Petroleum hydrocarbon contamination is a major environmental challenge because of its persistence and adverse effects on soil quality and ecosystem functioning. This study evaluated the combined effects of brewer’s spent grain (BSG) biostimulation and Bacillus bioaugmentation on crude oil biodegradation in contaminated soil. The study was performed using standard microbiological and physicochemical procedures to assess the composition of BSG, soil properties, microbial populations, and petroleum hydrocarbon degradation during remediation. Soil microcosms were amended with 1
Access to sustainable and clean energy remains a major challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, where energy poverty contributes to environmental degradation and constrains socioeconomic development. In Uganda, especially Northern Uganda, many households still depend on firewood and charcoal. This study determined the prevalence of household access to renewable energy and identified its independent predictors in Northern Uganda. This was a community-based cross-sectional study among 634 households in Lira and Gulu Districts between April and May 2024. Households were selected using multistage cluster sampling, and data were collected using a researcher-administered questionnaire. Access to renewable energy was defined as household use of at least one renewable source, including electricity, solar, wind, or biogas. Data were analysed using multilevel logistic regression with a random intercept for cluster and cluster-robust standard errors. Adjusted odds ratios (AORs) with 95
The expansion of municipal solid waste in Uganda has been increasingly characterized by a surge in plastic waste. Consequently, this has led to severe plastic contamination at composting sites, where the progressive degradation of these materials introduces microplastics (MPs) directly into the compost. This study evaluated the abundance of microplastics in compost produced from 11 composting sites from Municipal Landfills in Uganda. The samples were collected in the dry season of June 2025 over two weeks. The MPs were extracted using an adapted wet peroxide oxidation protocol followed by density separation using saturated zinc chloride. The extracted MPs were analysed under a stereomicroscope with a ZEISS Axiocam 208 color camera connected to Labscope imaging software. The numerical data were analysed using Microsoft Excel (V. 2404) and SPSS (V. 20.0). A one-way ANOVA, followed by Tukey’s HSD while controlling the family-wise error rate at α = 0.05, was conducted to compare abundance across sites. The results indicated that the average abundance of MPs was 2100 ± 409.4 particles/kg for 11 sites. The fibre accounted for 54.98
In sub-Saharan Africa, the epidemiology of schistosomiasis, a waterborne parasitic disease, is often altered by environmental and land-use changes. In the upland area of Western Uganda, ongoing destruction of the Bugoma Forest is transforming many lotic freshwater habitats, potentially favouring intermediate hosts of schistosomes. We therefore undertook a longitudinal malacological monitoring study for Biomphalaria and Bulinus, keystone intermediate host snails, to describe actual or potential transmission of schistosomiasis. Starting in June 2023, snail sampling was conducted regularly, every other month, at nine sites for eighteen months, until October 2024. To bolster this, an analysis of satellite imagery of vegetation and land-use change over the previous 20 years was undertaken. At each inspection site water temperature, conductivity and pH were noted, alongside on-site observations of human and animal activities. Snails were identified by morphology, with inspection for shedding Schistosoma cercariae, which were later identified by molecular analysis. Mean water temperature, conductivity and pH were 23.5 °C (± 1.8), 235.0µS (± 81.7) and 6.9 (± 0.3), respectively. A total of 2524 Biomphalaria snails at seven sites and 422 Bulinus snails at one site were examined. Abundance of Biomphalaria snails was greater (p < 0.01) in sites where the forest had been cleared, with human encroachment evident. Schistosoma cercariae were shed from 0.4
Accurate determination of trace cadmium (Cd) in seawater and hypersaline brine is analytically challenging because high dissolved salt concentrations cause severe matrix interferences during graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS). This study developed and validated an environmentally sustainable, modifier-free, Zeeman corrected GFAAS method based on matrix-specific furnace temperature optimization for reliable cadmium determination in high-salinity waters. Drying, pyrolysis, and atomization temperatures were systematically optimized for artificial seawater (ASW) and artificial brine (ABW) using a one-variable-at-a-time approach. The optimized furnace program employed drying at 150 °C, pyrolysis at 800 °C, and atomization at 1400 °C for seawater and 1500 °C for hypersaline brine. Zeeman background correction and sample dilution were used to minimize matrix interference. Method performance was evaluated through calibration, recovery studies, detection limits, measurement uncertainty, and Green Analytical Procedure Index (GAPI) assessment. The optimized method demonstrated excellent linearity (R² > 0.999), with a limit of detection of 0.76 µg/L for seawater. External calibration combined with the optimized furnace program achieved recoveries between 85
