Teachers' Perception on Influence of Social Adjustment on Academic Performance of Students with Mild Mental Retardation in Gombe State Special School

This study focused on determining the perception of teachers on influence of social adjustment on academic performance in West African Examinations Council/National Examinations Council (WAEC/NECO) of students with mild mental retardation in Gombe state, with emphasis on special secondary school. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. A total population of 37 teachers were used as respondents. Using drop and pick method, data was collected using adapted social adjustment (questionnaire) from Mei- Yin, Huei – Shyong & Cheng-Jung (2000) in Taiwan with 22 items. The instrument was reduced to 18 items. The instrument was validated by 2 experts and reliability was of 0.82 was obtained through Chronbach’s Alfa coefficient determination formula and the original reported reliability is 0.85. Data was analysed using descriptive (frequency, percentage, mean and SD) statistics. The study found that level of academic performance WAEC/NECO of mentally retarded students is moderate in Gombe state special school, while the level of social adjustment on academic performance WAEC/NECO of mentally retarded students was found to be high as perceived by the teachers. The study concludes that the teachers in Gombe state special school are heterogeneous and social adjustment has great influence on academic performance of mentally retarded students. The study recommends that government should make it a policy that, all mentally retarded persons between the ages of 5-7 are subjected to social adjustment programmes which will transit them into formal school system and parents of mentally retarded children should improve their closeness with their children and also build in hope of their rehabilitation

The Power of the Test for the Winsorized Modified Alexander-Govern Test

This research examined the USAge of the parametric method in comparing two or more means as independent group test, for instance, the Alexander-Govern (AG) test. The utilization of mean as the determinant for the center of distribution of variance diversity takes place in testing, and the test provides excellence in maintaining the amount of Type I error and giving immense sensitivity for a regular data. Unfortunately, it isineffective on irregular data, leading to the application of trimmed mean upon testing as the determinant for the center of distribution under irregular data for two group condition. However, as the group quantity is more than two, the estimator unsuccessfully provides excellence in maintaining the amount of Type I error. Therefore, an estimator high in effectiveness called the MOM estimator was introduced for the testing as the determinant for the center of distribution. Group quantity in a test does not affect the estimator, but it unsuccessfully providesexcellence in maintaining the amount of Type I error under intense asymmetry and unevenness. The application of Winsorized modified one-step M-estimator (WMOM) upon the Alexander-Govern testing takes place so that it can prevail against its drawbacks under irregular data in the presence of variance diversity, can eliminate the presence of the outside observation and can provide effectiveness for the testing on irregular data. Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) was used for the analysis of the tests. The results show that the AGWMOM test gave the most intense sensitivity under g = 0,5 and h = 0,5, for four group case and g = 0 and h = 0, under six group case, differing from three remaining tests and the sensitivity of the AG testing is said suffices and intense enough

Analytical study of flexible stimulation waveforms in muscle fatigue reduction

This paper presents the analytical study of flexible stimulation waveforms in muscle fatigue reduction for functional electrical stimulator (FES)-assisted hemiplegic muscle activities. The major challenge of muscle contraction induced by FES is early muscle fatigue which greatly limits activities such as FES-assisted standing and walking. The fixed stimulation pattern applied on a same motor unit has resulted the motor unit to be overworked and fatigue easily. Therefore, in this work, the stimulus parameters, which include the pulse width duration and the frequency were varied to create a few flexible stimulation waveforms using MATLAB/Simulink. The pulse width duration was modulated from 100µs – 500µs to generate five types of flexible stimulation waveforms such as Rectangular, Trapezoidal, Ramp Up, Ramp Down and Triangular. Concurrently, a few ranges of stimulus frequency were also used, which include 20Hz, 30Hz and 50Hz. The generated flexible stimulation waveforms were applied onto a humanoid muscle model to investigate and analyse the muscle output response and early muscle fatigue reduction. From the conducted simulation results and analyses, it was observed that flexible stimulation waveforms such as Triangular, Ramp Up and Ramp Down could reduce early muscle fatigue phenomenon by having lower average of negative slope, in the range of 0.012 to 0.013 for the muscle fitness. In contrast, the Rectangular and Trapezoidal shapes were found to have higher negative slope of muscle fitness in the range of 0.028 to 0.031. The Ramp Down shape was found to have the lowest average of negative slope (0.012) while Rectangular was found to have the highest average of negative slope (0.031). Therefore, it can be concluded that flexible stimulation waveforms such Ramp Down, Ramp Up and Triangular shapes could reduce early muscle fatigue phenomenon with Ramp Down shape having the highest muscle fatigue reduction

STAND ALONE PHOTOVOLTAIC-WIND HYBRID SYSTEM FOR 100W MOTOR

Hybrid system of Photovoltaic (PV) - Wind turbine (WT) generation has more advantages compared to PV or wind turbine system alone. The main objective of this paper is to study the characteristic of the hybrid system of PV-WT besides supplying 100W permanent-magnet dc motor with this type of sources. The aim is also to design a hybrid system of PV-WT for the source of 100W permanent-magnet dc motor. To achieve the objective, both of PV and WT are connected to converter in order to get the same source of DC supply. Then both source were combine or hybrid and straightly connected to 100W permanent magnet dc motor. All the works in this paper is only apply in circuit simulator of Matlab Simulink. The output source from each converter is expected to be suit to the motor specification. The value of the output source from each renewable energy system is as expected to be high as it can support the motor if one of them is breakdown

Heavy metals pollution sources of the surface water of the Tunggak and Balok River in the Gebeng Industrial Area, Pahang, Malaysia

The heavy metal contamination of surface water is regarded as one of the most serious environmental hazards. The purpose of this study is to identify the origins of 10 heavy metals found in surface water in the Gebeng industrial area rivers. The samples were gathered over the course of a year at ten stations along the Tunggak and Balok rivers. According to the Malaysian heavy metals standard, the surface water of the Gebeng rivers was contaminated with six heavy metals: Cd, Co, Cu, Pb, Mn, and Ni. Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry was used to analyze the data. SPSS version 22.0, a multivariate statistical tool, was used to identify the sources. The heavy metals have been divided into three components using principal component analysis, indicating that the pollution is due to anthropogenic causes. The stations were grouped into three groups using cluster analysis, with high pollution loading falling under industrial zone stations (IZ1, IZ2, and IZ3), indicating pollution from industrial sources. In general, the findings of this research will be useful in future studies aimed to reduce heavy metal contamination in the Gebeng rivers

Simulation of Hydrodesulphurization (HDS) Unit of Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited

This research was carried out to simulate the Hydrodesulphurization unit using ASPEN HYSYS with the aim of removing impurities such as Sulphur, Nitrogen and Oxygen in raw Kerosene. The simulation is based on conditions and parameters (mass flow rates, temperature and pressure readings) obtained from the Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) plant of the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC). After the successful completion of the simulation, total removal of impurities was achieved as the concentration of sulphur, nitrogen and oxygen in mole fraction present in the treated Kerosene stream was approximately zero. The treated Kerosene composition indicated 0.0021, 0.3342, 0.3322 and 0.3315 mole fractions of n-C13, n-C14, n-C15 and n-C16 respectively. Key words: Simulation, Hydrodesulphurization, Aspen Hysys, Impurities

Functional Outcome after Treatment of Aggressive Tumours in the Distal Radius: Comparison between Reconstruction using Proximal Fibular Graft and Wrist Fusion

Introduction: Restoration of a functional hand is the ultimate goal following a distal radius tumour resection. The early outcomes of mobile wrist reconstruction are satisfactory; however, long-term results are unpredictable due to late wrist instability and degenerative arthritis. Our aim is to compare mobile wrist reconstruction with wrist fusion (pan-carpal fusion) in our cohort of patients. Materials and Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed for functional outcomes of all patients who underwent resection for distal radius tumour and treated with either fusion or reconstruction of the wrist in a single institution from years 2000-2013 with a minimum of three years follow-up. Results: Eleven patients were included in the study, six of whom had wrist reconstruction with proximal fibula graft and the remaining five wrist fusion, with a mean follow-up of 6.3 years. The mean Musculoskeletal Tumour Society (MSTS) score was 82.78%, ranging from 70% to 93.3%. Average grip strength compared to the normal contralateral hand was 60.0% for total wrist fusion, which was better than wrist reconstruction with 58.07%. There was no difference in the functional outcome between fusion and mobile reconstruction in our study. Osteoarthritis changes and subluxation of the wrist joint were the most common findings in the long-term follow-up for this group. Conclusion: There was no difference in the functional outcome of the long-term follow-up between the two groups

Possible epigenetic role of vitexin in regulating neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been clinically characterized by a progressive degeneration of neurons which resulted in a gradual and irreversible cognitive impairment. The accumulation of Aβ and τ proteins in the brain contribute to the severity of the disease. Recently, vitexin compound has been the talk amongst researchers due to its pharmacological properties as anti-inflammation and anti-AD. However, the epigenetic mechanism of the compound in regulating the neuroinflammation activity is yet to be fully elucidated. Hence, this review discusses the potential of vitexin compound to have the pharmacoepigenetic property in regulating the neuroinflammation activity in relation to AD. It is with hope that the review would unveil the potential of vitexin as the candidate in treating AD

Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) Integrations for Decision Making Purposes: A Review

Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) is generally used as decision making purpose. However, AHP provides a single numerical number. As the method can only yield binary decisions of either “yes” or “no”, the method is not compatible when the decision has uncertainties. Consequently, previous researchers have fused AHP with fuzzy to process alternatives with uncertainty judgment. In this paper, fundamental knowledge of separate tool was reviewed. Fundamental of both fuzzy and AHP were also  summarized in this article. The next phase of this paper was to split the types of FAHP namely to determine the relative weight and the rank or score. Two methods were utilized under FAHP to determine relative weight ; triangular and trapezoidal FAHP. Next type of FAHP was to determine the score of each alternative often carried out after triangular or trapezoidal FAHP. The second types of FAHP were Fuzzy TOPSIS, and VIKOR. These FAHPs were explained and steps to carry out were presented in this paper. In conclusion, all types of FAHP are compared in terms of computational time, number of steps and level of difficulty