Evaluation of Malaria Infection In Relation to Age and Residential Area in Nandi County, Kenya

Objective: To investigate malaria infection in relation to age and residential area.Design: A cross sectional study.Setting: Kipsamoite Dispensary of Nandi County in Kenya.Subjects: The demographic details and medical history for all consenting patients was taken by the clinical officer/nurse.Intervention: Clinical examination was done followed by presumptive diagnosis for clinical malaria.Main outcomes: A total of 349 patients were examined and tested for malaria during the period under study.Results: Whereas infection distribution was significantly associated with age groups P<0.05 (χ2 = 4.190); no significant difference in mean parasite density  distribution over the seven residential area categories (P = 0.261) (F = 1.305) was found.Conclusion: Patients aged > 5 years were found to be infected more than those aged <5 years. On overall, there is a need to start targeting patients above five years of age and encourage them to access malaria control interventions especially the use of insecticide treated bed nets to minimise their infection rate

FACTORS AFFECTING THE ADOPTION OF HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN KAKAMEGA COUNTY GOVERNMENT: A CASE STUDY KAKAMEGA COUNTY GOVERNMENT

The main aim of the study was to establish the factors affecting the adoption of HRIS in Public Organisations in Kenya. The objectives of the research were to investigate how: Employee training, Management support, finances, Change management and Management support affect the adoption of HRIS in public organizations, with specific reference to Kakamega County. The study will be significant to the management of Kakamega County, the government of Kenya and also other researchers who wish to pursue farther studies on factors affecting the adoption of HRIS in an organization. Descriptive research design was used. The target population was 73 employees of Kakamega county government, procurement department. The Census design where the entire population was picked was used as the sample. Questionnaires were used to collect the data. Data was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively and presented using figures and tables. According to the study findings, 77% of the respondents agreed that finances affect the adoption of HRIS, while 23% disagreed. On employee training, 93% agreed it affects the adoption of HRIS while 7% disagreed. As far as Management support is concerned, 84% agreed that it affects adoption of HRIS while 16% disagreed and 95% agreed that Change management affects adoption of HRIS in public organizations in Kenya while 5% disagreed. On Government Policy, 93% agreed it affects the adoption of HRIS while 7% disagreed. The study recommends that public organisations should implement on and off job training programs to equip its employees with basic skills, knowledge and competency on how best to use HRIS systems. The organizations should ensure the appropriate infrastructure is available to facilitate the HRIS process, while sufficient resources should be provided to ensure that effective HRIS systems resourced. The management should also be supportive of technological systems in order to realize their success

Total Quality Management : The Case of Barclays Bank of Kenya

Project in partial fulfillment of Masters Degree in International Business Administration (MBA)The purpose of this study was to gather information on customer needs at BBK. The Research investigated BBK’s staff’s perception of the quality of employment offered at the BBK Group. The research also investigated whether the BBK Group had embraced TQM principles and practices. Finally, the research investigated the benefits and barriers associated with TQM implementation at BBK. The study was classified as a single case study because only Barclays Bank of Kenya was selected as the case in point. The population sample of the study was BBK branches, BBK staff and customers in Nairobi. A total of six (6) BBK branches were visited while BBK staff included top management, middle management and subordinate staff. The sample of the customers was broad as it covered different BBK customers in terms of age, occupation and background. Data was collected from both secondary and primary sources. Primary information was solicited from the target population through questionnaires, interviews and observation techniques. Research findings revealed that the majority of BBK customers in the study perceived themselves to be receiving satisfactory services from the BBK group whereas a small number perceived themselves to be receiving poor quality service. This small number should not however be taken for granted in the financial industry where competition is stiff. On the perception of quality of employment offered by BBK Group, the top management perceived themselves to be receiving quality employment while the surbodinate staff was dissatisfied with the quality of employment offered by the BBK Group. The results indicated that TQM had been implemented in the BBK Branches and the interviewed staff were aware of the new management style. The research also revealed that the BBK Group had realized some benefits from implementing TQM principles and these included aspects such as improvement on administrative costs and increased profitability. Finally the research findings indicated that demotivated staff, inadequate back up services and staff reluctance to adopt change were the main hindrances to TQM implementation process at BBK branches. The major conclusions made from the findings were that BBK customers required flexible banking hours currently offered. BBK customers would like the convenience of being able to make transactions worldwide as well as receiving services/ products that meet their needs. The issue on overall efficiency and accuracy in services offered is also crucial to the BBK customers. The BBK group must involve their managers in the front office operations and make them available to customers. The findings further point out to the importance of appreciating staff in order to ensure good results. The findings from the research amount to an up beat message. Good management practice today comes from treating people decently. The BBK needs to focus on delighting both internal and external customers. The BBK group should strive to provide quality service to its external customers by establishing a clear customer focus, emphasizing on high operating standards and continued product development geared to customer needs among other solutions. The internal customers should not be ignored either because their role directly affects the external customers The BBK group must emphasize on serious constant training of training of its staff, better staff selection, development of team methods, offering satisfactory benefits and pay and proper preparation of its staff for the much feared retrenchment programme. TQM principles as advocated by Deming (1982), seem to be the way forward for the BBK Group

Assessment of Groundwater Variability in Mbagathi River Catchment

Groundwater is increasingly an important source of water. Assessment of its variability spatially and temporally besides quality and quantity is not easy. Groundwater contains multiple range of chemical parameters. This contribution proposes a water quality index (WQI) to synthesize various groundwater quality parameters (Na+, F-, Cl‑, SO42-, Ca2+, Mg2+, K+ and NO3-) in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based environment. The parameters are analyzed relative to the Kenya Standard (KS) East Africa Standard (EAS) 12:2018 standard in the Mbagathi river catchment, a metropolitan area, Southwest of Nairobi, Kenya. Prediction maps for three seasons (wet, moderate and dry) and a combination all three seasons were produced. Based on WQI classification, results showed 36% - 28% good, 58% - 61% fair, and 6%-11% poor. A noticeable declining groundwater quality trend from wet to dry seasons was observed. Groundwater quality deterioration was observed to be greater in areas with higher yield and water rest level. Groundwater is safe for drinking, barring the elevated fluoride content in some areas. Application of GIS was a valuable tool in exploration of groundwater characteristics. Maps generated can serve as first-hand information for groundwater development. Keywords: groundwater, quality, kriging, semivariogram, variability DOI: 10.7176/JEES/12-4-03 Publication date: April 30th 2022

Fully Integrated Current-Mode Subaperture Centroid Circuits And Phase Reconstructor

This work describes a single-chip solution to the problem of phase reconstruction of an aberrated plane wave. In this solution we amplify a current generated by a CMOS imager, compute the second derivative and inject it directly into a resistive grid in one chip. Four large photodiodes, arranged as a quad cell, generate continuous photocurrents in the picoAmpere range. We use the translinear characteristics of MOS transistors operating in the subthreshold region to linearly amplify each photocurrent and normalize them by the sum of the photocurrents in the quad cell. Thus, our centroid computation is independent of the absolute light intensity. The finite difference computation is achieved through current summation at the nodes on the resistive grid. This work describes the design, analysis and characterization to solve the problem of computing the phase of an incoming wavefront