Children‟s Attachment Styles, Academic Achievement and Social Competence at Early Childhood

This is an expost facto research designed to determine the influence of children‟s attachment styles on academic achievement and social competence of pre-primary school pupils in Owerri metropolis of Imo State. The population consisted of all the 822 pupils in all the 25 Government approved nursery schools in Owerri. However, a sample of 280 pupils within the age bracket of 3 – 5 years in nursery classes 1 and 2 were drawn from 14 nursery schools through random and purposive sampling techniques. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the conduct of the study. The instruments used for data collection were “Attachment Styles Assessment Scale” (ASAS), “Social Competence Rating Scale” (SCRS) and “Pupils Academic Report Sheet” (PARS). The ASAS and SCRS were validated by experts in educational psychology and measurement and evaluation. Their reliability co-efficients of 0.79 (ASAS) and 0.83 (SCRS) were determined through test-retest method. The PARS was obtained from the records office of the schools under study. Data collected were analyzed with Mean (x), Standard Deviation (SD) and One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Results got after data analysis indicated that securely attached pupils achieved more academically than the insecurely attached ones; securely attached pupils were also found to be more socially competent than the insecurely attached ones; the difference that existed between the securely and insecurely attached pupils in academic achievement and social competence were found to be statistically significant. Based on the these results, recommendations were made including that school should organize seminars and workshops for parents on parenting styles during which the most effective ones are emphasized for adoption by parents

Enhancing mathematics word problems for young learners using storytelling pedagogy

This study focused on enhancing mathematics lessons on word problems using storytelling pedagogy. A quasi-experiment with a pretest-posttest design with a control group was adopted. The study purposively selected 120 primary two learners as participants for the study. Mathematics achievement test on word problems of adding up to 100 (with a Kuder-Richardson reliability coefficient of 0.73) was the instrument for data collection. The data collected were analysed using SPSS version 20.0 software in two descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (ANCOVA). The results revealed that the mean achievement score of young learners who learnt word problems of adding up to 100 using storytelling pedagogy was significantly higher than those taught using the conventional chalk-and-talk teaching method (without storytelling), implying that storytelling is very effective in enhancing performance in mathematics word problem-solving lessons. This study also revealed that the mean achievement score of learners using storytelling as a pedagogy was not significantly influenced by gender. It was recommended, among others, that the storytelling technique be employed in lower primary schools to enhance the mathematics achievement of learners

Solitude and Journey: Two Central Themes in the Spirituality of John Henry Newman

John Henry Newman is widely known for his ideas on doctrinal development, education, conscience, and his reflections on faith and reason. However, it is important to remember that, among the many hats Newman wore, he was mostly a preacher and spiritual director. So in his role as a preacher, pastor, and spiritual leader, did he have a distinct spirituality? If so, what features or ideas would define Newman\u27s spirituality? This paper will explore two prominent and pervasive themes in his spirituality looking primarily at his Parochial and Plain Sermons from his Anglican period and also at some of his Catholic sermon notes from the later period of his life

Estimating An Optimal Backpropagation Algorithm for Training An ANN with the EGFR Exon 19 Nucleotide Sequence: An Electronic Diagnostic Basis for Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer(NSCLC)

One of the most common forms of medical malpractices globally is an error in diagnosis. An improper diagnosis occurs when a doctor fails to identify a disease or report a disease when the patient is actually healthy. A disease that is commonly misdiagnosed is lung cancer. This cancer type is a major health problem internationally because it is responsible for 15% of all cancer diagnosis and 29% of all cancer deaths. The two major sub-types of lung cancer are; small cell lung cancer (about 13%) and non-small cell lung cancer (%SCLC- about 87%). The chance of surviving lung cancer depends on its correct diagnosis and/or the stage at the time it is diagnosed. However, recent studies have identified somatic mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene in a subset of non-small cell lung cancer (%SCLC) tumors. These mutations occur in the tyrosine kinase domain of the gene. The most predominant of the mutations in all %SCLC patients examined is deletion mutation in exon 19 and it accounts for approximately 90% of the EGFR-activating mutations. This makes EGFR genomic sequence a good candidate for implementing an electronic diagnostic system for %SCLC. In this study aimed at estimating an optimum backpropagation training algorithm for a genomic based A%% system for %SCLC diagnosis, the nucleotide sequences of EGFR’s exon 19 of a noncancerous cell were used to train an artificial neural network (A%%). Several A%% back propagation training algorithms were tested in MATLAB R2008a to obtain an optimal algorithm for training the network. Of the nine different algorithms tested, we achieved the best performance (i.e. the least mean square error) with the minimum epoch (training iterations) and training time using the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm

Testing of the Quality of Service Provision of Lagos State University Library, Lagos, Nigeria

This study will be very important because it is the first study will discuss in details the services which are available in Lagos State University Library. The researchers in this study will test and measure the quality of the services, and also test the user\u27s satisfaction about these services and what are the users\u27 needs. Total samples of 100 users of students were used in this study and a descriptive statistics were used to tabulate obtained results and gap analysis was used. Moreover, the researcher will examine the usage of library, the physical environment of the library, library collections, library environment, library IT services, the overall quality and the most important services. The results of the study showed that most of the library users are male and enrolled in management and social sciences, the respondents find the overall quality as good but not excellent

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Success of Secondary School Principals in Rivers State, Nigeria

This is an expost facto research designed to determine the influence ofemotional intelligence on leadership success of secondary school principalsin Rivers State of Nigeria. The population consisted 441 principals (243 inpublic and 198 in private) secondary schools in Rivers State. A sample of208 principals drawn through simple random sampling technique (balloting)was used. Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided thestudy. The instruments used for data collection were Emotional IntelligenceScale (EIS) with a Cronbach alpha reliability co-efficient score of 0.89 bySchutte, Malouff, Simunek, McKenley, Hollander, Bobik, Coston, Greeson,Jedlicka, Rhodes, Wendorf, (2001) and Leadership Success Scale (LSS) adapted from the Development Dimensions International DDI (2009) andBryan (2005) respectively with a reliability co-efficient score of 0.83. Dataof the study were analyzed using Mean (x), Standard Deviation (SD) and ttest. Results got after data analysis indicated that principals of highemotional intelligence demonstrated greater leadership success than theircounterpart of low emotional intelligence. While gender was found to be asignificant factor of leadership success among principals of high emotionalintelligence, age was not found to be a significant factor. It was also foundthat gender and age were not significance factors of leadership successamong principals of low emotional intelligence. Based on these results,recommendations were made including that there should be pre-serviceassessment of teachers on emotional intelligence and that principals on thejob should be given emotional intelligence training to enhance leadershipsuccess

Awareness of BVN, SIM swap and clone frauds: Methods and controls

Bank Verification Number (BVN), SIM swap and SIM clone fraud have become an issue of great concern in Nigeria. It has left banking and telecommunications offices trudging with complaints and many bank customers in pains. The Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced the BVN to prevent corruption, provide a transparent system of payment and effective account monitoring, and to uniquely identify bank customers in order to eliminate any incidence of fraud. Even as banks unilaterally implement this measure, fraudsters are continually devising means of defrauding bank customers of their possessions and evade detection. In this paper, the authors created an awareness on how bank customers are deceived into disclosing their financial details, the methods used in obtaining data for SIM swap and SIM clone, and to sensitize the public on how to prevent unauthorized access to their treasured details