Abstract/Overview Fall armyworm (FAW) is a new invasive pest that causes economic damage to a wide variety of crops. This pest is estimated to reduce maize yields by about 60%. FAW could cause crop losses of up to US$13 billion annually across sub- Saharan Africa, threatening the livelihoods of millions of resource-poor farmers worldwide. Governments have warned against the indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides that could undermine pest control strategies for smallholder farmers who r...
Abstract/Overview Global food demand is expected to rise due to the population increase estimated to reach 9.5 billion by the year 2050. As a result, the available natural resources such as water sources and land will become scarce and overused. Indisputably, other sustainable food resources need to be identified and practised to solve the problem of food inadequacy. The world population will be encouraged to eat less consumed food resources. Edible insects have been identified as sustain...
Abstract The internet has become a basic requirement in the management of organizations today. If an organization wants to remain relevant at this time and age and retain its competitive edge it has to adopt the usage of the internet. One can hardly imagine a successful enterprise operating without an effective website, for its production, marketing, communication and other business operations. In as much as the internet is a good thing to the management of organizations operations, it has i...
Abstract first_pagesettingsOrder Article Reprints Open AccessArticle Woody Species Composition, Stand Structure and Regeneration Status of Londiani Forest in Kenya by Evalyne Kosgey Chepkoech 1,*,Humphrey Agevi 1,2ORCID,Henry Lung’ayia 1 andHarrison Mugatsia Tsingalia 1 1 Department of Biological Sciences, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST), Kakamega P.O. Box 190-50100, Kenya 2 Institute of Indigenous Knowledge, Cultural Studies and Climate Change, Masinde Muliro U...
Abstract Doum palm (Hyphaene compressa) is a perennial economic plant primarily growing in Kenya’s Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs). It is heavily relied upon for food, animal feed, construction materials and medicine, making it an ideal plant for resource sustainability. However, the limited information on its genetic resources has hindered its breeding and conservation studies. This study used the genotyping by sequencing approach to identify Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms. These SNPs w...
Abstract The metabarcoding of prokaryotic and fungal (Ascomycota only) ribosomal DNA was used to describe the microbial communities in soils of a remnant equatorial rainforest, maize–bean intercrop, and sugarcane in western Kenya. Cropping systems influenced the microbial community composition and functional traits (energy source and nutrient cycling) of bulk soil in each crop. Microbial richness and diversity tended to increase with cultivation intensity. The soil of the maize–bean inte...
Abstract Medicinal plants are widely used by the traditional healers to prevent or treat various human diseases since time immemorial due to the chemical substances found in them. The phytochemical constituents of most of these plants has not been determined hence the present study conducted at Kaptumo Division in Nandi County seeks to profile the phytochemicals found in medicinal plants namely: Kigelia africana (Lam.) and Benth, Ekebergia capensis Sparrm and Fagaropsis angolensis (Engl.) Da...
Abstract Utilization of herbal products is a major concern due to the possibility of contamination by toxigenic fungi that are mycotoxin producers such as Aspergillus species during processing and packaging. Research was carried out to determine the presence of aflatoxins and fumonisins in herbal medicinal products sold in Eldoret and Mombasa towns in Kenya. The study employed both exploratory and laboratory experimental design. The herbal products were purchased from the market and transpor...
Abstract Background. Giardia duodenalis causes sporadic or epidemic infections in humans. The parasite comprises assemblages A-H with A and B subdivided further into AI-IV and BI-IV subassemblages. Attempts aimed at linking these genotypes with sources and gastrointestinal manifestations of the infection are largely unexplored in rural communities. Methods. In this cross-sectional study, G. duodenalis infection was genotyped and associated with sources, and gastrointestinal signs and symptom...
Abstract In this paper, an application of the updated vector autoregresive model incorporating new information or measurements is considered. We consider secondary data obtained from the Kenya National Bureau of statistics, Statistical Abstract reports from 2000-2021 which is on monetary value marketed at current prices from crops, horticulture, livestock and related products, fisheries and forestry. A VAR(1) model is fitted to the data and then the model updated to incorporate the measureme...
Abstract Plasmodium falciparum infections remain among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in holoendemic transmission areas. Located within region 5q31.1, the colony-stimulating factor 2 gene (CSF2) encodes granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), a hematopoietic growth factor that mediates host immune responses. Since the effect of CSF2 variation on malaria pathogenesis remains unreported, we investigated the impact of two genetic variants in the 5q31.1 gene r...
Abstract Over the last decade major global efforts mounted to address the HIV epidemic has realized notable successes in combating the pandemic. Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) still remains a global epicenter of the disease, accounting for more than 70% of the global burden of infections. Despite wide spread use of various intervention strategies that act as mediation factors in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) prevention, HIV prevalence still remains a challenge especially in some geographic ar...
Abstract Odor from preferred/non-preferred tsetse fly vertebrate hosts have been exploited in R&D of attractants/repellents of the fly for human and livestock protection. Odors from vertebrate hosts of Glossina austeni and Glossina pallidipes tsetse flies can facilitate formulation of novel attractants effective against G. austeni or improvement of existing attractant blends for G. pallidipes. We compared vertebrate blood meal sources of both fly species at Shimba Hills National Reserve, Ken...
Abstract Changes in climate have led to shifts in weather patterns outside the normal range of variation over a given time period, attributed to either human action or natural causes. This has led to reduced precipitation, which consequently results in reduced water availability for farming in some seasons, hence the seasonal agricultural drought. This has greatly impacted smallholder farmers, lowering their agricultural productivity. This study was undertaken in Kakamega South Sub-County in...
Abstract The emergence of Covid-19 posed a great health challenge worldwide. Health care facilitieswere stretched beyond limit, with no space to admit new critical patients. This motivated thisstudy, which sought to understand the dynamics around queues, particularly in hospitals. Themain objective was to analyze the queuing process between the Emergency Department (ED)and Internal Wards (IW) at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, in order to understand patientflow with the view to minimizin...