Ensuring Effective and Efficient Teaching and Learning Religious Studies in Nigerian Schools Using Photographic Series

The purpose of this study was to find out the extent to which the use of photographic series with sound in teaching religious studies could enhance the performance of students in selected junior secondary school in Remo Educational zone. It also investigated the extent to which talking photographic series could enhance the retention and the attitude of the students. Two hundred students in JSSIII were selected from five secondary schools through simple random sampling technique. They were also randomly divided into 2 groups, the experimental and control groups. The study adopted the pre-test, posttest group design. The instruments used were a series of photographs with sound prepared by the researcher and the students containing “churches and its relevance to the society”, Religious studies Achievement Test (RSAT) and Attitude towards Religious Studies Questionnaire (ATRSQ). These instruments were validated using construct validity, difficulty and discriminating index. The reliability coefficient for the RSAT was found to be 0.75. The results showed that the use of photographic series in instruction significantly improved the performance of students in the subject. Secondly if effectively used, it can improve the retentive ability of students and finally, photographic series do not seen to have any statistical effect on the attitude of students towards the subject.African Research Review Vol. 2 (2) 2008 pp. 69-8

Preparing the Staff of Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife to Appreciate and Use Information and Communication Technology for Solving Work Place Problems and Managing Change

This paper examined the various efforts the management and administration of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife made to prepare and encourage its staff and students to appreciate and use ICT for solving work place problems and to manage change. It was also designed to investigate the extent to which accelerated computer/internet usage, job type; age and sex have affected the attitude of O.A.U Staff towards computer and Internet. The study adopted the survey research design. Samples of 600 staff were selected through stratified sampling techniques. The result obtained showed that 94% of the staff of OAU use computer. Also academic staff (49.2%) used computer and Internet more than any other categories of staff. Not only this, female staff (58%) used computer more than their male staff (42%). In addition age is a correlate of ICT usage. Staffs between ages 25 and 40 are usually more favorably disposed to using ICT than staff that is above 40 years. (X2c = 15.67). African Research Review Vol. 1 (3) 2007: pp. 175-19

Risk analysis in distribution of petroleum products in southwest, Nigeria

The study investigates the risks in distribution of petroleum products and effective management of the risks in southwest Nigeria. Forty eight (48) questionnaires were distributed to the staff of NNPC/PPMC depots in Ondo, Ogun and Oyo states. Simple random sampling technique was used to distribute the questionnaires to the respondents. The questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistical analyses and the ratings of the risk severity were done using reliability important indices. The risks from vandalization was rated highest when pipelines are used while the risk of accident was rated highest when roads are used for the distribution of petroleum products. Also, administrative control measure was ascertained as the most effective measure of managing risk in the distribution of petroleum products. The study finally suggested that government and stakeholders in the oil industry should revitalize the rail transport for distribution of petroleum products which is less prone to risk.Keywords: risk analysis; risk management; petroleum products; roads; pipelines

Performance and behavioural characteristics of Pigs as affected by types and duration of evaporative cooling

Heat stress is one of the main constraints to pig production. Pigs rely on  evaporative cooling by wallowing which is unsanitary while most advanced cooling methods are capital intensive. Cheaper evaporative cooling facilities could be installed to mitigate the negative consequences of heat stress on pigs. However, effects of hourly exposure to evaporative cooling on gilts have not been adequately documented. Hence, behavioral attributes and performance of pigs given access to evaporative cooling were studied. In a completely randomized design, cross bred gilts (n=40) (Landrace x Large White) weighing 25.00±2.5kg were allotted to five treatments each replicated four times consisting eight gilts per replicate. Treatment 1 (Negative control, T1) no shower/no wallow, Treatment 2 (Positive control, T2) had only wallow, Treatment 3 (T3) had shower activated 5 minutes hourly for six hours, Treatment 4 (T4) had shower activated 5minutes every 2 hours and  Treatment 5 (T5) had shower activated 5 minutes every 3hours. Gilts were  evaluated at growing phase (10weeks). At average weight of 40.50±2.50kg, gilts were mated. Data on feed intake (AFI, Kg), weight gain (WG, Kg), Final weight (FW, Kg) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were determined using standard methods. Behavioural attributes (%) observed include Lateral Lying (LL), Huddling (HD), Frequency of Defecating in Resting Area (FDRA), Frequency of Visiting Water Trough (FVWT) and Frequency of Using Wallow or Shower (FUWS). Also, Respiratory Rate (RR, breath per minute bpm), Rectal Temperature (RT, °C) and Skin Temperature (ST, °C) were monitored, while pens Temperature Humidity Index (THI) were monitored. Indices of reproductive performance (%) include oestrus, anaestrus and conception rate (CR) was determined. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and ANOVA at á0.05. In the study, THI ranged between 81.12 and 86.39. Pigs that were subjected to 5 minutes shower activation every 3 hours (T5) had significantly highest FW (52.50±0.04) and relatively low AFI of 10.71±0.04 with a FCR of 3.32±0.02 which is not significantly different from pigs that were subjected to 5 minutes shower activation every hour (T3) (4.09±0.02) and pigs that were subjected to 5 minutes shower activation every 2 hours (T4) (4.05±0.01). Pigs exposed to continuous wallowing (T2) had significantly the highest AFI  (14.13±0.04) and there was no significant difference in the WG for all treatments. The ST, RT and RR were highest in pigs under no shower/wallow (T1) (37.4, 39.4 and 53.0, respectively). Lateral lying (LL) was highest in T5 (65%) while T2 had the highest HD (40%). FVWT and FDRA were highest in T1 (50 and 55%, respectively) while CR was 75% for T1, T3 and T5 and T2 had 25%.Keywords: Pig, Performance, evaporative cooling, Reproductio

ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION PREDICTION SYSTEM USING A RADIAL BASIS FUNCTION NEURAL NETWORK

The observed poor quality of service being experienced in the power sector of Nigeria economy has been traced to non-availability of adequate model that can handle the inconsistencies associated with traditional statistical models for predicting consumers’ electricity need, so as to bridge the gap between the demand and supply of the energy. This research presents Electricity Consumption Prediction System (ECPS) based on the principle of radial basis function neural network to predict the country’s electricity consumption using the historical data sourced from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) annual statistical bulletin. The entire datasets used in the study were divided into train, validation and test sets in the ratio of 13:3:4. By the above, 65% of the entire data were used for the training, 15% for validation and 20% for testing. The train data was presented to the constructed models to approximate the function that maps the input patterns to some known target values. The models were also used to simulate both validation and the test datasets as case data on the consistency of results obtained from the training session through the train data. Experimental results showed that RBF network model performs better than equivalent Backpropagation (BP) network models that were compared with it and provides the best platform for developing a forecast system.

Organisational Transparency and Teachers’ Job Performance in Ogun State Public Secondary Schools

This study investigated Organisational transparency as determinant of teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in Ogun State Nigeria. The study also sought to determine how organizational transparency affects the job performance of male and female teachers in the state. A total of 1037 teachers selected through multistage sampling procedure throughout 20 educational zones in Ogun state participated in the study. Data were collected with three instruments which were adapted, pilot tested and found to be reliable and valid. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyse the data collected. The results showed that Organisational transparency determined teachers’ job performance to a large extent. The variable was significant (P<0.05). Organisational transparency significantly determined teachers’ job performance. The variable also significantly determined male and female teachers’ job performance in Ogun state public secondary schools. The study therefore recommended that the principal should improve his openness, be honest, be beneficial to his/her workforce to gain their acceptance and trust in his/her school. Also principal should engage in activities that can enhance Teachers’ trust in principal. Organisational transparency as demonstrated by principals’ dealings is a vital factor in achievement of organisational goals. Keywords: Organisational transparency, Male teachers, female teachers, teaches’ job performance, secondary school

Performance Evaluation of Geometric Active Contour (GAC) and Enhanced Geometric Active Contour Segmentation Model (ENGAC) for Medical Image Segmentation

Segmentation is an aspect of computer vision that deals with partitioning of an image into homogeneneous region. Medical image segmentation is an indispensable tool for medical image diagnoses. Geometric active contour (GAC) segmentation is one of the outstanding model used in machine learning community to solve the problem of medical image segmentation. However, It has problem of deviation from the true outline of the target feature and it generates spurious edge caused by noise that normally stop the evolution of the surface to be extracted. In this paper, enhanced Geometric active contour was formulated by using Kernel Principal Component Analysis(KPCA) with the existing Geometric active contour segmentation model and performance evaluation of the formulated model was carried out. Keyword: Geometric active contour, Segmentation, Medical image, Kernel Principal Component Analysis

Mineral Content of Grasses from Natural Pasture in South West Nigeria

Nigeria’s grassland grows on uncultivated land on which animals have access for grazing. These are found along roadsides and fallow lands in the coastal forest zones of Nigeria. Most of the natural grassland/rangeland assumes more important proportions in the open derived savanna zones of the country. Ruminant production during dry season is limited by low productivity of pasture forages, which often contain too low mineral concentration to meet the minimum requirement for optimal productivity of livestock (Annison and Bryden, 1998)

Response of Growing Pigs to Diet Physical Form and Allzyme® SSF Supplementation in a Palm Kernel Meal-Based Diet

. The increasing cost of conventional feeds calls for the unconventional ones. The effect of Allzyme®SSF and diet physical form on performance, haematological and serum biochemical indices of growing pigs fed with palm kernel meal-based diet was determined. Twenty four growing pigs comprising of twelve male and twelve female weighing 8.95±1.01Kg were assigned into four dietary treatment groups involving dry mash diet, wet mash diet, dry mash diet+ Allzyme®SSF and wet mash diet+ Allzyme®SSF in a completely randomized design. After feeding experiment for six weeks, haematological and serum biochemical parameters were determined. Growth performance was observed on a weekly basis for six consecutive weeks. The results showed that the diet physical form and Allzyme®SSF supplementation in a palm kernel meal-based diet did not significantly affect the haematological and serum biochemical parameters; however weight gain and feed conversion ratio were significantly influenced by the diet physical form and Allzyme®SSF supplementation, thus making dry mash diet + Allzyme®SSF the best dietary treatment. The experiment showed that the diet physical form and Allzyme®SSF supplementation in a palm kernel meal-based diet did not have any negative effect on the growing pigs and growth performance was not hindered; therefore palm kernel meal-based diet in wet or dry mash form with or without Allzyme® SSF supplementation could be fed to growing pigs