Month: June 2020

Jun 29

DEEP LEARNING MODEL FOR DETECTING BREAST CANCER

DEEP LEARNING MODEL FOR DETECTING BREAST CANCER AT EARLY STAGE

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women but in can occur in both the genders. It is accountable for an appalling number of deaths worldwide. In a particularly  developing country like Nigeria, there is a lack of awareness and facilities mostly in rural areas and high rate of instances of breast cancer that is diagnosed in the last stages. However, the early detection of breast cancer can lead to help increase the odds of survival. Nowadays, with the increasing number of patients, manual analysis of medical images becomes tedious, time consuming and unfeasible.  With  the advancement in the field of machine learning,   it is now possible to create an automated and accurate Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) system in order to make the entire process of detecting a malignant tumor more resource efficient and time saving through proper utilization. This paper presents the comparative analysis of different machine learning algorithms and their results in predicting cancerous tumors. The proposed model uses supervised machine learning algorithms such as Random Forest, Support Vector Machine, K-Nearest Neighbors, Naïve Bayes and Logistic Regression with and without PCA on a dataset with 30 features extracted from a digitized image of a fine needle aspirate (FNA) of a breast mass. Deep learning models like Artificial Neural Network and Convolutional Neural Network are used and their performances are compared. From the comparative analysis, it is observed that the deep learning models outperform all other classifiers and achieves impressive scores across multiple performance metrics such as Accuracy of 98.83%, Precision of 98.44% and Recall of 100%.

LISTED CONTENTS FOR DEEP LEARNING MODEL FOR DETECTING BREAST CANCER Pdf

  • CHAPTER ONE
  • Introduction
  • Motivation
  • Objective
  • Thesis Orientation
  • CHAPTER TWO
  • Literature Review
  • Related Works .
  • Machine Learning
  • proposed Model
  • Dataset
  • Data Visualization
  • Histogra
  • Heatmap
  • Data Preprocessing
  • Categorical Variable Conversion
  • Feature Scaling
  • Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
  • Data Reshaping
  • Train-Test Split
  • Neural Network Layers
  • Algorithms
  • Random Forest
  • Support Vector Machine
  • K-Nearest Neighbor
  • Logistic Regression
  • Naïve Bayes
  • Artificial Neural Network (ANN)
  • Convolutional Neural Network (CNN
  • CHAPTER THREE
  • Result Analysis
  • Performance Metrics
  • Confusion matrix
  • Accuracy
  • Precision
  • Recall or Sensitivity
  • F1 Score
  • Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) Curve
  • Area under the ROC Curve (AUC)
  • Model Performances
  • Random Forest (RF)
  • Support Vector Machine (SVM)
  • K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN)
  • Logistic Regression (LR)
  • Naïve Bayes
  • Artifical Neural Network (ANN)
  • Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)
  • CHAPTER FIVE
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • References
Jun 25

THE EFFECTS OF ARMED CONFLICT IN THE CONDUCT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN AFRICA

THE EFFECTS OF ARMED CONFLICT IN THE CONDUCT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN AFRICA

INTRODUCTION

Armed conflict has been a recurring reality in the analysis of postcolonial Africa. According to Lindemann (2008), since the 60s, a total of 24 sub-Saharan African countries (i.e., almost 50% of African states) have suffered war, while 22 other countries have managed to “avoid it”. “Freedom wars”, “intractable wars”, “proxy wars” (substitute wars or wars controlled from abroad, typical conflicts of the context of bipolar dispute) or “post-Cold War conflicts” have sparked a major review of its causes and consequences, sometimes very biased and reductionist, based on very different sources, methodologies and data. Nevertheless, most sources agree that Africa has experienced a substantial decline in the number of “major armed conflicts” in recent years. For example, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) states that if in 1990 there were “major armed conflicts” in Africa, this figure had dropped to just one in 2007 (Somalia). In total, this agency estimates that since the end of the Cold War a total of 14 armed conflicts can be counted in Africa, namely: Algeria, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), Republic of the Congo, Eritrea-Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.2 Some of these contexts, according to the cyclical dynamic of violence that often characterizes many armed conflicts, are still undergoing noteworthy episodes of violence, for example, the events of the last months of 2008 in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, or the serious situation in the Sudanese region of Darfur. Other conflicts appear to be nearing their closing stages, as is the case of Uganda, while the events taking place in the Niger Delta region in Nigeria also deserve special attention due to the periodic high levels of violence, destruction and fatalities reached. Although we are aware that by referring only to the major armed conflicts we have left out other conflict situations on the continent, the fact is that this approach enables us to focus on the common characteristics of these conflicts. Although the vast majority are regarded as intrastate conflict type (except the dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia between 1998 and 2000), they are also highly regionalised conflicts. Similarly, they are conflicts occurring in contexts more and more internationalized and transnationalized. At different levels, not only at direct contenders level, a large number of actors are involved either in their management and / or resolution (UN, NGOs, etc.), either in their dynamics (third countries, private security companies, natural resource companies, etc.), creating complex networks linking local armed factions with actors of very different nature (Duffield, 2001). From this, it follows that the war in Africa has had an extremely significant humanitarian and socio-economic impact. The estimations only in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are that

Jun 23

The effects of social media

The effects of social media

I feel tremendous guilt,” are the words Chamath Palihapitiya used in 2017 when discussing the consequences of the social media tools that he helped to realize while working at Facebook (Palihapitiya, 2017). Like many contemporary critics, Palihapitiya has found that the promises of “futurists” and “technophiles” — and some he made himself — have arrived with an unforeseen weight of consequences. He says, in no uncertain terms, that social technologies are destroying the social fabric, ruining public discourse, and pushing us into shallow and extreme versions of ourselves. Does the media effects literature agree? Though it is too soon to say with any degree of validity (Lin, 2009, p. 584), Palihapitiya expresses concerns that are repeated throughout the history of mass media. Indeed, anytime the media environment changes, it is soon followed by changes in the public discourse (Gerbner, 1969, 1998). Therefore, it may be possible to find generalizability between existing research and the effects of new media — or, if nothing else, to take stock of the difficulty in studying mass communication.

On the effects of social media — herein, understood as a distinct class of media in both form and content, resulting from a combination of technological capabilities (like Web 2.0, mobile internet, and the advent of push-notifications) and social networking platforms, which together serve a unique role in contemporary life compared to other internet-based media — it would be naive to state that they are harmless or unextraordinary, and it would be equally shortsighted to see them as cultural juggernauts unreconcilable with existing media effects literature. This apparent dissonance is best resolved with a look to early cultivation theory. The field finds itself in a moment like that of George Gerbner in 1969, needing to restore clarity to the effects of mass communication in a changed media environment (Morgan, Shanahan, & Signorielli, 2009). In the words of Gerbner:

“A change in the social bases and economic goals of message mass-production leads, sooner or later, to a transformation of the common symbolic environment that gives public meaning and sense of direction to human activity.” (1969, p. 138)

Because of a need for new theorizing and because of a changed media environment that threatens to up-end the media effects literature (Bennett & Iyengar, 2008; Witucki, 2019), it would be premature to ascribe moral and ethical value to any facet or mechanism behind social media. However, there are specific effects with clear positive and negative consequences (Lin, 2009, p. 584). With the same impetus as what drove the early research of violent media, and despite being opened to the same criticisms, an emphasis on the negative consequences is warranted here because of the significance in understanding them. Media effects scholars must, again, follow the lead of public concerns and risk entering the public discussion in order to inform both the public and policymakers during a critical point that will determine the shape of policy to come — a point also made by Stoycheff (2016, pp. 307 – 308) whose words form a cogent call-to-action in light of their finding’s implications on honest and open public discourse.

The negative effects of internet-based media can include things like new forms of propaganda and warfare; however, those that are most concerning are long-term social effects that impinge on the lives of individuals, manifesting into isolation and loneliness. One such effect is sacrificing in-person social contact, but this is a rudimentary look at social factors that can take many forms and attributes (Lin, 2009, p. 571). Social media permits contact with an extended social group, across prior social and geographic barriers — that is, a person can use social media to augment their relationships through contact with far-away friends (Lin, 2009, p. 572) and by establishing new relationships within, for example, likeminded groups (Lin, 2009, p. 571). Unfortunately, the overwhelming social good of these outcomes must be tempered against dependence. When digital social contact supplants physical social contact, the repercussions can undermine a person’s wellbeing across physical and mental health, career and finances, and in the social contexts of their home, work, and local community (Lin, 2009, pp. 573 – 574).

In stark contrast to contemporary criticism, the effects literature on social media is cautious but optimistic. While this may be due to the rate of technological change hampering study or the general public taking alarmist and reactionary positions, the lessons of cultivation also apply. Even relatively small negative effects can have significant long-term consequences for the individual and act as an aggregate force across the culture (Morgan et al., 2009, pp. 38 – 39) — and the public cannot be trusted to interpret research on their own. Camaj and Santana (2015) suggest an additional perspective for understanding discrepancies (p. 338). Their behavioral findings on political and apolitical Facebook groups adds to a growing body of literature implying that social media users are adapting constructs of social behavior for physical spaces and applying them to these new contexts. Social media, then, is like an agora, and in mimicking such conceptions it comes with some of the same social behaviors. Such a metaphor may explain how social media can serve all manner of intended and unintended purposes. That, for example, apolitical sites can house quality political discussion, or that the nature of discussions will exhibit different qualities as group size, member transience, and structured social expectations shift.

In the 1850s, British journalism scholars were at a significant moment — and they knew it. In the journals of the era, they penned essays evaluating the significance and cultural power of the press. Of those people, one K. Hunt writing in the Edinburgh Review (1850), examined the Fourth Estate — “unquestionably the most grave, noticeable, formidable phenomenon; the greatest fact of our times” — tracing its growth from pamphlet to the earliest conceptions of news and factual discourse. Still another figure, Alexander Andrews (1859), chronicled the full history “of this mighty Mind-Engine — of this tremendous Moral Power.” We find ourselves today in another significant moment, at a point when the environment of mass communication has changed. We owe it to each other to study all that we can about this moment because, in the words of Andrews, “if but one half of what has been said of it were true, it should have chroniclers innumerable, for where could a grander theme be found?”

LITERATURE REVIEWED
  • Andrews, A. (1859). The History of British Journalism: from the foundation of the newspaper press in England, to the repeal of the Stamp act in 1855 (Vol. 1). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c024315313
  • Bennett, W. L., & Iyengar, S. (2008). A New Era of Minimal Effects? The Changing Foundations of Political Communication. Journal of Communication, 58(4), 707 – 731. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.00410.x
  • Camaj, L., & Santana, A. D. (2015). Political Deliberation on Facebook during Electoral Campaigns: Exploring the Relevance of Moderator’s Technical Role and Political Ideology. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 12(4), 325 – 341. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2015.1100224
  • Gerbner, G. (1969). Toward “Cultural Indicators”: The Analysis of Mass Mediated Public Message Systems. AV Communication Review, 17(2), 137 – 148. Retrieved from JSTOR.
  • Gerbner, G. (1998). Telling Stories, or How Do We Know What We Know? The Story of Cultural Indicators and the Cultural Environment Movement. Wide Angle, 20(2), 116 – 131. https://doi.org/10.1353/wan.1998.0017
  • Hunt, F. K., Massey, M.P., W., & Blakey, R. (1855). The Newspaper Press. In The Edinburgh Review. A. and C. Black.
  • Lin, C. A. (2009). The effects of the Internet. In J. Bryant & M. B. Oliver (Eds.), Media effects: advances in theory and research (3rd ed, pp. 567 – 591). New York: Routledge.
  • Morgan, M., Shanahan, J., & Signorielli, N. (2009). Growing up with television: Cultivation processes. In J. Bryant & M. B. Oliver (Eds.), Media effects: advances in theory and research (3rd ed, pp. 34 – 49). New York: Routledge.
  • Palihapitiya, C. (2017). View From The Top: Chamath Palihapitiya [Talk]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/PMotykw0SIk?t=1281
  • Stoycheff, E. (2016). Under Surveillance: Examining Facebook’s Spiral of Silence Effects in the Wake of NSA Internet Monitoring. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 93(2), 296 – 311. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699016630255
  • Witucki, D. (2019, February 27). Media Effects in Aggregate: Confluences and limitations. Retrieved March 31, 2019, from Derek Witucki website: https://derekwitucki.com/blog/media-effects-in-aggregate-confluences-and-limitations
Jun 22

Imperatives of Internet and Social Media on Broadcast Journalism in Nigeria

Imperatives of Internet and Social Media on Broadcast Journalism in Nigeria

Abstract

 The development of radio and later television brought a new dimension to news and events coverage in Nigeria. In 1993 the monopoly of government was broken to allow private participation. This gave the broadcast audience multiple choices of media. The advanced technology in the broadcast media and the development of internet and social media networks further exposed the society to alternative mediums of information. The pervasiveness of these websites in our everyday lives is today changing the face of broadcasting globally and in particular the Nigerian broadcast industry. This paper therefore examines the implication of Internet and social media on broadcast journalism in Nigeria.

Introduction

For a society to exist and function there must be a functioning media. This fact has already been established in the different earliest societies that make up the entity Nigeria. The various traditional communication channels like the Town crier, the aroko and the drum beat emphasize the role of information and communication between and among the people. The Media are therefore shaping people’s everyday lives, politics and cultural activities to a greater extent than ever before. We live in a society that depends on the media for information and communication that guides our daily activities like work, entertainment, health care, education, personal relationships, travelling and anything else that we have to do. Extolling the role of the mass media in the society Dominick (2002:32) writes that: May be the best way to appreciate the role the mass communication plays in our society would be to imagine what it would be like if, all of a sudden, the whole system never existed. How would we find out what was on sale at the local supermarket? How would we know Britney Spear’s current love interest? How could we find out what was happening in the Middle East? How could we avoid the traffic jams during rush hour? How would we spend our evenings? Obviously, the mass media are a pervasive part of our live. A very important area in today’s broadcasting world over is the technology and equipment for the transmission of media messages. Modern technology has transformed the shape and dimension of broadcasting. Broadcasting media technology has undergone rapid changes and continued until the early 20th century. Modern technologies are today enhancing and facilitating the communication process activities, as well as help the generation and dissemination of information more efficiently to highly dispersed audience in the world. Olorede and Oyewole (2013) claim that : The catalyst for the transformation of media newsrooms is modern technology. These technologies have further enhanced media credibility, reliability and even affordability and accessibility, as events can be reported as simultaneously as they unfold, with little or no interference and audience’s access at a relatively affordable cost. These technologies have also refurbished the obsolete face of media newsrooms; the new sophisticated computers have replaced the old, time-consuming and outdated typewriters, and so on.

Jun 21

Voice mail application for visually impaired persons in Nigeria

Voice mail application for visually impaired persons in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Technology-based applications are developed day by day in the whole world. But more of those are unusable for the visually impaired people. One of such applications, email has become an important and significant part of formal communication in the professional world. Thus, Voice Mail turns out to be an application through which visionless people can easily send or receive emails. The application uses “Voice to Text” and “Text to Voice” conversion to be usable for the visually impaired people. The system at first takes voice signals from the users as inputs, processes the signals and then converts that voice signals into the text. After that a text processing method is applied to convert the text into voice. Finally, the gmail server is used to connect the server with generating address to send or receive any mail. This application is useful for not only blind people but also for the normal people who always remain busy and doesn’t have time to type in keyboard. Moreover, this application is very much helpful and efficient in time utilization.

Jun 21

BIOCHEMISTRY OF VISION IN INFANTS

BIOCHEMISTRY OF VISION IN INFANTS

INTRODUCTION

The first half of the essay will discuss biochemistry of infant vision such as visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and motion perception. Visual acuity is defined as the clarity of vision and is dependent on optical and neural factors. Examples of these factors are the ability of the retina to focus and form a sharp image. The health and performance of the retina. And, how the brain interprets the visual signals to an image. The contrast sensitivity function (CSF), demonstrates the visual framework’s sensitivity to sinusoidal gratings of different spatial frequencies in adults and infants (Kellman and Arterberry, 2006a). The manner in which it is resolved is by finding the most reduced contrast expected to see light/dull grinding of shifted fineness or spatial frequency. Motion perception will be broken down to directional sensitivity, velocity sensitivity and perception of motion. The second portion of the essay will evaluate the reasons to the changes in infant vision and the amount of influence these changes have on acuity and perception in a healthy infant. It essential for researchers to carry out investigations on infant vision as there has to be a basic idea on what is ‘normal’. This allows a comparison to be made when they eventually get their eyes checked for any vision problems

Jun 20

Design and Implementation of Voice Based Email System For Blinds

Design and Implementation of Voice Based Email System For Blinds

Abstract:

Internet has become one of the basic amenities for day-to-day living. Every human being is widely accessing the knowledge and information through internet. However, blind people face difficulties in accessing these text materials, also in using any service provided through internet. The advancement in computer based accessible systems has opened up many avenues for the visually impaired across the globe in a wide way. Audio feedback based virtual environment like, the screen readers have helped Blind people to access internet applications immensely. We describe the Voicemail system architecture that can be used by a Blind person to access e-Mails easily and efficiently. The contribution made by this research has enabled the Blind people to send and receive voice based e-Mail messages in their native language with the help of a computer.

CHAPTER ONE/INTRODUCTION

Internet is considered as a major storehouse of information in today’s world. No single work can be done without the help of it. It has even become one of the defacto methods used in communication. And out of all methods available email is one of the most common forms of communication especially in the business world. However not all people can use the internet. This is because in order to access the internet you would need to know what is written on the screen. If that is not visible it is of no use. This makes internet a completely useless technology for the visually impaired and illiterate people. Even the systems that are available currently like the screen readers TTS and ASR do not provide full efficiency to the blind people so as to use the internet. As nearly 285 million people worldwide are estimated visually impaired it become necessary to make internet facilities for communication usable for them also. Therefore we have come up with this project in which we will be developing a voice based email system which will aid the visually impaired people who are naive to computer systems to use email facilities in a hassle free manner. The users of this system would not need to have any basic information regarding keyboard shortcuts or where the keys are located. All functions are based on simple mouse click operations making it very easy for any type of user to use this system.

Also the user need not worry about remembering which mouse click operation he/she needs to perform in order to avail a given service as the system itself will be prompting them as to which click will provide them with what operations.

1.2  BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Long before electronic signal processing was invented, there were those who tried to build machines to create human speech. Some early legends of the existence of “Brazen Heads” involved Pope Silvester II (d. 1003 AD), Albertus Magnus (1198–1280), and Roger Bacon (1214–1294). In 1779, the Danish scientist Christian Kratzenstein, working at the Russian Academy of Sciences, built models of the human vocal tract that could produce the five long vowel sounds (in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, they are [aː], [eː], [iː], [oː] and [uː]). This was followed by the bellows-operated “acoustic-mechanical speech machine” by Wolfgang von Kempelen of Pressburg, Hungary, described in a 1791 paper. This machine added models of the tongue and lips, enabling it to produce consonants as well as vowels. According to Charles (1857), Wheatstone produced a “speaking machine” based on von Kempelen’s design, and in 1857, M. Faber built the “Euphonia”. Wheatstone’s design was resurrected in 1923 by Paget.

In the 1930s, Bell Labs developed the vocoder, which automatically analyzed speech into its fundamental tone and resonances. From his work on the vocoder, Homer Dudley developed a keyboard-operated voice synthesizer called The Voder (Voice Demonstrator), which he exhibited at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. The Pattern playback was built by Dr. Franklin S. Cooper and his colleagues at Haskins Laboratories in the late 1940s and completed in 1950. There were several different versions of this hardware device but only one currently survives. The machine converts pictures of the acoustic patterns of speech in the form of a spectrogram back into sound. Using this device, Allen J (2007) were able to discover acoustic cues for the perception of phonetic segments (consonants and vowels).

1.3  STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

There are a total number of 4.1 billion email accounts created until 2014 and there will be estimated 5.2 billion accounts by end of 2018 this makes emails the most used form of communication. The most common mail services that we use in our day to day life cannot be used by visually challenged people. This is because they do not provide any facility so that the person in front can hear out the content of the screen. As they cannot visualize what is already present on screen they cannot make out where to click in order to perform the required operations.

For a visually challenged person using a computer for the first time is not that convenient as it is for a normal user even though it is user friendly. Although there are many screen readers available then also these people face some minor difficulties. Screen readers read out whatever content is there on the screen and to perform those actions the person will have to use keyboard shortcuts as mouse location cannot be traced by the screen readers. This means two things; one that the user cannot make use of mouse pointer as it is completely inconvenient if the pointer location cannot be traced and second that user should be well versed with the keyboard as to where each and every key is located.

1.4  OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this project is to create an IVR- interactive voice response email system. When using this system the computer will be prompt the user to perform specific operations to avail respective services and if the user needs to access the respective services then he/she needs to perform that operation. The new system will be designed in such a way that the user won’t require to use the keyboard alot.

1.5  SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this research work involves creating a system will be perfectly accessible to all types of users as it is just based on simple mouse clicks and speech inputs and there is no need to remember keyboard shortcuts. Also because of IVR facility those who cannot read need not worry as they can listen to the prompting done by the system and perform respective actions..

1.6  SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The significance of this project work is to serve as a helping tool for the vision impaired/blind users. Blind users will be able to use the software by mouse clicks and speech only. The application will convert speech to text and prompt the user to take necessary actions.

1.7  LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The limitations encounter in this research work includes:

  1. Limited time to carryout research on the subject. Not enough time to gather information for this research work.
  2. The epileptic nature of power supply in the country. After we have gather the little material – information for this work, there was shortage of power supply to organize our work.
  3. Another limitation is Finance: doing a research work definitely needs money. Shortage of funds is one of the greatest challenges we encountered during this project.   

1.8  DEFINITION OF TERMS

  • Electrical Aided: An electronic device that help particular disable been to achieve a setting goal
  • IVR: Interactive Voice Response
  • GPS– Global Position System: Is a radio navigation system.
  • Phonetic: Relating to the sounds of spoken language
  • Receiver: Person or thing who receives something.
  • Robot: A machine built to carry out some complex task or group of tasks especially one which can be programmed.
  • Text: A writing consisting of multiple glyphs, characters, symbols or sentences.
  • Speech: the ability to speak or to use vocalization to communicate.
  • System: A collection of organized things
Jun 20

Primary School Pupil Participation In Sports And Its Influence on Teaching And Learning

Primary School Pupil Participation In Sports And Its Influence on Teaching And Learning in Owerri Municipal Council

CHAPTER ONE/INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Sports started with the beginning of life and it is used for different purposes in time. Sports are the activities involving power and skills, competition, strategy, chance and engaged in for the enjoyment, satisfaction and personal gain (such as income) of the participant, and others (e.g., spectators), including organized and recreational sports, as well as sports as entertainment (Ocal, 2006). Students’ engagement in sports is known to contribute to the developmental outcomes for ahealthy lifestyle, where they learn about social and cognitive skills (Choi et al, 2014).More broadly, engagement in sports is also recognized to contribute a range of positive outcomes, specifically; physical and mental, social wellbeing, cognitive and academic performance(Bailey et al, 2013). In order for school children to achieve such performance, it is recognized thatphysical educationin schools is an ideal vehicle to promote sports due to its availability to all young people.Whilst teachers alsohave opportunity to integrate into the overall education process (Telford et al 2012).The success in physical education may give confidence and assurance in the academic realm if the confidence is treated in a supportive and encouraging ways at the secondary stage; it should be made more applicable and attractive to students in order to give physical education a better status within the educational system. The tailoring of the physical education curriculum and programmes to meet the student needs can do much to help the accomplishment of the aims of physical education within the educational system, but it can also aid the perspectives which are presented to society in general (Kanan, 2006)

The Educationists and social scientists have been working since to determine the relationshipbetween sports and education. The research reveals a positive impact of sports and physical activities on education; and also in the academic enhancement of its participants, and a far-famed saying ‘Sound mind in a sound body’ referring to the potential quality of sports in the intellectual development of its participants seems to be endorsed. The research studies substantiate a positive relation between sports participation and mental health. It has been found that sports and physical activities raise the level of alertness.

Sports  nature is grounded in  movement,games, and physical education which itself to a high rate of teacher-student interactions. The nature of these interactions may be a leading factor in a student’s perception of sports. Sport activities ameliorate the working capacity of crucial body systems and improve the degree of alertness among participants. Sports activities not only leave a positive impact on mood, but also increase mental alertness (Hills, 1998) and it is quite apparent that physically and mentally alert students always perform better, achieve more (Taras, 2005) and like to remain present in their classes. It has been noticed that sportsmen orwomen show better results in Maths, English,(Broh, 2002), and science subjects (Nelson, 2006).

Din (2006) conducted a study to ascertain the effects of sports activities on academic development of its participants in high schools of rural areas. The role of sport participation on the academic performance of students has been a topic of debate for decades. Supporters of sport programs argue that sport participation improves students’ academic performance. The quality of students’ performance remains at top priority for educators. It is meant for making a difference locally, regionally, nationally and globally. Educators, trainers, and researchers have long been interested in exploring variables contributing effectively for quality of performance of learners. These variables are inside and outside school that affect students’ quality of academic achievement. These factors may be termed as; student factors, family factors, school environment and peer influence (Crosnoe, Johnson & Elder, 2004). Students’ grades keeps them in school, raises their educational aspirations, increased students’ overall interest and commitment to schooling as well as their engagement in more student-teacher relationship, more positive attitudes about schooling, and more parent-school relationship. In previous years, researchers have conducted several studies to know the relationship of secondary school sports participation on academics performance but Broh (2002) said little evidences are present on this topic.

It is evident that physical education has been associated with a variety of health benefits in both adults and children. Being physically fit reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes and obesity ( Hillman et al., 2008) and improves psychological variables including depressions, anxiety and stress (Eveland-Seyers et al., 2009). In addition to the health analysis of physical fitness a growing body of literature has linked sport, physical activities with improved brain function, cognition, and academic performance (Davis et al., 2007 Tomporowski et al., 2008, Shelton, 2009).The compatibility of sports and academics still leaves a greater number of the general public with a considerable amount of skeptics. While some people question the position of sports ineducational programmes,others attribute poor performance in academics to sport participation.

Extracurricular activities including school sports are sometimes referred to as students’ activities or co-curricular activities.Sports play very important roles in educational institutions in virtually all parts of the world, and the contribution of sports to the educational process in institutions cannot be overemphasized (Ongong’a, Okwara, &Okello, 2010). School sport is part of the educational process formed by the combination of the competitive characteristic of sports and the educational characteristic of physical education. School sport activities support and directs the academic mission of schools and it is more than an extension of a good educational programmes (Öcal, 2006).Sports means athletic activitiesinvolving physical exertion and skill of the athlete in its performance within the context of formal rules of behavior (Olumba, 2009). The athlete engages in the activity for pleasure, attainment of physical, mental, social health and for enjoyment of other intrinsic and extrinsic benefits. Sports participation is the act of taking part in athletic activities.

The term academic performance howeverrefers to the act or process of performing the task of academic activities. It is the way and means through which students and teachers carry out their academic activities. However, in this research, the terms will be looked at in the perspective of how students conduct orperform their academic activities. Sports participation and academicperformance relate to the influence of participation in sports and its effects on the academic performance of students.

The prevalent fear ravaging the minds of majorityof the general public is that participation hinders the success of their wards, in the entire process of teaching and learning at schools. This misconception was based on their assumption that children who participate in sports can never do well at school. Davis and Cooper (2004) observed that the most common point of attack against organized athletic activities in school is that most people believe that sports have no positive relationship with academics.Some parents or guardians for obvious reasons associated sports with mischievous behaviors and juvenile delinquency (Thorlindson and Bernburg, 2006). Factors which contribute to students’ dropout from school emanate from parents andguardians, such as inadequate financial support and bad attitude towards their wards’ education. Those emanating from students are violating the school rules and regulations, frustration due to failure to study hard and failing in examinations. The factors emanating from the administrative and managerial processes are not even consideredas serious factors capable of terminatingacademic career of children as participatingin sports is being considered.(Bowen, Rose,Power andGlennie, (2008). Many researchers have investigated sports participation and its influence on academic performance although the results are conflicting (Feldman and Matjasko, 2005).According to Broh (2002), participation in sports activities in general, is associated with an improved, higher educational aspiration, increased college attendance, and reduced absenteeism.

In most schools, principals fail to recognize the existence of the games masters where they exist hence, misappropriatingfunds allocated for sports in the school interscholastic competitions. As a result, students are being exploited by giving themonly plastic cups as prizes during competitions instead of concrete items. Other factors include unavailability of sportsfacilities and equipment in schools due to inadequate provision of funds. Most schools do not acquire enough land that willaccommodate sports facilities and those old schools who have enough land and adequate sports facilities have shared areas of landmeant for volley ball court and some other related activities for farming activities among teachers. It is regrettable that the only sports facility that is still maintaining its position in schools is the football field. However, from personal observation and experience, only oneor probably two out of ten schools can boastof buying one football (soccer ball) for their students in two years.It is in the light of addressing these odds that the researcher decided to investigate the relationship between sports and academics.

While Akpe (1991) established that students who participate in sports have high cognitive domain and perform better academically than those who do not participate. Ogu (2002)failed to produce reliable results in that he used only respondents who participate in sports. The fact that regular physical activities asnoted by Bauman, (2004) have mental and social health benefits as the basis of achieving academic excellence is still like a fantasy tothe parents especially  those in Kwara State . The students of secondary schools in this area have been chosenbecause of their suitability in the sense that the area is remote and underdeveloped (rural area) and the respondents are children ofages 11-17 years. For reasonable developments and improvements in both academics and sports to be made in the rural areas, children or students of the age mentioned above must be the target.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Title Page
  • Certification
  • Dedication
  • Acknowledgements
  • Table of Contents
  • List of Tables
  • Abstracts
  • CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
  • Background of the Study
  • Statement of the Problem
  • Research Questions
  • Research Hypotheses
  • Purpose of the Study
  • Significance of the Study
  • Delimitation of the Study
  • Operational Definition of Terms
  • CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
  • Introduction
  • Benefits of school sports to the participants
  • Peer Influence on students’ academic performance
  • Sufficient qualified and professional coaches
  • Physical education as part of school extracurricular activity
  • Attitude of students towards sport participation
  • Parental influence on sports participation
  • The influence of sports participation on academic performance
  • Appraisal of Reviewed Literature
  • CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
  • Introduction
  • Research Design
  • Population of the Study
  • Sample and Sampling Technique
  • Research Instrument
  • Validity of the Instrument
  • Reliability of the Instruments
  • Procedure for Data Collection
  • Method of Data Analysis
  • CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
  • Results
  • Discussion of the Findings
  • CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
  • Summary
  • Conclusion
  • Recommendations
  • References
  • Appendix I
  • Appendix II
Jun 20

ANALYSIS OF THE DETERMINANTS OF PLANTAIN SUPPLY BY SMALL HOLDER FARMERS IN EBONYI STATE STATE

ANALYSIS OF THE DETERMINANTS OF PLANTAIN SUPPLY BY SMALL HOLDER FARMERS IN EBONYI STATE STATE

ABSTRACT

This study analyzed the determinants of supply among plantain farmers in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. A four-stage sampling technique was adopted for this study. The first stage involved a purposive selection of staff of Federal College of Agricultural Ishiagu due to its high plantain production and marketing activities in the area. The second stage involves the random selection of Ivo Local Government Area, Ishiagu, Ebonyi state. The third stage involved the random selection of six) villages from in Ishiagu community. Thereafter, 10 plantain farmers were randomly from 12 clan in Ishiagu. In all, 120 farmers were used for the study and data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Ordinary Least Square Regression model. The results of the study revealed that 69.2% of the sampled farming household heads were male. The significant factors influencing the decision to supply plantain in the study area were distance to market, current market price, household size, quantity processed and farm size. The current price of plantain, quantity processed and farm size were positively significant suggesting a direct relationship while household size and distance to market were found to be negatively significant suggesting an inverse relationship with supply. It is therefore recommended that farmers should be encouraged to increase the supply of plantain by providing adequate and easy means of processing and disposing their product to curb loss as well as making up a centralised price both at the farm-gate level and at the market