ICT SKILLS OF LIBRARY STAFF IN NIGERIA INSTITUTIONS: A case study of institution libraries in Ekiti State, Nigeria.

The purpose of the study is to know the ICT skills of library staff in Nigerian institutions: A case study of all institutions in Ekiti State, Nigeria. The sample for the study consisted of 150 librarians across institutions in Ekiti State, Nigeria who were randomly selected through simple random sampling. The extent to which library staff can prove their knowledge towards information and communication technology (ICT) skills, the ability of library staff towards information and communication technology (ICT), how library staffs are able to identify or recognize relevant information sources and the effectiveness of information and communication technology (ICT) literacy skills programmes for the institution libraries in Ekiti State. Findings show that institutions’ libraries have enough ICT facilities and their staffs are well familiar with them in order to deliver their services which can help the library staff in delivering their services very well. It further reveals that ICT skills were well known and made use of, by libraries staffs. Moreover, results indicated that different sources of information are recognized by the libraries staffs while the ICT programmes are available to develop themselves. These recommendation was made after the study that more ICT facilities are needed, latest ICT facilities should replace the former outdated facilities, libraries staffs should attend more ICT facilities training and seminars, In-house training should be regular e.g six (6) months interval, latest familiarized ICT package should be introduce to enhance the service rendered to patrons and library staff need to work with the ICT department in the institution for achieving parental goal

INFLUENCE OF LIBRARIANS ATTITUDE TOWARD CATALOGUING AND CLASSIFICATION IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

This study investigated the influence of librarians’ attitude toward cataloguing and classification in academic libraries. Academic library is the heartbeat of a higher institution of learning. Without an academic library, students, researchers, staff might find it very difficult to study and conduct effective and efficient research. All information resources in academic libraries are expected to be catalogued and classified by librarians/cataloguers with standard classification schemes which would bring all the related books together. The attitude of librarians toward cataloguing and classification can be positive or negative. Positive in the essence that they tend to enjoy or like cataloguing and classification, understand its value, and have confidence in it. However, librarians with a negative attitude toward cataloguing and classification tend to dislike it, and feel afraid to engage in it. The attitude of librarians toward cataloguing and classification would be determined whether the library information resources in the academic libraries would be catalogued or not. If librarians develop a positive attitude toward cataloguing and classification, all the library information resources in an academic library would be catalogued, classified, organized, arranged and shelved in order for the library users to make use of them. But if librarians develop a negative attitude toward cataloguing and classification, some of library information resources might not be catalogued or wrongly catalogued where they would not be useful for the users

Assessment of Undergraduates’ usage of Academic Library for Learning and Research in Afe Babalola University, Nigeria, International Journal of Library and Information Science

This study examines the usage of academic library by undergraduates of Afe Babalola University, Nigeria. Four research questions were considered to gather data. Purposive sampling technique was used to obtain data from 500 students of the university who participated in the study. The findings revealed that 56% of the students visited the library daily. 99.6% of the students sampled only visited the library to read for test and examination while 96.8% visited the library to browse the internet. Also, 79.4% were not satisfied with the seating capacity and availability of computers in the library. The study recommended that lecturers should give reading assignments to students that will require that they visit the library to read even before test and examinations. Also, the library should organize a “library week” every session to sensitize students on the available resources in the library. In addition to college libraries, a more spacious central library should be made available to serve the teaming population of the users

ASSESSMENT OF UNDERGRADUATES’ USAGE OF ACADEMIC LIBRARY FOR LEARNING AND RESEARCH IN AFE BABALOLA UNIVERSITY, NIGERIA

This study examines the usage of academic library by undergraduates of Afe Babalola University, Nigeria. Four research questions were considered to gather data. Purposive sampling technique was used to obtain data from 500 students of the university who participated in the study. The findings revealed that 56% of the students visited the library daily. 99.6% of the students sampled only visited the library to read for test and examination while 96.8% visited the library to browse the internet. Also, 79.4% were not satisfied with the seating capacity and availability of computers in the library. The study recommended that lecturers should give reading assignments to students that will require that they visit the library to read even before test and examinations. Also, the library should organize a “library week” every session to sensitize students on the available resources in the library. In addition to college libraries, a more spacious central library should be made available to serve the teaming population of the users

Farm Practical Training and Job Aspiration of Undergraduates of Agriculture in Universities in Kwara State Nigeria

The study investigated whether Farm Practical Training (FPT) is significantly associated with job aspiration of Undergraduate students comparing results of empirical evidence between two Universities in Kwara State, Nigeria. Specifically, students preferred courses of study were identified, and their attitude towards FPT and job aspiration were determined. 120 final year students who recently completed the FPT were selected from the two Universities through multistage sampling. Average age of student was 23.5 years with standard deviation of 2.4. Less than half (40%) preferred agriculture as course of study, while 38% preferred science and 5% medicine. About 32% decided to stay on in agriculture after admission because it is deemed prestigious, 13% due to being last available opportunity to gain admission and 17% because of its entrepreneurial potentials. Many (69.8%) aspired for agriculture/farming related job, while 12% aspired to work in agro-allied industries. While many (45.8%) had favorable attitude towards the FPT, comprising 35.0% UNILORIN and 10.8% KWASU students, more (23.3%) of KWASU students had unfavorable attitude towards the FPT compared to 5% UNILORIN students in this category. There was no significant association between students’ attitude towards FPT and their job aspiration in both institutions (UNILORIN χ2=8.07, p=0.62; KWASU χ2=8.60 p=0.38). Although, most of the students aspired to work in agriculture/agro-allied industry, it could not be concluded from the findings of the studies that FPT did significantly influence their job aspiration. 

Designing an Adaptive Age-Invariant Face Recognition System for Enhanced Security in Smart Urban Environments

The advent of smart technology in urban environments has often been hailed as the solution to a plethora of contemporary urban challenges, ranging from environmental conservation to waste management and transportation. However, the critical aspect of security, encompassing crime detection and prevention, is frequently overlooked. Moreover, there is a dearth of research exploring the potential disruption of conventional face detection and recognition systems by new smart city surveillance security cameras, particularly those which autonomously update their databases. This paper addresses this gap by proposing the enhancement of security in smart cities through the development of an adaptive Age-Invariant Face Recognition (AIFR) model. A non-intrusive AIFR model was constructed using a convolutional neural network and transfer learning techniques, and was then integrated into surveillance cameras. These cameras, designed to capture the faces of city residents at regular intervals, consequently updated their databases autonomously. Upon testing, the developed model demonstrated its potential to substantially improve security by effectively detecting and identifying the residents and visitors of smart cities, and updating their database profiles. Remarkably, the model retained its effectiveness even with significant age intra-class variation, with the capability to alert relevant authorities about potential criminals or missing individuals. This research underscores the potential of adaptive face recognition systems in bolstering security measures within smart urban environments

Farm Practical Training and Job Aspiration of Undergraduates of Agriculture in Universities in Kwara State Nigeria

The study investigated whether Farm Practical Training (FPT) is significantly associated with job aspiration of Undergraduate students comparing results of empirical evidence between two Universities in Kwara State, Nigeria. Specifically, students preferred courses of study were identified, and their attitude towards FPT and job aspiration were determined. 120 final year students who recently completed the FPT were selected from the two Universities through multistage sampling. Average age of student was 23.5 years with standard deviation of 2.4. Less than half (40%) preferred agriculture as course of study, while 38% preferred science and 5% medicine. About 32% decided to stay on in agriculture after admission because it is deemed prestigious, 13% due to being last available opportunity to gain admission and 17% because of its entrepreneurial potentials. Many (69.8%) aspired for agriculture/farming related job, while 12% aspired to work in agro-allied industries. While many (45.8%) had favorable attitude towards the FPT, comprising 35.0% UNILORIN and 10.8% KWASU students, more (23.3%) of KWASU students had unfavorable attitude towards the FPT compared to 5% UNILORIN students in this category. There was no significant association between students’ attitude towards FPT and their job aspiration in both institutions (UNILORIN χ2=8.07, p=0.62; KWASU χ2=8.60 p=0.38). Although, most of the students aspired to work in agriculture/agro-allied industry, it could not be concluded from the findings of the studies that FPT did significantly influence their job aspiration. 

Development of a Malicious Network Traffic Intrusion Detection System Using Deep Learning

With the exponential surge in the number of internet-connected devices, the attack surface for potential cyber threats has correspondingly expanded. Such a landscape necessitates the evolution of intrusion detection systems to counter the increasingly sophisticated mechanisms employed by cyber attackers. Traditional machine learning methods, coupled with existing deep learning implementations, are observed to exhibit limited proficiency due to their reliance on outdated datasets. Their performance is further compromised by elevated false positive rates, decreased detection rates, and an inability to efficiently detect novel attacks. In an attempt to address these challenges, this study proposes a deep learning-based system specifically designed for the detection of malicious network traffic. Three distinct deep learning models were employed: Deep Neural Networks (DNN), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), and Gated Recurrent Units (GRU). These models were trained using two contemporary benchmark intrusion detection datasets: the CICIDS 2017 and the Coburg Intrusion Detection Data Sets (CIDDS). A robust preprocessing procedure was conducted to merge these datasets based on common and essential features, creating a comprehensive dataset for model training. Two separate experimental setups were utilized to configure these models. Among the three models, the LSTM displayed superior performance in both experimental configurations. It achieved an accuracy of 98.09%, a precision of 98.14%, an F1-Score of 98.09%, a True Positive Rate (TPR) of 98.05%, a True Negative Rate (TNR) of 99.69%, a False Positive Rate (FPR) of 0.31%, and a False Negative Rate (FNR) of 1.95%

Computerised interpretation of fetal heart rate during labour (INFANT): a randomised controlled trial

Background. Continuous electronic fetal heart-rate monitoring is widely used during labour, and computerised interpretation could increase its usefulness. We aimed to establish whether the addition of decision-support software to assist in the interpretation of cardiotocographs affected the number of poor neonatal outcomes. Methods. In this unmasked randomised controlled trial, we recruited women in labour aged 16 years or older having continuous electronic fetal monitoring, with a singleton or twin pregnancy, and at 35 weeks’ gestation or more at 24 maternity units in the UK and Ireland. They were randomly assigned (1:1) to decision support with the INFANT system or no decision support via a computer-generated stratified block randomisation schedule. The primary outcomes were poor neonatal outcome (intrapartum stillbirth or early neonatal death excluding lethal congenital anomalies, or neonatal encephalopathy, admission to the neonatal unit within 24 h for ≥48 h with evidence of feeding difficulties, respiratory illness, or encephalopathy with evidence of compromise at birth), and developmental assessment at age 2 years in a subset of surviving children. Analyses were done by intention to treat. This trial is completed and is registered with the ISRCTN Registry, number 98680152. Findings. Between Jan 6, 2010, and Aug 31, 2013, 47062 women were randomly assigned (23515 in the decision-support group and 23547 in the no-decision-support group) and 46042 were analysed (22987 in the decision-support group and 23055 in the no-decision-support group). We noted no difference in the incidence of poor neonatal outcome between the groups—172 (0·7%) babies in the decision-support group compared with 171 (0·7%) babies in the no-decision-support group (adjusted risk ratio 1·01, 95% CI 0·82–1·25). At 2 years, no significant differences were noted in terms of developmental assessment. Interpretation. Use of computerised interpretation of cardiotocographs in women who have continuous electronic fetal monitoring in labour does not improve clinical outcomes for mothers or babies

Relationship between family support and depression symptoms among older women attending a general practice clinic, Lautech Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Nigeria

Background: Older women are more at risk of depression symptoms. This study assessed the relationship between family support and factors associated with depression symptoms among older women.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among 317 older women attending the General Practice Clinic, Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Nigeria over a period of four months. They completed a semi-structured questionnaire on socio-demographic, clinical characteristics, Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Perceived Social Support-Family Scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive and  inferential statistics.Results: The prevalence of depression symptoms was 42.5%. Most respondents (73.8%) also had chronic health problems such as hypertension (53.8%), obesity (43.2%), musculo-skeletal disorders (30.3%) and diabetes mellitus (10.3%). Poor family support was associated with depression symptoms among the respondents Significant factors associated with having depression symptoms include presence of chronic illness (OR=3.54, 95%CI=1.29-9.71, p=0.0001), low income (OR=5.21, 95%CI=1.50-17.86, p=0.020), bereavement (OR=2.39, 95%CI=1.01-5.63, p=0.014) and poor family support (OR=3.42, 95%CI=0.99-11.76, p=0.010).Conclusions: Poor family support was associated with depressive symptoms. Depression symptoms are common among older women with chronic health problems, poverty and poor family support. Targeting Improving family support these factors will reduce depression symptoms among older women