Open research Africa最新文献

Background: Dinoderus porcellus Lesne (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) is the main pest of stored dried yam chips that causes significant losses in less than 3 months. The assassin bug, Alloeocranum biannulipes (Montrouzier & Signoret) (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) and the African mahogany ( Khaya senegalensis (Desv.) A. Juss. (Meliaceae)), the ackee ( Blighia sapida K. Koenig (Sapindaceae)), and bridelia ( Bridelia ferruginea Benth. (Euphorbiaceae)) leaf powders have proven to be efficient in the control of this pest.

Methods: This study aims to evaluate the compatibility of the leaf powders of these medicinal plants and the predator A. biannulipes in the integrated management of D. porcellus under laboratory and farm conditions. Various leaf powders were tested at a concentration of 6% (w/w) with or without the predator. Infested yam chips without any treatment served as negative control and those mixed with a synthetic insecticide as positive control. The mortality rate of D. porcellus was recorded under laboratory conditions. While, the dynamic population of D. porcellus, their damage, and weight loss of yam chips were recorded 8 weeks after treatment under farm conditions.

Results: The results revealed that no combination of leaf powders and predators could induce complete mortality of D. porcellus like the synthetic insecticide. No significant difference in terms of the survival of A. biannulipes exposed to botanical powders was observed compared to the positive control. Under farm conditions, B. ferruginea leaf powder showed a sub-lethal effect on the predator A. biannulipes and no impact on the abundance of D. porcellus. However, the survival of D. porcellus was significantly reduced by the combination of K. senegalensis leaf powder and A. biannulipes, which did not allow the reproduction of the predator.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that an augmentative biological control program with the release of A. biannulipes after the introduction of K. senegalensis leaf powder is practicable for the management of D. porcellus in yam chips.

Chlamydia trachomatis ( C. trachomatis) is a common sexually transmitted infection (STI). In 2019, the World Health Organization reported about 131 million infections. The majority of infected patients are asymptomatic with cases remaining undetected. It is likely that missed C. trachomatis infections contribute to preventable adverse health outcomes in women and children. Consequently, there is an urgent need of developing efficient diagnostic methods. In this study, genome-mining approaches to identify identical multi-repeat sequences (IMRS) distributed throughout the C. trachomatis genome were used to design a primer pair that would target regions in the genome. Genomic DNA was 10-fold serially diluted (100pg/μL to 1×10 ^-3pg/μL) and used as DNA template for PCR reactions. The gold standard PCR using 16S rRNA primers was also run as a comparative test, and products were resolved on agarose gel. The novel assay, C. trachomatis IMRS-PCR, had an analytical sensitivity of 4.31 pg/µL, representing better sensitivity compared with 16S rRNA PCR (9.5 fg/µL). Our experimental data demonstrate the successful development of lateral flow and isothermal assays for detecting C. trachomatis DNA with potential use in field settings. There is a potential to implement this concept in miniaturized, isothermal, microfluidic platforms, and laboratory-on-a-chip diagnostic devices for reliable point-of-care testing.

Background: Community engagement and involvement (CEI) in research usually depends on face-to-face interactions. However, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented such interactions because of national lockdowns and social distancing. This paper highlights the ways in which early career researchers from East Africa tackled CEI activities during the pandemic.

Methods: We provide four case examples that illustrate how early-career researchers based in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, deployed different approaches and initiatives to community-engaged research during the pandemic to encourage participation and uptake of research findings.

Results: All the three early-career researchers attempted to use virtual/digital means to implement the CEI. However, in each country, this attempt was unsuccessful because of poor connectivity, as well as many poorer students lacking access to telephones and computers. Nevertheless, the researchers effectively engaged the students using different activities (making up songs, drawing comics, and taking part in quizzes) once the schools reopened.

Conclusion: These results highlight the complexity of implementing community engagement and involvement in health research when face-to-face interaction is not possible. The findings are relevant to researchers who wish to incorporate community engagement in their research and initiatives.