KABU Repository (Kabarak University)
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The Exponentially Modified Gaussian Function as a Tool for Deconvolution of Astroparticle Physics Data
No full textFULL TEXTIn the period 2004 – 2012, the Pierre Auger Observatory has recorded more than two million of
ultra-high energy cosmic rays. In seeking to interpret the data recorded for the events, it is
necessary to simulate the interaction of primary cosmic rays with the atmosphere. One of the
software that is available for this kind of simulation is CONEX. In this study, CONEX is used to
simulate various compositions of primary cosmic rays, whose interactions with the atmosphere
result in air showers, with a distribution of depths of shower maximum (Xmax), which is treated
as the true distribution. Smearing this distribution with a known σ gives the “measured”
distribution. By using the Exponentially Modified Gaussian (EMG) function, we have obtained
deconvoluted distribution which is generally in good agreement with the original distribution.National Research Fun
Analysis of Social Factors Financial Services Access Strategy on Farmers Economic Empowerment in Kenya. A case of agricultural Tea Farmer‟s in Kisii County
No full textFULL TEXTThe aim of this study was to focus on financial literacy, trainings and gender equity as social factors that influence access to financial services on tea farmer’s economic empowerment in Kisii County-Kenya. The study comprised of 77035 small scale tea farmers in Kisii County. Stratified and random sampling was used and the sample size was 398 of the respondents. The study used questionnaires and observations to collect data. Data analysis was done by use of SPSS. The objective of the study was to analyze the influence of social factors on access to financial services strategy on economic empowerment among small scale tea farmers in Kisii County- Kenya. The results show a statistically significant weak positive relationship between social factors on access to financial services and economic empowerment among tea farmers in Kisii County (r = 0.363, p < 0.05). It was concluded that influence of social factors has positive and statistically significant influence on economic empowerment among tea farmers and there exists a positive significant correlation between influence of social factors and economic empowerment among tea farmers
The impact of Transparency on Public Expenditure Management in Nigeria: A Conceptual Review
No full textFULL TEXTThis paper reviews the impact of transparency on public expenditure management in Nigeria.
The study explores the relationships between transparency and linked it with the public
expenditure management in Nigerian. Conceptually, it is clear that transparency emerged from
high level of corruption.Government expenditure involves all the expenses which the public
sector operators incur for making the sector effective and efficient, for moving the economy
forward. Public expenditure in Nigeria is usually categorized into recurrent and capital
expenditure It is recommended that there’s need to restructure the public sector transparency
system and it is urgently necessary to have a comprehensive revision of entire audit laws of the
country with a view to aligning them with current realities and demands of globalization.
Therefore future studies would extend the study beyond the conceptual linkage through
quantitative analysis.National Research Fun
ANALYSIS OF HAX DELTA STRATEGIC POSITIONING MODEL ON PERFORMANCE OF MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANIES IN KENYA
No full textFULL TEXTThe performance of any organization is intricately tied to its ability to design, master and withstand a strategic positioning, which can be collaborated with and thereby directed. Knowing what strategic position a firm has available and the implications of choosing between them is a dilemma facing businesses from all industries. Although each industry may have its own set of unique conditions and particularities, a number of fundamental business strategies can be generalized to assist managers with strategic positioning. The aim of this study was to analyze the influences between Strategic Positioning and subsequent Performance in the mobile telecommunication industry in Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to determine the influences of Best Product Strategies, Total Customer Solution Strategies, System Lock-In Strategies on performance and examine the moderating effect of the competition regulation in the mobile telecommunication industry in Kenya. The study was premised on Hax Delta Model as it was appropriate for studying firms’ competitive behavior in complex and uncertain market environment. The study applied a combination of explanatory design, descriptive survey research design and cross sectional design. The research adopted proportionate stratified random sampling technique and convergent parallel mixed methods design. The target population consisted of 4 mobile telecommunication firms and the respondents for this study were 343 managers and a sample size of 142 top, middle and lower level managers from Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom Kenya and Equitel. Secondary data was collected from consolidated financial annual performance reports for a three years period between 2014 and 2017. The overall reliability obtained using Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient was 0.746, hence the instrument was reliable. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize data while inferential statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple linear regression were used to test the relationship between the independent and dependent variable. The data were analysed by use of Stata software and Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 21. Looking at the overall industry, the multiple linear regressions explained 26% of the independent variables on the variability of the dependent variable. The interaction of the moderating effect accounted for significantly less variance than just regulation and performance by R2 change .003, p = .455, indicating there was no significant moderation effect between independent and dependent variable. Correlation findings further suggested there was a positive and significant relationship between Best Product Strategy (β= .477, p<0.05), Total Customer Solution (β= .407, p<0.05), Systems Lock-in (β=.286, p<0.05) leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis while competition regulation (β= -.036, p<0.455) was not significant. The study recommends that firms should ensure product range extension, product replacement, product improvement, product repositioning and new product introduction to enable the companies to be more productive, to grow faster, to invest more and also to earn more performance. The study concluded that it is critically important to stay alert to trends such as new technologies or regulations and the need to develop new innovative products and services that are consumer unique and authentic. The study benefits the management since they could use it to formulate internal organizational strategies that are customer-centric, managing the customer experience and building long term relationship. Finally, future studies should continue to explore and examine a comparative and longitudinal approach where a different or similar condition prevails to measure the framework by replicating the same study
An Architecture for Detecting Information Technology Infrastructure Policy Violations in a Cloud Environment
No full textFULL TEXTOrganizations are increasingly becoming aware of the business value that cloud computing
brings and are taking steps towards transition to the cloud. Just like any other technology it
brings new security threats and challenges. A smooth transition entails a thorough understanding
of the benefits as well as challenges involved. Privacy is a concern that has risen as obstacle to
widespread adoption of clouds by users. Many organizations consider the deployment of
different types of protection systems to curb the various malicious activities. The systems can
offer sophisticated monitoring and reporting capabilities to identify attacks against cloud
environment, while stopping multiple classes of attacks before they are successful against a
network. Despite the use of protection systems to detect any malicious activities, some users still
find ways to violate some of the laid down IT infrastructure Acceptable Use Policies. While
many cloud security research focus on enforcing standard access control policies typical of
centralized systems, such policies have often proved inadequate. For this reason, an architecture
has been developed to automatically detect IT infrastructure policy violation in a cloud
environment The implication of this research is that institutions would regain their trust in this
paradigm and consider implementing policies in their clouds. Since policy violation is one of the
major hindrances to the implementation of cloud computing, the policy violation detection
architecture could be employed by institutions to ensure data security in cloud environment. The
architecture uses software agents as its core components to collect evidence across cloud
environment. The architecture captures any policy violation in the cloud environment when
using any IT infrastructure. Therefore we discuss the policy violation detection architecture and
present our findings in this paper.National Research Fun
EFFECTS OF BOARD STRUCTURE ON ORGANIZATION PERFORMANCE: A CASE STUDY OF ALL THE LISTED ORGANIZATIONS IN THE NAIROBI SECURITIES EXCHANGE
No full textFULL TEXTThere has been a renewed interest on the role of the boards in the performance of an organization due to various corporate scandals and failures. Corporate governance affects organizations‟ performance as organizations with better corporate governance guarantee increased shareholder wealth and limit the risk of the investment. The study analyzed the effects of board structure on performance of all the listed organizations on Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) in Kenya. The specific objectives were to determine the effects of board size on the organization performance, establish the effects of directors‟ level of education on the organization performance, and establish the influence of board members‟ experience on the organization performance and to determine the effects of board gender on the organization performance. The study employed descriptive research design. The target population was all the listed organizations in the Nairobi Securities Exchange for the period of three years from 2014 to 2016. Secondary data sources was used for the study, where annual financial reports of individual listed firms‟ was extracted and return on asset (ROA) was used as a measure of organizations performance. After data collection, regression analysis was used to estimate the relationship between the variables and the data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study found that firm performance based on the return on assets in the overall regression model is significant except for education level of directors. This means that the independent variables of board size, experience of the directors and gender of the directors are important predictors of organization performance. The study also revealed a positive correlation between all the four variables and organization performance. The study conclusion make is it clear that board structure diversity is a fundamental corporate governance element. The study recommends that a lot needs to be done to enhance individuals selected as directors in terms of their board size, average period of experience, gender and education level
Impact of Family Structure and Family Change in Child Outcomes: A case study of Undergraduate Students of Kabarak University
No full textFULL TEXTStudents in the universities and tertiary institutions manifest damning consequences of a
dysfunctional family structure and family change. Family is a very important unit of the society
and requires effort to build it. At some point in life people get married and develop a desire to
have children and desire also that children should grow up to be healthy, happy and self reliant.
For the parents who succeed the rewards are great; but for the parents who have children but fail
to rear them to be healthy, happy and self reliant the penalties are anxiety, frustration, friction,
and perhaps shame or quilt, may be severe. Therefore, a research was conducted at Kabarak
University among first year undergraduate students who joint the university in September 2016
to ascertain the impact of family structure and family change on the students’ lives. The study
was guided by the social learning theory by Albert Bandura. The study was undertaken in
Kabarak University. It adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population was
1222 first year undergraduate students who were admitted in September 2016. A sample of 310
respondents aged 17-24 years were selected through simple random sampling derived from the
undergraduate first year students. The data was collected through questionnaire. Data analysis
encompassed descriptive and statistical method. The study revealed that family structure and
family change impacts a great deal on the child outcomes i.e. students who engage in unhealthy
behaviors like those who engage in alcohol & drugs (10%), socio-economic challenges (25.2%),
emotional disturbances (29.2%), medical related issues i.e. ulcers and blood pressure (12%),
academic and career issues (10%), and those who raised no issues were only 13.6%. The rest
were as a result of a dysfunctional family structure and change due to separation and divorce,
single parenting, and loss of both parents due to death. Parenting styles also contribute a great
deal to the unhealthy behaviors among children especially those in the university. The study is
important such that it yields data and information on the impact of family structure and family
change on child outcomes. The study recommends that parents should be more proactive in the
way they bring up their children right from birth until they become adults and mature enough to
make their own life decisions.National Research Fun
EFFECT OF BALANCE SCORECARD STRATEGY ON PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NAKURU COUNTY, KENYA
No full textFULL TEXTBalance Score Card (BSC) is multi-dimensional performance management able to measure both fiscal and non-fiscal indicators for the purposes of improving firms‟ performance. Balance Score Cardhas been used by firms to align their activities to strategic outcomes. The study assessed application of the Balance Score card Strategy on performance of public secondary schools in Nakuru County, Kenya. The study analyzed the effect of; stakeholders involvement (customer focused strategy), process improvement (internal business improvement strategy), continuous skills development (growth strategy) and strategy measurement (financial capability strategy) on performance of public secondary school performance. The study adopted descriptive research design which tested variables the way they occur in natural environment without interfering with them. The study targeted261public secondary schools principals. The study adopted the sampling formula recommended by Nassiuma (2000) which is representative and recommended for not very large population. Out of 261 target population, a sample of 78 was the main source of information for the study. The study was descriptive statistics including mean and inferential statistics like Pearson Correlation to test the relationship between each of components of Balance Score Card and schools‟ performance. Regression model was used to establish the combined influence of the four components of Balance Score Card and schools‟ performance. The analyzed data was useful in knowing the effect of application of the Balance Score card Strategy on performance of public secondary schools. The study established that two BSC strategies contributed to school performance, that is internal business improvement and financial capabilities strategies whereas customers focus and learning and growth strategies did not contribute to the schools‟ performance. The study recommends that the Ministry of Education should fully adopt Balanced Scorecard strategy within its policy as a means of improving school performance. Second, the study recommends that the County Education Directors should be the change agents that the ministry should use to implement the BSC in public secondary schools for improved schools performance
Can’t Pay. Won’t Pay; Discourse of Kenyan Teachers in their Quest for Better Terms and Remuneration
No full textFULL TEXTKenyan teachers’ strikes and struggle for better pay and terms of service stretches back a long
time. Teachers have formed groups on Facebook and WhatsApp where they share issues
touching on their profession. These are most active during strikes. They are also active on
Twitter. Data was collected from these social media platforms. Can’t pay won’t pay; Discourse
of Kenyan Teachers in their Quest for Better Remunerations discusses the manner in which
teachers discuss issues touching on them. They have a unique language with coded words,
phrases and sentences. This jargon that the teachers use reveals their attitude towards their job
and towards the insistence of the governments not to pay them. Critical discourse analysis
provides the theoretical framework for the study. It is used both as a theory and a method.
Descriptive survey research design was employed. It is hoped that the study will assist in
understanding the strikes and general malaise in the education sector in a bid to reach out to the
major stakeholders and bring back sanity to education.National Research Fun