Social Studies Teachers’ Readiness to Teach the Security Education Theme in the Reviewed Edition of Nigeria’s Basic Education Curriculum

Abstract This study analysed Social Studiesteachers’ readiness to teach Security Education. Seven hundred and twenty (720) practising Social Studies teachers drawn from seventy two  (72) Junior Secondary schools in the South Western Nigeria were administered with a structured questionnaire. The data collected were analysed using percentage, means and standard deviations to test the three null hypotheses. Findings of this study showed that practising Social Studies teachers have a significantly low knowledge and awareness of the components of the Theme-Security Education. However, the practising Social Studies teachers’ readiness to acquire additional useful knowledge and skills needed for skills required for handling Security Education alongside their area of specialisation (Social Studies) was found to be significantly high. The teachers perceived the inclusion of Security Education in the reviewed Curriculum as a development that will create a significantly higher workload for them as practicing Social Studies teachers. Nevertheless, their response showed a relatively high degree ofnegative disposition towards the handling of the newly introduced Security Education theme in Religion and National Values class asocial Studies teachers. Based on these findings necessary recommendations focusing on the need for training and organizing workshops for curriculum implementers were suggested.            

Banking Sector and the Development of SMEs in Osun State

The research study investigates the banking sector and the development of small and medium scale enterprises in Osun State. The primary purpose of the study is to know how SMEs can be developed through the intervention of the banking sector. The hypothesis of this study is that SMEs do not play an important role in economic growths and developments of Osun State.Descriptive research design was adopted. The population of the study is the entire SMEs in Osun state and United Bank for Africa (UBA). Questionnaires were used as an instrument of primary data collection. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample, correlation analysis was employed. 170 questionnaires were administered but 150 were returned which left 20 questionnaires irrecoverable. Tables and simples percentages were used in data presentation. Four hypotheses were formulated. The finding of the study reveals that there is a positive correlation between loans granted by banks and the growth and development of SMEs in Osun State also, that SMEs cannot be concentrated in Osun State if they are not effectively financed due to the relationship that exists between the banks and SMEs. Based on the findings, it was recommended that guidelines/schemes by commercial banks to finance SMEs needs to be flexible to accommodate the small and medium scale entrepreneurs, the study also recommends that the financial institution needs to put more effort in financing SMEs, their role need to be felt by the SMEs in terms of growth and development. Keywords: banking sector, finance, economic growth, SMEs, loans, entrepreneu

Oyibo: Representations of the colonialist other in Yoruba art, 1826-1960

African Studies Center Papers in the African Humanities No. 24An earlier version of this paper was presented at a December 1990 seminar on African Representations of the Colonialist Other (1910-1940), held at Boston University, as part of the project on "African Expressions of the Colonial Experience." The project was made possible by an interpretive research grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

MIGRATING BUSINESS SERVICES AND APPLICATIONS INTO THE CLOUD

Cloud computing has attracted a lot of hyperbole since it became a trendy topic for IT managers to talk about. Companiesfrequently trumpet their cloud enabled services but rarely give up details on precisely how they achieved this or how muchof their infrastructure has been fully migrated. Security and reliability of cloud services are often raised as concerns. Byunderstanding the basics of cloud computing and knowing how to assess important factors such as security and theidentification of systems that are suitable for migration, it becomes much easier to design and implement a cloud strategy.This paper provides the essential facts about the cloud computing, list some factors to prepare for when adopting cloudcomputing, consideration for managers migrating their services and applications into the cloud. It also discussed the meritsof going into the cloud.Keywords: Cloud Computing, Public Cloud, Service as a Service, Application Migration, Decision Makin

Relationship between Internal Audit and Organization’s Performance: Evidence From Money Deposit Banks in Nigeria

Businesses exist because of the need of investors and entrepreneurs, employees and suppliers of an organization to enable or make their money work for them. This paper examined the relationship between internal audit and sustainable performance in Money Deposit Banks in Nigeria. The objectives of the study are to examine the relationship between internal audit functions and organization performance and to determine the relationship between internal audit procedures and organization performance in money deposit banks in Nigeria. The study employed descriptive research design. The population of the study comprised of all the money deposit banks in Nigeria. The target population of the study was guaranty trust bank located in the south western part of Nigeria specifically in Ogun state. The sampling technique adopted for this study was the purposive sampling. The sampling frame was forty personnel consisting of fifteen audit personnel, twenty accounting officers and five audit trainees within Guaranty Trust Bank Sango Ogun State. Data were collected using primary data through the administering of questionnaire to the respondents. Multiple regression was used in the study to test the relationship between the independent variables and dependent variable. The result from the findings showed that there exist a positive relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. The study therefore recommended that organizations should adopt the internal audit functions and comply with the internal audit procedures in order to improve the performance.

Investigation of the Effects of Soot on the Wear of Automotive Engine Components

This study is motivated by the current trends in the automotive industry where an increasing level of soot is becoming a challenge to the internal combustion engine (ICE) components. Factors responsible for increasing soot level can be grouped into those explicitly driven by regulations and those driven by technological developments; as well as the requirements of extended drain intervals which lessen the overall maintenance cost of running a vehicle and reduce the environmental impacts of disposed oils. The research work basically involves a multi-pronged approach to evaluate the behaviour of sooty-oil surrogates (blends of fully formulated engine oil, HX5 SAE15W-40, and carbon black particles) under various conditions, using laboratory specimens and real engine components. Laboratory specimens are appropriate for evaluating systemic changes in various parameters; they, however, tend to be more homogeneous and have smoother surfaces than real specimens [1]. Real component testing affords more realistic surface contacts and contact geometries; and therefore loading conditions. Increasing soot-loading affects virtually every component involved in the combustion process; the most vulnerable are, however, the valve-train components. Consequently, the focus of the research was on the components within the engine's valve-train related specifically to the diesel engines. Based on the specific component simulations that were proposed, two standard commercial tribometers were used; namely, the High Frequency Reciprocating Rig (HFRR-Plint TE77) and the Mini Traction Machine (MTM-Plint TE54). Two others were designed and built as part of this research; these are: a Pin-in-Bush (PIB) Rig and a Chain Rig. The generic tests involving the basic geometric contacts, non-conformal point (ball-on-flat) and non-conformal line (ring-on-ring), were designed to mimic specific contact conditions in an internal combustion engine (ICE). The elephant’s foot/valve tip contact of the automotive engine valve train is perfectly simulated by the ball-on-flat test with a small stroke length; while ring-on-ring test undergoing sliding and rolling concurrently perfectly mimics the valvetrain’s cam lobe/roller follower contact geometry. The pin-in-bush conformal contact reciprocating sliding rig was designed to have conformal interacting surfaces which provides area contact for the pin and bush moving with sliding action on the lubricant film at the interface. The rig was also adapted, with minimum modifications, for the chain rig which was used for the real engine component test; specifically, Mercedes Benz M271 timing chain and sprocket. The results obtained from the chain were compared with a similar component that has undergone about 206,000 kilometres in a real engine. The results obtained in this study are comparable with other reported studies using carbon black to mimic engine soot. Although loads of data were generated in the course of various tests and post-test analysis, space limitation would not allow all of these to be presented. For the quantitative (friction coefficients, viscosity, wear volume and roughness profile) results, averages of the measured values were determined and used to present the results in various formats. However, only few of the qualitative analysis (microscopy, SEM, ContourGT and Alicona) results were presented in this thesis. Generally, the behavioural pattern of increasing volume of wear, viscosity, frictional force and coefficient of friction with increasing carbon black content remain essentially consistent with all the tests carried out under this study. However, the surface roughness revealed a somewhat smoother surface profile for moderate carbon black content (3-5wt%CB), especially at moderate normal load. Also, traction coefficient values decreased progressively and consistently with increasing carbon black content for mixed lubrication tests. Wear analysis revealed that the carbon black contamination effects in the contact are substantial at high concentration levels, high temperature and high normal loads as wear scar volume increased with these parameters. Evolution of the wear test further reveals that the progression of wear is a function of time. The severity of wear is more pronounced in the ball-on-flat tests operating under boundary lubrication as compared to the ring-on-ring (mixed lubrication) tests. Though, both contacts are non-conformal, but the load distribution was over a wider surface area with a line contact as against what happens with point contact, where a small area of contact carries the full load. Observed wear mechanisms can be interpreted as mild three-body abrasive wear at moderate carbon black contents (3-5wt%CB) where the well-dispersed carbon black particles freely roll and slide between the contacting specimens. While at higher carbon contents (7-12wt%CB) where agglomeration is more likely, the resultant wear mechanism is metal-to-metal contact due to starvation of lubricant which access into the contact is restricted by the carbon particle agglomerates, and thus resulting in two-body abrasion. Another possible mechanism at higher content is that some of these hard particles get into the contact zone where they become squeezed and get embedded into the surfaces. The embedded hard particles burrow through the contacting surfaces, forming grooves along the sliding direction. This is also classified as two-body abrasion. For the mini-traction machine (MTM) test, there was also cyclic stress-induced surface fatigue due to the combined effects of high contact pressure resulting from Hertzian line contact and high load and occurrence of fatigue-induced incipient damage in the subsurface, along the plane of maximum shear stress. The real engine component tests revealed multiple effects on the contacting bodies. These range from sliding and rolling actions between the sprocket teeth and the chain rollers along with the carbon black particles. There was also the effects of the impact stresses induced by the collision of chain with the sprocket teeth during engagement. The emerging results from various post-test analysis have also revealed the damaging effects any particle infiltration into the contact between various moving parts of the timing chain system can cause. The analysis of the ‘L’ (denoting the initial of the owner of real engine components) vehicle components also gives some valuable and instructive indications of possible damages that prolonged usage can cause to a component, particularly timing drive components which constitute parts of the most durable and lifetime components in an internal combustion engine (ICE). The novel idea on the use of ultrasound technique to measure the instantaneous film thickness (between the contacting specimens) of selected sooty-oil surrogates also recorded a significant level of success in terms of the obtained results which are comparable with analytical results in behavioural trends and numerical values. Notably, being a pioneering move towards determining the real-time film thickness of soot-contaminated oil, this indicates a potential for future research