Ensuring Effective and Efficient Teaching and Learning Religious Studies in Nigerian Schools Using Photographic Series

The purpose of this study was to find out the extent to which the use of photographic series with sound in teaching religious studies could enhance the performance of students in selected junior secondary school in Remo Educational zone. It also investigated the extent to which talking photographic series could enhance the retention and the attitude of the students. Two hundred students in JSSIII were selected from five secondary schools through simple random sampling technique. They were also randomly divided into 2 groups, the experimental and control groups. The study adopted the pre-test, posttest group design. The instruments used were a series of photographs with sound prepared by the researcher and the students containing “churches and its relevance to the society”, Religious studies Achievement Test (RSAT) and Attitude towards Religious Studies Questionnaire (ATRSQ). These instruments were validated using construct validity, difficulty and discriminating index. The reliability coefficient for the RSAT was found to be 0.75. The results showed that the use of photographic series in instruction significantly improved the performance of students in the subject. Secondly if effectively used, it can improve the retentive ability of students and finally, photographic series do not seen to have any statistical effect on the attitude of students towards the subject.African Research Review Vol. 2 (2) 2008 pp. 69-8

Preparing the Staff of Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife to Appreciate and Use Information and Communication Technology for Solving Work Place Problems and Managing Change

This paper examined the various efforts the management and administration of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife made to prepare and encourage its staff and students to appreciate and use ICT for solving work place problems and to manage change. It was also designed to investigate the extent to which accelerated computer/internet usage, job type; age and sex have affected the attitude of O.A.U Staff towards computer and Internet. The study adopted the survey research design. Samples of 600 staff were selected through stratified sampling techniques. The result obtained showed that 94% of the staff of OAU use computer. Also academic staff (49.2%) used computer and Internet more than any other categories of staff. Not only this, female staff (58%) used computer more than their male staff (42%). In addition age is a correlate of ICT usage. Staffs between ages 25 and 40 are usually more favorably disposed to using ICT than staff that is above 40 years. (X2c = 15.67). African Research Review Vol. 1 (3) 2007: pp. 175-19

Response of Guinea Grass (\u3cem\u3ePanicum maximum\u3c/em\u3e Jacq) to Application of Cow Dung in South West Nigeria

The yield of forage species from the world\u27s grazing land is limited by poor soil and unproductive species (Jones & Wild, 1975; Cooke, 1982). The use of manure on pasture land not only represents a low cost disposal method but also a means of recycling nutrients for plant growth and counteracting the decreasing organic matter content in most agricultural soils. In agro-pastoral production systems, the interaction between crops and livestock is important. Manures are used mainly to complement inorganic fertiliser in the production of food crops. There is a dearth of information on the response of pasture grass to application of cow dung and so the response of two Panicum maximum ecotypes to cow dung was evaluate

Comparative Analysis of Market Efficiency and Volatility of Energy Prices Before and During COVID-19 Pandemic Periods

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected energy demand and pricing globally due to different lockdown measures embarked on by governments in different economies. As a result, prices of oil and petroleum products dropped drastically at the peak of the pandemic period. The present paper, therefore, investigates the effect of the pandemic on energy markets and compared the levels of market efficiency, volatility, and volatility persistence. Two 5-monthly daily data windows are considered, each for the period before and during the pandemic, and an updated nonlinear fractional integration approach in time series analysis is employed. Having considered prices of Crude oil, Gasoline, Diesel, Heating oil, Kerosene, and Propane from US markets, we find that energy markets are less efficient during the Covid-19 pandemic period, even though with higher volatility but with lesser volatility persistence compared to the period before the pandemic. Thus, volatility shocks last for a shorter period during the 5-month pandemic period than in the 5-month period that precedes the pandemic. It is hoped that the findings of this work will be of interest to oil marketers and administrators in the international oil markets

DNA barcoding of Tribolium castaneum (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) from selected states in Nigeria based on mitochondrial DNA sequences

Tribolium castaneum also known as red flour beetle is one of the most important pests of stored grain product with a cosmopolitan distribution in Nigeria and all over the world contributing to food spoilage. The aim of this study was to characterize the T. castaneum by morphometric and molecular analyses. Samples of yam flour with evidence of the red flour beetles present inside were obtained from four locations in Kwara, Kogi, Oyo and Ekiti states in Nigeria. Morphological and molecular identifications of T. castaneum were carried out using standard methods. A dissecting microscope was used to identify the beetles and measurements were taken using ImageJ. Genomic DNA was extracted and checked on 1.5% agarose gel to confirm the presence of DNA. Species-specific primers were used to amplify mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene of T. castaneum and the PCR amplicon size was also checked on 1.5% agarose. Morphometric measurements showed that the highest mean number (33.00±4.24 mm) of T. castaneum larvae observed was recorded on day 61 in Ilorin and the lowest was in Iwo, Osun state (4.00±0.00 mm) on the same day. The mean of the total body length of larvae from sampling sites was (1.31±0.37 mm) with minimum and (1.63±1.14 mm) maximum lengths respectively. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) between the mean length of the larvae collected from the study locations. Aligned cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI) sequences of 313bp were analyzed. Phylogenetic analysis inferred by maximum likelihood method showed that the T. castaneum sequences analyzed for this study and sequences obtained from GenBank formed a monophyletic group. The molecular and phylogenetic analyses confirmed the presence of a single species of T. castaneum. The results from this study showed low levels of genetic diversity and variability in the studied T. castaneum populations. The observed genetic similarity in T. castaneum could be due to the fact that they were probably from similar origin when compared with those in the GenBank database. However, further studies are needed with more samples to characterize T. castaneum species from stored food grains across Nigeria

Hypoglycemic and antioxidative activities of ethanol seed extract of Hunteria umbellate (Hallier F.) on streptozotocininduced diabetic rats

Background: Diabetes, a global cause of mortality in developing countries is a chronic disorder affecting the metabolism of macromolecules and has been attributed to the defective production and action of insulin characterized by persistent hyperglycemic properties. This global disorder harms organs of the body such as the liver, kidney and spleen. Medicinal plants such as Hunteria umbellate have been shown to possess hypoglycemic, antioxidative and anti-diabetic properties owing to the high concentration of active phytochemical constituents like flavonoids and alkaloids. The present study seeks to evaluate the hypoglycemic activities of ethanolic seed extract of Hunteria umbellate on streptozotocin-induced diabetes rats. Methods: Thirty (30) female experimental rats were randomly divided into five groups with six rats per group and were administered streptozotocin (STZ) and Hunteria umbellate as follows. Group 1 served as control and was given only distilled water, group 2 rats were administered 60 mg/kg STZ; Group 3 was administered 60 mg/kg STZ and 100 mg/kg metformin; group 4 rats were administered 60 mg/kg STZ and 800 mg/kg Hunteria umbellate, group 5 rats 60 mg/kg STZ and 400 mg/kg Hunteria umbellate. The fasting blood glucose level of each rat was measured before sacrifice. Rats were then sacrificed 24 h after the last dose of treatment. Results: The results showed that Hunteria umbellate significantly reversed STZ-induced increase in fasting blood glucose and increase in body and organs weight of rats. Hunteria umbellate significantly reversed STZ-induced decrease in antioxidant enzyme in liver, kidney and spleen of rats. Hunteria umbellate significantly reversed STZinduced increase in oxidative stress markers in liver, kidney and spleen of rats