The project was about the design and the development of desktop application client software for running iLabs experiments. In the past years, internet labs were accessed through web browsers which required installation of additional software, and also consumed much RAM hence some students couldn't run them on some of their computers. They also needed old server technology which is incompatible with current browser versions. This brought the need to design a new system to eliminate these shortcomings. A desktop application was designed using open source tools like C# windows forms with some controls fixed i.e. the frequency and amplitude knobs, while other controls were generated according to the lab specifications. A data socket was used to acquire real time lab data to be displayed on the waveform graphs. The student was given provision to take screenshots and generate a lab report. The development of this application called for a new server software design to interact with. With this new system, a student can access the lab with any computer at any time when their scheduled time has reached. Student researcher work was reduced as redesign of lab interfaces was eliminated through the dynamic interface design. Despite the fact that problems of the old iLabs architecture have been eliminated, a recommendation is made to the fellow student researchers to design a fully functional service broker that will enable students register, schedule and do assessment for labs.

River Enyau sub-catchment, the main source of surface water for Arua Municipality and the surrounding areas is experiencing increasing frequency of hydrological droughts attributed to climate and land use/cover change. The increasing frequency of hydrological drought in the sub-catchment threatens 72% of the household’s access to safe water and increases their vulnerability to food insecurity, water and sanitation challenges. The aim of this study was to i) reconstruct past (1980 – 2009) and ii) project near future (2025 - 2039) hydrological drought characteristics under changing climate and land use/cover in River Enyau sub-catchment. Past and future discharges were analyzed for hydrological drought frequency, duration and severity using the Threshold Level Method in R software version 3.5.2. Future climate was downscaled from 29 Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase Five (CMIP5) models following the Agricultural Model Inter-comparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) protocol for scenarios RCP 4.5 and 8.5 using the delta method. Future (2039) land use/cover was projected using the Markov chain model in Land Change Modeler of the TerrSet software. The projected climate (2025-2039) and land use/cover (2039) data were used as inputs in the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to simulate the future discharge of the sub-catchment. Result showed that most of the hydrological drought in the past started in the month of March and ended in April. Same results were projected under RCP 4.5 while most drought are projected to start and end in April under RCP 8.5. Increase in the land area of bareland and built up areas and decrease in the area of woodlot contributed to increase in hydrological drought frequency and duration in the past period. Significant differences (p<0.001) in the annual hydrological drought characteristics among the different drought years of the past and for the near future were observed. Comparison of the past and projected hydrological drought characteristics under RCP 4.5 and 8.5 showed a significant difference in frequency (p<0.001) and no significant difference for duration and severity (p>0.05). Therefore, there is need to i) protect the woodlot in the sub-catchment from destrcution and ii) identify best management options for reducing the impact of bareland and built up areas on hydrological drought in River Enyau sub-catchment.

The effectiveness of different storage technologies for sorghum grains under conditions of smallholder farmers were tested at Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute Kabanyolo (MUARIK). Three improved storage methods were used to store either infested or un-infested sorghum grains. These storage methods were: Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags, SuperGrain (SG) bags, and plastic bottles. These were compared against the conventional woven polypropylene (PP) bags as the control for grain storage during a period of 90 days. Quality parameters such as grain moisture content, germination, insect mortality, grain damage, and weight loss were measured every 15 days for 90 days. The dominant insect pests identified in the stored grains were Sitophilus granarius. Insect mortality of infested grains reached 100% in PICS bags, SG bags, and plastic bottle by 75 days of storage, while it remained close to 0% for infested grains stored in PP bags. Moisture content, germination, grain damage and weight loss of sorghum grains stored in hermetic bags in both infested and un-infested grains remained nearly the same at end of storage as they were at the beginning. In the PP bags, grain quality significantly changed in both infested and uninfested grains. In terms of economic analysis, hermetic storage technologies were found to be economically viable as opposed to conventional methods (PP bags) without synthetic insecticide for long term storage. In conclusion, all the hermetic storage technologies tested were effective in maintaining the integrity of the grains for three months, while substantial quality deterioration occurred for grains stored in PP bags without any protection. Keywords: hermetic storage, Sitophilus granarius.

The main objective of this study was to establish the effect of taxation on the cost of living with the general objectives being; to establish the effects of income tax, VAT, excise tax and export duty on the cost of living in Uganda. The study used quantitative secondary data; data on tax revenues and consumer price index collected from Uganda Revenue Authority and Bank of Uganda respectively. The researcher adopted the multiple regression analysis of the ordinary least squares (OLS) method to analyze the data collected for the purpose of this study. The research revealed that the average CPI is 111.72 implying that cost of living increased by 11.72 percent every year for the past fifteen years with reference to the base year 2009/10. With maximum CPI being 169.69 implying the cost of living increased by about 69.69 percent from FY 2009/10 to FY 2017/18. Also, the average tax revenues from income tax, value added tax, excise duty and export duty were UGX 1993.001 billion, UGX 1021.535 billion, UGX 402.4304 billion and UGX 548.4889 billion respectively. Furthermore, the results of the regression; the imply that on average, a unit increase in income tax rate leads to a 5.7 percent increase in the cost of living when all other independent variables are held constant, a unit increase in value added tax rate leads to a 3.8 percent increase in the cost of living when all other independent variables are held constant, a unit increase in excise duty rate leads to a 14.4 percent increase in the cost of living when all other independent variables are held constant and a unit increase in export duty rate leads to a 4.6 percent decrease in the cost of living when all other independent variables are held constant. The researcher found out that there is positive and significant overall effect of taxation on the cost of living in Uganda. Furthermore, it was found that income tax, value added tax and excise duty had a statistically positive effects on the cost of living though value added tax and excise duty were not significant. Contrary to these results, export duty had a negative but insignificant effect on the cost of living and this is desirable to the people of Uganda as its increase makes the cost of living relatively cheaper and affordable to the common Ugandan. Based on the outcome of this study, the following are recommended; Reforms that improve incentives, reduce existing distortionary subsidies, avoid windfall gains, and avoid increase in the prices of goods and services will have more positive effects on the long-term desired and affordable cost of living in the economy, to revise its macroeconomic policies relating tax revenues to improve the efficiency and productivity of recourses allocation in the economy and to reexamine its tax revenues by way of increasing tax rate and introducing new taxes in such a way that it does not distort the prices of goods and services but rather improves on the standard and cost of living in the economy.

Biogas is a type of biofuel that is naturally produced from the anaerobic decomposition of organic waste, composed of mostly methane and carbon dioxide though other trace elements may be formed are the major constituents. When organic matter, such as food scraps and animal waste, break down in an anaerobic environment they release a blend of gases, primarily methane and carbon dioxide. Anaerobic digestion is a natural form of waste-to-energy that uses the process of fermentation to breakdown organic matter. Biogas is a clean- burning “green” gas used for heating, cooking, transport, and power generation. Dissemination of biogas energy is constrained by inadequate preparation of feedstock, few number of locally trained technicians, poor workmanship and competition from other energy sources. The study was carried out by carrying out prefeasibility study in districts of Kampala, Mbarara, Isingiro, Mityana and Wakiso to assess the performance of possible digesters and the challenges biogas users face. This study investigated the digestion of cow dung, pig dung and chicken waste for biogas production at laboratory scale with an aim to establish optimal conditions for digestion of the mentioned feedstock. The laboratory study was carried out by mixing together different ratios of cow dung, pig dung and chicken waste under mesophilic conditions (temperature between 27-350c) and a pH of (6.2 to 6.8) for 30 days. The biogas obtained from the experiment was analyzed using a biogas analyzer to test its quality by getting the percentage composition of the constituents from the samples. The results from the experiment show that 25% pig dung and 75% cow dung gives the optimal mixing ratio for optimal biogas production in Uganda. It was also proved that investment in biogas technology is a viable venture basing on the fact that it has a shorter payback period (PBP) and a positive Net Present Value (NPV) and since optimal biogas production indicates large volume of biogas production in a given time, further gas cleaning and upgrading to improve its quality as well as increasing the heating value makes this gas an efficient and cost effective source of energy for engines, boilers, vehicles, and power generation.

REITS allow individuals to invest in large-scale, income producing real estate which includes office buildings, shopping malls, apartments, hotels, resorts, warehouses and mortgage or loans. In the world today, REITS are becoming increasingly popular however in Uganda the field is still largely not explored. This research aims to investigate the potential of Real Estate Investment Trust Schemes for local institutional investors in Uganda as a way through which individuals can invest in the local real estate industry which imposes a number of limitations on new investors. A combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in the collection of data where a number of individuals affiliated to institutional investors were approached. Data was collected using either questionnaires or interviews where a total number of 40 respondents took part in the research. The research findings in chapter four reveal that a majority of the respondents are aware of the existence and operation of REITS where a majority would consider investing in them through their institutional investors once they were fully developed and introduced on the market. It was also revealed that those invested in REITS enjoy a number of benefits which include easy access to and ownership of real estate, investment diversification benefits, complementary to direct investment in real estate and an increased regular income. The study also revealed that investors are subject to various risks which include real estate portfolio risk, market and liquidity risk, interest rate risk, geographic concentration risk, structural and regulatory risk and general economic risk. The development of REITS would also lead to the development of the local real estate industry through the creation of a transparent and flexible market, professionally managed real estate and increased supply of real estate properties among other improvements. Much as REITS regulations were implemented by the CMA in Uganda, there are no licenced and registered schemes in the country. From this research, it was discovered that the low development of REITS as an investment vehicle is attributed to policy, operation and regulations, low awareness about REITS to investors or developers, understanding the operation of stock market, performance of local real estate industry, new legislation, development of the capital markets in Uganda and finally competition from other financial intermediaries.

According to the cross roads program end of project 2015, the annual national road maintenance budget for Uganda increased from a mere UGX180bn in 2011/12 to UGX452bn in 2014/15 a huge increase of 151%. Most of this funding is channeled through the Uganda road funding. In spite of this increase however, the maintenance of roads in most districts in Uganda especially Kampala, indicate that a lot of supervision and monitoring needs to be done to ensure compliance with standing guidelines and most importantly that actual maintenance is carried out. This research aimed at generally establishing the variations and relationships between the drainage condition and road conditions in Kampala. Poor drainage has caused early deterioration of roadways leading to increased road maintenance costs, increased road accidents due to skidding and other structural failures. There was thus a need to establish the extent to which inadequate drainage on roads affects road performance. This was done through the examination of the drainage features on the selected roads as well as the road conditions of the roads. Since the road deterioration rate was found to be high, about 14%, there is need to implement closely monitored and supervised periodical maintenance works on roads. This can include activities like de-siltation of drains, removal of vegetation growth in drains and replacement of the damaged drainage features. Key Words Roadside Drainage, Paved Road, Road Deterioration, Road Maintenance

This research is about the development of a borehole which operates in such a way that the pumping action is initiated by the swinging of the pendulum. The human arm, leg are used to operate the borehole by swinging the pen- dulum. Therefore less amount of energy is required to produce a reasonable output. According to the study, three machine parameters determine the amount of discharge obtained from the borehole and these parameters are length, mass and position of the pendulum. Generally, i found out that when the length of the pendulum is increased, the discharge obtained in a given time also increases and a graph of discharge against length is a curve which appears in an increasing manner. Further, when more weights are added to the pendulum, the discharge obtained in a given time increases and a graph of discharge against mass is a straight line with a positive gradient. Con- cerning the position of the pendulum, the more the angle the pendulum is displaced, the more the input energy and this inturn results into an increase in discharge obtained, the graph of discharge against input energy is a curve which appears in an increasing manner but less steep as compared to the graph of discharge against length obtained in the former case. A long meter rule was used to measure dierent length of the pendulum, known masses each of half kilogram were gradually added to the pendum, a protractor was used to measure the angle of displacement of the pendulum, a stop clock was used to determine the time at which readings were taken and a 100 ml measuring cylinder was used to determine the discharge obtained at all the three parameters. However due to the fact that most materials that i used in the project were wooden and othes plastic, further research need to be done when metallic materials which are more ecient are used so that even more weights can be added to the pendulum without breaking and hence large output of the liquid is obtained.

Air quality in Kampala city has deteriorated significantly during the past two decades and this has been attributed to the fast-pace of economic development and poor infrastructural development with a rapidly increasing health. The study main objective was to assess the effect of air pollution on health in Kampala City in Uganda. The datasets used in this study included concentration levels obtained from Air Quality Monitoring at US. Embassy Kampala, Uganda (www.airnow.gov), and Airqo (www.airqo.net) from College of Computing and Information Sciences, Makerere University and data on respiratory concerns and other health effects around Kampala city was obtained from ministry of health from the department of public health and environment (KCCA) which acts as data custodian for all the divisions that make up Kampala city. The hourly characteristics of concentration levels of PM2.5 within Kampala city depicted that the high coefficients of variation are at US-Embassy, Kireka, Bunamwaya and Makerere (80.8%, 100.9%, 70.8% and 69.8%) and low coefficient of variation at Bweyogerere (49.5%). Significant spatial variations in concentration levels of PM2.5 were observed at US-Embassy, Kireka, Bunamwaya and Bweyogerere as compared to concentration levels of PM2.5 at Makerere air quality measuring point. Time series results indicated increase in hourly concentration levels of PM2.5 at Bunamwaya and Makerere while decreases are observed at Bweyogerere, US-Embassy and Kireka air quality measuring points. Mann Kendall results depicted Makerere and Bunamwaya with positive trends (0.004 and 0.009) that are statistically significant whereas US-Embassy, Kireka and Bweyogerere have negative trends (-0.015,-0.011 and -0.005) though they are statistically significant at critical value (0.05). Results from the health cases analysis indicate that the highest number of respiratory cases being recorded at Kampala Central Division Health center (30.3%) and the least being recorded at Mulago National Referral Hospital Complex with (2.3%). Furthermore, the biggest percentage of the health effects associated with concentration levels of PM2.5 on health goes to Cough or Cold (82.3%) and the least observed under lung cancer (0.03%). Therefore resulted in the rejection of the null hypothesis (H0) and that there are significant variations in the concentration levels of PM2.5 in Kampala City and these results will be used in understanding the effects of air pollution on health in Kampala City.

This is a research based project on resilience and resource ecient service function chaining in future networks. It addresses the challenge on how to guarantee survivability of critical services while efciently utilizing the exhaustible resources of the shared substrate network. First, this project proposes a generic multi-layer graph based algorithm as an alternative algorithm for SFC deployment across a single substrate network. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is optimized in terms of resource utilization and results show an improvement in terms of acceptance compared to a state of the art algorithm. Based on that multi-layer graph based algorithm, we propose a migration-aware algorithm that enables non-critical service applications to share the unused backup resources of critical services in a way that minimizes future preemption of these users from the shared resources. The migration-aware algorithm results into minimal resource consumption in most scenarios compared to a dedicated backup scheme and an improved performance in terms of the number of service preemptions compared to a cost based algorithm. Additionally, whenever low priority users are pre-empted from the shared resources, the project proposes a QoS-aware global-rerouting algorithm for remapping such users while minimizing the level of service interruption resulting from migration of surviving VNFs and virtual links to other substrate nodes and paths. The proposed algorithm is shown to outperform a service restoration scheme based on local rerouting in terms of successful service restoration and resource consumption.