Sustainable development goals, the constitution of Kenya 2010 and Vision 2030 underscore the importance of education in ensuring relevant social and human capital for sustainable development. The BIG 4 Agenda has development of the Manufacturing Sector as one of its objectives and this can be achieved if students are able to attend to and complete their educational programmes in Universities and Colleges. The University of Eldoret’s mission is to provide high quality education and training, in Science, Agriculture and Technology that promotes networking, partnership and linkages with other institutions and industry. This study’s aim was to developing an Integrated Student Support Programme (ISSP) in Universities’ guidance and counselling with view of facilitating student completion of academic programmes in Kenya. Specifically, the study endeavoured to find out the existence of support programmes, assess their adequacy and effectiveness in facilitating student completion of academic programmes in Universities and finally find out if it is necessary to develop an integrated complimentary support programme in order to facilitate student completion of academic programmes in Universities. Using a baseline survey carried out on support providers and students in Universities in Uasin Gishu to determine the existing situation the findings were analysed using inferential and descriptive statistics in order to facilitate the development of the Integrated Student Support Programme (ISSP). Though the study was done in Uasin Gishu, the findings will be instrumental in improving standards of education Nation-wide.

This study aims to compare the learning outcomes of students in the experimental and control class with visual and auditory learning styles through the use of multimedia during learning. This research is a comparative quantitative study with the subject of the study consisting of 50 students divided equally in the two classes. Then the hypothesis test was carried out using the two-way ANOVA test. Based on the results of the study it was found that there were differences in learning outcomes of students who were taught with multimedia and those taught with conventional media both those using auditory and visual learning styles. Therefore, the changing paradigm of teaching for integrated social science teachers (history, geography, and economics) should consider the quality and quantity of multimedia, then the creativity and innovation of teachers is absolutely necessary in planning, implementing and evaluating the use of multimedia in learning.

Increased imbalance between work and family life of university teachers is an alarming issue now-a-days. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between work life balance and organizational commitment of teaching employees of Jashore University of Science and Technology in Bangladesh. Data has been collected from 80 respondents through a questionnaire survey. Pearson correlation and regression model have been developed based on this dataset to get the result. The result shows that significant number of teachers perceived there is a positive impact of work life balance on the level of commitment towards their organization. This study certainly answers the question regarding the impact of work life balance on organizational commitment of the teaching employees. Moreover, further studies are encouraged to analyze the impact of work life balance by incorporating all the stakeholders of an organization which may help to generalize the findings of this study.

Firms can be distinguished from one another on the basis of different financial and non-financial factors including firm size, firm value, leverage, earnings per share, cash flow and firm structure. These factors are unique to individual firms and influence the perception of investors towards the future performance of the firms. The aim of the study is to examine the impact of, Firm value, Earnings per share and Firm size on stock return for non-financial listed firms in Kenya. This study used census and covered all non-financial listed firms at the NSE between the years 2008 to 2016. The choice of this period was informed by various reforms undertaken at the NSE. These includes a rise in initial public offers (IPOs), additional offers (AOs), right issues, bonus issues and stock splits. These reforms have had great influence on stock returns. There are 44 non-financial listed firms in the Nairobi Securities Exchange. A number of studies in the empirical literature have documented that firm earnings scaled by market value of equity are related to average return. This study is meant to assess the sensitivity of empirical results of firm value, earnings per share and firm size on stock return for non-financial listed firms in Kenya. The study contributed to the body of knowledge in that non-financial listed firms have gained practical insights into the impact of firm factors under consideration on stock return thereby enriching their knowledge on how to increase overall positive results. The study was based on the problem that whereas there were various firm factors attributed to each firm, it was not clear how, firm value, earnings per share and firm size affect stock return for non-financial listed firms on stock markets particularly those with factors like in Nairobi Securities exchange. This was particularly because existing Empirical literature was scarce in this case. Panel regression model was applied to test the significance of the independent variables on dependent variable and unit root test, Co integration and granger causality test was applied for empirical testing of the data. Descriptive statistics was used to describe basic features of the data in the study.

The use of nuclear energy has many economic, social and environmental implications due, on the one hand, to the uses to produce usable energy for industries and other sectors, and on the other hand, to the uses for war purposes. Some minor and major accidents related to waste management, mishandling of equipment and natural disasters have created lasting impacts in the areas affected and their surroundings. In Latin America, there are six nuclear reactors distributed in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, and other smaller units that operate with nuclear energy. Argentina and Brazil have future plans to expand their operations in their nuclear plants. The implications of the goals of these nations must be considered, in a rapidly changing world in which political, economic and environmental instability increase. The challenges of climate change and the prevalent risks of other unexpected natural phenomena should be considered as potentially elevated costs to the human health and the environment if these phenomena have a negative impact over nuclear reactors.

This study was carried out in Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, Bhutan to assess the consequence of crop raided by conflict species in four villages located in the buffer zone. Data were collected through semi-structured household interviews, direct observation, and key informant interviews. The majority of households interviewed (95.5%) reported the prevalence of crop depredation by wild animals. The results also indicated that crop loss was significant and more frequent near the forest edge compared to crops located distant from the forest. Porcupine was reported to be the most destructive wild animal followed by the monkey and wild pig. Wild animals caused considerable economic loss to households by raiding their crops. We propose collaboration between wildlife managers, researchers, and affected communities to come up with a sound management intervention strategy to lessen the crop raiding. For immediate and effective protection of the crops, we recommend the installation of solar and electric fencing to reduce the severity of crop raiding.

Background: Malnutrition in countries of the Eastern Mediterranean region (EMR) impedes their development. Aim: To study patterns of complementary feeding (CF) and continued breastfeeding (CBF) on nutritional status and deaths from micronutrient deficiencies (MDs) in EMR countries. Methods: Data from ten EMR countries were compiled using UNICEF Global expanded health survey (2018). Data included EBF, CBF rates. CF core indicators included introduction of soft and semi-solid and solid food (ISSS) at 6-8 months, minimum acceptable diet (MAD), minimum dietary diversity (MDD) and minimum meal frequency (MMF). Analysis was done in relation to age, sex, residence, wealth quintiles, maternal education, anemia, stunting and wasting in children under-five of age (CU5) and deaths from MDs. Results: CBF was higher in the uneducated, poor and rural areas. MMF, MDD and MAD increased significantly by education and higher wealth quintiles and urban residence (P<0.01). Correlations were significant for stunting with CBF (r0.76), MDD (r0.96), MAD (r-0.96), wasting with CBF (r0.79), MAD (r-0.96) at P<0.01, anemia in CU5 (r0.62). MDs were significantly associated with CBF, stunting and wasting (P<0.05). Conclusions: In the poor, inadequate food diversity and suboptimal breastfeeding practices in the second year of life influence nutritional status of CU5 and cascade nutritional deficiencies.

The use of antidepressants and sedative drugs is the best treatment proved for major depressive disorder and in some cases the electrical convulsion therapy. The use of stimulants off-label in clinical practice an increasing concern as there is no research evidence to support their effectiveness.

Background: Death from cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death globally and in particular in the Eastern Mediterranean region (EMR). The relationship between early feeding practices and CVD remains to be fully established.

Aim: To examine the relationship between early infant feeding practices as risk factors of death from CVD with a focus on high blood pressure (HBP) in the 22 countries of the EMR.

Methods: First: global and regional data were compiled for deaths from CVD, HBP, nutritional deficiencies. Second: data from the EMR countries were compiled for adult obesity, high cholesterol (HC) and blood sugar (HBS) and pollution. Countries from the EMR were divided into high and low risk by HBP and biochemical data.  Third: deaths from wasting, stunting, non-exclusive and discontinued breastfeeding and nutritional deficiencies including anemia, vitamin A deficiency, low bone mineral density and Zinc deficiency, were compared in both groups. Fourth: a small scale in-depth study (SSIDS) was conducted for 32 breastfed and 28 non-breastfed mother-child pairs under-five years of age. HBP and high density lipoproteins (HDL) and low density lipoproteins (LDL) and highly sensitive C-reactive protein (HsCRP) were measured.

Findings: Nine EMR countries were identified as high risk for CVD with HBP, obesity, HC and HBS and pollution. Deaths from nutritional deficiencies and feeding practices were higher in this group. In the SSIDS, HsCPR was significantly lower in mothers and children who were breastfed and HDL significantly higher in children introduced foods after 6 months of age.

Conclusions: Optimal infant feeding practices contribute directly and indirectly to reducing deaths from CVD.

Social enterprises are very diverse across Europe. There is a wide range of different legislative approaches and different organisational and legal forms on the national level. In some countries, existing legal forms such as associations, foundations, cooperatives and share companies are used as social enterprises. In other countries, new legal forms are designed for social enterprises by adapting existing legal forms (companies, cooperatives), e.g. social cooperatives in Italy, cooperative collective interest companies in France, community interest companies in the UK.The reason for the variety of approaches how to implement the idea of social enterprise, is in the lack of uniform binding rules on the level of the EU. Here, we present our views on the legal framework needed to implement the concept of social entrepreneurship in the EU in a more efficient and effective manner.First, we present a range of definition of social entrepreneurship and enterprises, many of them not consistent and/or sufficiently elaborated. Further, some historical roots are presented on social and self-managed economy, and the concept of social enterprise is elaborated from the point of view of its eligibility. Comparative analysis aims to prove critical diversity of approaches across the EU that leads to stagnating in place and lagging behind.