IJCIRISSN 1996-1065 [Online]
ISSN 1818-1139 [PRINT]

In this paper, we present work done to find out the challenges poor people in Kakamega east district in western Kenya face to maintain their mobile phones. It reports on findings from a study conducted to find out how the poor use their mobile phones, their means of acquisition, air time top up, battery recharge dynamics, and repair costs. Mobile phone maintenance costs visa-vi their earnings and spending were also analyzed. Results show that over 80% of the population own mobile phones and 61 % of all those who own and use mobile phones spend at least 10% of their disposable income on mobile phone. Some people at the bottom of the pyramid forego other important basic needs at the expense of maintaining their mobile phone. We conclude that, unless positive policy or interventions are put in place, economic leapfrogging is not likely to happen among the poor in developing countries even with the high uptake of ICTs, especially mobile phones.
Key Words: LDCs, ICT, mobile phone, Poverty..

In this paper, we present work done to find out the challenges poor people in Kakamega east district in western Kenya face to maintain their mobile phones. It reports on findings from a study conducted to find out how the poor use their mobile phones, their means of acquisition, air time top up, battery recharge dynamics, and repair costs. Mobile phone maintenance costs visa-vi their earnings and spending were also analyzed. Results show that over 80% of the population own mobile phones and 61 % of all those who own and use mobile phones spend at least 10% of their disposable income on mobile phone. Some people at the bottom of the pyramid forego other important basic needs at the expense of maintaining their mobile phone. We conclude that, unless positive policy or interventions are put in place, economic leapfrogging is not likely to happen among the poor in developing countries even with the high uptake of ICTs, especially mobile phones.
KEY WORDS: LDCs, ICT, mobile phone, Poverty

There have been many attempts using ontologies to develop systems that integrate data from the domains of medicine and biology, across levels of gravity. Such integration systems have not gained wide adoption and reuse. This is largely due to a lack of an approach with metrics as frame of reference to enable users evaluate these systems for their representation of biomedical structure, accross levels of granularity. In this paper a reference ontology against which such evaluation of biomedical ontologies may be conducted is presented. Requirements for the reference ontology were validated in a descriptive study. Basic formal ontology with its support for representing biomedical structure across levels of granularity is adopted as the underlying theory for deriving the reference ontology. Metrics for determining the suitability of an ontology to integrate biomedical data across levels of granularity are derived using the reference ontology. The utility of the reference ontology was tested by a prototype tool that was used to evaluate the infectious disease ontology. The results were validated in a questionnaire based study with users. Categories and Subject descriptors: H.1.1 [Models and Principles]: Systems and Information theory � General Systems Theory; J.3 [Life and Medical Sciences]: Medical Information Systems, Biology and Genetics
General terms: Reference Ontology; Biomedical Ontology; Ontology Evaluation; Biomedical Data Integration; Granularity; Additional key words and phrases: Levels of Granularity; Biological data; Clinical data.

The paper discusses the influence of propagation environment in a GSM mobile network. It considers the measurement and prediction results for a special case of propagation, that is, the harmattan, in a live network. The harmattan precipitation intensity may be so great that visibility at ground level is reduced to less than a hundred meters by dust clusters. In this paper, the path loss during harmattan in N�djamena (Chad) is computed from the received signal strength at various distances for three major roads. The Hata and Free-space models were applied, and compared with received signal measurement data. The results indicate that measurement data and the Hata prediction model agree closely while the free space model generally underestimates the path loss phenomena. The significance here is that various forms of precipitation such as rain, snow, cloud and fog absorb and scatter electromagnetic energy leading to attenuation in its signal strength. The study indicates that harmattan precipitates do inflict attenuation significantly.
Categories and Subject Descriptors: C.4 [Performance of Systems]: Modeling Techniques; D4.8 [Performance]: Measurements; Modeling and Prediction; I6.4[Simulation and Modeling]:Model Validation and Analysis
General Terms: Harmattan, Propagation, Signal Strength, Pathloss
Additional Key Words: Global System for Mobile �Telephony (GSM),

Poverty reduction is a prominent issue for both governments and international organisations. It is one of the millennium development goals of the UN. Developing countries have high poverty levels than developed ones. However the diffusion of basic information and communications technologies (ICTs) services have penetrated majority of developing countries. Using SADC (South African Development Community) region as a case study, this paper explores ways through which ICTs can help in poverty reduction. Data from Botswana is used to investigate how ICTs can be used in poverty reduction. Some Asian countries, India in particular have shown that it is possible for developing countries to position themselves and improve their economies using ICTs. Previous research on impact of ICTs concentrated more on issues of education, national economic development, social and cultural aspects and less on ICTs as a means to achieve poverty reduction in developing countries. ICT landscape within some SADC countries shows the realisation that ICT can leverage economic development. However, there is lack of concrete practical steps on making the necessary social and administrative adjustment to promote ICT use. Administrative operations in majority of these countries are still paper based. Commercial banks are far ahead of government institutions in innovative use of ICT for example major banks have embraced internet, telephone and mobile banking. Lack of cyber law in SADC is the major limiting factor for expanded application of ICT. The ability ICTs to allow working from �anywhere anytime� means that if well implemented ICTs can distribute employment opportunities within a country as well as reduce rural to urban migration which is the major cause of poverty in urban areas of developing countries. Categories and Subject Descriptors: H.1.1 [Information Systems] Systems and Information Theory � Information Theory, H.3.4 [Systems and Software] Current Awareness Systems K.3.2 [Computing Milieux] Computer and Information Science Education � Information Systems Education K.6.1 [Computing Milieux] Strategic Information Systems Planning General Terms: Documentation, Human Factors, Verification Additional Keywords: ICT, SADC, e-Readiness, Technology, Internet, Poverty, Communications, Botswana