Effect of Science-Technology-Society Approach on Creativity in Environmental Conservation Concept among Secondary School Biology Students in Zaria, Kaduna State

Creativity in STEM Education is now widely recognized as an essential 21st century skill, which can be fostered through innovative pedagogy. This study therefore examines the effect of Science-Technology-Society (STS) Approach on creativity in Environmental Conservation Concept among secondary school biology students in Zaria, Kaduna State. The design is quasi-experimental, specifically the non-equivalent pretest, posttest, control group design. A sample of 105 SS2 students from two schools was used for the study. Schools were purposively sampled from 28 public Schools in Zaria Education Zone. Students’ Creativity Assessment Test (SCAT) was adapted and used for data collection. Three null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study and were tested using ANCOVA at P < 0.05 level of significance. Results obtained revealed that students exposed to STS Instructional Approach, exhibited significantly higher level of creativity than those taught concept environmental conservation using Lecture Method. There is no significant difference in the creativity level of male and female students in the experimental group. Gender and treatment were found not to have any significant interaction effects on students’ level of creativity. On the basis of these findings, the study advocated for the teaching of Biology for creativity through innovative strategies like STS Approach

Price Transmission, Volatility and Discovery of Gram in Some Selected Markets in Rajathan State, India

Market integration in many agricultural commodities had been extensively studied for the insight it provides into the functioning of such markets, thus giving valuable information about the dynamics of market adjustment, and whether there exist market imperfection, which may justify government intervention. This study empirically investigated price transmission, volatility and discovery of gram across four wholesale gram markets, viz. Jaipur, Kishangarh, Chomu and Malpura in Rajasthan state of India using Johansen's multivariate cointegration approach, VECM, Granger causality tests, GARCH, EGARCH and ARIMA. Monthly wholesale gram price data spanning from January 2011 to December 2015 sourced from AGMARKNET were used. Multivariate cointegration showed that all the selected gram markets were cointegarted in the long-run, meaning long-run price association among these markets. The degree of market integration observed is consistent with the view that Rajasthan state gram markets are quite competitive; thus, provide little justification for extensive and costly government intervention designed to enhance market efficiency through improve competitiveness. Therefore, in order to sustain the present system of market integration, there is need to evolve mechanism that will generate market information and market intelligence which would serve as a platform for guiding farmers in marketing their produce

Distribution and abundance of freshwater snails in Warwade Dam, Dutse, Northern Nigeria

Preliminary investigation in August, 2017 reported the presence of Lymnaea natalensis, Bellamya unicolor, Melanoides tuberculata and Bulinus globosus in order of increasing abundance and distribution in Warwade dam, Dutse, Jigawa State, Nigeria. A follow up study was carried out from April to October, 2019 to reveal further details on the abundance and distribution of freshwater snails in relation to some physiochemical factors of the dam. Four sampling sites; human activity, vegetation cover, lentic and lotic were selected for the study along the bank of the dam. Freshwater snails were collected using long handled scoop net with mesh 0.2mm complemented by hand picking methods in the four sampling sites. Water samples from the sampling sites were analyzed in the laboratory using standard procedures. A total of 2,027 of freshwater snails belonging to ten species were identified. Bulinus globosus 12(0.6%) and Lymnaea natalensis 12(0.6%) had the lowest abundance and distribution while Melanoides tuberculata 1553(76.6%) had the highest. Snail abundance was highest in site characterized by human activities (670) followed by vegetation (482), lotic (442) and lentic (433) waters. Most of the physico-chemical factors measured appeared to favour the growth and survival of fresh water snails. pH (p = 0.01), water current (p = &lt;0.01) and magnesium ion concentration (p = &lt; 0.01) varied significantly across the four sites. Only calcium ion concentration was significantly associated with snail abundance (p = 0.04). Snail abundance showed weak positive relationship with water temperature, color, turbidity and concentration of magnesium ion. The dam habours about ten species of freshwater snails in different abundance and distribution with M. tuberculata being the most abundant throughout the period of investigation. The dominance of M. tuberculata over other species particularly those of medical and veterinary importance could have positive implication for their control in the dam

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P &lt; 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

A Hybrid Model of PSO Algorithm and Artificial Neural Network for Automatic Follicle Classification

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is one of the leading causes of infertility in the world, but is a preventable disease when detected early. Detection of follicles in ultrasound images of the ovary is required for the diagnosis of PCOS. The manual method of detecting follicles is time consuming, laborious, error-prone and inconvenient for patients. However, methods used by the existing automated systems often lead to a reduction in accuracy, sensitivity and specificity due to the irregular and jagged edges of the follicles. This research work aims at achieving an improved specificity, sensitivity and accuracy of the system. In this report, a new technique for the automatic detection of follicles is implemented. Lee filter was used to despeckle the ultrasound images. Multiple features were then extracted from the images. Further, twelve of these features were selected as optimal values by the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm. Then, these features were fed as input to the Multilayer Perceptron Artificial Neural Network. Upon training and testing the network, 98.3% accuracy, 100% sensitivity and 96.8% specificity were achieved

Prevalence of Schistosomiasis in Warwade Community, Jigawa State, Nigeria

There is currently no documented literature on the status of transmission of schistosomiasis in Warwade community situated near a dam. This study was designed to determine the prevalence of schistosomiasis in the community. A total of 300 urine and stool samples from randomly selected participants were analysed for S. haematobium and S. mansoni using sedimentation and kato-katz techniques respectively. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was administered to all the participants and in the case of minors their parents/guardians. The data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25 to determine if there was any significant difference between schistosomiasis and demographic characteristics of participants as well as the association between schistosomiasis and risk factors at P&lt;0.05. The results revealed an overall prevalence of 20.3% with urinary and intestinal schistosomiasis having 12.3% and 8% respectively .Out of every 8 persons in the community one had urinary schistosomiasis while in every 12 persons, one had intestinal and in every 5 persons, one had at least either of the species. Urinary schistosomiasis was higher in females, but was the opposite in intestinal infection. Schistosomiasis infection was highest among children ≤ 18 years and ≤40 years and the opposite was the case for intestinal schistosomiasis, where 19 to 29 years had the highest prevalence. Age and occupation were the risk factors associated with schistosomiasis infection at P&lt;0.05. All the positive samples for urinary schistosomiasis subjected to Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) amplification were positive. This study showed that Warwade community is endemic for schistosomiasis. Keywords: Sedimentation, Kato-katz, schistosomiasis, endemi