Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a method for identifying the efficient frontier of decision making units (DMUs) which has multiple outputs and multiple inputs. DEA forms a unique efficient frontier by DMUs and it measures the DMUs’ relative efficiency respect to the this frontier. Context-dependent DEA is an approach which a set of DMUs are evaluated against a particular evaluation context. In context-dependent DEA, different efficient frontiers are formed by DMUs, each of efficient frontiers are used for relative attractiveness and progress measurements as evaluation context. In this study, we used the Social Insurance Institution’s Provincial Directorates database for the year 2012. We explained that a context-dependent DEA which measures relative attractiveness and progress of provincial directorates on a specific performance level against exhibiting poorer and better performance are chosen as the evaluation context, respectively. In this study number of employees, number of establishments, province population as input variables; number of insured and retired are taken as output variables. Input oriented context-dependent DEA model is used for relative attractiveness and progress measurements. Additionally, the reference sets are formed to the provincial directorates located in a specific efficiency level. Thus, regarding of the closest benchmark targets respect to their performance provincial directorates take an opportunity to the improve their performance step by step.

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is the most important pulse and second to maize as food crop (GOK, 2011). Beans are the main source of protein and vitamins. The most important effect of weeds on crop plants is competition for growth resources such as nutrient elements, moisture, sunlight and space. Weeds management in beans has posed a challenge especially on medium to large scale production due to its (beans) closer spacing and manual labour inavailability. Basagran® is a post-emergence selective herbicide used for the control of many small actively growing broadleaf and grass weeds on maize, beans, peas, soybeans and Irish potatoes among others. This research is aimed at determining the efficacy of Basagran 480 SC post-emergence herbicide on weeds in Common Beans under different rates and stage of weed growth in small to large scale farms. The experiment comprised three levels of the herbicide namely: 1.5 l/ha; 2.0 l/ha; 3.0 l/ha and three stages of weeds growth namely (i) 1 week after germination of both crop and weeds (ii) 2 weeks after germination of both crop and weeds and (ii) 3 weeks after germination of both crop and weeds. The experimental design used was Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 3 replications. Data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance, SPSS and subjected to mean separation using LSD Test where applicable There was a significant difference in the yield of grains when the herbicide levels and stages of growth were varied. The efficacy of Basagran® herbicide washighest at an application rate of 3.0 litres per ha applied at about two weeks after germination of the weeds and the crop. The study recommends the use of Basagran® herbicide at the right application rates of about 3.0 litres per ha on bean fields for the control of most broad-leafed and grass weeds in order to boost grain yield.

Youth unemployment is one of the biggest development challenges and the problem is rapidly growing in almost every region of the world including Kenya. Youth enterprises are essential components of Kenyan Economy. Such enterprises are vital for creation of job opportunities. It was on this basis that the government of Kenya introduced the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) in 2006 to foster positive youth development. It is however unclear whether YEDF services such as loans, entrepreneurial training and market and linkages support contribute to growth of individually owned enterprises. The purpose of this study is to investigate growth of individually owned youth enterprises through youth enterprise development fund services in Tigania East Sub-County. The study objectives are to determine the relationship between YEDF lending services and growth; the relationship between entrepreneurship training services offered by YEDF and growth; and the relationship between marketing and linkages support services provided by YEDF and growth on individually owned youth enterprises in Tigania East sub-County. The study was guided by trait theory, Knowledge Spillover Theory and transactional cost theory. A descriptive survey design and correlational research design was adopted in this study. The research was carried out in Tigania East Sub-County Meru County, Kenya. The Target population in this study consisted of all 412 youths who belong to the 23 youth groups in Tigania East sub-County. The study was use a sample size of 199 respondents who were sampled proportionately and randomly from the 23 groups with individually funded members. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire constructed by the researcher. Prior to the actual data collection process, a pilot study was conducted in Tigania West Sub-county. Split half technique using Spearman Brown prophesy formula was employed to compute the reliability coefficient. The questionnaire was considered reliable if the coefficient of 0.7 and above was obtained. Assistance was sought from supervisors and other experts from Meru University concerning content validity of the questionnaires. Data was analyzed with the aid of SPSS version 22 as a tool of analysis. The study established that YEDF loans enhance growth of individually owned youth enterprises through increase of sales volumes, profitability, product diversification, customer base growth and conferring competitive edge to recipients over their competitors. It was also established that entrepreneurship training services offered by YEDF enhance record keeping skills, customer care skills, increasing sales volumes, understanding of their business, conferring business running skills, increasing profitability and general growth of individually owned youth enterprises. It was further found that marketing and linkages support services provided by YEDF enhance sales, product marketing, customer base growth, product diversification and discovery of new markets for individually owned youth enterprises. The finding could be used by the Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender to develop and implement appropriate Youth policies to address Youth unemployment based on the degree of influence that each service was reveal on the growth of Youth enterprises.

Leukemia is a malignant progressive disease in which the bone marrow produces a increased number of immature leucocytes. The need for microscopic color imaging, segmentation, clustering, classification arises when microscopy study of human blood was done by Hematologist. This allows the identification of patients who suffers from Leukemia. In earlier time, before automation in clinical laboratories, the Hematologist visually inspect the microscopic images of blood smear. This process seems to be time consuming and tiring. In the visual inspection, the automatic image processing system is urgently needed and can overcome its related constraints . The development of the integrated system for the use of the clinical sector remains most challenging aspect of medical imaging. The method of visual inspection of microscopic images of blood cells to detect the blood disorder and other related ailments was performed. By the identification of various abnormalities in blood, the classification of blood disorders can be made with higher accuracy. The cancer was one of the most feared human disease . The proposed system relies on the microscopic images of blood smear to detect Leukemia. Analyzing through images is very important as from images, diseases can be diagnosed and cured at earlier stage. This proposed work is implemented using MATLAB R2014a.

Magnetic levitation systems are one of the popular structures in control applications. These systems are non-linear and it is possible to observe the performance of various types of controllers on these systems. Nowadays there are application areas like maglev train technologies, vibration isolation systems etc. While designing a controller, determination of the controller coefficients is complex, and the classical methods require long time for tuning process. With the help of optimization algorithms, the parameter tuning process of the controllers can be done in short time and it is possible to take an optimum performance from the controller. In this study, a magnetic levitation system is modeled and linearized. PID controller is designed for position control of the linearized model. The PID controllers are widely used in the industry and have enough performance for many applications. Increasing the performance of a PID controller is possible with optimization techniques. The coefficients of the designed controller are tuned using the Genetic Algorithm and the optimum values are found. As a result, the system’s performance is developed sufficiently with short settling time and small overshoot.