Effect of service and collaborative learning strategies on students’ environmental knowledge in selected junior secondary schools in Oyo State, Nigeria

Though many strategies have helped in increasing students’ knowledge and awareness about environmental issues, yet, environmental challenges and problems are still on the increase in Nigeria. This may be due to the fact that environmental issues are controversial and require collaborative efforts of all citizens, especially school students. This study determined the effects of service learning and collaborative learning in social studies on Junior Secondary School students’ environmental literacy. It also explored the moderating effects of school location and gender. The study adopted a pretest-posttest, control group, quasiexperimental design. Multi-stage sampling technique was employed. Six (6) secondary schools that are co-educational from Ibadan were purposively selected based on presence of environmental challenges in their immediate environment. There were three (3) schools from Ibadan city (urban area of Ibadan) and three (3) from Ibadan less city (rural area of Ibadan). Seven hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Five research instruments were used for the study, these were; Environmental Knowledge Test (EKT, r = 0.76), Environmental Attitude Questionnaire (EAQ, r = 0.85), Service Learning Guide (SLG, r = 0.71), Collaborative Learning Guide (CLG, r = 0.66) and Conventional Learning Guide (CLG, r = 0.73). Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used in testing the seven formulated hypotheses. Scheffé Post-hoc analysis was carried out to determine the source of significant effect of treatment. Significant interaction effect was described using graphical representation. All hypotheses were tested at P.05, partial η2 = 0.00). Based on these findings, it was recommended that teachers should adopt service learning and collaborative learning strategies in the teaching of environmental concepts and problems in Social Studies in order to improve students’ performance in Social Studies. Teachers should facilitate the use of service learning and collaborative learning strategies in schools to improve students’ environmental problem-solving skills and their achievement in the subject. Teaching institutions should not only include service learning and collaborative learning strategies in their curriculum but should endeavour to provide practical experience for pre-service teachers to be well grounded and equipped on the use of these strategies

Privacy Engineering in Smart Home (SH) Systems: A Comprehensive Privacy Threat Analysis and Risk Management Approach

Addressing trust concerns in Smart Home (SH) systems is imperative due to the limited study on preservation approaches that focus on analyzing and evaluating privacy threats for effective risk management. While most research focuses primarily on user privacy, device data privacy, especially identity privacy, is almost neglected, which can significantly impact overall user privacy within the SH system. To this end, our study incorporates privacy engineering (PE) principles in the SH system that consider user and device data privacy. We start with a comprehensive reference model for a typical SH system. Based on the initial stage of LINDDUN PRO for the PE framework, we present a data flow diagram (DFD) based on a typical SH reference model to better understand SH system operations. To identify potential areas of privacy threat and perform a privacy threat analysis (PTA), we employ the LINDDUN PRO threat model. Then, a privacy impact assessment (PIA) was carried out to implement privacy risk management by prioritizing privacy threats based on their likelihood of occurrence and potential consequences. Finally, we suggest possible privacy enhancement techniques (PETs) that can mitigate some of these threats. The study aims to elucidate the main threats to privacy, associated risks, and effective prioritization of privacy control in SH systems. The outcomes of this study are expected to benefit SH stakeholders, including vendors, cloud providers, users, researchers, and regulatory bodies in the SH systems domain.Comment: The paper has 3 figures, 8 table

Altered Cerebellar-Cerebral Functional Connectivity in Geriatric Depression

Although volumetric and activation changes in the cerebellum have frequently been reported in studies on major depression, its role in the neural mechanism of depression remains unclear. To understand how the cerebellum may relate to affective and cognitive dysfunction in depression, we investigated the resting-state functional connectivity between cerebellar regions and the cerebral cortex in samples of patients with geriatric depression (n = 11) and healthy controls (n = 18). Seed-based connectivity analyses were conducted using seeds from cerebellum regions previously identified as being involved in the executive, default-mode, affective-limbic, and motor networks. The results revealed that, compared with controls, individuals with depression show reduced functional connectivity between several cerebellum seed regions, specifically those in the executive and affective-limbic networks with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and increased functional connectivity between the motor-related cerebellum seed regions with the putamen and motor cortex. We further investigated whether the altered functional connectivity in depressed patients was associated with cognitive function and severity of depression. A positive correlation was found between the Crus II–vmPFC connectivity and performance on the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised delayed memory recall. Additionally, the vermis–posterior cinglate cortex (PCC) connectivity was positively correlated with depression severity. Our results suggest that cerebellum–vmPFC coupling may be related to cognitive function whereas cerebellum–PCC coupling may be related to emotion processing in geriatric depression

Effect of Service and Collaborative Learning Strategies on Learners’ Environmental Attitude

Environmental issues have become recurring phenomena at international forums. This empirical paper investigates the effects of service learning and collaborative learning on Junior Secondary School students' environmental attitudes. Learners are exposed to environmental studies through many school subjects, and learning strategies have helped to increase students' knowledge and awareness about environmental issues. However, environmental challenges and problems are still on the increase in Nigeria. The students are also culpable as their attitude does not reflect what they learn. This paper is premised on the cognitive dissonance theory. The quantitative study employed the multistage sampling technique. The results revealed that there was a significant effect of treatment (service and collaborative learning strategies) on junior secondary school students environmental attitude (F(2,582) = 1317.79; p<0.05, partial ?2 = 0.819). Based on this finding, it was recommended that teachers adopt service and collaborative learning strategies in teaching environmental concepts and problems to improve student performance and, more importantly, positively influence their attitudes. Teachers should use service and collaborative learning strategies to provide practical experience for students to be well-grounded and equipped to use these strategies

Brain Regions Showing Increased Cerebeller-Cerebral Connectivity in Geriatric Depression Compared With the Control Group.

<p>Brain Regions Showing Increased Cerebeller-Cerebral Connectivity in Geriatric Depression Compared With the Control Group.</p

Significantly increased functional connectivity in depressed patients between cerebellar executive and motor seed regions (shown in the lower row) with cerebral areas.

<p>Significantly increased functional connectivity in depressed patients between cerebellar executive and motor seed regions (shown in the lower row) with cerebral areas.</p

Cerebellar Regions of Interest (seeds) and Coordinates Grouped By Network.

<p>Cerebellar Regions of Interest (seeds) and Coordinates Grouped By Network.</p

Significantly reduced functional connectivity in depressed patients between cerebellar executive and affective-limbic seed regions (shown in the lower row) with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC).

<p>Significantly reduced functional connectivity in depressed patients between cerebellar executive and affective-limbic seed regions (shown in the lower row) with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC).</p

Significant correlation of decreased right Crus II_Exec2-vmPFC connectivity with poorer performance on the HVLT-R delay across both depressed (purple squares) and control subjects (blue dots).

<p>Data from all participants were included in this regression analysis.</p