1,720,955 research outputs found
Heavy Metal Contamination in Green Leafy Vegetables Irrigated with Wastewater Collected from Harar Town Vegetable Farm, Ethiopia
Get PDFFood safety issues are of growing concern to consumers globally because of the risks associated with consumption of foods contaminated with heavy metals. In Harar town, Kebele 05 vegetable farm is known to produce vegetables irrigated with wastewater. To what extent these vegetables are contaminated with heavy metals was not known. Thus, a laboratory based cross sectional study was conducted from October 2016 to January 2017 to assess the extent of heavy metal contamination of vegetables. Accordingly, a total of 72 samples from four leafy vegetables namely lettuce (Lactuca sativa), spinach (Spinacea oleracea), kale (Brassica carinata)) and cabbage (Brassica oleracea) were determined. Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd), and Chromium (Cr) concentration was determined using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. In all the vegetables, the mean concentrations of Pb, Cd and Cr were 0.17, 0.62 and 1.78 mg/kg, respectively in all vegetables. Cd was found in level more than the maximum limit recommended by FAO/WHO but the level of lead was within the normal range for all vegetables. Chromium was found also within the normal range in all vegetables except in lettuce. The findings of this study have important information on the implications of public health by sequestration of heavy metals to these leafy vegetables then to among vegetable consumers of Harar town and the surroundings. Thus, it is recommended that the concerned public health authorities need to create awareness in the community and discouraging the use of untreated wastewater for cultivating vegetables. Keywords: Contamination, Heavy metal, Vegetables, Wastewater DOI: 10.7176/FSQM/94-03 Publication date: February 29th 202
Microbiological Quality of Leafy Vegetables Irrigated with Wastewater in Harar Town Vegetable Farm, Eastern Ethiopia
Get PDFFood safety issues are of growing concern to consumers globally because of the risks associated with consumption of foods contaminated with pathogenic microbes. Harar town vegetable farm is known to produce vegetables irrigated with wastewater. To what extent these vegetables are contaminated with pathogenic microbes was not known. The study was aimed to examine the extent of microbial contamination of vegetables. Thus, a laboratory based cross sectional study was conducted from October 2016 to January 2017. Accordingly, a total of 72 samples from four leafy vegetables namely lettuce (Lactuca sativa), spinach (Spinacea oleracea), kale (Brassica carinata) and cabbage (Brassica oleracea) were examined. The results revealed that the mean values in all vegetables were 9.5x107 CFU/g for total aerobic mesophilic bacterial count, 4.3x106 CFU/g for total coliform and 4.6x105 CFU/g for fecal coliform count. All the mean values exceeded the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods recommended levels for leafy vegetables. These leafy vegetables were also examined for some pathogenic bacteria (Salmonella, Shigella and Campylobacter species) and infective parasitic stages (Ascaris lumbricoides eggs, Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia lamblia cysts). Salmonella, Shigella and Campylobacter species were isolated in 12.5%, 9.7% and 2.8%, respectively, of all vegetables. Ascaris lumbricoides eggs was the predominant (43.5%) intestinal parasitic stage detected in the present study, followed by Entamoeba histolytica (25%) and Giardia lamblia cysts (15.3%). The findings of this study have important information on the implications of public health by transmission of pathogenic bacteria and infective parasitic stages among vegetable consumers of Harar town and the surroundings. Thus, it is recommended that the concerned public health authorities need to create awareness in the community and discouraging the use of untreated wastewater for cultivating vegetables. Keywords: Parasites, Pathogenic bacteria, Vegetables, Wastewate
USE AND MANAGEMENT OF MEDICINAL PLANTS BY THE PEOPLE OF JABITEHNAN WOREDA, WEST GOJJAM, AMHARA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA
Get PDFAround 80% of the people of Ethiopia are estimated to be relying on medicinal plants for the treatment of human and cattle ailments. The purpose of this study was to collect, identify and document ethno-medicinal plants and associated indigenous knowledge of communities of the study area. Ethno-medicinal data were collected by using semi-structured interview, focus group discussion and direct field observation. To analyze data, descriptive statistics such as percentage and frequency were employed. Moreover, informant consensus factor, fidelity level and preference ranking, independent sample t-test, ANOVA and Jaccard’s similarity index were computed. Results show that a total of 82 medicinal plant species distributed among 46 families and 76 genera were collected and documented from the study area as traditional medicine for the treatment of 63 diseases of humans and livestock; of the 82 medicinal plant species, 63 plant species (76.83%) were employed as remedies for human, 10 plant species (12.20%) for livestock, and 9 plant species (10.98%) for both human and livestock remedies. Family wise Asteraceae consisted of the largest number of species. Herbs were dominant growth forms followed by shrubs and trees. Leaves were found to be the most frequently used plant parts followed by roots and seeds. The popular method of preparation was crushing 27(30.00%). Oral administration was the most widely used route of application of remedies, 106 (65.86%). Analysis of Similarity index between the three surveyed kebeles showed that communities of the area have more or less closer indigenous knowledge. Knowledge about medicinal plants was found to be affected by gender, age and educational level. The main threatening factors of medicinal plants were agricultural expansion and over-harvesting. In order to conserve substantial amount of traditional medicinal plants and knowledge, awareness on conservation of medicinal plants should be given to the locals
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
- …
