Challenges Faced by Principals in Implementing Physical Education in Public Secondary Schools in Githunguri District

The purpose of the study was to establish the challenges faced by principals in implementing Physical Education in public secondary schools in Githunguri district. This study covered the following objectives; to find out the curriculum coverage, availability of trained personnel, status of facilities and the attitude of teachers and students towards Physical Education. The study adopted survey design and was guided by curriculum theory. The study targeted 30 principals, 180 Physical Education teachers and 720 students of the form 2 and 3 classes in the 30 public secondary schools in Githunguri district. The study randomly sampled 30% of the 30 schools. Purposive sampling technique was used to sample the 54 Physical Education teachers and 72 students. The study sampled 30% of the teacher and 10% of the student. This resulted to 9 principals, 54 Physical Education teachers and 72 students. Questionnaires for the students and interview schedules for the principals and teachers were used for data collection. Validity of the research instruments was ensured by discussing with the supervisor and colleagues. Reliability was ensured by undertaking a pre-test and calculating the Cronbach coefficient. The research utilized descriptive statistics and presented them in tables and graphs. The study found that there is no enough time provided for Physical Education. Physical Education is not adequately staffed and there are no facilities in school for Physical Education. The condition of the available facilities is poor. The attitude of the majority of Physical Education teachers towards the lesson is negative. The principals should be sensitized on the importance of Physical Education to understand their role in the implementation of the Physical Education curriculum. Every school should be mandated to provide the necessary facilities needed for Physical Education curriculum. Research findings may enable the Ministry of Education in development of Physical Education curriculum and to identify challenges facing its implementation in secondary. Academia also benefit from the study as basis for further study. Keywords: Physical Education, curriculum coverage, secondary schools, teachers attitude and trained personnel

Influence of Monitoring and Evaluation by Principals on Effective Teaching and Learning in Public Secondary Schools in Githunguri District

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of monitoring and evaluation on effective teaching and learning in secondary schools in Githunguri district. This study was guided by the following objectives; To establish the effect of lesson preparation, teaching and learning process, monitoring of school attendance for teachers and students impact on teaching and learning process, effect of evaluation process used in schools on effectiveness of teaching and learning and to establish the effect of learning and teaching environment on the effectiveness of teaching and learning. The study adopted survey research design. The study targeted 30 principals, 750 teachers, 150 HODs and 120 class prefects 1 class prefect per stream in the 30 public secondary schools in Githunguri district. The researcher used simple random sampling techniques to sample the 187 respondents. The study had a sample size of 15 principals, 113 teachers, 23 HODs and 36 class prefects; a total sample of 187 respondents. The sampling technique was random. Questionnaires were used for the data collection from the HODs, teachers and class prefects. Interview schedule was used for the principal. Validity of the research instruments was ensured by undertaking a pre-test in 2 schools which were not included in the study. The researcher also discussed the instruments with the supervisor to ascertain there validity. Reliability was ensured through calculating the Cronbach coefficient. The research utilized descriptive analysis of each of the questions asked in the questionnaires presenting them in tables and graphs. There should be improvement on lesson preparation process, the schools should improve on the monitoring of school attendance for teachers and students as it has an impact on teaching and learning process. The finding of the study will provide invaluable insight into the role of monitoring and evaluation by principals on effective teaching and learning in secondary schools. This will help policy makers in formulating policies to guide the monitoring and evaluation process in secondary schools. Keywords: Monitoring and evaluation, teaching and learning, secondary schools, lesson preparation, Keny

Classification of Radio Galaxies with trainable COSFIRE filters

Radio galaxies exhibit a rich diversity of characteristics and emit radio emissions through a variety of radiation mechanisms, making their classification into distinct types based on morphology a complex challenge. To address this challenge effectively, we introduce an innovative approach for radio galaxy classification using COSFIRE filters. These filters possess the ability to adapt to both the shape and orientation of prototype patterns within images. The COSFIRE approach is explainable, learning-free, rotation-tolerant, efficient, and does not require a huge training set. To assess the efficacy of our method, we conducted experiments on a benchmark radio galaxy data set comprising of 1180 training samples and 404 test samples. Notably, our approach achieved an average accuracy rate of 93.36\%. This achievement outperforms contemporary deep learning models, and it is the best result ever achieved on this data set. Additionally, COSFIRE filters offer better computational performance, $\sim$20$\times$ fewer operations than the DenseNet-based competing method (when comparing at the same accuracy). Our findings underscore the effectiveness of the COSFIRE filter-based approach in addressing the complexities associated with radio galaxy classification. This research contributes to advancing the field by offering a robust solution that transcends the orientation challenges intrinsic to radio galaxy observations. Our method is versatile in that it is applicable to various image classification approaches.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, submitted for review at MNRAS journa

New antitrypanosomal tetranotriterpenoids from Azadirachta Indica

Organic extracts of the leaves of Azadirachta indica A. Juss. yielded ten antitrypanosomal terpenoids. Three of these (1 – 3), are novel and are derivatives of nimbolide and nimbin. They were extracted from chloroformfraction of methanol extract. These compounds were found to exhibit strong antitrypanosomal activities against Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense with MIC values ranging of 6.9, 15.6 and 7.8 μg/ml respectively and were more active than Cymerlarsan ( a standard drug), which had an MIC value of 187.5 μg/ml when tested against T. b. rhodesiense The structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods including; NMR, MS, UV and IR.Key words: Meliaceae, limonoids, Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, Azadirachta indica, antitrypanosomal activity

Rainfall and Temperature Trends and Variability in Arid and Semi-arid Lands of Kitui County, Kenya

A study was carried out to analyse rainfall and temperature trends and variability in selected agro-ecological zones in Kitui County. Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) rainfall dataset was used while temperature data was obtained from the Climatic Research Unit gridded Time Series (CRU TS) dataset. The results indicated that there was a non-significant decreasing trend (p<0.05) in average annual rainfall in all the four agro-ecological zones (p<0.05) for a 30-years period (1988-2018) in the study area. A decreasing trend in March-April-May (MAM) seasonal rainfall trend was reported in the arid and semi-arid agro-ecological zones while an increasing trend was recorded in the transitional and semi-humid zones. For the October-November-December (OND) seasonal rainfall, a non-significant decreasing trend was reported in all the four agro-ecological zones. Additionally, a higher annual rainfall variability was recorded in the drier (arid) and wetter (semi-humid) zones compared to that in semi-arid and transitional zones. Moreover, the study established that there was a spatial variation in both MAM and OND seasonal rainfall variability and that rainfall variability was higher in the OND seasonal rainfall than that of the MAM seasonal rainfall in all the agro-ecological zones. With reference to temperature trends, a statistically significant increasing trend in annual and OND seasonal average maximum and minimum temperatures was reported in all the four agro-ecological zones. Further, the study noted a non-significant increasing trend in maximum and minimum temperatures for the MAM season in all the agro-ecological zones. In regard to temperature variability, the study deduced that there was low temperature variability compared to rainfall variability in all the four agro-ecological zones. The study recommends that location-specific rainfall and temperature analysis should guide planning and implementation of adaptation strategies for effective response to climate variability. Keywords: Agro-ecological Zones, Mann-Kendall Test, Coefficient of Variation, CHIRPS, CRU TS DOI: 10.7176/JEES/12-12-05 Publication date: December 31st 202

Describing an online co-development process of VAWG prevention intervention activities with young high school learners, in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this record. Evidence suggests that co-developed participatory interventions to prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG) may support behavior change. Yet, adolescents are often excluded from intervention development. Moreover, there remains a gap in understanding if intervention co-development can occur online. Our study explored the feasibility of undertaking an online co-development process for a participatory VAWG prevention intervention. We worked with a small group of high school learners (18–19 years), from the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. We collected session notes and audio recorded sessions. Adolescents enjoyed the level of autonomy and their depth of involvement in the process. They were eager to be involved, and they appreciated being “heard.” Adolescents found it easy to build rapport online amongst each other, and with the facilitator. There were also challenges, the main one being young people’s, and facilitator’s, histories of didactic communication. Understanding the strengths and limitations of online co-development processes is crucial, to strengthen them.Nelson Mandela UniversitySouth African National Research FoundationSouth African Medical Research CouncilUniversity of Exete

MAIZE YIELD ESTIMATION IN KENYA USING MODIS

Abstract. Monitoring staple crop production can support agricultural research, business such as crop insurance, and government policy. Obtaining accurate estimates through field work is very expensive, and estimating it through remote sensing is promising. We estimated county-level maize yield for the 37 maize producing countries in Kenya from 2010 to 2017 using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. Support Vector Regression (SVR) and Random Forest (RF) were used to fit models with observed county level maize yield as a function of vegetation indices. The following five MODIS vegetation indices were used: green normalized difference vegetation index, normalized difference vegetation index, normalized difference moisture index, gross primary production, and fraction of photosynthetically active radiation. The models were evaluated with 5-fold leave one year out cross-validation. For SVR, R2 was 0.70, the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) was 0.50 MT/ha and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) was 27.6%. On the other hand for RF these were 0.69, 0.51 MT/ha and 29.3% respectively. These results are promising and should be tested in specific applications to understand if they are good enough for use

Correlations between three ELISA protocols measurements of RTS,S/AS01-induced anti-CSP IgG antibodies

Background RTS,S/AS01 induced anti-circumsporozoite protein (CSP) IgG antibodies are associated with the vaccine efficacy. There is currently no international standardisation of the assays used in the measurement of anti-CSP IgG antibody concentrations for use in evaluations of the vaccine’s immunogenicity and/or efficacy. Here, we compared the levels of RTS,S/AS01 induced anti-CSP IgG antibodies measured using three different enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assays (ELISA). Methods 196 plasma samples were randomly selected from the 447 samples collected during the RTS,S/AS01 phase IIb trial in 2007 from Kenyan children aged between 5–17 months. The vaccine-induced anti-CSP IgG antibodies were then measured using two independently developed ELISA protocols (‘Kilifi-RTS,S’ and ‘Oxford-R21’) and compared to the results from the reference ‘Ghent-RTS,S’ protocol for the same participants. For each pair of protocols, a deming regression model was fitted. Linear equations were then derived to aid in conversions into equivalent ELISA units. The agreement was assessed using Bland and Altman method. Findings The anti-CSP IgG antibodies measured from the three ELISA protocols were in agreement, and were positively and linearly correlated; ‘Oxford’ and ‘Kilifi’ r = 0.93 (95% CI 0.91–0.95), ‘Oxford’ and ‘Ghent’ r = 0.94 (95% CI: 0.92–0.96), and ‘Kilifi’ and ‘Ghent’ r = 0.97 (95% CI: 0.96–0.98), p<0.0001 for all correlations. Conclusions With the linearity, agreement and correlations established between the assays, conversion equations can be applied to convert results into equivalent units, enabling comparisons of immunogenicities across different vaccines of the same CSP antigens. This study highlights the need for the international harmonisation of anti-CSP antibody measurements