Women\u27s Role in Enhancing Innovation in Livestock Farming: A Gender Perspective

Livestock accrues benefits to women that include food, income and insurance against crop failure. This gives rise to the need for gender-friendly policies that promote and encourage women to own livestock. Women remain in the ranks of poor livestock keepers, although they make up two-thirds of the population of livestock keepers. Factors that influence livestock productivity among women range from rights to land, access to high yield breeds, application of new technologies and practices, access to education and extension services, and rigid cultural systems among others. These factors handled in a gender sensitive manner would go a long way to realise increase in livestock production and income

The course of the radial nerve in relation to the humerus: a cadaveric study in a Kenyan adult population

Background: The radial nerve arises from the posterior cord of the brachial plexus. It descends distally to the spiral groove of the humerus. The upper and lower margins of this groove form important landmarks relative to the acromion process, medial and lateral epicondyles of the humerus.Objective: To describe the course of the radial nerve in relation to the humerus in a Kenyan adult population.Methods: Dissections were done on fifty-nine left sided formalin fixed adult upper extremities obtained from the Human Anatomy Laboratory of Moi University. Data was recorded and analysed using SPSS version 21.Results: The average humeral length was 314.4 ± 21.4mm. The radial nerve was located 140.8 ± 17.2 mm from the tip of the acromion. It exited the spiral groove 185.1 ± 21.7mm from the tip of the acromion and 132.1 ± 19.4 mm from the lateral epicondyle. The midpoint of the nerve at the spiral groove to the medial epicondyle was about half the humeral length.Conclusions: The radial nerve was located at the middle third of the humerus shaft. The midpoint of the nerve while in the groove relative to the medial epicondyle was about half the humeral shaft length.Keywords: Spiral groove of the humerus, Humerus shaft fractures, Triceps muscl

Targeting dairy interventions in Kenya: a guide for development planners, researchers and extension workers

This easy-to-use guide to effective targeting of selected dairy interventions in Kenya is intended for use by anyone involved in dairy farming in the country, such as development planners, researchers, service providers, suppliers of dairy inputs and extension workers. The guide answers the question often faced by these workers: where is their proposed intervention most likely to be adopted? Using a combination of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) mapping methods and economic regression techniques, this guide shows where and under what circumstances dairy technologies are most likely to succeed. The guide is divided into three sections. The first section deals with concepts, rationale and methodologies for targeting dairy interventions. It also explains, with examples, how to use the guide. The second section presents the targeting maps for various dairy interventions. A total of eleven dairy interventions are considered in this guide. For each, a map shows relative probability of adoption together with a description of the innovation and background information. Also presented are the socio-economic, biophysical and agro-climatic characteristics that predispose uptake of each intervention. The third section presents some policy-relevant research results in three topical areas: Cost of milk production; Evaluation and assessment of alternative milk preservation techniques; and Employment generation in the dairy marketing chain

A practical guide for collecting farmers socio-economic and agronomic data: an AfSIS Project field protocol

One of the aims of the AfSIS (Africa Soil Information Service) project is to document farmers’ characteristics and practices to determine their ability to engage in effective soil and crop management. This document outlines how agronomic surveys are integrated with knowledge of farmers’ condition, wealth, status, access to knowledge, and access to markets, using pre-designed questionnaires and field surveys, and including the use of Global Positioning System-based field surveys and Geographic Information Systems

Nutrients limiting soybean (glycine max l) growth in acrisols and ferralsols of western Kenya

Low soybean yields in western Kenya have been attributed to low soil fertility despite much work done on nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) nutrition leading to suspicion of other nutrient limitations. To investigate this, a nutrient omission trial was set up in the greenhouse at the University of Eldoret-Kenya to diagnose the nutrients limiting soybean production in Acrisols from Masaba central and Butere sub-Counties, and Ferralsols from Kakamega (Shikhulu and Khwisero sub-locations) and Butula sub-Counties and to assess the effect of liming on soil pH and soybean growth. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design with ten treatments viz; positive control (complete), negative control (distilled water), complete with lime, complete with N, minus macronutrients P, potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and sulphur (S) and with, micro-nutrients boron (B), molybdenum (Mo), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) omitted. Visual deficiency symptoms observed included interveinal leaf yellowing in Mg omission and N addition and dark green leaves in P omission. Nutrients omission resulted in their significantly low concentration in plant tissues than the complete treatment. Significantly (P≤ 0.05) lower shoot dry weights (SDWs) than the complete treatment were obtained in different treatments; omission of K and Mg in Masaba and Shikhulu, Mg in Khwisero, K in Butere and, P, Mg and K in Butula. Nitrogen significantly improved SDWs in soils from Kakamega and Butula. Liming significantly raised soil pH by 9, 13 and 11% from 4.65, 4.91 and 4.99 in soils from Masaba, Butere and Butula respectively and soybean SDWs in soils from Butere. The results show that, poor soybean growth was due to K, Mg and P limitation and low pH in some soils. The results also signify necessity of application of small quantities of N for initial soybean use

Power-Law Distributions in a Two-sided Market and Net Neutrality

"Net neutrality" often refers to the policy dictating that an Internet service provider (ISP) cannot charge content providers (CPs) for delivering their content to consumers. Many past quantitative models designed to determine whether net neutrality is a good idea have been rather equivocal in their conclusions. Here we propose a very simple two-sided market model, in which the types of the consumers and the CPs are {\em power-law distributed} --- a kind of distribution known to often arise precisely in connection with Internet-related phenomena. We derive mostly analytical, closed-form results for several regimes: (a) Net neutrality, (b) social optimum, (c) maximum revenue by the ISP, or (d) maximum ISP revenue under quality differentiation. One unexpected conclusion is that (a) and (b) will differ significantly, unless average CP productivity is very high

'If she gets married when she is young, she will give birth to many kids': a qualitative study of child marriage practices amongst nomadic pastoralist communities in Kenya

Child marriage is associated with adverse health and social outcomes for women and girls. Among pastoralists in Kenya, child marriage is believed to be higher compared to the national average. This paper explores how social norms and contextual factors sustain child marriage in communities living in conflict-affected North Eastern Kenya. In-depth interviews were carried out with nomadic and semi-nomadic women and men of reproductive age in Wajir and Mandera counties. Participants were purposively sampled across a range of age groups and community types. Interviews were analysed thematically and guided by a social norms approach. We found changes in the way young couples meet and evidence for negative perceptions of child marriage due to its impact on the girls’ reproductive health and gender inequality. Despite this, child marriage was common amongst nomadic and semi-nomadic women. Two overarching themes explained child marriage practices: 1) gender norms, and 2) desire for large family size. Our findings complement the global literature, while contributing perspectives of pastoralist groups. Contextual factors of poverty, traditional pastoral lifestyles and limited formal education opportunities for girls, supported large family norms and gender norms that encouraged and sustained child marriage

Low levels of hepatitis C diagnosis and testing uptake among people who inject image and performance enhancing drugs in England and Wales, 2012-15

People injecting image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs) have traditionally not been perceived as being at high risk of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. However, recent studies indicate the HCV antibody (anti-HCV) prevalence in this group is 10-times that in the general population. HCV testing uptake and undiagnosed infections are examined using data from a voluntary unlinked-anonymous survey. Method People injecting IPEDs across England and Wales completed a short bio-behavioural survey (2012–15). Anti-HCV status and self-reports of HCV testing were used in the analysis. Results The participants median age was 31 years, 98% were men, 14% had also injected psychoactive drugs and the anti-HCV prevalence was 4.8% (N = 564). Among those who had never injected psychoactive drugs the anti-HCV prevalence was 1.4%; among those who had recently injected psychoactive drugs (preceding 12 months) prevalence was 39% and among those who had done this previously 14% (p < 0.001). Overall, 37% had been tested for HCV: among those who had recently injected psychoactive drugs 78% had been tested, as had 56% of those who had injected psychoactive drugs previously; 33% of those never injecting psychoactive drugs were tested (p < 0.001). Overall, 44% of those with anti-HCV were aware of this; however, only 14% of those who had never injected psychoactive drugs were aware. Conclusions One-in-twenty people who inject IPEDs have anti-HCV. HCV infections among those who had never injected psychoactive drugs were mostly undiagnosed, though this group had a lower prevalence. Targeted HCV testing interventions are also needed for those injecting IPEDs

A putative, novel coli surface antigen 8B (CS8B) of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) strains harbor multiple fimbriae and pili to mediate host colonization, including the type IVb pilus, colonization factor antigen III (CFA/III). Not all colonization factors are well characterized or known in toxin positive ETEC isolates, which may have an impact identifying ETEC isolates based on molecular screening of these biomarkers. We describe a novel coli surface antigen (CS) 8 subtype B (CS8B), a family of CFA/III pilus, in a toxin producing ETEC isolate from a Kenyan collection. In highlighting the existence of this putative CS, we provide the sequence and specific primers, which can be used alongside other ETEC primers previously described