ABSTRACT There is growing awareness about the efficacy of essential elements in the maintenance of good health and prevention of diseases. Zinc plays a vital role in wound healing, immune system, reproductive system and nervous system. Zinc wades off oxygen free radicals and also aid in metabolism of carbohydrates by assisting insulin to function. Chromium lowers blood sugar and also works with insulin in metabolization of sugar, while copper is required for conversion of body’s Fe into ha...
ABSTRACT Details of the Earth’s subsurface are largely obscured because it’s difficult to make direct observation of the Earth’s subsurface. Geophysical exploration methods, however, provide a means of remotely examining the Earth’s subsurface. This study therefore seeks to image for geothermal prospects in Arus-Bogoria area using Magnetotelluric (MT) and Transient Electromagnetic (TEM) methods. MT method has the greatest exploration depth whereas TEM has the best resolution at shall...
ABSTRACT Scelerocarya birrea is an important fruit tree that is widely used by the rural populations in most regions in which it is found, for its fruits, bark, timber, and even its roots. Studies have shown that the tree has the potential to boost nutrition, health and income security in Africa. However, the local communities harvest the tree products from the wild with minimal attempts to grow it on-farm. The sustainability of such wild harvests is threatened by agriculture, overgrazing, a...
ABSTRACT Parasitic weeds are a serious problem in agricultural production, causing large crop losses in many parts of the world and particularly Africa. One of the most economically important parasitic weed is Striga. Striga weed is considered to be the greatest biological constraint to food production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This genus includes races; Striga hermonthica, S. asiatica, S. gesnerioides, S. aspera and S. forbesii that are considered to be most harmful to crops. Striga herm...
ABSTRACT Tsetse flies (Glossina spp.) are serious vectors of trypanosome parasite, threatening over 60 million people with Human African Trypanosomosis (sleeping sickness) and 45-50 million cattle with Animal African Trypanosomosis (Nagana) annually in the sub-Saharan Africa. It is estimated that 50,000-100,000 people and 3 million cattle die from trypanosomosis annually. Studies on vaccine development for parasite control have proved unsuccessful due to antigenic variations of the parasite....
ABSTRACT Research was carried to explain the variation in the hydrological characteristics of river Nyakomisaro and its effect on water supply in the Kisii Municipality. The study determined the variability in rainfall and river discharge in the Nyakomisaro sub Catchment, established the relationship between rainfall and streamflow in the sub catchment, examined the extent for which River Nyakomisaro water was used in supplying water to the Kisii Municipality and examined the streamflow mana...
ABSTRACT Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for high tuberculosis cases that result from widespread HIV infections, which is exacerbated by injection substance use. Immunologically, HIV critically impairs cell-mediated host responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. IFN-γ, IL-10 and Acrp30 are key mediators of systemic inflammation. Although circulating IFN- and IL-10 levels are increased, Acrp30 levels are lowered and associated with disease severity among HIV and TB co-infected non-susbstance u...
ABSTRACT Gasification technology has failed to take off in a number of developing countries including East Africa despitebeing the most efficient way of converting biomass into energy. All countries in the Lake Victoria Basin (LVB) depend mostly on hydroelectric power for provision of modern energy. While hydropower is sensitive to climate change, gasification technology has a high potential for reducing biomass energy consumption while increasing access to electricity and clean cooking faci...
ABSTRACT Electronic weighing technology presents management with rapid, timely and accurate information that provides quick turnaround times for customers. Its popularity can be attested by its use in all the sectors of the industry. In fact, its spectrum of use spans from the traditional retail industry, to manufacturing and warehousing, to postal, health and transport industry. Ordinary microprocessor based weighing systems that utilize single point load cells, have a huge circuitry and he...
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 Study of electron impact excitation of autoionizing states of alkali metal atom is very important because it can explain the near threshold features observed in the ionization curves of these atoms. Many theoretical methods, for example, R-matrix, close coupling and distorted wave methods have been used for this study. In the distorted wave method no calculations have been performed for electron impact- excitation of cesium atom using complex distortion potential. That is why in thi...
ABSTRACT Malaria remains the most important public health problem in the tropics. Each year, about 500,000,000 and 2,700,000 malaria cases and related deaths, respectively, are reported globally with Africa accounting for 90%. In Kenya, more than 4 million people are infected annually, the majority being children under five years and pregnant women. The disease is caused by parasites in the genus Plasmodium and is transmitted through bites of infected female anopheline mosquito. It is the mo...
ABSTRACT Maize is ranked the third most important cereal under global cultivation after wheat and rice. It is valued for food, fiber, feed and for bio fuel production. However the gap between maize demand and regional supply is increasing as small-holder farmers grapple with many challenges, key among them drought. Thus, research in identifying maize lines that are tolerant to water deficit and that are amenable to A. tumefaciens-mediated transformation is a step towards enhancing food secur...
ABSTRACT Maize farming, though successful in some parts of Africa is greatly hampered by the post harvest handling procedures. Resource farmers in developing countries like Kenya use different plant materials to protect stored grains against pest infestation by mixing grains with protectants made up of plant products. Dry ground plant material, were tested for their activity against the maize weevil; Sitophilus zeamais; (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). All showed no reasonable protectant ability...