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The land use activities along River Nzoia Drainage Basin include intensive agricultural practices such as cultivation along the river banks, over grazing, deforestation and draining of wetlands for crop production. These activities have an impact on plant species richness. We quantified the effects of land use practices on plant species richness in Nzoia River Drainage Basin in Bungoma East District. Land use practices along the drainage basin were identified by actual surveying. Plant species were identified through quadrat method. Simpson's diversity index was then used to determine the plant species richness and species richness in each sample plot. Data was subjected to Analysis of Variance to test for the difference between treatment means at 5% level of significance and correlations analysis performed for significant land use practices and plant species richness. Land use practices identified included cultivation and grazing. Undisturbed sites were treated as control sites in the study. A total of 119 plant species from 27 families were recorded. Herbaceous plant species belonging to the following families; Asteraceae, Poaceae, Convolvulaceae, Solanaceae, Amaranthaceae, Commelinaceae and Moraceae comprised more than 65% of the total flora. Cultivation had a significant influence on species richness with a mean value of - 0.07929. Cultivation had negative correlation on plant species richness.

This study is a descriptive survey conducted on four primary schools based in the Kgalagadi North Sub-District in Botswana with purpose to cross-examine the instructional challenges faced by teachers based at schools in remote areas. After establishment of validity, interviews were conducted (individual and focus group). Results show that all the four remote schools sampled had homogeneous instructional challenges. Of the challenges, teachers identified discipline and academic challenges as a major factor in all the sampled schools. Even though parental support related challenges did not feature prominently in this study, the study identified that parents we not active in supporting their children in learning. The frequency of these challenges was found to be hampering positive academic output. These challenges were perceived to be capable of adversely affecting Botswana’s national objectives of Vision 2016 pillar of, an educated and informed nation. The study found out that learner achievement at remote schools is low and that parents are not actively involved in their children's education. The final thought of the study was that teachers based at remote schools need capacity building to deal with instructional challenges to enhance their effectiveness. On this ground, the researcher agrees with literature on the need for family learning as an approach to assist parents to support their children.

Nowadays, phasor measurement units are used in power networks for different purposes, such as Linearization of state estimation equations and speed improvement of controlling and protecting systems. Optimization of position and number of these equipments is considerably important because of their high costs. Effective parameters on position and number of PMUs optimization are: Network topology and zero injection buses in power networks. In this paper an objective function based on integer linear programming (ILP) is presented to determine the number and optimized position of PMUs, in order to complete observability of power systems. The effect of zero injection buses on objective function in power networks is evaluated. Simulation results are implemented in MATLAB software on the IEEE 14 buses system, and also 230kv and 400kv networks in Khouzestan province.

The aerobic treatment is considered one of the most efficient methods for treating several types of effluents. This is due to its scope for treating high rate of simply biodegradable matters and wastewater. Several researches have been widely conducted in order to enhance the performance of the aerobic process. The up flow aerobic sludge blanket (UASB) technology was considered as the most popular method in which the highest rate of organic materials can be removed. Nonetheless, the long start up interval of UASB reactor requires more understanding of the biological process inside the reactor. A pilot scale study was set up to investigate the principle design parameters of up flow aerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors for treating waste water of small communities in the tropical regions of India. A steel pipe with a diameter of 7cm and a height of 65cm was used as the reactor in which a digestion and a three phase separator element have a volume of 2.157*10^3 respectively. During this study, which lasted for 70 days, two distinct phases were carried out according to the ambient temperature. The temperature of the waste water entering the reactor was naturally ranged from 260c to 300c and no heat exchanger was used. The hydraulic retention time including 2,3 ,4 ,5 ,6 ,7 & 8 hours with various loading rates of 56 to 197 mg of COD/lit/day were examined. On the basis of the results in optimal hydraulic retention time and organic loading rate BOD5, COD and TSS was removed respectively.

Intra-orbital foreign corps is relatively rare cause of consultation in neurosurgical and ophthalmologic emergencies. Anatomical contiguity between the orbit and the middle cranial fossa is the reason why a neurosurgical approach could be necessary, for the extraction of a foreign body. This case report is about a06 years old girl, admitted to ophthalmologic emergencies, for intra-orbital foreign body, through a wound located at the inner corner of the left eye. The extraction, of a pencil of 06 cm, has been carried out jointly by neurosurgeons and ophthalmologists by a sub-conjonctival approach. The medium-term follow up is 12 months, a surgical wound healed, but no functional recovery of vision or eye movement. Foreign intra-orbital corps are rare in neuro-ophtalmological emergencies, require vigilance in clinical diagnosis as they may go unnoticed. Adequate imaging, and relevant therapeutic approach aimed at “surgical” extraction, are necessary, because, foreign corps are exposed to the infection, panophtalmitis, brain abscess, or even very serious complications).

Recent research has shown that the role of food has gone beyond serving as fuel, providing energy needed to perform daily functions, and to maintain the normal metabolic process, but it now provides an opportunity to improve health, reduce the risk of chronic disease and reduce health care cost. Such foods are known as Functional Foods; they provide more than simple nutrition by supplying additional physiological benefits and promoting health to the consumer. In the past decades, the traditional process of isolating bioactive compounds from food is usually very long, tedious and slow , which takes years before tangible results are obtained. The advent of bioinformatics has helped researchers to improve on the purity, yield, time and cost of their search especially in the drug industry but unfortunately not in the food industry, due to lack of specific bioinformatics coded mining tools. A combination of experimental mining and an integrated computational bioinformatics database approach is herein illustrated for the mining of novel bioactive peptides from functional foods.

In case when the the partial pressure of oxygen above its minimum value, it is revealed that the consumption rate of o-xylene is represented by the equation half order with respect to the substrate as well as given the kinetic equation for the rate of accumulation of products of the ammoxidation of xylene on V-Sb-Bi-Cr / ?-Al2O3-oxide catalyst. The kinetic model of process describing the rate of reaction products formation and consumption of reaction products is developed as a result. Constants of the model are calculated.

Report demonstrates pulse laser dependence CdS thin films thickness variation and properties. Variable thickness properties like; surface morphology, cross sectional view, EDS with elemental mapping, AFM surface roughness parameter, Raman spectrum, photoluminescence, UV-Visible range FT-IR, I-V and R-V characteristics is discussed. It has been noticed with increasing laser pulses thickness, structure, surface morphology, Raman spectra, FT-IR band, I-V and R-V characteristics are changed. With the increasing number of laser pulses, the increase in surface roughness parameter, shift in FT-IR band tail toward the lower wave number side and higher current growth with lower resistance is observed for the thicker films.

Table of contents for the month of December 2018

As air traffic is rapidly growing in the ASEAN region, it is essential to undertake proper planning and measures to modernize or improve current ATM operations in order to accommodate future traffic. One operational concept that may be of interest to the ASEAN region is the Direct Route Environment within ASEAN airspace to facilitate shorter flight routes for increased capacity, efficiency and safety. In this study, a Direct Route Environment was modelled within Singapore?s Flight Information Region which is within the ASEAN airspace. The direct route operations were modeled and simulated by assigning optimum flight profile under normal wind and weather conditions. The conflict patterns and aircraft performance output were then compared between current and direct route operations, with the latter showing considerable economic, safety and environmental benefits over the former.