Improving Accessibility of Nigerian Newspaper Websites Through RSS Feeds

Really Simply Syndication or Rich Site Summary (RSS) now becomes common way of summarizing content of an information website.- This is based on Resource Description Format ( RDF), which is an extensible markup language(XML) standard for analyzing information. Many an organization such as CNN, YAHOO generates summary of the content of her website in this xml format called rss feed, which can be read by news aggregators such as rss reader and feed reader or processed by some programming languages. News aggregators make it poss.ible to get updated information. from various websites simultaneously without visiting the websites. Today in Nigeria .. there are over twenty national dailies. While few are online. yet it is mandatory to visit these websites individually to get latest information. To improve on the usability of these sites, it becomes necessary to generate rss feeds for those who prefer getting information from these websites using news aggregators

Rethinking Workers' Education in Africa

The employment patterns and trends as well as technological changes have been the most important factors in broadening the need to rethink workers' education in Africa. Workers' education more than before, now has a particularly critical role to play in the various Africa rapidly changing societies by providing knowledge and information that the working class people need in order to cope with the changing conditions. Obviously, the role of workers' education in Africa assumes greater and greater importance. Wide ranges of capabilities are required nowadays to deal with emerging technological challenges. This shift of emphasis involved in looking at 'wider education' or 'development education' for increased sociooolitical and economic roles rather than 'education for industry' or 'technical utilitarian education', immediately makes it clear that the task is vast and challenging, requiring a new perspective. It is on this basis, that this paper therefore attempts the possibility of rethinking workers' education as constituting the most important form of human capital formation in African countries. Thus a rejuvenated, complicated, comprehensive and highly integrated facet of workers' education is seen as a key factor in creating an African labour force that will be able to play an effective role in the development of the various African nations

Granite Dusts and Poultry Manure Effects on Growth Performance and Yield of Maize (Zea Mays L.)

Poultry manure is rich in organic manure since solid and liquid wastes are excreted together and there is no urine loss. Comparative studies of the effects of various rates of granite dust and poultry manure were tested on maize performance in field trials at Akure, Nigeria between 2011 and 2012 cropping seasons.  The treatments involved were: Control(No treatment application), 2tha1 granite dust; 3tha1 poultry manure + 0.5tha1 granite dust; 2tha1 poultry manure + 1tha1 granite dust; 1tha1 poultry manure+ 1.5tha1 granite dust; 4tha1 poultry manure and 200kgha1 of NPK fertilizer. Agronomic parameters observed on maize at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12weeks after planting were plant height, stem girth, number of leaves.  At harvest, cob weight, plant biomass, grains weight per cob and husk weight were also measured. Equally, the ratio of root to stem and leaf of maize were investigated. It was found out that application combined application of granite dust and poultry manure improved the growth and yield quality of maize compared with the control. Maize treated with 3tha1 poultry manure + 0.5tha1 granite dust promote the growth and yield parameter of maize  to a level of the standard recommended fertilizer rate of 200kgha1 of NPK fertilizer in the ecological zone of the southwestern Nigeria. Keywords: Poultry manure, granite dusts, agronomic parameters, ratio, promote

VIRTUAL LEARNING IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES: A Panacea for Enhanced Academic Standards

Currently, local area network (LAN) is commonplace in the Nigerian tertiary institutions and can be a good platform for distributing and disseminating instructional materials. Thus, this paper proposes to improve the quality of academics through online provision of learning resources based on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS); wired and wireless access to contents; and availability of the system 24/7. The system is based on third party software or FOSS called phpBB and Windows 2003 Server Active Directory Services. Both are installed and configured on an intranet. It has a discussion forum which is accessed through Hypertext Transfer Protocol using a web browser; and directory services for files/folders upload and download based on a set of privilege levels in Discretionary Access Control List (DACL) as a way of improving security. The system leads to the development of a virtual campus in Covenant University. Also, it has helped improve the quality of teaching by making lecture notes availably on the intranet, lecturer/student interaction, accessibility to teaching materials and reduce student’s idle time. The system helps in no small measure to correct the problems plaguing the educational sector such as examination malpractice, decline standards of education and cultism, as students are gainfully engaged in academic and social activities. The creation of a virtual campus would enhance the level of e-participation, and e-readiness of the graduate for the employment market. In particular, it bridges the divide between the developed and the developing nations

Magnetotransport properties of lithographically defined lateral Co/Ni80Fe20 wires

In this article we have investigated the magnetization reversal process of laterally defined coupled magnetic structures consisting of micron-sized sputtered Co and Ni80Fe20 wires lying side by side at temperatures ranging from 3 to 300 K. We have used a microfabrication technique to create an array of planar, laterally coupled magnetic wires made of two ferromagnetic materials. We observed two distinct peaks in the magnetoresistance (MR) curves corresponding to the magnetization reversals of Co and Ni80Fe20 wires. Below a critical temperature of 20 K we observed an asymmetric shift in the Ni80Fe20 peak position for both forward and reverse field sweeps due to the exchange coupling between the ferromagnetic (Ni80Fe20) and antiferromagnetic (Co–oxide at the interface of Co and Ni80Fe20 formed during fabrication) parts. The Co peaks gradually disappeared as the temperature was reduced. At low temperature we also observed that the Ni80Fe20 peaks in the MR loops are considerably shifted to larger fields corresponding to the increase in coercivity

An Evaluation of Job Creation and Vocational Skills Development Programme of the National Directorate of Employment, In Lagos State of Nigeria

The purpose of the study is to critically analyse the Job Creation and Vocational Skills Development of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in L~os State with particular reference to the National Open Apprenticeship Scheme (NOAS). The descriptive survey approach was adopted for the study. The sample used for the study was drawn from the trainees, trainers and the Operational and Support Services staff of the NDE. The number was made up of seven hundred trainees, forty-two trainers and twenty officials of the National Directorate of Employment, in Lagos State. Three sets of questionnaires were the major research instruments used for gathering data. Records from the NDE National Headquarters and the Lagos State office at Yaba, coupled with oral interview, conducted on the beneficiaries of the NDE programme, complemented those data collec.ted through the questionnaires. The data collected were statically determined through the use of measure of central tendencies and chi-square (X' ) text. The study reveals that the objectives of the National Open Apprenticeship Scheme upon which the evaluation was carried out were achieved. The recruitment of trainees was carried out to adequately reflect the twenty local government areas of Lagos State. Thus, there was wide coverage of the whole state under the scheme. The study also found out that the training programme of NDE recognizes the training needs of the individual trainees. The study also revealed that there is a significant difference between the graduate and the NDE training programme and their counterparts in other vocational institutions. The study identifies some problems of NDE in the execution of its programmes and made recommendations that could solve them

Issues, Challenges and Policy Implications of Social Security Provisions for the Aged in Nigeria

The demographic characteristics of the Nigerian population have shown that the population of the country is ageing. Interestingly; while the population of these aged (majority of who are rural dwellers and women) is increasing, the population of the proportion under age I 5 is decreasing. And by rough estimate, it is expected that the size of the elderly in Nigeria will growfi·om 6 million in year 2000 to I 6 million by the year2005. This has grave consequence for the economic, socio-cultural and medical activities, which invariably raise the concern to develop a national action plan on how to manage resources in order to provide social safety-nets for the protection of the aged, particularly when the traditional family support systems are declining and weakened. In the light of the above, this paper focuses on the d(fferent problems of the aged in Nigeria; the provision and availability of social security services; and the examination of the possibility of having a better social security system that will enhance the quality of life of eve1y individual regardless of sex and age. On this basis, the paper therefore, recommends necessary policies/programmes that the Nigerian government (as well as other national governments in Africa) need to initiate in order to ensure better safety nets, not only for the aged butfor other categories oft he poor

FILE ENCRYPTION AND HASH SYSTEM USING JAVA PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE FOR IMAGE STEGANOGRAPHY

Due to the rapid development and rapid popularization of the information technology, internet and digital media have become an important tool for military, commercial, individuals and many other organizations to obtain and transmit information. However, digital communication via the Internet is vulnerable to eavesdropping, malicious interference and other activities. As a result, data transmission protection and information security issues become a bottleneck than ever before. This paper presents file encryption and Hash system (Image Steganography) via Least Significant Bit (LSB) approachto increase the amount of text file the cover image can conceal. The software used consists of two sections: the Encode section (embedded text file by using an image as cover) and the Decode section (extract the embedded text from the cover image) which is implemented through NetBeans IDE using Java Programming Language.The different results obtained when the proposed device was tested revealed that it worked according to the design specifications