Archives-February 2013

Copper is one of the essential trace nutrients in all high plants and animals. But it can be toxic in high concentration. In this study a Copper resistant bacteria, Bacillus pumilus was isolated from Marine water. A multi-step response surface methodology was successfully applied for the maximum removal of Cu(II) from the aqueous solutions using the live bacteria to optimize the following factors : pH of the solution(3.50-5.50), concentration of the copper solution(15-50mg l^-1), incubation time (14-46 hours) and to evaluate the effects and interactions of process variables. Based on the statistics analysis the optimum conditions were obtained from pH=6.18, copper concentration=32.50mg l^-1 of the media, contact time=30 hours and the copper removal was 60.264%. The higher value coefficient of determination (R²=0.9991) justified an excellent correlation between the process parameters. Finally the difference between the theoretical value and statistical value was very low.

In this article we apply Moore- Penrose generalised inverse method to solve a fully fuzzy linear system. By this method we obtain the solution of fully fuzzy linear system of equations in the case of Trapezoidal fuzzy number matrices. A numerical example is also given.

When I was still a teenager, in my fourteens, my father called me to his watch-making workshop, sat me down on the top of his lap swinging to the left and to the right along with the tick-tack’s sound of the grandfather clock’s pendulum coming from the furthest corner of the room.

Ambient (outdoor) air pollution is now recognized as an important problem, both nationally and internationally. Air pollution is harming our health and that of our children and parents. The young and old are particularly vulnerable to the effects of air pollution. Air pollution causes many harmful effects, ranging from premature death, to headaches, coughing and asthma attacks. But it is easy to forget that we are contributing to the air pollution as we drive our vehicles, or potentially harmful pollutants spew out of the chimneys of huge factories, We think that pollutants simply blow away, but under some conditions they may be inhaled, minutes or hours later. That is we are careless about air pollution and its impact on health. The need of the hour is to ensure that our air is clean for us and for our future generations, we need to reduce emissions of pollutants into the air. Government bodies develop regional air plans and education programs aimed at reducing pollution, central government is developing vehicle emissions standards, national environmental standards and new fuel regulations to monitor and keep the air pollution under control and improve the quality of air.

Ecological problems created by chemical insect control methods and their relevance to human health are receiving serious attention everywhere. Various pathogens, including viruses, protozoa, fungi and nematodes can be used to regulate pest population. Biological control of pests and vectors has been studied to a limited extent for many years with several notable successes, of which microbiological control is one aspect. The development of insecticide resistance in pest and vector population, the damage caused to non-target organisms and the realization of other environmental hazards of chemical insecticides have led to an increasing interest in biological, including microbiological control methods. Biopesticides are very effective in the agricultural pest control without causing serious harm to ecological chain or worsening environmental pollution. There is a requirement to develop alternatives to chemical pesticides for crop protection, due to the evolution of pesticide resistance in some pest species and concerns about the safety of chemical residues. One solution is the use of biopesticides (pest control agents based on living organisms) as an alternative in food production. The aim of this paper was to improve understanding of the environmental and regulatory sustainability of biopesticides as alternatives to chemical pesticides for crop protection. This paper reports on categories of biopesticides, biological control of aflatoxin, production of biopesticides using engineering techniques and its development.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of entrepreneurial factors namely; financial, psychological and social factors on women entrepreneurs in Kenya. This has been achieved through addressing five specific objectives namely; examine the effects of financial factors on women entrepreneurs in Eldoret Municipality, establish the influence of psychological factors on women entrepreneurs in Eldoret Municipality, determine the effect of sociological factors on women entrepreneurs in Eldoret Municipality, examine if experience influences significantly women entrepreneurs in Eldoret Municipality and determine if education level influences significantly women entrepreneurs in Eldoret Municipality. The study sampled 184 businesses owned by women out of the targeted population of 424 registered women MSMEs in Eldoret Municipality’s records. The sample was arrived at using stratified sampling at first to categorize businesses into; micro, small and medium enterprises. Proportionate simple sampling was carried out to select a representative of each group and finally random sampling was done to get required respondents. 156 responses were recorded representing 85% of the sample. The study was the survey design that involved descriptive and inferential statistics in the process of addressing its objectives. This method of investigation was found appropriate since it could provide in-depth information on the effects of entrepreneurial factors on women entrepreneurs in Eldoret municipality.

A Goodman-Ronning type class of multivalent harmonic functions involving Dziok-Srivastava operators with respect to k-symmetric points is studied. An equivalent convolution class condition and a sufficient coefficient condition for this class is obtained. It is proved that this coefficient condition is necessary for its subclass. As an application of coefficient condition, a necessary and sufficient hypergeometric inequality is also given. Further, results on bounds, extreme points, a convolution property and a result based on the integral operator are obtained.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, forest goods and services are extremely important for rural livelihoods, providing food, medicine, shelter, fuel and cash income. However, the national statistics on the contribution of forest products to the country’s economy are extremely poor. This study seeks to evaluate the economic contribution of fuel wood to the livelihood of rural households in Ibarapa Central LGA of Oyo State. Sixty copies of questionnaires were administered to rural households in six randomly selected villages from the LGA. Descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentages were used to describe the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents while regression analysis was used to analyse the factors influencing the economic growth among the fuel wood traders in the study area. The findings indicated that fuel wood business is a very lucrative job in the study area judging from the rate of profit realized from the business because for every N1 spent in the sale of fuel wood by the respondents in the study area, 70 kobo was realized as profit. This is so due to an active involvement of family labour in the business which drastically reduces the cost that might have been incurred if such labour is hired.

It is a perennial softwood tree with timber of low quality, but which for centuries has been advocated for traditional medicinal and industrial uses Moringa Oleifera is an ideal plant to promote at the household level because it is extremely resilient to harsh growing environments, including drought, poor soil quality and many pests and diseases. It is a complete food in itself. Everything about the moringa oleifera is nutritious. You can eat the cooked leaves, shoots, pulp and seeds. This study seeks to determine the profitability of Moringa oleifera production with a particular reference to the socio economic characteristics of the farmers in the study area. The area covered by this study is Isokan Local Government Area of Osun state. Data for this study were collected from primary source. primary data were colleted using structured questionnaires. A combination of analytical tools were employed. They include descriptive statistics such has mean. frequency and distribution, percentages, budgetary analysis and Tobit model. This study therefore recommends that more technologically improved methods of processing, packaging and preservations should be adopted and encouraged for economic efficiency.

Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is chronic and appalling. Now-a-days it is the most prevalent disease affecting the world’s population. PUD is the main reason for morbidity and mortality in 50% of world’s working population. The pathophysiology of peptic ulcer disease is best viewed as an imbalance between mucosal defense factors (bicarbonate, mucin, prostaglandin, nitric oxide, and other peptides and growth factors) and injurious factors (acid and pepsin)³. Review of Literature suggests that the presence of tannins, flavonoids, Alkaloids, saponins, terpenoids, and steroids is responsible for antiulcerogenic activity. Preliminary Phytochemical investigation of aqueous and ethanolic extracts from bark powder of symplocos racemosa (SR) reveals the presence of tannins, carbohydrates, proteins, alkaloids and steroids .Hence the present study aims at pharmacological evaluation of anti ulcer activity of  SR (symplocaceae) in experimentally induced (pylorus ligation and Aspirin-induced) ulcers in rat models. LD₅₀ was found to be 2000mg/kg body weight, so, the therapeutic doses 250mg/kg and 500mg/kg were selected for both the extracts (alcoholic and ethanolic). Considering the parameters like p^H , gastric volume, free acidity, total acidity and ulcer index (percentage protection) we concluded that aqueous extract 500mg/body weight was equipotent to  the  standard (lansoprazole-8mg/kg body weight). The same results was reflected by statistical analysis (one way ANOVA  p<0.05) and histopathological study.