Abstract/Overview Background: Late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins are large groups of hydrophilic proteins with major role in drought and other abiotic stresses tolerance in plants. In-depth study and characterization of LEA protein families have been carried out in other plants, but not in upland cotton. The main aim of this research work was to characterize the late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) protein families and to carry out gene expression analysis to determine their potentia...
Abstract/Overview Cricket rearing is emerging as an important component of animal food. However, suitable housing for medium and large - scale production still presents a major challenge. This study sought to investigate the effect of housing on growth performance of two cricket species: Acheta domesticus and Gryllus bimaculatus. Both species were reared in the two housing systems used in the experiment; the tunnel unit and the prefabricated house. The crickets were fed on growers’ mash...
Abstract/Overview Solanum villosum is an important leafy vegetable in Kenya whose production faces low yields. Two potentially high leaf-yielding genotypes of S. villosum, T-5 and an octoploid have been developed. Field experiments were conducted at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology to evaluate the vegetative and reproductive growth characteristics and leaf nitrogen of the genotypes under varying N levels. The experiments were carried out as split plots in a randomize...
Abstract/Overview Background: Only a few studies to evaluate groundwater fluoride in Eastern Africa have been undertaken outsidethe volcanic belt of the Great Eastern Africa Rift Valley. The extent and impact of water fluoride outside theseregions therefore remain unclear. The current study evaluated fluoride levels in household water sources in Bondo-Rarieda Area in the Kenyan part of the Lake Victoria Basin (LVB) and highlighted the risk posed by waterfluoride to the resident communitie...
Abstract/Overview Food security is a major global concern. Food insecurity has insidious effects on the health and development of young children and consequently, adults. The paper assesses the food security status and its key determinants for the rural households of the arid lands of Isiolo in Kenya. A three stage sampling technique was used for respondents (56) selection. Data collected were: demographics, livelihood strategies, food security and livelihood assets. Descriptive and infer...
Abstract/Overview Nitrogen is a key macronutrient needed by plants to boost their production, but the development of cotton genotypes through conventional approaches has hit a bottleneck due to the narrow genetic base of the elite cotton cultivars, due to intensive selection and inbreeding. Based on our previous research, in which the BC2F2 generations developed from two upland cotton genotypes, an abiotic stress-tolerant genotype, G. tomentosum (donor parent) and a highly-susceptible, an...
Abstract/Overview Abstract The present study was conducted to investigate the growth performance of Acheta domesticus and Gryllus bimaculatus fed on different agro-byproducts. The experiment was carried out between February- July 2017 within Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology Insect Farm. Randomized Complete Block Design was used as the experimental design with four treatments: rice bran+ blood meal (RBBM), rice bran + spent grain (RBSG), & + rice bran + spent yea...
Abstract/Overview Food security is a major global concern. It has insidious effects on the health and development of young children and consequently, adults. The paper assesses the food security status and its key determinants for the rural households of the high rainfall zone (HRZ) of Murang’a, semi–arid lands (SALs) of Kitui and arid lands (ALs) of Isiolo in Kenya. A three stage sampling technique was used for respondents (384) selection. Data collected were: demographics, livelihoo...
Abstract/Overview Malaria is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Kenya, mostly affecting the rural poor, especially young children and pregnant women. Most clinical studies in malaria involve a number of equally important endpoints. This would normally portend challenges in relation to issues about the study design, analysis of the data and interpretation of the results. The majority of malaria related clinical studies do not factor in or experience difficulties in analyzing rec...
Abstract/Overview Sugarcane is the main raw material in the production of sugar in Kenya. The supply of sugarcane affects directly the quantity of sugar supplied in the markets. Low supply of sugarcane leads to a decline in the amount of sugar supplied to the markets and vice versa. This creates the need of determining the quantity of sugarcane supplied by the farmers to the industries to facilitate planning. This study employed Box Jenkins predictive models in forecasting the monthly qua...
Abstract/Overview There is increased use and application of exponential random graphs emanating from use of big data and other techniques. This study sought to establish how sampling bias affects the exponential random graphs. This study was guided by the following objectives: to specify and estimate exponential random graph models with biased sampling, to determine the maximum likelihood estimate for family of exponential random graphs with sampling bias., to determine the suitable sampl...
Abstract/Overview Modeling of invasive species using stage based matrix methods can be exploited to understand population dynamics of plants using stage based Leftkovitch matrix models. This study reviewed and extended the stage based matrix incorporating invasion variables of invasive Cestrum aurantiacum across different forest types, ecological zones and altitudes. The estimation of eigenvalues of the extended stage based Lefkovitch matrix and its corresponding right and left eigenvecto...
Abstract/Overview This research is about a survival analysis on broilers in two poultry farms in Kaloleni sub-county. Chapter one gives an insight into the introduction of the paper, chapter two discusses the methodology used, chapter three gives the results, chapter four discusses the findings briefly and chapter five gives the conclusions arrived at and some recommendations.
Abstract/Overview The Lefkovitch stage specific matrix population models are divided into discrete stage classes defined by a growth variable such as size, height and diameter at breast height for trees. In matrix model, the deterministic matrix projection models are used to estimate growth rate, stable size distribution, reproductive values, and sensitivities of the growth rate to changes in vital rates. This study sampled five forest blocks (Kiptogot, Kimothon, Suam, Saboti and Kitale w...
Abstract/Overview Household water in Kenya is used in agricultural activities, industrial activities and other uses. A lot of water is consumed by indoor appliances. The water management strategy affects the household demand for water. The future demand of water in Kenyan towns has remained uncertain. Therefore this study sought to model household water demand using the non- parametric model in the spectral domain. This study largely relied on the secondary data that was collected from Gu...