Archives-November 2018

The main objective of this study was to investigate the types and causes of landslides in Kittony area of Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya. The specific objectives were: To establish the types of landslides prevalent in Kittony area and identify the factors that cause landslides in Kittony area of Elgeyo Marakwet County. The study population comprised of 2000 residents of Kittony area in Elgeyo Marakwet County. Five members of the local administration and the County Geologist were included in the study. The sample size consisted of the following respondents: Two hundred and forty six residents of Kittony area which translated to 12.3 % of the total population was selected as study respondents through Simple Random Sampling. One local chief of Kittony area and a County Geologist was purposively selected and interviewed. This study adopted a descriptive survey research design and utilized a qualitative research methodology. The systems theory was used to underpin the study and a conceptual framework showing the interrelationship between the dependent and independent variables was used to guide and conceptualize the study. The findings of the study included: The types of landslides that exist in the area are mudslides, rock fall and earth flows. The heavy rains, poor soils and the rugged topography in the area as factors that triggered landslides. That the government despite assisting by providing humanitarian assistance and advising people to move to safer locations, more was needed in terms of relocating residents to safer areas and converting the affected areas into forest lands, building gabions to control soil erosion and controlling other human activities. This study can also be replicated in other areas having similar problems.

Fintech is a short form of financial technology. It is completely revolutionizing the speed, the scale and the cost of getting financial services to the people by offering new services within the traditional banks, while potentially offering new opportunities within their competitive propositions such as alternative payments and lending mechanisms. Today, mobile payment solutions are available to those without a traditional bank account. Kenya is a world leader in the adoption of mobile payments. M-Pesa, Kenya?s first mobile wallet launched in 2007 to seamlessly transfer funds throughout Kenya, had over Kshs 7 trillion transacted and in 2017, the platform had over 1.7 billion transactions (Safaricom MPESA report, 2017). The transaction value processed through M-Pesa in 2018 shall be higher than the Kenya?s GDP which is Approx. USD 72Billion. Fintechs services offer diverse new opportunities to the banks and they should be embraced. Proper security measure should be put in place to protect the clients who use the services. Banks should also come up with strategies and ways of approaching and dealing with FinTech firms, to ensure that their interest is safeguarded.

Natural gas represents one of the significant resources. It is often considered as a political power by which some of the countries can gain the goals. Nowadays Russia is one of the richest countries with natural gas reserves and production. Russia is a key natural gas supplier for EU member countries. Because of some political reasons Russia reduced gas transporting to Europe to impact on it. Europe tries to find ways out of these crucial situation and problem. The present work aim is to analyze the last year’s gas reduction and their influence on European energy market. Its purpose is also to define Iran as an alternative source of natural gas of Russia for EU. According to the statistical data, in 2016 Iran took the first place in natural gas reserves and Russia took the second one. But in 2017 visa versa. This will help Europe to diversify energy suppliers, reduce Russian influence on it and cooperate with Iran in energy sector.

In this paper, we have studied the photoluminescence spectroscopy of several HEMTs AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors produced by molecular beam epitaxy growth. The heteroepitaxy of the nitrides of elements III is made on substrates of different nature: Silicon, Si [111]), Sapphire Al2O3 and Free-standing GaN. We thus observed constraints during growth, related to the disagreements of the mesh parameters. The EA activation energy of the free exciton A, measured by photoluminescence, varies linearly with the biaxial strain ?xx, obtained by X-ray diffraction. In addition we noticed that an evolution of the aluminum assay of 0.5% from one sample to another 5% reveals a shoulder that evolves respectively to a plateau, reproducible at different levels of excitation. This is how we interpret this phenomenon as a manifestation of 2D gas on the photoluminescence spectrum

Childhood cancers have been on the rise globally. There is insufficient data on patterns of childhood cancers in Kenya. We aimed at profiling and identifying the stages of these malignancies during 2016 and 2017 at Kenyatta National Hospital in Kenya. The age most affected with cancer was 0-4years (46.9%) followed by 5-9 years (31.1%) and 10-15 years (22%). 29.8% of the cancers were diagnosed at In-situ stage. CNS tumors were the most common and the least was lymphomas. The frequency was found to be higher in boys than girls.

Age effect, intestinal site and pH influence on phytate hydrolysis were assayed in brush border membrane vesicles isolated from chicks and layers proximal and distal intestinal segments using MgCl2 precipitation and differential centrifugation. The ascertained BBMVs purity and functional integrity depicted alkaline phosphatase enzyme marker to range between 20-fold to 37-fold greater for chicks’ and layers’ proximal and distal BBMVs than in their mucosal homogenates, their integrity suggestive to presence of Na+-dependent transport while electron micrograph showed a vesicular form. Both chicks’ and layers’ BBMVs, had significant decrease in phytate-P hydrolysed/mg.

Urinary stones are frequent. Prevalence rates vary from 1% to 20%. Young adults are the most frequent affected with about 11% of male and 7 % of female population. Stone incidence depends on geographical, climatic, ethnic, dietary and genetic factors. Diagnosis is based on imaging, biochemical laboratory work-up and stone analysis via infrared spectroscopy. Bladder stones are generally of small sizes caused by bladder outlet obstruction and their treatment is relatively easy via endoscopic instrumentation. Giant bladder stones are rare in current urological practice. We here-in report a case of a 80-year-old male patient who presented to our department with lower urinary tract symptoms mainly pollakiuria and dysuria evolving for 5 years. Clinical examination revealed hypogastric pain at palpation and an enlarged prostate. Computed tomography bladder imaging showed a 6-cm giant bladder stone and 150 g enlarged prostate. Open cystolithotomy was performed to concomitantly extract the stone weighing 400 g and treat the enlarged prostate.

The Internet is a widely used tool known to foster addictive behavior, and Internet addiction threatens to develop into a major public health issue in the near future in a rapidly developing country like India. Internet addiction in adolescence can have a negative impact on identity formation and may negatively affect cognitive functioning, lead to poor academic performance and engagement in risky activities, and inculcate poor dietary habits. Recent reports indicated that some online users were becoming addicted to the Internet in much that same way that others became addicted to drugs or alcohol, which resulted in academic, social, and occupational impairment. The aim of the study is to examine the prevalence of internet addiction among adolescents.For the purpose of the study 272 adolescent’s students (176 male, 96 female) from formal schools and colleges at Chhattisgarh. The sampling was based on random sampling method. The age range of the students is 14yrs-19yrs. The tools, demographic data sheet designed for the purpose of this study and Internet Addiction Test (IAT) by Dr. Kimberly Young to measure the levels of internet addiction were used. The results revealed that prevalence of average internet addiction was 57%, problematic addiction was 41.9% and severe addiction was 0.7%. The gender difference was found on internet addiction that males were more addicted to the internet than female. It was also found that the duration of internet surfing and time spent for internet usage of the students were significant for internet addiction. Based on the results, internet addiction should be considered as a serious problem in adolescents and young adults. So, it is necessary that proper use of internet to be educated to adolescents and young adults to prevent the risk of internet addiction.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between students’ self-efficacy and anxiety while conducting research. The population of this study was postgraduate research students in Women University, Bagh, Pakistan. A sample of 100 students was selected using random sampling technique. A questionnaire was developed to take the data from sample of the study. The validity and reliability were estimated based on opinions of a panel of experts and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, respectively. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation. Results revealed that the respondents had a moderate level of research anxiety and high level of research self-efficacy. Overall, Women University students tend that there was a positive significant relationship between self-efficacy and self anxiety while conducting research.

Strategic planning has always been used as an important management tool in organizations across the world. The use of strategic planning necessitates decisions to be made in order to achieve the intended objectives and ensure continuity and relevance. Organizations may have good strategic planning practices, but the extent to which they are successfully implemented influence service delivery. The aim of the study was to establish the influence of strategic planning practice on service delivery by Trans Nzoia County government. The study was guided by Survival-Based Theory which explains how organizations can come up with ways to ensure that they achieve their objectives. The target population included management staff, employees and citizens of Trans Nzoia County. Semi structured questionnaires and Interview guides were used for data collection. The instruments were checked for both reliability and validity by use of Cronbach’s alpha and construct validity index respectively. Descriptive, quantitative and qualitative designs were used to find out the relationship between the variables. Multiple Linear Regression model was used to explain how strategic planning practice influences service delivery of Trans Nzoia County government. With the values of the beta coefficients for the model = 3.648 and = 0.412 respectively. Setting of vision and mission statement had the most influence on service delivery and identification of objectives had the least influence. The findings are crucial especially to the management of the County government of Trans Nzoia and can also be emulated by other Counties.