The Effect of Rehabilitation on Nutritional Status of Alcohol Dependent Males in Nairobi, Kenya

Background: Habitual alcohol consumption leads to alcohol dependency which is associated with significant nutritional, medical, economical, and social risks. This has become a major public health issue globally both in developed and developing countries. The main objective of the study was to determine the effect of rehabilitation on nutritional status of alcohol dependent males in Nairobi Place and Mathari hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. Methodology: This was an experimental (Pre-post) study design of 57 rehabilitated alcohol dependent males recruited for the study within one week of admission and re-assessed after four weeks. Semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect data on social-demographic characteristics. A food frequency questionnaire was used to collect information on food consumed. Chi-square test of association, T-test and multivariate logistic regression were employed in the analysis. All the analysis was done using SPSS V.16.0 for windows and results were considered significant at 5% ?- level. Results: The proportion of under-nutrition before and after rehabilitation at Nairobi place was 10% and 5% respectively (?2=0.604, p=0.865). Mathari had 16.2% and 8.1% underweight before and after rehabilitation respectively (?2=1.349, p=0.592). In the first encounter Nairobi place and Mathari hospital, nutrient inadequacies were high in vitamin C at 80% and 61.9%; zinc at 67.4% and 79.8%; folate at 80% and 49.7% respectively. In the second encounter Nairobi place provided food with adequate nutrients while Mathari hospital food was inadequate in folate, Vitamin A and Vitamin C at probabilities of 100%, 100%, and 93% respectively. Socio-demographic characteristics and diseases were not significantly associated with under nutrition (p>0.05). Conclusion: Alcohol was the cause of under-nutrition in both centers as other factors were not significantly associated with under-nutrition. Rehabilitation play a role in the nutrition status and recovery of alcohol dependent males. The Government and program managers need to consider and place emphasis nutrition in alcohol and drug rehabilitation programs. Keywords: Alcohol dependence, Rehabilitation, Nutritio

The Growth Resources Enhancing Lipids for Bio-diesel Production in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

The growth of the microalgae can be enhanced by optimizing the resources which will boost its growth rate and lipid yield. These resources include growth conditions and nutrient concentration and availability. This study sought to determine the effect of the growth resources of light, photoperiod, carbon dioxide and urea concentration and nitrogen limitation on growth rate and lipid production in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Screening and isolation of the alga was carried out from samples collected from the Nairobi Dam and grown in Modified Bold’s Basal Media. Various isolates of algae were collected and C. reinhardtii was chosen as the candidate species. The results indicated an optimum growth at light intensity of 240 µmol m-2 s-1 in an 18-hour photoperiod. The yield data on biomass of the alga grown at this photoperiod had a mean dry weight of 53.5±1.29g after a 3 week growth period while a 6-hour photoperiod recorded 25±1.09g translating to daily increase of 2.5g/day and 1.2g/day respectively. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii showed a tolerance response of 15% CO2 concentration and a robust growth in urea of 2.4g/l, giving lipid yield of 4.9ml/g of the dry weight. Growth in 1.2g/l of urea also gave a yield of 5ml/g of dry weight. The alga grown in 100gms of nitrogen gave a lipid yield of 0.592g of in contrast to 0.102g for those grown in 250gms.These results showed that by optimizing these growth resources a higher biomass density and lipid yield for bio-diesel production can be obtained from this alga. Keywords: Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, lipids, growth resources

Evaluation of a modified multipurpose cassava processing machine for size reduction

The production of cassava (Manihot esculenta) is considered an important alternative to a reduction in food scarcity around the world. Kenya is rapidly gaining prominence due to the declining production of staple foods, especially maize and wheat. Though still considered a poor man’s food, the usage of cassava has greatly diversified in terms of both industrial and domestic applications. This coupled with the introduction of improved varieties and better farming options calls for innovative ways of handling the increasing volumes of fresh cassava tubers to minimize post-harvest losses. One of the important postharvest processes is size reduction which is achieved by either chipping or grating. Improved production methods alone are not adequate to solve the issues of field losses in cassava production. Factors affecting the efficiency of size reduction operation include operator experience, disc type, disc speed, cutting clearance and moisture content. Conventionally, this has been done manually but due to the inherent problems, the use of machines is being encouraged through the development and adoption of chipping/grating machines. In this study, the machine developed was dual-powered and allowed conversion from a chipper to a grater and vice versa as need be. It has a capacity of 162.15kg/h and 81.62 kg/h when chipping and grating respectively. The chipping process consumed less power averaging 0.0034 kW/kg compared to 0.0075 kW/kg used in the grating and these chips dried faster than manually worked cassava. Keywords: Cassava, post-harvest, chipping, grating, dual power DOI: 10.7176/ISDE/13-1-06 Publication date:June 30th 202

IMMIGRANT YOUTH LEADERSHIP IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SPORT PARTICIPATION IN A NEW COUNTRY

The purpose of the study was to explore how immigrant youth develop leadership identity through sport participation in a new country. A purposive sample of 15 immigrant and refugee youth participating in a local sport club in the southeastern United States was selected for the study. All of the participants were male; ranged in age from 13 to 18 years old. The country of origin for one was Mexico, while the remaining 14 came from eight different countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This instrumental case study involved in-depth interviews twice with each participant and a group interview with all of them. The researchers used several strategies to establish credibility, including adherence to IRB guidelines for human subjects’ research. Inductive analyses yielded two major categories with several themes for each; (a) sport participation, and (b) leadership skills. Findings related to these themes led to several implications for schools, community-based organizations, and sport clubs that provide programs for immigrant and refugee youth.  Article visualizations

Evaluation of a Modified Multipurpose Cassava Processing Machine for Size Reduction

The production cassava (Manihot esculenta) is considered an important alternative to reduction in food scarcity around the world. In Kenya, it is rapidly gaining prominence due to the declining production of staple foods, especially maize and wheat. Though still considered a poor man’s food, the usage of cassava has greatly diversified in terms of both industrial and domestic applications. This coupled with the introduction of improved varieties and better farming options calls for innovative ways of handling the increasing volumes of fresh cassava tubers to minimize post-harvest losses. One of the important postharvest processes is size reduction which is achieved by either chipping or grating. Improved production methods alone are not adequate to solve the issues of field losses in cassava production. Factors affecting the efficiency of size reduction operation include operator experience, disc type, disc speed, cutting clearance and moisture content. Conventionally, this has been done manually but due to the inherent problems, use of machines is being encouraged through the development and adoption of chipping/grating machines. In this study the machine developed was dual powered and allowed conversion from a chipper to grater and vice versa as need be. It has a capacity of 162.15kg/h and 81.62 kg/h when chipping and grating respectively. The chipping process consumed less power averaging 0.0034kW/kg compared to 0.0075 kW/kg used in the grating and these chips dried faster than manually worked cassava. Keywords: Cassava, post-harvest, chipping, grating, dual power DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/13-8-03 Publication date:May 31st 202

A computer-based medical record system and personal digital assistants to assess and follow patients with respiratory tract infections visiting a rural Kenyan health centre

BACKGROUND: Clinical research can be facilitated by the use of informatics tools. We used an existing electronic medical record (EMR) system and personal data assistants (PDAs) to assess the characteristics and outcomes of patients with acute respiratory illnesses (ARIs) visiting a Kenyan rural health center. METHODS: We modified the existing EMR to include details on patients with ARIs. The EMR database was then used to identify patients with ARIs who were prospectively followed up by a research assistant who rode a bicycle to patients' homes and entered data into a PDA. RESULTS: A total of 2986 clinic visits for 2009 adult patients with respiratory infections were registered in the database between August 2002 and January 2005; 433 patients were selected for outcome assessments. These patients were followed up in the villages and assessed at 7 and 30 days later. Complete follow-up data were obtained on 381 patients (88%) and merged with data from the enrollment visit's electronic medical records and subsequent health center visits to assess duration of illness and complications. Symptoms improved at 7 and 30 days, but a substantial minority of patients had persistent symptoms. Eleven percent of patients sought additional care for their respiratory infection. CONCLUSION: EMRs and PDA are useful tools for performing prospective clinical research in resource constrained developing countries

Sustained release formulation of an anti-tuberculosis drug based on para-amino salicylic acid-zinc layered hydroxide nanocomposite

Background: Tuberculosis (TB), is caused by the bacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its a threat to humans since centuries. Depending on the type of TB, its treatment can last for 6-24 months which is a major cause for patients non-compliance and treatment failure. Many adverse effects are associated with the currently available TB medicines, and there has been no new anti-tuberculosis drug on the market for more than 50 year, as the drug development is very lengthy and budget consuming process.Development of the biocompatible nano drug delivery systems with the ability to minimize the side effects of the drugs, protection of the drug from enzymatic degradation. And most importantly the drug delivery systems which can deliver the drug at target site would increase the therapeutic efficacy. Nanovehicles with their tendency to release the drug in a sustained manner would result in the bioavalibilty of the drugs in the body for a longer period of time and this would reduce the dosing frequency in drug administration. The biocompatible nanovehicles with the properties like sustained release of drug of the target site, protection of the drug from physio-chemical degradation, reduction in dosing frequency, and prolong bioavailability of drug in the body would result in the shortening of the treatment duration. All of these factors would improve the patient compliance with chemotherapy of TB.Result: An anti-tuberculosis drug, 4-amino salicylic acid (4-ASA) was successfully intercalated into the interlamellae of zinc layered hydroxide (ZLH) via direct reaction with zinc oxide suspension. The X-ray diffraction patterns and FTIR analyses indicate that the molecule was successfully intercalated into the ZLH interlayer space with an average basal spacing of 24 Å. Furthermore, TGA and DTG results show that the drug 4-ASA is stabilized in the interlayers by electrostatic interaction. The release of 4-ASA from the nanocomposite was found to be in a sustained manner. The nanocomposite treated with normal 3T3 cells shows it reduces cell viability in a dose- and time-dependent manner.Conclusions: Sustained release formulation of the nanocomposite, 4-ASA intercalated into zinc layered hydroxides, with its ease of preparation, sustained release of the active and less-toxic to the cell is a step forward for a more patient-friendly chemotherapy of Tuberculosis

Seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies in Kenyan blood donors.

The spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Africa is poorly described. The first case of SARS-CoV-2 in Kenya was reported on 12 March 2020, and an overwhelming number of cases and deaths were expected, but by 31 July 2020, there were only 20,636 cases and 341 deaths. However, the extent of SARS-CoV-2 exposure in the community remains unknown. We determined the prevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin G among blood donors in Kenya in April-June 2020. Crude seroprevalence was 5.6% (174 of 3098). Population-weighted, test-performance-adjusted national seroprevalence was 4.3% (95% confidence interval, 2.9 to 5.8%) and was highest in urban counties Mombasa (8.0%), Nairobi (7.3%), and Kisumu (5.5%). SARS-CoV-2 exposure is more extensive than indicated by case-based surveillance, and these results will help guide the pandemic response in Kenya and across Africa