Publications

INVOLVING VULNERABLE PEDIATRIC populations in international research requires culturally appropriate ethical protections. We sought to use mabaraza, traditional East African community assemblies, to understand how a community in western Kenya viewed participation of children in health research and informed consent and assent processes. Results from 108 participants revealed generally positive attitudes towards involving vulnerable children in research, largely because they assumed children would directly benefit. Consent from parents or guardians was understood as necessary for participation while gaining child assent was not. They felt other caregivers, community leaders, and even community assemblies could participate in the consent process. Community members believed research involving orphans and street children could benefit these vulnerable populations, but would require special processes for consent. © 2012 by Joan Sieber. All Rights Reserved.

This study investigates the determinants of net interest margin of commercial banks in Kenya using secondary data. We apply pooled and fixed effects regression to a panel of 44 Kenyan banks that covers the period 2000-2009. The estimation results show that operating expenses and credit risk has a positive and significant effect on net interest margin of the commercial banks in Kenya. The paper also finds that the higher the inflation, the wider the net interest margin, while growth and market concentration a have negative effect on net interest margin.

This study estimated economic values (EVs) for disease resistance traits for dairy/crossbred goats in Kenya. The traits mean somatic cell count (SCC, cells/μl) and faecal worm egg count (FEC, epg) were taken as indicator traits for the most prevalent diseases in the smallholder farms i.e., mastitis and helminthiosis, respectively. Economic weights were objectively assigned to these indicator traits in a selection index such that the overall gains in the breeding objective traits were maximised. Four options for calculating EVs for SCC and FEC were considered. Option 1, response from single trait selection was set equivalent to index response for the trait. Option 2, response from single trait selection was set equivalent to maximum gains achievable. Option 3, level of FEC/SCC was set to zero; and option 4, response in FEC/SCC was set to the minimum gains achievable. In all the options, EVs with/without risk for breeding objective traits 12-month live weight (LW-kg); ADG, average post-weaning daily gain (ADG-g); DMY, average daily milk yield (DMY-kg) were used. For each production trait selected for improvement, a less positive response in the traits FEC and SCC would be desirable. Maximum negative EVs were achieved at a point where the response in SCC was set at zero (option 3) while EVs for SCC were zero when response for DMY was maximised (option 2). In addition, considerable differences in EVs for SCC were obtained when EVs with/without risk were used. Similar results were also observed for FEC when LW was the objective of improvement. However, more positive EVs for FEC were estimated relative to ADG and DMY. The results confirm that there is a scope to incorporate disease resistance traits in a breeding program with objective of reducing disease incidences and the costs of disease control.

This study estimated economic values (EVs) for disease resistance traits for dairy/crossbred goats in Kenya. The traits mean somatic cell count (SCC, cells/μl) and faecal worm egg count (FEC, epg) were taken as indicator traits for the most prevalent diseases in the smallholder farms i.e., mastitis and helminthiosis, respectively. Economic weights were objectively assigned to these indicator traits in a selection index such that the overall gains in the breeding objective traits were maximised. Four options for calculating EVs for SCC and FEC were considered. Option 1, response from single trait selection was set equivalent to index response for the trait. Option 2, response from single trait selection was set equivalent to maximum gains achievable. Option 3, level of FEC/SCC was set to zero; and option 4, response in FEC/SCC was set to the minimum gains achievable. In all the options, EVs with/without risk for breeding objective traits 12-month live weight (LW-kg); ADG, average post-weaning daily gain (ADG-g); DMY, average daily milk yield (DMY-kg) were used. For each production trait selected for improvement, a less positive response in the traits FEC and SCC would be desirable. Maximum negative EVs were achieved at a point where the response in SCC was set at zero (option 3) while EVs for SCC were zero when response for DMY was maximised (option 2). In addition, considerable differences in EVs for SCC were obtained when EVs with/without risk were used. Similar results were also observed for FEC when LW was the objective of improvement. However, more positive EVs for FEC were estimated relative to ADG and DMY. The results confirm that there is a scope to incorporate disease resistance traits in a breeding program with objective of reducing disease incidences and the costs of disease control.