Automatic Solar Powered Fan for Regulation of Temperatures in a Green House

Green houses are designed to support growth of crops under a variety of regulated environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, light etc. Temperature being among them should be maintained at levels suitable for growth of a specific crop. Given that it may be costly to regulate the temperatures using electricity, energy cost can be reduced by use of automatic solar system because it is renewable. During the day the glass traps solar energy. The energy heats up the air which is then stored by the rock pebbles. During the night when the temperatures are low in the green house, the valve on the delivery duct is opened to allow warm air into the green house while at daytime temperatures is regulated by use of an automatic fan. The fan runs once the set temperature is reached and cools the greenhouse up to a certain point. The set point will be in accordance to the crop requirements. The design is cost effective, uses readily available materials and simple to construct which makes it ideal for small scale farmers

Development of a Solar Drier for Domestic Applications

The solar drying system utilizes solar energy to heat up air and to dry small scale domestic produce like grain, omena, vegetables etc. This is beneficial in reducing wastage and hence preservation of agricultural products as well as increasing affordability by the local population who naturally cannot afford the higher cost of mechanical driers. This study presents the design, construction and performance of solar grain dryer. In the dryer, the heated air from a separate solar collector is passed through a grain bed, and at the same time, the drying cabinet absorbs solar energy directly through the transparent walls and roof. Tests carried out on the drier showed that the temperatures inside the dryer and the solar collector were much higher than the ambient temperature during most hours of the daylight. The temperature rise inside drying cabinet was up to 24oC (74%) for about three hours immediately after 12.00h (noon). This indicates better performance compared to open sun drying

Effects of chemical functionalization on electronic transport in carbon nanobuds

Carbon nanobuds form a class of hybrid structures consisting of carbon nanotubes onto which fullerene types of units are covalently grown. Due to higher electrophilicity and curvature of the fullerene moiety a carbon nanobud exhibits higher reactivity compared to a plain nanotube. In this paper we study how the electronic structure and transport properties of carbon nanobuds are affected by chemical modification. The studied model systems comprise carbon nanobuds that are chemically modified by attaching Li and F atoms as well as tetrathiafulvalene molecules. We use the density functional theory combined with Landauer-Büttiker electron transport formalism. According to the simulations, the attached units change the relative positions of the Fermi levels, creating a distinctive effect on the electronic transport properties along associated carbon nanotubes. In semiconducting nanotubes the change in the conductance is systematic and should be detectable in experiments. Hence, the carbon nanobuds are potential candidates for sensor applications.Peer reviewe

The association between insurance status and in-hospital mortality on the public medical wards of a Kenyan referral hospital

Background: Observational data in the United States suggests that those without health insurance have a higher mortality and worse health outcomes. A linkage between insurance coverage and outcomes in hospitalized patients has yet to be demonstrated in resource-poor settings. Methods: To determine whether uninsured patients admitted to the public medical wards at a Kenyan referral hospital have any difference in in-hospital mortality rates compared to patients with insurance, we performed a retrospective observational study of all inpatients discharged from the public medical wards at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya, over a 3-month study period from October through December 2012. The primary outcome of interest was in-hospital death, and the primary explanatory variable of interest was health insurance status. Results: During the study period, 201 (21.3%) of 956 patients discharged had insurance. The National Hospital Insurance Fund was the only insurance scheme noted. Overall, 211 patients (22.1%) died. The proportion who died was greater among the uninsured compared to the insured (24.7% vs. 11.4%, Chi-square=15.6, p<0.001). This equates to an absolute risk reduction of 13.3% (95% CI 7.9–18.7%) and a relative risk reduction of 53.8% (95% CI 30.8–69.2%) of in-hospital mortality with insurance. After adjusting for comorbid illness, employment status, age, HIV status, and gender, the association between insurance status and mortality remained statistically significant (adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=0.40, 95% CI 0.24–0.66) and similar in magnitude to the association between HIV status and mortality (AOR=2.45, 95% CI 1.56–3.86). Conclusions: Among adult patients hospitalized in a public referral hospital in Kenya, insurance coverage was associated with decreased in-hospital mortality. This association was comparable to the relationship between HIV and mortality. Extension of insurance coverage may yield substantial benefits for population health

Competency, Experience and Industrial exposure of faculty Members in Public Universities and Collaborating Colleges in Kenya

he success witnessed so far with the Module II Degree Programmes in Kenya’s public universities have led to efforts to expand capacity to absorb more students into public universities. These efforts have included public universities acquiring fully owned satellite campuses in different places/towns, entering into collaboration arrangement with private middle level colleges, adopting various forms/modes of learning facilitation such as holiday, evening or weekend classes, distance, and virtual or e-learning. The Government on its part has declared several middle level colleges to be constituent colleges of different public universities and charters given to more private universities. These rapid changes in public universities often come with their own challenges and may also open up hitherto uncharted horizons or opportunities that could be exploited further. One such challenge is that of the faculty member’s qualification, experience and exposure to enable all these institutions to provide quality education. This paper examines this concern. Faculty members were sampled from public universities, and data obtained as regards their qualification, terms of employment, work expectation and experience, industrial exposure and academic self- development efforts including publications in notable journals. According to the findings made from the study, faculty members in most public universities in Kenya are often middle level ranking with the majority holding Masters Degree qualifications but little else is fully recorded on the attributes that guarantees sustainable availability of competent faculty members where demand for their services is growing by the day. Keywords: Faculty, Experience and Competence

The Church and Ethnopolitical Conflict in Kenya: 1982-2013

The chapter examines the role of the church in addressing the problem of ethnopolitical conflict in Kenya from 1982 to 2013. Though ethnocentrism within the Kenyan Christian community goes beyond the years cited to the colonial period and the immediate years following independence, the intensity of the problem after 1982 calls for special attention. The single event that marks political change in Kenya is the 1982 attempted coup. Although this was not successful, the coup heightened opposition against Moi’s rule and thus, 1982 marks the beginning of the recent history of Kenya, a history in which three phases may be identified in the relationship between church and state: a united church (1982–2002); a divided church (2002–2007); and a recovering church (2008 onwards). The thesis of the chapter is that the church in Kenya generally exhibited a robust socio-political engagement in the 1980s and 1990s but lost its prophetic voice from 2002 to 2008 mainly because of ethnocentrism and the co-option and compromise of the clergy by the government and the opposition. The chapter, which is based on archival and library materials, broadly examines the roles the mainstream Protestant, evangelical, and Roman Catholic churches and their umbrella organizations, the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), the Evangelical Fellowship of Kenya (EFK)—now called the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya, (EAK), and the Kenya Catholic Episcopal Conference (KCEC)—now called Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), played in their quest for social cohesion. In doing so, the chapter highlights the failures of Kenyan churches in addressing the problem of ethnopolitical conflict

Sustainability transparency in road freight distribution in Sweden

Background: An extensive literature review pointed out the limited knowledge on the value of sustainability transparency in road freight distribution. This is researched in the context of non-compliance to current sustainability issues in Sweden. Additionally, the value of sustainability transparency for the procurement activity of a transport buyer was not explored. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to reflect on the value of sustainability transparency in the light of procurement activity of transport buyers. First, the author related sustainability and transparency to road freight distribution. Afterwards, the author used a theoretical model to explain the value of sustainability transparency for transport buyer in two cases. First, during the monitoring of the execution of a distribution service and second to understand sustainability variation on the market. This theoretical model assumes that a higher transparency would lower transaction costs and information asymmetry for a transport buyer. Methodology: A qualitative methodology based on a grounded theory approach was applied in this study. One research question was answered through a literature study. The other two research questions were answered with semi-structured interviews with experts to obtain empirical data. Results: This study suggested that transparency is a signaling activity which could help a transport buyer to differentiate between distribution service providers who “talk the talk” from the ones who “walk the talk” in relation to sustainability. Literature study showed that sustainability transparency creates a value to road freight distribution because it creates a better understanding of the sustainability conditions along outsourced distribution chain. Empirical study showed that most transport buyers do not monitor the sustainability of their distribution service. As a result transaction costs for the transport buyer might be higher than anticipated because of high possibility of opportunistic behavior. Although, a few transport buyers who performed a monitoring activity, argued for the importance of sustainability transparency for a more effective sustainability monitoring. A table of sustainability monitoring techniques is presented as a contribution to the research. Additionally, the empirical study showed a high variation of the sustainability among road freight distribution service providers, which creates information asymmetry for the transport buyer. A table of results is presented and shows how sustainability varies on the market. Finally, it was discussed also how sustainability transparency can facilitate buyers to distinguish easier both sustainable and unsustainable distribution service providers. Importance: A lack of sustainability transparency may result in the development of a bad market and drive legitimate businesses out of existence since transport buyers have very limited information when they select distribution service providers. Consequently, it can affect a local society, government’s income and environment as a whole

Tuning polymeric chiral surfactants for enhanced enantiomeric recognition in micellar electrokinetic chromatography

The research presented in this dissertation involves the synthesis, modification, characterization, and the application of polymeric surfactants in micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC). Sodium undecenoyl-L-Leucinate (L-SUL) was synthesized and modified by use of alkali metal counterions, alcohols, and Triton X-102. Characterization of the modified poly-L-SUL was performed in order to elucidate the structural changes on the surfactants by use of four techniques. While surface tensiometry was used for the determination of the critical micelle concentration (cmc), fluorescence measurements were used for the determination of the polarity of the modified polymeric surfactants. The information about the size of the polymeric surfactants was obtained by use of pulsed field gradient-NMR (PFG-NMR). A superior chromatographic performance in MEKC was demonstrated by the modified polymeric surfactants as compared to the non-modified polymeric surfactants. A correlation between the polarity and the size of the polymeric surfactants was used to explain the observed enhanced enantiomeric recognition of analytes. The effect of polydispersity of poly-L-SUL on chiral separation of compounds was also examined. Centrifugal filtration was used to fractionate the polymeric surfactant into different molecular weight distribution. The resulting fractions were characterized by use fluorescence, PFG-NMR, densitometry, and analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC). The partial specific volumes of the fractionated and non-fractionated surfactant were determined by use of a densitometer. The molecular weights were determined by use of sedimentation equilibrium mode in AUC. Examination of the separation data obtained from MEKC experiments indicated that fractionated polymeric surfactants yielded a better chiral separation. In addition, increase in molecular weight of the fractionated surfactants resulted in a concomitant increase in enantiomeric resolution