Lived Experiences Of Women With PhDs In Kenya

The status of women across regions varies significantly. This is as a result of the uneven socio-economic development and the social, cultural and religious beliefs on the female gender. The state of women is affected by existing patriarchal systems across the world. In Africa, education for girls has been categorically pointed out as a means to fighting the existing forces of patriarchy. Emphasis on girl education has seen women, more than ever before, pursue higher education with the goal of achieving fulfilling professional and personal lives. Despite this milestone, the ability to realize the goals has played out differently in terms of their experiences of meaningful work, professional accomplishments, opportunities for career growth, compatibility of work and personal life. With specific reference to Kenya, this study explored perceptions, expectations and experiences of women with higher education qualifications (PhD) within the structures of the family, socio-economic, and cultural structures of the society. The study used mixed method approach utilizing both quantitative survey and qualitative research methods. Data was collected using questionnaires and focus group discussions. Findings show that the gender stereotypes and old paradigms still exist within the society. While the society superficially portrays highly educated women as knowledgeable and respectable members, the study found that female PhD holders still suffer gender related challenges from immediate family and their work places. The study concludes that achieving gender equality is not only about access to learning, but much more broadly, it is about challenging the learning environments, the attitudes, and the gender ideologies in the society

An Assessment of Information Literacy Skills of Undergraduate Students at the United States International University- Africa

  This paper is based on an assessment of information literacy skills of undergraduate students at United States International University Africa (USIU-Africa). The practice of annual assessment of course effectiveness and proposed interventions are aimed at supporting the learning processes for instructors and improving their practice. The study involved final year student from all departments in the university. The study sought to find out whether at their final year, students had acquired the necessary skills requiring them to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information. The students did an information literacy test to assess their competence. The data was analyzed statistically. Findings show that students' use of the library and its resources are low with most of them largely relying on search engines such as Google as the main sources of information. The study makes a number of recommendations among them introducing information literacy education and digital information skills as a taught undergraduate course in the university

Dynamic Distributed Energy Resources for Expansion of Ontario’s Greenhouse Sector

The vegetable greenhouse sector is rapidly growing and adopting technology advances like supplemental lighting. Supplemental lighting has a dynamic impact on the demand and consumption of a greenhouse’s electricity load. There is uncertainty on the rate of adaptation of technologies and the impact this could have on the power consumption of the sector. Without electricity availability, the sectors innovation and expansion can come to a halt. This research focused on investigating greenhouse electrical load models and lighting trends to forecast demand on electricity grids and discover potential for Distributed Energy Resource (DER) applications. This thesis presents a series of studies developed and implemented with commercial greenhouse data and industry standards in Ontario. First, an electrical load model was developed using commercial greenhouse data to differentiate between unlit and lit greenhouse consumption. The use of ten commercial and literature-based combinations of lighting and fixtures resulted in certain combinations and fixtures providing significant electricity consumption savings but displayed a greater capital cost. This model also demonstrated a significant increase in electricity demand and consumption when applying lighting to an unlit pepper vegetable sector. An analysis was then conducted by forecasting the implications of 75% of the Ontario vegetable greenhouse sector adopting lighting. This model normalized the current sectors electrical grid and produced a grid multiplier for lighting scenarios varying in intensity, type, and harvesting area. The findings demonstrated that with careful lighting selection and limitations of lighting intensity, the electrical grid can implement guidelines to regulate and prevent extreme loads from the greenhouse sector. Lastly, an analysis was preformed to illustrate the demand and electrical consumption of five vegetable greenhouses, individually and as a five-grower network. DER designs including cogeneration and battery were developed for the greenhouses and five- grower network. The results show that by creating a network, there can be significant reduction in DER capacity and subsequently financial cost. Outcomes from this study confirm that creating greenhouse networks can allow for greenhouses to self-generate at a reasonable cost using DERs. Together these works combine to form a valuable analysis tool on the greenhouse sectors electrical load and provides potential solutions to moderate the power growth of the sector

Sexual Harassment and Effect on Students’ Self-Esteem in Selected Public and Private Secondary Schools in Kenya

Sexual Harassment (SH) is a global phenomenon and a pervasive problem that affects thousands of students in learning institutions daily yet there are few studies exploring its effect on students’ self-esteem especially from the Kenyan context. Sexual harassment is also considered a risk factor for lifelong problems including psychological ill-health and poor self-esteem. The purpose of this study was to describe and explore sexual harassment in and its effect on students’ self-esteem. The study was done in selected public and private secondary schools in 2 purposively sampled Counties in Kenya. The study was guided by a theoretical framework based on Finkelhor and Browne’s Traumagenic Dynamics Model. The design of the study was descriptive survey targeting 23,659 students, 88 Deputy Principals and 88 Heads of G/C. Samples were obtained through purposive and proportionate simple random sampling. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected using a School Sexual Harassment Questionnaire (SSHQ), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), interview and Focus Group Discussion (FGDs) guides. Content validity was determined by seeking expert judgments. Cronbach alpha technique was used to measure the reliability of the research instruments. Quantitative data were analyzed both descriptively and inferentially using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) while qualitative data were analyzed based on emerging themes and presented in narrative and verbatim forms. Findings indicated that verbal sexual harassment had a significant effect on students’ self-esteem whereas effects of physical and visual sexual harassment were not statistically significant. Keywords: Sexual harassment, forms, students’ self-esteem, effect DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-21-06 Publication date:July 31st 201

Strategies Used in Addressing Students’ Sexual Harassment in Selected Secondary Schools in Kiambu and Nyamira Counties, Kenya

Sexual harassment (SH) is a ‘burning issue’ and a ‘silent problem’ among students in many learning institutions across the globe. Nonetheless, there is paucity of data documenting the different strategies used by schools to address this vice which is causing many students untold distress leaving them feeling upset and disappointed. In 2001, The United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) expressed fear that unless something was done, student sexual harassment in secondary schools in Kenya would get out of hand as it was slowly registering itself as a growing vice. Certainly, several incidents of a sexual nature have been reported in Kenya’s print and electronic media and in field reports testifying to the growing nature of the vice in schools. This descriptive survey research study sought to establish prevalent forms of SH and strategies used by secondary schools to address high school students’ sexual harassment. The study, carried out in selected secondary schools in Nyamira and Kiambu Counties targeted 23,659 students, 678 teachers, 88 Deputy Principals and 88 Coordinators of Guidance and Counseling. Samples were obtained through purposive and proportionate random sampling techniques. Data was collected using questionnaires, interview and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) guides. Findings revealed that schools used varied strategies to address sexual harassment. Further, the findings revealed that besides school rules and regulations, most institutions preferred addressing SH through the guidance and counseling process. The study nonetheless recommended active stakeholder involvement with a view to stemming SH in schools

Nexus between Gender and Language Shift among the Youth in Nairobi County, Kenya

The phenomenon of language shift is brought about by language contact. Language shift from mother tongue to another language among the youth is an issue that cannot be wished away due to, inter alia, factors like urbanization, migration, multilingualism or bilingualism and the country’s language policy. Studies have also shown that there is notable difference in the use of language along gender lines. The objective of this study, therefore, is to assess the nexus between the gender variable and language shift among the youth in Nairobi County, Kenya. The study is anchored on a sociolinguistic theory known as the Domain Theory. The study adopted the ex-post facto research design. The study targeted students in public day secondary schools in Nairobi County, Kenya. The sample size of the study comprised 98 students drawn from public day secondary schools in three sub-counties in Nairobi County. Questionnaires were used as the tools of data collection. The reliability of the tool was computed using the Cronbach’s coefficient method with a reliability coefficient of 0.83. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the findings of the data. Chi-square tests were conducted to establish the relationship between gender and language shift. There was a significant relationship (χ2=18.143, p0.05) between gender and the language used in communication with students of the same sex. There was also a significant relationship (χ2 =13.144, p0.005) between gender and the language used at school. The findings also show that majority of those who use Kiswahili (62%), Sheng (100%), English and Sheng (100%) or Kiswahili and Sheng (100%) are males. The findings, therefore, show that female and male students use languages differently and therefore, language shift occurred differently between the two genders. The findings, therefore, imply that in schools, female students are more likely to use English while male students are more likely to use Sheng. Kiswahili is used equally among males and females while mother tongue is not used at all. The study concludes that gender plays a significant role in language shift among the youth in Nairobi County. The study recommends that the Ministry of Education reviews the current language policy to include instructions in mother tongue in secondary schools

Parallel Implementation of Systolic Array Design for Developing Medical Image Rotation

Many image-processing algorithms are particularly suited to parallel computing, as they process images that are difficult and time consuming to analyse. In particular, medical images of tissues tend to be very complex with great irregularity and variability in shapes. Furthermore, existing algorithms contain explicit parallelism, which can be efficiently exploited by processing arrays. A good example of an image processing operation is the geometric rotation of a rectangular bitmap. This paper presents a set of systolic array designs for implementing the geometric rotation algorithms of images on VLSI processing arrays. The examined algorithm performs a trigonometric transformation on each pixel in an image.  The design is implemented as a distributed computing system of networked computers using Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) model. Each node (computer) in the network takes part in the task in hand – such as image processing – using message passing. Comments and conclusions about the implementation of the design as a distributed computing system are discussed. Keywords: parallel computing, distributed computing. PVM, image rotation, systolic array

Urban Agriculture Spaces in Built Environment Analytic study of spatial properties and multi-uses

The research had taken the concept of urban agriculture as one of the concepts that appeared within the sustainable trends in the city, and because of limited green areas, popular growth, and ongoing neglect to the urban landscape in cities. Moreover, in order to get the essential role of urban agriculture in the city, it requested the need for research in this concept. Therefore, the research problem appeared, as a knowledge need to explore the urban agriculture concept and its applying ability in order to avoid ongoing neglecting of urban landscape in the city. In order to solve the research problem, a previous literature review had been at the origin of the concept, reached to the most important vocabulary and indicators related to the special properties and the multi-use activity of the urban agriculture spaces of the city. Then the research examined the hypotheses, by a destructive and analytic study for urban agriculture projects. The results showed the connection of achieving urban agriculture within city landscape, by the contextual linking as the main characteristics, also the social and cultural uses as the most important use achieved by the presence of urban agriculture in the city landscape. Finally it had been reached to a theoretical model for urban agriculture in the city landscape. Key Words: Urban Agriculture, Landscape, spatial properties, multi-uses

The Role of streetscape properties to Achieve User’s Aesthetic Response

Urban spaces, as part of the city that could shape landscape are needed to form an essential systemic part of the city and due to the lack of streetscape as part of the city landscape to the demands and that achieves user’s respond and interact. This study is concerned with user’s demands related to streetscape and the role that is played by it’s various elements through a responsive design to user’s needs from an aesthetic point of view, The hypothesis of this study is manifested through “Disparity and deferential user’s aesthetical response to the various characteristics of streetscape as relevant to user’s movement through these spaces. The study depended on dealing with user’s aesthetic response throughout various characteristics of streetscape to achieve that response over specific movement types (linear, grid, curved, fragmented) which can be identified by the user, perceived and then respond to it. The research reach most important landscape elements which achieves aesthetic response through streetscape properties (greenscape, floorscape, benches and seating, vertical elements, waterscape) also most important user’s movement types that achieves aesthetic response through streetscape properties (curved, grid, linear, fragmented).Finally the research reach a comprehensive theoretical model for the role of landscape elements to achieve user’s aesthetic response in streetscape throughout movement types and then the research gave a list of recommendations. Key Word: Streetscape, Landscape, Aesthetic response, streetscape properties