Preparation of Polymeric Composites from Polypropylene and Palm Fronds and the Study of Some of Their Physical Properties

            تم في هذا البحث تحضير نوع من المتراكبات البوليمرية من البولي بروبلين المنصهر كمادة أساس مع مسحوق سعف النخيل كمواد مدعمة وقد تم تقييم المواد المتراكبة من خلال دراسة بعض خواصها الميكانيكية والتي شملت مقاومة الصدمة (I.S) ومعامل يونك(E)  ومقاومة الانضغاط (C·S) ومعامل المرونة وصلادة برينيل (B.H) وقد تمت المقارنة بين المتراكبات البوليمرية قبل وبعد التدعيم. ولوحظ زيادة مقاومة الصدمة وصلادة برينيل ومقاومة الانضغاطية وتمت دراسة تأثير بعض الحوامض HNO3) وH2SO4 وHCl) وبتراكيز 1.5N)و 1Nو1.5 N) وتمت دراسة بعض الخصائص الفيزيائية كالامتصاصية ومعامل الانتشار للبولي بروبلين قبل وبعد التدعيم وقد أظهرت النتائج زيادة واضحة في قيم هذه الخصائص بزيادة تركيز الحامض وزمن غمر البوليمر في المحلول الحامضي.Abstract:               In this study a type of polymeric composites from melting poly propylene as a basic substance with Palm fronds powder were prepared. Evaluation of polymeric composites was done by studying some of it is mechanical properties, which included:Yong modulus (E), Impact Strength (I.S), Brinell hardness (B.H) and Compression Strength (C.S). The polymeric composites were studied before and after reinforcment by comparing between them. There was an increase in resistance of Yong modulus (E), Impact Strength (I.S), Brinell hardness (B.H) and compression Strength (C.S). Also, the effect of some acids were studied such as (HCl, H2SO4, HNO3) with concentrations of (0.5N; 1N and 1.5N) respectively. The physical properties of absorbance and poly propylene's diffusion coefficient were studied before and after reinforcment, The results showed an increase in values of these properties with increasing concentration of acid and time of polymer's immersion in the acidic solution

Infrastructure Provision and Classification of Rural Settlements in Niger State, Nigeria

This study classifies the selected rural settlements on the basis of available infrastructure .To achieve this aim, 22 rural settlements were randomly selected. The cluster analysis was applied on the data in order to group the rural settlements on the basis of their infrastructure profiles. Thus the hierarchical method of cluster analysis was applied using version 16.0 of SPSS package. The study revealed that three groups of settlements labelled A, B and C was produced by the hierarchical clustering technique based on availability of infrastructure. It was observed that although the quantity of infrastructure varied among the settlements, group B settlements consisting of Doko, Enagi, Kuta, Maikunkele, Paiko, Sabon Wuse, Sarkin Pawa and Wawa seem to have more infrastructure than group A and C settlements. Group A settlements consisting of Agwara, Gawu Babangida, Gulu, Lemu, Nasko, Tegina and Tunga Magajiya appear to have more provision of infrastructure compared to group C settlements. On the other hand, group C settlements consisting of Baddegi, Bangi, Gbajibo, Kutiriko, Mashegu, Rafin Gora and Wushishi appear to be the least in terms of provision of infrastructure. There is the need to sustain the Ward Development Projects which was introduced in 2008 by the Niger State government. It is suggested that the monthly allocation to the wards be increased, while more community participation in project initiation, identification, monitoring, implementation and evaluation should be encouraged.Key words: Infrastructure, Rural Settlements, Classification, Cluster Analysis, Hierarchical Method, Rural Transformatio

English-as-a-Second Languange Teachers' Reflections On in-Service Professional and Self-Development

Teacher development (TD) is important in Malaysia. However, there is a lack of detailed study on teacher development specifically one that focuses on the self-development of individual teachers. The usual in-service training (INSET) evaluation questionnaire gave little indication as to the effectiveness of the teachers' development. Hence, this study is an attempt to show that reflection could be a more effective means to encourage teacher development. Reflection has been claimed to raise teachers' awareness of their own development and practice, but in general, rarely practiced. The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the ESL teachers' reflections on their reflective practice and experiences during the in-service training for smart school in promoting their self and professional development. Three research questions constructed to guide the study are: 1) How do ESL teachers describe themselves as being reflective teachers? 2) How do their reflections on the 12-week in-service training for smart school promote the teachers' self-development? 3) How do they relate their self-development to their professional development Five ESL teachers from secondary schools from the states of Selangor D a d Ehsan and Federal Territory had participated in the study. They were selected based on the number of years teaching English and their participation in a 12- week INSET for smart school. The primary research tools employed were interviews and journal writing. An interview protocol was constructed to guide the researcher. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed in verbatim. Observation of the training was carried out and recorded as field notes. A set of questionnaire to gather background and preliminary information was given to the respondents. The findings discovered that the respondents were aware of the importance of reflection and how it affected them positively in their self and professional development. However, the practice was infrequent and unsystematic; the respondents' analytical capability was limited in which the scope and depth of their reflection appeared narrow and shallow respectively. The contents of their reflections were predominantly descriptive with a few instances demonstrating dialogic reflection. The 12-week INSET for smart school activated teachers' reflective characteristics and enriched their personality making them more caring and open-minded; enabled them to reinforce the skills and knowledge and to reevaluate the effectiveness of their practice; the respondents preferred formal to informal teacher development activities to internalise new input; to learn new skills and acquire relevant materials for teaching; to communicate and share experiences and emulating the strategies used by the trainers. In the course of learning, they grew more self-confident, vocal, generous with their knowledge and skills and ready to lead. The teachers' desire to develop generally encouraged them to achieve better academic and professional positions. The respondents were independent English language learners whose interests, resourcefulness and involvement in extracurricular activities had shaped their beliefs and behaviour. Self-development to some extent has led to professional development. Consequently, each teacher has developed his or her own teaching style, refined personality and consistently enhancing their professional responsibilities. Incidentally, the study also uncovered external factors such as school culture, which involves teachers' working relationships and attitude, can both facilitate and obstruct the teachers' professional development. Overall, the findings of the study points that ESL teachers need to develop reflective habit in order to reflect constructively, one that will result in a more lasting development. This can be done through systematic training by integrating reflection exercises in all INSET courses and encouraging reflective practice in the workplace by creating positive and supportive conditions in schools

Pattern of Infrastructure-induced Socio-economic Development in Rural Settlements of Niger State, Nigeria

This study analyses the variation in infrastructure – induced pattern of socio – economic development among some selected rural settlements in Niger state of Nigeria. To achieve this aim, twenty-two rural settlements were randomly selected and their scores on selected infrastructure were used to ascertain the pattern of socio – economic development. The relative strength of the factors was determined by factors analysis. The results revealed variation in infrastructure – induced pattern of development. Factor analysis revealed five factors that account for 85.82% of the total variance. Factor 1 which is Institutional infrastructure indicated high positive scores on four settlements namely Paiko, Agwara, Wushishi and Maikunkele. Factor 2 which is the Households’ infrastructure loaded positively high in six settlements namely Enagi, Gawu Babangida, Lemu, Sabo Wuse, Doko and Nasko. Factor 3 is Welfare infrastructure shows high positive scores on three settlements namely Kuta, Bangi and Doko. Accessibility factor is indicated in factor 4 with high positive scores on four settlements namely Gbajibo, Enagi, Paiko and Rafin Gora. Lastly, Factor 5, which has been termed Road density, shows high positive scores on three settlements. These are Tunga Magajiya, Doko and Maikunkele. The study recommends provision of rural infrastructure and their proper maintenance to improve the standard and quality of life of rural residents in the state.Key words: Rural Infrastructure, Factor scores, Variation, Pattern, Rural settlements and Socio-economic development

Outdoor creational behaviours and preferences of Abuja residents, Nigeria

No Abstract

Availability and Accessibility of Electronic Information Resources in Academic Libraries as Predictors of Academic Performance of Students

This paper argues for the availability and accessibility of EIRs in academic libraries as predictors of academic performance of students of tertiary institutions. It raises the problem that the growing influx of EIRs has revolutionised academic libraries\u27 operations and led to radical changes in libraries\u27 services by making information available to students in new ways to support scholarly publications and identifies e-journals, e-books, e-theses and dissertations, databases, CDs/VCDs/DVDs, etc., as EIRs that can be made available and accessible to boost students\u27 academic performance. It outlines space economy, ease of access through numerous metadata, search engines, online catalogues (OPAC), and protocols, cost-effectiveness, unhindered access and simultaneous use of EIRs as the benefits of EIRs; while it also discusses poor funding of academic libraries, coat of purchasing electronic gadgets, poor students\u27 searching skills, infrastructure decadence and unreliable power supply as the factors Inhibiting academic libraries from making EIRs available and accessible to students. It recommends among others that academic libraries should be adequately funded by management so that they can be purchasing the necessary electronic gadgets needed for the availability and accessibility of EIRs to students

Assessment of Rural Dwellers Satisfaction with Quality of Infrastructure in Rural Settlements of Niger State, Nigeria

This study evaluates the responses of rural dwellers to an aspect of their environment, the quality attributes of the infrastructure provided for their use. The quality attributes considered were derived from location, management, economic, environmental and physical qualities of the respective infrastructure namely health, education, water supply, electricity and road.To achieve this aim, a multi-stage sampling technique was employed to systematically select 22 rural settlements in 22 local government areas. In all, a total of 1,792 rural dwellers were selected. Chi-square (X2) was used to determine the relationships between the quality attributes and perceived level of satisfaction of the respondents in the study area. The findings revealed that the quality attributes of the infrastructure such as availability of personnel, drugs and equipment, distance to facilities, cost, regularity and maintenance of facilities as well as quality of infrastructure were perceived by the rural dwellers to be generally unsatisfactory. Chi-square analysis revealed that there exists significant relationship between perceived level of satisfaction and the entire infrastructure considered. The results of the chi-squire analysis are all significant at 5% level. It can therefore be concluded that the quality attributes of the facilities were generally perceived as unsatisfactory by the rural dwellers. The paper recommends regular monitoring and proper maintenance jointly by the providers and beneficiaries. Keywords: Satisfaction, Rural Dwellers, Infrastructure, Quality attributes, Transformation and Rural Settlements

Assessment of Students\u27 Attitudes towards Entrepreneurship Development Initiatives in Kwara State University, Malete (Case Study of Faculty of Communication and Information Science)

This study assesses the attitudes of students of Faculty of Communication and Information Science, Kwara State University, Malete, towards entrepreneurship development initiatives. It raises five (5) objectives and questions to achieve its aims. It adopts case study method as its research design and the students of Faculty of Communication and Information Science are its population. It uses simple random sampling technique to administer questionnaires to 250 students. Out of the 250 questionnaires administered, only 200 are returned, representing 80% return rate. The study’s findings reveal that the students are aware of entrepreneurship initiatives through the Centre for Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training and concludes that entrepreneurship initiatives available in Kwara State University, Malete are highly effective to helping the students in becoming self-dependent and establish their businesses after graduation, while it recommends, among others, that entrepreneurship initiatives in Kwara State University, Malete, should be practical oriented in order to give students the opportunity to learn the technicalities attached to their discipline’s entrepreneurial activities

Pattern and associated factors of psychoactive substance use among undergraduate students in a North-eastern Nigerian University

Objective: There is an increased trend in the use of psychoactive substances among youths in Northern Nigeria. Youths use substances to enhance  performances. Studies have shown associations between drug use and psychiatric morbidity. This study examined the use of psychoactive  substances among undergraduates. It also assessed the presence of psychiatric morbidity among the users and nonusers of psychoactive drugs. Method: The study was a cross-sectional study using WHO Student Drug Use Survey Questionnaire and GHQ-12 for 983 undergraduates of a northern Nigeria university. Results: The prevalence rate of psychoactive substance use was 36.5%. Tobacco, stimulants and alcohol were commonly used drugs. Parental separation and fathers' use of drugs were factors associated with the use of psychoactive substances. Psychiatric morbidity among substance users and non-users were 31.0% and 11.8% Conclusion: The study found high rate for the use of psychoactive substances among the students with correspondingly high rate of psychiatric morbidity among the users of psychoactive substances. Keywords: Psychoactive substance; Psychiatric morbidity; undergraduate students

An Evaluation of the Wisconsin Breast Cancer Dataset using Ensemble Classifiers and RFE Feature Selection Technique

Breast cancer represents one of the deadliest diseases that records a high number of death rate annually. It is the most common type of cancer and the main cause of death among women worldwide. Machine learning (ML) approach is an effective way to classify data, especially in medical field. It is widely used for classification and analysis to make decisions. In this paper, a performance comparison between two ensemble ML classifiers: Random Forest (RF) and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) on the Wisconsin Breast Cancer Dataset (WBCD) is conducted. The main objective of this study is to assess the correctness of the classifiers with respect to their efficiency and effectiveness in classifying the dataset. This was done by utilizing all and reduced features of the dataset that were generated with Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE) feature selection technique. Four metrics were used in the study: Accuracy, Precision, Recall and F1-Score to evaluate the classifiers. All experiments were executed within Anaconda Environment with Jupyter Notebook and conducted using Python programming language. Experimental result shows that XGBoost with 5 reduced feature using RFE feature selection technique gives the highest accuracy (99.02%) with lowest error rate