Effects of Gender and Parenting Styles on the Acquisition of Democratic Values by Nigerian Youths in Secondary Schools

It is obvious that every level of education is expected to empower learners with adequate knowledge, attitude and skills relevant to build the society. This informed policy makers to formulate educational goals and values that can mould individuals towards such empowerment for effective life in the pluralistic society. Thus, education as an instrument per excellence for national development identified by the National Policy on Education (2004, revised) fosters the building of: (i) A free and democratic society; (ii) A just and egalitarian society; (iii) A united, strong and self-reliant nation; (iv) A great and dynamic economy and (v) A land of bright and full opportunities for all citizens It also listed the values which should permeate the quality of instruction in school as: a) Respect for the worth and dignity of the individuals b) Faith in man’s ability to make rational decision; c) Moral and spiritual values in interpersonal and human relations; d) Shared responsibility for the common good of society e) Respect for the dignity of labour and f) Promotion of the emotional, physical and psychological health of all children

Comprehension Models of Audiovisual Discourse Processing

Comprehension is integral to enjoyment of media narratives, yet our understanding of how viewers create the situation models that underlie comprehension is limited.This study utilizes two models of comprehension that had previously been tested with factual texts/videos to predict viewers’ recall of entertainment media. Across five television/film clips, the landscape model explained at least 29% of the variance in recall. A dual coding version that assumed separate verbal and visual representations of the story significantly improved the model fit in four of the clips, accounting for an additional 15–29% of the variance. The dimensions of the event-indexingmodel (time, space, protagonist, causality, and intentionality) significantly moderated the relationship between the dual coding model and participant recall in all clips

Cervical co-testing for the early detection of intraepithelial neoplasia in HIV-positive women

CONTEXT & OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess whether HIV+ women at Boston Medical Center had an increased likelihood of developing intraepithelial neoplastic changes in the up to 6 years following a normal Pap smear and negative HPV (Human Papillomavirus) test when compared to the general population. The development of the neoplastic changes was also compared in HIV+ women with positive or negative HPV results. DESIGN & SETTING: We performed a retrospective chart review of the patient records of HIV+ women at Boston Medical Center. METHODS: HIV+ women, aged ¡Ý 30, screened between 2008-2010, with a normal cervical cytology result (Negative for Intraepithelial Lesion or Malignancy) and a concurrent HPV testing result and at least one subsequent cytology result were identified through the electronic medical record data warehouse at a single institution. These women were divided into two groups based on their HPV test result, either positive or negative. The medical records of these women were then evaluated through the end of 2014. The primary endpoint was the diagnosis of CIN-2 or 3, and the secondary endpoint was the diagnosis of other high-grade anogenital dysplasia. We examined the distribution of outcomes with a Chi-squared test or Fischer¡¯s test for discrete values and Student t-test for continuous data. Logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between variables and control for confounders like age and ethnicity. The crude and adjusted Odds Ratios (OR) were calculated and presented. We considered p-value < 0.05 to be statistically significant. RESULTS: 378 HIV+ women were identified- 307 women were HPV-negative, and 71 patients were HPV-positive at baseline. Women ranged in age from 30-81 years. HPV-negative patients had a mean age of 47¡À9, and HPV-positive patients had a slightly higher mean age of 49¡À9 at time of final evaluation. A total of eight (2%) women developed CIN-2, and five (62.5%) of them were HPV- positive at baseline (p-value of 0.001). Three individuals developed CIN-3, and two (66%) of them were also HPV-positive at baseline (p-value of 0.03). 23 (6.1%) individuals received at least one abnormal histology result, and of these, 13 (56.5%) were HPV-positive at baseline. After adjusting for age and race/ethnicity, there was still a significant difference of CIN-2/3 in HPV-positive compared to the HPV-negative group (OR 5.64 95%CI1.2-26.1), p<0.03). CONCLUSION: The results demonstrated that the likelihood of the development of CIN-2/3 in HIV+ women with normal pap tests and a positive HPV co-test is significantly higher in comparison to HIV+ women with a normal pap test and a negative HPV co-test. Therefore, HIV+ women with negative HPV tests had a greater incidence of CIN-3 than the general population (0.3% compared to 0.16%). Although HIV+ women with a negative HPV co-test are less likely to develop CIN-2/3 than HIV+ women a positive HPV co-test, a negative HPV test result is not as reassuring against the development of CIN-2/3 in HIV+ populations as it is in the general population

Gender Stereotyping and Empowerment in Nigeria Society: Implications for Women Repositioning in Curriculum Delivery

Gender inequality is one of the contemporary issues which have featured prominently in both national and international debates for quite some time now in both developed and developing countries of the world. This has obviously thwarted women status in curriculum implementation in Nigeria education. This observation prompted the author to examine gender stereotyping and empowerment in Nigeria society with implications for women repositioning in curriculum delivery. The overview of religious records and gender position at creation were discussed. Likewise, the available reports of some studies in Africa in respect of disparity in gender enrolment, academic achievement as determined by gender and status were enumerated along with gender spread in commonwealth universities and some parliamentary seats worldwide. Human rights versus gender stereotyping were also discussed vis-a-vis women empowerment. Thereafter, the implications of gender stereotyping for women re-positioning in curriculum delivery was logically dealt with. The paper recommends among other things that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) should be reinforced to carry out its duties more effectively so as to enhance the promotion and protection of human rights all the time, and that women in both administrative and academic positions should be given adequate support by their male counterparts to take care of their weaknesses, for there is no human personality without weaknesses.Key words: Curriculum, Empowerment, Gender, Stereotypin

Assessment of Students' and Parents' Attitudes to Continuous Assessment: A Base-Line Study for School-Based Assessment Practice

This study assessed the status of the students' (the beneficiaries) and their parents' (major stakeholders) attitudes to Continuous assessment in order to determine their entry behaviour for SBA with a view to either upgrading or sustaining. The populations of the study were the Junior Secondary School students and their parents. The samples included one hundred and fifty (150) students and fifty (50) parents. The instruments used were the Students' Questionnaire on Attitude to Continuous Assessment (SQACA) and Parents' Questionnaire on Attitude to Continuous Assessment (PQACA). The major finding was that the students and the parents were slightly positively disposed to the practice of Continuous Assessment. The implications of this and other findings to effective educational management were discussed and recommendations were made. Keywords: Continuous Assessment; School-based assessment.International Journal of Educational Research Vol. 4 (1) 2008: pp. 91-10

Teacher Attitude to Inspectors and Inspection: Quality Control

The study assessed the attitude of teachers in Lagos State to inspectors and inspection. The study took the form of a survey. Two hundred and fifty teachers from public secondary schools were selected as samples for the study using stratified random sampling technique. The instruments used for the data collection was the Teacher's Questionnaire on Evaluation of the Inspectorate Department (TQEID). Analysis of data was done using frequency counts and percentages. The results revealed that teachers have negative attitude to both inspectors and inspection. These findings have implications for the process of quality control within the educational system in Lagos State in particular and Nigeria in general. In view of the findings of this study, it was recommended that only professionally qualified teachers with minimum of ten years teaching experience should be employed or drafted as education inspectors so that they can work with maturity when interacting with the teachers during inspection. The inspectors should be trained regularly on the principles of human relations and effective communication. These will help to change the negative attitude of teachers to inspectors and inspection to positive. Keywords: Teacher Attitude; School Inspection; Education Inspectors. International Journal of Educational Research Vol. 3 (2) 2007 pp. 203-21

Macroeconomic Policies and Pro-Poor Growth in Nigeria

Recently the depth and severity of extreme poverty in Nigeria has been alarming. And over the years, the government undertook some macroeconomic policies with the aim of reducing, if not totally eradicating poverty. These policies were expected to at least raise the standard of living of Nigerians. The impact of these policies on alleviating poverty has been contentious. Some studies in the past have argued that the poor has benefited more from these policies while some found that there was positive real growth yet poverty and inequality still worsened. This can be traced to the nature of growth pursued and the macroeconomic policies that underline it. This study empirically evaluates macroeconomic policies vis-?-vis pro-poor growth in Nigeria using secondary data covering the period 1960-2000. The study found among others that economic growth in Nigeria has been slightly pro-poor. This implied that growth was actually weakly pro-poor. Also, those that are far below the poverty line have not really been enjoying the benefits of growth. Infact, the benefits getting to them has been decreasing at an increasing rate. More so, economic growth in rural areas will be slightly more pro-poor than in urban areas. Overall, growth in Nigeria is not necessarily always pro-poor. --

High Temperature Electronic Properties of a Microwave Frequency Sensor – GaN Schottky Diode

The potential energy barrier height, depletion layer thickness and junction capacitance properties of a microstructure GaN Schottky diode as a microwave frequency sensor have been estimated at extreme temperature (300 – 950K), under applied external bias (0 – 20V) by computational method based on the analytical expression obtained by the application of rule of thumb on the existing energy gap of n-GaN and existing solutions (depletion thickness and capacitance) of Poisson’s equation. The results of the calculation shown that the barrier height decreases as the temperature increases, but abrupt increase in the barrier height was observed as the temperature continues to increase above 900K. This behaviour may be linked to thermal stability demonstrated by n-GaN Schottky diode at high temperature. Also, the depletion thickness decreases as the temperature increases and the capacitance decreases as the bias increases. The decrease of the capacitance is much at high temperature under the same applied bias condition. The GaN Schottky diode can be employed as microwaves frequency sensor at very high temperature. Keywords: Barrier height, Depletion layer thickness, Junction capacitance, n-GaN Schottky diode, microwave sensor, high temperature

Neutral Effect of Coffee Senna (Senna occidentalis (L.) Link Leguminosae) Leaf Ethanol Extract on Reproductive Parameters in Male Wistar Rats

Many antimalarial remedies are known for reproductive toxicity in male. Also, several plants are known to have antifertility action in both sexes. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of ethanol extract of Senna occidentalis (L.) Link Leguminosae leaf (EESO) on male reproductive parameters such as sperm count, motility, morphology and the histology of testes in Wistar rats by employing standard procedures. The extract (50% ethanol) was orally administered to male Wistar rats daily, at 250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg with distilled water as control, for 20 days after which reproductive parameters were performed on the epididymal sperm and testes. The results show that all features were consistent with normal histology of the testes in the treated and untreated groups, the sperm count (SC), motility (SM) and morphology (MP) were also comparable with the control. The plant has been shown to be devoid of the traditional sperm toxicity associated with antimalarial agents