Web storage technology platform usage by faculty members in the faculty of education, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

This paper examined Web Storage Technology Platform usage by Faculty Members in the Faculty of Education, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Two (2) objectives were identified for this paper which are; to identify the types of WST Platform the Faculty Members are aware of, to find out the extent to which Faculty Members utilise WST Platforms in the Faculty of Education, A.B.U., Zaria. Quantitative research methodology was employed and cross-sectional survey research design was used for this study. The population of the study is the whole 175 Faculty Members in the Faculty of Education, A. B.U., Zaria, excluding staff on sabbatical and staff on study leave. Self-developed questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. Descriptive statistics (frequency distribution, percentage, mean and standard deviation) was used to analyse the data collected from the respondents. This study discovered that, google cloud (google docs, gmail) was the most common WST Platform that Faculty Members are aware of. The study also revealed that Faculty Members most commonly utilise Google cloud (google docs, gmail) as the type of WST Platform in the Faculty of Education A.B.U., Zaria and partially utilise drop box. The researcher recommended that; the University management should put more efforts through the ICT Department/unit in creating awareness on different type of WST Platforms available for Faculty Members to utilise. Also, WST Platform service providers should provide more concise, clear and understandable steps to facilitate the high use of the platforms for academic activities. Keywords: Web Storage Technology Platform, Awareness, Usage, Faculty Members&nbsp

Awareness and availability of TISHIP information sources by undergraduate students for accessing healthcare services in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

This study assessed the awareness and availability of Tertiary Institutions Social Health Insurance Programme (TISHIP) Information Sources by Undergraduate Students for Accessing Healthcare Services in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. the objectives of the study is to identify the types of Healthcare Services covered by TISHIP are accessible to Undergraduate Students in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, identify the types of TISHIP Information Sources are available to Undergraduate Students for accessing Healthcare Services in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and to find out the extent Undergraduate Students aware of TISHIP Information Sources available for accessing Healthcare in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Three research questions were formulated in line with the research objectives. The study adopted descriptive survey design. 381 students were sampled using cluster proportionate random sampling out of the entire 42,779 for the study. Questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection which were collected, analysed and presented in tables using frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation. Findings of the study revealed that the types of healthcare services covered by TISHIP accessible by the Undergraduate Students were Routine Immunisations, Health Education, Essential Drugs, Accident and Emergency Care, Dental Health Services and Periodic Medical Check-ups. Also, the types of TISHIP information sources available to the Undergraduate Students for accessing healthcare were Orientation and Matriculation, Friends, Notice Boards, Lecturers and Staff, Campus Bulletin, Social Media, Internet, and Religious and Association Leaders. Hence, it was recommended that information services aimed at providing information to the student be provided and the university management should provide more TISHIP information sources and healthcare services that will enhance access for the Undergraduate Students thereby saving their time in accessing information sources. Keyword: Information Sources, Awareness, Availability, Undergraduate Students, TISHI

The Role of Scientific Research in Developing Educational Policies for Higher Education Institutions

Scientific research is effective in developing educational policies and identifying future plans for the development of higher education. The study aimed to identify the role of scientific research in developing educational policies for higher education institutions. The sample of the study was (107) Reviewers from various scientific journals at the Islamic University. The mixed method was used. The results of the study indicated that the general Mean of the scientific research referee\u27s estimates of the role of scientific research in developing educational policies came with a high degree of approval and relative weight of (77.03%), and there were no differences in the estimates of the study sample due to the variables of gender, scientific degree and years academic of experience, the results of the interview supported the quantitative results that were reached. The study recommended to update the policies and regulations governing institutions of higher education

PWIDB: A framework for learning to classify imbalanced data streams with incremental data re-balancing technique

The performance of classification algorithms with highly imbalanced streaming data depends upon efficient balancing strategy. Some techniques of balancing strategy have been applied using static batch data to resolve the class imbalance problem, which is difficult if applied for massive data streams. In this paper, a new Piece-Wise Incremental Data re-Balancing (PWIDB) framework is proposed. The PWIDB framework combines automated balancing techniques using Racing Algorithm (RA) and incremental rebalancing technique. RA is an active learning approach capable of classifying imbalanced data and can provide a way to select an appropriate re-balancing technique with imbalanced data. In this paper, we have extended the capability of RA for handling imbalanced data streams in the proposed PWIDB framework. The PWIDB accumulates previous knowledge with increments of re-balanced data and captures the concept of the imbalanced instances. The PWIDB is an incremental streaming batch framework, which is suitable for learning with streaming imbalanced data. We compared the performance of PWIDB with a well-known FLORA technique. Experimental results show that the PWIDB framework exhibits an improved and stable performance compared to FLORA and accumulative re-balancing techniques

Bayesian estimation for the Tukey GH distribution with an application

Tukey GH is a transformed normal distribution, having two parameters (g,h). The g parameter represents skew measuring, and the h represents kurtosis measuring. Our motivation is to affect these parameters on the behavior for a simulation data and real data, such as the Iraqi stock market Index (ISX60) and the Standard and Poor’s (SP500) index using the Bayesian framework. Then, our aim is to find the estimation for the parameters in this distribution using empirical and parametric Bayesian methods, and study the effective on the simulation and real data. The simulation study will be shown the behavior of the parameters with a different number of sampling and prior distributions. We will use the real data from ISX60 and SP500 index

Causes of Mass Failure in Senior School Certificate Mathematics Examinations As Viewed By Secondary School Teachers and Students in Ondo, Nigeria.

The study examined the causes of Mass failure in Senior School Certificate Mathematics examinations as viewed by Secondary School Teachers and Students in Ondo, Nigeria. The Senior Secondary School teachers and students were involved as population for the study. 100 teachers and 400 Senior Secondary two students were purposively selected. The descriptive survey research was adopted for the study. The sampled teachers and students responded to researchers-prepared questionnaire titled “causes of students’ mass failure in SSCE mathematics examinations”. The causes considered were those by: Teachers, Students, Parents, Society, Government, School and Examination bodies. A sample of the items in the questionnaire include: lack of frequent practice by students, Poor mathematical background, laziness on the part of students and teachers, among others. The response scales are Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree. Frequency counts and percentages were employed to answer the seven research questions generated. Findings indicated that 98% of teachers and 76% of students viewed laziness on the part of students as a major factor responsible for students’ mass failure in SSC Mathematics examinations while 97% of teachers and 79% of students viewed lack of frequent practice by students as another responsible factor for mass failure in Mathematics among others. The identified causes could be ameliorated through enhancing the teachers’ quality in terms of subject contents, providing them opportunities for further studies, attending seminars and workshops for update because their quality has significant role to play in teaching and learning of the subject. Keywords: Mass failure, Mathematics, Performance, examinations

Science-based decision support for formulating crop fertilizer recommendations in sub-Saharan Africa

Open Access Article; Published online: 31 Jan 2020In sub-Saharan Africa, there is considerable spatial and temporal variability in relations between nutrient application and crop yield, due to varying inherent soil nutrients supply, soil moisture, crop management and germplasm. This variability affects fertilizer use efficiency and crop productivity. Therefore, development of decision systems that support formulation and delivery of site-specific fertilizer recommendations is important for increased crop yield and environmental protection. Nutrient Expert (NE) is a computer-based decision support system, which enables extension advisers to generate field- or area-specific fertilizer recommendations based on yield response to fertilizer and nutrient use efficiency. We calibrated NE for major maize agroecological zones in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania, with data generated from 735 on-farm nutrient omission trials conducted between 2015 and 2017. Between 2016 and 2018, 368 NE performance trials were conducted across the three countries in which recommendations generated with NE were evaluated relative to soil-test based recommendations, the current blanket fertilizer recommendations and a control with no fertilizer applied. Although maize yield response to fertilizer differed with geographic location; on average, maize yield response to nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) were respectively 2.4, 1.6 and 0.2 t ha−1 in Nigeria, 2.3, 0.9 and 0.2 t ha−1 in Ethiopia, and 1.5, 0.8 and 0.2 t ha−1 in Tanzania. Secondary and micronutrients increased maize yield only in specific areas in each country. Agronomic use efficiencies of N were 18, 22 and 13 kg grain kg−1 N, on average, in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania, respectively. In Nigeria, NE recommended lower amounts of P by 9 and 11 kg ha−1 and K by 24 and 38 kg ha−1 than soil-test based and regional fertilizer recommendations, respectively. Yet maize yield (4 t ha−1) was similar among the three methods. Agronomic use efficiencies of P and K (300 and 250 kg kg−1, respectively) were higher with NE than with the blanket recommendation (150 and 70 kg kg−1). In Ethiopia, NE and soil-test based respectively recommended lower amounts of P by 8 and 19 kg ha−1 than the blanket recommendations, but maize yield (6 t ha−1) was similar among the three methods. Overall, fertilizer recommendations generated with NE maintained high maize yield, but at a lower fertilizer input cost than conventional methods. NE was effective as a simple and cost-effective decision support tool for fine-tuning fertilizer recommendations to farm-specific conditions and offers an alternative to soil testing, which is hardly available to most smallholder farmers