Narrow Results

This work investigated knowledge of garden egg farmers’ safe usage and application of pesticides in Southeast, Nigeria. The study adopted a mixed method approach involving structured interview and focus group discussion. The mean and percentage responses were obtained and ranked in ascending order of magnitude. The result shows that in a scale of 1-5, knowledge of reading labels on pesticide container with a mean rank of 1.482 is the lowest followed by safety storage with mean rank of 1.529 while the highest is the determination of the size of application area with a mean rank of 4.661. The key implication of the findings of this study in practice is that if garden egg farmers do not indulge in reading nor consider their safety and that of their family members, many people will be affected with pesticide residue. It is recommended that librarians will adequately educate the garden egg farmers on safe usage of pesticide and equally organise reading programmes for them to fulfil the philosophy and practice of librarianship.

DuPont Wins Pesticide Patent Lawsuit.

Australian Biotech Firms Face Financing Crisis.

Next GM Cotton Variety Promises Greater Pesticide Reductions.

Processing Industry Fueling China’s Agricultural Development.

Moratorium on GE Products Hurts NZ’s Biotech Sector.

AUSTRALIA – Australian Scientists in Stem-cell First.

AUSTRALIA – Australia's First SynCardia Total Artificial Heart Implant.

AUSTRALIA – First Patient Receives Gamma Knife Treatment in Australia.

AUSTRALIA – ADHD Pesticide Link Confirmed.

AUSTRALIA – Aged Garlic Extract can lower Blood Pressure.

CHINA – Chinese Scientists Discover Liver Cancer-prone Genes.

CHINA – Experts Find Gene Variants for Stomach, Gullet Cancer.

CHINA – China Publishes List of 33 Circulating Fake Medicines.

CHINA – Chinese Vaccine Shields against Hepatitis E.

INDIA – Genetic Cause of Gall Bladder Stones Found.

INDIA – Obesity Surgery can Reverse Metabolic Complications.

INDIA – Japanese Encephalitis on Rise in India.

NEW ZEALAND – Rising Cases of Swine Flu in NZ.

SINGAPORE – New Hope for Women with Breast or Ovarian Cancer.

SINGAPORE – Singapore on Alert for Gene that Creates Superbugs.

SINGAPORE – NCCS to Lead Asian Phase III Clinical Trial for Colorectal Cancer.

SINGAPORE – A*STAR and Institut Mérieux/Biomérieux Invest S$3m in Tuberculosis Research.

SINGAPORE – International Conference on Bioengineering and Nanotechnology to Boost Interdisciplinary Research.

SINGAPORE – Scientists to Research Ways to Fight Infectious Diseases and Viruses.

TAIWAN – Chang Gung Team Develops New Brain Cancer Treatment.

TAIWAN – Taiwan, Canada Develop New Hepatitis C Screening Method.

Heterogenous photocatalysis is one of the promising methods of degradation of organic pollutants in the environment. This study developed a suitable and efficient method for photocatalytic degradation of Lambda-cyhalothrin LCY pesticide using Ce–ZnO nanocomposites under natural solar irradiation. Ce–ZnO was synthesized using the coprecipitation method and was ascertained through structural characterization. The crystal structure and crystallite size, surface morphology, functional groups present, and the elemental composition of the synthesized nanocomposites were determined by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDAX), respectively. The average crystallite size of the nanocomposites was found to be 31.42 nm. The photocatalytic degradation of LCY was conducted in batches to obtain and determine the optimal conditions for the degradation of the pesticide. It was found that at optimum conditions; 100 ppm LCY initial concentration, 20 mg dose of the photocatalyst, and 10–11 UV index, Ce–ZnO were found to degrade about 92% of the initial concentration of LCY after 3 h of exposure to solar irradiation. It was found that Ce–ZnO possesses high photocatalytic activity against LCY and the kinetic of the degradation was found to fit the pseudo-first-order kinetic model.