The cost of beauty: Perspectives of salon workers in Kisumu City, Kenya.

Despite occupational exposure to hazardous chemicals in cosmetics and personal care products (PCPs), salon workers receive minimal formal protections. Consequently, most salon workers rely on personal safeguards. However, the nature of such individual-level safeguards remains unknown.

Human NCR3 gene variants rs2736191 and rs11575837 alter longitudinal risk for development of pediatric malaria episodes and severe malarial anemia.

Background: Plasmodium falciparum malaria is a leading cause of pediatric morbidity and mortality in holoendemic transmission areas. Severe malarial anemia [SMA, hemoglobin (Hb) < 5.0 g/dL in children] is the most common clinical manifestation of severe malaria in such regions.

Clinical malaria incidence and health seeking pattern in geographically heterogeneous landscape of western Kenya.

Background: Malaria remains a public health problem in Kenya despite sustained interventions deployed by the government. One of the major impediments to effective malaria control is a lack of accurate diagnosis and effective treatment. This study was conducted to assess clinical malaria incidence and treatment seeking profiles of febrile cases in western Kenya.

Influence of landscape heterogeneity on entomological and parasitological indices of malaria in Kisumu, Western Kenya.

Background: Identification and characterization of larval habitats, documentation of Anopheles spp. composition and abundance, and Plasmodium spp. infection burden are critical components of integrated vector management.

Risk associations of submicroscopic malaria infection in lakeshore, plateau and highland areas of Kisumu County in western Kenya.

Background: Persons with submicroscopic malaria infection are a major reservoir of gametocytes that sustain malaria transmission in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite recent decreases in the national malaria burden in Kenya due to vector control interventions, malaria transmission continues to be high in western regions of the country bordering Lake Victoria. The objective of this study was to advance knowledge of the topographical, demographic and behavioral risk factors associated with submicroscopic malaria infection in the Lake Victoria basin in Kisumu County.

Effect of Perceived Self-Vulnerability on Prostate Cancer Screening Uptake and Associated Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study of Public Health Facilities in Western Kenya.

Background: Perceived self-vulnerability to prostate cancer is known to influence screening uptake among men in the general population. However, knowledge gap persists on the influence of perceived self-vulnerability to prostate cancer on uptake of screening among male health workers; a demographic that has health insurance and is assumed to have knowledge of screening services for prostate cancer.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the effect of perceived self-vulnerability to prostate cancer on screening uptake among male health workers in Kisumu County, western Kenya.

A cross-sectional observational study investigating the association between sedges (swamp grasses, Cyperaceae) and the prevalence of immature malaria vectors in aquatic habitats along the shore of Lake Victoria, western Kenya.

: Strategies that involve manipulations of the odour-orientation of gravid malaria vectors could lead to novel attract-and-kill interventions. Recent work has highlighted the potential involvement of graminoid plants in luring vectors to oviposition sites. This study aimed to analyse the association between water-indicating graminoid plants (Cyperaceae, sedges), other abiotic and biotic factors and the presence and abundance of early instar larvae in aquatic habitats as a proxy indicator for oviposition.

Direct and indirect effects of predation and parasitism on the Anopheles gambiae mosquito.

Background: A good understanding of mosquito ecology is imperative for integrated vector control of malaria. In breeding sites, Anopheles larvae are concurrently exposed to predators and parasites. However, to our knowledge, there is no study on combined effects of predators and parasites on development and survival of larvae and their carry-over effects on adult survivorship and susceptibility to further parasite infection.

Antibiotic Resistance of Escherichia coli from Humans and Black Rhinoceroses in Kenya.

Upsurge of antibiotic resistance in wildlife poses unprecedented threat to wildlife conservation. Surveillance of antibiotic resistance at the human-wildlife interface is therefore needed. We evaluated differences in antibiotic resistance of Escherichia coli isolates from human and the endangered black rhinoceros in Lambwe Valley, Kenya.

Hormonal correlates of natal dispersal and rank attainment in wild male baboons.

In many mammals, maturational milestones such as dispersal and the attainment of adult dominance rank mark stages in the onset of reproductive activity and depend on a coordinated set of hormonal and socio-behavioral changes. Studies that focus on the link between hormones and maturational milestones are uncommon in wild mammals because of the challenges of obtaining adequate sample sizes of maturing animals and of tracking the movements of dispersing animals. We examined two maturational milestones in wild male baboons-adult dominance rank attainment and natal dispersal-and measured their association with variation in glucocorticoids (fGC) and fecal testosterone (fT).

Puberty and dispersal in a wild primate population.

This article is part of a Special Issue "Puberty and Adolescence". The onset of reproduction is preceded by a host of organismal adjustments and transformations, involving morphological, physiological, and behavioral changes. In highly social mammals, including humans and most nonhuman primates, the timing and nature of maturational processes are affected by the animal's social milieu as well as its ecology.

Testosterone positively associated with both male mating effort and paternal behavior in Savanna baboons (Papio cynocephalus).

Testosterone (T) is often positively associated with male sexual behavior and negatively associated with paternal care. These associations have primarily been demonstrated in species where investment in paternal care begins well after mating activity is complete, when offspring are hatched or born. Different patterns may emerge in studies of species where investment in mating and paternal care overlap temporally, for instance in non-seasonal breeders in which males mate with multiple females sequentially and may simultaneously have multiple offspring of different ages.

Life at the top: rank and stress in wild male baboons.

In social hierarchies, dominant individuals experience reproductive and health benefits, but the costs of social dominance remain a topic of debate. Prevailing hypotheses predict that higher-ranking males experience higher testosterone and glucocorticoid (stress hormone) levels than lower-ranking males when hierarchies are unstable but not otherwise. In this long-term study of rank-related stress in a natural population of savannah baboons (Papio cynocephalus), high-ranking males had higher testosterone and lower glucocorticoid levels than other males, regardless of hierarchy stability.

Life history context of reproductive aging in a wild primate model.

The pace of reproductive aging has been of considerable interest, especially in regard to the long postreproductive period in modern women. Here we use data for both sexes from a 37-year longitudinal study of a wild baboon population to place reproductive aging within a life history context for this species, a primate relative of humans that evolved in the same savannah habitat as humans did. We examine the patterns and pace of reproductive aging, including birth rates and reproductive hormones for both sexes, and compare reproductive aging to age-related changes in several other traits.

Endocrinology of year-round reproduction in a highly seasonal habitat: environmental variability in testosterone and glucocorticoids in baboon males.

In conditions characterized by energetic constraints, such as in periods of low food availability, some trade-offs between reproduction and self-maintenance may be necessary; even year-round breeders may then be forced to exhibit some reproductive seasonality. Prior research has largely focused on female reproduction and physiology, and few studies have evaluated the impact of environmental factors on males. Here we assessed the effects of season and ambient temperatures on fecal glucocorticoid (fGC) and testosterone (fT) levels in male baboons in Amboseli, Kenya.

Persistence of maternal effects in baboons: Mother's dominance rank at son's conception predicts stress hormone levels in subadult males.

Dominance status and reproductive experience are maternal characteristics that affect offspring traits in diverse taxa, including some cercopithecine primates. Maternal effects of this sort are widespread and are sources of variability in offspring fitness. We tested the hypothesis that maternal dominance rank and reproductive experience as well as a male's own age and dominance rank predicted chronic fecal glucocorticoid (fGC) concentrations in 17 subadult wild male baboons, Papio cynocephalus (median age 6.

A genome-wide screen for normally methylated human CpG islands that can identify novel imprinted genes.

DNA methylation is a covalent modification of the nucleotide cytosine that is stably inherited at the dinucleotide CpG by somatic cells, and 70% of CpG dinucleotides in the genome are methylated. The exception to this pattern of methylation are CpG islands, CpG-rich sequences that are protected from methylation, and generally are thought to be methylated only on the inactive X-chromosome and in tumors, as well as differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in the vicinity of imprinted genes. To identify chromosomal regions that might harbor imprinted genes, we devised a strategy for isolating a library of normally methylated CpG islands.