Teacher Quality Factors as Determinant of Students’ Achievement in Mathematics

This paper tries to find out the effect of teacher quality factors on students achievement in Mathematics. The teacher qualities that were considered in the study include teachers’ experience, qualification motivation interest satisfaction and teaching techniques. The data for the study were collected through the questionnaires designed for the teachers and students result collected. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. It was found out that all the teacher qualities considered in the study determine the achievement of student in Mathematics to a large extent. Keywords: Teacher Quality, Achievement, Motivation, Teachers’ Qualification, Experienc

Multilevel Regression Analysis of Age at First Birth

Knowledge about the factors associated with age at first birth plays a major role in controlling the rate of population growth. This paper presents Hierarchical Linear Modeling known for its robustness not only in dealing with hierarchical data structure but also in its ability to explain the effects of the shared variances present in the study on the variable of interest.  Data from 2013 Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (NDHS), collected via a hierarchically clustered sampling scheme were used. It investigated the factors that were thought to be associated with variation in age at first birth among Nigerian women were investigated. The model provided parameter estimates as well as estimates of the random effects variances at all the levels. It was observed that the average age at which a Nigerian woman gives birth to her first child without considering any factor effect is 19 years which is a teenage year. 22% and 18% in the variation of ages at first birth resides in the differences in the states and zones in the country

Modelling and Control of Flow Induced Vibration of Top–Tensioned Marine Risers Using Analytical Methods

For a riser array in deep waters, interference between individual risers in strong ocean current is of operational concern and thereby a key design issue. The lateral deflection is likely to be large, and the risers may experience collision with fatigue or coating damage as a consequence. In this paper, active control of flexible marine riser angle and the reduction of flow induced (forced) vibration under a time varying distributed load were considered using boundary control approach. A torque actuator was introduced in the upper riser package and a boundary control was designed to generate the required signal for riser angle control and vibration reduction with guaranteed closed-loop stability. The design is based on the partial differential equations of the system, which are developed using energy principle. Analytical method of solution was deployed with the aid of a program, developed within the framework of MATLAB, to predict the riser's behaviour by top tensioning. A sensitivity analysis for different values of the control variables was carried out. The results of this work showed that active control of flexible marine riser by top-tensioning reduced flow induced vibration

Assessment of trace metals in drinking water and groundwater sources in Ota, Nigeria

The levels of six trace metals namely iron, lead, manganese, copper, zinc and nickel were investigated in drinking water and groundwater sources in Ota, Nigeria. Detected concentrations of Mn, Cu and Zn were below the World Health organization and Standard Organization of Nigeria maximum permissible limits. Fe (92%) and Ni (53%) in some drinking water and groundwater sources were found in concentrations that exceeded the maximum permissible limits for these metals. Notably, the levels of Pb were below detection limit in all the bottled, well and borehole water, with exception of the hospital borehole, while the swimming pool had high concentrations of Fe (0.88 mg/L), Pb (0.21 mg/L) and Ni (0.19mg/L) compared to SON (0.30 mg/L), WHO (0.01 mg/L) and WHO (0.07 mg/L) respectively. Pollution indices indicated significant pollution of Pb, Fe and Ni. Overall, the mean metal levels in the sampled water sources followed a descending order, Fe>Cu>Zn>Ni>Pb>Mn. Some of the drinking water and groundwater sources could be considered safe for drinking, but proactive measures should be taken to check the levels of Fe, Pb and Ni in the swimming pool

PHYSICO-CHEMICAL AND MICROBIAL ASSESSMENT OF DIFFERENT WATER SOURCES IN OTA, OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Pollution of water bodies is one of the areas of major concern to en vironmentalists and requires continuous assess ment. This necessitated the evaluation of the physical, chemical an d microbiological quality of water from the primary sources of supply in different locations of Ota using standard methods. Results of the values of the surface and potable water in the study area showed that turbidity(0.19 to 11.6 NTU), conductivity (36.5 to 396 µs/cm), salinity (10 to 80 mg/L), alkalinity (0 to 64 mg/L), nitrate (0.20 to 4.60 mg/L), total hardness (5.0 to 80.0 m g/L), total solid (4000 to 7000 mg/L) total suspended solids (3967 to 6978 mg/L) total dissolved solids (17.9 to 198 mg/L), dissolved oxygen (4.50 to 9.60 mg/L), biochemical oxygen demand (ND to 4.67 mg/L), MPN c ount (2 to 1600 MPN/100 ml) and the faecal coliform counts ranged between ND to 2.5×104. The Physico chemic al parameters of most of the samples analysed were within the limits set by both National and International standa rd regulatory bodies for drinking and domestic waters (SON, 2007; WHO, 2011). Overall, the potable water sources are suitable for drinking, but the faecal contamination in Iju River makes it unfit for drinking

Randomization of two dosing regimens of vaginal misoprostol for cervical ripening and labor induction in a low resource setting

Objectives: To compare the effectiveness of two dosing regimens of vaginal misoprostol for cervical ripening and induction of labour.Materials and Methods: Pregnant women with singleton low risk pregnancy at term scheduled for elective induction of labour were randomized to  receive either 25 µg or 50 µg of vaginal misoprostol for pre.labour  cervical ripening. All the patients received antenatal care and delivered at the University College Hospital (UCH) from January 1st to May 31st 2006. A total of 128 patients were randomized; 65 patients received 25 µg and 63 patients received 50 µg of vaginal misoprostol.Results: Significantly higher number of patients in the 50 µg group   progressed to active labour as compared with the 25 µg group (95.2% versus 84.6%, P < 0.05). The need for oxytocin augmentation of labour was higher among the 25 µg as compared with 50 µg (39.7% versus 16.4%, P = 0.007). There was higher proportion of patients in the 50 µg group delivering vaginally within 24 hours as compared with the 25 µg group (98.2% versus 90.0%, P = 0.063). However, the mean interval between the first dose of misoprostol and vaginal delivery was not  statistically different in the two groups (754 } 362 minutes and 885 } 582 minutes, P = 0.152). The incidence of caesarean section was similar in the two groups (7.7% versus 11%, P = 0.580). Labour complications, such as precipitate labour, tachysystole and abnormal fetal heart rate patterns were greater in the 50 µg group.Conclusion: Twenty.five microgram of misoprostol appears to be as  effective as 50 µg for pre.induction cervical ripening and labour induction. Though 50 µg of vaginal misoprostol resulted in relatively faster delivery and less need for oxytocin augmentation, it was associated with more  labour complications as compared with 25 µg of misoprostol.Key words: Cervical ripening, labour induction, misoprosto

Identification of genomic regions associated with differences in fleece type in Huacaya and Suri alpacas (Vicugna pacos).

The difference in fleece type is the distinguishing trait between the two types of alpacas (Vicugna pacos), Huacaya and Suri. The Suri fleece type has been found to be inherited dominantly over the Huacaya type, resulting in offspring with the Suri phenotype. The aim of our study was to map genomic regions associated with the two different fleece types. In this study, 91 alpacas (54 Huacayas and 37 Suris) from Germany and Switzerland were genotyped using the 76k alpaca SNP array. Only 59k chromosome-localised markers map to the alpaca reference assembly VicPac3.1, and after quality control 49 866 SNPs, were retained for population structure assessment and to conduct a genome-wide association study. Both principal component and neighbour-joining tree analysis showed that the two fleece-type cohorts overlapped rather than forming two distinct clusters. Genome-wide significantly associated markers were observed in the scaffold region of chromosome 16 (NW_021964192.1), which contains a cluster of keratin genes. A haplotype predominantly found in Suri alpacas has been identified which supports dominant inheritance. Variant filtering of nine whole-genome sequenced alpacas from both fleece types in the critical interval of 0.4 Mb did not reveal perfect segregation of either fleece type for specific variants. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use the recently developed species-specific SNP array to identify genomic regions associated with differences in fleece type in alpacas. There are still some limitations, such as the preliminary status of the reference assembly and the incomplete annotation of the alpaca genome

COMPARISON OF THE ELECTROCHEMICAL PERFORMANCES OF MCDCFC USING HAND AND BALL MILLED BIOMASS CARBON FUELS

The electrochemical performances of a single cell molten carbonate electrolyte direct carbon fuel cell (MCDCFC) using miscanthus and switchgrass biomass carbon fuels subjected to hand and ball milling treatments are presented in this paper. Conventional direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC) uses carbon derived from coal, a fossil fuel with adverse consequences on the environment. This paper explores a more benign carbon fuel source which is the biomass to power the DCFC. The performances of the hand milled (HM) carbon fuels were slightly higher than those of the ball milled (BM) carbon fuels. At 800oC for the open circuit voltage, miscanthus fuel (1.03 V) has higher values for the HM and switchgrass fuel (0.77 V) for the BM. Higher peak power densities were observed for switchgrass fuel (21.60 and 12.32 mW/cm2) for both the HM and BM. Switchgrass fuel (74 mA/cm2) gave the maximum current density for both the HM and BM. Miscanthus fuel (0.72 V) show higher voltage at peak power generation for the HM and switchgrass fuel (0.39 V) for the BM. The peak power efficiency evaluated show that miscanthus fuel (70%) gave higher values for the hand milled and equal values for both carbon fuels (51%) for the ball milled

Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning Techniques for the Prediction of Employee Performance

Human Resources’ purpose is to assign the best people to the right job at the right time, train and qualify them, and provide evaluation methods to track their performance and safeguard employees’ perspective skills. These data are crucial for decision-makers, but collecting the best and most useful information from such large amounts of data is tough. Human Resource employees no longer need to manually handle vast amounts of data with the advent of data mining. Data mining’s primary goal is to uncover information hidden in data patterns and trends in order to produce results that are close to ideal. This study aims at comparing the performance of three techniques in the prediction of performance. The dataset undergoes preprocessing steps that include data cleaning, and data compression using Principal Component Analysis. After preprocessing, training and classification were done using Artificial Neural Network, Random Forest, and Decision tree algorithm. The result showed that Artificial Neural networks performed the best in the prediction of employee performance