served within the banking halls. Customers arrive at banking facilities randomly. Moreover, service time is also a random phenomenon. Currently, many institutions are moving away from single queue single server model to single queue-m...
ABSTRACT Contraception allows women and couples to have the number of children they want, when they want them. This is everybody’s right according to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Use of Contraceptive also reduces the need for abortion by preventing unwanted pregnancies. It therefore reduces cases of unsafe abortion,one of the leading causes of maternal death worldwide.According to Mohammed ,in 2012 an estimated 464,000 induced abortions occurred in Kenya. This translates ...