Policies on free primary and secondary education in East Africa: a review of the literature

Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are among the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa which have recently implemented policies for free primary education, motivated in part by renewed democratic accountability following the re-emergence of multi-party politics in the 1990s. However, it is not the first time that the goal of expanding primary education has been pursued by these three neighbouring countries which have much in common. Since the 1960s, they have attempted to expand access at various levels of their education systems albeit with differences in philosophy and in both the modes and successes of implementation. All three countries continue to face the challenges of enrolling every child in school, keeping them in school and ensuring that meaningful learning occurs for all enrolled children. This paper provides an a review of the three countries’ policies for expanding access to education, particularly with regard to equity and the enrolment of excluded groups since their political independence in the 1960s. It considers policies in the light of the countries’ own stated goals alongside the broader international agendas set by the Millennium Development Goals and in particular, ‘Education for All’. It is concerned with the following questions: What led to those policies and how were they funded? What was the role, if any, of the international community in the formulation of those policies? What were the politics and philosophies surrounding the formulation of those policies, have the policies changed over time, and if so how and why? The paper also discusses the range of strategies for implementation adopted. Tremendous growth has occurred in access to primary education since the 1960s, not least in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The challenge of providing equitable access to schooling has been addressed in a series of education drives with varying motivations, modalities and degrees of success, the most recent of which pays attention to the increasingly pressing question of the transition to secondary education. The success of such policy remains to be seen but will be crucial for the widening of access to the benefits of education and to economic opportunity, particularly for those groups which history has so far excluded

MULTINOMIAL LOGIT ANALYSIS OF HOUSEHOLD COOKING FUEL CHOICE IN RURAL KENYA: A CASE OF KISUMU DISTRICT

The study uses multinomial logit model to investigate the factors that determine household cooking fuel choice between firewood, charcoal, and kerosene in Kisumu, Kenya. Empirical results indicate that level of education of wife, the level of education of husband, type of food mostly cooked, whether or not the household owns the dwelling unit, and whether or not the dwelling unit is traditional or modern type are important factors that determine household cooking fuel choice. Implications for regional and national fuel policies are discussed.Consumer/Household Economics,

African wild ungulates compete with or facilitate cattle depending on season

Savanna ecosystems are vital for both economic and biodiversity values. In savannas worldwide, management decisions are based on the concept that wildlife and livestock compete for grassland resources[1-4], yet there are virtually no experimental data to support this assumption[1]. Specifically, the critical assessment of whether or not wild ungulates alter livestock performance (e.g., weight gain, reproduction or survival) has rarely been carried out, although diminished performance is an essential prerequisite for inferring competition[1]. Here we use a large-scale experiment in a semi-arid savanna in Kenya to show that wild ungulates do depress cattle performance (weight gain) during the dry season, indicating a competitive effect, but enhance cattle performance during the wet season, signifying facilitation. This is the first experimental demonstration of either competitive or facilitative effects of an assemblage of native ungulates on domestic livestock in a savanna ecosystem, and a unique demonstration of a rainfall-dependent shift in competition-facilitation balance within any herbivore guild. These results are critical for better understanding and management of wildlife-livestock coexistence in savanna ecosystems globally, and especially in the African savanna biome which crucially hosts the last remnants of an intact large herbivore fauna

Nonlocal explanation of stationary and nonstationary regimes in cascaded soliton pulse compression

We study soliton pulse compression in materials with cascaded quadratic nonlinearities, and show that the group-velocity mismatch creates two different temporally nonlocal regimes. They correspond to what is known as the stationary and nonstationary regimes. The theory accurately predicts the transition to the stationary regime, where highly efficient pulse compression is possible.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, published verison in Optics Letters. Contains revised equations, including an updated mode

Volar Digital Transverse Creases of the Nigerians

The volar transverse creases of the second to fifth fingers have been shown to be genetically influenced and not caused primarily by embryonic flexion movements.  The presence of extra, displaced and missing volar digital transverse creases in individuals with normal joint anatomy may reveal abnormalities. This study aims at documenting the prevalence patterns of volar digital transverse creases of digits II-V in the normal Nigerian hands. Volar digital transverse creases of the digits II-V of 303 male and 168 female Nigerians were studied using palm prints obtained by ink method. Single crease (M) had highest frequency in the distal crease, followed by proximal crease and then middle crease. Double crease (D) frequency was highest in the middle phalanx, followed by proximal crease and then distal crease. Triple (T) frequency was highest in the middle phalanx; it was not common in the proximal and distal phalanx. Frequency of E and E+ creases were common in the middle phalanx, followed by distal phalanx and less common in the proximal phalanx. No differences exist between male and female digital creases of Nigerians, there is reduced frequency of the crease types T, E and E+ in all the fingers of male and female, and the male fingers II-IV showed absent E and E+ in the proximal phalanx. Keywords: Digital, Transverse, Creases, Nigerians

Limits to compression with cascaded quadratic soliton compressors

We study cascaded quadratic soliton compressors and address the physical mechanisms that limit the compression. A nonlocal model is derived, and the nonlocal response is shown to have an additional oscillatory component in the nonstationary regime when the group-velocity mismatch (GVM) is strong. This inhibits efficient compression. Raman-like perturbations from the cascaded nonlinearity, competing cubic nonlinearities, higher-order dispersion, and soliton energy may also limit compression, and through realistic numerical simulations we point out when each factor becomes important. We find that it is theoretically possible to reach the single-cycle regime by compressing high-energy fs pulses for wavelengths $\lambda=1.0-1.3 \mu{\rm m}$ in a $\beta$-barium-borate crystal, and it requires that the system is in the stationary regime, where the phase mismatch is large enough to overcome the detrimental GVM effects. However, the simulations show that reaching single-cycle duration is ultimately inhibited by competing cubic nonlinearities as well as dispersive waves, that only show up when taking higher-order dispersion into account.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Optics Expres

Permeability Characteristics of the Foundation Materials of Gurara Dam, North Central Nigeria

A comparison of refraction seismic velocities, electrical resistivity and in-situ permeability   values were  used in this study to evaluate the relationship between permeability values and geophysical parameters in the basement rocks in Gurara Dam area, Kaduna State, North Central Nigeria. Seismic refraction shootings, borehole drilling and rock coring enhanced the interpretations of the geo-electrical studies. The presence of low resistivity values (200-700 W-m) on the electrical resistivity soundings coincided with low velocity transmission of seismic waves (500-1,500 m/sec.) in the saprolite. The results of drilling, coring and water testing, show that the basement rock is fresh and moderately permeable. The Lugeon values from the water pressure tests performed in boreholes show local variations of the generally moderate overall permeability. The permeability values in the basement rock fractures which lie between the depths of 20 and 40m vary between 35 and 1,620 x 10-7 m/s, meaning that the rocks require cement grouting for structural foundation works at these depths. The permeability values of rocks between 40 and 60m vary between 2.67 and 94.8 x10-7 m/sec. This study has established the relationship between low seismic velocity and low electrical resistivity and high permeability in the basement rock. Permeability increases down the profile in the up thrown side of the dam axis until where the fractures close up at depths, while it decreases downwards at the down thrown side. These areas need extra care in the construction stages, if the dam foundation is not to be “threatened”. Key words;  Permeability, saprolite, fresh rock, grouting

Heat transfer and bubble dynamics in bubble and slurry bubble columns with internals for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of clean alternative fuels and chemicals

Synthesis gas, a mixture of CO and H₂ obtained from coal, natural gas and biomass are increasingly becoming reliable sources of clean synthetic fuels and chemicals and via Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis process. Slurry bubble column reactor is the reactor of choice for the commercialization of the F-T synthesis. Even though the slurry bubble column reactors and contactors are simple in structures, their design, scale-up, operation, and performance prediction are still challenging and not well understood due to complex interaction of phases. All the studies of heat transfer have been performed without simultaneously investigating the bubble dynamics adjacent to the heat transfer surfaces, particularly in slurry with dense internals. This dissertation focuses on enhancing the understanding of the role of local and overall gas holdup, bubble passage frequency, bubble sizes and bubble velocity on the heat transfer characteristics by means of a hybrid measurement technique comprising an advanced four-point optical probe and a fast response heat transfer probe used simultaneously, in the presence and absence of dense internals. It also seeks to advance a mechanistic approach for estimating the needed parameters for predicting the heat transfer rate in two phase and three phase systems. The results obtained suggest that the smaller diameter internals gives higher heat transfer coefficient, higher local and overall gas holdup, bubble passage frequency and specific interfacial area but smaller bubble sizes and lower axial bubble velocities. The presence of dense internals enhances the heat transfer coefficient in both the large and smaller columns, while increased column diameter increases the heat transfer coefficient, axial bubble velocity, local and overall gas holdup, bubble chord lengths and specific interfacial area. Addition of solids (glass beads) leads to increased bubble chord lengths and increase in axial bubble velocity, but a decrease in local and overall gas holdup, a decrease in bubble passage frequency and decrease in the heat transfer coefficient. Further, a mechanistic assessment of the dependence of the heat transfer coefficient on the bubble dynamics shows that the contact time needed in the heat transfer coefficient estimation is indeed a function of the bubble passage frequency and local gas holdup. Hence the variation of the heat transfer coefficient with contact time is via bubble passage frequency and local gas phase holdup, which are related with sizes and velocity --Abstract, page iii

Effect of thermal and physicochemical treatment on abattoir waste water – A case study of Ikpoba-hill abattoir

Evacuation of abattoir waste waters into water bodies results in excessive proliferation of decomposers, thus causing oxygen depletion and eutrophication. This study is designed to find means of effectively treating the abattoir waste water before they are reused or discharged into water bodies. The waste water was taken from open drainage before it discharges into Ikpoba river water body and subjected to physicochemical and thermal treatment prior to adsorption by granulated activated charcoal (GAC). The waste water and treated water were analysed for chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), total nitrogen (TN), ammonium nitrogen, total phosphate (TP), total solid content (TSC), dissolved solid content (DSC), suspended solid and pH to ascertain the removal efficiency of the treatment procedure. The study revealed that the removal efficiency using a combination of adsorption, physicochemical and thermal treatment in treating waste water from an abattoir was most efficient for total phosphate (95.78%) and least efficient for dissolved solid content (64.80%).Keywords: Heat, Coagulant, Adsorption, Treatment, Abattoir, Wastewater

Correlation of Activated Carbonized Avocado Pear Seeds (Persea Americana) and Activated Carbonized Orange Peels (Citrus Sinensis) Adsorptive Potency in Eliminating Cd2+ Ions in contaminated water

Water contamination is a very serious problem due to the role and usefulness of water to life. The carbonized orange peels (COP) and carbonized Avocado Pear seeds (CAPS) were impregnated with Potassium hydroxide (KOH) at 1:1 ratio for 48 hours. The KOH impregnated CAPS and COP were washed, air-dried and separately oven dried at 105℃ for 6 hours in a muffle furnace (Carbolite AAF1100) at 250oC for 1 hour. The activated carbonized avocado pear seeds (ACAPS) and activated carbonized orange peels (ACOP) were physicochemically characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometer. Cd2+ ions adsorption technique on ACAPS and ACOP was examined by means of the batch adsorption isotherm experimentations and their adsorption model was appraised by means of isotherm models of Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin–Radushkevich, Tempkin and Flory-Huggin. The SEM imageries, showed that ACAPS posessed a large number of varied size pores whereas the ACOP had fewer smaller size pores. The R2 values which varied from 0.86 to 1.00 point to the fact that all the isotherm models were capable to clarify the correlation in the obtained data. ACAPS had more adsorption site, however, ACOP took up more Cd2+ ion per adsorption site on comparing Flory-huggins isotherm model nFH values vis-a-vis Langmuir isotherm model qm values. Generally, ACAPS was a superior adsorbent likened to ACOP, it was more than twice as effective for deletion of Cd2+ ions in contaminated water owing to a blend of considerable amount of various size openings and surface functional groups with qm values of 12.35 and 5.67mg/g in that order