ABSTRACT The use of Mathematical models for manpower planning has increased in recent times for better manpower planning quantitatively both in public and private sectors. In respect of organizational management, numerous previous studies have applied Markov chain models in describing title or level promotions, demotions, recruitment, withdrawals, or changes of different career development paths to confirm the actual manpower needs of an organization or predict the future manpower needs. The ...
ABSTRACT Thin films (TFs) have numerous applications in the modern technological world, ranging from energy production in TF solar cells/ photovoltaic (PV) cells to liquid crystal displays (LCDs) in television screens and in smartphone touch screens as transparent conducting oxides (TCOs). The most commonly used TCO material is indium tin oxide (ITO). However, ITO has two main drawbacks. Firstly, indium is expensive and secondly, it is rare. These drawbacks call for relatively cheaper compoun...
ABSTRACT In developing countries with disproportionately high burden of HIV-1 (HIV) infections, access to early infant diagnosis (EID) and viral load (VL) HIV nucleic acid testing is limited by the prohibitive infrastructural costs of centralized testing laboratories. To increase access to HIVEID and VL monitoring, development of robust and low cost point of care (POC) technologies is a priority of current HIV diagnostic research. In Kenya, a number of POC technologies are being evaluated for...
ABSTRACT Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe gastroenteritis infection in infants and young children, occurring even with very high standard of hygiene. The disease spreads by contact with infected faeces and might also be transmitted through faecally-contaminated: food, water and respiratory droplets. Rota teq and Rotarix are the two licensed oral vaccine intervention for rotavirus. However, it takes time for the development of vaccineinduced immunity to complete, hence the need to ...
ABSTRACT Malaria continues to be an important disease in the tropics posing a major obstacle to sustainable development. Malaria control is dependent on pyrethroid insecticides yet resistance to these insecticides in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae is receiving increasing attention because it threatens the sustainability of malaria vector control programs targeted at indoor resting mosquitoes in Western Kenya. Common mechanism of resistance reported to these insecticides is target site i...
ABSTRACT The synergistic relationship between HIV/AIDS and respiratory infections, such as tu- berculosis(TB) and pneumonia not only results in high mortality rates but is also a source of economic burden borne by many nations in the sub-saharan Africa. The search for a cure or vaccine for HIV/AIDS has yielded no conclusive results so far. Treatment fail- ure and lack of adherence to treatment schedule which results in the evolution of drug resistant strains of diseases are challenges to grap...
Abstract The study assessed the environmental impacts associated with urban agriculture in selected residential areas of Gweru Urban. Qualitative research methods were prominently utilised throughout the research and were complimented by quantitative methods. Questionnaires, structured interviews and direct observations were used in soliciting significant information relevant to the study objectives. Self-administration of questionnaires was done to 35 household units which were selected thr...
Abstract Lippia javanica (Burm. F.) Spreng occurs naturally in eastern, central and southern Africa. It has widely been used as herbal tea, for ethnomedicinal applications and as a botanical pesticide. Lippia javanica species exhibit great morphological and chemical variations which are notable across a number of natural populations. Differences in morphological taxonomy on important characters such as peduncle length and number of inflorescence per axil have been reported which has led to th...
ABSTRACT It is the desire of every person to have a career. Not much thought has been taken by young people on how they can arrive at their future careers. The reason is mainly because they are not aware. As much as many people have attained their careers through education, not much consideration has been given to the other factors within education that leads one to his or her career. The study traced one’s career from primary to present position. There are stages one follows to reach the c...
ABSTRACT Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), one of the main stay of Lake Victoria fisheries, was introduced in the 1950s and 1960s to boost capture fisheries. However, its production has declined dramatically over the years due to over exploitation and its consumption preference by the ever increasing Kenyan population. The decline of capture fisheries has made aquaculture production be considered as the future solution to the declining of capture fisheries and the availability of fish glo...
ABSTRACT Heavy seasonal use of specific organophosphate and carbamate in the catchment area of Lake Naivasha is a potential cause of pollution of sediment, water and fish in the lake. However, there is lack of data on the potential pollutants, their levels in the aquatic ecosystem and monitoring strategy. The objectives of this study were to identify the commonly used pesticides and the timing of their application in Lake Naivasha catchment area through a survey; to evaluate the performance o...
ABSTRACT The issue that a pension fund manager faces is how to optimize his or her investment strategies. The question we resolved is the optimal design of the minimum guarantee in a defined contribution pension Fund Scheme. We study the optimal asset allocation strategy a given fund manager can adopt to maximize surplus (the difference between the total wealth and the Guarantee) and the payback ratio (ratio between total wealth and Guarantee). Finally, We analyze the impact of the main param...
ABSTRACT Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the economies of developed and developing countries, through creation of new jobs. Access to bank financial resources seems to be a major constraint to the growth of SMEs in the developing context. This study thus, aimed at finding out the constraints faced by SMEs in particular accessing bank financing. The study adopted the adverse selection theory of credit markets. This study adopted an explanatory and descriptive surv...
ABSTRACT Income accrued from Retirement Benets Fund is an exceptionally important component of every working individual's life cycle globally. The major sources of such income are: unfunded state pensions; funded private pensions; mandatory schemes; and post-retirement work. The urgency and importance has made many countries to give it considerable attention by enacting enabling laws and policies to safeguard it. In Kenya, steps have been made by establishing the National Social Security Fund...
ABSTRACT Development programs designed to address particular global challenges are facing increasing pressure to demonstrate their impact on the targeted com munities. The method mostly used to measure impact of development programs is by comparing the changes in outcomes of the program participants over time commonly know as before-and-after comparison. However, in some cases, the treatment and control groups are usually heterogeneous at baseline, making the difference in difference (DiD) me...