Impact of a Web Resources Exposure Lesson (WREL) on Educational Internet Use in a Limited Resource Society

The researcher examined Internet use for educational purposes by undergraduate students in the department of Social Studies of the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. 96 third year undergraduate students were purposively sampled. A demographic survey indicated that students’ use of the internet for educational research was very low. 20% males and 9% females respectively that use the Internet do so mostly to check their e-mails. After exposing students to various search engines on the Internet and guiding them on how to use them efficiently as a learning resource, the post-WREL results showed that Internet use by students for academic purposes increased by 65%. The study revealed the gender differences of Internet use. This paper makes recommendations for orientation programmes, such as the WREL, for students to regularly update their knowledge in technology as a method for improving its use for educational purposes.Keywords: internet, world wide web (www), social studies students, web resource exposure lesson (WREL)African Journal of Educational Studies in Mathematics and Sciences Vol. 9, 201

A computer vision approach to classification of birds in flight from video sequences

Bird populations are an important bio-indicator; so collecting reliable data is useful for ecologists helping conserve and manage fragile ecosystems. However, existing manual monitoring methods are labour-intensive, time-consuming, and error-prone. The aim of our work is to develop a reliable system, capable of automatically classifying individual bird species in flight from videos. This is challenging, but appropriate for use in the field, since there is often a requirement to identify in flight, rather than when stationary. We present our work in progress, which uses combined appearance and motion features to classify and present experimental results across seven species using Normal Bayes classifier with majority voting and achieving a classification rate of 86%

Human behavioural analysis with self-organizing map for ambient assisted living

This paper presents a system for automatically classifying the resting location of a moving object in an indoor environment. The system uses an unsupervised neural network (Self Organising Feature Map) fully implemented on a low-cost, low-power automated home-based surveillance system, capable of monitoring activity level of elders living alone independently. The proposed system runs on an embedded platform with a specialised ceiling-mounted video sensor for intelligent activity monitoring. The system has the ability to learn resting locations, to measure overall activity levels and to detect specific events such as potential falls. First order motion information, including first order moving average smoothing, is generated from the 2D image coordinates (trajectories). A novel edge-based object detection algorithm capable of running at a reasonable speed on the embedded platform has been developed. The classification is dynamic and achieved in real-time. The dynamic classifier is achieved using a SOFM and a probabilistic model. Experimental results show less than 20% classification error, showing the robustness of our approach over others in literature with minimal power consumption. The head location of the subject is also estimated by a novel approach capable of running on any resource limited platform with power constraints

Si elegans: a computational model of C. elegans muscle response to light

It has long been the goal of computational neuroscientists to understand animal nervous systems, but their vast complexity has made it very difficult to fully understand even basic functions such as movement. The C. elegans nematode offers the opportunity to study a fully described connectome and link neural network to behaviour. In this paper a model of the responses of the body wall muscle in C. elegans to a random light stimulus is presented. An algorithm has been developed that tracks synapses in the nematode nervous system from the stimulus in the phototaxis sensory neurons to the muscles cells. A linear second order model was used to calculate the isometric force in each of the C. elegans body wall muscle cells. The isometric force calculated resembles that of previous investigations in muscle modelling

Granular cell tumour of the larynx - A case report

Granular cell tumours (GCTs) are benign tumours rarely found in the larynx even though they are common in the head and neck region. The laryngeal tumour may be asymptomatic but typically patients present with hoarseness of voice, stridor, haemoptysis and dysphagia. The lesion can mimic squamous cell thus deep biopsy must be taken with adjacent normal tissue to confirm this pathology. Immunohistochemical staining is also used. Complete surgical resection of this tumour is the treatment of choice. We present a 25 year old woman with a laryngeal granular cell tumour involving the right vocal cord diagnosed after direct laryngoscopy and biopsy. She was treated by right cordectomy via a laryngofissure approach. We present the case due to the rarity of the laryngeal granular cell tumour and the need to highlight the importance of taking deep biopsies. If biopsies are superficial, an inexperienced pathologist would mistake it for well differentiated carcinoma.Keywords: Granular cell tumour, larynx, cordectomy, laryngofissur

Effectiveness of health education in increasing the duration of exclusive breastfeeding in low income countries: a systematic review

Background: The protective effects of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) to the health of infants and mothers alike have been well documented. The rates of EBF remain low in spite of the recognized benefits and the persistent global call for infants to be breastfed exclusively on breast milk for the first six months of life. Health education has been widely suggested as one of the key intervention strategies for increasing the duration of EBF in low income countries. Objective: To conduct a systematic review to assess the effectiveness of health education interventions in increasing the duration of EBF in low income countries. A secondary objective of the review was to identify the theoretical bases of both effective/non-effective interventions and also to identify the educational methods that were utilized. Methods: Systematic review of experimental and quasi-experimental studies of health education interventions that evaluated exclusive breastfeeding outcome. Studies not published in English language and studies not reporting exclusive breastfeeding outcome were excluded. A narrative synthesis was used. Data Sources: Studies dating from 1980 – 2013 in English language were searched in the following databases: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, Academic Search Complete. ScienceDirect and Google Scholar search engine. Results: Twelve (12) studies were identified. Five were randomized controlled trials and additional three were before-after studies with control groups. The remaining four were non-randomized controlled trial. Only one study applied a theoretical framework in developing and implementing the intervention. EBF rate was significantly higher in the intervention groups compared with the control groups in ten (10) of the studies. The remaining two (2) studies reported no difference in EBF rates between the intervention groups and the control groups. Most of the studies reviewed had important methodological limitations. Conclusion: Because of the methodological limitations of most of the included studies, firm conclusion on the effectiveness of health education interventions in increasing the duration of exclusive breastfeeding in low income countries cannot be made. Nonetheless there is a potential for this to be achieved if more methodologically rigorous health education interventions are developed and evaluated in low income countries

Peer assessment in graphic design studio: Communication design students' perspectives

Large class-sizes have become a common feature in almost all higher education institutions in developing countries. Consequently, educators have to implement innovative pedagogies and assessment practices to deal with the current challenges in education delivery at that level. The purpose of this study was to examine students’ perceptions of their attitudes during peer assessment practice in graphic design studio in higher education. The study was conducted with 94 students at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. The results showed that the students had a positive experience and perception of the peer assessment process. They also held positive views of the task worth of peer-assessment just like their perception of peer-assessment as an aid to learning. The results revealed that peer learning and objectivity are significantly related to task worth. The findings of this study have confirmed the advantages associated with the use of peer-assessment in higher education instead of a teacher centered approach and reaffirmed the existing unequivocal views held by similar studies.Keywords: Peer assessment; students’ perceptions; studio pedagogy; graphic desig

Treatment of urinary schistosomiasis: methodological issues and research needs identified through a Cochrane systematic review

Guidelines recommend praziquantel (PZQ) for the treatment and control of schistosomiasis, with no real alternative. Metrifonate was still widely used against Schistosoma haematobium in the 1990s, and then withdrawn. Experimental studies and clinical trials suggest that artemisinin compounds are active against S. haematobium. In a Cochrane systematic review assessing the efficacy and safety of drugs for treating urinary schistosomiasis, 24 randomized controlled trials (n=6315 individuals) met our inclusion criteria. These trials compared a variety of single agent and combination regimens with PZQ, metrifonate or artemisinin derivatives. The review confirmed that both the standard recommended doses of PZQ (single 40 mg/kg oral dose) and metrifonate (3×7·5-10 mg/kg oral doses administered fortnightly) are efficacious and safe in treating urinary schistosomiasis, but there is no study comparing these two regimens head-to-head. There is currently not enough evidence to evaluate artemisinin compounds. Most of the studies included in the Cochrane systematic review were insufficiently powered, lacked standardization in assessing and reporting outcomes, and had a number of methodological limitations. In this paper we discuss the implications of these findings with respect to public health and research methodology and propose priority research need

Contraceptive Use in Ghana: What about Women Empowerment?

Although contraceptive usage appears to be increasing in Ghana, 30 and 42 percent of married and unmarried women respectively still have unmet need for family planning services partly due to their inability to exercise their basic rights on fertility issues. Meanwhile, expanding freedom of choice and actions to shape women’s life is critical to how women can be autonomous about issues surrounding their fertility. On this premise, this study aimed at investigating empowerment status and usage of contraceptives among women in the reproductive age in Ghana. Methods: The study made use of the 2014 Ghana Demographic and health survey with a sample size of 9396. The outcome variable was contraceptive use whilst the main independent variable was women empowerment (measured by ability to decide on a woman’s own healthcare, large household purchases and visiting family members). Both bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regressions were carried out generating odd ratios to explore the association at 95% confidence interval. Results: The results indicated that women who were not deciding alone on their own healthcare were less probable to use contraceptives (OR = 0.92, CI = 0.80 - 1.07) as well as those who were not deciding alone on large household purchases (OR = 0.96, CI = 0.82 - 1.11) and visiting family members (OR = 0.63, CI = 0.93 - 1.25) at the bivariate level. However, at the multivariate level, higher likelihoods of contraceptive use were found among those who were not deciding alone on health (OR = 1.26, CI = 1.18 - 1.68), large household purchases (OR = 1.30, CI = 1.08 - 1.55) and visiting family members (OR = 1.32, CI = 1.12 - 1.57). Conclusion: This has inspired the need to intensify women empowerment interventions through mass media and all possible avenues in order to enhance reproductive health