The Influence of Macro-Economic Factors on Foreign Direct Investment Flows in Kenya for The Period Of 2002-2013

Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) are imperative for the long-term economic development of global economies as they result to capital creation, technology transfer, competition enhancement and employment creation. Consequently, macroeconomic outcomes resulting from the monetary and fiscal policiesare postulated to influence the FDI. This paper investigates the effect of inflation, real interest rate, real exchange rate, and development expenditure on FDI flows in Kenya between 2002 and 2013 using a regression model and correlation analysis.We find a positive relationship between development expenditure and FDI and a negative relationship between the real interest rate, inflation, and the real exchange rate on FDI. The implications of these findings are that policy makers should focus on controlling inflation and interest rates and maintaining stable exchange rates to enhance FDI flows

Review of clinical profile, risk factors, and outcome in patients with Tuberculosis and COVID -19

Coronavirus disease (COVID 19) has involved millions of people all over the world. Tuberculosis (TB) continues to affect millions of people every year with high mortality. There is limited literature on the occurrence of COVID 19 in patients with TB. We reviewed the available data on various clinical details, management, and outcome among patients with COVID-19 and TB. 8 studies reported a total of 80 patients with this coinfection. These patients were reported from ten different countries, with Italy reporting the largest number of cases. Migrant, males constituted a major proportion of cases. Most reported patients were symptomatic. Fever, dry cough, and dyspnea were the most commonly reported symptoms. Bilateral ground glass opacities were more common in COVID 19 infection and cavitary lesions were more common in patients with TB. Most reported TB patients had been found to have mycobacterium tuberculosis from sputum culture in the background of pulmonary TB. Most patients of TB were treated with multidrug regimen antitubercular therapy. In all 8 studies, COVID 19 was treated as per the local protocol. Mortality was reported in more than 10% of patients. Mortality was higher in elderly patients ( \u3e 70 years) and amongst patient with multiple medical comorbidities

Health-care sector and complementary medicine: practitioners’ experiences of delivering acupuncture in the public and private sectors

AIM: The aim was to identify similarities and differences between private practice and the National Health Service (NHS) in practitioners' experiences of delivering acupuncture to treat pain. We wished to identify differences that could affect patients' experiences and inform our understanding of how trials conducted in private clinics relate to NHS clinical practice. BACKGROUND: Acupuncture is commonly used in primary care for lower back pain and is recommended in the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence's guidelines. Previous studies have identified differences in patients' accounts of receiving acupuncture in the NHS and in the private sector. The major recent UK trial of acupuncture for back pain was conducted in the private sector. METHODS: Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 16 acupuncturists who had experience of working in the private sector (n = 7), in the NHS (n =3), and in both the sectors (n = 6). The interviews lasted between 24 and 77 min (median=49 min) and explored acupuncturists' experiences of treating patients in pain. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify similarities and differences across private practice and the NHS.FINDINGS: The perceived effectiveness of acupuncture was described consistently and participants felt they did (or would) deliver acupuncture similarly in NHS and in private practice. In both the sectors, patients sought acupuncture as a last resort and acupuncturist-patient relationships were deemed important. Acupuncture availability differed across sectors: in the NHS it was constrained by Trust policies and in the private sector by patients' financial resources. There were greater opportunities for autonomous practice in the private sector and regulation was important for different reasons in each sector. In general, NHS practitioners had Western-focussed training and also used conventional medical techniques, whereas private practitioners were more likely to have Traditional Chinese training and to practise other complementary therapies in addition to acupuncture. Future studies should examine the impact of these differences on patients' clinical outcomes

Capturing the temporal sequence of interaction in young siblings

We explored whether young children exhibit subtypes of behavioral sequences during sibling interaction. Ten-minute, free-play observations of over 300 sibling dyads were coded for positivity, negativity and disengagement. The data were analyzed using growth mixture modeling (GMM). Younger (18-month-old) children’s temporal behavioral sequences showed a harmonious (53%) and a casual (47%) class. Older (approximately four-year-old) children’s behavior was more differentiated revealing a harmonious (25%), a deteriorating (31%), a recovery (22%) and a casual (22%) class. A more positive maternal affective climate was associated with more positive patterns. Siblings’ sequential behavioral patterns tended to be complementary rather than reciprocal in nature. The study illustrates a novel use of GMM and makes a theoretical contribution by showing that young children exhibit distinct types of temporal behavioral sequences that are related to parenting processes

Causes of non-malarial febrile illness in outpatients in Tanzania.

OBJECTIVE: In sub-Saharan Africa, the use of malaria rapid diagnostic tests (mRDT) has raised awareness of alternative fever causes in children but few studies have included adults. To address this gap, we conducted a study of mRDT-negative fever aetiologies among children and adults in Tanzania. METHODS: A total of 1028 patients aged 3 months to 50 years with a febrile illness and negative mRDT were enrolled from a Tanzanian hospital outpatient department. All had a physical examination and cultures from blood, nasopharynx/throat and urine. Patients were followed on Days 7 and 14 and children meeting WHO criteria for pneumonia were followed on Day 2 with chest radiology. RESULTS: Respiratory symptoms were the most frequent presenting complaint, reported by 20.3% of adults and 64.0% (339/530) of children. Of 38 X-rayed children meeting WHO pneumonia criteria, 47.4% had a normal X-ray. Overall, only 1.3% of 1028 blood cultures were positive. Salmonella typhi was the most prevalent pathogen isolated (7/13, 53.8%) and S. typhi patients reported fever for a median of 7 days (range 2-14). Children with bacteraemia did not present with WHO symptoms requiring antibiotic treatment. Young children and adults had similar prevalences of positive urine cultures (24/428 and 29/498, respectively). CONCLUSION: Few outpatient fevers are caused by blood stream bacterial infection, and most adult bacteraemia would be identified by current clinical guidelines although paediatric bacteraemia may be more difficult to diagnose. While pneumonia may be overdiagnosed, urinary tract infection was relatively common. Our results emphasise the difficulty in identifying African children in need of antibiotics among the majority who do not

Hotspots of dendritic spine turnover facilitate clustered spine addition and learning and memory.

Modeling studies suggest that clustered structural plasticity of dendritic spines is an efficient mechanism of information storage in cortical circuits. However, why new clustered spines occur in specific locations and how their formation relates to learning and memory (L&M) remain unclear. Using in vivo two-photon microscopy, we track spine dynamics in retrosplenial cortex before, during, and after two forms of episodic-like learning and find that spine turnover before learning predicts future L&M performance, as well as the localization and rates of spine clustering. Consistent with the idea that these measures are causally related, a genetic manipulation that enhances spine turnover also enhances both L&M and spine clustering. Biophysically inspired modeling suggests turnover increases clustering, network sparsity, and memory capacity. These results support a hotspot model where spine turnover is the driver for localization of clustered spine formation, which serves to modulate network function, thus influencing storage capacity and L&M

Point-of-care assessment of C-reactive protein and white blood cell count to identify bacterial aetiologies in malaria-negative paediatric fevers in Tanzania.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the role of point-of-care (PoC) assessment of C-reactive protein (CRP) and white blood cell (WBC) count to identify bacterial illness in Tanzanian children with non-severe non-malarial fever. METHODS: From the outpatient department of a district hospital in Tanzania, 428 patients between 3 months and 5 years of age who presented with fever and a negative malaria test were enrolled. All had a physical examination and bacterial cultures from blood and urine. Haemoglobin, CRP and WBC were measured by PoC devices. RESULTS: Positive blood cultures were detected in 6/428 (1.4%) children and urine cultures were positive in 24/401 (6.0%). Mean WBC was similar in children with or without bacterial illness (14.0 × 109 , 95% CI 12.0-16.0 × 109 vs. 12.0 × 109 , 95% CI 11.4-12.7 × 109), while mean CRP was higher in children with bacterial illness (41.0 mg/l, 95% CI 28.3-53.6 vs. 23.8 mg/l, 95% CI 17.8-27.8). In ROC analysis, the optimum cut-off value for CRP to identify bacterial illness was 19 mg/l but with an area under the curve of only 0.62. Negative predictive values exceeded 80%, while positive predictive values were under 40%. CONCLUSION: WBC and CRP levels had limited value in identifying children with bacterial infections. The positive predictive values for both tests were too low to be used as single tools for treatment decisions

Building blocks of protein structures -- Physics meets Biology

The native state structures of globular proteins are stable and well-packed indicating that self-interactions are favored over protein-solvent interactions under folding conditions. We use this as a guiding principle to derive the geometry of the building blocks of protein structures, alpha-helices and strands assembled into beta-sheets, with no adjustable parameters, no amino acid sequence information, and no chemistry. There is an almost perfect fit between the dictates of mathematics and physics and the rules of quantum chemistry. Our theory establishes an energy landscape that channels protein evolution by providing sequence-independent platforms for elaborating sequence-dependent functional diversity. Our work highlights the vital role of discreteness in life and has implications for the creation of artificial life and on the nature of life elsewhere in the cosmos.Comment: 32 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables; Added key sentence about the important role of amino acid side chains in providing steric constraint

The haunted world of C. S. Lewis : a study of his space trilogy

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that C. S. Lewis In his space trilogy la not so much a maker of myths as a reteller of myths. He uses older myth to affirm his belief that man lives in a world haunted by the supernatural. The first chapter is a study of the idea of myth, with special emphasis on Lewis's attitude toward myth, as seen in the trilogy. For Lewis, myth is more than a form of literature; It is a "thing" (divorced from language), which has the power to fill the human heart with awe. Lewis's space trilogy does not symbolize the truth about human life so much as it emphasizes "questions" about human life. It brings to the surface all of the longings of the human heart

Cancer cases in Kenya; forecasting incidents using box & amp; Jenkins Arima Model

Paper presented at the 4th Strathmore International Mathematics Conference (SIMC 2017), 19 - 23 June 2017, Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya.The aim of the study was to fit appropriate time series models in assessing the accuracy of the Box Jenkins and ARIMA model in forecasting of Cancer case admissions for all people of any age from different health facilities across the country. Box-Jenkins was selected for evaluation because it has the potential of producing a point forecast within a given population, it provides a forecast interval, and is based upon a proven model. Forecast results and their associated forecast intervals may help Health facilities and health practitioners make informed decisions about whether the number of observed cancer reports in a given timeframe represents a potential incidence or is a function of random variation. Data management and analysis were done in SPSS Software. The data was segmented into two sets: Training Set (from 2000 to 2015) and the Test Set (from 2016 to 2018). The hold out set (test) provides the gold standard for measuring the model‘s true prediction error which refers to how well the model forecasts for new data. To note, the test data were only be used after a definitive model has been selected. This was to ensure unbiased estimates of the true forecast error. The results were presented in form of tables, graphs and context. In this study, the developed model for cancer case incidents in Kenya was found to be an ARIMA (2,1,0). From the forecast available by using the developed model, it can be seen that forecasted incidents for the year 2015-16 is higher than2014-15 and in later years the incidents increases. The model can be used by researchers for forecasting of cancer incidents in Kenya.Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya Kabarak University, Nakuru, Keny