Journal of Scientific Research and Reports

Indonesia has comparative advantages of tropical ecosystem, wealth tourist attraction nature, the diversity of culture, living culture peculiar and demographic dividend to participate in tourism. The comparative advantages in accordance with this tourist’s behavior in the experience economy era where the tourists are seeking a tourist destination that has an authentic, such as a diversity of culture and the natural environment that is distinctive. However, this comparative advantage does not correlate with the trend of the increasing number of tourist arrivals in Indonesia. It shows that there were problems in a tourism competitive advantages and knowledge related to competitiveness of tourism inadequacy. This motivates to the need for a study in measuring the effectiveness of competitiveness tourism-based ecotourism in the tourist destinations in Indonesia. This study evaluates the competitiveness of tourism in the areas which have a national park in Indonesia on providing guidelines for tourism policy makers in Indonesia. We use travel and tourism competitiveness index by using data which has been available in the government and non-government institutions. We further employ clusters and dimensional scale to analyze the data. The results found that the average score of competitiveness of tourism indicates the index of 3 – 4. In summary, the tourism competitiveness in the area which have a varies national park can be classified into 5 clusters of tourist attractions based on characteristics of tourism competitiveness. They are health and hygiene, environment indicator, price competitiveness and purchase power parity.

Examination is an indispensable way for students to verify their learning achievements and select talents. With the continuous development of computer technology, especially the emergence of answer sheets, computers have become the mainstream instead of manual examination. The main research content of this design is to use MATLAB software to identify and obtain the information in the answer sheet, import the completed answer sheet into the system, and use MATLAB software to preprocess the image to obtain an image that can be identified later. Through the system to identify the information in the answer card and compare the correct answers, finally realize the identification of the candidate's student number, identification of subjects, reminders of missing information, and calculation of scores and other functions. This article designed the GUI interface, which provided convenience for human-computer interaction, making the system operation more convenient and the results clear.

Background: As part of Nigeria’s effort to attain the targets of the 1990 Innocenti Declaration, the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) was launched in 1991. The 2005 Innocenti Declaration reiterated the need for the Initiative by asking governments to “revitalize” it and maintain “the Global Criteria as the minimum requirement for all facilities”. The Nigerian government adopted the Initiative and in response to the national directive for tertiary health facilities to become Baby Friendly, the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) established its BFHI Committee in 1992, with a multi-departmental and multi-disciplinary membership. Although the Baby Friendly Hospitals designated following this directive have largely not been reassessed, the BFHI Committee of the UPTH has remained active, implementing relevant activities at the facility and within and outside Rivers State.

Aims: To share experiences with sustaining BFHI activities without adequate support in a tertiary health facility with a goal to stimulating commitment to the establishment and sustenance of similar committees in similar health facilities.

Place and Duration of Study: University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Nigeria; 27 years.

Methodology: From the inception of the Committee, an administrative structure comprising of the Steering Committee and its Chairman, the Coordinator and Secretary was set up. Information on the activities of the Committee was extracted from the reports of activities, Minutes of Meetings and other publications of the Committee. These were analysed for presentation. 

Results: Established in 1992 to drive the hospital’s mandate to become Baby Friendly, the Committee has sustained the efforts to promote, protect and support breastfeeding through capacity development, provision of technical support to Departments and facilities, promotion of research and support of the implementation of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, the International Code of Marketing of Breast milk Substitutes, HIV and Infant Feeding Counselling, Facility Based Management of Severe Acute Malnutrition and others.

Some of the achievements of the Committee during the period 1992-2019 are:

• Sustained implementation of activities in support of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding (operating the Crèche, Mother’s Room, Nutrition Clinic and Breastfeeding Room in the Special Care Baby Unit, Nutrition education and the distribution of Information, Education and Communication materials on breastfeeding and the Code).
• Celebration of the World Breastfeeding Week and mobilization of stakeholders to celebrate the Week since 1997.
• Awareness creation on the Code for improved compliance within and outside Rivers State
• Integration of breastfeeding education into the curricula of health workers
• The Conduct of the 2015 World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative Assessment in Nigeria

Challenges: include changes in leadership with some leaders not showing commitment to the mandate of the Committee; Lack of funds, lack of dedicated staff for breastfeeding promotion in the hospital and pressure from infant food industries.

Conclusion: Successful and continued implementation of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative with its expansion to the BFH Community Initiative will contribute to improved breastfeeding practices and therefore the attainment of the global nutrition targets. While mitigating the challenges to effective implementation of the Committee’s activities, tertiary health facilities should reposition themselves to promote, protect and support the initiative for the realization of relevant global nutrition targets.

Comparative assays were conducted to assess the biogas and biofertilizer production efficiency from anaerobically codigested goat manure (GM) and harvest residues: corn stover (CS) and rice straw (RS). All digesters were operated simultaneously under mesophilic temperature of 40°C and notable phosphate solubilizing and nitrogen fixing bacterial populations indicated qualitative biofertilizer quality of the digestates. Codigestion of the substrates significantly increased biogas yield (p < 0.05) compared to monodigestion, and the highest cumulative yield of 573 ml/g VS was obtained from codigested rice straw (RS) and goat manure (GM). With a significant decimation in number of pathogens (p < 0.05), a 2 – 3 fold increase in populations of plant growth promoting bacteria (Bacillus and Pseudomonas species) was observed in digestate from codigestion assays when compared to monodigestion (control) and were identified as Clostridium sp., Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus megaterium, Lactobacillus sp., Pseudomonas fluorescens including methanogens: Methanothrix sp., Methanobacterium sp. and Methanosarcina sp. On the average, codigestion assays resulted in enhanced biogas yield and biofertilizer quality that was 2.3 – 4.1 times higher than single substrate digestion and generally improved the efficiency of biogas and biofertilizer production.

In spite of its nutritional and economic values, Cashew apple has received low patronage in terms of commercialization and utilization and policy focus. This has led to underutilization and wastage of fresh fruits, which could contribute to farmer’s income. This study explored the state of awareness of the market potential and consumption of cashew apple among farm households in selected areas of Brong Ahafo in Ghana. A total 200 respondents were randomly interviewed in addition to a Focus group discussion. The results indicate there is a large number of farmers with long years of farming and trading in cashew yet trading has mainly been focused on the nuts and not fresh fruits which is nutritive. Contrary to literature in the study area apples has some level of patronage in home consumption, but attempts at exploiting cashew apple market potentials among farmers is low or nonexistent.

Since December 2019 the world is experiencing a deadly disease caused by a novel coronavirus termed as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease associated with this virus is known as COVID-19. This paper focuses on COVID-19 based on freely available datasets including the ones in Kaggle repository. Data analytics is provided on a number of aspects of COVID-19 including the symptoms of this disease, the difference of COVID-19 with other diseases caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and swine flu. The impact of temperature on the spread of COVID-19 is also discussed based on the datasets. Moreover, data visualization is provided on the comparison of infections in males/females which shows that males are more prone to this disease and the older people are more at risk. Based on the data, the pattern in the increase of confirmed cases is found to be an exponential curve in nature. Finally, the relative number of confirmed, recovered and death cases in different countries are shown with data visualization.

A study was conducted to determine the extent of site contamination by Lead (Pb) present in the soil on the premises of Air Liquide Ghana Limited, and give the appropriate recommendation for decontamination, where necessary. Eighteen (18) soil samples were collected from the study area using an augur. The geographical coordinates and elevations of the samples were recorded with the GPS. The samples were analyzed in the laboratory using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. In the absence of present standards from the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), both the Dutch List and the International List standard were used to evaluate the concentration levels of Pb in the soil. Results from the analysis revealed that the concentration of lead (Pb) initially exceeded the international threshold of the Dutch intervention value of 530 mg/kg in some sample areas. Nine locations of the sample areas where diesel was being stored, S2-Diese Tank and Smoking Area S5-Smoking Area recorded values of 636.4 mg/kg and 602 respectively which is above the recommended threshold. The control recorded below the threshold value of 530 mg/kg. The study also showed that Lead compounds attached to soil particles took a shorter time to break down to reduce the levels of concentration over time.

Sickle Cell Anaemia is still considered the most common genetic disease worldwide, causing morbidity and mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa, Mediterranean areas, Middle East and India. Nigeria, being the most populous black nation in the world, bears its greatest burden in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study was conducted to determine the incidence of Sickle Cell Anaemia among children attending Maryam Abacha Women and Children Hospital, Sokoto. A total of one hundred (100) blood samples were examined for the disease. Out of the 100 children tested for the disease. (59%) were normal (Hb^AA), (35%) were carrier (Hb^AS) and (6%) were Sicklers (Hb^SS). The result based on gender showed that female has the highest percentage of the disease (5%) against male subjects with only (1%). A child between the age group 6-10 years has the highest rate of sickle cell anaemia (3%) while age group 11-15 years had the lowest rate of the infection. Improved knowledge regarding Sickle cell anaemia disease and its comprehensive care among Nigerian physicians will enhance quality of care for affected childrens and policy for regular genotype test by government and other stakeholders before marriage among Nigerians will help to prevent the disease.

New developments in material technology aids in the investigations, reinforcements of new materials which replaces existing materials for various applications. Among those, composite materials play an important role which is a combination of two or more materials with different physical and chemical properties. This research focused on developing an aluminium metal matrix composite (AMMC) material made by wrought aluminium alloy with various weight fractions of aluminium oxide to make five different forms of composites. In this research stir casting process was used. The reinforced composites were tested for their tensile and impact strength properties. The results show that composite with a higher percentage of aluminium oxide has high tensile and impact strength properties than other composites.

The asymmetric information is originally economic theory explaining why the market works imperfectly. However, asymmetric information is a common phenomenon that can be found easily in governments as well as in markets. A problem of crime control policy in South Korea stems from the asymmetric information. The problem is that the Korean National Police (KNP) have all information about crime but the KNP usually do not publicize it. As a result, the community knows little about crime activity and this imbalance of crime information has made it very difficult for the KNP and the community to work effectively to fight against crimes. Furthermore, the lack of communication has created the detrimental public relations for the KNP. For the problem of the crime control policy in Korea, increasing the channels of communication between the KNP and the public should be suggested as a remedy. However, before founding various communication channels with the public, it should be achieved as premises that the KNP firstly build more accurate crime report system and establish reliable crime statistics. The problem of asymmetric information of the KNP can only be resolved if the KNP establish the transparent crime statistics and increase communication channels to service essential crime information to the public. With this vital crime information, the community is expected to make a better decision about their safety issues. By the same token, the ameliorated public relations of the KNP are anticipated. This study is to analyze relevant information on asymmetric information and suggest recommendations for the KNP to solve this problem.

Aim: The study was conducted to determine the potential corrosiveness of selected soil physicochemical properties on pipelines.

Study Design: Soil samples were randomly collected around five pipeline locations with control from a farmland.

Duration of Study: The study lasted for three months.

Methodology: Standard methods were adopted in the collection of samples and the determination of the physicochemical properties of the samples.

Results: Metallic pipelines undergo more regular corrosion because they are used in environments like soil where they are chemically unstable. Soil physicochemical properties such as soil moisture, texture, pH and temperature, sulphate, chloride, redox potential and resistivity were determined. The pH of the five soil samples was acidic (pH =4.0 – 6.5), The highest moisture content was 22.88% while the lowest was 9.84%. The soil samples the potential of being corrosive to the buried galvanized-steel and cast-iron pipes. Delta Steel Company (DSC) roundabout had the highest sulphate content of 724.13 mg/kg while the lowest was Oleh with 156.14 mg/kg. The highest percentage of Total Organic Carbon was 0.52% and the lowest was 0.40%.

Conclusion: Besides pipeline vandalization, pipeline corrosion may likely be one of the major causes of oil spillage in localized underground pipelines within the region. There is, therefore, an urgent need for computerized sensors to assist in the monitoring of underground pipeline integrity in Nigeria.

Teachers are the pivot of Ghana’s new educational reform and their expertise in the use of the recommended assessment strategies need to be evaluated from time to time to enhance teaching and learning. This survey research approach sought to measure the use of Assessment as Learning strategy among basic school teachers in Ghana. The features, strategies and principles underpinning Assessment as Learning strategy formed the basis of the construction of 7 item likert scale with a reliability coefficient of 0.995. A sample size of 100 was computed at 95% confidence interval and randomly selected from the population. With respect to the use of Assessment as Learning strategy, significant differences were found for teaching division, teaching experience and gender. From the findings, the mean difference of 1.281 explains that class teachers demonstrated greater skills (M:3.75, SD:.436) with respect to assessing students in ways that make them reflect on their own work on regular basis through self and peer assessment, than their subject teacher counterparts(M:2.47, SD: 0.507). Also, with a mean difference of 1.526,class teachers (M: 3.59, SD: .496) exhibited higher skills of providing safe environment and support for students to take chances, than their subject teacher counterparts(M:2.06, SD: .246).Again, the absolute mean difference of 1.085 explains that teachers with at least 4 years of teaching experience (M:3.82, SD:.389)demonstrated greater skills with respect to providing for the development of independent learners than their counterparts(M:2.73, SD:0.447) with lesser years of teaching experience. Female teachers (M: 3.90, SD: .303) demonstrated greater skills with respect to providing for the development of independent learners than their male counterparts (M: 2.76, SD: 0.431)with a mean difference of 1.140.The overall performance of the teachers with regards to the Assessment as Learning strategy was found to be 57% using the grand mean as the threshold criterion. The findings provide a basis for Ghana Education Service to provide in-service professional learning training aimed at enhancing teachers’ knowledge of formative assessment with the ultimate goal of enhancing students’ learning and achievement.