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National University of Lesotho
LS
3 researchers0 verified2 linked papers1,579 indexed citations
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2022 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 1,579 citations
Pharmaceutical pollution of the world’s rivers
Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the scale of the problem from a global perspective. Furthermore, comparison of the existing data, generated for different studies/regions/continents, is challenging due to the vast differences between the analytical methodologies employed. Here, we present a global-scale study of API pollution in 258 of the world's rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions. Samples were obtained from 1,052 locations in 104 countries (representing all continents and 36 countries not previously studied for API contamination) and analyzed for 61 APIs. Highest cumulative API concentrations were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and South America. The most contaminated sites were in low- to middle-income countries and were associated with areas with poor wastewater and waste management infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The most frequently detected APIs were carbamazepine, metformin, and caffeine (a compound also arising from lifestyle use), which were detected at over half of the sites monitored. Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7% of the sampling sites were greater than concentrations considered safe for aquatic organisms, or which are of concern in terms of selection for antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health, as well as to delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
2025 · Journal of Innovations in Educational Assessment · 0 citations
The Impact of Junior Secondary Basic Science on Senior Secondary Physics Outcome in Rivers State, Nigeria
The study investigated the impact of Basic Education Certificate Education (BECE), considering Basic Science as a predictor of Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) Physics performance in public secondary schools in Port Harcourt metropolis. The study employed both ex-post facto and correlational design. A sample of 593 students was employed for the study and purposive sampling technique was utilized to select the sample. The study was anchored on the Motivational Systems Theory of Academic Achievement. Three research questions and three corresponding hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data used for the study was collected directly from the examining bodies. The data obtained was analyzed using simple linear regression statistics. The findings of the study showed BECE Basic Science performance does not significantly predict SSCE Physics performance (R² = .001; β = 0.028, P > 0.05), accounting for only 0.1% of the variance in students' Physics scores. Gender-based analysis indicated that female students' BECE Basic Science performance had no significant predictive effect on SSCE Physics (R² = .004; β = -0.064, P > 0.05), explaining only 0.4% of the variance, while male students' BECE Basic Science scores also showed no significant prediction (R² = .005; β = 0.069, P > 0.05), explaining 0.5% of the variance. Based on these findings, it was recommended that the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) review the junior secondary Basic Science curriculum to incorporate more Physics-related content, ensuring early exposure to fundamental Physics concepts.