Self-Regulation of Facebook Usage and Academic Performance of Students in Kenyan Universities

The increasing connectivity of places to the internet platform has led to widespread use of the social media platforms in homes, workplaces and schools wherein it is preffered by mostly the young people christened as dot.com generation. The use of social media platforms has a potential effect on the productivity of the users either in their places of work, schools and society in general. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of self-regulation of Facebook usage on academic performance among university students in Kenya. To achieve this objective, the study employed the ex post facto research design. Purposive and stratified random sampling methods  were used to select partcipating campuses (n=4) from (N=12) and students (n=348) from (N=2698) third year regular students. Data was collected using a self administered questionnaire. The null hypothesis was tested at .01 level of significance using Kendall's tau_b correlation coefficient. The findings revealed that there was a moderate level of self regualtion on facebook usage by university students thus depicting ambivalence in attitude towards controlling the urge to use facebook when in site. Further, it was found that there was a significant relationship between the level of facebook self regulation and academic performance (p<.01). The implication of this finding was that the more one self regulates, the higher the likelihood of improving in academic performance. From the findings, it is recommended that universities incorporate time management skills in the curriculum in order to help the students achieve balance between leisure activites and academics. KEYWORDS: Facebook, Facebook usage, self-regulation, academic performance

Neurosurgical capacity building in the developing world through focused training

Object. In Tanzania, there are 4 neurosurgeons for a population of 46 million. To address this critical shortage of neurosurgical care, the authors worked with local Tanzanian health care workers, neurosurgeons, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and the Office of the President of Tanzania to develop a train-forward method for sustainable, self-propagating basic and emergency neurosurgery in resource-poor settings. The goal of this study was to assess the safety and effectiveness of this method over a 6-year period. Methods. The training method utilizes a hands-on bedside teaching technique and was introduced in 2006 at a remote rural hospital in northern Tanzania. Local health care workers were trained to perform basic and emergency neurosurgical procedures independently and then were taught to train others. Outcome information was retrospectively collected from hospital records for the period from 2005 (1 year before method implementation) through 2010. Analysis of de-identified data included descriptive statistics and multivariable assessment of independent predictors of complications following a patient\u27s first neurosurgical procedure. Results. By 2010, the initial Tanzanian trainee had trained a second Tanzanian health care worker, who in turn had trained a third. The number of neurosurgical procedures performed increased from 18 in 2005 to an average of 92 per year in the last 3 years of the study period. Additionally, the number of neurosurgical cases performed independently by Tanzanian health care providers increased significantly from 44% in 2005 to 86% in 2010 (p \u3c 0.001), with the number of complex cases independently performed also increasing over the same time period from 34% to 83% (p \u3c 0.001). Multivariable analysis of clinical patient outcome information to assess safety indicated that postoperative complications decreased significantly from 2005 through 2010, with patients who had been admitted as training progressed being 29% less likely to have postoperative complications (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.52-0.96, p = 0.03). Conclusions. The Madaktari Africa train-forward method is a reasonable and sustainable approach to improving specialized care in a resource-poor setting