Mainstreaming Islamic Religious Education and Secular Education in Schools as Per the Kenyan Basic Education Act 2013

This paper is an attempt to harmonize the local Quranic schools, the Islamic schools (Madarasa) and the secular schools in Kenya. The article is based on existing literature review, the author’s personal experiences and opinions. It is felt that a change be made to integrate the three-parallel curricula. The curriculum of the Quranic and the Arabic schools can be accommodated into the secular curriculum to give time for the pupils for rest or play or do their homework adequately. The current system makes the child run from one school to another. This starts at the age of six and continues until the child completes primary school. This is strenuous for the child. It is hoped that the integrated approach will alleviate this problem. The child needs to be given a chance to interact with his \ her environment so that he \ she can react to it. It should be concerned with the intellectual, emotional, physical and social growth of the child. Keywords: Quranic Schools, integrated curriculum, secular education, colonial administration DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-27-10 Publication date:September 30th 201

Testing the criticality of HR-TQM factors in the Malaysian higher education context.

The aim of this paper is to provide evidence on the degree of criticality and reliability tests for human resource (HR) related critical success factors (CSFs) in TQM implementation. This involves identifying and defining the HR-related CSFs from an exhaustive source of literature reviews on quality initiatives. In higher education (HE) contexts, the CSFs in TQM programmes emphasise more management commitment, HR management and quality working attitudes for customer satisfaction. Therefore, the ‘soft’ or HR aspects in the literature review stand as the fundamental issue of concern for organizational management in quality planning and creating a quality working climate to ensure successful expected performance. Using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), the HR-related CSFs that have high mean scores and reliability coefficients, are teamwork spirit, competent staff, customer-focus orientation and visionary leadership. Other factors have reasonably high scores and are recommended to be included in similar research in contexts other than simply the HE context

HRM issues in quality initiatives for Malaysian universities

The aim of this paper is to provide evidence on the importance of human resource (HR) related factors in total quality management (TQM) implementation. This involves identifying and defining HR-related critical success factors (CSFs) from an exhaustive source of literature reviews on quality initiatives. The ‘soft’ or HR-related CSFs in the literature review stand as the fundamental issue in building a theoretical framework. Non-scheduled-structured interviews were conducted on seven Malaysian universities involved in IS09000 certification processes. Results from the qualitative survey suggest the importance of effective communication, visionary leadership, congruent objectives and recognition and motivation as the four most critical HR factors in TQM implementation in the HE context. Practically, quality HRM as suggested in this study is not only the listing of human resource management (HRM) factors, but also to recommend that H-R-related CSFs are the crucial factors that must go right to ensure successful quality initiatives. Quality HRM demands that the management of an organisation consider the factors required to produce excellent performance. The ‘soft’ aspect is always suggested theoretically to be important to ensure successful TQM implementation. The findings on HR-related CSFs put forward in this research serve as building blocks for the development of a comprehensive conceptual theory in TQM. This study suggests and validates those HR-related CSFs that play crucial roles in successful quality initiatives

Funding liquidity risk and bank risk-taking in BRICS countries: an application of system GMM approach

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of funding liquidity risk and liquidity risk on the bank risk-taking. Design/methodology/approach: This study employs a system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique and a sample of 57 banks operating in BRICS countries over the period from 2006 to 2015. Findings: The results reveal that liquidity risk has a significant and negative effect on the bank risk-taking, indicating that a decrease in liquidity risk contributes to higher bank risk-taking. The study also reveals that funding liquidity risk has the substantial impact on bank risk-taking, suggesting lower funding liquidity risk results in higher bank risk-taking. These results are consistent with prior assumptions. Research limitations/implications: The implications of this study highlight the fact that liquidity risk is a risk factor which drives the potential bank default, of which banks tend to take more risks when higher funding liquidity exists. Practical implications: This study offers a number of valuable implications for the policy makers as well as practitioners. The policy makers should take into account better liquidity risk management framework aimed at preventing banks from taking excessive risks. Bank executives must pay more attention on how banks could hold more liquid securities and cash. Less risk-taking reduces higher borrowing costs undermining earnings through imposing taxes on corporate. Originality/value: This work uncovered that liquidity risk per se is an important and previously unidentified risk factor, specifically its effects on bank risk-taking and contributes to the view in support of holding more liquid securities than the past

CITIZENS’ PERCEPTIONS ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COUNTER TERRORISM MECHANISMS USED BY THE GOVERNMENT: A CASE OF NORTHEASTERN REGION, KENYA

Terrorism in Kenya in particular and the world in general has become a huge mysterious and unresolved phenomenon. It has given governments nightmares. It often shapes up and assumes the behavior of a chameleon and strikes from the least expected angle. Many people lost their lives here in Kenya and across the globe. A lot of resources and intelligence were applied by even the relatively most powerful nations in the world but could not eventually succeed. It is an emerging and evolving issue. Terrorists employ different strategies besides the traditional forms. For example on the Garrisa University attack during which 148 students were killed, Kenyan born nationals were used to carry out the attacks, one of the attackers being a law graduate from a local university. These new strategies increasingly show that terrorists are recruiting, training and executing attacks within Kenya mercilessly. In light of the above, this study was initiated to understand the various modalities the government uses to counter terrorism, seeks to review these strategies and suggest diversified, comprehensive, multidimensional and all-inclusive strategies of counter terrorism, in Kenya and the Horn of Africa. The study was carried out in the Northeastern counties of Mandera, Wajir and Garissa targeting 120 respondents. The respondents were randomly selected with adherence to the diversity in the population. The study found out that the strategies used by the government to combat terrorism is not effective and has not achieved its objectives. The government uses militaristic form which has made the residents not cooperate with the security apparatus. The research suggests that the government changes its tactics and makes it more participative and collaborative.  Article visualizations

Antioxidant activity evaluation of flexirubintype pigment from chryseobacterium artocarpi CECT 8497 and related docking study

The current research is focused on studying the biological efficacy of flexirubin, a pigment extracted from Chryseobacterium artocarpi CECT 8497.Different methods such as DPPH, H2O2, NO•, O2 •-,•OH, lipid peroxidation inhibition by FTC and TBA, ferric reducing and ferrous chelating activity were carried out to evaluate the antioxidant activity of flexirubin. Molecular docking was also carried out, seeking the molecular interactions of flexirubin and a standard antioxidant compound with SOD enzyme to figure out the possible flexirubin activity mechanism. The new findings revealed that the highest level of flexirubin exhibited similar antioxidant activity as that of the standard compound according to the H2O2,•OH, O2 •-, FTC and TBA methods. On the other hand, flexirubin at the highest level has shown lower antioxidant activity than the positive control according to the DPPH and NO• and even much lower when measured by the FRAP method. Molecular docking showed that the interaction of flexirubin was in the binding cavity of the SOD enzyme and did not affect its metal-binding site. These results revealed that flexirubin has antioxidant properties and can be a useful therapeutic compound in preventing or treating free radical-related diseases

Capillary electrophoresis for the analysis of antidepressant drugs: a review

Depression is a common mental disorder that may lead to major mental health problems, and antidepressant drugs have been used as a treatment of choice to mitigate symptoms of major depressive disorders by ameliorating the chemical imbalances of neurotransmitters in brain. Since abusing antidepressant drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and tricyclic antidepressant drugs can cause severe adverse effects, continuous toxicological monitoring of the parent compounds as well as their metabolites using numerous analytical methods appears pertinent. Among them, capillary electrophoresis has been popularly utilized since the method has a lot of advantages viz. using small amounts of sample and solvents, ease of operation, and rapid analysis. This review paper brings a survey of more than 30 papers on capillary electrophoresis of antidepressant drugs published approximately from 1999 until 2018. It focuses on the reported capillary electrophoresis techniques and their applications and challenges for determining antidepressant drugs and their metabolites. It is organized according to the commonly used capillary zone electrophoresis method, followed by non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis and micellar electrokinetic chromatography, with details on breakthrough findings. Where available, information is given about the background electrolyte used, detector utilized, and sensitivity obtained

Geographical locations of 18 laboratories with PCR, GeneXpert, and genetic sequencing capacity in Yemen by November 2022.

Geographical locations of 18 laboratories with PCR, GeneXpert, and genetic sequencing capacity in Yemen by November 2022.</p

Timelines highlighting important milestones on the evolution of virus in Yemen and period for the establishment of PCR and other laboratories.

Timelines highlighting important milestones on the evolution of virus in Yemen and period for the establishment of PCR and other laboratories.</p

Challenges encountered during the pandemic response in Yemen Challenges.

Challenges encountered during the pandemic response in Yemen Challenges.</p