143 research outputs found
Climatic and non-climatic vegetation cover changes in the rangelands of Africa
No full textAbout 21% of the African population directly depends on rangeland resources. As this number is predicted to grow, it is important to understand the response of African rangelands to global environmental change and formulate, in turn, better hypotheses on their capacity to support livelihoods. Here we used three decades of satellite data and a dynamic global vegetation model to study the response of rangeland vegetation to recent climate change and to describe changes in the vegetation structure accompanying greening and browning trends. Long-term climate change was the dominant driver of vegetation dynamics in ca. 2,495,000 km2 of African rangelands (22.7% of the total extent). Examples of these rangelands are in Mauritania, Senegal, Chad, Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa, where the vegetation greened up due to an overall increase in trees, shrubs, and short herbaceous vegetation. We further identified a more extended different type of rangeland (ca. 2,915,000 km2) where vegetation dynamics appeared to be largely unrelated to long-term climate variations. In these rangelands, we observed opposite trends between woody cover (trees and shrubs) and short vegetation (mostly representative of the herbaceous layer). Greening (West Africa, South Sudan) was associated with an overall increase in woody cover (+4.4%) and a concomitant decline in short vegetation (−3.4%), while browning (Angola, Mozambique) resulted from a decrease in woody cover (−2.6%) and an increase in short vegetation (+4.3%) (total per cent change average during 1982–2015). Our results offer a nuanced perspective to frame greening and browning trends in rangeland systems. While greening may mitigate climate change via higher carbon uptake, the encroachment of less palatable woody species reduces the resources available to pastoral communities. On the other hand, browning due to a reduction in the woody cover attenuates carbon sequestration rates, but the observed increase in short herbaceous vegetation may hint a relative increase in forage resources.</p
Corrigendum to “Assessing the capacity of three production efficiency models in simulating gross carbon uptake across multiple biomes in conterminous USA” [Agric. Forest Meterol. 174–175 (2013) 158–169]
No full textThe authors regret that the printed version of the above article missed out the third author's name. The correct and final version follows. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.We wish to add: Terence P. Dawson, School of the Environment, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 4HN, United Kingdom as a co-author in the article
Glass ornaments in the Late Islamic period: composition of glass bangles from northern Qatar
No full textSpringer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable lawThis work has been generated by project Application of Synchrotron Analysis on Glasses from Land and Maritime Silk Road (ID: U2032130), funded by National Nature Science of China and project funded by Chinese Scholarship Council (ID: 202009110007)Peer reviewe
Patterns of age-specific mortality in children in endemic areas of sub-Saharan Africa.
No full textUnderstanding of the age- and season- dependence of malaria mortality is an important prerequisite for epidemiologic models of malaria immunity. However, most studies of malaria mortality have aggregated their results into broad age groups and across seasons, making it hard to predict the likely impact of interventions targeted at specific age groups of children. We present age-specific mortality rates for children aged < 15 years for the period of 2001-2005 in 7 demographic surveillance sites in areas of sub-Saharan Africa with stable endemic Plasmodium falciparum malaria. We use verbal autopsies (VAs) to estimate the proportion of deaths by age group due to malaria, and thus calculate malaria-specific mortality rates for each site, age-group, and month of the year. In all sites a substantial proportion of deaths (ranging from 20.1% in a Mozambican site to 46.2% in a site in Burkina Faso) were attributed to malaria. The overall age patterns of malaria mortality were similar in the different sites. Deaths in the youngest children (< 3 months old) were only rarely attributed to malaria, but in children over 1 year of age the proportion of deaths attributed to malaria was only weakly age-dependent. In most of the sites all-cause mortality rates peaked during the rainy season, but the strong seasonality in malaria transmission in these sites was not reflected in strong seasonality in the proportion of deaths attributed to malaria, except in the two sites in Burkina Faso. Improvement in the specificity of malaria verbal autopsies would make it easier to interpret the age and season patterns in such data
Internal Communication Strategies And Competitiveness Of Commercial Bank Of Africa In Kenya
No full textThe banking sector has increasingly experienced a lot of changes in their strategies due to the competitive nature of the industry. The adoption of a robust internal communication strategy in the new era of technology is amongst the key strategies that the industry has embraced. There are also a lot of changes that are taking place in the banking space and it is therefore imperative to have a proper internal communication structure in place to ensure that the other stakeholders do not feel left out. The objective of this research project was to determine the internal communication strategies and the competitiveness of Commercial Bank of Africa in Kenya. The research sought to establish the internal communication strategies adopted by Commercial Bank of Africa and whether these strategies adopted are in any way aiding the bank in remaining competitive within the banking industry in Kenya. The research adopted a case study approach, thus the focus on Commercial Bank of Africa Kenya. The two theories which underpinned this research include Constructive theory of communication and the Resource based view theory. Since the information gathered were qualitative in nature, the study adopted an interview guide as an instrument for data collection. Content analysis was the method used to interpret the raw data collected from the interview. The findings of the study revealed the very critical role of the internal communication strategies adopted by Commercial Bank of Africa to ensure that it remains competitive in the market. The study further revealed that the banking industry has become very dynamic and having a robust strategy in place was needed in order adapt in the ever changing environment. These internal communication strategies include education and training, internal customer image, quality standards and systems of reward. The study results further ascertained that Commercial Bank of Africa has successfully used these strategies to externally position itself as one of the Tier one banks in Kenya. It has further been able to increase its external client base and loyalty because the internal customer has been well catered for. On the basis of the findings, the study has made recommendations to the policy makers, the management and the theorist. To the policy makers the study recommended that the policies should be streamlined to ensure that the internal communications strategies are effectively implemented for enhanced results. To the management the study recommended that internal communication should be treated as a critical strategy and should not be undervalued as a strategy
Advertising agencies in Kenya: Their nature and operations
No full textThe survey for this study was done between the 19th August,1983 and 30th September,1983.The population of interest included all advertising agencies operating in Kenya as of the above dates.A list of obtained from the Marketing Society of Kenya was updated to include only those advertising agencies that were in operation at that time.This gave a total of 14 advertising agencies to be covered in a census survey.However,only 13 of them were interviewed.The University of Nairob
Evaluation of culture media and antimicrobial susceptibility of Helicobacter pylori.
No full textIsolation of Helicobacter pylori on artificial culture is hampered by the lack of reliable and cheap media. In this study, three different types of culture media were evaluated for isolation of H. pylori from clinical specimens. These media included: Modified Thayer-Martin (MTM), Skirrow's campylobacter agar and chocolate agar. Modified Thayer-Martin agar was superior in isolation to others with an isolation rate of 47% (31/66). The size of colonies on this media were larger and clearly defined. Growth was detectable after 4 days of incubation, with a maximum growth after 7 days. Thirty one strains of H. pylori isolated from cases were tested against ten antibiotics (ampicillin, tetracycline, gentamicin, erythromycin, chloramphenicol, nalidixic acid, colistin, kanamycin, sulpharazole and metronidazole) in Mueller-Hinton agar, to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). H. pylori was very susceptible to most drugs but resistant to nalidixic acid
Corporate Governance and Performance of Firms Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange
No full textThe purpose of this study was to establish the effect of corporate governance on performance of firms listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). The author developed a corporate governance index as a proxy for corporate governance based on the seven attributes of the recently revised Capital Markets Authority (CMA) draft code of corporate governance practices for public listed companies in Kenya. The guidelines cover board operations and control, rights of shareholders, stakeholder relations, ethics and social responsibilities, accountability, risk management and internal audit, transparency and disclosure and supervision and enforcement. The survey questionnaire was the main tool of data collection and was distributed to 56 CEOs and corporation secretaries. The response rate was 87.5%. Annual reports for 2015 were used to compute the CGI score for the different organizations. The study found a statistically significant relationship between corporate governance and non-financial performance of firms listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange confirming that organizations can enhance their performance by implementing good corporate governance, specifically those attributes of good corporate governance that matter.</jats:p
Response Strategies to Challenges Faced by the Horticultural Firms in Nairobi County of Kenya
No full textThe horticultural sector has an immense contribution to the economic development of many countries including Kenya. However, the sector faces numerous challenges that hinder its full contribution to most economies especially in the developing countries. This study was carried out to determine the response strategies that the horticultre firms in Nairobi County, Kenya can put in place to counter the many challenges it faces. The study made use of primary data, collected from the management and staff of thirty six horticultural fims in the County.The data was analysed using frequencies and measures of central tendcency such as mean, mode and standard deviation. The study is of critical importance to horticulural firms in Kenya and other countries. It is also of great importance since it helps in establishing important strategies that can help in improving perfomance among the firms. The study established that horticultural firms can use several strategies in their operations which can help in eliminating the challenges they face and improve their performance in the sector. The key strategies include : Turn around strategies- an all-round strategy dealing with competition, product diversification, new market penetration, e-marketing of the company’s products, investing in packaging and product differentiation, target market, out-sourcing of services, differentiating strategies, refocusing the business and enlarged branch network worldwide. It is recommended that the management should device appropriate ways of putting in place strategies that are underutilized in order to deal with the challenges they face for a maximum profitability of the firms. Key words: Response, Strategies, Nairobi County, Keny
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