Trends and Future Directions in Open and Distance Learning Practice in Africa

Open and Distance Learning (ODL), formerly known as Distance Education (DE) is one of the most rapidly growing fields of education in recent time. Distance education has experienced remarkable growth in national and international scenes since the early 1980s. In spite of recent phenomenal developments in the world of electronic networks, especially the recent global attention to the Internet, which has provided the primary technological thrust, several other emerging technologies have also promised to change the landscape of education in general, and distance education in particular drastically. The field of distance education is therefore, at the centre of dynamic growth and change. This paper focuses on current trends in ODL from African perspective. It examines some of the definitions that have been put forward by experts in the field, as well as some features that characterized ODL. The paper also reflects on some practices in Africa’s ODL programmes. Furthermore, current trends in the practice of ODL in African countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Bostwana and Nigeria are critically discussed. Some of the policy recommendations highlighted in the paper include the need to invest more in ODL through meaningful budgetary allocations and cost sharing at higher levels of education, creation of partnerships and networking among ODL institutional providers within the continent, private telecommunication sector, and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

Improving breeding performance of fingerlings of Clarias gariepinus through intraspecific hybridization

The scarcity of genetically improved fish seed is a major constraint to rapid development of aquaculture in Nigeria due to inbreeding. The study was conducted to monitor breeding indices from intra-specific mating combinations of wild stocks of Clarias gariepinus. Broodstock of C. gariepinus were collected from Lokoja (LK), Makurdi (MK), Agenebode (AG) and Onitsha (ON) and compared with domesticated strain. 16 mating combinations of parental and intraspecific mating combinations were conducted in triplicates. Results were subjected to one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) (α= 0.05). The results showed collection from Onitsha had highest values of fertilization (95.2%), hatchability (87.6 %) and survival (66.0 %), followed by crosses from female from Onitsha : ♀ON X ♂LK, ♀ON X  ♂MK and ♀ON X  ♂AG having 95.8 %, 91.1 % and 88.8 % (fertilization), 68.7 %, 61.9 % and 60.7 % (hatchability) and 61 %, 57 % and 63 % (survival) respectively. Domesticated strain had least values (81.9 %, 59.4 % and 51 %) fertilization, hatchability and survival respectively. ANOVA (α< 0.05) showed variation in fertilization, hatchability and survival. The better performing strains could be explored for genetic development. However, protein and gene profiling of these natural populations may be necessary to identify the proteins and genes responsible for these variations in breeding performances.Key Words: Breeding, performance, Clarias gariepinus, hybridizatio

Framework for overcoming barriers of complementary and alternative medicine acceptance into conventional healthcare system

Health disparities have been widely recognized as a problem throughout the world. This paper provided a strengthened collaborative virtual framework for overcoming barriers towards accepting complementary and alternative medical practice into conventional healthcare system. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered with semi-structured questionnaires and interviews from General Practitioners (GPs) with Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) knowledge, CAM Practitioners with biomedicine knowledge, CAM patients, and scholars. 2,760 semi-structured questionnaires exploring knowledge, attitudes, and skills’ barriers to integrative medical collaboration efforts were administered. Focus group discussions were held interviewing GPs, CAM practitioners, and others claiming effective prescriptions. Practitioners’ team meetings, retreats, interaction, and prescription operations were observed. In this study, a videoconferencing-based healthcare services delivery system was developed and implemented for seamless exchange of healthcare information. 2,591 (93.5%) questionnaires representing 657 physicians (23.80%), 997 CAM practitioners (36.12%), 855 patients (30.98%), and 82 healthcare researchers (2.97%) responded, while 169 (6.12%) declined response. Fifty-two percent of the 657 GPs still referred patients for CAM treatments. Patients found complementary approaches more aligned with “their own values, beliefs, and philosophical orientations”. Non-medical acceptance of CAM (43.27%) continued impeding CAM growth in Nigeria. CAM practitioners require evidence-based knowledge towards finding solutions and suggestions for seamlessly integrating CAM with modern healthcare practices. Key words: Collaboration, complementary and alternative medicine, integrated delivery system, videoconferencing

Bio-economic assessment of a purse seining at Orimedu fishing settlement off Lekki, Lagos State

A bio- economic assessment based on the Return On Investment (ROI) of a single purse seiner was done from August 2007 to February 2008 at Orimedu. Catch composition in terms of relative abundance of species and their sizes were also assessed. Total income was derived from the product of average selling price for a basin of fish, average number of fish basins sampled from a purse seiner, number of fishing trips of a purse seiner per month and the total number of months. Total costs were derived from the sum of capital costs, operational costs, depreciation costs, maintenance cost and labor cost which was estimated as 1/3 rd of total income. Fish catch was dominated by mature fish consisting of over 90 % clupeids and measured in heaps of 200 pieces in basins. On the average, there were 17 basins of fish from a purse seiner. Each basin was valued at N8000 and the average number of fishing trips in a month was 9. The calculated ROI was 30.96% indicating that the fishing method was lucrative. The study showed that purse seining is both biologically and economically sustainable with great potentials to alleviate poverty if adopted by the local Nigerian fisherfolks

A Framework for The Design of Speech-Enabled Self-Care EHealth Systems

The Internet provides a wide range of health information and services which consumers access for self-care and to participate in a more informed way in their healthcare when they see their physician. This information and services are however, delivered in text form and therefore, does not cater for the needs of the non-computer literate, the visually impaired and the blind. This paper presents a framework for the design of speech-enabled self-care e-Health systems. Reasoning-induced disease diagnosis which existing speech-based disease screening systems lack has been incorporated into the framework to enable systems based on the framework diagnose more than one type of disease. Based on the framework, speechbased self-care e-Health system (SSeS) prototype application was developed. The originality of this framework is that it is speech-based. This takes care of the health needs of the category of people earlier identified and the underserved people, majority of those who are domiciled in Africa

RSA ENCRYPTION ALGORITHM AUGUMENTED WITH BIT-STUFFING TECHNIQUE FOR DATA SECURITY

Data transmission through the internet applications is growing very fast, and this continuous growth demands for new network bandwidth and data security. Encryption plays a major role in security of information systems and internet based applications. In this study, the RSA algorithm was modified with bit-stuffing technique to improve the protection and security of confidential data while in transits or in storage. Our modified algorithm, RSA Bit-stuffed, was implemented and compared with the modified Ron Divest Code4 and the modified RSA in MATLAB using time complexity and avalanche effect as performance metrics. The experimental results showed that our augmented bit-insertion technique increased the time complexity against different attacks, boost the randomness of encrypted messages, and also improve security of encryption keys with bit-length lower than that of the standard RSA. &nbsp

PARAMETER VARIATION FOR LINEAR EQUATION SOLVER USING GENETIC ALGORITHM

Genetic Algorithm has been successfully applied for solving systems of Linear Equations; however the effects of varying the various Genetic Algorithms parameters on the GA systems of Linear Equations solver have not been investigated. Varying the GA parameters produces new and exciting information on the behaviour of the GA Linear Equation solver. In this paper,  a general introduction on the Genetic Algorithm, its application on finding solutions to the Systems of Linear equation as well as the effects of varying the Population size and Number of Generation is presented. The genetic algorithm simultaneous linear equation solver program was run several times using different sets of simultaneous linear equation while varying the population sizes as well as the number of generations in order to observe their effects on the solution generation. It was observed that small population size does not produce perfect solutions as fast as when large population size is used and small or large number of generations did not really have much impact on the attainment of perfect solution as much as population size.

Who in Europe works beyond the state pension age and under which conditions? Results from SHARE

There is much research about those who exit the labour market prematurely, however, comparatively little is known about people working longer and about their employment and working conditions. In this paper, we describe the employment and working conditions of men and women working between 65 and 80 years, and compare them with previous conditions of those retired in the same age group. Analyses are based on wave 4 data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) with information collected between 2009 and 2011 from 17,625 older men and women across 16 European countries. Besides socio-demographic and health-related factors (physical and mental health), the focus lies on employment conditions (e.g. employment status, occupational position and working hours) and on stressful working conditions, measured in terms of low control at work and effort-reward imbalance. In case of retired people, information on working conditions refer to the last job before retirement. Following descriptive analyses, we then conduct multivariable analyses and investigate how working conditions and poor health are related to labour market participation (i.e. random intercept models accounting for country affiliation and adjusted for potential confounders). Results illustrate that people working between the ages of 65 and 80 are more likely to be self-employed (either with or without employees) and work in advantaged occupational positions. Furthermore, findings reveal that psychosocial working conditions are generally better than the conditions retired respondents had in their last job. Finally, in contrast to those who work, health tends to be worse among retired people. In conclusion, findings deliver empirical evidence that paid employment beyond age 65 is more common among self-employed workers throughout Europe, in advantaged occupations and under-favourable psychosocial circumstances, and that this group of workers are in considerably good mental and physical health. This highlights that policies aimed at increasing the state pension age beyond the age of 65 years put pressure on specific disadvantaged groups of men and women

A Review of the Effects of Sick Building Syndrome on Property and the Occupants

Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) is a situation where occupiers of a particular building complain of severe health problems or discomfort and get relieved shortly after leaving such a building. It is an issue that has been on for almost four decades now and has implications on the value of a building as well as its occupants. In this study, a comprehensive systematic review of paper published in journals and conference proceedings in the area of sick building syndrome was carried out. This was done to harmonise and also provide a comprehensive literature review of the previous research efforts on the types, causes, effects and remedies to issues relating to sick building as it affects the occupants and property value. The review concluded that many have health issues as a result of the building they occupy either as an office or residence. Likewise any building tagged ‘sick’ may not recover from the stigma, even after remediation