Editorial: The Global Disappearance of Decent Work? Precarity, Exploitation, and Work‐Based Harms in the Neoliberal Era

This thematic issue offers an international perspective on precarious work and the social harms generated by such work. In the following introduction, we contextualise these trends in relation to entrenched neoliberal policy, rising contractual insecurity, the proliferation of borders, and other forms of institutional discrimination and inequality. We distinguish between formal contractual insecurity and the subjective experiences of precarity, interrogate the types of harms that accompany precarious work, and set out a social justice perspective for an engaged critique of precarious work. The collection is truly global in its scope, encompassing case studies from Bangladesh, China, Czechia, Ecuador, Finland, Italy, India, Jordan, Latvia, and Spain. These case studies draw out the diverse contexts for rising precarity, ranging from post‐soviet, post‐socialist, and neoliberal transitions to post‐colonial and neocolonial contexts, examining how precarity is shaped by and interacts with divisions of ethnicity, migration status, gender, sexuality, and class. This thematic issue arises out of the work of the (In)Justice International Collective and is dedicated to the organization's founder, Dr. Simon Prideaux, who passed away in 2023

Assessment of Toilet Facilities in Selected Secondary Schools within Maiduguri Metropolitan, North Eastern Nigeria

Toilet facilities among other things, is considered a basic requirement in every school environment to cater for both emotional and physical needs of the students. This study aimed to assess toilet facilities in selected public and private secondary schools within Maiduguri Metropolis, Borno state. Ten secondary schools (5 public and 5 private) were purposively sampled for the study. An interview schedule comprising of thirty (30) structured questionnaires was administered in each of the sampled schools making a total of three hundred (300) respondents. The findings of the study reveals that most of the schools especially the privately owned schools have a high number of students-toilet ratio, with schools such as MCS and FBS having as high as 1:387 and 1:295 respectively which is above the required standard of 1:30 of the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Education. All the schools have the necessary inventory expected in a normal school setting even though not in sufficient quantity, except lighting which was only available in ECIT. It was further observed that most of the students (61.7%) practice the habit of hand washing with soap/detergent after toilet use. Similarly, majority of the students (60.7%) mostly from the boarding schools were practicing open defecation. Student T-Test was carried out to compare the toilet facilities between the public schools and the private schools. The result showed a value of (0.086) which is not significant at p value of <0.005. It was concluded that both public and private schools in Maiduguri do not have sufficient toilet facilities. It is thus recommended that the Federal Ministry of Education should put effort towards ensuring schools meet the minimum standard set out by the ministry. Keywords: Toilet, facility, Secondary school, Maiduguri, Nigeri

Bayesian network classification of gastrointestinal bleeding

The source of gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) remains uncertain in patients presenting without hematemesis. This paper aims at studying the accuracy, specificity and sensitivity of the Naive Bayesian Classifier (NBC) in identifying the source of GIB in the absence of hematemesis. Data of 325 patients admitted via the emergency department (ED) for GIB without hematemesis and who underwent confirmatory testing were analysed. Six attributes related to demography and their presenting signs were chosen. NBC was used to calculate the conditional probability of an individual being assigned to Upper Gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) or Lower Gastrointestinal bleeding (LGIB). High classification accuracy (87.3 %), specificity (0.85) and sensitivity (0.88) were achieved. NBC is a useful tool to support the identification of the source of gastrointestinal bleeding in patients without hematemesis

Sensitivity of missing values in classification tree for large sample

Missing values either in predictor or in response variables are a very common problem in statistics and data mining. Cases with missing values are often ignored which results in loss of information and possible bias. The objectives of our research were to investigate the sensitivity of missing data in classification tree model for large sample. Data were obtained from one of the high level educational institutions in Malaysia. Students' background data were randomly eliminated and classification tree was used to predict students degree classification. The results showed that for large sample, the structure of the classification tree was sensitive to missing values especially for sample contains more than ten percent missing values

Phytochemical Screening and Larvicidal Evaluation of Phyto-synthesized Silver Nanoparticles using Palmyra Palm Sprout Extract

One of the objectives of nanotechnology is to synthesize effective nanoinsecticides in a bid to reduce the prevalence of the numerous diseases caused by mosquitoes. This synthesis is even more vital in cases where phytochemicals from plant extracts are used as reducing agents. This study aims to determine the phytochemicals present in Palmyra (Borassus aethiopum) sprout extract, perform green synthesis of silver NPs with the sprout extract, and spectroscopic investigation using FT-IR and UV-Visible spectrophotometers, in addition to the main aim of evaluating the AgNPs’ applications as a nano-larvicide. For this study, a total of ten phytochemical analyses was performed. Subsequently, the sprout extract was used as a reducing agent in the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Characterization with Fourier transform infrared and Ultraviolet-visible spectrometry was then carried out to confirm the synthesis. In addition, the AgNPs were further analyzed for larvicidal potency against 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th instars Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito larvae, at interval concentrations of 5, 10, 20, 25, and 50 ppm. The results confirmed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, coumarins, glycosides, tannins, phenols as well as quinines, however, sterols, steroids, and terpenoids were not detected. The LC50 and LC90 values discovered to be 9.103 ppm and 134.463 ppm with a correlation of 0.815, as well as 10.316 ppm and 118.810 ppm with a correlation of 0.801, for the 1st and 2nd instars, respectively. Meanwhile, the 3rd and 4th instars had LC50 and LC90 values of 17.585 ppm and 179.052 ppm, respectively, with a correlation of 0.807. This study provides a basis for extracting and analyzing the reduction potential of the phytochemicals present in the sprout extract, as well as the application of AgNPs, in controlling the mosquito larvae population

Issues and Challenges Facing Supervision of Secondary Education in Nigeria in the 21st Century

Supervision of secondary education in the 21st century has raised deep concern among relevant stakeholders in educational industry as decline in the quality of education in the nation’s school system could be attributed to ineffective supervision. Thus, the paper examined issues and challenges associated with supervision of secondary education in the 21st century. The concept of supervision was examined taking into cognizance the basic principles, types, purpose and supervision process consecutively. Specifically, various models such as integrative model, discrimination model and systems approach model of supervision were used to justify the importance of supervision. Issues and challenges facing the supervision of secondary education in Nigeria in the 21st century were equally overviewed meticulously. Also, measures for effective supervision in Nigerian secondary schools were elucidated consecutively. In view of the theoretical approach employed to explain the challenges of supervision in Nigerian secondary schools, it was concluded that for efficiency and effectiveness to be accomplished in Nigerian secondary schools, synergy must be established between the internal and external mechanisms in educational context. It was recommended among others that educational supervision should be redefined and earnestly undertaken either by appointed supervisors from the ministry of education or school based supervisors, professional accountability, values and standard required of teachers and educational supervisors should be appropriately recognized, well-defined, practiced and sustained, timely appraisal of supervisors’ reports should be effectively addressed to ensure effective learning and promote students’ cognitive growth

The Global Disappearance of Decent Work? Precarity, Exploitation, and Work‐Based Harms in the Neoliberal Era

This thematic issue offers an international perspective on precarious work and the social harms generated by such work. In the following introduction, we contextualise these trends in relation to entrenched neoliberal policy, rising contractual insecurity, the proliferation of borders, and other forms of institutional discrimination and inequality. We distinguish between formal contractual insecurity and the subjective experiences of precarity, interrogate the types of harms that accompany precarious work, and set out a social justice perspective for an engaged critique of precarious work. The collection is truly global in its scope, encompassing case studies from Bangladesh, China, Czechia, Ecuador, Finland, Italy, India, Jordan, Latvia, and Spain. These case studies draw out the diverse contexts for rising precarity, ranging from post‐soviet, post‐socialist, and neoliberal transitions to post‐colonial and neocolonial contexts, examining how precarity is shaped by and interacts with divisions of ethnicity, migration status, gender, sexuality, and class. This thematic issue arises out of the work of the (In)Justice International Collective and is dedicated to the organization’s founder, Dr. Simon Prideaux, who passed away in 2023

Scale Validity and Reliability of Social Media and Entrepreneurial Skill Development among Tertiary Institution Students in Nigeria

Social media has gained broader acceptability and usability and is fast becoming perhaps the most important communication tool in 21st Century. The acceptability of the social media has gained tremendous popularity among students especially at higher institution. Drawing from the foregoing point, the main purpose of the study thus is to examine the validity and reliability of the instruments on the nexus between social media adoption and entrepreneurial skills development among tertiary institution students in Nigeria focusing on the pilot study report. For the purpose of the pilot study, 100 students were selected from Al-Hikmah University and Kwara State University in Kwara State because of their serious commitment to entrepreneurial skills development for the quantitative aspect, while two artisans each from the universities were used for data collection in qualitative approach. Two instruments were used to collect data. First, an instrument titled “Social Media and Entrepreneurship Questionnaire (SMEQ)†was designed to get comprehensive information from the students. Second, an interview protocol tagged “Interview Protocol on Social Media Adoption and Entrepreneurship (IPMSAE)†was designed to elicit relevant information from the artisans. Both Statistical Package and Social Sciences (SPSS) and PLS-SEM Software were used to assess the psychometric properties of the adapted instruments. Also, thematic type of analysis was used to assess the credibility or otherwise of the interview protocol. Findings from qualitative approach reveal that Cronbach’s Alpha of the instrument loaded between 0.821 and 0.942 (Social Media Adoption: 0.885; Social Media and Addictive Behavior: 0.821; Entrepreneurial Skills: 0.942 and Self-Reliance: 0.914). Also, the use of PLS-SEM shows that composite reliability, crossloadings, average variance extracted (AVE) and discriminant validity loaded within the minimum benchmarks, indicating adequate validity and reliability of the instrument. Furthermore, transcription, coding and analysis of the interview collected show the trustworthiness and credibility of the protocol. Based on the findings of the study, it can be advanced that the findings of the study helped to establish adequate validity and reliability of the instruments used via quantitative and qualitative methods adopted. &nbsp

COVID-19 LOCKDOWN AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF ONLINE LEARNING INITIATIVE IN AL-HIKMAH UNIVERSITY, NIGERIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT

The global covid-19 pandemic forced higher institutions in Nigeria to migrate from traditional mode of teaching to online platform. It is on this premise that this study examined covid-19 lockdown and students’ perception of online learning Initiative in Al-Hikmah University, Nigeria. Research design of descriptive type was adopted for the study. Four research questions were formulated for the study. The population consists of all 9,426 students in Al-Hikmah University. Stratified and random sampling techniques were used to select 375 respondents across all 7 faculties in the university. An instrument titled ‘Students’ Perception of Online Learning Initiative Questionnaire (SPOLIQ)’’ was adapted to elicit relevant data via google form. The data collected were analysed using descriptive method. Findings revealed that online learning initiative was very helpful to students amidst lockdown. Specifically, students enjoyed the use of whatsapp, zoom and telegram as platforms for receiving lectures. Findings indicate that some challenges were associated with the use of online leaning. They include inadequate data subscription and network problem among others. Lastly, adequate data subscription and good internet service were suggested as measures that can be used to improve online learning in the university