Centralized Database: A Prerequisite for Security and Sustainable Development in Nigeria

Abstract-The volume of data organizations and government agencies usually collect and store are increasing rapidly. Centralized database according to Elmasri and Navathe [1] stores data or information in a particular location within a network. It allows data from existing database to be collected and stored in a single database for sharing, analysis or updating in an organisation. In Nigeria, organizations and government agencies usually operates distributed databases and do not have a centralised database in a central location for sharing and other policy making. Therefore, this paper highlights the need for centralised database that can be adopted by government to control data redundancy and inconsistency for security and sustainable development. The paper is a survey paper that explored the use of research schedules for data collection. Enumeratorwas picked from each of the four agencies that constitutes the population and samples of the study. The data collected were categorised and presented based on the research schedules retrieved. The results show the common fields used on personal information of individuals as ID, names, Date of Birth, Gender, address, phone no, finger print, and photograph. The results also show that data sharing among agencies are rarely done using the distributed databases, but plans are on the way to actualize that especially with the yet-to-be implemented model of National Identity Management Commission known as National Identity Management System (NIMS). Finally, the paper recommends that government should explore the possibility of adopting centralised database that can harmonise records of organisations and agencieswhich will help in ensuring security and sustainable development in the country; a model of centralised database should be designed to ascertain the feasibility of implementing a centralised database in Nigeria; thorough research should also be made to ensure the compatibility between organisations and agencies with the centralised database for data sharing and other accessibility issues

Stand-downs, suspensions and exclusions : a dilemma for primary school principals : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Administration, Department of Social and Policy Studies in Education, College of Education, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The purpose of this study was to investigate how a selection of primary school principals managed and viewed the process of stand-downs, suspensions and exclusions. The researcher saw the need for such research because of the recent legislation that has changed the procedures for principals to follow, the growing public concern over the national statistics for disciplinary exclusions and the lack of research on disciplinary exclusions of primary age pupils or for principals' perspectives of the disciplinary exclusion process. The research involved two main research methods (survey and case-study) which included a postal questionnaire distributed to all primary school principals in a localised area, a review of their Education Review Office Reports, structured interviews of five primary school principals and a review of their Behaviour Management Plans. These data were analysed with the aid of computer software packages: MICROSOFT EXCEL for the quantitative data and QSR NU*DIST for the qualitative data; and techniques of thematic induction and dilemma analysis were used. The characteristics and behaviours of the primary age pupils receiving disciplinary exclusions in this study are an accentuated version of the trends of gender and ethnicity factors already identified for all New Zealand school pupils in the national database. This study also isolated other characteristics - the final year of school (either at primary or intermediate) and the transference of these pupils at-risk of disciplinary exclusions from school to school. Disciplinary exclusions can be attributed to many interacting complex factors related to individuals, families, schools and the direct impact of changing economic and educational government policies and legislation. It was evident that principals worked hard at maintaining and providing an education for extremely difficult pupils but these pupils presented a dilemma for principals. On the one hand, principals' comments showed that caring principals and hardworking teaching staff went out of their way to support and educate these seriously misbehaving pupils in their schools, but, on the other hand, principals perceived that they had no other choice but to use the disciplinary exclusion process. The concept of'dilemma' was developed further in this study with implications for principals' future practice and professional development and further research

Influences on effective local wildfire mitigation programs

The purpose of this research is to identify key components of community wildfire risk reduction programs and potential influences on the adoption of these program elements. Community wildfire programs have been developed to educate and encourage property owners to adopt “vegetation management” practices such as creating defensible space around structures, landscaping with fire-resistant plants, and removing potential wildfire fuels such as trees and shrubs. The analyses are based on a survey conducted by investigators from Louisiana State University in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service. This survey was distributed to wildfire mitigation program managers listed on the National Wildfire Programs Database website. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was conducted on the data returned from this sixty-nine-item survey. A range of socioeconomic variables was gathered from the 2000 Census Bureau and was used along with a fire history variable created from data extracted from the survey to examine the extent to which the variables are associated with program development. Five factors were identified from the PCA as being indicators of key components of risk-reduction programs. Local programs with these elements are assumed to have a greater capacity for effectively reducing or mitigating wildfire risks to communities within the wildland-urban interface (WUI). The factors are more local regulations and codes, larger numbers of public education, vegetation disposal, risk assessment activities and fewer reported problems with program funding. These factors were regressed with demographic variables selected for each survey respondent’s geographic area. Several different demographic variables were found to be significantly associated with the selected factors. These are population density, property value, wealth, percent of homeownership, percent of population with a college degree, and population change. Formulation and implementation of these desirable program components were found to be associated with slower growing, less densely populated communities, and those with wealthier and better educated residents

SIDGEIPA: an Archaeological Information System

En el artículo se presenta un nuevo sistema de información arqueológica: SIDGEIPA -SIstema Distribuido para la GEstión Integral del Patrimonio Arqueológico- SIDGEIPA va más allá de la adaptación de un Sistema de Información Geográfica a la Gestión del Patrimonio arqueológico. Las características más destacables de SIDGEIPA son: el estar desarrollado en código Java lo que implica su capacidad multiplataforma; automatización de la matriz Harris, se trata de una aplicación única con la que se pueden realizar todos los procesos informáticos relacionados con la gestión del patrimonio arqueológico (Dibujo asistido por ordenador, base de datos, procesado de imágenes y otros. Los datos que se presentan se realizaron en la excavación de dos yacimientos arqueológicos del Holoceno Inicial en la Comunidad Valenciana: el Mas D’Is (Penàguila, Àlacant) en realidad la primera aldea neolítica localizada en el Mediterráneo peninsular; y Mangraneres (Andilla, València), pequeño yacimiento al aire libre con niveles mesolíticos y neolíticos. Ambos se encuadrar dentro del proyecto AMAPA (Agricultura y Medio Ambiente de los Primeros Agricultores).In our paper we discuss the different aspects of the process we have followed to develop a completely new software to manage Archaeological Parks. The software named SIDGEIPA (Distributed System for Integral Management of Archaeological Parks) includes different modules allowing user to store archaeological data from different sources (excavation, survey, scientific literature, museum collections...) and to process them automatically in order to simplify archaeological research. The new software has been tested in the AMAPA project (Archaeology and Environment of the first agriculturalist in Mediterranean Spain) including a full implementation of it at the excavation level in the Mas D’Is case (a Neolithic Impressed-Ware site). At the conference we will show examples of how the SIDGEIPA software is able to develop a Harrix Matrix and to model 3D reconstructions. Both Technical aspects and archaeological question will be presented and discussed. Examples of the software functionality will be exposed including Geographical Information Systems, Computes Assisted Design and database management. Development of the software have been possible to financial aid from the FEDER program of the European Union being consequence of the full integration of two research projects the Rural Archaeological Park implemented in the Alcaoia-El Comtat valleys (Alacant, Spain) and the Distributed System for Integral Management of Archaeological

Clark County Cultural Site Stewardship Program: Final Project Report

Cooperative Conservation: Increasing Capacity through Community Partnerships – Cultural Site Stewardship Program is a Round 4 Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (SNPLMA)- funded project implemented by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Public Lands Institute on behalf of and in cooperation with four Federal agencies. This project resulted in the design, development, and implementation of an Interagency Cultural Site Stewardship Program. The program: Was recognized with Department of the Interior Cooperative Conservation Service Award (2007). Was modeled after the successful Arizona Site Steward Program developed and implemented with the following components: ─ recruitment activities ─ required classroom and field training and optional courses ─ recognition events ─ volunteer service totaling 10,929 hours by 288 Cultural Site Stewards and seven regional coordinators who identified, documented, and reported 94 significant impacts and 200 lesser impacts Developed Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) describing recruitment, training, recognition, and retention of volunteers, site steward operations, relevant laws, and a protocol for interfacing with law enforcement personnel. Conducted research on the viability of establishing a certificate program for cultural site stewards. Developed, distributed, and analyzed training program effectiveness survey. Designed, developed and implemented a hybrid relational database for the Cultural Site Stewardship Program. Built and maintained relationships with the public through: ─ outreach activities at community events ─ membership and participation in professional societies ─ multiple formal and informal presentations ─ timely response to inquiries through telephone, electronic, and mail correspondenc

Storage Solutions for Big Data Systems: A Qualitative Study and Comparison

Big data systems development is full of challenges in view of the variety of application areas and domains that this technology promises to serve. Typically, fundamental design decisions involved in big data systems design include choosing appropriate storage and computing infrastructures. In this age of heterogeneous systems that integrate different technologies for optimized solution to a specific real world problem, big data system are not an exception to any such rule. As far as the storage aspect of any big data system is concerned, the primary facet in this regard is a storage infrastructure and NoSQL seems to be the right technology that fulfills its requirements. However, every big data application has variable data characteristics and thus, the corresponding data fits into a different data model. This paper presents feature and use case analysis and comparison of the four main data models namely document oriented, key value, graph and wide column. Moreover, a feature analysis of 80 NoSQL solutions has been provided, elaborating on the criteria and points that a developer must consider while making a possible choice. Typically, big data storage needs to communicate with the execution engine and other processing and visualization technologies to create a comprehensive solution. This brings forth second facet of big data storage, big data file formats, into picture. The second half of the research paper compares the advantages, shortcomings and possible use cases of available big data file formats for Hadoop, which is the foundation for most big data computing technologies. Decentralized storage and blockchain are seen as the next generation of big data storage and its challenges and future prospects have also been discussed

Revitalisation of a historic building through performance evaluative research into workplace environmental conditions

Following the centennial celebrations of the University of the Free State in 2004, the need was identified to initiate a program according to which the image and future development of the university as a whole could be assessed. This included optimising the use of existing physical resources and prioritising on proposed new development. As part of this program, the historic Main Building was identified for revitalisation through an adaptive reuse program into office space for the executive management of the university. Completed in July 2005, the refurbished facility now provides an updated approach to the concept of workplace by providing a mix of private and open plan offices. In an attempt to introduce the concept of performance evaluative research in workplace environments to students of architecture at the University of the Free State, the revitalised Main Building workplace environment was regarded as a suitable example. Performance evaluative research in workplace environments is a form of evidence-based research which aims to assess the functionality and serviceability levels of a specific facility on the basis of its ability to support and facilitate diverse work styles, as well as the user-needs and -requirements associated with it. The evaluation process was conducted according to the principles of an Investigative-level Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) study, and aimed to assess the impact of stimuli from the workplace environment on the ability of users to optimally perform and accomplish work-related tasks. The methodology according to which information for this POE study was collected consisted of various surveys. This included an activity survey, an activity duration survey, a communication survey, and a movement survey. The POE study lasted one working day, with the various mapping surveys undertaken simultaneously in 15-minute periods with 5-minute rest and preparation intervals between them. Data collected in this manner thus provides a comprehensive view of all aspects pertaining to work performance and accomplishment in the specific office environment. The survey also included questionnaires distributed to all occupants of the workplace with a return rate of 86%. Conclusions drawn from results of this study have indicated the response of users to the new workplace environment in terms of their perception of the impact of the overall work environment on their ability to concentrate and perform work-related tasks. In this regard problems related to limited or inconvenient access to office resources and problems related to poor thermal comfort (specifically with regards to the penetration of direct sunlight and lack of control over air-conditioning) occurred with a similar frequency (N = 48; f = 0.15). Results of this study will:• serve as feedback for the continued alignment of the University’s physical resources with its dynamic resource management strategy — ; and• contribute to a database on work performance characteristics in South Africa