The Relationship between Placement of Female Teachers and Academic Performnace of Secondary School Students in Owerri Urban of Imo State

This research focused on the relationship between placement of Women Teachers and Academic Performance of Secondary School Students in Owerri Urban of Imo State. Descriptive research design was adopted in carrying out the study. A random sampling technique was used to select ten (10) secondary schools used in the study out of twenty secondary schools in Owerri Urban of Imo state. Questionnaire was developed to collect primary data. The data collected was analyzed using the simple percentage method. It ascertained whether there are more female teachers in the Owerri Urban Secondary Schools than their male counterparts thereby assessing the role of women teachers to the education of the students, vis-à-vis their academic performance. In pursuance of the objectives, some hypotheses were stated as seen in chapter 1. A total of twelve schools (12) were sampled with twenty five (25) principals and vice principals, some classroom teachers and officials of the Secondary Education Management Board Owerri Zone as respondents. Data was collected through the use of questionnaires, oral interviews and personal observations respectively. From the findings as reflected in chapter five (5), it was concluded that although many variables are contributory to the excellent and poor performance of students, the posting of many women teachers in a School lowers teachers/school productivity and consequently affects adversely the student’s academic performance.  In order to improve the standard of education and this development in particular, some recommendations were made among which among them was government review of the policy of posting married women teachers within the areas their husbands are working to avoid over-concentration of women teachers in the urban Secondary Schools. Keywords: Student, Perception, School, Teacher, Female Teacher, Leadership, Behaviour, Leadership Behaviour

An anatomical investigation of the carotid canal

Background: The carotid canal (CC) located in the petrous temporal bone transmits the internal carotid artery, internal carotid venous plexus and sympathetic nerve plexus from the neck into the cranial cavity. It is an accessible passage into the cranial cavity and is considered an important anatomical landmark for neurosurgeons. The aim of this study was to investigate the topographical, morphometric and morphological parameters of the CC. Materials and methods: An examination of the CC and related adjacent structures in 81 dry skull specimens was performed. Distribution of sample by sex was 34 females and 47 males, and by race 77 African and 4 Caucasian. The mean age was 50 years (range: 14–100 years). Results: The external opening of the CC was found to be round-shaped, oval-shaped and tear-drop-shaped in 28.4%, 49.4% and 22.2% of the specimens, respectively. (1) Mean diameters [mm]: (a) medio-lateral 7.52 mm and (b) antero-posterior 5.41mm. Statistically significant difference in the vertical diameter was recorded in the race groups and laterality of the samples. (2) Mean distances [mm] between: (a) medial margins of external opening of CC was 50.03 mm, (b) lateral margins of external opening of CC was 62.73 mm and (c) external openings of CC and foramen lacerum was 15.6 mm. There was a statistically significant correlation between race and location of the opening of external CC in relation to foramen lacerum (viz. postero-lateral, lateral and diagonal, and lateral). Conclusions: The present study corroborated previous reports on the CC; however, the tear-drop shaped external CC opening was a unique finding. The knowledge of the reference measurements pertaining to the CC and its relationship to adjacent structures may postulate a suitable surgical “safe-zone” range within the CC area

Determination of the median nerve safe-zone in the carpal tunnel using the distal forearm bony prominences

Background: The compression of the median nerve (MN) in the carpal tunnel (CT) is one of the most common aetiologies of entrapment neuropathy syndromes in clinical practice. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of the palpable bony prominences of the distal forearm (radial styloid process [RSP] and ulnar styloid process [USP]) with MN in the CT, in order to determine a safe-zone of the MN during carpal tunnel procedures. Materials and methods: This study involved the bilateral dissection of the CT region of 30 adult cadaveric specimens (n = 60). Results: The mean distance between the RSP and USP was 49.34 mm. The mean distance of the MN from the RSP and the USP were 22.44 mm and 26.66 mm, respectively. The mean diameter of the MN within the CT deep to the flexor retinaculum was 5.93 mm. In addition, the MN was located postero-lateral and postero-medial to palmaris longus tendon (PLT) in 78.33% and 21.67% of specimens, respectively. Conclusions: This study found that the MN was located less than 60% of the RSP-USP distance from the RSP. Furthermore, the MN was mostly located postero-lateral to the PLT. Therefore, injection or surgical incision made at/medial to a point 60% of the RSP-USP distance from the RSP will be outside the safe-zone of the MN. The knowledge of this surface anatomical relationship of the MN may be useful during decompression for CT syndrome

The prevalence and clinical importance of an “additional” terminal branch of the left coronary artery

The left coronary artery (LCA) usually divides into two (anterior interventricular artery [AIA] and left circumflex [LCx] artery) or less frequently into the AIA, LCx, and one or more “additional” terminal branch/es (ATBs). These ATBs of the LCA have no unanimity regarding their anatomical nomenclature. There is a lack of common consensus on the criteria used for their definition, and they are also absent from the current Terminologia Anatomica (1998). This study, therefore, aimed to document the prevalence of the ATBs of the LCA, discuss their clinical importance, and propose an anatomical nomenclature. This study was conducted by reviewing 367 coronary angiograms. The termination patterns of the LCA were classified into 3 categories based on the number of their branches, viz. (a) bifurcation 78.2%, (b) trifurcation 20.4%, and (c) quadrifurcation 1.4%, respectively. The presence of an ATB was recorded in 21.8% of the angiograms. The identification of this vessel may be of clinical importance because the extent of its supply may decrease the effect of occlusion of the LCx artery and AIA on the myocardium. The term “left ramus medianus artery” is proposed as the nomenclature for the ATB of the LCA

Organizational Politics and Employees’ Performance in Private Sector Investment: A Comparative Study of Zenith Bank Plc and Alcon Plc. Nigeria

Objective of research focus to investigate the impact of organizational politics on employees’ performance in the private sectors. Qualitative study was chosen using Zenith Bank Plc and Alcon Plc, Nigeria. The choice of methodology reflects explorative purpose of this research. The data were mainly primary, collected during face-to-face interviews with managers and subordinates of the two firms. Study adopts data categorization approach for the analysis of empirical findings to see the connection between theory and practice. Research found that bad political behavior affects negatively employees’ performance and lowers organizational productivity; while good political behavior affects positively employees’ performance and increases organizational productivity. Reflecting on the problems identified in this study, the authors recommend that every political maneuvering should be managed within reasonable bounds. Again, the authors hereby recommends seven approaches as follows; screen out exceedingly any political individuals during recruitment exercise; create an open-book management system to keep track of  employee’s behavior; periodic financial and accounting statements for all employees should not be politicized; establish formal conflict resolution and grievance processes; openly identify and reward staff who get real results without political games; disciplinary committee should be set up and defaulters should be apprehended to serve as a deterrent for others to follow; organization should adopt sensitive analysis approach to track and monitor any strange behavior of workers in the work environment. Reflecting on the outcome of this research, firstly, one of the problems encountered in carrying out this research was due to difficulty getting enough people to answer interview questions due to tight schedules of the participant; this has implications on the sample size and is considered as one of the study limitations. Based on this, the author recommends future researchers to consider large sample size when replicating study or use alternative research methodology to see if the same result will be replicated. Key terms: Influence, Private sector, Organizational politics, Performance, Political behavior

Isolation and serotyping of foot-and-mouth disease virus in cattle collected from north central, Nigeria

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a disease of socio-economic importance which affects cattle, swine, Sheep, goats, and more than 70 wildlife species causing loss of production and with high mortalities in the young animals.The aim of this study was to isolate and serotype foot-and mouth disease (FMD) viruses collected innorth central Nigeria, using the goat tongue cell line (ZZ-R 127). ZZ-R 127 cell line was used for the virus isolation and antigen Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for FMDV serotypes O, A, SAT 1 & SAT 2 was used for the serotyping of the viruses. The ZZ-R 127 continuous cell line yielded rapid results with cytopathic effect (CPE) within 24 hours post inoculation. FMD viruses were isolated from twenty samples (n=20) out of the twenty two (n=22) collected. Antigen capture ELISA (Ag-ELISA) revealed thirteen (n=13) strains of serotype O, three (n=3) strains of serotype A, and four (n=4) strains of serotype SAT 2 with no virus detected in two samples.Therefore, the use of ZZ-R 127 continuous cell line yielded rapid results within 24 hours of post inoculation compared to BHK-21 that may not give result at first passages. The ZZ-R 27 cell line is relatively easy to handle, maintain and cheaper for FMDV diagnosis in endemic countries like Nigeria, compared to bovine thyroid gland (BYT).This study has confirmed the suitability of ZZ-R 127 in the primary isolation of viruses from clinical specimens with less turnaround time to generate results. Therefore, for rapid sensitive and specific laboratory assays, the use of ZZ-R 127 and Ag-ELISA for FMD diagnosis in endemic countries is strongly recommended.Keywords: Isolation, Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus, field samples, cytopathic effect, Nigeri

Effects of Some Coding Techniques On Multicolinearity and Model Statistics

Two known methods of coding data for analyses in the presence of multicollinearity and evaluation of model performance viz: Dummy coding and Effect coding which are alternatives to each other were considered. Efforts were made to improve on their performances by modifying them as modified Dummy coding and modified Effect coding respectively and their performances of the now coding methods compared in this paper. The results show that all coding methods significantly reduced the effect of multicollinearity. The effect coding was found to be the best coding method in remedying multicollinearity while closely followed by the dummy coding. However, the proposed modified dummy coding gave the best R-squared values as well as F-values while still reducing the effect of multicollinearity to a great extent and closely followed by modified effect coding. The dummy and effect coding methods proved very efficient in remedying multicollinearity as their observed variance inflation factor (VIF) were all close to unity. Keywords: Dummy coding, effect coding, multicollinearity, variance inflation factor

Improving Students’ Acquisition of Science Process Skills in Biology Subject: Moving Towards a Learner-Centred Classroom

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of inquiry-based learning (IBL) on students’ level of acquisition of integrated science process skills (ISPS) in Biology subject. The objective of the study was to determine the difference between students’ level of acquisition of ISPS when taught using IBL approach and Traditional Learning approach (TL) in Biology. The Non-equivalent Control Group Post- test only Design was employed in the study as a quasi experiment. The study was carried out in Kesses Sub County of Uasin-Gishu County, Kenya where there has been persistent low achievement in Biology subject at KCSE level. The study sample comprised of 116 students selected from form three students from two mixed day secondary schools. The sampling techniques used were stratified, systematic and simple random sampling. The experimental groups received instructions through use of IBL approach and control groups using the TL approach. Biology Integrated Science Process Skills Questionnaire (BISPSQ) was used for data collection. The results of the study indicated that students in the experimental groups outperformed the control groups in the acquisition of selected science process skills. It was concluded that IBL had a positive output on students’ acquisition of integrated science process skills than the TL method. Teachers and students of Biology in Kenya should be encouraged to incorporate IBL in teaching and learning so as to enhance the acquisition of integrated science process skills. Keywords: Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL); Acquisition of Biology Integrated Science Process Skills and Biology subject

Interaction of Stress, Lead Burden, and Age on Cognition in Older Men: The VA Normative Aging Study

BACKGROUND. Low-level exposure to lead and to chronic stress may independently influence cognition. However, the modifying potential of psychosocial stress on the neurotoxicity of lead and their combined relationship to aging-associated decline have not been fully examined. OBJECTIVES. We examined the cross-sectional interaction between stress and lead exposure on Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores among 811 participants in the Normative Aging Study, a cohort of older U.S. men. METHODS. We used two self-reported measures of stress appraisal-a self-report of stress related to their most severe problem and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Indices of lead exposure were blood lead and bone (tibia and patella) lead. RESULTS. Participants with higher self-reported stress had lower MMSE scores, which were adjusted for age, education, computer experience, English as a first language, smoking, and alcohol intake. In multivariable-adjusted tests for interaction, those with higher PSS scores had a 0.57-point lower (95% confidence interval, -0.90 to 0.24) MMSE score for a 2-fold increase in blood lead than did those with lower PSS scores. In addition, the combination of high PSS scores and high blood lead categories on one or both was associated with a 0.05-0.08 reduction on the MMSE for each year of age compared with those with low PSS score and blood lead level (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS. Psychological stress had an independent inverse association with cognition and also modified the relationship between lead exposure and cognitive performance among older men. Furthermore, high stress and lead together modified the association between age and cognition.National Institutes of Health (R01ES07821, R01HL080674, R01HL080674-02S1, R01ES013744, ES05257-06A1, P20MD000501, P42ES05947, ES03918-02); National Center for Research Resources General Clinical Research Center (M01RR02635); Leaves of Grass Foundation; United States Department of Veterans Affair

Formation of plasma around a small meteoroid: 1. Kinetic theory

This article is a companion to Dimant and Oppenheim [2017] https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JA023963.This paper calculates the spatial distribution of the plasma responsible for radar head echoes by applying the kinetic theory developed in the companion paper. This results in a set of analytic expressions for the plasma density as a function of distance from the meteoroid. It shows that at distances less than a collisional mean free path from the meteoroid surface, the plasma density drops in proportion to 1/R where R is the distance from the meteoroid center; and, at distances much longer than the mean‐free‐path behind the meteoroid, the density diminishes at a rate proportional to 1/R2. The results of this paper should be used for modeling and analysis of radar head echoes.This work was supported by NSF grant AGS-1244842. (AGS-1244842 - NSF