A Secure Web-Based Universal Basic Educational Administrative Management System: A National Capacity Building Strategy in Education

Education in Nigeria is an instrument for effecting the development of its citizens in particular, and the nation in general. The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) established by UBE Act, 2004 is introduced in Nigeria to ensure unfettered access to nine years of formal basic education as well as reduce the incidence of drop-out from the formal school system through improved relevance and efficiency. In this paper, we design, implement and analyze a secure web-based universal basic educational administrative management system to deal with the problem of administration overload in managing pupils, students, teachers, personnel and curriculum data in both primary and junior secondary schools in Nigeria. We adopt the following sequence to accomplish our goal, requirement analysis, architectural design, application design and implementation. The study explores object-oriented database, PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), Apache server pages and MySQL DBMS tools. The System prototype is built on a three-tier client server architecture to provide UBEC, primary and junior secondary institutions with broader information availability, better performance, and eliminate internal security problem, paperwork and manpower. The framework will help to improve education capacity building, reliability, robustness and quality. Keywords: Web-based Database, Formal basic Education, Curriculum Data, Object-Oriented Design, Data-Driven System, Universal Basic Education Commission.

A semantic web model for the situational awareness of indigenous knowledge in healt

Most unsupervised indigenous knowledge (IK) are known to be very useful in combating critical health issues as well as being dangerous if the administration is abused. Despite the fact that these locally prepared herbal medicine are not encouraged to be used by the citizenry for known reasons, some people in our localities still use these products and testify to their usefulness. If there is awareness on the true sources of this indigenous knowledge with the dosage not exceeded, these products will be helpful in combating some critical health issues where orthodox medicine fails. It will also be helpful to the citizenry who may not be able to afford orthodox medicine as well as providing a means of livelihood for the traditional medical doctors (herbalists). This work is aimed at creating a computational model for situation awareness of indigenous knowledge in health that will help in information sharing using ontological modeling approach for semantic web. The resulting model will feature and share the successes as well as the challenges and the opportunities of indigenous knowledge in health as obtained by interviewing the traditional experts and the patients that have made use of these traditional products. This situation awareness of IK will help put IK to proper and safe use in handling critical health issues especially for the poor who can’t afford expensive orthodox medicinFacultad de Informátic

A semantic web model for the situational awareness of indigenous knowledge in healt

Most unsupervised indigenous knowledge (IK) are known to be very useful in combating critical health issues as well as being dangerous if the administration is abused. Despite the fact that these locally prepared herbal medicine are not encouraged to be used by the citizenry for known reasons, some people in our localities still use these products and testify to their usefulness. If there is awareness on the true sources of this indigenous knowledge with the dosage not exceeded, these products will be helpful in combating some critical health issues where orthodox medicine fails. It will also be helpful to the citizenry who may not be able to afford orthodox medicine as well as providing a means of livelihood for the traditional medical doctors (herbalists). This work is aimed at creating a computational model for situation awareness of indigenous knowledge in health that will help in information sharing using ontological modeling approach for semantic web. The resulting model will feature and share the successes as well as the challenges and the opportunities of indigenous knowledge in health as obtained by interviewing the traditional experts and the patients that have made use of these traditional products. This situation awareness of IK will help put IK to proper and safe use in handling critical health issues especially for the poor who can’t afford expensive orthodox medicinFacultad de Informátic

A semantic web model for the situational awareness of indigenous knowledge in healt

Most unsupervised indigenous knowledge (IK) are known to be very useful in combating critical health issues as well as being dangerous if the administration is abused. Despite the fact that these locally prepared herbal medicine are not encouraged to be used by the citizenry for known reasons, some people in our localities still use these products and testify to their usefulness. If there is awareness on the true sources of this indigenous knowledge with the dosage not exceeded, these products will be helpful in combating some critical health issues where orthodox medicine fails. It will also be helpful to the citizenry who may not be able to afford orthodox medicine as well as providing a means of livelihood for the traditional medical doctors (herbalists). This work is aimed at creating a computational model for situation awareness of indigenous knowledge in health that will help in information sharing using ontological modeling approach for semantic web. The resulting model will feature and share the successes as well as the challenges and the opportunities of indigenous knowledge in health as obtained by interviewing the traditional experts and the patients that have made use of these traditional products. This situation awareness of IK will help put IK to proper and safe use in handling critical health issues especially for the poor who can’t afford expensive orthodox medicinFacultad de Informátic

An andrographolide from helichrysum caespitium (DC.) sond. Ex Harv., (Asteraceae) and Its antimicrobial, antiquorum sensing, and antibiofilm potentials

Helichrysum caespititium (DC.) Sond. Ex Harv., (Asteraceae) is a medicinal plant indigenous to South Africa. Its non-polar extracts exhibit significant antimicrobial and, in particular, antigonorrheal activity. This study aimed at isolating and purifying the active antigonorrheal compound from its chloroform extract and validating its inhibition potential on quorum sensing (QS) and biofilm formation of multi-drug resistant (MDR) pathogens. Phytochemical investigation of aerial parts of H. caespititium afforded a diterpene lactone (CF6). The effect of CF6 on violacein production and biofilm formation was studied using in vitro quantitative violacein inhibition (Chromobacterium violaceum) and biofilm formation (Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa). The structure of CF6 was characterized using FTIR, NMR, and UPLC-MS data accordingly, as 10-methyl-8-(propan-17-ylidene)naphthalen-9-yl)-11-vinyl- 14-hydroxyfuran-16-one. The susceptibility testing of the pathogens against CF6 revealed Neisseria gonorrhoeae was noticeably susceptible with a MIC value of 60 g/mL, while Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus showed MIC of 125 g/mL. All gram-negative pathogens, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were inhibited at 250 g/mL. CF6 also inhibited the production of violacein by 51.88% at 250 g/mL and prevented cell attachment by 40.76–81.18%, with N. gonorrhoeae being highly prohibited from forming biofilm. In conclusion, 10-methyl-8-(propan-17- ylidene)naphthalen-9-yl)-11-vinyl-14-hydroxyfuran-16-one is the first of its kind to be isolated from the non-polar (chloroform) extract of South African Helichrysum caespititium with antigonorrheal, antimicrobial, antiquorum sensing, and antibiofilm properties. The compound may serve as a drug candidate against MDR pathogens.SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL : FIGURE S1: The proton (1H NMR) spectrum of CF6. FIGURE S2: The carbon-13 (13CNMR) spectrum of CF6. FIGURE S3: Correlation spectroscopy (COSY) spectrum of CF6. FIGURE S4: Attached proton test (ATP) spectrum of CF6. FIGURE S5: Heteronuclear Single Quantum Coherence (HSQC) spectrum of CF6. FIGURE S6: Heteronuclear multiple bond correlation (HMBC) spectrum of CF6 and FIGURE S7: High resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HRESIMS) spectrum of CF6.The South African National Research Foundation (NRF) Thuthuka Grant, South African Medical Research Council–Self Initiated Research (SAMRC-SIR), and Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University Research and Development Grant.https://www.mdpi.com/journal/biologyam2022BiochemistryGeneticsMicrobiology and Plant Patholog

An assessment tool for teaching aids towards the retention of female students in computer science

Attempts to bridge the gender-equity gap have exposed the predominant under-representation of women in Computer Science which has been ascribed to high attrition rates in the undergraduate stream for female students. Challenges that commonly confront female students in Computer Science have been grouped as follows: inadequately designed curriculum, poor teaching methods, student-teacher relationship and insufficient content of teaching materials. This grouping could be referred to as teaching aids and they form part of the equity strategies that could address under -representation of women in Computer Science. Solving the gender equity problem requires multi-dimensional approach with strategies to include periodically reviewed curriculum, proper classroom management, appropriate teaching methods, teacher training, policy reform, school construction, scholarships award among others. Therefore, to reduce female attrition, comprehensive assessment of the teaching aids becomes imperative. This work aims at developing the assessment tool that will serve as a guide or template for evaluating teaching aids for courses in computer science. A pilot study on the usefulness of the tool has been conducted on three courses randomly selected from first, second and third year in Computer Science Department, UCT. The tool has successfully tracked the progress, identified lapses; suggest proactive corrective actions that will subsequently improve the teaching aids and female students’ retention in the programme. The weight of the usefulness of this tool in retaining female students in Computer Science will be better felt in future

Biological activities and nutritional value of Tapinanthus bangwensis leaves

The cytotoxic and antioxidant properties of the ethanolic extract and fractions of the leaves of Tapinanthus bangwensis were evaluated. The investigation of their total phenol and flavonoid contents, proximate analysis and their mineral composition were also carried out. In the brine shrimp lethality assay, the ethyl acetate and dichloromethane fractions showed cytotoxic activity with LD50 values of 11.22 and 15.84 μg/ml, respectively. The ethyl acetate and dichloromethane fractions exhibited significant cytotoxic effects towards HeLa cells with IC50 values of 24.25 and 24.43 μg/ml respectively. In the DPPH assay, the ethyl acetate fraction showed the highest activity while the butanol fraction showed the highest activity in the metal chelating and the lipid peroxidation assays. The quantitative analysis gave the total phenol and flavonoid contents in the range of 13.38 to 668.65 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g and 0.53 to 34.52 mg quercetin equivalent (QE)/g, respectively. For the proximate analysis, the crude fibre, carbohydrate, protein, total ash and moisture content values were 58.03, 17.80, 7.79, 13.70 and 0.60%, respectively while iron occurred in the highest amount and sodium in the least in the mineral composition analysis. These results demonstrate the cytotoxic and antioxidant activities of T. bangwensis leaves and support the traditional use of the plant in cancer treatment.Keywords: Tapinanthus bangwensis, brineshrimp, HeLa, antioxidan

High doses of Uvaria chamae root extract impair sperm motility and viability

Uvaria chamae is a tropical medicinal plant with documented antimicrobial and antimalarial activities. Agents with these activities are known to impair fertility. This study investigated the antifertility effects of ethanolic extract of U. chamae on male albino Wistar rats. Two different oral doses; 56.6 mg/kg body weight and 113.2 mg/kg body weight of the extracts were administered to low dose and high dose group, respectively. A third group served as control and received 2 mL of distilled water. There were five animals in each group. Administration lasted six weeks after which animals were sacrificed and samples collected. Results showed that sperm count, sperm morphology and semen pH were not affected (P>0.05) by the extract. Sperm motility (55.65 %) and viability (64.38 %) were however decreased (P<0.05) by high doses of the extract. Histopathology of testicular tissues also showed no difference across the groups. U. chamae thus impair fertility in vivo especially at high doses