The Impact of Online Feedbacks on the Credibility of News Stories (A Study of Saharareporters.Com)

The new media have revolutionized human communication. The traditional means of gathering, processing and disseminating news has been greatly altered. Consequently, the news audience is now sophisticated and highly dynamic. With the new media, the audience members are now equal partners in news business. Though a welcome development, it has raised credibility question. This study, therefore, investigates how online feedbacks affect the credibility of online stories published by saharareproter.com. Using qualitative content analysis and focus group discussion, findings revealed that majority of online feedbacks in the audience platform of saharareporters.com raised the issue of credibility. In most cases, the audience questioned the accuracy of some news stories. It was also found that most of the feedbacks analyzed had ethnic, religious and political connotations. It was therefore, recommended that the managers of saharareporters.com should verify some stories sent in by citizen journalist before they are uploaded. Keywords: Fifth Estate ● saharareporter.com● Citizen journalism ● Free press● Online news credibilit

Regulatory Environment and Media Coverage of Elections in Nigeria: A Review

The legal environment under which an election takes place, no doubt, plays a crucial role in determining the extent to which the election would be adjudged free, fair and credible. The 2011 general elections in Nigeria were widely acclaimed to be free, fair and credible both locally and internationally. This work, therefore, set out to ascertain the veracity of this claim by examining the legal atmosphere under which the elections were conducted. The review showed that the legal environment was adequate enough to guarantee a free, fair and credible elections. However, it was discovered that most of these legal provisions were not complied with and the offenders were not brought to justice by the relevant bodies such as the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON). With regards to the ‘equal opportunity doctrine’ as contained in the Electoral Act, the ruling party at various level of government, dominated the airwaves giving the opposition party very limited opportunity to be heard. It was also observed that the law on campaign funding was not observed. The ruling party spent far above the provisions permitted by law. Based on these findings, the researchers recommend that the regulatory environment in Nigeria should be strengthened by ensuring that the provisions of the Electoral Act and other election related laws are adhered to by all concerned and enforced by the relevant regulatory bodies

Quality assurance indicators for school transformation: a paradigm shift

The new millennium is witnessing a lot of transformational challenges in almost all realms of life including the educational system, bringing about world class standards. Consequently, education reform has become necessary in pursuance of educational quality and effectiveness. Unfortunately most educational reforms in the past decades have resulted in serious frustration and failure even though they are often based on good will. This discourse will highlight the need for transformation in education in terms of Quality Assurance (QA) indicators for quality education that is currently experiencing three waves. The different waves are based on the different paradigms and theories of education quality and school effectiveness, and they result in different strategies and approaches to education quality assurance. The first wave of school transformation focuses mainly on Internal Quality Assurance Indicators and makes effort to improve internal school performances particularly the methods and processes of teaching and learning. The second wave emphasizes Interface Quality Assurance in terms of organizational effectiveness, stakeholders' satisfaction and market competitiveness and makes effort to ensure satisfaction and accountability to the internal and external stakeholders. This paper further explained that school transformation should move towards the third wave which emphasizes strongly Future Quality Assurance Indicators in terms of relevance to the new school functions in the new century, as well as relevance to the new paradigm shift in education concerning contextualized multiple intelligences (CMI), globalization, localization and individualization. Based on the paradigm shift, a new QA indicator in terms of value added and value created indicators which are completely different are added to the list. The enhancement of value added depends heavily on improvement of internal processes while value created relies mainly on the increase in goal relevance and stakeholder satisfaction with quality of education services. Continuous institutional development becomes necessary for total QA in the secondary school system and quality management of the new secondary school curriculum that emphasises entrepreneurship education. Consequently, transformation from the traditional ways of school management, to new creative and innovative approach, such as introduction of Tripartite Curriculum for inculcating multiple intelligences, instead of mono-intelligence that is currently prevalent in the Nigerian secondary school curriculum, is therefore advocated for. so that the current paradigm shift to a new secondary school curriculum in Nigerian will surely be a success

Education students’ Access to E-learning Facilities in Universities South-East of Nigeria

E-learning is becoming the world’s most effective way of sharing knowledge. Consequently, many universities in Nigeria are seriously planning to commence e-learning service delivery. The extent of their readiness in terms of students’ access to e-learning facilities becomes imperative. This study investigated education students’ access to e-learning facilities in universities South-East of Nigeria. Using a description survey research design and a multistage sampling approach, a sample of 376 final year education students from five universities were selected for the study. A structured questionnaire and interview were used for data collection. Four research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. Frequency counts, percentages, means and t-test statistics were used for data analysis.  Results show that; only 42.9% of the students have access to e-learning facilities; students have access to only e-mail accounts; factors hindering access to e-learning facilities include irregular electric power supply among others. There were no significant differences in gender & federal and state universities with regards to students’ access to e-learning facilities. It was concluded that the universities were not yet ready for e-learning service delivery. Recommendations include stepping down the take-off of e-learning in the universities. Key words: E-learning, Access, facilities and hindering factors

Strategic Management of Climate Change Challenges to Crop and Livestock Productions in Southern Nigeria

The study investigated strategic management of climate change challenges to crop and livestock production in Southern Nigeria which is currently being threatened by climate change effects/challenges. Crop and livestock production in this area include economic farm products that are currently facing serious climate change threats /challenges. Climate change and agricultural production literature show that the havoc caused by climate change in Nigeria suggests more frightening future threats on agriculture in Africa. This makes it imperative to evolve sustainable strategic management techniques for managing climate change challenges to crop and livestock productions that constitute major farm products in Southern Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. A total of 610 respondents comprising of 266 registered crop farmers, 266 livestock farmers and 78 agricultural extension agents were used as study sample.  A questionnaire and focus group discussion guide were the instruments used for data collection. Data were analyzed using the means, standard deviation and t-test statistics. The study revealed the Weaknesses & Threats; Strengths & Opportunities (SWOT analysis) of climate change challenges to crop and livestock productions. It was found among others that: death and low yield of crops and livestock due to drought; heat stress are Weaknesses and Threats while the Strengths and Opportunities include, adoption of species or varieties of crops and breeds of animals that are resistant to drought and heat stress as well as government intervention. It was recommended among others that agricultural scientists and researchers should focus more on developing crops and livestock species that are climate change tolerant. Key Words: Strategic Management, SWOT Analysis, Climate Change, Crop & Livestock production

KMT2D Loss Promotes Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Through Modulation of Immune Microenvironment

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Women Entrepreneurship as a Cutting Edge for Rural Development in Nigeria

Rural development is more than ever before linked to entrepreneurship. Institutions and individual promoting rural development now see entrepreneurship as a strategic development intervention that could accelerate the rural development process. Furthermore, institutions and individuals seem to agree on the urgent need to promote rural enterprises; development agencies see rural entrepreneurship as an employment potential, politicians see it as the key strategy to prevent rural unrest; farmers see it as an instrument for improving farm earnings; and women see it as an employment possibility near their homes which provides autonomy, independence and a reduced need for social support. To all these groups, however, entrepreneurship stands as a vehicle to improve the quality of communities and to sustain a healthy economy and environment. Without entrepreneurial capabilities which are well developed or potentially available, external funds will be wasted on projects that will not provide long term economic growth. Rural entrepreneurship stimulates local entrepreneurial talent and subsequent growth of indigenous companies; it finds a unique blend of resources either inside or outside of agriculture. Therefore to accelerate economic development in rural areas, it is necessary to increase the supply of entrepreneurs, thus building up the critical mass of first generation entrepreneurs who will take risk and engage in uncertainties of new venture creation, create something from practically nothing and create values by pulling together a unique package of resources to exploit. The paper therefore deals with the following three issues: firstly, it sets out reasons why promoting entrepreneurship is a force of economic change that must take place if many rural communities are to survive, secondly, it deals with what policies are necessary in order to create an environment in rural areas conducive for entrepreneurship and thirdly, it considers developing and promoting of women entrepreneurship as a way for sustainable rural development in Nigeria. Key words: Entrepreneurship, rural development, economic policies, entrepreneurial skills and women empowerment

A SWOT Analysis of Male and Female Students’ Performance in Chemistry: A Comparative Study

The purpose of this study was to do a SWOT analysis and compare performances of male and female students in chemistry. Four research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study.  Two boys’, two girls’ and two co-educational schools involving 1319 males and 1831 females, were selected by a stratified, deliberate sampling technique. A descriptive survey research design, percentages and means were used for answering research questions. The  z- and t- tests were used to test hypotheses at (p<0.05).  The SWOT of male and female performances were identified. Strengths, Opportunities and Weaknesses to the performances of males were higher than that of females. Threats to female performances were higher than males’. There is a significant difference in male and female performances in Chemistry, in favour of boys, generally; in urban ; co-educational schools; Strengths; Opportunities and Weaknesses but in favour of females in single sex schools  and in Threats to performances. It was concluded that males performed better than females. Recommendations include encouraging females to attend single –sex schools. Strengths and Opportunities to female performances in chemistry should be enhanced while their Weaknesses and Treats should be drastically reduced, as there can be no national or development without females. Keywords: SWOT Analysis; Male; Female; Performance; Chemistry; Comparative study; West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE)

Leaching of Trace Elements in Enugu Coal: Effect of Acid Concentration

The effect of acid concentration on the trace elements composition of Enugu sub-bituminous coal from Onyeama Mine was investigated by leaching the coal using nitric acid (HNO3) of 0.5M, 1.0M, 1.5M and 2.0M concentrations. The amount of trace elements (in ppm) present in the filtrate from the leaching process were determined using Varian AA240 Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer with cathode lamps of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb). Optimum leaching condition of the trace metals were obtained using 2.0M HNO3 solution for 1 hour and 75µm particle size which resulted in the detection of As(1.363ppm), Cu (1.413ppm), Cr (0.764ppm), Cd (0.146), and Pb (1.942ppm). 2.0M concentration of nitric acid has proven to be very effective in the leaching of trace metals in Enugu coal. Result of the SEM analysis shows that the porosity of the coal residue was increased and this provides strong evidence that significant amounts of inorganic elements were removed. Onyeama coal, therefore, contains large proportions of silica, calcium carbonate, and dolomite, as well as some elements such as aluminum, iron, and potassium, and other trace metals such as lead, chromium, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, copper

Developing the Active Participation of African Women in Science, Technology and Innovation: The Entrepreneurial Approach

This work is concerned with using entrepreneurship to augment the active participation of women in science, technology and innovation, both for self improvement and societal benefits. It explores the fact that entrepreneurship is a subject that is devoted to finding solution to daunting problems not only in the area of business but also in other areas of human endeavour and self improvement. It is argued that since women constitute about half of humanity and have proven competence, underutilizing their entrepreneurial capacity is a major source of poverty, therefore efforts should be made to positively harness this huge potentials for prosperity and reduction of hunger. The problem of women as entrepreneurs has been explained as originating from mere stereotyping of duties entrenched in cultures and other social norms which restrict the utilization of the vast energy and competencies in women. Entrepreneurship has been established as the only means of narrowing these divides, it can help women to form networks and access necessary infrastructure for ICT capability and usage. It can increase their communication power, expose them to influences and best practices and hence prepare them to partake fully in creative, science, technology and innovative skill. This way, women will be integrated into socio-economic reckoning and policy making status. Keywords: Active participation, African women, Science Technology and Innovation Development, Entrepreneurial approach and supportive education