Transformation of teaching quality in secondary school education: Teachers’ conception

Teaching is a versatile and valued exercise that is geared towards bringing about achievement in students’ learning. In view of the importance of teaching, there is need for it to be effective and of good quality. Education in secondary school within South Africa is seen as an imperative sub-sector in the educational system that aids the growth of the economic system through transformation. Although, there are various transformational systems to improve teaching quality in education, it is generally believed that there is no common agreement on what transformation systems entail in secondary school education in developing nations. This study investigates the perceptions of teachers in the transformation of teaching quality education in secondary schools. Eight teachers were selected from four secondary schools in the East London Education District in South Africa. The respondents varied in gender, age, years of teaching experience, academic qualifications and professional qualifications. The study used semi-structured interviews to gather data. A thematic approach was used for data analysis while trustworthiness was adopted for the validity of the instrument. The findings revealed that some of the teachers were aware of the need for transformation to improve the secondary school education system in South Africa. However, it was noticed that there was no adequate training and monitoring on the use of infrastructure. In addition, the findings further indicated that some teachers have a negative perception toward any additional role in transforming and improving the quality of teaching. Furthermore, the findings also indicated that transformation in teaching should be the responsibility of the government and head of schools. In light of this, the study recommended that policy makers should increase the budget on secondary school education as well as monitor the process of implementation to achieve the desired goal. Moreover, there should be regular effective training and workshops for teachers in secondary schools to remind them of their roles and responsibilities in teaching

AN EFFECTIVE HEALTH CARE INSURANCE FRAUD AND ABUSE DETECTION SYSTEM

Due to the complexity of the processes within healthcare insurance systems and the large number of participants involved, it is very difficult to supervise the systems for fraud. The healthcare service providers’ fraud and abuse has become a serious problem. The practices such as billing for services that were never rendered, performing unnecessary medical services and misrepresenting non-covered treatment as covered treatments etc. not only contribute to the problem of rising health care expenditure but also affect the health of the patients. Traditional methods of detecting health care fraud and abuse are time-consuming and inefficient. In this paper, the health care insurance fraud and abuse detection system (HECIFADES) was proposed. The HECIFADES consist of six modules namely: claim, augment claim, claim database, profile database, profile updater and updated profiles. The system was implemented using Visual Studio 2010 and SQL. After testing, it was observed that HECIFADES was indeed an effective system for detecting fraudulent activities and yet very secured way for generating medical claims. It also improves the quality and mitigates potential payment risks and program vulnerabilities.

Integrating Resistivity Techniques for Optimum Groundwater Exploration and Development within a Hotel Facility in Osogbo, Southwestern Nigeria

This work is an attempt to combine dipole-dipole profiling and vertical electrical sounding techniques of electrical resistivity methods to investigate the groundwater potential within the premises of a 3-star hotel facility in Osogbo, Nigeria by delineating the geoelectric layers, delineating the low resistivity layers, determining the lithologies and hence, delineating the groundwater bearing zones. The five vertical electrical sounding data were collected along two pre-surveyed dipole-dipole traverses at right angle to each other beside the fences of the premises using the ABEM SAS 300c terrameter. The observed data were interpreted quantitatively using curve matching and computer-assisted iteration method using the WinResist and Dipro software. The results of the inversion show that the lithology comprises of the top soil and an intermittent sequence of sand and lateritic clay having varying resistivity and thickness. The aquiferous layer was observed to be located at a depth of 23 m to 25 m due to the low resistivity and high thickness of the aquiferous layer. The result of the 2-D imaging closely correlates with the result of the vertical electrical sounding. Thus, combining these techniques in groundwater investigation has achieved similar result as the Werner technique and has reduced ambiguity and error in positioning for drilling. Keywords: Resistivity, Groundwater Exploration, Dipole-Dipol

Investigative study of seasonal changes in Quality Parameters of Oluwa River Water, Agbabu area of Nigeria

Physico-chemical parameters of River Oluwa water in Agbabu, Nigeria were investigated to determine its quality characteristics and establish seasonal effects on the water. Water from the river was collected at five different points in dry season (March, 2008 and 2009) and rainy season (July, 2008 and 2009). Insitu parameters (pH, EC and Turbidity) were measured using Horiba Water Checker Model U-10 while TDS was by Lovibond CM – 21 Tintometer. Subsequently in the Laboratory, Na+ and K+ were determined using flame photometric methods while Ca2+, Mg2+, HCO3-, SO42-, Cl-, PO42- and NO3- were determined by wet analysis. River Oluwa water was alkaline with average pH of 7.41 and 7.53 in dry and rainy seasons respectively. Electrical conductivity (EC) was high during dry season (av. 630.44 µS/cm), but low in the rainy season (av. 317.58 µS/cm) due to long residence time in dry season allowing more water-rock interaction. Turbidity's average values of 0.14 NTU and 2.29 NTU in dry and rainy seasons respectively suggested moderate pollution with particulate matter. The order of average cations concentrations in the dry and rainy seasons was Ca2+ K+ Na+ Mg2+ while that of the anions was HCO3- Cl- SO42- NO3-. The ions concentrations though lower in rainy season, Ca2+-HCO3- water was dominant in both seasons. Quality evaluation for irrigation revealed that the water was suitable for all irrigation purposes. River Oluwa water was soft, low mineralized, chemically potable, suitable for irrigation but with lower ionic concentrations in rainy season

Evaluation of Bacteria and Antibiotic Resistance Profiling of Wara (White Soft Cheese) in Oyo-State, South-West, Nigeria

Fresh milk from healthy cows contains few bacteria but contamination during handling and processing can rapidly increase bacterial population and subsequently depreciate it quality. This study evaluated the presence of bacteria and their antibiotic resistance profiles in white soft cheese (Wara) in three major producing local Government areas in Oyo-State, Nigeria. The cheese samples were collected in sterile universal bottles immediately after production. Samples were immediately transported to the laboratory for bacteria isolation, identification and antibiotic susceptibility test of the isolates. A total of one hundred and sixty-five (165) bacterial isolates of ten different bacterial genera were identified from 102 cheese samples. The isolation rates of different species/genera were Lactobacillus spp (39.8%), E. coli (32.5%), Klebsiella spp (9%), Citrobacter spp (2.4%), Acinetobacter spp (3.6%), Pseudomonas spp (6.6%), Bordetella spp (0.6%), Proteus spp (1.2%), Staphylococcus spp (3.6%) and Streptococcus agalactiae (0.6%). Results demonstrated substantial differences in their resistance patterns to various antibiotics. The isolates were tested against ten different antibiotics. The Gram negative isolates showed twenty-five resistance patterns while Gram positive isolates revealed fifty-four distinct resistance groups. In all, Gram positive isolates showed resistance to ceftriaxone (61.1%), gentamicin (51.4%), chloramphenicol (51.1%), amoxicillin (48.6%), ciprofloxacin (44.4%), cotrimoxazole (43.1%), perfloxacin (40.3%), streptomycin (40.3%) Erythromycin (31.9) and ofloxacin (30.6%) while Gram positive showed resistance to chloramphenicol (22.6%), trimethoprim /sulfamethoxazole (20.4%), amoxillin/clavulanic acid. (10.8%), streptomycin (9.7%), gentamicin (8.6%), sparfloxacin (6.5%), amoxicilin (5.4%), Perfloxacin (5.4%), ofloxacin (4.3%) and ciprofloxacin (3.2%). Multi-drug resistance to three or more antibiotics was observed in 69 isolates, 56 Gram positive and 13 Gram negative bacteria. This study confirmed that white soft cheese “wara” can be a source of bacteria with multidrug resistant phenotypes.Key words: Bacteria, Antibiotic resistance, White soft cheese, Oyo-State, Nigeria

Development and implementation of a miniature RFID system in a shopping mall environment

The advancement of technology has brought about the need for industrial innovation. One area where innovation is required in a developing country is in the retail industry (this is the focus point of this project) where the present system that is the barcode technology is old and archaic. This project is based on the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to create a faster, easier and more secured checkout system. This paper showcases the development of a miniature RFID desktop application that can be used for registering items coming into a shopping mall, checking out of goods bought from the shopping mall and the detection of an attempt to steal goods from the shopping mall, using both C# programming language and MySQL for the database management

STABILITY OF BIOSURFACTANT PRODUCED BY PSEUDOMONAS TAENENSIS

Biosurfactants are one of the microbial bioproducts that are naturally synthesized and are applicable for many industrial purposes. In this study, antibacterial, stability and antibiotic susceptibility of biosurfactant was evaluated. Biosurfactants produced from different substrates (groundnut cake, cassava flour waste, pome, cooking oil, engine oil, cassava waste water, molasses, cassava peel, potato) by Pseudomonas taenensis were evaluated for antibacterial activity using agar well diffusion method. Antibiotics susceptibility of Pseudomonas taenensis was carried out using different antibiotics (augmentin, ofloxacin, tetracyclin and ciprofloxacin, cotrimoxazole, pefloxacin, amoxylin, ceftriazone, nitrofuranton and gentamycin). The stability of the biosurfactant was evaluated by adjusting the biosurfactant to: pH (2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12) using 1M NaOH and 1M HCl, temperature (4, 30, 37, 55, 75 and 100 °C) and NaCl (0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 %). Results showed that only biosurfactant produced using cassava waste water as substrate was sensitive to Escherichia coli while biosurfactant produced using cassava flour waste, pome and molasses were sensitive to Staphylococcus aureus. Biosurfactant-producing isolate (Pseudomonas taenensis) was sensitive to four antibiotics (augmentin, ofloxacin, tetracyclin and ciprofloxacin) and resistant to six antibiotics (cotrimoxazole, pefloxacin, amoxylin, ceftriazone, nitrofuranton and gentamycin). Biosurfactant was stable over all the wide ranges of pH, temperature and sodium chloride concentrations investigated. This study therefore revealed that biosurfactant have good stability, thus, could survive environmental stress; Not all biosurfactant and biosurfactant producers have antimicrobial and antibiotic property.   &nbsp

AN EVALUATION OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL INCLINATION AMONG CLOTHING AND TEXTILE UNDERGRADUATE IN SOUTH WESTERN NIGERIA

Entrepreneurship has been described as an incubator and energiser of market innovation, product and technological growth as well as a means of revitalising the economy and reducing unemployment. This study focused on assessing the entrepreneurship inclination among Clothing and Textile undergraduates and their attitude towards government entrepreneurial programmes. The study was carried out in selected tertiary institutions (Colleges of Education, Polytechnics and Universities) in South-Western Nigeria. A Multistage sampling was used with a combination of stratified and proportionate sampling to select four hundred and fifty (450) final year students from the selected tertiary institutions in South-Western Nigeria. Data were collected with the aid of questionnaire and were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools. Results showed that most of the respondents were female (55.3%) while (44.7%) were male with a mean age of 22 years. More than half (54%) of the respondents were from Colleges of Education, 23.7% were from Universities and 22.2% were from Polytechnics. The findings further revealed that 30.4%, 24%, 19.6% and 14.2% were studying Home Economics, Creative arts, Fine arts and Clothing and Textiles respectively. The percentage of response on the students’ attitude towards entrepreneurship was 87.3%. The results of the chi-square showed that only the educational status of the respondents (χ2=14.65, p<0.05) indicated a significant relationship between the educational status of the students and their entrepreneurial inclination. The regression analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between government empowerment programme and the entrepreneurial inclination of the respondents (r = 0.43, P = 0.00). The β value of 0.43 explained the percentage of government empowerment programme to entrepreneurial inclination of the respondents. Also, there was no significant difference between entrepreneurial skills inclination of undergraduate students across the selected tertiary institutions at P < 0.05 level of significance. The study concluded that respondents in the study area have positive attitude towards government entrepreneurship programme. Consequently, the respondents are entrepreneurial inclined and government entrepreneurship programme is effective to reduce unemployment in the country and in promoting job creation. &nbsp

Iris feature extraction: a survey

Biometric as a technology has been proved to be a reliable means of enforcing constraint in a security sensitiveenvironment. Among the biometric technologies, iris recognition system is highly accurate and reliable becauseof their stable characteristics throughout lifetime. Iris recognition is one of the biometric identification thatemploys pattern recognition technology with the use of high resolution camera. Iris recognition consist of manysections among which feature extraction is an important stage. Extraction of iris features is very important andmust be successfully carried out before iris signature is stored as a template. This paper gives a comprehensivereview of different fundamental iris feature extraction methods, and some other methods available in literatures.It also gives a summarised form of performance accuracy of available algorithms. This establishes a platform onwhich future research on iris feature extraction algorithm(s) as a component of iris recognition system can bebased.Keywords: biometric authentication, false acceptance rate (FAR), false rejection rate (FRR), feature extraction,iris recognition system

EFFECTS OF RICE HUSK BIOCHAR ON THE GROWTH CHARACTERISTICS, RHIZOSPHERIC MICROFLORA AND YIELD OF TOMATO PLANTS

Human activities have degenerated nearly 40% of the universe soil through excessive chemical inputs, tilling and industrial activities. Biochar can increase soil fecundity, agricultural producti- vity and protects soil-borne diseases. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of rice husk biochar on the growth and yield of tomato plants. Biochar was produced through feedstock (rice-husk) pyrolysis and used as soil amendments at different concentrations (20 t/ha and 40 t/ha) and an unamend soil served as control. Physicochemical properties of the soil, rice husk, biochar and biochar soil before and after planting were determined using standard methods. Rhizospheric microflora of the plants were isolated and identified based on morphological and biochemical characterizations. Agronomic parameters such as plant height, stem girth, leaf area, number of leaves, flowers, fruits and weight of fruits were determined. Results revealed that rice husk biochar (40 t/ha) had the highest physical and chemical parameters while the unamend soil had the lowest constituents. Predominant bacterium and fungus are Bacillus subtilis and Aspergillus niger. Agronomic parameters: plant heights, stem girths, leaf areas, number of leaves, flowers, fruits and weight of fruits were higher in all the amended soil than the control at the various growth stages. The unamend soil yielded no fruit at 10th week while the amended soil yielded an average fruit weight of 34.95g ± 8.76 and 21.53g ± 5.16 at 20 t/ha and 40 t/ha respectively. This study revealed that biochar produced from rice husk could be used to improve growth and yield of tomato plants.   &nbsp