The achievement of sustainable development in Kenya has been hindered by the prevalence of HIV. The effects of HIV on sustainable development have been given less academic attention. HIV prevalence prevents people from achieving good health and well-being, which then makes them unable to conduct activities that lead to sustainable economic growth. The paper found that the prevalence of HIV causes economic hardship, destroys human capital development and human resources by reducing life expectancy and increasing mortality rates. It was equally found that the prevalence of HIV undermines social stability and mobility, reduces economic investments, influences food insecurity and makes people vulnerable. The paper found that the prevalence of HIV reduces labor supply and productivity, increases the cost of health services, promote inequality and poverty. The paper found that the prevalence of HIV was caused by the failure to integrate religion, culture and science infrastructure to achieve a holistic treatment acceptance and adherence that would overcome all misconceptions people have towards the disease. The paper found that while science provides effective HIV treatments, religious and cultural perspectives often shape community attitudes toward the disease. It was found that engaging religious and cultural as well as health workers or health advocates can help reduce stigma and promote ART adherence by aligning treatment messages with faith-based principles. The paper found that the integration that incorporates religion, culture, and science into HIV interventions would promote a more inclusive healthcare system that respects diverse beliefs while ensuring evidence-based treatment is accessible and widely accepted. The study was conducted through a qualitative methodology. Data was collected from secondary sources that included published articles, books and occasional papers as well as reports. Collected data was interpreted and analyzed through document analysis techniques.

Every production day in Nigeria, and in other oil producing countries, millions of barrels of produced water is generated. Being very toxic, remediation of the produced water before discharge into environment or re-use is very essential. An eco-friendly and cost effective approach is hereby reported for remediative pre-treatment of produced water (PW) obtained from Nigerian oilfield. In this approach, Telfairia occidentalis stem extract-silver nanoparticles (TOSE-AgNPs) were synthesized, characterized and applied as bio-based adsorbent for treating the PW in situ. The nanoparticles were of average size 42.8 nm ± 5.3 nm, spherical to round shaped and mainly composed of nitrogen and oxygen as major atoms on the surface. Owing to the effect of addition of TOSE-AgNPs, the initially high levels (mg/L) of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and TSS of 607, 3.78 and 48.4 in the PW were reduced to 381, 1.22 and 19.6, respectively, whereas DO and COD improved from 161 and 48.4 to 276 and 19.6 respectively, most of which fell within WHO and US-EPA safe limits. Particularly, the added TOSE-AgNPs efficiently removed Pb (II) ions from the PW at temperatures between 25 ℃ to 50 ℃. Removal of TOSE-AgNPs occurred through the adsorption mechanism and was dependent contact time, temperature and dose of TOSE-AgNPs added. Optimal remediation was achieved with 0.5 g/L TOSE-AgNPs at 30 ℃ after 5 h contact time. Adsorption of Pb (Ⅱ) ions on TOSE-AgNPs was spontaneous and physical in nature with remediation efficiency of over 82% of the Pb (Ⅱ) ions in solution. Instead of discarding the stem of Telfairia occidentalis, it can be extracted and prepared into a new material and applied in the oilfield as reported here for the first time.

Introduction: Stenoses in the path of arteriovenous fistulas (AVF) for hemodialysis are a very prevalent problem and there is long experience in their treatment by percutaneous angioplasty (PTA). These procedures, however, involve non-negligible equipment requirements, exposure to radiation and intravenous contrast that are not beneficial for the patient and make their performance more complex. This study reviews our initial experience with Doppler ultrasound-guided angioplasty. Methods: Prospective cohort of patients with native AVF dysfunction due to significant venous stenosis treated by Doppler echo-guided PTA. AVF puncture, lesion catheterization, balloon localization and inflation, and outcome verification were performed under ultrasound guidance. Only one fistulography was performed before and another one after dilatation. As a control, the cases performed during the same period by the usual angiographic method were also collected. Results: Between February 2015 and September 2018, 51 PTAs were performed on native AVF, of which 27 were echogenic (mean age, 65.3 years; 63% male). The technical success rate was 96%. In 26% of cases, PTA was repeated due to residual stenosis after angiographic imaging. There were 7.3% periprocedural complications. 92% of the AVFs were punctured at 24 hours. Primary patency at 1 month, 6 months and 1 year was 100%, 64.8% and 43.6%, and assisted patency was 100%, 87.2% and 74.8%. There were no significant differences in immediate or late results with respect to angiographically guided AVF angioplasty. Conclusions: AVF-PTA can be performed safely and effectively guided by Doppler ultrasound, which simplifies the logistics required for its performance, although we still need to improve the capacity for early verification of the result with this imaging technique.

Phytomediation is an environmentally friendly green rehabilitation technology that is often incorporated with an application to improve calcium peroxide and phytohormones required for the growth of agricultural plants with the expectation to improve the effectiveness of plant rehabilitation. This study mainly consists of two parts: (1) water culture experiment and (2) pot culture experiment. In the water culture experiment, we attempt to understand the influence of the addition of calcium peroxide, phytohormones (IAA and GA₃) and a chelating agent on the growth of sunflower plants. However, in the pot culture experiment, when hormones and the chelating agent EDTA are introduced to different plant groups at the same time, if the nutrition in the water required by plants is not available, the addition of the hormone cannot negate the toxicity caused by EDTA. In terms of calcium peroxide, due to quick release of oxygen in water, this study fails to apply calcium peroxide to the water culture experiment.

When the pot culture experiment is used to examine the influence of hormones at different concentration levels on the growth of sunflowers, GA₃ 10^-8 M is reported to have the optimal effectiveness, followed by IAA 10^-8 M; IAA 10^-12 M has the lowest effectiveness. According to an accumulation analysis of heavy metals at different levels, GA₃ concentrates in leaves to transport nutrition in soil to leaves. This results in an excellent TF value of 2.329G of GA₃ than 1.845 of the control group indicating that the addition of the hormone and chelating agent to GA₃ increases the TF value and the chelating agent is beneficial to the sunflower plant. If we examine phytoattenuation ability, the one-month experiment was divided into three stages for ten days each. The concentration level of heavy metals in the soil at each stage dropped continuously while that of the control group decreased from 31.63 mg/kg to 23.96 mg/kg, GA₃ from 32.09 mg/kg to 23.04 mg/kg and EDTA from 30.65 mg/kg to 25.93 mg/kg indicating the quickest growth period of the sunflowers from the formation of the bud to blossom. During the stage, the quick upward transportation of nutrition results in quick accumulation of heavy metals; the accumulated speed of heavy metals is found higher than that of directly planted plants. This study shows an improvement in the effectiveness of the addition of hormones on plant extraction and when rehabilitation is incorporated with sunflowers with the beginning bud formation, better treatment effectiveness can be reached.

The potential of nanotechnology to improve human health, optimize natural resource utilization, and reduce environmental pollution is remarkable. With the ever-growing advancement in dentistry, one of the breakthroughs is using nanotechnology. Nanotechnology in periodontics has touched every aspect of treatment modality, from non-surgical therapy to implant procedures, including regenerative procedures. Understanding their mechanism plays a pivotal role in more efficient usage of nanotechnology, better treatment procedures, and eventually better outcomes. In this paper, we review the application of nanotechnology in periodontal therapy. We performed the search for papers in Scopus using the key words and phrases as follows: “nanodentistry”; “dentistry and nanotechnology”; “dentistry and nanoparticles”; “dentistry and nanomedicine”; “dentistry and nanorobots”. There were found 530 papers in total. Some papers belonged to two and more categories. It is revealed that the number of papers versus year does not follow any specific pattern, but the cumulative amount of papers versus year is fitted with the exponential regression. There were also selected papers using certain inclusion/exclusion criteria. Only the selected papers were analyzed. Nanomedicine is subjected to intensive studies nowadays. There are some promising results that will likely be implemented into praxis soon in the fields of medical diagnostics and clinical therapeutics. The appearance of nanotechnology can have a considerable impact on the treatment of periodontal diseases.