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...
ABSTRACT Energy is globally recognized as one of the most fundamental inputs to social and economic development. Most energy sources are serious pollutants resulting to serious negative effects on the environment. To overcome this challenge, the presence of abundant sunshine has been exploited through the use of solar cells to generate this vital resource through photovoltaic cells. However most photovoltaic cells are silicon based photovoltaic cells which are expensive. This study reports o...
ABSTRACT More than two thirds of the earth is covered by water however, only 2.5% of all the water on earth is fresh. In Kenya, only 1.9% of land coverage is occupied by water, with more than 41% of the population lacking access to clean drinking water. A major risk arises from consumption of water containing high levels of fluorides or that contaminated with heavy metals. Conventional technologies such as reverse osmosis, ultra filtration and electro dialysis used in water remediation are e...
ABSTRACT The electrical characteristics of semiconductor thin films are of great practical interest in microelectronics industry hence the need to measure these parameters in a cheaper and faster manner possible. This study has embarked on design and fabrication of a simple, effective and portable computer-aided four point probe system for thin film sheet resistivity measurement. A four point probe head has been designed and fabricated from easily available materials. A relay switching devic...
ABSTRACT Marigat area, located in Baringo-Bogoria basin is a semi-arid part of the eastern Rift valley experiencing limited supply of potable water. Groundwater in this region is unexploited due to challenges of undefined nature of fault lines and presence of underground geysers. This study was carried out with the aim of investigating the groundwater potential and to characterise water bearing formation in Marigat area, Baringo County using resistivity method. Vertical electrical sounding (...
ABSTRACT Wastewater is known to contain microbes that are deleterious to human health. Epidemiological reports show that wastewater associated disease outbreaks are common around the world. This suggests that wastewater must be processed carefully before release into natural waters and the environment. The purpose of this study was to determine the total bacterial load and microbial types in Dandora Sewage Treatment Plant (DSTP) and its handling capacity in terms of pathogen removal. In addi...
Abstract In this work we apply a finite volume discretization technique based on a relaxation scheme to simulate the morphological evolution of the topography as a result of a dam break, that causes flooding downstream of the breach location. The considered mathematical model comprise of shallow water equations coupled with the bed updating equation which is modified to account for sediment entrainment process. Thus the model comprises a set of highly nonlinear hyperbolic partial differentia...
ABSTRACT Groundwater is an important natural resource used for drinking by many people globally, especially in rural and peri-urban areas, but this resource cannot be sustainably used unless its quality is ascertained. Urbanization and the increasing population growth in the Thiririka Sub Catchment has put increasing pressure on natural resources and social services such as housing, water supply and sanitation, education and health facilities in the Sub Catchment. This increased in demand, c...
ABSTRACT Dengue virus infection is one of the major global public health problems. It is caused by one of the four dengue virus (DENV) serotypes that are transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. Following infection, an individual remains vulnerable to re-infection with a different serotype of the DENV. The infection usually occurs with clinical manifestations ranging from an asymptomatic or mild febrile illness as classical dengue fever to the potentially life-threatening illness, dengue hemorrhagic...