The Effect of Distributing Electronic Notes to Students: Ethical Considerations Raised By Computer Science Faculty at The University Of Namibia

In an effort to encourage the uptake of technology among its academic community, the University of Namibia (UNAM) introduced the Electronic Notes System (ENS) in the year 2010. The ENS was envisaged as a web-based method of distributing lecture notes to students, where the faculty members would upload the teaching materials and the students would download the materials. Although this method was believed to be a practical way of distributing the notes in comparison to the existing method, faculty adoption of the ENS has been rather poor, prompting the eLearning committee to conduct awareness campaigns at the Faculty Board meetings. Discussions at the Faculty Board meetings revealed ethical concerns that prevented faculty from adopting the ENS. Using the discussions from the awareness campaigns as well as results from one-to-one loosely structured interviews with the faculty members in the Computer Science department that participated in those presentations, the paper presents some ethical considerations that may need to be addressed when introducing technologyenhanced learning in similar contexts

Synthesis of sulphur doped CoFe2O4 by calcination process in air and their photocatalytic activity in the presence of visible light

S–CoFe2O4 nanocomposite was synthesized using an easy calcining procedure in the air and was then given a variety of analytical techniques to analyze it. PXRD analysis supported cubic S–CoFe2O4 structure. CoFe2O4 and S–CoFe2O4 catalysts have been continuously absorbed in the visible region, which suggests active d-d transitions. Methylene blue degradation was used to investigate the photocatalytic activity of CoFe2O4 and S–CoFe2O4 catalysts under visible light illumination. The point zero charge of S–CoFe2O4 catalyst was found to be at pH 4.4 confirmed from the zeta potential. Ammonium persulfate was deployed as an oxidant to compare to hydrogen peroxide. Moreover, the S–CoFe2O4 composite performance was investigated in the presence of a trapping agent such isopropyl alcohol. The decreasing order of photocatalytic activity is as follows: S–CoFe2O4 + H2O2 > S–CoFe2O4 + APS > S–CoFe2O4 > CoFe2O4 > S–CoFe2O4 + IPA. Kinetic study shows S–CoFe2O4 with H2O2 system best fitted to zero order model. The degradation of methylene blue was examined using the liquid chromatography mass spectroscopy technique

Enhancing cloud connectivity among NRENs in the SADC region through a novel institution cloud infrastructure framework

It is increasingly being recognized that faster socioeconomic develop-ment in Africa is dependent upon the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Infrastructure for the dissemination of data and educational services. The scalability and flexibility provided by Cloud services in terms of resource management, service provisioning and virtualization makes it an attractive system for use with educational and ICT services. The flexibility of pay-as-you-go models combined with the ability to scale computing, storage and/or networking resources makes Cloud computing an ideal candidate for use with education, re-search and scientific infrastructures. Notwithstanding its benefits, transi-tioning from a traditional IT infrastructure to a Cloud computing para-digm raises security concerns with respect to data storage, data trans-mission and user privacy. This paper presents on-going research for the development of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) infra-structure for the distribution of Information Communication technologies (ICT) services in the African context. The Inter-Cloud Infrastructure Framework (ICIF) proposed, is conceived as a Cloud computing framework suitable for use with National Research and Education Net-works (NRENs) in the SADC region. The ICIF system is used to create an Inter-Cloud infrastructure, and helps NRENs transition from tradi-tional IT infrastructure systems to the Cloud computing paradigm. It also provides new functional/operational components and Cloud services to support the interconnection and/or interoperability among SADC NRENs through the ICIF infrastructure

Studies of the effect of growth promoting hormones on rooting of cutting in Caralluma (Caralluma sarkariae) Lavranos & Frandsen

Caralluma sarkariae is a succulent herb belongs to the family of Apocyanaceae. The population of Caralluma sarkariaeis found growing in a secluded area at Nagamalai hills of Madurai, Tamil Nadu. The crop with its immense medicinal value such as anti-obesity and anti-diabetic properties need to be explored and promoted in non-traditional areas. Hence the experiment was taken up to study the effect of growth regulators on rooting of cuttings in Caralluma sarkariae. The results revealed that, the use of growth regulators greatly influenced on growth parameters particularly shoot and root length, when side shoots were treated with IBA 200 ppm

Zinc/ammonium formate: a chemoselective and cost-effective protocol for the reduction of azides to amines

A variety of alkyl and aryl azides were selectively reduced in high yields to the corresponding amines by reaction with ammonium formate in the presence of low cost commercial zinc dust at room temperature

COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF ANTIMICROBIAL PROPERTIES OF RED AND WHITE GINGER

Abstract: Background: Zingiber officinale (Zingiberaceae), has been cultivated in many tropical and subtropical countries on account of its culinary and medicinal properties. Its antimicrobial properties are well known. There are two varieties of ginger available in Malaysian market i.e. red ginger (Zingiber officinale Var. Rubra) and white ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe). Objective: The present study aimed to compare the antimicrobial properties of red and white ginger.Methods: The antibacterial properties of methanol and water extracts of two varieties of ginger by disc diffusion method against Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.Results: All the extracts showed potent antibacterial activity and produced zone of inhibition ranging from 10-28 mm. Among the tested extracts, the crude methanol extracts of red ginger showed better activity against the entire tested organism when compared to all the other extracts. However, the standards showed better activity than all the tested extracts at lower concentrations.Conclusion: These results showed that methanol extract of red ginger is the good candidate for further investigation.Keywords: Zingiber officinale; Red and white ginger; Antibacteria