Azide-based mutagenesis suppresses Striga hermonthica seed germination and parasitism on maize varieties

Small-scale farmers currently produce more than 90% of the maize grown in Kenya. However, the parasitic weed, Striga hermonthica has become a menace because it is a widespread parasitic weed causing severe damages to major cereals like maize and sorghum. Mutant lines of maize were createdin the laboratory using sodium azide (NaN3) and their performance in respect to the degree of Striga resistance screened. The presence of active chemical stimulants in the root exudate was further investigated. This is the first report on mutagenic conversion of Striga-susceptible to Striga-resistant maize varieties (K9908, K9910 and K9911). Stable performances of the new  arieties have been demonstrated in Striga-infested fields in western Kenya by  agronomic researcher

Factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding among mothers with children aged six months and below attending Baringo County Refferal Hospital, Kabarnet, Kenya

Background: Breast milk is the safest and most natural food for an infant and provides complete nutritional needs up to six months of age. It is important for growth and reduces infant morbidity and mortality. Exclusive breastfeeding reduces malnutrition and other health problems.Objective: To determine factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding among mothers with children aged six months and below.Design: A cross sectional study.Setting: Baringo County Referral Hospital, Kabarnet, Kenya.Subjects: Three hundred and thirty mothers with children aged six months and below attending Baringo County Referral Hospital, Kabarnet, Kenya.Results: The results showed that 95.8% of the mothers breastfed their babies with 2.2% being exclusively breastfed. Delay in onset of breastfeeding, early complementation, use of pre-lacteal feeds was still practiced. Logistic regression showed that mode of delivery and place of delivery are significant with P ≤ 0.05. Mothers who delivered in hospital were 0.018 more likely to breastfeed exclusively while mothers who delivered normally were four times more likely to breastfeed exclusively.Conclusion: This study could help mothers, Ministry of Health and other nongovernmental organisations working with child health programmes, in likely interventions and supporting the ongoing child survival programmes, by taking appropriate steps in enhancing exclusive breastfeeding. As mothers attend antenatal and post- natal clinics, they should be given bronchures that are simple, clear to understand and addressing concerns on cultural beliefs, negative attitudes and breastfeeding problems and possible solutions. All infants should be breastfed within an hour of birth, on demand and up to the first six months of age

Correlates of health choices in view of emerging lifestyle diseases among SDA church members in Eldoret West, Kenya.

The study determined the relationship between SDA church members’ health choices and their demographics, attitudes towards the Adventist health message, cultural beliefs on health, and knowledge of lifestyle diseases. Attitudes towards the Adventist health message, educational level, and monthly income emerged to have a significant relationship with health choices

Correlates of Health Choices in View of Emerging Lifestyle Diseases Among Seventh-day Adventist Church Members in Eldoret West, Kenya (Presentation)

The study determined the relationship between SDA church members’ health choices and their demographics, attitudes towards the Adventist health message, cultural beliefs on health, and knowledge of lifestyle diseases. Attitudes towards the Adventist health message, educational level, and monthly income emerged to have a significant relationship with health choices.https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/hrsa/1224/thumbnail.jp

Influence of age of mice on the susceptibility to murine schistosomiasis infection

Intensity of human schistosomiasis infection increases with age, a peak being attained at early puberty. Hormones could be involved in the age-related changes in susceptibility to schistosomiasis. Male BALB/c mice were infected with Schistosoma mansoni either before or after puberty and worm numbers, cellular immune responses, hormonal levels and pathology analysed. Pre-puberty infected mice had a significantly higher number of adult worms (

Antimicrobial resistance and plasmid profiles of Aeromonas hydrophila isolated from River Njoro, Kenya

The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of Aeromonas hydrophila at commonly used water collection points on the River Njoro and to determine the in-vitro antimicrobial susceptibility and plasmid profiles of isolates. In total, 126 samples were collected and 36.5% of them were positive for A. hydrophila. The A. hydrophila were recovered on membrane filters, cultured on Trypticase Soy agar, Bile aesculin agar and Aeromonas Medium agar. They were further characterized using cytochrome oxidase and API 20E tests. Detection of drug susceptibility was determined using modified disc diffusion method to ampicillin (25 ìg), cefaclor (30 ìg), ceftizoxime (30 ìg), cefixime (5 ìg), cefazidime (30 ìg), gentamicin (200 ìg), streptomycin (25 ìg), chloramphenicol (50 ìg), nalidixic acid (30 ìg) and ciprofloxacin (1 ìg). Most of the isolates showed multi-drug resistance to two or more antibiotics. Chloramphenicol, nalidixic acid, ciprofloxacin, cefazidime and cefixime were the most sensitive drugs with 100% efficacy whereas ampicillin, cefaclor and streptomycin were the most resistant drugs having 100, 67 and 50 resistance, respectively. There was low resistance against ceftizoxime (16.7%) and gentamicin (23.3%). These results indicates that all A. hydrophila isolated from River Njoro had complete resistance to ampicillin and showed variable resistance to cefaclor, streptomycin, gentamycin and ceftizoxime. R-plasmids were extracted from multi-drug resistance strains and separated by agarose gel (0.8%) electrophoresis for profiling. Plasmid profiling revealed that most of the multi-drug resistant isolates contained one plasmid of 21.0 kb. Although some strains exhibited different antimicrobial resistance patterns, all of their plasmids were of the same size (21.0 kb). However, there were no plasmids in the antimicrobial sensitive isolates. This study also indicates that plasmid 21.0 kb is common in A. hydrophila and is important for antimicrobial resistance and virulence. Further studies are required to ascertain the role of this plasmid as a virulence marker.Key words: Aeromonas hydrophila, antimicrobial resistance, plasmid profile

Asociación entre el uso de métodos anticonceptivos y violencia doméstica contra la mujer en edad fértil en Perú

Introduction. Intimate partner violence against women is a global health problem of epidemic proportion. Objectives. Establish the association between contraception use and intimate partner violence against women of reproductive age in Peru. Methods. Analytical cross-sectional study of the 2017 Demographic and Family Health Survey. The association was established based on the complete surveys. Bivariate and adjusted prevalence ratios (PRa) of having suffered intimate partner violence and contraceptive use were estimated. Results. Data from 21 392 women were analyzed, 10,6% suffered intimate partner violence, 10% used contraceptives, 14,8% was between 15 and 24 years old, 11,7% completed primary education, 12,8% lived in the highlands. In the adjusted prevalence ratio, the use of modern contraception was related to a decreased likelihood of intimate partner violence compared with non-use. Conclusions. The use of modern contraception was related to a decreased likelihood of intimate partner violence.Introducción. La violencia doméstica contra la mujer es considerada como un problema de salud global de proporciones epidémicas. Objetivos. Determinar la asociación entre el uso de métodos anticonceptivos con la violencia doméstica contra la mujer en edad fértil en Perú. Métodos. Estudio transversal analítico de la Encuesta Demográfica y de Salud Familiar 2017 (ENDES). Se estimó la prevalencia de la violencia doméstica y uso de métodos anticonceptivo; se midió la asociación entre el uso de métodos anticonceptivos con sufrir violencia doméstica. Resultados. Se incluyeron 21 392 mujeres, 10,6% sufrió violencia doméstica, 10% usaba métodos anticonceptivos, 14,8% tenía 15 a 24 años, 11,7% con nivel educativo primario y 12,8% vivía en la sierra. En el análisis ajustado, el uso de anticoncepción moderna se asoció con menor probabilidad de ser violentada comparado con el no uso. Conclusiones. El uso de métodos de anticoncepción moderna se asoció a menor probabilidad de sufrir violencia doméstica

Antimicrobial resistance and plasmid profiles of Aeromonas hydrophila isolated from River Njoro, Kenya

The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of Aeromonas hydrophila at commonly used water collection points on the River Njoro and to determine the in-vitro antimicrobial susceptibility and plasmid profiles of isolates. In total, 126 samples were collected and 36.5% of them were positive for A. hydrophila. The A. hydrophila were recovered on membrane filters, cultured on Trypticase Soy agar, Bile aesculin agar and Aeromonas Medium agar. They were further characterized using cytochrome oxidase and API 20E tests. Detection of drug susceptibility was determined using modified disc diffusion method to ampicillin (25 μg), cefaclor (30 μg), ceftizoxime (30 μg), cefixime (5 μg), cefazidime (30 μg), gentamicin (200 μg), streptomycin (25 μg), chloramphenicol (50 μg), nalidixic acid (30 μg) and ciprofloxacin (1 μg). Most of the isolates showed multi-drug resistance to two or more antibiotics. Chloramphenicol, nalidixic acid, ciprofloxacin, cefazidime and cefixime were the most sensitive drugs with 100% efficacy whereas ampicillin, cefaclor and streptomycin were the most resistant drugs having 100, 67 and 50 resistance, respectively. There was low resistance against ceftizoxime (16.7%) and gentamicin (23.3%). These results indicates that all A. hydrophila isolated from River Njoro had complete resistance to ampicillin and showed variable resistance to cefaclor, streptomycin, gentamycin and ceftizoxime. R-plasmids were extracted from multi-drug resistance strains and separated by agarose gel (0.8%) electrophoresis for profiling. Plasmid profiling revealed that most of the multi-drug resistant isolates contained one plasmid of 21.0 kb. Although some strains exhibited different antimicrobial resistance patterns, all of their plasmids were of the same size (21.0 kb). However, there were no plasmids in the antimicrobial sensitive isolates. This study also indicates that plasmid 21.0 kb is common in A. hydrophila and is important for antimicrobial resistance and virulence. Further studies are required to ascertain the role of this plasmid as a virulence marker

Thermodynamic study of interactions between ZnO and ZnO binding peptides using isothermal titration calorimetry

Whilst material specific peptide binding sequences have been identified using a combination of combinato-rial methods and computational modelling tools, a deep molecular level understanding of the fundamental principles through which these interactions occur and in some instances modify the morphology of inorganic materials is far from being fully realized. Understanding the thermodynamic changes that occur during peptide-inorganic interactions and correlating these to structural modifications of the inorganic materials could be the key to achieving and mastering con-trol over material formation processes. This study is a detailed investigation applying isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) to directly probe thermodynamic changes that occur during interaction of ZnO binding peptides (ZnO-BPs) and ZnO. The ZnO-BPs used are reported sequences G-12 (GLHVMHKVAPPR), GT-16 (GLHVMHKVAPPR-GGGC) and alanine mutants of G-12 (G-12A6, G-12A11 and G-12A12) whose interaction with ZnO during solution synthesis studies have been extensively investigated. The interactions of the ZnO-BPs with ZnO yielded biphasic isotherms comprising both an endo-thermic and an exothermic event. Qualitative differences were observed in the isothermal profiles of the different pep-tides and ZnO particles studied. Measured ΔG values were between -6 and -8.5 kcal/mol and high adsorption affinity val-ues indicated the occurrence of favourable ZnO-BP-ZnO interactions. ITC has great potential in its use to understand peptide-inorganic interactions and with continued development, the knowledge gained may be instrumental for simplifi-cation of selection processes of organic molecules for the advancement of material synthesis and design

Generation and Characterization of a Library of Novel Biologically Active Functional Surfactants (Surfmers) Using Combined High-Throughput Methods

We report the first successful combination of three distinct high-throughput techniques to deliver the accelerated design, synthesis, and property screening of a library of novel, bio-instructive, polymeric, comb-graft surfactants. These three-dimensional, surface-active materials were successfully used to control the surface properties of particles by forming a unimolecular deep layer on the surface of the particles via microfluidic processing. This strategy deliberately utilizes the surfactant to both create the stable particles and deliver a desired cell-instructive behavior. Therefore, these specifically designed, highly functional surfactants are critical to promoting a desired cell response. This library contained surfactants constructed from 20 molecularly distinct (meth)acrylic monomers, which had been pre-identified by HT screening to exhibit specific, varied, and desirable bacterial biofilm inhibitory responses. The surfactant's self-assembly properties in water were assessed by developing a novel, fully automated, HT method to determine the critical aggregation concentration. These values were used as the input data to a computational-based evaluation of the key molecular descriptors that dictated aggregation behavior. Thus, this combination of HT techniques facilitated the rapid design, generation, and evaluation of further novel, highly functional, cell-instructive surfaces by application of designed surfactants possessing complex molecular architectures