Towards Arresting the Decline in Academic Standards of Engineering Education in Nigerian University

Technological advancement serves as a major key to a nation's development. On the other hand, proper engineering knowledge (acquired through appropriate structures) plays significant roles in the attainment of a high level of technological advancement. Most developing countries find it difficult to impact adequate knowledge and training to engineers at different levels of training. An overview of the problems confronting engineering education, and factors that affects engineering education in Nigeria is taken in this paper. The paper identifies lack of adequate or competent human resources, government attitude towards vocational education or technological development in term of funding, poor maintenance, lack of relevant adequate infrastructures, and political situation as the dominant problems faced by engineering education in Nigeria. The paper, in addition to finding solutions to the above problems, recommends proper care in admitting students, infrastructural inadequacy needs to be recognized and properly articulated with a view to being redressed, appropriate government policy and disposition and intervention of professional and international bodies (through provision of financial and material assistance) for assisting in the training and practice of engineers in Nigeria and in order that the country may achieve meaningful development comparable with foreign countries

Spectrum of diseases and pattern of referral at the Oral Diagnosis Clinic of a tertiary dental center

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the scope of oral diseases and referrals within the Dental Centre at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH). Method: The clinic logbook of the Oral diagnosis clinic of the Dental centre, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital was reviewed retrospectively over an 18-month period. Demographic and clinical data of all patients were retrieved and statistically analyzed using SPSS Version 17.0. Result: There were 2,249 patients comprising 945 (42%) males and 1,304 (58%) females. The age range was 1month to 95 years and mean age, 29.9 + 16.8 years. The mean age for male was 30.4 + 17.3years and for female, 29.5±16.4 years. Based on their age, patients were categorized into children, youth, middle age and elderly. Patronage was predominantly by the youth category (age 17- 40 years). The predominant pathology presented was complicated dental caries (41.1%). Traumatic injuries showed predilections for the male gender (87 males compared to 58 females). Most of the referrals were to the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinic (825 patients) and tooth extraction (741 adults, 147 paediatric extractions) was the major reason for referral. Conclusion: In spite of the worldwide epidemiological report of its reducing incidence, dental caries and its sequelae are still the major reasons for patronage of dental health services in our environment and dental extraction is the mostly consumed treatment modality

Integrating public datasets using linked data: challenges and design principles

The world is moving from a state where there is paucity of data to one of surfeit. These data, and datasets, are normally in different datastores and of different formats. Connecting these datasets together will increase their value and help discover interesting relationships amongst them. This paper describes our experience of using Linked Data to inter-operate these different datasets, the challenges we faced, and the solutions we devised. The paper concludes with apposite design principles for using linked data to inter-operate disparate datasets

A Robust Speed-Based Handover Algorithm for Dense Femtocell/Macrocell LTE-A Network and Beyond

Femtocells are currently being deployed in the present generation of cellular networks because of their ability to provide increased data rate at home and offices. This development together with the recent advances in technology brings about a huge increment in bandwidth required to meet the future demand for data by the ever increasing mobile devices. It is envisaged that with dense deployment of femtocells, the present challenge in terms of data requirement as well as the future demand will be met. Therefore, it is imperative to intensify the research in the area of handover management in femtocell/macrocell integrated network using a high dense network scenario that will dominate the future network. Presently, most research works in this area do not focus much on a dense deployment of mobile users in a femtocell/macrocell integrated network. Also, many existing handover algorithms were not designed to work in a highly mobile and dense environment. In this work, the authors propose a robust CAC handover algorithm for a dense femtocell/macrocell LTEAdvanced integrated network. The proposed CAC algorithm is efficient to handle calls in a highly dense and mobile user environment. The simulation results of the proposed algorithm show that the handover call dropping probability, call blocking probability and handover probability are considerably reduced

Design and Construction of 1KW (1000VA) Power Inverter

The purpose of this project is to design and construct a 1000Watts (1KW) 220 Volts Inverter at a frequency of 50Hz. This device is constructed with locally sourced components and materials of regulated standards. The basic principle of its operation is a simple conversion of 12V DC from a battery using integrated circuits and semiconductors at a frequency of 50Hz, to a 220V AC across the windings of a transformer. An additional power supply to the public power supply with the same power output is thus provided at an affordable price

A Simulation-Based Performance Evaluation of AODV and DSR in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs)

This work evaluates and compares the performance of two reactive routing protocols for mobile ad-hoc networks: Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) and Dynamic Source Routing (DSR). The study focuses on the design and evaluation of routing protocols in mobile ad-hoc networks. Study and implementation of these protocols are been carried out using network simulator (ns2) and metrics such as Packet Delivery Fraction, Average end-to-end Delay, Routing overhead and Normalized Routing are used for performance analysis. Results are presented as a function of these metrics and the graphs generated show that DSR performs better than AODV when fewer nodes are been used

Accuracy and Limits of Lamendin’s Age Estimation Method in a Sample of Nigerian Population

This study compared the accuracy and limits of Lamendin’s age estimation method to age estimation by subset regression analysis in a sample of Nigerian population. The research was a cross-sectional study involving 81 single-rooted teeth obtained from 45 females and 36 males between ages 20 and 90 years. Extracted teeth samples were disinfected and stored, and directly measured using a digital vernier caliper on a 16 W X-ray box. Periodontosis (P) and Translucency (T) were derived using standard formulae from the root height (RH), translucency height (TH), and periodontal height (PH). Data were managed in an excel spreadsheet, then analyzed (stratified by sex) using Lamendin’s equation (Age = 0.18P + 0.42 T + 25.53) in SPSS (IBM® version 23, Armonk, USA) and Minitab® 2017 (version 18.1) best subset regression for males (Age = 6.23TH + 0.113P + 7.7) and females (Age = 14.90PH + 0.330 T − 2.12). Chi-square analysis tested the distributional deviations from actual age (using error ranges). From the analysis, 33.3% of the total population (M: 30.0% and F: 35.6%) were predicted within the suggested limit compared to 61.7% (M: 75.0% and F: 51.0%) for the best subset model. The distributional errors difference in both methods was not significant for males (χ2[df = 3] = 1.810, P = 0.405), females (χ2[df = 3] = 1.275, P = 0.528), and total samples (χ2[df = 3] = 4.960, P = 0.084). Lamendin’s formula did not provide accurate age estimates for a large proportion of sample population. More accurate estimates were limited to age ranged between 30 and 70 years. The study recommended that further studies using a larger sample be conducted to validate the findings of this study

A mixed methods evaluation of an integrated training package for skin neglected tropical diseases in Kaduna and Ogun, Nigeria

Background: The overall burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) affecting the skin is undetermined. Skin conditions are among the top 10 causes of disability worldwide. Affected persons seek treatment at advanced stages of the disease, resulting in morbidity and disability. We developed and evaluated an integrated training intervention for early case detection, referral and management of skin NTDs in two states in Nigeria. Methods: This was a mixed-methods study using participatory approaches to develop specific skin algorithms and training packages for community and primary level health workers. This supported the identification, referral and clinical diagnosis of suspected cases. We used Kirkpatrick's model to evaluate the training package. Results: Participants’ knowledge improved after the 2-months intervention. Across both states, knowledge retention appeared more robust for cadres at all levels: state, local government area and primary healthcare. All (100%) participants mentioned that the training assisted them in detecting, referring and managing skin NTDs. Training was understood by participants and training materials were easy to understand. Materials were also effective in educating community members about the symptoms of NTDs and supported referral to facilities for appropriate management. Conclusions: Community implementers can be trained and supervised to detect people affected by skin NTDs and support appropriate management within the existing patient care pathway

Descriptive epidemiology of salivary gland neoplasms in Nigeria: An AOPRC multicenter tertiary hospital study

Objectives: Accurate diagnosis of salivary gland neoplasms (SGN) in many centers in Africa is limited by poor diagnostic resources and ancillary services. Hence, we have carried out a multicenter epidemiological study to understand the true burden of SGN in Nigeria. Method: In this descriptive cross‐sectional study, we have deployed resources available to members of the African Oral Pathology Consortium (AOPRC) to examine the burden of salivary gland lesions in Nigeria, using a multicenter approach. Data from seven major tertiary health institutions in northern, western, and southern Nigeria were generated using a standardized data extraction format and analyzed using the Epi‐info software (Version 7.0, Atlanta, USA). Result: Of the 497 cases examined across the seven centers, we observed that SGN occurred more in females than males. Overall, pleomorphic salivary adenoma (PA) was found to be the most common. PA was found to be the commonest benign SGN while adenocystic carcinoma (ADCC) was the commonest malignant SGN. Regional variations were observed for age group, diagnosis, and gender distribution. Significant statistical differences were found between males and females for malignant SGNs (p‐value=0.037). Conclusion: We found regional variation in the pattern of distribution of SGN in Nigeria. This is the largest multicenter study of SGN in Nigeria, and our findings are robust and representative of the epidemiology of this neoplasm in Nigeria

Performance Evaluation of Common Encryption Algorithms for Throughput and Energy Consumption of a Wireless System

This work evaluates the effect(s) of common encryption algorithms on throughput, processing time and power consumption of a wireless system. Three different encryption algorithms commonly used for wireless local area network (WLANs) namely; Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Data Encryption Standard (DES), and Blowfish were evaluated and studied. The three algorithms were simulated and compiled using the default settings in .NET 2010 visual studio. The results show that Blowfish algorithm outperforms other algorithms in terms of energy consumption, processing time and throughput for Text data, Audio files and Image files. While DES is optimal both in its throughput and energy requirement