Relationship between School Location and Secondary Technical Students’ Acquisition of Knowledge-Based Skills in Cross River and Imo States of Nigeria

This paper investigated the influence of school location on students’ acquisition of knowledge-based skills in selected secondary technical schools in Cross River and Imo States of Nigeria. The objective of the study was to ascertain the influence of location (urban and rural) of secondary technical schools on students’ acquisition of knowledge-based skills (creative thinking, innovation, ICT and entrepreneurship skills) in the two states. A correlation design was adopted for the study. The population constituted 1328 SS II students drawn from 11 secondary technical schools across the two states out of which a stratified random sample of 330 was identified. Two research questions and two corresponding hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. A twelve-item multiple choice Students’ Aptitude Test on Skills Acquisition (SATSA), validated by five experts in instruments construction, and was administered on the sample for data collection. Data were analyzed with One Sample Test and ANOVA to ascertain the relationship between school locations and students’ acquisition of knowledge-based skills in the identified knowledge-based skill subjects. The paper recommended that principals and teachers of secondary technical schools should sustain and improve the performance of students in the two states. It further recommended that further investigations be conducted to ascertain students’ acquisition of knowledge-based skills irrespective of school location

An international effort towards developing standards for best practices in analysis, interpretation and reporting of clinical genome sequencing results in the CLARITY Challenge

There is tremendous potential for genome sequencing to improve clinical diagnosis and care once it becomes routinely accessible, but this will require formalizing research methods into clinical best practices in the areas of sequence data generation, analysis, interpretation and reporting. The CLARITY Challenge was designed to spur convergence in methods for diagnosing genetic disease starting from clinical case history and genome sequencing data. DNA samples were obtained from three families with heritable genetic disorders and genomic sequence data were donated by sequencing platform vendors. The challenge was to analyze and interpret these data with the goals of identifying disease-causing variants and reporting the findings in a clinically useful format. Participating contestant groups were solicited broadly, and an independent panel of judges evaluated their performance. RESULTS: A total of 30 international groups were engaged. The entries reveal a general convergence of practices on most elements of the analysis and interpretation process. However, even given this commonality of approach, only two groups identified the consensus candidate variants in all disease cases, demonstrating a need for consistent fine-tuning of the generally accepted methods. There was greater diversity of the final clinical report content and in the patient consenting process, demonstrating that these areas require additional exploration and standardization. CONCLUSIONS: The CLARITY Challenge provides a comprehensive assessment of current practices for using genome sequencing to diagnose and report genetic diseases. There is remarkable convergence in bioinformatic techniques, but medical interpretation and reporting are areas that require further development by many groups