Abstract/Overview The use of Motorcycles Public Transport (MPT) is partly the cause of heavy traffic congestion in Kenya’s urban centers. Sustainable urban transport implies systematic change in approaches to urban transport service provision, regulation and efficiency improvement. This study was conducted in Kisii town, Western Kenya, a medium-sized town characteristic of high Motorcycle-related Traffic Congestion (MTC). Several scenarios in Kisii town have promoted and sustained use o...
Abstract/Overview The concentrations of catechins in a Kenyan tea germplasm collection of 102 accessions were determined by HPLC. Total green leaf catechin concentrations and the ratio of dihydroxylated to trihydroxylated catechins were used to establish genetic differentiation in the germplasm. Upon multivariate analysis, accumulation of the various catechins separated the tea clones into 3 major and 5 minor groups according to their phylogenetic origins. The Cambod teas had the highest ...
Abstract/Overview The variation in three NADP-linked dehydrogenase enzymes; glucose-6-phosphate dehydro- genase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase and shikimate dehydrogenase as well as alpha and beta esterases was determined in 24 cultivars of Camellia sinensis and 2 other species of Camellia; C. japonica and C. irrawadiensis, using specific activity staining. The isozyme pro- files partitioned the cultivars according to their phylogenetic origins; (China, Assam, Cambodia and Japan). At...
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...